March 31, 2015

The egoic thought system, which we aligned our minds with as we chose to believe we are separate, allows our minds to experience a plethora of varied emotions through our perception. However, it minimizes any fear that comes to our awareness. It will allow us to feel shallow, inadequate, distant, limited, or anything else that keeps us distracted from the awareness of who we really are. It avoids any recognition about what may really be going on in our minds. From the Course:

Your recognition that whatever seems to separate you from the One is only fear, regardless of the form it takes and quite apart from how the egoic thought system wants you to experience it, is therefore the basic ego threat. Its dream of autonomy is shaken to its foundation by this awareness. For though you may countenance a false idea of independence, you will not accept the cost of fear if you recognize it. ACIM T-11.V.10.1-3

Once we recognize the cost of aligning our minds with the egoic thought system and fear we no longer want the trappings of the separation state of mind. We want to return to the awareness of our wholeness and completeness and our divine nature. Awareness of who we really are comes flooding into our consciousness as we allow the illusion of fear to drop away. Fear is really the last thing we want, for it is our nature to dwell in happiness.

Our salvation is in the recognition that fear is all that separates us from Oneness and the awareness of who we really are. Fear is the “dynamic” of the egoic thought system that keeps us from this awareness. It has no real power. It just appears to have power because we believe it does. As a result we essentially deny ourselves and thus become afraid of ourselves. In this mistaken way of thinking we simply don’t recognize ourselves in the illusion we perceive. We appear incomplete and lacking to ourselves for we aren’t seeing all of ourselves.

There is nothing real that isn’t dependent on all of reality. All that is real is interdependent. Nothing can appear whole until we look at all as interconnected and unified. The Couse tells us this:

The One is as dependent on you as you are on the One, because the One’s Autonomy encompasses yours, and is therefore incomplete without it. You can only establish your autonomy by identifying with the One, and fulfilling your function as it exists in truth. The egoic thought system believes that to accomplish its goal is happiness. But it is given you to know that the One’s function is yours, and happiness cannot be found apart from Your joint Will. Recognize only that the egoic thought system’s goal, which you have pursued so diligently, has merely brought you fear, and it becomes difficult to maintain that fear is happiness.                  ACIM T-11.V.12.1-5

What is real is One. It is interdependent and interconnected. No one part of reality can or does function without the Whole. Any idea that any part can be autonomous is merely mistaken. We may have convinced ourselves that we can operate autonomously in this world. The truth is autonomy separate from the whole is impossible. Our true function is our joint Will with all of Creation. Set aside the egoic thought system and its identification with separation and allow the Wholeness of Oneness to fill your being and align with the One Mind. This is the Realm of Heaven filled with the Love of Oneness. This is true happiness. This is who we all really are.

February 22, 2011

Do we have hindrances in our lives on our journey? We certainly seem to. They take many forms; seem large or small, high or low, deep or shallow, and impossible or easy. If we are honest, most of these hindrances seem large to us, for we cling to thee idea that miracles are not all the same. The Course is all about teaching us that miracles are all the same, there is no order of difficulty in miracles. See the very beginning of the text. We have many opportunities and ways to learn this. In fact, our whole life is about learning this one lesson.

Every moment of our life presents us with a choice. There choices take many forms, but in every choice is the choice to mover toward Oneness or to move toward separation. Our desire is for Oneness. It is the essence of who we really are. It cannot /be taken away from us or left behind. But we can look away from Oneness and think we are separate. It is an idea made up in our mind and believed. The act of believing this mistaken thought makes it seem real to, it gives the idea power.

All the hindrances we seem to have on our journey may seem different and of differing magnitude. But they are, in actuality, all very small, even tiny. We have made them what they seem to us by our belief that they are as we think we see them. And we think we lose something dealing with these hindrances. But it is impossible for us to lose anything real. Even the loss of time is meaningless for it is but an instant in eternity and meaningless to our Teacher. Since we believe in time, why do we waste it going nowhere when we can use it for the higher purpose of returning to the awareness of who we really are?

The road to Heaven’s gate, the awareness of who we really are, is not difficult. Nothing we undertake with our eyes, ears, and mind set on this certain purpose with high resolve and happy confidence, holding the hand of each One, and keeping step to the Song of Heaven is difficult to do. There is only one road we can take. It is the road to Heaven. But it is our choice which way we go; toward Heaven or away from it. It is hard to wander down the road that goes nowhere with no purpose. But it is easy to take the hand of Spirit and let Spirit guide us in the direction of Heaven and the awareness of our wholeness. Choose to take the high road, the easy road, whatever you may call it and join in the song of Heaven.

March 24, 2015

We are looking at Section V of Chapter 11, The “Dynamics” of the Ego. Yet the Course goes on to tell us, When we look at the ego, then, we are not considering dynamics but delusions. ACIM T-11.V.4.1. The ego has no substance, for it is an illusion. In working with the Course we have a tendency to make the ego a personality, a thing that does this and that to us. It may certainly appear that way. However, the ego is not an entity. It is an idea entirely of our own making. I like to refer to this idea as our egoic thought system. I am the one who has made up this way of thinking and believed that it is actually real. I also know that I can choose to change the way I think when it fails me. I think the idea of the egoic thought system is much less daunting than the idea of an ego. Many tend to blame the ego as an entity outside themselves. This method doesn’t really help me take responsibility for my mind’s state of being. We may be making errors in our perception, but we can’t harm our true identity no matter how mistaken our thought system is.

The egoic thought system is merely a thought system we have made up and believed real that walls or cages off a part of our mind to separate it from the One Mind. It’s an effort to make us unique from our Creator. What this idea ends up doing is limiting us in many, many, ways. We are created like our Creator; limitless, complete, and whole. And we remain limitless, complete, and whole no matter what thought system we may choose to align with. But our creative power allows us to block our awareness of our true nature and being by aligning with a thought system that is mistaken. Even though all the power of our true Self is coursing through us, we can’t see it when we choose to believe we are separate from that Oneness. The question to ask ourselves is “Who and what do I believe I am?” Looking within and examining our thoughts will reveal a great deal if we are willing to ask with an open mind and listen to Spirit’s guidance.

We are asked to look at every idea that comes into our mind. Examine it without prejudice. Do not judge any idea unworthy of bringing to the light of Spirit. The Course tells us:

Every idea has a purpose, and its purpose is always the natural outcome of what it is. Everything that stems from the egoic thought system is the natural outcome of its central belief, and the way to undo its results is merely to recognize that their source is not natural, being out of accord with your true nature. ACIM T-11.V.5.1-2

Our natural state is free. Our natural state flows freely from a deep knowing within us. Peace, Love, and Joy flow from this natural state of mind. It is effortless, because it is natural. Let the walls of your egoic thought system evaporate before your very mind as you soar free in the awareness of who you really are. The world we think we see transforms into the Realm of Heaven on earth as we allow ourselves to align our minds with the One Mind. Don’t be afraid to look at your thoughts and you beliefs, for there is nothing to fear. We are Love and nothing less.

March 17, 2015

We are often reluctant to look at ourselves. Perhaps we are especially reluctant to look at our thoughts. And when we do…..it’s not pretty. The Course teaches us that we must look at ourselves and our thoughts. It asks us to look at them honestly and without fear. It asks us to take a step back from our thoughts and observe them. We can also go a step deeper in this process and observe the thought system with which we are aligning our minds. We can do this without fear, for we have learned that nothing real can be threatened. There is no need to shrink from illusions for they cannot possibly be dangerous. We are ready to look closely at the egoic thought system because together we have the lamp that will dispel it. And, since we realize we don’t want it we must be ready to dispel it. As we take this step together we can look beyond this mistaken thought system to truth.

Healing is the removal of all that stands in the way of knowledge. Nothing stands in the way of knowledge except our thoughts of separation. So healing is of the mind and it comes from changing how we think, changing our thought system. This is not such an ominous task since the thought system we want is already ours and we are already a part of it; the One Mind. We simply change our allegiance from the egoic thought system we made to the Mind of the One in which we are created. The only way we can correct this mistake is to look at it directly without protecting it. There is nothing to fear, as the light we share gently dispels all that is not real.

We begin the process of undoing this confusion by dispelling darkness with the light we shine together. The Course instructs us:

Let us begin this lesson in “ego dynamics” by understanding that the term itself does not mean anything. It contains the very contradiction in terms that makes it meaningless. “Dynamics” implies the power to do something, and the whole separation fallacy lies in the belief that the ego has the power to do anything. The ego is fearful to you because you believe this. Yet the truth is very simple:

All power is of the One.

What is not of he One has no power to do anything.

ACIM T-11.V.3.1-7

The realization is that we have given the egoic thought system all that power it appears to have simply by believing in it. Last week we discussed the lesson that only we can deprive ourselves of anything. In this way we have deprived ourselves of our creative power and turned it over to the egoic thought system we made that is not even real.

Our joy is, however, that we can just as simply change our mind and align our mind with the One Mind, the Mind that creates us. We begin by realizing that we remain One with our Creator and with each other, all the Creator’s creations. We return to the awareness of who we really are. In this awareness our mind realigns itself with the One Mind. As light shines away darkness, so does the egoic thought system fade in the presence of Oneness. All that we are and all our creations are welcomed in Oneness and so we return to the awareness of the joy, peace and love that we truly are. We rejoice in our joining with all our sisters and brothers in this awareness. We find that we are already what we had been seeking. Now we are truly Heaven on earth. Look honestly at yourself and return to the awareness of what you had deprived yourself of. It never left you. Let it be so.

March 10, 2015

Our peace lies in its limitlessness. There is more than enough to go around. In fact there is no end to our peace. Our function is to share it with each other. Since we are all One, it is our function to share our peace with all. This may sound at first like a daunting, if not impossible, task, but nothing could be further from the truth. When we rest in the awareness of our true Identity, our true Self, it is easy and natural for we are in alignment with our One Mind. We have let go of the perception that we are something other than what we really are and bask in the knowledge that we are whole and complete, One with our Creator and all Creation, as we are created. But when we limit the peace we share, for whatever reason, we raise a block in our minds that blocks the full awareness of who we really are and the limitlessness of our peace. It’s a simple principle; when we perceive our peace as limited, we hold back in our willingness to share it. Once we embark on this thought system that believes peace is limited, we can’t see that we are all One and that we all share limitless peace because we try to divide up what cannot be divided.

Peace is real and thus cannot be divided up or separated into portions. This is the beginning of the egoic thought system. This is the origin of the mistaken idea we are separate from our Source and each other. The result is that in our minds we cut off our brothers and sisters from the divine light and peace that is ours. Would we really do this if we were thinking correctly? We would not do this if we realize that we darken only our own mind and block ourselves from the awareness of our own peace and light. Yet, as we bring another back into peace and light by sharing it, so do we return to the awareness of our divine light and peace. This is the law of the One for the protection of our wholeness and divine Identity. Our wholeness is always with us whether or not we are aware of it, unchangeable and unable to be damaged. No matter how far we have wandered on our journey of separation, our wholeness and divine nature are always with us, even when we have blocked them from our awareness.

The Course teaches us:

Only you can deprive yourself of anything. Do not oppose this realization, for it is truly the beginning of the dawn of light. Remember also that the denial of this simple fact takes many forms, and these you must learn to recognize and to oppose steadfastly, without exception. This is a crucial step in the reawakening. The beginning phases of this reversal are often quite painful, for as blame is withdrawn from without, there is a strong tendency to harbor it within. It is difficult at first to realize that this is exactly the same thing, for there is no distinction between within and without. ACIM T-11.IV.4.1-6

The responsibility of this mistake in perception is ours. No one else can be responsible no matter how it may appear, for our perception is ours and is perceived in our own mind we believe to be separate. In a like way, when we blame another for our deprivation, we are blaming ourselves, and we cannot blame ourselves without blaming them. It’s a vicious circle we get caught up in. Though we are responsible for our misperception, the wages of misperception are not death, they are simply the appearance of misery and loneliness in our world.

Our purpose then is to shift our perception, seeing ourselves and each other as we really are, whole and complete and divine as we are created. We accomplish this by sharing miracles with another. The miracle of sharing limitless light and peace with another brings the awareness that we also are that limitless light and peace that we share in Oneness and Unity. The blocks to our awareness of who we are begin to drop away and fade into nothingness. This is the journey without distance on which the Course takes us. Spirit is within us to guide us every step of the way. Ask and it is given you. Be patient. Keep your eyes on the Light within you. It is the same light you see in another. Join with them in Spirit and feel it shine away all misery and loneliness. Step into the Realm of Heaven on earth. This is your real Home.

March 3, 2015

We are children of light. We are light for light is in us. And we cannot abide in darkness for darkness is not in us. The light within us is so bright it cannot possibly be contained within us. And so it shines forth into the world shining away the darkness wherever we think it exists. Where light shines, darkness simply fades into nothingness. We may have chosen to go our own way for a time, separate from the One, but the little spark remains shining in us reminding us of the great light that we really are. We may even travel with dark comforters, our dark thoughts of separation, but they will never bring us any real lasting comfort. The light within us is eternal. The darkness we think we see is not real. It fades into nothingness as we turn toward the light. When we feel tempted to dwell in our dark thoughts of separation, remember the spark within us and turn towards the light therein and see our true will in peace. Accept the peace of the One offered in this light and recognize yourself there.

We can never really lose our way, for we are always in Oneness, even when we have taken our mind on a journey away from Oneness. The Course teaches us

The One hides nothing from Us, even though We would hide ourselves. Yet we cannot hide our glory, for the One wills us to be glorious, and gave us the light that shines in us. We will never lose our way, for the One leads us. When we wander, we but undertake a journey that is not real. The dark companions, the dark way, are all illusions. Turn toward the light, for the little spark in each of us is part of a light so great that it can sweep us out of all darkness forever. For our Source is our Creator, and we are like our Creator. ACIM T-11.III.5.1-7

What more comfort could we want than this assurance? Our wholeness is assured. Our completeness is assured. Our limitlessness is assured. That we are loved unconditionally is assured. We simply need to recognize that we are so blessed.

Only Spirit can truly comfort us. In the quiet of our true being Spirit waits to give us the peace that is ours. Extend peace and love so you can recognize that sane peace and love within you. Recognize the presence of the One in each One as you extend peace and love or you will not recognize it in yourself. We bring all our brothers and sisters with us as we enter the awareness of our wholeness, for we cannot enter alone. So accept all as One for none can be excluded from the Wholeness of the One and Oneness. We are worthy to be in the temple of Oneness, the Realm of Heaven, just as we are and as we bless each One with the light of Oneness that is in us. As we bless each One in time we will be in eternity. This is our place; the Realm of Eternal Heaven. Be who you ae and be at Home in Glory.