October 31, 2017

We began this journey by believing we are limited. Our belief in limited love was the idea of separation’s origin, and it was made to limit the unlimited. Think not that this is merely allegorical, for it was made by us to limit us. The manifestation of this belief in limitation is the body – the symbol of separation. The identification as our body is a constant reinforcement of our belief in separation. We also constantly reinforce the idea of separation by believing that anything worthwhile is outside of us. We have even given the idea of God a body similar to ours and placed it outside ourselves. Every thought and lesson we have learned during our lives has been perceived to support the idea that we are limited and separate. Is it possible to find something better?

While we limit our awareness to the limited senses of the body, we cannot be aware of the grandeur that surrounds us. The idea of limitless love cannot enter the body, nor can anything so grand enter the idea of a body which sees itself so small. We resist even seeing ourselves joined with our brothers and sisters, let alone being One in Oneness with all Creation. We often find ourselves lost in this grand and beautiful universe rather than sensing our own limitless connection with all of it.

The body is a tiny fence around a little part of a glorious and complete idea.  It draws a circle, infinitely small, around a very little segment of Heaven, splintered from the whole, proclaiming that within it is your realm, where the One can enter not.   T-18. VIII.2:5-6

We have become so focused on our “domain,” wanting to protect it from any outside influence. As a result, we have denied ourselves the unlimited love and peace that are ours.  Our true nature is within us, recognizable only when we look within and release our attachment to the world we have made – our past. In the awareness of our Oneness will we discover that we are really whole, that we are really complete, that we are love and peace in an unlimited world. In our little fenced garden we forget that the sun’s rays that shine on our little garden shine from the same sun that shines on all. We also forget that the rain that falls on our little plot falls from a greater source that falls on all. No matter how hard we try, we cannot limit our little world to any physical boundaries. Like the sunbeam and the rain, we cannot be separate from the whole. We are One with all of Creation. Even if we don’t believe or recognize our connection – our Oneness – we remain One, waiting to rise in our consciousness to the awareness of our limitless love and wholeness.

Such is the strange position in which those in a world inhabited by bodies seem to be. Each body seems to house a separate mind, a disconnected thought, living alone and in no way joined to the Thought by which it was created. Each tiny fragment seems to be self-contained, needing another for some things, but by no means totally dependent on its one Creator for everything; needing the whole to give it any meaning, for by itself it does mean nothing. Nor has it any life apart and by itself.   T-18. VIII.5:1-4

Today we can begin to allow ourselves to see ourselves differently, to allow ourselves to connect with the Oneness we are. Love, joy and peace will well up within us and we will begin to see our world in a different light. Isn’t this what we really want?

October 24, 2017

Our road to happiness is different than we envision. It does not require effort or great searching or doing. It is a road that brings the awareness of the happiness within us to our awareness. The road is one we take with another, the one with us at any given moment. Our relationships are the catalyst. When we allow ourselves to see another as the divine one they truly are, that relationship is healed – it becomes holy – and we find peace and light, and rest in that relationship.  There is nothing we need do but let our relationship be what it really is – a holy relationship. One instant spent together with another restores the universe to both of you. You are prepared. Now you need but to remember you need do nothing.

Here is the ultimate release which everyone will one day find in their own way, at their own time. You do not need this time. Time has been saved for you because you and another are together. This is the special means this course is using to save you time. You are not making use of the course if you insist on using means which have served others well, neglecting what was made for you. Save time for me by only this one preparation, and practice doing nothing else. “I need do nothing” is a statement of allegiance, a truly undivided loyalty. Believe it for just one instant, and you will accomplish more than is given to a century of contemplation, or of struggle against temptation.   T-18.VII.6:1-8

There is no need to suffer, and no need to grovel and beat ourselves up for anything. We simply allow Spirit to guide our thoughts to the awareness of who and what we really are. We allow ourselves to realize we are not this body we appear to be and thus allow this body to be used for the holy purpose Spirit gives it.

We who need do nothing have no need for time. To do nothing is to rest, and make a place within us where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention. Into this place Spirit comes, and abides. And Spirit will remain when we forget, and the body’s activities return to occupy our conscious mind. In this place will we always find light and peace waiting for us to remember that what we want is within us. It always has been and always will be. The Course assures us:

Yet there will always be this place of rest to which you can return. And you will be more aware of this quiet center of the storm than all its raging activity. This quiet center, in which you do nothing, will remain with you, giving you rest in the midst of every busy doing on which you are sent. For from this center will you be directed how to use the body sinlessly. It is this center, from which the body is absent, that will keep it so in your awareness of it.   T-18.VII.8:1-5

As we allow ourselves to be in this place of peaceful rest within us, the light within us will shine brightly for all who so wish to see. The light we are cannot be shuttered.  The peace we are cannot be denied.  It is as sure as our divine nature which cannot be hidden. Release your attachment to all you have placed in the way of your awareness of who you truly are and rest in the peace and light of Spirit’s presence within you. Only then will the whole world see you as you truly are and join you in the peace within all of us.

October 17, 2017

What do we need to do to feel the freedom of Spirit that we are? The Course tells us we need do nothing. How can this be? We believe that nothing good or worthwhile comes without great effort. We have been taught and thus come to believe that we must work for what we want. We want peace and love in our lives, so we believe we must expend a great deal of effort with our body and its mind to achieve such freedom. We identify so strongly with our body that we cannot envision anything that does not involve the body. We look to our body as our source of strength. And every plan we make involves the body’s comfort, protection or enjoyment in some way.  We make the end result of anything we seek in the body – we make the body the end rather than the means. The Course teaches us that the body is not real. I interpret that as temporal or temporary. Though the body is temporal, it does have a purpose. It can either be used to reinforce our identity as separate or we can allow Spirit to use it to lead us to the awareness of who we really are.

At no single instant does the body exist at all. It is always remembered or anticipated, but never experienced just now. Only its past and future make it seem real. Time controls it entirely. It has no attraction now. Its whole attraction is imaginary, and therefore must be thought of in the past or in the future. The freedom of peace and love we seek are experienced only in the present moment – the now. The now needs no effort. Hence, we need do nothing.

It is impossible to accept the holy instant without reservation unless, just for an instant, you are willing to see no past or future. You cannot prepare for it without placing it in the future. Release is given you the instant you desire it.   T-18.VII.4:1-3

We may choose to spend a lifetime in preparation, and achieve our instants of success. The Course does not attempt to teach more than what we may learn in time, but it does aim at saving time. It is extremely difficult to reach At-One-met by fighting against separation. Enormous effort is expended in a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body. Yet this is not necessary. All such attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose. Yet the means are very time consuming, for all of them look to the future for release from a state of present unworthiness and inadequacy. Wouldn’t we rather have the freedom of peace and love right now? Know I do not belittle anyone’s choice of journey. We are free to choose our own journey.

Allowing Spirit to guide us in releasing our attachment to our past and future brings us into the holy instant. In that instant all awareness of our identification with the body falls away and we join with each other in the now – the present.  Limitless freedom, peace and love fill our being as we reconnect with the awareness of who we really are in Oneness. In that instant we are whole, complete and limitless. All that really happens is that we release – we let go. We find ourselves in our center. It is this center, from which the body is absent, that will keep it so in our awareness of it. We need do nothing, simply allow it to be.

October 10, 2017

Our true Identity is shared.  We share it with all creation.  We share it with each other, without exception.  When we take the hand of another – our brother, our sister – and reach beyond the appearance of our bodies to our shared Identity in Oneness.  We reach to Heaven beyond our bodies but not outside ourselves.  Our shared Identity is within us, but cannot be contained within the body.  For our Identity is limitless.  It knows no boundaries and extends in perfect peace and love to all creation.  We know this deep within us in that place of knowing wisdom.

Everyone has experienced what they would call a sense of being transported beyond themselves.  This feeling of liberation far exceeds the dream of freedom sometimes hoped for in special relationships.  It is a sense of actual escape from limitations.  If we will consider what this “transportation” really entails, we will realize that it is a sudden unawareness of the body, and a joining of ourselves and something else in which our mind enlarges to encompass it.  It becomes part of us, as we unite with it.  And both become whole, as neither is perceived as separate.  What really happens is that we have given up the illusion of a limited awareness, and lost our fear of union.  The love that instantly replaces it extends to what has freed us, and unites with it.  And while this lasts we are not uncertain of our Identity, and would not limit It.   We have escaped from fear to peace, asking no questions of reality, but merely accepting it.   We have accepted this instead of the body, and have let ourselves be one with something beyond it, simply by not letting our mind be limited by it.   T-18.VI.11:1-11

As we join with another we are transported in the holy instant to an awareness beyond the body.  We transcend into an awareness of our limitless freedom that can know no bounds.  We are no longer limited by our attachment to the past as we soar in perfect peace and love.  Time, space, differences in size or any physical attribute have no impact whatsoever on this transformation for it is a transformation to reality.  It is a transformation in our awareness of who we really are.    Time is not relevant; it can occur with something past, present or anticipated.  The “something” can be anything and anywhere; a sound, a sight, a thought, a memory, and even a general idea without specific reference.  Yet in every case, we join the holy instant without reservation because we love it, and would be with it.  And so we rush to meet it, letting our limits melt away, suspending all the “laws” our body obeys, gently setting them aside.  We even set aside our “need” to question whether this is even possible.

It is possible because you want it.  The sudden expansion of awareness that takes place with your desire for it is the irresistible appeal the holy instant holds.  It calls to you to be yourself, within its safe embrace.  There are the laws of limit lifted for you, to welcome you to openness of mind and freedom.  Come to this place of refuge, where you can be yourself in peace.  Not through destruction, not through a breaking out, but merely by a quiet melting in.  For peace will join you there, simply because you have been willing to let go the limits you have placed upon love, and joined it where it is and where it led you, in answer to its gentle call to be at peace.   T-18.VI.14:1-7

What more could we possibly want?  Could we want more than bliss?  All we need do is be willing to look beyond the appearance of the body – the symbol of separation and illusion – to the freedom that lies beyond where we accept the awareness of who we really are.  Answer the call to be in perfect love and peace now.  Allow yourself to be transported into the transcendence of the holy instant.  Choose now to let this be so.

October 3, 2017

We are not our bodies.  Our bodies are not the host of God – or the One.  We are One Mind, all of us and the One and inseparable.  Our belief that we are this body we made is the idea that stands between us and other minds.  Our minds are joined with all other minds, yet we do not identify with them.  We see ourselves locked in a separate prison, removed and unreachable, incapable of reaching out to others as being reached by others.  We hate this prison we have made, and would destroy it.  But we would not escape from it, leaving it unharmed, without our guilt on it.  We identify ourselves too closely with our body to see it for what it is.  Yet our so-called body has a higher purpose in our journey.  It can be used by Spirit as a learning device to help guide us back to the awareness of who we really are.

We are pure mind – nothing more and nothing less.  Our body is a limit imposed on the universal communication that is an eternal property of mind.  But the communication, though unlimited, is internal.  Mind reaches only to itself.  It is not made up of many different parts which reach out to each other.  Within itself it has no limits, and there is nothing outside it.  It encompasses everything.  It encompasses us entirely; us within it and it within us.  There is nothing else, anywhere, ever.  Mind is all there is and it is limitless, whole and complete.  Mind needs nothing more, ever.  Our belief that we are separate is the mistake in perception that made our body appear real to us and thus our identity of who we are.  Then we projected our life story, whatever the story is, on our body, thus replacing the One Mind as our identity.  This blocks us from the awareness of our true holy and divine essence that we are.  We cannot be separate, for it is impossible to put a barrier between ourselves and our Creator because our Creator did not place one there.

You can stretch out your hand and reach to Heaven.  You whose hand is joined with another’s have begun to reach beyond the body, but not outside yourself, to reach your shared Identity together.  Could this be outside you?  Where the One is not?  Is the One a body, and did the One create you as the One is not, and where the One cannot be?  You are surrounded only by the One – Oneness.  What limits can there be on you whom the One encompasses?   T-18.VI.10:1-7

We are Oneness.  There is nothing else but Oneness.  We are all Oneness as we join with each other and recognize that we all are the One Mind where communication is.  Once we decide we want to return to the awareness of who we really are and be the peace and love we are, Spirit will guide our minds in healing.  We need healing of nothing but our misperceptions of who we are and who our brothers and sisters are. As we allow Spirit to guide the healing of our thoughts, we join with each other in Oneness in the joy and peace and love that we truly are.  We look beyond the body to the reality of our divine Identity, and there is much rejoicing in Oneness.