July 31, 2018

As we journey on our spiritual path, our perception of those we journey with is crucial. How do we see each other? Are we making judgements about each other? As we judge each other we fail to see their reality. If our mind is aligned with the idea of separation, the reality of those we journey with is invisible to us. The eyes of our body show us other bodies. The bodies we think we see are distorted images of the holy ones we journey with. Yet because we see them as separate bodies – or bodies separate from us – we cannot see the realty of who they really are and thus the reflection of who we really are.  We are essentially trying to see light in a darkness from which we have shut light out. We imagine each other as something we are not.

There is indeed a difference between this vain imagining and vision. The difference lies not in them, but in their purpose. Both are but means, each one appropriate to the end for which it is employed. Neither can serve the purpose of the other, for each one is a choice of purpose, employed on its behalf. Either is meaningless without the end for which it was intended, nor is it valued as a separate thing apart from the intention. The means seem real because the goal is valued. And judgment has no value unless the goal is sin.   T-20.VII.7:1-7

What goal have we chosen for ourselves? What is our chosen end? Is our chosen end the one we really want? If our end is separation, the eyes of our bodies will show us the means to see separation. But, if our goal is healing, the healing of our relationships and thus our minds, our spirit eyes will show us the means. If we keep shifting between the body’s eyes and Spirit eyes, we will remain confused as we are confusing means that lead to two different ends. Is it any wonder we find ourselves conflicted and lost in chaos?

Spirit has given us vision to see clearly the means to the healing of our relationships. Spirit asks that we be consistent in seeking the means Spirit gave us to guide us. Even when we stray from the means Spirit has given us, we can simply stop a moment and return to our holy vision which is always within us and which Spirit will always guide us to. Choosing our Spirit vision guides us to seeing reality. And seeing the ones we journey with in their reality as holy relationships is our release from all limitation. We see the reality of our wholeness and Oneness.

Your question should not be, “How can I see another without the body?” Ask only, “Do I really wish to see them sinless?” And as you ask, forget not that their sinlessness is your escape from fear. Salvation is the Holy Spirit’s goal. The means is vision. For what the seeing look upon is sinless. No one who loves can judge, and what they see is free of condemnation. And what they see they did not make, for it was given them to see, as was the vision that made their seeing possible.   T-20.VII.9:1-8

Set your mind on the goal you seek: Oneness. Allow Spirit to guide you in the means to this goal. Allow your Spirit eyes to see for you. There is no need to not see the body. Rather, look beyond the appearance of the body to the reality beyond. The healing of our relationships is the result of these means. And the return to the awareness of who we really are in Oneness is the end. This is what we really want. Be consistent in seeking to see with your Spirit eyes. When you are unsure, seek Spirit’s guidance. We will all be swept into the realm of Heaven as we allow this practice to transform our lives.

July 24, 2018

The Course requires almost nothing of us. It is impossible to imagine any path that asks so little or could offer more. Yet we make it seem very complicated. Our own egoic thought system prefers to make itself seem indispensable by making happiness, joy and peace seem difficult and complicated.  Peace, love and happiness are our natural state. They are effortless in their true form. The egpic thought system has no place in our natural state of being for it is not real. It is an invention – a mistaken idea that we have believed – that preoccupies our minds with made up “dangers” and “enemies”. These ideas bring uncertainty and insecurity and fear into our minds that tend to dominate our thoughts. Within us, and no stranger to us, is another reality we have forgotten in our preoccupation with our distracted fear. Our minds are so full of discrepancies that we are focused on that we miss the peace, love and joy within us. What happens after we decide to allow our relationships to be healed – to be made holy?

The period of discomfort that follows the sudden change in a relationship from sin to holiness may now be almost over. To the extent you still experience it, you are refusing to leave the means to the One Who changed the purpose. You recognize you want the goal. Are you not also willing to accept the means? If you are not, let us admit that you are inconsistent. A purpose is attained by means, and if you want a purpose you must be willing to want the means as well. How can one be sincere and say, “I want this above all else, and yet I do not want to learn the means to get it?”   T-20.VII.2:1-7

We need to want the end – peace, yet we are often not willing to also be consistent in the means to attain peace. What must we do? The means are second to the end, the goal. And when we hesitate, it is because we fear the purpose, and not the means. Remember this, otherwise we will make the error of believing the means are difficult. The healing of our relationships is the easiest thing if we will simply allow the Spirit within us to take the lead and show us the way. The holiness of our relationships is within us as their true nature needs no healing. We simply must release our attachment to their seeming unholiness and allow our vision of them to be healed. Step back a moment and see with your holy vision what is beyond appearance in this world.

The body is the means by which the egoic thought system tries to make the unholy relationship seem real. The unholy instant is the time of bodies. But the purpose here is sin. It cannot be attained but in illusion, and so the illusion of another as a body is quite in keeping with the purpose of unholiness. Because of this consistency, the means remain unquestioned while the end is cherished. Seeing adapts to wish, for sight is always secondary to desire. And if you see the body, you have chosen judgment and not vision. For vision, like relationships, has no order. You either see or not.   T-20.VII.5.1-9

How can I not see another’s body? This seems impossible. Yet it is very possible and also quite easy if we are willing. The means of healing our relationships is to not see the body. Perhaps we can look at this differently. The Course always asks us to look beyond the appearance of things to the truth beyond. We have learned that we are not bodies, but that we are free. We are Thoughts in the One Mind. So, begin by looking beyond another’s body and allow your Higher Holy Spirit Self to see what is real beyond their body. Their Holy essence will become visible in your holy vision. You will begin to see they are joined with you in Oneness. You will begin to see your Holy Self reflected in hem to you and recognize the peace, love and joy that are there within both of you. Our unholy instant transforms to a holy instant where all judgement falls away and we see what is real and eternal. Rest with that vision for a moment. Even if it falls away, we can return by releasing our attachment to the appearance of the body and looking beyond its appearance. What is real and eternal will never fade. Only our consistency of seeking the means that lead to our desired end will move us into more and more healing. Trust the guidance of your inner Guide and be consistent in following that guidance. We are in this world to be transformed, so be transformed. Be consistent in following the means to your holy purpose. Do not be hard on yourself, for that will only deter you. Be consistent in your means and be led gently into peace, love and joy.

July 17, 2018

We continue to look at our relationships and ask ourselves how they reflect our relationship with Source – the One or God. Are our relationships healthy? Do they reflect the love we really are? Do they extend unconditional love? If our minds remain aligned with the belief in separation, we find our relationships are rooted in darkness and are not real relationships at all. We may even think that our relationship will save us from loneliness. However, a relationship that is not fully joined – without exception – is no relationship at all, for it leaves most of our mind unjoined. There is no partially joined in reality. We are either joined or not.

There is no order in relationships. They either are or not. An unholy relationship is no relationship. It is a state of isolation, which seems to be what it is not. No more than that. The instant that the mad idea of making your relationship with Source unholy seemed to be possible, all your relationships were made meaningless. In that unholy instant time was born, and bodies made to house the mad idea and give it the illusion of reality. And so it seemed to have a home that held together for a little while in time, and vanished. For what could house this mad idea against reality but for an instant?   T-20.VI.8:1-9

While we are invested in the idea of separation and isolation, we cannot experience real peace or happiness. Real peace and happiness cannot exist in isolation and separation. They can only thrive in sharing and communion with others. Isolation breeds stagnation and death. Joining breeds vitality and life, circulation and refreshing newness. The idea of separation perpetuates itself in our attachment to our identity as a body. How limiting is that? We believe we have walled off a little bit of Oneness with flesh and called it ”me.” Yet we are so much more that that walled off bit of flesh. As we look out from this little bit of flesh, we think we see so much “out there” when there is nothing real “out there” that is anything more than a projection of our misperception. When we redirect our attention within we find a vast eternal reality that shines with light and power. What is within is eternal and what is without is temporal. Put your belief and your faith into that which is eternal and everlasting. What do our relationships tell us about ourselves?

The holy relationship reflects the true relationship We have with Source in reality. The Holy Spirit rests within it in the certainty it will endure forever. Its firm foundation is eternally upheld by truth, and love shines on it with the gentle smile and tender blessing it offers to its own. Here the unholy instant is exchanged in gladness for the holy one of safe return. Here is the way to true relationships held gently open, through which you and another walk together, leaving the body thankfully behind and resting in the Everlasting Arms. Love’s Arms are open to receive you, and give you peace forever.   T-20.VI.10:16

Release yourself from the limiting confines of your belief that the bit of flesh you call “you” defines who you are. It does nothing more than imprison you. Instead, redirect your attention to the limitlessness within you. See the relationships you form healed as they are transformed to holy healed unconditional relationships. See beyond their earthly appearance to their heavenly holiness. They reflect our own relationship with Source. Be honest and allow Spirit to guide your mind in the transformation of all your relationships. Offer the miracle of healing to all your relationships – withholding it from not a one. We – as we are joined – are the temple of the Holy Spirit, for we, in communion, are the Holy Spirit. We are the embodiment of Oneness in this world. Let Heaven be apparent on earth in your extension of Oneness.

July 10, 2018

We have been learning about the role our relationships with each other have in our journey back to the awareness of who we really are. This is the role our relationships play in the healing of our mind and the attainment of peace. In a like manner, our relationships with each other reflect our relationship with our Creator, God, the One, Oneness, or Source – whatever we call that force which we inherently are. Our real relationship with our Creator is wholly loving and forever. Yet we have invented an unholy – “special” –  relationship between ourselves and our Creator. Our real relationship is one of perfect union and unbroken continuity. The relationship we made is partial, self-centered, broken into fragments and full of fear. The relationship created by our Creator is wholly Self-encompassing and Self-extending. The one we made in separation is wholly self-destructive and self-limiting.

Nothing can show the contrast better than the experience of both a holy and an unholy relationship. The first is based on love, and rests on it serene and undisturbed. The body does not intrude upon it. Any relationship in which the body enters is based not on love, but on idolatry. Love wishes to be known, completely understood and shared. It has no secrets; nothing that it would keep apart and hide. It walks in sunlight, open-eyed and calm, in smiling welcome and in sincerity so simple and so obvious it cannot be misunderstood.   T-20.VI.2:1-7

Which kind of relationship have we chosen for our own? Is it fearful or loving? Are we or are we not at peace? The relationships we have with others in our life will reflect some aspect of this primary relationship. And, if we are not in Oneness, we will not feel love and peace in our lives. We cannot share when we are aligned with separation. We can be loved, but cannot love. We do not understand what we are offered, and any relationship in which we enter has lost its meaning. The love of an unholy relationship has made love meaningless. We live in secrecy, hating the sunlight and happy in the body’s darkness, where we can hide and keep our secrets hidden along with them. Thus we have no relationships, for no one else is truly welcome there. We smile on no one, and those who smile on us we do not truly see. These unholy relationships are a sham, merely excuses for real relationships. They are relationships that survive only in darkness, fearing the light at all costs.

Love has no darkened temples where mysteries are kept obscure and hidden from the sun. It does not seek for power, but for relationships. The body is the ego’s chosen weapon for seeking power through relationships. And its relationships must be unholy, for what they are it does not even see. It wants them solely for the offerings on which its idols thrive. The rest it merely throws away, for all that it could offer is seen as valueless. Homeless, the ego seeks as many bodies as it can collect to place its idols in, and so establish them as temples to itself.   T-20.VI.4:1-7

Our true temple, filled with Spirit’s wisdom, love and peace, is our relationships. As we allow Spirit to fill and transform our relationships, we are filled with light, love, and peace. We find the power we are given in our creation limitless yet needing no effort. All fear melts away as the light within us shines away any darkness we may have harbored. As our relationships heal, so does our mind heal. We discover, again, the limitlessness of our divine nature. We find that we have never been lost in darkness. We find that love and peace are the all-encompassing qualities we share with each other and our Creator in this holy and complete reality. What seemed unknown and unreachable has always been within us waiting for us to look within and find it there in the holiness of our true Self. Look again at those around you and allow the holiness of your relationships shine forth. Here is Spirit’s temple in you.

July 3, 2018

We are in this temporal world of form on a journey back to the awareness of who we really are. We are really One with each other and all that is. We are One with Source. We are One with all that is eternal and limitless. All that is real is connected and innocent. All that is real is completely without any kind of sin or any kind of flaw. We are created whole and we remain whole in Oneness. Any idea that tells us otherwise is merely a mistake, born of a misperception of truth and reality. We have blocked our awareness of our true nature, our true being, by believing we are somehow separate from all others and all else. And, we reinforce this belief by making our relationships in this temporal world appear as we believe them to be. This belief blocks the awareness of who we are from our minds.

The journey back to the awareness of our natural state of being is through the healing of our relationships. Each one we encounter on this journey is there to help us remember who we really are. They come into our lives so we may change our mind and look beyond their appearance to their irrefutable wholeness hidden by what we think we see. We offer the miracle of healing our relationships by offering each other the awareness of their wholeness as we join with them in Oneness.

In this world, We come closest to ourselves in a holy relationship. There we begin to find the certainty our Creator has in them. And there we find our function of restoring our Creator’s laws to what was held outside them, and finding what was lost. Only in time can anything be lost, and never lost forever. So do the parts of the One Child gradually join in time, and with each joining is the end of time brought nearer. Each miracle of joining is a mighty herald of eternity. No one who has a single purpose, unified and sure, can be afraid. No one who shares their purpose with them can not be one with them.   T-20.V.1:1-8

We are the heralds of eternity. We are the ones who call out in the darkness proclaiming light that shines away the darkness. Once we awaken to the light and wholeness within us we begin to remember we are all joined in Oneness. The light within each and every one of us has never dimmed nor was ever extinguished. We simply, in our denial of our own light, shuttered our light so we could not see it ourselves. Our partners on our journey could see our light, but we denied it was there and refused to see it reflected in their faces. Thus, we created a symbolic hell of the darkness we believed was there. We can open the shutters with which we blocked our light. This is what begins our return to the awareness of reality and eternity.

Each herald of eternity sings of the end of sin and fear. Each speaks in time of what is far beyond it. Two voices raised together call to the hearts of everyone, to let them beat as one. And in that single heartbeat is the unity of love proclaimed and given welcome. Peace to your holy relationship, which has the power to hold the unity of the One Child together. You give to your friend for everyone, and in your gift is everyone made glad. Forget not Who has given you the gifts you give, and through your not forgetting this, will you remember Who gave the gifts to this One to give to you.   T-20.V.2:1-7

Offer your relationships to Spirit for healing. In this offer, you can rest assured you will see correctly. You will see you friend as they truly are, whole and complete. In their healed appearance will you see your whole and complete Self reflected back to you. You will see you relationship joined in Oneness, never again to be seen as separate. Your example will be the Herald of Eternity shining in Holy Oneness for others to see and return to. Let the light within you shine. It truly is the Light of world.