November 20, 2018

As we close our look at Chapter 21 of the Course, we reflect on the concepts we have been discussing. Some of them are reason, madness, happiness, constancy, faith, belief, vision, responsibility, asking ourselves what we really want, willingness, looking within.

And what about our thoughts? Are they dangerous? As long as we believe we are a body, yes. Our thoughts that seem to kill are those that teach us that we can be killed. And so, we “die” because of what we believed and learned. This is the proof we value the inconstant more than constancy. Surely we thought we wanted happiness. Yet we did not desire it because it was the truth, and therefore must be constant.

The constancy of joy is a condition quite alien to your understanding. Yet if you could even imagine what it must be, you would desire it although you understand it not. The constancy of happiness has no exceptions; no change of any kind. It is unshakable as is the Love of Source for Source’s creation. Sure in its vision as its Creator is in what its Creator knows, happiness looks on everything and sees it is the same. It sees not the ephemeral, for it desires everything be like itself, and sees it so. Nothing has power to confound its constancy, because its own desire cannot be shaken. It comes as surely unto those who see the final question is necessary to the rest, as peace must come to those who choose to heal and not to judge.   T-21.VIII.2:1-8

When we ask for happiness, or anything at all, do we ask again and again as if it were inconstant? I think it’s safe to say we want happiness or peace or love in constancy. Yet we don’t believe we can get it in constancy. Reason, held within us by Spirit tells us what is constant if we will look to it. We may ask for something that seems inconstant, but Spirit knows what we really want and will guide our thoughts there if we will allow. All that is real is constant and lasts for eternity once we decide to accept our true nature. Have we answered the final question? Are we willing to see what we denied because it was the truth? Think carefully why you have not yet decided how you would answer the final question. Your answer to the others has made it possible to help you be already partly sane. And yet it is the final one that really asks if you are willing to be wholly sane. It’s time to leave all madness behind and step into the awareness of who we really are.

 What is the holy instant but Source’s appeal to you to recognize what Source has given you? Here is the great appeal to reason; the awareness of what is always there to see, the happiness that could be always yours. Here is the constant peace you could experience forever. Here is what denial has denied revealed to you. For here the final question is already answered, and what you ask for given. Here is the future now, for time is powerless because of your desire for what will never change. For you have asked that nothing stand between the holiness of your relationship and your awareness of its holiness.   T-21.VIII.5:1-7

Reason tells us our relationships are holy and always have been. We may not have seen them as holy, but Spirit guides us in this holy vision as we allow our mind to be healed of its thoughts of separation. As our mind and thus our relationships are healed, we become aware of the infinite within us. We become aware of the constancy of joy and happiness within us. We become aware of the peace and love that dwell deep within us waiting for us to allow their endless flow in our lives in this world. Through this healing are we brought to the awareness of Heaven on earth, for it, too, is constant. It is time, now, to open our holy eyes and see what is already within us and step into that place of eternal holiness and bliss.

November 13, 2018

We have been discussing and considering the questions the Course says we must ask ourselves. It comes down to whether or not we are happy with all our life and how we see it. Again, it asks us, “Is this what I want to see?” and “Do I want this?” Consider this carefully. Ask yourself, “Do I want to see what I denied because it was the truth?” Whether or not we realize it, we really want to see the truth. We want to see what is really real even if we don’t see it that way right now. We long to be in a state of peace of mind and see a happy and loving world. Perhaps we have been looking at the world through a distorted lens. Perhaps the world is not as it seems to appear. If Source created a world comprised solely of peace and love, could we have been mistaken in our perception of the world? Reason is an unchanged faculty within us that has not nor can be corrupted by our egoic thought system. Spirit has held it in protected reserve waiting for us to be willing to change our minds about how we perceive the world.

This is your one decision; this the condition for what occurs. It is irrelevant to how it happens, but not to why. You have control of this. And if you choose to see a world without an enemy, in which you are not helpless, the means to see it will be given you.   T-21.VII.9:1-4

This promise will not be broken. But, it requires us to be even a little willing to allow ourselves to see the world differently – to perceive the world differently through a clear lens held by our higher holy Self. The final question is so vitally important, and Reason within us will tell us why. We have free will, given us in our creation, and we must be willing for this shift in perception to be our will as well. The choice to see correctly will never be forced on us, only given freely when we choose to accept it. We make and unmake the choice to desire a better world – a world where I rule, I am powerful, and I have no enemies – again and again as we move our allegiance back and forth from the egoic thought system to One Mind. It’s no wonder we feel buffeted and beaten. Truth is constant. It never wavers. Unwavering happiness rises from truth. No one of us decides against our own happiness, but we may do so if we do not see that we do it. And if we see our happiness as ever changing, now this, now that, and now an elusive shadow attached to nothing, we do decide against happiness.

Elusive happiness, or happiness in changing form that shifts with time and place, is an illusion that has no meaning. Happiness must be constant, because it is attained by giving up the wish for the inconstant. Joy cannot be perceived except through constant vision. And constant vision can be given only those who wish for constancy. The power of the One Child’s desire remains the proof that they are wrong who see themselves as helpless. Desire what you want, and you will look on it and think it real. No thought but has the power to release or kill. And none can leave the thinker’s mind, or leave the thinker unaffected.   T-21.VII.13:1-8

Have you had enough of the inconstant in your life? Are you ready for constant? Answer the last question, “Do I want to see what I denied because it was the truth?” Are we seeing what we want to see? Do we want what we are currently seeing? We have a choice. We always have a choice. Let Reason within you answer the question and be willing to begin awakening to the truth that you have been denying for so long. Let this choice lead you to a happiness and a peacefulness that last for eternity – that surpasses all egoic mis-understanding. Here we step into the awareness of who we really are.

November 6, 2018

What do you actually believe about who you are? Does it support you? Does it support your happiness, your wholeness, your abundance? The Course asks this at the opening of this section: Do you not see that all your misery comes from the strange belief that you are powerless? Being helpless is the cost of sin. Helplessness is sin’s condition; the one requirement that it demands to be believed. Only the helpless could believe in it. Enormity has no appeal save to the little. And only those who first believe that they are little could see attraction there. T-21.VII.1:1-6 We are as we are created by our Creator. Our Creator created only like Itself – whole, complete, sinless and unchangeable. Yet we have chosen to believe that we are something other than our created essence. We have relinquished our power to what? Some mistaken idea that told us we are separate and incomplete and lacking, and we then believed and reinforced that mistaken idea.

The result of this mistaken belief is that we become afraid. We are afraid of power in any form. We cannot distinguish between real power – which can only be used for good – and false power -that which has no real power. Our belief that something that is powerless has power is what makes it appear powerful. I know, this statement makes no sense. Yet, we believe that this false power is powerful and are afraid to challenge or even test it.

Would we dare believe that we have no enemies and that we are not powerless?

Reason would surely bid them seek no longer what is not there to find. Yet first they must be willing to perceive a world where it is not. It is not necessary that they understand how they can see it. Nor should they try. For if they focus on what they cannot understand, they will but emphasize their helplessness, and let sin tell them that their enemy must be themselves. But let them only ask themselves these questions, which they must decide, to have it done for them:

• Do I desire a world I rule instead of one that rules me?
• Do I desire a world where I am powerful instead of helpless?
• Do I desire a world in which I have no enemies and cannot sin?
• And do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth? T-21.VII.5:5-14

We may have already answered the first three questions about the world we desire. Yet it still makes us fearful. This is what the last question is all about. Do we want to see what we denied? Do we want to see the truth we denied? This seems to be facing the fire, perhaps the enemy. Yet it is nothing like that. It is stepping into the presence of the healing power of love. This healing power rises from within us and is a surprise that it has always been there, even when we’ve been told it has always been there. It floods over us bringing such a sense of relief and rest to us. It is the balm we seek. It is the peace we desire. It is all there is and ever was. It is arriving home after a very long journey.

Forget not that the choice of sin or truth, helplessness or power, is the choice of whether to attack or heal. For healing comes of power, and attack of helplessness. Whom you attack you cannot want to heal. And whom you would have healed must be the one you chose to be protected from attack. And what is this decision but the choice whether to see another through the body’s eyes, or let them be revealed to you through vision? How this decision leads to its effects is not your problem. But what you want to see must be your choice. This is a course in cause and not effect.   T-21.VII.7:1-8

It is our choice. Reason within us will guide this right choice. Make this choice today, for there is no rational reason to delay it any longer. It’s a matter of choosing insanity or sanity. Today let’s choose sanity and return to the awareness of who we really are. Step into the power and peace that are yours eternally.