September 24, 2019

The world we see is determined by our perception. The fundamental law of perception is: “You see what you believe is there, and you believe it there because you want it there.”  Another way to say this is: “What I believe I will see.” The world we see reflects what we believe about it. We actually believe the opposite of what is true, that the world we see is out of our control and we are, perhaps, its victims, or at least that the world we see somehow dictates our reality. When we reduce this to basics, if we believe we are separate, we appear to be separate. If we believe we are connected and one, we appear to be one. Our egoic thought system is invested in our belief we are separate and that we have no control over how the world appears. This belief sets us up for our victimhood and the belief we are subject to the experiences we seem to have in this world of form.

Perception has no other law than this one stated above. The rest stems from this, to hold it up and offer it support. This is perception’s form, adapted to this world, of Source’s more basic law; that love creates itself, and nothing but itself. The Course teaches us that Love is all there is, that reality is nothing but Love. Whatever we perceive tells us what we actually believe. Are we in alignment with the law that all there is is love and nothing else, or something else? We have spent a lifetime learning to believe we are subject to the world we see and that we have no control over our own life. This belief is so powerful we have given ourselves over to the control of our egoic thought system which is completely invested in this perception of the world. Could our Source ever have let us get this lost? No! Though Source gave us free will to choose for ourselves, Source has protected our mind from our egoic thought system’s insanity. Our mind is always One with Source’s Mind and thus cannot be corrupted. Source is just waiting for us to wake up from the dream of insanity – separation – and choose to recognize our holiness – the nature of who we really are.

Perception rests on choosing; knowledge does not. Knowledge has only one law because it has one Creator. The world we see has two creators who made it, and they do not see it in the same way. To each creator it has a different purpose, and to each creator it is a perfect means to serve the goal for which it is perceived. For the goal of specialness and separation, it is the perfect frame to set it off; the perfect battleground to wage its wars, the perfect shelter for illusions which it would make seem real. Not one thing in this distorted perception can be upheld and nothing of it can be fully justified.

There is another Maker of the world, the simultaneous Corrector of the mad belief that anything could be established and maintained without some link that kept it still within the laws of Source – the One; not as the law itself upholds the universe as Source created it, but in some form adapted to the need the One Child – We believe we have. Corrected error is the error’s end. And thus has the One protected still the One Child – Us, even in error.   T-25.III.4:1-3

There is another choice we can make in this world of perception, the world we seem to see. This world appears to have no room for forgiveness. We tend to blame instead. However, there is another purpose in the world that mistaken perception made, because it has another Maker Who can reconcile its goal with the Creator’s purpose. In the Creator’s perception of the world, nothing is seen that does not justify forgiveness and the sight of perfect sinlessness. Nothing arises that is not met with instant and complete forgiveness. Nothing remains to obscure the sinlessness that shines unchanged beyond the pitiful attempts of specialness to put it out of our mind. The lamps of Heaven are not for mind to choose to see wherever it will. We can only see them where they really are. If our mind elects to see them elsewhere from their home, as if they lit a place where they could never be, then the Maker of the world must correct our error, lest we remain in darkness where the lamps do not exist.

What world do you wish to see? It is the choice of each one of us. We can choose at any moment to allow Spirit to guide and correct our perception, bringing us a more correct appearance of the world we live in. This  returns us closer and closer to the real world, to the reality of our Creation. Allow forgiveness to clear the obstacles to your vision allowing the light of Heaven to reveal your sinlessness – your true Self – to you. Let this allow you to step into the awareness of who you really are in Oneness.

September 17, 2019

We return to Section II this week. I am touched by the great love that is communicated in this passage. Our Creator’s magnificent creation is given us to show we are also our Creator’s magnificent creation. Our brother, our sister, the One we are with right now is our savior. Their purpose in this world is to show us our magnificence as our purpose is to show another their magnificence. It’s not so much to “show”, but to recognize. We are here to recognize the holiness in each other. We are here to recognize each other’s wholeness, completeness, limitlessness and purity. We are here to recognize who we really are by recognizing who another is. Our essence is light, love, peace and joy. The recognition is not physical or anything that can be seen with the body’s eyes. It is of the mind. It is beyond the appearance of the body.

The shift in our mind is reflected in our relationships. This is where we begin. We can choose to see those we are in relationship with differently. Once we decide to be willing to see holiness in another rather than their “sins”, we allow our mind to shift from the little separated mind we identified as “me” to the One Mind we all are. We allow the Grace of our Creator to flow within and through us as It joins us all in Oneness. As we allow this transformation to manifest within and around us, we open to the fullness of the magnificence of our true Self in Oneness. All that seemed to limit us and keep us captive suddenly releases us into the freedom of Oneness. We may – for a time – waffle in and out of this awareness, but we are learning to accept something heavenly about ourselves we had been denying all our lives.

Where do we begin? Forgiveness. Just a little willingness to forgive ourselves and each other. Forgiveness means we recognize another’s true nature – their holiness. Accepting that our true Self can’t be harmed in reality. This world is an opportunity to let go of the attack and suffering we decided was our plight and see differently, beginning to see the holiness and divine purpose in everything we see.

Forgive your friend, and you cannot separate yourself from them nor from their Creator. You need no forgiveness, for the wholly pure have never sinned. Give, then, what Source has given you, that you may see this One Child as one, and thank their Creator as the Creator thanks you. Nor believe that all the Creator’s praise is given not to you. For what you give is your Creator’s, and giving it, you learn to understand your Creator’s gift to you. And give the Holy Spirit what It offers unto the Creator and the One Child alike. Nothing has power over you except the Creator’s Will and yours, which but extends the Creator’s Will. It was for this you were created, and your friend with you and at one with you.   T-25.II.10:1-8

Open your eyes and ears, not your body’s, but your Spirit’s. Hear the ancient song that reminds you of who you are and always have been. Your holiness resonates here. There is no more doubt. We recognize who we really are as we recognize who our friend really is. The Great Rays of Light that radiate from all that is holy shine away any remaining darkness. Let the darkness go. And when we find ourselves in darkness again, turn to your friend again and allow the Great Rays to shine on the magnificence of who you and you friend really are. Heaven will be revealed in all the world as we allow it to be transformed in the awareness of who we really are.

September 10, 2019

There is another one who is in our life at any time who we are meant to connect with. There are probably many ones in our life filling this purpose. This one may be with us for some time or this one may be someone passing by on the street, in the mall or anywhere we may choose to be. These ones are our savior. These ones are the ones in whom we find holiness. Our egoic thought system sees these ones as separate. They may appear challenging or they may appear friendly and helpful. However, we tend to not look beyond the surface as we interact with them.  Our frame of reference is usually determined and viewed through the frame of egoic perception. If we only look at this surface perception we miss the one that lies just beyond our view. There is something deeper. There is something different. There is something there for us to see and share. This one is holy beyond that surface appearance we think we see. Without looking deeper and beyond appearances, we see merely a frame, a shell, that is a distortion of the reality of this one. There is another frame of reference that we are given in which to see this One as they really are.

Accept the One’s frame instead of yours, and you will see the masterpiece. Look at its loveliness, and understand the Mind that thought it, not in flesh and bones, but in a frame as lovely as itself. Its holiness lights up the sinlessness the frame of darkness hides, and casts a veil of light across the picture’s face which but reflects the light that shines from it to its Creator. Think not this face was ever darkened because you saw it in a frame of death. The One kept it safe that you might look on it, and see the holiness that the One has given it.   T-25.II.7:1-5

What we are seeing may be dark. It may seem to be nothing but darkness. But, within the darkness we see the savior from the dark, and understand our friend as their Creator’s Mind showing them to us. They will step from darkness as we look on them, and we will no longer see the dark. The darkness never touched them. And likewise the dark never toughed us. Their holiness mirrors ours. Their gentleness becomes our strength, and both of us look within, and see the holiness that is there. This one is the frame in which our holiness is set, for what our Creator gave them must have been given us. What matters is not what this one sees in us, but what we see in them. In this seeing is our vision shared. We look on the Christ in us instead of seeing darkness.

Salvation is the seeing of holiness within another and then recognizing it is also our own holiness. As we allow this shift in vision to change our mind, we see the holiness we share. Each and every one of us share this holiness in Oneness. We are holiness. We are light. Our light continues to shine whether we recognize it or not. It is our own holiness that shines forth from what appears to be darkness. It is the light we are and the light we share with each other. We have been seeking this light outside each other all this time when it was right there within us. We have not harmed ourselves by denying this light. We simply blocked our awareness of who we really are. Anytime we wish we can let that light shine again.

You and this one are the same, as the One is One and not divided in Their Will. And you must have one purpose, since the One gave the same to both of you. The One’s Will is brought together as you join in will, that you be made complete by offering completion to this one. See not in them the sinfulness they see, but give them honor that you may esteem yourself and them. To you and this one is given the power of salvation, that escape from darkness into light be yours to share; that you may see as one what never has been separate, nor apart from all the One’s Love as given equally.   T-25.II.11:1-5

Look for the light in another. Look for holiness in another. Look beyond their appearance to the holiness and light beyond first glance. What we then see is not only another’s holiness but ours as well in our holy Oneness.

September 3, 2019

Very often, we try so hard in this life to make sense of who we are and the life we seem to be living. The challenges still come. We still feel fear at times. Yes, there are good moments and good times. We find happiness and then it can seem to slip away again. We ask ourselves, “Why am I here?” Perhaps we should ask ourselves a different question, “Who am I, really?” Our identity is beyond this world of form. Our identity is beyond this body we appear to inhabit. We are created by a loving, infinite and eternal Creator in that One’s image. Therefore, we must be loving, infinite and eternal. Perhaps we are seeing incorrectly.

This chapter has been teaching about the appearances we think are real. The Course teaches us the things we think we see are perceptions and thus not real. Yet, it all appears very real to us. We look for hope in what we see in this world. But, are we seeing truth or non-truths? I can say that we have seen hope. There is hopefulness in our minds even when we don’t fully understand what that hopefulness is and where it comes from. We look at each other and see first the outer trappings; the appearance of the body and the actions we take in this world. We are asked to see each other differently. The appearance we see is like a frame. If we only look at the frame and its appearance – whether beautiful or ugly – that’s all we seem to see. The frame is not what’s real. The magnificent creation is the work of art. Its beauty surpasses anything we can do to make the “frame” attractive. We are relying on our egoic thought system to show us what is real even when it is incapable of showing us reality. Can it make sense to hold the fixed belief that there is reason to uphold pursuit of what has always failed, on grounds that it will suddenly succeed and bring us the peace it has never brought before?

Its past has failed. Be glad that it is gone within your mind, to darken what is there. Take not the form for content, for the form is but a means for content. And the frame is but a means to hold the picture up, so that it can be seen. A frame that hides the picture has no purpose. It cannot be a frame if it is what you see. Without the picture is the frame without its meaning. Its purpose is to set the picture off, and not itself.   T-25.II.4:1-8

What do we benefit from hanging an empty frame on a wall and stand, deep in reverence, as if a masterpiece were there to see? When we see another as a body, this is what we do. The masterpiece that our Creator has set in this frame is all there is to see. The body frames it for a while, without obscuring it in any way. Yet what our Creator has created needs no frame. What the Creator has created is supported and framed within the Creator. This masterpiece is offered us to see. Would you rather see the frame instead of this and not see the picture at all? It is our choice.

It does not matter what we have been seeing in the past or what we see now. We always have the opportunity to choose again. Choose to see the light of holiness within each other. We are all truly the light of the world. Whether or not we see that light is our choice. Make that choice again now.