July 27, 2021

Lesson 208 –

Review of Lesson 188

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

(188) The peace of God is shining in me now.

I will be still, and let the earth be still along with me. And in that stillness we will find the peace of God. It is within my heart, which witnesses to God.

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.   W-pI.208.1:1-7

As I begin to reflect on this review lesson I think, “What else is there to say?” Peace is shining in me now. Yes, I an at peace. I am experiencing the joy of Oneness. I am filled with and surrounded by love. I am whole and complete, limitless and holy. And so we all are; all of Creation. We are perfectly happy. Step into the stillness where there is rest and quiet.

Yet, it slips away from our awareness from time to time. The mistaken perception of our egoic thought system distracts us from what we know to be true about ourselves. But even when our mind is distracted by our egoic thought system, the knowledge of our true holiness and peacefulness is still within our heart and mind. Eckart Tolle teaches that the stillness is there in the spaces between the words. It’s always there. It’s between our thoughts, between our experiences, between the words we speak and listen to. We can listen for the silence between all the din of the world. It’s there if we will simply align with that space that seems so insignificant. That silence and stillness has great power if we will allow ourselves to see and hear it. It is a place of rest and quiet. We need not forcibly get rid of the noise, just set it aside for a moment and rest in God; Oneness. The following passage is from Lesson 188.

Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light in you are alien here as well. The light came with you from your native home, and stayed with you because it is your own. It is the only thing you bring with you from the One Who is your Source. It shines in you because it lights your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you are at home.   W-pI.188.1:1-8

The light of Oneness is within us. This light has always been within us. We did nothing more than place false barriers that have no substance whatsoever between our egoic mind and our One Mind. This beautiful glorious light is there for us to see in the stillness, the space between the words, the space between our thoughts. We can let go of the words, the noise, the thoughts that distract us and seem to drown out everything else. Set it all aside and listen to the Voice for Oneness, Spirit, in the space, in the stillness.  There we find peace and love. There we find the awareness of our holiness and our wholeness. Allow yourself to see the light within and be the light. This is your truth. This is your destiny. Let it be so.

July 20, 2021

Review of Lesson 181

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

(181) I trust my friends who are one with me.

No one but is my friend. I am blessed with oneness with the universe and God, one Creator of the whole that is my Self, forever One with me.

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.   W-pI.201.1:1-6

We are all one. We are all one with God. There is no separation. This is what we need to remember. All else will fall into place. All will change with this recognition. We will see the world differently. We will see ourselves and each other differently. Be willing to take a chance and give it a try. Choose again. Th     e Higher Holy Spirit within will guide us when we allow. Take a moment with this thought and rest awhile and find yourself stepping into your limitless freedom and wholeness – Oneness indeed.

July 13, 2021

Lesson 194 –

I place the future in the Hands of God.

One of the things our egoic thought system does is obsess about our past and project it into the future. It tells us how our future will be as bad as, worse than, or incompatible with our past. All it’s interested in doing is make us worry about our future. Well, as with all things, there is another choice. The past is over, he past is gone. The past need not determine our future. Our natural state of being is living in peace and joy from the wealth of love within us. We can change our mind, make another choice, and redirect our thoughts to that abundant love within us.

Today’s idea takes another step toward quick salvation, and a giant stride it is indeed! So great the distance is that it encompasses, it sets you down just short of Heaven, with the goal in sight and obstacles behind. Your foot has reached the lawns that welcome you to Heaven’s gate; the quiet place of peace, where you await with certainty the final step of God. How far are we progressing now from earth! How close are we approaching to our goal! How short the journey still to be pursued!   W-pI.194.1:1-6

When we finally accept today’s idea, we end all anxiety and darkness in our mind. We find the light within us that shines so bright with peace, joy and love that we share with all Creation. We may find ourselves going about our day with a smile on our face and a gentle demeanor in all we do. The act of seeking Spirit’s guidance frees our mind from the worries of our attachment to the past that has so limited us. Here is our freedom. Here is the recognition of who we really are in Oneness.

Release the future. For the past is gone, and what is present, freed from its bequest of grief and misery, of pain and loss, becomes the instant in which time escapes the bondage of illusions where it runs its pitiless, inevitable course. Then is each instant which was slave to time transformed into a holy instant, when the light that was kept hidden in The One’s Child is freed to bless the world. Now are we free, and all our glory shines upon a world made free with us, to share our holiness.   W-pI.194.5:1-4

Here is the key to a transformed life here in this world. The holy instant brings us the awareness of reality and the real world. Here we find a new perception of the world through the lens of forgiveness into holiness. Peace, love, and joy well up from deep within us, dropping the veil from our Vision that hid the real world from our mind. We recognize the truth about who we really are; complete, whole, holy, and free.

Now are we saved indeed. For in The One’s Hands we rest untroubled, sure that only good can come to us. If we forget, we will be gently reassured. If we accept an unforgiving thought, it will be soon replaced by love’s reflection. And if we are tempted to attack, we will appeal to The One Who guards our rest to make the choice for us that leaves temptation far behind. No longer is the world our enemy, for we have chosen that we be its friend.   W-pI.194.9:1-6 Here is our truth.

Here is our peace. Rest in this present moment with your thoughts in the One Mind. All this is simply a choice away. The choice to release the future along with the past and turn our mind to follow the guidance of Spirit within us. Spirit will not let us down. And when we stray, it takes only a simple choice to return.

July 6, 2021

Lesson 187 –

I bless the world because I bless myself.

We have learned that giving and receiving are the same. We also know that in order to give we must already have what we give. This lesson has an interesting twist to it.  It says we bless the world because we bless ourselves. How can this be? In Oneness, all that is, is ours. We all have everything. Abundance is prevalent in reality so we can never lack. The world seen through the lens of the egoic thought system appears limited. It appears that in order to give we take away from ourselves. However, Truth tells us that giving increases what we possess.

To understand this, think about ideas. We must have an idea before we can share it. And when we give that idea to another, they now have that idea and so do we still have it. So, if we are to save the world, we first accept salvation for ourselves. The proof that salvation is ours is in seeing the miracles it brings to everyone we offer them to. Here is the idea of giving clarified and given meaning. Now we perceive that by giving is our store multiplied. In this way we protect what we value by giving it away. But do no become attached to any form of what is given. It is the thought, the act, of giving and blessing that is real and lasting. And as we give, the blessing increases  by extension without limit. What joy there is in this.

Give gladly. You can only gain thereby. The thought remains, and grows in strength as it is reinforced by giving. Thoughts extend as they are shared, for they can not be lost. There is no giver and receiver in the sense the world conceives of them. There is a giver who retains; another who will give as well. And both must gain in this exchange, for each will have the thought in form most helpful to them. What they seem to lose is always something they will value less than what will surely be returned to them.   W-pI.187.5:1-8

Understanding the blessing of giving and receiving ends all sacrifice. For when we give in this way, we give up nothing real. All that is meaningful remains ours even as we give it away so generously – even with abandon. In this gesture is the end of sacrifice realized. Nothing of any real value can possibly be sacrificed.

See the lilies that another offers us laid upon our altar, with the ones we offer them beside them. The illusion of fear diminishes to nothingness before the purity that we see here. The appearance of form vanishes and what is left is a blessedness we recognize and cannot deny. Now we are one in thought. We stand together in Oneness, our one Self Whose innocence has joined us all. And as we look within, we see the purity of Heaven shine in our reflection of perfect Love.

Now are we blessed, and now we bless the world. What we have looked upon we would extend, for we would see it everywhere. We would behold it shining with the grace of The One in everyone. We would not have it be withheld from anything we look upon. And to ensure this holy sight is ours, we offer it to everything we see. For where we see it, it will be returned to us in form of lilies we can lay upon our altar, making it a home for Innocence Itself, Who dwells in us and offers us Their Holiness as ours.   W-pI.187.11:1-6