September 25, 2012

Do we think darkness exists? We can only answer that question for ourselves. But the Course tells us darkness is an illusion. Darkness doesn’t exist. Escaping from it is simply realizing that darkness doesn’t exist. Perhaps we think to ourselves, “Easier said than done.” This is not something we need do alone. We have all the resources of Spirit at our disposal if we are willing to recognize them. God has given us everything. It is ours because we are created One with God. We are extensions of God, not separate creations. We begin the path of recognizing this and opening our minds to the awareness of our connection with God and Spirit.

We recognized earlier that we are Spirit. This is the essence of our being. The road to this awareness begins by recognizing that the darkness we perceive is basically fear. All that is not real is basically fear. Fear forms in our mind when we forget we are experiencing love. It is amazing that the simple process of forgetting we are the essence of love can blot out the awareness of that fact. But when we turn our perception away from who we really are, we blot it out with the fear we feel because we don’t recognize who we are at that moment. So we begin to make something up, that we are a separate being. And so we look for a purpose.

Darkness is merely a lack of light. We all know that a dark room is transformed by bringing light into that room. Immediately the darkness fades away. The same is true of the awareness of our divinity, our spirit essence. The moment we turn and recognize the Divinity we really are, all other thoughts of who or what we think we are fade away in the light of Spirit and Love. The abundance that is ours through our creation, our Oneness with God, is limitless. We always have whatever we need in any situation to do what we need to do and extend the miracle we need to extend. Every miracle is guided by Spirit. We are never alone in doing miracles. Miracles come from Love and we are Love. The awareness of Love at the core of all we see, experience, and do is our connection to the awareness of who we really are.

Entering into this awareness of our divinity and love is the mindset where we are in communication with God. In this state of communication we flow with grace through all we are involved in. We may not flow so gracefully at first, but as we let Spirit guide us and move and think in this world from an awareness of Love, we will feel the arms of Spirit lift our minds to a new perception and understanding. We will begin to see and perceive with the eyes of Spirit. We will hear the Voice for God speaking to us reminding us of who we really are and extending the abundance of Love through us. Let go as you are willing and be led to that next step. You will be blessed with the peace, love, and joy that is already yours.

September 18, 2012

The power to work miracles belongs to each and every one of us. There is no question about this ability. But we do need to be ready and willing to work miracles. Spirit will provide the opportunities, but we must be willing to step up and do our part. We may be unsure at first and lack the conviction that we are able. Doing miracles will bring about the conviction that comes from accomplishment and practice. The ability is our potential. The achievement is its expression. And the Atonement, which is our natural profession, is our purpose. This is what our journey is all about, returning to the awareness of who we really are.

Performing miracles may sound daunting, but it’s really not. We have grown to believe that miracles are huge magical feats that defy all we know. We start by recognizing that we are one of God’s creations. It’s such a simple start. God’s creations are wholly lovable and wholly loving, so this is how we must begin t think of ourselves in our hearts because that is who and what we are. Just being willing to entertain this though brings us so far on our journey. This shift in our idea about who we are is forgiveness. As we realize we are Spirit we extend that same idea (forgiveness) to others in return. We are releasing ourselves and each other from the prisons of our thoughts and beliefs. Miracles are the way minds that serve Spirit unite with each other and all creation. We begin to see that we are all One in the realm of God.

As we place ourselves in the hands of Spirit, ever listening for Spirit’s guidance in all we do, we will find we need not spend needless effort to work miracles for we are in constant communication with Spirit. We don’t need to worry about results or whether we’ve done it right, for we are not alone in our guided actions. We may or may not see any results immediately or over time. Spirit directs the miracles we do and orchestrates their perfect outcome. We are released from all the worry about “doing” and results. We just do and release the outcome. We are blessed with spirit, for that is who we are.

It is our responsibility to let our perception change as Spirit guides it. We live in a world of perception for the time being on this journey. As we allow Spirit to change our perception step by step we awaken to the truth about who we really are. Our experience alters realizing more and more peace, love, and joy no matter what situation we are in at any given moment. We learn that we are love, we are experiencing love, and we are extending love to ourselves and to each other. Here in this mind-set of miracle mindedness we find the Heaven we have so sought after. And we find we have always been there and not realized we were where we were journeying to. Heaven on earth is right here in this true state of mind. Let it be so.

September 11, 2012

Atonement is an awareness that all minds are one with the One Mind, the Mind of God. This is our natural state of mind. Our journey in this world of perceived separation is a journey in perception back to the awareness of who we really are, an inseparable element of the Whole. Our Creator has provided us with all the assistance we need to make this journey easier if we are willing to let ourselves be guided in correcting the errors in perception we have made along our way. Our judgment and decision making has been clouded by our perception mistakes and those mistakes have led to more mistakes in our perception. The mistakes are merely perceptive ones and therefore have no substance. But they do keep us from being aware of our divinity and the Truth about who we really are.

We have been given a guide to lead us back to the awareness of who we really are. We have also been given the choice as to whether or not we listen to and accept the guidance of this guide. The guide appears in many forms. It is the narrator, seen as Jesus by Helen, the scribe of the Course. It is the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God, the Comforter, the eyes of Spirit or Vision. It is also seen in each other as the Christ within or the Sonship. At any point in our journey all these forms of this guide are with us, presenting us with choices, waiting for us to ask for direction in anything we think or do.

Miracles bring about and right us on our journey to Atonement and the awareness of who we really are. Miracles are directed by our guide. The opportunities are presented to us and when we are willing we act on them. We may make mistakes in even this along the way. But our guide is with us to filter out the mistakes we make, as we try. In this way these miracles bring the highest benefit to any one or more of us. We may or may not see the effect in the world of any particular miracle we perform, but we will be changed by it. We do the miracle to ourselves and our guide. Its effect in others is divinely guided by Spirit. We need not fear that we may make an error if we release it to our guide.

Though we have forgotten our True Identity for this short while, we have never left it. We have only lost our awareness of it. We are relearning to connect with Spirit. The Course tells us to remember the following:

Spirit is in a state of grace forever.                   

Our reality is only Spirit.                   

Therefore we are in a state of grace forever.

Remembering this in all we do will make obvious the right choice, making it inevitable. In recognizing this Truth we release each other and thus ourselves from all the limitations we have placed on each other in our self perceived world. Let the transformation come about in your mind and Heave ad earth will no longer appear separate. We will perceive and see Heaven on earth as we allow it to be so.

September 4, 2012

As we finish discussing the Principles of Miracles we move on to learning how to open to them in our daily lives. Miracles shift our perception. Miracles happen at the level of the separated mind which thinks it is separate from the Mind of God. Because the separated mind thinks it is separate from the Mind of God, it is not aware of direct communication between God and God’s Creation, us. Miracles help shift our perception to raise our level of awareness and open us to more direct and open communication with God through the Voice for God, Spirit.

This section of the Course helps us understand the difference between horizontal communication with each other and vertical communication with God. Horizontal communication is between us and our brothers and sisters. Miracles help raise the quality of that communication with each other by raising our awareness of who we really are. What results, if we are willing, is the expression and extension of love between us in this temporal world of form. Revelation induces temporary direct communication between God and God’s Creation, us. This is vertical communication, communication between a state of Oneness and a state of separation. Miracles induce a state of mind that enables vertical communication. We may call these communications collapses of time or holy instants. They shift us temporarily into a state of bliss where we have been immersed in the awareness of who we really are.

Since we are at the beginning of the Course, it speaks to us as ones who are only aware of their identity as bodies or the separate identities we made up. When we go back and read these early sections again they have deeper meaning for us now. Our willingness to see and perceive differently has grown. We are open to new understanding. And we continue to expand our awareness of who we really are. We make this journey together. Each of us is in exactly the right place to take the next step or make the next leap. What we do is a reflection of what we believe about ourselves. Let’s join together and take that next step as One.

August 28, 2012

As we continue looking at the Principles of Miracles, we are reminded again and again that miracles are about our thoughts, not our experiences. We may have experiences as a result of miracles, they may manifest in our physical world in many forms and ways, but miracles are always in our thinking. Our miracle mindedness is always a result of our willingness to allow our thoughts and decisions to be guided by Spirit, Source, God, the Universe. You may use another name – like the “Great Zucchini” a term suggested by my friends the Lucketts – but surrender to our Source allows miracles to happen.

When the world we see is transformed due to a shift in our perception, the way we perceive our world, we have certainly experienced a miracle. The question we must ask ourselves is, “Are we willing?” Principle 12 says “Miracles are thoughts.” It’s our choice whether we allow our thoughts to align with the physical or lower experience or the spiritual or higher experience. There is an intention we put forward in our minds for what level we want our mind to be on. We align with the lower or bodily mind, or the spiritual or higher mind. The lower thought system makes the physical seem real and the higher creates the spiritual.

We know what we desire. We want to be in the state of mind of spirit. It is ours to experience. But we must be willing to release our grip clinging to the physical or separated experience of the world, the one we perceive in isolation. The Course asks us to take the principles of miracles to heart and begin to adjust the way we think to allow Spirit to guide our thoughts and decisions. Along this path of release, we will be unsure, we’ll have questions, and we’ll want to know the “right” answer. The only right answer any of us will have is the answer that is inspired by Spirit as we listen for it.

There is no hurry. Our time will come when we let our time come. We cannot force it, for the forcing will only guide us to separation. Take a step aside for a moment. Allow Spirit to speak in that still small voice to you. Spirit will guide you if you listen and let yourself be led. It is as easy as breathing. We don’t even think about taking each breath we take. Let Spirit’s guidance become a habit. It will take conscious effort for awhile. But that effort will ease over time as we release our desire to fight against it. Miracles bring us truth. Miracles extend love. Be the part of the circle of love you really are. The experience will transform to the experience of peace, love, and joy. Let it be so.

August 21, 2012

We are continuing to discuss the principles of miracles. The group asked to go back and discuss the first 25 principles individually as we have discussed the last 25. The principles give us great insight. As the principles have told us, principles are natural. It is unnatural for us not to be experiencing miracles. So if we aren’t, something is amiss about the way we are thinking. The egoic mind, the separated mind, does not think in communication with the Mind of God. Thinking with the Mind of God is not in harmony with the egoic purpose of separation. If we are not miracle minded, we are then ego minded. When we find ourselves thinking like this, let Spirit guide your thoughts. Miracle mindedness will surface.

In the July/August issue of Miracles Magazine Jon Mundy quotes a passage for the Course in his lead article Perfect Happiness Now.

The Holy Spirit is the perfect Teacher. 2 The Holy Spirit uses only what your mind already understands to teach you that you do not understand it. 3 The Holy Spirit can deal with a reluctant learner without going counter to their mind, because part of their mind is still for God.

ACIM T – 5.III.10.1-3

Miracles operate in much the same way as Spirit, happening in just the right form, at the right time, and in the perfect way for where we are at the present moment. A miracle lifts or shifts our thinking to a level of higher consciousness which we can handle at that moment. Spirit never gives us more than we can handle at any given moment. Sometimes it may seem too immense for us, but in our decision to decide with God and ask Spirit for guidance, we have all we need to face the challenge. The miracle is the shift in our thinking that brings us to that higher level if we will allow our thinking to shift. And it will always be the perfect amount of shift for us at that moment. It is important to remember that our mind has never really left the Mind of God. We just need to be willing to recognize it.

Another principle tells us that miracles are not to be thought of as spectacles to induce belief. Rather miracles are a natural result of our willingness to believe the truth about who we really are. Miracles are not spectacles in any sense of the word. Miracles are those quiet shifts to a higher level of consciousness and thinking that lifts our awareness to the next level we are ready for or that we can handle. Miracles in themselves do not matter, it is their Source and the resulting shift that matter. Miracles are indications that we are progressing on our journey back to the awareness of who we really are.

Let go of your desire to control everything. Miracles can’t be controlled. The only control one can exert on a miracle is to deny it. That doesn’t bring about miracle mindedness. So let the miracles come. Welcome them with open arms and an open mind. The blessing will be ours. We will experience the highest good possible at that moment. Let is be so.

August 14, 2012

Last week I quoted the following beautiful passage from the Course. Unfortunately the reference had errors. The reference is corrected and the passage is still beautiful.

When you have learned how to decide with God, all decisions become as easy and as right as breathing. There is no effort, and you will be led as gently as if you were being carried down a quiet path in summer.

A Course in Miracles T-14.IV.6:1-2

Can you imagine the kind of day you would have if you started each day with this thought? Give it a try. Place a copy on your mirror, the refrigerator, your front door, or your computer monitor. A life loved in God consciousness is a life that flows as naturally as breathing. Making it a habit to make decisions with God is the practice that will result in the higher consciousness we seek. How many times do you have to do something to make it a habit? Decide that many times with God. If it’s still not a habit, decide that many more times with God, and keep doing so until it becomes habit. All you need to make it a habit is a little willingness or desire to have it be so.

As we continue reading and discussing the Principles of Miracles, we find both challenge and comfort in them. The challenge is to allow ourselves to let each miracle change our thinking and affect the way we think. We are so used to doing our thinking in our own way, the way we have always done and the way we have evolved our thinking on our own. And the joy is that the changed thought is not something outside ourselves or foreign to us. The changed thought is already within us. The changed thought is brought up in our awareness by the miracle process. Our Mind is the Mind of God. To think with and decide with God does not involve anything outside of us. We already have everything we need to be who we really are. We are already that One and are willing to let that Oneness come into our awareness.

Are we willing to let miracle thinking surface? As Principle 47 tells us, miracles are learning devices. They help us learn to decide with God. They help us make a habit of deciding with God. Once we really make it a habit, we will communicate with God or Spirit naturally and without the effort of remembering to do so. The Holy Spirit and miracles work together to correct all our misperception. As we allow the miracle to direct our thoughts and our thinking, what is based in Truth remains and all incorrect thoughts fade away. They are merely mistaken and are replaced by correct thoughts that rise from within to our awareness.

Miracles are temporary shifts in our thinking that result in substantial awareness over time. They create collapses of time that bring the awareness of our Divinity into our focus for us. At first we drift away fairly quickly from that awareness. But as each miracle created that holy instant for us, we rest in the clarity of that awareness for a little while longer. What a blessing it is to experience these shifts in awareness. Welcome them with open arms and open minds. Drop all resistance to the shift they bring. The full awareness of who you really are and your connection to all creation will manifest n the boundless peace, love, and joy within you. Let it be so.

August 7, 2012

We continue discussing the Principles of Miracles again this week. It is wonderful to go back and review these wonderful nuggets of wisdom again. Perhaps we all should review the Principles on a regular basis. Principle 41 tells us that wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. What more could we ever want than wholeness? If we really allowed ourselves to shift into a state of conscious wholeness where we actually believe and know we are whole and lack nothing we really need, we would perceive, see, and know a different world. The world we think we see would transform before our very minds. The result is that we understand everything we see and experience differently. We would see through the Mind of God and understand through the Mind of God. That is a miracle!

Last week Jon Mundy started his newsletter with a beautiful passage from the Course. It is:

When you have learned how to decide with God, all decisions become as easy and as right as breathing. There is no effort, and you will be led as gently as if you were being carried down a quiet path in summer.

A Course in Miracles T-14.IV.6:1-2

Miracles shift our minds into this natural state of being. Deciding with God is allowing miracles to be in our awareness constantly. This is the habit we all desire to learn, or better yet, return to. The habit of deciding with God is as easy as breathing once we become reacquainted with it. Every Principle points toward this state of mind, this state of being. Miracles help us return to what comes naturally.

Yet in the world we see this doesn’t seem to be so. It seems to be impossible. But it’s not. Just release your attachment to all those thoughts of what everything means. Release especially the thoughts that seem to cause us angst as we dwell on them. Accepting the possibility that what we think we see might not be complete and that Spirit will show us a new perception as the turning point allows the awareness of miracles into our mind and life. What a changed world this can bring to our awareness.

Take a moment. Let an inner awareness of wholeness spring up within you. Principle 44 tells us that miracles are expressions of an inner awareness of the Christ within us and the acceptance of the wholeness that is our natural state of being. Once we stop trying so hard to make all this happen ourselves we will find that being whole and living through the Mind of God is as easy as breathing. It will be as easy as being led down a quiet garden path. We settle in the comfort of knowing who we really are. From this state of mind and being, all things are possible. Let it be so.

July 31, 2012

This week we continue to discuss the Principles of Miracles. As we discussed last week, miracles are always about correcting our perception and correcting the way we think. We have spent a lifetime learning to think the way we think. We have also spent that lifetime becoming attached to what we think about everything we believe about everything we have experienced, observed, and learned. All those thoughts and deductions have formed the self identity we hold about ourselves. But we forgot one very important thing about ourselves.

We have forgotten, put aside, or denied our Divinity, our Oneness with God and all creation. We got so busy “doing it all ourselves” that we forgot to look within to who we really are and ask ourselves if our learned identity has any resemblance to our Divinity, our natural state of being. We are created Divine, unchangeable, and incorruptible. We may have forgotten who we really are, but God hasn’t. And so God has sent us Spirit to connect the thoughts between who we think we are and who we really are. Principle 36 says miracles are examples of right thinking realigning our perception with Truth. Principle 37 says miracles are correction introduced into false thinking. Principle 34 tells us miracles restore the mind to its fullness. Principle 32 tells us miracles intercede for our holiness and make our perceptions holy. Miracles place us beyond the physical world and place us into the celestial sphere of order, our natural order, the order in which we see our perfection and the illusions we were so engrained in fade and drop away. This is the world we are meant to see.

Miracles, as stated in the first principle, have no order of difficulty. One is no greater or lesser than another. All miracles are maximal, for they each correct our perception. Every shift in our perception, our thinking, is an expression of love. And since love is an expression of who we really are we immediately, without effort, extend that love to another, sharing our miracle with them, and opening up the opportunity for that another to experience their own miracle. Since we are all connected at the level of Oneness, miracles are all around us and run through us all the time. Let your attachment to your learned ideas, beliefs and perception loosen and look to Spirit to guide in forming your perceptions. Deep inside we know who we really are. That Truth never leaves us. Decide to remember this Truth and expect a miracle! Come join us tonight and continue on this journey.

July 24, 2012

Last week we discussed the section in the Preface that tells us what the Course says. Our discussion involved the idea that the Course transforms our inner life or our inner experience of life in this world. For our life is not so much about what happens to us, but how we experience and think about all we see and experience. Are we experiencing and thinking about our lives through the lens of our egoic or split mind? Or, are we experiencing and thinking about our lives through the lens of our Divine Mind, our Divine wholeness? The answer can be seen fairly clearly by our sense of happiness or our sense of peace within.

In reality we are in a constant state of miracles. The Principles tell us miracles are expressions of love, they are love, they are natural, they take no effort, and they occur naturally. The first few principles of miracles tell us there is no order of difficultly in miracles and they are all maximal. Most of us see miracles very differently and believe they are very special and infrequent occurrences that originate from outside ourselves. Just the opposite is true. If we are not experiencing miracles all the time, something is amiss. And what is amiss is that we don’t recognize the miracles in our lives because we don’t understand what they are and what their purpose is.

The Principles also tell us that miracles are habits and involuntary. They just occur in Divine consciousness. And, miracles involve no effort. If a miracle does seem to involve effort, it is suspect and must be false. A miracle is not physical in nature. A miracle always occurs in Thought, for reality and truth are within the One Mind, the Mind of God, not in illusion. Miracles are the shifts in our thought, shifts in the way we think about ourselves, each other and all we experience in this life.   These shifts are guided by the One who God has given us to guide us, the Holy Spirit. If we will allow Spirit to guide us in our decisions we will experience and recognize the miracles occurring in and around us. We will begin to feel the sense of inner peace that rises from deep within us, having always been there but unrecognized.

Take a moment and look at the 50 principles of miracles contained in the first section of Chapter 1 in the Course. Let Spirit guide you in your new understanding of miracles so that you recognize the work of Spirit and the Divinity within you. And so you will recognize that Divinity as it extends outward form you. Though the world may be an illusion, it has a purpose in God’s Divine plan for each of us. Each experience, each encounter, each relationship is a naturally occurring miracle that is waiting to be recognized. Each miracle may or may not have an outward result in this world of form. But each miracle will be transformational within each of us as we allow Spirit to show its meaning to us. All the Course asks is that we be just a little willing. And so it is.