May 8, 2012

This week we again talk about choosing the road we travel. We seem to have infinite choices before us as to which road to take as we move along our journey. Yet the Course tells us there is only one choice, one real alternative. Why do we seem to see so many choices before us? And how do we choose correctly, how do we discern the real alternative from all the others? The Course gives us some hints and some ways to discern the real alternative.

We first ask ourselves what we really want and where we really want to go. These alternatives are not so much about what we think we see, but what is beyond what we think we see.   So often, perhaps most of the time, we get caught up in what appears to be right in front of us and what appears to be most urgent or the loudest, that which cannot be avoided. However, we always have the opportunity to stop a moment and consider, just for a moment, what is facing us. This gives us a moment to look within and seek the guidance of Spirit always present within us. If we want to journey toward happiness or peace, we need to be sure we are journeying in the direction of happiness and peace. We need to look carefully at the choice of roads that seem to be in front of us. As we look at the choices that appear in front of us, we can ask Spirit to guide us in our choice. Perhaps we simply need to turn around and look in the other direction.

We can also ask ourselves whether we are journeying inward or outward. Are we looking within ourselves or outside ourselves for an answer and guidance? We have all we need within us for God created us complete and whole. The whole of creation is One, joined, unified, and cannot be separated from any part of itself. Whatever we look for outside of ourselves must be illusion, for nothing real can be apart from us, it is already part of us. The brother or sister that appears so vividly apart form us is really One with us. We just see them incorrectly. We have chosen to think of them apart from us so we can blame them for our misperceptions and thus protect ourselves. However, the brother or sister in our life at this moment is the key to discerning whether we are journeying outward or inward.

How do we see or perceive our brother or sister? Do we see them as they really are, One with us, inseparable? Or do we see them “out there” separate from us? Take that moment again, as many times as it takes, to stop and ask Spirit, the Universe, for guidance in making our choice. As we let Spirit guide our choice, we will choose the real alternative by taking each other’s hand and looking within to the reality of who we really are. As we move within, we remember ever so clearly the true essence of our being. We remember the ancient song of joy that wells up to our consciousness again and reminds us that we are who we really are, whole, and lacking nothing. We are engulfed in the peace, love, and joy that surpassed all understanding. Let it be so.

May 1, 2012

We are on a journey in this life. And, it appears there are many roads to choose from on this journey. We each have probably tried many with many different results and experiences. Some were happy. Some were challenging, some were ordinary. And some were disastrous. I wonder where we thought each of them would lead us as we took that fork in the road.

The fact is it makes no difference which road we take in this world for they all lead to the same place. Each path looks very different. The events we experience along each path seem very different and unique. Yet, they each take us to the same place. We hope each way will lead us to happiness, peace, abundance, joy, and love. Often we do experience some or all of these as we move along these paths. But each way seems to fall short of what we are really looking for. Even though each of these paths seem to be unique, custom made for us – which they are- they all lead to one place. That place is separation. As long as we look at these paths as they appear to us and see them as real and leading us to freedom and salvation, we will not find our way to where we really want to go. We must stop a moment and look beyond the appearance of the road we think we see, and seek Spirit’s guidance on our journey.

There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these paths. They each have lessons on the way for us. But we will never see the way clearly before us unless we take that moment to stop and seek the guidance of Oneness. And then walk with that guidance in unity. We are really on the right road. We’re on the only road there is. We are just headed in the wrong direction. One direction takes us toward separation, and the opposite takes us toward unity and Oneness. The way toward Oneness brings us the awareness of who we really are and the memory of our wholeness, our divinity. While the walk toward separation can feel lonely and daunting, the walk toward Oneness is filled with the knowledge that we all walk it together.

Each encounter with another, our brother or sister, is an opportunity to turn, join together, and walk down the path toward unity and Oneness. This is the real alternative to going it alone, which is the false alternative. Our tendency is to “go it alone”, for we can then blame others for not getting where we want to go. But it is our mission in this life to join together with each other, recognize the wholeness that is every one of us, and walk together in our One Path to Oneness. In this joining we see ourselves and each other as we really are, seeing beyond the appearances of the world of separation. Though we may still walk in the world of form, we now look beyond its appearances to the holy meaning behind each appearance and understand it real purpose in the real world. Let it be so.

April 24, 2012

What do we really believe about ourselves? For what we believe about ourselves is how we treaty and what we think about another. What we don’t like about ourselves we project on another and believe them deserving of blame, guilt, and attack. The form is unimportant. The form is actually irrelevant for the form is an illusion. We will find a form that suits our belief and our projection. It will most likely not resemble that which we don’t like about ourselves. That makes the projection more unrecognizable to us and therefore justifiable. What we believe about ourselves is that we are sin, and so we think we must see another as sin to distract us from what we believe about ourselves.

This mode of thinking is self-accusation. Deep down we believe we are the accused and so to preserve our self-worth we project that belief on another, our brother or sister and they become the accused. This keeps us distracted from the original mistaken thought, the thought that when changed or healed will change our life. This is the change in thought that will change the world around us through the changing of our perception rather than the changing of the physical world. Here is the lesson we must learn, the idea we must believe, that shortens the time to knowing and experiencing who we really are. We must practice this idea diligently, as often as we must, so that it becomes our first response to the temptation to blame another because we believe that we are anything less than who we really are.

It has become habit to believe that we are sinful. And it has become a deeper habit to project the belief in our own sinfulness on another and believe they are sinful and deserve attack. The projection of our believed sinfulness on another is the total of our attack on that brother or sister. The form of the attack is irrelevant and unimportant. We may have even rationalized that our “attack” on that one is loving and gentle, but we believe it is well deserved. Now that we understand what we are thinking and how those thoughts keep us from the awareness of who we really are, we can begin to change our habit, the habitual way we think and choose the thoughts we believe.

Let us take a moment each time we start to think any thought about someone else. Before we act on that thought, look at it carefully. Is it a loving thought? Does it reflect what we know and believe about who we really are? Does the belief that we are sinful or whole lie beneath the thought? As we take a step back and look objectively at each thought applying the lessons we have learned, we can decide whether this is a thought we want to be in our mind or a thought which we want to let go. The practice of being conscious of what we are thinking and where that thought is coming from, and whether that thought reflects the truth of who we really are, is the establishing of a new habitual way of thinking. It brings us to the awareness of the Mind of God that is already our mind. In this way we join our split ego mind with the Mind in which we are all joined. Take this step. Practice and make a new habit. And be who you really are in the One Mind of Oneness.

April 17, 2012

Be still a moment. Just be still. How often do we go plowing through life, not really thinking our choices and decisions through? We make split second choices, not pausing to think whether they are what we really want. We often don’t stop to consider what the outcome might be. And whether that outcome is what we really want. What do we really want? What is our intention? Is the choice we are making in this moment really going to lead us to the ultimate outcome we really want? Or are we only looking to the outcome jus a short distance down the path?

The one we are encountering right now. The one we are currently experiencing in our life. This one is the one who we have the opportunity to heal our relationship with. This is the one we have choices to make with. This is the one who is to teach us the perfect lesson at this moment in this situation. We’ve made up roles for each other. Some of those roles mesh and we play the well and successfully. But some of those roles don’t work well together. The roles clash. We both try to play the same role and then feel let down, angry, or disappointed when the other doesn’t do for us what we think they should. What have they done? What have we done? Or perhaps what have we not done?

Again, take a moment and be still. Let go of what was supposed to happen, what they or we were supposed to do. What did we see? Did we take the time to look beyond the appearances we thought we saw? Did we ask for guidance in making the choices and decisions we made?

Beyond the choices we thought we saw was another choice. Beyond the appearance of the one we have engaged with is a different view. We are so focused on the immediate appearance of our brother, our sister, that we miss ourselves beyond their appearance. We are missing the fact that we are actually one, joined. We have missed the vision of who we really are and who they really are. Let’s set our thoughts aside a moment. Let’s ask ourselves if the answer we give another is the one we are looking for. And ask ourselves if what we learn of another is what we learn of ourselves. Stop a moment and forget everything we thought we heard, and remember how much we don’t know in this state of separation and split-mindedness.

Look beyond the appearance of separateness. Look to the One that is you and that one joined. Look to the One who walks beside us always, as near or as far away as we are willing to see them. Listen to the tender call from the One. In this instant is our true identity remembered, is our Divinity recognized. Only this one can restore our memory. And as our memory is restored, theirs is also restored. And so it is with the next and the next as we move through this world. We restore each others’ soul. What more could we want? Each thing we do manifests this recognition if we will approach it with the thoughtfulness of taking that moment to be still and to let Spirit guide us. Let it be so in your life and another’s life and be the One that Source created.

April 10, 2012

For our journey there is no battle we need to prepare for, no time we need to serve or wait out, and no plans we need to lay out for ourselves. The journey is simply our journey. We have all we could possibly need for that journey, however long or short, difficult or easy we make it. We can take the long and winding road in isolation or we can take the simple road of joining in Oneness. As we make our choices along our way, we either choose between the choices that seem to be before us that we made up, or we join with Spirit or Oneness to see beyond the choices we made up and see our way in Truth.

The world of dreams we made up is full of roles. We have made up all those roles we think are outside of us. And those roles we continually assign to ourselves and each other are forever in conflict. We assign the roles of leader and follower to suit ourselves at any given moment. But then we become unhappy with the role we assigned ourselves and we then blame the other to whom we assigned the other role for our unhappiness, making our unhappiness their fault rather than the one who assigned the roles in the first place. It is an insane way to do things, but it’s also a bit humorous if we’re willing to take a step back and observe what we have done.

The Course in Chapter 30 asks us to not decide anything in isolation, but to seek Spirit’s counsel whenever we realize we have a decision or a choice to make. We are asked to look beyond the appearance of whatever we see at any moment and look beyond to what Spirit reveals beyond the veil of our own separated or ego thoughts. There is the real world revealed to us. The real world, still a dream, but a happy dream reveals the peace, love, and joy of our true nature, the recognition of who we really are. In this happy dream we find the connection with each other, the realization that we are all One even though we appear to be separate and autonomous.

Take a moment and be still. Set aside everything we think we know and believe is true. Listen for the guidance of our inner wisdom that is in the Divinity we already are. We neither lead nor follow, for we walk beside each other, joined hand in hand. The One we are walking with at this very moment is One with us. We are joined in the Christ Spirit, and as we look at each other we see the Face of Christ shining from within each face and see ourselves reflected there in each other’s faces. The Truth dawns on us. It becomes apparent in this holy moment and we recognize who we really are in this holy moment of joining. This communication with each other is our communication with God and all of Creation. Treasure this joining and know it is the freedom we seek. Let it be so.

April 3, 2012

Salvation is really very simple. But to us it seems very complicated and full of treacherous paths just waiting to trip us up and deny us the freedom of salvation. Salvation is really safety or freedom. It is safety from the pitfall s of the world we made up, or all the learning we thought we needed to learn. It is freedom from all the ideas we have learned and taught ourselves that are mistaken, simple mistakes of learning. It is freedom from the split mind that has forgotten the One Mind of God, of which we are all wholly of.

We have spent our lies learning how to navigate this world we think we see. Much has been taught by our parents, teacher, ministers, friends, and others we have encountered on our path. The rest has been deduced, or thought up by rationalizing what we feel and experience with what we have been previously taught and what we have thought about what we have preciously experienced  We have spent our lives rationalizing life’s experiences into thoughts and ideas made up in isolation, alone. We have sometimes sought guidance, but from another journeying through life in isolation and split-mindedness. We have not sought the guidance that is within us, so wise and knowing, rooted in peace and love and joy.

Are we ready to let go of our made-up learned thoughts and ideas? Are we willing to trust, just a little that God has a plan for us, a plan of salvation that plunks us right back in the awareness of our freedom where we belong? Allowing ourselves to shift our consciousness to right-mindedness allows the peace, love, and joy of our Source t well up within us from that deep well within us. Spirit has held the awareness of that well within us for us, waiting until we are willing to glimpse it and then acknowledge it is within us. In this acceptance we begin to recognize our true state of Being and thus begin to see and understand with the eyes and mind of Sprit, of God.

The result is that we free ourselves from the bonds and chains of the thoughts and ideas we have so senselessly made up ad believed were true. We saw and understood with a split off mind that had split itself from its Source, God, Oneness, Universe. As we allow ourselves to be carried into this new, yet remembered ancient knowing, we see not only our true Self, but each other’s Self, for they are really one and the same. We realize we are all connected; we are all One, our true nature and state of Being. We, with God, with Source are all One, changeless in the Divinity of Creation. The learning Spirit would teach is simple. It is easy. It has none of the complications of the world we made up on our own. Let this new world, seen through the eyes of Spirit draw near and step into its happiness, its peace, its love, and its joy and be the freedom it is.