March 15, 2011

Do we understand the laws of healing? We have embarked on a journey. We have chosen A Course in Miracles. In order for us to understand the purpose of the Course, wit is essential we understand the laws of healing. A number of things must occur on our journey for us to believe healing is possible. And once healing is possible in our mind, it will and must occur. Nothing else is possible.

At the base of all we must believe is that all sickness comes from separation. When we truly believe that separation can be denied, it goes. For separation is at the root of our belief in illusion, unreality, the “upside down” world. We have spent a lifetime choosing our thoughts, rationalizing our thoughts, and making up new thoughts about the world we think we see around us. But we must come to a realization that our thoughts and beliefs make up the world we think we see.

We keep all this thought and belief carefully hidden from light because the light shows our mistake. And we are so unwilling to admit that we have spent a lifetime investing our ideas in this mistaken illusion. So we remain attached, sometimes at great cost to our sanity, to our separation resulting from the thoughts and beliefs we so strongly cling to. We then feel guilty and grant our request for punishment even if we don’t understand why. We think it has come from outside of us and fail to see it is all an illusion seeming very real because of our belief it.

Perception is not Truth, it is always illusion. But God has an eternal answer that works in the world of illusion and bridges the chasm between separation and Oneness, illusion and reality. God’s presence never leaves us no matter how strong our belief in illusion and sickness. We never leave our Source and the reality of our true Being. The illusions we so strongly believe in are merely ideas given power by our belief in them, yet because they are not real, they do not have any real power. They’re seeming power is also an idea that is no more than an idea, but seems very real to us.

It is time for us to look inward to the idea that we are as God created us. Can we let the possibility that that idea is true sit in our mind? Can we set all else aside for just a moment to consider this idea and let Truth speak to us? Spirit is there within us waiting to welcome our remembrance, to show us the memory of our true Self and flood our lives with the peace, love and joy of the Heaven within us. Are you ready? Just say yes and let go.

March 8, 2011

Whatever illusion we believe, we give the power to seem real. It doesn’t matter what that illusion is, or how big or small it may seem. Our belief that it is real makes all other illusions real or at least possible. Our belief that it is real also makes what is real seem false. Illusion cannot exist in the awareness of reality. Yet we cling to some seeming reality in this world, unwilling to let reality in, even just a little.

God has appointed a Friend just for us. This Friend brings the gift of the awareness of reality to us. But we put our illusion of ‘friend” in its place, obscuring the Friend God appointed for us from our awareness because we believe in that “friend” we made up. No matter where we think that “friend’ came from, we have actually made it up. The gifts that “friend” gives us are also not real, though they seem so real. Even if we don’t like those gifts or want them, we have believed them real. Such is our belief that we are separate, even that we are lost and alone. We truly believe it and therefore it seems very real to us.

So where is this appointed Friend? Who is it? How do we recognize it? Where do we find it? This section of the Course doesn’t seem to address these questions or give us an answer. We have learned that God gave us Spirit to guide us on the path to the awareness of Truth and reality. Is Spirit that Friend? We have also learned that we are all One and inseparable, not separate. We have learned that we already have all we ever need. Perhaps we are to use what we have learned to recognize the appointed Friend. Are we willing to let go of the illusions we have believed that obscure our awareness of this Friend? Perhaps this Friend is already within each of us, waiting for us to awaken to the possibility that it is within each of us and each other.

Be willing, just a little willing, to make room for this appointed Friend. When we do, we will see the gifts we have received as we make room for what is real in our mind. The blessing of Heaven is already with us. The abundance of Heaven is already with us. The peace, love, and joy of God is already with us. Remove the illusion you believe that obscures that Friend, and experience the fullness of eternity that we are already in. Just Be, and what is illusion will fall away, leaving us right in the middle of reality.

March 1, 2011

Most of us, at one time or another, have experienced our Oneness with God and each other. And we remember it. It was so beautiful, peaceful, joyous, and freeing, we could never forget it. Most likely we have experienced that Oneness, that presence of God, many times and in many places. We may not even recognize it was the presence of the One, but we know it was peaceful and loving. We also know we want to experience it again and again.

What brought these cherished and remembered moments to us? What happened to bring this joy to us? We may associate these moments with being in nature, being with someone we love, being in a joyful place or situation. What these moments all have in common is that we let go of our association with the past. Just for a moment we let our guard down and opened our mind to something new, real, and present. Just for a moment we let go and were totally in the present moment. This is where God is, in the present moment. God is now, and so are we, for we are One with God.

But so much of our life is caught up in our association with and attachment to the past. So we return to our association with the past and are again unhappy. We long for that remembered bliss we experienced in that precious moment. This association with time, this identification with what is past, is the hindrance that keeps us from the full awareness of who we really are, the full awareness of our Oneness with God. The present is where we find our real Self and our connection and communication with God and all that is real.

But nothing is lost, nothing is hopeless or missed. We have experienced and remembered our Oneness in that present moment. We recognized the Truth, for it is within us. That present moment or moments brought us home and reminded us of who we really are. We can never go far from that remembrance. In that remembrance we stand in the borderland at the gates of the realm of Heaven. It is our choice when we allow our mind to open to the remembrance of Truth. It is our choice to allow Spirit to change our perception of the world we live in and transform it to that of the real world. We recognize our True Self in that transformation and know that we are free, healed, sinless, and One with God and all Creation. Let go of the past, and be the One you really are. Love is yours and ours.

February 22, 2011

Do we have hindrances in our lives on our journey? We certainly seem to. They take many forms; seem large or small, high or low, deep or shallow, and impossible or easy. If we are honest, most of these hindrances seem large to us, for we cling to thee idea that miracles are not all the same. The Course is all about teaching us that miracles are all the same, there is no order of difficulty in miracles. See the very beginning of the text. We have many opportunities and ways to learn this. In fact, our whole life is about learning this one lesson.

Every moment of our life presents us with a choice. There choices take many forms, but in every choice is the choice to mover toward Oneness or to move toward separation. Our desire is for Oneness. It is the essence of who we really are. It cannot /be taken away from us or left behind. But we can look away from Oneness and think we are separate. It is an idea made up in our mind and believed. The act of believing this mistaken thought makes it seem real to, it gives the idea power.

All the hindrances we seem to have on our journey may seem different and of differing magnitude. But they are, in actuality, all very small, even tiny. We have made them what they seem to us by our belief that they are as we think we see them. And we think we lose something dealing with these hindrances. But it is impossible for us to lose anything real. Even the loss of time is meaningless for it is but an instant in eternity and meaningless to our Teacher. Since we believe in time, why do we waste it going nowhere when we can use it for the higher purpose of returning to the awareness of who we really are?

The road to Heaven’s gate, the awareness of who we really are, is not difficult. Nothing we undertake with our eyes, ears, and mind set on this certain purpose with high resolve and happy confidence, holding the hand of each One, and keeping step to the Song of Heaven is difficult to do. There is only one road we can take. It is the road to Heaven. But it is our choice which way we go; toward Heaven or away from it. It is hard to wander down the road that goes nowhere with no purpose. But it is easy to take the hand of Spirit and let Spirit guide us in the direction of Heaven and the awareness of our wholeness. Choose to take the high road, the easy road, whatever you may call it and join in the song of Heaven.

February 8, 2011

God, Truth, Reality, Creation, Oneness are all simple. They are all the same, they are One, and there is nothing other than One. There is no complexity in what Is, for there is nothing other than what Is. But we have thought our way to complexity. We have created a world based on our thoughts about every experience we have ever had. It is a world full of choices, many of which seem unclear to us. We go through our lives trying to make the choices we think we see, and to make the right choices for us. The biggest problem we have about making these choices is not the complexity or the rationale of the choices, but the way we make those choices. We try to make those choices ourselves, with only the thoughts we have made up about our experiences in this world.

But there is another way to approach these choices. There is another way to make these decisions, and it’s easier than we might think. The Course tells us: “There is a borderland of thought that stands between this world and Heaven. It is not a place, and when you reach it is apart from time. Here is the meeting place where thoughts are brought together; where conflicting values meet and all illusions are laid down beside the truth, where they are judged to be untrue. This borderland is just beyond the gate of Heaven. Here is every thought made pure and wholly simple. Here is sin denied, and everything that is received instead.”

The “place” we make the choice is in our mind. And the choice we must make is not the choice we think is facing us, but the choice of how we actually make the choice! All our lives we have been relying solely on ourselves to make these choices, judgments, and valuations. The borderland the Course refers to is a place in our mind we have always had, but never really looked to. It is a place where all the wisdom of Spirit is available to us to show us what is real or illusion. Here is where our thoughts may be placed along side Truth and judged without prejudice. What is Tue and real stands, and what is not true falls gently away, fading into nothingness.

This borderland is the meeting of timelessness and time. It is where the world meets reality. It is the mindset given us to live in this world and keep our eyes on Truth. It is the state of mind where the holy instant becomes Vision. It is where we choose and experience Heaven whenever we choose to remember to do so. This borderland never goes away, it never fades. It is where we remember who we really are, and see each other in the light of Truth, reawakening the awareness of our Oneness. Even when we forget who we are, Spirit holds this borderland in our mind, calling us back until we hear the Voice again and return to this place. Rejoice in it and make the choice again today.

February 1, 2011

In our lives we seem to have many different problems. They are varied, take many forms, and seem to have different magnitudes. Some seem simple and some seem difficult, and some seem insurmountable. We see them this way because we look at them and try to resolve them from our perception of them. We see them the same way we see ourselves and each other, separate and not equal, imbued with some perception of loss that is involved with any solution or resolution. We try to solve each problem in a special way related to the form in which we see it. And we succeed in solving many of these problems in the form they take for us. But soon others creep up, taking another special form that we see in our own special way.

But we are missing the root problem. Our problems take many forms in this world, and we see them in relation to the way we see ourselves and our specialness. And all of these perceived problems seem to require some loss on someone’s part to be resolved. The root of our problems is that we think there is a lack in the world and that God is limited because we see ourselves as limited. Until we correct our perception of ourselves, each other, and the world we will never solve anything for all of time never to rise again.

If we are willing to let ourselves see a bit differently, we may find another way to resolve the problems we see. Our way of continuing on in our habitual separate way of thinking will only keep us in that mindset. But the Holy Spirit has said that it can solve any problem we have. We need only be willing to let it go and allow Spirit to show us a better way of thinking. All our problems stem from the belief in lack, loss, and a limited world which we project on ourselves and God. Once we allow Spirit to help us remove the belief in limitation, and foster a new belief in God’s abundance, we begin to see that our problems resolve.

We are so tied to perceiving all at the level of the world that we forget to look beyond to Spirit, to the essence of all that is real and transcends the world of form and illusion. Allow yourself to turn to Spirit and release your hold on the ideas and beliefs to which you are so attached. Spirit has held for us all that we really are, waiting for us to be ready to lay aside our mistaken thoughts and remember who we really are. We are the One Holy Child of God, always One with God and each other and inseparable form All. The realization of this Truth is our salvation and the release from any form of problem we encounter.

January 25, 2011

The world has a purpose for each of us. Even though the world is illusion, while we are in it has a purpose, a special function for us. Every situation we encounter, every person we meet, everything that6 seems to “happen” to us has a special function especially for each of us.

This special purpose is designed especially for each one of us. For in each opportunity, there is a lesson for us. We may not understand it or even see it. But, in each opportunity there is a lesson, a message, an ah-ha, that points us in the direction of reawakening to the awareness of who we really are. Each is an opportunity to reawaken to the awareness of Oneness within and around us. Each is the opportunity to let go of the sacrifice of our Oneness with our habitual way of thinking.

Are we alone in figuring this out? Definitely no. But we often think we are alone in the quest. As long as we think we are alone, it will be difficult, for being “alone” in the journey is the antithesis of Oneness and unity. Once we realize that we cannot be alone in this journey, we allow ourselves to accept the help of the Holy Spirit who is waiting for us to simply be willing to ask. Once we are wiling to ask, we find that love pours in from all directions, where it has always been, but we were too focused on separateness to see.

Just for a moment, relax, allow Spirit to guide, experience the love extending to us from all of creation, and let all that is be. We begin to recognize Oneness welling up in us. We begin to let go of our “sacrifice” of Oneness and experience the beauty, peace and joy of who we really are. Look at the world you see. And if it doesn’t make sense, be willing to see it differently. If we open the door even just a little we will begin to see a higher purpose in the world we see. It’s there waiting to guide us back, but we must be willing to let ourselves understand it just a little differently than we think we do. Let yourself see its special function for you.

January 18, 2011

Oneness is our true nature. Oneness is the essence of our being. We can be nothing other than Oneness for God created us One.

But in this world of illusion, made by our mistaken idea that we are separate, we have lost sight of Oneness. We have lost the awareness of who we really are. When we look at each other, we see each other separate. This is because we see only a tiny little part of the other, and ignore the rest of that one’s whole being. We refuse to see ourselves in the other, and so do not see them as whole. We have deprived the other of ourself, which is the mistake we make that limits the other. And so we likewise deprive ourselves of the other, making the mistake of limiting ourselves.

This is the sacrifice of Oneness. We sacrifice our wholeness to hold something apart for ourselves. We have believed the idea that we must attempt to limit loss, especially for our idea of ourselves. If we believe we can lose anything at all, we have disbelieved who we really are, and believe ourselves and each other limited.

Abandon the idea that we could lose anything real. We are One with God and each other. In Oneness we have all there is and all God created and ever will create. Oneness is unity. It is what we really are and have always been. The Holy Spirit has held this awareness for us and waits, calling softly to us to let Spirit show us and remind us who we really are. Take a moment and listen. Be a little willing to let Spirit show you the Truth. Happiness, Peace, Love, and Joy are there within us waiting to be remembered and experienced. There we find the wisdom to extend the awareness of the Oneness we truly are to each other and celebrate in bliss.