Organic Abundance

Infinite Grace

2012-02-07T11:07:00.002-06:00

"Whatever lies you may believe are of no concern to the miracle, which can heal any of them with equal ease. It makes no distinctions among misperceptions. Its sole concern is to distinguish between Truth on the one hand, and error on the other. Some miracles may seem to be of greater magnitude than others. But remember the first principle in this Course: there is no order of difficulty in miracles." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 2, Section I, 5:1-5

"Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I, 12:1-3

Grace and miracles are synonymous, like all the attributes of Truth. They each seem to highlight a facet of Being, but are in fact One. Have you ever been in an airplane, looking down on what appears to be an infinite ocean of white, fluffy clouds? The sense of expansiveness and joy that such a sight arouses is not to be taken lightly. That very 'sense' is closer to Reality than any bodily sight or sensation. It points to the miracle that is Grace.

The thoughts that arise from this sense of Grace are wholly spiritual (and holy, too!). The thoughts that arise from apparent physical sensations are completely projected and false... in other words, they generate a false sense of self and project a world to populate that false sense. As the quote from ACIM emphasizes, Miracles/Grace represent your true thoughts, the only thoughts that reflect Reality... the only thoughts that arise from the unified Mind of our True Self, which we also call God.

What happens, then, when we completely forget the misperceptions and misconceptions of the false self? What happens when we allow the ocean of Infinite Grace, the Awareness of One Self, to completely occupy our minds and hearts? What happens is that we allow Infinite Grace to live our lives. We allow the Miracle of Love to reflect here in the earth-dream, as it is in the Heaven of our Awareness.

The Miracle of Grace has no limits and no cost. It simply is, without condition or definition. And yet it gladly flows through this computer keyboard, embracing us all as we read and write this. That's what Infinite means. As ACIM puts it, this is the act of creation, to flow and expand, to radiate without limit or condition. Infinite Grace is our very Being.

"You were created only to create, neither to see nor to do." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 14, Section I, 4:4

Begin Again

2012-01-26T11:47:00.002-06:00

"Routines as such are dangerous, because they easily becom gods in their own right, threatening the very goals for which they were set up. Broadly speaking it can be said that it is well to start the day right [i.e., giving the day to God]. But it is ALWAYS possible to begin again, should the day begin with error." [emphasis mine] -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 16, 2:5-7

We're pretty hard on ourselves. We set unrealistic expectations for our bodies and our minds, all of which are based on goals and actions out there, with the world as we imagine it. The problem is, they're unrealistic because they're not true, not because we didn't do it right. Even the goals and actions we seem to acheive or approve of will disappoint sooner or later, because they're based on the false gods referenced in the above quote... earthly rituals to the gods of diet, relationships, pleasure, or finance. But we can begin again. Any instant.

One way we remain in bondage to egoic pursuit is the lie that it's not possible to begin again, so we might as well make the best of what we've got. We'd better make this body work well, because we won't get another one. We'd better subsume ourselves to this dysfunctional relationship or we'll be alone. We'd better be frugal and only spend on necessities for ourselves, because the economy shows no mercy. It's every man (or woman) for themselves.

How might this perspective soften and change if we felt innocent? If we knew that every holy instant we are born anew? If we really stopped for an instant... really allowed the Real to shine from everyone and everything? If we stopped writing the script of unrealistic and false expectations? All we're giving up is the illusion of protecting illusions about ourselves and the world we think we see.

I've come to realize that the only task I have before me every day, no matter what it looks like, is to let go of everything I think I know, to let the Real shine through every appearance. In the words of Mary Baker Eddy: "... depart from the material sense, into the spiritual sense of Being." A Course in Miracles calls this process 'forgiveness', the shedding of the false self. What does that mean? It means letting go of the evidence of the thinking mind, the evidence of the physical senses, and being fully present and aware NOW. In the midst of that awareness is our true knowing, our Spiritual Self. Everything that seems to be happening out there is actually a play of consciousness within the One Mind, the Self, the Allness of what we sometimes call God. Fully present awareness, without condition, is key.

So we begin again, every holy instant, by forgiving, by releasing, by letting go of every routine and conditioned response, every bit of sensory data. What remains is pure Awareness, and the Grace of our true Self.

Wholeness is a Way of Looking

2012-01-11T11:43:00.001-06:00

"Ultimately the entire universe (with all its 'particles, including those constituting human beings, their laboratories, observing instruments, etc.) has to be understood as a single undivided whole, in which analysis into separately and independently existent parts has no fundamental meaning." -- Physicist David Bohm, from Wholeness and the Implicate Order

I've been noticing how I view the world a lot lately. Paying attention to who (or Who) is looking. There is the habitual fragmented, divided self with its ongoing life story. This self sees a fragmented, divided world that is always full of drama and resolution, of desire and fulfillment or disappointment. This self sees everything as desirable or undesirable, as safe or scary, as clean or unclean, healthy or unhealthy, etc. But when I relax the rigid conditioning that has produced this fragmented fiction, I am suddenly looking through the utterly natural eyes of Self.

This Self is Whole, in the sense that it embraces and includes everything. It sees the world through a lens of Wholeness, and so balance and harmony is what is seen, an interwoven and interpenetrating dance of Wholeness. As David Bohm wrote in his book Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Wholeness is a way of looking.

We have to let go of the conditioned lens of judgment and fragmentation in order to access this entirely natural, and ultimately true way of looking at the world. We're not talking about physical sight here... physical perception is simply a projection of the conceptual lens we're using. Wholeness as a way of looking is a conscious awareness, just as fragmented perception is a way of looking that is largely unconscious conditioning. When it becomes conscious, the lens (awareness) of Wholeness is naturally revealed.

How do we know that this is true, that Wholeness is Reality? David Bohm explains it with quantum physics. But I suggest that you simply try it. As I said at the beginning of this blog, I've been paying attention to who, or Who is looking. And that makes all the difference.

Back to the Basics

2012-01-09T12:30:00.001-06:00

This morning I heard quite clearly to begin blogging again... and to title this entry 'back to the basics.' What exactly did I hear? In my understanding and interpretation of it, I heard my Self. In another interpretation it might be called inspiration. What I do know is that True experience always inspires and motivates me to inquire more deeply, to be more fully present in authentic ways, and to enjoy every minute of it.

As I inquire without an agenda, without a spiritual or scientific preconception or predisposition, these are the basics that occur to me as essential to experience the Truth of Being in my life:

1. Ask open questions... and be willing to hear different answers.
2. Be fully present with life, and appreciate it just as it is... even when it isn't comfortable or pleasant.
3. Be willing to be surprised and delighted and transformed.
4. Take joy in the simple and everyday... but don't be a slave to it.
5. Take joy in the unusual and abnormal... but don't be seduced by it.
6. In other words, take joy in letting everything be as it is, without judging it... and then...
7. Be willing to see it all differently.
8. Most of all, be willing to see your self differently, without definition or preconception.
9. Be willing to see through the eyes of the inclusive Self.

These are the basics I return to every day, whether it's through meditating, walking in the woods, sharing a meal with friends or family, working on a thorny computer issue, writing about technology or music or spirituality, or playing with my animals or grandchildren. It's all of a piece. There is no real separation... just categories of mind and consciousness that I have defined and that weave in and out of experience. It's up to me to return to the basics so I can live fully in an awareness of inclusivity, of my true Self that is all of it and more. How do I know? Back to the basics... inquiry and experience are the only true tests. Everything else is simply hearsay.

An Ocean of Love

2011-10-27T15:53:00.000-05:00

We live and move and have our being in an infinite ocean of Love. Not metaphorically. Not poetically. We literally exist in and as Love ItSelf.
Why do we have such a hard time seeing this? Because we have studied long and hard to see ourselves and the world as flawed and imperfect. We find witnesses to this everywhere, because it's our story, populated by the characters we have defined and given starring roles.

Why would we want to deny Love? Why work so hard to be unloving and unloved? Because it's the collective story of fallen man... he 'separated' from God, from Goodness and Love ItSelf, and became imperfect and very, very unlovable. Of course, few stop to ask where he could go to separate from Omnipresence and Omniscience. Few have asked where the power to do this would come from, if God is Omnipotent. Because when we're immersed in our stories, we don't question the glitches in the dialogue or denouement. Like watching a movie, we willingly suspend our capacity to reason when immersed in a story.

But just for the moment, let's suspend the story. Let's be present as we relax, bathing in a warm, gentle ocean of completeness and contentment. This Love that lives Us, that IS Us, holds us effortlessly, right here, right now. This ocean of Love is the real atmosphere in which we live effortlessly, Loving and Beloved, in eternal Oneness. What's most important, it is the most natural and practical awareness there is... the awareness of Love is the end of all fear and the resolution to all problems.

Relax, and allow Love to lead you, to feed you, to heal you, to supply you. Relax and allow Love to Be ItSelf in the world. That is the miracle.

"Miracles occur naturally as expressions of Love." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I, 3:1

A Different Use in Everything

2011-06-12T09:39:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm still here! I know this is the longest I've gone without posting since this blog began in 2007. And thanks to those of you who e-mailed, wondering where the blogs have gone. As I said in the beginning... I will only post when inspired, led by the Voice of Self. And Self has had other things in mind for me for the past two months... fun stuff, busy stuff, transformational stuff.

Let's start with the quote that inspired today's post:
"Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. But part of it is now unnatural. It does not look on everything as one. It sees instead fragments of the whole, for only thus could it invent the partial world you see... Thus were specifics made. And now it is specifics we must use in practicing. We give them to the Holy Spirit, to employ for a purpose different from the one we gave them. He can use what we made, to teach us from a different point of view, so we can see a different use in everything." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 161, 2:1-6, & 3:1-4

The fun, busy, transformational stuff that has filled my life recently is very, very specific... lots of details that make it easy to get lost in thinking it all means something. Whether you create beautiful gardens, write elegant XHTML code and create new websites, or learn to create art through Adobe Photoshop, it's easy to think the specific is the point. But I'm very sure the reason I'm being led down this path is to see that the easiest and most joyful route through the briars of details is to stay in the abstract knowing of the Self, the Awareness of Oneness.

When new details threaten to swamp the mind with busyness, there is only one purpose in it... to remind us that there is another point of view that will help us remain open and expanded in the Oneness of Self, right here in the midst of it. I've come to treasure that this is the only purpose anything has, and its only value. A different use in everything.

Truth

2011-04-03T07:15:00.000-05:00

"Truth is a savior and can only will for happiness and peace for everyone. It gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless supply. It sees that lack in anyone would be a lack in all. And so it gives its light that all may see and benefit as one." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 92, 5:3-6

"And you shall know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free." -- The Bible; John 8:32

What is Truth? John Keats waxed poetic on this subject while pondering things that come and go... his "Ode on a Grecian Urn" faces his own mortality in the frozen images on an ancient vessel, and in his poetic way he discovered that the ideas and images embedded in the ancient urn are exactly like the images in any given life, the faces and bodies and scenery and relationships. What is true about any of them? Keats put it this way, as if the urn itself were speaking: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty... that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." Keats was spiraling upward in his quest for Truth. He saw that is exists not in the physical, but in the silent spiritual. He saw that Beauty and Truth are synonyms for the One, and are not dependent on the physical or the form of things that come and go, but that everything reflects Beauty and Truth when it is truly seen, beyond form.

Jesus said we can and will know the Truth. He said it is our very freedom. The Bible, A Course in Miracles, Buddhism, Vedanta... they all use the word Truth as a synonym for enlightenment and our Real Being. Some use the word God, others Self or Atman, but the meaning is One.

A Course in Miracles puts it very bluntly: "The Truth is true, and nothing else is true." In this world where all truth seems relative, such a statement can seem as cryptic as a zen koan. But let's look at mathematics. No matter how you turn it, 2+2 will always and forever equal 4. It is an unchanging truth, a mathematical principle. In the same way, the Truth of Being underlies everything that seems to appear and seems to disappear. It is the unconditioned awareness of Self, an all-inclusive awareness that is always here, always available, and is the very ground of Being. It is the Source and the Substance of all that is.

So why bother even talking about such things? We know 2+2 equals 4, but we don't think about it when we're picking out 4 apples or oranges at the store. Talking about Truth is just philosophy, impractical and not grounded in 'real' life.

Well, our daily life isn't always as benign as picking out a few apples. Its very impermanence drives us inward, seeking to understand and to know, and this is a gift. All struggles and challenges are really our best friends, because they move us beyond the complacency of everyday comforts to the inner awareness that is the Truth of Being. This awakening to Self, to the Oneness of God, is our only purpose for being here. This is the Truth that sets us free.

"Salvation is the recognition that the Truth is true, and nothing else is true. Truth cannot have an opposite. As God created you, you remain unchangeable, with transitory states by definition false. And that includes all shifts in feeling, alterations in conditions of the body and the mind; in all awareness and in all response. This is the all-inclusiveness which sets the Truth apart from seeming falsehood." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152

Hoarding

2011-03-29T12:25:00.003-05:00

"Hoarding: Amassing money or valued objects and hiding or storing it away, typically in a carefully guarded way." -- The New Oxford American Dictionary

"Hoarding: Gathering things together in the external. This is a vain effort to avert an imagined lack or shortage in the future." -- from The Revealing Word by Charles Fillmore

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." -- The Bible; Matthew 6:19-21

I didn't particularly want to write about this topic today. It sort of chose me, as the topic of hoarding has been in my face lately, and there are no accidents in consciousness. So I am looking more closely at the literal and metaphysical teaching here, because I know it's always pointing me to what is True.

As many of you know, I run an animal sanctuary on my farm. I'm very careful not to take more animals than I can care for, and I've largely outgrown the notion that it's my job to save all the creatures of the world.  So I don't have the hoarding mentality of some animal rescue workers. But recently a no-kill shelter nearby was shut down and all the animals taken because they developed a hoarding mentality... in other words, they kept taking animals even when they had no room for them. They thought that saving their bodies meant something. And I used to feel that it was about saving bodies, too.

Now, I do stop for every turtle I see on the road. And if I see an animal in need, I do my very best to find help for it. If someone calls me with an animal that has been abandoned or abused and I don't have room, I help them find someone who does. But the caring for these beautiful creatures has taught me that bodies don't mean so much... they come and go. But the spirit, the divine idea of each creature is so perfect and permanent. The divine idea of every animal that's ever lived or died here remains, in all its perfection. Their being is my being. Their spirit nurtures and teaches my spirit. We are quite literally One. I've come to realize that real Sanctuary is of and for the Spirit. It can't be lost, nor can it ever be lacking.

Hoarding shows up in so many ways. We are a culture of hoarders. Our medical communities hoard bodies... keeping a body alive becomes more important than the Reality of Being, the Spirit that is the essence of each person. It's easy to see this kind of hoarding in nursing homes and hospitals.

Our financial communities hoard money, of course. But not just money. What is hoarded is the destructive idea of competition and winning, of having or being more because of what is accumulated. Again, the form of hoarding is pretty secondary... it's the thought that I am more, or validated, or better because I've collected some paper or metal or some iou's. We're like a culture of little children playing a really bad game of Monopoly. And our sports and media cultures hoard everything from celebrity to information.

Even those of us without much money manage to hoard. We may hoard friends or relationships, memorabilia from our families, old photographs, old books or writing or ideas that we think we might want to look at 'later.' We may hoard old musical instruments or guns or tea cups or anything in the name of 'collecting.' I've seen street people with shopping carts full of hoarded junk that they think they might need sometime. And those of us with clutter have to acknowledge that clutter is a form of hoarding. If we're not hanging on to the clutter for some reason, why haven't we cleaned it up? What is it for? What is any of it for?

A Course in Miracles says that 'more' is the motto of the human ego... and that it doesn't even matter more of what. Hoarding is the nature of the self that thinks it is a body. And I've come to discover that the worst form of hoarding is the hoarding of concepts, because we don't see ourselves doing it. We tell the same stories, using the same concepts of self, over and over and over... and these concepts we hoard are always false ideas about a self that's in a body. We're carefully taught these stories, these concepts, by parents and teachers and media.  But we're willing slaves to this hoarding... we eagerly accumlate the false sense of identity it gives us, even when that identity is tied to a seemingly miserable or flawed self. We hoard these false self-concepts because we think it's who and what we are, and that we would somehow be lacking existence and life without them. That this fear is largely unconscious makes it the most insidious form of hoarding.

So by now we've all reached the same conclusion... that simply living in this world means we're hoarders. We're all trying to accumlate a sense of self that is safe, healthy, financially sound, and autonomous... and in our efforting, we'll settle for a self that is fairly safe, sort of healthy, getting by financially, and isolated from other scary people. It's this very efforting that Jesus referred to in the above quote from Matthew. It's this very efforting that hides the Presence of the Kingdom from our Awareness, right here and right now.

A safe and autonomous self can never be. Only bodies appear separate, and we are not our bodies. Where would a separate self be, in Oneness? Nothing and nowhere. But our Self, our infinitely unique and varied Self, is always safe and whole and uniquely expressing, in and as each of us. We are Spirit, and we are One, and we are individually unique and precious in this Oneness. Animals can be animals and still be One with me. You can be uniquely you and still be my Self. I can let go of literally everyone and everything and still be One with it All. Nothing is lost or lacking in Oneness, ever. This is the nature of our God-Self, and of the Kingdom. And this awareness is the end of hoarding, and the beginning of our Real Life in and as Spirit.

"Take no thought, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'Wherewithal shall we be clothed?' But seek ye first the Kingdom of God... and all these things shall be added unto you." -- Matthew 6:31-33

Perfect Happiness

2011-03-28T07:22:00.000-05:00

"God's Will for me is perfect happiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 101

"I share God's Will of happiness for me." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 102

"There is no will but God's." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 74

Reason tells us that Omnipresent God, Source, our Infinite and Eternal Creator must be perfect, whole, and complete. So if there is only One Infinite, Eternal Source, where did imperfection come from? We seem to find flaws and problems and imperfection everywhere we look, especially in ourselves. But if Omnipresent God is One, Perfect, and Whole, then I can only reflect God's Will, which is God's Being. Omnipresent, Infinite and Eternal means there can be nothing else, no 'other' Will but God's.

Religionists who believe in sin and redemption will argue that it's some sort of holy test in which we are learning to become like God. But where the heck did a creation unlike its Creator come from? What would be its source? Every suffering and sorrow in the world can be traced back to this belief in a bad seed, a seed that produces something totally unintended and unlike its source. But look at the natural world. Does a lettuce seed produce turnips???

Jesus once compared the Kingdom to a mustard seed. He also told us the Kingdom of Heaven is already IN us. A mustard seed already has everything that it is and will be within it. Like all ideas in the mind of God it is self-full, complete and self-fulfilling. Once planted, its happiness is that unfolding, that becoming, the extending of being in infinite variety, but always of the essence of its Creator. It's never the form that is perfect... form is constantly changing and flowing into new form, in endless celebration of the perfection at the heart of it all.

What Jesus showed us is how to stop obsessing about form. He demonstrated over and over that when you know God as your Self, and as the Self of everyone and everything, you see this perfection at the core of all Being. And then the forms that change and flow are seen to reflect this perfection as they change and flow. Perfection has nothing to do with your concept of perfection. Perfection is Wholeness of Being, and Perfect Happiness... not something you 'have' but something you BE. Something you already are and have always been.

This seed of happiness that is the core of everything, is pure joy. This bubbling well of joy that is in you and in me, IS perfect happiness.

"God, being Love, is also happiness." A Course in Miracles; Workbook 103

Altered States

2011-03-19T09:59:00.001-05:00

"The opportunity of spiritual awakening, enlightenment and Self-realization is that what we call the mind is stilled. Since we are no longer misidentified with thought as our true identity, then thought [ego] can no longer use us. The ego [thought] and its push and pull strategies are finished. Instead, the altered state of consciousness that appears to be ego dissolves, to reveal the pure Awareness that really IS. The mind then becomes the willing servant of Truth; the Heart of unconditional Love and perfect Peace and Joy." -- Katie Davis

When I read the above quote, it struck me first because she equates thought with ego, which is also what A Course in Miracles teaches. I also loved it because the term 'altered states' has been so extensively used to describe mystical, spiritual experiences. But how can you alter what is real and eternal? The altered states must actually be those that seem to alter Reality, that seem to be separate from the One, that seem to produce thoughts and feelings and experiences that are other than Good, other than God. Of course! And the only thing that can think it is separate from Allness is a thought. The egoic notion of self is simply a thought, an identification with thought and its images (projections) as self.

As a child of the 60's and long-time spiritual dilettante, I was a major worshiper of altered states... of spiritual experiences and the Truth I thought they pointed to. What a shock to realize I was really worshiping images, like any other image, no more 'spiritual' than any other projection. I was seeking a concept of awakening, a thought, always another and higher thought. The seeking of altered states of consciousness is itself the egoic notion of something 'other' or 'better' or 'higher'. When right here, silently Present and Aware, our Self IS unaltered, infinite Perfection.

It takes a lot of letting go to begin to realize that a projector simply projects images, and that those images are all the same. The projector and the images are neutral... they're nothing substantial at all. All images and the thoughts they reflect have one thing in common... they're not really here. Once we put the projector and its images away, there's nothing here but pure Awareness, the Truth of Being. And this Perfect Awareness then becomes the Source of any images reflected while we remain as seemingly separate entities. Because the Source is True, the images reflected become closer and closer to Reality.

So like children coming in from a day of make-believe, let's lay aside the thinking mind, letting go of all compulsion to seek altered states of consciousness. Instead, let's simply come in, always inward, and sit in silent contentment with the Love and Perfection that is our true Self. This inner vigil, this resting in our God-Self... this is the only natural state there is.

"All this can very simply be reduced to this: "What is the same can not be different [can not be altered!], and what is One can not have separate parts." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 25, Section I, 7:6-7

In Our Own Image

2011-03-11T09:43:00.002-06:00

"No one can conceive of his Creator as unlike himself." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 68, 1:7

I have been practicing self-inquiry as taught by A Course in Miracles for a long time now. It's a version of self-inquiry very similar to "Who am I,"the form given by such advaita masters as Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj. The drill goes that as you examine your body, you realize that if you're looking at it, it's not 'I' but a projected image. The 'I' is actually what is looking and witnessing. As you look at the senses and their subject/object relationship with the world, you realize the senses are not 'I'. As you look at your thinking mind, you realize that there is some 'I' looking even at the thoughts that come and go. And so you gradually refocus the mind to Source, the 'I Am' at the heart of all Being. As A Course in Miracles teaches it, you reverse the process of projection to return to Self with a capital 'S.' This Self is All-Inclusiveness, a Oneness or Singularity without an object.

This is a very effective tool for those who really want to remember who they are. But for most of us, the desire and self-discipline is pretty much lacking. We can't focus for any length of time on who is looking because we're too distracted by what we're looking at... and that is because we don't really want to know. We're enamored of our own images... and why wouldn't we be? We projected them... they're our babies, and we're attached to our own images and thought-forms. And so we pretend they're real. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "Projection will always hurt you. It reinforces your belief in your own split mind." (ACIM; Chapter 6, Section II, 3:1-2) Our imagined separateness seems to defend and protect that separateness by forgetting, and by projecting outward the images of the sleeping mind.

The real problem, though, is also the good news. Because our sleeping minds are constantly projecting, the projected world appears as divided as our minds. We can have lovely dreams, but we also will have nightmares. The experience of one guarantees the experience of the other. Or you could say that suffering is implicit in pleasure, and pleasure is implicit in suffering. And how is this good news, you may well ask? Because the unstable nature of our projections sooner or later drives us to self-inquiry. Sooner or later our undisciplined minds seek meaning beyond the appearance of our own projections.

The real Truth is that the projected world is a collection of thought-forms in our own image. We project who we think we are, divided into a cast of thousands. The quote I used at the beginning of this blog points out that for the mind asleep, even our conception of Source is projected and experienced in our own image. This is why the God of Christianity and Islam is so often seen as violent, judgmental, vindictive, etc. It's not our Source that we're seeing, but our own sleeping minds.

The even better news is that our actual Source is not the sleeping mind, but Mind Awake. This Mind is One, All-Inclusive, All-in-All. As the Tao te Ching puts it: "There is a Being, All Inclusive, Who surrounds everything with Its Love like a garment. I do not know Its name, and so I call it Tao, the Way, and I rejoice in Its Presence." Source doesn't project... it IS. The refocusing of the mind through self-inquiry returns us to this primal Awareness. And this Awareness then is reflected in the seeming individual mind as Self, a Oneness that is reflected in the projected world as unified vision and experience. In this Awareness of Self there is only Perfection, only Love, and a Joyous Peace that includes everything.

So whose image am I projecting? As long as we live in this dream world, we will always be projecting a world and its imagined source in our own image. So the real question is: Who am I?

"The concept of the self has always been the great preoccupation of the world. And everyone believes that he must find the answer to the riddle of himself. Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the escape from concepts [images]. The world can teach no images of you unless you want to learn them. There will come a time when images have all gone by, and you will see you know not what you are. It is to this unsealed and open mind that Truth returns, unhindered and unbound. Where concepts of the self have been laid by is Truth revealed exactly as it IS." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section V, 14:1-3, 17:1-4

Divine Mother

2011-03-05T06:30:00.002-06:00

"Only the Love is Real." -- A Course in Miracles

My mother, Doris Lee Melise, passed away on Monday... she was 91 years old. Although the last few years were pretty rough, Mom had a wonderful life, and was blessed with a huge extended family that adored her. The memorial service is today, and it has me reflecting on the concepts and ideas of mother that I learned and unlearned through being her daughter, and through being a mother to my children and now a grandmother to my four grandsons. One thing I know for sure... now that the sick and suffering image of Mom has passed on, all I can remember is the love... all I can remember is a loving and generous spirit... a stubborn Irish determination laced with pure love.

So it's easy for me to image God as Divine Mother, as the supreme Love and nurturance of Spirit. Our earthly relations are vital to us in this world, providing the relational settings and situations we have chosen. But our true Source Mother remains, eternal and omnipresent, the very womb in which we remain, safe and secure, forever. Divine Mother doesn't require us to grow up or separate, and can never leave us. Divine Mother is a symbolic image of the One, the unchanging Love and absolute Principle of Oneness that is our true Self.

The one phrase that mom used to use whenever some drama arose in the family: "This too shall pass." And that is the perfect expression for this earthly drama we call life. But she also taught us what endures... the Love that embraces and connects. We never lacked for the material, but most importantly we were fed on the spiritual our whole lives, so we always knew that the passing was not the important part. Mom taught us that only the Love is Real.

You can view a video tribute to my mother by clicking here, or on her name above.

Enlightenment

2011-02-25T10:14:00.001-06:00

"There are those who have reached God directly, retaining no trace of worldly limits and remembering their own Identity perfectly. These might be called the Teachers of teachers because, although they are no longer visible, their image can yet be called upon. No one can call upon them in vain." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 26. 2:1-2, 5

"Sometimes a teacher of God may have a brief experience of direct union with God. In this world, it is almost impossible that this endure. If God were reached directly in sustained awareness, the body would not be long maintained. Those who have laid the body down merely to extend their helpfulness to those remaining behind are few indeed. And they need helpers who are still in bondage and still asleep, so that by their awakening can God's Voice be heard." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 26. 3:1-2, 8-10

Yesterday a friend and I were talking about enlightenment... about the tendency to look for teachers, gurus, for someone who gets it and knows more than we do. Maybe even someone whose state of consciousness can be directly transmitted to us, like taking a pill, or being given all the answers.

I remember in the late 60's and early 70's when I was reading Alan Watts and experimenting with hallucinogens to experience God. I had some amazing openings, and it did indeed change my life. I experienced enlightenment more times than I can say. And yet it seemed that I couldn't stay there. Taking a pill can give us a glimpse. Being in the presence of an enlightened teacher can give us a glimpse. But it's not a glimpse of something we have to attain or somewhere we have to go. It's a glimpse of our True Self... always here and always readily available.

So why do I say I couldn't stay there? Why after we leave the retreat do we fall back into old ways of seeing and believing? Because an awareness of Self requires the conscious relinquishment of perception and sensory data. Taking a pill or being in a holy place can give us a glimpse of what is always here... but we can only see it by giving up the false. This is why the Course says that these glimpses are almost impossible to maintain here in the dream we call life. The sensory data and the collective beliefs are seen as necessary and even good (really, they're neither good nor bad... just all made up). The conscious choice, which must be continuous, to shed all such judgments and perceptions... well, as Jesus would have put it, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Not because it's hard... illusions aren't easy or hard, big or little... but because we have a vested interest in the world we walk in. It's our dream. As ACIM puts it: "I have done this, and this I would undo."

So here we are. We can call on the image of our enlightened Self, in the form of Jesus or Buddha or Quan Yin or a host of others. These images will always respond, because they are not anywhere but in us. They are the Voice and image of Self in a language we can currently hear and respond to. This is not the same as looking outside of ourself, to pills or physical gurus, to save us. The images of Self we find within, like the Voice of the Holy Spirit, ARE Self. A Self so vast and loving and perfect that tears of joy and gratitude are often shed as we remember, however briefly.

Finally, the Course reminds us: "Do not despair, then, because of limitations. It is your function to escape from them, but not to be without them. If you would be heard by those who suffer, you must speak their language. If you would be a savior, you must understand what needs to be escaped."

Enlightenment, the remembering of Self, requires the conscious shedding of the false self we have constructed. This is the interlocking chain of forgiveness that A Course in Miracles calls the Atonement Principle. Perfection and Radiance is the Truth at the heart of it all. Everything else is only for forgiving.

Take Joy in It!

2011-02-14T09:11:00.003-06:00

"There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day. It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace; a thought of timeless release, limitless because all things are freed within it." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 16, 6:1-2

What brings you joy? Nothing and no one. Joy is a state of being, not linked to any form or referenced to anything. Nothing brings us joy... we take joy with us wherever we go. Taking joy in someone or something simply reminds us that Infinite Mind, Our True Self, is the Source and Substance of that Joy.

The freedom this brings us is limitless. We're here to take joy in it! Whatever it is! We are the radiating center of the Presence of God... and Joy and Love and endless Bliss are ours to give, to share, to BE.

It amazes me how many of us think our life needs to adhere to certain guidelines for safety, for comfort, for practicality. How much joy do we deny ourselves and others by setting limits on the Son of God? Not that Joy isn't still present... but what we deny in ourselves, we deny in awareness and experience. As ACIM puts it, "You can't HAVE what you're not willing to BE." Having and Being are one and the same... it's all the One Infinite Mind in infinite manifestation. Being is the reality... the apparent forms it takes in projection, as our world... the forms and possibilities are infinite. We don't have to play it safe. We can realize that when something appears in our lives that symbolizes joy, it's a shining symbol of Who We Are.

This Valentine's Day, please don't turn away from the Joy that is your Self. Let it flood your heart and mind and thus your life. Take Joy in it!

The Awareness of Being One

2011-02-09T11:58:00.000-06:00

"All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation." -- Mary Baker Eddy

"Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, 1:5-6

I love the way Life continually presents us with opportunities to see Truth everywhere. Truth being, of course, simply another name for Oneness. Discovering that Good is the Reality of this Oneness, no matter how it appears, is so flipping exciting I have a hard time writing about it coherently. After all, we've all heard this a million times: "It's all good," we say hopefully... all the while noticing how not good it appears to be.

The above quote from ACIM helps... there is nothing outside Oneness, and nothing else within. How could there be? So with only the One, there is only, well... the One! All Good, only Good... in Principle and in manifestation.

The thing is, this all sounds good, but I see riots in Egypt and people going hungry and pets being mistreated, etc., etc., etc. I see my bills mounting and donations falling short. I see people judging one another and arguing over things that don't matter. So how does Oneness even matter, in Principle or in manifestation?

Again, A Course in Miracles helps to discern the false from the True: "Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind reflected outward." (ACIM Workbook 304, 1:3-4) Obviously, when the mind is unaware of Oneness, it projects duality in person, place, and thing. The awareness of Oneness is the Principle that reflects the wholeness and perfection that is Reality. The awareness of Oneness reflects the All-Good in all ways.

I have experienced, and continue to experience, many miracles of healed perception. Always what occurs is that I have, at least momentarily, accepted the One Mind as All. This is the healing... and the healed mind reflects wholeness, abundance, and endless Good in all possible forms. As I mature spiritually, it becomes more and more comforting to rest in the awareness of Being One, which is the miracle for everyone and everything, in every situation. There is nothing else. The seemingly hidden Presence of Good awaits only our recognition.

"In all thy ways acknowledge Him [Biblical speak for the One] and He shall direct thy paths." -- Proverbs 3:6

Self to Self

2011-02-05T14:27:00.002-06:00

Wow, it's been nearly a month since I posted last. I have had many inspired thoughts, but no inspiration to write about it. This morning I read a great quote from Margaret Laird that expresses this perfectly: "There was a time I believed that I read or listened to others to find out what others thought. Now I know I read and listen to another's speaking to discover what I am [the I AM] thinking. We cannot expect to find Truth outside of our own awareness." This past month, I spent a lot of time looking inward, listening to the Voice of I Am, and inquiring deeper into the appearance of things. It's been fruitful, though challenging.

The challenge is the deeper recognition that duality in all its forms is only appearance, and that appearance is always and only my own conceptualization of what appears. Mary Baker Eddy said, "Can you see an enemy, except you first formulate this enemy and then look upon the object of your own conception?" Without those concepts, duality (subject and object consciousness) dissolves or resolves (words are inadequate here) into Truth, which is experienced as Oneness, a unity, a whole, with no opposites or contraries or negations.

This going deeper involves seeing that everything we perceive in the phenomenal world is a duality: I perceive goodness, but it is my concept of goodness, which is based on the opposite of what I perceive as badness. I perceive supply, or income, but it is my concept of income, based on the opposite of what I conceive as lack or poverty. I perceive kindness, but it is my concept of kindness, based on what I conceive of as unkind or hateful or spiteful. I'm really just wandering around in a world of concepts, rather than experiencing Goodness, Supply, or Kindness (Love), which are a unity without opposite because they are All-Inclusive. We can't conceive of Oneness. But we can become Aware of It, since It is the Truth of everyone and everything.

A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "When you decide upon the form of what you want, you lose the understanding of its purpose. Wholeness has no form because it is unlimited." In duality thinking (which is all thinking), what we lose is the Awareness of Wholeness. And as we gradually glimpse the deeper meaning of the oft-misunderstood Biblical statement: "Take no thought," we become explorers of this dawning Awareness, which includes everything but is not defined by any of it. It heals and blesses, but not for any reason we could give conceptually. It simply IS the Reality of All.

How do you write about this? How do you speak of It? Which is why I haven't been inspired to write much over the past month. And then I read Margaret Laird this morning, as she explained that the only reason anyone writes is to know their own mind. So I'm writing this morning, to clarify for myself this deepening Awareness of Self.

To paraphrase Margaret Laird again, the individual living Self-consciously as Mind (Unconditioned Awareness, Oneness... concepts fail here) evolves an apparent ego-image never afraid for itself, never taking thought for itself as 'I', as well as a physical body that is self-restoring as long as it is apparently needed. The ego-image which evolves from this Awareness (that the only 'I' is the Mind of Unconditioned Awareness, our very Self) never reacts to concepts and situations, but always acts with intelligence. It has no power to save itself, fix itself up, or transcend itself. The Mind (the Unconditioned Awareness of 'I' that is Self) is its existence and its power for constant newness and freshness. In this Light everything takes on the loveliness of perfection, beyond all concepts.

Of course, all of this exercise in giving voice to the unspeakable is just a smokescreen... the inclusive Reality is that only the 'I' is writing and reading this, and only the 'I' knows its Self. There's only One.

"The world can teach no images of you unless you want to learn them. There will come a time when images have all gone by... It is to this unsealed and open mind that Truth returns, unhindered and unbound. Where concepts of the self have been laid by is Truth revealed exactly as it is." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section V, 17:1-4

Meaning and Emptiness

2011-01-09T08:12:00.000-06:00

Good Sunday morning to you... or whenever you happen to be reading this post. I know those of you who subscribe via e-mail often receive it the next day. The good news is that it's all good. Which brings us to the topic that inspired this post... meaning and emptiness.

A Course in Miracles tells us that there is nothing the world fears more than meaninglessness. We fear emptiness so much that we make up stories and meanings to fill every perceived space. The first few lessons in the ACIM Workbook begin to help us understand how this compulsion works. "Nothing I see or think means anything. I've given it all the meaning it has." But first, let's look at the supposed emptiness we fear.

In eastern spiritual traditions, from Buddhism to Taoism to Sufism and Hinduism, emptiness is equated with divinity. In Hawaiian ho'oponono, zero is equated with the divine. From a scientific standpoint, when I was in high school they taught that outer space was a vacuum, and that a vacuum tube was one where every bit of air was sucked out of it... so that of course meant that outer space was a void, with nothing alive in it. Ha! Now we know that there is a Field, often called Einstein's Field, of scalar energy that is the real content of every bit of space and everything else. The thing is, scalar energy can't be measured because it doesn't do anything. It's also called still point or standing wave energy. It is the apparent source of everything, the Field out of which all that is arises, but it's a... well, it's a zero.

You can also understand scalar energy from the concept of phase cancellation, an acoustical principle which simply says that two sound waves that are polar opposites cancel each other out when played simultaneously... in other words, both sounds are playing, but nothing is heard. They are reportedly using this principle to address noise pollution in the Japanese subway system. Scalar energy then is a more all-embracing understanding of this principle. Everything in the supposedly 'material' world is energy, or appears to be... and so every energy has a frequency and can be measured. And every measurable frequency has a polar opposite frequency. When these two opposites are brought together, the result is zero, stillpoint, or what they call a standing wave. My understanding of what is really happening is that when opposites are brought together, Reality is briefly glimpsed... the Reality of Spirit behind everything that seems to exist.

Why do we so fear the Truth that everything is really Spirit... not just spiritual, but literally Spirit? Because we think that makes the material world we continually project meaningless, or evil, or wrong? It doesn't... it just means we're making believe.  Or is it because, like little children, we don't want our playtime interrupted? I've learned to notice carefully the perceptual temper tantrums I seem to experience. They clue me in on what aspect of my own dream I'm using to hide from Reality.

A Course in Miracles tells it like it is: "It is difficult for the untrained mind to believe that what it seems to picture is not there. This idea can be quite disturbing and may meet with active resistance in any number of forms. Yet that does not preclude applying it. No more than that is required for these or any other exercises. Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 9, 2:1-5) The debris is always and only our own stories, beliefs, and meanings. There is nothing else 'darkening' our minds.

One of my grandsons, Tripp Michael, is now three years old. It's nearly impossible to keep his room clean, because as soon as you put all his leggos, cars and trucks away, he compulsively empties them all out onto the floor again. He wants them where he can see them, play with them or not, and manipulate them as he sees fit. More likely than not, he simply ignores them then... but he wants them when he wants them. I love this, because it's such a mirror for what I do, what we all do mentally, and why true forgiveness is so challenging for us.

We empty our minds temporarily when we meditate, but we really are just compartmentalizing, like stuffing those leggos in a corner until we want them. We may go through the motions of giving our perceptions to Holy Spirit to be corrected, but we really just hope for spiritual brownie points as we cling to our ideas about what seems to be going on. We really are like small children with our own perceptions. We cling to them as if they were who we are.   They are not.

I began this post by pointing out that it's all good. I should clarify. I use goodness not in the sense of a judgment, good or not good.  Good is a synonym for God. It's all God. It's all Spirit. There is nothing else. The world as we imagine it is actually nothing at all. And this is what we fear most.

But fear not, for I bring you Good News, tidings of Great Joy (also a synonym for God). Your imagined sins and your imagined brownie points are all forgiven you (they never happened)... and behind every perception, every meaning, every belief lies the immeasurable Reality, the all-embracing Love that lives us, forever. Our Reality is safe in this supposed emptiness. So don't try to fill the emptiness with new or different stories, or seek for meaning in them. Rest in the Silent Expansiveness of your True Self. And then let Self lead your life, and give a new meaning to all that seemed to be.

I'm closing this post with a quote from the biblical book of Revelation... not only because it is an often misunderstood quote, but because ACIM defines revelation as the actual experience of God, which is beyond words or meaning. And so it is.

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said unto me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful." -- The Bible; Revelation 21:4-5

A Real Commitment

2011-01-01T13:06:00.005-06:00

For those of you who really want to remember Self, the Christ... for those of you who really want to be a blessing and a healing presence... I urge you to make a very simple but real commitment this year. A Course in Miracles is a tool that can help keep you sane, and can return you to sanity when you forget. But like any tool, you have to pick it up and actually use it for it to be useful.

"The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Intro

"The workbook is divided into two main sections, the first dealing with the undoing of the way you see now, and the second with the acquisition of true perception." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Intro

Simple, logical... in order to put clean sheets on the bed, I first have to take off the dirty sheets. I have to clear my mind first, before I can reveal the True Thoughts that are always available. ACIM calls this process forgiveness, and in the early lessons of the Workbook it prepares us for what true forgiveness is. It leads us always to begin taking 100% responsibility for our thoughts and perceptions and the meanings we ascribe to them. It also leads us to remembering that we made all of it up (thank God!). And so, we make the only change that leads to real change... we change our minds about Who We Are and Who our brothers are.

This year, I urge you to make a real commitment to doing the lessons in the Workbook and actually applying them to everyone and everything. Why put off what will bring you real and lasting joy and peace? And if you need support in this, you can always contact me.

Sending all of you so much love, joy, peace, and abundance... Happy New Year!

Mary Alberici

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T06:56:00.000-06:00

"You Who remember what I really am, remember what I really want. And all I want is what You offer me, in just the form You choose that it be mine. Let me not forget, my self is nothing, but my Self is all." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 358, 1:1, 4, 7

As I sit waiting for the dawn on Christmas morning, I'm filled with gratitude for the Self we share, the Christ-Self that is born again and again as each holy mind awakens it ItSelf. And I know that no story of Santa Clause, however sweet and wonderful, can compare to the miracles we experience through remembering our Christ-Self.

Our way is lit by miracles... the healed perceptions that lift us to remembrance. And each holy instant becomes sacred, regardless of form or appearance. "All I want is what You offer me, in just the form You choose that it be mine." Yes! Such freedom and grace in this effortless and radical reliance on what is True. "Let me not forget, my self is nothing, but my Self is all."

May the merriest of joy-filled moments be yours on this Christmas morning, as we remember Who We really Are.

"The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 15, Section XI, 2:1-2

The Victim of Myself

2010-12-20T21:49:00.001-06:00

"Suffering is an emphasis upon all that the world has done to injure you... a dream of punishment in which the dreamer is unconscious... he sees himself attacked unjustly and by something not himself. And he cannot escape because its source is seen outside himself." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 27, Section VII, 1:1, 3, 7

"Now you are being shown you can escape. All that is needed is you look upon the problem as it is, and not the way that you have set it up." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 27, Section VII, 2:1-2

I've had a lot of opportunities lately to remember that there are no victims: "I am not the victim of the world I see." (ACIM Workbook 31). But I would make one addendum... we are ALL victims of ourselves. We are victims of our own distorted thoughts and emotions, which are projected over and over as a cast of thousands. I am only the victim of myself.

And who exactly is this self? It must be that this self is false, if it can project a story of a world that shifts and changes and suffers. If I can watch my thoughts, then my thoughts must be separate from me. If I can watch and be aware of emotions, then emotions are not me. If I can be aware of and notice feelings in a body, then that must not be me, either. Who is this Self who monitors and witnesses all these things? The Self that witnesses is beyond the ephemeral thought-forms of body, thought, or emotion. The Self that witnesses is eternal and perfect and innocent and whole... free of all limitation or judgement of any kind. It's only when I falsely identify thoughts, emotions, or physicality as my self that I become a victim... projecting a world that is as painful as it is occasionally beautiful... a world disturbingly like a grade B movie... a world that has a seeming beginning and end and that seems to happen TO me, when all along I am the dreamer of this dream.

"The body is the central figure in the dreaming of the world. There is no dream without it, nor does it exist without the dream in which it acts as if it were a separate person to be seen and be believed." (ACIM; Chapter 27, Section VIII, 1:1-2) As long as I identify with a particular body, with particular thoughts, emotions, and serial adventures with other bodies, then I am victimizing myself (and that self is thankfully false... not true). When the identification finally shifts to the larger Self, it is easily seen that none of it was ever true... and that I was only the victim of myself.

It's helpful to me to picture the true Self as the Ground of Being, like a White Board on which all the falsely identified thoughts, emotions, and stories seem to be written. The more stories and dreams we write on the White Board, the harder it is to see that it's even there. But as we practice forgiveness, forgiving and releasing every false identification and judgment and story (good or bad), we're erasing the White Board... and in seemingly miraculous ways we begin to remember Who We Are. The miracle is this return to sanity, as we begin to reflect a kinder, more loving world and become a source of healing for all.

This White Board of Self, the unconditioned and eternal Self, is always pristine and perfect, always innocent and free, always loving and giving without thought or limitation. It's natural and it's our true Home. What's un-natural is this playing at being the victim of myself.

"The secret of salvation is but this: that you are doing this unto yourself. No matter what the form of the attack, this still is true. Whoever takes the role of enemy or of attacker, still is this the truth. Whatever seems to be the cause of any pain and suffering you feel, this is still true. For you would not react at all to figures in a dream you knew that you were dreaming. This single lesson will set you free from suffering whatever form it takes. The Holy Spirit will repeat this one inclusive lesson of deliverance until it has been learned, regardless of the form of suffering that brings you pain. The form affects His answer not at all, for He would teach you but the single cause of all of them, no matter what their form. And you will understand that miracles reflect this simple statement: "I have done this thing, and this I would undo." Salvation is a secret you have kept but from yourself. How differently will you perceive the world when this is recognized! When you forgive the world your guilt, you will be free of it. This is the only secret yet to learn." -- ACIM Chapter 27, Section VIII, paragraphs 10-13.

Waiting for God

2010-12-14T08:42:00.000-06:00

"I have no cause for anger or fear, for You surround me. And in every need that I perceive, Your Grace suffices me." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 348

We're conditioned from an early age to listen to our parents, our teachers, our friends, our church... in other words, we look to the outer world for information, direction, and validation. Learning to listen within and wait for God's appointments and direction seems counter intuitive, and even crazy. Interesting defense, isn't it? The ego (the fictional aggregate of mental constructs we call a self, imagining we're separate from God and each other) is the very definition of insanity... a delusional defense against the whole. So it calls what is true, false, and insists that the unreal has substance and validity. That's how projection works. It's also the justification for fear and anger and all the insanity the ego insists is real.

Only take a moment to consider rationally... God, the very Ground of Being, is everywhere... pure and eternal Life and Love without form or condition. We live and move and have our Being in God. So how could we look anywhere other than God for what is essential and true? How could we look anywhere other than God for Who We Are? There is nowhere else. There's nothing out there but projected ideas based on a mistake... the mistake that somehow walling ourselves off from the whole will give us what we want and keep us safe. And when has that ever been the truth? Safe from what? What else is there but God, the All in All?

Waiting for God doesn't involve the future... it involves a present willingness to be still, to listen each holy instant in unceasing mindfulness. This doesn't involve effort or struggle or even a technique or practice. Once the willingness is given by the mind, the beauty of our true Self takes over. Stillness, one-pointedness, awakened awareness, pure joy and unshakable peace... these are all attributes we find to be our own, as natural as breathing. More so.

Waiting for God means we're willing to release the false and embrace the True. And we at last remember the Grace that enfolds and surrounds us and suffices us in all things.

My Only Need

2010-12-05T08:35:00.000-06:00

"God has already done all things that need to be done. And I must learn I need do nothing of myself, for I need but accept my Self." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 337, 1:5-6

There has long been a virtual cult in self-help circles, a cult of the virtues of self-esteem. And it's true that we can build our ego up and feel better about ourselves attitudinally. But it's not real self love. The love of an illusion of self can only give us the illusion of love, an illusion that comes and goes. It's the same with loving (or hating) another person... loving (or hating) the illusion we've projected can only breed more illusion.

There is only one way to know the Truth... we have to release what isn't true, and see what is always here, always effortlessly present. Like the huge dome of the sky, God is what is always here, regardless of the thought clouds and projections that come and go. To accept that my real Self is One with God and all that Is... and that God is the Source and I am One with Source... and that creation is seamless, whole, and complete, no lack or limitation possible in all of God's Being... this acceptance allows me finally to simply BE. I need do nothing.

In this lies freedom... because it also means that I am free to do whatever arises through the spontaneous inspiration that emanates from our One Being. I am not obligated or coerced or in bondage to anyone or anything. I co-create with all of Self in joy and love. Like the sun shines, we ARE. My only need, and yours, is to accept this and live it.

Talking to Myself

2010-11-29T16:05:00.002-06:00

"No two people have ever met." -- Byron Katie

"Conflict is sleep, and Peace awakening." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 331, 1:8

I have to remind myself frequently that I am always talking to myself. We all are. As we move through our day, we are observing and interacting with our own projections. "Perception is a mirror, not a fact." (ACIM) This is why the world we see seems so confrontational and full of differences and conflict. It's the continual out-picturing of our own divided mind, our own judgments and beliefs. I'm always and only talking to myself.

In all personal and professional relationships, it's especially important to see this. Two people are talking about the same topic, but neither one is hearing the other. Both come to the table with myriad assumptions... both think they are talking to someone else, but they are only talking to themselves. A Course in Miracles calls this phenomenon 'level confusion.'

The easiest way to understand this is to consider that at the level of conflict, there are always what seem to be real differences and problems. It's the nature of the dream of separation from God that we 'project' this illusory separation onto the screen of the mind and experience it as many and different. But as the mind is healed, as we experientially remember God and our true Self as One, we discover that it was all imagined. There were no real differences at the level of Reality... no real problems. Like a child who awakens from a nightmare, we discover that we have been safe at Home all along. We have all been safely One in God, and remain so eternally.

Einstein wisely said that you can never solve a problem at the level you're seeing it. If you're seeing it, you're projecting it. The practice of forgiveness, of giving up our judgments and assumptions and yielding to the ever-present Truth of Being, allows us to ascend to a level closer to Reality, where there are no differences or conflicts in sight. There's only One of us. So I am still always and only talking to myself... but in Reality, I am talking to my Self.

"Forgiveness is the light [that] shines away all conflict and all doubt. No light but this can end our evil dream. For this alone will never fail in anything." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 333, 2:1-2, 4

Awake in the Dark

2010-11-27T07:26:00.001-06:00

"There is nothing you can hold against reality. All that must be forgiven are the illusions you have held against your brothers. Their reality has no past, and only illusions can be forgiven. God holds nothing against anyone, for He is incapable of illusions of any kind. Release your brothers from the slavery of their illusions by forgiving them for the illusions you perceive in them. Thus will you learn that you have been forgiven, for it is you who offered them illusions." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section VII, 9:1-6

I lay in bed in the dark, in the wee hours, unable to sleep. Thought upon thought weaves through my awareness, everything murky and uncomfortable. Nothing awful, mind you... simply the haziness of illusion, weaving itself in a downward spiral into stories and projections of judgment and separation. None of it true. How do I know that none of it is true? Because it is restless, murky, and unclear. There is no peace. When a thought arises that is in alignment with the Reality of God, there is an immediate lightening in consciousness. And that thought leads to another, and then another, on an upward spiral back to peace.

Remembering that all my judgments are nonsense helps a lot. "Forgive your brothers from the slavery of their illusions by forgiving them for the illusions you perceive in them." Yes, I'm the perceiver... whenever I see a problem, I'm always the one naming it and weaving a story about it in my mind. So I'm the only one who can forgive it. "Thus you will learn that you have been forgiven." Yes, all the judgments about me were in my mind, too. They are all my stories.

Everything is mind... mind asleep, or Mind Awake. Mind asleep is not really doing anything or creating anything... simply dreaming, even when it seems to be awake. Our One Mind Awake is the Source of All that is Real. It is the Mind of God, and it is my real mind. And yours. And everyone's. In Reality, there's only One of Us.

The One Awakened Mind, the Mind that created us and lives us, is joyous and free and at peace. It has always been. "The sleep of forgetfulness is only the unwillingness to remember." (ACIM; Chapter 16, Section VII, 12:4)

Why do we seem to prefer our dream stories and problems? Why do we worship them with our time and attention, when only a little sigh of release will return us to sanity and peaces? Forgiveness offers this and so much more. "Remember that you always choose between Truth and illusions." Minute by minute we get to choose. So every holy instant is a new beginning. Awake in the dark, I remember.

"Seek and find His message in the holy instant, where all illusions are forgiven. From here the miracle extends to bless everyone and to resolve all problems, be they perceived as great or small, possible or impossible. There is nothing that will not give place to Him and to His Majesty. The Truth lies here and nowhere else. You choose this or nothing." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section VII, 11:1-3, 6-7

A Thought of Pure Joy

2010-11-19T07:36:00.001-06:00

"There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day. It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace, a thought of timeless release, limitless because all things are freed within it." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers, 16, 6:1-2

"... When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." -- The Bible; Job 38:7

I don't really have a lot to say this morning. I am simply inspired to write about joy. I woke up with all the usual stuff in front of me... animals that need care, bills that need paying, people that need my time and attention, and the illusion of not enough time or resources. But I turned my attention to God as soon as I awoke... I always begin the day remembering that there is One Mind, One Self, and that is God. I am an expression of this One Mind, inseparable and with all the qualities of this One Self, as is every other son of God. This little exercise in remembering puts the day in the service of this One Self. The details and forms don't matter... Who I share the day with matters absolutely.

This morning, after my usual remembering, I was simply overcome with joy... and the verse from Job, one of my favorites, came into my mind. Joy is so effortless and natural... joy that has no reference, no external reason for being. It simply IS. Regardless of what appears, we are literally living and moving and having our being IN and AS an ocean of joy.

But don't take my word for it. Try letting go of your fears and defenses for even a nano-second, and you will be instantly immersed in the Love and Joy that lives us. This thought of pure joy is our birthright.

"Truth returns to us in wholeness and in joy. We are deceived no longer. Love has now returned to our awareness. And we are at peace again, for fear has gone and only love remains." --A Course in Miracles; Workbook 323, 2:1-4