Through A Mirror, Brightly

Vision of a Ho-Chunk Healer

2012-05-14T15:12:00.002-05:00

It is inevitable that this Ho-Chunk medicine man, this healer, is finally sitting here on this riverbank by the still waters listening to the Big Voice. Ho-Chunk means “People of the Big Voice,” or “People of the Sacred Language.” Simply adorned in the garb of his people, an eagle feather secured in his otter skin headband, his long gray-white hair in a single braid falling over his right shoulder, clothed in a soft shirt, he is peacefully smoking his pipe, experiencing the peace of God.

    It is inevitable that it comes to this because, finally, there is only the Great Voice speaking to us. That is the only thing that is real. It was there at the beginning, present during the long descent through time, and is speaking to us here and now. This peaceful healer demonstrates that it is possible to use time, even the great length of time represented by the sandstone cliffs carved by glacier-fed streams, to discover the Great Voice speaking to us right now all through the day. Even through the great Diaspora of his people, meaning their breaking up and scattering, it is possible to use time to discover the presence of the Great Voice, closer than the sound of a heartbeat.

    This healer is silhouetted by the sandstone cliffs formed millions of years ago during a period of glacial melting that took place not far from here, an area now known as Portage. Trillions of gallons of water trapped behind a huge ice dam forced its collapse and plummeted through this region, carving out these magnificent cliffs.

    Subsequently, for thousands of years the Ho-Chunks naturally gathered here to live near these healing waters. They enjoyed abundant hunting, gathering and farming. Then, starting in the early 1800’s, the great Diaspora began as the U. S. Government forced them to relocate in Iowa, then Minnesota, then along the Mississippi, then to South Dakota. Throughout eleven removals the Ho-Chunks continued to return to Wisconsin. Finally, when it was apparent that the Nation was determined to be in Wisconsin, they were able to purchase 40-acre homestead lots and farm and assimilate. Their longing to return home made their return certain, just as our longing to return Home to God makes the outcome certain.

    And now we return to the peaceful healer sitting on the riverbank, representing the inevitability of the Great Voice speaking to us all through the day no matter what appears to be going on in time. This inevitability is expressed differently in different traditions, and the healer, listening to David’s 23rd Psalm would nod and smile in complete recognition of the Sacred Voice. The medicine man in the green pastures of his quiet mind is sitting by the still waters.

    He would also smile in recognition, hearing Jesus say these words in His unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles.

Let us come daily to this holy place, and spend a while together. Here we share our final dream. It is a dream in which there is no sorrow, for it holds a hint of all the glory given us by God. The grass is pushing through the soil, the trees are budding now, and birds have come to live within their branches. Earth is being born again in new perspective. Night has gone, and we have come together in the light.

The darkness of the great Diaspora is gone, and we have come together in the light, listening to the Voice for God. Experiencing the light, his mind is healed, and what he sees outside is a reflection of the light within. His peacefulness comes from knowing that he is always only looking into a mirror. What he sees is mirroring his peaceful mind, and that is rendered in the painting so beautifully by the thirteen flowers pushing through the soil by the still waters, framed by the sandstone cliffs and trees and blue sky and white clouds.

    Arty Senger painted this panorama from the same quiet place, hearing the still, small Voice for God, just like the healer. She conceived of this painting from the same quiet place the healer is experiencing because their minds are joined in the Oneness of God’s mind, listening to the Voice of the Holy Spirit. The painting is a pictorial demonstration that what is seen outside is a manifestation of what is within. When we look at the painting we are looking into the mirror of her mind. It is her gift to be able to illustrate, particularly, the images in her mind as these thirteen flowers:

Harebell, Common Blue Violet, Hoary Puccoon, Pink Lady’s Slipper, Giant Blue Hyssop, Blue Flag Iris, Wild Geranium, Columbine, Canada Anemone, Whorled Milkweed, Large-Flowered Trillium, Black-Eyed Susan, and Common Dandelion. During her long painting career, it has always been her gift and her joy to paint flowers.

    And then we have the magnificent ivory-billed woodpecker. News of his sighting broke while she was painting this mural. It is perfect that he is now in the painting because it is such a testament to God’s Love that this bird, not having been spotted for over 60 years and assumed extinct, should appear again now. It has a 30-inch wingspan and a jackhammer beak. Audubon called it the “great chieftain of the woodpecker tribe,” and others called it the “Lord God bird” because when people saw it, they said, “Lord God!”

    As we gaze into Arty’s painting we are given the opportunity to still our minds and come to hear the Great Voice telling us that Truth is true and nothing else is true.

    It is inevitable that this painting is being displayed, for a moment, in this Chapel in the Wisconsin Dells, resting on this hillside, overlooking the splendid sandstone cliffs and the healing waters, now opens the doors of the RiverView Room to offer a peaceful place to still your mind and see the reflection of God’s Love.

    And now, it is most appropriate to stop and listen to Jesus speaking to us His Course in Miracles, two passages from Lesson 125, In quiet I receive God’s word today.

Let this day be a day of stillness and of quiet listening. Your Father wills you hear His Word today. He calls to you from deep within your mind where He abides. Hear Him today. No peace is possible until His Word is heard around the world; until your mind, in quiet listening, accepts the message that the world must hear to usher in the quiet time of peace.

Today He speaks to you. His Voice awaits your silence, for His Word can not be heard until your mind is quiet for a while, and meaningless desires have been stilled. Await His Word in quiet. There is peace within you to be called upon today, to help make ready your most holy mind to hear the Voice for its Creator speak.

Thank you, Father.

Making Explicit the True Meaning of Forgiveness

2012-05-01T10:35:00.001-05:00

Two, or three, years ago, I set up a Facebook account, but I never really did much with it, until Sunday 8 April, Easter Sunday, auspiciously, when it occurred to me that I could post a Status statement on Facebook, daily. This would enable me to express myself regarding the meaning of forgiveness, and spread the word about the incredible event coming up in the fall, International Forgiveness Week and Weekend of Perfect Peace, September 14-23, 2012, at the Healing Center of Endeavor Academy, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.

It was clear to me that each day I could make explicit the meaning of forgiveness in a pithy statement, and at the same time, encourage readers to send in their statements expressing their forgiveness experiences.

We will collect these statements and make them available during the Event, as well as possibly publish them in a book.

It was also clear to me that on the first of each month, I would post a blog containing the statements from the preceding month.

These are the postings from Monday 9 April through Monday 30 April, 2012.

4/9
You cannot forgive a person, place, or thing. You can forgive only a thought, based on your individual belief system that made the person, place, or thing in the first place.

Forgive what you have made and you are saved. Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you. Forgive all thoughts which would oppose the truth of your completion, unity and peace. ACIM, Lesson 99

4/10
In a body in time and space, I tend to make decisions between this and that, hot or cold, peace or conflict, good or bad.

When I choose one over the other in this duality, I am actually bargaining, although I find that when I choose the positive over the negative, I call it Forgiveness.

Bargaining is not Forgiveness. When I stand in a place in my mind, a state of mind of the peace of God, the body and time and space slip away and my dream is replaced by the experience of true Forgiveness, letting go of what never was, resting in God.

4/11
In A Course in Miracles, Jesus refers to often to “God’s plan.” This is not some plan, like World Peace; rather, God’s plan is for each of us to learn to forgive our worldly thoughts.

Salvation (Forgiveness) must reverse the mad belief in separate thoughts and separate bodies, which lead separate lives and go their separate ways. It is your function that you find it here, and that you find it now. Lesson 100

4/12
Obviously, our biggest obstacle to Forgiveness is our identification with our bodies and our thought/images projected from our tiny brains. Jesus tells us, repeatedly, in His Course in Miracles:
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

Garfield pretty much sums it up in this cartoon:

http://www.garfield.com/comics/vault.html?yr=2012&addr=120405

4/13
We grow up thinking that our eyes can see and our brains can think. As Jesus makes so clear in His Course in Miracles, this is ludicrous. We make the mistake of investing in this illusion.

And the words “ludicrous” and “illusion” come from the same Latin root, ludere, meaning to play a game. The dream is ludicrous because it’s absurd, and to invest in it is a misleading impression of reality. It’s a deadly game. We can learn to put our toys away.

Forgiveness means to give up the illusion, seeing through it with vision.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of seeing for the limits of the world. Arthur Schopenhauer.

4/14
I walk into a darkened movie theater, sit down, and face a blank screen. The projector comes on, and I enter into the drama of the images on the screen, forgetting where I am, following the images cavorting across the screen, entering fully into the story.

At the end, the lights come on, the credits roll, the screen goes blank. The projector goes off. I stand up and walk out. This is a moment analogous to Forgiveness, letting it all go.

Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. ACIM, T-21.Intro.

That change, that shift, is forgiveness.

4/15
In this world we are encouraged by advertisers to trade stamps for merchandise, to redeem pieces of paper for worldly treasures.

This is a helpful analogy for our redemption. We can redeem our attachment to ego thoughts, and in this act of Forgiveness is our redemption.

There will be great joy in Heaven on your homecoming, and the joy will be yours. For the redeemed son of man is the guiltless Son of God, and to recognize him is your redemption. ACIM.Chapter13.ll.9

4/16
Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to a Three-Peat, winning NBA Titles in ’91, ’92, and ’93. Then he abruptly retired to play professional baseball for two years. When he returned in ’95, he had a difficult time regaining his former top-level playing style, until, one day he said to himself, “I’m going to let the game come to me.” He then led the Bulls to another Three-Peat in ’96, ’97, and ’98.

A friend of mine expressed Jordan's insight this way: “I‘m going to participate fully, remembering that I need do nothing.” In other words, once I, my ego-personality, gets out of the way, I can be guided to do the next thing.

Getting out of the way is an act of forgiveness.

This is one way it is expressed in A Course in Miracles, I will step back and let Him lead the way. Title, Lesson 155.

4/17
In his poem, Revelation, Robert Frost (1874-1963) begins:

We make ourselves a place apart
Behind light words that tease and flout,

Our ego personality constructs, or makes, an identity, apart from the awareness of God’s presence, and we defend it with our meaningless thoughts.

In His Course in Miracles, Jesus expresses it this way:

You have built your whole insane belief system because you think you would be helpless in God’s Presence, and you would save yourself from His Love because you think it would crush you into nothingness. Chapter 13.Section 111.4

Frost finishes the first stanza with these two lines:

But oh, the agitated heart
Till someone find us really out.

And from the Course:

For He will heal every little thought you have kept to hurt you and cleanse it of its littleness, restoring it to the magnitude of God. 7

And when we allow this cleansing to occur, it is an act of forgiveness, and we experience our restoration, our resurrection.

4/18
We tend to believe that our eyes can see and our brains can think. This cherished belief imprisons us.

Samuel T. Coleridge (1777-1834) coined a wonderful phrase that describes being lifted out of this belief:

. . .a willing suspension of disbelief.

While we believe in the reality of the body’s eyes, we disbelieve in the Reality of God. For us, it is always either/or. Coleridge, the Romantic, trusted that poetry could free us, having the power to “awaken the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom.”

Our willingness to suspend our disbelief in God is an act of forgiveness.

4/19
We are such creatures of habit, always tending to believe in the world we project through our body’s eyes. This habit seems ordinary, customary, normal, automatic, "autonomic," natural, universal, and my favorite, taken for “granite,” whoops, taken for granted.

These habits prevent us from receiving God’s gifts of joy and peace, our natural inheritance.

They come to you from God, Who cannot fail to give you what He wills. Yet must there be a place made ready to receive His gifts. They are not welcomed gladly by a mind that has instead received the gifts it made where His belongs, as substitutes for them. ACIM, Lesson 104.1

Forgiveness is letting go of these substitutes, making ready a place in our minds to receive God’s gifts.

4/20
Since the ego always speaks first, we tend to judge a brother, automatically, seeing him as an “enemy.”

Recognizing this, Ho’oponopono, a great Hawaiian healer, practiced forgiveness, using these four simple statements, and these correspond perfectly with passages in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 105, God’s peace and joy are mine.

“I’m sorry.”

Think of your “enemies” a little while, and tell each one, as he occurs to you: My brother, peace and joy I offer you.

“Please forgive me.”

Thus you prepare yourself to recognize God’s gifts to you, and let your mind be free of all that would prevent success today.

“I love you.”

My brother, peace and joy I offer you, that I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.

“Thank you.”

Then bless your brother, thankfully.

In this manner, Ho’oponopono cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients--without ever seeing any of them. He simply studied an inmate's chart and engaged in this process, over and over.

4/21
A little film clip on forgiveness has gone “viral” on the internet. Shawne Duperon, a six-time Emmy Award Winner, produced this clip, featuring a man, Gary Weinstein, who lost his wife and two sons in an auto accident caused by a drunk driver. This clip shows, movingly, Gary’s True Forgiveness, echoing this passage from Lesson110, I am as God created me, in A Course in Miracles.

If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be substitute for life, or fear for love. All this has not occurred, if you remain as God created you. You need no thought but just this one, to let redemption come to light the world and free it from the past. 3

As Gary, remaining as God created him in his mind, experiencing his true Self, recognizes on the clip, he is truly “the boldest man on the planet.”

To view a trailer for the film and donate to Project Forgive, visit http://www.projectforgive.com.

4/22
In one of his early Lessons in His Course in Miracles, Jesus characterizes the ego’s voice as a raucous shriek. His intent in His Course is to slow us down, so that we can learn to reverse our thinking. The title of Lessons 201-220 is I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

. . .”still.” Hmmmm. Stop a moment. Does that mean, I continue to be as God crated me, or does it mean I am the “stillness” of God’s creation?

The answer is “yes,” and I stopped for a moment.

And in this recognition, all is forgiven.

4/23
Very often in His Course in Miracles, Jesus uses contrast to help us learn to reverse our thinking. For example, the body’s eyes see only their projections, darkness, while seeing with vision enables us to see our peaceful state of mind, light.

The light that makes true vision possible is not the light the body’s eyes behold. It is a state of mind that has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all. Lesson 108.2

And seeing with light is an act of forgiveness.

4/24
I woke up this morning, trying to remember a dream. It seemed that it was painful, but I just couldn’t find it. While reading Lesson 107, Truth will correct all errors in my mind, I came across this sentence:

And so errors disappear to nothingness, returning whence they came. From dust to dust they come and go, for only truth remains.

And I realized that not finding the dream provides me with a perfect analogy. The dream was to my waking up as my errors, my illusions, are to my awakening mind. . .for only truth remains.

This is an act of forgiveness.

4/25
Often, sitting quietly, thoughts will come to mind, and I know that I am being receptive to God’s Voice, the Holy spirit.

When I grab a notebook and write down these thoughts, I am amazed at the fluidity of receptivity finding expression.

If you will listen with an open mind, then you will hear the mighty voice of truth, quiet in power, strong in stillness, and completely certain in Its messages. Lesson 106.2

These messages are a result of forgiveness, making a place in my mind receptive to the Holy Spirit’s Voice.

4/26
The ego’s voice is very loud. In fact, Jesus in His Course in Miracles, uses the metaphor of thunder.

Listen and hear your Father speak to you through His appointed Voice, Which silences the thunder of the meaningless. Lesson 106.2

The noisy mind chatter is thunderous.

And Joel Goldsmith (1892-1964) wrote a book entitled, The Thunder of Silence (1961). In this case, thunder refers to the wonder of the silence.

The metaphor of thunder in both cases is apt when I remember that the word “astonish” comes from the Latin, tonare, meaning “to thunder.”

Silence is astonishing in reference to noise, and noise is astonishing in reference to silence, and in both cases, experiencing silence is an act of forgiveness.

4/27
At lunch today, I overheard this curious sentence: “If you are climbing a ladder and let go, you will spring into Heaven.”

What? It was only later that I got it when I realized it was an analogy, after all, literally, I saw myself crashing to the ground.

The ladder is analogous to our logical, step-by-step, conceptual mind that perpetuates our world made by our thought/images projected from a part of our mind that has no source in reality. So, when I let go of these thoughts, I do spring into Heaven, the only part of my mind that is real.

The transition into Divine sonship brings about that change from faith in the visible to faith in the Infinite Invisible, in that which can never be seen, hear, tasted, touched, smelled. Joel Goldsmith, The Thunder of Silence, p. 21.
Letting go of the ladder is forgiveness.

4/28
I am sitting here on my couch, early in the morning, reading Joel Goldsmith, and I marvel that I am experiencing the peace of God because of Grace. This passage inspired that thought:

Our spiritual adoption comes through a conscious activity within our own consciousness and at a time when we are prepared for that transition, because the transition from humanhood to spiritual sonship is made only by Grace. The Thunder of Silence, p. 19

By Grace, my wife, Christine, and I came across A Course in Miracles in the fall of 1985, and we crossed the threshold of Endeavor Academy on August 7, 1997.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That Saved a wretch like me./
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

By the grace of God, we learned to forgive.

4/29
When I sit down at the computer and place my hands on the keyboard, my index fingers, automatically, rest on the home row, largely because of the raised dots on the “f” key and the “j” key, and now the entire keyboards is available to me simply by touch.

This is a helpful reminder that we can sit down, take a breath, and go home, resting in the peace of God, and now all His bounty is available to me in my stillness.

I will be still an instant and go home. Title, Lesson 182.

In this moment of stillness, all is forgiven, all that never was.

4/30
In His Course in Miracles, not only does Jesus use impeccable prose to direct our personal transformation, he also writes sheer poetry. For example, here is a passage from Lesson 109, I rest in God. Please read it slowly, savoring the “s” sounds.

You rest today. And as you close your eyes, sink into stillness. Let these periods of rest and respite reassure your mind that all its frantic fantasies were but the dreams of fever that has passed away. 5

Here Jesus uses a poetic device called consonance, the repetition of consonant sounds. The medium is the message. We are being hushed to rest in God, reassured, shhhh, echoing the song,

Hush little baby, don’t your cry/Momma’s goin’ to sing you a lullaby.

In our resting is forgiveness.

Please write about your experience of forgiving thoughts in 600 words, or less, and Submit Your Essay, using this link:

http://www.forgivenessweek.org/writing.php

Striding Through the World with Light-hearted Unconcern

2012-04-03T11:48:00.011-05:00

I am amazed at how yesterday unfolded. I began the day reading Lesson 92 in A Course in Miracles, Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one. I love being reminded that we think we see with our eyes and think with our brains; as the Course says, we think we think. Duh.

Your ideas of what seeing means is tied in with the body and its eyes and the brain.
You also believe the body's brain can think. If you but understood the nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth; or that you held the world within your hand, securely bound until you let it go. Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body's eyes can see; the brain can think. W-p1.92. 1:3,5, 2

Later in the morning, I was leafing through a magazine, The Sun, and I came across this passage by Lewis Thomas(1913-1993 ), the biologist who wrote Lives of a Cell.

We are perhaps uniquely among the earth’s creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still.

His phrase, worrying animal reminded me of this wonderful poem by Denise Levertov (1923-1997), Come Into Animal Presence.

Come into animal presence.
No man is so guileless as
the serpent. The lonely white rabbit on the roof is a star
twitching its ears at the rain.
The llama intricately
folding its hind legs to be seated
not disdains but mildly
disregards human approval.
What joy when the insouciant
armadillo glances at us and doesn't
quicken his trotting
across the track into the palm brush.
What is this joy? That no animal
falters, but knows what it must do?
That the snake has no blemish,
That the rabbit inspects his strange surroundings
in white star-silence? The llama
rests in dignity, the armadillo
has some intention to pursue in the palm-forest.
Those who were sacred have remained so,
holiness does not dissolve, it is a presence
of bronze, only the sight that saw it
faltered and turned from it.
An old joy returns in holy presence.

In this poem, we are invited into animal presence, a state of mind unconcerned with our body’s eyes and brain, striding lightly through the world, as demonstrated by the armadillo, trotting along his way, insouciantly, meaning with light-hearted unconcern, echoing the French phrase, sans souci, without a care.

Seeing like an animal, coming into animal presence, is an excellent analogy for our capacity to let go of our small body self seeing dark shadows, and embracing our Self as we were created by God, seeing only Its light reflection as we walk through the world, and in this state of mind, we are insouciant.

The strength in you will offer you the light, and guide your seeing so you do not dwell on idle shadows that the body's eyes provide for self-deception. Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its Own. Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest in, for the peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet Itself again, and be as One. W-p1.92.9

Ancient Egyptians believed that when a person died, the gods immediately placed his or her heart in one pan of a set of scales. In the other pan was a feather. If there was imbalance, if the heart of the deceased weighed more than the feather, he or she was denied admittance to the after world. Only the lighthearted were deemed advanced enough to merit immortality.

We know, of course, that we are immortal beings, God's Creations, having never left Heaven; we only think we did; however, the analogy of a light heart weighing no more than a feather is a powerful image.

And most importantly, as my unfolding day demonstrates, when I am in this feathery state of mind, I am receptive, receptive to the Holy Spirit, God's Voice speaking to me all through the day. Lesson 49

An Upset Can be a Set Up for the Action of Forgiveness

2012-03-21T11:48:00.007-05:00

Yesterday morning, a person said something to me that made me so angry, so upset.

I was livid. Seething. Pissed off. Grievous. My buttons were pushed.

I wanted to take him out, and I don’t mean, join him in peace and go Home; I mean I had fantasies of kicking his ass.

For a moment, years of mind training went out the window.

And the day went on. I played it over in my mind. I focused on my breathing. I asked for help.

This morning, I woke up and with great gratitude read the perfect Lesson in A Course in Miracles for my recovery from my insanity, Lesson 78, Let miracles replace all grievances.

Perhaps it is not yet quite clear to you that each decision that you make is one between a grievance and a miracle. Each grievance stands like a dark shield of hate before the miracle it would conceal. And as you raise it up before your eyes, you will not see the miracle beyond. Yet all the while it waits for you in light, but you behold your grievances instead. W-p1.78.1

I began to breathe easier.

We will select one person you have used as target for your grievances, and lay the grievances aside and look at him. 4:4

You know the one to choose; his name has crossed your mind already. 5:1

That was easy.

And then, earnestly, I said to myself:

Let me behold my savior in this one You have appointed as the one for me to ask to lead me to the holy light in which he stands, that I may join with him. 7:3

Ah, yes, it is working, a dark cloud of bitterness is passing away.

The Holy Spirit leans from him to you, seeing no separation in God's Son. And what you see through Him will free you both. Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining savior. No dark grievances obscure the sight of him. 8:4-7

And it becomes increasingly clear to me that in every moment, I decide to be aware of either my conflicts or my peace. It is always my choice. Why would I allow “this” to replace the peace of God. “This” is of my own making, and I can choose to let it go.

Duh. Why would I ever choose not to be peaceful?

Now, I realize that not only does the Holy Spirit answer our prayers with just the right thought at just the right time, the Holy Spirit also sets up apparently “negative” situations that can provide an opportunity for forgiveness and growth.

You have allowed the Holy Spirit to express through him the role God gave Him that you might be saved. 8:8

This is how I experience this quotation from the Lesson:

As I earnestly asked for help and did the Lesson, I allowed the Holy Spirit to give “him” the perfect role, just as the Holy Spirit fulfilled the role given Him by God, so that I might be saved from my thoughts that have no source in Reality, and experience the peace of God.

This afternoon, I saw “him” at a distance, and I was amazed that I felt no twinge of a grievance. It was over. He is, indeed, my savior.

Me, My Self, and I: Learning to be in the Right Part of my Mind

2012-02-27T11:14:00.019-06:00

Little did I know, those many years ago, walking around the playground at my one-room schoolhouse, a little boy, chanting, “Me, my Self , and I,” that I was laying out the typography of my tripartite mind. It took me much too long to come to understand that I had spent a good part of my life knowing full well only one part of my mind, “Me,” the ego, thereby blocking my awareness of my “Self,” not realizing that “I,” the decision-maker, was automatically, habitually, in alliance with “Me,” rather than in union with my “Self.”

Thank God all that changed when I came across A Course in Miracles, and began to undergo the mind training so superbly set out by Jesus.

This all came to mind a few days ago when I did one of my favorite Lessons, God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. This Lesson, like all the Lessons and the Text, is a reminder for me to pay very close attention to pronoun references. For example, look at the beginning of the Lesson.

It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not.

There… whether you are aware of it or not. The pronoun reference for you is the mechanism of decision. Jesus is addressing “I,” the decision maker with the pronoun “you.”

This “You” is always deciding between allying with the “Me,” the ego, or uniting with the “Self,” I am one Self, united with my Creator. (Lesson 95, Title) Now I know that full well, but for far too long I did not realize that “I” had a choice.

The decision to unite must be unequivocal, or the mind itself is divided and not whole. Your mind is the means by which you determine your own condition, because mind is the mechanism of decision. It is the power by which you separate or join, and experience pain or joy accordingly. T-8-1V.5:5-8

And now, Dear Reader, look at how Jesus characterizes “Me,” my egotistic state of mind.

It is the other part of your mind that functions in the world and obeys the world's laws. It is this part that is constantly distracted, disorganized and highly uncertain.

By contrast, here is a description of my “Self.”

The part that is listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is.

The great value of looking very closely at the pronoun references is to slow down my mind, so that I am receptive to hear the Voice for God, speaking to me all through the day. And now, let us proceed slowly.

“Me,” the egoistic state of mind.

The other part is a wild illusion, frantic and distraught, but without reality of any kind.

In the following passage, “I,” the mechanism of decision, is referred to as “you,” the implied you, as Jesus uses the Imperative form of the verb, i.e., do this, do that.

Try today not to listen to it. Try to identify with the part of your mind where stillness and peace reign forever. Try to hear God's Voice call to you lovingly, reminding you that your Creator has not forgotten His Son.

Finally, in reference to pronouns, Jesus is with us, right here, right now, helping us to hear God’s Voice, using the pronoun “We.”

We will need at least four five-minute practice periods today, and more if possible. We will try actually to hear God's Voice reminding you of Him and of your Self. We will approach this happiest and holiest of thoughts with confidence, knowing that in doing so we are joining our will with the Will of God. He wants you to hear His Voice. He gave It to you to be heard.

Jesus is addressing our mechanism of decision, "I," holding our hands, leading us to God, lovingly directing us with the Imperative, the implied "You."

Listen in deep silence. Be very still and open your mind. Go past all the raucous shrieks and sick imaginings that cover your real thoughts and obscure your eternal link with God. Sink deep into the peace that waits for you beyond the frantic, riotous thoughts and sights and sounds of this insane world. You do not live here. We are trying to reach your real home. We are trying to reach the place where you are truly welcome. We are trying to reach God.

While these ideas were going through my mind in preparation for writing this essay, I came across this passage echoing these ideas from I AM THAT by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

The world you can perceive is a very small world indeed. And it is entirely private, Take it to be a dream and be done with it. Your world is mind-made, subjective, enclosed within the mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on the thread of memory.

I live in a world of realities, while yours is of imaginings. Your world is personal, private, unshareable, intimately your own. Nobody can enter it, see as you see, hear as you hear, feel your emotions and think your thoughts. In your world you are truly alone, enclosed in your ever-changing dream, which you take for life. My world is an open world, common to all, accessible to all. In my world there is community insight, love, real quality; the individual is the total, the totality—in the individual. All are one and the One is all. (Sri Maharaj, I AM THAT, The Acorn Press: Durham, North Carolina, 1973, p. 17)

I wrote this draft yesterday, and today I heard this song, It’s Only a Paper Moon, and took it as an inspiration to include it in this essay. Here is the first stanza.

It's only a paper moon
sailing over a cardboard sea,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.

Listening to this lyric, I automatically began to play with the pronoun references. What if believing in me referred to Jesus? In that moment “I” am uniting with my Self, the Christ within, and I am experiencing the peace of God. Now, when I look out at the world, I see a reflection of the peace of God, seeing through paper moons and cardboard seas, just as Sri Maharaj expresses it,

In my world there is community insight, love, real quality; the individual is the total, the totality—in the individual. All are one and the One is all.

And now let us continue reading the lyrics.

It's only a canvas sky
hanging over a muslin tree,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.

Without your love,
It's a honky-tonk parade.
Without your love,
It's a melody played in a penny arcade.

Without experiencing the love and peace of God, we see only our own projections, throwing out thought/images from "Me," not experiencing the reflection of our Self.

It's a Barnum and Bailey world,
Just as phony as it can be,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.

Without experiencing the love of God, we live in a circus.

The world I see holds my fearful self-image in place, and guarantees its continuance. While I see the world as I see it now, truth cannot enter my awareness. I would let the door behind this world be opened for me, that I may look past it to the world that reflects the Love of God.
W-p1. 53.4

And looking at this reflection is the meaning of forgiveness.

And now, I invite you to enjoy the song sung by Frank Sinatra.

Please click here.

Setting the Grounding Line is an Act of Forgiveness

2012-02-09T09:35:00.014-06:00

Since I am totally grounded in A Course in Miracles, I am always fascinated to come across writing that expresses the principles of the Course, using a different set of metaphors. Lately, I have been totally immersed the work of Jim Self. In his book, The Shift, he demonstrates how we are shifting from the third-dimension into the fourth and fifth dimensions.

The transformation that is occurring within us is shifting our thoughts and beliefs, and changing the ways in which we experience the world around us. Until now, most of us have measured ourselves by the outside world. Our beliefs about how we look, what is acceptable, what we think, and how we act have all been influenced and established by the third-dimensional world outside ourselves.

Our thoughts create our beliefs, our beliefs create our habits and our habits create our lives. Our beliefs then connect the thoughts that run through our experiences, forming our conclusions. However, many of the thoughts that we think and the beliefs that we hold are actually not our own thoughts or beliefs; they were given to us by mom, dad, teacher, minister and the third-dimensional reality outside of our-selves. It’s not that mom and dad or anyone else around us set out deliberately to mislead us; they were simply passing on what their parents and their parent’s parents (along with most of the rest of society) had taught them to accept as the “truth.” Jim Self, The Shift, (Mastering Alchemy, 2009), pp. 13-14.

In common parlance, "Your father was a liar from the beginning."

Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause. And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is meaningless. Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. Nothing perceived without it means anything. And where there is no meaning, there is chaos. T-In.21.1

Our mind, healed and holy, is our inner guidance system.

There are three main characteristics of the third dimension. The first is the Law of Attraction.

If you believe something is or you believe some-thing is not, the Law of Attraction will respond accordingly. If you amplify your thoughts or beliefs with a charge of emotion, the Law of Attraction will provide you with more of the same in a quicker, fuller manner. What you put your attention on with a charged emotion is what you will receive. Absolutely guaranteed.

The sick attraction of guilt must be recognised for what it is. For having been made real to you, it is essential to look at it clearly, and by withdrawing your investment in it, to learn to let it go. No one would choose to let go what he believes has value. T-15.Vll.3:1-3

The second characteristics is time.

Most of humanity has been taught and believes that time is fixed and linear - past, present, future, and then you die. Although this is the generally accepted belief, it is incorrect. In the third-dimension time operates as a loop. It consists of a flow of thoughts and experiences that we label positive or negative. Either we embrace these experiences and hope they happen again or we resist them and hope they do not. To keep it simple, we take our past experiences and project them into our future and then step into that experience in a future-present-time moment to feel it all over again in a different size, shape or color.

I see only the past. Lesson 7, Title.

And the third is duality.

As we began to experience third-dimensional consciousness, we added into duality the concepts of right and wrong, good and bad, and should and should not. We learned “us and them” and we learned to resist “them.” These concepts of judgment, separation, good and bad, right and wrong and should/should not created a rigid, unforgiving structure that does not allow for flexibility or choice. This third-dimensional belief system bound our thoughts and emotions, creating extreme beliefs in “never” and “always”; rigid thought forms with very little opportunity for change, ease or well-being. In this rigid belief system of heavy thought-form, fear and pain were anchored. (The Shift, pp. 18-22)

In His Course, Jesus begins His Lessons by helping us learn to undo these conditioned, habitual thought patterns. Just look at the titles of His first 7 Lessons.

1. Nothing I see means anything.

2. I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me.

3. I do not understand anything I see.

4. These thoughts do not mean anything.

5. I am never upset for the reason I think.

6. I am upset because I see something that is not there.

7. I see only the past.

Jesus teaches that the only way out of this habit of thinking is forgiveness.

Similarly, in their follow up book, Spirit Matters, Down to Earth Tools for a Spirited Life, Jim Self and Roxane Burnett, introduce 16 Energy Tools to facilitate this shift, this action of forgiveness, and the one I find most useful in experiencing forgiveness is the Grounding Line.

Grounding is not a thought; it is an action, a tool to dissipate noisy thoughts, anxiety and undesirable emotions that run through our bodies. From my perspective, this tool is the most valuable.

And Dear Reader, I urge you to practice it, now.

Energy Tool #1

Grounding Line

1. Recognize when your mind is being bombarded with uncomfortable thoughts. This may sound like an obvious first step, but most people do not pay attention to what is going in their heads and continue to be affected by the chatter. There is a one-to-one relationship between mind and body, balance and imbalance. When the mind is noisy or uncertain, the body is tight and anxious.

2. Find a quiet, undisturbed place to sit down for a few moments.

3. Breathe. A simple, deep breath will begin to effortlessly change direction of your thoughts. Your body will begin to quiet. Intrusive thoughts will begin to lose their grip on you.

4. Bring your attention to the lowest tip of your spine (your coccyx bone). Now is the time to pretend, imagine or make-believe as you did when you were a child. Imagine a line connecting the lower tip of your spine to the center of the earth (it’s not that far away). This
line could be a beam of light, a tree trunk, a chain, a rope or any image that you find amusing.

5. Strongly secure the Grounding Line at both ends. You may visualize welding it, stapling it, tying it or any other method of attaching.

6. Now be aware of your feet on the ground. Create a sensation that your feet are cemented to the earth. Feel connected to the earth through your feet and the Grounding Line. Take a couple of breaths. Notice if you have a sense of feeling solid, or taller, or more certain about yourself. Notice if your awareness has become more defined.

7. Pretend to widen your Grounding Line to a diameter of six to nine inches. You are creating a pathway through which the noise will soon be leaving.

8. Give the instruction to this Grounding Line to become magnetic. You also might pretend there is a switch or handle near the lower tip of your spine that when flipped, will activate the line. When activated, the Grounding Line will automatically begin to magnetically attract the unpleasant thoughts, physical sensations and emotions and draw them down, out of your space, into the earth. This step works best when you don’t try to make it happen. Rather, just allow it to do its job.

9. As you notice specific people, thoughts and concerns passing through your mind, simply grab them with your imaginary hand and toss them down your Grounding Line. These don’t belong to you and they will be much happier in their own heads. Jim Self, Roxane Burnett, Spirit Matters: Down to Earth Tools for a Spiritual Life, (Tree of Life Press, 2008), pp. 21-22.

And now you can see why I gave this essay this title:

Setting the Grounding Line is an Act of Forgiveness; this action is the heart of the Course.

Forgiveness is only experienced now, in a still mind.

Let us be still an instant, and forget all things we ever learned, all thoughts we had, and every preconception that we hold of what things mean and what their purpose is. Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for. We do not know. Let every image held of everyone be loosened from our minds and swept away. T-p1.31.12

It is your forgiveness that will bring the world of darkness to the light. It is your forgiveness that lets you recognize the light in which you see. Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world. Through your forgiveness does the truth about yourself return to your memory. Therefore, in your forgiveness lies your salvation. W-62.1

By setting the Grounding Line, we let go of all thoughts of attack arising and falling in our brains, allowing these thoughts to be replaced, enabling us to come into the awareness of the peace and love of God.

Remember that in every attack you call upon your own weakness, while each time you forgive you call upon the strength of Christ in you. Do you not then begin to understand what forgiveness will do for you? It will remove all sense of weakness, strain and fatigue from your mind. It will take away all fear and guilt and pain. It will restore the invulnerability and power God gave His Son to your awareness. W-62.3

As often as I can remember, I simply set my Grounding Line as my day unfolds, and my days are becoming increasingly peaceful, no matter what seems to be going on.

I became totally immersed in these books, and only at the end of the second book, did I come across the source of Jim Self’s knowledge.

Since childhood, Jim has retained a conscious awareness and ability to recall his experiences within the sleep state. Over the last ten years, this awareness has expanded into relationships
with the Archangels, Ascended Masters and Teachers of Light. (Spirit Matters, p. 163)

And finally, here is Jesus encouraging us to set the Grounding Line.

Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside
all thoughts of what you are and what God is;
all concepts you have learned about the world;
all images you hold about yourself.
Empty your mind of everything it thinks
is either true or false, or good or bad,
of every thought it judges worthy, and
all the ideas of which it is ashamed.
Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you
one thought the past has taught, nor one belief
you ever learned before from anything.
Forget this world, forget this course, and come
with wholly empty hands unto your God. W-189.7

What I Have Come to Know: A Distillation

2011-11-27T08:34:00.021-06:00

A couple of days before Thanksgiving, I was sitting on the couch in our Sun Room early in the morning, reading the day’s Lesson 325, All things I think I see reflect ideas, enjoying the warmth of the wood-burning stove and watching the birds at our feeders, and the thought came in, “What does it all boil down to, after all these years of reading A Course in Miracles, learning from Master Teacher at Endeavor Academy, reading the New Testament, and going to Sessions almost daily at the Academy? What, exactly, is the distillate from the heat of this transformative process?

And then these words and sentences came into my mind, and I grabbed my notebook and scribbled them down.

* * *

Awareness

I am seeing either through the body’s eyes, or through the eyes of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is the bridge.

Forgiveness

Receptivity

God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. Lesson 49

Since I am in the world, and not of the world, how do I conduct myself while I am walking in the world?

Help

Intention

Gratitude

* * *

Then it came to me that Lesson 325 provided a perfect context for expressing this transformative distillation.

The question is always, just where is my awareness. This Lesson makes it clear right away, that my salvation is my awareness of the source of my ideas.

All things I think I see reflect ideas. Lesson 325

This is salvation's keynote: What I see
reflects a process in my mind, which starts
with my idea of what I want.

I am seeing either through the body’s eyes. . .and now the Lesson makes it clear the process I engage in when I am seeing through the body’s eyes and brain.

From there,
the mind makes up an image of the thing
the mind desires, judges valuable,
and therefore seeks to find. These images
are then projected outward, looked upon,
esteemed as real and guarded as one's own.
From insane wishes comes an insane world.
From judgment comes a world condemned.

What I am seeing through the body’s eyes is a projection of what is in my mind, first; I am, literally, “throwing” out of my mind images, and then I “catch” them, thinking they are in the world, first. Not only are they second, but I initially judged the image, choosing this one over that one. Not recognizing the source of the image in my mind is insanity.

. . .or through the eyes of Christ.

And from
forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth,
with mercy for the holy Son of God,
to offer him a kindly home where he
can rest a while before he journeys on,
and help his brothers walk ahead with him,
and find the way to Heaven and to God.

When I am aware that I am seeing my insane projections, I ask for help, asking the Holy Spirit to bridge the gap between my world and the Real world.

With His strength, I am able to forgive, to relinquish, my insane thoughts that have no source in reality, and my dream vanishes, to be replaced by seeing through the eyes of Christ. This is a reflection of the peace of mind I am now experiencing.

Our Father, Your ideas reflect the truth,
and mine apart from Yours but make up dreams.
Let me behold what only Yours reflect,
for Yours and Yours alone establish truth.

And now in this peaceful state, I am receptive to the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God, speaking to me all through the day.

For me, this is absolute key. When I manage to remember to ask for help to step back and be aware of God’s Voice, I trust that I will receive His Thoughts.

Since I am in the world, and not of the world, how do I conduct myself while I am walking in the world?

The root meaning of conduct is crucial here. It comes from the Latin con, “with” and ducere, “to lead.” I am being led through the world by listening to the Voice of the Holy Spirit.

And now I know what my intention is. Intention comes from the Latin intendere, meaning “ to stretch towards.” I ask for help in a peaceful, receptive state of mind, stretching upwards to receive guidance coming down from the Holy Spirit.

And now I experience gratitude, a warmth in my chest, and I am exceedingly receptive to the Holy Spirit's intention.

And that is exactly what happened a little while ago when I began receiving thoughts about this distillate and grabbed my notebook and began scribbling down these thoughts coming into my mind.

And now that my intention is realized and honored, taking this particular form, I can stop writing, right now.

We Do Not Forgive People "Out There;" We Forgive Thoughts In Our Minds

2011-11-10T16:27:00.026-06:00

Recently, my friend, Pat Connor, came across a web site calling for papers for a Conference on this subject: Forgiveness, Probing the Boundaries. The Conference will be held at Mansfield College, Oxford, England, July 11-13, 2012.

The Conference organizers are calling for papers on Forgiveness. The abstracts for the papers are to be limited to 300 words, and they must be submitted by Friday, January 13, 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the Conference, a full draft of the paper must be submitted by Friday, May 11.

I am not sure that I want to prepare a paper to present at the Conference in England, but I like the challenge of capturing in 300 words, or less, what forgiveness means to me. Here is my writing exercise, weighing in at 281 words.

* * *

Forgiveness is an idea terribly misunderstood in this world. It usually takes the form of an individual saying to himself, “She wronged me, but I forgive her.” And in his "forgiveness," he feels superior. This is more like bargaining than forgiving; the wrong may be overlooked this time, but you owe me.

Forgiveness has nothing to do with another person "out there." Forgiveness is letting go of a thought in here, in the mind. Forgiveness is letting go of a thought/image projected outward. These thoughts are based on our individual judgments, stemming from our personal, past memories. A person standing next to you would see the situation differently. Forgiveness is liberation from these thoughts, these personal judgments.

That is why in The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus links trespassing to forgiveness. When I project my thought/images onto another, who is, in fact, the Christ, it is as if I am encroaching on His property, His Christhood.

Forgiveness is a shift from seeing thought/images through the eyes of the ego to seeing the reflection of an inner peace, seeing through the eyes of Christ. It is a shift from a state of mind of conflict, to a state of peace, a shift from seeing projected thought/images, to seeing a bright reflection of the Truth of what we are, the Christ.

Forgiveness is looking at your brother and saying to yourself, “Namaste, the Christ in me greets the Christ in you.”

And now I will walk into the world, inspired by this sentence from today’s Lesson in A Course in Miracles.

I have no purpose for today except
to look upon a liberated world,
set free from all the judgments I have made.
Lesson 312

* * *

To visit the web site, please click here.

A Sleeping Dream's Affirmative Message for my Waking Dream

2011-09-30T10:43:00.022-05:00

A couple of nights ago, I had this dream:

I am dressed up in a black sport coat, button-down collar, blue shirt, no tie, and gray slacks. I am about to go on stage as a main character, but I realize I have not memorized any lines. I am familiar with the play, but I don't know my lines. I think that, perhaps, I could carry the script on stage, but that doesn't seem right.

I have been puzzled by this dream ever since, and when I mentioned it today, my wife, Christine, over lunch, she immediately said, "That's good. It means that now you are in the waking dream, and you don't have a script. You are open and receptive to be guided." That's it! She cut right to it. I realized that lately I have been walking around, saying to myself, "Just be present, ask for help, breathe, let go of thoughts about what to do, resist the temptation to plan, trusting that I will be guided."

And, of course, the Holy Spirit is always offering guidance, whispering to us, and it is just a matter of making a space in our minds to hear His Voice, and letting go of our script is the way to make that space.

Your healing Voice protects all things today,
and so I leave all things to You. I need
be anxious over nothing. For Your Voice
will tell me what to do and where to go;
to whom to speak and what to say to him,
what thoughts to think, what words to give the world.
W-p.ll.275.2:1-4

When I look back at my sleeping dream, I see now why I was not the least bit upset about not knowing my lines. I was surprised, curious, but not concerned about what would happen. That mirrors my state of mind, now. I am trusting that all is well, and that all will be well, as long as I let my script go.

What do your scripts reflect except your plans
for what the day should be? And thus you judge
disaster and success, advance, retreat,
and gain and loss. These judgements all are made
according to the roles the script assigns.
The fact they have no meaning in themselves
is demonstrated by the ease with which
these labels change with other judgements, made
on different aspects of experience.
T-30.Vlll.2:1-4

I remember that not long ago, I was sitting on the couch, looking out the window at the falling leaves, sinking into deep peace, and I said to myself as I was coming out of it, "This is all I have to do, be present, let it all go; that is my only function, remembering that I am in the world, and not of the world. " What a relief.

In my sleeping dream, the play is a good analogy for the illusory world. Being without a script in a play is analogous to not following the dictates of my ego voice in the illusion. This creates a space in my mind for receiving the Voice for God, letting go of the temptation to follow the voice of the ego.

It is most appropriate to end with excerpts from Lesson 49, God's Voice speaks to me all through the day.

It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not.

Here is whee my script comes in:

It is the other part of your mind that functions in the world and obeys the world's laws. It is this part that is constantly distracted, disorganized and highly uncertain.

Help me hear the next part:

The part that is listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is.

Script:

The other part is a wild illusion, frantic and distraught, but without reality of any kind. Try today not to listen to it.

The Holy Spirit:

Try to identify with the part of your mind where stillness and peace reign forever. Try to hear God's Voice call to you lovingly, reminding you that your Creator has not forgotten His Son.
W-p1.49.1,2

Now, listen up!

My Passion for Creative Writing: How and When it was Aroused in Me

2011-08-05T11:56:00.015-05:00

In the preceding blog post (13 July 2011), I invited readers to participate in the upcoming event at Endeavor Academy in the Wisconsin Dells, The Passion of Creative Mind, 16 September -25 September, 2011, particularly in the writing portion of the Event.

The invitation is to write about an extraordinary experience in your life when you were Touched by God.

Meanwhile, I have been conducting Writing Workshops with members of the Academy, helping them learn how to express themselves in the written word. This has been an extraordinary experience for me and for them. Their essays are coming in, and we are collecting them in a book that will be available during the Event.

The experience has been extraordinary for me because it has triggered memories of how and when I became passionate about creative writing.

* * *

I was as freshman at Kalamazoo College, a small, liberal arts school in Michigan, founded in 1833.

This is me in the fall of my freshman year.

I am scared. No one in my family had ever gone to college, and I did not know what to expect. Not only that, but the Chicago Tribune had recently reported that Kalamazoo College ranked in the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the nation whose graduates went on to earn MD’s, and I had absolutely no scientific aptitude.

In fact, my primary concern is how I will measure up as a football player, having already been practicing for two weeks before school started. Yet, between me and the practice field are courses, five of them:

The History of Western Civilization
Freshman Biology
Russian
Introduction to Art
Freshman Composition

I had no confidence. I remember walking into my room in Harmon Hall after the first week, my desk littered with five syllabi and textbooks and notebooks, and I was already hopelessly behind.

One day in The History of Western Civilization, Lester Start was talking about euthanasia, and I wrote in my notebook: “youth in Asia.”

And then Larry Barrett threw me a life line.

Twenty of us gathered in Dr. Laurence Barrett’s classroom in Bowen Hall for Freshman Comp. Larry Barrett. Ph.D., Princeton; special field of study: John Milton. He is sitting on his desk, cross-legged, making searing eye contact with each of us in turn. He has the haircut of the times, a short flat top, his sport coat is dusted with chalk, his shirt collar ends are pointing up, his tie is awry across his chest, and he holds forth in a gruff, but loving manner. I loved it that his vocabulary is occasionally laced with mild profanity, like damn, piss and shit.

Here is the context for my inspiration. The standing assignment is this: Every two weeks, write an essay. No assigned topic. Write about what is important to you. It reminds me now of the opening stanza from Langston Hughes’ poem, Theme for English B.

The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.

The way Larry handled these tender pages was inspired and inspiring. He asked us to type our essays on mimeograph masters. He would then run them off, each one identified with a number instead of a name. He handed out these precious packets, and he lovingly taught us how to read and write, using our own writing. Over the course of the semester, in spite of the anonymity of the numbers rather than our names, we began to recognize each others’ distinctive writing voices that were slowly developing.

So, one day, while reading through a packet, Larry came to my essay. He read the first three paragraphs without stopping for a comment, or correction. Then he looked up and said, “Do you know what that means? You bet your bootstraps you know what that means.” He went on to say that it was a model of coherence.

Well, that was it, and that was everything.

At that moment, I breathed in the divine, and that is the root meaning of the word inspiration, from the Latin, inspirare.

After class, I walked out of Bowen Hall, headed across the quad, and resolutely said to myself, “If I can write for Larry Barrett, I can write for anybody.”

I remembered a line we had read from E. B. White’s 1947 essay, The Second Tree from the Corner:

In the jungle of my fear I glimpsed the flashy tail feathers of the bird courage.

In this case, it was confidence, and this gave me courage for the days and nights ahead.

Soon after reading my paper in class, Larry called me into his office about another essay, one whose topic was, of all things, the lack of school spirit. I had written a sentence something like, “On a Saturday afternoon, instead of going to the football game, pallid science majors head across the quad to Upton Hall, the science building, with slide rules strapped to their sides.” He read that sentence aloud, then he said. “Give me some more of that.” I began seeing images in my mind, and immediately turned them into sentences, as he nodded in approval.

Then it happened again. Breathing in the divine. I got it that writing is simply paying attention to the first thoughts going through your mind, trusting them, and turning them into sentences. Writing is standing back, listening, and then stepping up. It is not just the province of dead white men in anthologies. You and I can write, right now.

And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.

* * *

In the fall of 2002, Christine and I had been at the Academy for five years. One day I received a call from a woman who said she was Larry Barrett’s daughter, that he had recently died, and that in going through his papers she came across this note:

“Ask Ray Comeau to give my eulogy.”

A few days later, I stood at the lectern of Stetson Chapel that crested a small hill, crowning the beautiful campus of Kalamazoo College, reading his eulogy. As I was coming to the end of my reading, I felt an insertion of Light, and I stepped aside from the lectern and said, “Larry didn’t really go anywhere, he is with us now in spirit.”

After that luminous moment in the Chapel, I stepped back behind the lectern and finished my eulogy.

What Larry extended to me as a freshman, and what he is extending to us in this moment, is Love and Love is Eternal. His Love is in this room at this time. His loving presence is in our thoughts. In this respect, there is no death. There is only the peace of God. The Son of God is free and loving and eternal.

Hold Larry in your thoughts, as I read this sonnet from A Course in Miracles, the incomparable modern day scripture:

The grass is pushing through the soil, the trees
are budding now, and birds have come to live
within their branches. Earth is being born
again in new perspective. Night has gone,
and we have come together in the light.
From here we give peace to the world,
for it is here peace was received.
The song of our rejoicing is the call
to all the world that Love is eternal,
that time is almost over, and God’s Son
has but an instant more to wait until
His Father is remembered, dreams are done,
eternity has shined away the world,
and only heaven now exists at all.

Incidentally, the motto for Kalamazoo College, adorning its walls and its letterhead, is this Latin word:

Luxesto.

Let there be Light.

* * *

Christine and I returned to the Academy, and as we walked in for Session on a Monday morning, we saw that Dear One was teaching in the Reading room. When he saw me enter, he said, “Did you know I was there?”

I realized, then, that it was his presence that filled the Chapel with Light, and I cracked up saying, “Yes,” and he rolled back on the couch, his feet came up, cycling in the air, as he laughed uproariously.

Thank you, Larry. Thank you, Dear One. Thank you, Father.

Experiencing The Thought of God While Wandering in the Dream: A Writing Assignment

2011-07-13T10:28:00.010-05:00

Dear Reader,

I am extending to you an invitation to participate in The Creative Communication of Writing and Sound for the upcoming event at Endeavor Academy in the Wisconsin Dells, September 16-September 25, The Passion of Creative Mind.

This is an opportunity to share with us an extraordinary incident in your life, experiencing the Thought of God, as you wandered through your dream. Since we are God’s perfect Creations, it is inevitable that we will experience our inheritance, no matter how much we try to maintain the dream.

The Thought of God protects you, cares for you, makes soft your resting place and smooth your way, lighting your mind with happiness and love. Eternity and everlasting life shine in your mind, because the Thought of God has left you not, and still abides with you. Lesson 165.2:6,7

When I was talking with my wife, Christine, about the inevitability of experiencing the Thought of God, she said, “Oh, yes, I remember being very young when it happened,” and here is how she expressed it.

When I was a small child, I went to a funeral home for the first time, not for the funeral, but a visitation. I am holding my mother’s hand in this room filled with people. It is very quiet. People are speaking in whispers. My mom walks up to Grampa Percy and, letting go of my hand, hugs him and whispers something to him. He looks sad. She takes my hand and leads me up to what looks like a huge jewelry box where my Grandma is lying. I remember everything being pink. We are standing in front of the casket. My mom is looking in. I am too small to be able to look in. I can only see the outline of her form.

Then, I see my Grandma peaking around from behind the casket. She sees me and has this mischievous look on her face. Her eyes are sparkling, and she looks happy. I look up at my mom, and she is still looking into the casket and does not see that Grandma is not in the casket. When I look back at Grandma, she is holding her index finger over her lips as though “shushing” me in a conspiratorial way, and then she was gone.

Here are excerpts from an example written by my friend, Doris.

One night, a very clear memory of Home came to my mind while I was asleep: I dreamed of Heaven.

There was a song. It was the most beautiful melody I ever heard. Only thinking about it makes me cry. I remember Home.

Angels sang that song for me, me the holy Son of God who is at Home at last. They sang only out of joy that I am created as God created me.

They sang to praise me and to praise God. And sometimes when I am united with my brothers in that memory of Home, I hear them sing again for me.

Doris

I am quite sure that an incident has already come to mind for you. Here is an opportunity to share with us your experience of a Thought of God.

Please describe it in one page, or less, and send it along with your name, location, and e-mail address.

Please send it to me: chris.ray@charter.net

We will be publishing these articles in a book that will be available at the event, and through Amazon.

Please submit as soon as possible, no later than August 15.

Click here for the web site of The Passion of Creative Mind.

Thank you.

Ray Comeau

Escaping the Self-Made Matrix and Resting in God

2011-05-26T08:14:00.032-05:00

When I first awakened yesterday morning, I found myself in a state of mind where I had no sense of identity.

This is difficult to express; I was in a state of total, let's say, blankness. I did not begin saying to myself, "Well, today, I'll do this, I'll do that." I was totally blank. I felt totally relieved. Words can hardly express this sense of relief.

My sense of identity, or Ray, my limited self, narrating my life, was simply not in my awareness.

There was an experience of a state of mind that was still, limitless, changeless, and eternal.

There. That's more like it; no sense of an identity as a person, as a body, commenting on its state of mind.

My experience while waking up in this manner provides a clear reference point for certain passages in A Course in Miracles. For example, here is a helpful sentence from Lesson 161:
Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. W-p1.161.2:1

This is a reminder that complete abstraction is natural; my state that identifies with my self, my ego, is totally unnatural.

While this post was still in draft form, I read the Lesson for the day, 129, Beyond this world is a world I want, and this passage leaped off the page.

Communication, unambiguous
and plain as day, remains unlimited
for all eternity. And God Himself
speaks to His Son, as His Son speaks to Him.
Their language has no words, for what They say
cannot be symbolized. Their knowledge is
direct and wholly shared and wholly one.
How far away from this are you who stay
bound to this world. And yet how near are you,
when you exchange it for the world you want.
W-pl.129.4

My experience while waking up is the reference point for this passage, as well.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
W-pl.Review Vl.Intro.3:3-5

And Jesus stops our minds for a moment in His effort to slow us down, by the two meanings, simultaneously, of the word "still;" I continue to be as God created me, and I am the stillness of God's creation.

Here is another sentence for which we now have a reference point.

I am God's Son, complete and healed and whole,
shining in the reflection of His Love.
W-pll.14.What am I?1:1

When I was reflecting on these ideas, I was driving down the highway. While idly driving along, I glanced at a passing billboard that said, "After you die, you will find God." Chuckling, I said to myself, "That's funny, I don't think I'm going to have to wait that long, I found God this morning."

That brought to mind, two phrases.

An ancient Hermetic precept stating, "Know ye not ye are gods?"

And St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:31, "I die daily," meaning that he experiences daily a state of mind of limitlessness, changelessness, thereby dying to limitation and change and mortality that we now refer to as the matrix.

It is no surprise that this experience occurred the day after an extraordinary weekend conference entitled, Out of the Matrix that took place at the Unity Church of the Heights, in Cleveland Heights, OH, May 20-22, 2011. This is a powerful program designed to be taken into schools and colleges and universities and prisons, enabling participants to transform their minds to come into a state of mind where they can take personal responsibility for constructing the matrix they find themselves in. This program is solidly based on the principles of A Course in Miracles, and they are expressed in secular metaphors, so that the illusion, or dream is the matrix, the Holy Spirit is the Inner Guide, and God's Son is What you Be, limitless, changeless, eternal.

In the sessions, worksheets are used to enable us as participants to recognize, own, and let go of limiting core beliefs. This emphasis is on learning to let go of our projections that constitute our self-made matrix. By learning to take responsibility for our thoughts and beliefs, we come into an awareness of our Being, and we are then able to walk in the matrix, knowing we are not of the matrix. To illustrate this, we were shown a clip from the movie, The Matrix, where Morpheus is taking Neo for a walk through the matrix, and all the time while walking through crowds, Morpheus, knowing he is in but not of the matrix, walks smoothly, his head half-turned to talk with Neo, gliding through, while Neo is constantly bumping into people, often distracted, particularly by an attractive woman walking by in a red dress.

The two men who presented during the weekend, Tony Senf and Christ Lauretig , were outstanding in articulating in straight-forward, clear language, often citing personal examples, the basic principles of A Course in Miracles, using parallel matrix metaphors that could easily sink into the ears of the person in the street. Their presentation was well-illustrated with a large number of salient clips from movies, slide presentations, worksheets, and all the time questions and comments were encouraged from the participants. Each participant was shepherded by a mentor each step of the way.

On Sunday morning, Rev. Tony delivered a powerful lesson entitled, "It's All a Dream," frequently quoting A Course in Miracles, demonstrating that the basic principles of the Out of the Matrix Program are soundly grounded in the Course.

Sunday afternoon during the conference, Chris, after making it crystal clear that our beliefs and thoughts are the foundation of our self-made matrix, these beliefs having been imprinted in us over the years by those conditioned by the matrix, said that he often had the thought that he should come in with a baseball bat, call us up one at a time, and hit us up aside the head; when we woke up, we would experience amnesia, and be open to experiencing our Being. We would forget our imprinting and conditioning, and no longer automatically construct the matrix.

For a moment this morning, I experienced complete amnesia, and thank God, I didn't need to be hit aside the head to experience it.

Amnesia is a powerful metaphor, demonstrating that forgetting what we wrought in the first place is liberating. Walking in the world, and recognizing that we are not of it because we realize that we constructed the nothingness of it is the true meaning of forgiveness, letting go of what never occurred, the dream, the matrix. And in this act of forgiveness, we rest in God.

This is the day of peace. You rest in God,
and while the world is torn by winds of hate
your rest remains completely undisturbed.
Yours is the rest of truth. Appearances
cannot intrude on you. You call to all
to join you in your rest, and they will hear
and come to you because you rest in God.
They will not hear another voice than yours
because you gave your voice to God, and now
you rest in Him and let Him speak through you.
W-pl.109.4

And now, after the weekend, experiencing the peace of God while waking up the other morning, I am increasingly receptive to hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit, talking to me all through the day, and trusting, and the more I trust the more I am hearing the guidance.

For more information on the Out of the Matrix Program, please click here.

An Out of the Matrix Conference is scheduled to be held in the Wisconsin Dells, August 26-28, 2011.

For more information, please contact me: chris.ray@charter.net, 608 254-2320

For registration, please contact Cindy Stanley: cindy@outofthematrix.org, 330-284-1025

Payment plans are available through Cindy.

Breathing in the Breath of God: The Holy Spirit

2011-05-11T11:22:00.023-05:00

I remember taking a class in graduate school that I found fascinating at the time, and I find myself today still drawing benefits from it, particularly as I read Jesus’ unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles. The class was phonetics, a study of special speech sounds and their production.

I learned that each language operates from a set of phonemes, the smallest unit of sound. For example, in English, although the alphabet consists of only 26 letters, these letters represent 42 different sounds, or phonemes. For example, the letter /a/ is pronounced in two different ways, depending on the context. There's the /a/ in gap, and the /a/ in gape. This is one reason English is a difficult language to learn by a foreign speaker, same letters, different sounds.

One reason I am fascinated by phonetics is that it drives home the fact that words are air, i.e., each word is air passing from our lungs through our larynx and shaped by our tongue, lips, teeth, and cheeks. For example, the word “voice” consists of 4 phonemes, and each phoneme can be described. There is formal way to describe what happens in the mouth for each phoneme, and the following is a crude description.

/v/ vee

The upper front teeth touch the inner part of the lower lip and the air is forced out.

/o/ oh

The teeth release and the inside of the mouth constricts and the lips form a circle, emitting air, while the vocal chords in the larynx vibrate.

/i/ ee

The tongue rests on the back teeth, the front of the tongue slightly touches the back of the lower teeth, and raises up, and the lips are slightly open.

/ce/ hiss

The lips widen, the teeth almost close, the tip of the tongue slightly touches the back of the lower teeth, raises up and a hissing sound pours through the narrow slit formed by the teeth.

Now, I hear the word “voice” in a whole new way; my voice is truly air, a breath of air.

The reason for this unusual foray into phonetics is to lay the groundwork for this powerful connection: inspire and spirit have the same root meaning. Both words spring from the same Latin root: spirare, meaning “to breathe.” When I am inspired, I am breathing spirit, the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. His Voice is always speaking to me, and I am reminded of this each time I speak, knowing that my voice is breath.

God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. (Title, Lesson 49)

It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not.
W-p1.491:1,2

The part that listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is. W-p1.49.2:1,2

Listen in deep silence. Be very still and open your mind. W-p1.49.4:1,2

This reminds me of a passage from the Urtext. Jesus is talking to Helen, and He says to her:

I inspired Bob (refer to elevator man who took Helen down from her apartment) to make that remark to you. (Urtext: The Original Unexpurgated Manuscript As It Emanated From The Mind And Heart of Jesus Christ Of Nazareth, p. 38)

This is so encouraging because it is as reminder that Jesus, indeed, is walking with us all the time.

If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy. W-p1.70.9:3,4

As far as breathing, yesterday I came across a brief review of a new book of poetry by the American poet, Robert Pinsky. The reviewer just happened to quote the first stanza of his poem, Song.

Air is an instrument of the tongue,
The tongue an instrument Of the body.
The body
An instrument of spirit,
The spirit a being of the air.

Reading today’s Lesson 125, In quiet I receive God’s Word today, brings it all back to me, the phonetics, the breathing, the words, and I note once again the connection between my past experiences, e.g., the phonetics class, and the present, and how sometimes I feel I have been directed all along.

Since we come to the Course to learn to reverse our thinking, the first thing we need to do is to slow down.

Three times today, at times most suitable
for silence, give ten minutes set apart
from listening to the world, and choose instead
a gentle listening to the Word of God.
W-p1.1257:1

First, as we read this passage aloud, we, unconsciously, structure our breathing, i.e., we can only speak the lines by breathing out, and we are silent as we breathe in, preparing to breathe out. Isn’t that amazing? It is so habitual that we have forgotten that we breathe in in order to breathe out.

Secondly, Jesus postures our voice by the way He orders His words. For example, read the title of the Lesson aloud:

In quiet I receive God’s Word today.

First, Jesus is using only 10 syllables for each line; He has been doing this since Lesson 98, and He will continue using this convention for each line of each lesson until the end, Lesson 365. Not only that, but He postures our voice to speak each line by placing each syllable in a particular way, some are STRESSED and some are slack.

In QUI/ et I/ re CEIVE/ GOD’S VOICE/ to DAY

Five sets of syllables, basically in a slack STRESS, or iambic pattern. And Jesus, not only slows us down with this rhythmic pattern, but He postures our voice to say the words as He intends. GOD’S VOICE is what’s important here, and we find ourselves emphasizing those two words, whether we know it or not. And at one level, we certainly know it, and this is a reminder.

Only be quiet. You will need no rule
but this, to let your practicing today
lift you above the thinking of the world,
and free your vision from the body's eyes. W-p1.125.7:1,2

When I am looking through my body’s eyes, I am making up a world, unconsciously and habitually, and listening to the wrong voice, my narrative voice, associating, judging, separating, but when I slow down and listen to the Voice of God soothing me into silence, I slow down my breathing, and I can begin to see with vision, seeing a bright reflection of my silent mind.

For the past several weeks, I have been facilitating a class here at Endeavor Academy in the Wisconsin Dells. The class is called, “Listen, Learn, and Write.” It is highly interactive because we are doing writing exercises that enable us to be inspired by the Holy Spirit to express ourselves. At the end of the class a couple of days ago, we were sitting quietly, listening to music after sharing our inspired writing, and suddenly and spontaneously, Peg Elizabeth, a woman who has been at the Academy for some time, said to no one in particular, “Boy, in this class it is easy to get in touch with your soul.” That pretty much sums up what it means to open up and be receptive to spirit.

Peg Elizabeth's sentiment is echoed in a article I came across in the Wisconsin State Journal about Maggie Delaney-Potthoff who teaches voice in a class offered through UW-Madison Continuing Studies. What caught my eye is that she starts and ends her training with emphasis on breathing.

Someone looking in the window of the church’s gathering room, where the class is held, might easily mistake this for a yoga class or some kind of new-age meditation session. (Wisconsin State Journal, May 1, 2011, Section G, Unleash the Scream, Andrea Azni, p. 1.)

Delaney-Potthoff says, “Our voice is directly connected to our soul. The voice is the ultimate instrument. . .I am looking for that natural voice that’s behind the curtain, and all singing takes place through the third eye.” (Azni, p. 2)

Breathe in, breathe out, knowing that you are spirit, the holy breath of God.

Matter Doesn't Matter; What's Real Matters

2011-04-29T19:08:00.025-05:00

In spite of the fact that I have been at this for some time, i.e., the transformation of my mind through A Course in Miracles I still find myself in a bit of a funk lately. I mean, without going into specifics, I find that certain individuals around me are really pissing me off.

You see, I know better.

There is no one outside of me.
I am not a victim of the world I see.
There is only my mind.
I am never upset of the reason I think.

Still. . .

So, this morning I woke up early, grabbed a cup of coffee, and sat down to find some solace in reading the Course, specifically this morning I found myself reading, randomly, Chapter 14, Teaching for Truth, Section Vlll, The Holy Meeting Place.

Let your mind wander not through darkened corridors, away from light's centre.

OK. I took a sip of coffee, closed my eyes, and experienced a moment of peace, light, not hearing my narrative voice tempting me to wander.

You and your brother may choose to lead yourselves astray, but you can be brought together only by the Guide appointed for you.

I brought to mind a particular person pissing me off and realized that I didn’t have to play the “If only game,” i.e., if only she wouldn’t do this or say that, I’d be OK. We cannot join at the level of time and space, but I can be guided to experience peace and light, no matter what she does or says. The “If only game” places me squarely in the duality; if she only did this instead of that. This is like waking up from a sleeping dream and saying, “I’m going to try to go back to sleep and hope for that to happen instead of this.” I would be trying to make better a dream of my own making.

He will surely lead you to where God and His Son await your recognition.

We can never recognize each other in time and space, but only join when I recognize that my being pissed off is occurring in the dream only; it’s of my own making, and it can be undone. I can choose to wake up.

They are joined in giving you the gift of oneness, before which all separation vanishes.

They, of course, refers to God and his Son, and in the experience of their oneness, I let go of separating thoughts, seeing only light. It does not matter what I thought she did to me.

Unite with what you are. You cannot join with anything except reality.

I had forgotten for a moment that in time and space there is no possibility for joining; it’s a dream. Wake up and be what you are, real.

God's glory and His Son's belong to you in truth. They have no opposite, and nothing else can you bestow upon yourself. 3

Prior to this recognition of reality, I had tried in my mind to make the dream real by fixing it and suffering the consequences.

There is no substitute for truth. And truth will make this plain to you as you are brought into the place where you must meet with truth.

By being preoccupied with substituting my thoughts for truth, I was depriving myself of the peace of God.

And there you must be led, through gentle understanding which can lead you nowhere else.

Indeed, I was grateful to gently understand these passages, finding solace after wandering along in a funk.

Where God is, there are you. Such is the truth. Nothing can change the knowledge, given you by God, into unknowingness.

Here it is again. This is the Word of God. My separating thoughts, and they are only my thoughts, cannot undo our Godly connection.

Everything God created knows its Creator. For this is how creation is accomplished by the Creator and by His creations. In the holy meeting place are joined the Father and His creations, and the creations of His Son with Them together. There is one link that joins them all together, holding them in the oneness out of which creation happens. 4

And now I can create because in this state of mind of the peace and oneness of God, I look out and see the reflection of my own peace of mind. I am seeing with the vision of Christ; I am creating.

So, I took another sip of coffee, looked up with soft eyes, seeing the loveliness of God’s Creation.

It’s so simple.

Just then, Christine, my wife walks into the room and says, “I stand here, and I am connected, and I stand there, and I’m disconnected.” And I thought, my God, what a metaphor for what I am writing at this moment. I allow my thoughts to disconnect me from peace when a particular individual says or does something, and in a moment, I can ask for help and reconnect.

I know Christine can read my mind; in fact, I often feel that my forehead is really a window for her to look into, but I say to her, “What are you talking about?”

She says, “My Bluetooth in my ear and sometimes I’m connected with the source, and then with the slightest shift of my head, I’m disconnected.”

And I think, Thank you very much for the metaphor because that is what I am trying to express right this moment, the utter simplicity of this conversion in my mind, shifting from funk to peace; it’s as simple as a slight movement of my head, connecting, or disconnecting with Source.

And once again, the phrase comes to mind, “It makes a difference, and it doesn’t matter.” What happens in space and time seems to make a difference, yet it does not matter in eternity. For example, just after writing this, I ran into a woman who generally pisses me off, and sure enough, she said something completely out of line, and I went into reaction, but this time only for a moment, because I caught myself, took a breath, and peacefully walked on by. What she said seems to make a difference in the dream, it matters not in eternity. She can say the same thing the next time, and what will it have to do with me, my Self, and I, joined with God? She doesn’t have to change; no "If onlys" here; I just need to shift out of the duality.

I just remembered that a long time ago, I was walking in a mall, and two women passed by, and I heard one say to the other, "It's a case of mind over matter; if you don't mind, it doesn't matter." That is, if I am in my right mind, the peace of God, it does not matter.

Nevertheless, navigating in the dream can sometimes seem quite difficult, and we are not alone. We are, indeed, in the world, and not of it. So the last point I want to make is that when I am experiencing peace, I am in a receptive state of mind, disregarding my narrative voice, receptive to hearing the Voice for God speaking to me all through the day, and in hearing His Voice, I know what to do next.

Right at this point, as Christine was reading the draft of this essay, she looked up and said, "That's like what happened once when I was riding my horse."

After she told me the story, I said, of course, "Write it up."

And she said, "I knew you'd say that."

The thought of God’s Voice speaking to me all through the day is reassuring. What is it like to hear God speaking to me all day, all the time? This reminds me of something that happened to me a long time ago. This is the story:

I was riding bareback on my all black appaloosa named Aphrodite, nicknamed Aphro, through the woods on a beautiful summer day. Then, I decided to leave the woods and ride through the brush, down a small incline to the road. Suddenly, Aphro was thrashing and trying to back up, her eyes wild with fear. I slid off to discover she was tangled up in an old fallen, wire fence, covered with brush and leaves. I realized that if she didn’t calm down, I would not be able to get near enough to her to untangle the fence from her legs without injuring myself and her. I began whispering to her in a soothing voice, petting her, becoming calm in my own mind. I kept talking to her, telling her everything will be okay in a soft, reassuring voice. She began to settle down, to stop struggling. I was able to untangle the fence, still talking with a calm voice. She stopped struggling as I removed the fence from her legs and walked her down the embankment to the road still whispering to her, reassuring her, petting her on her neck, the side of her face and the bridge of her nose. She started nuzzling into me, and I knew she felt safe.

When I am walking along in the dream and become entangled and fearful, I can remember to be still and ask to hear the Voice for God softly speaking, and I can become untangled and continue walking, trusting and smiling.

Our Brains Bring Color To A Dirty, Gray World, But What We Are Looking For Is Vision.

2011-04-02T09:37:00.049-05:00

One of my great joys in life is reading A Course in Miracles. What is particularly joyful is transforming a general statement into a specific experience. For example, I read the sentence, I am the light of the world; I close my eyes, letting the statement wash over me, and feel a lightness and a tingling in my head and a warmth in my chest, my narrative voice is silent, and I sit and smile in gratitude, experiencing light.

In today's Lesson, 92, Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one, we are reminded of this strength.

You do not think of light in terms of strength, and darkness in terms of weakness. That is because your idea of what seeing means is tied up with the body and its eyes and brain. W-pl.92.1:2,3

As far as making the general specific, regarding how the brain works to make up a world, I came across an an article yesterday in the current Harper’s Magazine, entitled, Video Ergo Sum: Oliver Sacks and the Plasticity of Perception. In the article, Israel Rosenfield reviews a book by Oliver Sacks entitled, The Mind’s Eye.

What caught my eye was Rosenfield describing, precisely, how the eyes and brain interact to make up a world we think is real.

There is a simple fact about evolution that, although rarely mentioned, is very revealing: plants don’t have brains. Only animals—even very primitive animals and insects—have brains. Brains evolved because moving creatures, no matter how simple, are confronted by ever-changing, unpredictable surroundings. Plants don’t have brains because they don’t need them; they don’t move from place to place. For animals, motion creates a world of visual, tactile, and auditory sensations that are unorganized and unstable; in short, the world is constantly changing. What the brain must do—it’s probably the principal reason brains evolved—is create a stable, coherent sensory environment for the individual organism to understand and use. (Israel Rosenfield, Video Ergo Sum: Oliver Sacks and the Plasticity of Perception, Harper's Magazine, April, 2011, pp. 78-82)

This passage brought to mind these passages from the Course.

Nothing I see means anything. Title, Lesson 1

Perception is a mirror, not a fact. W-pll.304.1:3

Perception is projection. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. T-21.Intro.1:1,2

All things I think I see reflect ideas. Title, Lesson 325

The brain does this by “inventing” a range of perceptions: a series of constructs that we “see,” “hear,” and “feel” when we look, listen, and touch.

What really inspires me is the specificity of exactly how the brain works to make a world that we think we see, hear, taste, touch, and feel. And then Rosenfield describes how this is done, demonstrating the interaction between the brain and the wavelengths given off by various objects.

The creation of a coherent environment out of chaotic stimuli is one of the brain’s primary activities. There are no colors in nature, only electromagnetic radiation of varying wavelengths (the visible spectrum is between 390 and 750 nanometers). If we were aware of our real visual worlds we would see constantly changing images of dirty gray, making it difficult for us to recognize forms. (Rosenfield, p. 79)

Wow. There’s the specificity. What we “see” in general is merely an activity of the brain interacting with wavelengths of energy.

Our visual stimuli are stabilized when the brain compares the variations in the different wavelengths of light; the consequence of these comparisons is what we perceive as “color.” The brain creates a sense of “color constancy”: no matter the lighting conditions—bright sunlight, filtered sunlight, or artificial lighting—colors remain more or less the same. But colors themselves are not in our surroundings. Brains therefore create something that is not there; and in doing so they help us to make sense of our environments. (Rosenfield, p. 80)

I have invented the world see. Title, Lesson 32

Rosenfield ends with this metaphor.

We might say the brain is baking a cake. The ingredients that go into the cake are transformed when they are put into the oven, transforming the raw batter into springy chiffon. (Rosenfield, p. 80)

What I think I see now is taking the place of vision. I must let it go by realizing it has no meaning, so that vision may take its place. W-pl.51.(1).1:4,5

In the title of his review, Video Ergo Sum: Oliver Sacks and the plasticity of perception, Rosenfield uses the metaphor of a video camera, i.e., the brain is like a camera, capturing moving images of whatever our eyes glance upon. His title echoes the famous dictum by the philosopher, Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Cogito ergo sum; I think therefore I am.

Both men make the mistake of ending their phrases in a limited manner. In both cases, the implication is. . .therefore, I AM, i.e., videoing and thinking are the essence of what I AM.

You also believe the body's brain can think. If you but understood the nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth, or that you held the world within your hand, securely bound until you let it go. Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body's eyes can see, the b rain can think. W-pl.92.2

I described in the beginning of this essay that I closed my eyes and experienced the light. What I did not go on to say is that when I opened my eyes, I looked through what my body's eyes glanced upon, seeing a reflection of the light within, seeing with vision.

We know that we are not limited to our brains, either videoing, or thinking. False perception is an obstacle to knowing the truth of what we are; we are the holy sons of God, seeing through our limitations, seeing with vision.

God is my strength. Vision is His gift. Title, Lesson 42

Specifically, seeing with light is seeing with vision; although the video camera keeps running, as you look through its images, catching the reflection of your true Self.

Right at this point, when my wife, Christine, was reading this post as a rough draft, she looked up and said, "That's what I experienced in Saugatuck," referring to an experience last summer when we were vacationing in Michigan, and I said, "Write it up."

When we checked into this simple, old-time motel, the man at the counter was very business-like. My impression at the time was that he was very rigid and unforgiving. As we were leaving, he said, “There will be coffee and donuts in the morning;” as I turned to look at him and acknowledge what he said, the atmosphere shifted, everything seemed to be in slow motion, and as I looked into his eyes, there was a profound connection that we both entered into. All pretense fell away, we were so connected, I realized that nothing was as it seemed. The room quietly disappeared and there was only the awareness of a profound nature that left the world behind. This experience lasted less than a minute and yet was timeless.

The next morning I was in the dining area, pouring my first cup of coffee. As I was looking around, thinking these digs are not too impressive, there was this profound shift in my seeing, again. The entire room became alive, effervescent. It is difficult, impossible to put the unworldly into worldly terms. The motel did not change in appearance in the sense that everything became clean and new and fresh, it changed in the sense that everything, every thing, had a quality about it. All I saw was what I felt-- love, peace. There was a profound stillness, and as I walked back to our room, I realized I was seeing everything in Truth and not through my body's eyes. I was walking on the sidewalk, feeling part of the sidewalk; I opened the door and walked into part of me, I felt a part of everything immersed in myself. Everything was one, the same. I was seeing beyond my own eyes. I was the awareness of the experience. I was pure, free and unlimited. I was joy, happiness and love. I was everything and yet nothing. I was affected and unaffected. I was functioning in my world, and yet I knew I was not of my world. I fell through the false into certainty. Everything and everyone is all-encompassing singularity.

Then, what came to mind for me almost immediately when she mentioned this incident is that a couple of days ago I was caught in the act of seeing with vision, all-encompassing singularity.

Beth, our little neighbor, seven-years old, lovely and loving, was sitting on our deck with Christine and me on a beautiful Spring afternoon, eating cookies and drinking juice, chattering away in her child’s innocence about her four sisters and her cat, Jingles, and her teacher and television programs and her Dad taking her for ice cream, and then she looks at me and says, “You’re doing it again.”

I said, “Doing what?”

She said, “That look in your eyes.”

I said, “What look?”

Then she stood up right in front of me, her hands on her hips, and looking directly into my eyes, she said, “This one,” slightly staring and widening her eyes, mirroring for me how I looked when I was seeing with vision.

Then, I realized what she was referring to; occasionally, while she was chattering away, I would look up, gazing at the leaves in the high branches canopying our yard, watching the play of light and shadows of the leaves moving in the soft breeze, feeling the peace of God, seeing the reflection of the eyes of Christ. Her gift to me was the recognition that what I was experiencing was being communicated through me to all that I looked upon, and I was exceedingly glad!

A miracle is a shift in perception, a shift from seeing with the body's eyes and brain to seeing with vision. I consider it miraculous that I just came across for the first time a poem by Walt Whitman (1819-1892 ), entitled Miracles. In this poem, Whitman gives us a delightful tapestry by shifting from seeing through the body's eyes and their associations of the limited, false self, to seeing the bright reflections of his true Self.

If Beth had been walking with Walt, she would have looked into his eyes and said to him, "You're doing it again."

Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dark my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with anyone I love, or sleep in the bed at night
with anyone I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.
To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.
To me the sea is a continual miracle,
The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—
the ships with men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?

Miracles are only strange to the body's eyes, conditioned to see only appearances.

Strength sees past appearances. It keeps its steady gaze upon the light that lies beyond them. It unites with light, of which it is a part. It sees itself. It brings the light in which your Self appears. W-pl.92.4:1-5

Walt, you are definitely a singer of your Self, and your title of one of your greatest poems is prophetic, Song of Myself, because we know it is a song of your Self, and what you celebrate is your Self appearing, a pure reflection.

* * *

And now I invite you to enjoy a YouTube photo presentation, 1 minute 54 seconds, of Walt Whitman's Miracles by Susan Nastro. Click here.

Listen, Learn, and Do: The Holy Spirit Bridges the Gap

2011-03-11T10:42:00.027-06:00

As day was dawning one morning in July, 1922, Robert Frost, forty-eight years old, felt “impelled” to write the poem, Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening. He had, uncharacteristically, stayed up all night writing another poem. It is fascinating to see how he came to write one of his best poems.

Fatigued and yet elated, after finishing the rough draft of the poem “New Hampshire” in one stretch of work, Frost was not immediately aware he had written straight through the night. When he put his pen down and stretched, looking out through the window, he was surprised to see there was light in the east and that the syringa bush at the end of the front lawn was already coming out of darkness. With a sense of unusual excitement, he stood up, walked stiffly to the front door, opened it, descended the stone steps to the dew-heavy grass, and stood marveling less at the dawn than at his night’s work. Never before, in all his years of sitting up late to write, had he worked straight through until morning. Even now, with the poem tentatively finished, he was not ready to stop. There was something else he wanted to write—or felt impelled to write—although he had nothing immediately in mind as a starter.

Back into the house he went, moving through the living room to the dining room almost as though he were sleepwalking. He picked up his pen, found a clean page, and began a lyric that had nothing to do with the dawn of a July day. He seemed to hear the words, as though they were spoken to him, and he wrote them down as best he could, in his fatigue, even though they came so indistinctly at times that he was uncertain what he heard. In a short time, and without too much trouble, he completed these four quatrains. (Lawrance Thompson and R. H. Winnick, Robert Frost: A Biography (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston: 1981), pp. 26,27.)

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

This entire poem poises for a moment on one word in the second line of the last stanza, “But.” Here the narrator is perfectly balanced between staying and leaving, then he falls, inexorably, towards moving on.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,

The word “poise” comes from the Latin, pensum, meaning “to weigh”. The narrator stops, weighing his options of stopping, or moving on, but the tension of fulfilling his promises forces him to move on.

Although the promises are abstract in the poem, they have specific references for Frost.

The tensions between his promises to himself as artist and to his wife and family (and others who made demands he often resented) continued to make him feel guilty. Equally serious to him was the feeling that although he had promised himself, years ago, he would do everything in his power to succeed as a poet, he often doubted whether he had the creative energy to keep adding elements of newness to his poetic performance. (Thompson and Winnick, p. 287.)

Frost’s narrator feels that he accomplishes something by resisting the temptation to stay stopped. In human terms, this is an accomplishment in will power, but we are not human, Thank God, we are divine, having the function to follow God’s Will and not our own, not mine but Thine. Not only does it seem to be a human imperative to keep moving, but it also seems to be a manly thing. You can see this in the last four lines of Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem, If.

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

So, there it is, you can decide to inherit the Earth, "But," Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (Corinthians 3:16)

To understand how it is that we tend continually to decide for earthly promises over divine treasures, it is necessary to take a hard look at where everything begins, and thank God, can end. It all begins and ends in my mind. Our minds are like a stage where a cast of characters is acting out the drama of our lives, where there is probably more tragedy than comedy. These characters have well-defined roles, and the best description of these roles comes from Jesus’ unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles. In a Shakespearean playbill the characters would be referred to as Dramatis Personae: Self, Christ, ego, Holy Spirit, and the mechanism of decision, the Stage Manager.

Let’s start with the first character that ever appears in my mind, my Self. I am as God created me.

What Am I?

I am God's Son, complete and healed and whole,
shining in the reflection of His Love.
In me is His creation sanctified
and guaranteed eternal life. In me
is love perfected, fear impossible,
and joy established without opposite.
I am the holy home of God Himself.
I am the Heaven where His Love resides.
I am His holy Sinlessness Itself,
for in my purity abides His Own.
W-pII.14.1

And the second character on the playbill:

What Is the Christ?

Christ is God's Son as He created Him.
He is the Self we share, uniting us
with one another, and with God as well.
He is the Thought which still abides within
the Mind that is His Source. He has not left
His holy home, nor lost the innocence
in which He was created. He abides
unchanged forever in the Mind of God.
W-pII.6.1

Then there is in your mind what is called the ego, a part that split off from your Self, separating into a dream-world of darkness, forever guilty and fearful that it will be punished for its separation. To defend itself, it always keeps preoccupied, always keeps moving, fulfilling promises.

What is the ego?

But a dream of what you really are. A thought you are apart from your Creator and a wish to be what He created not. It is a thing of madness, not reality at all. We name it but to help us understand that it is nothing but an ancient thought that what is made has immortality. But what could come of this except a dream which, like all dreams, can only end in death? (C-2.1:4-11)

Fortunately, there is a plan in place, God’s plan, and God placed in your mind a bridge between the ego and your Self, the Holy Spirit.

What Is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit mediates between
illusions and the truth. Since He must bridge
the gap between reality and dreams,
perception leads to knowledge through the grace
that God has given Him, to be His gift to
everyone who turns to Him for truth.
Across the bridge that He provides are dreams
all carried to the truth, to be dispelled
before the light of knowledge. There are sights
and sounds forever laid aside. And where
they were perceived before, forgiveness has
made possible perception's tranquil end.
W-pII.7.1

Finally, there is you, Dear Reader, the one deciding which character will take the stage next.. You are experiencing yourself, right now, speaking these words in your mind as they unfold on the page. You are your voice, narrating your life’s drama. As narrator, as Stage Manager, you are the center of consciousness in your mind.

Consciousness is the receptive mechanism, receiving messages from above or below; from the Holy Spirit or the ego. (C-1.7:3)

Your mind is the mechanism of decision, always deciding between listening to the voice below, the voice of the ego, or the voice above, the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Your mind is the means by which you determine your own condition, because mind is the mechanism of decision. It is the power by which you separate or join, and experience pain or joy accordingly. (T-8.1V.5:7,8)

Now the stage is set, the actors are standing on their marks, making last-minute adjustments to their costumes, clearing their throats, and we can take another look at the poem. The narrator stands poised for a moment, but decides to move on, rather than experience the lovely woods. Within the frame of reference of the characters in your mind, you can see that he decides in that moment to listen to the voice of the ego. The ego fears its own loss, and if it stops in its frantic journey, driven by fear and guilt that it may disappear. If it ever stops for a moment to face its Self, that may be long enough to lose itself, the ego’s greatest fear.

This reminds me of the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. Alice saw him run by, saying to himself, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late, actively taking a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, looking at it, and then hurrying on.” (Lewis Carroll, The Annotated Alice (Norton: New York, 2000), p.6.)

Here is another poem, but in contrast to the first one, this narrator truly stops in silent expectancy.

My Name

One night when the lawn was a golden green
and the marbled moonlit trees rose like fresh memorials
in the scented air, and the whole countryside pulsed
with the chirr and murmur of insects, I lay in the grass
feeling the great distances open above me, and wondered
what I would become—and where I would find myself—
and though I barely existed, I felt for an instant
that the vast star-clustered sky was mine, and I heard
my name as if for the first time, heard it the way
one hears the wind or the rain, but faint and far off
as though it belonged not to me but to the silence
from which it had come and to which it would go.
Mark Strand

When the narrator first lays in the grass, his mind is still preoccupied with ego thoughts,

what I would become—and where I would find myself—

But realizing at some level that he barely existed. In fact, he does not exist at all as an ego; he is the Self, always, already, here, now, and he stays, and he hears his name,

as if for the first time

because he allows himself to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit whispering to him, and he remembers his Self, his true Identity, his name.

as though it belonged not to me but to the silence
from which it had come and to which it would go.

And this is exactly what Frost experienced in writing his poem.

He picked up his pen, found a clean page, and began a lyric that had nothing to do with the dawn of a July day.

His poem was given him, Voiced from within, not influenced by externals; on a July day he wrote about snowy woods.

He seemed to hear the words, as though they were spoken to him, and he wrote them down as best he could, in his fatigue, even though they came so indistinctly at times that he was uncertain what he heard. In a short time, and without too much trouble, he completed these four quatrains.

I will step back and let Him lead the way,
For I would walk along the road to Him.
W-155.14:1-3

And I heard my name for the first time.

God keeps his promises; His Son keeps his.
In his creation did his Father say,
“You are beloved of Me and I of you
forever. Be you perfect as Myself,
for you can never be apart from Me.”
His Son remembers not that he replied
“I will,” though in that promise he was born.
Yet God reminds him of it every time
he does not share a promise to be sick,
but lets his mind be healed and unified.
His secret vows (But I have promises to keep) are powerless before
the Will of God, whose promises he shares.
And what he substitutes is not his will,
who has made promise of himself to God.
T-28.V1.6:3-9

Now, you can see the narrator’s secret vows in contrast to God’s promise to you. We are tempted to keep promises that are of this earth, forms that we can see, hear, taste, smell, and touch. These things are thought-images projected out from a thing that does not know itself, the ego.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,
where moth and rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal.
Matthew 6:19

Do you realize that the ego must set you on a journey which cannot but lead to a sense of futility and depression? To seek and not to find is hardly joyous. Is this the promise you would keep?
T-12.1V.4:1-3

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.
Matthew 6:20-21

The Holy Spirit offers you another promise, and one that will lead to joy. For His promise is always, “Seek and you will find,” and under His guidance you cannot be defeated. His is the journey to accomplishment, and the goal He sets before you He will give you. For He will never deceive God’s Son whom he loves with the Love of the Father.
T-12.1V.4:4-7

Frost went on to write poems for another 40 years, often saying that he “lodged a few poems where they can’t be gotten rid of easily,” and we can see in his poetry that he learned to overcome the “But” in order to stop and listen to God's Voice, hearing the words, as though they were spoken to him.

When you stop by the lovely, dark and deep woods, really stop.

2011-02-05T11:37:00.037-06:00

It is most appropriate, sitting here on my couch next to the wood-burning stove, looking out of the window on a snowy evening in late January, the snowflakes slanting at an angle blown by a strong wind, to take another look at a poem by Robert Frost (1874-1963), Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Sitting here, it is easy to be lulled into the peace of mind while reading this poem. Frost is a master poet. Look at his internal rhyming that is a perfect blend of sound and sense, almost hypnotically lulling your senses.

The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

Here is the internal rhyme of sound and downy and sweep and easy, and the rhyming of flake with shake and mistake. As far as the over-all rhyme scheme, in the first stanza, we have know, though,snow, and here is picked up in the next stanza, queer, near, year, and then lake, in the third, shake, mistake, and flake, and finally, sweep, is picked up in the fourth, deep, keep, sleep and sleep.

In addition, with all this going on, Frost casts the poem in iambic tetrameter, meaning each line has four sets of iambs, a slack STRESS cadence.

He GIVES his HARN ess BELLS a SHAKE
To ASK if THERE is SOME mis TAKE.
The ON ly OTH er SOUND'S the SWEEP
Of EAS y WIND and DOWN y FLAKE.

Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night, thinking about this post, and I tried to go back to sleep focusing on my breathing, and then I got real excited because I discovered that our breathing is iambic! That is, breathe in, breathe out:

in OUT/ in OUT/ in OUT/ in OUT/ in OUT/

No wonder Frost lulls us into an easy state of mind with his masterful blend of rhythm and rhyming, sound and sense.

Now, to contrast my peaceful state of mind with the mind of the narrator, I want to point out that in the last stanza, he will not permit himself to stop and sit there, idly, peacefully. It is as if he is hearing his parents say to him, as they probably did when he was a child, “Don’t just sit there, do something!” Rather than saying to himself, “Don’t just do something, sit here,” he forces himself to move on, tempted by his thoughts, his promises that he must keep. Frost does not elaborate on these, but we can imagine his sense of obligations to family, and friends, and his job; his goals and aspirations and his worldly responsibilities. His life is ahead of him. He has too far to go, too many miles to travel before he sleeps, too much to do before he dies.

But, in truth, we know that there is only this moment, there is only now. What is pushing him along on his journey can only be his thoughts. In today’s Lesson in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 34, I could see peace instead of this, Jesus speaks directly to this fact that only our thoughts are the problem. Here is the sentence that captures exactly what I am doing right now, as my thoughts arise and fall, sitting here on the couch watching the snow flakes fall.

Note them all casually, repeating the idea for today slowly (I could see peace instead of this) as you watch them arise in your mind, and let each one go, to be replaced by the next. W-p1.34.3:3

It is always a matter of becoming aware of your thoughts and then letting them go, releasing them, forgiving them, so that you can experience your natural, still, peace of mind. In the Lesson, a few sentences later, Jesus uses the word temptation, referring to your thoughts.

The purpose of these exercises is to protect yourself from temptation throughout the day. 5:2

My thoughts tempt me to turn from my peaceful state to face my troubled world that I have made up with my thought-images, and it is only by standing here in my certainty that I can see peace instead of this this thought, that temptation.

In fact, sitting here on my couch, I find myself rewriting the last stanza, with apologies to Frost.

The woods are filling with snow, deep.
I sit here, still, almost asleep.
I have no promises to keep,
I have no promises to keep.

In addition, I asked a young friend of mine, Veronica Mejia , to practice writing the last stanza as well. She is a young woman, 16, from Cali, Colombia, South America, who is transforming through A Course in Miracles, and I am tutoring her in literature in preparation for college.

Nature at peace calls me with ease.
I enter to find God waiting for me.
And in a Holy Instant I join Him,
And in a Holy Instant I join Him.

Magnifico!

And now here is a passage from Jesus, Lesson 182, I will be still an instant and go home.

When you are still an instant, when the world
recedes from you, when valueless ideas
cease to have value in your restless mind,
then will you hear His Voice. So poignantly
He calls to you that you will not resist
Him longer. In that instant He will take
you to His home, and you will stay with Him
in perfect stillness, silent and at peace,
beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt,
sublimely certain that you are at home.

And now, if you would like a respite from your worldly promises, I invite you to take a moment to listen to my friend, Doug, play the piano and sing his song inspired by Lesson 182, I will be still an instant and go home. Click here.

Render Unto God

2011-01-27T10:35:00.024-06:00

For many years now, I have started over doing the Lessons in the Workbook of A Course in Miracles on New Year’s Day, Lesson 1, Nothing I see means anything. And now, today, January 20, Lesson 20th, I am determined to see.

These early Lessons make it abundantly clear that I am walking around in a dream of my own making. The dream is woven by thoughts that have no source in Reality; they are not my Real Thoughts. These Lessons are helping to remind me, again and again, to reverse my way of thinking because I think that the object comes first, and then I think about it. In fact, the thought that makes the object comes first.

It is always the thought that comes first, despite of the temptation to believe that it is the other way around. W-p1.17.1:3

When I truly ask for help to reverse my thinking, something else occurs beyond my making, and I begin to see with vision, looking through my dream, seeing with the eyes of Christ, seeing the reflections of my True Self. And this brings me to Lesson 29, God is in everything I see, because when I see with vision, I am seeing His sure Reflection.

Even though I diligently practice in this manner, I still often find it confusing. While I am in the world, in the body, what do I do, especially as I am coming to realize that there is no world, that I am not a body, that I am free, being God’s Son? How do I conduct myself in the world, in the dream?

So, all kinds of questions arise while I walk through this world that is not so. To what extent do I take care of my body, since I am not a body. If I have a sore throat, should I go to the doctor? Perhaps, I do not need to work to make money for rent and clothes and things?

To learn to reverse my thinking, is it OK to read anything other than the Course? I mean, what about books by Eckart Tolle and Murdo MacDonald-Bayne and Adyashanti and Mary Baker Eddy and Michael Brown and Joel Goldsmith?

Is it all right to do Yoga and breathing exercises and chant and TM?

Is it all right to read novels and magazines and newspapers and watch television and go to movies?

Dear Reader, you are probably beginning to realize that I have been raising questions that seem legitimate, but, really, they are taking me deeper into the dream by maintaining the duality. Whether I choose this or that, I am dragging myself into choosing among illusions, demonstrating that I am in an illusory state of mind myself.

Fortunately, I have found a way out of this apparent dilemma. The way out for me is to stay conscious, to stay aware of the fact that being is the key, not doing, not choosing this or that, but becoming aware of my True Being.

When I face these apparent dualities, I ask for help by remembering certain key phrases. For example, here is a life-saving sentence for me from Brother Laurence.

It is not what you do, it is the state of mind in which you do it.

This simple phrase helps me face false dualities. When I slip into a state of mind of the peace of God, I am free; in this state of mind, I am free of the thoughts pouring through my mind that are posing these dualities in the first place, having no source in Reality. And experiencing this freedom, I am receptive to hear the Voice of God speaking to me, God's Voice speaks to me all through the day. Lesson 49

By slipping into this state of mind, I am free to do as I am directed, and this answers the question I posed earlier, how am I to be in the world, knowing I am not of the world. This is one way that Jesus expresses it in His Urtext, The Original Unexpurgated Manuscript AS It Emanated from The Mind And Heart of Jesus Christ Of Nazareth.

Having been restored to your original state, you naturally become part of the Atonement yourself. You now share MY inability to tolerate the lack of love in yourself and in everyone else, and MUST join the GREAT CRUSADE to correct it. The slogan for this Crusade is “Listen, Learn, and DO. This means: Listen to MY Voice, Learn to undo the error, and DO something to correct it. Urtext, p. 6.

This is the value of slipping into that state of mind of the peace of God: receptivity. Now my little "I" does not have to choose. My True Self is receptive to the Voice for God, answering these questions.

What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to whom?
W-p1.71.9:3-5

This is another way Jesus expresses it in His Course.

So do we lay aside our amulets, our charms and medicines, our chants and bits of magic in whatever form they take. We will be still and listen for the Voice of healing, which will cure all ills as one, restoring saneness to the Son of God. No voice but this can cure. Today we hear a single Voice which speaks to us of truth, where all illusions end, and peace returns to the eternal, quiet home of God.
W-p1.140.10

And in His Urtext, He expresses it this way.

Plan ahead is good advice in this world, where you should and must control and direct where you have accepted responsibility. But the Universal Plan is in more appropriate hands. You will know all you need to know. Make NO attempts to plan ahead in this respect. Urtext, p. 1

(Have a good day.) Since only eternity is real, why not use the illusion of time constructively. You might remember that “underneath are the Everlasting Arms.” Urtext, p. 5

Because my feet are on the ground and my hands are in heaven, I can bring down the glories of Heaven to my brothers on earth. Urtext, p. 21

As I quote Jesus, what comes to mind is this: It is obvious that Jesus, walking in the world, receptive only to the Voice for God, would be confronted by the Pharisees, attempting to entangle Him, demanding to know what to do, for example, when asked to pay taxes to Caesar. Here is a passage from Matthew 22.

Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.

And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.

Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?

But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?

Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.

And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?

They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.

When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.
Matthew 22:15-22

And this is what I learn from Jesus: Emptying my mind of worldly thoughts, I ask to be directed how to conduct myself in the world, trusting the Voice from out of this world.

Recently, I have been enthralled by reading a book entitled The Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament, scribed over a one-year period by Regina Dawn Akers. I quote now from the Introduction because it demonstrates the value of stepping back and listening.

Regina learned that scribing is a process of letting go. As she read the New Testament, she found that her mind was filled with thoughts about what she read. Sometimes she felt she understood what she read. Sometimes she seemed to judge what she read. But Regina learned that as she held to her own thoughts regarding what she read, she could not hear the Holy Spirit’s thoughts. Regina learned to empty her mind by letting go of any thoughts she had about her reading. She found that when she came to the point of complete emptiness within her mind, desiring only the words of the Holy Spirit, a Voice would come streaming into her mind. At this point, Regina would begin scribbling into a spiral notebook as fast as she could, focusing on capturing the words that she heard. (The Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament, O Books, John Hunt Publishing, 2007,)p. 7

Here is an example of what came streaming into her mind. This is the Holy Spirit's interpretation of Matthew 22.

The journey to the wedding banquet seems to be time in the world. On this journey, the distraction of the world may be great.There will be times that you have forgotten you are on the journey, because the distraction of the world is great. Let this not distress you.Your joy will come when you have completed the journey, for then you will know where the journey led. But until then, do not feel guilty for journeying, my child. For this seems to be something you must do.

This is the meaning of the analogy of the wedding banquet:

Marriage is the symbol of joining, and the kingdom of Heaven is joining. It is all right to journey in the world, as long as you remember that you are not of the world.

On your journey, remember Me and keep Me close to your heart. But do not deny the journey you are on. It leads to Me and the disappearance of the journey. “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” means, do what you seem to need to do while you are in the world.

When you have forgotten you are on the journey, there will seem to be many things that need your attention. I am in those things too, whether you see Me or not, so do them in peace.

It is not what you do, it is the state of mind in which you do it.

When you remember you are on the journey, many things of the world will seem to fall away. Let them go, but do not worry about the things in the world that seem to need your attention. Just as I have always been with you, I am there in those things too. As you learn to see Me in all things, the journey will seem easier, but it is not until you arrive at the wedding banquet that the journey will fall away. So live within your journey in peace and with Me. Be happy, and rest your mind. I am walking beside you, pleased, as we journey to the wedding banquet together.

Do not be confused by what you see in the world, for Heaven is nothing like the world at all. In the world, there are differences; there are conflicts; there is suffering, and there is death. But none of these things exist in Heaven. Think of the world as a dream, for it seems real while you are here. But think of Heaven as awakening. Upon reaching Heaven, you will realize that the world, and all you thought there, was never true and so it mattered not.

I tell you, the truth is always true, and there is no truth in the world. Do not let your worldly concerns distract you long. Lay them aside that you may continue your journey and awaken to that which calls you.

And so the greatest commandment shall lead you on your journey: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. Let your love for God be your guiding light in all you do and all you think. Never forget your love for God, and give all things to Him. In this way, you will move steadily along your journey.

And the second commandment is like it, for the second commandment guides you within the distraction of the world. Love your neighbor as your Self, because he is. There is no greater truth than this. Your Father, of course, is right. You are joined and at the wedding banquet, but the dream of the world keeps you from knowing this is true. Awaken from the dream by accepting the truth. The journey to acceptance is the journey to Heaven. Accept the truth, and you are there.

Finally, here is the Holy Spirit's interpretation of Matthew 23:1-4, summing up how to be in but not of the world.

Listen.The truth is calling you, and the truth is not of this world. I have already told you that you are free to give what is Caesar’s to Caesar. This means, you are free to live in the world and do as you need to do while you live in the world. Do not feel guilty for paying taxes, obeying laws, raising children or for doing any of the things that the world requires, but do not get lost in those things either. The world is but a distraction, and it distracts you from Heaven. So you must live in the world, but not be of the world. You do this by doing all things for Me...by giving all things the purpose of Heaven. In this way, all things can be used to lead you to Me. And I will show you how to use them. So live in your world, but be not distracted by it.

The root meaning of the word, distract, is tract, Latin, meaning "to be drawn", and dis, "apart"; I do not want to be drawn into duality, apart from God.

I am going to end with some practical ways of expressing being in but not of the world.

I have always appreciated this sentence from the Course:

. . .if your brothers ask you for something “outrageous,” do it because it does not matter. T-12.111.4:1

The key to understanding this sentence is to realize that the two "its" have different references. The first "it" means to find a peaceful state in your mind so that you are not drawn into the duality, and the second "it" refers to whatever your brother is asking in his dream. In a peaceful state, I am drawn out of the duality and receptive to the Voice for God, and then I will know what to do, where to go, what to say, and to whom, and I am saved.

Salvation is for the mind, and it is attained through peace. This is the only thing that can be saved and the only way to save it. Any response other than love arises from a confusion about the “what” and the “how” of salvation, and this is the only answer. T-12.5:1-3

A long time ago at a New Age Workshop, the presenter wrote this phrase on the board, and it puzzled me until I saw its meaning after I learned to reverse my thinking through the Course.

It makes a difference,
and it doesn’t matter.

And now I see that the "it" refers to what seems to be happening in the dream;

It seems to make a difference in space and time,
but it does not matter in eternity.

God knows nothing of my choices in duality, and I am free.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
W-pl.Rev.Vl.3:3-5

I am the stillness of God's creation.

Finally, my friend, Diane, taught me something she learned through doing Improv, or improvisational, skits over the years. When you are on stage making it up, and someone in the skit asks you to do something, you never say, "Yes, but . . ." because that will kill the skit by stopping the flow. The key to Improve is always to say, "Yes, and . . ." then the whole thing flows, just as my life does when I am in the world saying "Yes and . . ." trusting that I will be directed from out of this world, thereby rendering unto God.

On Gratitude

2011-01-06T10:30:00.023-06:00

For the Christmas Holidays, my wife, Christine, and I were grateful yet again to spend time in her childhood home in southwest Michigan in her hometown of White Pigeon, traveling from Wisconsin Dells, where we have been students of A Course in Miracles at Endeavor Academy for the past several years. Staying with her mother, we celebrated Christmas with Christine’s brothers and wives and children and grandchildren.

Out of my regular routine at the Academy and with considerable time on my hands, I wandered into a mall bookstore in a nearby town, and a book practically fell off the shelf into my hands, On Gratitude, a book in which 51 celebrities share what they are most grateful for. The award-winning journalist, Todd Aaron Jensen, interviews each of them, and his brief introductions are very succinct and insightful, capturing their essence.

I knew this was just the right book when I read the first interview with Ray Bradbury, and he related this anecdote with a Christmas theme.

Love is easy. You can’t resist love. You get an idea, someone says something and you’re in love. I went to dinner in Denver about twenty years ago and heard the lady at the next tab e say to her friends, “Oh, my God, I’ll bet dogs think every day is Christmas.” I went up to her and said, “Madam, thank you. You’ve just given me a title. I’m going back to my hotel, and I’m going to write a book called Dogs Think That Every Day Is Christmas.” That’s how these things happen.

Here are some other juicy quotations from other celebrities regarding gratitude and love.

Jeff Bridges

You can’t take yourself too seriously, and you can’t take your thoughts too seriously. They’re only thoughts. That awareness allows what you really are to just be there, to be open. I believe that’s where creativity and happiness come from.

Deepak Chopra

The measure of your enlightenment is the degree to which you’re comfortable with paradox, contradiction, and ambiguity. I have been married for forty years. The secret? Total acceptance and give up being right. It’s the advice for everyone in every relationship.

Ben Kingsley

But life is always richer when we’re not playing who we are, but being who we are. We are all spiritual creatures and live spiritual existences, however confused and disguised and sometimes downtrodden these lives might sometimes feel. But this is why we can be so profoundly moved by certain experiences and certain art, why millions of people can be moved by a sequence of notes written by Mozart or Beethoven or Elgar. Why does that series of notes move us? It resonates with something inside of us that is beyond explanation. It’s ineffable. That is spiritually. That is what connects us all. That is why it is important to me to do what I do, to be a storyteller. Because telling stories heals us, doesn’t it?

Dolly Parton

Everything I do, all of these blessings, everything I give, it all come back to me ten-fold. I just give it away, everything I can, everything about me. It’s always a cycle. I give. It comes back to me. Then I energize it and put it right back out there. That’s just the way I share, and it’s the best blessing of all to me.

Ringo Starr

I heard a great line recently by Carl Jung. He was being interviewed when he was, like, 300 years old. His family was ministers and church people. At the end of the interview on this old BBC show, they said, “Well, do you believe in God?? And he said, “No, I know.” And it stuck with me so hard. How beautiful was that? “I know.” Well. . .okay then. . . .

At the end of his book, Todd Aaron Jensen invites the readers to share what they are grateful for and send it to him: todd@thegratitudelist.org

Well. . .okay then. . ., thanks for the invitation.

I am so grateful for A Course in Miracles, the unworldly-masterpiece, a direct communication from Jesus 2000 years after His Resurrection. By using this Course as a guide over the years, I have trained my mind to reverse my thinking from believing to knowing, from belief to knowledge.

When I experience gratitude, say, when a brother makes direct eye contact with me, or a brother smiles, or an acts in a kindly way, I slip into a state of mind beyond belief, the experience of peace, a state where the narrative voice is silent, a state of stillness, serenity, knowing.

Gratitude is a springboard for experiencing this peaceful state.

Through A Course in Miracles, I have learned to be receptive to gratitude, to go beyond perceptual beliefs to knowing. This training is systematic, and the Course uses our perceptions to go beyond them.

Perception is the medium by which ignorance is brought to knowledge. (T-14.VII.1:7)

I have learned to utilize the 365 Lessons of the Workbook of the Course, day after day, each year, for many years, to learn to slip into peace and knowledge. For example, today’s Lesson is Lesson 1, on New Year’s Day. Happy New Year!

Lesson 1: Nothing I see means anything.

To give you, Dear Reader, an idea of how the Course works to reverse your thinking from believing to knowing, here are some other titles in the first few Lessons.

Lesson 10: My thoughts do not mean anything.

Lesson 21: I am determined to see things differently.

Lesson 34: I could see peace instead of this.

Lesson 45: God is the mind with which I think.

Lesson 50: I am sustained by the Love of God.

By simply reading these Lesson titles, you can see how the daily practice outlined in each Lesson enables you to learn to reverse your thinking, incrementally, from believing to knowing.

After 123 days we come to this Lesson, I thank my Father for His gifts to me, and we can pause for a moment and spend a day in gratitude. As I expressed earlier, gratitude is a springboard into knowing from believing.

Today let us be thankful. We have come
to gentler pathways and to smoother roads.
There is no thought of turning back, and no
implacable resistance to the truth.
A bit of wavering remains, some small
objections and a little hesitance,
but you can well be grateful for your gains,
which are far greater than you realize.

A day devoted now to gratitude
will add the benefit of some insight
into the real extent of all the gains
which you have made; the gifts you have received.
Be glad today, in loving thankfulness,
your Father has not left you to yourself,
nor let you wander in the dark alone.
Be grateful He has saved you from the self
you thought you made to take the place of Him
and His creation. Give Him thanks today.

The self you made is the ego, the narrative voice that ceaselessly speaks to you, until the moment you slip into a peaceful state of mind. The momentary lack of mind chatter is the main reason for this moment of experiencing peace.

Give thanks that He has not abandoned you,
and that His Love forever will remain
shining on you, forever without change.
Give thanks as well that you are changeless, for
the Son He loves is changeless as Himself.
Be grateful you are saved. Be glad you have
a function in salvation to fulfill.
Be thankful that your value far transcends
your meager gifts and petty judgments of
the one whom God established as His Son.

As God’s Son, our function while we are in this world is to learn to shift away from believing that we are egos, personalities, our narrative voices, to knowing that we are our True Selves, the holy Sons of God. Thank you, Carl Jung. Well. . .okay then. . .

Today in gratitude we lift our hearts
above despair, and raise our thankful eyes,
no longer looking downward to the dust.
We sing the song of thankfulness today,
in honor of the Self that God has willed
to be our true Identity in Him.
Today we smile on everyone we see,
and walk with lightened footsteps as we go
to do what is appointed us to do.

We do not go alone. And we give thanks
that in our solitude a Friend has come
to speak the saving Word of God to us.
And thanks to you for listening to Him.
His Word is soundless if it be not heard.
In thanking Him the thanks are yours as well.
An unheard message will not save the world,
however mighty be the Voice that speaks,
however loving may the message be.

Dolly Parton's comments about giving and receiving echo the following passage.

God knows that we need help in making the transition from believing to knowing, and he created the bridge, the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God, His Voice.

Thanks be to you who heard, for you become
the messenger who brings His Voice with you,
and lets It echo round and round the world.
Receive the thanks of God today, as you
give thanks to Him. For He would offer you
the thanks you give, since He receives your gifts
in loving gratitude, and gives them back
a thousand and a hundred thousand more
than they were given. He will bless your gifts
by sharing them with you. And so they grow
in power and in strength, until they fill
the world with gladness and with gratitude.

It is truly amazing to come to the realization that God is grateful for us, His Children.

Receive His thanks and offer yours to Him
for fifteen minutes twice today. And you
will realize to Whom you offer thanks,
and Whom He thanks as you are thanking Him.
This holy half an hour given Him
will be returned to you in terms of years
for every second; power to save the world
eons more quickly for your thanks to Him.

Receive His thanks, and you will understand
how lovingly He holds you in His Mind,
how deep and limitless His care for you,
how perfect is His gratitude to you.
Remember hourly to think of Him,
and give Him thanks for everything He gave
His Son, that he might rise above the world,
remembering his Father and his Self.

My gratitude enables me to slip into the remembrance of my Father and my True Self.

Thank You, Father.

Pensees

2010-12-04T11:40:00.023-06:00

This morning I made a journal entry, and now this evening I am posting it. I am calling it, Pensees, Thoughts, because that is the name of my online journal. It is a carryover from my college days.

In the summer between my sophomore and junior years at Kalamazoo College, a small liberal arts college in Michigan, I won a Light Scholarship to travel abroad the following year, giving me my junior year to learn a language. I had three choices: French, Spanish, or German. I selected French and studied it intensively that fall, winter, and spring, and attended the University of Caen, in Normandy, for the summer of 1962.

I kept a journal of that incredible summer, and I called it Pensees, inspired by reading Blaise Pascal’s Pensees. In fact, I walked around saying one sentence from his book that I just loved:

Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait pas.

The heart has its reasons that reason cannot know.

I just went a long way to explain the form of this post, expressing my thoughts, a simple journal entry.

* * *

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
W-p1.RevVI.Intro.3:3-5

God created me as an extension of His Thought.

His Thought manifests as consciousness, Mind.

It all comes down to my state of mind.

There are three:

The state of mind where I ally with the ego.

The state of mind where I unite with the Christ in me.

The state of mind where I find myself in between, i.e., the mechanism of decision, deciding between allying with the ego, or uniting with Christ.

It is always a question of where my awareness is, now.

If I am uniting with the Christ, then my awareness is truly now, and in this union I am experiencing peace and joy and truth.

If I am allying with my ego, it is in the past or future, and in this alliance I am experiencing the illusions of disaster and disunity and pain.

If I am in the state of mind, deciding, I am in between, experiencing indecisiveness.

The root meaning of decide comes from the Latin word, decidere, meaning “to cut.” When I decide for union, I cut away from any experience of alliance with the ego; when I decide for alliance, I cut away from any experience of union.

Here is Jesus addressing these decisions in His Text of A Course in Miracles.

What is temptation but a wish to make the wrong decision on what you would learn, and have an outcome that you do not want? The reference for the pronoun “you” is the mechanism of decision.

It is the recognition that it is a state of mind unwanted that becomes the means whereby the choice is reassessed; another outcome seen to be preferred. You are deceived if you believe you want disaster and disunity and pain. The reference for this “you” is the you allied with the ego.

Hear not the call for this within yourself. But listen, rather, to the deeper call beyond it that appeals for peace and joy. And all the world will give you joy and peace. For as you hear, you answer. And behold! Your answer is the proof of what you learned. Its outcome is the world you look upon. (T-31.I.11) This is the “you” united with the Christ.

Thank God that I am not alone in making these decisions. God created the Holy Spirit to be the bridge between pain and peace, whispering to me forgiveness all through the day.

The Holy Spirit mediates between
illusions and the truth. Since He must bridge
the gap between reality and dreams,
perception leads to knowledge through the grace
that God has given Him, to be His gift to
everyone who turns to Him for truth.
Across the bridge that He provides are dreams
all carried to the truth, to be dispelled
before the light of knowledge. There are sights
and sounds forever laid aside. And where
they were perceived before, forgiveness has
made possible perception's tranquil end.
W-pll.7. What is the Holy Spirit? 1

Thank you, God, that I am not alone in making these decisions.

I have this strength in the face of temptation.

What is temptation but a wish to make
the wrong decision on what you would learn,
and have an outcome that you do not want?
It is the recognition that it is
a state of mind unwanted that becomes
the means whereby the choice is reassessed;
another outcome seen to be preferred.
You are deceived if you believe you want
disaster and disunity and pain.
Hear not the call for this within yourself.
But listen, rather, to the deeper call
beyond it that appeals for peace and joy.
And all the world will give you joy and peace.
For as you hear, you answer. And behold!
Your answer is the proof of what you learned.
Its outcome is the world you look upon.
T-31.1.11

Now I see the wisdom of Pascal's quotation, even though I certainly did not see it at the time.

Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait pas.

When I decide to ally with the ego, I am tempted to use reason and logic to maintain my world, my dream, but mon coeur, my heart, my Self, the Christ, is knowledgeable in ways that la raison, reason, cannot know.

And, now, I can declare my decision to follow my heart.

I am God’s Son, complete and healed and whole,
shining in the reflection of His Love.
W-p11.14 Who am I? 1:1

Experiencing the "Sleeping Sickness," and, Simultaneously, the Absolute Clarity of Mind

2010-11-18T16:07:00.019-06:00

For the past couple of weeks, I have found myself sleeping more than being awake during the day. That is, instead of being awake, say 16 hours a day, and sleeping 8, I have been experiencing the reversal. At first, I just called it the “sleeping sickness” and went about my business. Then, I developed a rash on my left side, and my wife, Christine, took one look at it and said, “Go to the doctor!”

Yesterday, the doctor diagnosed my malady as Shingles, explaining that I must have had chicken Pox as a child, and the virus that caused it never left my body, being held in check by my immune system, but when it was compromised, the virus re-erupted as Shingles. She prescribed anti-viral pills that I am to take, 10 per day for 10 days.

The only reason to even mention this is because I am astonished to be walking around physically exhausted, but finding that my Mind is totally clear. My Mind is crisp and clear and clean. For example, I read passages from A Course in Miracles and experience it with complete clarity.

I AM not a body. I AM free.
For I AM still as God created me.
W-p1.Rev.VI.3.3-5

I use I AM to express that I AM God's creation, and my clarity of Mind is my direct experience of my inheritance.

I AM God’s Son, complete and healed and whole,
shining in the reflection of His Love.
W-p11.14.1:1

In fact, right now I am writing this in the middle of my sickness; it is noon, I slept all morning, and now I am having a cup of coffee, writing with a clear head.

When I sit here and look out the window, I AM seeing differently than usual; it is as if I am seeing through all things, seeing a reflection of my Mind. That is, I am not stopping to look at each image, naming it. I would ordinarily mark it, judge it, with the associations of my ego-mind. For example, "This is my bird feeder, carefully protected from squirrels, that damn squirrel just got by the baffle." Instead, it is as if my ego-mind and body are laid aside for a moment, not constantly engaged in making images real. It is as if my body and brain are put on hold because of exhaustion, making way for seeing through.

Just before I started writing this, I read a section from the Text of the Course, entitled “The Anti-Christ.” Here are the first three sentences.

What is an idol? Do you think you know? For idols are unrecognised as such, and never seen for what they really are. That is the only power that they have.
T-29.VIII.1-4

And then I started thinking about exactly what an idol is, knowing it is not referring to movie stars, or the winners of “American Idol.” I looked up the very first reference to “idol” in the Text.

As you can hear two voices, so you can see in two ways. One way shows you an image, or an idol that you may worship out of fear, but will never love.
T-7.V.9:1,2

This is what I was looking for. An idol is simply an image that I have selected from the myriad objects in front of me, like the bird feeder, and in effect, because I selected this one over that one, I tend to worship it.

Of course, this is one of the first things that Jesus teaches us, Lesson 15, My thoughts are images I have made.

The other way shows you only truth, which you will love because what you understand you can identify with, and by making it part of you have accepted it with love. Understanding is appreciation, because what you understand you can identify with, and by making it part of you, you have accepted it with love. That is how God Himself created you; in understanding, in appreciation and in love.
T-7.V.9:3-5

This is what I am experiencing with clarity of mind, truth and understanding and love.

The ego is totally unable to understand this, because it does not understand what it makes, does not appreciate it and does not love it. It incorporates to take away. It literally believes that every time it deprives someone of something, it has increased. I have spoken often of the increase of the Kingdom by your creations, which can only be created as you were. The whole glory and perfect joy that is the Kingdom lies in you to give. Do you not want to give it?
T-7.9:6-11

Yes! I am attempting to give it now, Dear Reader, the joy of the Kingdom that is our inheritance.

And now there comes into my mind a sonnet I remember reading in college by William Wordsworth (1770-1850), It is a beauteous evening, calm and free.

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquility;
The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the Sea;
Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder—everlastingly.
Dear child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,
If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year;
And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not.

The narrator is expressing his clarity of Mind, seeing its reflection as he walks with the child in the evening at sunset.

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration;
the broad sun Is sinking down in its tranquility;

In the next four lines, even the thundering waves crashing on the shore cannot take him out of his clear mind.

The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the Sea;
Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder—everlastingly.

The narrator knows full well that she is a holy child of God, Divine.

Dear child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,
If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year;
And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not.

And Jesus expresses this Divinity in this paragraph from His Text.

Come therefore unto me, and learn of the truth in you. The mind we share is shared by all our brothers, and as we see them truly they will be healed. Let your mind shine with mine upon their minds, and by our gratitude to them make them aware of the light in them. This light will shine back upon you and on the whole Sonship, because this is your proper gift to God. He will accept it and give it to the Sonship, because it is acceptable to Him and therefore to His Sons. This is true communion with the Holy Spirit, Who sees the altar of God in everyone, and by bringing it to your appreciation, He calls upon you to love God and His creation. You can appreciate the Sonship only as one. This is part of the law of creation, and therefore governs all thought.
T-7.V.9:11

There is one last thing I want to try to express about my experience of seeing through, and these words from Jesus in this passage help, Let your mind think with mine. It is as if I am experiencing Christ's presence in my head behind my eyes thinking with me, simply looking through the myriad objects in my view, taking no notice of any one thing, being free, and when we see another, it is direct eye-contact, no bodily image, saying silently, “Namaste,” as Wordsworth's narrator implicitly said to his Dear child, God being with thee when we know it not.

The Casting Director, Remembering, Stops for a Moment, and Says to an Actor, "Namaste."

2010-10-13T11:31:00.019-05:00

I have come to experience, miraculously, through the mind-training of A Course in Miracles the stillness of the peace of God. I have come to know that this experience of stillness is how God created me, how God created you. This is the reference point for declaring that I AM God’s Son.

I AM God’s Son, complete and healed and whole,
Shining in the reflection of His Love.
W-p11.14.What am I? 1:1

I find myself seeing “I Am, ” rather than "I am," ever since coming across this passage in Eckhart Tolle’s book, Stillness Speaks.

Your innermost sense of self, of what you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I AM that is deeper than name and form.
(Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks, (Namaste Publishing, Vancouver, CA, 2003), p. 3.

I AM not a body. I AM free,
For I AM still as God created me.
W-p1.Review VI.3:3-5

The word still carries two meanings, I continue to be, and I AM stillness.

I find myself expressing this most frequently as, I AM in the world and not of the world. It is always a matter of remembering not of and letting go of in, remembering that I AM God’s Son, Light and Love and Peace and Stillness, and letting go of the dream that I made myself a body, seeing through the body’s eyes, using my physical brain to project and then interpret what I see in my dream.

One way I persist in maintaining my dream is to cast my brothers in particular roles in my drama. It is as if I were a casting director facing a stage and behind the curtains are assembled my brothers, the Holy Sons of God. I call them out one-by-one and assign each of them roles, garb them in costumes and give them lines to speak, forgetting that a moment ago they were standing behind the curtain as God created them, forgetting that I am assigning them roles in my dream, making them characters as I would have them be and responding to them as if they were on a stage outside of my mind. When all the time, I am only seeing what I fashioned in the first place inside my mind.

Casting our brothers to play certain roles happens so rapidly that we are usually unaware that we are doing it; it just seems to be the way things are. An image appears and we deal with it, forgetting that we projected the image “out there” with a thought. These projections happen unconsciously.

They seem unconscious but because of the rapidity with which you choose to use them. W-p1.136.3:3

We make a choice each time we “look out” and see one of our projections. We choose between seeing through the body’s eyes, or through the eyes of Christ. We choose to see our brother as a body, or as the face of Christ.

I want to slow down this automatic, unconscious, rapid process of casting our brothers to play certain roles, and what comes to mind is Hamlet’s advice to his players. Just imagine that you were to stop for a moment and give each brother you assign a role his or her instructions. Be Hamlet for a moment and say to each actor in your drama:

Speak the speech I pray you as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. . . Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. . . Go make you ready.
Hamlet.3.2:1-36

Perhaps, this will slow us down a bit, pretending that we take time to instruct each player in our drama to play his part as we are assigning it as he steps from behind the curtain.

It is always a case of remembering that I am walking around in a play, a drama, of my own making. While all the time, I AM home in Heaven with my Father. I AM in this world and not of it, and my stay here on this worldly stage is temporary.

It is a delicate balance, this remembering and forgetting, because it is not a matter of either/or, it is both; it is the simultaneity of stepping into time and space from out of time, and while I AM walking around, remembering my true Home.

When I experience the stillness of I AM, it is a holy instant, and what I then see in the world is a clear reflection of what is in my healed mind.

Come to the holy instant and be healed,
for nothing that is there received is left
behind on your returning to the world.
And being blessed you will bring blessing. Life
is given you to give the dying world.
And suffering eyes no longer will accuse,
but shine in thanks to you who blessing gave.
The holy instant's radiance will light
your eyes, and give them sight to see beyond
all suffering and see Christ's face instead.
Healing replaces suffering. Who looks
on one cannot perceive the other, for
they cannot both be there. And what you see
the world will witness, and will witness to.
T-27.V.6

And, if I think for a moment that a brother does not appreciate something I did, or said, I say to myself, before casting him as a villain,

It does not matter if another thinks
your gifts unworthy. In his mind there is
a part that joins with yours in thanking you.
W-pI.197.4:1,2

Or, I look into a brother’s eyes, no matter the role I assigned to him, and say, silently, “Namaste, the Christ in me greets the Christ in you.” And in that moment, I fully remember that I AM not of this world.

There is a way of living in the world
that is not here, although it seems to be.
You do not change appearance, though you smile
more frequently. Your forehead is serene;
your eyes are quiet. And the ones who walk
the world as you do recognize their own.
W-pI.155.1:1-4

And here’s Shakespeare, again.

Jacques: All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances.
As You Like It, 2. 7. 139-167

May I be aware that I am totally responsible for all my players, their entrances and their exits, as I tell them now, Go make you ready.

Bringing Into Application Presuming God and Being Glad!

2010-09-18T10:53:00.024-05:00

(The title, of course, refers to the preceding blog post).

When I write an essay and post it as a blog, I am, of course, only doing it for myself. These essays often take several weeks to complete, after receiving the initial inspiration. Before, during and after writing one, I find myself bringing its central idea into application during the day, and by the way, “application” is the heart of Michael Brown’s 2010 New Year Letter: Sparkling Through Application. He makes it clear in his Letter what is very apparent to me, personally, and to the people around me and what is happening in the world, that this year is a very difficult year, but he assures us that towards the end of the year we will experience a great deal of light, much like moving through the night towards dawn.

Remember that as we move through the last moments of dawn toward the sunrise, there is great propensity for unconsciousness. It is important we remember this, realize the implications, and behave accordingly. Therefore, application, application, application.
(Michael Brown, p. 9)

From moment to moment, I am asking for help to come into alignment with my true Self, no matter what appears to be going on in my dream. I am trying to remember to practice presuming God. It is always a matter of remembering and forgetting, moment to moment.

As I expressed in my preceding post, I am determined to be aware of where my awareness is. That is, I am aware of being either the mechanism of decision, i.e., in transition from seeing through the body’s eyes (separation), allying with the ego, or seeing through the eyes of Christ, uniting with my true Self (healing).

Healing is the way in which the separation is overcome. Separation is overcome by union. It cannot be overcome by separating. The decision to unite must be unequivocal, or the mind itself is divided and not whole. Your mind is the means by which you determine your own condition, because mind is the mechanism of decision. It is the power by which you separate or join, and experience pain or joy accordingly. T-8.IV.5:3-8

This is why we are all powerful; we have the power to decide between Heaven or hell.

If I decide to see through my body’s eyes, I am walking around in time and space in fear, making my own hell.

Is it not evident that what the body's eyes perceive fills you with fear? Perhaps you think you find a hope of satisfaction there. Perhaps you fancy to attain some peace and satisfaction in the world as you perceive it. Yet it must be evident the outcome does not change. Despite your hopes and fancies, always does despair result. And there is no exception, nor will there ever be. The only value that the past can hold is that you learn it gave you no rewards which you would want to keep. For only thus will you be willing to relinquish it, and have it gone forever. T-25.II.1

If I decide to see through the eyes of Christ, my true Identity, I am experiencing timelessness and love, having forgiven what I saw through the body’s eyes.

My Self is holy beyond all the thoughts
of holiness of which I now conceive.
Its shimmering and perfect purity
is far more brilliant than is any light
that I have ever looked upon. Its love
is limitless, with an intensity
that holds all things within it, in the calm
of quiet certainty. Its strength comes not
from burning impulses which move the world,
but from the boundless Love of God Himself.
How far beyond this world my Self must be,
and yet how near to me and close to God!

Father, You know my true Identity.
Reveal It now to me who am Your Son,
that I may waken to the truth in You,
and know that Heaven is restored to me.
W-p11.252

Jesus expresses exactly how we get the results of our decisions in a variety of ways:
1) Specialness, 2) hostage to the ego, or Host to God, and 3) self-concept vs Self.

1. Specialness

When consciousness is allied with the ego, seeing through the body’s eyes, it faces the enormous task of defending this decision. It does this by seeing itself as special.

Specialness is the great dictator of the wrong decisions. Here is the grand illusion of what you are and what your brother is. And here is what must make the body dear and worth preserving. Specialness must be defended. T-24.I.5:1-4

This is the primary motivation for attacking your brother. The worse you see him, the better you are. It is always a matter of one-up-man ship; if I can see my brother as “down,” then I can see myself as “up.” This is a classic mistake in the dream.

For what your brother must become to keep your specialness is an illusion. He who is 'worse' than you must be attacked, so that your specialness can live on his defeat. For specialness is triumph, and its victory is his defeat and shame. How can he live, with all your sins upon him? And who must be his conqueror but you? T-24.I:6-10

Just after writing this section on Specialness, I stopped writing for the day and began reading the newspaper, and much to my surprise and delight, I came across this cartoon.

The regular font “I’s attack the italicized “I” who is different.

When I showed it to my wife, Christine, who did not know what I had just been writing about, she said, “They attack him because they think he’s special.”

Thank God that all is not lost because we engage in games of Specialness. The Holy Spirit can use these special situations as a means for correction.

The specialness he chose to hurt himself did God appoint to be the means for his salvation, from the very instant that the choice was made. His special sin was made his special grace. His special hate became his special love. T-25.VI.6:6-8

When I decide to ally with the ego, I create sons as my Father created me, but my son is a child of earth, a parody of god’s creation, and I am very protective of his specialness.

How bitterly does everyone tied to this world defend the specialness he wants to be the truth! No effort is too great, no cost too much, no price too dear to save his specialness from the least slight, the tiniest attack, the whispered doubt, the hint of threat, or anything but deepest reverence. This is your son, beloved of you as you are to your Father. Yet it stands in place of your creations, who are son to you, that you might share the Fatherhood of God, not snatch it from Him. What is this son that you have made to be your strength? What is this child of earth on whom such love is lavished? What is this parody of God's creation that takes the place of yours? And where are they, now that the host of God has found another son whom he prefers to them?T-24.VII.1

2. Hostage to the ego, or host of God

This is another way that Jesus expresses that we get the results of our decisions. When I decide to engage in one-up-man ship, I am, as the mechanism of decision, held hostage to the ego in time; when I decide to forgive these thoughts, I am hosting God, and this is my salvation.

I asked you earlier, 'Would you be hostage to the ego or host to God'? Let this question be asked you by the Holy Spirit every time you make a decision. For every decision you make does answer this, and invites sorrow or joy accordingly. When God gave Himself to you in your creation, He established you as host to Him forever. He has not left you, and you have not left Him. All your attempts to deny His magnitude, and make His Son hostage to the ego, cannot make little whom God has joined with Him. Every decision you make is for Heaven or for hell, and brings you the awareness of what you decided for. T-15.III.5

3. Self-concept vs Self

Finally, Jesus expresses specialness and salvation in another way—self- concept versus Self. As we have seen, our self-concept seems to be a hard-won sense of ourselves, a personality that we molded through years of seeming victories and defeats. Our self-concept is what we are expressing each time we use the pronoun “I,” and we steadfastly defend it against other “I’s” around us, thereby preventing us from knowing the truth, our true Self.

The concept of the self stands like a shield,
a silent barricade before the truth,
and hides it from your sight. All things you see
are images, because you look on them
as through a barrier that dims your sight
and warps your vision, so that you behold
nothing with clarity. The light is kept
from everything you see. At most, you glimpse
a shadow of what lies beyond. At least,
you merely look on darkness, and perceive
the terrified imaginings that come
from guilty thoughts and concepts born of fear.
And what you see is hell, for fear is hell.
T-31.VII.7:1-6

This is a result of the mechanism of decision allying with the ego, forming the self-concept. This prevents the awareness of the true alternative, uniting with the Self.

You are one Self, in perfect harmony
with all there is, and all that there will be.
You are one Self, the holy Son of God,
united with your brothers in that Self;
united with your Father in His Will.
Feel this one Self in you, and let it shine
away all your illusions and your doubts.
This is your Self, the Son of God Himself,
sinless as its Creator, with His strength
within you and His Love forever yours.
W-p1.95.13:1-4

By becoming aware of your Self, your alliance with the ego is shined away.

Now, Dear Reader, I invite you to sit back, breathe in and breathe out, and decide to experience the peace of God.

I am going to end by emphasizing that we have all power in Heaven and earth as decision makers. We must not take this power lightly, or actually we should, if we take it to mean going towards the Light. We share this power with Jesus, and here He expresses His equality with us.

My mind will always be like yours, because we were created as equals. It was only my decision that gave me all power in Heaven and earth. My only gift to you is to help you make the same decision. This decision is the choice to share it, because the decision itself is the decision to share. It is made by giving, and is therefore the one choice that resembles true creation. I am your model for decision. By deciding for God I showed you that this decision can be made, and that you can make it. T-5.II.9

If you wish to read Michael Brown's New Year Letter in its entirety, please click here.

Presuming God and Being Glad!

2010-08-28T11:44:00.030-05:00

In John 16, Jesus says,

Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. 19,20

There is no doubt, of course, that He is in complete alignment, His mind is linked to God and to your Christ mind.

Now, two thousand years later in His Course in Miracles, Jesus has us practice being aware of this alignment by doing the Lessons, and here is an example, Lesson 237, Now would I be as God created me.

Christ is my eyes today, and He the ears
that listen to the Voice for God today.
Father, I come to You through Him Who is
Your Son, and my true Self as well. Amen.

In Matthew 5, Jesus says,

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. 48

Being perfect has nothing to do with right or wrong, but simply being aware of your Oneness with God, your alignment, extending the love that you are; your perfection is guaranteed by God, and by receiving it, you can give it away, for giving is receiving.

In His Course, Jesus gives us this Lesson, today’s Lesson 225, in fact, God is my Father, and His Son loves Him.

Father, I must return Your Love for me,
for giving and receiving are the same,
and You have given all Your Love to me.
I must return it, for I want it mine
in full awareness, blazing in my mind
and keeping it within its kindly light,
inviolate, beloved, with fear behind
and only peace ahead. How still the way
Your loving Son is led along to You!

In this passage, the reader is also given an opportunity to practice alignment; we need the practice because we are usually, habitually, naturally, normally, out of alignment.

Father, I must return your Love for me.

Must is used, not because it is an obligation, not because I will be punished if I don’t, but I must, I want, to return God’s love for me in order to be in the experience I have always avoided, experiencing the love and peace of God. It is a practice because it is an unnatural experience, although, in reality, this aligning connection is the only natural experience there is. Alignment is experiencing the peace of God, now, completely abstracted from what I seem to be looking at, specifically, in time and space.

Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. W-p1.161.2:1

However, we continue to experience things unnaturally because we separated from the aligning consciousness, and formed a separate “I.” We grew up making a little “I” separate from the part of us aligned with God. That this resulted in a false world of our own making is a well-kept secret. The little, limited “I,” the ego, is a disguised form of “I” aligned with God.

To this point, two referents for “I” have been defined: the “I” aligned with the Self, seeing with the eyes of Christ, and the “I” allied with the ego, seeing with the body’s eyes, separated from God.

Throughout His Course, Jesus addresses the third “I,” the mechanism of decision; this is the part of the mind that decides between separation and union. Jesus know full well that this decision is ours to make because we are free to choose.

Separation is overcome by union. It cannot be overcome by separating. The decision to unite must be unequivocal, or the mind itself is divided and not whole. Your mind is the means by which you determine your own condition, because mind is the mechanism of decision. It is the power by which you separate or join, and experience pain or joy accordingly. T-8.IV.5

In summary, while reading His Course, I want to be vigilant to the three possible referents for “I.”

THE MECHANISM OF DECISION

THE BODY'S EYES

THE EYES OF CHRIST

When the “I” as the mechanism of decision, decides to see through the body’s eyes, it allies with the ego; when this “I” decides to see through the eyes of Christ, it unites with God.

These are states of mind, of course, and I like a term a friend of mine used the other day for the mechanism of decision, “the transition state.” When we are in the state of mind of deciding, we are in transition from one state to another, either moving from fear to love, or from love to fear; it is our decision, moment to moment.

“Decision” comes from the Latin, decidere, meaning to “cut off.” When “I” decide to ally with the body’s eyes, awareness of union with the true Self is automatically cut off; when “I” decide to unite with the true Self, awareness of alliance with the false self is automatically cut off. It is always either/or, no compromise. By uniting with the Self, “I” will to align with God’s Will.

Nothing God created can oppose your decision, as nothing God created can oppose His Will. God gave your will its power, which I can only acknowledge in honour of His. If you want to be like me I will help you, knowing that we are alike. If you want to be different, I will wait until you change your mind. I can teach you, but only you can choose to listen to my teaching. T-8.IV.6:1-5

One way I have learned to listen to His teaching is to pay close attention to each pronoun and its reference in His Course. And I find His Review of the first 50 lessons to be very helpful in this respect. For example, in the title to Lesson 1, Nothing I see means anything, the referent for “I” certainly is not the “I” united with the true Self. It is a reference to the false “I,” the ego seeing through the body’s eyes, and what they see in time and space is not real.

In Lesson 13, the referent for “I” is an example of a part of the mind that decides, that chooses, the mechanism of decision.

But such a world is not real. I have given it the illusion of reality, and have suffered from my belief in it. Now I choose to withdraw this belief, and place my trust in reality. In choosing this, I will escape all the effects of the world of fear, because I am acknowledging that it does not exist. 13

The reference for “I” in the following passage from Lesson 36 is the “I” joined with the Christ within, seeing with His vision.

Seen through understanding eyes, the holiness of the world is all I see, for I can picture only the thoughts I hold about myself. 36

And here are the three referents for "I" are expressed in this particular paragraph in the Text.

The Christ in you is very still. He looks on what He loves, and knows it as Himself. And thus does He rejoice at what He sees, because He knows that it is one with Him and with His Father. (the eyes of Christ) Specialness, too, takes joy in what it sees, although it is not true. (the body's eyes) Yet what you seek for is a source of joy as you conceive it. What you wish is true for you. Nor is it possible that you can wish for something and lack faith that it is so. Wishing makes real, as surely as does will create. (the mechanism of decision) The power of a wish upholds illusions (the body's eyes) as strongly as does love extend itself. (the eyes of Christ) Except that one deludes; (body's eyes) the other heals. (the eyes of Christ) T-24.V.1

I offer the following as an opportunity to practice becoming aware of the three referents to “I” in the Review of the first 50 Lessons, remembering Jesus saying, I can teach you, but only you can choose to listen to my teaching.

I went through the lessons and grouped sentences into the following three categories:

THE BODY’S EYES

Nothing I See Means Anything. The reason this is so is that I see nothing, and nothing has no meaning. 1 (The number after each sentence, below, simply refers to the Lesson in the Review in which it occurs.)

I have judged everything I look upon, and it is this and only this I see. 2

What I see is the projection of my own errors of thought. 3

If I see nothing as it is now, it can truly be said that I see nothing. 9

Since the thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything, the world that pictures them can have no meaning. 11

THE MECHANISM OF DECISION

I am willing to recognize the lack of validity in my judgments, because I want to see. 2

I choose to have my meaningless thoughts be replaced by what they were intended to replace. 4

When I have forgiven myself and remembered Who I am, I will bless everyone and everything I see. 7

Now I would choose again, that I may see. 9

Would I not rather join the thinking of the universe than to obscure all that is really mine with my pitiful and meaningless “private” thoughts? 10

I can therefore see a real world, if I look to my real thoughts as my guide for seeing. 11

I am grateful that this world is not real, and that I need not see it at all unless I choose to value it. 12

Now I choose to withdraw this belief in the illusion of reality, and place my trust in reality. 13

Why should I continue to suffer from the effects of my own insane thoughts, when the perfection of creation is my home? Let me remember the power of my decision, and recognize where I really abide. 14

It is illusions I choose when I try to see through the body’s eyes. Yet the vision of Christ has been given me to replace them. It is through this vision that I choose to see. 43

THE EYES OF CHRIST

I can see only what is now. 9

But God has kept my inheritance safe for me. My own real thoughts will teach me what it is. 26

From my holiness does the perception of the real world come. 36

Seen through understanding eyes, the holiness of the world is all I see, for I can picture only the thoughts I hold about myself. 36

As I recognize my holiness, so does the holiness of the world shine forth for everyone to see. 37

I am blessed as a Son of God. 40

My Father supports me, protects me, and directs me in all things. His care for me is infinite, and is with me forever. 40

I am perfect because God goes with me wherever I go. 41

I am walking steadily on toward truth. There is nowhere else I can go, because God’s Voice is the only voice and the only guide that has been given to His Son. 49

And now we come to the title of this essay, Presume God and Be Glad! “Presume” comes from the Latin, praesumere, meaning “to take beforehand, to take for granted.” When I ask for help to be in alignment with God, then whatever occurs in time and space can be looked through, or as Jesus often says in the Course, overlooked, in effect, cut out, and the result is gladdening.

This morning I had this experience, and as I come to the end of writing this, I will express it this way.

I was sitting there, saying to myself, there is only this moment, and right now I am experiencing the peace of God.

(This expresses “I” uniting with my true Self.)

And then I experienced a situation with a brother that triggered negative thoughts.

(With incredible rapidity, “I” cut away from union to separation, allying with my false self, seeing through the body's eyes)

And then “I” (the mechanism of decision) stood still for a moment, and said to myself, “These thoughts are based on my conditioning, imprinting, and “I” (the mechanism of decision) am asking for help to let them go.”

(Soon, “I” was experiencing the peace of God, alignment, seeing with the eyes of Christ.)

And then I read again, listening to Jesus teaching me, the first sentence of today’s Lesson, 235, God in His mercy wills that I be saved.

I need but look upon all things that seem
to hurt me, and with perfect certainty
assure myself, "God wills that I be saved
from this," and merely watch them disappear.

* * *

Yesterday, I was caught in the act of presuming God and being extremely glad. Beth, our little neighbor, seven-years old, lovely and loving, was sitting on our deck with Christine and me on a beautiful late-summer afternoon, eating cookies and drinking juice, chattering away in her child’s innocence about her sisters and her cat, Jingles, and her new teacher and television programs and her Dad taking her for ice cream, and then she looks at me and says, “You’re doing it again.”

I said, “Doing what?”

She said, “That look in your eyes.”

I said, “What look?”

Then she stood up in right in front of me, her hands on her hips, and looking directly into my eyes, she said, “This one,” slightly staring and widening her eyes,” mirroring for me my expression of an easy, peaceful feeling, and I experienced that giving is receiving.

I realized that while she was talking, I would occasionally look up, gazing at the leaves in the high branches canopying our yard, watching the play of light and shadows of the leaves moving in the soft breeze, feeling the peace of God, seeing the reflection of the eyes of Christ, presuming God. Her gift to me was the recognition that what I was experiencing was being communicated through me to all that I looked upon, and I was exceedingly glad!

Being With Mighty Companions is a Tricky Endeavor

2010-07-15T11:34:00.029-05:00

In His Course in Miracles, Jesus notes that as we walk the earth, we go with mighty companions beside us. (M-4.1.A.6:11) And this phrase is just right because we are joined with our brothers on this incredible mission of waking from the dream and coming into the experience of being in the world and not of the world.

Waking up from the dream means knowing there is no world and that we are as God created us, realizing that we habitually make up a world with our body’s eyes and brain and stubbornly persist in thinking that seeing is believing. Just yesterday, I came across a children’s book that explains how easily we are duped into believing that what our eyes see is the truth, describing how the eye sees.

Your eyes work by taking pictures of the world and sending them to your brain. Light from an object passes through the lens in the middle of your eye. The lens focuses the light onto the retina at the back of the eye. The retina changes light patterns into signals that it sends to the brain. The brain changes the signals into a picture to tell you what your eyes are seeing.
(Louise Spilsbury, Knowledge: How? Why? Where? When? London: Tall Tree Limited, 2007, p. 106.)

Such simplicity. The brain, an organ that has no source in reality, is constantly telling you what your eyes are seeing. Hmmm. Nothing I see means anything. (Lesson 1)

Here is one way that Jesus expresses it in His Course.

The brain interprets to the body, of which it is a part. But what it says you cannot understand. Yet you have listened to it. And long and hard you tried to understand its messages. T-22.I.2:9-12

Through the Course, we come to learn that physical sight is not so because, in truth, we can see only with vision, seeing through the eyes of Christ, experiencing the reflection of our True Identity as the holy Son of God.

Only your vision can convey to you what you can see. It reaches you directly, without a need to be interpreted to you. What needs interpretation must be alien. T-22.I.6:4-6

This is where our mighty companions come in. We join in this vision; we look at each other and say with our eyes, “Namaste,” the Christ in me greets the Christ in you, experiencing a warm-honey feeling in our stomachs.

And our mighty companions fulfill another function, just as important. My brother does or says something that totally upsets me. This can be seen as a great opportunity, if I use it right. If I can realize quickly enough that s/he is triggering an emotion based on my particular imprinting, I can utilize it. If I can see this behavior as a message triggering my experiences at an early age, then I can dismiss my brother as the messenger, and learn more about myself, looking at the message, feeling the emotion, and asking for help to let it go, coming into the realization that there is nothing outside of myself that can cause me pain or pleasure. It's always only my thoughts.

Here is an example, perhaps crude but real. When I was seven or eight years old, my dad took me to a shop, where a man, Bob Harsh, made bows and arrows. I was so excited to walk out of his shop with a custom-made bow and six arrows. My dad set up for me in our backyard a bail of straw with a paper target, and every day I spent hours learning to shoot my bow.

I would often lose arrows in the deep grass in the backyard, and one day, my neighbor, my “buddy,” Dick, said, smiling, “Here’s an arrow I found,” and I happily grabbed it by the end, only to find that he had smeared it in dog shit that was encrusting my palm, as he laughed heartily.

I felt humiliation and anger and scorn. To this day, I don’t like tricks to be played on me, and I tend not to play tricks on other people.

Some time ago, my wife, Christine, truly my mighty companion, pulled an elaborate trick on me. On my birthday the idea was to go out for dinner and then go to a play. After dinner, she looked into her purse and said, “I forgot the tickets.” We hurried home, went inside, and walking down the hallway, we heard a sound from the basement, glass breaking. My adrenaline hit, and I slowly walked down the stairs, assuming a karate posture, right hand in a fist, drawn back, left hand in front of my stomach to ward off an attack, my knees bent.

When I was half-way down the stairs, a group of family and friends who had assembled while we were at dinner yelled, “Happy Birthday!” And I yelled, “Fuck you!” The ancient imprinting of being tricked was triggered, and I felt humiliation and anger and scorn, especially since I was walking down the stairs as if I were a Kung Fu fighter.

This is just one example of a myriad of things that I must have experienced early on that imprinted deeply in my mind and trigger emotions in me today. I continued, unconsciously, to allow external events to trigger emotions, not realizing that I was the cause, preventing me from experiencing peace of mind. The key is to learn to take full responsibility for my reactions, and dismiss the messengers as quickly as possible, my mighty companions.

And so in each moment, I am seeing my brother, either through the body’s eyes, as the brain interprets based on the past, or through the vision of Christ; I crucify myself, or I resurrect; I ma miserable, or at peace; it is always my choice. I am totally responsible; I am not a victim of the world I see. (Lesson 31)

This is the only thing that you need do for vision, happiness, release from pain and the complete escape from sin, all to be given you. Say only this, but mean it with no reservations, for here the power of salvation lies:

I am responsible for what I see.
I choose the feelings I experience,
and I decide upon the goal I would achieve.
And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for,
and receive as I have asked.

Deceive yourself no longer that you are helpless in the face of what is done to you. Acknowledge but that you have been mistaken, and all effects of your mistakes will disappear. T-21.II.2

To make a mistake means, literally, "to take an error as true," and error comes from the Latin, errorem, meaning “to wander, go astray.” I am totally responsible for wandering from vision to physical sight based on past shit, and I can always ask for help to get back on the mark.

And this brings me back to my bow and arrow. On the mark is an archery term that comes from Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. When an archer fired at a target and missed the bull's eye, the scorekeeper yelled "khata," sin, meaning that the archer was off the mark. He is simply giving him information, giving him helpful feedback.

When the scorekeeper pulled out the arrow, he yelled "bisha," evil, simply indicating exactly where the arrow landed in reference to the bull's eye, telling the archer how far he was off the mark, helpful information enabling him to make a correction, to correct his error, so that he can be on the mark with his next shot.

Sin and evil took on quite different meanings over time, while the original meaning is simply helpful information that enables me to make a slight correction from seeing with the body's eyes to seeing with vision.

Sin is a block, set like a heavy gate, locked and without a key, across the road to peace. No one who looks on it without the help of reason would try to pass it. The body's eyes behold it as solid granite, so thick it would be madness to attempt to pass it. Yet reason sees through it easily, because it is an error. (T-22.III.2-5) Everything the body's eyes can see is a mistake, an error in perception, a distorted fragment of the whole without the meaning that the whole would give. And yet mistakes, regardless of their form, can be corrected. Sin is but error in a special form the ego venerates. It would preserve all errors and make them sins. (T-22.III.4:3-6)

And here is the function of the Holy Spirit, the great Corrector.

My present happiness is all I see.

Unless I look upon what is not there,
my present happiness is all I see.
Eyes that begin to open see at last.
And I would have Christ's vision come to me
this very day. What I perceive without
God's Own Correction for the sight I made
is frightening and painful to behold.
Yet I would not allow my mind to be
deceived by the belief the dream I made
is real an instant longer. This the day
I seek my present happiness, and look
on nothing else except the thing I seek.

With this resolve I come to You, and ask
Your strength to hold me up today, while I
but seek to do Your Will. You cannot fail
to hear me, Father. What I ask have You
already given me. And I am sure
that I will see my happiness today.
W-p11.290

This makes it pretty simple because I have already been given what I ask for.

Finally, to keep it real holy, holding a grievance against a brother is like focusing on the spot of bird shit on the windshield, rather than taking in the magnificent view.