“For if you believe that we are proceeding to some predetermined ideal state, we will not succeed in the work we are doing here together. If you believe this, you will not accept your Self as you are. If you do not accept your Self as you are, you will not move from image to presence. If you do not move from image to presence you will never realize your freedom. If you do not realize your freedom, you will not realize your power. (A Course of Love: Dialogues, p. 142)”
Affirmation: “Help me to understand that I am not to proceed to an ideal through the ego, but must accept the Self as it is now without ego.”
Reflections:
This passage emphasizes the fact that we have been trying, through the past time of learning, to build an ideal self, which we believe would then express. But we want to express our Self without the goals of the forsaken ego, without trying to be other than what we really are. It is in our expression of our freedom to be as we really are that we express our Self, the elevated self of form.
We are encouraged to express ourselves on this Day Nine in any way that feels appropriate–laugh, cry, shout, wail, dance, sing, and so forth. Any way is alright. All are blessings of the time of the coming Christ-consciousness. We are taught not to place any faith in our inaccurate notion of an ideal self, because this fiction was of the time of the ego, the time of learning. We are all different, and diversity in this world is a gift of God. We are meant to give up this fiction of an ideal self, or else we will not be able to express our real Self. We will not accept ourselves just as we really are, and that acceptance is what is called for.
We are not like the young child that we once were–the young child who felt free to express himself or herself in a carefree manner. Freedom of expression has become diminished in ourselves, and we must welcome it back if we are to move forward. We must debunk the fiction of an ideal self, and realize that this was only an idol, now an idol that we would leave behind. We will achieve confidence to express our real Self when we leave this false image of an ideal self behind.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
Help me to accept myself without the ego. Be with me as I relax into the “play” that Jesus suggests for this day. I know that only through consciousness of You will I have the presence of mind to be at ease.
Thank You for these many words of Jesus. He is my guide, and I am very grateful.
Amen.
ACIM Workbook Lesson for Day 102:
I share God’s Will for happiness for me.
Mari Perron
/ April 15, 2010I so appreciate your prayer to be at ease.
I’ve always loved this day when Jesus brings up the issue of personal confidence. Paraphrasing he asks, What good will unity do you when you have no confidence with which to express it? I’ve loved it because I have lacked confidence and needed this encouragement to discover it in myself. It is part of the way to ease that so often gets overlooked. This chapter conclues this way:
“Unity and your access to unity will be your certainty. Trust in your own abilities — the abilities of the self of form joined with the Self of union — will be your confidence. Only these combined abilities will release your power.”
What a definition of confidence: Trust in the abilities of the self of form joined with the Self of union.
celiaelaine
/ April 18, 2010Dear Mari,
Nothing in “A Course in Miracles” suggested the good blessings of being an elevated Self of form. That is one of the pivotal blessings of “A Course of Love.” How do we do this? How can we make this transition?
I have noticed that so many readers of “A Course of Love” repeat the 40 Days and 40 Nights because they, perhaps, have not “gotten” the message herein. But Jesus, early on, stipulates that it is not his desire that we travel to the mountain top repeatedly, though we are free to do so if we desire. But he would not have it so.
I think that Jesus wants us to accept enlightenment sooner rather than later by accepting that we do not have to be perfect to reach this state. This idea suggests that perhaps we are asking for perfection by repeatedly going to the mountain top, when Jesus does not demand this of us. He wants us only to feel ready to accept the elevated Self of form. Nothing more. He says repeatedly in “A Course of Love” that we are ready.
Maybe we need to tell this to ourselves. It seems too good to be true. Perhaps it isn’t.
Love, Celia
Mari Perron
/ April 19, 2010Oh yes, Celia, so many of us are ready “on the inside.” I believe that is so, so true. It is in combining our inner readiness with an outer readiness — all this stuff about expressing and confidence — the changes we may (or may not) be called to make, that I find my outer readiness and that of many people I talk to, lagging behind the inner.
We are ready. We’ve been prepared. Jesus talks quite a bit about that prior to the 40 Days. I feel as if, in some of these days, he addresses those ways in which our inner readiness doesn’t find ways to flow through into expression. He’s not saying we’re not ready, or perfect as we are, but that we’ve got a few things going on that can halt us, or keep us at maintenance. There’s that quote I posted a few Days back where Jesus speaks of the urgency of becoming aware of our changed state. This awareness sometimes hinges on our personal lives and being able to live them sanely and in a way appropriately matched to our inner state. Sort of like the stress you mentioned a few posts back and how you never get angry if you’re not stressed. I feel this is part of Jesus’ acceptance of us — that we may need some time to rid ourselves of our stress, or to slow down, or to build our confidence. It reads to me like acceptance to know ourselves in unity and yet to still respond to this urging toward awareness, expression and sustenance.
It reminds of a quote that I think is attributed to Ram Dass: “If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your family.”
In the midst of “living with your family” or a busy work life or any of the many trying situations people face, people “return” for encouragement and solace and hope and uplifting. To calm down or to return to center. I feel the idea is more one of not returning as an escape or as if the journey is a way to be studied or a path. He wants us not only to accept the elevated Self of form but to be it in observable ways. “Doing the days” many times is not to be substituted for moving forward, but I’d see returning as needed as an acceptance of help in doing so.