Brought to Us by the Holy Spirit

“Never judge what you see, what you feel, or the thought that arises.  There are many dimensions of creation, many forms of life, and many ways in which experience is created.  Do not judge what you see, what you think, or what you feel.  But hold it as an object that has been brought to you by the Holy Spirit who is asking you, as Christ, to bring the healing of blessing to it.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 18, Page 224)

Note:  I am putting together an article/blog posting on first-person accounts of de-materialization/re-materialization.  This, after a number of such incidents in my life over a two- to three-year period.  Please reply to halescelia@yahoo.com if you have something to report from your life.  I will keep your accounts anonymous.  Thank you, and love, Celia

Embrace Past Difficulties with Love

“Beloved friends, looking backwards into time, into your seemingly personal experience can seem horrifying.  Yet I say unto you, the sense of horror that many of you feel is not linked to the memories themselves.  It is only linked to what you have decided to believe about the memory, and nothing else.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 18, Page 222)

We are frightened not by our past, but by our interpretation of the past. It is all thought of the mind, and our feelings come into play from our thoughts.

We can scare ourselves by revisiting the past at any time. But why would we do that? Why not let dead dogs lie? Contrary to much popular psychology, reliving the past doesn’t clear our minds so that we are happier; reliving the past only embroils us in turmoil, making the problems and difficulties of the past seem real in the present.

There is a better way. Transmute the difficulties of the past by embracing the negativity with a big bear hug. Keep our arms wide open, but don’t use the mind like a laser that would focus on those difficulties. If we focus, we make those difficulties “real” again, though we know that we are only living a dream. If we focus, we magnify the difficulties.

Be gentle with ourselves. Just embrace, forgive, let love do its powerful work of eliminating the sting of bad times of the past.

The past is over, and reliving it does not ensure that difficulties, even the same difficulties, will not arise again. But we will be better able to handle the problem now when we have loved away the past trauma.

Let God Have His Way with Us

“Creation waits upon your welcome by merely holding the thought within your mind, ‘All right, it’s all arising within me anyway.  I’ve tried in a million ways to avoid it and get away from it, and yet it seems to follow me wherever I go.    (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 18, Page 221)

“Creation” is another word for God. He creates, and we appreciate His creation. We must always recognize that we did not create ourselves, something we are apt to forget when we are being particularly egotistical.

God has been called the “hound” of Heaven. He patiently pursues us through millennia, but He does not force His hand upon us. He waits patiently, for He knows that we will eventually realize, as Bill and Helen of A Course in Miracles did, that there is “another way.” And we might add, a “better way.”

We need to welcome divinity into our lives. Of course, here I am speaking to the choir, in that all of you who view my blog are already open to the spiritual life.

Know that we can do much in the world by simply “being,” letting God have His way with us.

Ask! The Only Thing to Do if Uncertain

“Before you choose to do anything, ask me if your choice is in accord with mine.  If you are sure that it I, there will be no fear.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-2.VI.4)

Of course!  Here Jesus is speaking before he has introduced us sufficiently to the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  He wants us to imagine asking him if any given action is in accord with wishes that he would have.  Is the action loving?  Is it kind?  Is it free of attack?  Questions such as these will put us on the right track.

By what right does Jesus ask us to consider his wishes in regard to any action we take?  He is in charge of the Sonship, and he is attuned to the miracle-mindedness and the revelation-readiness of all of us.  He is our leader, our teacher, our guide.  And so it is not foreign to consider his wishes when we want to make good decisions.

What a lovely way to rid ourselves of fear!  We need only be sure that our choices are in accord with what Jesus would want.  Can we be assured of ridding ourselves of fear if we do this?  Jesus says so, and his word is enough for me, for I believe that he did indeed channel A Course in Miracles.  And I do believe that he is in charge of the Sonship.  So my course is clear:  I will ask, internally, what I think Jesus would do, and I will take this guidance as my own.

Many people in traditional Christian faith have recommended that individuals ask, “What would Jesus do?,” when confronted with any dilemma.  The words of A Course in Miracles here suggest something very similar.  It is words like this that puts ACIM in direct lineage from the Bible.

Never fear that Jesus will give us something more to worry about, if we get the indication that what we are about to do is out of line with what Jesus would wish.   He is a gentle teacher, and he always means us well.  He will not to anything to raise our anxiety level, and therefore our fear (and our worry). 

So ask when confronted with dilemmas.  Imagine what Jesus would say.  And we will be well-guided.  Depend on it.

Quiet Soul

“Quiet your soul now and close your eyes.  Leave everything aside.  Open your heart and in the serenity of the self.  Receive the grace of being aware of the Christ that you are and have always been.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 9:II

When we sense that we are Christ—we ourselves as well as Jesus—we don’t have any worries.  We know that the power that was in him is in us as well.

And we know that God would have us happy in His world, despite appearances of difficulties worldwide.

These difficulties are a harbinger of a turning from the past to something better, amazingly better.  We are living in perilous times, but we don’t have to obsess about this. 

We can still live peacefully, with a quiet soul.

Transformation

There are many lesser conditions that are nonetheless extremely transformative, such as the replacement of special relationship with the devotion of holy relationship that we have already spoken of.  (A Course of Love, D:Day7.12)

Here we see that the turning over of special relationships to oblivion does, in fact, constitute a tremendous transformation when the replacement is made by a holy relationship.  We feel contented and safe, something that special relationships could never give us.  We know, in our bones, that this one—this holy relationship—will continue eternally, if not in physical form then in ethereal.  Even if the relationship should end, we would know that it wasn’t a real ending.  In A Course in Miracles, Jesus says that all who meet will meet again.  And we can understand that this is on the Other Side, or, if we believe in reincarnation, then in another life.  This can give us some of that content that we long to have, for we long for permanence in a changing world.  Eternity gives us that permanence.

If we long to be content in this world, what are our options?  We must indeed turn over everything that has disturbed ongoing content.  And special relationships are at the top of the list.  We know this intuitively, though we may still think, with our superficial mind, that specialness gives us something that we want.

It doesn’t.  Specialness only disturbs our peace.  And it is peace that augurs content.

Be glad to transform all relationships to holiness.  We will never regret this action of the will.  When it is done, completed and finished, we will know that we belong to everybody, and that this connection takes nothing from the significant others with whom we share this lifetime.

Miracles Offer Peaceful Love to Us

“Peace is an attribute in you.  You cannot find it outside.  Illness is some form of external searching.  Health is inner peace.  It enables you to remain unshaken by lack of love from without and capable, through your acceptance of miracles, of correcting the conditions proceeding from lack of love in others.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-2.I.5)

We have peace internally, but it is layered over with turmoil, anxieties, and guilty feelings, and thus we cannot access the feeling of peace on a constant basis.  But we have to look within, or we are constantly swayed by the vicissitudes of what we see, what we project onto, a suffering world.  We project turmoil when we are not looking deeply enough within, deep where the peace really is.

When we have raised our vibration sufficiently to find that peace that is within, we will cease searching outside ourselves for solace.  And with this external searching ended, so will the experience of illness fall away.  When we are at peace in our minds and hearts, experiencing inner peace, we will be healthy children of God.

Does it really matter if others don’t love us as we think they ought?  If we have a strong enough sense of God’s peace within, we will not be shaken by the lack of love without.  And we will encounter a lack of love without, for the world does not treat kindly those who are externally seeking for love from it.  This world is not set up to give you peace; only our turning inward can do that for us.  And turning inward does, in fact, create a wellspring of health and well-being that will indeed be a miracle.  A miracle of healing.  Our conflict will be at an end.  We will be home in God.  And what more could we wish for this day, as the evening draws to a close?

We need a remedy from God when we perceive a lack of love in others, love that we think we need, because otherwise we are all alone and lonely beings in a world of chaos.  We must recognize that we cannot depend on the outside world to “be there” for us always.  More often than not, the outside world will not be there for us.  Of course, projection makes perception, and so as we walk farther along the pathway to salvation and Awakening, we will project bad things less often.  Seeing God’s peace, inwardly, is our way to salvation and Awakening.  And then whatever vestiges of unkindness we continue to project will lose their efficacy.  We will indeed live in a new and different dimension, and, miraculously, our sisters and brothers in this world will begin to treat us better.

Seeking Wakefulness

“It is not stamina but wakefulness I call you to.  Think no more of depletion.  This is the old way.”  Mirari

This part of Mirari is building on Mary’s image of “wild dogs,” male and also female, who are threatening to take over the world. We can all recognize much hostility and anger in our world. Things seem to be culminating in a difficult way, a scary way. But the darkest part of the night is right before the dawn–an old concept but, I think, relevant here.

Good people, people of the faith, are realizing that we are at a turning point. An evolutionary leap is ahead in which more and more people are experiencing Awakening. This means a major change in the way we view the world and the way we view ourselves.

We need only to ask for the blessing of Awakening to begin to receive inklings of what is ahead, glimpses of the Divine that are called satori in Eastern religions. If we cling to our faith, these glimpses will elongate, and the day will arrive when we know more of God than at any previous time in our lives.

This is the “wakefulness” that Mary is asking us to embrace. This is the wakefulness that we all, sometimes desperately, need today.

Day of Promise

“Today, here and now, wherever you are, from wherever you came, by whatever you call yourself in human reality, your long awaited day has arrived.  Today the grace of Christification has arrived.  This same infused grace was given to Me and to My divine Son Jesus.  Infused grace has arrived.  This gift of Heaven is given to everyone who reaches this point.  Today it comes to you.  Accept it.  Save it in the silence of your heart.  From that silence, let grace act in her way, in you and through you.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 9:II

We live in the Now, and so “today” is any Now that we have.  Mary is speaking assertively today, because I think she senses that many of us never let ourselves think we are ready, that we are good enough for Christ-consciousness.  But it isn’t a matter of “goodness,” per se.  It blossoms in us when, paradoxically, we give up the reins of our life and let God have His way with us.  We may not even call Him God, but when we slow down, quieten down, and be at peace, a satori will visit.

A satori is a glimpse of the Divine.  And all of us can expect, can have, this today.  If we believe we can.  That too is a salient point.  Believing in the goodness of the universe does mean that we don’t fret, fume, worry, be anxious.  We are safe, despite the crises that have enveloped us from time to time.  We emerge stronger, sure of the growth that has happened in the crises.

Be very sure today that what Mary is saying is not an idle promise.  Today we can experience God as a Christ-conscious being.  God will decide if we are ready for this to be permanent.

Love’s Transforming Purpose

“When you decide to fully accept the one purpose given to you, in reality, there will be nothing that will block your way.  Every step you take will, literally, take you through obstacles that dissolve as you approach them.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 18, Page 219)

The one purpose is to walk more closely with our God, to transform into loving individuals who forgive when hurt. God does not even require that all of us hold to the same belief about Him. He is God of the secular as well as the devout. But we can all recognize that our world has gone very awry. Most of us know that a general consensus to care more about each other, to love, would make a great difference, a transformative difference. We know this because our need for love is great, and we often seek for that love with our nearest and dearest.

Transformation, Awakening, Christ-consciousness–these, all meaning the same, are the next evolutionary leap for humankind.

Pray that the day may come soon when we all recognize that there is a better way.

Practice the Presence of God

“A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct.  This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself as lack.  The idea of order of needs arose because, having made this fundamental error, you had already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs.  As you integrate you become one, and your needs become one accordingly.  Unified needs lead to unified action, because this produces a lack of conflict.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-1.VI.2)

Which of us would not want a lack of conflict?  We can realize, as the Workbook says, “There is another way of looking at this.”  There is also a way of thinking of God that will immediately quell conflict.  If we place our minds on the concept of God, Himself, we will know inner peace.  This is not the only way, of course, but this thought process is the most direct.  We quiet the ego by thinking of God, and in the quietude we live above conflict.  We will overlook the conflict.

We are very conflicted beings, very moody and very antagonistic, initially, to listening to what will give us peace.  After all, we have invested a lot in the ego, and the ego says that it will protect us.  This is not true, of course, because the ego and egotistical thought processes only lead to more conflict and turmoil—exactly what we need to move from.  We are not moving away from conflict now, because we all too often think that we are really living when the drama is high.  This is the insidious thing.

We need to practice the Presence of God in our daily lives, from moment to moment (when we remember).  This Presence does not have to be a constant thing for us, and indeed, it cannot be, for our minds are made of short-term attention spans.  Yet, the more we can welcome God’s Presence in our lives, the better our lives will become.

We are living on different levels, fragmented parts of ourselves that know no better.  We do not have to have multiple personalities to recognize that we partake of this phenomenon; this fragmentation is rampant in our culture, for we have forgotten God as our unifying Force.  He will solve the problems that we think we have; He will show us how to rise above the chaos of the world. 

Love’s Embrace

Now you must forget the idea of needing to maintain specialness.  A key aid in helping you to put this temptation behind you is the idea of the holy relationship in which all exist in unity and within the protection of love’s embrace.  (A Course of Love, T3:16.15)

Let us realize that being special, even to ourselves, never gave us anything that we wanted.  A few others may have found us special also, but most everyone else resented the competitiveness that thought that we were superior to them.  This competitiveness has to go.  We are reassured on a daily basis when we cooperate with others, when we recognize that others, and we, are on the same wavelength, that we are equal in the sight of God as His children.

I used to be quite competitive.  I remember telling a friend at work, after lunch one day that we had enjoyed together, what my goals were in work.  They were ambitious.  She responded, “Don’t get too far ahead of us,” meaning the others in the reference unit.

She was right, because she sensed that my ambition would be a divisive factor in our close-knit working group.  And I never did fit in well with that particular group.  I had to go on to another before I found acceptance and peace in my working environment.  And get more steeped in A Course in Miracles.

When we recognize that all of us are held in an embrace of love and unity, as One, we are recognizing what is true.  And this truth will save us.  Our relationships, holy now, will give us solace and keep us safe.  Competitive no longer, we join in a camaraderie borne of cooperation.  We are finally living right, and our comrades in work (and elsewhere) recognize this change in us.  We are one of them, in every sense of the word.  When we acknowledge equality, we are accepted and even loved.

This does not take away from the fact that we may have experienced Christ-consciousness, and not all others in our circle will have done so.  This only means that we have walked a little farther along, not that we are better than another.  It is necessary that we share what we have discovered as soon as our brothers and sisters express interest in knowing what makes us different.  Holy relationship invites sharing.  And we feel better for easing another’s way, even ever so slightly.

Wholly Lovable & Wholly Loving

“You are the work of God, and His work is wholly lovable and wholly loving.  This is how a man must think of himself in his heart, because this is what he is.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-1.III.2)

We often don’t think well of ourselves.  As we get into the Course, and realize how restricted our real lives have been by the ego, we realize that we want something more.  But we don’t love the person that we are; in fact, we often come close to hatred of self, and with that can go hatred of our brothers and of God, even.

What do we do instead?  We must see that God sees a being in us, a creature in us, that we cannot see.  What he sees is wholly lovable, for this true Self never departed from Him in separation and developed traits that seem, even to us, to be undesirable.  This real Self is perfect in and of itself as a Child of God.  We are bade, in this quotation, to think of ourselves as God does, as “wholly lovable and wholly loving. How might we surround our being with love?  We systematically remove from our awareness any vestiges of ego, as soon as these vestiges present themselves to our awareness.  We don’t delay in thinking that we are lovable and loving, even with the ego still risen in our minds, but we know that we are living a dream that has become a nightmare—and we want out.  When we let the ego wither away, we sense that we are right in our hearts, right with God.  And our inner denunciations of self drop away.  We know that even if we cannot see our goodness, God can and God does.  And we believe Jesus’s words in the Course, saying that we are lovable and loving.

We have to trust, and that may not come easily.  We have spent our lifetimes up to now in being skeptical of the world and the individuals we have met in it.  Oh, of course, we have loved sometimes—but even that love has often turned to hatred.  And so we have fallen out of even our own favor, and we imagine that we have fallen out of God’s favor as well.  We have not fallen out of God’s favor, for He sees us as we really are—His perfect Son. 

Now Jesus wants us to see into our hearts, where we do not need the type of proof that our minds demand.  Our heart, if we listen to it, will tell us that Love is our very being, for we are One with God.  And it is this unity that is the basis for our whole new experience of this world.  God is with us; Jesus is with us; the Holy Spirit is with us. 

Love of God

“Each time you think a loving thought, you have literally blessed all infinite realms of creation.  Each time you have become unwittingly identified with a fearful thought, you have separated yourself from the perfect Love of God, and you have denied yourself your function.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 18, Page 218)

There is a bigger reason to avoid anxiety as much as possible.  Fear separates us from God.  We are often failing to trust Him, and this is why we have the fear in the first place.

God will take care of us.  But we won’t recognize His blessing at all if we doubt that He will care for us, regardless of what is happening in our world, in our lives.  We are living in a protected environment as long as our thoughts and our heart are with Him.  If we hesitate, negating God’s good action toward us is easy to do.  Then the secular law of attraction moves into manifestation, and we suffer in needlessly bad ways.

If we keep our eyes on God, we will experience His Love.  If we are having trouble sensing His Love, what we must do is to get quiet, be still, settle down, and stop so much frantic “doing.”  Just focus on “being,” which is what He wants most of the time, anyway.  In the quietness we will touch our souls.

And it is our souls that remain in the bosom of God.

Completed Pathway

“You who receive these words now, remember that you are among the one hundred and forty-four thousand that God chose to be elevated by this means to the highest peaks of holiness.  You have already completed your path to the knowledge of who you really are.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 9:II

This word from Choose Only Love comes from Mary of Nazareth.  Here, she says something very startling, that those of us reading and receiving these words are among the 144,000 people identified in the Bible as being singled out for particular consideration.

I don’t think the number 144,000 is exact.  I think it is a generic number for those of us who are following the guidance we are receiving from God, seeking to do His will, trying to live a good life under this guidance.  There likely might be many more than 144,000 as we all begin to walk the pathway home.

Ask what God wants us to do.  If we have been given any particular consideration, we need to find out what to say and do next.  Those to whom much is given, much is required—as we know.  Most importantly, we don’t want to slip into egoic attitudes, for these would nullify any good works that we might do.

Have we actually completed our path to the knowledge of “who we really are”?  We must ask this question of ourselves, ask if Mary is right about us. 

And walk in humbleness, in humility.  We have much to do to save the world, and we ourselves must not lose our way. 

Balancing in a New World

“Making the heart of Mother love, that natural duad to the Father love that has reigned, brings the rising of the feminine and the balancing, at long last, of the masculine.”  Mirari

This quotation concisely summarizes what Mirari is about.  Mary of Nazareth is writing primarily to women in Mirari, but here she uses an important word that might be overlooked in the call for female presence in this world.  The word is “balancing.”

Mary is not trying to exclude men.  She stresses the feminine so much because she is attempting to corral women into greater solidarity and greater activity in our world.  But she, of all people, with her close relationship to her soulmate, Jesus, knows that our world needs men and their contribution ever so much.  Men have dominated, sometimes harshly, for many long years, and her “balancing” is seeking to end this imbalance between the genders.

Ask what our task is to be.  Ask, whether we are men or women.  We need guidance in creating a new world—and we know that a new world was the call of Jesus in A Course of Love.  Mary echoes this desire in her manifesto, Mirari.  She is doing her part to join in the groundswell of change that Jesus is heralding.  She too is so heralding. Wait for God to speak to us, God to reveal our part.  Then act from the whispers in our mind and the calling of our heart.

Assuming Form in Bodies

These examples of your former ideas about new beginnings have simply been used to demonstrate why you cannot approach this new beginning as you have those of the past.  What will assist you most, as the translation of the old thought system for the new continues, are the beliefs that you adopted with the assistance of ‘A Treatise on Unity:’

You are accomplished.

Giving and receiving are one in truth.

There is no loss but only gain within the laws of love.

Special relationships have been replaced by holy relationship.

What we are adding now to these beliefs is the idea that these beliefs can be represented in form. (A Course of Love, T3:15.14 – 15.19)

We are being led, ever so gently, to a realization that here on earth, in our physical form, with our good mind and heart, we can have blessings that were formerly thought to be ours only after death, on the Other Side.  We can now know Awakening or Christ-consciousness, called enlightenment in Eastern religions.  It is there, out there, beckoning to us.  And it will be a gentle transformation, for Jesus has prepared us, with gentleness itself, in A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love.

Previously I have known two instances of Awakening that, unfortunately, did not last because my ego intruded.  That is the danger for all of us.  We can transition into Awakening, and then have it fail to be sustained, for we are not really ready to sustain it.  We need to approach Awakening with an egoless frame of mind and heart, sure that we will be helped.  We know more now, for we have weakened and then discarded our egos through Jesus’ channeled works.

If we want to recognize we are accomplished, we need only realize that this is the ideal state.  And we have attained it, mystically, before we attain it in form.

As we give, we receive.  The giving comes first, however imperfect it may be in the beginning.

If we want to recognize gain without loss, this is ours when we are immersed in love.  Always love.

Being immersed in love prepares us entirely for the holy relationship.  And it is holy relationship that will ultimately save us.

So these tenets of unity exist in form now.  We can enjoy them this side of death.

And all will be well.

Miracles & Revelation

“Revelation unites you directly with God.  Miracles unite you directly with your brother.  Neither emanates from consciousness, but both are experienced there.  Consciousness is the state that induces action, though it does not inspire it.  You are free to believe what you choose, and what you do attests to what you believe.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-1.II.1)

The first aspect of this quotation delineates revelation vs. miracles, and explains the difference in our unity with God, first, and then our unity with our brother.  God is responsible for revelation; we are not.  He communicates to us by revelation, including, sometimes, the experience of Awakening—Awakening that does not last.  He shows us the end, where we are headed.  And Jesus’s book, A Course in Miracles, gives us the means to get to that end of Awakening.  Revelation is not on the same level as miracles.  Under Jesus’s guidance, we perform miracles for our brother, and, in turn, our brother performs miracles for us.  They are, in that sense, reciprocal, unlike revelation.  Revelation always proceeds from God to us, never the other way around.

We are consciousness embodied.  We are alive in our minds, and we experience our projections from mind as perceptions of this world.  We experience revelation and miracles from this consciousness.  We are led to act in this world through what our consciousness says to do.  If we allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit, then our consciousness has a divine Master.  If we allow our consciousness to be guided by the ego, we have feet of clay.  There is no in between.

These ideas, above, are central to A Course in Miracles.  We have a learning task before us, for until we have the theological undergirding of the Course, we cannot master what it says.  Our mind will be trained as we do the Workbook lessons.  The more theoretical aspects of the Course are presented in this, the Text.  We likewise need to master that theory.  There is no other sure way of catching all the means that will lead us to the end of Awakening, the means to the end.

We must await revelation from God.  And we must await Jesus’s nod as to which miracles we are to perform for our brother.  We will get used to the fact that we are not in control anymore, as soon as we start on the road of relinquishing the ego.

Sacred Path

“My sons and daughters, the path of each one has been ordained by God and is sacred.  He and the soul know.  Rest in this certainty and release any attempt to understand in a world way.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 9:II

This very comforting passage from Book 3 of Choose Only Love is emblematic of the entire series, out now in five books, and eventually to be seven.  Here we read that we walk a sure path ordained by God.  We don’t have to be uncertain that we are walking in the right way if we stay close to Him, enjoying His presence in our daily walk.

We need comfort in this sometimes difficult world.  And here we have it.  Let us be glad on any day, whether the sun seems to shine upon us or not.  We can’t understand what happens in a “world way,” which I think means that we are trying to understand godly, divine, things with the worldview of our human walk on Earth.  The world’s take on what happens to us is very different from God’s.  If we are to have happiness even in the midst of the tragedies of our world, we must look higher, to Divinity.  Or deeper, which is what we are actually doing, for God is within, and our attempts to reach Him will not dissolve into nothingness.  We will have an Ally in Him.   And this relationship will succeed when nothing else has in the past, or ever could in the future. 

In the present, listening to guidance from God, we are safe—safe in this world, sure of our footing, certain that we have a Father Who walks with us.

Love & Life

“I and my Father are one.  Only Love is real, and Love, alone, heals. . . .

“Herein lies your purpose.  Herein lies your function, and herein—and only here—is Life.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 18, Page 217)

Being in love, in love with this world, our friends and family, our God, is the only way that works.  We really don’t have to run around “doing” frantically.  If in a measured pace, what we seek is not there, then it was not meant to be there.  Take time today, time just to “be.”

This is, according to A Course of Love, Mary of Nazareth’s way.  And, also according to A Course of Love, the way that more and more of us will adopt as we move ahead in time.  We think that we have to merit salvation.  It is not so.  God loves us and will guide us to right living if we will let Him.

Be very quiet today and listen to the Love of the Father.  We will in this way only have abundant Life.

Heaven on Earth

“My field is your field.  This is what I am helping you to see.  We are together now to save this world so that Heaven on Earth can come to be.”  Mirari

Mary is here speaking to Mari.  But Mary is also talking to all of us, especially women but not exclusively to women.  Our “field” is the one that we share, our field the Earth.  And we need to do what we can to make a new beginning.  All of us have handled badly the handiwork of our Earth.  We have made a hostile and aggressive place.  Now it is incumbent upon us to create a new world of peace and joy.

The subtitle of Mirari, “the way of the Marys,” does include the way of all women.  But I don’t want to leave men out.  We are all the body of Christ.  And it will take women and men working together to turn this world from the lamentable place it is now to a glorious new creation blessed by God.

We have not seen how Heaven can come to Earth.  If we don’t know (and we don’t), it is up to us just to ASK.  God does not keep secrets from us.  When we have been prepared, we will be ready to hear His new revelations.

We all have work to do in the field.  This world.  Our newly created world.

Be ready today to do our part.  Ask today that each step of the new world be revealed to us—each part that is ours to accomplish.

Holiness

The holy relationship has been accomplished by the joining of the mind and heart in unity.  The holy relationship is with the Self, the Self that abides in unity with all within the house of truth.  This relationship makes the Self one with all and so brings the holiness of the Self to all.  (A Course of Love, T3:15.10)

The first and most important relationship is with the Self–the inner Christ Self–and God Himself (called the Self in Its largest dimensions).  When this relationship is formed anew and aright, it changes everything.  Our heart and mind are melded into one, and this one is the same One with Whom we are merged in the Godhead Himself/Herself.  With this joining of heart and mind, we are primed to have all good things to come to us.  We are, at last, on the right track, “separate” from God no longer, even in illusion.  And we are not in illusion any longer, but the supreme reality, true reality, a reality that does not fade with each passing day.

When mind and heart are joined, I feel a warmth that is not of this world.  I once was accosted at night by a stranger who did not mean me well.  Just before he touched me, I felt a Warmth that gave me a tremendous sense of safety and God-given care.  And this sense carried me through the experience without any trauma.  I ran and I screamed, and he fled.  My voice and God’s grace had saved me.  In that moment, with the warm feeling, I was in unity of mind and heart with that warmth, though this was years before A Course of Love was channeled.  I only knew that God had been very, very close to me in that moment.

How do we invite the melding of heart and mind?  We get quiet, we invite warmth, we invite God.  If we open ourselves to God’s grace, He will descend upon us, prompting us to join mind and heart into a Unity that will solve all problems, release all neuroses, give us a new lease on life.

Be quiet today, just for a moment.  A moment is all that it takes to allow God to speak to us in the Unity in which He abides.

Miracles Represent Freedom from Fear

“Miracles represent freedom from fear.  ‘Atoning’ means ‘undoing.’  The undoing of fear is an essential part of the Atonement value of miracles.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-1.I.26)

Have you ever felt conflicted and agitated?  In turmoil.  Of course.  All of us experience such things on a regular basis.  And have you surrendered, turned it all over to God, and quickly felt a sure sense that all goes well?  This is a miracle.  This is our freedom from fear, from conflict, from agitation, from turmoil. 

We are undoing the flow of events as we have known them—or, more precisely, the Holy Spirit within us is undoing that flow of events for us.  And with this expansive change we give up fear.  We have no reason to fear when we are surrendered, completely and totally.  And the guidance that we will receive will be sure, for we ask with an open heart.

Ask for a quiet sleep tonight.  Let this miracle be shown you.  If sleeplessness comes instead, ask what you need to resolve with God tonight.  There is always a reason for sleeplessness.  The same for sleep.  The miracle is always right on the beam.  We don’t have to fear that God will not have His way with us when we have opened ourselves to Him.  Ask for the undoing of fear now.  This will be right in line with accepting the Atonement for ourselves.  And accepting Jesus’s contribution to the Sonship is essential.

Jesus’s contribution is not seen in A Course in Miracles as being the atoning nature of his shed blood.  This sacrificial nature is denied entirely.  We are, instead, to look to the resurrection and all that it promises us about eternal life.  If you have let the intellect intrude, and wonder, “How could this be?,” then suspend disbelief a bit and let your heart tell you what you need to know.  A miracle will replace disbelief.  Not that you will ever resolve intellectual doubt that easily, but a mystical understanding will encompass the whole for you.  You will know that Jesus’s Atonement for us is real.  Whether or not we intellectually grasp it.

Miracles are sure.  Miracles are certain.  And if they do not occur, then something has gone awry.  We have either turned to attack, turned to judgment, or turned to making plans against contingencies to come.  These three aspects of our “normal” experience are all that it takes to hide the miracle from us.  And when we turn aside from this trio, we will wonderingly see that all was not lost for us, just misplaced. 

Look with Wonder & the Innocence of a Child

“Turn back, then, toward your creations.  If there is anything uncomfortable about your past, turn back to it, examine it, feel it.  Look at all the patterns that made it come up.  Look at the choices you have made that, perhaps now, you are embarrassed about.  But look not upon them with judgment.  Look with curiosity.  Learn to look with wonder and the innocence of a child. . . .”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 17, Page 216)

This use of the word “creations” means, I think, all that we have succeeded in bringing about in our lives.  For we have done it, though many of us find this hard to believe.   It is true, of course, that we have been our own worst enemies.  But this can change.  We can start creating anew, and in the new creation, we will be blessed beyond description.

When we look back, we are reassessing what has gone before, and then choosing to make a new start.  As this quotation says, we don’t look back in judgment.  We look warmly on what has transpired.  We welcome it all, for it got us to where we are today—all that is good, all that is something we regret.  ALL is a blessing, just all, though it is rare when we see this truth in our daily lives.

When we are in a low mood, everything looks dismal, and we are primed to rest in judgment of what we have created.  But when our mood lifts, everything looks better, much better.  We can even get a glimpse of infinity, God acting in our lives.

We don’t have to wait long.  If reading this finds us in a low mood, let us quieten down and invite guidance for a more exalted attitude.  If we are happy, then we have what we want.

Strive to be happy today.

Love

“The consciousness of Christ is your true consciousness.  It is a consciousness of pure love.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 9:II

“Pure love.”  If we might only realize what this means!  We have so misused the word “love” in our world that we often don’t take seriously the arresting spiritual meaning of this word.  When we have walked far along toward God, and had satori (fleeting glimpses of the Divine), these will eventually lengthen into Awakening, and it is the Awakening of the consciousness of Christ—a Christ Whom we all share.  Because Christ is now a plural concept, we can acknowledge that what Jesus had 2,000 years ago is available to us all.  It does not come to us all, but our own preparations can speed the time when we will all know Christ-consciousness.  And Christ-consciousness is the next leap in evolution.

Focus on love today.  Know that when things go awry, and we want to get back on track, the surest way to do this is to quieten down and go within.  The Answer to our dilemmas will be there.  And with a clear mind and a loving heart, we can walk a green earth again.

If on the verge of hot feelings with another, just pause; don’t say anything.  Know that the loving response is the only true response that protects the other and ourselves.  We don’t have to be “right” all the time; we can let God lead our friends and family in the best way that only He knows.  We can choose happiness, as A Course in Miracles says (“Would you rather be right or happy?”), and with this choice comes the return of love.

Spend some time today contemplating what love means to us. 

There is no better way to spend time.

The New Feminism

“You need not call me ‘mother’ unless you so choose.  We are in solidarity, in the new ‘feminism’ as you put it.”  Mirari

This is Mary talking to Mari.  This is an example of a time when Mirari comes down right on “feminism.”  Yes, Mirari is a new manifesto, though it is not a strident manifesto.  Mirari is imbued with the love of the divine, but throughout the book we discover that more and more women in the spirit of Mary herself will take a more leading role.

This does not have to be a threatening idea.  Many men welcome a larger role for women, for I think these men who welcome such a role for women know how much both genders are needed for our world.  All men have had mothers, and most loved their mothers deeply as the first bond in this world.  Remembering that bond, and what it gave to them, can help men realize that there is no reason to be threatened by women’s emergence in the new world.

Let us bond men and women in a lasting, mutual relationship that will solve, oh, so many problems.  The nurturance for which women are well-known will give our world a humanizing quality as women come into their own. 

We need each other.

That is the message that I most take away from reading Mirari.

The New Beginning

The new beginning you are called to now is a new beginning that, like all others that you have offered or attempted, will take place in relationship.  The difference is that this new beginning will take place in holy rather than special relationship.  (A Course of Love, T3:15.9)

We have arrived at a good place now.  We are beginning anew, as we have in the past, but with a difference.  Our new beginning will no longer be housed in special relationships that only promised us the good but did not deliver consistently.  Our new beginning, this time, will come in the warmth of holy relationships.  We have found the elixir, and we will not turn back from its bounty now.

How do we know that we are surrounded by holy relationships?  We are not out for #1 anymore, at least not exclusively.  We love others as we love ourselves, for giving and receiving love is one.  We know that when we reach out, our reach will be met by reciprocation, for holiness invites holiness.  If our reach finds an individual who is as yet only capable of special relationship, we will not be inclined in that direction, because we will know better.  Our reach goes out to holiness, and holiness is returned to us.  There is no better way to live life.

What about rejection?   I have known rejection in my life, but only in relationship that was “special,” in that my ego was attempting to establish a basis for continuing contact that was not the best for either of us.  Of course, I did not know this at the time, and the episode was very painful, frustrating, and humiliating.

Now I know better.  Holy relationship does not hurt.  Its joy is reciprocated, for we know intuitively what relationship to pursue, and which to turn aside.  Our guidance does what it is intended to do:  It guides.  And in the guidance comes a new life of happiness and smooth sailing as well.  We walk a pathway that has no stones that invite tripping ourselves up.  We walk a smooth pathway.

Just as when we pursued special relationships, our new beginnings now are embedded in our relationships.  But what a difference the holy makes!  It is simply all the difference in the world.  We blossom under the tutelage of holy relationships.  And there is never any temptation to return to the special relationship that got away.  This is the advantage in turning to prayer for prompting as to what to do.  Prayer does direct relationships for the good of all involved.

Holiness in relationships allows new beginnings with a flair that we have heretofore not enjoyed.  Our happiness has wings. 

And we know that what God has ordained in relationship, holy relationship, will come to pass.

Prayer – Love – Miracles

“Prayer is the medium of miracles.  It is a means of communication of the created with the Creator.  Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-1.I.11)

We need prayer more than God needs it from us, though He is said to be lonely when the minds He created do not commune with Him.  Since God is within (All is within), then we are communing with our innermost depths when we pray.  We will not be disappointed.  If we turn to God whenever we feel tangled up or mixed up, we will find solace for our aching souls.

We get this solace because we are feeling love from God, and love is the great resolver of everything that has gone wrong or might go wrong.  This is not a trite expression of faith; it is the way that life is set up.  We may be blessed without communing with God, for He loves us still, but we will not feel so blessed as we will with complete and utter surrender to His way and will.

We ask Jesus what miracles we are to perform, once we have received this all-encompassing love from God Himself.  We don’t just think up good deeds for others, and then seek to do those good deeds.  Even the most altruistic impulse of ours could easily be the wrong thing to do, if we haven’t received guidance about that action.  Ask Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, what we are to do about any impulses for altruistic action that we have.  Is doing something a right thing?  Or would it be better to wait on His guidance?  We will get our answers when we stop long enough to surrender to a Higher Will, and to do the bidding that we receive.  We will not have to wait long; the Holy Spirit can speak to us, and will, when we ask from a tranquil and easy heart.

Why is it this way?  We do not know enough to make decisions on our own.  When we attempt to do so, we are attempting to develop our own judgments about a given issue or person.  And our judgment will be wrong, for we don’t see the whole picture—past, present, and future.  But there is One—the Holy Spirit—Who does see that whole picture.  His judgments are always true.  And He speaks from that loving judgment to all of us who ask for guidance.  We are set on our way through this meandering world by starting the day right by asking.  Always asking.  And we continue to ask as the day unfolds.  This way what we do and say, and even what we think, are miracles of expediency in our journey through life.  We walk surely, for we have a sure Guide.

Whispers from Jesus & Mary

“You can feel Us [Jesus and Mary], you can experience Our sensitive presence in your lives if you wish.  It only requires making enough silence outside and inside to hear and to feel the whisper of Our voice.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 9:I

So here we have it.  We have divine help available to us.  We just have to get quiet inside and outside.  This quotation from Mary indicates that we can hear their “whispers” to us if we cultivate silence.  The roar of outside noise will stifle our listening, will stifle us.  This we don’t want.

Why ask questions of Jesus and Mary rather than the Holy Spirit or the Christ-Self?  They have known humanity, and their sentiments toward us are very sincere, coming from that knowing.  The Holy Spirit and the Christ-Self are emblematic of God Himself, and listening to guidance from God can never lead us wrong—if we are sure that what we are “hearing” is indeed God.  But it is sometimes reassuring to hear from someone who has been there before us—hence Jesus and Mary.

We need guidance, and there is no end to where it can come from in the cosmos.  We are not left bereft.  We have help.

Knowing this help is available can make all the difference in how we approach a day.

Teach Only Love

“Ultimately, it is not so much about going anywhere, as much as it is about abiding within, realizing that this world is unreal, this world is harmless.  And in any situation, it is you with all power under Heaven and Earth to teach only love.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 17, Page 215)

The Way of Mastery is echoing A Course in Miracles when Jesus here says to “teach only love.”  That IS what we are about, and until we accept this mission, we will fret and stew and live a life that is below what we could aspire to.

How do we teach only love?  This quotation also has this answer:  We go within.  God is within, and He will teach us what we need to do to live good lives, lives suffused with His blessings, lives that do Him justice.  Going within offers us a nurturance that our relationships cannot offer, at least not all the time and in all ways. 

We have depended on our relationships, especially our special relationships, to take care of us emotionally.  The only way that succeeds all the time is to turn to our Maker, Who supports us with an everlasting support.  When we turn within, we sense love, and when we sense love from God, we are in a position to offer that love to others.  It is necessary first to receive from God, and then to offer, to give.

This is the way that we teach only love. 

God has much to teach us.  Commune with our depths today, and see what today’s message from Him might turn out to be.

Feed No More the Wild Dog

“And so, the hand that feeds the wild dog must do so no more.  Feed the meek.”  Mirari

In Mirari, the “wild dog” is characterized as male more often than not.  But also in Mirari, we know that some women can be wild dogs as well.  The “wild dog” metaphor is an apt description of the subconscious hostility that has engulfed our world.

Here we see that we are to feed the “meek.”  I think this is a harkening back to the New Testament, and Jesus’ words about the meek inheriting the world.  “Meek” never meant “weak,” though in our language we often equate the two.  “Meek” is more akin to “gentle,” and it is a characteristic of those who are shorn of anger and hostility. 

A Course in Miracles indicates that anger is never justified, though it is the expression of anger that we really have to watch.  The meek do not express anger, even if they feel it.  Nowhere is it said in Jesus’ channeled writings that we will get to a place where anger is non-existent.  But we will learn, and then discover, how to transmute our anger into socially acceptable ways.

The “wild dog” metaphor is very arresting.  Our unconscious hostility has taken us to the brink of annihilation.  We need to realize this, and, as Mirari counsels, feed no more the wild dog in us.

Holding Our Breath

Holding on to what you think will meet your needs is like holding your breath.  Your breath cannot long be held.  It is only through the inhaling and exhaling, the give and take of breathing that you live.  Each time you are tempted to think that your needs can only be met in special ways by special relationships, remember this example of holding your breath.  Think in such a way no longer than you can comfortably hold your breath.  Release your breath and release this fear and move from special to holy relationship.  (A Course of Love, T1:9.17)

We have been trying to hold our breath for eons, hoping against hope that what one special relationship did not give us ultimately can be met by yet another.  Our special relationships all fail us eventually.  Love turns to hate, and we know not what we did wrong.  Always we blame the other person for not living up to the unwritten agreement to be there for us anytime, anywhere.  We feel betrayed.

This is a script that has been played out in our various dramas for far too long.  The only true assurance that we can have from another comes when we have let our special relationship to that person blossom into a holy relationship.  Now we know in our bones that this person will never let us down, that love will stay love and not fall into alienation and even hate.  We are holding our breath no longer.  We know that the safety that we long to have in a human being can be counted upon.  We are safe, finally, and we know it to be true.

This is what happens in long-term marriages that stay fresh.  We discover how to mesh our needs and wants with those of another whom we love unconditionally, come what may.  We know that if our marriage should end, the love will not; the love is eternal now, and we have this assurance as we live out our time on earth.  This world can touch this blessing not.  We are living our dream of eternal love, and it is our brother or sister, our partner in life, who makes the living out of our lives truly meaningful.  He or she is our way back to God, a holy relationship that promises all things, and keep those promises.  Our forgiveness even becomes meaningless, for we recognize that there is nothing we need forgive.  The significant other is significant only in that we live in close proximity; we don’t look to the other for outrageous answers.  We live and let live, in the holiness which God intends for us.

All of us have seen this love, but perhaps fleetingly.  We want it for ourselves.  And we can have it when we give up thinking that specialness is our due.  Holiness is our due.  And with our inheritance as favored children of God, all of us are favored in a holiness that does not play favorites.

Blessing in Uncomfortable Situations

“Eventually, the soul that is truly committed to awakening does not flee uncomfortable situations until it believes it has fully extracted all the wisdom that it can. . .In short, when there is just a quiet sense of peace, and you can look upon the players in the experiences you have had with perfect equanimity and see them as perfectly innocent, and you detect that there is nothing in the body that is not at peace—the heart is not racing, the shoulders are not tight—you truly understand that you are not in fear, then it is time to move on.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 17, Page 213)

If we are in an uncomfortable situation, this passage says that we ought to just stay there—not try to distract ourselves, not try to flee or to escape—for this uncomfortable situation has something to teach us.  Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, if the uncomfortable situation is truly dangerous, we ought to remove ourselves from it.

But if the uncomfortable situation is not dangerous, but merely uncomfortable, we ought to ask “Why?”  Why do we feel uncomfortable, perhaps anxious, perhaps fearful?  Be very honest with ourselves about this.

If we can extract the kernel of truth in what is transpiring before us, we will have made great strides toward awakening.  And awakening is where we all want to head.  Reread the last part of the quotation, and see when we have indeed extracted all the good from the uncomfortable situation that we can.  We are no longer blaming anyone, but seeing innocence in their words or actions.  They too are doing the best that they can.

When we have let the fear of the uncomfortable situation go, then we have done all we can to make another giant step toward awakening.  Our heart is not racing, our shoulders are not tight.  And we are at peace.

This is evidence that one more difficult spot in our subconscious has been healed.

Prayer

“Prayer is the medium of miracles.  It is a means of communication of the created with the Creator.  Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-1.I.11)

We need prayer more than God needs it from us, though He is said to be lonely when the minds He created do not commune with Him.  Since God is within (All is within), then we are communing with our innermost depths when we pray.  We will not be disappointed.  If we turn to God whenever we feel tangled up or mixed up, we will find solace for our aching souls.

We get this solace because we are feeling love from God, and love is the great resolver of everything that has gone wrong or might go wrong.  This is not a trite expression of faith; it is the way that life is set up.  We may be blessed without communing with God, for He loves us still, but we will not feel so blessed as we will with complete and utter surrender to His way and will.

We ask Jesus what miracles we are to perform, once we have received this all-encompassing love from God Himself.  We don’t just think up good deeds for others, and then seek to do those good deeds.  Even the most altruistic impulse of ours could easily be the wrong thing to do, if we haven’t received guidance about that action.  Ask Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, what we are to do about any impulses for altruistic action that we have.  Is doing something a right thing?  Or would it be better to wait on His guidance?  We will get our answers when we stop long enough to surrender to a Higher Will, and to do the bidding that we receive.  We will not have to wait long; the Holy Spirit can speak to us, and will, when we ask from a tranquil and easy heart.

Why is it this way?  We do not know enough to make decisions on our own.  When we attempt to do so, we are attempting to develop our own judgments about a given issue or person.  And our judgment will be wrong, for we don’t see the whole picture—past, present, and future.  But there is One—the Holy Spirit—Who does see that whole picture.  His judgments are always true.  And He speaks from that loving judgment to all of us who ask for guidance.  We are set on our way through this meandering world by starting the day right by asking.  Always asking.  And we continue to ask as the day unfolds.  This way what we do and say, and even what we think, are miracles of expediency in our journey through life.  We walk surely, for we have a sure Guide.

Are We Really “Christ”?

“You are Christ.  Your life in physical human reality is the same one I traveled, although I was first conscious of my unity with God.  Does that matter?”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 8:III

We will at first resist this assertion by Jesus.  We will want to leave the “Christ” concept to him alone.  But in recent channeled writings, the term “Christ” is a plural word that includes all of us who have followed in the way back to God.  .When we are conscious of our unity with God, we have done all that we need to do to appropriate the word “Christ” to ourselves.  We don’t even have to have yet Awakened.

Jesus makes it easy for us.  He says here that he was first conscious of his unity with God, but “Does that matter?”  I think the flow of the sentences in this passage means, “Does it matter that Jesus was first in experiencing the fact of being Christ?”   Elsewhere Jesus asserts that we will do what he has done, though that does not include a crucifixion.  Jesus has paved the way for us.  He was the initial pioneer.  Now we need simply to follow in his footsteps, and our lives will smooth out, and we will eagerly embrace the concept that we too can say we are “Christ.”

Journey No Longer

How much time will be saved by an end to empty seeking?  You have already arrived and need no time to journey any longer.  How much time will be saved by an end to the maintenance required by special relationships?  When all relationships are holy, you have no need to maintain specialness.  (A Course of Love, T1:8.7)

Most of us have been seekers for a long time, maybe a long, long time.  Maybe all our lives, more or less.

This search can end now, when we are on the cusp of developing our special relationships into holy ones.  We won’t have to work so hard to maintain our holy relationships.  Our loved ones will just know that they are loved unconditionally.  And, especially, what we have been seeking in special relationships will fall away.

Our seeking has worn us out.  We went from our early religious training, probably to unbelief, and then returned to the fold of spirituality.  But still we sought for yet another piece of information that would be the end that would make us happy.  But nothing can make us happy, can create happiness for us, except ourselves.  We won’t find it in a book.

I sought happiness in special relationships as well as in books.  So my seeking in relationships and books was twofold, as is true for most of us.  It is very reassuring that we have done enough now.  We know enough.  A Course of Love has finished it off for us.  It is simply up to our Christ-Self, from deep within our being, to teach us more.

So now we are hearing that there needs to be an end to seeking.  Jesus, in channeling A Course of Love, declares its information to be an end point.  We have arrived!  He even says that we are The Accomplished.  While we have trouble believing that, we know that we have a peace inside that has eluded us up to this point.  This peace will elude us no more.  We will linger in contentment, sure that we are in the right place, and, now, in the right time.

Our holy relationships will save us; that is why we need seek no more.  Relationship was primary in A Course in Miracles also.  Our relationship to our brother (and sister) would take us home.  Now Jesus is emphasizing this truth yet again in ACOL.  If we love others enough, we will have won the prize, the Holy Grail, of salvation. 

And we will know not only peace, but happiness, as well.

Miracles

“There is no order of difficulty in miracles.  One is not ‘harder’ or ‘bigger’ than another.  They are all the same.  All expressions of love are maximal.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-1.I.1)

The first sentence in this quotation is of paramount importance to understanding A Course in Miracles.  Jesus, the one who channeled ACIM, knows that there is no order of difficulty in miracles.  We don’t, for we think that we can point to many things in our world that would be hard to change.  We need to open our minds ever so slightly, and consider that we are wrong.  Miracles light our way, will light our way.  As an expression of love, miracles transform us and our world.

What does it mean to be an “expression of love”?  Jesus expresses his love for all of us by checking on the miracle-readiness of all of our brothers, and sending those of us whom he selects to effect the miracles that he and he alone points out.  We do not select certain circumstances to effect miracles.  We don’t effect miracles at all, in fact, for miracles are of God and the Holy Spirit, and, on a more practical level, of Jesus.

Jesus is in charge of the Sonship.  And, as such, he dictates to us what our part in salvation really is.  We don’t have to guess about these matters.  When we open our minds to possibilities, the way to effect salvation—through miracles—will develop as well.  We need fear nothing.  We can’t but be in the right place at the right time.

So let us think a bit on miracles, and the miraculous nature of a deed that is done without range of difficulty.  Can we open our minds to this possibility?  Wouldn’t it be a wondrous truth—IF there were no range of difficulty in miracles.

Let us take Jesus at his word.  Ask him today if you are ready to effect any miracles, under his guidance, for your brother.  He will answer, for he holds our hand as we walk along the pathway toward home.

Love Will Offer Fulfillment

“This is why once I said:

“If you do not bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you.  If you bring forth what is within you, what is within you will save you.

‘If you do not bring forth what is within you—and what is within you is Love, is Christ—you will feel burdened and unfulfilled.  Usually, most human beings go through their entire life with a sense of unfulfillment, lamenting what the world has done to them, lamenting the decisions and choices they have made in the past.  They become burdened by what is on the outside, along with what is in the past.  An eventually the body dies, the Spirit withers on the vine.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 17, Page 212)

This is Jesus speaking in Jayem, who channels live. Jesus is quoting the Gospel of Thomas.

I think we don’t really understand how love, and only love, can cure all our problems. As our attitudes change, we walk a green earth. When we meditate, often love comes to the forefront; we make alpha waves, and we sense love more than most times.

If we are feeling unfulfilled, I know of no better way to experience the love that we want and need than to find a quiet corner and become “perfectly calm and quiet” (as A Course in Miracles encourages us to do).

Without a good dose of love–given and received–our lives play out with unfulfilled longings and grieving about lost love. We may not always get love from the one person we want it from the most. But the world is filled with people who can supply this essential need. And the feeling of love is essential to our well-being.

Even pets, companion animals, can supply the need to a degree–and often a great degree.

When we find a quiet corner, something that elicits calm and quiet in ourselves, we will sense God. And when we sense God, we will know that there is a Force Who loves us. He first loved us, and the experience of being loved then allows us to give love. He had to first love us, or we would have no basis for experiencing the giving of love. And the giving often prompts others to give back, though we don’t want to make this a quid pro quo.

Banish the sense of unfulfillment today by opening to the true and real experience of nothing more important to our lives than simple love.

Future Waiting to Be Birthed

“You ask of meaning, but this is not about meaning in the way you look at it.  You seek a description of a new way, a new time, as if it is a future that is already written.  It is a future waiting to be birthed.”  Mirari

Here Mary is speaking, internally, to Mari Perron.  Mari has asked about the meaning of what is transpiring, but Mary lets her know that the future is yet to be written—and it is to be written by us.  In Mirari, we learn that women are meant to take more of a leadership role.  Women have often taken a back seat to men, but this is not the wave of the future. 

Much that A Course of Love said about “being,” the way of Mary, is coming into play here.  Our men have often championed “doing,” and indeed Jesus himself did also.  But our new way in our newly created world will be a way of relationships in that world, and for this change, being is simply more appropriate.

We also heard a great deal in  A Course of Love about a new world, just waiting to be created by us.  We are coming into this new world now, though the birth pangs are severe, and we are experiencing much turmoil as we live through these times.

But there is hope in what Mary says in Mirari.  It is darkest before the dawn, and just on the other side of turmoil is peace.

Let us do what we can to hasten that peace.

IDLE THOUGHTS

Published in Miracles magazine (Jon Mundy, publisher).

by Celia Hales

There is no more self-contradictory concept than that of “idle thoughts.”  What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly be called idle.  (ACIM, W-16.2:1-2)

You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, thus tacitly condoning your mind’s miscreations.  (ACIM, T-2.IX.5:6)

You who have so filled your mind with senseless wanderings and thoughts that think of nothing that is real, rejoice that there is a way to end this chaos.  (ACOL, C:5.2)

It is a decision to choose to discipline the mind in each moment, to teach only Love, to hold only loving thoughts, and to recognize that there is no such thing as an idle thought, since each thought or perception held in the mind immediately generates your experience.  (WOM, Lesson 20, Page 239)

            When we let our “monkey mind” (as they say) rule us, we are lost indeed.  We recognize that what we focus upon tends to materialize.  And when we lapse into idle thoughts, Jesus is telling us that we are veering off track in a major way.

            I often say Jesus’ words almost as a mantra when my busy mind won’t slow down, “You are much too tolerant of mind wandering.”  I say this when I am trying to go to sleep, and just can’t quite drift off.  But the actual damage begins during daylight hours, when we focus on things that are substandard and not worthy of us.  These substandard things come to pass because even social scientists know that a self-fulfilling prophecy is at work here.

            We might best remedy this situation by a deliberate attempt to bring mindfulness into our daily round.  In my estimation, mindfulness means deliberate action, not necessarily slow, but definitely not rushed.  I find mindfulness most often in the kitchen.  (We all have our favorite places, and cooking is a hobby of mine.)  Actually, mindfulness is necessary in every situation.  It is easier than meditation, for in mindfulness we can give our minds something to hold on to, the actions that we are undertaking.  Meditation, at least traditionally, is particularly hard to practice if we are frenetic Westerners.

            But meditation has its place, and stilling the mind, letting the heart speak, is healing.  We certainly aren’t letting idle thoughts rule us when we are meditating. 

            Listen to Jesus’ words, said in all of his best-known channeled works.

            Let him speak to us, and our mind will slow down enough so that we listen with our heart.  Idle thoughts will diminish, peace will reign.

Joy Calls

The universe exists in reciprocal relationship or holy relationship, rather than special relationship.  This is the nature of existence, as unity is the nature of existence and cannot be changed and has not changed, although you believe it not.  It is a joyful relationship, as the nature of relationship is joy.  Once you have given up your belief in separation this will be known to you.  (A Course of Love, C:29.17)

Once we give up our belief that we could actually separate from God, and have done so, much good will result.  We will know that holy relationship is the nature of the universe(s), and we will realize that holy relationship does not take anything away from our nearest and dearest.  Holy relationship will expand our love to meet the whole world.  We will not know the separatism that has characterized our various special relationships, relationships that have often ended badly.

My friend Carol knew what it is like to suffer special relationship, and “suffer” is the salient word here.  As mentioned, she once fell very hard into a love that was strong on ego, though she did not realize it at the time.  If the special love had ever been transformed into holy, then her sense of desolation at the end of the “relationship” would have saved her from needless regret. 

There was something eminently good about the love that Carol felt.  It was not a love that would be easily surpassed.  That was the clue that something else was going on here.  She was being led, ever so gently and before A Course in Miracles was published, to give up her interest in being special (and having someone else be special as well).  In retrospect, holiness is the transforming key to relationship that goes sour.  And there doesn’t have to be any continuing contact with the other at all to effect a holy relationship.  Relationship that is holy is thus seen to be mystical.

We are meant to enjoy joyousness is our relationships.  Special love invites the highs and lows of drama, and egoic drama at that.  A holy relationship is one that has been dedicated to the Almighty, a Source beyond just our little personality.  And this dedication to Something bigger than ourselves is what makes all the difference.

When we feel united with all other people, our brothers and sisters, we know a peace that is not of this world.  We are meant to live in unity, and of course, we can see that seeing one small part as more special that another would make this joyous unity impossible. Ask to see with a greater vision today.  Ask to comprehend as never before what a special love transformed into a holy one can really mean.  There is no comparison, but until each of us has seen the difference for ourselves, we will remain skeptical that we aren’t losing something in the transformation.

Nothing Real Can Be Threatened. Nothing Unreal Exists

“This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:

     Nothing real can be threatened.

     Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God.”  (A Course in Miracles, T-in.2)

What is real?  Do we have any idea?  What is unreal?  Do we know that either?

At the start of A Course in Miracles, we know neither, for we cannot tell the real from the unreal.  And a firm definition would not be helpful in the beginning.  It is enough to know, right now, that we want the real and we do not want the unreal.  Glimpses of which is which will emerge as we read the Text, and, especially, as we do the Workbook lessons.

We can say a few things at the outset, though.  The real is what is of God, and we know immediately that the intangibles of love, harmony, peace, joy, are real.  These cannot be threatened by anything other than an insane mind, and the insane mind can really do nothing, ultimately.  The insane mind is run by the ego, which is a part of ourselves that we have made in an attempt to be separate from God.  An attempt that could never succeed, but which we have thought could succeed.  Yet the ego is the first concept that we can understand is unreal, and therefore does not really exist.

A Course in Miracles is written on several levels, none of which conflict with each other.  On the ideal level, we know that what the above quotation tells us is true.  On the more practical level (which most of ACIM embodies), we are not so sure.

We would invite into our lives today all that is real, eliminating, with the Holy Spirit as our Guide, those aspects of our made-up world that are unreal.  We want the peace of God, and we cannot have inner peace when we are anguishing over the ego’s machinations.  So let us think today of what we know will bring us peace, and let us concentrate only on that, for that only is real and therefore cannot be threatened.

Prayer

“True prayer consists of living in the truth.  Every time you connect with the truth of who you are, you are praying, for prayer is love, and love is union.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 8:III

Here we see, from Jesus, several words that actually mean the same.  These words are prayer, truth, love, and union.  And when we are engaged in any of these ultimate values, we are being who we are.

No longer do we have to feel guilty that we don’t pray enough.  When we seek to tell the truth just always, not only when it is convenient to ourselves, we (Jesus says) are praying.  And then we are living in love, and we are living in love with All that exists.  That All includes Jesus, of course, and it also includes our Creator.  When we sense love from Him, we are set for a good day.

Union is where we are all headed, though this does not necessarily mean an absorption into the Deity.  We are One, and this is the real meaning of union.  We have relationship with diverse entities, but together we are united in God.

When we live in love, truth, union, we are praying.  And our prayer life will then transform everything else.

Traveling the Path of the Living Christ

“I traveled the path of the living Christ because that is what I am.  It is exactly the same path you travel.  Yours may not include portentous miracles.  You may not be famous.  You may not transform water into wine for humanity to begin to see a power not of this world.  You may not heal the sick, externally speaking.  None of that matters.  None of that is essential.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 8:III

I think Jesus is here giving us a context for believing that we can one day be equals of him.  Of course, those of us of faith don’t usually think in these terms.  Yet Jesus says things like this repeatedly in various received (channeled) works from the recent past.  We don’t have to perform the miracles that he did, though elsewhere he says that we will actually do more than he—certainly a startling assertion.

Jesus wants companions, not subservient individuals who idolize him.  He can be an ideal for us, of course, but that is not the same thing as idolatry.  He has pointed out the way, 2000 years ago, and he continues to be available to us in a mystical fashion that our finite minds and hearts cannot fathom.  Many of us believe that he indeed did channel A Course in Miracles, A Course of Love, and The Way of Mastery.  Now in Choose Only Love there are numerous portions coming from him as well.

Jesus doesn’t want us to assert things that we don’t quite believe.  Even if we doubt the practice of channeling or receiving from a discarnate being, we still can read the words and be inspired.  Much of what we read has a basis in traditional Christianity.  This provides continuity from Jesus that is tremendously reassuring.

Ask today how we might emulate Jesus.  Ask what our contribution might best be.  Set up a dialogue in a journal, with questions and answers, and see if there doesn’t seem to be a way out there for all of us to experience directly.  Ask to know what our mission is.

We will not be disappointed in what we “hear.”

Hope for Transformation in This Decade

“We are close now, close to a time in which a new choice can make true living available here and now.  This is the decade in which transformation proceeds, and the time in which the mother’s heart enters to show the way to care of the living, and the end of what does not need to be.  This is time of Mirari:  The Way of the Marys.”  Mirari

The “mother’s heart” is Mary herself, but she extends this to all mothers everywhere.  “The Way of the Marys” is the way of women everywhere.  And this decade Marys will be coming into their own.

One cannot adopt the name Mary without being overcome with love for all beings, all creations of God, all people everywhere.  But when we do adopt this name for our own, we are proceeding into a transformation that will affect all life.

The patriarchal society will be influenced more and more by women, and if women choose love, that change will be a good thing.  Women have historically cared for the living, especially their own children.  But now the female aspect of God is moving to a new level of Being, and the female in our societies will be asked to take a more leading role.

If women succeed, we will have greater harmony throughout the world.  Women have historically been close to intuition, and intuition is of the heart.  It is the way that we hear from God—all of us, men and women.

THIS decade is when all this New will be born, for Mirari was received just in the last few years.  We are fortunate indeed to live in a time of hope, when so much around us seems to be crumbling. 

The old is making way for the New, first announced in A Course of Love.

Discovering Love

“This is a course in miracles.  It is a required course.  Only the time you take it is voluntary.  Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum.  It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time.  The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught.  It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance.  The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.”  (A Course in Miracles, T-in.1)

The emphasis here is on “miracles.”  And the fact that what we are taking in A Course in Miracles is a required course.  Is it required for everyone in the world, eventually?  That is an open question, for Jesus does not take a stand on reincarnation.  And Jesus has also said that there are other teachers in this world, teachers other than him.  But we have chosen that he be our teacher, because his words come to us in a manner that we can recognize and love.

We are trying to dislodge the ego; that is “removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence.”  We give up struggle in this task.  Jesus and the Holy Spirit will show us the way effortlessly, step by step.  If we take one situation today and choose once again that we respond in a wholehearted manner, bereft of ego, we will have done well.  Just for today, seek to choose by altruistic means, not egoic.  And your time will be well spent.

Love actually has no opposite of fear, for fear is nothing—a manifestation of illusion, of dreams.  We live in dreams until we choose once again.  Sooner rather than later the Holy Spirit will replace our fearful dreams with happy dreams.  And then the way is smoothed to lead us, ultimately, to Awakening.  If the way seems long, we are encouraged not to fret, that the end is certain.  We have chosen God’s way, and the Holy Spirit is a guide Who cannot fail.  Revelation may occasionally reveal the end to us, but to get there the means are needed, and the means are being revealed in this course.

God would not withhold the rest, when what we ask—Awakening—is His Will for us.  In the meantime, we need just to be patient.  The way is being shown.  Let no fearful thought of the ego hinder your way.

Release at Last

While one special relationship continues, all special relationships continue because they are given validity.  The holy relationship of unity depends on the release of the beliefs that foster special relationships.  (A Course of Love, C:25.11)

We don’t need special relationships, “special” in the sense that they are egoic and different from all other relationships out there in the world. 

Of course, we don’t believe this.  We think that there is nothing wrong with seeing our significant others, our family and friends, as “special.”  But what are we really saying here?  We are setting them apart as being more “worthy” of our love than other people.  Is this not judgment?  And haven’t we been warned not to judge?  Judging keeps us from Christ-consciousness.  Moreover, judging makes us unhappy, for when we point a finger at another, three fingers are pointed back at us.  We damn ourselves when we judge another.

I was once rather judgmental, and I projected these ideas onto Jesus, seeing him as a figure of judgment.  Indeed, traditional Christian theology invites this interpretation.  When I visited the Baptistry in Florence, Italy, where a large mosaic of Jesus looms far ahead on the high ceiling, I saw judgment in Jesus’ eyes.  Or thought I did.  After years of studying A Course in Miracles, though, my judgments had softened, and when I looked overhead on another visit, I saw a blank slate in Jesus’ eyes, ready and willing for me to write my projection there.

There was no judgment in the second visit.  And so there was no “specialness,” even in regarding Jesus.  And this was a giant leap forward.

We are seeking to be united with all of our brothers and sisters on our earth.  We want unity with them, and we can’t have that if we divide others up into separate little parcels.  We can’t fully appreciate all others if we are judging them as less worthy of our love than our nearest and dearest.

Of course, our nearest and dearest have taught us how to love.  And now we extend (not project) this love on everyone.

We don’t make distinctions between worthiness and lack of worthiness.  We know that all are equal in the sight of God, and that all ought to be equal in our sight as well.  Our beloveds will not lose anything.  We will be so love-conscious that they will see a new persona in us.  They will know a love from us that has been heretofore veiled.

Specialness is a limited love.  Holy love knows no limitedness, knows only inclusion.

Unveiling the Inner Self

“The Self That God created needs nothing.  It is forever complete, safe, loved and loving.  It seeks to share rather than to get; to extend rather than project.  It has no needs and wants to join with others out of their mutual awareness of abundance.”  (Preface, A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., “What It Says,” 7^th paragraph)

The Self is the inner essence, the part of our Being that recognizes oneness with God.  It is the Christ Who is within.  We do not have to feel that to think like this is arrogance; instead, it is supreme good sense.  The Self is “complete, safe, loved and loving.”  What more could we want?

We need to realize that sharing and extending are functions of the Son of God, our real Self.  The little self who is dominated by the ego is really nothing, a travesty of reality.  We ought to avoid “getting” and “projecting.”  And when we share and extend, by definition we are deemphasizing the ego in our experience.  The ego gives only to get; it seeks to aggrandize self at the expense, sometimes, of others.  Even when we seek to aggrandize ourselves with no expense to others, we are still thinking amiss.  And it is this wrongful thinking that is nailing us to our little crosses.

We do have abundance.  Abundance is our inheritance.  And as soon as we have taken steps to avoid egotistical leanings, just choosing to stop such thinking in its tracks, we will be taking the first step toward unveiling the inner Self.  When we have taken this first step, God moves to supply the rest forthwith.  He only waits on our invitation, and that invitation can come as soon as we recognize what we really need is Him.

Join in Love

“Beloved friends, peace be unto you always, and always I am with you.  I come to you not alone, but with many who have delighted in creating a resonance with me, and I with them, for no other reason than that power expands exponentially when  minds join in love from a foundation of wholeness and not neediness.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 13, Page 168)

Jesus comes to us in The Way of Mastery by way of Jayem, who channeled “live,” and these three books of The Way of Mastery are the result.  Often in these books, Jesus stresses that he comes with others who join forces to help us all.  He calls his particular group, a very large group, simply “the lineage.”   Their work has been going on for a long, long time; their work is what led up to Jesus’ life 2000 years ago.

When we join with others, our power too is expanded, as Jesus says, “exponentially,” when we are joined in love.  We don’t join with others strictly out of our need, for we will soon come to know that we are whole beings residing in God.  We don’t have to look to others out of this neediness.  We join others because we come to love them.

Right after this passage, Jesus asserts that he and Mary, who are bonded together, do not join because they “need” each other.  He and Mary are joined in love and the result of a common purpose—to save us.  And we might also realize that there are many of us on earth who share that common purpose—though being finite and in physical bodies, we don’t know all that will be known in the cosmic realm.

Join with others of like mind (and heart—as A Course of Love says), if there is love as the overarching feeling.  When we let love lead the way, our ratio of mistakes to truth changes drastically.  We let go of many of our old ways, and walk into a new world being created even as we speak.

True Communication

Note: With this post, I am returning to a consideration of Choose Only Love, Bk. 3. On future days, I will consider passages from all received writings covered in this blog, weaving them into synthesis.

“True communication occurs from heart to heart, from self to self.  Only in the truth can there be true communication.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 7:III

We all want intimacy in our lives, and I think this quotation from Choose Only Love implies how we might have it: heart to heart brings “true communication” and the truth brings “true communication.” To allow the truth of our heart to prevail, though, we must not be afraid of showing our true self. And often we hesitate to do this, because we think if people knew the real person who we are, they might not accept us.

This fear that we might not be accepted for who we are comes from what A Course in Miracles calls a “shabby self-perception.” A Course of Love highlights the importance of letting the heart inform the mind, and when we follow this advice, we are leading with the innocence that is within. When we speak the truth, we will reassure ourselves also that we are innocent.

We are not “bad,” though all of us have done bad things. A moment spent in reflection will assure us that God still loves us, and we are entirely acceptable in His sight. Let’s give our friends and family the same leeway, believing that we are entirely acceptable in their sight as well.

With this done, true communication is assured. And with it, intimacy.