We Can Be Reborn as a True Self without Dying

“To believe that you are mortal is to believe that you must die to the personal self of form in order to be reborn as a true Self. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘ A Treatise on the New,’ 4.16)”

1 – Health

How often we lament the minor and major health problems that beset us! But ACOL would have us deemphasize these problems of form. When we are reborn as the true Self, the highs and lows of health of the form will diminish in value. We will stop focusing on such, knowing that the Self is always healthy.

2 – Death

This passage highlights a frequent misinterpretation about life after death, which A Course of Love seeks to set straight. We do not have to die to experience the rewards of Heaven. We can enjoy Heaven’s benefits in the here and now, when we have experienced the diminution of the personal self (the “little” self, as I am interpreting it) and the rise of elevated Self of form. To experience all the benefits of this new Self, we must forgive (an ACIM tenet), and we must love without reservations. We must see ourselves as well as all of our brothers and sisters as innocent, or in grace (the latter, a statement occurring once in ACIM). When we recognize that all are as God created us, then we know that our mistakes have not been unforgivable “sins,” but merely mistakes that we seek now to remedy.

3 – Elevated Self of Form

This truth will be known to us when we become involved in something bigger than our little self of form. The elevated Self knows better. May we know better today.

4 – Christ-consciousness

Abiding in the elevated Self of form can and does occur when we let go of all impediments to reach this state. This state is Christ-consciousness, or enlightenment. This state is our natural inheritance, but until recent times it has not been possible on a large scale.

5 – This World

We can believe that now it is possible on a large scale. Our world depends on it, for the world is old and worn and without hope. If we are to survive as a species, we need a new lease on life, a lease that is made possible by many thousands turning to Christ-consciousness as a way of life. This is a major tenet of Eckhart Tolle, an enlightened individual who has taught widely in our world (The Power of Now; A New Earth).

6 – God’s Action

We cannot make this decision for ourselves. We are told in A Course in Miracles that God makes the decision of when, when we are ready. But we can do some things that make the time sooner. We can let go of egoic notions about how to react in our world; we can practice the Workbook of A Course in Miracles; we can seek to forgive, really forgive, for when we come to the understandings that are imbedded in ACIM and A Course of Love, we know that our brothers and sisters have never actually done anything that has harmed us. All was done in illusion, and illusion does not really exist.

7 – Little Edges of Light / Great Rays

The way is open for many of us now. Take the next step. Affirm that you would like to be ready for Christ-consciousness. Notice the little edges of light that come to mark the world that you see. Notice if the Great Rays from the sun envelop your world. These are signposts, given us by ACIM. And we will have brief moments of Awakening that do not last. These moments reveal the end to us, and ACIM and ACOL point out the means. Revelation is given us the end, and the means are being pointed out in these remarkable volumes.

8 – Vision

Take heed of the changes that occur as we begin to see our world differently. Vision will come to us. And to us all. It is only a matter of time, and time does not really exist, being an illusion also.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would accept my birthright as a Self that has been encased in a little form, but which I would elevate to a higher Self. Help me to forgive myself and all of my brothers and sisters today. May I know only joy as I seek to do this task of forgiveness.

I am truly a guiltless Son/Daughter of God. Once I realize this, I will know that as I seek to rectify my mistakes, they are taken from me. And then I thank You that Heaven on earth can truly be experienced, even though I don’t know how in all the particulars. Jesus has promised this in ACIM and ACOL, and I trust him as an elder brother who has walked the whole pathway back Home.

Amen.