Dealing with Our Resistance, by Ivor Sowton

First of all, I want to thank Celia Hales so much for her wonderful post of 11/16/14, entitled “Self-Doubt Is the Only Thing that Will Not Sustain Christ-consciousness.”. If you haven’t seen it yet, please check it out on her blog, Miracles Each Day. She works with a key quote from Jesus in A Course of Love’s Treatise on the New, on trusting the way of the New that Jesus offers us. We deliberately turn our backs on the self-doubt that would have us choose instead the old, the ego thought system we have employed in the past.

I know what she is speaking of is true; I do trust Jesus on this. And you the reader may well want to go to her post and stop reading this one! That’s fine and may be just right for you!

This post is on our resistance to this wonderful spiritual path. It is unlikely to be a popular topic, but I put it forth because I find it is quite relevant for myself and, I think, for many of us.

You know the times when you wake up sad and low and may want to feel the Peace of God for sure, but do not seem to be able to access it at all? What to do at such times? Or when you have been studying these teachings diligently and have really been feeling more peace and joy and then WHAM–something really bad or frightening comes up big time. What do you do then? Or when you, after having really made the spiritual effort for some time, now feel the onset of the doldrums, like an old sailing ship suddenly dead in the water because the wind has totally died down. What do you do then? Or you have been making slow but steady progress, and all of a sudden a big compulsion comes up really strong. What do you do then?

So we’re speaking of resistance to our path, and how to deal with it. Celia’s keynote quote from Jesus is this one, from ACOL, Treatise on the New, 12.19: “But I ask you to try to remember to turn to the new rather than the old each time you think you are experiencing uncertainty or lack.”

A good place to start in dealing with our resistance, then, is to try to interface with our teachings for timely and relevant help in our current perceived distress. Our teachings are literally offering us a new way to deal with past patterns of inertia–our resistance.

Jesus, in both A Course of Love and A Course in Miracles, often recommends an unguarded sharing of our troubles with him, just as they come up. Try to go to an image of Jesus or Mary or whoever in your heart and ask for help right now. Not in a melodramatic way or a demanding way, but instead just assuming that he or she or it does really mean it when they assure us of their eternal love for us. We might start by praying: “Dear____, I know that you are here with me. Guide Thou my thoughts and feelings now as I negotiate this.”

ACIM teacher Jacob Glass is very helpful for me in my times of travail, because he seems to normalize feelings of distress and inadequacy as they come up in our spiritual lives.

Jacob encourages us to just try and be steady, meeting our commitments, rain or shine. Our society demands steadiness, showing up for work however we might be feeling emotionally, parenting the kids evenly, even when we’re under the weather. There’s a real sustaining wisdom in this, I think. Go for the B+ day every day. A+ days will happen, but we’re setting ourselves up for failure if we demand this of ourselves every day. It’s like the Zen Buddhist credo: “Just sit zazen (Zen meditation). Good day, just sit zazen. Bad day, just sit zazen.” Thus we maintain our steady forward momentum, not always romantically rosy, but long-term solid and dependable. It’s choosing the New, just as Jesus is saying here, by not over-reacting to the seemingly negative whatever of the present. Just trying to trust God and keep on keeping on.

The ACIM/ACOL community recently physically lost a real luminary in Ken Wapnik, PhD, who was the close confidant of Helen Schucman, PhD, scribe of A Course in Miracles. Ken has been an amazingly dynamic teacher of this path ever since then until his transition at Christmas time last year. Luckily his tremendous wisdom lives on in a large body of publications and recordings, and the Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM) that he and his wife Gloria set up remains strong and vibrant (check it out online). Ken often said that psychology can really help us by instilling a healthy respect for the devious craftiness of our egos! He asks us to be really honest in asking ourselves– do we REALLY want to be done with separative ego consciousness forever? Or were we actually angling for better “position” as a more sophisticated, spiritual, “superior” ego? Touche!

Ken counseled a lot of self-forgiveness as we come to discover just how into self-sabotaging our egos can be!

It’s like we are cruising along fair to middling and then we suddenly and apparently deliberately “shoot ourselves in the foot”, saying or doing something outlandish that can really upset us and those around us! Why on earth would we do such a thing!? Simply because the ego needs suffering to maintain separateness–that’s why! Eckhart Tolle calls this our “pain body,” and we all have one, or we wouldn’t be here!

Jesus in ACOL states that our misguided choice for suffering is what went wrong with our experiment in physicality. In and of itself, to choose a physical self as an expression of our Divine Self “would be perfectly within the Laws of God, or Love”. But we got scared, it seems, and made up a lot of “laws of man” or “laws of survival” in our attempt to maintain an adolescent kind of individuality, which we thought we wanted. Now, though, as the prodigal sons and daughters returning to our eternal Home, we can start to let all those lesser laws go in favor of God’s, which alone can offer all the peace and joy that we really want.
So we needn’t be surprised when our ego acts up. We might even think of it as a little child, in need of our reassurance that everything will be all right.
Resistance, then, is actually part of our path. Part of our letting go. Part of our deliberately turning to the New.

“This is not such a frightening task. Let fear go and walk with me now.” (Jesus speaking to you and me personally in the Second Treatise of ACOL, 13.6)

What Will the Future Hold?

“What will the future hold? . . .Because it is the new future of a new form joined in unity and relationship, the only guarantees that are known to us is that it will be a future of love, a future without fear, a future with unlimited freedom. For what more could we ask? And what more could be asked of us? (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.35)”

1 – Dialogues

This is a great sendoff to the third and final part of A Course of Love. The next part is the Dialogues. I have covered part of these in the 40 days and 40 nights section—see table of contents, above, and then refer to archives.

2 – Hope

In this paragraph, we easily see that there is much hope for the future, much hope and much happiness ahead.

3 – Everything

“Make no mistake that what is asked of us is everything. What is asked is our total willingness to abandon the old, our total willingness to embrace the new. But also make no mistake that what is given to us is everything. All the power of creation is released unto us. Let us begin. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 12.36)”

4 – Conclusion

This is given by Jesus at the conclusion of “A Treatise on the New.” We are ready to move into the Dialogues, which are meant to be a sustained conversation with Jesus in which we are seen as equals. Unlike ACIM, he does not describe himself as our elder brother. He does not describe himself as our teacher. He is our companion on our life’s journey, and he remains there for us always.

5 – ACIM

In ACIM, we are bade to imagine that he takes our hand as we walk along, and we are told that this will be no “idle fantasy.” May we believe this promise today. We are not alone. Not only is Jesus with us (which may take a suspension of disbelief), but also mighty companions whom we don’t know on this plane (an ACIM tenet). If we knew what is available to us by way of help, we would never fear again.

6 – Give Up Fear

May we never fear again, beginning today.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I feel excited about the “new” that Jesus has promised, and for which he has prepared me. May this upcoming year be a good one, and may I know that You are there for me always.

Thank you for the “Treatise on the New.” And thanks to Mari Perron for channeling this writing. May we share with our brothers and sisters, as they are ready to accept.

Amen.

The Living of Christ-consciousness in Physical Form

“This is akin to being stranded in a foreign land with none of the ways you learned how to adapt in the past being of service to you. That is how new this is, and more. But the difference is that you are not alone and that you are not in a foreign land but returned to your home of origin. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.26)”

1 – New Era

We, here in the New, are living in a new era. It is not enough simply to think of it as the era of Christ, because all too often we think of this as an era for Jesus, as he was 2,000 years ago. He has never said anything like that in A Course of Love. He stresses that you and I are in a dialogue with him in which we are learning in new ways, but, mostly importantly of all, we know that we are learning in the best way because we are sharing with him and with our brothers and sisters.

2 – Design

“There was an overall design that ensured optimal learning and that design was known to you in the pattern of that design, a pattern that was part of the pattern of your thoughts, even after the ego came to rule your thought system. Without this pattern, the ego could have succeeded in becoming the ruler of the personal self. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.27)”

3 – God

This quotation indicates that God Himself had a pattern for us from which we did not depart in the eons that the ego ruled. This is what is meant by the term “design.” The ego, however, was never the ruler of the personal self, because the design was not compromised. We did what we did only in illusion. God was not mocked.

4 – Christ-consciousness

“What will help you to remain doubt-free and thus fear-free and continually able to sustain Christ-consciousness, is coming to know the new design, and the new patterns that reveal the design. This new design and the new patterns. . . [will] be communicated through our continuing dialogues with one another. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.30)

5 – Jesus

Jesus wants to have a continuing dialogue, and part of that dialogue becomes the final part of A Course of Love, 40 days and 40 nights on the mountain top with him. This section of ACOL is masterfully written to channel us toward Christ-consciousness on a sustained basis. Jesus says therein that he has no intention for us to go to the mountain top repeatedly; we can do so, but that is second best.

6 – No Idle Fantasy

We might believe that Jesus himself, who says that he is holding our hand (something that is “no idle fantasy,” according to A Course of Miracles), can dialogue with us in unique fashion to our individual needs. He does not spell out this scenario, but he hints at such a possibility, and well we might want him to react to us in ways that no proof on earth could explain. In this quotation he talks about our continuing dialogues, and it is hard to speculate what he means unless it is a personal dialogue with each of us. This new design and the new patterns are not fully explained in the final part of ACOL, and so it is not out of the realm of possibility that Jesus is here with us, supernaturally, making a real difference in our lives.

7 – Comfort

Even if we can’t come to believe this, we can recognize that to entertain such a possibility is comforting in the extreme.

8 – Teacher No Longer

“I do not have the answers that would continue to make of me a teacher and you a student. The answers to the elevation of the personal self and the living of Christ-consciousness in form are yet to be revealed and shared. This is the time that is before us. . . . (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.32)”

9 – Resignation

This is the point in which Jesus makes clear that he is not going to be our teacher any longer. A little farther over in A Course of Love, and he “resigns” as our teacher. We are to see him as an equal in our future lives. Our personal self, if all goes well, will be sustained as the Self that is one with God. Our communication with God, which has been disrupted, will be reestablished, and we will commune easily and well. The Holy Spirit’s era is over; this is really what is pointed out in the passing of His era.

10 – Egocentric?

The time before us is hallowed ground. We don’t have to worry that to think such is egocentric. If we have come this far, we know that we don’t react as we once did to egocentric notions. Now we are heading into the future, with Jesus by our side (though no longer our teacher). The future looks bright. Sustaining Christ-consciousness is the goal that Jesus holds out to us. May we see glimpses more and more, and then may the sustainability be assured.

Dear Father/Mother,

I long for a sustained awareness of Your love, and I can have that sustained awareness in its fullness only when I have reached and sustained Christ-consciousness. Guide me day by day, hour by hour, even minute by minute, as I seek to give up the old ways and come into the New.

May this day go smoothly. May it be like a worthy pearl on a string of pearls that will never break, one day following another into greater and greater value to You. I long to be of use to You. Help me to do that without dipping into the old ways of egoic thought.

May I find the brothers and sisters with whom I can interact the best. May we share our love in a wholly good way, and in the sharing may we come to know You as well as ourselves better.

Thank You for Your blessings.

Amen.

Christ-consciousness Is Our Innate Consciousness

“Again let me remind you that we are speaking of the new. There has always been a state of consciousness that we are here calling Christ-consciousness. There has never been a sustained Christ-consciousness in form. . . . It [Christ-consciousness] is your innate consciousness, a consciousness far too vast to be learned but one easily shared by all. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.22)

1 – Jesus

Jesus is here alluding to his recommendation that we, ourselves, assume a Self that is of form, physical form. And that we remain on earth to sustain this form, this “elevated Self of form.” Previously, many who attained this state did not long maintain the body (from A Course in Miracles). But we are encouraged, though not required, to give another possibility a chance. We are encouraged to remain in physical form on a sustained basis, exhibiting Christ-consciousness on a sustained basis, and thereby embody a new choice for all humankind.

2 – Revolutionary

This is a revolutionary bit of news. Jesus is nothing if not stirring. He also says (elsewhere) that he will not predict the future in A Course of Love, that he himself does not know what will transpire, that our future is yet to be written—and to be written by ourselves.

3 – Physical Bodies

We are strongly protective of our physical bodies. Most don’t want to end their lives prematurely, unless they are very ill or very depressed. Most don’t choose suicide, however difficult and traumatic our circumstances may be. We want to live; the instinct is very strong.

4 – ACIM

Previously, in A Course in Miracles, the intangibles were given so much sway, and we were taught in the Workbook that only beyond this world was there anything that would satisfy us. There was seen to be nothing in this world of lasting value.

5 – Material Wealth

We may still believe this about material wealth. Much of our obsession of gaining more – more – more was egoic in nature. And somewhere along the line in our searching we have come to realize that the material, regardless of how much it is, is never enough. We want something more, and we have come to realize, for readers of spiritual material, that this something is spiritual in nature.

6 – Christ-consciousness

If we could retain our physical bodies, but enjoy the happiness of an elevated mind and heart, in Christ-consciousness, perhaps there is something indeed in this suggestion of Jesus that is worth serious consideration. Time will tell if more of us do move into Christ-consciousness. We can only remove the barriers to this experience; we cannot effect it on our own. This choice, the element of timing, belongs to God Himself (according to A Course in Miracles, where this experience is called “Awakening).

7 – Elevated Self of Form

Let us consider what an elevated Self of form would do, and then let us quickly go about ridding ourselves of the selfish impediments, the attack and anger, the violence, the lack of forgiveness, etc., that are impediments to God’s action in reaching down and lifting us up. This world needs better minds and hearts to create it anew. This is what Jesus is about. This is also what we are about.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Grant me the singleness of vision to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what is standing in the way of Christ-consciousness on a sustained basis. May I be patient only with Your timing, but not patient at all with my foibles that are hindering Your quick action.

Help this day to be a calm influence on this world—my world—and everyone I encounter. May I take my place as one who is trying to do the right thing. May this good intention be buttressed by Your particular guidance, in whatever way You send it.

Thank You.

Amen.

Self-Doubt Is the Only Thing that Will Not Sustain Christ-consciousness

“But I ask you to try to remember to turn to the new rather than the old each time you think you are experiencing uncertainty or lack. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.19)

1 – New Thinking

We need to think in new terms, the new way of living that looks to observation rather than the old-fashioned way of assimilating understanding (learning). We may not understand how we can leave learning behind. Don’t fret. The old will fall away when we express willingness to come to know in the new way that Jesus is pointing out.

2 – Sustaining Christ-consciousness

“The only thing that is going to hold you back from your ability to sustain Christ-consciousness is doubt about yourself. You must constantly remember that doubt about yourself is fear, and reject the instinct, so engrained into your singular consciousness, to let doubt of yourself take hold of you. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.20)

3 – Doubt

We have not heretofore seen “doubt” as a thing to reject, to gently turn aside. Now we do. Doubt is actually a form of fear that will not get us where we want to go. Doubt of self is engrained in us, and we still may hold this emotion to ourselves with some emphasis. Earlier we learned that to attack, to judge, and to make plans against contingencies to come are all things that will preclude sustaining Christ-consciousness. But are not all these things evidence of self-doubt? If we believed in ourselves, the Self that we want to be, would not these other traits that we lament simply fall away of their own weight?

4 – Being OK

We are OK. Really OK. This is the message that Jesus is giving us over and over in the Treatise on the New. We have walked the pathway; now it is simply up to us to assimilate this understanding. Not to believe that it is too good to be true.

5 – Fear

“To dwell in fear will end your ability to dwell within the love that is Christ-consciousness. As there is no longer any cause for self-doubt there are no reasons for self-doubt. Do not examine yourself for reasons for self-doubt when it arises. The self-centeredness of the final stage of learning is over. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.20)

6 – Self-Centeredness

To examine self for reasons for self-doubt is to return to self-centeredness. We need just to walk ahead, knowing that we are alright, that we have prevailed in a new state of being.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to understand this concept of self-doubt. I think that I do hold this idea far more often than You would wish. I want to relinquish the fear that makes self-doubt a plausible emotion to hold. Guide me to do so.

Thank You.

Amen.

We Have Arrived! The Long Journey Is Over.

“You have arrived! The long journey that brought you here is over. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 12.15)”

1 – Jesus

What a marvelous statement from Jesus! And yet it is the highest way of viewing his words. We can still lapse. We can still have moments when we are not the sustained, elevated Self of form. Indeed, the Dialogues themselves are written so that we can travel farther along the journey. There are two levels to A Course of Love, just as there are two levels of A Course in Miracles (the former my interpretation, the latter the interpretation of scholar/writer Kenneth Wapnick).

2 – Struggle

But we do not have to struggle as we have. We can have Heaven on earth. Jesus promises this elsewhere. And may we take him at his word.

3 – Journey without Distance

Remember, from ACIM, that this has been a “journey without distance.” We have always had the potential to be realized, to realize ourselves as Awakened beings. It is only now that this potential is being actualized in more and more of our brothers and sisters, and in ourselves.

4 – An End Point

“This is a necessary end point of your review of your experience here so that you do not continue to advance learned wisdom. Learned wisdom will tell you to work hard. Learned wisdom will tell you that the strong survive, the mighty prevail, the weak shall perish. I attempted to dislodge much of this learned wisdom during my time on Earth and man is still puzzling over the meaning of my words. The time for puzzlement is over. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.17)”

5 – Ease Off

We do not have to work so hard any longer! Isn’t this a wonderful reassurance?

6 – Suffering No Longer

“Think and speak no more of the suffering of the past. Spread the joyous news! Tell only joyous stories. Advance the idea of joyous challenges that allow for all the creativity you have put into challenges of the past but without the struggle. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.18)”

7 – Joy

If we share only joyous stories, we will live a much happier life, for we will be creating in the real world, leaving illusions behind. We are co-creators of this new world, and Jesus has said that even he does not know what the future will bring. But we can imagine that the future will be bright.

8 – Begin Again

“What could be more invigorating, more challenging, more stimulating to your enrichment, than throwing out the old and beginning again? (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.18)”

9 – The New

This is a call to the New, as Jesus has been calling us for all of this treatise. Let us join together in sharing the good news to which we have been exposed. Let us leave behind bewailing forever.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I hope that, in some sense, I have arrived. I recognize the long journey, but the way has sometimes been hard, and I do immediately know what joy lies all around me. Help me to see and feel the joy today.

I ask for Your help as I assimilate the fact of arrival. Help me even to know what “arrival” means. Be with me throughout the day, and help me always to acknowledge Your loving presence.

Amen.

It Is Fine to Rest in Continual Contentment

“During the new time of sharing, there is no ‘next phase’ of learning for you to move on to. There is no reason for you not to exist in continual contentment. Continual contentment will not stunt your growth or prevent you from sharing or from expressing yourself anew. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.12)”

1 – Contentment

We do not have constantly to challenge ourselves in going outside our comfort zone—not anymore. We will not lose anything by resting in contentment. Contentment is the natural state of a mind at One with God.

2 – Learning Challenges

“You eagerly awaited each learning challenge in the hopes that it would bring you to the state in which you now abide. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 12.14)”

3 – Reading

This passage echoes a theme of ACOL. We have read, and read, and read so more–and now we must realize that we really do not have to read to come into fuller understanding of God. Of course, in our contemplative time, we may still want to read familiar passages to prompt our reflections and bring us ever closer to the divine spark within. But we do not have to seek new and different readings. We can rest in what we have already read.

4 – Being The Accomplished

We have arrived. What a glorious promise this is!

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Let me rest awhile in the knowledge that You have promised that I have “arrived.” If that is not yet true, may I rest in surety that I will eventually abide where You have promised.

May my contemplative time bring me ever closer to You. May I not be tempted to run hither and yon in an attempt to reach Awakening. You will decide the time, and You make no mistakes.

May I enjoy the contentment that I personally feel right now. Forgiveness is the key, I know. It offers everything that I want. Thank You for guiding me to this knowledge—and it is knowledge, not perception.

Amen.

Stop Learning in Isolation / Choose Sharing in Unity

“All conditions that were intermediary in nature during the time of learning, are, during the time of sharing, naturally converted to direct experiences of sharing. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.8)”

1 – This quotation indicates that we will subtly move into sharing, leaving behind learning in isolation and for our egoic selves. We will be sharing with any brothers and sisters with whom we come in contact.

2 – “As long as you continue to invite learning, you will continue to invite the conditions of learning. These are the conditions you have experienced throughout your lifetime and have expressed a willingness to leave behind. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.10)”

3 – We will need to watch ourselves, because habit is strong, and we are used to learning. We are not so used to sharing willingly with others. But our observations of our brothers and sisters will provide the “learning” that we need to invite now.

4 – “. . .[B]e vigilant of your thought patterns so that you eradicate the idea of learning in separation and replace it with the idea of sharing in unity. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 12.10)”

5 – Learning in Separation

We did learn in separation, and this explains in part the self-centeredness that we knew in our phase of learning. But when we reach out to our brothers and sisters, we are sharing in unity. And this is the right place to head. Never neglect those individuals to whom we are close. Do not withdraw unto one’s self. This in itself would be enough for the ego to gain another foothold.

6 – Unity and Relationship

“Sharing in unity” is akin to the oft-repeated assertion that in the time of Christ we are to share in “unity and relationship.” “Unity and relationship” are hallmark words in A Course of Love, and they are used so frequently that we may forget exactly what they mean. Basically, these words mean that we are “One in the many” (an interpretation, not stated in ACOL). As One, we are in unity, and in the “many,” we are in relationship to our brothers and sisters.

7 – Creating a New World

Unity and relationship, the One in the many, are the twin ways that we will create in a new world, a world which we inhabit by the sustained, elevated Self of form. This Self of form is the physical form that we know now, but it is moved by revelation from God, direct and normally unmistakable.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to refrain from the learning that separates, instead opting for the sharing in unity that I can experience with my brothers and sisters. Learning, I recognize, is often separating, but I am less clear about sharing with my brothers and sisters. Help me to understand more fully today.

If I make missteps today, please remedy them for me. Not everyone I meet is ready to understand A Course of Love. Help me to offer only what my brother or sister is ready to accept.

Help us to understand why it is so important to leave behind separatist notions of learning. We need to reach out to each other, in a display of unity with each other and with You. Help me to comprehend, to willingly carry out, and to reap the benefits of this change of mind.

Amen.

Jesus: “I Will Respond to You through Direct Communication”

“Today we join together to birth the new. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.1)”

1 – New Era

We are heading into a new time in our world, a new era. With Jesus, we are ready to birth the new. He will help; we do not have to feel that we are abandoned.

2 – Dialogue

“From this time on, I will respond to you through direct communication or dialogue rather than through teaching. As with all new means of doing anything, this dialogue must have a starting point. This is it. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.2)”

3 – Inner Words

The next book in the combined edition of A Course of Love is the Dialogues. This means that Jesus intends to engage us in a dialogue, and we may suppose that our inner words may reflect what he has to say to us, though he does not make this clear.

4 – Ongoing Dialogue

“This dialogue will, however, be ongoing, and this is your invitation to participate in this dialogue. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.4)”

5 – Mistakes

We are to be an equal partner in this dialogue, and we need not hang back or express undue humility in the future. We are The Accomplished, however much we still make mistakes.

6 – Jesus

Jesus will engage us in a dialogue that will tell us how to proceed.

7 – Learning / Unity

“Two changes of enormous proportions are upon you. The first is the end of learning. . .The second is the beginning of sharing in unity. . . . (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.5)”

8 – Sharing

We may not yet feel ready to dispense with learning, but we are asked to do so. We are sharing in the One that we are with Jesus and everyone external and internal, including God, Who is internal. We project, of course, as we have known, but we still share, and in the sharing is our destiny writ large.

9 – The All

We are One with the All, and the All is everything. This is the unity with which we are in relationship. The terms, “unity” and “relationship” are used repeatedly in A Course of Love to set us straight.

10 – Surprises

“Take delight in these surprises. Laugh and be joyous. You no longer have a need to figure things out. Surprises cannot be figured out! (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the New, 12.6)”

11 – Analysis

We do not have to analyze anymore. The ego loves to analyze, but we would be best to leave this habit of thought behind, now. Analysis is a way to try to come to understand, but we are embarking on a new future, a future that is independent of the past, and so analysis of the present that builds upon what we learned in the past will have no meaning.

12 – Joy

We are told to laugh and be joyous! Jesus does not take us so seriously, and elsewhere we are told that seriousness (of which we have had much) is of the ego. The new Self does not take Itself seriously, and we will enjoy a happier reality by embodying that better state. We need to relax and be calm. In the calm, we will come to know the new reality; we will be perfectly calm and quiet all the time (from A Course in Miracles). We will not engage in drama. We will know joy, which has its own flights, but we will not engage in meaningless battles of heightened awareness brought on by fear.

13 – Dialogues

“Once these dialogues are sustainable without need of the written word, the written word will be less necessary. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 12.7)”

14 – How Many Times to Read ACOL?

There is a chance that those who have read A Course of Love through once (or even more than once, several times) may feel that it is wrong to go back to these volumes. We may think that we are “learning,” when that has been counseled against.

15 – We Need to Reread ACOL Intensively

I think this is a misreading. While it is true that in the Forty Days and Forty Nights on the mountaintop (from the Dialogues), Jesus says that his intention is not for us to make this journey repeatedly, it is also true that the chapters are dense with meaning. And one or even a few readings will not make them our own. We need actually to memorize some of the words, to keep their pristine glory in our minds.

16 – The Role of Contemplation

How are we to “learn” if it is not through reading? I think that contemplation, a form of meditation, is in order here. Others might call this prayer (though ACIM and ACOL do not discuss prayer very much, probably because it is assumed). God will speak to us through revelation, we are reassured, but there must be a time set aside to receive messages. And this normally comes through contemplative time, though it may also come through chance words spoken by our brothers and sisters. Indeed, anything in our world can be a way to receive God’s revelation. But we must be careful that what we are receiving is actually true guidance from God. There must be a sureness about what we are receiving. And we must also recognize that our egos can reassert themselves and lead us astray when we least desire to be led astray.

17 – Understanding from God

May our understanding rise to knowledge, as God Himself reaches down and blesses us with revelation.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

You know that I have always read much. But I have also contemplated much. I ask for Your guidance about the proper balance of these two ways of coming to knowledge (rather than just perception). You grant the knowledge and the revelation. Let me always be aware of Your presence.

As this year draws to a close, and my reading of ‘Treatise on the New” draws to a close, may I retain the concepts as I move forward in my “journey without distance.”

May this day go smoothly. I know how much I need You, still, and I need You very, very much. I know that You will always manifest Your Presence when I am at all open to hearing You in the silence. May I listen to the silence with great benefit today.

Amen.

Jesus Willingly Resigns as Our Teacher

“Can I teach you to do this? My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as you once willingly resigned as your own teacher, I now willingly resign as your teacher. In unity there is no need for teachers or for learners. There is need only for the sustainability of Christ-consciousness in which we exist together as creators in unity and relationship. (Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 11.3)”

1 – Shocking

The first time that we read this quotation from A Course of Love, it may seem very shocking. Why would Jesus cease to be our teacher? What will we do without him? Do we have to be without him?

2 – Jesus

No, we don’t have to be without him. Jesus is inviting us to be co-creators in a sustained elevated Self of form. We are supposed to co-create the world, no longer the egoic world, but a better world, a world worthy of being sustained in our new state of being.

3 – Good News

This is very good news. He is trusting us who are reading A Course of Love to see if we are ready to be co-creators with him. He is perhaps more sure than we are that we are ready. We hang back, fearful of egoic manipulation of our environment. We fear the arrogance of the ego.

4 – Ego

But, if we have been taking ACOL to heart, we have dropped the ego. It is no longer. So we are ready to step up to the plate and assume our mantle of an elevated Self. Be not shy; do so today.

5 – Co-creation

“This is the beginning of our co-creation. . . .No longer regard me as an authority to whom you turn, but as an equal partner in the creation of the future through the sustainability of Christ-consciousness. (Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 11.5)”

6 – Equal Partner

Can we see Jesus as an equal partner? This surely is too good to be true. Yet Jesus says it, and I believe him. We may still oscillate from elevated Self to something lesser, but the potential of sustainability of the elevated Self is always there.

7 – Calm

Try to remain calm today. I find that telling myself to be “calm” leads to a mellow feeling and a willingness to follow internal guidance. Then I feel forever justified in God’s sight. The oscillations slow and then cease; the elevated Self of form seems to be a reality.

8 – Jesus

Talk to Jesus in your mind. Tell him that you are ready to be a co-creator. Let him tell you what to do next. He will not delay.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I thank You that Jesus shows so much confidence in me. I would be a co-creator with him, and sooner rather than later. Help me to have a good day in Your grace. Help me to reach out to Jesus in my mind, and to develop the same sort of confidence in myself that he has in me.

Be with me today. May I move into the sustainability of Christ-consciousness, keeping my form as a physical being but being transformed into the elevated Self of form.

Thank You.

Amen.

Leave Past Learning in Favor of God’s Revelation

“So how, you might ask, do you quit now, doing what you have so long done? (Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 10.3)”

1 – Learning

This quotation is about quitting learning. We right now know no other way, but Jesus is recommending in A Course of Love that we quit learning in the traditional sense, and learn through observation of life. In other words, we don’t keep seeking treatises on our religion. We stand firm on what he has been telling us. We learn through revelation from God, the very best way to learn that there is.

2 – Control

Of course, we can’t control what will come through, and this lack of control, to control freaks such as we have been, may be disconcerting. Relax into God’s love, and we will know the right things to say, do, and even what to think. We are not left to our own devices, unless we so will it, and if we so will it, we are asking for the return of the egoic state of consciousness. We don’t want to have this return happen.

3 – God’s Revelation

“Learning has had to do with what is perceived. No longer learning has to do with what is revealed. Learning has had to do with what is unknown. No longer learning has to do with what is and can only be known through revelation. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 10.11)”

4 – Revelation from God

Revelation is only from God (an ACIM tenet). This passage suggests that we have now been made ready to receive God’s revelations, and that we do so by leaving behind our search through learning (unless we choose to continue learning, which is also alright, according to Jesus in ACOL).

5 – The Role of Learning

Many of us enjoy learning and therefore will not readily leave it behind. Teaching and learning are two of the ways that we reach our brothers and sisters. So there are no hard and fast rules in salvation.
6 – Teaching and Learning

Jesus does indicate elsewhere that those who leave learning behind will go on to create. Actually teaching is a form of creation, and so the “teaching and learning” that ACIM describes is not far from the truth. We are reaching our brothers and sisters when we do teach (and learn), and we are also creating a new world through Jesus’s blessing.

7 – Learning through Revelation

Learning through revelation is the easiest and simplest way to learn. It is effortless, and as long as we are open to God, this type of revelation, once we are ready, will come. We do not have to reach for it. But only God can decide when we are ready for revelation. Revelation is only from God to us, never the reverse.
8 – Expression

“Expression of the Self of love in form is not something that can be learned. It is something that can only be lived. This is the time of the fulfillment of the lesson of the birds of the air who neither sow nor reap but sing a song of gladness. (Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 10.12)”
9 – Self of Love

We cannot study how to “be” in the Self of love. We cannot study how to express love, for love is beyond what can be taught. We wait until we are told what to do, and then we do it.

10 – A Simple Task

It is just that simple.

11 – Leave Learning Behind

“Those of you willing to leave learning behind will create the new. This will not happen through learning but through sharing. (Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 10.14)”

12 – Love Is Shared

Love is best shared; in fact, love can only be shared. We would like to create the new, as Jesus is encouraging us to do. But we don’t yet know how. And only a little time will solve that lack of knowing.

13 – God

Let God speak to us. He will reveal how and why sharing in love is so important. And he will detail what to do.
14 – Co-creators

“When you build upon what you can learn you build upon the past and create not the future but an extension of the past. You who are called to leave learning behind are called to return to your union and relationship with God wherein you are creators along with God. (Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 10.14)”

15 – A Sharp Break

Jesus seems to be asking for a sharp break with the past, because building upon the learning of the past only makes what we have always known—egoic pathways—and these will never create a new world.

16 – A Scary Thought

It is scary to think of disengaging from the past, for the past is all that we have known. Previously, learning from the past is what led us into the future. We thought that we would come to understand, and not repeat mistakes, if we learned from what we had been through.

17 – A New Future

We were wrong. The past has taught us badly. And only a sharp break from the past will lead us into a new future. Most of us would welcome a new future, a time of sharing with others under the umbrella of God’s love, under His revelation.

18 – Revelation

Let us ask for revelation today. As the day proceeds, see if we don’t feel a little freer, a little happier, a little more at peace.

19 – Today

This will be God’s revelation to us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I stand ready to receive Your revelation today. May I hold myself in readiness. May the revelation that You wish to bring me come.

Thank You for being there for me, as always. I have not always known that You are there, emotionally, but intellectually I have always known. Help me to “feel” Your presence today.

I ask now to be happier each day, each happier than the one before. This will be because I choose to leave my interest in past learning. I will wait for Your revelation about what I am to say and do. This will free me to love extravagantly. And you would have me love very, very deeply.

Amen.

Final Learning Needed Turning Inward in Self-centeredness

“Realize that the self-centeredness of the final stage of your learning has been necessary. (Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 9.7)”

1 – Reassuring

This passage, in talking about our self-centeredness, is reassuring. We probably realize that our search has sometimes removed us from our surroundings, including our brothers and sisters. We need to be ready to return to them, but we are not to discount our self-centeredness as a lamentable aspect of our search. Jesus says that it was necessary.

2 – Understanding

If we had not turned inward, we probably would understand far less than we actually do now. And turning inward naturally turns one to the self. Jesus would have us to reach outward again once the elevated Self of form has been sustained.

3 – Prayer

We do not reach outward always, though, as Jesus himself spent hours in prayer, all alone, when on earth. We will always need a certain degree of inwardness, and sometimes this does become self-centeredness.

4 – To Stay within Ourselves

May we not stay within ourselves if it is at all possible to spend quality time with our loved ones. This is a day to rejoice and be glad that Jesus indeed did come to earth as a physical being.

5 – Leave Learning Behind

“You who have gained so much through your learning and your study and your sharing of the same may find it difficult to leave it behind. A choice made by you to stay with learning rather than to move beyond it would be an understandable choice, but you are needed now. (Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 9.9)”

6 – Learning

We are all used to learning, and many of us have spent years and years in fairly pleasant surroundings as we learned. We may look back on college or high school as one of the best times of our lives. So, if we think that we want to keep learning, maybe because it is so familiar, Jesus says here that we would make an understandable choice.

7 – Seeking

He wants us, though, to leave learning in the old style behind. That means that we really don’t need to keep seeking and seeking for our religious bearings. We have become, according to Jesus, The Accomplished. We have made progress through taking unto ourselves the tenets of A Course of Love, and now we need to move into creating a new world—not learning about creating, but genuine creating.

8 – The Accomplished

We won’t feel ready for this right away. We won’t feel that we are The Accomplished. We will fear that this is egotism rearing its ugly head once again.

9 – Jesus

Jesus believes that these are false ideas, that we are ready for creating a new world. And he is eager to have us do so.

10 – Guidance

What will we do? How will we create a new world? That will depend upon what our guidance tells us to do. Jesus is not predictive in A Course of Love, says that he won’t be. The new world has yet to be created, and he himself does not have those answers of what we will create. But the elevated Self of form in all of us will usher in a new era, and with that new era, we will be creating a new world.

11 – Bright Future

The future looks bright. We don’t need to hang back out of fear any longer. We don’t have to fear that the ego will come back, as long as we avoid attack, avoid judgment, and cease planning against contingencies to come. Leave fears behind. These are the criteria that we need to sustain the elevated Self of form.

12 – Sooner

May we all do so, sooner rather than later.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for reassuring me that my own, recognized, self-centeredness is not a thing to be lamented and for which to beg forgiveness. We need inwardness, which self-centeredness really is, and we need it to make progress toward the time when we will be free and easy with our brothers and sisters, reaching outward.

If our life situation allows it, today is a time for reaching out to those who have been closest to us. May we forget ourselves today, at least part of the time.

Amen.

Move Out of Becoming Who You Are to Being Who You Are

“But now the time is upon you to leave learned works behind in favor of observation, vision and revelation. Now is the time to leave behind study for imagining, envisioning, and desire. Now is the time to move out of the time of becoming who you are to the time of being who you are. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 9.4)”

1 – Trilogies of Words

Jesus often uses in A Course of Love a trilogy of words that describe what he is trying to get us to do. Here, in this quotation, he uses a couple of trilogies: (1) observation, vision, revelation; and (2) imagining, envisioning, desire. We do need to delve deeply in ACOL to know what Jesus means by these terms, but a superficial reading will still get us some enlightenment.

2 – Revelation / Envisioning

We are not to “learn”; we are to “observe,” and this observation will grant us true vision and insights from revelation from God. Revelation from God will become commonplace in our lives as we walk further along the pathway. We will create true reality by imagining what we would like to have, and we envision this new place, fueled by our desire for something better and different.

3 – “Be”

We need to stop seeking to “become” something more, but simply to fall into our occupied place of “being.” We can “be,” and in this being will come our greatest achievements. They will be great because these achievements are not ego-inspired. We have to stop and think, because “achievement” has normally, for us, been egoic. But there are still things for us to do, though we need “do nothing.” This realization comes to us when we reach enlightenment. We know from our depths that God is not requiring things of us; he simply wants us to rest in His Love.

4 – Salvation

But we will want to do certain things to bring salvation into this world. Yet we are specifically told, and repeatedly, that in A Course of Love we are not called to proselytize. We simply show what we are like, and in the showing do we draw others to ourselves.

5 – Witnessing

This is the best form of witnessing.

6 – Learning

We are constantly encouraged in A Course of Love to leave learning behind. We have sought our way through much reading, frequently. There must come an end to all this seeking, and to realize that we do know. We can still learn, if that is our choice, but most of the time we are bade to let the inner knowing from Christ-consciousness be our guide. We do not always, in this time, pause to reconsider; we do not have so much trouble making decisions. We just move with the knowing that what we imagine, envision, and desire is the right pathway.

7 – A Caveat

There is a caveat to all of this. Many times we may think that we have gone farther along the pathway than we actually have. Then the ego has a field day. The ego can lead us astray when we think that it has actually withered away. The ego is very wily, and it will not easily give up its grip upon us. After all, we have had eons of conditioning. So proceed cautiously. We must be sure that the imagining that we are doing is truly Christ-centered, and not our own little selves that would lead us astray.

8 – Studying?

Imagining and envisioning are much more effortless ways of living than is intense studying. What a relief to know that we do not have to continue seeking, that the Answers have been given us! We can rest in God’s love, and we can live, comfortably and safely, in His arms.
9 – Seeking

I personally believe that A Course of Love was given to us by Jesus to let us know that there is an end to the seeking that our ego would have us continue to take: “seek but do not find” (an ACIM tenet). Let us pray today to have the ego wither away, to be replaced with the knowing that Christ-consciousness affords for us. May we thank God for this new day in our experience.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

There is an Answer to all the problems that we think that we perceive. Actually we have no problems, in Christ’s love, but we often don’t recognize this. May we recognize this today, as we leave behind the time of learning and move into the time of being.

Thank You for always being there for me in all the days of my life. I have not always recognized that You have been there, but I do so recognize it today, My heartfelt gratitude goes out to You.

Be with us today. Help us to have, as always, good days. This request cannot be granted as long as we are overwrought. We need calm, and calm will come when we fulfill the requirements for bringing it to ourselves. I do this by remembering You. Help me to walk through this day in Your shadow.

Amen.

Learning Is Coming to an End, Fast Approaching

“Learning, dear brothers and sisters, does come to an end, and that end is fast approaching. Coming to know through learning will be of the past as soon as Christ-consciousness is sustainable and you begin to come to know through constant revelation of what is. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 8.17)”

1 – Learning

We find this quotation hard to believe. How can learning come to an end? But Jesus is here talking of our seeking for ultimate truth, our desire to know and understand all that we need of salvation. Our seeking days do need to end, even though we have known no other way to be. Even those of us who studied A Course in Miracles often kept seeking; I believe that this result is the reason that Jesus channeled what we are calling a sequel to ACIM, A Course of Love. He knew that we didn’t fully understand, that we had dislodged the ego, but we didn’t seem to know with what to replace it. A Course of Love is the answer to that question. We replace the ego with the unity of the Self, of all Selves, One with God, and One with each other.

2 – Holy Spirit / Christ

This passage explains a little bit of the difference between the time of the Holy Spirit and the time of Christ. In ACIM, written for the time of the Holy Spirit, we are normally conscious of guidance; guidance comes by way of promptings, dreams, visions, an “inner knowing.” In ACOL, the “inner knowing” is in the ascendancy. This is the “constant revelation of what is” mentioned in this passage.
Certainly many of us have experienced resistance in the time of the Holy Spirit to the promptings that come. In the time of Christ, this resistance has melted away because the guidance seems ever more intimate to ourselves. With the Holy Spirit, the guidance can seem to be coming almost from “outside” ourselves, though this is not the case. In the time of inner knowing, the time of Christ, we know internally and recognize that the guidance is internal. Thus there is less conflict.

3 – A Strait Jacket?

Following the Holy Spirit on a constant basis can almost seem, sometimes, as though we were living in a strait jacket. We “must” do what He says. And we feel guilty if we don’t. We feel this resistance because the ego is still strong in us. And the ego has withered away in the time of Christ. We see our own real Will, which is the same as the Will of God (if we are attune to Him), assert itself, and we are glad to follow our own real Will. We do not resist.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I let the ego wither away, so that my guidance is clear. As we move into the time of Christ, may my guidance be always welcomed by me. This will come, of this I am certain.

Help me today to hear the inner Voice with acceptance and joy. Listening to inner guidance is the best way to live, and it will ensure that what comes is the best that is available for me. Of this too I am sure.

Help me to stay calm, without stress so that I have a good day. Always I ask You for a good day. And this happens when I remain open to You. Help me always to remain open to You. Be with me today through all aspects of any communication that I have with another. Let me follow Your Way and in that Way be shown the bliss of true, heartfelt, living.

Amen.

God and We Together Chose Our Rebellion

“Yet your rebellion was not with God, although you came to see it as such. Your rebellion was not allowed, it was mutually chosen. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 8.11)”

1 – Ruth Montgomery

This concept from A Course of Love is at least relatively new; I have not read of it before, but of course there are many New Age writings of which I am unaware. There is a hint of the idea in Ruth Montgomery’s The Search for the Truth. She, an early psychic who received information by automatic writing from “Guides,” says that we were sparks sent out from God, gradually to find our way back. And some went farther than others, and needed more time and help to return. In ACOL, Jesus is saying that our rebellion from God was chosen mutually by Him and us.

2 – God

Certainly this concept makes sense in light of the surrounding passages, most of which are presented in this blog. God is the divine spark within, and our real will is the same as His Will (an ACIM tenet). So God could set the limits on our bent to miscreate, particularly in that we cannot destroy ourselves (and this is the “why” of the limits).

3 – Edgar Cayce

Believing that our rebellion was a way to experience the all, we can see that we are, like Ruth Montgomery’s Guides say, sparks of the divine that were sent out from the Center (a paraphrase, and also a metaphor of the Guides). Some strayed farther than others, and, as Edgar Cayce said, some became entrapped in matter on this earth.

4 – Edgar Cayce, Cont.

Cayce says that these entrapped souls, the Daughters of Men, needed the Sons of Light to save them. So souls, led by Jesus, came to earth to rescue those who could not have risen above matter unless others came to their aid. In a similar fashion, Jesus says in ACIM that he stands at the end, to help us, when we have gone as far as we can toward Awakening. Then God reaches “down” and rescues us; He takes the final step (an ACIM tenet). In ACOL this beatific moment is called “Christ-consciousness.”

5 – Rebellion

“Your rebellion against the constraints of your nature in form thus became part of the pattern of creation because it was the created’s response. It was your response, and since God is both the Creator and the Created, it was God’s response as well. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.12)”

6 – Part of God

Why is this statement, this quotation, true? We are a part of God. It is that simple. So our choice was one of His as well.

7 – The Separation

This wholly benign way of viewing the separation is a blessing to us, another reason that we don’t have to feel guilty anymore. God and we chose the separation, when we were impatient to experience, when we hadn’t learned all that we need to know to live well in form. This lack of understanding produced a warp, so to speak, which we call the ego. And it was the egoic misstep that has caused all of our problems in form in this world.

8 – Elevated Self of Form

Now, seeing the elevated Self of form, will provide the new learning that we needed at the beginning of life in form. We will know how to manipulate our environment for the good only. And we will know how to live in form. No ego. No suffering. No pain.

9 – Enrichment

“What other purpose would God ever have had for wanting to express the Love that is Himself in form, if it were not for the expansion and enrichment it would add to His being? What purpose is behind your own desire to do thus? (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.13)”

10 – Form

We want to experience, in form, and with limited vision, what God Himself wants to experience. We and He are in this together. All of us are attached to living in physical form in a way that perhaps angels don’t understand. We like the rough-and-tumble life on earth. We are a courageous sort, as the series of books by Pat Rodegast, scribing Emmanuel, has said. We know what it is to risk a challenge. And we ought not to denounce ourselves for the mistakes that we have made along the way. Mistakes are not over, but we will learn how to turn aside from them and walk another way, a better way.

11 – Ego

“It was only the ego that made this desire seem to be for anything other than the purpose of expansion and enrichment of your being. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.14)”

12 – Satan

Here is the ego again. Yes, the enemy. We used to call it the devil, or Satan. But we are living in new times, and our understanding has greatly increased. We don’t have to personify evil by giving it a name. There is no “sin,” only mistakes. And all will get to Heaven ultimately. We are all children of God, and He neglects nobody. We will be guided home.

13 – God

“God could not be the only being in all of creation who remains static and unchanging! How could this possibly be said of one whose name and identity is synonymous with creation? (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.14)”

14 – Truth

There are parts of God that are unchanging, also according to A Course of Love. Truth remains unchanged, the whole truth. But God seems to be growing and changing with his creations, with us. We can know how much our companionship means to God when we know that we are a part of Him. As the Self, we are back in strong communication, communication that was disrupted when we were asleep, when the channels of communication were not open to God.

15 – Lonely

Let us return quickly to the fold. God needs a good day, and if all His children are not communicating with Him, we are told by Jesus that God Himself is lonely.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to assimilate all of these writings about our ultimate reality into a coherent whole. There have been hints before that the separation, though illusory, has had effects that have hurt our little selves. May I leave behind that hurt today; my real Self has not been hurt at all.

May I recognize that, just as God and I chose the separation, together He and I can mend the separation so that we are One again. My real will is the same as His. May I use my real will today to accommodate to God’s Will.

Help me to turn around a difficult day into something much, much better. I need only to acknowledge that a mistake has been made, resolve to drop that behavior from my repertoire of behaviors, and all will be well again. This day can yet become a harbinger of grand and glorious moments learned under God’s Shadow.

Amen.

God “Let Go” when We Proved to Be Rebellious

“Your mind, being of God, was constrained by the learning limits of the body and chose to rebel against the learning that was needed in order to come into the time of fullness of a being able to express itself in form, never realizing that this just delayed the learning that had to occur to release you from the limits you struggled against. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.9)”

1 – No Rebellion?

We could have had the physical form without our rebellion. We hadn’t learned enough, and in the rebellion, we only delayed learning what we needed to know, and caused ourselves much suffering as well. Such a shame. We ought to get it right this time.

2 – Physical Form

We are told in A Course of Love that we can choose physical form for the foreseeable future, on into eternity, if we embody the elevated Self of form, the one who remembers God and chooses to follow in Love’s way.

3 – New Choice

This is a new choice, a new way to be in the universe. Previously, we ignored the ego in the afterlife, but now we can ignore the ego, just let it go, in the physical life that we enjoy in this world. We don’t have to wait for the Other Side.

4 – Celebration

What joy! Now we don’t have to lament that we are in physical form; instead, we can celebrate it! But it is physical form that follows the eternal laws of God and the universe, not a separated form that brings on pain because we have an imprisoned will. God set the limits on how much we could miscreate, and therein lies our salvation. He wouldn’t let us depart too far, knowing that when pain became great enough, we would realize that there must be another way, a better way.

5 – Elevated Self of Form

We have found that better way, here and now, in the elevated Self of form. When we awaken, we will know that following guidance of our innermost Self is the best way to go. We will be in alignment with God once again, and all will truly be well for the first time in eons.

6 – Rebellious Children

“What do you who are parents do with a child who is too impatient, too bright, too eager, to learn slowly and to mature gracefully?. . .What you do is realize the impossibility of imposing your will and, because of this impossibility, you realize that you must let go. Thus your decision was also God’s decision. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 8.10).

7 – Detour into Separation

This detour in separation was thus partly God’s idea. This is a metaphor, for the things of the universe are so far beyond us that we cannot fully understand. But the metaphor works, for many of us have adolescent children and know what rebellion is all about. God did let us go, knowing that He could not change our minds without violating our free will, and free will is all about what co-creators with God will one day need to fulfill our purpose.

8 – Free Will

God knew that He didn’t want to meddle with free will, and so He did allow us to take the detour into fear, thereby necessitating a return by a “journey without distance” (from ACIM). We did not actually separate, for we are a part of God and could not be alive if we actually had separated. And we are alive eternally. But we could imagine that we were separate, and indeed we did this in spades.

9 – Tiny, Mad Idea

What a mess we made of everything by not being more patient and learning our lessons as created beings of God. We needed to learn more before we could embody the physical without danger to ourselves. We entertained a “tiny, mad idea” (from ACIM), not laughing at it instead, and in the forgetting laugh did the tiny, mad idea seem to have effects. Without cause, the effects became illusion, though, illusion that is only just now being undone.

10 – Succinct Quotation

This passage explains succinctly the course that was taken in the separation from God. No further words seem necessary. Let us contemplate the passage, and let God speak to us about what we ought to do now.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I listen today as You guide me Home to you. You know the way; I too often forget even the little that I know. If I was ever rebellious, and tried to run ahead of Your divine plans for me, help me to grow up today and to drop that rebellion. Thank You for this succinct explanation, because all of us who read what Jesus has said can reflect on what we know of adolescents in our society and sometimes in our homes. May we realize that our “rebellion” from You was necessary, even as the adolescents in our society need to rebel in order to come to understand what their identity really is.

Thank You for today’s comprehensive explanation of what happened in the separation. May the separation be healed today, and may I awake to the blessings that You have for me in my restored state. If I am not yet ready for the separation to be healed, may I do nothing that furthers it. May I turn to You for a full healing and Awakening to the glory that You hold out to me.

Amen.

The Swimmer, by Ivor Sowton

Jesus in A Course of Love (ACOL) uses a wonderful metaphor to guide us toward the peace of God–that of a swimmer. A good swimmer has learned how to be relaxed in the water, floating, resting on the currents, going with the flow for sure. But a non-swimmer when plunged into deep water can “try to move in the water as he would on land,, thrashing around, wearing himself out, panicking even.

The swimmer is our true Self. Effortless abiding awareness of the peace of God! One with the surround, only God everywhere.

The non-swimmer is us in our separation confusion. This is the illusory ego self we made in that confusion.
Jesus says we were once effortlessly swimming in the unity of Heaven, but that we have temporarily forgotten how to do that. So we ONCE KNEW how to swim BUT HAVE FORGOTTEN HOW.

Jesus says that’s us–you and me, dear brothers and sisters. We’ve forgotten how to swim! Here is the Master speaking in one of the ACOL “swimming” metaphor references (Second Treatise, 4.6):

A first step in learning how to recognize when you are acting upon notions of who you think you are rather than on who you think you are rather than on who you truly are is the appearance of struggle or resistance. As a swimmer quickly learns, the only way to return to ease of movement is to cease to struggle or resist. The ability to let go of struggle is a learned ability for the swimmer, and it is a learned ability for you now as you journey back to your real Self.

So how do we get back in the flow in our lives as we are experiencing them here? I, for one, often feel that struggle, that resistance. How can I learn to relax and be taught by life effortlessly again? Jesus’ overarching theme in A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is forgiveness. I try to ask myself now when I’m fighting the current “what am I not forgiving right now?”

Often my grievance or lack of forgiveness is then apparent to me right away. One of the original ACIM students and distinguished ACIM teachers is Jerry Jampolsky. He is the author of Love is Letting Go of Fear and many other wonderful, short, pithy books, as well as the founder of the Center for Attitudinal Healing, a center to help people all over the world live forgiveness. He says so often that forgiveness is the whole key to feeling better right away!

We just have to (1). remember the choice or option of forgiveness is always there for us; and (2) be willing to choose it.

Simple, but hard! If we had truly learned that and were always living that, we’d already be in Heaven, I suppose!
This leads easily into a second key, spoken of often in both ACIM and ACOL: the willingness to be taught. When Jesus counsels us to “be willing to resign as our own teacher,” our egos will not be very flattered. That part of us has been for us a trusted adviser for as long as we can remember as our personal selves. But this is a real crossroads in all the great spiritual paths: to finally realize that we really need help from One who knows and who can help us. IF we listen.

Jesus is such a one, and because we find ourselves sincerely studying his teaching, we have indeed taken that first step, albeit falteringly. He can bring us along, can “keep gentle pace with us,” guiding us right here in the mess we often seem to experiencing here, leading us toward permanent relief! He says in the Second Treatise of ACOL ( 13.3), “. . .[T]his is my invitation to you, specifically, to enter into a holy and personal relationship with me, specifically. . . .. I know of this world and I am here to guide you through it.”

So, I, a swimmer who forgot how and am now being reminded how, am being instructed by Jesus on how to ease back into the great waters of unity itself! Jesus says in 4.7, Second Treatise:

The water is not taken for granted but always recognized as a condition of the swimmer’s environment. You are no longer confined to the conditions of separation, my dear brothers and sisters, and this is what it is time for you to learn.

So happy swimming to you!

We Disconnected from God in the Detour into Fear

“You are now beginning to reach the stage of understanding wherein you can realize that it was not some separate ‘you’ or some species without form who at some point in time chose to express love in physical form, and so began this experience of human life. You are now beginning to be able to understand that it was God was made this choice. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.1)”

1 – Ego / Physical Form

We have long thought that the ego and physical form are synonymous. But they are not. We came into form, due to God’s decision, but it was ourselves who took the wrong detour—the detour into fear that is the ego. God didn’t make this decision, we are led to believe by what Jesus says in this quotation. We did, from, according to A Course in Miracles, a “tiny, mad idea” about which we forgot to laugh.

2 – Christ-consciousness

Would we do this again? Even after sustaining Christ-consciousness for some time? We might, and so it behooves us to avoid attack, avoid judgment, and avoid planning against (bad) contingencies (unless prompted by guidance).

3 – Not Bad

So matter is not bad. Being in physical form is not bad. There is a way to be in physical form and stay true to God. And that is the place that we are heading—Christ-consciousness. When we leave fear behind, we will be well on our way.

4 – God and Us

“I say this because only now are you beginning to be ready to hear that you and God are the same. That when I say ‘God made a choice’ I am not saying that you did not. I am saying that a choice was made within the one mind, the one heart, and that this was your choice as well as God’s choice. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.2)”

5 – Embodying God

We are seen here as part of God. We embody Him. It is just that simple. He is experiencing life through us, the only way that He can experience, because the whole cannot experience without contrast; parts can encounter contrast, and thus God can experience through all the parts of “us.”

6 – Blasphemy?

This may seem like blasphemy, but I did not say it; if we believe that Jesus channeled A Course of Love, our guide has very good credentials indeed. Our leader. The one who sets us back on course.

7 – Disconnect

“What happened in the case of human beings, was a disconnect from your own true nature, which in turn caused a disconnect in your ability to express love, which in turn caused a disconnect in your ability to know God, because you did not know your self. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.6)”

8 – Journey without Distance

This explains the detour into fear, which caused the need for the return, a “journey without distance,” as A Course in Miracles says. When we detoured into fear, we lost our real self, necessitating return. And we are now well on our way for that return. That is the blessing. We have found the way at last.

9 – Mind

“What God, in effect had to do, what you in effect had to do, in order to live in a nature inconsistent with what God could not disconnect from, was disconnect from God. Since God was the center of your being, it was impossible to disconnect your heart and still live. What could be disconnected was your will, or in other words, your mind. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 8.8)”

10 – Separation

This passage explains how the separation came about–the separation from God. We disconnected our minds from Him, and we went astray. Elsewhere we learn that it was a conscious choice, and that God acquiesced in it. We were too eager to move ahead of His Way. We were like rebellious adolescents. And so He let us have our way.

11 – Adolescents

There is a lovely exposition of this by way of a comparison with parents who let their rebellious adolescents go their own way. They do not try to stop their headstrong tendencies. They do not disinherit them. The parents know that they must let go. And God knew this as well.

12 – Guidance

Today us resolve today not to rush headlong into situations for which we have no guidance. We are trying to depend on self alone when we do this, and we will feel fear (an ACIM tenet). Let us determine to leave fear behind, knowing that it has always been a conscious choice. Let us determine to make Heaven on earth as our daily walk continues.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Please help me, today, to undo the separation that exists between You and myself. It is time to go Home, not to Heaven but to the real world in this world. Help me to return Home today.

Be there for me, I ask of You. I cannot make this “journey without distance” without You.

I turned away into fear, and I would disown fear today. I have had many anxious moments in my life, but I would be done with such foolishness. And foolishness it is. There is nothing fear, when I know that You walk in me. How could there be? Thank You.

Amen.

We Make the Better Choice when We Move Beyond Learning to Creating

“But the choice many of you will make–the choice to move from learning to creating–will create a new world. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’
7.9)”

1 – New World

We are asked here to create a new world, one in which it is commonplace to experience Christ-consciousness. We will create, rather than continuing to seek our way through further learning. How will we “create”? Only God can tell us that. When we stay close to Him, we will know what to do next.

2 – Learning

This passage continues the comparison between those who still find value in learning, and those who leave learning behind and create a new world. Just as with the ways of Jesus (the “doing”) and Mary (the “being”), there are no hard and fast rules about how to handle this choice. If we find value in learning, Jesus gives us his blessing. But many will move onward, and this, he says in this passage, will create a new world.

3 – Teaching

Teaching, though, is a form of creation. It is both “doing” and “being.” But not all will choose to be teachers, though teaching and learning were the hallmarks of A Course in Miracles. This course, A Course of Love, takes us a step farther. We will know internally, from revelation from God, in an elevated Self of form (still a physical being).

4 – Teachers of Teachers

In ACIM, some were described as “Teachers of Teachers,” individuals who had eventually cast aside the body, not to return in any form to this world, but instead to impart their ideas to those living in physical body. And sometimes these Teachers of Teachers appeared as visions. In ACOL, we are concerned now with what we will do when we live in the elevated Self of form. We will still have physical bodies, and it is up to us–our choice–how we live our lives in this form.

5 – New Creations

It seems apparent from this, and similar passages, in A Course of Love, that Jesus is not asking for new teachers so much as he is asking for new creations in this world. What will we do to create anew this old and weary world? How do we move beyond learning to create anew?

6 – Guidance

We need guidance for this, and living, focused on the world, will give us the answers. We are not to selfishly pursue more learning that simply makes us feel better or more accomplished. These goals were emblematic of the ego. We need to learn enough to know how to help others, how to create anew, but learning for its own sake is not what the new world is all about.

7 – Adapting

Some of us will find it hard to adapt, to move beyond learning, because we are comfortable with learning. It has gotten us this far, and we do not easily leave the familiar behind. But creating the new in a new world will be the way in which we receive the most gratification as time passes. This is not going to be egoic gratification, because we are beyond that, but a more satisfying, all-inclusive, giving that will be making things fresh in our world. Jesus himself, he says, does not know what direction these changes will take. He is not predictive in A Course of Love. But together we will, in sharing, come to see how and what we need to say and do to create a new world.

8 – Blessings

And the blessings that will derive from seeing a fresh world will be innumerable.

9 – Right Pathway

Let us pray today for the right pathway for our talents.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to make the best choice in deciding what I will be or do in this new world. Help me to have Your guidance in making this choice.
May I realize that “being” and “doing” can be done separately, or together, and that there is no judgment on Your part of which is better. Either way can and will work in the new world. Help me to help create this new world.

Creating is what You do, and so for me to hear that I am encouraged to create is a welcome blessing, but a puzzling one. How do I create? What do I create? It is up to You to lead me aright, for You know all the circumstances surrounding me in my world. Thank You for Your willingness to give me guidance.

May the Christ Self be actualized in me on a sustained basis. May this new spirit come into my world, alter it for the better, and then reach other to others in their individual worlds. May I balance being and doing in this new era. And will You be with me constantly?

Thank You.

Amen.

Being in Harmony with Whatever State of Health We Have

“In other words, being in harmony with poor health and learning the lesson that it has come to impart to you, will return you to good health. Your poor health is no cause for judgment, as it is the perfect health, now, in the past, and in the future, to bring you the lessons you would learn in order to return you to your Self and the unity of Christ-consciousness. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 7.7)”

1 – Illness

It is a common understanding in our culture that sometimes illness strikes to slow us down and give us time for our bodies to recoup from being under too great a strain. This quotation indicates that any type of illness is giving us time to regroup. Jesus says that all health is perfect at any given time, as a learning experience. It is interesting that Jesus’s take on health is exactly what our secular psychology is coming to see in this day and time.

2 – Message

So: When illness strikes, ask what the message is. We will “hear” an Answer from the One Who knows. We will not have to wait, at least only until our minds are calm and in a receptive frame of mind. Ask of your heart what the lesson really is. The Answer will come, and then we will begin, if we are smart, to let the healing begin from within. We will be in alignment with the universe.

3 – Learning

“Some will choose to continue to learn through the full variety of the human experience even after it is unnecessary. Why? Because it is a choice, pure and simple. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 7.8)”

4 – Continue to Live on Earth
This suggests that many of us will live on earth long after the time that the elevated Self of form has been accomplished. The elevated Self of form, of course, is the sustained Christ-consciousness. Most of us will leave “learning” behind, but there are those who love to learn, and this will not be denied them. They will still make their contributions to the All.

5 – Choices

We are always given choices in this world. Free will is a probable will (an ACOL tenet). God placed the limits on our ability to miscreate, but only to save ourselves from destroying ourselves (an ACIM tenet). We will know by studying both ACIM and ACOL that our real will is actually the same as the Will of God. We will not vacillate between following guidance (as the thought of the Holy Spirit or through direct revelation from God) and following what we perceive as our “own” will. This “own” will is likely to be a holdover from the days when the ego held sway.

6 – Ego Relinquished?

Let us resolve to let the ego wither away. And God will help us to do just that. Jesus has assured us at this point in A Course of Love that the ego has been relinquished, but perhaps we need to be made aware of this, to know it for certain. Spend some quiet time trying to ascertain if we are letting egotistic motives frame our days in any way. The answer should be “no.” And then we can know that the ego really has dissipated.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I have always loved learning, but maybe I need to realize that there is a stopping point. Continued seeking for religious truths is not needed when the Answer has been given to me. May I move forward today with the assurance that I can “let it be.”

Thank You for given me the assurance that there will be an Answer, an assurance that came in the night. I know now what You were trying to tell me. Please be with me today as I live out Your promise.

Amen.

We Must Eliminate Fear and Judgment to Sustain Christ-consciousness

“You cannot sustain Christ-consciousness while fear remains in you, just as you cannot sustain Christ-consciousness while judgment remains in you. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 7.5)”

1 – Fear and Judgment

“Fear” and “judgment”–the two nay-sayers in the search for Christ-consciousness. How many of us truly can say, today, that we never experience either of these two emotions?

2 – Difficulty

That is the difficulty we all encounter as we seek to move forward. Only God Himself can reach down and bridge the gap (an ACIM tenet).

We will see glimpses of Christ-consciousness, and then we will recognize what its sustainability will do for us. Certainly whenever we experience moments that are completely joyous, we have left behind fear and judgment and entered into a new life. May we come to understand how to sustain this new life, beginning today.

3 – Planning

A Course in Miracles mentions one other mistake that will keep us astray: planning against contingencies to come. In the worldview of ACIM, we are to depend on the Holy Spirit for guidance of what to do. In the worldview ofACOL, it is dependence on the inner sense that we have, because we have walked farther along the pathway. And the God that is within.

4 – Natural

“This is all that makes up the difference between your natural state and your unnatural state. As your natural state returns to you through a heart and mind joined in unity, your body too will exist or abide within this natural state. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 7.5)”

If we eliminate fear and judgment, we will become more natural. And is naturalness not a blessing worth pursuing? If we are more natural, we are more as God intended us to be. It does not mean that we have to be super-religious. It does not mean that we never again will make mistakes. It does not mean that we will always follow the straight and narrow.

5 – Personal Self

If there are aspects to our personal self that we wish to change, we can just turn this over to the universe, and trust that that change will come about. Especially if we perceive that trait to be a mistake. God wants us to be natural in living, and if this means that we turn to the secular, I trust that God is the God of the secular as well.

6 – Attack, Judgment, & Planning

We need to realize that naturalness does not include attack, judgment, planning against presumably dire outcomes—and all three of these prohibitions are evidence of fear. We need to turn from fear to love. Love is the only emotion that is strong enough to overcome fear. But a strong enough sense of love will overcome fear in every instance.

7 – Personal

Have I reached this pinnacle yet? No, of course not. But that is my aim. And when I feel fear (which is usually unreasoning), I try to go within and just pray for stillness. I talk to God, who is deep within me. I think He always hears.

8 – Unreal Reality

“The only thing that has created an unreal reality for your heart and body has been the inability of the mind to join the truth with your conscious awareness. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 7.5)”

9 – Awareness

We need to be aware of the changes that are happening within us. And our awareness of those changes is what has been missing.

10 – Heart

“Your heart has now heard the appeal of this course and worked with your mind to bring about this acceptance of the truth, a truth your heart has always known but has been unable to free you to accept without the mind’s cooperation. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 7.5)”

11 – Mind

Listen to your heart. Don’t try to ask for the proof of God’s caring that our minds might ask for. The mind and the heart need to work in conjunction, but, according to A Course of Love, with the heart taking the lead. We have been honed by eons of egoic fear to listen to our minds; that is why it is important now to give the heart the ascendancy.

12 – Heart in the Right Place

Nothing we do are say can make any difference when our hearts are in the right place. Of course, we want to do the right thing, but we actually need to do nothing at all except bask in the love of God’s Spirit.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I leave fear, judgment, and unnecessary planning in the past today. Leaving these behind is my only hope. Help me to be consistent as I long to follow Your way.

Be with me today when I slip and make mistakes. I do not want to make mistakes, but I am human, and mistakes happen. Correct my misdeeds and wrong thoughts, and lead me back to the pathway toward Christ-consciousness.

Help me to say and do the right things today, knowing, internally, that You don’t require anything at all of me. You know that I will do want to follow Your way, and You know that I will do what I can. But none of this is required. You just want me to be happy in Your grace. Thank You for granting me this insight.

Amen.

Can We Find a Perfect World?

“Those who sustain Christ-consciousness will abide within it free of judgment. . . .This perfect world will be observable to them and in them. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 7.4)”

1 – Perfect World

Would we not like to see a “perfect world”? This passage says that this is possible, once judgment is dropped from our repertoire of decisions. Then Christ-consciousness gives us a reality that is beyond our wildest imaginings.

2 – Judgments

This passage emphasizes once again the absolute primacy of giving up our little, personal judgments of our brothers and sisters. Until we do so, we are as trapped in matter as they are. We must look within to forgive them, and then the perfect world will emerge. Of course, not everything will be “perfect,” in the opinion of our little selves, but the bad elements will no longer have the ability to terrify us. We will live, immersed in life but with our heads above the fray. We will not let these little tragedies affect us so adversely, because we will know that they are unreal, illusory.

3 – Don’t Judge Self

We also must understand that we are not to judge ourselves; often we are, as has been said, our worst enemies. It may be harder to fail to judge ourselves than to fail to judge our brothers and sisters. This difficulty may be especially pronounced in students of A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, because we have read of the banning of anger and attack (an ACIM tenet), and the encouragement of unity in relationship to all of our brothers and sisters (an ACOL tenet). So we must be gentle with ourselves, calling our mistakes just that–mistakes–not “sins.” And then we must move to correct those mistakes.
How may we do this? We turn to God. We turn to Jesus. We pray for the gentleness of those who have accepted the way of salvation. And then we will not judge ourselves nor our brothers and sisters. Then we will be well on our way to Christ-consciousness.

4 – Christ-consciousness

“It [Christ-consciousness] will not take the effort of their bodies, but the freedom of a consciousness joined in unity, a consciousness able to envision, imagine and desire without judgment and without fear. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 7.4)”

5 – Unity

We will be joined with our brothers and sisters in unity. We will know, finally and completely, that we are not meant to be alone; we are not meant to be isolated. We share, and when we share, we are at home with all the universe(s). This means that our egoic notions of self-sufficiency are flawed, very flawed. The ego always wanted us to be independent in our lives, able to stand on our own. The fact that we were never able to do this seemed to us, as our personal selves, to be a personal failing, a flaw in the way that we were made. Instead, this “flaw” pointed out that we were trying to do the impossible. We were trying to stand alone, when our nature is meant to be at one with others. Others will depend on us, we will depend on others. This two-way street embodies what living in a perfect world will all be about.

6 – Sharing

The primacy of sharing in our new world will be important, something never to be overlooked. Our seriousness in trying to stand alone will alert us that the ego is trying to make a comeback. We would not have the ego make a comeback. And so when we feel the slightest bit guilty because we are leaning on others (sometimes), let us note that we are not doing anything wrong. They are there for us, and we are there for them.

7 – New World

Then the new world of perfection is primed to make its appearance.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me not to judge today. I need not to judge myself nor my brothers and sisters. I especially need not to judge myself if I have made a mistake and judged my brothers and sisters. I need to ask for forgiveness, knowing that forgiveness is always forthcoming when the mind and heart are joined in wholeheartedness.

May today be a good day. May I walk farther along the pathway toward Christ-consciousness, knowing that when I cease to judge, my way is made more sure.

May I reach out to others today in a meaningful way. May others know that I mean them well, that I am not striving to do or say anything that is awry, or that confuses the issue. May we interface with each other in a sharing that creates a newly perfect world, a world of individuals who are welcoming Christ-consciousness in their lives and the lives of others. May this direction for our world be well-received by those who subscribe to it as well as those who don’t.

Be with me today as I go about a world that I seek to see differently. May this different vision be a blessing to others as well as to myself.

Amen.

Sustain Christ-consciousness by Refraining from Judgment

“Christ-consciousness will be temporary or sustainable depending on your ability to refrain from judgment. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 7.1)”

1 – Judgment

A Course of Love echoes A Course in Miracles in this brief passage. May we pray today to refrain from judging our brothers and sisters. We cannot see the totality, and so judgment is actually impossible, except as carried out by the Holy Spirit (an ACIM tenet).

2 – Why We Can’t Judge

There is a lengthy passage in ACIM that explains for us why we cannot judge accurately. Can we know all that has happened outside of our sphere? Can we see all aspects of the past, and all aspects of the future, that will be affected by our judgment? No one would claim this prescience, and therefore nobody can judge rightly. We must leave the decisions to Someone who does know the whole situation, and in the words of A Course in Miracles, that is the Holy Spirit.
When we drop into judgment, we make ourselves miserable. ACIM says that forgiveness is our only function, and when we forgive, we do not judge.

3 – Limited Vision

Accurate judgment is impossible because we have limited vision. We must turn above to make better decisions through guidance, forgetting judgment as a bad idea. In A Course of Love, this guidance is in an inner peace; in A Course in Miracles, it is the intuitive knowledge that the Holy Spirit is guiding us.

4 – Time of Christ

“That you are living in the time of Christ does not mean that you will automatically realize Christ-consciousness, just as living in the time of the Holy Spirit did not mean that you would automatically realize the consciousness of the spirit that was your intermediary. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 7.2)”

5 – Patience

We may not make it. We may not reach Christ-consciousness in this lifetime. Whether or not we do, we can remain patient, doing those things that we know are in line with Jesus’s teaching, and preparing ourselves for the future, whatever it may be. I don’t think that Christ-consciousness can answer to a timetable. And if we don’t make it, we need not harshly judge ourselves. This is judgment also, and it is equally an decision best avoided.

6 – Holy Spirit

Some of us will remain dependent on the Holy Spirit, even though His time has passed in this Twenty-first Century. This is not bad. One of my friends is enlightened, and she says that she feels right about depending on the Holy Spirit for her guidance. She has read A Course in Miracles, but not A Course of Love. Whether or not her decision would change if she reads ACOL is an open question.

7 – Dependence

If we don’t realize Christ-consciousness, I think that we are dependent, still, on the Holy Spirit, for we are still living within our personal self, not the Self.

8 – Glimpses of Awakening

Remember that we may have glimpses of Awakening long before it is ever sustained. These glimpses happened to me, when I was 23 and again when I was 34 – 35. And then there was a long period of consolidation of understanding, studying A Course in Miracles intensely, and, then, ultimately, studying A Course of Love with much the same intensity. I have glimpses of Awakening now, but I do not live in that sense of invulnerability always. So I have not yet sustained Christ-consciousness. This gives me pause for thought, and leads me to ask what I might do that would bring on the sustainability.

9 – Wrong Questions?

These may be the wrong questions. I do believe in patience with God and the Holy Spirit. I do believe that the guidance we sense is true, and that when we open ourselves to that guidance, our way is smoothed by eons of time. I study the Workbook of A Course in Miracles, and I feel the glimpses more serenely. I am happy. I do what I can, but I leave the rest to God. Christ-consciousness will come in its own time, not to be hurried.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I need to hear this lesson today. May I refrain from judgment all the days of my life, and may I start today. Earlier it has been possible for me to refrain from judgment, but when I get stressed, sometimes my good intentions are not enough. ACIM tells me that my good intentions are not enough. May I recognize these limitations of mine today, and may I act upon the choice to leave judgment aside, choosing instead the guidance that is ultimate spirituality.

Thank You for helping me in this endeavor today. Please be with me as I go through the day, reminding me of what I have chosen for today.

Thank You for this beautiful day today. May I move about in my environment, for I know that staying fluid in body as well as mind and spirit work best for me. I am happiest when I am in a fluid state, a state of flow.

Be with my brothers and sisters. If they are struggling, ease their suffering. May their emotionality and their physical suffering both abate. May they not turn pain into suffering. May the day grant a lessening of burdens, a greater joy in Your blessings, which continue regardless of what is going on in this physical plane of earth.

Amen.

Share Christ-consciousness Directly for Its Sustainability

“The changes those who have existed in Christ-consciousness have wrought have been great, but they did not sustain Christ-consciousness, primarily because they were unable to share Christ-consciousness directly because of individual and collective choice. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 6.7)”

1 – Not Sustaining

This passage talks about individuals who lived in the past, and also perhaps about ourselves, when we experienced Christ-consciousness, but did not sustain it. As hard as it may be to understand, we did not sustain it because we chose not to do so. Elsewhere we learn that we returned to attack, judgment, and planning for an uncertain future (ACIM tenets), and that it is these thoughts that kept us from sustaining the elevated Self of form.

2 – Revelation and Eckhart Tolle

Twice I have experienced periods of revelation, but I did not sustain the elevated Self of form. Eckhart Tolle indicates that there may be many such moments in our lives. But gradually the Way is opened, and we do sustain the Self. A Course in Miracles talks about this Self, but is not specific about what is meant. A Course of Love is quite specific, and we would do well to study the parts of the volumes which emphasize the elevated Self of form (the physical being, but with Christ-consciousness).

3 – Elevated Self of Form

We have chosen not to sustain the elevated Self. But let us make a better choice as we come more fully to receive God’s revelation. He needs us to save His world. As has been often stated, Jesus needs our hands and feet (a biblical tenet). So there is continuity among the Bible, ACIM, and ACOL. We receive the teachings for which we have become ready. And we may pray that our world is ready now to receive the revelation directly from God. ACIM explained the means to revelation; ACOL builds on this knowledge, and Jesus assures us that it is knowledge (not perception).

4 – Time of Christ

“You have the unequalled opportunity now, because you exist in the Time of Christ, to directly share Christ-consciousness and thus sustain Christ-consciousness. You can pass on the inheritance you accept in this fullness of time. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 6.8)”

5 – ACIM and ACOL

We are said, now, by A Course of Love, to live in the time of Christ. This is a great blessing, and one that has not been made evident in A Course in Miracles, which was written in the time of the Holy Spirit.

6 – Reach Out

We must do what we can to reach our brothers and sisters, those who are at least open to the things that we are coming to believe. There is great urgency in this, for the world is in a very dire place. We are not bade to proselytize to those who are unable or unwilling to listen, but we are encouraged to share when the time seems right, what others are open to what we can say.

7 – Jesus

The way is not hard. Jesus makes it very, very easy on us. We only have to forgive (as encouraged in A Course in Miracles), let go of the ego, and establish the new, real identity that is ours as Sons and Daughters of God. We can do this, if we are open to it. An awareness of a new identity is all around us, ready to be accepted if we are only in line with the most sharing concepts that Love can offer. We are not in this alone. We are in relationship to others, and together we form a unity that cannot fail. Only time seems to stand in the way, and time is an illusion (a tenet of ACIM and ACOL). We need to walk into eternity holding Jesus’s hand. We need to put into practice the tenets of Love that we already know.

8 – Simple

It is just that simple. Slow down, be mindful of our surroundings, and invite enlightenment. The Way will open, probably first in glimpses, and then with the sustainability that Jesus so urgently wants.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I share the good news that You have given me. We can now share Christ-consciousness, and then come to sustain it. This is the secret which those of the past did not fully understand. May many of us understand, and carry out this injunction to share what we have knowledge of, what we know from Christ-consciousness. Only then will we sustain the elevated Self of form.

Please be with me today as I seek to share my knowledge, given by You. May I not assume more than I really know, and may I share only what is true.

Thank You for the glorious day that is upon us. We are living in a new time, a time fraught with great promise. Help us to do our part to share that new time in the best way that it can be shared, not in coercion, but in freedom.

Thank You for a good day. May the day extend into tomorrow, and the day after. May all our days become good ones, basking in Your light.

Amen.

A New Choice Needs to Avoid Separation & Disunity

“I call you to a new choice with the full realization that your choice alone will affect millions of your brothers and sisters–as long as–and this crucial, you do not give in to ideas of separation and disunity. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 6.6)”

1 – One

We are One with our brothers and sisters. We will save many of them, but we are not to see them as separate from us, even before they have reached their salvation, their Christ-consciousness.

2 – Reassuring Concept

This totality of One is reassuring, even as we see many tragedies in our world that have been perpetrated by our brothers and sisters, lost from God for the moment. They will come to understand; they will find their way back to God. But the world winds on wearily, and the return may take millions of years. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us (a biblical concept).

3 – The Journey

If we remember, as A Course in Miracles teaches, that once the journey is begun, the end is certain, we can rest content. We can know that we will make the “journey without distance,” and we can be patient. If Christ-consciousness does not come now or even in the future, we can know that it will come eventually. As ACIM says, we but take a pathway that has already been laid out; we are “remembering,” and the point at which we “come home” has already been set. This sounds a bit like predestination (an interpretation, not stated in ACIM or A Course of Love), but whatever we call it, the outcome is sure. We will find our way Home.

4 – Separation and Disunity

We need to avoid separation and disunity in regard to our brothers and sisters, and this includes the emphasis on diversity that our culture so stresses. There are many religions in our world today; not everybody follows Jesus. Some of the readers of this blog have questioned Jesus’s legitimate role in our world and in our religion. In essence, their question is, “Can one be saved unless he/she follows Jesus?”

5 – Yes?

I think that the answer is a resounding “yes,” though we of the Christian faith may find this hard to accept, particularly if we have been fundamentalists in regard to our reading of Scripture. Keep in mind that this is a personal interpretation, but based on the highest and best that I know. Also, the Manual of A Course in Miracles says that there is a course for every teacher of God, and also indicates that there are other pathways for those who do not follow what we are coming to believe. I think that this is a strong statement that we need to be tolerant of beliefs in our world. Religion has been a more divisive factor than any other, historically.

6 – Disunity

We need to bring an end to this disunity, a disunity that is opposed to Love. God is the God of all peoples. And He leaves out nobody.

7 – Jesus

Jesus is OUR way. That is all that ought to be important to us. We have chosen that he be our leader, the Son of God (as all of us are Sons and Daughters), and he leads well. We owe him gratitude for all that he has done, and that he is doing, for us. He never leaves our side, though we don’t understand how this can be. He promises this in both ACIM and ACOL.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to be patient today. If I stay lost in dreams, may I still see glimmerings of Awakening. Revelation may occasionally reveal the end to me, though the means are needed. Help me to listen to You as You speak to me through the Holy Spirit, or, more directly, through an inner knowing.

Be with me throughout the day today. I love You, and You know this well.

May my interpretations of Jesus’s place in the world be accurate, though there is room for other interpretations as well. None of us has the whole truth. We ought not to be so arrogant as to think that we do. May I follow You in all my dealings, and please guide my words and actions to be a credit to You Whom I follow.

Amen.

A New Choice that Remains Tolerant of Others

“There is room in the universe, dear brothers and sisters, for everyone’s choice. I call you to a new choice, but not intolerance of those who are not ready to make it. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 6.6)”

1 – Tolerance

We are to be tolerant of our brothers and sisters who have not walked the full pathway. Not all are ready to accept the words of Jesus as scribed in A Course of Love. We are not to look down upon them. Perhaps a smile is all that they can handle. We are not called upon to be proselytizers of the way that we have found.

2 – New Choice

We are called to a “new choice,” but not intolerance of those who are not ready. This is a bit of a strong warning of the misstep that we might make. And our arrogance would be ego-inspired, taking us down rather than up. Surely we do not want to walk the path of the ego all over again. And Neale Donald Walsch in his Conversations with God series, says that evolution is not a “straight line.” So it would behoove us to walk carefully down our pathway.

3 – The Universe

The universe(s) is a very large place, metaphorically as well as actually, physically. It can accommodate the many pathways that people find in their way back to God. ACIM says that there are many courses, all with the same purpose. In ACIM and ACOL, though, we have found one united pathway that many believe came from Jesus. We should not, as ACIM notes, follow pathways that are meant for others, but to adopt that which we see as our own, our best way back to God. ACIM and ACOL work together to embody that pathway for many people.

4 – Self-Righteous?

All too often people who are trying to follow God’s way become self-righteousness, without ever meaning to so become. We think that because we are trying to do right, we are somehow better than those who are not interested in religion.

5 – Secular Humanism

God is God of the secular humanist as well as the believer. He leaves no one out, and we must not either.

6 – Reverence for God and Love

There is a reason that reverence for God is likely to bring us to an Awakening, a new choice in our lives. If we did not need reverence, with the propensity to love that it brings, we might not be drawn so precisely toward God. We crave the love that He gives. This craving is what takes us Home to Him. And so we may have a need for love that is greater than any possibility of getting love for ourselves.

7 – The “Handicapped” Child?

We may be the “handicapped” child, the one who blossoms with love because we are closer to God out of need. Others are more independent-minded, and wander farther from the Way. This is OK. All will eventually see the benefit of following truth to the Home that we have never really left, though we think that we have. Ruth Montgomery, in books written, channeled in automatic writing by “Guides,” says that in the beginning we were spun out from God to make our way through reality, experiencing, but always finding our way back to Him and to Home again. We can understand that this was God Himself who so differentiated Himself into parts for the experiencing. We are a part of God, as ACIM and ACOL make clear. Let us remember that our real finding of love is possible only when we return to the fold, to the Home that He has prepared for us. And this does not have to be after death. This Heaven on earth can be right here and now.

8 – Preparation

Let us do the little that we need to do to prepare today.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I be and remain tolerant of others and their different pathways. May I especially be tolerant when they do not subscribe to my pathway, as seen in A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love. May I be understanding even if they denounce me.

May I follow the way that is mine. This involves my holy relationships to my brothers and sisters. This does not necessarily involve tedious hours spent in contemplation. Jesus himself has said this, and may I take it to heart.

May today allow glimpses of Awakening that lead to a sustaining of this great blessing. May I remember to slow down, to be mindful, and to invite enlightenment by my demeanor and my willingness to let You lead the way. May I never think that I can control You. You make the decisions; I follow.

And well that it is so. Thank You.

Amen.

Envisioning a Return to the Natural State

“A shared vision of unity and a return of all to the state natural to all, is that I ask you to imagine, envision, and desire. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 6.4)”

1 – Prayer

This passage gives us what our prayer is to be for. We are to share ourselves with our brothers and sisters, and to ask that they too return to the state that is natural to all–the state of communicating with our Creator, with God (an ACIM concept). A Course in Miracles says that we taught ourselves not to communicate with our Creator, and that this is not a natural way of living. Let us return to the natural today.

2 – Imagine, Envision, Desire

The terms, “imagine, envision, and desire,” are hallmarks of ACOL in which we believe that the new Christ-consciousness to which we are all called will embody this essence. It will not be learning anymore, the curriculum ofACIM. We will understand through direct revelation from God, and this will not be a perceptual truth, but a knowledge. And knowledge that is true comes only from God.

3 – Natural

The word “natural” in the passage is particularly appealing to me. We all desire the natural in our little individual worlds. We do not find that we are attracted to that which is strange and peculiar. And the natural is whatACOL is to bring about. If a thesis lacks the test of naturalness, it is best left aside. But this is not to allow intolerance in our lives. What is natural to one individual is frequently not so natural to another, and we must be tolerant of these differences.

4 – Those Who Do Not Choose the Natural

“Your brothers and sisters who do not choose their natural state still are who they are and holy as yourself. Your brothers and sisters who choose alternative visions are still who they are and holy as yourself. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 6.5)”

5 – Special?

There is nothing special about those of us who are taking to heart A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love. Sure, we may reach enlightenment sooner than other brothers and sisters, but that does not mean that we are “better” than they. We are all holy Sons and Daughters of God.

6 – Specialness

We can look at the idea of “specialness” in two ways: either all of us are “special” or none of us are. This is all the word means, to us now as we verge into taking our place as Sons and Daughters of God. When the ego reigned in us, specialness became very important indeed. And we suffered accordingly, for never did we experience a “high” without a resulting “low.” This is all that specialness ever did for us.

7 – Vision

But now we are seeing anew, with a new vision, the vision of the inner Christ. We are seeing that specialness is a red herring, something that we don’t want in any shape or form. And we are the better for realizing this, though we are still, most particularly, not better than anybody else.

8 – Slow Down & Invite Enlightenment

Come unto our own today. Let us slow down, go through the motions of our day with mindfulness, and invite enlightenment. Glimpses of Awakening, called satori, will come before there is a sustained state of the elevated Self of form. Enlightenment is God’s Will for us, the only way that we can be happy consistently. And happiness is His Will for us as well. He is not evil. He didn’t cause the suffering that we and others have endured. We brought this on ourselves, from an imprisoned will that saw not how to free ourselves.

9 – Guidance

Now we are learning how to free ourselves, but it is the guidance that we get that points out the Way. Be reassured today that enlightenment is God’s Will for us, and He will bestow that blessing as soon as we clear the cobwebs from our minds, let our hearts rule, and follow along salvation’s way.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I return today to unity with all my brothers and sisters, as I pray for them. May we return, together, to the state of co-creation with You, the state that is natural to us. May this blessing happen sooner rather than later.

Thank You for guiding me gently along the correct pathway. My pathway is strewn with blessings when I am wise enough to recognize these blessings.

Amen.

Create the Probable Future that You Truly Desire

“In this time of Christ, this time of direct revelation and direct sharing, the probable future you imagine, envision, desire, will be what you create. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 6.4)”

1 – Watch Our Minds

This passage asks us to watch our minds, and to fall in line with what our spirits would wish for us. Let us not fall into “mind wandering,” which A Course in Miracles says we are much too willing to do. The mind is very powerful, and it will create what we envision. Let us raise our sights to create the very best that we can.

2 – No Delay

In the time of Christ, there is no delay in seeing the results of our thinking–at least not as much delay as previously in the time of the Holy Spirit. A Course of Love presages the time of Christ, as A Course in Miracles describes the time of the Holy Spirit. The two do seem to overlap, as students study both of these courses.

3 – The True

May we know that what we envision can indeed come true. Let us watch our minds so that we do not inadvertently bring into “reality” (actually our illusory dream) that which we do not want.

What do we truly desire? We might well spend more than a few minutes today asking ourselves this question. If we do not consider well, we will inadvertently create that which we don’t want, and this would be very dire.

4 – Consider Well

So consider well the quotation for today. Contemplate what we really want, and set about to follow guidance as to how to bring that probable future into form. We best ask for intangibles, as always, for the physical will never satisfy us for long; there is always something more that we will want, if our choices are for physical manifestations. But this doesn’t mean that the physical is bad; it is just ephemeral. And we want the lasting as we walk back to God. The lasting is truly of Him.

5 – Probable Futures

The probable future is a concept that means that we move into different probable futures as our imaginations lead us in new directions. This explains why psychics constantly get it wrong; the future is always changing.

6 – Jesus

Jesus will not lead us by telling us what a future will be. He says that the future is yet to be created, and that even he does not know what it will be. So let us not be arrogant in considering that we know what Jesus does not. That is exceedingly unlikely. Instead, ask for the guidance of our inner Selves to know what to ask. Our creations will be as right as we can make them when we have turned inward before prayer.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I want the future that you would have for me. May my mind not drop into negativisms, and thereby help to create a future that I–and You–really do not want for myself. May I be led to envision the best and brightest future.

May I not try to stay in the dream, even if it is happy. The dream is not the end that You seek for me. May the Awakenings of all of us be gentle and lasting.

May my probable future be good. I ask this, knowing that You will guide when I am open to Your guidance. May the probably futures of my brothers and sisters be good as well. And help us to know how to ask, for we have known eons of asking for that which does not satisfy for long. I would ask only for that which will be permanently satisfying.

Amen.

We Can Choose What We Wish to Create

“The only guarantee I can offer you is the guarantee that you are who I say you are and that I speak the truth concerning your identity and inheritance. What you choose to do with this knowledge is still up to you. What you choose to create with this knowledge is still up to you. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 6.2)”

1 – The Future

The fact of our responsibility in the matter of choosing our future can be daunting, but should not be, because we do not have to choose alone. We have helpers, including Jesus, and, if we have listened internally, we have our inner direction.

2 – Freeing Concept

This concept is a very freeing one, even though it may frighten us as we think of the implications. Reality is not scary as long as the ego has been relinquished. Pray that this is so for us today.

3 – Heaven on Earth

We will choose to create a heaven on earth. I am confident of this, because we have seen evidences of those who reach for Jesus’s word and abide in it. Today let us pray for what our parts should be in creating this heaven on earth.

4 – Jesus

Jesus says in this quotation that he has led us surely to understand both our identity and our inheritance. Our identity is the Son/Daughter of God. Our inheritance is the living out of Christ-consciousness as the elevated Self of form. We can choose what we will create in this elevated Self, but if we are to remain in God’s Will as elevated beings, we will choose aright, knowing that we have left the ego behind forever. This, according to Jesus, is a new choice, a choice to be physical, yet to be in God’s Will. Our detour into fear via the false self of the ego is finished, gone for good. Now we have a new destiny to walk into, and even Jesus does not know how this will look, for he says that he will not predict the future; the future is yet to be written—by us.

5 – Ultimate Reality

This new way of looking at ultimate reality is a blessing indeed. In A Course of Love, Jesus indicates that the physical form is not to be denigrated, that it has value as a holy manifestation of a part of God—us, as the elevated physical Selves. It is a glorious and exciting future that awaits us as we work out our destiny in a newly restored world. Let us walk surely to God today, as we seek this new destiny, freed from the restrictions of an imprisoned will that the ego had forced upon us. Our wills are now free, for we know that we share with each other. There is never any need to return to an idea that we would want to be separate. We were not made for separation. And now we know this.

6 – Part of the Whole

We are freed to be part of the Whole, part of God, but also part of each other and every living thing. Let us walk serenely down the pathway that these ideas from A Course of Love take us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I know my part in helping to create Heaven on earth. May I understand the knowledge that is imparted to me by You. May I neither overestimate or underestimate what my part can be in making a better world for myself, and my brothers and sisters in this world.

My inheritance is sure. I have long realized this truth. Help it to become ever more real to me today.

I have long been interested in the concept of inheritance, feeling certain years ago that that word meant something more than inheriting from my family. Thank You for what I feel was a psychic flash that would eventually be explained. Thank You for the explanation. And may my brothers and sisters comes to know that we share and share alike in this inheritance from You.

Be with me for the rest of this day, and may tomorrow be dedicated to following Your Way as best I can see it. Thank You for showing me how to slow down and be with Your Presence in everyday life. May I rest in Your goodness always, never turning back to an egoic interpretation of my life.

Amen.

Imagination Is Key to Our Probable Futures

“What you envision, imagine, desire, hold as being possible is possible, because you make it so. It is your interaction, both individually and collectively with the consciousness that is us, that creates probable futures rather than guaranteed futures. It is your interaction, both individually and collectively with the consciousness that is us, that creates probable futures rather than guaranteed futures. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 6.1)”

1 – Jane Roberts’s Seth

This passage is like Jane Roberts channeled for Seth: We create our own reality, and we move into a complex interplay of probable futures with our brothers and sisters playing their roles as well. We do not have to adopt for ourselves all that Seth promotes, though, to understand that we do choose what we will experience. This is not a choice of the little, individual, personal self, but the Self, the larger Self, the Christ Self, of which we partake on other planes as well.

2 – Probable Futures

We cannot know the future definitely, because of the fact that all futures are probable–thus not sure to turn out the way that we expect. This is why psychics often fail in their predictions; they are tuning into another probable future, one that the self of the moment will not choose.

3 – A Potent Idea

“Probable futures” constitute a potent idea. This means that we can bring into our world those futures that are more promising and happier, if we so choose. Let us choose to find joy today in our futures.

4 – Imagination

Our imagination, our dreaming, in consultation with our innermost Self, is key to creating the future that is best. We do not have to believe in the Law of Attraction in regard to this, but we may (in fact) so believe. The creation of our reality is given in A Course of Love as a more reverent way to influence outcomes, whereas the Law of Attraction works in secular ways as well. We can envision physical, transient, blessings, and they will manifest as much as the more real intangibles of God. The more real intangibles ought to be our goals, for only they are lasting.

5 – Daydream

Spend a bit of time today imagining what future for yourself and others you would like to see. Pray for those outcomes. (God will protect you and save you from disaster if the prayers go awry.) Always ask in the Will of God, for only that procedure brings the best always. We are part of God, and so we are asking our innermost Self to ratify our personal self’s choices. At this point in A Course of Love, the Self is close to a tie with the personal self, what we hope will be a permanent tie. Use that tie to make sure that You ask aright.

6 – The Best

The best means are always the way to go. And going directly to the Source is our best procedure. We cannot ask amiss when we evaluate our asking by running it past the inner Self. We will know when we have done this. The prayer will seem, will be, right.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I use all of my imagination today to create a positive future. This is not the dreams that I am caught in in this world; this is the reality which I have come to know.

May I choose the probable future that is most promising. May I co-create, with You, the Way that You would have me go.

Amen.

Our State of Consciousness Is a Part of the Consciousness that Is Christ-consciousness

“Your state of consciousness, be you alive or dead, asleep or awake, literally or figuratively, is a part of the consciousness that is Christ-consciousness. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 6.1)”

1 – The All

We are part of the All. That is what is meant. We, in our elevated Self of form, constitute part of what is meant by “Christ.” And even before this elevation, we still hold the Christ deep within; we just don’t recognize this inner Self, at least very often. But we are never alone.

2 – Christ-consciousness

“Christ-consciousness” is a term not well-understood by those of us who are still in a state of moving toward Awakening. If the way seems long, we are to be content (according to A Course in Miracles), because, once begun on the journey without distance, the end is sure. We may know fleeting glimpses of Christ-consciousness, often before we move into the sustained state. These fleeting glimpses are the revelation that something even better is coming.

3 – Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle has much to say about the state of Enlightenment, or Awakening. He notes that this is not a constant state in the beginning, normally. It fluctuates. When we are at peace, in joy and contentment, we are seeing a glimpse of what we will experience, without drama, on a continuing basis later on.

4 – Christ

So keep in mind the Christ is within, waiting to be experienced. This change will come suddenly, in a moment, so that we will know when we have made the transition to Christ-consciousness. This is the miracle, for what can make this new state of being so sudden and so real? We are beloved of God. He would have us make this transition sooner rather than later, and He will move as soon as we have fulfilled His criteria. We will not to wait a moment longer.

5 – Believe

The best that we can do, until that moment happens, is to commune with God, to study ACIM and ACOL, to believe that what Jesus tells us will happen, will actually happen. Our own sense of skepticism may be holding us back. Drop that skepticism today, for this is within our power. Do all within our power to make the transition, and then know that God will act when the moment is truly right.

6 – Transformation

As a friend of mine says, transformation is for everyone.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I sustain Christ-consciousness today. May I realize the state of mind and spirit that is without fear. Be with me as I seek to know Your truth.

If the way to Christ-consciousness seems long, be with me as I seek to be patient. The ending is sure, once the pathway is taken. Thank You for walking along with me, and occasionally for “carrying” me.

Thank You for guiding me gently. Thank You for the new comprehension that I have today. May my gratitude to You be palpable to You. And may I sustain any glimpses of Awakening that I have.

Amen.

The Elevated Self of Form Knows Now What Previously Was Only Known in the After-Life

“But I tell you truly; it is no different than the time that is upon you right now. The after-life has simply been a time of increased choice because it has been a time of increased awareness. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 5.13)”

1 – Jesus
Jesus is here saying that we can know in the elevated Self of form those things that formerly we could only know after death, on the Other Side (“the after-life”).

2 – Death

Now we can have this awareness without crossing the barrier of death. What a lovely thought for those of us who have always had lots of curiosity about the true nature of reality.

3 – A Knowing

Enjoying the knowing that comes to us is a great boon. We need not fret and struggle so, but rest in the knowledge (and it is knowledge) that all is well. What happens is meant to happen.

4 – Knowledge

As we move into sustaining the elevated Self of form, we will know many things, rather than perceive many things. We will also know that we know. This new time is a time of increased certainty. We do not have to wait to know much; we are here imbedded in a course of study that assures us that our egos are gone, and that we are in an in between state that will soon be merged with a state of Christ-consciousness. This, at this point in A Course of Love.

5 – Christ-consciousness

Know that Christ-consciousness is not a change at all, but much more a new awareness of knowing. Because we are listening to Jesus and following his Way, the transition will be smooth and gentle. That is a great blessing, because previously many individuals went through much turmoil at the time of transitioning to Awakening. But we are not hurled into reality; we are carried each step of the way. And more and more of us are experiencing the new reality.

6 – Home

Be assured today that we can all find our way back home, and soon. We do not have to wait long. Be careful, though, of affirming Christ-consciousness until enough time has passed that we will be certain that this is not just a glimpse of Awakening, but a sustained state of being. It is wise to keep one’s own counsel in these matters, because many there are who do not understand at all. Others do not recognize miracles for what they are, and the miracle of Awakening, maybe least of all. Many do not even know yet the possibility of this blessing.

7 – Transition

Just walk easily in our world, glad that the transition, when it comes, has actually come. Keep your own counsel. Be restrained. The time of Christ is upon us, and we would be wise to follow the pathway pointed out by A Course of Love. Of course, there are other pathways for people who have not chosen Jesus has their guide. But if you are reading this, still, you have chosen Jesus as your guide in life. And he guides well. Listen, and be reassured that all is well.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I rest in certainty that the after-life will be something which I will enjoy tremendously. But let me not live in longing for that which is ahead. May I live in greater awareness and greater choice today, in this world, as well. May I enjoy the real world that shows before my eyes as I let illusions, the dream in which I am caught, dissipate.

Thank You for the greater awareness and greater choice for today that You have already granted me. May my gratitude color the interactions that I have with others today.

Be with me today to help me to overcome those aspects of my personality which I feel still hold me back. I would walk gently, avoiding anger. I would be grateful for all blessings, eliminating attack. I would seek beyond perception to a knowing about ultimate reality. These are the things that are on my mind and in my heart today. Help my wholeheartedness to effect a cure from undesirable traits. And thank You.

Amen.

We Can Learn Now What Was Previously Learned after Death

“Because you have now made a new choice, a collective choice as one body, one consciousness, to end the time of the intermediary and to begin to learn directly, you are given the same opportunity now that was formerly reserved for you only after your death. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 5.12)”

1 – Learning Directly

Learning directly is looking within for our answers. God is within (as well as perceived–and known–as without). He will lead us surely. We do not have to doubt. If we have experienced salvation, we will know what to say and do. We do not have to hesitate.

2 – Self-Perception

Of course, we will not do “crazy” things, though some of what we are bade to do may seem embarrassing to us. Jesus says in A Course in Miracles that this conclusion of ours comes from a shabby self-perception, that the words that come to us are truer by far than something we would falsely imagine might be better. We are bade to offer these words that come to us without doubt. Just a few times of doing so will assure us of the validity of Jesus’s advice.

3 – Direct Revelations

“The direct revelations that will come to you now will transform you as surely as did those that came to so many others after death. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 5.12)”

When we have experienced Awakening, the separation from God is over for sure. And we can learn directly from Him, via revelation, many of those things that previously, Jesus says, we only knew after death.

4 – Happy Realization

What a happy realization this is! To know by direct revelation is promised to us by Jesus in A Course in Miracles, even before Awakening. We catch glimpses, because God offers these to us. But to get to the end requires knowing the means, and A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love give us the means. (The ACIM reference is given in the Text.)

5 – Prayers to God

We may have wondered if God knows about us, and there is much difference of opinion among Course students in this regard. God speaks through the Holy Spirit, prior to Awakening, and He speaks more clearly, even, through revelation, when we have experienced Awakening. There is no reason to be controversial about this difference of opinion about what God knows. We each have a course to teach, a different course for each teacher of God, and so there will of necessity be different interpretations. My own take on this asks the question, Why would Jesus have addressed prayers to God at the final parts of the Workbook if he (Jesus) did not think that God would hear those prayers?

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I learn directly from God today. This is the favored way in the time of Christ (as in A Course of Love) rather than in the time of the Holy Spirit (as in A Course in Miracles). For some time I may vacillate between the two ways of knowing (as opposed to perceiving), and I ask your patience with me as I experience a new way of seeing.

Be with me today. May fear leave me forever. May the love that is Yours come to encompass my brothers and sisters, and myself, so completely that I am lost in that love.

Help me today. Thank You for all of Your help in times past. I feel reassured that Your help is always present, and I need but ask to have myself surrounded by helpers. Thank You for this. Thank You for everything.

Amen.

Make a Choice for Christ-consciousness Now

“I am calling you to make this choice now. This is not a choice automatic to you in human form or even upon the death of your human form. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 5.11)”

1 – Jesus

Jesus would have us to accept Christ-consciousness now. He says that we are ready. Will we forever doubt?

2 – Seeking

Often we think that there is something else that we need to learn. We believe that the next book, or the next speaker, or the next documentary, or the next prayer, will lead us more easily than what we know already. This is not so. Jesus would have us rest in the present moment, sure of him and sure of ourselves. Our union with Christ will be the only Guide that we need.

3 – Self-Help Literature

Often self-help literature implores us to improve ourselves, but this is not what Christ-consciousness is all about. Frequently self-help is to improve the dream that we are in. Christ-consciousness is the call to awaken.

4 – Rest in Surety

When we are called to awaken, we cease turning to the next book, the next system of thought, the next whatever. We rest in surety that we know, because God has granted us knowledge, and we are leaving mere “perception” behind. Let us choose for knowledge today.

5 – Minds

We do not cease using our minds, though. A great deal of energy is freed up when one has experienced Christ-consciousness, meaning that the mind may become even more curious about life in general. Moments of living become crystalized in one’s experience. One enjoys, in a deeper way, the experience of living in this world.

6 – Free Will

“You are given the chance, just as you are being given the chance now, to choose your true nature with your free will. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 5.11)”

7 – Release

We have to use free will to ask Divinity to release us, but we don’t hold the keys to the timetable. God alone knows that timetable of Christ-consciousness. Before we sustain it, we do experience glimpses. Always, when attack, or judgment, or planning against contingencies to come, accompany our walk, we will lose touch with the sustainability of Christ-consciousness. (These are tenets of A Course in Miracles.) And Jesus, in A Course of Love, lets us know that he needs, our significant others, and our brothers and sisters—even God Himself—all need us to move into a greater awareness of Awakening.

8 – Prayer

Let’s make the decision that we want this greater salvation, and ask in prayer for it to come sooner rather than later.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to follow the guidance that comes to me inwardly. This guidance will surely and safely lead me to Christ-consciousness. This is the elevated Self of form, about which A Course of Love speaks so eloquently. This means that I do not have to die to experience the knowledge that only You can give. Please grant me knowledge to live and love today, this day in all its fullness.

Thank You for Your guidance. If I do my part, it is most certain that You will do Yours. You have only been waiting until I was ready. I am ready today.

Be with me today, as always. I need Your close communion, the reverence that I feel that sets my day aright. Thank You for granting the awareness that something has changed for me. Thank You for effecting that change. May I always increase my contribution to others. May my words always reflect what You would have me say. Thank You for your support in everyday life.

Amen.

Make the Choice to Be Aware of Who You Truly Are

“To align your will with the Will of God is to make the choice for Christ-consciousness, to make the choice to be aware of who you truly are. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 5.10)”

1 – ACIM vs. ACOL

A Course of Love builds on A Course in Miracles, because the latter had counseled that the Will of God is actually our own real will. This does take the conflict out of our feeling that we are puppets on a string, doing God’s will (which we wonder if we really want to do). We are not puppets. God is the divine spark within, and when we reach inward, we come to know what it is that we ought rightfully to say and to do.

2 – Holy Spirit / Christ Self

ACIM focused on the Holy Spirit as our guide. ACOL counsels a movement, a time, beyond the time of the Holy Spirit, with movement into the time of Christ. We will know what to say or do without strain. Life will move easier for us. We will not feel that tug of resistance, of which so many of us are familiar.

3 – Conflict

The time of the Holy Spirit often meant that we did what we realized we should do, but without wholly wanting to do so. ACIM says that this will result in anger, suppressed or expressed. The time of Christ is different, in that we realize that doing what we sense inwardly, once we have tested it for truth, is the best result. We will cease our struggle, because we will realize conclusively that to do God’s will is to do our own.

4 – Nudges Identical

The nudges from the Holy Spirit are exactly like the nudges of the Christ Self. You, in all likelihood, won’t intuit any difference. You may, I hope, be more willing to follow the inner Self immediately, but this is not for sure. Sometimes, even with the Self in the ascendancy, we will be resistant to the guidance that we receive. We will surely know when we have crossed over into Christ-consciousness, but the nudges will not differ from what we have always known. And perhaps there will be time delay before we really realize that, yes, we are verging into Awakening. Usually, though, there is a moment in which we will know that we have left the old behind. That moment is our saving grace. We will know that we are home free.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May the strain of “deciding” for the Holy Spirit leave me. May I devote myself to following what I know to be Your will in ease and peace. May my struggle cease, because my inward knowledge is guiding me.

Help me to decide for the consciousness of Christ today. Jesus has said that I am ready; may this wonderful declaration come true in my life in joy and wholeness. May I remember again what I forgot long ago.

Thank You for the guidance that knows when You have acted in my life. Thank You for the assurance that is mine today. The Way You point to is Your Will personified. Help me to sustain that Will in my life, daily, weekly, and monthly—on into the distant future.

Amen.

Physical Form Is an Extension of God Energy

“Your form does not contain your heart, or the Energy of Creation, or God. Your form is but an extension of this Energy, a representation of it. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 5.5)”

1 – Form

By “form,” here, is meant the physical form. And Jesus says that this physical, little self, can be the elevated Self of form at any time that we truly desire it.

2 – Patience

Surely we return to daily living with a greater understanding once we have made this understanding our own. We live with more patience, and, when stumble, we reach out and reestablish our equilibrium.

3 – Awareness

Keep a clear head and heart as we progress. Do not let despair of attaining our goal deter us. We have attained, but perhaps we live in unawareness of this. Let the awareness come today.

4 – God = All

“God can thus be seen as the All of everything and life, or the Body of Christ, as all that makes up the seemingly individual parts of the All of everything. Christ-consciousness is your awareness of this. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 5.6)”

5 – Christ-consciousness

We are aware mostly through Christ-consciousness, and we do have glimpses of Christ-consciousness long before it is sustained. God is the All, and here we learn that we can think of the body as the Body of Christ. It is a manifestation of the All, the Godhead. We know this, but sometimes we think that it is too grandiose to consider.

6 – Grandiosity vs. Grandeur

Believing that something is grandiose is usually of the ego, and grandiosity is a great trick of the ego. We need to recognize grandeur when and where it occurs, though, and God is the most complete of the All in grandeur, of course.

7 – Life-altering

Christ-consciousness is not a real change. When it occurs, sometimes it is life-altering, and therefore scary (at first), but often Christ-consciousness steals in almost unawares. There is a change, but it is gentle. It is carefree. And it is heartwarming. We have nothing to fear. Mostly, when we have followed a course of study such as A Course in Miracles or A Course of Love, Christ-consciousness may even steal in so gently that we realize, in retrospect, that this is what we are now encountering. Certainly this is a great blessing. Don’t forget to say “thank You” to the universe, and God in the Ultimate.

8 – A Metaphor

“You might say that your finger does not, then, have free will. It cannot express itself independently of the whole.
“The same is true of you! You cannot express yourself independently of the whole! It is as impossible as it would be for the finger to do so. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 5.9)”

9 – Choice

This is an explanation that is new to us. But it explains why “choice” as we knew it with the ego is no more. We decide for the All, and we decide in consultation with either the Holy Spirit (as A Course in Miracles says) or the Christ within, the Self (as A Course of Love says). We don’t go off wily-nily on our own.

10 – Whole Body

We don’t need to relinquish all self-motivation, but we do need to rein it in. We are choosing for the All when we are conscious of God’s place in our lives. Free Will of the “finger” thus considers the whole body, the All of the Everything.

11 – Free Will

“Free will does not make the impossible possible. It makes the possible probable. It is thus probably that you will use your free will in order to be who you are. But it is not guaranteed! It is your choice and your choice alone that is the only guarantee. This is the meaning of free will. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 5.9)”

12 – Jane Roberts’s Seth

When we verge into probable realities, we know why psychics cannot accurate predict the future. The probable futures are numerous, almost without count. We cannot understand this, because our finite minds cannot wrap around such a concept. Seth, the entity that Jane Roberts channeled in the last century, expands our minds about probable futures. And these books were among the first of New Age literature. Many current writers learned first from Seth.

13 – Choosing

We will choose aright, if our minds are in sync with God, but we may also choose to keep the ego alive. We probably won’t do that, but we just may.

14 – Choose Aright

We don’t want to let the ego rule anymore. If we are reading this, letting go of the ego is our choice. When free will have chosen rightly. Let us be grateful today that we know what is right. Let us pray for the grace to do it.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I recognize that my physical self does not contain my Essence. My physical self is only a representation of God’s Energy. These words do seem obscure, but help me to understand today.

May I attain the elevated Self of form on a sustained basis. This is the Christ-consciousness that will elevate my life to that level to which You wish me to rise.

Thank You for a glorious day, once again. May I right myself quickly if I fall out of alignment with good sense. I mean to be helpful and loving; let my own inner demons fall away so that I can enjoy Your peace and joy now and always. Inner demons are a metaphor for refusing Your call to me. May I not be guilty of this transgression now or ever again.

Amen.

The Many Forms Are Made One Body through Christ-consciousness

“The many forms are made one body through Christ-consciousness. . . .Awareness of this one Source of energy, and thus that this one energy exists in everything and creates the life in everything, is Christ-consciousness. It is also what we have been referring to as heart and as the center of your being. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 5.3)”

1 – Energy

Energy is in everything, and that may (and probably does) mean that life is in everything, even supposedly inanimate objects. We do not have to believe this to have a good life, but opening our minds to the possibility enhances life for us. Many forms – one body. What a good thought!

2 – One

This one “body” means that All is One, and All includes us as well as God. We are separate in any sense at all. We know that God dwells deep within, covered over by our illusions of our self as seen in the ego—until we choose, make the choice, to give up the ego. Then there is a gradual reduction in the ego’s hold on us. Finally, one glorious day, we realize that we have walked into Christ-consciousness. And a glorious day this is indeed.

3 – Awakening

Many who subscribe to A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love have a gentle Awakening, a gentle coming to Christ-consciousness. This is because Jesus has prepared us well. He makes the transition for us non-jarring and easy. We need fear nothing. Indeed, we need do nothing, as he says in ACIM.

4 – Christ-consciousness

The day will dawn, soon, when all of us will know Christ-consciousness. Then we will ask for and receive our inheritance of joy and peace. Only what belongs to us in truth, and we will want nothing more than this. Let us ask today that this dawning day come soon for all of us. We need it, others in our circle need it, and the world needs it. We need to create a new world. Let’s be about just that, but, first, be sure that our hearts are right with God. Otherwise, all of our doings will be misguided.

5 – Heart

Surely we are aware that our heart is the center of our being. Many, throughout the ages, have spoken of this. A Course of Love joins mind and heart to “wholeheartedness,” and this is the ultimate. We use our intellects, but we are not trapped by them. We listen to the guidance that comes from within, and this is coming from the Divine within. Then we are truly living in Christ-consciousness.

6 – Inward

We are led back inward at every point. We get the guidance that we need, then, to reach outward to our companions along the way, our brothers and sisters.
7 – Energy and Matter

All is energy, the energy of God. Matter is only a form of energy in which the vibrations have been slowed down. Because of this slowness, things do not always happen suddenly. The Now is always available to us, though, as Eckhart Tolle points out in The Power of Now. We can have the Awakening that we long to have. We have been prepared, and A Course of Love is one of Jesus’s avenues to show us the way. ACOL builds on the previous understandings of A Course in Miracles.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I know today that my heart is the center of my being. May this bring me ever-closer to Christ-consciousness.

Thank You for always being there for me. I say this often. You do not need to hear it, but I need to say it. Thank You for Your manifold blessings.

Thank You for the dawning of a new day, a day in which I know joy and peace. These two emotions are, in fact, all that I really want. Everything else is a detail. I would seek You first, and in the seeking I will come to know my real Self. Jesus guides me; You speak to me through the Holy Spirit and my inner Christ; and this world presents things that make the way easier. Thank You for being there for me on this long pathway. Thank You for walking further along this pathway with me just recently. Yom Kippur this year was truly a Day of Atonement for me; thank You for the many blessings of that day.

Be with me in this day. Help me to sustain the frame of mind that I have developed, with Your help. Guide me, sustain me, make me happy—for happiness is a function of mine, and only in my own happiness can I truly reach out to and help others.

Thank You. Again, today, I say “thank You.”

Amen.

We Are God’s Song, His Melody

“Life-everlasting in form is not your only choice. As many of you believed that I was the Son of God and more than a man before my birth, during my lifetime and after my death and resurrection, so are you. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 5.1)

1 – Forms over Time

This quotation strongly suggests a continuance of life all round—before birth, during a lifetime, and after death. It stops short of describing reincarnation, but there are other quotations that could hint at that. Jesus is deliberately, I think, staying on the fence in regard to reincarnation. He knows that all time is Now, and so each of us is living the only life that we can live Now. Jesus doesn’t want to commit to other lifetimes, because he wants his message to be as acceptable as possible to all. Because all is really Now, we can focus on the present form and lifetime, knowing that birth into bodies is actually all part of the illusion. We feel the illusion, though, for our bodies feel solid enough to us. And so we experience within the illusion. We do not have to deny the reality of our senses. But we do need to avoid a stand on existence in multiple bodies over time and in many lifetimes. We need to be as open to those who believe in reincarnation as to those who don’t. That is what Jesus is trying to be.

“This could as easily be stated as your being a Song of God. You are God’s harmony, God’s expression, God’s melody. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 5.2)”

2 – Blessed by God

We are blessed by God. We are His expression. And this is a good expression. We are living God’s lives for Him. It is the way that He experiences reality. Neale Donald Walsch, in Conversations with God (a trilogy), says much about this aspect of reality.

3 – Song

To be a song is a lovely metaphor. We want to give God good days. This means that we are not to feel sorry for ourselves, however dismal the weather (or our personal weather) seems to be. We live for the highest and best of which we are capable. Then we will truly know God’s reality. We will know that the divine spark truly is within each of us. The Divinity is within, as well as without. And, just as in hologram, the spark of the whole is embedded in each portion.

4 – Depressed?

All too often we let ourselves get depressed when things do not go our way. At such times, go within to God. Ask for His presence to be made known. And He will respond. There is a whole world waiting for us to explore. Do not retreat to dismal thoughts when this is the world that God has made, and we are to rejoice within it.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I am blessed to be a Song of Yours. I do not fully understand this, but I do know that you love me–with a love that does not diminish, regardless of what I say or do. You are always there for me. I thank You often for Your presence, and today I mean it especially keenly.

I know that You will guide me. Guide me today to be a true and lovely Song of Yours.

Thank You for the books that we believe Jesus has channeled. That scribing is precious to us. May we learn from what Jesus has said so that we are focused, constantly, in Your arms. Our approach to You is assured as we move into Christ-consciousness again. The channels to You are no longer closed. Your presence comes close to us, closer than our own breath. May we know that we are a part of you, made of God-stuff. And may the divinity that shapes our ends direct my decisions today.

Amen.

We Can Occupy the Physical Eternally

“What this treatise is saying to you is that if the physical experience appeals to you, and if you create the union of the human and the divine as a new state of being, this choice will be eternally yours. It will be a choice of your creation, a creation devoid of fear. It will be a new choice. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.18)”

1 – Living in Form

What this quotation is saying is not eternal life in the body we occupy now, but living in form as a choice for the future. We do not have immortality in our physical form as presently constituted, and to believe so would be a mistake. But future incarnations would seem possible for us, if we want to occupy physical form indefinitely.

2 – New Choice

This new choice is helpful to understanding that we are here to be happy in salvation, leading our brother and sisters down the right pathway. We cannot do so if we are removed from them. And so Jesus is implying here that we will want to resume physical form in new incarnations beyond this lifetime. This implication is an implication only, and it does not take a stand on reincarnation. We are ill advised if we do so, for many in our world cannot accept reincarnation and will resist our words if we seem to say this. Since all time is the Now, the question is a red herring anyway. Let us just be satisfied to live the life that we have fully, to enjoy our days, to serve God in the best way that we know how. This will bring us the happiness that we seek.

3 – Physical Attractive

This statement means that the physical may remain attractive to us. We do not necessarily want to achieve Awakening, and then abandon the world. We may want to enjoy the physical, but with a new emphasis on the divine in the physical. This is heaven on earth.

4 – Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce, an early 20th century psychic, indicated that many of us come to this world to help those who are “trapped” in matter. If this is true, and it very likely may be, then we would want to return to this world to help those who cannot free themselves without our help. We are doing God’s work; we are his hands and feet.

5 – Jesus

Jesus will help us to know the right pathway for our future. We can choose to live the physical, or, after death, we can remain on the Other Side. We do have choice in this matter. We are not pawns of the universe.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I do not know if the physical body will remain attractive to me, that I will return to this earth time and again in different bodies. ACIM recommends that we not take a stand on reincarnation. Help me today to be true to ACIM. If reincarnation is true, I think that I will want to return; I have thought this as long as I considered reincarnation as a viable option. May I be satisfied today just to live in the present, setting aside questions about the future until that time comes.

I do know that I thank You for the physical body that I have today. May this body remain healthy and strong, and may my emotions remain peaceful.

Amen.

Reflections on ACIM/ACOL, by Ben Andriessen

I never expected that my visit to the London Festival of Body, Mind & Spirit, in the Spring of 1983, would have such life-changing consequences.

I had spent most of my festival-budget on just one book, or rather a set of books. A young American had recommended “A Course in Miracles,” saying that it is channeled material about forgiveness. He did not further elaborate.

Now, I was interested in forgiveness, and I was familiar with “channeling.” Indeed in our Healing Centre, “Harmony House,” we had hosted various workshops on the subject. I imagined that if someone had gone to the trouble of publishing a tome like ACIM, it had to be worthy of taking note! Besides, it was then in 1983 already in its 11th printing, having been first published in 1976.

Still, I was rather shocked to realize that the “I” of the Text was, or pointed to, Jesus! WHAT!!? And, soon thereafter, that he was speaking to me, with that undeniable authority that is so typical of the Course.

Three years later Miryam and I organized a stand at the same London Festival, promoting the Course, as well as the books of Dr. Ken Wapnick and our own publication of a set of ACIM sayings on small 10 x 6 cm. cards, entitled Lilies of Forgiveness. Bill Thedford and Judy Skutch-Whitson were in London at that time. We attended a workshop by them based on Workbook Lesson 121: For-giveness is the key to happiness, which contains a profound exercise on forgiveness and special relationships. Bill graced us with a visit to our Festival stand; we found him to be such an unassuming man!

We had been trained in various complementary therapies within the traditional therapist vs. patient model, what the pamphlet on psychotherapy calls “a curriculum of judgment“. ACIM, and particularly the pamphlets, turns this model completely upside down: The patient becomes the therapist! As the pamphlet, The Song of Prayer, states: “You first forgive, then pray, and you are healed.” Wow!

I also discovered that I had a hidden agenda in trying one of the ego’s favorite tricks: covering up the “bad” guy with “good” deeds.

It soon became clear to me that we should focus on the delivery of the message of forgiveness rather than engaging in one-to-one work in therapy. So we decided to sell our eight-bedroom center and acquired a motor home. We called it “ The Miracle Mobile.”

We travelled around Europe, and, by introducing the Course to whoever invited us, learned to apply forgiveness to ourselves.

Our first workshop was in Norway. Then, over the next three years until 1989, we held many similar events in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland (my country of birth) and Spain. We carried as many ACIM books as we had space for in our motor home and supplied bookshops and individuals all over Europe. It was a miraculous time indeed. We even did a workshop on forgiveness in East Berlin, an unforgettable experience.

Once we did a talk for a group of Swedish enthusiasts, some of whom did not speak or understand English. Miraculously they were able to participate, even though they did not speak the Course’s language. One lady said that she not only got the gist of our talk, but found herself deeply affected by a new understanding of forgiveness. This proved to us that the energetics of the words themselves were an important part of group sharing, truly Love at work.

In 1989 our missionary activities came to a rather abrupt end. For the next 23 years we experienced a period of forgiveness internalization. We were still faithfully doing our daily Workbook lessons. We encountered difficult financial circumstances, culminating in bankruptcy, which hit us harder than I would admit at the time. There were days I felt abandoned by Jesus and his Course. What did I do wrong, even though I somehow knew I could not be wrong. My self identity was at a very low point. I searched for answers elsewhere: Ho O’ponopono, Zen, etc.

Then, in June 2012, during a week’s vacation in Galloway, Scotland, I was led to visit a particular second hand bookshop that boasted having over 100.000 books for sale. It had a surprisingly small selection of spiritual books, one of which drew my attention: “A Course of Love.” . It almost jumped from its shelf into my hands. I remember thinking: A Course of Love? How dare they! The Complete Course? What is this! And as I turned the some of the pages, it dawned on me that the authority with which it was written was very similar to that of my beloved ACIM. Was this a sequel to A Course in Miracles ? How come I did not know about this since it was published in 2001!

I was amazed and reflected on how such a book could end up in a second hand bookshop! Providence, surely! Eight months earlier I had been operated upon to remove a facial carcinoma. This event had put a halt to my writing ambitions, as I was struggling to reconcile my cancer experience with what ACIM teaches about the illusionary nature of the body and the true nature of healing.

And so I earnestly begun reading A Course on Love (Book I), and later on The Treatises (Book II) and the beautiful Dialogues (Book III). I gathered that I must remember to read with my heart, rather than to try to understand with my mind. While ACIM taught me about right-mindedness (forgiveness), ACOL shows me to live in wholeheartedness (prayer), with immediate application to what is happening now and how I can serve right now.

It seems to me that the language of ACOL is even more compact than ACIM, almost discouraging the need for intellectual understanding. Many others have remarked that when re-reading a particular section, it feels one reads as if for the first time–as if re-reading “happens” on a different and deeper level.

What excited me very much was the discovery and reconnecting of relation-ship with the Self ! Workbook Lesson 95 makes this, my favorite, ACIM statement:

“I am One Self, united with my Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace“

Only though ACOL did I get what the Zen Master Huang Po calls a “tacit understanding“ of the relationship with the Self that I AM.

Then, in The Dialogues, there is this exquisitely profound experience on the mountaintop, for 40 days and 40 nights, where Jesus reveals the beloved Self, the Who I AM. It establishes relationship based on pure and unadulterated Love. I found answers before I could formulate the question. Now the love poetry of Rumi begins to make sense:

I look for you
In my innermost being
I used to read the myths of Love
Now I have become
The mythical lover.

To Sustain Christ-consciousness

“To sustain Christ-consciousness in form is creation of the new. My one example life could not sustain Christ-consciousness for those who came after me but could only be an example. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.18)”

1 – Christ-consciousness

Jesus could not do it for us; he could not guarantee that Christ-consciousness would come to all of us when we ask for it. But we can learn much from his life. We can study Scripture, and thereby come to know more fully what Jesus asks of us. He asks nothing more than we accept what is ours for the taking. He asks us to realize that his way is an example life for us to follow.

2 – Jesus’s Gift

But we do not have to be crucified. That was his gift to us. He sought to show us what defenselessness would effect, and in what has happened after his life, we learn. In this lifetime, we can follow a much gentler pathway than Jesus knew, and he would have us to do so.

3 – No Discouragement

Do not be discouraged if the way seems long. We are set in the direction that we wish to travel. Flow with life; do not shrink from exploring all that life holds out to us. This does not mean to dwell in the depths of misdeeds, but to reach for what is best and right for all of us.

4 – Example Life

The example life is explained elsewhere in A Course of Love as well. Jesus makes plain that this was what he intended in his life on earth. We too can be examples for one another; we can follow an example life.

5 – Ego

If we don’t soon loose ourselves from the bonds of our ego, we won’t be in any shape to forgive the world, to offer salvation to the world that so badly needs it. We are at a crisis point in our world’s progress in time. Eckhart Tolle makes this plain. If we don’t soon awaken, our world will not survive, according to him, and he is not at all certain that in fact this world will survive.

6 – Outcome

But if we all do our part, the outcome will not be so dire. Let us seek together today to find out what that part really is, and then set about doing it. Salvation is our only function, a tenet of A Course in Miracles. If we wish to do our part, we ourselves must be saved first.

7 – God’s Will

And this is very possible, for it is completely in God’s Will for us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I thank You for all the blessings that you have bestowed on me–especially these latest words from Jesus in A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love. They have changed my life. Thank You for this.

May we love with the love of the spirit.

May today go well. May I find what this day is to bring to others as well as to myself. May this insight come easily and peacefully.

Thank You always for being there for me. Your Voice speaks to me all through the day, in a silent inner monologue that is coming to me as my own voice as well. May this dynamic lead me to You today and always.

Amen.

Joining of Personal Self to True Self

“Have we not worked throughout this course to return your true identity to you now? The joining of heart and mind in relationship is the joining of the personal self with the true Self in the reality in which you exist now. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.16)”

1 – Theme

This passage encapsulates the primary theme of “A Treatise on the New.” We are not to look for some far-off and distant culmination for the blessing that we seek. Christ-consciousness is ready for us, here and now, if we are ready. And we can be ready. That is spoken to all who are studying A Course of Love.

2 – Failure

We will not always feel the truth of these words. We will fall down, often many times, before we know Awakening to be a constant state. These lapses should not deter us. We will find our way Home.

3 – Time

There is no time. This is an implied message of ACOL. All time, in fact, exists simultaneously, which is one of the laws of those who follow the newest findings of physics.

4 – Pathway

Do not fail to reach the pathway today. Know that lapses in understanding that happen today will fall away tomorrow. Know that the reality in which we now reside is the best place from which we can grow to the elevated Self.

5 – True Self

This quotation equates the movement from just the personal self to the elevated Self, or true Self, with the joining of mind and heart into wholeheartedness. This latter was the emphasis of the first part of A Course of Love, the original volume. When we open to our heart, we know that we do not need the proofs for ultimate reality that the mind demands, especially the mind in service to the ego. We love more deeply as well. Our heart understands and knows, at one in relationship to others in our little world. This is the “unity and relationship” that ACOL stresses so much also. We are One, and yet we are differentiated into the many, in relationship one to the other. It is a paradox that we are both the One and the many, in relationship. But it is the best way that we can come to know the ultimate reality in which we are immersed.

6 – Ego

We have been occupying a form that encompassed a small-minded version of ourselves. We are asked to enlarge our self-concepts to something much bigger. We will be rewarded when we make a transition to a greater sense of Self. It will be more than a larger personal self, which would invite fear because it would encompass a bigger ego, and bigger egos are always scary. Think of the people you have known who seemed to have big egos. Weren’t you, on some level, afraid of these individuals? And now we are recognizing that we ourselves have perhaps sometimes scared others by our own inflated egos. Now we would leave all this behind.

7 – Being

The Self that we will embody is larger and grander than any ego could imagine. And so much more completely the true Being that we are. In oneness with God, we walk into the sunshine of this world, seeking to effect salvation in those who are ready to listen.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

In this Thanksgiving season, I thank You for my true identity, especially for the truth that my true identity can be known now–without tedious waiting for some distant future time.

If I find myself prone to doubt this truth, may I rethink my position, and accept Your words as true. We can know ourselves in our true identity in this world, and may we recognize this glorious truth today.

Help me navigate through this day, moving ever closer to Christ-consciousness. Remove the egoic blocks that I have to this blessing. I know that this is Your will, and now it is mine as well. We all need to move into a greater dimension of Being, there with You. Help me to make great strides to this new place, with You, today.

Amen.

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.

Abiding Separate from God Is Unnatural

“To abide in a state of separation is to abide in an unnatural state from which you eventually will seek release. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.15)”

1 – ACIM

ACIM says that we have taught ourselves the unnatural fact of not communicating with our Creator. We are meant to turn to God often, the internal God known to all of us.

2 – Talking to God

There is much truth in the reassurance that we are meant to talk to God frequently. He is often the only solace that we have in a troubled world, and especially when our own little world is difficult. Friends and family may desert us, but God never does.

3 – Love

Love is ever-present in ways that we can experience. This in itself is a great comfort in times of trial. And never forget that times of trial, according to ACIM, are the way that we make a better choice this time–a choice that we made wrongly previously.

4 – ACOL

A Course of Love, just as ACIM, talks about natural and unnatural states. To “talk” to God frequently (sometimes, it is seems, even “all” the time) is to come closer to overcoming the unnatural sense of a separation from Him. God is internal and external; God is the All. When we turn inward, we are coming as close as we can to a true, natural end to the separation from God that we have taught ourselves.

5 – Projection Makes Perception

We project the perceived world. When we see the real world, we will know this. And we will see the real world when we have learned (for learning it is) to communicate freely, once more, with God. We have spent eons in the experiment that was separation from God, seeing as our god the ego. Let us be done with this idea. It is a bad idea to see the ego as our god. This god always, without fail, lets us down.

6 – Inner Self

Turn to the inner Self often today. This is what communing with God is really like. Our days will go much better when we start, once again, to communicate with our Creator. His Universal Inspiration, the Holy Spirit, will guide us until we are ready to listen to our inner Christ Self.

7 – Strong Choice

Be assured today that turning to God is not weak, but strong. All have a need to communicate with Him. When all do, once again, communicate with Him, our world will set on a higher, better path.

8 – Saved

And we will be ultimately saved from disasters.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I realize that I do not have to feel separation from You. You are closer than my breath. You are the Within.

I know that I may not “feel” anything on a constant basis. May I not depend on feelings to know that You is helping me. May today be a good day, sensing Your love of me, as well as Your love for my brothers and sisters–sent by You for me to be their healer.

Help me to talk to You almost constantly, to pray without ceasing. This sort of activity gives me great peace, and I would have peace today. Help me to realize that it is natural to carry on an internal monologue with You. The rightness of my day, when I do this, is powerful evidence that I am on the right path. Thank You for being there always for me. This is not illusion, though I do not know how to describe the state that prayer puts me in. I am heard; that I know for sure.

Amen.

Our Physical Form Becomes Divine

“Continuity is an attribute of relationship, not of matter. It is only in the relationship of matter to the divine that matter can become divine and thus eternal. If you can abide in unity while in human form, you will have no cause, save your own choice, to leave human form. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 4.15)”

1 – Not Immortality in the Body

This statement is not a call to believe in the immortality of the physical form that we occupy today. It is, rather, a belief that we choose the moment of our death. We do not live blindly buffeted by fate in such matters. Jane Roberts, an early psychic who channeled Seth, said much the same thing. We live our charts of our lives, and we exit from this life when we have chosen. This puts us in the driver’s seat.

2 – Relationship

The truth of this interpretation is clear, it seems to me, in the opening sentence: “Continuity is an attribute of relationship, not of matter.” We do not choose to continue matter indefinitely, but we do often choose to continue the relationships that we have begun here. At least this is my belief.

3 – ACIM

A Course in Miracles says that it is the goal of all relationships to become holy, and so we will transform our special relationships while in this world or, perhaps, in the next. All who meet will meet again, to make of their relationship a holy one. What a blessing this is!

4 – Meeting Others Again

Surely there are people in your past whom you would like to meet again. This quotation lets us know that it is the intent of all relationships to be made holy, and if we don’t meet again in this life, there is a place on the Other Side where we do meet. Of course, we may not now, with our limited understanding, want to meet all with whom we have had a special relationship. We may, indeed, want to avoid those individuals entirely.

5 – Our Feelings

We won’t feel this way after death. We will be in a state of mind and heart that wants to make right all relationships that ever went wrong.

6 – Reassurance

This is a reassurance of the highest order. All with whom we have had a special relationship will show up again, to make that special one holy, in the afterlife. May we pray for the strength to abide in this understanding. May we not cringe from it, but welcome it. But not to jump ahead of ourselves to death. We have things to do in this world first.

7 – Our Heritage

Ours is a goodly heritage. The blessings of Heaven await us. But the happiness that we can have on earth is also very much with us. And we can reach salvation in its ultimate, Christ-consciousness or Awakening, in this life, in this lifetime.

8 – Prayer

Let us pray for this blessing of the penultimate today.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I choose to make all my relationships holy. May You help me to do this. Only with Your help is it possible.

May I choose to see the eternal in my physical body, the elevated Self of form. May I know this great blessing in my interactions today.

May I be keen to follow Your advice today. I seek that advice willingly, knowing that I at first may be reluctant to obey. But obeying You gives me great happiness, great joy. May I follow my inner Self today to a closer walk with You.

Amen.

Shall I Return Again and Again?

“Once the return to unity has occurred in form, the decision to continue in form or to not continue in form will be yours. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.14)”

1 – Not in This Body

Elsewhere Jesus asserts in A Course of Love that he is not talking here about life-everlasting in the same body that we know now. He is not talking about immortality in this body, this same form. He may be talking about reincarnation, but, as I will explain below, we need not to take a stand that will only be controversial.

2 – To Help

We can do much in form to help others. We can also do much from the Other Side. The important point is that we assume the elevated Self of form, that we no longer reside in the personal self of the ego (what I have called the “little” self). We need to assume the Self that is Christ within. We need to reach that pinnacle. \

3 – Transition

Jesus is here giving us the means to make that transition to the elevated Self. His final pages in the Dialogues are a 40-day and 40-night trek to a mountain top, metaphorically, in which he guides us to Christ-consciousness. He knows, of course, that we will not all make it the first time, but that would be his wish for us. We can presume that it is God’s Will for us as well.

4 – Edgar Cayce

This quotation suggests, but does not spell out, that we have the choice of whether or not to return to earth in another incarnation. Edgar Cayce said that many of us are here to save others who would not be able to find their way back without us. This seems reason enough to know that many of us will choose to come back.

5 – Reincarnation

This is not a statement on reincarnation, a statement that A Course in Miracles encourages us not to make. We will turn off those whom we are trying to reach if they do not find reincarnation plausible. So we do not take doctrinal stands, which can only divide. It is enough to know that the embodiment of form, the elevation of form, is our choice as we accept Christ-consciousness in our lives. ACOL calls this the “elevated Self of form,” and it is an oft-repeated refrain.

The passage does seem to say that we have some way to make a decision through the Higher Self about the time of our death. It does not condone suicide at all, though. It merely suggests that the Self of which we are a part–the Self that has not taken form–does in fact guide us in making life-and-death decisions.

6 – ACIM

A Course in Miracles echoes this theme in a passage on illness. It suggests that we choose the agents that will minister to us in sickness, and that we get well if that is our decision; if we choose not to get well, then we go on to the Other Side.

7 – Death

Of course, this decision is not made by the “little” self, the personality that we embody in this world. It is an “other-worldly” decision, and we cannot know for sure, normally, what the decision will be. But our spirit knows, and it is this that makes the decision of remaining in form (in body) or to go to the Other Side.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I am not ill unto death; most of us reading this are not. So my Self has chosen to have a form on this earth for the foreseeable future. May I make the most of this time. May I love and cherish You, and may I love and cherish my brothers and sisters in this world.

Thank You for helping me today when I falter. May I put my faith in You only. May I realize that the choice for illness is a faulty decision-making process, and that You are “for health” all the way. May I choose good emotional and physical health today.

May I remove the blocks to Christ-consciousness today. May I be patient, until God makes His move. May I recognize that I can remove the blocks, but that only He knows when I am really ready for this blessing.

Amen.

Jung: “I Don’t Have Faith; I Know.”

“If the unknown were not unknown faith would not be necessary. Faith will become unnecessary, as life ever-lasting becomes known to you. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 4.13″)

1 – Carl Jung

Carl Jung’s famous statement is apropos here. He had dropped deep into his unconscious to come to terms with his own psyche, and there he had found God.

2 – The Depths of Our Psyche

We can do the same. Whether we call the depths “God,” or the “unconscious,” or the “subconscious,” we can know something very substantial when we plunge into these depths. We don’t have to have a name for what we find. We are no longer having to feel that we accept things, blindly, on faith. Our “faith” is deeper, broader; it is true knowledge that knows no doubt. This is what awaits us as we look within, long and deeply.

3 – Faith

Faith is all too often seen as something that we try to convince ourselves about, but that we actually find hard to believe. Here Jesus reassures us that the time of the blind faith requirement is no longer. We will know. We will understand. Like a great man of psychology, Carl Jung, we will not even have to “have” faith, because we will just “know.” This is a fact of Christ-consciousness.

4 – Bible

According to the Bible, faith was the evidence of things not seen. Now, in this era, we will “see.” Now enough people have reached Awakening that we are undergoing a sea change. The play on words of “see” and “sea” is inadvertent, but illustrative. We will know without having to place blind faith before us.

5 – Eternal Life

Most of us reading this do already believe in eternal life. May we so live our lives on this earth that we are prepared for the Other Side. But may we recognize that we do not live for the afterlife. We live for today, taking the time to experience daily the blessings that are ours.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I know, as only Jesus can understand, that life is eternal. May I not have to depend on a timid “faith” that this is so.

Thank You for the assurances that Jesus is giving me. Help me to apply this new knowledge as I try to live, joyfully, today.

May I have patience as I walk through my day. May Your imparted knowledge to me assure me that all is well. May the blessings of Your pathway reveal themselves to me. May I have peace. Today and always.

Amen.

Jesus: “I Am Calling You to Transform”

“I am calling you to the new. I am calling you to transform. I am calling you to Christ-consciousness. I am calling you to everlasting consciousness even while you still abide in form. To be cognizant or aware of everlasting consciousness while you still abide in form is to be fully aware that you have life ever-lasting. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.12)”

1 – Worry and Anxiety

Worry and anxiety and fear will hinder Jesus’s gifts for us. We will not transform if we allow these emotions to overtake our good sense. Here he is calling us to join him in understanding. We know enough with our minds. A Course of Love calls us to join our minds to our hearts in wholeheartedness. Then we will be ready to accept the Christ-consciousness that will make all the difference.

2 – Patience

If the way seems long, A Course in Miracles counsels patience (but not in so many words). We have determined our course; would the boons be denied us? I think not. We may go through dark nights of the soul, but waiting on the other side of our dark nights is the blessing of union with God that is a felt oneness (a statement by Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now).

3 – Ask

Let us today humbly ask for the gift of Christ-consciousness. And then may we believe that Christ-consciousness has been given to us. We will not always trust our feelings, as they can mislead. We know in our hearts that when we ask, we do receive. Receive today, and rest in peace–even when the “feeling” is absent. It has come, and it will be felt in the future.

4 – Barriers

The way in which Jesus speaks to us now is to let us know that he is expecting us to remove the barriers to Christ-consciousness within ourselves. He never says that we are responsible to transforming into Christ-consciousness, but he does imply that we have something to do with the process.

5 – Ego

What we have to do is not hard. We have to so live as though we are not an ego. That is all. Egoic thinking will always place Christ-consciousness farther in the future for us. And we will remain unhappy, for the ego always gives to take away. The idea that we are to live as though we are not an ego is from A Course in Miracles. But I see A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love as part of the same cloth. If we resonate with the one, we will resonate with both.

6 – ACIM Workbook

Doing the Workbook lessons in A Course in Miracles will do much to remove the blocks that are keeping us from Awakening (Christ-consciousness). If we do them the way that Jesus says (though which of us can, truly, over time?), then we will be well on our way to accepting his pathway to salvation. There are other ways to make ready for Awakening, including contemplation, but Jesus calls this way “tedious” and “very time-consuming.” Our way is to remove the ego by forgiving our brother (and sister). Our way is to turn our special relationships into holy ones. What a joyous way this indeed is!

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I know that my words today are earnest. I also know that I do not always “feel” anything. May I know that feelings can mislead. May I leave fear behind and know only love in a guiltless world.
I know that You want Christ-consciousness for all of Your children.

May I do my part, whatever You may say, and may I always do my part willingly.

Amen.

Accept Our Inheritance from God

“[This] is the time during which you have within your awareness the ability to come into your time of fullness by accepting the inheritance of your Father. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.9)”

1 – Inheritance

Inheritance–our rightful inheritance–is a great promise, one that we may have intuited years ago, in our youth. We are children of God, and, with Jesus, we are now invited to accept our rightful co-creation with God. We are ready when Jesus accepts us. And in A Course of Love, he has done so already.

2 – A Hard Way?

If the way seems hard, we need to remember that struggles create real men and women of us. The men and women of the Bible, in all the familiar passages, did not work for God without struggle. Their lives were often quite hard.

3 – New Day

But this is a New Day. We do not have to experience anew the tribulations of those who have gone before us. The time of new revelation is at hand. Let us just reach out and take what is offered by Jesus in these wonderful promises.

4 – Tribulations?

In a famous passage in A Course in Miracles, Jesus affirms that we do not have to have tribulations here. This is in direct contradiction to what is said in the New Testament. It is not clear if our times are different, or if he is changing what he said earlier (or what he is quoted as saying earlier, the time he walked this earth). Perhaps Jesus’s contribution through the resurrection (which we may find hard to accept as a physical fact) is what is meant here. He led the way, and now it is simply up to us to follow. We have it easy. We need only follow in his footsteps, and all will be well.

5 – Lifespan

“I do not speak of bodies living forever instead of living for what you call a lifetime. . .be it a lifetime of twenty or fifty or ninety years. Life has continuously been prolonged without a substantial change in the nature of life. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 4.10)”

6 – Immortality

This quotation proves that what Jesus is talking about is not immortality in the same physical body that we have known. He is concerned that we change the nature of our living, that we elevate the body of form. That is all.

6 – Body

Questions about immortality always seem to include the body, because that is all we know for sure, the body. But there is a promise of eternal life in these quotations as well. And that immortality is not subject to the ravages of time.

7 – Eternity

We are timeless in eternity. And we do not age.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I receive the inheritance that You have offered to me so freely, today. May I step aside from needless tribulations that I have brought upon myself, and know that Your way is the way of peace.

Jesus has said most recently that we do not have to have tribulations, because he has overcome the world. May we believe him, and accept the inheritance that is ours today.

May this day go well. If I have already rued the day, allow me to start over, for I know that this starting over is always an option. I need You, dear God. Let me invite You into my life, guiding it through Your Spirit.

Amen.

The Elevation of the Personal Self Is Long Overdue

“The change in the form you now occupy, the change I have spoken of as that of elevation of the personal self, is a natural part of the pattern of life-everlasting. It is long over-due. It is long over-due because you have rejected rather than accepted your inheritance. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.8)”

1 – Open

We have to be open to the change in our form that Jesus asks of us now. What does this mean? It means that we will accept the promise of Christ-consciousness that he is holding out to us. At first we may not sustain this Christ-consciousness, but we will see glimpses. When fear or judgment or planning for the future in a defensive way intrude (ACIM tenets), we will fall down. But when fear, judgment, and planning are left behind, we can once again invite God to show Himself within our hearts. And He will do so.

2 – Inheritance

Christ-consciousness is our rightful inheritance. Let us accept it today, regardless of whatever outward difficulties may remain.
3 – God Himself Takes the Action

We cannot just will, though, this change in our personal selves. As A Course in Miracles makes clear, it is God Himself who “reaches down” (a metaphor) and calls us to Awakening. Awakening and Christ-consciousness are identical (an interpretation, not stated in either ACIM or ACOL), though the term “Awakening” is used consistently in ACIM, and the term “Christ-consciousness” is used consistently in ACOL. We must open ourselves to God’s action by prayer and reflection. Preparation is necessary, as ACIM makes clear.
4 – Revelation

As ACIM says, revelation may occasionally reveal the end to us, but to reach the end, one must understand the means (which are being explained in ACIM, and, by extension, also in ACOL).

5 – Rest Contentedly

Once we have made our preparation, we can rest easy. If the way seems long, we can still rest content. We are assured that once begun, the end of the journey (Awakening, Christ-consciousness) is certain.

6 – Ego

As the quotation says, we have been rejecting our inheritance; our inheritance is Christ-consciousness. And life has gone on for eons while we listened to the ego, which informed the personal self and left us, presumably, no way out.

7 – Inner Christ

There is a way out, and we hold the key in our hearts. We do know that the inner Christ will lead us away from self-centeredness through the ego to a self-less service to other people. We will not be left out of this equation, though. We will come into our own, for we finally be at home in God. Our Communication Link, the Holy Spirit, will have made the way plain back to God, and our inner Christ Self will welcome the union with God that we will find in this new state of the elevated Self of form.

8 – Transformation

Physicality will not be rejected, but will be transformed.

The way is smooth. Let us take it today, as far along the pathway as we can go. Then let us wait in patience for God Himself to take the step of lifting us up to Him.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I realize that Christ-consciousness may come into my life gently and easily, almost as though it is nothing “special.” We will know that it has come, first, in glimpses. May I enjoy those glimpses today. Jesus would have me to sustain Christ-consciousness while in my physical form on this earth, and I would have it so as well. That would take me beyond just “glimpses.”

Let this affirmation be Your Will as well as mine, since I know that Your Will is also my real will.

I would invite my inheritance today, no more delay. I would try to do what You ask of me, so that I am ready for Your greatest blessings. Thank You for the blessings that you rain down upon me. Thank You for always being there for me. And may I fulfill Your bidding, as I know it is what I wish as well.

Amen.