Reflections Inspired by A Course in Miracles, A Course of Love, The Way of Mastery, Choose Only Love, & The Way of the Marys. . .with Celia Hales – https://www.amazon.com/author/celiahales
“For it is the embrace with perfect self-honesty that returns the mind to sanity. It is the refusal to be honest that creates the conflict and tension in the mind that is called insanity. And insanity is a state in which the mind is not at peace, and Christ cannot enter therein.” (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 269)
A Course in Miracles also says that we are living in madness until our minds and healed, and we walk with God. All of us, and this is an arresting truth.
It sometimes helps in an altercation with loved ones (which happens to all of us) that we silently say, “This is insanity.” We can’t ask our loved ones to be closer to God than we are, and ACIM also says that the one who is more sane at the moment has the imperative to cool things down (a paraphrase).
We need, as this passage says, to embrace whatever is happening. Not to turn away from it, which makes for unnecessary conflict. Choose Only Love also reiterates that embracing what is happening is the way we escape from what is troubling us; to try to avoid it is to invite further pain.
If Christ cannot enter us when the mind is in conflict, A Course of Love says that we ought to turn to our heart for a solution. Yes! This channeled work holds the key.
Let the heart rule, for the heart will choose embracing, with love, just all the time.
“Because love cannot be contained because love is life in all its abundance, then we can easily understand that behind the desire to possess objects is the desire to possess love.” Choose Only Love, bk.2,1:I
We ARE wanting love–with all our heart. But the idea of possession is, I think, wrong. When we possess, we want to keep it all to ourselves. And love, by its very nature, is a sharing concept. We reach to our brothers and sisters, and when we love them unconditionally we don’t want to hinder their growth by holding so tightly. If need be, we love enough to let go.
“You who do not know how to trade your separated state for that of union have still done so when you have loved freely and without fear. In this state your memory returns to you of who you are, and you are innocent and joyous and one with love itself. That this memory does not last, and these feelings seem unsustainable, is the result only of that which does discard and replace. As we have said before, there are but two emotions. One is love, the other fear. Fear, through your own choice, replaces and discards love. Fear is always strongest when you value something that you feel may be threatened. Love threatens most your specialness. Before your conscious mind has any awareness of what is happening, your memory of love, of innocence and of joy, threatens your specialness, your ego, your separated self who quickly rushes in with love’s replacement. Nothing but fear could take the memory of love from you, or replace so quickly the glory that is your nature with the specialness that is not.” (A Course of Love, C:14.28)
Fear is of the ego, and fear is a game changer in the hope of reaching Christ-consciousness. We cannot, in fact, reach enlightenment when we still entertain fear. But, the rub, how to stop the fear that so often threatens to engulf us?
Prayer is one answer, in all likelihood the best answer that we could ever devise. And it is not our idea, but an intuition and an experience that comes from God. Our prayers put us in alignment with something greater than we are, and this Someone has the power to right our little world immediately. We don’t have to suffer anxiety any longer; it just dissipates when we start to pray.
Meditation is similar, of course. We go into a zone-type of thinking that eases our minds. We don’t actively think at all; we focus on a sacred word or our breathing. And the miraculous effect takes over.
Talking with a treasured friend is yet another solution to fear. Others have known the same fear that we dread, though often we think that we are all alone because they haven’t told us about their anxieties, wanting to appear strong and solid to us. This is a fallacy, of course, which we will come to see when we converse intimately. All short of enlightenment are victims of the fear mongrels that rob us of peace of mind.
Think a bit of the practices that have given us peace of mind in the past. Of course, like all things, this fear, too, shall pass. But there are a myriad of practices which can speed fear along its way, never to return in quite the same way again.
Trust that guidance will lead us out of the darkness of our anxieties and our fears. Trust that choosing to be unity one with another will be an almost magical solution to an intractable problem.
From Celia’s Images in a Reflecting Pool: Journal Entries Inspired by A Course in Miracles. Copyright 1995.
Just “being” in life is affirming and good. I don’t have to “do” all the time. I have to realize that doing “more, more, more” to justify my existence is not necessary.
Postscript 2023:
How many of us want to “do” to prove that we are somehow worthy to occupy space on this Earth ? I suspect that this dynamic is ego-driven, and we all know that the ego is a failed experiment.
“What do I need to let go of? How deep can my self-honesty go?
“How wide can my compassion for life spread?
“What actions am I actually taking in this world?
“What am I defending? What am I afraid of?
“Am I willing to become so powerful a conduit for Christ that I take on responsibility for the atonement and tell Jeshua to move aside?” (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 268)
Jesus shows a sense of humor when he channels, live, in The Way of Mastery. Jesus’ sense of humor here is representative of occasions in the rest of the book. Here, of course, Jesus is using his other name, the name he is said to have used 2,000 years ago, Jeshua. He does need our hands and feet to save the world, but certainly he won’t be stepping aside. And neither could we succeed in his work in the world if he did.
The questions are quite helpful to self-reflection. Take them one at a time, and see what they show about us. They will take us toward giant leaps in our progress toward Awakening. I see that Jesus mentions compassion, which always comes before love when we are walking the pathway back to God.
When we let go of the things that we know are holding us back, there is no limit to how much we can help Jesus.
From Celia’s Images in a Reflecting Pool: Journal Entries Inspired by A Course in Miracles. Copyright 1995.
A Course in Miracles says, “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.” (W-pI.23) Jesus means that the “real world,” a dream granted by the Holy Spirit, is without the conflicts that most of us experience in the modern, work-a-day, world. The miracle comes about because of inner changes in a person.
Even the most conflicted day loses its punching power when one looks out on the chaos from a soft and warm heart.
“Rejoice in this concrete, perfect means to enlighten the nations. You, specifically you, are here as the light of the world.” Choose Only Love bk.3, 10:IV
This assertion, made by Jesus in a scribed work, Choose Only Love, is meant for each of us reading his words. Think of the gift given to us, to be the light of the world! And we can be this, rather than doing a prescribed set of actions. Being is extolled above doing just all the time in Choose Only Love as well as A Course of Love (also scribed by Jesus).
The only way, the only way, that we can fulfill our purpose is to live in love–not as a sometime thing, but a constant. When we don’t live in love, we lose ourselves in patterns of the egoic fear that is still with us, with us out of habit of mind–not heart. The heart, our center of being, knows better. And we feel with our heart, we ARE loving.
Ask what effortless thing we might do today as we live our being. Service in the world is what we are about, even as so are the angels who attend us.
With a determination to “be,” we will be happy. Nothing can deter the living out of an era that has now arrived, the time of Christ.
He asks us just to remember, and in the remembering from an ancient past, we are healed.
“An apparent death which led to eternal life happened long ago. It happened when time was conceived, although only two thousand calendar years ago, was it seen by human consciousness.” Choose Only Love bk.3, 7:III
This assertion is being channeled by Jesus, who lived that two thousand calendar years ago and was the central figure in the drama that still captivates the world today. There is a plan, and here we learn that the genesis of that plan occurred before time entered our universe. It is possible that we don’t understand this, for many are the mysteries that surround the origin of the universe. But Jesus also lives now outside of time, and we can respect his assertions as being true.
There is a plan for our lives, too. We are not blindly following things in our lives that on the surface don’t make sense. The plan culminates, eventually, when we are old, with the blessings that Joseph Campbell said were “very sweet.” It is only as time passes that we are given the wherewithal to see the “why” of our lives. And only when we have passed the test of true love.
God couldn’t let His universe exist as a place a place in which love was ambivalent. Certainly the universe would have self-destructed. Resting on love, all things eventually work out a plan that blesses us. Love draws us, for our joy is so complete when we open to love that we want nothing else.
This is the plan that Jesus’ life embodied. And it is fascinating that the plan evolved before time made its appearance.
There are more things in Heaven and on Earth than we have dreamed of. Let us thank God that His plans always work out perfectly, even though with free will we might avoid love for a time.
From Celia’s Images in a Reflecting Pool: Journal Entries Inspired by A Course in Miracles; copyright 1995:
The re-entry problems at work on Monday are not physiological or even psychological for the frequently cited reasons. After “flight” on the preceding two days, the body gets up once again to “fight.” And the more relaxing the flight has been, the more likely the fight will bring fears.
One has let down one’s guard, and the ego doesn’t take kindly to peace. It knows its days are numbered if its owner should ever learn to choose Peace consistently.
“Getting to Heaven is no longer an attraction. Bringing Heaven to this world is. Bringing light to darkness is all that matters. Constantly desiring to bring greater light to your darkness is the way in which you live, moment by moment, desiring greater light, greater light, and greater light.” (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 268)
It seems a bit surprising that our time on Earth has shifted into a movement to bring Heaven to this Earth. We can do this, first in our own lives, and then in the lives of others.
When we give up the ego as an unworkable idea, we are primed to live in love always, and love is what brings Heaven to Earth.
When we truly and completely fill our minds and hearts with the love that we crave, we ARE bringing Heaven to Earth.
“In the depths of your heart is inscribed the purpose of your existence. Knowledge of that purpose is what we call the wisdom of the heart, an essential part of your self. All carry it.” Choose Only Love bk.3, 7:III
As we read this third book of the series, Choose Only Love, we discover that our purpose, the purpose of all of us, is to be who we really are. The way in which being who we really are will play out is going to different for each individual, for we are distinct, though all are one in Christ.
Obviously, this knowledge is meant to be reached once we have following along our pathway, once we have given up the ego, and we are living as the children of God, no longer thwarting Him, sure that His will and our true will are one and the same.
Do spend time today figuring out what your particular mission is. If you have read this far in Choose Only Love, you have rejected egoic claims on your life. And now is the time to be clear about what your real purpose is.
“I have great need for lilies, for the Son of God has not forgiven me. And can I offer him forgiveness when he offers thorns to me? For he who offers thorns to anyone is against me still, and who is whole without him? Be you his friend for me, that I may be forgiven and you may look upon the Son of God as whole. But look you first upon the altar in your chosen home, and see what you have laid upon it to offer me. If it be thorns whose points gleam sharply in a blood-red light, the body is your chosen home and it is separation that you offer me. And yet the thorns are gone. Look you still closer at them now, and you will see your altar is no longer what it was.” (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-20.II.4)
Here Jesus is speaking of the way in which we react to him. How we respond to Jesus will testify to how we respond to other brothers, brothers in this world now. We may think that we have nothing to forgive in Jesus, but do we also have nothing to forgive in other brothers? The dynamic is the same. If we can offer lilies to Jesus, we can offer lilies to all of our brothers.
There is a clear metaphor in this quotation of our inner altar, and Jesus tells us that our altar is not as it has been. We have traveled far enough along toward salvation that we are no longer offering thorns to either Jesus or other brothers whom we encounter. Our altar has been purified, our inner altar, where our inner Self reigns. We are facing a different world than we did in the past, and it behooves us to show a different face to this different world.
Previously, just recently, we chose separation, and the thorns were sharp and gleamed sharply in blood-red light. We are no longer offering separation, though, for from our pure altar we see a different world, and we react differently because our projection from within (making perception of the world) is different.
This day we choose once again. We choose not to offer separation to any brother, including our brother Jesus. We offer salvation by our forgiveness of the words and deeds that have come from our brother. We do not take any attack personally. We know that we are seeing an innocent brother who only seems like an enemy because he is lost in madness. Today it is given us to remove a bit of that armor from him by accepting him totally, recognizing that inside him is a perfect altar where his Self resides. He may be offering us thorns, of course, but we don’t reciprocate. We offer lilies, and in this offering is all the world saved.
“The crucified give pain because they are in pain. But the redeemed give joy because they have been healed of pain. Everyone gives as he receives, but he must choose what it will be that he receives. And he will recognize his choice by what he gives, and what is given him. Nor is it given anything in hell or Heaven to interfere with his decision.” (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-19.IV.D.20)
Decisions about our salvation are up to us. And the decision that we have made is evident from our demeanor. We don’t have a long face if we have been healed of pain; we are joyous, and our countenance reflects joy. If we are in pain, we will show that we are still crucifying ourselves by our choices for judgment and attack, fear and isolation. We are not sharing the good that we could with our brother.
If we do not feel ourselves to be redeemed, we will give pain, for we are still in pain. Only our redemption frees us to experience the joy that is our inheritance from God. If we give pain, we will experience pain, for giving and receiving are indeed one.
Yet all decision is our choice. We are choose the things of God, and be comforted, out of pain. We then give this better feeling to our brother, who is made joyous by our happy face. It is indeed imperative that we watch our facial expression, for if we would be the Self that God intended, we must manifest this to this world. Seriousness is always of the ego. It is a lighthearted attitude toward living that best promotes the way of the Holy Spirit. We cannot have a good witness to the world as long as we are caught in the serious demeanor of egoic thought.
If we find ourselves looking sad and depressed, perhaps we ought to take internal inventory of what it is we are thinking. Have we let our salvation become questionable? Are we sorry that we have not sustained Awakening yet? Are we holding grievances against our brother? What is causing the unpleasant nature of our witness?
The Holy Spirit will guide us to a more pleasant expression, and this pleasantness will begin on the inside, where all emotion starts and then is expressed outwardly. If we have given the world less than our best today, perhaps we ought to stop a moment and to figure out why. There are vicissitudes in our experience of the world, but when we realize that this world is an illusion, we will be less ready to take on its disagreeable aspects. If we listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit within, we will adopt a good interaction with our brother, even in this sad place. We will know that God Himself would not have us focused on our dejected feelings; He lends us His Voice to give us the forbearance to see the world but not be affected by its turmoil. The Holy Spirit, God’s Voice, will get our thinking aligned with His, and all will be happiness and light again.
Note: The book mentioned in this post, Choose Only Love, is available from Amazonin both print and e-book formats.It was received by Sebastian Blaksley in recent years.
“Despite understanding little of what is said, still you go forward with faith and real hope, because your heart knows.” Choose Only Love, bk.2, 6:I
When we begin reading the seven volumes of Choose Only Love, we are still largely lost in confusion, despite the blessings of what is said. Enough has not yet been said to clue us in completely.
But as we move forward in our faith and in hope for what we know is a good treatise, we discover more. And our faith and hope are justified.
The caveat is that our heart knows, has known all along. When we listen to our heart, we merge with the Divine, with God, for all of us know that He is Love, and in ourselves, the heart is the center of our love.
Be with us as we read further in Choose Only Love. Let us pause frequently to absorb the love that emanates from its pages. May God’s blessing be upon our reading.
“The mind in conflict with itself is dangerous to itself, and of course, by extension, to everyone else in all dimensions. Therefore, indeed, beloved friends, beware of those that come in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Beware of the viciousness of the ego within your own mind.” (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 266)
We live in insanity until we have relinquished the ego. And when we are in real conflict, it is quite likely that either the ego or, later, egoic patterns, are pushing us around.
If in conflict, resolve the difficulty by getting quiet and going within, where God will meet us. He will show us a way to forgive the “ravenous wolves” that other people seem sometimes. And He will show us how to drop our own viciousness, a viciousness that always comes of fear, and fear is always of the ego.
Rest in His mercy and His love.
It will be enough to set us back on the road to sanity, the road to Christ-consciousness.
“You exist, quite simply, because of your relationship with love. Love is the unity you seek. In having chosen separation over unity, you but chose fear over love. When you let go of fear and invite unity to return, you but send out an invitation to love and say you are welcome here.” (A Course of Love, C:11.18)
Being welcome is an attribute of friendship, and being “friends” with love is something that we all can do. We need to realize that we are one (unity), and in this realization we are inclined to love more than fear.
Of course, we can’t always banish fear. We are particularly prone to fear’s ravages early in the morning, when the whole day looms and we are apprehensive about what lies ahead. At such times we need to make a determined effort to calm ourselves down. Over time, we have developed some of these techniques: writing in a journal, meditation, deep breathing, quiet conversation with your significant other (if time permits), petting a beloved animal. All will make small increments to erode fear. And, as time passes, fear will become more of a stranger in our lives.
We feel ourselves separate and alone when we face the day with apprehension. We are living our comfy homes for a sometimes terrifying outside that seems to wish us no well. These are the types of thoughts that replace love with fear. And it need not be so. The outside world is as much in need of our love as are our nearest and dearest. Give a helping hand to those we meet outside our homes. And then they will seem much less the bearers of bad tidings, or, at the last, uncertain tidings that give us cause for fear. Love with a whole heart, knowing that we actually are safe when we set our minds to creating a beloved world.
Registration closes at 2:00 pm so register early. If you cannot attend live, please register and you will automatically receive the recording.
About the “Let’s Discuss” Webinar – Forgiveness Can be Fun!
There is much confusion and many perceptions and misperceptions projected onto the supporters of the various versions of ACIM. Come and see Course forgiveness in action!
Whether one prefers the “blue” ACIM, the purple, the pearl, the sparkly, or other Course publications, it is time to walk with love together in our webinar series of “Let’s Discuss A Course in Miracles!”
This webinar is an invitation to meet some of those who sponsor, represent, teach, or publish diverse versions of A Course in Miracles, including popular publications publicized as channeled next steps to Course material.
Come and enjoy this reflective discussion as we talk, laugh, and share with our guest speakers:
Reverend Tony Ponticello—the Pearl version
Reverend Vicki Poppe—the Sparkly version
Robert Perry—the Purple version
Glenn Hovemann— A Course in Love
Tam Morgan—the “Blue” version
Please join us in welcoming these representatives in a lively and intentionally loving discussion about the variety of versions, as we each come together to “Teach only love…”
Meet Our Speakers
Rev. Tony Ponticello Minister and Course Student
Rev. Tony Ponticello has served as the Executive Minister of the Community Miracles Center (CMC) since 1987. He was legally ordained a minister originally in 1986 by their predecessor organization, the California Miracles Foundation, and has done pastoral counseling since that time. He was later re-ordained by CMC as its 20th minister in 1997.
Rev. Tony approaches all of his counseling through the ACIM teaching lens of Special Relationships versus Holy Relationships. He teaches classes in A Course in Miracles, runs large international ACIM conferences, ordains ministers, writes for the CMC’s publication Miracles Monthly, as well as managing and maintaining the CMC website.
Rev. Vicki Poppe Minister and Course Student
The story of my life is a story of LOVE through forgiveness, togetherness, vision and celebration. My first Inspiration came when I was about 10 yrs old with my sisters and I talking about bringing heaven to earth and has continued to unfold through family, restaurant business’, physical healings, marriage, our miracles centers and celebrations.
Today I still talk about, see and celebrate bringing heaven to earth with every brother and sister I find myself with. I hear the angels sing very simply, LOVE IS THE WAY. .
Robert Perry Author and Teacher of A Course in Miracles
Robert Perry brings to A Course in Miracles many years of private study and public teaching. He began teaching at Miracle Distribution Center in 1986, and has since taught throughout North America and around the world. Over the years he has become a respected voice in Course circles and has written for many Course newsletters and magazines.
Robert is the founder of the Circle of Atonement and the author of numerous books and booklets based on the Course. Among these are the popular An Introduction to A Course in Miracles and Path of Light: Stepping into Peace with A Course in Miracles. He is also the lead editor of the Complete and Annotated Edition (CE) of A Course in Miracles, based on the original handwritten notes of Helen Schucman.
Glenn Hovemann Publisher and Course Student
Glenn Hovemann is the publisher of Take Heart Publications, which publishes A Course of Love, and the seven-volume Choose Only Love. Both are lengthy works channeled from Jesus, with more to come. Glenn has been passionately aligned with ACIM since 1978 when it was given to him out of the blue.
Glenn is also the editor of Rev. Jon Mundy’s “Miracles Magazine.” For over two decades Glenn and his wife, Muffy, published over a hundred books through their company, Dawn Publications, which specialized in children’s books about the universal lessons available from nature.
Tamara Morgan President, Foundation for Inner Peace
Tamara Morgan is the daughter of Judith Skutch Whitson and has participated with the Foundation for Inner Peace since its inception, pioneering its special projects and initiatives formally since 1984.
Tam met Scribes Drs. Helen Schucman and William Thetford in 1975 and was close to them for the rest of their lives. It was through deep guidance and inner directive that Tam has stepped into her current position as President of the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Note: After this post, I’m going to take a few days off to finish editing and then publishing, on Amazon, a book of sonnets. Thank you for your views. Love, Celia
“The mind in conflict with itself is dangerous to itself, and of course, by extension, to everyone else in all dimensions. Therefore, indeed, beloved friends, beware of those that come in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Beware of the viciousness of the ego within your own mind.” (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 266)
Even if we have largely given up the ego, it still sinks into our awareness with patterns of egoic thinking that have not been banished. So we are still prone to conflict because our minds/hearts have not fully integrated. When our heart speaks to our mind, we are moving in the right direction. Turn aside from conflict in all its guises, for conflict is of the ego. Just simply ask for a solution to whatever problem presents itself, and know that God is listening.
“Beloved friends, take a moment and simply cultivate deep self-honesty by merely answering these questions:
“Have I ever had a murderous thought?
“Have I ever manipulated another mind in order to try to gain what I believed I needed?
“Have I ever withdrawn love for the subtle reason of causing hurt, or trying to cause hurt to another?
“Have I ever had disrespectful sexual fantasies?
“Have I ever hated the world?
“Have I ever despised myself?
“And last, but surely not least, for in truth, if you would consider it, all of those questions emanate out of this one:
“Have I ever hated God?” (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 264)
WOM also says that enlightenment is a state in which the world—and the world is not outside of you, the world is the context, the thoughts, images and perceptions that you have attracted to yourself—can no longer hold power over you.
Deep self-reflection is necessary if we are to find God in our lives. All of us have done things that we regret, but God stands ready always to rectify the situation.
When we reach enlightenment, we will have entertain the subconscious impulses of our minds, and, if we are fortunate, we will know that the best way is to turn to our hearts for a solution. Our hearts are informed by our God who dwells deep within, living through us.
Let not our perceptions of an outer world diminish the love that we feel from deep within.
“Silence can be cultivated in a number of ways. Initially, it will look like something you do through the body—to breathe deeply and rhythmically, to sit next to an ocean, to sit beneath a tree and become absorbed in the wind. Or to merely practice the ancient art of remaining silent without speaking as you go through your daily events.” (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 263)
We all need silence, but we live in a noisy world. We all talk a lot, too. Cultivating silence in our daily rounds may be easier than practicing meditation consistently, and being silent as we contemplate is, to my mind/heart, a recommended substitute.
When we are silent, we can listen to our innermost world; we can go within. There is richness there. As we know, God dwells within all Creation. And He will speak to us when we get quiet enough to hear. I don’t mean something audible, but a knowing that gives us guidance for our next step.
Just quieten down, outwardly and inwardly. After a hectic holiday season, perhaps we all could use some silence.
“As Christ you are the light of the world. You are illumined by the light of the Lamb. You are already living a new era in creation. You have completed your path to truth and are ready to accept the eternal revelation of love.” Choose Only Love, bk.2, 6:I
This quotation is speaking to the true believer, the one who has walked far along the pathway back to God, and is ready simply to rest in love. When we walk far, we know that the only reason for life on earth, the only purpose, is to discover how to love. Sure, we want to grow also, because an angel bends over each blade of grass, saying “Grow, grow.” And angels accompany us on our pathway of growth also.
But love is the main thing.
When we love enough, everything else falls into place.
“The only replacement that can occur that will accomplish what you seek is the replacement of illusion with the truth, the replacement of fear with love, the replacement of your separated self with your real Self, the Self that rests in unity.” (A Course of Love, C:9.24)
We see that A Course of Love makes parallels of illusion and truth, fear and love, and the separated self with the real Self, saying that a replacement of illusion, fear and the separated self needs to be made—with truth, love and the real Self. This is salvation, this is the coming to know that we will find in fullness in Christ-consciousness. Until then, we can see only rare glimpses, some longer than others, but still temporary.
This is the only accomplishment that we seek, and on some level it has already been accomplished, for Jesus says that we are The Accomplished. But not in any egoic sense, of course. We have walked the whole pathway, and now we find our way back to retrace our steps.
It doesn’t have to take long in the life of any individual, though the return may take a very long time for everyone on earth. Make no mistake: This is what we are about, the eventual return of everyone to full sanity, which means that we are in communion with our Creator and we have walked into the real Self through Awakening.
“Heaven is the gift you owe your brother, the debt of gratitude you offer to the Son of God in thanks for what he is, and what his Father created him to be.” (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-19.IV.D.19)
A new idea, that we “owe” Heaven to our brother, because of what he is, because of what he means to us, because of the gratitude that we owe to him. He is our way back to God. We need never to forget this. He is the means that A Course in Miracles is using to save us time on the road to Awakening. When we forgive him for his mistakes, his errors, we are also forgiving ourselves, for there is no difference between him and us. We are truly one in God.
God created our brother to be a Self, Christ within, and we need not to forget this. When we are grateful to him, we find our way to express thanks for him being in our lives. We know that without him, not only would we be lonely, but we would be lost in “sin,” actually mistakes.
When we see mirrored in another our own probably misdeeds, we know what we need to forgive not only in himself but in us. We would be guilty of the same thing, if given half a chance. All of us have fallen short. But we are saved from judgment by refusing to judge him. Our brother is the holy Son of God, the means of our Awakening. We owe him only gratitude for what he has been, is being, and will be to us in the future.
“In seeing the self as separate you have known fear and have been forced to reconcile fear with love. Now, in coming back to relationship and union with me you have realized that you are not separate and now have striven against the ‘opposing’ force of separation. With the acceptance of the Christ in you, you are returned to relationship and need no longer strive against the ‘opposing’ force of separation, for you no longer know it.” (A Course of Love, D:Day40.8)
As we turn from separation, we turn from fear to love. We may even strive actively to turn from fear to love. We have realized that we aren’t separate (as we could never be, for we are part of God), and we have striven to get past these ideas of the ego with every force of our personality. When we accept the Christ in us, we understand that we have returned to a relationship that has long eluded us, and now we no longer need to strive against separation. We know intimately that we are joined with the Christ Self; we know intimately that we are “separate” no longer.
“Forgive the sins your brother thinks he has committed, and all the guilt you think you see in him.
“Here is the holy place of resurrection, to which we come again; to which we return until redemption is accomplished and received. Think who your brother is, before you would condemn him.” (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-19,IV.D.15-16)
We are locked in a passionate embrace with our brother. We can forgive his “sins,” because they be but mistakes, and once forgiven, all gone forever. He feels guilty for his misdeeds. Would we help him by seeing guilt in his as well? I think not. In these mistakes (mistakes are inevitable), we learn what forgiveness really is. We forgive and forgive, 70 times 70 (as the New Testament says), and after a while the dirty cloth of judgment is washed clean, slowly but surely. Dipped in soapy water repeatedly, the black guilt becomes first gray, then just a dingy white, and then, ultimately, entirely white. White as snow. Just that white.
We don’t have anything to fear. Our way is forgiveness of the misdeeds, misspent words, and lamentable thoughts of our brother. When we have achieved the goal of turning over all these mistakes, for judgment by the Holy Spirit, we are home at last. The Holy Spirit will always judge us as the innocent children of God whom we are. He condemns no one, just as God condemns no one. Our way is fairer in this world. We walk a green earth again.
Our brother is our partner in salvation, our means back to Heaven, a Heaven on earth. Would we fail to forgive, when all our brother is asking is forgiveness? We are responsible creatures. We assume responsibility for the mistakes of both ourselves and our brother, for we are actually one. There is no difference. If he has entered our world, our self-contained world, we are really not self-contained at all, but one with him. The fact that he is in our world means that we are in this together. We especially don’t need to assume a self-righteous stance, because the errors that we see him committing are only our own errors, not acted out but seen in him.
Let’s leave behind judging entirely. Judging will block us from Atonement. It is forbidden entirely, as is fear, attack, planning (defensively) about contingencies to come. Leave all of these negative things to the Holy Spirit, Who can handle them magnificently.
We have nothing to fear. God’s plan is benign. And we are saved from ourselves, when we forgive our brother—the one given us by God to love.
“All of this must be ego function because, in reality, you are as you are created to be. And wherever you are in any given moment, enlightenment is but a decision away. That decision entails but one thing: to release the insane valuation that you have placed upon everything and everyone, most especially yourself. That decision rests on the willingness to take God at God’s word. That decision rests on your willingness to cultivate silence.” (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 262)
Here we are given a hint about how to “hurry” enlightenment or Awakening: silence. We can realistically understand that when the world is too much with us, too much noise, we are not letting God in. He can’t speak to us in His silence when there is a barrage of other voices demanding our attention.
We need to take time out to just “be” with Him in silence. He will speak to us in this silence.
And then He will give more pointers to let us know how to proceed. When we listen to Him, we will move more quickly to transformation, because His gift of Christ-consciousness is in His will.
“You may not feel that you have ever intended to live in fear. But the displacement of the original intent was so complete that each life has begun with fear and proceeded from this beginning continually reacting fear. While the original intent remained within you and caused you to attempt to express a Self of love despite your fear, fear has thwarted your every effort and caused the very effort that has continued the cycle of fear. To have to try to be who you are and to express who you are is the result of the displacement of the nature of love with the nature of fear. What we now are about is reversing this displacement and returning you to your true nature.” (A Course of Love, T4:3.5)
We had an “original intent” eons ago, and that was to live in love—not fear. But fear intervened, and nothing has ever been right since. This is the crucial, central feature of our lives. We have displaced love with fear, and then we have lived in this egoic state of fear. There ought to be a better way.
And there is. We can learn, and not necessarily by traditional means of study, to displace fear and the egoic self with the Self of love. This change will make all the difference. And A Course of Love is showing us how to effect this change. It is true (as A Course in Miracles says also) that God makes the final decision of when we are ripe for Christ-consciousness or Awakening. Then he metaphorically reaches down to us and lifts us up.
Yet there are things we can do to remove blocks to the awareness of love. This in itself will ease our way, and give us a happy experience. We need to get the idea of suspiciousness out of our minds; we need trust above all else. And trust we can have; just a decision to have it is enough to bring it to us. This does not mean that we will be gullible. We have our own good sense, and this is sense of the real Self, not the ego. When we place our faith in the inner Christ Self, we are far more likely to be right than to be wrong in our evaluations of others. Note that this does not mean “judgment” of others, for judging keeps us from attaining enlightenment. We need to simply rest in the assurance that if we are encouraged to avoid a particular situation (or person), we will know how and where to do so. That is all.
“Beside you is one who offers you the chalice of Atonement, for the Holy Spirit is in him. Would you hold his sins against him, or accept his gift to you. Is this giver of salvation your friend or enemy? Choose which he is, remembering that you will receive of him according to your choice. He has in him the power to forgive your sin, as you for him.” (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-19.IV.D.13)
This quotation identifies the holy relationship: My brother (and sister) and I save each other. Would we see sin in the other? Then we see sin in ourselves. Would you judge another? Then we judge ourselves. Would we hate a little? Then we hate ourselves. It is a two-way street. What we give is what we receive. Always, without fail.
So our brother is actually the one who offers Atonement to us. He gives salvation in its ultimate to us, though God makes the decision about when. We can forgive “sins” of each other, though these sins are actually just mistakes.
Do not fear karma if the choices that our brother makes are, in our opinion, bad. We live in the age of grace, and a heartfelt forgiveness cancels out the karma. Karma is, after all, only cause and effect. And if the effect is canceled out, then the cause has been forgiven. Entirely.
This is hard to believe for some of us. We are so used to thinking that we will be punished for wrongdoing, and many feel that that punishment will boomerang from the deeds that we have done, the words that we have said, the thoughts that we have had.
It is not so. Forgiveness cancels out the error. When we forgive, we have canceled out the error in both ourselves and our brother. It is no more. The error is gone. Let this judgment of the Holy Spirit burrow deeply in our minds. And then we will have a healed mind, highly unlikely to repeat the mistake.
Once forgiven a mistake, we don’t want to repeat it.
“This transformation from a state of fear to Love, or from ignorance (the ignoring of truth) to enlightenment (the embracing and acknowledging of truth) occurs for each mind within the dream in a very specific way. That is, it must occur according to what is required to release the patterns that have settled into that particular mind. In a general way, those patterns are the same for everyone. But in their expression, they take on a perfect uniqueness.” (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 262)
We must be prepared for transformation through a cleansing of our innermost thoughts. Practically, this means that the subconscious mind gradually opens to those attitudes that need to be changed so that we are truly walking God’s way. Transformation, when following the guidance given in Jesus’ channeled works, is gentle and usually gradual.
We first get glimpses, called a satori in Eastern religion. And then these moment of extreme peace lengthen so that hours may pass in true peace. But there is a particular moment, which we will remember, when transformation comes upon us to stay. If we walk in Love rather than fear, this new state remains with us.
From Celia Hales’ Images in a Reflecting Pool; a Journal. Copyright 1995.
On second-guessing my life’s work: “What do I really want to do with the rest of my life? Is it enough just to follow the Holy Spirit’s prompting on a daily basis? Is long-range planning really a defense? (A Course in Miracles suggests that it is.) (W- pI.135.14:1) Could I do my writing as well as have a more successful library career?
The key to the latter would be ever-better interactions with the people I encounter everyday. Sometimes I think the job of librarian really doesn’t accomplish much. All of us work so hard on meaningless things; I see it all the time on the reference desk among the patrons, and I try to be tolerant.
Healing minds in the sense meant by the Course has really become my preoccupation. Knowing that, is it any wonder that I’m still tied to my very social occupation even though I’d rather write?
“To look upon the fear of God does need some preparation. Only the sane can look on stark insanity and raving madness with pity and compassion, but not with fear. For only if they share in it does it seem fearful, and you do share in it until you look upon your brother with perfect faith and love and tenderness.” (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-19.IV.D.11)
Here we are encouraged to look upon our brother with forgiveness wrought of faith, love, tenderness. He deserves no less, and neither do we, for how we look upon our brother is how we look upon ourselves. There is no difference.
We see God as we see ourselves, and we are lost in insanity, and therefore we fear God, for somehow we think that He too is lost in insanity. It is not true. But we have to recognize that we need to be sane to see God clearly. And we are heading in that direction, toward sanity.
We have long been insane, lost in madness. It does not have to be so, it does not have to remain so. We can step away from madness just as much as have wallowed in it for eons. Now is our time. Now is the time to turn away from insanity. Then we will finally see God clearly as the God of Love that He truly is.
When we look on our brother with compassion, we also look upon ourselves with compassion. Nothing else is right for either of us. But as long as we are lost in egoic fear, the way will seem long and, indeed, impossible.
It is not impossible. Just let a little love into our lives, and we quickly see that this other way, the better way, is what we have been looking for all of our lives.
Seek the love tomorrow, the compassion, the sanity.
“Every obstacle that peace must flow across is surmounted in just the same way; the fear that raised it yields to the love beyond, and so the fear is gone. And so it is with this. The desire to get rid of peace and drive the Holy Spirit from you fades in the presence of the quiet recognition that you love Him.” (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-19.IV.D.5)
The obstacles to our peace are kept in place by our cooperation. We would remove our cooperation from the equation, and then we will know love as we have never known it before. We will no longer want to get rid of peace; we will know that we love our Guide, the Holy Spirit, and we will open ourselves, on a continuing basis, to His guidance.
This is the obvious way that A Course in Miracles is teaching us on almost every page. Turn to the Holy Spirit, succumb to His guidance, and be healed.
We will be living in quiet now. We will understand that guidance comes to us in quiet moments, normally, though sometimes the situation is urgent enough that the Holy Spirit gets through to us even when we are in turmoil.
We are in turmoil only when the ego has arisen in us. We can turn aside just as easily as we welcomed the ego. And turn aside we must, if we are to be saved from disaster. We would not entertain disaster in any shape at all.
We would know God’s peace today. Let us pray for the establishment of a good mood, an uplifted mood, and in this mood, love comes in easily.
MIRACLES EACH DAY 