In the Flow in the New Age

“Not knowing what you know, is, in essence the way of The New.  When the unknown becomes the known, the solidity forms, and so in The New, what is known will be known in this fluid way, a pulsing in and out that will keep it free from being structured into knowledge ‘of.’”  Mirari

Basically, this quotation from a channeled Mary of Nazareth is a plea that we stay “in the flow.” We all know what this is, even if we haven’t given a name to it. Being in the flow means that we move easily from moment to moment, lost in the moment, a sense of easy grace filling our mind and heart.

This is the way we will live, ever more and more, when we move into the New. The New was first heralded by Jesus in his channeled work, A Course of Love.

Being in the flow is the most effective living, also the happiest. There is little else we need to know. We will be in the flow when we rest in God, living as He would have us live by not getting stuck on any one thing, in our thoughts or in our lives.

Walk the Path of Life Hand-in-Hand

“Now you know who you are, and who is speaking.  Now we walk the path of life hand-in-hand, and you know for sure that you and I are the same being.”  COL bk.2, 18:I

We know who we are, when we have walked the path of life back to God.  We are one being with Jesus, for we share the Christ as the All of who we are.  ALL of us are One, and this is what this message, attributed to Jesus, really means.  We share one being as children of God, and the fact that Jesus has walked farther ahead of us does not actually matter.

This one being is the Christ-Self, something discussed at length in A Course of Love.  It is an inner being who is just now coming out from our depths.  No longer living an egoic life, we are primed to enjoy our merger with the Christ-Self from within.

It is very reassuring to know that we were never intended to be alone, but to be One with the All.  This All includes God, but it also includes our brothers and sisters with whom we share this world.  Let us never forget the glue that binds us together is Love—Love of God, love of each other, love of ourselves. 

We are walking hand-in-hand, and this makes all the difference.  We will not lose our way again.  We will walk peacefully back to our God—holding hands, always holding hands.

Jesus Trusts Us!

“My trust in you is greater than yours in me at the moment, but it will not always be that way. Your mission is very simple: You have been chosen to live so as to demonstrate that you are not an ego. I repeat that I do not choose God’s channels wrongly. The Holy One shares my trust and always approves my Atonement decisions, because my will is never out of accord with His.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-4.VIII.14:1-4)

Jesus trusts us! He sees us as a channel for good in this world, a channel for Atonement that is seconded by the Holy Spirit. Such reassurance that we are all on the right path. We all do want to be finished with the ego, and as long as we are careful not to reinforce the ego by egotistical/egoic thoughts and actions, we are hope personified. Jesus’ hope is for a new world, a world where the dreams are happy, brought to us by the Holy Spirit.

A Course in Miracles suggests that we are still caught by illusion, for dreams are not real. But the “happy dreams the Holy Spirit brings” can be enjoyed without guilt. We can stay a while on this beautiful earth, loving our fellow men and women, doing God’s work, and all will be well. No harsh judgment will assail us. We do create our own reality, and we discover how to do that when we listen to the Holy Spirit (as described in ACIM) or the Christ-Self (as described in A Course of Love).

Guidance is very, very important, for we cannot find our way back to God unaided. We are too lost in insanity. But a glimpse of sanity comes to us more and more as time passes. And ultimately, those glimpses will, in Awakening, merge into a dream that offers good days continuously. We can have a Heaven on earth. We just have to follow the rules, and guidance will elucidate those rules for us.

Reaching God

“When I told you to concentrate on the phrase ‘Here I am, Lord,’ I did not mean ‘in this world’ by ‘here.’ I wanted you to think of yourself as a distinct consciousness, capable of direct communication with the Creator of that consciousness. You must begin to think of yourself as a very powerful receiving and sending channel.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-4.VIII.8:1-3)

Jesus is first talking to Helen, but, as usual, we can appropriate his words to ourselves. We can communicate, as a “very powerful receiving and sending channel,” with God Himself. If this is too threatening to us, then the Holy Spirit will mediate. This is the whole purpose of the Holy Spirit, of course, to draw us back to God when we are in fear that would prevent a direct channel to the Almighty.

A Course of Love, sequel and continuation of A Course in Miracles, postulates a more direct route to God. In this age of Christ, it postulates, we are capable of direct communication with God, no longer so fearful of Him that we need the Holy Spirit as mediator. The age of the Holy Spirit, ACOL says, has now passed. We are to derive our guidance from the Christ-Self who dwells within each of us. This Christ-Self, still a learning being until morphing into discovery through observation and an informing by the heart, is capable of accurate choices. This Christ-Self is being healed, through and through, all layers of the subconscious. And when this healing is complete, we will know Awakening/Christ-consciousness/enlightenment.

God dwells within and without, though we project the world from the Mind. I believe this world does not really exist, because the Mind is all, and the Mind is, at base, Spirit. This non-dualistic world view gives a way to understand that God is everywhere at one time. We are “God-stuff,” and out of his individuations/differentiations of His Being, we develop as His children.

God then knows us as His own. Finiteness does serve a purpose, to experience, because knowing the Whole, as God does in His Godhead, would make experiential effects not separate from Cause, and thus unknowable. (This interpretation is based in part on Neale Donald Walsch’s “conversations” with God, and is not found in ACIM/ACOL.)

All Are Chosen

“Only your misperceptions stand in your way. Without them, your own choice is certain. Sane perception induces sane choosing. The Atonement was an act based on true perception. I cannot choose for you, but I can help you make your own right choice. ‘Many are called but few are chosen’ should read, ‘All are called, but few choose to listen. Therefore, they do not choose right. The ‘chosen ones’ are merely those who choose right sooner. That is the real meaning of the celestial speed-up. Strong wills can do this now, and they will find rest for their souls. God knows you only in peace, and this is your reality.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-3.VI.18:1-11)

The “celestial speed-up,” of which A Course in Miracles is an example, is an attempt by Jesus and his associates to bring salvation to the earth before we destroy ourselves. Edgar Cayce, the psychic, was an early example also. We are bent on destruction unless drastic measures are taken. So any of us could be part of the celestial speed-up. Many of us may have been born for that purpose.

All are chosen. Kenneth Wapnick wrote a book by that title, part of a two-book series that also gave the second part of that quotation, that few choose to listen. We must change this. We must know that we are chosen, and we must listen. Then we do take our place in the celestial speed-up.

Many of us have strong wills, but that strong will must be bent to God’s grace and guidance. I once wrote on a scrap of paper, and put it in my grandmother’s Bible: “I am determined to go God’s way.”

This when I was nine years old, for I can tell from my early handwriting my age. So I was one who had a strong will, and I attempted, in my immature way, to bend that will to God. I was witnessing even then.

Many of us can witness, and then we will become a multitude who change this world, and then create a new world. This is the message of A Course of Love. That we either change the world, or that (better) we create a new world. When we know that all are chosen, we can rest in the assurance that we are among that chosen.

We Can’t Return Home without Everybody

“The Sonship in its oneness does transcend the sum of its parts. However, it loses this special state as long as any of its parts are missing. This is why the conflict cannot ultimately be resolved until all of the individual parts of the Sonship have returned. Only then can the meaning of wholeness in the true sense be understood.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.XII.7:5-8)

What is alluded to in this passage is why we are here on earth. We are to save our fellow men and women. This is why form is important, for our earth, we need form, and we need not to long for the ethereal only. In my opinion, this need, to save the Sonship, is why Jesus scribed A Course of Love. Readers of A Course in Miracles were left with a desire just to go into the ethereal, the formless, after death—and are we not needed on earth?

The Sonship needs each and every one of us saved in the ultimate sense, with Awakening, with Christ-consciousness (which is the same thing). Only when all have returned is our mission completed.

Only then can we float into the ethereal with a clear conscience. For we take everyone with us.

Getting on the Right Road

“Inappropriate denial and equally inappropriate identification of the real factors in the basic conflict will not solve the problem itself. The conflict cannot disappear until it is fully recognized that miscreation is not real, and therefore there is no conflict. This entails a full realization of the basic fact that, although you have miscreated in a very genuine sense, you need neither continue to do so nor to suffer from your past errors in this respect.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.XI.15:1-3)

Good news indeed! Miscreations that are not ongoing but in the past certainly don’t need to hold us back. We can welcome love, and true creation, at any and all times. We are free to drop our obsession with the ego, free to let the true heart lead the mind to creations of great value.

Just ask, internally, what experiences we really want. These experiences are creations, and they will take on a better tone, much more positive, much more loving, when we have dropped our pride and asked for help from a Higher Power. This can be Jesus himself, or God Himself. Our own Mind reaches deep within us to the Self, for we are a part of God. And with a Champion like this, how can we fail?

Mind Wandering

“The correction of fear is your responsibility. When you ask for release from fear, you are implying that it isn’t. You should ask, instead, for help in the conditions which have brought the fear about. This always entails a willingness on the part of your separated mind. At this level, you can help it. You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, thus tacitly condoning your mind’s miscreations. The particular result never matters, but this fundamental error does. The fundamental correction is always the same. Before you will to do anything, ask me if your will is in accord with mine. If you are sure that it is, there will be no fear.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.IX.5:1-10)

The most important sentence in this quotation, I think, is the following: “You are much too tolerant of mind wandering.” Is this not just about everybody’s problem?

We need to discover how to wipe clean our minds, put problems on the back burner, and (as A Course of Love says) let our inner Christ-Self come up to the surface with an Answer, a divine Answer. This is the same as looking to the Holy Spirit, Who is within us also. Of course, we need the patience to allow this to happen. If we persist in wiping our minds clean of pesky problems, letting a wiser Wisdom surface, the results will be the proof. We really will find that the Self knows better, for it draws from Divinity, God Himself, to lead us, ever so gently, to the resolution of those matters that threaten to disturb our peace of mind.

We need not be fearful, but it does take an ego-free mind to realize this. And many of us are not there yet. As we make decisions, if we allow Jesus to influence us, we will know that the process by which we come to a decision is divinely led. This may not completely remove the fear, for we are used to fretting over trifles, and sometimes we are confronted with more than trifles in this life.

Let guidance from within lead. It will not fail. And we will rejoice when we know that this is so.

Way Out of Fear

“Whenever you are afraid, it is a sure sign that you have allowed your mind to miscreate; that is, you have not allowed me to guide it. It is pointless to believe that controlling the outcome of misthought can result in real healing. When you are fearful, you have willed wrongly. This is why you feel you are responsible for it. You must change your mind, not your behavior, and this is a matter of will. You do not need guidance except at the mind level. Correction belongs only at the level where causation is possible. The term does not really mean anything at the symptom level, where it cannot work.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.IX.4:1-8)

Jesus knows that we have not given up fear, that we still have misthought, and we feel the results, in pain often. He emphasizes that a change of mind is far more important, and pivotal, than a change in behavior. A change in behavior will happen when we have changed our mind, then and only then.

He wants us to correct our thinking, and then we will see an improvement in our behavior. It seems that he is not so much concerned with the outcome of misthought as he is with the problem of the mind itself. He wants us to think aright.

A Course of Love, channeled later, emphasizes that we change our mind when we listen to our heart—a heart that has always known what to think, say, and do. Our heart does not need any teaching, but our mind, so long egoic, has still patterns of the ego lingering. And so we need a sounder basis for making decisions, and that sounder basis is our heart.

Everyone knows what the heart means without a tedious telling. Our heart will inform our mind, which will inform our behavior. Then we will really be healed.

The Spiritual Eye

“There is no doubt that the spiritual eye does produce extreme discomfort by what it sees. The thing that you forget is that the discomfort is not the final outcome of its perception. When the spiritual eye is permitted to look upon the defilement of the altar, it also looks immediately toward Atonement. Nothing which the spiritual eye perceives can induce fear. Everything that results from accurate spiritual awareness merely is channelized toward correction. Discomfort is aroused only to bring the need to correct forcibly into awareness.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.VIII.8:4-9)

The concept about the “spiritual eye” will allow us to realize that God is always and forever looking to move us closer to Him. If we realize that our own altar, the inner place in us, has been defiled by our choices, we can immediately look to the solution provided by Jesus, the Atonement, which will give us comfort and ensure us that the defiled altar will not stand when we are confronting Atonement. We begin to feel better. Our spiritual eye has saved us.

We all have this spiritual eye, and the eye is informed by the Holy Spirit (or the Christ-Self, if we are following A Course of Love). The spiritual eye is the discernment of our Wisdom, and this Wisdom is accessed in the present moment, especially when our heart is filled with gratitude about what life is presenting to us. Even if outer blessings appear to be minimal, there is still much to praise. And it is this praise, this gratitude, that will save us. It is this praise that will set us back on the pathway.

Let our spiritual eye discern today. Let our spiritual eye show us what needs to change, for all of us have desert places that need to be left. If we utilize our spiritual eye, we will walk a fresher path.

We will know the Love that spiritual discernment will always show us.

The World’s Plight

“The Atonement actually began long before the resurrection. Many souls offered their efforts on behalf of the separated ones. But they could not withstand the strength of the attack and had to be brought back. Angels came, too, but their protection was not enough, because the separated ones were not interested in peace.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.V.3:1-4)

This quotation highlights the importance of some belief in the resurrection, though many of us believe it in many different ways. In A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, Jesus is never explicit as to whether it was a bodily resurrection or an ethereal one. But the belief in a resurrection galvanized his disciples and others of the time. I think something happened, even if we cannot be sure what.

Jesus is very clear that the crucifixion did not address the Atonement. He simply did not defend himself when he was brought for crucifixion, and in this he is our example, because he doesn’t want us in a defensive posture either. The resurrection is the salient point.

The idea that others came before, and could not withstand the attack from separated people is important, never stated before. Angels, Jesus says, came, too. Nothing seemed to work. Now Jesus, after the resurrection, is spearheading a “celestial speed-up” to try to help suffering people everywhere. A Course in Miracles is part of that speed-up, as he told Helen and Bill. We can imagine that other channeled works from Jesus are also part of the speed-up. Certainly we have been on the brink of destroying ourselves for many long years now.

Jesus deserves our gratitude. We have gotten ourselves in a grand problem, and entities far more advanced than are we are seeking to find a solution. Let us hope that we can add our little part to make a positive change as well.

Treasure

“The means are easier to clarify after the true worth of the goal itself is firmly established. Everyone defends his own treasure. You do not have to tell him to do this, because he will do so automatically. The real question still remains, What do you treasure and how much do you treasure it? Once you learn to consider these two points and bring them into all your actions as the true criteria for behavior, I will have little difficulty in clarifying the means. You have not learned to be consistent about this as yet. I have therefore concentrated on showing you that the means are available whenever you do ask. We can save a lot of time, however, if you do not need to extend this step unduly. The correct focus will shorten it immeasurably.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.IV.13:1-9)

Our treasure ought to be in the heaven on earth that we can create here. This goal would easily create a new world for us all.

Jesus is really trying to help us. There is back scenes work that we can’t see, and then there are A Course in Miracles, A Course of Love, and Way of Mastery. Others have also channeled him. We need to lighten up from our crises, and ask what we really want in life. That would be our goal. That would also be our treasure. And we can get Jesus’ help in identifying goal and treasure.

Devote some contemplation to these basic questions: treasure (what is it?) and goal (what is that?). If we move lightly on our feet, the answers, informed by the Holy Spirit and the Christ-Self, will be obvious. And we will walk a better earth as a result. Our feelings will improve, because Love has shown the way.

Suffering

“It is all right to remember the past, provided you also remember that anything you suffer is because of your own errors. As an analogy, imagine a very young child who falls down the stairs when an adult has her arms open in welcome at the bottom of the stairs, and who then develops a totally unwarranted fear of that adult. The misstep which causes the child’s fall has nothing at all to do with the adult, just as your own missteps have nothing at all to do with me.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.III.9:1-3)

There is a very pertinent point in this quotation from Jesus. He says that we suffer because of our own errors! Nothing more. There is nobody to blame, including him. And, of course, no truth in blaming God either.
Elsewhere he has said that we do not need to learn through pain. Yet the fact remains that many of us do choose to learn through pain, and sometimes this pain escalates into emotional and physical suffering. Jesus says (elsewhere) that it is better to learn through rewards. Would that we could all take to heart what he is saying!

Our suffering has no basis. Trials are but lessons presented again, so that we make a better choice where before we made a faulty one. This idea from A Course in Miracles is also pertinent, for what are “trials” but suffering?

Jesus does not ever give a full explanation for the meaning of suffering, though in A Course of Love he indicates that Love is the answer. If we love enough, he says, we are free of pain and suffering. But it is, nevertheless, wrong to “blame the victim.” No human personality is to “blame” for the ills that he/she experiences. These errors are on another level entirely.

In The Way of Mastery, Jesus indicates that believing in karma as a way to explain the negative is a faulty world view. So it seems that we can’t place the blame on past lives.

Another channeled writing, from Pat Rodegast, has her source, Emmanuel, saying that there is no way, here on earth, for us ever to understand suffering. That is something that will be resolved for us only in the afterlife.

That makes sense to me, for even Jesus does not answer the riddle of suffering so that we cease having questions.

Escape from Fear

“All fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception that you have the ability to usurp the power of God. It is again emphasized that you neither can nor have been able to do this. In this statement lies the real justification for your escape from fear. This is brought about by your acceptance of the Atonement, which places you in a position to realize that your own errors never really occurred.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.II.16:1-4)

God’s world is still in His hands. We can’t change ultimate reality; we just fall into illusion. It is this that will save us. It is this that will save us from the debilitating experience of fear.

When we accept the Atonement, the place of Christ in history, the rapprochement of man/woman and God, then we have by-passed the separation forever. We have also eliminated the ego from our way of thinking. Of course, all of this is easier said than done. Often, the Atonement is felt over years, years in which we slowly come to see that God’s will and ours are actually identical. We stop trying to play God ourselves. We acknowledge that we did not create ourselves, something the ego wanted to have us believe.

We have been living in illusion. In the Atonement, we may still find illusion clinging to our feet, but we have nevertheless made progress. True reality, the intangible benefits of peace, love, joy, contentment, harmony—will become a tangible, viable result of healing the separation. True reality offers us what an illusory separation never did: peace of mind and, as A Course of Love says, a heart that informs our living.

Reopening Our Spiritual Eye

“When the ‘lies of the serpent’ were introduced, they were called lies because they are not true. When man listened, all he heard was untruth. You do not have to continue to believe what is not true, unless you choose to do so. All of your miscreations can disappear in the well-known ‘twinkling of an eye,’ because they are a visual misperception. Your spiritual eye can sleep, but remember, a sleeping eye can still see.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.II.13:1-5)

The “lies of the serpent” were, I believe, egoic lies that we told ourselves and each other when we fell into separation from God. Certainly many times we equate the ego with the “devil,” and this is not always a bad analogy. Our spiritual eyes, so long as we are trapped by the ego, are “asleep.” As Jesus says elsewhere, when Adam was put in a deep sleep in the Genesis story, an analogy, there is no recorded evidence of his awakening. This is what awaits all of us, though, when we choose to heal the separation from God. And the Holy Spirit will show us how to reestablish our relationship with God. (In A Course of Love, our relationship with God is “direct,” and the inner Christ-Self does the work for us of healing.)

We have miscreated when we fall into anger and attack, isolation and rejection, bad temper and assorted other troubles that signal a disconnect from Love. We have also miscreated material objects in our world, fashioning chemicals that pollute our environment, and weapons of war that destroy the lives of others and sometimes ourselves. Of course, we think that we have no choice but to defend ourselves, but we need to give Love a chance. There is no telling what progress could be made if all of us were to turn to a more harmonious interaction with our fellowman and woman.

Even an ordinary person makes a difference when he chooses harmony rather than discord. All of us are included in creating a better world, and actually none of us should be discounted as unimportant to that endeavor.

Mental Health Is Inner Peace

“You are perfectly unaffected by all expressions of lack of love. These can be either from yourself and others, or from yourself to others, or from others to you. Peace is an attribute in you. You cannot find it outside. All mental illness is some form of external searching. Mental health is inner peace. It enables you to remain unshaken by lack of love from without, and capable, through your own miracles, of correcting the external conditions which proceed from lack of love in others.” (ACIM, COA ed.,T-2.I.26:1-7)

This person that Jesus is talking about in this quotation is the “real” “you,” the Self, the Christ-Self. Our personality, while it is egoic, does react to lacks of love, but all of this is not truly real. Our mental health for the Self gives us only peace. And it is this we can experience when we don’t get stuck in the egoic self, for this self is actually mentally ill (to use Jesus’ terms in this quotation).

Jesus refers to the insanity of the ego in other places in A Course in Miracles. We can never, never, expect to be mentally healthy until we have dislodged the ego, and dislodging the ego is a major goal of ACIM. When the egoic self is gone, we are free to let the Christ-Self emerge from the depths. Once this Self has learned how to proceed in the external world, we are set for life. This change is detailed in the continuation of ACIM, A Course of Love.

Anger and attack are evidence of madness, and it is this that the egoic self is familiar with. Forgiveness sets us on a higher road, with love a part of that road. Then the stress, fear, that led to anger and attack largely dissipate.

Inner peace is our elixir, the road to eternity in a time-bound world.

Depression & Anxiety

“Generally, three types of emotional disturbance result:

“a) The tendency to maintain the illusion that only the physical is real. This produces depression.

“b) The tendency to invest the physical with nonphysical properties. This is essentially magic and tends more toward anxiety-proneness.

“c) The tendency to vacillate from one to the other, which produces a corresponding vacillation between depression and anxiety.

“All three result in self-imposed starvation.” (ACIM, COA ed.,T-2.I.7:1-7)

Here Jesus gives us a metaphysical approach to depression and anxiety. If we think the physical is all that there is, of course we will be depressed: Who wants to end in the grave? And if we try magical solutions in materialism, we will become anxious, because we know, deep inside (where God is), that this is a falsehood. Lastly, we can vacillate between these two extremes, and then vacillate between depression and anxiety.

All of this is essentially disheartening. If we live from our heart, as A Course of Love (the continuation of A Course in Miracles), we will bypass all of this nonsense. Bypassing such false ideas is just good thinking, and in so doing we won’t feel depressed/anxious that we are on the wrong track.

Bypassing depression and anxiety is just good common sense. Why, when these falsehoods have been pointed out to us, would we continue allowing mood swings to affect our good living?

Miracles for Everyone

“Christ-controlled miracles are selective only in that they are directed toward those who can use them for themselves. Since this makes it inevitable that they will extend them to others, a very strong chain of Atonement is welded.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.49.2:1-2)

When we perform a Christ-controlled miracle, i.e., choose expressions of love directed by Jesus, we gain just as much as the recipient. This is illustrative of what a blessing miracles really are. We find out how to live “in the flow,” going about our day without trying to control everything, and we keep constantly attuned to the Answer. Our joy overflows, for living with a readiness for miracles is truly living a charmed existence.

If we strive to be happy, we will find that keeping an ear attuned to miracles will fulfill that adventure. Living close to Jesus is its own reward. If we think that we have a personal relationship with him, indeed we do. But he loves us more than we love him, for we are not purified as he is. His ability to love is therefore greater. It will not always be this way, but the earth sojourn is not easy, and we have learned things that will not help us as well as learned things that will.

Open ourselves to miracle readiness. Open ourselves to the Holy Spirit (if following A Course in Miracles) or the Christ Self (if following A Course of Love). It matters not that we think, in the beginning, that we are losing control of our lives. We are really growing into them, in the best way possible.

Wholly Satisfying Nature of Reality

Note: If I don’t post, we are having problems with our Internet connection.

“No fantasies, sexual or otherwise, are true. Fantasies become totally unnecessary as the wholly satisfying nature of reality becomes apparent.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.48.9:1-2)

As we progress, we feel better almost constantly. This is the “wholly satisfying nature of reality.” In the frame of mind that we develop, we have no need to escape into fantasies.

Fantasies have no basis in fact, and indulging in them catches us up in a false reality, an even greater illusion than we normally experience.

It is hard to imagine a more illusory state of mind than we normally inhabit in this world, for we are lost in illusions, far removed from God’s true reality. Only when we have progressed farther will we know the truth of this. And fantasies delay our progress. No one can fantasize often and expect to join God’s Kingdom, the real world, the House of Truth (the last, as called in A Course of Love).

What do we need to experience the wholly satisfying nature of reality? We need to open ourselves to the experience of God, something that comes very easy as we do so more and more often. Let Him speak to us, let Him remind us of Scripture that will ease our minds and hearts.

His way works. Our own does not, especially when that own is a fantasized projection from a deluded mind.

Miracles Save Time

“There is no relation between the time a miracle takes and the time it covers. It substitutes for learning that might have taken thousands of years.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.47.2:5-6)

What a joyous revelation! The miracles that appear in our lives may be saving thousands of years, years often filled with suffering and pain. Jesus doesn’t specify if these miracles affect us or the people that we express love, a miracle, for—but it does seem obvious that the miracle affects everyone involved, giver and receiver. A Course of Love makes clear that giving and receiving are identical in this life. So we can be sure that any miracle happening around us in any way at all does bless us.

Jesus does not take a stand on reincarnation in A Course in Miracles, but the hint is seen here that we might save ourselves many thousands of years of reincarnations if we approach the miracle with the right mindset. Certainly we fall into unknowing in this life, failing to remember the love that may be so evident when we are on the Other Side (Heaven, if we wish to call it that). This forgetfulness can be very damaging to us, but it is necessary for the illusion to work.

We set ourselves very severe challenges in this life, though Jesus does say in the Manual for Teachers that there is no challenge to an advanced teacher of God. The reason for this is that we choose for all humankind, following guidance by turning to the Holy Spirit before we act.

Ask for miracles to surround us today. If we are open to this miracle-minded thinking, we will perhaps save ourselves many years of potential agony.

Miracles & Revelation

“When the Sonship can return to its original form of communication with God by direct revelation, the need for miracles is over. The Holy Spirit mediates higher- to lower-order communication, keeping the direct channel from God to humanity open for revelation. Revelation is not reciprocal. It is always from God to you. This is because God and you are not equal. The miracle, on the other hand, is reciprocal because it always involves equality.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.46.20:3-8)

This quotation gets to some of the keys in the theology of A Course in Miracles. We are given the Holy Spirit as a Gift, because we are, unfortunately, not ready for direct communication from God; our fear is too great. We think that God doesn’t mean us well, because what we have done with our lives is so despicable that He could not forgive our deeds. Actually, we learn in ACIM that God never forgives because He has never accused; He doesn’t blame us for anything, seeing us as innocent children who haven’t known any better. God thus has never, ever, condemned us in any sense at all. We are His prodigal sons and daughters, whom He wants mightily to return to the fold.

When we experience revelation (if we recognize it as revelation), it is intensely personal and cannot actually be explained to another. We know what we have experienced, but nobody else would believe us. Miracles are our expressions of love, though, prompted originally by the love of God, and so there is a reciprocal relationship in these. When we feel led to express love, Jesus will arrange time and space to allow us to do so—but only if that expression of love, that miracle, is something that Jesus recognizes as needed and right. He gives us the cue, and we would do well to remember this. Misplaced miracles miss the mark.

When we are stressed, we need to turn to the Holy Spirit, if direct relationship to God still threatens. Later on, in A Course of Love (many believe a sequel to ACIM), we will see a direct approach to God Himself by inviting the Christ-Self from our depths, where God resides, to lead us.

Miracles are more useful now to us and to others. We would do well to ask internally what miracles are needed each and every day, what there is there for us to do.

Sex

“Sex was intended as an instrument for physical creation (see previous notes), to enable souls to embark on new chapters in their experience, and thus improve their records. The pencil was not an end in itself.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.46.4:1-2)

Jesus must take a dim view of our society, for we have long noted that our commercials, television programming, and movies are saturated with sex. Even we realize that we are getting it wrong.

Jesus says that sex is intended for physical creation (think babies) as well as to enable us to embark on new experiences that will improve our “records.” These records are the history of our soul’s experiences on earth, though Jesus never takes a stand for or against reincarnation (believing that it will limit our usefulness to others who both believe, or don’t believe, in reincarnation).

Jesus aptly uses a Freudian symbol when he says, “the pencil was not an end in itself.”

In the spirit of Jesus, how might we approach sex? It is a gift of the Creator, not meant for personal, selfish aggrandizement. A Course of Love, believed by many to be the “continuation” of ACIM that it proclaims itself to be, says that many may want more physical expression as we proceed along the way to God, but many may also wish less. There is no judgment either way. ACOL also has quite a lot to say about “use” of others, and certainly sex can use others. But that is a wrong purpose. Sex is neither glorified nor debased in Jesus’s view. He does note that the physical closeness that we try to have satisfy us will not actually do what we want; nothing can take the place of our closeness with God.

Jesus’s message is a positive, all-inclusive one. He accepts homosexuality, and bids individuals not to be frightened by what they don’t understand. Indeed, it is generally known that Bill, co-scribe with Helen of A Course in Miracles, was gay.

Love, wherever it is found, if it is genuine love and not taking from what belongs to another, is seen to be good and true.

More on Miracles

“The miracles you are told not to perform have not lost their value. They are still expressions of your own state of grace. But the action aspect of the miracle should be Christ-controlled, because of His complete awareness of the whole plan.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.45.3:1-3)

When we sense love for another, that awareness of love may lead us to want to express love right away. An expression of love is the definition given to miracles. But we don’t always make the best decisions about performing miracles. We may feel love, but maybe right now is not a propitious time to express that love. So we must ask. Always ask; we will be answered by guidance, often in the form of a deep awareness or an intuition.

This quotation talks about “Christ” control, and by this Jesus may be meaning something more than just himself. He may be meaning the Christ soul that inhabits all of us, deep inside. A Course of Love says more about the inner Christ-Self. It is a manifestation of God Himself/Herself, found within each of us. It becomes our way to know when we have moved beyond the Holy Spirit as intermediary, and we wish to contact God directly.

When we know by guidance, we are tapping into knowledge of the whole plan. And knowing the whole plan is vitally important. It is the way that we stay in harmony with all of God’s creation, this world and worlds beyond. At its simplest, it is cooperation rather than competition, and it assures us that we are on the beam. It never asks us to stand independently, for the desire for psychic autonomy is left over from our ego. Our ego would like us to strive mightily to be independent, but independence is not the way. Interdependence is. We are with others on this plane for a reason; we are meant to join with our brothers and sisters to create a viable world, shorn of misdirected impulses of those who turn from God.

So: Ask what miracles we are to perform. Let love be expressed where it will do the most good, succeed better than at any other time or place. An expression of love is always good, but this may sometimes need to be an internal matter, not moving into the external realm outside one’s mind and heart.

Jesus: “The Thing to Do with a Desert Is to Leave”

“A desert is a desert is a desert. You can do anything you want in it, but cannot change it from what it is. It still lacks water, which is why it is a desert. The thing to do with a desert is to leave.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.43.12:2-5)

Jesus doesn’t explain exactly what his “desert” really means, but I think he is referring to the unsatisfying lives that many of us lead. We don’t have to live like that, of course. We can leave the desert at any time by turning inward to a contemplation of eternal values. These values will lift our spirits. And if there is something that we need to do internally or externally to lift our spirits, our intuition will tell us what that is. Living with the Holy Spirit and the Christ-Self is living with the very best that is available to us in this world.

We need to make sure that we stay out of the desert. We need to make sure that our goal of leaving behind the ego actually is sustained. There is a stern warning in A Course of Love (a continuation of A Course in Miracles) that we may form a new ego on the ashes of the old. We do have that potential if we don’t stand firm with our new knowledge. And this indeed would be the desert. A terrible, terrible back step.

Leave the desert today. Do what we know to do to create good lives in a new world, for we are creating a new world as we speak.

The way to better living is contained in our refusal to live superficially with material objects that don’t satisfy for long. Lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, and we will have succeeded in this life. And our heaven can and should be right on this earth, long before our death takes us to another world.

Atonement and Miracles

“The answer is to never perform a miracle without asking me if you should. This spares you from exhaustion. Just because miracles are expressions of love, it does not follow that they will always be effective. I am the only one who can perform miracles indiscriminately, because I am the Atonement. You have a role in the Atonement, which I will dictate to you.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.35.5:1-5)

For students of A Course in Miracles, the admonition from Jesus to ASK before attempting a miracle is well-known. But how many of us really do stop ourselves as we go about our day, asking if now is the right time to give an expression of love. Many of us don’t think of love at all in our daily grind; we just want to get through the day creditably. Yet expressions of love, as miracles, would mean so much to our brothers and sisters. And to us, for the first person that a miracle affects is the one who is charged with bringing that miracle into the world.

We aren’t to push ourselves to exhaustion, for this is a form of sacrifice, and Jesus has also asked that we not sacrifice ourselves, even to Love. He says that he did not do so, and thus it is correct to know that he would never ask us to do so either. We need Jesus’ guidance about when to act and when to rest. We need to know that we are proceeding under guidance that is just beyond what we normally think about in our daily pathway. The Holy Spirit and, later, the Christ-Self, will provide careful instruction to us.

We are never left in the dark about what to do next; we just need to ask of a Power greater than our little, finite, personal selves.
Jesus, in charge of the Atonement, does let us know what is expected of us by way of support for the Atonement. We are joining together to create a new day, a day of ultimate salvation, a day of Christ-consciousness or Awakening. We are needed. All of us.

Miracles & Revelation

“29. Miracles are a way of earning release from fear.

“Revelation induces a state in which fear has already been abolished. Miracles are thus a means, and revelations are an end. In this sense, they work together. Miracles do not depend on revelation. They induce it. You are quite capable of miracles already, even if you may be still too fearful for revelations. Revelation will occur after you engage at the visionary level in a process of denying fear.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.29.1-2)

When Jesus or the Holy Spirit prompts a miracle, we are expressing love to the person(s) receiving the miracle. This heals us as well as them. And it prepares the way for revelation, which is always from God.

Perhaps at this early place in A Course in Miracles, we are still fearful of God. This is the reason for the Holy Spirit as intermediary; we don’t cringe before Him. His loving Spirit gives us comfort. Eventually, though, we will want to approach God more directly. And this is what the sequel, A Course of Love, does for us. We are said to be in the time of Christ now, the time of Holy Spirit having passed.

There is a period of crossover, for many are just now learning that ACIM exists. And our Guide during its reading is the Holy Spirit, Who has not gone anywhere, but is right here to help us. He will help us to envision a denial of fear. He will pave the way for this more direct approach to God Himself, the Deity. God dwells deeply within all of us, and His way counsels a life of Love.

Miracles and revelations do work together. And we are so blessed in our daily lives that we can and do have both. The trick is to recognize these blessings when they occur.

Mission

“Souls cannot rest until everyone has found salvation.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.27:3)

Here Jesus says something that I read a long time ago in Edgar Cayce. (Jesus mentions Cayce in the complete edition of A Course in Miracles.) Edgar indicated that certain souls came to earth to rescue other souls who had lost the light and were trapped here. In this quotation, Jesus seems to be saying that we have a mission, to save souls. Of course, we aren’t encouraged to save souls if the people having those souls are not open to hearing from us. We wait until God’s Voice has spoken to their hearts.

I think that this statement of Jesus goes a long way toward explaining the heralding of the elevated Self of form in A Course of Love. We need to inhabit a physical body to fulfill our mission. A Course in Miracles had focused on the ethereal so much that many of us just wanted to be rid of the earth, to get on with a better place on the Other Side. But we are needed here.

Each day we might ask the Holy Spirit or our deeper Self what the miracles for the day really are. As we know, we don’t make this decision. We ask how we might best express love in our daily round. We ask, and we are told. Then we act.

How to Ask for Divine Instructions

“Therefore, when you say, ‘If you want me to I will,’ please add ‘and if you don’t want me to I won’t.’ This is the right use of inhibition.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.24.5:3-4)

These are very specific guidelines for following guidance. We do get a sense of what we are to do, and when. Whether or not we follow that guidance depends on our resistance to what God is trying to tell us. Here Jesus is directing Helen and Bill, and by extension, us, very well. He knows that if he doesn’t want us to do something that we seem intent on doing, we need to be willing to be pliable.

Guidance is vitally important to a full and active life in the Spirit. Our little, finite, minds don’t know the whole picture, can’t see it, and so following the nudging of the Holy Spirit is vital. He guides us very specifically, whether to turn right at the next corner, even, sometimes. We don’t follow impulses willy-nilly, of course, but if we test out an impulse, and we see that there is no harm in what we think is being asked of us, then why don’t we respond, and respond quickly?

We don’t respond quickly because we have our own ideas about what is best for us, for our brothers and sisters, and the world. But how wrong we can recognize we have been in the past, before the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and even afterwards, when we were being headstrong.

There is a better way. Ask before resistance becomes confirmed. Ask what to do or say. The way will open. It will be a bright and glorious way, full of God, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of our best Self.

Take time to ask first today. If we proceed without that divine approval, we may make problems for ourselves that could be overcome with a little flexibility on our part.

Dear God,

Thank You for answering my prayer, and removing my resistance, to something You intend for me. I have known all along what You were saying, but I did so want to go my way. This is utter stupidity. The best way is always Yours, and I do know that my real will and Your will are identical.

Thank You for the blossoming of this day, after I bent my will to what I knew was divine leading.

Amen.

Good Learning Conditions

“Notes on this course should be read only under good learning conditions. They should also be reviewed, with the same rule applying to review periods. I’ll tell you when, but remember to ask.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.15.3:1-3)

Jesus stayed very close to Helen and Bill while Helen was taking dictation, the “notes” referred to here. We can imagine that he will stay as close to us, if we ask. He comes upon a “single unequivocal call.” And he comes with comfort and solace. When we read A Course in Miracles, we are reading the version of the notes he gave Helen, the version which is most complete in this “complete and annotated” edition prepared by the Circle of Atonement.

We need to show up, dressed and ready, with a mind ready to comprehend, “under good learning conditions.” If we are overly tired or sleepy, we will think Jesus unnecessarily complicated and obtuse. This he is not. The prose makes perfect sense when the mind is keen. And it certainly wouldn’t hurt to engage the heart, as A Course of Love (sequel to ACIM) makes clear. If we are living with our faith “full out,” so to speak, we will comprehend and be blessed. Anything less than this means that we have not been reading under good learning conditions.

Jesus stayed close to Helen and Bill, and they received guidance directly from him about when to study the Course. We can ask for the same, and he will be here. And, if we are following the Holy Spirit, He can be our responsive guide. If we believe that we have moved into the time of Christ, and the Christ-Self is in the ascendancy, we can ask this inner Self what the next right move might be. In any of these ways, if we expect and are open to an Answer, we will get it. God does not keep His children in limbo.

Dear God,

I find that I can read ACIM best in the evenings, before I get sleepy and reading to turn in for the night. Early morning finds my mind fuzzy, because I am not a morning person. I know that You will meet me when I am best able to take in the revelations that are there for me. Thank You for giving me the insight of when best to confront A Course in Miracles.

Amen.

Prayer and Miracles

“11. Prayer is the medium of miracles. Prayer is the natural communication between the created and the Creator. Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.11:1-3)

There is a direct parallel between this quotation for today, from A Course in Miracles, and words in A Course of Love, a treatise that many believe is a sequel to ACIM. In the chapter on the “art of thought” in ACOL, we are encouraged to believe that the art of thought is miracle-mindedness, miracle-readiness, miracles themselves, as well miracles that come through prayer.

This is not the usual supplication to God. This prayer is virtually a constant thing in our lives, a habit of thought that encourages expressions of love and thereby creates miracles. In its highest form, prayer is communion with God in which words disappear. Our mind and heart are turned to God, attuned to Him, and we dwell in a new relationship to our deepest being, where God Himself dwells.

Would we not want to express love always? Why do we so often trip ourselves up when we would be about our Father’s business? We love, and then we get angry or upset, and we withdraw love. So our lives become erratic. A constant sense of love received and given is the better way. And it is the way in which miracles come into full force.

Trust today that guidance will tell us what miracles to perform, what expressions of love to make plain to our brothers and sisters. When we pray thus, we are in God’s will in a manner that allows all good things to occur. We are in God’s will with our deepest nature.

Dear God,

I would pray deeply and without words, just a constant sense of being with You, in communion with all that is good. The way to do this is simple, but often overlooked. It is to retain a sense of peace and harmony in the midst of life’s trials, and then the tribulations really do disappear. Jesus has said in ACIM that we don’t have to have tribulations here, unlike how he was quoted in the Bible.

I would also welcome Jesus into my life. His hand enfolds mine, and when that happens, it is easy to be peaceful.

Amen.

Joyous Moments

“Why was this so? You eagerly awaited each learning challenge in the hopes that it would bring you to the state in which you now abide! You dreaded each learning challenge because you feared that it would not bring you to this state and that you would continue to need to learn, and to perhaps suffer from, the conditions of learning!

“You have arrived! The long journey that brought you here is over. Grow not impatient or desirous of a return to journeying before you begin to expe¬rience the joy of sharing and the new challenges of creating the new! This will be joyous journeying and your challenges will be joyous challenges!” (ACOL, T4:12.14 – 12.15)

We have reached a point of culmination, deep in the fourth Treatise for A Course of Love. We are giving up traditional learning of spiritual matters by reading widely, but this is only because this wide reading is normally done because we are still seeking. Reading widely doesn’t matter, if we can convince ourselves, now and forever, that we have indeed found. And Jesus makes it plain that when we turn to our heart, and let it lead our mind, leading into sharing with our brothers and sisters, that we have found what we sought.

We find this difficult to believe because habits die hard. We have sought to learn of spiritual matters through our reading as long as we have known how to read and write, as long as we have presumed to be on the spiritual pathway. Now we can indeed just stop a bit from our obsession with learning, and realize that that which we sought has been found. Christ-consciousness is only a hairbreadth away, though there is no time, and so the days, weeks, months, or years ahead do not matter.

Today’s quotation calls for a little celebration! We have been taught much by Jesus in A Course of Love, and we will now know him as a companion and partner in the mission to create a new world on earth.

Let us get a good start today.

Prayer

It is easy to fulfill Jesus’s desires, if we realize that effort is not required or even considered desirable. We listen to our internal guidance, and then we know what to do. It is just that easy. If we are resistant, we need to tell ourselves that we are getting the worst end of the bargain. Your dictates always have our best interests in mind.

Thank You for a good day, all day long. Be with me as the day ends, and night moves on toward sleep. Your constant care is always with me, 24/7. A blessing beyond belief, but I do believe it.

Amen.

Free Will, by Jiffy Read

Note: This is another in the series called “Saturday Features” on this blog. You too are welcome to contribute, and encouraged to do so.

The separate self feels as though it is free to think and do as it pleases. But all its thoughts and actions arise from the ego thoughts in which it believes, and ego thoughts are not original; they are the thoughts of conditioned thinking. Although the separate self feels as though it has free will, it is actually under the tyranny of the ego.

Real thoughts are those that come from Self. Such thoughts represent our true will, which is free. The separate self cannot think such thoughts. In fact, the separate self cannot think at all—it can only think it thinks. That is part of the illusion.

There does exist one choice for the separate self, which is to accept the voice of Self instead of the tyrannical voice of the ego.

Even this choice is illusory, valid only within the illusion. The separate self is not separate from its source. The idea that there is a choice is the means by which within the dream of separation the mind can find its way back to what it never left.

“You have chosen to be in a state in opposition in which opposites are possible. As a result, there are choices you must make. In the holy state the will is free, so that its creative power is unlimited and choice is meaningless. Freedom to choose is the same power as freedom to create, but its application is different. Choosing depends on a split mind. The Holy Spirit is one way of choosing. God did not leave his children comfortless, even though they chose to leave Him. The voice they put in their minds was not the Voice for His Will, for which the Holy Spirit speaks.” (T-5.II.6)

“The ego cannot teach you anything as long as your will is free, because you will not listen to it. It is not your will to be imprisoned because your will is free. That is why the ego is the denial of free will. It is never God Who coerces you, because He shares His Will with you. His Voices teaches only in accordance with His Will, but that is not the Holy Spirit’s lesson because that is what you are. The lesson is that your will and God’s cannot be out of accord because they are one. This is the undoing of everything the ego tries to teach.” (T-8.II.3:1-8)

Our Little Self Has Been Caught in Adolescence

“He seems a sorry figure, weary, worn, in threadbare clothing, and with feet that bleed a little from the rocky road he walks. . .

“This is your chosen self, the one you made as a replacement for reality. This is the self you savagely defend against all reason, every evidence, and all the witnesses with proof to show this is not you.” (ACIM, W-166)

Do we really want to see ourselves as this quotation depicts? Certainly not, but this is our picture of ourselves when we are feeling sorry for ourselves. And we feel sorry for ourselves when we lose track, even momentarily, of the grace in which we live. When we lose track of God.

Jesus is very poetic in his descriptions. When we fret and worry, we make ourselves into a tragic figure, one that we feel sorry for, and that others may as well.

This is all so unnecessary. When we know that we are guided to the right thought and action, when we know that we are never alone, our lives smooth out and we feel safe again. Turn to guidance when you have questions. The

Answer will usually come immediately. If not, go about your day in the surety that the Answer will come.
And that Answer that you need will come. Be assured of that. There is no better way to live a life.

—

“To say that the personal self will not exist only as the self you present to others is to say that the personal self will now cease to be seen as your reality.” (ACOL, Treatise on the Personal Self, 1.10)
The “little” self has been the self of the ego, which, A Course of Love assures us, is not our way any longer. This little self is also known in ACOL as the personal self. We do keep this self to present to the world, but we really don’t believe in it any longer.

We know that there is a deeper Self Who rules our lives. And with this we are satisfied.

—

“Our discussion merely examined the reality you chose to believe in, the reality of an ego-self, a self-concept seemingly stuck in an adolescent phase of development.” (ACOL, Treatise on the Personal Self, 2.12)
We are adolescents when we choose to rebel against reality, choose to rebel against God. God had to let us go our own way at this point, eons ago. He made no attempt to rein in our free will, which was to make a reality that tried to leave Him out.

Of course, we could not really do that. God cannot be left out of the equation, for we are part of Him. But we could imagine ourselves independent of God, and the imagining became very real.
And lamentable. But we know more now. We know that we don’t have to forge ahead like a ship with no anchor. God is our anchor, and well it is that this is true.

—

“Your Self and God will be but memories to you while your reality remains that of the physical experience and the personal self.” (ACOL, Treatise on the Personal Self, 13.2)

Our Self and God are memories to us, because we are recollecting what we have known previously. But to become more than a memory, we must try to reach beyond the physical reality in which we are embedded. The elevated Self of form will use this physical reality, but in a new way. We will know that we are fully united with God, that He is always there for us, that we aren’t independent little entities with no mooring.

The personal self will be transformed into the elevated Self of form. And in this transformation will the character of our world change for the better.

We need this elevated Self of form to live happily in a world that perception used to rule, but that now knowledge rules. We will create again, not “make.” And we will be home in a new world, creating anew a new place to be. We will know creation of the new.

Time of Tenderness Accomplishes Atonement: the Culmination

“The time of tenderness is the time of your approach to unity. The atonement that is accomplished here is the means of opening the gate to your approach. No one has closed this gate to you, but you by your own hand pulled it shut as you departed your heavenly home, and you do not remember that your own hand can open it once again.” (ACOL, C:29.9)

The time of tenderness is an especially heart-wrenching period for those of us who are reading A Course of Love. Jesus has brought us to a point in which we see ourselves as particularly sensitive in our reactions. This sensitive point will render us able to recognize the indwelling of the Christ Self. It will tenderize our relationships to God, other people, and also ourselves. We will be ready for something more, an embodiment, a full embodiment, of the Christ in physical form. We do not have to rue this embodiment in physical form, for it has been elevated to a place very high in Jesus’s scheme of things. And forgiveness has helped to bring us to this point, the forgiveness championed so much in A Course in Miracles.

And we go on, at this point, to see where forgiveness fits:

“We speak not of forgiveness or even atonement here, for these have been thoroughly discussed earlier. You have all been through the time of tenderness, the time that preceded your giving and receiving of forgiveness, your request for and granting of atonement, your re-viewing and unlearning of the perceived lessons of your life.” (ACOL, D:Day 2.14)

“Unity” means the time that God and the self are once again One. We are no longer dependent upon the Voice for God, the Holy Spirit, to take command of our lives, through guidance that takes us home. We are home. We have a more direct approach to God than at anytime during the separation. We are living the Christ Self, a concept that is welcomed as we become the elevated Self of form.

At this point the theology becomes unified, something that we would expect when Jesus calls this time the “approach to unity.” We are a part of God, and we have welcomed Him once again, for we are not longer asleep. He does not have to think that His children sleep and need to be awakened. When we come into Christ-consciousness, we are awakened. The Unconscious is available to us. We see the merging of ourselves with the inner Christ Self in this time of the second coming of Christ.

In reading A Course of Love, we did go through a time of tenderness, and this time opened our hearts to greater understanding, full knowledge of what God would once again mean to us. We were actually “tender” during part of the reading of ACOL, and this stirring of the heart accomplished great things in us.
Now we can realize that atonement continues throughout time, until it is finally relinquished as a done deal. We do not try to hasten its ending, though sometimes we feel impatient. We rest in God’s timing.

It is enough. Once begun, the ending is sure.

And we welcome the ending, whenever God feels that we are ready for the Christ-consciousness, the elevated Self of form, that He wishes for us.

The Embrace, by Ivor Sowton

I once had the great good fortune to be with Mari Perron, scribe of A Course of Love (ACOL), in a small group setting. As I suppose is natural, the group had questions about the process of receiving ACOL from Jesus and what that was like.

Mari graciously took these questions in stride. But then, as more of these “safe” questions continued, Mari seemed to take charge and volunteered: “But you know a real turning point for me was the chapter entitled “The Embrace.”

The dictation of A Course of Love had seemed a huge challenge at first, but had evened out after the early chapters into much more of a sense of flow. But then gradually efforting seemed to creep back in. By then the developing ACOL was at Chapter 16 or so. After that the chapters in ACOL were increasingly difficult for her, with more sense of tension and strain, like: “I have to do this.” After all, there was by this point a lot of direct instruction from Jesus to us the readers, and certainly also to Mari as the “first receiver”! Perhaps it was becoming more and more daunting, with a sense of a very high bar having been set for our learning.

Then, incredibly, the Voice stopped! The dictation of Jesus to scribe stopped! Mari knew from her relationship with Jesus that the work now called A Course of Love was not over, not complete!

Days of great angst passed. Then weeks with silence from Jesus! Truly a dark night of the Soul! Finally the completely unexpected! Mari was gazing at a beautiful plum on a beautiful plum tree in beautiful sunlight when such a wonderful bursting open of the heart spontaneously exploded forth! The absolutely gorgeous, pivotal chapter 20, “The Embrace,” soon followed, full flow restored!

It may be that we as listeners to Mari’s experiences here have to receive her revelation (for so I believe it truly is) in a way that we can personally access and apply in our own lives. Broadly speaking, we can say that the world became holy for Mari and for us now also, to the extent we can open ourselves to that kind of Union. The Divine was dancing in the surround! The mundane had been redeemed, now clearly seen and felt to be sacred, rather than perceived and felt to be separate from us (ACIM tenets).

And the Divine arms that cradle us in “The Embrace” bring so much needed comfort and reassurance:

This is a call now to move into my embrace and let yourself be comforted. Let the tears fall and the weight of your shoulders rest upon mine. Let me cradle your head against my breast as I stroke your hair and assure you that it will be all right. Realize that this is the whole world, the universe, the all of all in whose embrace you literally exist. Feel the gentleness and the love. Drink in the safety and the rest. Close your eyes and begin to see with an imagination that is beyond thought and words. (20.2)

So if you or I am feeling alienated, alone, frightened and cut off from Grace, let us remember the Embrace and be healed. The Embrace is personal. It can help us where we think we are, as who we think we are at present. This is so necessary, don’t you think?

In my online transpersonal therapy with students of A Course in Miracles (ACIM) and ACOL, (I see the two works as a continuum), I just try to facilitate that opening of personal relationship, that acceptance of the embrace FOR THEMSELVES. That is, the opening will be very personal for them. It will happen the only way it can happen for them—tailor made, you might say. Jesus is the guide in that process. Of course there are other guides, but we who have been drawn to Jesus’ current work in the world through ACIM and ACOL can settle down into discipleship with him personally and grow as much and as fast as is right for us.

But again, the essential message of the Embrace is that it is ours NOW. It’s the open heart in wholeheartedness. Jesus states in ACOL that the heart exists where we assume ourselves to be. So if we assume we live in ego world, frightened and alone, our world will FEEL like that, icy cold and bereft of comfort. But if we find our own way to FEEL the Embrace, then we will feel omnipresent divine love.

In Chapter 9 of the ACIM Manual For Teachers Jesus also reassures us that our own personal training is always highly individualized. Just right for us. Our own path will unfold in a beautiful way for us with his help. Not too fast or too overwhelming. But at the same time we can now always remember and remind ourselves that the Embrace is there for us NOW. As Jesus says “Who could be left out of the Embrace? And who from within the Embrace could be separate and alone? (20.18)

May we all come to feel the Embrace more and more, and more and more make our home there.

Let your heart remember that you are holy and that the world is sacred. (ACOL,C 20.23, pg. 140 in the Combined Version)

Heaven on Earth in Our Physical Forms

“. . .[T]he nature, even of form, once returned to its natural state of love, is one of unity and everlasting life. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 3.13)

1 – No Need to Die to Experience Heaven

This passage comes very close, in my opinion, to a promise that we can know “Heaven on earth.” We do not have to die to experience the joys that previously were believed by our forebears as reserved for the afterlife.

2 – Everlasting Life

The “everlasting life” is a phrase that has heretofore been reserved for the afterlife, although traditional Christianity does teach that one joins into this life once one has been “saved,” in the old-fashioned sense. But it does seem that A Course of Love goes a bit farther in its promises than anything that has appeared previously, even in other New Age thought. The term “unity,” used so often in ACOL, appears in this context. This unity always refers to unity with God, inside and outside, and in particular the unity that we share with our brothers and sisters in this world. This makes us all One, and One with God (a tenet of ACOL).

3 – Love

How can we know the joy that everlasting life holds out to us, even in this sometimes troubled world? And even in our sometimes troubled personal world? We must remember that in our better moments, we realize that we love and are loved. This twin concept, loving and being loved, is not new, but it is newly emphasized and interpreted in A Course of Love. We have been told repeatedly that at this point, we have left the ego behind. And so, we have actually left fear behind, leaving only the love that we have longed to have.

We may still know fear from time to time. Christ-consciousness does not always come suddenly and completely, with a complete break with the past. Awakening does not either, and the two concepts are so often linked that they may be seen as one and the same. That puts ACIM and ACOL on the same wave length, because Christ-consciousness is trumpeted in the latter, and Awakening in the former.
And we can know this joy in physical form. That is a basic tenet of ACOL, and in this ACOL emphasizes something that is not made firm in ACIM.

4 – Celebration

That we can champion the physical form may well be cause for rejoicing, maybe because we are so used to this form—not remembering any other. But if we are to encourage salvation (and this is our function as the light of the world), we will need to have a communication device to do so, and that communication device is the body (ACIM tenet).

5 – The Best

It is reassuring that we can have the best that God intends for us while still in the physical body. We don’t have to die to experience great joy, to experience Heaven on earth. Our Heaven on earth is here waiting for us, here and now.

6 – Join with Heaven

Let’s join with this Heaven today.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I love and, if it is Your will, experience love today. May I know that any lack of love that I perceive is simply a disguised call for help (and love) on the part of the other person. Surely I will know Your love today, in my mind and spirit, even if not always in my emotions.

May Christ-consciousness descend upon me today. I do not know this state on a continuing basis, but may I catch glimpses of this glorious state today.

What part is my decision in coming into Christ-consciousness? I ask for an answer to this question today. I wish to do my part, but I also wish to wait patiently for Your timing. May this day go well, with my following Your guidance to be and know all that You would have for me.

Amen.

The Original Nature of Being Requires a Form of Love

“There is a reason why the original nature of your being cannot exist in a form unnatural to love. A form whose nature is fear cannot house the creation of love. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 3.12)”

1 – No Fear

This passage explains further what was begun in the passage quoted yesterday. We can know our “original nature,” even in physical form, but we cannot know this original nature if we still live in fear. Fear is the home of the ego, and we are told in A Course of Love that we have left the ego behind. If vestiges seem to remain, they are illusory, and are meant to be thrust off as unworthy of a child of God.

2 – Being of Love

So the physical can house a being of love, which all of us are aiming to be. But if we don’t reach for this love, we will not know our “original nature.” The elevated Self of form, the Christ-consciousness housed in the physical, cannot shine through. We will be stuck in fear-ridden unreality, the world of the ego. And we will not know our ultimate glory in this world.

3 – The New

The “New,” as described in this treatise, is meant to convey that we are living in a new time, a time in which we can experience the love that we have lost through separation from God. We can actually “remember” the state of union with God, and thereby realize that we truly never lost it. But having forgotten it through the succumbing to the ego’s wily ways, we were unaware of all the joys that could be ours. The “New” would have us forget all of our former nonsense, and to walk into the sunlight with Jesus (an ACIM concept).

4 – ACIM Workbook

It is good to think a moment about how we will feel when we are living in love, when our day-to-day living is embedded in love rather than fear. We can know glimpses of this state, even before Christ-consciousness, is we faithfully keep our meditations and/or the Workbook of A Course in Miracles. It is amazing the extent to which our lives can be transformed by just such religious practice. Our lives smooth out, we find less to get upset about, and we are more loving companions for our significant others. The blessings grow over the days, weeks, and months. We live better, because we are not kowtowing to the illusory fear that we allowed because we were trying to protect our egos. Our egos can go safely, for Jesus assured us in A Course in Miracles that without ego, we live in peace—not the chaos that we think will ensue. Our personality coalesces in the Self that is the Christ within, and peace, under these conditions, becomes the life that we live.

5 – Don’t Rue the Day

There is no better way to spend a lifetime, and, if we have rued days up to now, now is the time to stop such nonsense. Be glad of what love has thus far wrought in us, and know that the love will continue to grow, amplifying joy. Life just gets better and better.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I know only love today, not fear. So often fears still try to intrude, even though I have read and studied the words of Jesus in ACIM and ACOL. I would not have fears to intrude today. You do not wish me to have fear intrude.

When the day seems difficult, guide my ways into more peaceful pathways. I know that You wish the best for me, and that is found only in loving relationships with You and with my brothers and sisters in this world.

Thank You for the joyous moments of this day, and I ask Your blessing for more of the same. Help me to make good decisions, not listening to my own judgment, but the inner Self, which knows far more than the personal self ever could know. Thank You for Your faithfulness to me. Help me to be worthy of Your faithfulness, and guide my own predilections to a more worthy future of faithfulness to You.

Amen.

Vision Is the Means to Know

“The physical form is not the natural or original form of the created. Vision is the means by which the original nature of the created can once again be known. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 3.12)”

1 – Prior?

This passage suggests that we existed in a spiritual form before we were born into the physical world, to have the physical form that we accept as natural. And the elevated Self of form, which we have oft said, is what we are reaching for in this world.

2 – ACIM

A Course in Miracles does not make the specific statement that we existed in a spiritual form prior to birth into the natural world. But ACOL does. Perhaps many of us who are students of ACIM have assumed our spiritual pre-existence, though.

3 – ACOL

In ACOL, we are told that we can use our newfound vision to recapture the essence of that spiritual state, but we do not have to die to recapture it. Physicality is not a false state, one to be lamented. ACOL is quite specific about the heights to which we can climb while still encased in the physical. ACIM refers more specifically to the illusion that is the physical world, and this has led some students to deemphasize the physical as one to be regretted because of our fall from grace. ACOL is more optimistic. It definitely does not champion immortality in the physical form (it denies this elsewhere), but the fact that the physical seems real to us is less discounted. We are to take advantage of the joys that such physical reality can bring to us, not in any immoral sense, but in more of a joyous way than ACIM suggested.

4 – Vision

When we turn to vision, we are led to understand that we can see with our wholeheartedness the joys of physical form. Note that this vision is not of the eyes, but of the mind and heart combined. We know in a way that we can only know when we are whole.

5 – Original Nature

“Once the original nature of the created becomes observable in physical form, physical form will surpass what it once was and become the new nature of the created. There is no reason why the original nature of your being cannot become a being the nature of which is form if you so choose it to be. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 3.12)”

6 – Edgar Cayce

We can choose physical form for ourselves, and indeed many of us must, if salvation is to come to all. Edgar Cayce said that the Sons of God came to the earth to rescue the daughters of men—that unless the Sons had come, then the daughters would have been forever lost in physicality that was not the best essence of what God’s children were meant to be. (“Sons” and “daughters” are metaphors, not to be considered gender-specific.) Jesus says that the return may take place over millions of years, as the separation took place over millions. So there is a need for us in this physical world. To be an effective presence, we need not to discount the world of physical form, or to denigrate it. We need to enhance it to the best that the world of form can become. And Jesus is giving us the means in A Course of Love.

7 – Elevated Self of Form

We choose the elevated Self of form as an awakened spirit of ourselves. We know enlightenment, Christ-consciousness, in this form. We choose once again, and in this choice the separation is healed for all of our brothers and sisters—over time.

8 – Reincarnation?

This is another of the quotations that implies reincarnation, though we are encouraged in A Course in Miracles not to take a stand on reincarnation, as it will limit our usefulness. Not everybody so believes.

9 – The Now

The best thing that we can do is to recognize that all time is the Now, and that time, as spread out, allows us to experience life. Thus reincarnation is not something to get lost in, in ruminations of lives lived or to be lived, for all is the Now. Those counterparts of ourselves, if they exist, are just as much present now as they ever were.

10 – Salvation

Be mindful today of the great imperative that has been placed upon us. We have a role in salvation, a role each of us fulfills in a unique way. And for this, we give thanks. Let us do our part, and all will proceed quickly to a positive outcome. The separation will have been healed, and all of us can then choose whether or not we will return in the form of the elevated Self. There will then be no more imperative of this (an interpretation, not stated in ACIM or ACOL).

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I revel in my physical form, especially when I feel that it has been elevated to my Self. This may not happen all at once, but I may have glimpses of this glorious state. May I have glimpses today.

Thank You for being there for me, in good times and in bad. Nothing can be really bad when I know that Jesus is holding my hand as I walk through this world.

May this day go smoothly. May all my days go smoothly. You would have it so. I am not to get impatient when things don’t seem to go my way. Everything is perfect in its unfolding. Only my own stubbornness limits my effectiveness. And I would be flexible today, to turn on a dime to Your guidance. Help me to do this, today and always.

Amen.

What the Final Judgment Is According to ACOL

“Once all has been judged with the vision of love, judgment is over naturally for it has served its purpose. This is the final judgment. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 3.8)

1 – Definition

Finally we have a definition of the final judgment! A Course in Miracles also tells us that it is nothing to fear, that it will be carried out (and welcomed by us) by Jesus, with the help of our brothers (and sisters).

2 – Love

When we see all in love, we recognize that indeed there is no need for judgment. There is also, as stated elsewhere in ACIM, no real need for forgiveness, either–for we have moved beyond it. But in this world, we still do need experience and to express forgiveness, for it is the way that the ego cannot touch. The way out of the bind in which we find ourselves.

3 – Fear and the Ego

So much of fear and the ego has been made of the concept of the final judgment. Many cringe in fear at this wholly benign concept. God’s Son (and Daughter) is innocent. There is no reason for denunciation. All are chosen (a tenet of both ACIM and ACOL).

4 – Our Brothers

The fact that the final judgment, as described in A Course in Miracles, will be carried out by Jesus in cooperation with our brothers is particularly relevant to me. I was once placed under hypnosis and given a series of commands about my future, after having been asked a number of questions about my present. I was reading ACIM at the time, but I don’t recall if I had read this particular passage saying that the final judgment would be given by our brother also. But my “brother” did seem to give it to me. I recall snatches of the hypnosis, recalled these six months after the event, when the post-hypnotic command had expired. I know that I did some of those things which I was commanded to do, sometime in my lifetime, but I don’t know if I did them all. I do know that I said, under hypnosis, “That is a tall order!”

5 – Miracles

Such experiences are a form of the miracle, for they do not occur in everyday life very often (and never again, for me). But the fact that this happening occurred leads me to understand more fully what Jesus was saying in ACIM. Jesus’s final judgment does intend seem to come with the cooperation of our brother.

6 – Faith

We need to take some things on faith, though ACIM and ACOL are not punitive about faith. We don’t have to believe what seem to be impossible things; we don’t have to appeal, at least very often, to “mysteries” that we can’t understand. We are being shown, very precisely, what salvation entails. And we are given the steps of Awakening, though God’s decision in the timing is all-important. When we fulfill the criteria, though Awakening will be waiting for us. Don’t try to dictate when, for we will be misinformed and misled, not to mention disappointed. The truth that we seek is here, in ACIM and ACOL, for the taking. And well we would live if we heed what these remarkable books say.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I used to fear the Final Judgment. But Jesus’s words make it such a benign concept, so loving and right. Thank You for this new understanding.

May today I eliminate my own judgments from my life. It is not up to me to judge my brothers and sisters. May I remember this all day today.

Help this day to go well. I realize that I am so very blessed that once I was accused of leading a “charmed life.” This charmed life is here for us all, when we fulfill the criteria. And only You know everything that is asked of us. I would not fall on my face today; I would continue to try to do what I can to follow You exactly. Our spiritual evolution is not a straight line, but I wish for You to lead the way in as straight a fashion as I will allow.

Amen.

When the Natural State of Love Is Returned to Us

“As the natural state of love is returned to you, judgment falls away because vision will arise. With the onset of the vision of love, many of you will make one final judgment in which you find everything to be good and full of love. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 3.8)”

1 – Like ACIM

This statement is very much akin to one in A Course in Miracles. We are told that to attack, to judge, and to make plans against contingencies to come will all cause us to lose our way. In this passage from ACOL, the negative factor of judgment is addressed. We are to turn to vision, our real salvation from God

2 – Judgment

Judgment is an aspect of fear, and so long as we judge, we are still caught up in the fears brought on by the ego. ACOL assures us that we are moving beyond the ego, or we would not still be reading these volumes. If we have truly left the ego behind, our fear will not long hinder us. We will live a blessed life, helped through it by the vision that ACOL suggests in this passage.

What is “vision”? It is simply the right way to view the things of this world. We are not often conscious of viewing through our vision. We think that our eyes see, but ACIM says not. Our eyes see illusion. Vision is an internal thing. And it is the way that we will reach higher and higher, or, if you will, deeper and deeper, until Christ-consciousness comes to overshadow us, and we are at Home at last. This does not mean that we will die; it does mean that we will live, as oft repeated, the elevated Self of form (a tenet of ACOL).

3 – Love

“Once all has been judged with the vision of love, judgment is over naturally for it has served its purpose. This is the final judgment. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 3.8)”

4 – Leave Judgment Behind

A Course in Miracles says to leave judgment to the Holy Spirit, and here in A Course of Love we are told to just leave judgment behind entirely. When we see with love, we no longer feel called upon to judge others. And this is said to be the final judgment.

5 – The Final Judgment

Many of us have wondered for a long time what the final judgment would really mean. And here it is given a wholly benign reading. We do not have anything to fear. We need only to love, and all the blessings will accrue to us. But can we believe this?

6 – Understanding

Try love and see if it doesn’t work. That is the basic way that all of us will come to understand. Just give up grievances as a bad way to react. Know that grievances will hide the miracles from us. Know that we want to experience miracles. So there is no other best way to proceed: Choose love and everything else falls into place.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I leave judgment behind today, knowing that to judge rightly is absolutely impossible for me. I cannot see the whole picture, and therefore I cannot judge rightly.

Thank You for granting me the vision that I ask for. I know that I need only fulfill the conditions that you spell out, and then ask, and then vision is mine.

May I know that the angry and attacking things that others do, things that I notice, are just the result of bad conditioning. May I understand that I need only forgive this illusion, and all will be well with my day. This anger and attack will fade into the sunset when I recognize that I am seeing this because I don’t want to see it. Just illusions. That is all.

Amen.

In Childhood We Bought into Fear through No Fault of Our Own

“Even the most loving parent, like unto your most loving image of God, having brought a child into a fearful world, became subject to the tests of time. Thus did the world become a world of effort with all things in it and beyond it, including God, weighed and balanced against the idea of fear. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 3.6)”

1 – Childhood

This passage recalls to mind our childhoods, which were often tainted with the image of a fearful world, because that is what our parents believed. Even religious parents carried this image to a great degree, believing, if they were particularly protective, that we, their offspring, must turn to them to be “saved” from a world that would do us harm.

2 – Jesus

Jesus would have us lay all this conditioning behind. We are in an unsafe world only if our perceptions show us such a world. And even in harsh conditions, we can rise above. We, of course, do not always do so, because war and natural disasters test us to the limit. But, as Eckhart Tolle says, we can avoid turning pain into suffering. This statement is not made specifically in either ACIM or ACOL, but Jesus does say in ACIM that we do not have to learn through pain. There is a better way.

3 – Ken Wapnick

We must be realistic about what Jesus is saying, because, as Kenneth Wapnick (a writer and scholar of A Course in Miracles) has said, there are two levels to A Course in Miracles. One I would view as an ideal, sometimes not achieved; the other, the more practical, day-to-day world in which we find ourselves. We can find this Ideal more often than not through our communion with the Holy Spirit (as in ACIM) or our assumption of Christ-consciousness (as in ACOL). We are not alone, and we do not have to walk our pathway alone. There is a spiritual world that impacts our own, and it would be well for us to turn to spiritual guidance more often than not.

4 – Judgment

“All judgment is the cause of fear and this effort to weigh love’s strength against fear’s veracity. While you chose to believe and live in a world the nature of which was fear, you could not know God. You could not know God because you judged God from within the nature of fear, believing it to be your natural state. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 3.7)”

5 – Fear

As long as we are lost in fear, we can approach God only as though we were in a foxhole. We cry out to Him in desperation, asking for His help.

6 – When?

But when else do we commune with God? Do we seek Him when the day is going well? Do we thank Him for the blessings which so surround us? This type of communal prayer is, to my mind, what God really wants from us. A Course in Miracles, in an anthropomorphic sense, says that God is lonely when the minds He created do not commune with Him. He then says, in effect, “My children sleep, and they must be awakened.”

7 – Awakening

We need to awaken, and we need to realize, first of all, that this prayer for Awakening is strictly in line with God’s wishes for us. When we give up sleep, we will be in communion with God virtually all the time, whether or not we realize it. This is the goal that awaits us all. And it is a goal that all, sooner or later, will reach.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May we forgive our parents for the conditioning that they, in their innocence, gave us about living in a “fearful world.” Let us realize today that this world is fearful only in our perceptions of it, and these perceptions, with the help of the Holy Spirit, can be changed.

May we walk into the sunlight today. May we take Jesus’s hand and walk without fear. Mighty companions walk beside us along the way.

Amen.

TAKE HEART PUBLICATIONS RELEASES NEW COMBINED EDITION—3-in-1—OF A COURSE OF LOVE

Take Heart Publications released on September 1 a new combined edition of A Course of Love, putting together for the first time a one-volume, print format, of the original A Course of Love, the Treatises, and the Dialogues. An e-book will follow in October.

This edition features a new, excellent foreword by Glenn Hovemann. Original references to A Course in Miracles have been returned to the book. There is consistent paragraph numbering, as well as notes on how to footnote paragraphs within the book.

Currently there is a 25 percent special publisher discount on the print volume at the ACOL web site, $20.96 plus shipping and handling $6.50, to total $27.46 through PayPal. If you decide to use other web sites (including amazon.com) to purchase, be sure to note the “combined” volume, as there are editions of the first volume only that are called “complete” (now considered a mistake). To take advantage of the publisher’s offer on the new combined edition, click on “The Book” and then “How to Buy the Book” at the following:

http://www.acourseoflove.com

There are many “helps” on the web site, including the most recent blog postings by the receiver, Mari Perron –

http://www.acourseoflove.com/maris-blog/

Thanks go to Glenn Hovemann, who spearheaded the new publication.

Glenn gave me a pre-publication edition, and I endorsed this edition for the ACOL website. I found the book to be physically sound, good typography, with sturdy binding. It is a pleasure to read. ACOL is seen by the new website as the next logical step from Jesus for students/teachers of A Course in Miracles. I concur with that assessment.

Take a minute to visit the site and to consider purchase. You will also find much additional material on A Course of Love which will be of interest.

–Celia Hales

Expression of the Self of Love in Physical Form

“Original intent has everything to do with the nature of things for original intent is synonymous with cause. The original intent of this chosen experience was the expression of the Self of love in observable form. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘ A Treatise on the New,’ 3.4)”

1 – Chosen Experience

The “chosen experience” discussed in this passage is the advent of mankind on earth, the human form that we inhabit. But we did, in fact, have a “fall from Grace,” (as depicted metaphorically in the Old Testament), and we detoured into the ego (a part of our belief about ourselves, as discussed in A Course in Miracles). The ego led us to all kinds of fear, manifested mostly in anger and attack, and led us away from the love that we so desperately crave.

2 – Rejected God?

Because we thought that we had rejected God, we were reluctant to do what we perceived as His bidding, His “Will.” ACIM tries to change all that, explaining that to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit is to do our will, that He speaks for us.

3 – ACOL

So, as A Course of Love makes clear, we did not hold to the original intent of our entry upon earth. Now later reading in ACOL will support us as we endeavor to become the elevated Self of form, the original intent. May we take a few steps along this pathway today.

4 – Treatise

The Treatise on the New indicates that we can make a decision to continue to live in physical form, though this does not mean immortality without any death. It does seem to hint at reincarnation, however, though reincarnation is not a tenet of either A Course in Miracles or A Course of Love. Indeed, we are encouraged not to discuss our views on reincarnation except among friends; this from the Manual of A Course in Miracles. We are meant to be as helpful to those who believe in reincarnation as to those who don’t. All time is the Now, or, in another way of speaking, there is no time. So our purpose now would be to work out our salvation, not to become lost in daydreams of another possible life. Much confusion is possible when people get too intent on studying the concept of reincarnation, and it is always best to avoid controversy when trying to reach people. Reincarnation is certainly interesting, though, and friends might well discuss this concept at length. Jesus understands this well.

5 – Other Lives?

So if we do choose to live other lives here on earth, if that is a possibility, we can enjoy the physical embodiment and at the same time enjoy Christ-consciousness. Christ-consciousness or Awakening is meant for us here, and meant for us to sustain. We were never intended to divert ourselves into the ego, a part of our belief about ourselves. When we made the ego, we split our minds, and a split mind is of little permanent use to anybody.

6 – The Mind

We would reunite the part of our mind where the spirit dwells, the Holy Spirit, with the part of the mind where the ego dwells, thus taking the teeth out of the egoic experience. We will be much happier and more productive without the ego. We don’t need its protection, which despite what the ego says to us, is actually an impossible feat.

7 – Physical Embodiment

So: We learn in A Course of Love that physical embodiment is not to be lamented. We can live quite useful and joyous lives when we have dispelled the ego from our minds. Remember that we don’t actively resist the ego, for the ego is strong in strife, but we just turn aside from its bidding, reassuring ourselves that divine guidance is all that we really need to live a wonderful life.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I show the Self of love that I really am this day. May I not fall into attack and anger, as these are illusory and evidence of the ego having its way with us.

God created me loving. My Self has not changed from this, though we have fallen into an ego-oriented little self that knows much pain and suffering. Please take the pain and suffering from me today as I live the Self of love which God meant for me.

Thank You for the divine guidance that I am getting. I see the Holy Spirit as Your Voice, when I was not yet ready to listen to my inner Self, which is One with You, my inner Christ. I thank You for whatever means of guiding me You have created. Be with me as I seek to understand where You are in all of this.

Amen.

The Curriculum to Guide Us to the Fulfillment of Our Purpose

“Learning to see anew is the precursor of learning to create anew. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 2:33)”

1 – A New Way

We are deep into an attempt to learn in a new way, through observation of what is rather than through traditional learning through teachers, reading, and study. But for this change to occur, we need to have a new vision, and seeing anew is that new vision.

2 – A New Vision

The new vision emphasizes God’s love, harmony, peace, joy—not material possessions. Material possessions are the bailiwick of the ego, and until we learn anew to leave the ego behind, we won’t ever set foot in the new world that is coming. We will remain in a previous era, struggling along through effortful ways to accomplish dubious goals.

3 – Shared Vision

“Remember, only from a shared vision of what is can you begin to produce unity and relationship through unity and relationship. This is your purpose now, and this the curriculum to guide you to the fulfillment of your purpose. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 2.33)”

4 – Only Way?

Jesus never says that his way is the only way; he just says that his readers of A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love have chosen him as their guide, and it would be unwise to confuse our minds with ways meant for others (a tenet of ACIM).

5 – Jesus’s Approach

He has an almost “hands-off” approach to whether or not we accept his teachings. He does not force anyone to believe him. I think that he has enough faith in his teachings and in his relationship to the Father to know that those who read with any open mind and heart will accept what he says. There is an authority here that is found only when one interacts with Jesus. It is akin to the experience portrayed in the New Testament, when it is said that Jesus spoke with authority.

6 – ACOL

In this passage, he is speaking of A Course of Love as the curriculum to guide us. Certainly, in my reading, A Course of Love is the logical, practical next step to A Course in Miracles. A Course of Love works. It is not as complicated a reading as is ACIM, but it is no less authoritative. Jesus partakes of his channel, Mari Perron, to the extent that she has lent her mind and heart to the process. He writes very beautifully through her. Mari did not use the blank verse that is a hallmark of A Course in Miracles. The co-scribe to A Course in Miracles, Helen Schucman, was a Shakespearian scholar, and so perhaps it is natural that transcribed in iambic pentameter. A Course of Love is also part of the curriculum, as Mari heard internally–”another Course in Miracles.”

7 – Practical Works

Both works, A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, are eminently practical to the daily life. Jesus said in ACIM that a universal theology is impossible, but that a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. This experience I believe he continues to give to us, through Mari, in ACOL.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May we join with our brothers and sisters today for a shared vision. May we build upon A Course in Miracles by reading A Course of Love. May both works bring us ever closer to Awakening and to Christ-consciousness.

Thank You for the knowledge God brings to us through these readings.

Be with me as I seek, once again today, to walk Your way. Your way is always the effortless way, but my own anger and attack sometimes rear their ugly heads. I would be done with that way of reacting, as would many other people as well. I am through with the ego; it is only vestiges of old ways of reacting that trip me up still. Help me, I beg of You. I know that the help You will give is in Your will. You know what I need. You know how to need to react.

May this day be a new walk in the sunlight with You.

Amen.

Seeing with the Vision of Christ-consciousness Is upon Us

“Seeing with the vision of Christ-consciousness is already upon you. You are in the process of learning what it means. This treatise is here to help you do so. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 2.33)”

1 – Transition

This passage clarifies the point of transition. We are ready for Christ-consciousness, but we may still have questions, and it is these questions that the “Treatise on the New” seeks to explain to us.

2 – Give Ourselves to the Experience

Certainly no transition is without bumpy spots. Neither will this one. But it can be effortless if we give ourselves to it wholeheartedly, as Jesus asks in the first volume of the series of A Course of Love. We are used to hearing the Holy Spirit, and most of us are used to rejecting His advice from time to time, even when we know in our deepest being that what He bids us say or do is the right choice.

3 – Inner Knowing

Now we will take the next step into the time of Christ. We will follow our inner knowing without the struggle that we sometimes experienced when trying to follow the Holy Spirit. Previously, we were often weak, often indecisive, when the Voice of the Holy Spirit asked us to say or do something that made us uncomfortable. Jesus described this situation well in A Course in Miracles. He even said that what the Holy Spirit bade us to say or do might be embarrassing to us. But this, he said, was a misperception coming from a “shabby self-perception,” and would best be left behind. All of us have struggled with this advice, sometimes with more success, sometimes with less.

4 – Unconsciously

Now we are at the point of allowing the guidance that we receive to be received unconsciously, if we so will. God has promised this; Jesus has passed the Word along to us in A Course of Love. This becomes the effortless way that we will live in the future, once we have accepted the promise of all that this way of life holds out to us. This is the essence of living in Christ-consciousness. Let us not allow indecisiveness to delay us further. May we accept this promise today.

5 – Internal Guidance

It seems right to say that our guidance will come internally, but how will we hear it? Will there be nudges of guidance such as the Holy Spirit gave us?

6 – Nudges

Based on my limited experience, I think that the nudges that we get from the inner Christ-consciousness will be virtually indistinguishable from the nudges of the Holy Spirit, except that I do think that Jesus is working with us as more willing followers. We will not get stubborn nearly so often. We will recognize that nudge as a celestial accompaniment to our day, something that is going to give us a better day.

7 – Identical to Holy Spirit

The nudges themselves are, I think, identical to the nudges that were given by the Holy Spirit. When I had glimpses of Awakening on two occasions many years ago, my guidance was exactly the same in “nudges” that I had earlier come to recognize as being from the Holy Spirit. The intuition is identical. But how we respond to it is not.

8 – Respond More Readily

If we are on the beam, we will respond much more readily. We are more willing followers of Jesus now. And we know that what he encourages us to say and do is right on.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I see the vision of Christ-consciousness today. May I know what lies ahead for me, if I follow what Jesus has been saying to me. May I offer the words that he gives to me without embarrassment, and may I listen to the Voice of the Holy Spirit until such time as my guidance is received internally, without any strain at all.

Be with me today as I seek to leave attack, judgment, and unneeded planning of the future behind. When I have done that, I will know that God will be willing to take the final step for me to reach Christ-consciousness. Thank you.

May this day go well. Remove any confusion that I still have over the guidance that I receive. If the guidance in a given day seems to change, help me to know if I have edged into a new probable reality. Help me to follow Your guidance, minimizing my own confusion.

Amen.

We Exist in Union with God

“It [true vision] is believing that you exist in relationship and union with all and that each encounter is one of union and relationship and purpose. . .purpose that will be revealed to you because you exist in union with the Source and Cause of revelation. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 2.32)”

1 – God

God is the Source and Cause of revelation; this is a tenet of A Course in Miracles as well as A Course of Love. A Course in Miracles indicates that miracles do not last, and that we should not contrive to bring them about, as consciously chosen miracles can be misguided. Jesus himself is the one that tells us what miracles to perform, and he gives us the grace, with God, to perform them. (This takes a bit of faith, as we must believe that Jesus is available to all at all times.) Revelation, according to A Course in Miracles, proceeds from God to us–but never the reverse. And revelation is what reveals the end to us.

2 – Christ-consciousness

What is the end? It would seem from A Course of Love that Christ-consciousness is our ultimate goal for this era. We are told in ACOL that this is the time of Christ-consciousness, that the time of the Holy Spirit is fading away. This idea may be one of the more controversial in A Course of Love, especially to those of us who have come to depend upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit in going about our daily lives. Are we to be bereft of this guidance?

3 – Holy Spirit

Not at all. As previously described in these postings, the (sometimes) slower guidance of the Holy Spirit will be replaced with an almost unconscious inner knowing of the next step to take. We will be led without having that sometimes painful moment of choice that allowed us to choose differently from what the Holy Spirit bade. Do not fear, though, that guidance will be removed precipitously. As long as we want to learn our next step through listening to the Holy Spirit, I believe that that option will remain open to us. It is only the culmination of a long process that leads us rightly to think and do the best without conscious thought. And we do not have to expect a sudden transformation that would be unsettling. Jesus remains our guide throughout both the time of the Holy Spirit and the time of Christ-consciousness (though in the latter he is revealed as a companion rather than a teacher). Let us put our trust in him with complete knowledge–and it is knowledge and not perception–that he will be there for us in all situations, mundane or “important.”

4 – Era of Christ
There is some confusion about eras in A Course of Love, in that we are told therein that we have left the time of the Holy Spirit and have entered the time of Christ. There are those whom I know who prefer to cling to the Holy Spirit, and would these individuals be bereft? There are many who still turn every day to A Course in Miracles, many also who have never heard of A Course of Love. And many who depend on other spiritual writings. The emphasis upon the Holy Spirit in this time of Christ is yet strong. I think that the Holy Spirit still acts for individuals who put their faith in Him. God would not leave us without a very present help in time of trouble.

5 – Intuition

We who still find our home in the Holy Spirit will, I think, still hear Him through intuitive nudges as well as other means of guidance. (I have written of some of these ways we get guidance in “The Gift of Guidance.” See the “Features & Reviews,” at the top of the blog to access this writing.) These intuitive nudges may sometimes come from our Christ Self, and we not even be aware that we have crossed into the means that are intended for us in this era of Christ.

6 – Guidance

Guidance is sure. We need to ask, and ask frequently. Our lives will flow effortlessly when we remember to ask, remember to seek guidance. The more often that we seek guidance, the better our lives will go—for we will know what to say and do, and we will be in the right corner with God.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me today to know Your way, at least sometimes without conscious thinking or feeling, but through simply knowing. This is the final goal of this latest course from Jesus. May I come to understand more today.

Thank You for leading me, gently, throughout all of my life’s pathway. When the way seemed hard, You were actually “carrying” me. If today seems hard, may You “carry” me.

May I remember to ask, and to ask frequently today, for the next right action. I would make of this day a good day, and this choice is impossible outside of guidance. I may never know what I miss unless I ask.

Help me remember. And thank You.

Amen.

True Vision Is Seeing with the Expectation of Revelation

“. . .[T]rue vision is seeing relationship and union. It is the opposite of seeing with the eyes and the attitude of separation. It is seeing with an expectation first and foremost of revelation. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 2.32)”

1 – ACIM

In A Course in Miracles, Jesus assures us that true vision does not have anything to do with the vision that our eyes have, or the world that our eyes behold. True vision sees beyond the illusion that is this world. It is an internal concept that one can enjoy when he or she has left behind the belief in separation from God as well as separation from our brothers and sisters.

2 – ACOL

A Course of Love, as we have repeatedly described, is based in large part on this theme of relationship and union (often called “unity and relationship”). The words are repeated so often that perhaps we lose sight of their true meaning, but a simple return to what the words themselves mean can set our minds and hearts at rest. We are in relationship to the All, which includes our brothers and sisters as well as God, but this All is actually One (i.e., unity). This easy definition will go a long way toward helping us to understand that Jesus is not asking us to believe or to live the impossible. We can live in unity and relationship, and indeed we will want to do so. Only in that way can we come to know the fullest meaning of salvation, the fullest extent of Awakening to Christ-consciousness.

3 – Perception

We all too often depend on our perception to determine our reactions in this world. This is discussed at length in A Course in Miracles. But we are also told in ACIM that projection makes perception. And who would want to live a projection from ourselves that shows us an evil and suffering world? We will not be blind to suffering when we move beyond seeing in this way, but we will see the larger picture–almost miraculously–and in no way will be tempted to blame our God for this state of affairs. Just as Jesus promises, we can know “pure joy” and “limitless release” on a daily basis. These two phrases can be the way that we view this world, as Jesus has bade us to do constantly. Only then will we know the peace that is held out to us in both ACIM and ACOL.

4 – Revelation

We want revelation to review the end to us, and this glimpse does frequently come when we study A Course in Miracles. Jesus indicates that revelation will occasionally reveal the end to us, but to get there the means are needed—and those means are being carefully explained in ACIM. Revelation is intensely personal and cannot be meaningfully communicated. The revelation cannot be “proved” to anybody (nor would we want to do so). God uses our inner sight to appeal to that which we can understand, said in a way that only we could understand.

5 – Visions

Visions (hallucinations) are miracles, not revelation, because visions are perceptual. Knowledge is revelation. This distinction between perception and knowledge is given repeatedly in A Course in Miracles. Our Guide, the Holy Spirit, and God Himself give knowledge, for knowledge is only of God.

6 – Ask of the Holy Spirit / Christ Self

What would we like to know that we don’t? Ask questions of the Holy Spirit, and He will answer. He will never leave us bereft. We have a Guide Who does not fail. In this era, we are bade to ask questions of the inner Christ Self. So there is a progression between A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love.

7 – Magic

Our own attempts at magic are pitiful in comparison to the knowledge that we will get by asking of the right Source. We put our faith in pills, incantations, affirmations—and some of these are good, at least some of the time. But we don’t get the full benefit of God’s grace until we put our faith in Him and Him alone—and His Communicator, the Holy Spirit.

8 – Our Lives Smooth Out

Then our lives smooth out, and all goes quite a bit better. Maybe, first, just a little bit better, but this little bit expands as our dedication increases. And when we do the Workbook lessons of A Course in Miracles, our minds change to accommodate the knowledge that God wills for all of us.

9 – Personal Interpretation

I see the Bible, A Course in Miracles, and A Course of Love, as progressions to match our culture of the time. God’s revelation in the Christian orientation is one way that we find our way home. Jesus is the leader whom we have chosen. There are other ways for people not receptive to Jesus, but his way is our chosen way, and in this we can rest secure. We will find our way home, and soon. In ACIM and ACOL Jesus is leading us, step by step, to Awakening to Christ-consciousness. In the latter part of ACOL, we see this as the elevated Self of form, the form that we occupy in this physical world. And we need to sustain this form, a feat that Jesus declares has never been achieved in this world.

10 – Time of Christ

Times are different now. We are living in the time of Christ, and light floods our planet. We will find our way home, and soon.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

You would have me to experience true vision–the revelation of a new world that only You can bring to me. In revelation, You reach down to me, and You bless me. I ask for this blessing today.

Be with me as I go about our sometimes woeful world. May I keep my head in the clouds, but my feet on the ground, grounded in You.

Amen.

Connections

“And yet your vision has already changed, although you are not aware of the extent of this change. Realize now that you have come to recognize unity. You do not any longer see each person and event as separate, with no relation to the whole. You are beginning to see the connections that exist and this is the beginning. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 2:29)”

“Connections” is a potent term in our culture today. We are, even in secular society, constantly talking about our connections to others. We want to be connected, no longer separate, encased in physical bodies that don’t reach out to one another.

This change may very well be the result of A Course in Miracles’s increasing influence in our culture. Many people quote from ACIM without letting anybody know the source of their remarks. Many people write entire books with the message of ACIM without ever attributing their sources. So the inclusion of ACIM in our culture is significant. It behooves
us to study the original, with a view toward understanding fully. We can learn what others say, including this blog, and we can get a good overview, but the best writings point to their source, and that is the text of A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love.

“Examine what you may have felt the onset of true vision would mean. Have you considered the question? Have you expected to see in the same way but more lovingly? (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 2.31)”

This command is daunting. We are asked to reexamine our thoughts and emotions for the changes that we are undergoing. And change may be stressful, though Jesus would have us to realize that change, under his direction and without the ego’s interference, is not stressful.

Our vision from God is an expression of revelation. A Course in Miracles explains that revelation will occasionally reveal the end to us, but to get there the means are needed. Those means are, first of all, explained in ACIM. Now A Course of Love has taken us a step forward, beyond the time of the Holy Spirit and His guidance, into Christ-consciousness, which depends on an inner knowing that is normally wordless.

If we have never thought about what true vision would entail, we will not be ready to accept vision from God when it comes. I once read that one should not beseech heaven for a miracle that one would not recognize if seen at high noon. That is a particularly graphic illustration of the change that is set before us now. We must ask for eyes to see, ears to hear. We must be anticipatory about the change that awaits us. Above all, we must not fear this change. Faith can substitute for the fear that we once had, and which we once felt protected us. Faith, as I am describing it, is a form of love–and A Course in Miracles says that fear and love are the only two emotions, all others being variant forms of these two.
May we wait at high noon for the miracle–indeed, the revelation–that awaits us. It qualifies as a revelation rather than a miracle because, asACIM points out, revelation comes only from God. God will stay by us now, as He especially eagerly awaits our transformation. As so many have pointed out before, He has only our hands and feet to do His bidding. (The same has also been said of our guide, Jesus.)

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I long for true vision, for the revelation that Christ-consciousness holds out for me. Be with me today as I keep this request in mind. I know that You have placed this longing in my heart and mind, and that, since it is Your wish, my prayer will be answered. If not today–if I must wait beyond today–help me to prepare for the vision that You will surely grant when I have been made ready.

I believe that if my faith in You is strong enough today, this will be the day that vision will come to me. Help me to be steadfast.

I would have a good day today, resting in Your peace. Be with me as I seek to make good decisions, following the advice and guidance that I get. I would not make my own decisions today, for my judgment is necessarily faulty.

I would make good decisions. For that I need Your guidance.

Thank You for guiding me.

Amen.

Our Vision—Revelation from God—Has Happened

“. . .[Y]our vision has already changed, although you are not aware of the extent of this change. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 2.30)”

1 – Vision

Our vision, our revelation from God, has happened–sometimes intermittently and sometimes on a more permanent basis. We have let go our mistakes–not sins (according to A Course in Miracles). We have asked forgiveness for our misdeeds, and we have received absolution. We still do not fully comprehend all that this new state of being, of Christ-consciousness, holds out to us. We are still living in the shadow of separation from God.

2 – Pray

Pray today to have this dichotomy removed. We will never live a joyful life as long as we are conflicted about our state of mind and heart, our wholeheartedness (a tenet of A Course of Love). We are ready to step into a new world, while yet still inhabiting this world that we have known since our birth. A Course in Miracles talks of the change that individuals undergo who have accepted Awakening–indeed, even before we understand fully what Awakening holds out to us. We are said to smile more often, and we are said to be recognized by others who walk the earth as we do. Yet the individuals who surround us, and who have not experienced this wondrous change, will not see anything different in us. They will think we are as we were before. This is almost a form of communion among believers that many to which many who have not accepted the New are oblivious.

3 – Jesus

We need to ask for Jesus’s help, as our guide, to come to understand this huge change ahead. We are on the cusp of this change, and we will not step forward to accept the elevated Self of form if we hold to ourselves any sense of fear. It is time to leave the ego’s fears behind. It is time to move into Christ-consciousness, perhaps at first tentatively, but with the promise that this new state of mind and heart is meant for us to enjoy on a permanent basis.

4 – Change

Little will change unless we want it to change. We have to make a decision for God. We have to know that we want change, and all too often we are dubious of change if the present is bearable.

5 – Familiar

But there is so much more out there waiting for us. Loose yourself from the familiar today, and choose to know God in a way of greater knowing.

6 – Sorry?

You will not be sorry you did.

7 – Judgment

“You must remember that you are now called to see without judgment. To see without judgment is to see truly. You need not look for good or bad, but only need be steadily aware that you can only see in one of two ways—with love or fear. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 2:29)”

8 – Love

We want to see with love, without judgment, and we must see without judgment if we are to know enlightenment. Judging is one of the prohibitions, and if we cling to it, we will not sustain Christ-consciousness even if we catch a fleeting glimpse.

9 – No Fear

We need to learn how to do without fear. Fear is the language of the ego, and we have known this language for so long that it is familiar to us, and so we cling to it, despite pain and suffering. We do not have to “reject” fear, for to do so would create resistance, and resisting something only makes it stronger in our psyche. We just turn aside easily and peacefully from fear when it enters our lives again. We don’t rail against it. We just quietly say, “No.”

10 – Christ Self

And the Christ Self will enter and heal us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I know what the vision, the revelation, holds out to me. May I know Christ-consciousness in all Its glory. This I pray for today.

If the day brings difficulties, may I realize that these difficulties do not have to be experienced as deeply as once they would have been. With Your help, I am moving into a new world, a world bright with your glory and majesty.

I would be done with fear, and if my resolution weakens, I would know what to do—to turn to You without fail. You will tell me what to do to rid myself of fear, for fear is not Your will. Fear is something that my erstwhile ego made for itself, and it has turned upon me now.

I would live in Your shadow always. I would love, love mightily, and realize that being lost in the love—Your love—is the best and, indeed, only way to put fear to rest.

Amen.

Vision in a New World Is Shared with the All, the One

“You have lived with the vision of the separated self for so long that you cannot imagine what shared vision will mean, and do not yet recognize it when you experience it. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 2.29)”

1 – Shared Vision

This quotation speaks of a shared vision which our separated self never knows. But the time is ripe for this separation to end for many of us, as many as can believe in the One.

2 – One with the All

Shared vision will be one with All, including God as well as our brothers and sisters. Vision is more an attribute of God than is observation, a concept that refers to the physical manifestation of what vision has first shown. But, as this passage says, we have long become accustomed to a separated self. And now we are being asked to move into a shared Self of form, the elevated Self of form.

3 – Christ-consciousness

The elevated Self of form is a manifestation of Christ-consciousness in the physical world. We do not leave this world by death to experience this revelation, and it is revelation from God to us (never the reverse, as A Course in Miracles makes clear). We do not achieve immortality in the physical form that we inhabit, though; this ACOL makes clear elsewhere. This idea of immortality in the physical form that we have now is a frequent misinterpretation of A Course in Miracles. Perhaps it is merely wish fulfillment for those of us who still fear death. But some have said that death itself is like walking through an open door, and who could fear that?

4 – Elevated Self of Form
We do not fully recognize, always, when we are in fact experiencing the elevated Self of form, the revelation of Christ-consciousness. We think that we are not worthy, and so we do not open ourselves to the truth that these altered states of mind and heart are indeed something new and different for us. We need to leave behind the feelings that we experienced when separation was all that we knew. With Jesus as our guide, there is now something more out there, just waiting for us.
5 – Peace

We cannot understand what peace will truly be ours when we have experienced the vision that we share with the All, the One, our brothers and sisters and God. We need to understand, for it is only in the understanding that we fully experience the God Who is within. The Christ Self will guide us, if we let Him. And if we are still caught in the way of A Course in Miracles, the Holy Spirit will guide us. May we look to a Guide today to lead us where we cannot go alone.

6 – I feel conflict when I think that God is a remote Figure, far away from me, not knowing anything about what I do in my illusion. And this conflicted feeling is bound to be of the ego, which I would not reinforce in any way. I have come to recognize that an overwrought feeling is evidence that I am contemplating the wrong pathway. This from long experience. When I prayed, to God, this morning, I felt peace. I would like to give my Goddess a good day, for I am a part of God. How can God not know me when I am a part of God? How can I not recognize this, when Jesus tells me that the final parts of A Course in Miracles are a more direct approach to God, a direct approach that will be traumatic rather than beatific if I approach God without preparation?

7 – Separated Self

We often speak from a separated self, and we rejoice that God does not know about all that we do in this separated self. We would be chagrined if He knew all about us. But He walks with us as a part of us; how can He not know? We need to realize that the All is God-stuff, that we are part of a differentiated Mass, and that God indeed does know all about us. If this makes us uncomfortable, so be it.

8 – A Different Course for Everyone

There is a course for everyone who seeks to spread salvation. Our interpretations differ, and it is up to each of us to decide what to believe. To take another’s word in interpretation is a dangerous concept, one that we best avoid. We need desperately to develop our own interpretations of exactly what is entailed in salvation.

9 – Controversy

Be with me to avoid controversy today. I would avoid controversy, because this is such a dividing tactic on the part of the ego to drive us apart. May we each respect the differing opinions about God, for surely He is beyond our finite minds. We see what we want to see, all too often. We look to Jesus in A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love to set us straight. And even then we still differ. May the ego fail to prevail. May our diversity be a strength and not a weakness.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I believe that the unitive state, the one no longer felt as separation, is my way Home. You are waiting eagerly for me to return. The way has been long and hard. May I find my way Home today.

May any conflict that I have had about You subside in the glow of Your Presence. I feel calm when I pray, and that much is beyond me. May I walk in Your way, today and always.

Amen.