Change of Mind

“Therefore, The Way of Transformation does not require you to change your circumstances.  It merely requires that you change your attitude toward them by recognizing that they are harmless, by recognizing that you have called all things to yourself.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 14, Page 170)

It is very reassuring to me to realize that I have called all things to myself.  If I like what I have called, then all is well.  If I don’t, then I have the means to change it.  We really do have that power.

Attitudinal shifts can be easy.  It just requires that we make up our minds for a change.  When we pray, we get inklings of the things that need to change in our lives.  And then we make the tiny effort required to turn things around to something better—if we are not satisfied with what we have.  But often, the only thing that needs to change is our attitude.  We need to realize that God’s way is right and good, and when we follow the best and highest that we know, all is well.

Our circumstances may not seem harmless to us, but when we change our attitude toward what transpires, we can see the benefit in what we have been through.  We know more now, we love more now—and so attitudinal change is inevitable as we progress along life’s highway.

Make up our mind to alter what we don’t like.  We will be helped.

Change Is in the Air

Without those pursuing the way of Jesus, those pursuing the way of Mary would have a much more difficult task. There would be little space in which to anchor the new. Those following the way of Jesus create the openness of the spacious Selves who allow for the anchors of the new to be cast and thus to ride out the many storms of this time of transition. (ACOL, D:Day19.17)

Jesus’ way is preparing the new, and then Mary’s way embraces it. The spacious Selves are all of us who open to a greater way, in a “spacious” way. We are well fixed in this manner of creating a new world, because the ways of both Jesus and Mary make that new world possible.

There are storms in this time of transition. We need not fear them, for we have been prepared. Our understanding of Jesus’s message in A Course of Love (and other channeled writings) assure us that we are on the right track. We rest from our labors when we rest in his mercy.

But now is not the time of rest. We are working mightily to change things, to create new things. Ask, inwardly, for guidance as to what to do. That guidance will be forthcoming; we are promised this. Our Christ-Self, who has learned much, will now be in a position to make a bridge to God Himself, the larger Self, Who will see that we don’t falter.

Be reassured that all is well. We will make it back. Salvation is ours.

Change from Within Works

“Imagine then, a society in which the prevalent legal view is simply that your brother or your sister is an aspect of yourself. And if you would help yourself, you must help them—meeting each cry for help and healing with forgiveness, love and support. Can you imagine, for a moment, what it would be like to live in such a society? How would it be different than the world you see?

“If you would have these things be different, it must begin with you. For the way to heal the world is not by seeking to change what is on the outside, but by first changing what is on the inside. When that change has occurred, you will become a conduit for an energy that knows how to use your gifts, and how to place you in just the right situations. And a great power will work effectively through you—the power alone that knows how to heal your world.” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Chapter 3, Page 29)

The truth is that we ARE aspects of each other, for we are One. And this One includes all the people in the world, as well as all energy everywhere. If we realize that to harm another is to harm ourselves, we will be less likely to strike out. In fact, we won’t strike out at all.

This truth becomes clearer when we realize that we think we have been harmed, and we want to lash out. Why would we hurt another as we have been hurt if we are all the same?

We wouldn’t. I can imagine that even our penal system would alter tremendously when we realize that we are all One. We all have the potential to harm.

We need to meet bad things with an attempt to heal. Everything negative is actually a call for help and healing, and when we realize this, and express a desire to help and heal, we are on the right track.

We can’t actually alter the exterior unless we have first altered the interior, our very propensities emanating from our personalities as well as our souls. This is what traditional Christianity says, including the orator Billy Graham. The buck stops here. We are in need to change, first, before we can take that change and influence our world—indeed, even create a new world.

Change from within works. Nothing else does.

Change from Within—from God Within

“Let me assure you of what you already know, that everything about my life was purposeful. That challenge was meant then, and continues to mean now, a call to a new choice. It asks that you challenge your world-view in a most thorough manner.

“The problem with this throughout the centuries has been a tendency to challenge one world-view only to replace it with another of no greater truth or value. My challenge has been reacted to as a challenge to be external¬ized, a call to create a new system. But nowhere in my example life is such a system found despite all attempts to make it so.” (ACOL, D:Day4.17 – Day4.18)

There is no “system” in Jesus’s words and actions, because meaningful change comes from within. That doesn’t mean that we don’t call on other people, but ultimately it is up to us to change from the inside out. This type of advice helps in all kinds of problems.

Our world-view has been based in the ego, and now we have learned that egoic thought is just insanity, madness, a way of thinking that is confused and confuses us. At this point in A Course of Love, all we have left of the ego are egoic patterns, but these can be very powerful shapers of our destiny. We need, slowly but surely, to drop the egoic patterns—the tendency to consider something that is egotistical, to depend on ourselves alone, and then to try to go it alone. We need other people for solace and companionship. Our new world-view does not exclude relationships.

We are making new choices all the time. Now we are asked to make new choices in line with this course. And we can. Listen to the heart. What is it saying to us? How might we live better if we stayed in a mind and heart united to a higher purpose?

The way back to God is not long and hard. He will answer us, when we ask. The problem is that we think we know all the answers. There is a stubbornness that develops in people who are on the spiritual pathway. But humility would check our forward march. We don’t know everything; in fact, we know very little. In the face of the cosmos, we need to look up and seek direction. Then the change from within will be well-sourced.

Dear God,

Help me to have a good day. May all of my choices be sourced in You. May I lead no one astray. May You inform all my decisions.

The way back is not hard, but it is impossible if I think that I have all the answers. You do have the answers, and You will share then with me when I ask. I ask now. I ask every day.

Amen.

Mind and Heart Join to Effect Change

“No matter which path you follow, the path of the mind or the path of the heart, you will not get where you are wanting to go until they are joined. You might imagine three paths—one path representing mind, one path representing heart, and one path representing wholeheartedness. The path of neither mind nor heart alone will take you where the path of unity will take you, and the journey will not be the same.” (ACOL, C:21.7)

Jesus here tells us precisely what he tells us, in other words, in many places in A Course of Love: that we need the mind and heart, joined together in wholeheartedness. Our heart has always known the truth of our unity one with another and with God, but the mind rebelled, and this prevented the heart and body from elevating to a Self that exists with the All in unity and in relationship. Our minds were just too eager to jump ahead, in this physical form in which we found ourselves, too eager to be patient and learn all that needed to be learned in a new way of existing, the physical form itself.

But we are coming to see, through, I would hasten to add, both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love. ACIM dislodged the ego, but without the ego we were still mired in a sense of purposelessness, unsure of any new identity. ACOL came along to solve this personal problem, many believe, to establish a new identity and to elevate the self of form, to see that we became the elevated Self of form. This Self is the inner Christ, and when we live by the new rules, we are embodying Christ-consciousness. We finally know where we are going and what we are to do. We receive this knowledge by observation, vision, revelation. The words will become clear as we move forward in the pages of A Course of Love.

Our path IS clear when we join what we know in our hearts to a newly discovered mind that is free of the ego. We join heart and mind together, for we cannot proceed far without their cooperation. This new phase is called “wholeheartedness,” the joining of heart and mind to create a new world while we sustain Christ-consciousness.

If we have not walked far enough long the path to realize all that this path holds out to us, we must counsel patience. We will see the end point, the ever-expanding work of creating a new reality in this world.

This change is coming not a moment too soon, as all of us who listen to the daily news know so well. A Course in Miracles created great change in the hearts and minds of many who had never read it, because its tenets found their way into spiritual and psychological literature without attribution. Now we are on the cusp of a similar spreading of the message of A Course of Love.

This world will never be the same again.

Prayer

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank you for guiding my thoughts as I seek to contain my enthusiasm for this latest revelation in A Course of Love. May its message spread in our troubled world. May more and more of us see glimpses of Christ-consciousness, then longer experiences, then maintain the new consciousness, and then fully sustain it. This is a lot to ask, but I know within my being that I am asking within Your will.

Be with us as we seek to make the choice for Christ-consciousness. You will reach now at the right moment and lift us up. The ultimate decision is Yours. I pray that this time of change may envelop all of us sooner rather than later.

Amen.

The Only Change Needed to Bring Permanent Happiness

“It is true that your free will is powerful as it is part, but only part, of what has allowed you to believe in your separated state. While you could have used your free will to create like unto your Father, by choosing to make yourself separate from Him—something that could never truly occur—you have chosen instead to do nothing at all with your free will but make this one insane choice. Your willingness to make a new choice is what will once again make your free will like unto your Father’s will, which is one with it in truth.” (ACOL, C:11.12)

The assertion that our true will is the same as that of God’s Will is the same assertion made in A Course in Miracles. Here the idea is elaborated, in that we are told that we chose to make only one insane but impossible choice with our free will—the choice to be separate from our Father. We couldn’t actually effect this, as He and we are One forever. He lives in us, we live in Him; we are, as has been said repeatedly, part of Him. The only thing that God could differentiate was Himself, and thus He created individuations of Him in order to experience Himself to the fullest. This is revelation that differs from Christian doctrine, but, if we can set aside what we taught as children, we can see the common sense of the assertion.

We do want to make a new choice, one in line with God’s Will, for this change is the only change needed to bring permanent happiness to us. Our function is said in A Course in Miracles to be salvation, forgiveness, happiness—and these are all equated. Our function in A Course of Love is akin. But we are said to be on the verge of making a new decision that will elevate our physical form to the Self, the inner Christ Self Who is longing to come out and be present in our world. This Self is our new Guiding Light, the replacement in guidance for what the Holy Spirit used to do for us (according to A Course of Love).

Free will, of course, is what has enabled us to live a supposedly “separate” existence from God, a separate existence that is impossible in fact. But we could imagine ourselves separate, and in this illusion we could live a miserable and drama-filled life that gave ascendance to the ego, our new version of ourselves. This new version is, of course, insane, and its very insanity is its Achilles heel. Its insanity assures us that when we think more clearly, we will not want any part of this false personal self. Our new personal self will only be the part that we show others, representing our Christ Self. The personal self, therefore, does not fade away, but is transformed, remaining the outer self. This is a truth that is often overlooked a we read ACOL. The idea that the personal self would be no more is tempting, but inaccurate. Yet we can surely imagine that the transformation will give us personalities that will interact well with each other, sharing ourselves as we go about our daily lives in a world that is fast becoming something better.

Use our free will today to choose God anew, a choice that uses only a little of the abundant willingness that we indeed possess. We will see that this new choice will give us everything that we have been wanting in life. Our inheritance of God’s blessings is assured, but we have to be new people to appreciate and to take control of the new world that we will create.

No More Time to Waste

“This is why no more time can be wasted and why so many are being called in the strongest manner it is possible to call them. It is only when what is observable is so widely evident that it can no longer be denied that changes of a large scale will begin to be seen. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 19.14)”

Affirmation: “Guide me to do my part in change today.”

Reflections:

1 – Our World

This passage for today from A Course of Love is similar to the celestial speedup that was said to be the genesis of A Course in Miracles. We are in trying times indeed, and enough people in our world need to get on the pathway so that we can turn around the chaos in which we find ourselves.

2 – The Call

Many are, according to this passage, being called in the “strongest manner.” If you have felt the urgency of this call, then you too can add your testimony to this phenomenon.

3 – Social Gospel

We need change on a large scale. But just as traditional evangelists said, we need to change internally before we can meaningfully change the world. This is an attitude in some contradiction to the social gospel, which often was deemed by some to be enough. But we make mistakes when the unchanged seek to make change. We don’t accomplish nearly as much as we might if our minds and hearts were first changed. We fall down on our faces, giving people bread without teaching them to grow wheat—or giving them a fish without teaching them to fish.

4 – Avoid Controversy

This gets us into controversy, and I would not lean credence to controversy. Listen to your mind and heart, and make the changes therein that you are called to make. Then will the social gospel really make change in a meaningful way.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would do my part to effect change today. If I see a need, I will try to fulfill it if I can, if it is my part to do so. I will offer solace to those with whom I come in contact. And I will remember that an internal change is necessary before meaningful social change is possible.

May I not be tempted to be an “unhealed healer,” and that is what I would be if I sought to change the world before my heart were changed. Change my heart today, to be more loving and more kind, more peaceful and more joyous. The change that this will bring in my outer world will happen instantaneously, and for that I thank You.

Amen.

Have No Fear

“By saying that there is no loss but only gain within the laws of love, you are being told to have no fear. Fear of loss is a great temptation of the human experience. If it were not for this fear of loss, you would not find it difficult to live by the thought system of the truth. This fear relates very strongly to your ideas of change and as such is the greatest detriment to your new beginning. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 16.12)”

Affirmation: “I would recognize today that there is no loss.”

Reflections:

1 – No Loss

We do not have to fear loss, because there is none. This idea is also developed in A Course in Miracles. Until we realize that we lose nothing, we will have some hesitancy about the route that we have taken (a paraphrase from ACIM). Closely aligned, therefore, is a fear of change. The old is familiar, and even if it is not wholly pleasant and life-affirming, at least we think that we know what to expect. So we plod along, like Sisyphus with his rock, and we never know what we are missing, though we intuit that we are missing something.

2 – Comfort in Religion

There is a benefit to religion that is often missed. There is a comfort that makes of religion very, very practical. Our fears and anxieties subside when we pray, and that makes of prayer a very practical decision. We must not fear censure for “using” religion, for practical religion, in the most elemental sense, leads us to the joy that is characterized by a vibrant faith.

3 – Leave Behind the Old Life

We have nothing but our old, stale lives to lose by change. We ought not to cling to the familiar, for there is plenty of fear in that. The old and familiar did not serve as very well. It was the egoic perception of this world, and we know by now that this is a false “religion.” The ego only gave to take away, and its flights of joy were paid for in tears of pain (a paraphrase from ACIM).

4 – Salvation Works

We lose nothing when we turn to the salvation outlined in A Course of Love. On the contrary, we only gain. So don’t let another moment’s hesitation keep you from what God wills. His way is joy. His way is the more subdued happiness. And contentment follows as well. The salvation that ACOL holds out to us works.

5 – The Accomplished

Remain vigilant against the ego’s dictates, and recognize, in humility, that we have traveled far along the pathway. We may not understand what Jesus means by calling us The Accomplished, but if he says it, perhaps we ought to listen.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would embrace change today, knowing that the old, egoic life is over, and only better times are ahead. I know that this does not mean that there will nevermore be pain in this life, but I do know that I don’t have to exacerbate the poorer experiences that do come. And with God’s help, I won’t exacerbate pain into suffering.

I would not fear change, knowing that the future is always brighter than the past when I follow Your way. You are there for me, always. And I sense Your presence in my better moments, and that is a very great blessing. Thank You for gently leading me ahead. Always gently.

Amen.

The Future Can Be Different from the Past

“You must now birth the idea that human beings do indeed change. While you have known instinctively that there is a core, a center to each that is unchangeable, you must now give up the idea that this core or center has been represented by the past. You must forget the idea that the future cannot be different than the past. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 15.7)”

Affirmation: “The future can be different from the past.”

Reflections:

1 – The Past

The past carries a lot of baggage. Just prior to the passage for today, Jesus gives examples of apprehensions about the future for certain people being any different from their past. He catalogs a student who has done poorly in school in the past (and hopes to change), an alcoholic who is on the wagon (and hopes to stay there), the loved ones of an alcoholic (who hope for the best), and criminals in our penal system who are not really expected to be rehabilitated. In all of these cases, the past can be changed, even though expectations are sometimes low. In today’s passage, Jesus affirms for us that the past does not have to hold us captive. We can change, and so can our circumstances.

2 – Our “Center”

The core or center of a person has not really been represented by the personal self in league with the ego. There is an unchangeable core or center, but for most people we have never seen it. But it is this core or center that is the Self/Christ toward which we are marching. And when this Self/Christ comes forth, the future will be very unlike the past. People will seem to change and to change greatly.

3 – Christ Self

Let us have hope that the individuals in this world will come more and more to rely on the Christ Self that is within. Jesus has said that we are now living in the time of Christ, that the time of the Holy Spirit (represented by A Course in Miracles) is over. By this, I understand him to be saying that those of us who read and take to heart A Course of Love are living in the time of Christ. (This is personal interpretation.) For those still depending upon the Holy Spirit, ACIM is appropriate, but there is a step beyond, in ACOL, that we are seeking. And we can know the Awakening that ACIM holds out to us, and we can know the Christ-consciousness that ACOL discusses, and these two descriptions of enlightenment are different terms for the same phenomenon. Not everybody will reach enlightenment, but many of us will see glimpses of enlightenment in our daily lives. And the extent to which we give over our egoic self-will is the extent to which God (or the Holy Spirit, in ACIM) can work with us. We can change. Let us take steps today that will look inward to that core or center that does not change. Let us realize that the egoic personal self can transform into the holy personal self (an interpretation, not stated as such in either ACIM or ACOL).

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

This is a time of great change for me, and not only in external factors. I hope to change on the inside, so that my central core becomes One with You. Help me to make this transition, a transition that is in line with Your wishes for all of us.

Be with me in the days that follow. May the external changes that I face be gentle and easy. May the internal changes that I hope for come without hassle and upset.

I wish for my brothers and sisters, as well as myself, a good day. I know that if all of us stay attuned to You, the day will go well—regardless of what we face.

Amen.

Those Who Will Be Visited by Great Change Are Those Who Desire It

“As you begin to dwell in the house of truth and see with the eyes of love, you will see far less about the life you lead that you would change than you would imagine. You fear where all your new ideas might take you, and for some great changes may surely await, but those who will be visited by great change are but those who desire it. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 14.5)”

Affirmation: “I will contemplate whether or not I want great change.”

Reflections:

1 – Personal Experience

I know first hand the truth of this passage. I recognize that at this moment I do not wish for great change in my life. There is some struggle, but largely my life is going well (contrary to some periods in the past), and perhaps this passage means that ought to credit my study of A Course of Love with this general good in my life. We do create what we dwell upon, and when we have dwelled upon the good message of ACOL, we are less likely to want great change.

2 – Solution Is Always with the Problem

For those of you who are going through a rough patch of time, yes, of course, choose anew for change. It is very likely that this change for the better will ensue quickly, for the solution is always with the problem, and when we ask for the solution, it presents itself. It is important to note that great change will not be thrust upon us if we are unwilling to experience great change. We will “desire it” and see the change come to pass. We have nothing to fear, for we are perfectly safe.

3 – Gratefulness

The best way to ensure good times as a continuation into the future is to be grateful for what we already have (an interpretation, not emphasized in either A Course in Miracles or ACOL). The function of gratitude is to get us ready for even better things in the future. Even if the present seems dire, we do indeed have many things for which to be grateful, even though our eyes may be blind to those things. Talk to someone who has a fresh eye, who can see the advantages that you do actually enjoy. This is a better pathway than cursing what seems to be darkness.

4 – Change May Come Gradually

Change will come to all of us, but an implication of today’s passage is that the change will not come overwhelmingly or in great quantity if we are living a life that we like. We have become ready to accept what we have.

5 – Acceptance

Accepting what we have is the first step toward increased blessings. And gratitude for what we have is the means. Again, this is an interpretation, and it is based on the law of attraction.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I am intensely grateful today for what I have. It is easy, of course, to be grateful when things are going well. But some individuals develop great faith when things are going badly. And they have learned through pain to do so.

Jesus says that it is not necessary to learn through pain, that learning through rewards is lasting, and learning through pain is not. Let us seek today to learn through rewards. And may those rewards gradually lead us to the changes in our lives that we wish.

If we see much wrong with our lives, let us move forthrightly to change. May we welcome this change, never fearing it. Fear is of the ego, of course, and we are leaving the ego behind—indeed, we have done so, though lapses may still occur. Evolution is not a straight line.

May all of us have a good day. May we rest in the contentment that allows us to be truly productive, but without strain or struggle. We do not have to struggle to be good; we merely have to rest in Your promises. You will take us home, and You will reach down and lift us up to Awakening when the time is right. I rest in that promise today. Thank You.

Amen.

Growth and Change

“As a tree exists fully accomplished within the seed and yet grows and changes, you exist fully accomplished within the seed that is the Christ in you even while you continue to grow and change. Physical form and action of all kinds are but expressions of what already exist within the seed of the already accomplished. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Nature of Unity and Its Recognition, 6.8)”

Affirmation: “I will focus on the seed that is I today.”

Reflections:

1 – Still Grow and Change

This passage for today explains how we can be The Accomplished, and still need to grow and change. This explanation has not been apparent earlier in the Treatise. We are like seeds, embryos, who are growing and changing with every expression of Self. Like the tree, which is fully formed in the seed, we are fully formed also. But our expression of that form is not yet complete.

2 – Elevated Self of Form

But the expression of that form will become complete, when ultimately we become the elevated Self of form, the Christ Self who currently is hidden deep within ourselves. We do not have to struggle to make this transition. It will come naturally, in the course of things. And we will never be the same again.

3 – Transformation

In the meantime, the transformation may come in spurts; we may experience the Christ Self in glimpses only, maybe for quite a long while. And these glimpses will not last, although some lucky people do undergo a sudden Awakening (as did Eckhart Tolle, who details his experience in The Power of Now).

4 – Help the Seed Grow?

Do we need to help the seed grow? Somewhat, but not entirely. Anything resembling struggle will be of the ego, and we want to turn aside from the ego. We can contemplate, meditate, pray, read, and in the doing of it we will learn by observation where we are headed. But intense study is not required, and indeed would be counterproductive.

5 – Easy Does It

Go easy with yourself, and all will be well, in time, in God’s time.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I need to understand fully what You are asking of me. I need to know that You don’t want me to struggle to transform. But that you do want me to transform.

This change is elusive to me, and I wonder if there is anything else I need to do to comprehend more. Your way is being spelled out, but I still don’t always feel that I am The Accomplished, as said in this treatise. I see weaknesses.

Be with me to transform those weaknesses into strengths.

Amen