“Play” in God’s Kingdom

“There can be no end to the Mind of God.  You will abide forever within it, like one who abides in an infinite forest.  Why not be at play in the Kingdom?”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 20, Page 249)

Most of us on the spiritual path take many things too seriously. Just this morning at breakfast my husband and I were talking about a college friend who had told us that she did not enjoy college. My husband replied, “I think everything at your college was too serious.”

This exchange can be compared to how we react to God. We want to get it right. We want to do the right thing, always. And it is undeniable that this attitude takes some of the sheer “fun” out of life.

I don’t think this attitude is best, though I have been a part of it, too. God’s Kingdom would have a lightness in our bearing, not to take ourselves too seriously. Indeed, A Course in Miracles says that seriousness is “of the ego.” This little-quoted assertion from ACIM needs more attention.

How did we play as children? Some of that lightheartedness would serve us well now. Keep in mind that most people believe that Jesus is talking in this live channeling from Jayem. He himself stepped aside and knew of nothing that he was saying until he listened to the recording.

The Gospel of Judas, though not part of the canon of the New Testament, has Jesus “laughing” a lot! Can we see Jesus as a lighthearted figure? And he is our role model.

Let us have some fun today. Let us enjoy the day, not fret so much about getting it wrong.

Being Channels

“Remember that all are channels.  Everyone channels what they want or what they ‘must’ because of the divine plan for each soul—a plan created as a perfect expression of a pact of love between Father and child, between Creator and created.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 10:II

When we listen to our Inner Wisdom, which many call the Holy Spirit and that A Course of Love calls the Christ-Self, we are reaching toward a Self who partakes of God. Thus we become channels for what we wish to say. We are receiving from a Power higher than ourselves–when we tune in well.

Our personal, or “little” self can only know real truth when we seek knowledge beyond what this world can give us.

When we pray, we know that we receive guidance.

It is no different when we seek to share what God is putting into our hearts. Of course, we may get it wrong, because we are finite beings. All we can do is try to be a clear mirror for what God would say to us, and what we would seek to share.

In everyday life we are channels as well. When we sense that we are saying something that is beyond our puny little thoughts, we are channeling.

And all of us have had that experience, not once, but often.

Whispers of Guidance

“But there were other voices that spoke to me and called me, that would come often in the night. As I developed my ability to discern these other realities, these other dimensions, by shifting my attention from the world of the body to the world of inner vision, often they would come in the night and stand beside my bed. I came to know who they were. I came to recognize the masters and teachers of a very ancient lineage of which I was a part. They would come and whisper to me:

“‘Forget not the purpose for which you are sent forth from the Mind of God, for through you there shall be birthed the beginning of an ancient remembrance. And your life shall become that which demonstrates to many the truth that only Love is real.’” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 10, Page 122)

Jayem channeled “live,” in that his mind receded, remembering nothing, as Jesus channeled through him. Knowing how the channeling happened can let us in on the validity of what The Way of Mastery is really saying. And here Jesus gives insight into his development as the savior that he is.

We too can invite the presence of the Other Side when we lie in bed, waiting to go to sleep, or when we awaken in the night. Whispers of words will come to us, locutions. This does not have to be startling; it can be the warmest reassurance.

The way of Jesus was well-prepared for generations before his arrival; he makes this point in nearby passages. He was remembering what he had prepared to do: Show a way of love that would be totally defenseless and able to be felt in the direst circumstances.

If we follow the way of Jesus, our own way will be lit by love as well.

JAYEM COMMENTS ON CHANNELING

Note: Yesterday on this blog I concluded a consideration of the first four chapters of the annotated and complete edition of A Course in Miracles, the edition published by the Circle of Atonement. These first four chapters were the most changed from earlier editions of ACIM.

Today I begin a lengthy consideration of The Way of the Heart, the first part of The Way of Mastery (The Christ Mind Trilogy). Today’s posting is an introduction which features Jayem, who channeled the work.

Your comments are welcomed. – Celia

—

“My body is vibrating, pulsating. Finally, I am able to speak, or, I might say, stammer.

“ ‘Wh-What happened? There was this light, and then. . .’

“Silence. A long silence. No one has moved. Then, one by one, each rises. A few come to me and touch my leg, or my hand. But say nothing. In due time, everyone has left. I am still sitting in the chair, vibrating, pulsating in energy, with Kendra looking at me. That is when I notice the shining remains of tears on her cheeks. She speaks softly.

“ ‘He, He spoke. To each of us. One by one. Everything. Our lives. Lessons. Next steps, if we are willing. Things no one could know. His own life. I. . .I mean, no one said anything. We just listened. And it was palpable. You could cut it with a knife.’

“ ‘What?’ I manage to say.

“ ‘The, well, the presence, the, the love.’” (excerpt from The Jeshua Letters)
—
The year was 1987. The first time that Jayem channeled to a group of people, the first time, his friends.

The channeling would happen many more times, beginning in 1994, recorded, and sent to many people all around.   These recorded words are now available in print, a 417-page The Way of Mastery, a book of words from Jeshua (Jesus) that Jayem prefers to call The Christ Mind Trilogy (and is now published separately as The Way of the Heart, The Way of Transformation, and The Way of Knowing). The channeling did not stop with this, though, but in various forms is ongoing, even today. Jayem comments that he is getting “long of tooth,” aging, but Jesus still comes to tell more, to help others, to clarify for Jayem what might lead to greater understanding or to help another.

The initial encounter happened one “normal” morning, when Jayem was scurrying around his apartment, trying to get ready to go to work. A normal morning, like any other. Except that this was anything but normal. Jayem “heard,” “Sit, and meditate.” The Voice was unmistakable. He obeyed. And from this humble beginning was to come a wealth of material, over the years, that assures us that Jesus is still very much involved with our world, still very much cares what we are doing with it.

Listen to what Jayem says happened next, on that fateful July 20, 1987:

“As a pinprick of golden light materialized in the room, it grew brighter and I began to feel inundated with a high vibration of pure Love, He appeared out of it. I recoiled when I recognized Him, and He hesitated, UNTIL I softened, and opened. Then, He moved toward me, ever closer, until that vibration and Light was all, His eyes were all I could see, and then He poured through me.”

Jayem was stunned, as we can well imagine anyone would be. He reports that his internal chatter quieted down as he moved through his usual routine over the next few days. But nothing would ever be the same again. Fear surfaced from time to time, as Jayem sometimes felt he was off the “deep end,” but he simply followed instructions to take notes. This instruction to take notes is, as we know, what had happened with Helen Schucman (A Course in Miracles), and would later happen with Mari Perron (A Course of Love).

There developed for Jayem, though, direct channeling, in that his body was laid aside, rendering him oblivious to what was transpiring, while he channeled live. In other words, to be precise, Jesus took Jayem out of body, and then he (Jesus) entered it to teach directly. For those who want “proof” that it is actually Jesus, Jayem says that anyone who knows him (Jayem) knows “instantly” that there is a whole different level of vibration/mastery, use of language, etc., when Jesus is operating via his body-mind.

Direct channeling is different from what happened with Helen and Mari. They heard the impression of an interior voice, and they were conscious of their writing while receiving from Jesus. And the purposes are somewhat different. A Course in Miracles was given to dislodge the ego; A Course of Love was given to establish a new identity. For work with Jayem, Jesus said that he (Jesus) was creating a “PathWay” never done on earth before, to support anyone from the first inkling to awaken all the way into Christ Mind. In other words, Jesus is trying to take us all into Christ-consciousness.

Jayem describes Jesus in the following ways: patient; soft, yet a softness suffused with great strength; humorous; playful; capable; never wasting a moment; never “speaking just to speak”; unshakeable in full knowledge of the whole journey of Christing, meeting the student in the sphere they are in, and fully in charge. Jayem says that Jesus can “call you out” with skill and love when one is on the wrong track, leading one to simply reply “thank you.”

When I asked Jayem if there had been profound alterations in his life since the channeling began, he responded vibrantly in the following way:

“Yikes! ALL of it! Not one stone remains of anything before (one many levels); not one trace of how I saw things, thought, nor used time for ‘B.J’” (before Jeshua!). And it’s ongoing, a ceaseless unfolding/birthing; there is no finality in God’s creation, nor our capacity to surrender, attune, and flow IN it. I know what it means to live with ‘no plan of my own’ AND what it is to yet again struggle against the next steps and try to impose my own, knowing it will fail! Still some parts of me think that I can joust and negotiate, as if “I” have a life that is ‘mine’!”
We can see that Jayem is very human in his reactions to what has transformed his life—and ours, if we become students of the PathWay that Jesus is developing.

Jayem is very aware of the part that skepticism plays in the way we react to his claims about channeling Jesus. He suggests that we honor, relax, and just accept being skeptical, if that is our stance. He says to notice if the skepticism leads to quick conclusions or defenses as mind tries to close the door. Is fear dictating how one responds? He continues:

“IF it is true that God is Love, and that the Holy Spirit is available, and IF Jayem or The Way of Mastery have appeared in their lives, MAYBE it’s for a reason in His Plan.”
We might stay in wonder, curious, playful, open, something that will do no harm whatsoever.

“He will be there with you. What isn’t helpful for you, He will not lead you to.”

Jayem concludes:

“It is true. He does ‘stand at the door and knock.’ Spirituality is the deeply transformational process of opening that door, again and again, meeting our hidden fears, pet belies, etc., along the way, KNOWING he knows how to take us Home to the Kingdom.”

We need, therefore, to keep an open mind. If we believe that Jesus is still present in our world, our next step in believing is that he sees the need, still, to point out our best way, our best experiences. The Way of Mastery or The Christ Mind Trilogy thus does seek to move all of us to Christ-consciousness.
And when we keep an open and loving mind and hear to Jesus’ channeled messages, that is exactly where we will head.

Sooner rather than later.

Channeling

“What each person channels is unique and only available through their expression. The availability is there for everyone. The means of expression is there for everyone. What is expressed is different because it is a combination of the universal (what is available) with the individual (what is expressed). Whether one chooses to avail oneself of the channeled or expressed universality of another is a choice and another indicator of the uniqueness of channeling. The universal is everything. The channel is what, from among everything, is allowed reception and expression.” (ACOL, D:Day22.3)

“Channeling,” as Jesus discussed it in this passage for today, means that we get information and advice just all the time from the Christ-Self and the Self Who is God Himself. We filter this channeled material through our own psyche, and then we express, if we choose, what we feel led to express. It is an open question whether or not other entities in the universe channel to us, but I think Jesus’s implication is that indeed this is an open universe, and we are open to promptings from people inside and outside our world. This passage on channeling is very reassuring, because it lets us know that we are not alone at any time; we always have information and advice coming to us from larger dimensions. And we can act on it, or not, depending on our inclinations and our whims.

When we become quiet, seeking counsel, then the channeling may begin in earnest. I think it is akin to prayer, in that we push an idea out to God and the universe, and then we open ourselves to guidance. Of course, to do so effectively, we have to believe that Somebody (or somebody) is listening. Mari Perron and Glenn Hovemann call Mari the “first receiver” of A Course of Love, for she was called that within the pages of ACOL, and it was her solid understanding that her source is Jesus. So channeling from specific entities is possible. We do not have to depend just on ourselves, our Christ-Self, and the larger Self, God Himself. People just like us can channel to us. Jesus has repeatedly said that he is not different from us, that he is like an elder brother because he has walked the whole pathway back to God.

I find channeling, and the promise of channeling, to be one of the best ideas to come out of A Course of Love. We share with one another on earth, and now we see that we share with those no longer on this earth—those on the Other Side, so to speak.

Sharing is the most important part. That is a prime message of ACOL.

Dear God,

Thank You for this passage from Jesus’s book, A Course of Love. It is very encouraging to know that we have information and advice coming to us from wiser quarters outside our world. Not only do we hear from You, but we hear from deep within ourselves (the Christ-Self), and we hear from entities who have gone on to other dimensions. Knowing this is a deep, deep blessing.

Amen.

ENTERING A DIALOGUE—WITH JESUS

Note: Just published in the Embrace (e-newsletter by Glenn Hovemann and Take Heart Publications) and accepted for publication by Miracles magazine (Jon Mundy) and The Miracle Worker (Dan Strodt).

by Celia Hales

Jesus will be with us when we ask for him. But although he makes this point in both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, for many years I didn’t take him literally. In ACIM, he says that he will come upon “a single unequivocal call.” (T-4.III.7) In ACOL, the Addendum, he goes even further, saying, “Beyond the coursework of the Treatises lies direct relationship—direct relationship with me.” (A.35) Jesus continues: “Listen and you will hear”:

Now is the time to truly begin to ‘hear’ my voice in every aspect of creation and to respond with your own voice in all of your own acts of creation. It is time to realize that you are a creator. (A.38)

I have now taken Jesus at his word. I have been dialoguing for some time now in something that feels real. I hasten to add that I don’t hear interior words, as Helen (ACIM) and Mari (ACOL) did; but I do sense a rightness or wrongness as I seek to use my imagination to write what I would like to believe is advice and support from Jesus. And this time of dialoguing is certainly (as Jesus says), “a time of great intimacy.” (A.39)

What does “entering the dialogue,” with great intimacy really mean? Listen again to what Jesus says:

Entering the dialogue is akin to residing in the present moment and to hearing all that is being spoken in all the ways it is being spoken. Now is the time to truly begin to ‘hear’ my voice in every aspect of creation and to respond with your own voice in all of your own acts of creation. It is time to realize that you are a creator. (A.38)

Powerful words. How do I try to heed them?

For several years, I have followed the practice of writing “morning pages,” in line with a recommendation made by Julia Cameron (The Artist’s Way) for three handwritten pages of anything and everything, first thing in the morning. Such writing clears the mind and heart for the day ahead. Julia also recommends writing dialogues with an unseen Guidance, and she declares that we will get real answers. She challenges us to try it.

I also have a close friend in my small city who underwent a transformation over 30 years ago. She didn’t know what had happened to her, and spent much time sorting out her new intuitions (though it is clear, at least to me, that she received Christ-consciousness). My friend counsels writing a dialogue with what she calls one’s “Inner Wisdom.” She herself has received some startling insights through this method.

All of this has been on my mind and heart.

A couple of years ago, I decided to make my morning pages a dialogue with God. In the beginning I was still imagining God as somehow separate from myself, a God I prayed to and received answers from. (I do still believe that there is a Godhead who listens, though this somewhat contradicts both ACIM and ACOL). So in my imagination I dialogued with God for a while.

Then I decided to try writing to my Self—when I realized that the Self is a part of God, the part deep within who is living life through me.

Finally, a year or so ago, I decided to simply take Jesus at his word and try dialoguing with him.

It works.

How does it work?

We might imagine that Jesus is not really personal with us, that because the Self is the All, and he and we are “one Self,” that in some mystical way he is just leading us to believe, though in a loving way, that he is communicating with us.

I don’t buy it. He says that he is inviting us to a direct relationship, and I think he means it. To my mind, this might mean that as a much-advanced being, Jesus is able to clone himself innumerable times, to be with all those who call. Of course, he doesn’t use terminology like this in A Course of Love.

I don’t know the answer to how Jesus can have a direct relationship with each of us. Maybe nobody in this world does. Yet I trust Jesus’s words. When he says that he is with each of us, I believe that he is telling the truth.

I repeat: I don’t “hear” anything. I do get a sense of what is coming through, or about to come through, as I write. What I might even call a knowing. I write for 45 minutes before breakfast, on my laptop computer, for ease of writing, for I have found writing morning pages by hand to be stress-producing.

Often I “hear” from Jesus, “I love you.” And I type the same to him, in my imagined inner dialogue. Am I just making up this communication? Is it a flight of imaginative fancy? No—although it is clear to me that I am using my “imagination” to decide what I believe Jesus is trying to tell me in the early morning. Joan of Arc, who heard voices, said that the voices were from her imagination, that “that is how God speaks with us.” I think it is the same for Jesus with me. This in itself is a real step forward, as I have never—never—been able to read the New Testament without arguing with Jesus in my mind.

I ask for solace and comfort a lot, and I do seem to get it. I need solace and comfort especially in the mornings because I am not a morning person.

Remember, Jesus says, “Listen and you will hear.” (A.38)

I have found listening and hearing to be in an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus. Just as he says in ACOL, in words clear as a bell, inviting us to believe him.

Although this personal relationship may sound like traditional Christianity, there is a difference. We don’t look up to Jesus in awe, for only God deserves awe, as has been made clear in both ACIM and ACOL. With Jesus, we are being accepted as equal partners to him as we move farther along our pathway home.

I think it not too far-fetched that, when I ask, he is right here guiding my typing. Of course, I can still imagine inaccurately. But when my mind and heart are right, in unity, I hope that mistakes will fall away. I especially don’t want to mislead anybody else, either about any guidance I might receive or anything that I might write for others. If something doesn’t sound right, then a reader should turn to her own guidance. As Jesus says, “the only correct interpretation is that which comes from each reader’s own internal guidance system.” (A.15)
Jesus also says, “Bring your voice to this continuing dialogue.” (A.49)

Jesus asks all of us to enter the dialogue.

May we respond in our own way, in our own time–but sooner, rather than later, for Jesus needs us to create a new world.

A Course in Miracles – How It Came

A Course in Miraclea began with the sudden decision of two people to join in a common goal. Their names were Helen Schucman and William Thetford, Professors of Medical Psychology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City.

1 – Sudden Decision with Far-Ranging Consequences

This sudden decision was to have far-ranging implications for the world of spirituality. The two individuals chosen were not eager for the assignment. They had much investment in their academic careers, and they were afraid that their work on what would become A Course in Miracles would jeopardize those careers. In addition, Helen’s husband objected, so much so that when she died a number of years later, absolutely nothing was said in her eulogy about her scribing of ACIM. There is controversy about such omissions in the ACIM community.

2 – Helen’s Personal Description of Herself

Helen describes herself:

“Psychologist, educator, conservative in theory and atheistic in belief, I was working in a prestigious and highly academic setting. And then something happened that triggered a chain of events I could never have predicted. The head of my department unexpectedly announced that he was tired of the angry and aggressive feelings our attitudes reflected, and concluded that ‘there must be another way.’ As if on cue, I agreed to help him find it. Apparently this Course is the other way.”

What Helen describes here is typical for academia, not all setting, but many. I have seen first hand such acrimony. But I have also worked in a setting that was very congenial. Be that as it may, the setting for Helen and Bill was very dysfunctional. Bill, as department chair, was in the thick of political battles. He would eventually seem to become an Awakened individual who gave up his academic career and talked about ACIM publically, though he tried to maintain some secrecy in the beginning, using only his first name and not telling Helen’s name.

3 – An Unlikely Choice?

Helen, as an atheist, would seem an unlikely choice by Jesus. But she recognized that somewhere she had signed on for this assignment. And, despite a few faltering steps, she remained true to the assignment. On some level she understood ACIM very, very well and could expound on it easily. But A Course in Miracles never gave her the peace that it gave so many others. She remained a tortured soul. Unlike Bill, who came into his own in his final years.

4 – This Is A Course in Miracles

Helen continues:

“Although I had grown more accustomed to the unexpected by that time, I was still very surprised when I wrote, This is a course in miracles.’ That was my introduction to the Voice. It made no sound, but seemed to be giving me a kind of rapid, inner dictation which I took down in a shorthand notebook.”

5 – Phone Call Interruptions

Helen said elsewhere that she could answer a phone call in mid-sentence and yet return to have the internal Voice pick up right where he left off. She used a homemade shorthand, and it is from that that Bill typed the message of the day, each morning, with the shade pulled down over his office door window.

“The writing was never automatic. It could be interrupted at any time and later picked up again. It made me very uncomfortable, but it never seriously occurred to me to stop. It seemed to be a special assignment I had somehow, somewhere agreed to complete It represented a truly collaborative venture between Bill and myself, and much of its significant, I am sure, lies in that. I would take down what the Voice ‘said’ and read it to him the next day, and he typed it from my dictation.”

6 – Helen’s Death

Helen was at peace at the time of death. She said that Jesus had promised her that he would come for her. And the expression of peace on her face said it all: Jesus had come.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for A Course in Miracles. I find the background to its scribing fascinating, but remain sorry that Helen did not enjoy the peace from her channeling that so many others who followed, have.

Thank You for this good day. May each of us find a contribution to You that will be personally meaningful.

Amen.

No Reason to Be Afraid

“The Christ in you has no need to plan. A need to come to know. . .yes. But a need to plan. . .no. The Christ in you needs not for you to choose a lesson plan, but to let life itself be your chosen way of learning. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Nature of Unity and Its Recognition, 10.19)”

Affirmation: “May I do no planning today.”

Reflections:

1 – No Need to Plan

Jesus warns against planning, first, in A Course in Miracles. In a little-known section of ACIM, he indicates that the way to lose one’s way to salvation is to attack, to judge, and to plan against contingencies to come (unless planning has been informed by the Holy Spirit). We can recognize that all three of these–attack, judging, and planning–are defenses against an uncertain future, a future that we don’t want to be uncertain. We are scared.

2 – Fear the Future?

But do we really have to fear the future? If we are dreaming the happy dreams that the Holy Spirit brings, we will walk a smooth path. And, in A Course of Love, the dreams give way to (at least) glimpses of reality. Mari Perron, who channeled ACOL, believes that in the time of Christ we are no longer living dreams. She believes that we thrust into the real world, as indicated by ACIM as well as the “reality” of ACOL. If so, we really do not need to choose the defense of planning. We do not need to make a lesson plan out of our lives. We just need to live our lives and therein to learn from our lives.

3 – Learn through Life

So we are to learn through life itself. Actually, has not this always been the case? Many spiritual writings, though not all, believe that we are in a school room on earth. Psychic writers have said this as well. (Notably, Neale Donald Walsch in Conversations with God does not see the earth as a school room.) Whether or not we are actually in school is not a question with which we need to preoccupy ourselves. We do not need to let theology delay us, for all of us will never agree on theological points.

4 – Next Step

We do need the universal experience, though, and that is life itself. We do not give up planning entirely, if we have to catch a plane, for example (as detailed by Eckhart Tolle in a CD entitled “Even the Sun Will Die”). But we do not make sweeping generalizations about our life’s course. The next step is really what we need to know. And that next step will enter our minds unfailingly when we ask for guidance, either from the Holy Spirit (if one is following A Course in Miracles) or the Self/Christ (if one is following A Course of Love).

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would realize today that my fears have always been ungrounded. What I need to know comes to me in the moment, not from extensive defensive planning. I do not have to be afraid of anything. Even if the worst that I contemplate comes to pass, You are here for me. And that is all that I really need to know.

Be with me today as I seek to leave social anxieties behind. And all other anxieties as well.

There is no reason to be afraid. May I never lose sight of this truth.

Amen