Communion

“[T]rue communication is communion, the union of two souls and with them, all souls in union with the totality of self.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 7:III

The Self is another way of speaking of God.  Our Christ-Self, which we try to access as we progress, is one with this Self.  This is the “totality” of which Choose Only Love speaks (as does A Course of Love).  We are one with God, though we are too encased in ego sometimes to see this.  As we progress, we relinquish the ego and are left only with the patterns of the ego—something that can still trip us up.

Communion with our God is the sweetest thing we can ever do.  When we truly reach inward to Him, we know a peace that envelops all of our life.  We feel truly at home, for in this we are touching heaven.  Likewise, when we commune with our brothers and sisters in this world, we are soothed beyond belief.  We truly communicate, and when we truly communicate—understand and are understood—we are blessed beyond description.

We start with our brother or sister, our way home as described in A Course in Miracles.  Our holy relationships show us God.  And we go home to heaven holding the hand of our brother or sister.

Allow our communion with other people and with our God inform our day.  There is no better way to have a good day.

Reach Out & Touch God

“The Bible repeatedly states that you should praise God. This hardly means that you should tell Him how wonderful He is. He has no ego with which to accept such thanks and no perceptions with which to judge your offerings. But unless you take part in the creation, His joy is not complete because yours is incomplete. And this He does know. He knows it in His Own being and its experience of His Sons’ experience. The constant going out of His love is blocked when His channels are closed, and He is lonely when the minds He created do not communicate fully with Him.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-4.X.8:1-7)

This quotation is a favorite of mine, for it acknowledges that the God we know may have very human emotions, though spiritualized and non-egoic. After all, it is even said in Genesis that God created us in His image. So why would the One Who created us not share some traits with us?

This may sound blasphemous, but it doesn’t to me. I like to think, even, of God as a new husband, keen on pleasing his new wife, eager to do things for her that make her happy. In this analogy (imperfect though it may be) God enjoys hearing our appreciation, wants our gratefulness, not because it is necessary for His joy, but because He knows that it is necessary for ours. If we aren’t grateful, we take this glorious life for granted, and we drop into the doldrums at the first instance of suffering/pain that comes our way.

Keep our minds and hearts elevated. That is the great secret of living life with a joyous spirit. If possible, make a list of those things that give happy moments, and so more of them. This is frequent advice in the self-help literature to increase one’s experience of happiness.

But elevating the mind and heart works. Even if circumstances surrounding us do not seem to warrant a positive outlook. Everything improves with positive emotions. Positive emotions are half the battle in any and all challenging situations.

Communion with God

“As long as perception lasts, prayer has a place. Since perception rests on lack, those who perceive have not totally accepted the Atonement and given over themselves to truth. Perception is a separated state, and the perceiver does need healing. Communion, not prayer, is the natural state of those who know. God and His miracles are inseparable.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-3.VII.15:1-5)

This quotation gives us an understanding of the movement from traditional prayer, as supplication, when we are perceiving, into communion with God, when we know instead of perceive. This is an important distinction, because we need to comprehend very precisely, or we will feel bereft, without a God to Whom we can appeal when things get rough. And they will still sometimes get rough.

When we commune with God, we go into a very deep place that is calm and tranquil. We never frantically try to get His attention, something that we are prone to do in supplication when we are distraught. The God we are seeking is deep within us, so deep that we had lost sight of Him earlier, when the ego ruled.

But now we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, an Intermediary Who leads us into God’s presence when we still cling to tendrils of fear of Him. Later on, in the age of Christ (actually where we are now), we will approach God directly, for we no longer will be fearful of His Being. We will know that we are in a right relationship to Him, and we will not foolishly think that He is going to judge us for trying, in illusion, to be separate from Him.

So we seek communion with God now. This is the blessed state all the saints enjoyed. And it is here for all of us now.

Commune Directly with Our Innermost Being

“You are no more accomplished than anyone has been or is or will be. The truth of who you are is as accomplished as the truth of all of your brothers and sisters from the beginning of time until the end of time. Any text that tells you that you or those of your kind or time are more or better than any other is not speaking the truth. This is why we began with the chosen and will return again and again to the statement that all are chosen.” (ACOL, T4:2.7)

“Accomplished” as something that we are appears in this quotation for today to be a tenet of equality of one brother or sister to another. We are not “better” than another, and neither are we inferior. God is living through all of us, and talents that seem greater in one will be equalized on another plane of existence. Talents will all be shared equally, and this is a great blessing. We don’t have any reason to feel either superior or inferior, for we are indeed all equal. We are all chosen by God for a higher purpose, and it is up to us to discover that purpose, which differs from one person to another.

What else might “accomplished” mean? We don’t have to merit our grace from God. He gives to all equally, though it is true that not all recognize His blessings, especially His blessing of grace. Those who don’t feel God’s warmth, who cannot bring themselves to believe in a Higher Power, are living under a heavy burden. When we can believe that God is present in us and is living through us, we can make it through difficulties that would devastate somebody without our knowledge (and it is “knowledge”).

All are chosen by God for a better life than has been lived heretofore. All. And this means people of religions other than Christianity. The way back is set out for us in Scripture of many religions. It is just that we have chosen both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love as our way home. And we have chosen Jesus as our guide. We accept his words as the particular slant on reality that we want to believe. And then reality accommodates, for we do create our own reality.

If the day seems harsh, know that there is a higher purpose going on. All of us have bad days, and it behooves us to rise above them. Praying can help, can help mightily. And God hears our prayer. The Christ-Self Whom we are listens and provides comfort. This Christ-Self is performing the very comfort that in an earlier era was performed by the Holy Spirit. Now we no longer have to have an intermediary, but can commune directly with our innermost being. We are not afraid of God any longer.

Prayer

What do I try to remember to do when I get upset? I try to sink deep inside, feeling the warmth of God Himself. He overwhelms me with peace, when I have focused on being calm enough to feel that peace. God knows when emotions overwhelm; our Christ-Self is, however, the fulcrum that doesn’t move. When I allow my Christ-Self to be my ruling self, I am in for a much better time.

Help me to know no nervous energy today. Nervous energy invigorates, but it also tires. I would enjoy this new day given me with a peaceful heart and mind that know that Your way is one of reassurance that You are always here for me.

Thank You.

Amen.

Prayer Is Communion

“You will be prone to calling upon the Christ as your higher self to defend you against the ego-self. This is highly akin to your former notion of prayer and assumes that there is something real that you need defense against or saving from. This is how the notion of Christ as savior arose. This is the belief in a good self and a bad self with Christ acting as conscience and defender of good and the ego acting as devil and defender of evil. This is nonsense, or but a form of the insanity that is prevalent still, even in your thinking. You do not realize that this source of conflict is the source of all conflict that seems real to you within your world. This battle of good and evil, while you believe in it still, will be demonstrated before you just as it has been from time immemorial. Is this what you would have continue? Does this not but reveal to you a fraction of the power of your thinking and its ability to shape the world you see?” (ACOL, T2:11.15)

Those of us reared in the Christian tradition have long battled good vs. evil, God vs. the devil. But we learn now that the ego is the real devil, and the way get out of egoic thinking is to gently turn aside from it, not to resist, for resisting strengths the ego because resisting makes us think that there is something real there.

There is nothing real about the ego at all. It is but an illusion. If we are to know true reality, we need to get the place there true reality stands—wholeheartedness, a heart and mind united in Self, and holy relationships with our brothers and sisters. The Christ-Self in us is relationship, for we are in relationship to God Himself, and this Self is One with all of our brothers and sisters. We could not actually experience anything as One, undivided. It takes relationship to be able to experience at all, for Wholeness without division would not be experiential. Yet each part, divided, does contain the whole, though finite minds do not comprehend the whole. Our true reality is in the unity that we share as One, and in the dichotomy of differential expressions of that unity—expressions of the One, entities, brothers and sisters, with whom we enjoy holy relationships.

Our former notion of prayer was to an external God Who would, maybe, listen to us, and, maybe, answer our prayers. Our new understanding of prayer is of a communion with the deepest part of Self, the Self Who is in union with the God within. And He always answers our prayers. Naturally, this part of Self always listens. We do ourselves an injustice if we turn aside from such communion. We are meant to remain in communication with God constantly.

Do we really think that we contain both a good and a bad self? Do we still hold to the idea that the “devil” can tempt us into wrongdoing? The ego surely can tempt us, until it is gone for good, and the ego is the closest, false aspect of self that is close to the concept of the devil. Our self is innocent, and therefore good. Of course, we may make a myriad of mistakes, but the Self will save us. And we can rectify many of these mistakes. If such does not seem possible, let us know in the marrow of our bones that we are still forgiven for these mistakes. But we have to forgive ourselves, and this may be the hardest part.

Put to rest the concept of an evil entity called the “devil.” Know that when we have turned aside from the idea of doing battle with evil, we will have made a giant step forward in our progress toward enlightenment. Our ego will wither away from non-attention. We will no longer be interested in competing stridently with one another. Our new way of sharing, one with the other, is all that remains as we turn aside from this illusory battle of good and evil.

Prayer

Thank You for this good day and for the tool kit of meditation, prayer, and affirmations that You recommend to me. This tool kit does much to stabilize my days. It is a godsend indeed.

Be with me as I seek to avoid a conflict-ridden day. This day is not meant to be lived in conflict—not day is. And today, so far, has been all harmony. I would have this peace continue. I would know You, and in the knowing I would come to keep myself in good control—living peaceably with all my brothers and sisters.

Thank You for sharing Yourself with me. Thank You for being You. Your warmth surrounds me today. It gives me hope for a good day and also hope for an even better future. The sense of Your Presence is calming, always good. Be with me in this way all through the day today. Please.

Amen.

Can God Be Reached Directly?

1 – God in Our Prayers

“Can God be reached directly? God indeed can be reached directly, for there is no distance between Him and His Son. His awareness is in everyone’s memory, and His Word is written on everyone’s heart. (M64)”

2 – Bible

This passage recalls to mind the biblical quotation, “The kingdom of God is within.” Certainly many passages in the Course suggest that God is within, that there is no division between God and ourselves. We see here that there is no distance between God and His Son (or Daughter). This is the Self that is the larger part of ourselves, the part that has never left God.

3 – Memory

How reassuring to know that the awareness of God is in everyone’s memory! And that we can indeed, as the Bible says, “Ask, and ye shall receive,” because His Word is written on everyone’s heart. The sentence from the passage that says this is particularly beautifully written, and it encourages peace and inner quiet by its reassurance.

4 – Be Quiet

We can receive God’s Word directly in the midst of our busiest activities, but more often we hear His word when we are quiet and therefore more receptive to the still, small Voice within. May we turn to Him when perplexed, and may we know that our prayers are heard, and, better still, our prayers are answered.

5 – Barriers

“Yet this awareness and this memory can arise across the threshold of recognition only where all barriers to truth have been removed. In how many is this the case? (M64)”

6 – Projection Makes Perception

God can be reached directly when barriers to His coming have been removed. If God is within, if projection makes perception, then we are projecting an illusory world. But God is akin to a hologram, and Each is present in the One, the All, the every bit. So we turn inward, seeking to diminish the ego’s static that would prevent us from knowing the inner Christ Self.

7 – Awakening

All barriers to truth have not been eliminated in the vast majority of us. These barriers are eliminated only in Awakening, or enlightenment. And in how many is this manifested? Eckhart Tolle indicates that more and more of us are experiencing enlightenment, but the phenomenon is not yet widespread in society.

8 – Soon

May we move into this new day sooner rather than later.

9 – Teachers

“Here, then, the role of God’s teachers. They, too, have not attained the necessary understanding as yet, but they have joined with others. This is what sets them apart from the world. And it is this that enables others to leave the world with them. Alone they are nothing. But in their joining is the Power of God. (M64)”

10 – Join with Others

We must join with others to have enough power to effect change. This does not mean that we try to change the world from an unhealed perspective. The inefficacy of the unhealed healer is a phenomenon described in A Course in Miracles. And we don’t want to be unhealed healers.

11 – How Do We Join?

So, in whatever way we can, we join with others. This may be only a telepathic joining, or it may take other forms. We may choose to join a study group of A Course in Miracles, we may join other prayer groups, we may attend traditional church services. All of these practices have a place in salvation, in spreading the word.

12 – Proselytize?

The only thing that we are forbidden to do is to proselytize, of to attempt to do so, when the individual(s) in front of us are not yet ready. This would be a sure turnoff.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I turn to You often during the day. I know that I can reach You directly. Help me to reach into my memory and into my heart to find You.

Only if I turn to You will have a truly good day. I know this. Help me to live it.

Amen.