Sacrifice

“It is obvious that these individuals have not been able to transcend the misperception of the need for sacrifice, or they could not possibly be willing to sacrifice themselves. Anyone who is unable to leave the requests of others unanswered has not entirely transcended egocentricity. I never ‘gave of myself’ in this inappropriate way, nor would I ever encourage you to do so.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-3.III.13:1-3)

Jesus continues his theme that the sacrifice on the cross was not what made him the savior for us. In this passage, he doesn’t mention the resurrection, but in clearly turning aside from sacrifice as a way of life, he has pointed the way to our own rising up, our own resurrection. He is trying to make enlightenment more believable.

Originally Jesus talked about Edgar Cayce’s increased number of readings, a choice Edgar made that was sacrificial. Here very precisely, Jesus turns aside from any command that we do something similar.

Sacrifice is simply not called for. And if we think it is, we are thinking in the insanity of the ego. The ego thinks that its own sacrifice is necessary, and because this “entity” thinks that it is us, it thinks that we too have to sacrifice to God. This has to make God a fearful being. And God truly is anything but fearful.

Jesus came to pass along to the world a new view of God, a loving Creator Who blesses His creations (us) with tolerance. God has never condemned us at all, and so He doesn’t need to “forgive.” He waits patiently, as we walk daily along the pathway back to Him. Our Holy Spirit guides the way.

And soon we will all be home, even if this “soon” is millions of years. Time, in the universe, after all, is an illusion.

Choosing Our Mate

“The sex impulse is a miracle impulse when it is in proper focus. One individual sees in another the right partner for propagating the species and also for their joint establishment of a creative home. This does not involve fantasy at all. If I am asked to participate in the decision, the decision will be a right one, too.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-1.48.9:3-6)

How many of us might be inclined to have enough of a personal relationship to the Jesus of A Course in Miracles that we would invite him into our selection of a mate? Maybe we didn’t know that this were possible. According to ACIM, Jesus makes himself available to us for all manner of ordinary decisions, and marriage is certainly one of the most important. Jesus wants us to make right decisions about marriage, forming a holy relationship, not special. If fantasies predominate, he implies here, the choice is for a special relationship. And special relationships do not have the staying power of holy ones.

Our holy relationships do not oscillate between highs and lows, drama and controversy. Our special relationships are akin to a fast track to nowhere, because the one in whom we had placed such faith tends to have feet of clay. Our special relationships divide; our holy make one. It is imperative that we move forward into creating a new world peopled with the holy. We will not have peace in the special, but only in the holy. And isn’t peace an overriding desire of us all?

We find our greatest challenges in our relationships. Here we are given an option: From Jesus, “get my advice.” Of course, we don’t know how he can be in so many foci of consciousness all at once. And perhaps, he can’t, that he was speaking just to Helen and Bill when he offered all manner of help. But I think not.

There are more wonders in heaven and earth than we have dreamt of. Jesus’s help for us is a responsibility he assumed eons ago as the leader of souls coming to earth to rescue the trapped (an Edgar Cayce assertion). He has not wavered in his commitment. Can we say the same? I think not. But the future can use Jesus’s example as our way to be faithful to the God we worship.

Union of Human & Divine = New State of Being

“The temporary experience has been elongated because of the appeal of the physical experience. What this Treatise is saying to you is that if the physical experience appeals to you, and if you create the union of the human and the divine as a new state of being, this choice will be eternally yours. It will be a choice of your creation, a creation devoid of fear. It will be a new choice.” (ACOL, T4:4.18)

Here, in A Course of Love, Jesus says a very startling thing: that we might choose to live in physical form forever, that we might occupy physical bodies forever. But he doesn’t mean immortality of any given physical form or body, and so it is certain that he is talking about reincarnation.

Previously, in A Course in Miracles, Jesus counseled those of us who might discuss ACIM with others, not to take a stand on reincarnation, unless we were with like-minded people. It would only be a distraction, and the ego was enough to handle. But in both A Course of Love and The Way of Mastery, Jesus does not seem to have such scruples. He implies quite strongly that we live different lives. And, we might imagine, many of us will have much to do over the millions of years that it will take for all of us to heal the illusory separation from God. (The “millions of years” are from ACIM.)

So we have work to do, and if Jesus’s elevated Self of form can be a new creation, we can feel better about our place on earth, our place to do this work.

Of course, we are surrounded by entities—including angels—who help us. We are never alone in the tasks set before us. And we are directly told not to attempt to recruit others to our way of thinking—unless and until they ask and are willing to see what we have seen. We are promised that we will be ordinary people living extraordinary lives, and that this very phenomenon will draw others to us. We will not be suffering, as many did in the past. We can put suffering behind us, and in this we will be well-supported.

The revelation in this passage is particularly important. Its promise is arresting to us. Can we really be happy encased in physicality for eons in the present and future? Jesus’s assertion seems to make it so; we will be happy.

Edgar Cayce, a psychic from the last century, said that many of us are “Sons of God” who came to earth to save the “daughters of men.” Of course, this is sexist language, but Edgar belonged to a different time and place. We say today that “Sons and Daughters” of God seek to release the “sons and daughters of men and women.” And we can be tantalized by Edgar’s assertion.

Salvation is the greatest gift that we can make of our lives. Many people are hurting; perhaps we ourselves are still hurting. Let God answer our needs; let Him do the healing. And then may the Christ-Self direct our many busy doings in the course of a day.

The way is clear. And the work becomes something that more closely resembles play. Salvation, as Jesus outlines it in ACOL, is effortless as well as limitless. Ask for help to our part to play this day. And be reassured that the Answer will come sooner rather than later.

Prayer

Give me the stamina today to walk an easeful pathway back to You, always back to You. I know that salvation is meant to be easy, that seriousness is of the ego—the ego that I have turned from. Help me to do the part that you would point out to me, today.

May this day develop into a peaceful one. May my walk through this day be all that You would wish it to be.

Amen.

Exchange This World for Our True Home

“Jesus, united with the Christ in you, is he who can teach you who you are and how to live as who you are in a new world. He can open heaven to you and walk you through its gates, there to exchange this world at last for your true home. But it is not your body that will pass through heaven’s gates, nor your body’s eyes that will view the new world you will behold and take with you. To view a physical world of dimension, shape, and scope like unto the old and hope to transport it from one place to another would be delusional. The new world does not have to do with form, but with content. A content that is as transferable as an author’s words upon a page.” (ACOL, C:P.36)

If the new world does not have to do with form, then the new world is real in intangibles—the peace, joy, harmony, that we hope to find in everyday life now and sometimes fall short of finding. Jesus unites with the Christ in each of us to show us the way. This is what our Self is doing to make changes in our experience of this world. We will lay aside the forms when we go inward to experience reality. And we will be well-served by this substitution of the changing, decaying form with something that will always last.

We are led to believe that we have something left to do on earth. I think this task has to do with what Edgar Cayce called the “Sons of God” rescuing the “daughters of men.” We are here to catalyze others to a new way of life—but after we ourselves have understood the changes that need to happen in us, and in them. The gender pronoun in Cayce’s pronouncements doesn’t matter; this is old school thinking in a male-dominated world. But the essence of what he said is important. There is a reason that we are here, trying to do our best in a world gone awry. We have to gently lead ourselves and others back to God.

The content of our new world, not the form, is transferable. That is, we can spread the good news of joy and peace without trying to create new form to spread that good news. The intangible blessings that we experience are always spreading. That is what comes of the intangible. And we inhabit a better world by living these intangibles in our everyday life.

Let Edgar Cayce’s words give us a blessing today. Ask how we might move this world a little closer to the God within. God will answer us, of this we can be sure.

God and We Together Chose Our Rebellion

“Yet your rebellion was not with God, although you came to see it as such. Your rebellion was not allowed, it was mutually chosen. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 8.11)”

1 – Ruth Montgomery

This concept from A Course of Love is at least relatively new; I have not read of it before, but of course there are many New Age writings of which I am unaware. There is a hint of the idea in Ruth Montgomery’s The Search for the Truth. She, an early psychic who received information by automatic writing from “Guides,” says that we were sparks sent out from God, gradually to find our way back. And some went farther than others, and needed more time and help to return. In ACOL, Jesus is saying that our rebellion from God was chosen mutually by Him and us.

2 – God

Certainly this concept makes sense in light of the surrounding passages, most of which are presented in this blog. God is the divine spark within, and our real will is the same as His Will (an ACIM tenet). So God could set the limits on our bent to miscreate, particularly in that we cannot destroy ourselves (and this is the “why” of the limits).

3 – Edgar Cayce

Believing that our rebellion was a way to experience the all, we can see that we are, like Ruth Montgomery’s Guides say, sparks of the divine that were sent out from the Center (a paraphrase, and also a metaphor of the Guides). Some strayed farther than others, and, as Edgar Cayce said, some became entrapped in matter on this earth.

4 – Edgar Cayce, Cont.

Cayce says that these entrapped souls, the Daughters of Men, needed the Sons of Light to save them. So souls, led by Jesus, came to earth to rescue those who could not have risen above matter unless others came to their aid. In a similar fashion, Jesus says in ACIM that he stands at the end, to help us, when we have gone as far as we can toward Awakening. Then God reaches “down” and rescues us; He takes the final step (an ACIM tenet). In ACOL this beatific moment is called “Christ-consciousness.”

5 – Rebellion

“Your rebellion against the constraints of your nature in form thus became part of the pattern of creation because it was the created’s response. It was your response, and since God is both the Creator and the Created, it was God’s response as well. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.12)”

6 – Part of God

Why is this statement, this quotation, true? We are a part of God. It is that simple. So our choice was one of His as well.

7 – The Separation

This wholly benign way of viewing the separation is a blessing to us, another reason that we don’t have to feel guilty anymore. God and we chose the separation, when we were impatient to experience, when we hadn’t learned all that we need to know to live well in form. This lack of understanding produced a warp, so to speak, which we call the ego. And it was the egoic misstep that has caused all of our problems in form in this world.

8 – Elevated Self of Form

Now, seeing the elevated Self of form, will provide the new learning that we needed at the beginning of life in form. We will know how to manipulate our environment for the good only. And we will know how to live in form. No ego. No suffering. No pain.

9 – Enrichment

“What other purpose would God ever have had for wanting to express the Love that is Himself in form, if it were not for the expansion and enrichment it would add to His being? What purpose is behind your own desire to do thus? (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.13)”

10 – Form

We want to experience, in form, and with limited vision, what God Himself wants to experience. We and He are in this together. All of us are attached to living in physical form in a way that perhaps angels don’t understand. We like the rough-and-tumble life on earth. We are a courageous sort, as the series of books by Pat Rodegast, scribing Emmanuel, has said. We know what it is to risk a challenge. And we ought not to denounce ourselves for the mistakes that we have made along the way. Mistakes are not over, but we will learn how to turn aside from them and walk another way, a better way.

11 – Ego

“It was only the ego that made this desire seem to be for anything other than the purpose of expansion and enrichment of your being. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.14)”

12 – Satan

Here is the ego again. Yes, the enemy. We used to call it the devil, or Satan. But we are living in new times, and our understanding has greatly increased. We don’t have to personify evil by giving it a name. There is no “sin,” only mistakes. And all will get to Heaven ultimately. We are all children of God, and He neglects nobody. We will be guided home.

13 – God

“God could not be the only being in all of creation who remains static and unchanging! How could this possibly be said of one whose name and identity is synonymous with creation? (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.14)”

14 – Truth

There are parts of God that are unchanging, also according to A Course of Love. Truth remains unchanged, the whole truth. But God seems to be growing and changing with his creations, with us. We can know how much our companionship means to God when we know that we are a part of Him. As the Self, we are back in strong communication, communication that was disrupted when we were asleep, when the channels of communication were not open to God.

15 – Lonely

Let us return quickly to the fold. God needs a good day, and if all His children are not communicating with Him, we are told by Jesus that God Himself is lonely.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to assimilate all of these writings about our ultimate reality into a coherent whole. There have been hints before that the separation, though illusory, has had effects that have hurt our little selves. May I leave behind that hurt today; my real Self has not been hurt at all.

May I recognize that, just as God and I chose the separation, together He and I can mend the separation so that we are One again. My real will is the same as His. May I use my real will today to accommodate to God’s Will.

Help me to turn around a difficult day into something much, much better. I need only to acknowledge that a mistake has been made, resolve to drop that behavior from my repertoire of behaviors, and all will be well again. This day can yet become a harbinger of grand and glorious moments learned under God’s Shadow.

Amen.

We Can Occupy the Physical Eternally

“What this treatise is saying to you is that if the physical experience appeals to you, and if you create the union of the human and the divine as a new state of being, this choice will be eternally yours. It will be a choice of your creation, a creation devoid of fear. It will be a new choice. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.18)”

1 – Living in Form

What this quotation is saying is not eternal life in the body we occupy now, but living in form as a choice for the future. We do not have immortality in our physical form as presently constituted, and to believe so would be a mistake. But future incarnations would seem possible for us, if we want to occupy physical form indefinitely.

2 – New Choice

This new choice is helpful to understanding that we are here to be happy in salvation, leading our brother and sisters down the right pathway. We cannot do so if we are removed from them. And so Jesus is implying here that we will want to resume physical form in new incarnations beyond this lifetime. This implication is an implication only, and it does not take a stand on reincarnation. We are ill advised if we do so, for many in our world cannot accept reincarnation and will resist our words if we seem to say this. Since all time is the Now, the question is a red herring anyway. Let us just be satisfied to live the life that we have fully, to enjoy our days, to serve God in the best way that we know how. This will bring us the happiness that we seek.

3 – Physical Attractive

This statement means that the physical may remain attractive to us. We do not necessarily want to achieve Awakening, and then abandon the world. We may want to enjoy the physical, but with a new emphasis on the divine in the physical. This is heaven on earth.

4 – Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce, an early 20th century psychic, indicated that many of us come to this world to help those who are “trapped” in matter. If this is true, and it very likely may be, then we would want to return to this world to help those who cannot free themselves without our help. We are doing God’s work; we are his hands and feet.

5 – Jesus

Jesus will help us to know the right pathway for our future. We can choose to live the physical, or, after death, we can remain on the Other Side. We do have choice in this matter. We are not pawns of the universe.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I do not know if the physical body will remain attractive to me, that I will return to this earth time and again in different bodies. ACIM recommends that we not take a stand on reincarnation. Help me today to be true to ACIM. If reincarnation is true, I think that I will want to return; I have thought this as long as I considered reincarnation as a viable option. May I be satisfied today just to live in the present, setting aside questions about the future until that time comes.

I do know that I thank You for the physical body that I have today. May this body remain healthy and strong, and may my emotions remain peaceful.

Amen.

Shall I Return Again and Again?

“Once the return to unity has occurred in form, the decision to continue in form or to not continue in form will be yours. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.14)”

1 – Not in This Body

Elsewhere Jesus asserts in A Course of Love that he is not talking here about life-everlasting in the same body that we know now. He is not talking about immortality in this body, this same form. He may be talking about reincarnation, but, as I will explain below, we need not to take a stand that will only be controversial.

2 – To Help

We can do much in form to help others. We can also do much from the Other Side. The important point is that we assume the elevated Self of form, that we no longer reside in the personal self of the ego (what I have called the “little” self). We need to assume the Self that is Christ within. We need to reach that pinnacle. \

3 – Transition

Jesus is here giving us the means to make that transition to the elevated Self. His final pages in the Dialogues are a 40-day and 40-night trek to a mountain top, metaphorically, in which he guides us to Christ-consciousness. He knows, of course, that we will not all make it the first time, but that would be his wish for us. We can presume that it is God’s Will for us as well.

4 – Edgar Cayce

This quotation suggests, but does not spell out, that we have the choice of whether or not to return to earth in another incarnation. Edgar Cayce said that many of us are here to save others who would not be able to find their way back without us. This seems reason enough to know that many of us will choose to come back.

5 – Reincarnation

This is not a statement on reincarnation, a statement that A Course in Miracles encourages us not to make. We will turn off those whom we are trying to reach if they do not find reincarnation plausible. So we do not take doctrinal stands, which can only divide. It is enough to know that the embodiment of form, the elevation of form, is our choice as we accept Christ-consciousness in our lives. ACOL calls this the “elevated Self of form,” and it is an oft-repeated refrain.

The passage does seem to say that we have some way to make a decision through the Higher Self about the time of our death. It does not condone suicide at all, though. It merely suggests that the Self of which we are a part–the Self that has not taken form–does in fact guide us in making life-and-death decisions.

6 – ACIM

A Course in Miracles echoes this theme in a passage on illness. It suggests that we choose the agents that will minister to us in sickness, and that we get well if that is our decision; if we choose not to get well, then we go on to the Other Side.

7 – Death

Of course, this decision is not made by the “little” self, the personality that we embody in this world. It is an “other-worldly” decision, and we cannot know for sure, normally, what the decision will be. But our spirit knows, and it is this that makes the decision of remaining in form (in body) or to go to the Other Side.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I am not ill unto death; most of us reading this are not. So my Self has chosen to have a form on this earth for the foreseeable future. May I make the most of this time. May I love and cherish You, and may I love and cherish my brothers and sisters in this world.

Thank You for helping me today when I falter. May I put my faith in You only. May I realize that the choice for illness is a faulty decision-making process, and that You are “for health” all the way. May I choose good emotional and physical health today.

May I remove the blocks to Christ-consciousness today. May I be patient, until God makes His move. May I recognize that I can remove the blocks, but that only He knows when I am really ready for this blessing.

Amen.

The Promise of Life Everlasting Has Been Fulfilled

“The promise of life everlasting was not an empty promise. It is a promise that has been fulfilled. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 3.15)”

1 – New Testament

This promise echoes the New Testament, in that we are led to understand in some of Jesus’s words, said on earth, that life everlasting begins now. We do not have to wait for Heaven to be happy; certainly A Course in Miracles suggests this idea clearly. Eternal life is a joy waiting to be found while still on earth.

2 – Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce, the psychic of the last century who died in the Forties and who lived in Virginia, once did a reading that indicated, in great detail, the Last Supper. One of the sayings attributed to Jesus by Cayce was a reassuring word by Jesus to his apostles that indicated that “Heaven” would be experienced even now, in the moment, when the apostles were gathered with him in love and fellowship. If we take Cayce seriously (and many people over the years have done so), then we can believe that Jesus was encouraging that the life everlasting to begin now, and, moreover, in the happy times, it is Heaven on earth.

3 – Eternal Life

Eternal life is a given for students of both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love. Many psychics have detailed what life after death is supposed to be like (Note: Ruth Montgomery in The World Beyond, is one such), and when we take the teaching of ACIM and ACOL to heart, we can believe that the future beyond our bodily death is very grand indeed. And so the fear of death is gone.

4 – Ruth Montgomery

Ruth Montgomery’s Guides said that death is like “walking through an open door.” Certainly, if this be true, there is nothing to fear about waking up on the Other Side-and much to look forward to. But the grand promise of today’s quotation is that Heaven doesn’t wait until we die. It is here and now for us, when we have understood and taken unto ourselves certain knowledge. And it is knowledge, not perception.

5 – Intellectual Doubts

So many of us have, at one time or another, had intellectual doubts about these promises of eternal life, life everlasting. Many of us may still entertain those doubts. It behooves us to study and to learn the better way, the “another way” of A Course in Miracles, the “another A Course in Miracles” that is A Course of Love. When we languish in indecision about these eternal question, it is like a ticking time bomb that will engulf us at the end of our lives, when we face death. We won’t know what to believe, and we will seek desperately for answers at that time.

6 – Blind Faith?

How much better to resolve these questions now—here and now! Read further until you are satisfied. Read widely. There is not dearth of material that will lead us homeward. Look beyond simply the Bible, A Course in Miracles, and A Course of Love. There is a course for every teacher of God, and if you look, very likely you will find. In ACIM and ACOL, we are given assurances that we do not have to rely on blind faith. Like Carl Jung, we don’t have to have “faith,” because we can know.

7 – A Knowing

This knowing is the blessing Jesus holds out to us today in A Course of Love, the blessing of the knowingness of life everlasting.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

What a grand promise is life everlasting! If we believe truly, we will lose all fear of death. And we know that pain does not have to lead to suffering, so the illness of life is mitigated.

May I experience the joy today that You would have me to feel. This is a glorious day; may I recognize this.

Thank you for guiding me to the readings that I needed in this lifetime. I didn’t find certain early reading evidential of eternal life, or even of life after death. I was a skeptic until graduate school. May my readers find the things that they need to find to have a firm and solid belief in matters of eternity. May they come upon the readings that they need.

Be with all of us today, as we seek to make our way through this sometimes difficult world. It is all illusion, but it seems very real to me sometimes. And hard. Let this world not seem a difficult experience today.

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.

Turn Inward

1 – No Turning Outward

“Again let me repeat and reemphasized my statements: where once you turned outward in your seeking and saw within what you perceived without, now you turn inward and reflect what you discover within outward. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 2:2)”

2 – Projection

This is a reversal, but it is not the reversal described in A Course in Miracles of “projection makes perception.” This “projection makes perception” indicates that what we see without has first been seen within—then projected into illusions, dreams. So what is being talked about here is different.

3 – Inner-Directed

We do know that we are mightily influenced by what we see outside ourselves, not recognizing that it is coming from within. We think it is without, and it is this that Jesus is addressing. Don’t be so concerned about what you see without, in the outside world. We need to be inner-directed, and it is this that Jesus is saying. Even secular psychologists in our world recommend the same.

4 – The Way

“There was no Way or path or process back to God and Self before me. It was the time of man wandering in the wilderness. I came as a representation or demonstration of The Way. This I why I have been called, ‘The Way, The Truth and The Light.’ (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 2:4)

5 – Edgar Cayce

This is describing Jesus as those of us who follow him, see him. Edgar Cayce, the psychic from the last century, said that Jesus was the leader of souls who came to earth to rescue trapped individuals who could not find their way out alone, so trapped were they by the material world. The light of God had just about gone out in the “daughters of men,” and so the “Sons of God” came. Of course, gender does not matter; these are just expressions.

6 – Jesus

Is Jesus the only way? Is this what he is saying? I think not. He knows that those of us who are taking unto ourselves A Course of Love are looking to him for guidance. And those of us who look to A Course of Love find solace in Jesus’s comforting words. He is speaking as the Jesus of 2,000 years ago, when he walked the earth as the Jesus whom we love from the New Testament.

7 – Other Teachers

Jesus says in A Course in Miracles that for some there are other teachers, that God would not have left anyone bereft of a way back to Him. So those who are not ready to accept Jesus will probably not be drawn to A Course of Love. But for those of us who are so drawn, the message is one of infinite peace.

8 – Fear

“Although God never abandoned the humans who seeded the Earth, the humans, in the state of the forgotten self, could not know God because of their fear. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: “A Treatise on the New,” 2.4)”

9 – Fear and Love

This passage amplifies upon the oft-stated words in A Course in Miracles that fear and love are the only two emotions. The ego has ruled fear, and we have been caught by the ego for eons. Now, in both books, the hope is that we will relinquish the ego and move into love as our single emotion.

10 – Negative Emotions

Having love as a single emotion does not mean that we will never feel negative emotions. Elsewhere in A Course of Love, we learn that we may continue to experience anger, but if we don’t like this, we can (as A Course in Miracles says), see this as a mistake and drop the emotion from our list.

11 – Channels to God

Our channels to God’s love had been closed to Him (an ACIM concept). Now we must, once again, realize that God is a loving God, and that His will does not include the visitation of pain and suffering upon ourselves. We have done this (an ACIM concept), and we can choose to undo it. May we choose to undo it today.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

As we revisit the passage for today, may we realize that we could not know God as long as we allowed fear to rule. May we drop fear from our repertoire of emotions. May we know only love. And if this is too much for us to assimilate today, may we make inroads on this accomplishment.

I wish for a good day of love with no fear. May I recognize that if I find attack, I have in some way chosen a fearful state of experience. May I drop fear from my perception, and because projection makes perception, may I now and always move closer to the love that is Yours.

Amen.

Is Jesus Still Available for Help?

1 – Temptation

“God’s gifts can rarely be received directly. Even the most advanced of God’s teachers will give way to temptation in this world. (M58)”

2 – Fallibility

Even the most advanced of God’s teachers is still fallible. We won’t get it right all the time. We will succumb to temptations in this world, and that includes especially the tendency to feel anger and then to attack. In addition, we will judge ourselves and others. And we will make contingency plans against uncertainties to come. These three actions are all ways in which temptations take us away from God. And we will fall on our face in our dealings with our brothers and sisters.

3 – Holy Spirit

Leaving temptation behind is an ongoing pathway. We will never, perhaps, be free of temptations in this world, but the times that they intrude upon our lives will lessen as we live closer to the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

4 – Miracles

God gives us gifts, though we may not recognize them when they come. One might not recognize a miracle at high noon, if our thoughts are solely on our own desires and wishes. We may study the Course, and as we do, we will do better in this world. Our power will come to us as we let guidance lead the Way.

5 – Name of Jesus

“The Bible says, ‘Ask in the Name of Jesus Christ.’ Is this merely an appeal to magic. . . What does calling on his Name confer? Why is the appeal to him part of healing? (M58)”

6 – Faith

This invocation is not an appeal to magic; it is a statement of faith, a truly undivided appeal. We know that Jesus performed miracles in his life, and we think therefore that the miracles that we ask to be performed for ourselves now will have a welcome ear in him.

7 – Jesus

And so it is. Jesus hears still, though nobody on earth can figure out how this may be. There are laws of the physical and spiritual world of which we know nothing. Calling on the name of Jesus is one such appeal to laws of which we know nothing.

8 – Still Available?

“Is he [Jesus] still available for help? What did he say about this? Remember his promises, and ask yourself honestly whether it is likely that he will fail to keep them. . .Would the greatest teacher be unavailable to those who follow him? (M58)”

9 – Yes, Jesus Is Available

This passage proclaims, without question, that Jesus is available to us. Other passages suggest that we ought to visualize holding his hand, and we are told that this will be no “idle fantasy.”

10 – Traditional Christianity

Many traditional Christian teachings, inspirational writing, give accounts of time when individuals felt that Jesus, with the healing touch, was present and performed miracles—especially a relaxed calm in the heart. An inner peace. May we all experience this when we ask. Jesus says in A Course in Miracles that he will come with one “unequivocal call.”

11 – Cloning

How is this possible? We don’t know, but we can surmise, that Jesus can clone himself, appearing to many people simultaneously and in different settings. Nothing is said in ACIM about this, but we can speculate. How else would his presence to any and all of us be possible?

12 – Greatest Teacher

In this passage he is proclaimed the “greatest teacher.” Edgar Cayce, a psychic of the last century, said, in trance, that Jesus was the leader of a group of souls that came here to save people who had become enmeshed in matter. This does not mean that there are not other leaders. Christianity, fundamental Christianity, has long believed that people must accept Jesus as the Son of God, the only Redeemer. ACIM does not say this. ACIM says that there are other teachers for other people, for nobody is left bereft of counsel and help.

13 – Take a Chance

We need to take a chance today and ask for Jesus’s help. We should not feel presumptuous in so doing. He has welcomed that advance in ACIM. And it is not arrogant to believe that he will come when called. He will not intrude, but he is there when we need him: one unequivocal call.

14 – Comforting Passage

May this word be a blessing for us today. The passage is comforting in the extreme. And we know that we all need help.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I not give way to temptation, though You say that I will be likely to do so from time to time. May I not give way to temptation today.

Thank You for your support always. May I avoid anger and attack today. May I be good to my brothers and sisters. When I hear guidance, let me be steadfast to hold it close to me.

Amen.

Can Jesus Be Anywhere, Anytime?

“Forget not who you truly are, but forget not also to be in joy in your experience here. Remember that the seriousness with which you once looked at life is of the ego. Drape your persona in a mantle of peace and joy. Let who you are shine through the personal self who continues to walk this world a while longer. Listen for my voice as I guide you to your purpose here and linger with you in this time to end all time. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Nature of Unity and Its Recognition, 13.6)”

Affirmation: “May I listen for the voice of Jesus today.”

Reflections:

1 – Jesus

Only fairly recently have I taken Jesus at his word that he is here with us, given “one unequivocal call” (from A Course in Miracles).

2 – Norman Vincent Peale

Previously I was much influenced by the many books by Norman Vincent Peale in the last century. He told many stories of sensing the presence of Jesus in times of great need, stories that included himself as well as recounted tales from other people. I was especially impressed by one story of a secular business leader who was coming to the end of his life and had little faith, finding himself out of control and fearful. His minister (not Dr. Peale) recommended that he talk to Jesus as though he were a business partner, drawing up a chair by his sick bed, and surmising what Jesus’s responses might have been. Later on, it became clear that Jesus became for this former tycoon much more than a business partner, but a tender and gentle healer. When he died, one hand was outstretched from his bed to the chair that was always drawn up beside the bed. And his face was peaceful.

3 – Law of Physics?

Can we not see that there must be some law of physics not yet discovered that allows Jesus to be just anywhere, at any time? He has walked further back to God than any of us, and, according to such psychics as Edgar Cayce, he is our leader here. Not all individuals choose him as a leader, but we are among those who do, as evidenced by the reading that we seek out.

4 – Insomnia

I have found it a great comfort in the middle of the night, when awake (for sometimes I have insomnia), to realize that there is nothing to fear, though the night is dark, the hours before dawn stretching a long way. I know that everything will look better in the morning. But when I imagine that I am not alone, for I have asked for divine companionship, the anxieties that used to plague just disappear in the mists of the night air outside my window.

5 – Carry Life Lightly

We do not need to live this life in a serious vein. Jesus himself could be serious, but according to biblical accounts, he also relaxed in the company of his disciples and enjoyed social interaction as well, even with those who were despised by the authorities of the day. Life is carried more easily if it is not carried with an air of seriousness. The lighthearted touch is the benign touch. And the healing touch. The seriousness that we have all known, at least from time to time, has been of the ego. So let’s resolve to let that part of our persona dissipate now.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I need the hand of Jesus today. I need this hand very much. I have much new to be grateful about, and I thank You for those new aspects to my life. That these blessings come after prayer, or asking, is obvious. May I always remember that prayer brings about miracles in a way that nothing else can or does.

May Jesus walk with me today, in lightheartedness and no seriousness that is unnecessary. Thank You for Your reassurances that all is well, that there is nothing here that You can’t handle.

Amen.

In Peace Create the World Anew

“Creation becomes the new frontier, the occupation of those too young to rest, too interested in living still to welcome the peace of dying.  Those who could not change the world one iota through their constant effort, in peace create the world anew.  (A Course of Love, 6.17)”

Affirmation:  “I would create the world anew in peace today.”

Reflections:

1 – Our Vocation

What a glorious vocation this passage elucidates!  We are to create the world anew, in peace but not effort.  What we will change permanently will indeed come effortlessly.  And in peace.  Our effort could not make this change, but our peace will do so–not in the future, but here, now.

2 – Edgar Cayce

I welcome the continued chance to make a difference.  I am personally not ready for death.  According to Edgar Cayce, many of us came to earth to make a difference in the lives of those who were trapped, without hope, in physicality.  We do not, with ACIM, take a stand on reincarnation, but since all time is an illusion, we do not need to feel that reincarnation is an issue.  We certainly do have this one life to live, and we can spend all of our days, in peace, with the hope and desire that others will live better lives because we have been here with them.  This indeed is our function of salvation, and we do live this function in conjunction with happiness.  God takes care of us, in unity with Him and in relationship to others.

3 – Effortless Work

When we desire peace, we sometimes think that death would be a welcome option.  But we still have effortless work to do here on this earth.  And death is nothing; it is like walking through an open door (from Ruth Montgomery’s Guides).  So do not long for death when the world turns difficult.  Put one foot in front of the other, and walk.  We will walk through the difficulty, so long as our thought and feeling processes remain good.  For this is the world that we make.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would have a good day today, an effortless day of work that will improve the world–indeed, that will create it anew.  What a glorious promise You have made to us!  It gives a motivation for living, a goal toward which we can all look–but without the ego making of anything a challenge.  Just effortless work.  Thank You!

Be with me as I seek to smooth the way for others today, and in so doing may I also smooth the way for myself.  As I treat others, I will be treated.  To give and to receive are one.  Be with  me as I seek to live this truth today.

Amen.

Overcoming Frustration

“It is only through union with me [Jesus] that you learn because it is only in union with me that you are your Self.  All your effort is based on disbelief of this truth, and on your attempts to prove that this truth is not the truth.  All that this effort brings you is frustration.  (A Course of Love, 1.10)”

Affirmation:  “union with Jesus”

Reflections:

1 – Jesus

It is my interpretation, based on A Course in Miracles, and assuming that A Course of Love is a sequel channeled by Jesus, that Jesus is saying here that those who choose him must go “through” him to Christ-consciousness.  He is our chosen leader.  But A Course in Miracles mentions other teachers who will speak for God also.

2 – Edgar Cayce

This can be confusing, because A Course of Love seems to say that Jesus is the only way.  This is a belief held by many traditional Christian faiths as well.  And, continuing with the New Age theme, it is also a position taken by Edgar Cayce, the psychic from Virginia Beach, whose foundation is now the Association for Research and Enlightenment.

3 – Reject Controversy

But let us reject controversy, though it is important we be aware of differences of opinion about Jesus.  I choose him as my leader, my elder brother, and so I listen when I think that he is speaking to me through scribes such as Helen Schucman/Bill Thetford and Mari Perron.  I also entertain the idea that he may speak more directly to me, though I do not dwell on this thought, because I could easily be mistaken.

4 – Christ/Self

When we unite with the Christ in Jesus, we unite with the Christ in our Self.  That is what is being said in this passage for today.  And this is where we are heading, though it may take longer than we hoped.  We do not know how long it will take, because time is an illusion, and time to God means something very different from time to us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I reach out to Jesus today, having made the choice of him as my leader in matters of faith.  Others choose differently, and that is, of course, perfectly acceptable before You (though many do not hold to this idea).  I would accept Jesus as my elder brother, who walked the pathway ahead of me, and thus can lead me through the brambles and thicket.

May all of us choose today the leader that we would have.  If we are not ready to make that choice, You will be with us nevertheless.  I do believe that You know what is happening in our illusion, for that is my experience (though others believe that You do not enter the illusion that is our dream).  

May we step aside from any controversy or theological stance that divides.  May we pray as One today, to You as our Creator.

Amen.

What One Gains Is Given unto All

ACIM Workbook Lesson 319 – for Tuesday, November 15. 2011

Affirmation:  “I came for the salvation of the world.”

“The ego thinks that what one gains, totality must lose.  And yet it is the Will of God I learn that what one gains is given unto all.  (WB460)”

Reflections:

1 – Jerry Jampolsky

This passage is well-examined in a book by Jerry Jampolsky, a book (Love Is Letting God of Fear) which delves deeply in the ACIM truth, “Whatever I give is given to myself.”  Jerry means, basing his discussion on A Course in Miracles, that the joy, love, peace that we give to others comes back to us as these qualities are multiplied.  It is only the material things of life that seem to diminish when given away.  And the material things are never what we want for long; we will find more and more wants that remain unsatisfied, because the material gains are frequently props for the ego.  And the ego is never satiated.

2 – Totality Does Not Lose the Things of God

Totality does not lose when we gain the things that are of God.  And we are told in this passage that it is the Will of God that what one gains is given unto all.  This is a great blessing!

3 – Why Are We Here?

What did we really come for?  The lesson for today says that it is the salvation of the world.  Edgar Cayce, an early psychic, said much the same thing.  In metaphorical language, he indicated that the Sons of God came to rescue the daughters of men on this plane of earth.  And Ruth Montgomery, also an early scribe of “Guides,” indicates that we will none of us find our way home until we have led all to home.  In ACIM, Jesus seems to indicate that we must lead our brothers and sisters home, even though it may take millions of years.  Time has been saved for us when we practice ACIM.  Each one of us save a thousand years and more (a Text tenet).

4 – Let’s Do Our Part Today

So let us do our part today.  We can, after all, only do our part one day at a time.  Let  us not backslide now.  We need to save time, as the world is worn and very weary (paraphrases from the Text).  We know that the ending is sure (an ACIM tenet), and if the way seems long, we have started on that way.  It is enough.  It will always be enough.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

The gifts from You which we receive are never for ourselves alone.  When given from us to others, these gifts but increase.  Help me to realize the truth of this glorious promise.  I know that Your gifts are often intangibles, because material things may seem to diminish if shared (something of note that may be illusion).  Even with material blessings, we are bade to understand that You can bring increase there as well.  Individuals who tithe their income, however small, quickly learn that their material blessings in this world do increase abundantly.  Thank You for the many testimonials that I have heard and read about this puzzling miracle.

May I walk a green earth today.  Your Way is always the best way, and Your way will help not only myself, but my brothers and sisters as well.  May I be generous with my time and my gifts, intangible and material.

Thank You for the gift of A Course in Miracles.  Thank You for leading me to these magnificent volumes so many years ago.  Thank You for the writings that spoke to me before ACIM was published.  May all of those individuals I encounter today find the truths that they need to live a happy life.

Amen.

Heaven = My Decision

ACIM Workbook Lesson 149 – for Sunday, May 29, 2011

Affirmation:  “My mind holds only what I think with God.”

Selected Passage:

“When I am healed I am not healed alone.
“Heaven is the decision I must make.  (WB277)’

Reflections:

ACIM makes the astonishing statement that a thousand are healed along with us.  This statement assumes the psychic, the truth that this is an open universe.  If we would not be healed for ourselves alone, perhaps out of masochism, then let us be healed for the sake of those we love, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We must make the decision for Heaven.  Heaven is possible even in this world.  Edgar Cayce psychically tuned into the Last Supper, and he has Jesus affirming that Heaven is when we are gathered together with those we love (as Jesus was at that point).  Heaven is our birthright, our inheritance.  We do not have to wait until after death to enjoy its boons.  We can enjoy Heaven today, right now.  We need only invite quiet and calm, and turn within to God.  We need also to be “in the flow” (an idea developed by Ruth Montgomery).  This state of flow comes when we follow intuition to the degree that we can.  Sometimes our bodies rebel, and at such times we should not push (an idea developed by Shakti Gawain in Living in the Light).

Our real thoughts are those that we think with God.  They do not include the negative expressions of anger and attack.  Thinking with God is an enormously freeing concept, and it comes easily to the open mind.  Thinking with God is also the easiest way to live.  We must simply express our desire to manage this way of thinking, and it is ours.  We do not need to wait.  Indeed, in this world there is little in the intangible for which we need to wait.

Prayer:

Dear Mother/Father,

I would choose today, as every day, to be at home with You in Heaven on this earth.  You have hinted at this possibility throughout A Course in Miracles, and I would claim that promise immediately.  I do not have to wait for the Other Side, after death.

When I am feeling Your presence, surrounded by a sense of love, then all is well in this world.  That is the Heaven on earth that I would find, and I know that this is Your will for me as well.  Thank You for making it so plain to me.

Amen.

Our Rebellion from God = Mutually Chosen

“Your rebellion was not allowed, it was mutually chosen.  (The Treatises of A Course of Love:  ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 8.11)”

Affirmation:  “May I choose to heal the rebellion today.”

Reflections:

This concept from A Course of Love is at least relatively new; I have not read of it before, but of course there are many New Age writings of which I am unaware.  There is a hint of the idea in Ruth Montgomery’s The Search for the Truth.  She, an early psychic who received information by automatic writing from “Guides,” says that we were sparks sent out from God, gradually to find our way back.  And some went farther than others, and needed more time and help to return.  In ACOL, Jesus is saying that our rebellion from God was chosen mutually by Him and us.

Certainly this concept makes sense in light of the surrounding passages, most of which are presented in this blog.  God is the divine spark within, and our real will is the same as His Will (an ACIM tenet).  So God could set the limits on our bent to miscreate, particularly in that we cannot destroy ourselves (and this is the “why” of the limits).

Believing that our rebellion was a way to experience the all, we can see that we are, like Ruth Montgomery’s Guides say, sparks of the divine that were sent out from the Center (a paraphrase, and also a metaphor of the Guides).  Some strayed farther than others, and, as Edgar Cayce said, some became entrapped in matter on this earth.  Cayce says that these entrapped souls, the Daughters of Men, needed the Sons of Light to save them.  So souls, led by Jesus, came to earth to rescue those who could not have risen above matter unless others came to their aid.  In a similar fashion, Jesus says in ACIM that he stands at the end, to help us, when we have gone as far as we can toward Awakening.  Then God reaches “down” and rescues us; He takes the final step (an ACIM tenet).  In ACOL this beatific moment is called “Christ-consciousness.”

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to assimilate all of these writings about our ultimate reality into a coherent whole.  There have been hints before that the separation, though illusory, has had effects that have hurt our little selves.  May I leave behind that hurt today; my real Self has not been hurt at all.

May I recognize that, just as God and I chose the separation, together He and I can mend the separation so that we are One again.  My real will is the same as His.  May I use my real will today to accommodate to God’s Will.

Amen.

Remaining in the Physical Body

“What this treatise is saying to you is that if the physical experience appeals to you, and if you create the union of the human and the divine as a new state of being, this choice will be eternally yours.  (The Treatises of A Course of Love:  ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.18)”

Affirmation:  “union of the human and the divine”

Reflections:

This statement means that the physical may remain attractive to us.  We do not necessarily want to achieve Awakening, and then abandon the world.  We may want to enjoy the physical, but with a new emphasis on the divine in the physical.  This is heaven on earth.

Edgar Cayce, an early 20th century psychic, indicated that many of us come to this world to help those who are “trapped” in matter.  If this is true, and it very likely may be, then we would want to return to this world to help those who cannot free themselves without our help.  We are doing God’s work; we are his hands and feet.

Jesus will help us to know the right pathway for our future.  We can choose to live the physical, or, after death, we can remain on the Other Side.  We do have choice in this matter.  We are not pawns of the universe.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I do not know if the physical body will remain attractive to me, that I will return to this earth time and again in different bodies.  ACIM recommends that we not take a stand on reincarnation.  Help me today to be true to ACIM.

I do know that I thank You for the physical body that I have today.  May this body remain healthy and strong, and may my emotions remain peaceful.

Amen.