The Ego’s Madness in Our World

“Seek not to make the Son of God adjust to his insanity.  There is a stranger in him, who wandered carelessly into the home of truth and who will wander off. . . .Ask not this transient stranger, ‘What am I?”  He is the only thing in all the universe that does not know.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-20.III.7)

We are all insane to one extent or another, if we have not yet awakened, that is.  And most of us have not yet awakened.  This quotation gives a particularly poignant description of the “stranger” who has wandered in and occupied the place of our Self.  This stranger does not know who he is, and this stranger is our egoic self.  So we do not know who we are, even though asking “What am I?” has become the preoccupation of most of us.  We are bade not to ask of this stranger what we are, for the egoic self does not know.  The egoic self puts faith in things of this world, seeking always more, more, and more.  This is the way of the ego’s version of truth, for “more” is insatiable for this egoic self.

We need to set our sights higher, to the Guide we have been given.  The Holy Spirit will answer our query about what we are, and He will answer us immediately.  We are the innocent Son of God, occupying a self who has lost his way a little while, wandered into madness, and will eventually wander out, never to return.  This self will be transformed into the Self that is God’s Son.  And then the pain that we have known in the self that we have occupied so long will be no more.  We will know ourselves to be an innocent risen Self, at home at last in God’s world.

If we doubt this, we need only take a look at what the egoic self has made of this world.  Do we really think that this sad and dreary world is of God’s creation?  If we look in all honesty, we would have to say that either we are insane or God is.  Is it not more likely that we ourselves are insane, making a world that knows not of God, and knocks us about in hostile and profane ways?  

The way home to God may seem long, but once begun the end is certain.  And we will find our way home, never fear.  We walk an easy way when we turn to go back to God.  Our times smooth out, and we know joy again, for the dreams that we dream become happy, because these dreams are given by the Holy Spirit.

Our minds are no longer fully asleep, and we are not longer fully mad.  We will know joy again.  And in this assurance will we know peace, even in this world.

Being – Not “Doing”

From Celia’s Images in a Reflecting Pool: Journal Entries Inspired by A Course in Miracles. Copyright 1995.

Just “being” in life is affirming and good.  I don’t have to “do” all the time.  I have to realize that doing “more, more, more” to justify my existence is not necessary.

Postscript 2023:

How many of us want to “do” to prove that we are somehow worthy to occupy space on this Earth ? I suspect that this dynamic is ego-driven, and we all know that the ego is a failed experiment.

Ego vs. Choosing Peace

From Celia’s Images in a Reflecting Pool: Journal Entries Inspired by A Course in Miracles; copyright 1995:

The re-entry problems at work on Monday are not physiological or even psychological for the frequently cited reasons.  After “flight” on the preceding two days, the body gets up once again to “fight.”  And the more relaxing the flight has been, the more likely the fight will bring fears.  

One has let down one’s guard, and the ego doesn’t take kindly to peace.  It knows its days are numbered if its owner should ever learn to choose Peace consistently.

Ego

“The mind in conflict with itself is dangerous to itself, and of course, by extension, to everyone else in all dimensions.  Therefore, indeed, beloved friends, beware of those that come in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  Beware of the viciousness of the ego within your own mind.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 266)

We live in insanity until we have relinquished the ego.  And when we are in real conflict, it is quite likely that either the ego or, later, egoic patterns, are pushing us around.

If in conflict, resolve the difficulty by getting quiet and going within, where God will meet us.  He will show us a way to forgive the “ravenous wolves” that other people seem sometimes.  And He will show us how to drop our own viciousness, a viciousness that always comes of fear, and fear is always of the ego.

Rest in His mercy and His love.

It will be enough to set us back on the road to sanity, the road to Christ-consciousness.

How to Remove Conflict from Our Experience

Note: After this post, I’m going to take a few days off to finish editing and then publishing, on Amazon, a book of sonnets. Thank you for your views. Love, Celia

“The mind in conflict with itself is dangerous to itself, and of course, by extension, to everyone else in all dimensions.  Therefore, indeed, beloved friends, beware of those that come in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  Beware of the viciousness of the ego within your own mind.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 266)

Even if we have largely given up the ego, it still sinks into our awareness with patterns of egoic thinking that have not been banished.  So we are still prone to conflict because our minds/hearts have not fully integrated.  When our heart speaks to our mind, we are moving in the right direction.  Turn aside from conflict in all its guises, for conflict is of the ego.  Just simply ask for a solution to whatever problem presents itself, and know that God is listening.

Returning Us to Our True Nature

“You may not feel that you have ever intended to live in fear.  But the displacement of the original intent was so complete that each life has begun with fear and proceeded from this beginning continually reacting fear.  While the original intent remained within you and caused you to attempt to express a Self of love despite your fear, fear has thwarted your every effort and caused the very effort that has continued the cycle of fear.  To have to try to be who you are and to express who you are is the result of the displacement of the nature of love with the nature of fear.  What we now are about is reversing this displacement and returning you to your true nature.”  (A Course of Love, T4:3.5)

We had an “original intent” eons ago, and that was to live in love—not fear.  But fear intervened, and nothing has ever been right since.  This is the crucial, central feature of our lives.  We have displaced love with fear, and then we have lived in this egoic state of fear.  There ought to be a better way.

And there is.  We can learn, and not necessarily by traditional means of study, to displace fear and the egoic self with the Self of love.  This change will make all the difference.  And A Course of Love is showing us how to effect this change.  It is true (as A Course in Miracles says also) that God makes the final decision of when we are ripe for Christ-consciousness or Awakening.  Then he metaphorically reaches down to us and lifts us up.

Yet there are things we can do to remove blocks to the awareness of love.  This in itself will ease our way, and give us a happy experience.  We need to get the idea of suspiciousness out of our minds; we need trust above all else.  And trust we can have; just a decision to have it is enough to bring it to us.  This does not mean that we will be gullible.  We have our own good sense, and this is sense of the real Self, not the ego.  When we place our faith in the inner Christ Self, we are far more likely to be right than to be wrong in our evaluations of others.  Note that this does not mean “judgment” of others, for judging keeps us from attaining enlightenment.  We need to simply rest in the assurance that if we are encouraged to avoid a particular situation (or person), we will know how and where to do so.  That is all.

Love Overcomes the Ego

“When anything seems to you to be a source of fear, when any situation strikes you with terror and makes your body tremble and the cold sweat of fear comes over it, remember it is always for one reason; the ego has perceived it as a symbol of fear, a sign of sin and death.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-19.IV.C.11)

This quotation helps us to understand the dynamics of the ego.  The ego is a part of our belief about ourselves that will not rest until we are miserable, though it pretends to offer us the good.  It does not offer us the good.

Particularly poignant as a expression of fear, this quotation assures us that the terror that we sometimes feel is ego-generated.  Love would never treat us like this, and love never does.  We are “in our egos” when we quail in fear against this unnamed something that fills us with cold shaking.  The ego thinks that this something out there is a sign of “sin and death,” and so it encourages us to be fearful.

If, even for a moment, we bypass the bitter dregs of death, the stubborn and witchy attempts to handle this unnamed fear, we will be OK.  But the only real choice is love, a manifestation of love by forgiveness.  Give the angry deed over to the Holy Spirit and His judgment; He alone can handle what has aroused such strong negative emotions.

The ego thrills, and the ego dashes to the ground.  There are always oscillations, and there will always be.  It the way in which we come to see that the ego is not the way that we want to go.  The ego is constantly being undone.  And well that it is.

Love only satisfies; love only cools the overwrought emotions.  Dwell with God in the form of the Holy Spirit, and so the brittle and rigid emotions will subside.  God knows us best, of course, and the Holy Spirit will guide us out of even this abyss.

“Soul, You Have Arrived”

“Soul, you have arrived.  Before time began, I conceived you in my heart to be the beauty of my being.  Before the wind could blow–since movement of matter had not yet been created–you were in my divine mind as a perpetual lover.  My joy was to wait for this time, a time like no other, to come, a time when the light of glory would begin to shine as never before, through you, my soul in love, my divine child.”  Choose Only Love, Book 7, Prelude.  “A message from the Voice of Christ through a choir of Angels, in the presence of Archangel Raphael and Archangel Gabriel.”

This is not specifically said to be from Jesus, but perhaps from the Spirit of Christ, whom we all share.  It is a glorious praising of God for where we have arrived today in this world.

We are in Book 7 of Choose Only Love, the book that is the culmination of all that has gone before.  We can take unto ourselves whatever seems right about this message.  If we think that we are still ego-driven, then we will postpone this message for a future time.  If the ego has indeed been banished, we will rejoice that our future will be unlike anything that has gone before.

Rest a while in these words, for they are an affirmation of just how far we have traveled along the road back to God.  The praise that this passage reveals is shared by the cosmos.  We ought also to share that praise.

Work Pressures

From Ann Glover O’Dell’s Midwifing the Soul:

Floodgates

Waters parting

     floodgates making way

        I sensed prepared for me.

           I heard them coming

              deafened by the roar

                  of mighty waters rolling

                     down upon me.

I said a prayer

   prepared to die

      so sure my next few breaths

         would be my last.

I know not if I knelt

   or sat

      or stretched myself out prone

          ready to receive the hand of death.

 Louder came the roar

      A sound so full of fear

          I wished for deafness before death

              anything but being made

                   to hear that awful sound.

The roar grew louder

     louder still

         and I

              so sure my drums would burst

                  fixed all my thought on broken ears 

                       as cause of death

                           and in an instant heard played again

                               the thousand tapes of noisy voices

                                  of my wasted life of listening.

And still the roar increased

     till I heard screams

        my own thin voice

             inside my head

                 with shouts of

                     ‘Kill me, then!’

                          ‘Yes, do it now!’

                                ‘Anything but this!’

But ‘this’ was not yet finished

     my pleading was in vain

            as if demonic spirits

                took delight in my despair.

And then

     as quickly as begun

         the roar subsided

            to the pleasant sound

               of water

                   over smooth worn stones

                       reminding me

                         of where in childhood

                               played for hours

                                   and sheltered

                                     from the loss of innocence

                                        was I.

---

From Celia’s Images in a Reflecting Pool:

There is always time for what is needful.  This learned after long experimentation.  So why do I still fight fire when I have a desk filled with work, or a house that hasn’t been cleaned in a week? 

What “bad thing” will happen to me if it isn’t all accomplished in the too-short time I have allotted?

–

Colds or “bugs” are a form of seeking outside ourselves, convenient crutches we use when we are very weary from walking in the world. 

One then has an excuse to sit down.  Written a couple of days before I succumbed to a succession of mild but debilitating viruses:  “What do I really want to experience in my world? 

I don’t want to be hassled constantly to do more-more- more. 

I need to say ‘no’ to things for a month and then some.”

–

On the work complexities of modern life:  “I desperately need to learn how to pace myself.  If ever I get ahead at work, I immediately ‘fill my plate’ with a dozen things that are sure to swamp me eventually.” Four days later, the dawn of a solution: 

“I sensed today that I make things too hard.  I have too much a sense of responsibility.  I should let go and let God.  Life lived from moment to moment ‘listening’ (to the Holy Spirit) is much more interesting.  I can be much too work-oriented, so much that I become a drudge.” 

Now I would add that much of my work is self-generated, but influenced by my colleagues, who are working at least as hard. 

It is as though we were a group of children, backstage before a piano recital.  One’s nervousness and hyperactivity influences another, and then another, and yet another.  And to what end? 

The dubious “achievement” of performing before an audience. 

Now, proving our “worth” this way by more and more elevates work to a personal god whose demands are insatiable.  And isn’t that the clue that the dynamic is ego-based?

Pathways

There is an old expression, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

But I am always trying to make “it” better.  Isn’t this being too much of a perfectionist?

–

Achieving at my maximal level has long been a goal.  I don’t like to be defeated by anything, to drop out of the race without trying sufficiently.  An old “Father Knows Best” television program drove the point home to me while still very young (and aren’t we quite impressionable when young?). 

I sense I could take a new pathway in my career, albeit not without struggle.  Do I want to be one who, as Milton says, “slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat”?  Yet Milton’s famous passage also suggests that one would know good “by” evil, by the contrast. 

This I don’t believe is necessary.  Maybe now is one time that my doubts should be respected, because the ultimate goal, being ego-related, is questionable (as well as tangential to what I really want to do).  It’s a replay of a “have it all” 1980s motif—surely a way of life most of us are coming to repudiate.

Dreams

I was on a high from successfully defending my dissertation when the dream to publish first emerged.  Many years later I can say that the impulse to write was a genuine idea possible of accomplishment and the instigator of some of my most rewarding hours.

–

A “godfather’s offer” (one I can’t refuse, as in the movie) is at least tangentially related to the fatal flaw of Shakespeare’s tragic characters and, for me, is virtually always coming from the ego.  If one makes the decision not to be ruled by the ego, the whole Force of the universe comes into play to reinforce this truly holy endeavor.

–

On the unreality of reflection:  “I have noticed a tendency to ‘resolve’ issues in my journal, and then–later–impulsively to choose a different answer.  I think I try to form a certain reality from wishful thinking, but then make a different decision when life seems to suggest otherwise.”

Life Decisions

Is this what has been going on for me as I resist library administration? 

Not that anybody has asked.  I say ahead of time that I’m not interested so that I won’t be tempted with an offer I can’t refuse (an offer that “can’t” be refused normally appears, at least for me, to be ego-inspired). 

I have to be certain that the ego is not the motivator here. 

Perhaps I am destined to be in indecision about this for a while.  Maybe I should stay in non-resolution until I learn what my soul is trying to tell me.  Yet non-resolution over a long period of time, I have learned, usually counsels “no.”

Relinquishing Ego

Ego is such a powerful motivator that when it is let go, one must find a substitute worth living for.  Mine is a genuine desire to make a meaningful contribution to the world.  But that is not the whole of it.  One still must fill countless hours with the minor chores of daily living.  One cannot always be doing “important” things.  And if these chores fill so many hours, can anyone say what “important” really is? 

–

A candid personality attracts because its owner seems to have dropped—at least for our eyesight—the mask that we normally wear.

What Do I Want to Come of This? What Is It for?

“In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply, is ‘What do I want to come of this?  What is it for?’  The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning, for it is this which will determine the outcome.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-17.VI.2)

I have long puzzled over this quotation.  It is hard to know how to answer the goal when we are faced with a myriad of possible activities.  But answer the goal, we must, if we are to make progress on the spiritual journey.

We want to make spiritual progress.  Our daily quiet time is designed for that purpose.  But we shouldn’t just think of goals when we are seeking God.  Our goal-driven society will ensure that there are many other times and means to reach an end.  Finding the right goals to pursue is crucial.

We often get side-tracked, especially when the ego is still strong in us.  We pursue goals that don’t satisfy, or they satisfy for only a short while, and then turn to dust.  This is always the way with egocentric goals.  We will feel an unreasoning elation when we reach one of these egotistical giants, but soon we will wonder why the gold has tarnished for us.  Why does this one thing—this goal—that we thought would satisfy all needs suddenly seem not to be enough?

So, we ask, what more can we pursue?  And we look around and identify a new pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  And we go after that.  Only to be doused in the dust again, when the goal is reached, and we find ourselves, once again, unsatisfied.

The ego always leads thus.  So at some point we realize that it is time to get off the treadmill of egoic longing.  There is no satisfying the ego; anything that we do will ultimately prove to be “not enough.”

Only the intangibles are lasting in satisfaction.  And any religious orientation will tell us what this are:  peace, harmony, kindness, forbearance, love, forgiveness.

We don’t have to be following A Course in Miracles to know that these are the values that our spiritual leaders have preached for eons.  We just need to take those values unto ourselves.  And once we do, the peace that we find will convince us that those spiritual leaders have been right all along.

“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.

Self United

“The only replacement that can occur that will accomplish what you seek is the replacement of illusion with the truth, the replacement of fear with love, the replacement of your separated self with your real Self, the Self that rests in unity.”  (A Course of Love, C:9.24)

We see that A Course of Love makes parallels of illusion and truth, fear and love, and the separated self with the real Self, saying that a replacement of illusion, fear and the separated self needs to be made—with truth, love and the real Self.  This is salvation, this is the coming to know that we will find in fullness in Christ-consciousness.  Until then, we can see only rare glimpses, some longer than others, but still temporary.

This is the only accomplishment that we seek, and on some level it has already been accomplished, for Jesus says that we are The Accomplished.  But not in any egoic sense, of course.  We have walked the whole pathway, and now we find our way back to retrace our steps.

It doesn’t have to take long in the life of any individual, though the return may take a very long time for everyone on earth.  Make no mistake:  This is what we are about, the eventual return of everyone to full sanity, which means that we are in communion with our Creator and we have walked into the real Self through Awakening.

Hell Is Egoic Thinking

“The Holy Spirit teaches thus:  There is no hell.  Hell is only what the ego has made of the present.”  (T-15.I.7)

Do any of us still believe in hell?  Or fear that, in some form, it still might be true?

In some form it is true:  the hellish present that the ego gives us. 

And this present can indeed be hellish.

The teaching is from the Holy Spirit, Who makes no mistakes.  His Way is true.  His Way is accurate.  And His Way is there for all of us to follow, just being true to His Word and walking a sure path into a higher consciousness.

If we were led by the ego previously, then remember that there is a time delay before events are materialized in this world.  We will see that what we believed somewhat earlier makes its way into our world.  And only with that time delay, a delay that is actually helpful, for it gives us time to change our minds.  If our thoughts were immediately actualized, we would be in trouble indeed.

Know that you can change the hellish present into a better future just by relinquishing the egoic state of mind.

So many gifts for such a relinquishment!  We are indeed blessed, with a way out of our anguish and a better way assured for us in the future.

Say Good-Bye to the Ego

“All those absurd ideas that you harbored about the superiority or inferiority of beings, both physical and spiritual, was an inevitable response of the ego, that totally fearful state of consciousness.  It was unnecessary and not part of God’s dream.”  Choose Only Love bk.4, 3:II

God’s dream for us is benign. We make the drama that surrounds us, and when we have walked farther along on our pathway back to God, everything becomes calm and quiet. In A Course in Miracles, these are the “happy dreams the Holy Spirit brings.”

We are all equal children of God, though some of us, in time, are farther behind others. And some are ahead. But time does not exist; time is illusory. Thus all such comparisons pale.

The ego makes the hell that we sometimes live in, for the ego is “totally fearful,” and fear is an attribute of the hell we make for ourselves.

When we stay close to God, all of this mischief disintegrates. We have good days, like pearls on a string–all, if not perfect, at least a goodly share of perfect. Don’t be too intense about it, but be in constant touch with God. If we are too intense in our constant prayer, we will have an overload of thinking that leaves out the heart. The mind makes for stress. Let our love for God and our brothers and sisters derive from our heart, and this Love is what will make for goodness in every day we spend on earth.

Commentary on Egoic Hell

“The belief in hell is inescapable to those who identify with the ego.  Their nightmares and their fears are all associated with it.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-15.I.4)

Threatened people can be, and frequently are, vicious.  And threatened people are people who have considerable investment in the things of the ego—the materialism in particular. 

This is the lamentable condition of this world, for many there are who believe in hell.  And hell is very, very scary.  Most individuals in this world do, in fact, identify with the ego; those who don’t are the rare exceptions.  (And we are seeking to be those of this rare exception.)  If we identify with the ego, we will oscillate between joy and despair, and our nightmares (daytime and nighttime) will offer little solace to us.  We will live a fearful life.  We will not be happy on any kind of extended basis, for the ego always gives, only to take away.

A lot of the problem in our world is because people are easily threatened, and then become defensive and, often, violent.  This dynamic is not inevitable in the physical world, but it is inevitable as long as most people are enamored of the ego.  There is no getting around it:  The ego is very bad business indeed.  The sooner we free ourselves from it, the smoother our lives will go.

Nothing has happened in this world except that we have put ourselves to sleep and dreamed bad dreams, most frequently nightmares.  There has been no comprehensive Awakening, and until this happens, our world indeed does seem doomed. 

Let us be among those who choose again.  Choose once again—that is all that Jesus asks.  And the nightmares will recede, never to recur, eventually, when we have reached the Awakening toward which we are walking.

From Ego-Self to Christ-Self

“I repeat, and will do so again and again, that the ego-self is gone from you.  Whether you fully realize this or not matters not.  This A Course of Love has accomplished.  Now the choice is before you to do one of two things. . .to proceed toward love or fear.  If you proceed with fear you will assemble a new ego-self, an ego-self that perhaps will seem superior to the old, but which will nonetheless still be an ego-self.  If you proceed with love, you will come to know your Christ-Self.”  (A Course of Love, T3:4.8)

Yes, the ego-self is gone from us.  The first book of A Course of Love accomplished this, making us The Accomplished.  It is not ego that says this.  It is the unparalleled good sense.  Jesus says it.  Can we not believe it?

If we continue to walk with fear. we are in danger, for we will be tempted to form a new ego-self.  Jesus says in fact that we will form a new ego-self, if fear intrudes on our peace.  We need to get rid of the fear, for our right minds depend on it.

On the other hand, if we proceed with love, we will come to know our Christ-Self, the inner essence that is our real Self. 

We need to make the distinction between fear and love to make the right choices upcoming.  We need to know that we are safe in this world, that nothing can harm us, that the blood that we see is merely catsup, and that illusions are not reasons to be frightened.  We need to see reality, and reality will launch us toward love.  We see reality when we trust, for, as A Course in Miracles affirms, trust is the bedrock of our new thought system, the thought system of love, of the Christ-Self.  We give up fear when we recognize how divisive a force it has been in clogging up our minds.  Our minds are precious indeed, but we have walked with a demented mind.

Now we can walk with a sane mind by listening to our heart.  Our heart is our saving grace in this new reality in which we find ourselves.  Only our heart can save us now.  Let us proceed by listening to our heart, a part of our being that needs no proof of God.  In our inner essence, we just know that we are not all alone in the universe.  That we have an indwelling spirit that means us well.  And that that indwelling spirit is God Himself.

From Ego-Self to Christ-Self

“I repeat, and will do so again and again, that the ego-self is gone from you.  Whether you fully realize this or not matters not.  This A Course of Love has accomplished.  Now the choice is before you to do one of two things. . .to proceed toward love or fear.  If you proceed with fear you will assemble a new ego-self, an ego-self that perhaps will seem superior to the old, but which will nonetheless still be an ego-self.  If you proceed with love, you will come to know your Christ-Self.”  (A Course of Love, T3:4.8)

Yes, the ego-self is gone from us.  The first book of A Course of Love accomplished this, making us The Accomplished.  It is not ego that says this.  It is the unparalleled good sense.  Jesus says it.  Can we not believe it?

If we continue to walk with fear. we are in danger, for we will be tempted to form a new ego-self.  Jesus says in fact that we will form a new ego-self, if fear intrudes on our peace.  We need to get rid of the fear, for our right minds depend on it.

On the other hand, if we proceed with love, we will come to know our Christ-Self, the inner essence that is our real Self. 

We need to make the distinction between fear and love to make the right choices upcoming.  We need to know that we are safe in this world, that nothing can harm us, that the blood that we see is merely catsup, and that illusions are not reasons to be frightened.  We need to see reality, and reality will launch us toward love.  We see reality when we trust, for, as A Course in Miracles affirms, trust is the bedrock of our new thought system, the thought system of love, of the Christ-Self.  We give up fear when we recognize how divisive a force it has been in clogging up our minds.  Our minds are precious indeed, but we have walked with an insane  mind.

Now we can walk with a sane mind by listening to our heart.  Our heart is our saving grace in this new reality in which we find ourselves.  Only our heart can save us now.  Let us proceed by listening to our heart, a part of our being that needs no proof of God.  In our inner essence, we just know that we are not all alone in the universe.  That we have an indwelling spirit that means us well.  And that that indwelling spirit is God Himself.

Wisdom that Has Not Come Before

“How can what continues to give in to fear know love?  All your reasons for fear-based living have been discounted one by one.  And yet you dare not try to live without it.  Why?  Because of the thoughts of the ego-mind.  The ego-mind is concerned only with its own survival but it has you convinced it is your survival that depends on it.  How can you be convinced to live as if the truth were otherwise?  For only if you begin to live as if the truth were otherwise can you see that it truly is otherwise, or based on a wisdom other than what has come before.”  (A Course of Love, T1:3.5)

We tremble in fear when we make short forays in to trying to live without fear.  Fear seems a given, something that will protect us.

We are misinformed.  Fear is not necessary for our continued survival in this sometimes harsh world.  The reason that we think that fear is needed is the lingering influence of the ego-mind, the insane part of us that continues to dwell just below the surface of our good sense.

The ego is gone from us when we have assimilated the truths of A Course of Love.  We may not realize this, we may still struggle.  But the ego only has a residue of false thinking that continues to infiltrate our moments of reflection.  We have always thought with the ego-mind, and so to hear Jesus say in ACOL that we are done with the ego is immediately enough to raise doubts in our minds.  How can we be done with the ego?  We see its influence constantly.

We need to let go.  We need to trust what Jesus is telling us.  If he says that the ego is no more for us, then let the mind rest in that knowledge—for it is knowledge, not perception.  Just rest.  And the truth of the elimination of the ego will dawn on a calmer mind in ourselves.

A greater wisdom is available to us, and we ought to take advantage of that greater wisdom forthwith.  Let the smudge of ego on our minds be lightened by our prayer consideration that perhaps the ego is just a mirage, seeming to be ahead of us on our pathway, but actually not representing anything but illusion.

Egoic Thoughts Are Pseudo-Thoughts

“Divine mind is the source of all true thought.  Likewise, there is only one heart, the heart of God, which we have called the Sacred Heart.  It is there that you feel all that is love.  Remember that egoic thoughts are not true thoughts, but pseudo-thoughts.” Choose Only Love bk.3, 10:I

If we are having trouble letting go of the ego, we might remember what Jesus says in this quotation. Egoic thoughts are false, pseudo-thoughts. In other words, we are not really thinking when we let the ego rule how we make decisions.

Most of us want to live in reality. If we learn that we have been living a lie, we will recognize a mistake and wish to correct it. Jesus’ definition of the ego is not Freud’s. Jesus believes that the ego was never our friend, but a false formulation of “reality,” a false way of thinking that has hurt us.

We can recognize that when we think egotistically, we have highs and lows that never pan out to a constant state of contentment. When we give up the ego, life smooths out, and we enjoy happiness. Who among us would not want to experience happiness in our days?

If we are reluctant to just drop the ego, we might experiment with choosing not to do anything egotistical for a time. If we see that we feel better overall, there will never be a problem with motivation again.

Pray for God’s help in this. He knows that we have made ourselves insane with choosing to follow an ego that has derailed us. There is a better way.

And we can find it–today.

The Work of Love

“Here is the message that all humanity has been waiting for from time immemorial.  Souls will understand.  Hearts will rest in peace.  Memories will begin to remember the love of loves, and in that memory find the clear path to lead them, singing, back to the house of the Father.  Angels will join them from every corner of the world, and will also join you who are part of this work of love.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 10:IV

Just as every person is Christ, sharing in Jesus’ divinity, so is every work of love a part of the message that humanity has been waiting to hear. Choose Only Love is an important new revelation, but as good as it is, it does not stand alone. Whenever any of us seek to further the Kingdom of God, we are following in Jesus’ footsteps, and our work is similarly blessed.

The most significant aspect is that our work, the work of all of us, be centered always and forever, in love. We can’t fool ourselves about this. If we are embroiled in the ego, our listeners will know and be turned off. If, instead, we react from an open heart, we will be moving in love, and the response we get to what we try to do will be enhanced.

Ask for guidance in the work of love. And let us all join together to usher in a new Kingdom, a Kingdom in this world that will be now in a newly created world.

Practice the Presence of God

“A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct.  This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself as lack.  The idea of order of needs arose because, having made this fundamental error, you had already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs.  As you integrate you become one, and your needs become one accordingly.  Unified needs lead to unified action, because this produces a lack of conflict.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-1.VI.2)

Which of us would not want a lack of conflict?  We can realize, as the Workbook says, “There is another way of looking at this.”  There is also a way of thinking of God that will immediately quell conflict.  If we place our minds on the concept of God, Himself, we will know inner peace.  This is not the only way, of course, but this thought process is the most direct.  We quiet the ego by thinking of God, and in the quietude we live above conflict.  We will overlook the conflict.

We are very conflicted beings, very moody and very antagonistic, initially, to listening to what will give us peace.  After all, we have invested a lot in the ego, and the ego says that it will protect us.  This is not true, of course, because the ego and egotistical thought processes only lead to more conflict and turmoil—exactly what we need to move from.  We are not moving away from conflict now, because we all too often think that we are really living when the drama is high.  This is the insidious thing.

We need to practice the Presence of God in our daily lives, from moment to moment (when we remember).  This Presence does not have to be a constant thing for us, and indeed, it cannot be, for our minds are made of short-term attention spans.  Yet, the more we can welcome God’s Presence in our lives, the better our lives will become.

We are living on different levels, fragmented parts of ourselves that know no better.  We do not have to have multiple personalities to recognize that we partake of this phenomenon; this fragmentation is rampant in our culture, for we have forgotten God as our unifying Force.  He will solve the problems that we think we have; He will show us how to rise above the chaos of the world. 

Completed Pathway

“You who receive these words now, remember that you are among the one hundred and forty-four thousand that God chose to be elevated by this means to the highest peaks of holiness.  You have already completed your path to the knowledge of who you really are.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 9:II

This word from Choose Only Love comes from Mary of Nazareth.  Here, she says something very startling, that those of us reading and receiving these words are among the 144,000 people identified in the Bible as being singled out for particular consideration.

I don’t think the number 144,000 is exact.  I think it is a generic number for those of us who are following the guidance we are receiving from God, seeking to do His will, trying to live a good life under this guidance.  There likely might be many more than 144,000 as we all begin to walk the pathway home.

Ask what God wants us to do.  If we have been given any particular consideration, we need to find out what to say and do next.  Those to whom much is given, much is required—as we know.  Most importantly, we don’t want to slip into egoic attitudes, for these would nullify any good works that we might do.

Have we actually completed our path to the knowledge of “who we really are”?  We must ask this question of ourselves, ask if Mary is right about us. 

And walk in humbleness, in humility.  We have much to do to save the world, and we ourselves must not lose our way. 

Miracles & Revelation

“Revelation unites you directly with God.  Miracles unite you directly with your brother.  Neither emanates from consciousness, but both are experienced there.  Consciousness is the state that induces action, though it does not inspire it.  You are free to believe what you choose, and what you do attests to what you believe.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-1.II.1)

The first aspect of this quotation delineates revelation vs. miracles, and explains the difference in our unity with God, first, and then our unity with our brother.  God is responsible for revelation; we are not.  He communicates to us by revelation, including, sometimes, the experience of Awakening—Awakening that does not last.  He shows us the end, where we are headed.  And Jesus’s book, A Course in Miracles, gives us the means to get to that end of Awakening.  Revelation is not on the same level as miracles.  Under Jesus’s guidance, we perform miracles for our brother, and, in turn, our brother performs miracles for us.  They are, in that sense, reciprocal, unlike revelation.  Revelation always proceeds from God to us, never the other way around.

We are consciousness embodied.  We are alive in our minds, and we experience our projections from mind as perceptions of this world.  We experience revelation and miracles from this consciousness.  We are led to act in this world through what our consciousness says to do.  If we allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit, then our consciousness has a divine Master.  If we allow our consciousness to be guided by the ego, we have feet of clay.  There is no in between.

These ideas, above, are central to A Course in Miracles.  We have a learning task before us, for until we have the theological undergirding of the Course, we cannot master what it says.  Our mind will be trained as we do the Workbook lessons.  The more theoretical aspects of the Course are presented in this, the Text.  We likewise need to master that theory.  There is no other sure way of catching all the means that will lead us to the end of Awakening, the means to the end.

We must await revelation from God.  And we must await Jesus’s nod as to which miracles we are to perform for our brother.  We will get used to the fact that we are not in control anymore, as soon as we start on the road of relinquishing the ego.

Living Christ

“When you pray to God, you are praying to that part of yourself that is divine, that which we call the living Christ who lives in you.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 11:II

We are not just praying to our little personality when we pray.  We have a larger Self who is merged with God, and this larger Self is a part, but only a part, of the Christ.  Christ is a plural term, not meant in this era for only Jesus.  We partake of divinity, too.

Know that turning inward is not praying to an external God, for God is not external to ourselves.  We are a part of Him, always and forever, even when we are living with the ego in a “fallen” state.  We gain insights by turning inward to the God Who dwells deep inside.  We know better how to live.

Ask today how to proceed in life.  Let our intuition be our Guide, for God is speaking in the silence to us through our intuition.

A Startling Assertion

“Those who join this angelic manifestation are those whom the Creator has called from eternity to join the new consciousness of the Second Coming of Christ, the new prophets of the end times.

“Nothing happens by chance.  God does nothing in vain.  You who receive these words are literally part of the one hundred and forty-four thousand announced.  Your new garments shine radiant in the whiteness of Mary’s virgin purity.”  Choose Only Love bk.4, 2:I

“You who receive these words” are those who are reading Choose Only Love (available on Amazon). This assertion is startling. We read of 144,000 called individuals in the New Testament. Can we really be seeing those of this calling in our world today?

This is not something to boost the ego. The ego will have fallen away from this 144,000. To whom much has been given, much will be expected. We need to ask what our task in the great unfolding drama really is.

We need to ask what God would have us do.

Finding Peace

“Observe how the thought pattern of worry blocks access to peace, and therefore to your true self.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 3:I

I came from a long line of worriers.  My grandmother said I came by my worry “honestly.”  Only she, my grandmother, in four generations, remained peaceful and calm.

I do know that this quotation from Choose Only Love is right on.  All is not lost, though, for I have made great strides to eliminate worry—just using thought stoppage, silently saying “Stop!,” when I start to fret.

We all want to come to know our true self.  And this quotation tells us we can’t do that if we are caught up in the fruitless process of worrying.  Peace is our birthright.  Worry is a holdover from the ego.

Ask for peace today.  Ask for peace every day.  We can change the habits of a lifetime if we put our mind and heart to it.  Help will arrive.

Living in Love

“[L]iving with fear was the reality of the contraction in which you lived.  Now we begin to live consciously without fear, joyfully recognizing that we are the resurrection and will live in love.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 2:III

I know that this assertion is true; I know from long life experience.  I used to live with the anxiety of a stressful job, and now that I am no longer in the work force, I am amazingly calm, sometimes sleepy in the mornings, something I resist.

I can make accommodations so that I am more alert, living in Love and not fear.  I have read that it takes more patience to live calmly than to live in agitation.  We have been used to dramas, dramas that kept us uptight.  Now all of us can adjust to a better way, if we have a mind to.  We can adjust to peace without highs and lows that are emblematic of an egoic existence.

Here Jesus says that we are the “resurrection.”  He is seeing us in a new era, the new time of Christ, the second coming of Christ.  Elsewhere Choose Only Love asserts that we are living in the end times.  This does not mean the annihilation of the earth, but it does mean the annihilation of the difficult ways of the ego.

Accept calm when it comes.  Accept calm in this new era.  And be grateful for it. 

Our lives will smooth out, and we will know a better way of walking through the new world that we will be creating.

God Knows Us

“To believe in a God incapable of experiencing that which comprises the vast range of human experience is to misunderstand.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 2:I

God does understand us, our strengths and our foibles.  As we are part of Him, He is living through us.  His strength informs our own.  And when we slip up, His greater knowledge is there to set everything aright again.

God therefore experiences right along with us.  But I believe that He, as the Infinite, knows the Whole, and our finite minds, even our finite hearts, cannot comprehend that Whole except by intuition, intuition as our pipeline to sensing God.  Our intuition is best experienced as a heartfelt understanding.  Our heart has not had the false value of an ego to lead it astray. 

Our mind, on the other hand, got distracted by the ego that we made up and believed in for so long.  Our highs and lows of egoic longings only served to distract us from real truth.  But now many of us are coming around.  We now know that deemphasizing egotistical and egoic values is the right way in which to live.  We do know better now.

God is not incapable of knowing what goes on with us.  He lives within each of us; He lives within the consciousness of all universe(s).  His Energy transforms us, when we give our assent to Its transforming of our emotions, our mind, our heart.

God does know.  He is a personal God Who answers personal prayers.  We hear Him in silence, but we hear Him surely.

We Are Accepted

We often don’t accept ourselves fully; we are not conscious of our connection to God, Who loves us all equally and sees us as divine children who are loved, oh, so loved by Him. He doesn’t expect us to make drastic changes to be accepted by him, and it is only our rejection of others that then turns back on ourselves with rejection also.

This dynamic, an egoic dynamic, has to end. God will work with us to alter the things that we find difficult in ourselves to accept. He is always near, certain of our rightness, our acceptability. It is our own shortsighted propensity that gives us a problem. And when we pray that our insecurities about ourselves fall away, they will.

We are as God created us. We are–still! This is what A Course in Miracles says, and repeatedly. Ask today to let us see ourselves in a new light, a light of forgiveness, a light of exceedingly good value.

We Are Christ!

“You are consciousness.  You are awareness.  You are that which witnesses, that which pays homage to the one thing that God has created:  Christ, which means the anointed.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 17, Page 201)

We are the awareness that is Christ. Of course, if we shouted this too loudly when we are caught in the ego, we would have a “high” that would quickly turn on us and lead us into despair. But now that we are relinquishing the ego, we can shout from the rooftops (metaphorically) that we ARE the Christ. In the new era of Christ, we understand that the “Christ” is a plural concept, not limited to Jesus. He paved the way, and still does. But he welcomes us into his inner sanctuary with God.

How do we actually come to realize that we are morphing into something new and better? We go within, in peace and tranquility. God Himself will welcome us. We can believe that He knows how important it is to us to relinquish an egotistical stance toward life and living. When we welcome others with the same manner in which we seek to welcome ourselves into God’s embrace, we will realize that we are all in this together.

We seek to rest in God’s embrace, and in His embrace we feel no fear. We see that we are equal to all others in the eyes of God, and so judgment has no place. And it is these two impediments–fear and judgment–according to A Course of Love, that keep us from manifesting Christ, that keep us from love in all its fullness–Love as God loves.

Know that we are loved, and because God first loved us, we can give and receive love now. We can be cocooned in that love of God.

He is reaching upward from our depths to love us with an abiding love. Do we feel it yet?

Divine Play

“Peace, then, be unto you, beloved and holy friends.  ‘Friends’ because you are a part of me, and I a part of you—particles of light dancing in the wave of the one God, the one Mind, the one Truth, the real world.  The joke has been on us!  And we played it upon ourselves well.  Now, the time of rejoicing is at hand, as we arise in our individuation, recognizing our oneness—to dance the dance of creation ceaselessly, extending only the good, the holy, and the beautiful.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 16, Page 200)

What is the “joke”? That we thought we separated from God, formed an ego that led us astray, and now we recognize the folly of our ways and are rapidly, all of us, returning to God. Now we know that Love answers all needs. And when we leave behind judgment and fear (as A Course of Love advises), we are making real progress to a better life ahead. The law of attraction kicks in magnificently to allow us to realize that God is in our corner, has always been in our corner. He was just waiting patiently for us to find that out.

Now we know. We are not meant to be isolated and alone; we need each other, and we need God, the Force of the Universe Who realizes that Love is the only way that reality would work. He knew this from the beginning, when He first awoke and realized, “There is only I. Why be afraid? But I feel lonely. I will create my “children,” and then I will companion with them.”

We don’t really know how God thought, but what I just said is an ancient story retold by Joseph Campbell. And to our finite minds, it makes sense–though we are molding God in our own image, and that may not be good.

Let ideas of God play in our minds. This is companionship, we can feel, for Him–and it is companionship for us. Our “play” has a larger scope, and in Awakening we will come to see more and to know more.

Let God’s Love enfold us today. Even He could wish for nothing greater for us.

Dance of Creation

“Here, then, we begin to let the secret out of the bag.  Separation was not because you sinned.  Separation was not because something terrible went wrong.  Separation was just another form of the dance of creation itself, perhaps taken to extremes.  For God seeks the limits of what is unlimited.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 16, Page 199)

Quotations like this I find imminently reassuring. God is in charge, though we have the illusion of being in charge, too. And being part of Him, this interpretation is not all wrong.

If separation was not something terrible that went wrong, then we can be assured that everything will all turn out alright over time. We can rest easy.

“God seeks the limits of what is unlimited.” A blessed thought!

A Course of Love says that God and we chose the separation, that God “let go” when he sensed our impatience. If we had not then become frightened and formed a false god, an ego, everything would have gone much better for us. And it will go much better for us now that we too are “letting go,” letting go of the ego.

God knows what He is doing. And we can have some of His knowledge through going deep within and asking for understanding. He listens.

The Ego

“So what is egoic consciousness?  You all know what it feels like to be absolutely certain that you are separate and alone, that you must rely on your own thinking process, and that no one beyond—not just the boundary of your body or skin—but no one beyond your unique, contracted sense of ‘I’ has any connection to you whatsoever, and no one cares.  And you lament, ‘I am alone.  I am separate.  How on earth am I going to make it?  I’ve got to figure my own way.  I’ve got to figure out how this world works.  I’ve got to make it happen for myself!’”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 16, Page 194)

This lengthy quotation gives an excellent understanding of what the ego has done for us. And we all can understand what it means, because we have all been there–with the ego.

But when we come to realize what this ego is doing to us, we reassess and move into a better world. We are not “separate and alone,” because we have each other. When we lapse into competitiveness with each other, we forget that we are all in this together.

Let us not forget today that there is a reason that we are in a world with billions more people–our brothers and sisters–in it with us. We can reach out and touch any one of them today, even just now. And our sense of isolation will disappear.

Reach out today. Know that God is blessing our “reaching.” He knows that we are not happy when we are all alone in our conception of ourselves. Let us tune into what reality really is–today. We can do so. We must do so.

Spirit

“Rather, it was more like a mathematical concept.  It was the idea of space, in which extension could occur.  There were not yet planets and suns.  There was not yet a single atom or molecule of matter.  There was pure thought, pure Love, pure being, beginning to entertain, and I emphasize that word for a certain reason, the idea of pure space, pure extension—unlimited, unbounded, forever.  There was pure Spirit.  That is what you are, now and forever.  Spirit does not change.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 16, Page 189)

Spirit is an energy that pervades the whole. In the beginning (if we can say that), there was nothing but Spirit. Then God moved, and His energy–or Thought–slowed down a bit, and lo and behold, matter came into being. Matter has been most of what we have known. And unfortunately, in our separation from God–something that we, in error, imagined we wanted–we developed a false self, an ego, that felt all alone and lonely without our Creator, God Himself.

Now things are changing for us. We know that egotism is not the way of the Christ-Mind. And we are tired and burned out from the suffering that our ego has laid upon us. We now have a new choice before us–choosing God, again, this time to stay with Him. Our ego diminishes into nothingness, and we have true joy in our newfound communion with our Creator.

We are pure Spirit, and despite our foray into egotism, our essence has not changed.

Now we choose again, this time in Love. And Love, with a capital “L,” is God Himself.

Our Essence

“You are God Itself.  Now, that is the first time that we have been quite so bold.  It is the first time that we have described you as that which is God.  This can only mean that what you are in your essence, in your essential being, is God Himself.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 16, Page 188)

What this quotation is saying is that the All, everything, is composed of “God-stuff.”  There is no energy that exists except the essence of God, and He created children from that Essence that are differentiated out of His very being.  We are those children.

There are differences, of course, starting with the fact that we are finite and lack full knowledge.  We could not live if we knew it all, because our mind would act like a computer drive that has had too much data stored in it (an analogy from A Course of Love).  We have also “fallen,” in that we made an ego that has separated us from God—or so we thought.  We could not actually separate from Him, for we are part of Him, part of His essence.

When we return to God, to know it, we will be in a position to partake more of His very essence.  Our benefits will be great, for love and loving will be the way we live.  Love is God, as we know.  But God is not an emotion, and so by this statement we mean something grander than the emotion of love.  We draw sustenance from Love (something that remains a mystery), for when we forgive completely, we know that we are safe in His arms (we know this from A Course in Miracles, which stresses forgiveness as our great need).

And when we have walked the whole way back to God, we will then know that there is really nothing to forgive.  The dream is over, the reality is in full sway now.

Love is the way we walk in peace.

Jesus: “Awe of Mystery”

“I began to discern what brought me true joy.  Not just a moment of pleasure, or satisfaction, or sense of security, but which elicited true joy.  I discovered that what always brought joy was when I was willing to surrender into the awe of mystery. . . .”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 14, Page 175)

We too can experience true joy when we let our mind and heart rise upward to the true mystery of God.  Jesus is here laying out a pathway for us to follow, too.

We need to be aware when we are feeling joy as opposed to simply the earthly happiness.  Joy is on a higher plane, more akin to heaven on earth than our usual egoic world.  We have flights of happiness when the ego rules, but we don’t experience true joy—joy that lasts and warms our heart constantly.

Ask today to experience this true joy.  Lift our mind and heart to the mysteries of God.  Experience awe in His presence.

We will have a day like no other.

Heaven Is Where We Are Living Now

“Within your self is a place where you can read God’s purpose for you.  There, in the sacred precinct of your holy will, resides truth, love, and Heaven.  It is where we are living now.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 7:III

We often wonder what we are here for.  This quotation tells us that we simply must look within to find the answer.  Of course, we can still get ourselves all tangled up with superficial answers that are coming from either the ego or (later) the patterns of the ego.  We can still confuse ourselves.

The way to be certain that we are reading our purpose correctly is, in my opinion, to look back over our life and see what we have been doing that seemed “right.”  When we have really been on the beam, we have known it.  Our joy has been full, for joy is an indication that all is well.  God intends us to be joyous, even in the midst of living in a difficult world.  God’s joy is an indication that we are in our purpose.

I think we have an overall purpose, all of us, to heal ourselves, and our brothers and sisters.  This purpose obviously takes many forms, and it is these many forms that we need to focus upon—to know what is the particular form that healing takes in our lives.  A Course in Miracles has a good affirmation, “I am here only to be truly helpful.”  And in the healing that we will do, we will be truly helpful.  We don’t impose on another our own will, though.  We let healing occur through our connection with God.

Heaven resides in this inner place that we are accessing today.  As the quotation says, “It is where we are living now.”

Enjoy heaven today.

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.

Love = True Function

“Your function is not to be anything, but to be what you are, which is love.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 4:I

We don’t have to fulfill a self-described image of what we want to be, a self-image.  Images are often ego-originating, and false to the core.  Instead, we simply need to focus on what we know of love, to fulfill a vision of someone who loves.

This cannot be hard, though our real Self has been covered over by egoic notions for a long time.  Yet, even in the midst of folly, all of us have known love, from someone or something.  We first receive love from God, and this first receipt from Him enables us to be able to give.  If we had not first received, we would simply be unable to heal the separation, something that God Himself longs to see.

Simplify life today.  Know that when all is said and done, we don’t want more honors, more promotions, more achievements. When life is ending for us, we will never say that we wish we had spent more time at the office.  We will say that we wish we had loved better.

Begin today to rectify gaps in our experience of love.  Pray to be brought closer to true reality, which at base is nothing if it is not love.

Being Who We Really Are

“The wind does what is natural to wind.  The purpose of existence is to be its true nature.  That is why, we have spent so much time reminding you of who you really are.

“Being aware of who you really are allows you to live as who you truly are.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 4:I

Often we try to live up to an ideal that is only in our mind.  “Being who we are” is something more substantial than just an appeal to ideals.  Knowing who we are takes some deep thought, some mystical insight, and a connection to God Himself Who will guide us to blossom as He intended.

We are individuals who best live in love, not fear, and especially not egoic fear.  We know that we are really One with all our brothers and sisters, with whom, if things are good, we live in holy relationship.  We unite with the depth of ourselves, the Christ-Self.  As the Christ-Self learns over time, we see a bloom come to all we encounter, for projection makes perception.  What we are inwardly, we see as external to ourselves.  We are projecting “reality” as we view it.

God wants us to enjoy ourselves in this lifetime.  Often we don’t, because we know pain, sorrow, even suffering.  But these things can disappear more often than not when we are keen to follow guidance as we know it.  God means us well.  He does not visit bad things upon us.  Usually our free will has brought the more unfortunate parts of our lives to us.

Ask today, deep in contemplation and prayer, for an understanding of the personality that has been given us.  We do have some say in the matter, of course.  Some of life is meant to be play.  When we develop the best that is in us, we know a joy that cannot be known by anybody who is simply playing a part.  We know a joy because our innermost essence is divine, and when we touch the divine, we sense God’s love in everything about us.

Christ

“Beloved, accept now that you are Christ.  Begin to walk on Earth as gods, loving everything, always in love.”  Choose Only Love bk.2, 21:II

When we walk the world loving everything, always in love, then indeed we are Christ.  And there is something further: “Begin to walk on Earth as gods.”

This is heady stuff.  But we will be misinterpreting if we let these words be an appeal to our ego.  These words are not meant in such a fashion.  Our little personalities often misconstrue. 

When we are living in love, everything looks different—and this includes us.  We truly are being a Christ when we walk in love upon the face of this earth.

To do so will make such a difference.  We won’t be so much changed as just living more fully.  Our minds will have slowed down, and cleared, and we will be happier.  Yet Christ-consciousness is not so much a matter of a changed mind as it is of a changed outlook, though Jesus says elsewhere (in The Way of Mastery) that if our scientists knew what to look for in the brain, they would have found it.

Do we have to have walked the whole pathway back to God in order to be considered a Christ?  No, because being a Christ is our inheritance, what we are meant to step into.  We don’t have to be perfect in order to reach this place.  It is our joint certainty that all is well.  It is our renewed hope for a better life.

And the only way that we can have a better life is to turn ever more completely to expressions of love in everyday life.

Jesus: “You Are a Joy to Me”

“Let nothing disturb your heart.  Let nothing have you believe that anything within you is wrong.  You are a joy to me.”  Choose Only Love bk.2, 21:I

We have so much trouble accepting ourselves.  Accepting ourselves just as we are.  Always trying to improve, we get ourselves all tangled up for the trying.

But we are OK as we are.  We must let nothing disturb our heart.  If Jesus tells us, here, that we are a joy to him, then why can we not accept ourselves, just as we are?

Our ego is to blame.  And even if we have abandoned our ego, we have patterns of the ego that linger and disturb our peace.  The ego was always telling us we weren’t good enough, that if we only tried harder, we would find ourselves in a better position, sure of ourselves, sure of our value as human beings.

This idea from the ego is a mirage.  Just as an individual lost in a desert, seeing water ahead, aims to reach that water and then finds nothing there.  We have always held out to ourselves that we could be better than we are.  Of course, in some sense, this idea is true, but it is not the bottom line.  God accepts and loves us just as we are.  He wants us to be sane, though, and the insanity is what has made us dissatisfied with ourselves.  When we allow the insanity to fall away, we will know that God’s love is for the genuine Self who we are.  And we will be much more accepting of the truth that we are alright just as we are.

Keep in mind that Jesus says we are a joy to him.  He has the most sanity of anyone, and so I am inclined to believe that he sees something that we do not.

Ask to be accepting of our foibles as remnants of insanity that just need to fall away.  Accept our Self, know that all is well, and we are loved—just as we are.  We need to take this truth unto ourselves, and, yes, love ourselves, too.  We can’t love others well until we love ourselves, too. 

We need to realize that our lives will smooth out when we engulf ourselves with the Love that only God can give.  And He is giving this Love constantly.

Guidance

“Abandon the compulsion of the thinking mind.  I am asking you to stop looking for meaning in things.”  COL bk.2, 20:II

We analyze everything!  And here, in a message attributed to Mary, we are asked just to stop this, the compulsion of the thinking mind.  A Course of Love, received from Jesus, asks us to listen to our heart, which is actually the center of our being. 

When we look for meaning in everything, analyzing, we are often in the egoic mind.  How much sense do you think the ego is really making?  None!  We analyze wrongly, but then we act on what we “receive” from our mind, and we think that we are so right!  We are misinformed.  We cannot know much that we think we have figured out.

I used to analyze just all the time.  It earned me good marks on the analytical part of the Graduate Record Examination, but it was a poor way to navigate in life.  We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit (A Course in Miracles) or the Christ-Mind (A Course of Love).  The Way of Mastery echoes a similar theme, that the mind is meant to be a very “stupid servant.”  And we so prize our good intelligence!

There is an easier way to live.  And these received writings all point in the same direction.  Give up trying to make our own decisions about where to go, what to do, what to say.  Refer those decisions to a Higher Power.

And watch life ease out, never to give us many of the same problems again.  Now we are truly being “intelligent,” referring questions to a higher authority.

Walk into Love, Away from Fear

“Given the energetic state of fear, the soul begins to grapple with it, just as the body does with a toxin.  It is a natural reaction.  Fear is so foreign and unnatural that the soul always seeks to eliminate it.  Fear is soul poison.”  COL bk.2, 19:II

These blunt words about fear will make us want to banish it forever from our mind and heart.   We can do so, though it takes patience and special dispensation from God.  If we love enough, we won’t have fear, because love always displaces fear.  But here, in this world, this degree of love is unusual.  Often we have to take tiny steps to displace fear, seeking calm, seeking peace, seeking tranquility.  Love, true love, comes later, because the vast majority of our love-seeking behavior has been bent on finding special loves that never become holy.  When our special loves transform into holy, then, yes, we are making progress.

Meditation and contemplation, prayer and communion with God, can hasten the arrival of true love in our heart.  These things mitigate against fear, makes us immune to its shrill beckoning.  If we really want to make progress in our walk back to God, we need to invite love into our every moment.  Fear comes from the ego, which we would give up.  Patterns of fear and patterns of the ego will haunt us, though, for a time even after Christ-consciousness has arrived.  We are just that stuck from eons of fear-ridden living.

Be patient.  The end is certain.  We will walk away from fear when that is our intention. 

And this soul poison will haunt us no longer.

Becoming More Aware of Our True Self

“This essential matter of being aware of your true self is what will make fear disappear forever from your sight, reduced to the memory of an unpleasant nightmare.”  COL bk.2, 19:I

What does it mean, to be “aware of your true self”?  I think this message in Choose Only Love means that we are to drop egotistical leanings, just resting in God’s grace as we approach each day.  Our true self is our Christ-Self, and this Self has been hidden in our depths for a very long time.  The ego did this to us.

But now we would walk a different way.  We would drop the ego from our experience.  When we rest in God’s grace, we approach life with a soft focus.  We don’t drop into analytical nightmares, trying to make sense of our world from a stressed and difficult attitude of mind.  We rest easy.

What a promise we have when we become aware of our true self!  Fear will disappear, becoming only an unpleasant nightmare.  We may not see how this is possible, but this word from Jesus does indicate that fear will not be a factor for us any longer.

Let us take Jesus at his word.  If we feel the need for help, let’s simply ask him to hold our hand as we walk along.  A Course in Miracles says that doing so will be no “idle fantasy.”

Serenity Will Heal

“The impulse to struggle and defend is the impulse that moves the egoic world because the ego is only concerned with its survival.”  COL bk.2, 18:II

Perhaps we can read in this quotation from Choose Only Love the implication that to struggle and defend are false issues for us.  Certainly struggle is not God’s way with us.  His way of speaking to us is all peace.  And defending our little territory of mind and heart in this world is not the way, either.  Yes, struggling in vain and defending our way as the only way are both signs of an egoic leaning.

The ego would like to continue to lead us around.  But its days are numbered.  In A Course of Love, as we read through it meditatively, we discover that the ego has left us.  If we latch onto a new way of living, we will not build a new ego on the ashes of the first one.  And we would not choose to do that, for such a futile choice would take away all our gains.

When tempted to struggle with an issue, go within and get quiet.  In the silence, God will speak to us.  He knows that serenity is one of our greatest blessings.  And He will bring serenity to our personal issues in life.  Serenity irons out the difficulties, and we will walk a smooth pathway as we go along.

Defenses do what they would defend, as A Course in Miracles tells us.  So a defensive attitude in life is not the way either.  Drop our defenses today.  We will be the better for it.

Give up the ego and egotistical leanings as bad choices.  Let the subconscious mind be cleansed as we pray for help. 

This in itself will go a long way toward saying good-bye to the ego.