Where We Dwell Eternally

“Though we have said it unto you many times, we ask you to truly take pause and to consider this one statement:  We come forth to join with you, not from a place above you or beyond you, but a place in which you already dwell eternally.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 261)

We are at home in Heaven, something we have trouble believing because bad things still happen to us.  When we decide that Heaven is what we want, and ALL that we want, we are on the way to eliminating the bad things.  Believe this.  Take it to heart.

This statement is coming from the lineage, the group of souls who are Jesus’ helpers in the endeavor to save this world.  Membership is open to us, too.  We just have to go God’s, and Jesus’, way.

Ask to be told more.  This will come to pass.  We are living in the Now in time, and, yes, in the Heaven of our awareness.  If we don’t fully understand, then ask to be enlightened about what we can reasonably believe.

Stepping into Our Tomorrows

“The use of time determines, at all levels, what you will experience in your tomorrows. . . .[L]ong after the body dies, you will indeed be continually stepping into your tomorrows.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 14, Page 172)

This quotation is a poignant reminder of our eternal life, “stepping into your tomorrows.”  We need to know that we are preparing for the future always, even as we try with all our might to live in the Now (as Tolle says).  If we stay close to God, we will know how to make the best use of all of the Now times.  We will thereby be doing all that we can to ensure a good future.

We must not live in the past.  It is true that we can learn from the past, but we don’t want to get “stuck” in it.  The best preparation for the future is today well lived.  I read that a long time ago, too long to give a footnote.  It is something that we need as a constant reminder of what we are doing and where we are heading.

We don’t often think of the “use” of time.  We may rue our present, and that is not the way to live well.  Time is an illusion, it is true, but it seems real enough for us in our present environment.  So we can’t just ignore it.

Make today count.  Make all our days count.

The life well lived starts with today.

We Live and Love Eternally

“This Self with whom you have a relationship is love’s extension. It is the Self you long to be as well as the Self you are. This paradox has kept you as intrigued with the idea of self as with the idea of God. You have searched for a “one, true, self” as you have searched for a “one, true, God.” This search only makes sense to the separated self, who believes all things are separate and thus believes that its self, as well as its God, must be separate from what it is being. It doesn’t understand, until joining with the Christ Self, before becoming one with holy relationship itself, that relationship is an identity.

“God is a relationship with love. This relationship with love is all that provides for the I Am of God.” (ACOL, D:Day40.20 – Day40.21)

The theology of this quotation is especially apt as we seek to understand how relationship, holy relationship, can be so important to our knowledge of God. We are joining with the inner Christ Self, and in this joining we form a holy relationship that is unique to each of us. Our identity is tied up with the Christ Self, who forms the identity that we have been searching for in vain while we embodied the egoic mind. We have been searching for this Christ Self, and it is here with us now. We need search/seek no more.

We are led, surely and swiftly, to an immersion in love. This love shows us the Godhead, for we intuit God when we give our all to love. We can know God only when we are obsessed with love; this obsession is good, unlike the obsessions that plagued us when we were living egoic lives. Now our one hope and our one joy is a love that is not of this world. When we give our all for this love, we know a peace/joy/happiness that is beyond anything available to us prior. We are finally at home, even though our physical bodies still reside in this world. Our mind/heart occupies an ethereal world, though physical still, to us. We live and love eternally, and we know it for maybe the first time.

Dear God,

I would cease trying to “find myself.” That has been done for all time when I comprehend that the inner Christ Self is my “real” Self. This Self does not let me down; this Self draws peace to me in every encounter, sure of living well in a conflicted world. This Self knows how to live without letting the noise of this world get in.

Thank You for guiding me. Always I thank You for that.

Amen.

The Elevated Self of Form Knows Now What Previously Was Only Known in the After-Life

“But I tell you truly; it is no different than the time that is upon you right now. The after-life has simply been a time of increased choice because it has been a time of increased awareness. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 5.13)”

1 – Jesus
Jesus is here saying that we can know in the elevated Self of form those things that formerly we could only know after death, on the Other Side (“the after-life”).

2 – Death

Now we can have this awareness without crossing the barrier of death. What a lovely thought for those of us who have always had lots of curiosity about the true nature of reality.

3 – A Knowing

Enjoying the knowing that comes to us is a great boon. We need not fret and struggle so, but rest in the knowledge (and it is knowledge) that all is well. What happens is meant to happen.

4 – Knowledge

As we move into sustaining the elevated Self of form, we will know many things, rather than perceive many things. We will also know that we know. This new time is a time of increased certainty. We do not have to wait to know much; we are here imbedded in a course of study that assures us that our egos are gone, and that we are in an in between state that will soon be merged with a state of Christ-consciousness. This, at this point in A Course of Love.

5 – Christ-consciousness

Know that Christ-consciousness is not a change at all, but much more a new awareness of knowing. Because we are listening to Jesus and following his Way, the transition will be smooth and gentle. That is a great blessing, because previously many individuals went through much turmoil at the time of transitioning to Awakening. But we are not hurled into reality; we are carried each step of the way. And more and more of us are experiencing the new reality.

6 – Home

Be assured today that we can all find our way back home, and soon. We do not have to wait long. Be careful, though, of affirming Christ-consciousness until enough time has passed that we will be certain that this is not just a glimpse of Awakening, but a sustained state of being. It is wise to keep one’s own counsel in these matters, because many there are who do not understand at all. Others do not recognize miracles for what they are, and the miracle of Awakening, maybe least of all. Many do not even know yet the possibility of this blessing.

7 – Transition

Just walk easily in our world, glad that the transition, when it comes, has actually come. Keep your own counsel. Be restrained. The time of Christ is upon us, and we would be wise to follow the pathway pointed out by A Course of Love. Of course, there are other pathways for people who have not chosen Jesus has their guide. But if you are reading this, still, you have chosen Jesus as your guide in life. And he guides well. Listen, and be reassured that all is well.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I rest in certainty that the after-life will be something which I will enjoy tremendously. But let me not live in longing for that which is ahead. May I live in greater awareness and greater choice today, in this world, as well. May I enjoy the real world that shows before my eyes as I let illusions, the dream in which I am caught, dissipate.

Thank You for the greater awareness and greater choice for today that You have already granted me. May my gratitude color the interactions that I have with others today.

Be with me today to help me to overcome those aspects of my personality which I feel still hold me back. I would walk gently, avoiding anger. I would be grateful for all blessings, eliminating attack. I would seek beyond perception to a knowing about ultimate reality. These are the things that are on my mind and in my heart today. Help my wholeheartedness to effect a cure from undesirable traits. And thank You.

Amen.

Jung: “I Don’t Have Faith; I Know.”

“If the unknown were not unknown faith would not be necessary. Faith will become unnecessary, as life ever-lasting becomes known to you. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 4.13″)

1 – Carl Jung

Carl Jung’s famous statement is apropos here. He had dropped deep into his unconscious to come to terms with his own psyche, and there he had found God.

2 – The Depths of Our Psyche

We can do the same. Whether we call the depths “God,” or the “unconscious,” or the “subconscious,” we can know something very substantial when we plunge into these depths. We don’t have to have a name for what we find. We are no longer having to feel that we accept things, blindly, on faith. Our “faith” is deeper, broader; it is true knowledge that knows no doubt. This is what awaits us as we look within, long and deeply.

3 – Faith

Faith is all too often seen as something that we try to convince ourselves about, but that we actually find hard to believe. Here Jesus reassures us that the time of the blind faith requirement is no longer. We will know. We will understand. Like a great man of psychology, Carl Jung, we will not even have to “have” faith, because we will just “know.” This is a fact of Christ-consciousness.

4 – Bible

According to the Bible, faith was the evidence of things not seen. Now, in this era, we will “see.” Now enough people have reached Awakening that we are undergoing a sea change. The play on words of “see” and “sea” is inadvertent, but illustrative. We will know without having to place blind faith before us.

5 – Eternal Life

Most of us reading this do already believe in eternal life. May we so live our lives on this earth that we are prepared for the Other Side. But may we recognize that we do not live for the afterlife. We live for today, taking the time to experience daily the blessings that are ours.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I know, as only Jesus can understand, that life is eternal. May I not have to depend on a timid “faith” that this is so.

Thank You for the assurances that Jesus is giving me. Help me to apply this new knowledge as I try to live, joyfully, today.

May I have patience as I walk through my day. May Your imparted knowledge to me assure me that all is well. May the blessings of Your pathway reveal themselves to me. May I have peace. Today and always.

Amen.

Accept Our Inheritance from God

“[This] is the time during which you have within your awareness the ability to come into your time of fullness by accepting the inheritance of your Father. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.9)”

1 – Inheritance

Inheritance–our rightful inheritance–is a great promise, one that we may have intuited years ago, in our youth. We are children of God, and, with Jesus, we are now invited to accept our rightful co-creation with God. We are ready when Jesus accepts us. And in A Course of Love, he has done so already.

2 – A Hard Way?

If the way seems hard, we need to remember that struggles create real men and women of us. The men and women of the Bible, in all the familiar passages, did not work for God without struggle. Their lives were often quite hard.

3 – New Day

But this is a New Day. We do not have to experience anew the tribulations of those who have gone before us. The time of new revelation is at hand. Let us just reach out and take what is offered by Jesus in these wonderful promises.

4 – Tribulations?

In a famous passage in A Course in Miracles, Jesus affirms that we do not have to have tribulations here. This is in direct contradiction to what is said in the New Testament. It is not clear if our times are different, or if he is changing what he said earlier (or what he is quoted as saying earlier, the time he walked this earth). Perhaps Jesus’s contribution through the resurrection (which we may find hard to accept as a physical fact) is what is meant here. He led the way, and now it is simply up to us to follow. We have it easy. We need only follow in his footsteps, and all will be well.

5 – Lifespan

“I do not speak of bodies living forever instead of living for what you call a lifetime. . .be it a lifetime of twenty or fifty or ninety years. Life has continuously been prolonged without a substantial change in the nature of life. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 4.10)”

6 – Immortality

This quotation proves that what Jesus is talking about is not immortality in the same physical body that we have known. He is concerned that we change the nature of our living, that we elevate the body of form. That is all.

6 – Body

Questions about immortality always seem to include the body, because that is all we know for sure, the body. But there is a promise of eternal life in these quotations as well. And that immortality is not subject to the ravages of time.

7 – Eternity

We are timeless in eternity. And we do not age.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I receive the inheritance that You have offered to me so freely, today. May I step aside from needless tribulations that I have brought upon myself, and know that Your way is the way of peace.

Jesus has said most recently that we do not have to have tribulations, because he has overcome the world. May we believe him, and accept the inheritance that is ours today.

May this day go well. If I have already rued the day, allow me to start over, for I know that this starting over is always an option. I need You, dear God. Let me invite You into my life, guiding it through Your Spirit.

Amen.

Changing Form Is Part of Life-Everlasting

“Changing form is part of the pattern of life-everlasting. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 4.8)”

1 – Life after Death

This passage echoes a previous reflection on life after death. We are not meant, according to A Course of Love, to hope for new discoveries in science that will give us an eternal physical life on earth. Would we really want such a thing, if it were possible?

2 – The Same Form?

Some early writings on A Course in Miracles thought that a passage in those volumes promised that eternal physical life would be not only possible, but to be expected. This has not been upheld by more recent writings, and ACOL now comments on this hypothesis.

3 – Death

We may be threatened by death, in that it is the one thing that we cannot control. The control freaks among us may be especially threatened. We do not know exactly what form our body will take in the afterlife. Even careful readings of psychic commentary do not make this finally clear. But of one thing we can be certain: Life after death is not to be feared. We will change form, but we will know life everlasting. And we can hope that the death itself, as Ruth Montgomery’s Guides said, will be like “walking through an open door.”
4 – Reincarnation

Is reincarnation? Is this the changing form that is meant? It would not be wise for students/teachers of ACIM and ACOL to take any definite stand, outside the confines of close personal friends. All of us need to be as helpful as possible to all those we encounter, not to introduce tenets of controversy that would limit our usefulness. This attitude is a paraphrase of ideas in the Manual of A Course in Miracles.

5 – Afterlife

While changing form may suggest another form in the afterlife, and then a reintroduction of ourselves to form in this world, we do not know that for sure. Jesus’s words in ACIM can be read in two ways, and students/teachers of ACIM have differed on the point of reincarnation. But we do need to realize that in the grand scheme, we do change form, for our worn-out bodies need to be replaced. We cannot live indefinitely in these bodies. To change form is natural, nothing to be feared. It is, I believe, as Ruth Montgomery’s Guides told her (and us) “like walking through an open door.” That is what death really is.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I know in the depth of my being that death is not the end, that I only change form. I do not, therefore, have to fear death.

As time goes by, and pain comes to me through health changes, may I not suffer any more than would happen when I finally make the transition to life everlasting, life after death.

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.