Perfect Harmony with God

“You are not where you are by chance. . . .You are in this time because you chose to be in it, in perfect harmony with the will of God.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 13:III)

There are no accidents in God’s universes.  We are not victims of fate.  We choose, on some level, our soul level, where we will be and what we will experience.  In consultation with God, we make these decisions.  We will make a contribution, for good or ill, that we could make at no other time in the history of humankind.  God agreed to our coming now, for nothing occurs that He does not allow, on some level of our experience.

No accidents.  No chance.  But we can improve our circumstances whenever we like.  We do not have to lie down in the dust and assume that because things might be bad, we are fated to go through them.  We can always make a bad situation better by a better attitude.  If depression is a problem for us, we can take tiny steps toward emerging from the chaos in which we find ourselves.  And we need not fool ourselves:  We know how to do this.

We are in perfect harmony with the will of God by choosing to be in the here and now.  We could not make such a decision on our own.  It took divine guidance and divine help. 

Let us make the best of our situations.  Our environment will ease when our minds are at peace and rest

Cling to Love, Harmony, Peace in This World

“Clinging to the transient as if it were eternal is painful. . . .If you cling to what sooner or later will no longer be. . .you will fear its loss.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 12:II)

Love is eternal, and even though we know that the lives of those we love do end on earth, they continue in another plane.  So here we are not talking about love, for love is not transient.

There are many things that are, though, and we adore them to our peril.  This truth helps us to see why we have such fears, fears that keep us from enjoying life to the full.  We fear the loss of what we have valued, when what we have valued is not going to last.  The material blessings of our lives fall into this category, a place where loss might certainly happen.

We have to put our faith in what does last, and these are all intangibles.  The intangibles are love (as we have said), harmony, peace, joy, contentment, happiness.  It is true that some of these things wane from time to time, but we are much better off putting our trust in their continuance, lest we create a self-fulfilling prophecy of loss.

Avoid the pain of clinging to the transient.  Ask to put our faith in the intangible, and our lives will blossom evermore into something beautiful.

Banishing Vulnerabilities

            Jesus asserts repeatedly that our real will and God’s will are the same.  We are of the stuff of God; He shared His Self with us in our creation, and so how could Reality be otherwise? Reality must be in harmony, in Oneness, or we escape into dreams of chaos, for that is all that madness can make.  God does not will specialness for us; neither do we truly will it for ourselves, for always will it separate us from our brother.  A Course in Miracles proclaims that actually all of us has everything, nor could we wish for less.  The whole is therefore in each part, and each part (our very Self) is neither greater or lesser (more “special” or less) than any other.  Meditate upon this truth, and watch vain insecurities and vulnerabilities slink away.

–from Out of the Maze, an e-book by the author of this blog.

Ask Only

“Ask only:

“How can I extend my treasure this day?

“And lay up treasures where moth and dust cannot corrupt, that is, where time, materiality, the body and the world cannot ‘hook you.’ Rather lay up treasures that are in Heaven: forgiveness, peace, unlimitedness, recognition of your unlimited power, that which brings you joy and puts a smile upon your countenance. Lay up for yourself these treasures and all things shall be added unto you.” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 10, Page 129)

When we lay up these treasures—forgiveness, peace, etc.—we are seeking the Kingdom of God, called in A Course of Love, the House of Truth. And, as the Bible says, “all things shall be added unto you.” The biblical tenet is to seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And “righteousness” means “right-mindedness.” We need a healed mind.

We know what positivity means, and these gifts from God are all positive. Our own deluded minds have been lost in negativism for long years. It is this negative slant of the ego that has done us in. We wanted treasures that moth and dust corrupt, and we got them—to our detriment.

Now all that is changing for us. We have sifted the good from the bad, and we know that corruptible gifts do not satisfy for long. We want the intangible blessings from God that give us much joy—the Love, harmony, peace, joy, sense of unlimitedness. And we can have them, for they are our birthright. We have previously just been asking for the wrong things.

Let the law of attraction work for the best in life, the intangibles. Then and only then will we know the peace that passeth understanding. Then and only then will we know happiness that lasts.

Our way is being pointed out to us. We are not so dense that we don’t see it. We need simply to abide in God’s embrace, and all good things will be added unto us.

Envision a Better Future & Create It So

“Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

“I come to you today as co-Creator of the Self you are and the Self you hope to represent with your physical form. I come to you today not as a personal self who is “other” than you, but as a divine Self who is the same as you. In our union we bear the sameness of the Son of God. In going forth with the vision of unity you become as I was during life. You “receive” and you “give” from the well of the spirit. You need not prepare or plan, you need only to claim your inheritance, your gifts, your Self.” (ACOL, D:1.1 – 1.2)

With the quotation for today, we begin to consider the final, third, part of A Course of Love, the Dialogues. This culmination offers much solace to those who are ready to receive it. We are stepping into our own in this final part of ACOL. We are dialoguing with Jesus, assuming the same Self that he embodies, for all, at the Self level, are the same.

We do not need to prepare or plan for what we will do next. Revelation will give us our marching orders. And we most certainly don’t need to fret about what lies ahead. Our judgments and our fears need to be left in the dust at our feet. And our separation from God, healed now, will take us into a future that will ultimately be brighter than anything we have known previously.

The future of the world might not seem bright to all reading these words. Many are still going through hard times, but it is by the grace of God that we will survive, and survive well. Our emotional well-being is paramount in deciding what our future will look like. Our best scenario is a world in which people turn to the best that is within them, and that best is the Christ-Self, lying dormant in so many. If we pay attention to the words of ACOL, the Christ-Self will no longer lie dormant within ourselves.

Be gentle with ourselves. Let relaxation sweep over us. Take it easy. This harmonious frame of mind is the best one in which to envision a future of peace, and all of us want that. Envision a better future, and even if the world seems to disintegrate around us, we can know a quiet happiness, an assurance, that all will ultimately turn out well.

There is no trick to believing so. Our faith sustains us. Our trust in Jesus’s channeled words will see us through. Just don’t return to fear and judgment. Let those unfortunate traits remain in the past. And pray that Christ-consciousness, with its equanimity, will embrace us even as the arms of Jesus embrace us. The God deep within will answer every need at the point of our recognition of that need, and so there truly are no needs. Ask today for what wells up within as a need, and watch the solution form. There is no delay.
We are co-creating the future with Jesus. And he is here for us, guiding us as an equal partner in the working out of our world’s future.

Prayer

It is hard for me to see a bright future sometimes. I need Your reassurance that all will truly be well. I have been saying that, for I feel it internally, but I still need reassurance often.

May this day go well. May I be calm and relaxed, at peace, and feeling love. This is Your way for me. This is Your way for everyone.

Amen.

World of Joy & Blessing, Peace & Love

“Learning to see anew is the precursor of learning to create anew. Creating anew is the precursor of the coming of the new world. Remember, only from a shared vision of what is can you begin to produce unity and rela¬tionship through unity and relationship. This is your purpose now, and this the curriculum to guide you to the fulfillment of your purpose.” (ACOL, T4:2.33)

Jesus has great hope in regard to what A Course of Love will do. He believes that if we follow, we will do a great deal to help this sad world. Indeed, we will create a new world, a world of joy and blessing, peace and love. The way may seem long to us now, but time is an illusion only meant to allow us to experience one section of eternity at a time.

Once again Jesus is emphasizing the importance of “unity and relationship.” He knows so well what he means, but when we hear it often, we often zone out. We are One, united but differentiated into parts of that One, and knowing through that relationship. Our unity and relationship is the key that will unlock treasures for us. It is the key to salvation, as set forth in ACOL. Ultimate salvation, or Christ-consciousness (Awakening or enlightenment).

Christ-consciousness comes first, usually, in glimpses. We have a particularly fine hour, an oasis of quiet and calm, and we know that this is how life is meant to be lived. In that happening, we have had a glimpse of Christ-consciousness. Once our thought processes slow down, we are well on the way to enjoying quiet and calm for more time in our busy days. And thought processes do slow in enlightenment. That doesn’t mean that we think any less; we just think more effectively, without the static that has hindered our forward movement.

Our purpose, then, is unity and relationship, for we can’t be both unified and out of relationship. We need others; we are living in a shared world, a shared reality. God knew what He was doing when He created us to be interdependent. The ego didn’t know what it was doing when it tried to encourage independence, autonomy above all else. We are not meant to be alone. And it is the particularly insane among us, the mad among, the neurotic, who prize being alone and separate as a way to handle life. This will never work. But we can’t tell another of this, only ourselves. Share when the brother or sister is ready to listen. In the meantime, pray, commune, with God that the insanity that we see all around us will abate.

Prayer

Help us to give up our little insane ways of thinking, the ones that keep us from enlightenment. Let us love, above all. Let us hold nothing against another, or defenses do what they would defend against. We are Yours, pure and simple. And we need You, desperately. Help us to know that we live in a safe environment, that our invulnerability is real, even when it doesn’t seem so.

We belong to You. And what a blessing it is that this is so!

Amen.

Peace & Harmony Abide in True Reality

“No leaders and no followers are needed. This is quite obviously an old way of thinking. While no one is called to evangelize, all are called equally to represent the truth and to observance of the truth.” (ACOL, T3:21.24)

We may feel disappointed, and yet relieved, that we are not called to proselytize anybody. And this is really what it means to evangelize. But we do live well, and in this representation we are representing our new understanding of God and the way that life ought to be lived. This new way is a way of truth, a truth that is living in true reality. This true reality is, first of all, one of peace and harmony. It is the manner of living in love. We don’t allow conflict to get a hold in our life. We don’t allow dissension with others to bother our peace of mind. We are at peace without the ego, and it is only a return to the ego, something we don’t want, that would bring conflict and dissension back into our lives.

We don’t need to put anybody on a pedestal as a “leader,” for we are all equal. We all have equal access to the truth. Not everybody will come away with the same set of tenets that tell him or her how to live a life, but all will know a closer walk with God that will be our salvation, our saving grace.

Our new personal self, aligned with the Christ-Self, will save us, finally and ultimately. We are getting into a way of life, ultimately, that will work. We just take each day as it comes, in peace, confident that God has everything in hand.

And this gives true reality a chance to save us.

Prayer

Thank You for being You. My heart is full today, my spirits high. Would that every day would be as grand as this one!

Help me to be patient with the oscillations of life. I do know, though, that following You consistently gives me a life that works. And making my life work, in true reality, is a blessing beyond compare.

Amen.

In Radical Acceptance We Will Live Peaceful & Harmonious Lives

“Although I offer it not as a replacement, what you will find will come in the place of blame is an idea of acceptance of what is, an idea that is needed now.

“Acceptance of what is, is acceptance that whatever is happening in the present moment as a gift and a lesson. What comes as a lesson may not seem like a gift, but all lessons are gifts.” (ACOL, T3:10.5 – 10.6)

Previous to this passage, Jesus indicates that he will not give us a replacement for blame. He simply, directly, asks us to be done with it. And if we love enough, his solution will be enough. We will simply accept what is, and in this radical acceptance we will live peaceful and harmonious lives.

Of course, our minds long to place blame, for there are many and varied instances of chaos in our world. We aren’t encouraged by Jesus to turn a blind eye to the injustices that we see here, but we can work for change without finding a scapegoat, especially not by making God that scapegoat.

We will see that each thing that confronts us is a lesson and a gift. Even our pain and suffering, the very things that cry out for the placing of blame on a benevolent God Who granted us free will. Our lives are so constructed by ultimate reality that everything that we see, everything that shows up in our lives, is a way to bring us home. This is the reality in which we live, though we cannot, with our finite minds, comprehend the vastness of the lessons/gifts that we are given. Each of our days allows us to take a step closer to home. Backsliding is possible, of course, but far less likely to happen if we commune with our Christ-Self often and well.

So: All lessons are gifts, and sometimes the lessons can seem harsh, though this is not necessary. We truly are our own worst enemy, and when we don’t take life by the smooth handle, we force the lessons to become more harsh than they have to be.

We need to let our hearts lead, just what Jesus has been saying repeatedly in A Course of Love. Our love-filled heart will soften the rough edges of our lessons, and so those lessons will seem ever more like the gifts that they are.

Prayer

Sometimes I have to be passive, which is the same as Jesus saying in A Course of Love to practice non-resistance. This attitude is controversial, for do we not all want to be strong and independent? And this is exactly where I go wrong, for independence is not the way: Cooperation is. We are interdependent beings, able to live life on our own terms only when we reach out to others as well. Our brothers and sisters need us, and we need them. I don’t need to feel that I have to go it all alone.

Let me put these final notions of the ego behind me. I would share with others in a state that Jesus has pointed out in ACOL. This state is one that allows loving interactions at all times. I let my various displays of anger just fall away.

Be with me now as I seek to go Your way, pointed out by Jesus in ACOL. My heart warms as I read; may all who read know this all-embracing wholeheartedness.

Amen.

Being in Harmony

“If you believe you and your brothers and sisters are here in a state of reprisal, having fallen from grace, then all action will be out of harmony. If you believe you and all other living things are here in a state of grace, then all action will be in harmony. If you believe one living thing is more important than any other, then all action will be out of harmony. If you believe all are essential, then all action will be in harmony.” (ACOL, C:25.10)

We want to live in harmony in our world. And when we feel that we are separated from God, fallen from grace, we have a hard time—an impossible time—of trying to live in harmony.

We are equal to all others, and when we sense, instead, that we are either inferior or superior, we think in error.

Recognizing that our separation from God has ended (and was never actual in the first place, but an illusion), we can walk a green earth again. We will be in harmony, and this harmony will indeed serve us well. Harmonious living is the easiest thing available to us; it is the only true way of living well.

Why have we believed that we have fallen from grace, that we are living separate from God? Of course, we see bad things in our world, we do bad things in our lives, and we suffer accordingly. We turn our anger inward, leading to depression, and decide that we must have done something terribly wrong. Like children in a divorced family, we blame ourselves; we think that if we had done things right, we wouldn’t be in this fix.

In a sense, we are right. We have made mistakes, but these mistakes Jesus in A Course of Love and A Course in Miracles does not categorize as “sins,” which would seem unforgivable. Instead, we can rectify our mistakes, and we can be forgiven for those that we can’t rectify. Harmony can return to our world. And we can legitimately stop blaming ourselves for every little thing that goes wrong.

Dear Father/Mother,

I would live a harmonious life, believing that rather than being out of grace with You, that I am in grace. This means that I do not have to feel any longer than I need to justify my existence. Living is justification enough.

Be with me throughout this day. Help me to be good company, when I am in company; and may I keep a good attitude always.

Amen.

Holy Relationships Offer Harmony in Daily Life

“Despite your bravest attempts to remain separate, you must use your brothers and sisters in order to even maintain the illusion of your sepa¬ration. Would it not simply be better to end this charade? To admit that you were not created for separation but for union? To begin to let go of your fear of joining, and as you do let go of use as well?” (ACOL, C:9.49)

We are meant to be in union with all that exists, our brothers and sisters, our world, and God Himself. We have maintained our desire to be separate and autonomous, believing that this is what we want. But has it gotten us what we want? Haven’t we fallen into special relationships, constantly, even as we tried to maintain some apartness?

This apartness is surely what we have found in our special relationships, because we want others to be with us, but not too close. We are afraid of closeness, fearing that it will take something from us. And so we are engaged in a delicate dance of approach and avoidance of our special others. And this scenario makes drama for us. Indeed, we have become addicted to drama in our lives, and this is not the way to welcome peace and harmony.

We have used others in special relationships to ourselves. Used them for what they could give us that we thought that we lacked. Indeed, when we seek a special romantic relationship, we look for those things that are unique in the other, what that person has that we can steal to make ourselves more whole. We imagine that we are half a person, looking for our other half in a soul mate relationship that will offer solace to us and help us make our way in this dangerous world. When we seek to take from the other his/her very life essence, we are using that person for nefarious ends. We don’t feel right about it, really, but we don’t yet, many of us, know any other way to interact.

Let us be done with this charade now. Let us realize that independence, autonomy, is a myth for us. Why? We are not made to be alone. We are made to be living in holy relationship with our Self deep within, our brothers and sisters, even God Himself. This holy relationship, in which we do not seek to take any more than we seek to give, is where we will find solace. We will recognize that our holy relationships are our way home. We will be happier than ever before, as we give and receive as one.

The dynamic of special relationships turned holy is not something that can be taught. It is a matter of the heart, and love cannot be taught so that it becomes learned. But we can remove blocks to love’s awareness, and the first and most important is to recognize that we don’t like how we are living now. The high’s and low’s of special relationships preclude the harmony that will prevail when we have mastered the “holy” in holy relationships. Give it our all today, to love and be loved in return, and see if our independence doesn’t fall away quickly, and we experience a peace that is beyond anything previously encountered. We won’t be made dull or bored by this peace; it is the height of aliveness. And then we will know that we have truly found home at last.

Seek Reality in Harmony, Peace, Joy

“As nothingness cannot be pictured, so there is no symbol for totality. Reality is ultimately known without a form, unpictured and unseen.” (ACIM, T-27.III.5)

Perhaps, for those of us who are interested, this quotation from A Course in Miracles is one answer to question of whether reality has a form, or if forms are always illusory. As I read it, this quotation would strongly suggest that reality is made up of non-forms, perhaps the intangibles of harmony, peace, joy, and the like.

I do not think that deciding whether or not reality has a form is a litmus test for adherents to A Course in Miracles. The same for our feelings are what illusion entails. ACIM is silent enough on this subject to leave room for differences of opinion. And we don’t want those differences of opinion to divide us.

Reality is here seen as totality. And we know, from other passages in A Course of Love, that totality cannot be experienced as one whole. There must be differences for us, even for God Himself, to experience Being. So reality was differentiated into parts, but each part as part of the whole, and containing the whole. This is one way of seeing reality, a way that is meaningful to me.
Reality, according to this quotation, is “unpictured” and “unseen.” But not unfelt, of this we can be sure. Let’s ask to experience true reality in our various paths through the world today.

We won’t be disappointed. The solution is always with the problem, and we have found unreality long enough. Now we are heading back home, and true reality lights our path to it.

Seeing Love, Harmony, Peace, Joy Will Chase Away the Demons of Unreality/Illusion

“Different realities are meaningless, for reality must be one. It cannot change with time or mood or chance. Its changelessness is what makes it real. This cannot be undone. Undoing is for unreality. And this reality will do for you.” (ACIM, T-14.IV.2)

Do we not want to undo what has no effects, something such as fear? The effects that we feel seem real enough to us, of course, but actually these effects are nothing more than illusion that has been given a pseudo reality. And it is true reality that we want.

Seeing love, harmony, peace, joy, will chase away the demons of unreality/illusion. For love, harmony, peace, and joy are real, are evidence that we are seeing true reality. And in the real world (seen only for an instant in time, though we do not know how long as “instant” really is) love reigns. We would do well to welcome the real world all the time in our experience.

—

“Appearances deceive, but can be changed. Reality is changeless. It does not deceive at all, and if you fail to see beyond appearances you are deceived. For everything you see will change, and yet you thought it real before, and now you think it real again. Reality is thus reduced to form, and capable of change. Reality is changeless. It is this that makes it real, and keeps it separate from all appearances. It must transcend all form to be itself. It cannot change.” (ACIM, T-30.VIII.1)

The “appearances” that this quotation mentions are the things in our world that we see and call reality, which are in actuality physical forms that are illusion. We live in an illusory world, with positive emotions our only tie to reality—love, joy, peace, etc. These emotions (which are really a bit beyond emotion) are changeless in reality. But we don’t often recognize this, for our emotions appear labile to us. We oscillate, in and out of moods of the day, and we wonder how even the positive emotions can be changeless.

Even those positive emotions can’t be changeless when we are trapped. But we do not have to remain trapped. Trapped in illusion! What a dreary thought!

We may think that we don’t want to live in a changeless world. But that is not exactly what is promised us. The positive emotions will continue, though the particular activities in which we engage will differ. The positive emotions, I think, are the changeless factor.

The world that we see can become a real world when we look past its changing forms. And when our emotions level out. We are not meant to be constantly up and down, in a dreary round of a felt spinning world. We are meant to look to God for our constancy and for our changeless reality. We are meant to commune with our Creator, for it is very unnatural not to do so (from ACIM). We shortchange ourselves when we don’t commune, just talk, with God, as we go through our day. He will take the changeable and turn it into the changeless, and the smoothing out of our experience will be palpable.

Typical Fears No More Arise

“Living in relationship provides a constant knowing of this sort, a simple knowing of a way things are meant to be.  It is a knowing felt within the heart for which there still will be no proof, but for which there will be the certainty you heretofore have lacked.  The typical fears you have experienced in the past will not arise within this knowing.  (A Course of Love, 27.19)”

Affirmation:  “May no fears arise in me today.”

Reflections:

1 – Knowing

When we live in relationship to God and ourselves, our deepest Selves, plus with others, we are living as Jesus recommends in this passage for today.  We will feel a “knowing” in our heart that we are on the right pathway.

2 – Relationships

This is the pathway recommended initially in A Course of Miracles, but then the emphasis was on relationships, holy relationships with others, especially our most significant brother (or sister).  In A Course of Love, Jesus expands the concept of relationship to mean a relationship not only to God, but to the Self/Christ within.  When we reach deep, deep, inwardly, we are reassured, in a way that nothing else can, that all is well.

3 – Home

This is the certainty of which Jesus speaks in this passage.  This is the assurance that we are on the way home, and not to the Other Side, but the heaven on earth that we can actually know here.

4 – Listen

Be with Jesus’s words today.  See if they don’t make a huge difference.

5 – Certainty

The certainty that we are on the right pathway comes when we lift ourselves up mentally and in a heartfelt way, and we do the best that we know how.  We don’t allow ourselves to get downhearted, if there is any way that we can avoid it.  We are cheery, we are upbeat.  We are not discouraged, for Jesus is with us always.

6 – A Promise

He has promised this.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would know certainty of true knowledge today.  I would not press to know, but I would rest in the certainty that this is what You want for me.  I would not fall into a too-strong desire for Christ-consciousness, for You make that decision.  You are always with me, inside of me, for I am part of You.  Thank You for this knowledge.

Be with all of my brothers and sisters today.  May we let typical fears that arise with just living to fall away.  We need be fearful no more.  Thank You.

Amen.

revised

When in Conflict

“To live in relationship is to live in harmony even with conflict.  It is an understanding that if conflict arises in your present there is something to be learned from your relationship with conflict.  (A Course of Love, 27.14)”

Affirmation:  “I would live in harmony today.”

Reflections:

1 – Learn from Conflict

We do learn from conflict, though we might not like to do so.  When we remain in harmony within ourselves, though, extending this outward to displaying no anger nor attack with others, we can view the conflict dispassionately.  We can remain harmonious, even though those around us are not.

2 – Retain Harmony

What are we learning?  We are learning the benefits of retaining harmony in any situation, even though that push our buttons.  We are learning that anger and attack have no foundation in truth (from A Course in Miracles), and that they are not justified in us as children of God (and all of  us are children of God).  We can make the best of a bad situation, though, when others misbehave.  We do not have to assume a “holier than thou” attitude, either (and this attitude would be most inappropriate).

4 – Conflict in This World

Today’s passage indicates that wherever there is conflict in this world (and that place is almost universal), we can stay true to our understandings, gleaned from ACIM and A Course of Love, and yet still learn from the conflict.  We did not create the conflict, but we can learn from it.  And we choose not to exacerbate the conflict.  We remain in harmony with all.

5 = When Baited

Others may try to bait us.  But we do not have to rise to the bait.  This may be easier said than done.  Some ways to react:  Take a timeout.  Simply excuse yourself from the room.  Listen quietly and tolerantly.  Ask internally what to say or do in response.  Remain calm and collected.  Above all, do not become emotionally heated.  Chill out.

6 – Personal Interpretations

None of these suggestions are found in ACIM or ACOL, but are personal interpretations, based on my own living experiences.  You will have other solutions, and, if so, I would welcome your comments to this posting.  Thank you.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I recognize that I am my own worst enemy, making conflict within my own personal self when I would do well to turn to You.  I make the conflict all too often, second guessing myself and doubting the intuitions that rise to the surface.  I would end this reaction today.  I would live in harmony whenever possible.  Whenever it is not possible to live in harmony in my relationships with others, I would learn from the experience.  Then I can leave the conflict behind, knowing that I have gleaned all that can be gleaned from what has happened.

Be with us today.  Thank You for the beginning of a good day.  Whatever happens, may I be prepared, with Your help, to handle it.  Life is not always easy, but it can always be good when I am enfolded by Your love.

Amen.

Tranquil Mind

“A tranquil mind is not a little gift.  Would you not rather live than choose to die?  (M-20.4)”

Affirmation:  “I would choose to live.”

Reflections:

1 – To Live in This World

To be in this world without a tranquil mind is existing rather than living (an interpretation, not stated in ACIM).  Would we not rather choose to live?  And a tranquil mind can allow us to live in all the fullness that this world affords.  This world, as such, may not afford much, as Jesus says in A Course in Miracles that this world has nothing to offer (a truth that takes much consideration).  But even in this world we can be happy if we have a tranquil mind.

2 – Conditions of a Tranquil Mind

How do we seek out the conditions of a tranquil mind?  Surely we already know this answer.  We turn inward to God or His Communicator, the Holy Spirit.  (The Holy Spirit is also called the Universal Inspiration–from the opening pages of the Text.)  We slow down our frenetic pace, and we seek the quiet that only God can give.  We come to know peace, even in the midst of a busy life.  And we commune with God every chance that we get (and there are many chances, most of which, unfortunately, we ignore).

3 – Tranquility in a Quiet Mind

We would all know the tranquility that comes from a quiet mind.  Jesus says in ACIM that our goal is to become “perfectly calm and quiet” all the time.  Not everybody is ready to hear this, as some of us still long for drama in our lives.  But the more often we experience calm and quiet, the more desirous it becomes for us.  And calm and quiet can become very desirous indeed.

4 – Plea to God

We would choose a tranquil mind today.  Lead us along that pathway, dear God.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I will never be truly happy, on a consistent basis, until I have settled down to serenity, to a tranquil mind.  I would do so today.  Be with me as I seek You in an ever more loving way.  You are found through love, and I pray that I always remember this.  You do not countenance drama in our daily life, and drama is a distraction supported by the ego and meant to keep us tied to the ego’s apron sttrings.

You want better for me.  You want better for all of us.

Help me to find that better today.  And tomorrow.

Amen

Illusory Split from God Experienced in Attack

“[The Word of God] is denied if you attack any brother for anything.  For it is here the split with God occurs.  A split that is impossible.  A split that cannot happen.  Yet a split in which you surely will believe, because you have set up a situation that is impossible.  And in this situation the impossible can seem to happen.  It seems to happen at the ‘sacrifice’ of truth.  (M-13.7)”

Affirmation:  “I will not attack under any circumstances.”

Reflections:

1 – Sword over our Heads

We are told elsewhere in A Course in Miracles that when we are tempted to be angry (and to attack), it is as though we hold a sword over our heads.  And it will fall or be averted as we choose to ask for peace and turn aside from the reverse, the anger and attack.

2 – We Are Human

We are human, and we have human frailties.  We will still, sometimes, get angry.

3 – Insanity

If we can, when tempted by anger, to assert that what we are being baited with is just insanity, we will easily (sometimes easily) turn aside.   And what we are viewing is insanity, but it is also a call for help and for love.  The Holy Spirit will teach us this, if we will let Him.  And nobody responds to a call for help with anger.  A call for help is a piteous call, and deserves our sympathy.

4 – Our World Will Smooth Out

If we do well with these ideas, our world will smooth out.  It is when we attack in response that the trouble starts, for we have set up a situation in which baiting happens between ourselves, and our brothers and sisters.

5 – Do Not Respond to a Bait

We would respond to no bait today.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

If we believe in the split or separation from God only when we are in attack mode, then it does behoove us to get out of that mode.  Forgive me if irritation arises today, or if a significant other tempts me to attack, or if I am just in a bad mood and feel like venting.  None of this is in Your Will, and I would live Your Will, though I am human and will always make mistakes that You can lead me to correct.

Be with me to stay in harmony and calm–and joy!–today.  If the individuals I see are having a bad day, help me to stay serene and to do what I can to make that day better.  My own attack, added to theirs, would lead us all down the thorns of the egoistic pathway.  Nobody needs that.

Be with me as this day plays out.  Help me to get enough rest so that I am not as likely to fall into poor ways of behaving.  Keep me in Your care, and lead me to the sure pathway that is happiness in You.

Amen.

Power, Fame, Money, Physical Pleasure = Meaningful to Body

“It takes great learning both to realize and to accept the fact that the world has nothing to give.  What can the sacrifice of nothing mean?  It cannot mean that you have less because of it.  There is no sacrifice in the world’s terms that does not involve the body.  Think a while about what the world calls sacrifice.  Power, fame, money, physical pleasure; who is the ‘hero’ to whom all these things belong?  Could they mean anything except to a body?  (M-13.2)”

 

Affirmation:  “I need sacrifice nothing.”

Reflections:

1 – The World Has Nothing to Offer

Most of us do not really yet believe that the world has nothing to offer.  We are still that much caught up in the ego.  As long as we are egocentric, we will seek for power, fame, physical pleasure.  But when the ego has withered, at least a little, we will instead seek the intangibles of God–the love, joy, peace, tranquility, calm, quiet.  And we can be happy in this world, so long as we are not chasing rainbows of materialism.  God wants our material needs satisfied also, but if we devote ourselves only to the material, we lose out on so much more.

2 – Happy Dreams the Holy Spirit Brings

And we do find in this world the “happy dreams the Holy Spirit brings” (from the Workbook).  The reason for the happy dreams is that we would be too terrified by the sudden appearance of Awakening.  A gentler dream needs to precede Awakening.  And so we are prepared carefully for the great blessing of Awakening.

3 – Patience

It does take great learning to accept these ideas.  And it takes patience to assimilate them.  Teachers must repeat their lessons until they are learned, and Jesus himself has set the precedent for this in the Text, when he said that nothing that we do or make, etc., creates our worth.  Our worth is given us by God.

4 – Heaven on Earth

So do we write off the world and escape into some otherworldly heaven?  I think not.  We can experience heaven on earth, but we have to meet the conditions, which involve an egoless experience.  So long as we are fueled by the ego, we will know vicissitudes of joy and sorrow in an alternating fashion.  And the guilt that the ego would drive us to would be hell indeed.  (Elsewhere the Text affirms that guilt is hell.)

5 – Values Will Change

We seek to enjoy God’s intangibles and to love our brothers and sisters (as well as ourselves, which is necessary for all love to proceed from us).  We do not need to sacrifice anything that is truly good.  Our values will change as we walk farther along the pathway to God.  And we will not seek the inferior values that all too often are present in this world.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I am extremely grateful that, after studying A Course in Miracles for a long time, I can honestly say to You that the pleasures of this world do not mean as much to me as they once did.  I am not above wanting pleasures of this world, but it is more important to me to know Your peace, joy, harmony, and calm.  Thank You for walking with me far enough along the pathway to You that I have made this shift in my values.

May I be understanding if others do not share this concept.  It takes a long while to understand that this world does not really offer anything that is lasting, and only the lasting is the eternity that we all seek, whether we know it or not.  May my walk into eternity today include my brothers and sisters, and may I not make demands upon them that they are not yet ready to accommodate.

Amen.

No Strain in Doing God’s Will

“There is no strain in doing God’s Will as soon as you recognize that it is also your own.  (T30)”

Affirmation:  “no strain in doing God’s will”

Reflections:

1 – What We Think about God’s Will

This sentence is a primary theoretical foundation for the Course.  Much of our rebellion has been predicated upon the idea that we would not believe that God’s will would be desirable; we think that we can choose better.  We even think that His will is punitive.

2 – Personal Experience

I questioned the will of God for all of my twenties and half of my thirties.  I wanted to follow what I understood to be God’s will, but too often I did not fully understand that God is within, and that surely I would be doing my will when I followed what I understood to be His.  So I followed His will, not having met A Course in Miracles, and not knowing if I were deluding myself.  When I was 34, I found ACIM, and another whole new chapter opened for me.  It was indeed welcome news to know that in following what I perceived to be God’s will for–in all–14 years, I was actually following what I wanted as well.  But it didn’t quite feel like that.  It had felt as though I were following a dream.  But doesn’t God speak to us through the everyday “reality” that is a dream, an illusion (from ACIM)?  And so isn’t what we really want in our hearts often what He would have for us?  His pathway is not as remote as we might, on first glance, see it to be.

3 – God’s Will = Our Real Will

How wrong we are!  God’s will and our own “real” will are the same!  What a relief this can be.  Our thoughts of Jonah and the whale may be relegated to an Old Testament story, not meaningful in the world in which we live today.  With Jonah, the idea that God would pursue us and demand that we do His will, is the main crux of the matter.  In the Course, we are gently led to do God’s will, once we have understood that we are actually doing our own will at the same time.  The God of A Course in Miracles is in no way a punitive God.

4 – No Conflict in Following God’s Pathway

So, we experience “no strain” in doing God’s will.  We see no conflict in following God’s pathway.  It is the pathway that we would choose if we could see the whole picture.  Our judgment is not that wondrous; we see imperfectly and only in part.  But when we acquiesce to the Holy Spirit, we truly know the peace of following God’s will as our own.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

What a relief to learn that God’s will is really our real will!  Thank you, dear Father, for this insight.  This is one of the greatest of Your blessings!  Not to know that we are in Your Will is difficult indeed.

When we know that doing God’s will, as we perceive it, is really our own real will, we do not feel coerced.  Thank you for this insight, this great blessing.

I would walk the pathway today that You and Our Guide point out.  I would ask for direction at every point, knowing that this is what You want me to do.  Help me to relax in Your care, sure of Your love and protection.  Be with me so that the day turns out well.  I know that the day will turn out well when I am following Your Will, which ever is also my own.

Amen.