Choose Holiness Today

“Only two purposes are possible.  And one is sin, the other holiness.  Nothing is in between, and which you choose determines what you see.  For what you see is merely how you elect to meet your goal.  Hallucinations serve to meet the goal of madness.  They are the means by which the outside world, projected from within, adjusts to sin and seems to witness to its reality.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-20.VIII.9)

We live a dream, for we are lost in insanity until we choose again.  This new choice is a choice for what A Course in Miracles calls the “real world,” and seeing it occurs shortly before God reaches down and lifts us up to Awakening.  Here Jesus points out that the illusion that we see is an illusion of sin, projected from within.  He would have us choose holiness, though, and the real world that holiness brings about is a world of kindliness, joy, love, harmony, and the like.  These intangibles of God are accompanied by dreams of happiness, chosen for us by the Holy Spirit as we get closer to Awakening and lose some of the madness.

Giving up madness in favor of seeing the real world is a fairly slow process in most cases, because we must give up judgment.  We learn to give up judgment and turn to the Holy Spirit for all of our words and actions, because He alone knows all circumstances—past, present, and future—that impinge on a given choice.  We are not infallible; the Holy Spirit, being God’s Guide for us, is.  The Holy Spirit guides surely, in every instance.  And only our own stubbornness prevents us from seeing that His is the way that we would travel, indicating the words to say and the actions to take.  Any decision is made easy when we leave the judgment of what to say or do to the Holy Spirit.

We would know holiness.  We would leave insanity behind.  And we would walk into the sunlight of the real world with the Holy Spirit.  We assert this now, but why is it so hard to consistently choose to follow the gentle way being pointed out to us, at every point, all the time?  We are stubborn children of God, used to our own way as pointed out by the ego.  But the ego doesn’t mean us well, and we choose amiss when we listen to this part of our belief about ourselves.

Choose holiness today.  To do so means that we must also choose to turn aside from madness and walk the way pointed out by the Holy Spirit.  Give the Holy Spirit a chance in this time.  We will certainly not be disappointed.

The Holiness of Life

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

The holiness of life

demands attendance

to a water purifying

for the outer

and a dietary purging

for the inner

cleansing

to make straight

the way through

wilderness and wasteland

on swift burning feet

while tears

seem helpless to relieve

the agony of white hot heat

eventually which sears

the soiled soul covering

revealing sacro-sanctuary.

Holiness

The holy relationship has been accomplished by the joining of the mind and heart in unity.  The holy relationship is with the Self, the Self that abides in unity with all within the house of truth.  This relationship makes the Self one with all and so brings the holiness of the Self to all.  (A Course of Love, T3:15.10)

The first and most important relationship is with the Self–the inner Christ Self–and God Himself (called the Self in Its largest dimensions).  When this relationship is formed anew and aright, it changes everything.  Our heart and mind are melded into one, and this one is the same One with Whom we are merged in the Godhead Himself/Herself.  With this joining of heart and mind, we are primed to have all good things to come to us.  We are, at last, on the right track, “separate” from God no longer, even in illusion.  And we are not in illusion any longer, but the supreme reality, true reality, a reality that does not fade with each passing day.

When mind and heart are joined, I feel a warmth that is not of this world.  I once was accosted at night by a stranger who did not mean me well.  Just before he touched me, I felt a Warmth that gave me a tremendous sense of safety and God-given care.  And this sense carried me through the experience without any trauma.  I ran and I screamed, and he fled.  My voice and God’s grace had saved me.  In that moment, with the warm feeling, I was in unity of mind and heart with that warmth, though this was years before A Course of Love was channeled.  I only knew that God had been very, very close to me in that moment.

How do we invite the melding of heart and mind?  We get quiet, we invite warmth, we invite God.  If we open ourselves to God’s grace, He will descend upon us, prompting us to join mind and heart into a Unity that will solve all problems, release all neuroses, give us a new lease on life.

Be quiet today, just for a moment.  A moment is all that it takes to allow God to speak to us in the Unity in which He abides.

Peace

“You cannot stop being who you are, although you can live in a way contrary to it in your mind and heart.  Thus you cannot ever lose your holiness, because your Source goes wherever you go.  You cannot lose your peace of mind because God goes with you wherever you go.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 8:III

We have peace of mind, because God grants it to us—but we may be oblivious to that peace.  We need to follow our guidance to let peace blossom in us.  If we forge ahead when our guidance is to wait, then we need to revisit intuition.

Cloud of Holiness

            We must honor the brothers who have been given us as special learning partners.  Knowing that they have indeed been chosen by God and left in our care for a little while puts a cloud of holiness around each one.  Surely we owe our gratitude to God and to our brothers given unto our charge.  Never forget that it is these brothers who light our pathway Home.

A Course in Miracles says, “Forgiveness is the end of specialness.” (T-24.III.1:1) Can this be?  I pray frequently, “Help me to forgive others and help me to forgive myself.”  This seems such a “right” prayer, I think, because of the Course’s contention that projection makes perception.  We see in others what we have not yet recognized in ourselves.  When we feel ourselves to be special, we are holding something still against our brother; we are “better” than he, he who does not merit forgiveness for black “sins” that we would not do.  But this is all illusion.  We too could make these same mistakes, and we too must forgive such tendencies within ourselves, even as we forgive the perpetrator of the “evil” of which we now recognize, on some level, we are capable.  We are all One, and that is the understanding that, as has been frequently said, “We are all brothers under the skin.”

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

Answer Lies in Unity with God

“This feeling of being misled is another cause of your anger—one of the primary causes, in truth. Not only has all that you have learned led to an inaccurate world-view in the here and now, but to an inaccurate world-view of the past, of the hereafter, of me, and of God. Not only has your mind been misled, but your heart and soul as well.

“What could bring solace to an anger so profound? How can you be certain you are not being misled once again?

“The answer to both come in the stated purpose of A Course of Love: Establishing your identity. You needed to first know yourself as a being existing in union before you could know anything else with the certainty you seek, for union is the treasure that has been locked away from you.” (ACOL, D:Day4.21 – Day4.23)

Jesus essentially says that we are angry because we are beginning to realize that the religion that we believed has not been explained accurately. Jesus does often fall back on the Bible to explain the theology that he expounds upon. But the theology that says that the world, the physical universe, is the handiwork of God, and that God Himself stands outside His creation, is, in the words of A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, inaccurate. God is immanent in His whole creation, in the theology of ACIM and ACOL. The union that Jesus speaks of at the conclusion of this quotation is a union with God Himself, basically.

The union is a union of heart and mind that expands to cover union with the inner Christ and the larger Self Who still “lives” in the larger cosmos. Jesus explains this hard-to-explain concept by likening our bodies to a dot on a large white surface. The dot reaches out to the whole, though we are often unaware that that is what we are doing in our mystical moments. The whole is the greater Self Whom we share with the All, God Himself, and all of our brothers and sisters. The image is captivating.

But what about our anger at not knowing about this unobstructed universe? What about our anger at what has seemingly been done to us when we have been in pain and suffering? We need patience, patience to know that these questions of ultimate concern will never have satisfying answers in our world. I do believe that we will know somewhat more after death, on the Other Side. But even this is not for sure. There are psychic writings that indicate that we don’t know all that much more after death in regard to ultimate reality. In mysticism here on earth, we can discover much.

Take a moment today to invite the mystical. See what prompts we get. We may be led to a treatise we read long ago. And we may find much comfort in it. There is no end to the ways that God can reach us. And we now have a direct relationship with Jesus to guide us.

Let that be enough.

Dear God,

I thank You for the mystical moments of yesterday that have led into a good morning today. Mysticism is my way, as I realized in college, standing at a bus stop, looking up at the starry sky. May I not forget that moment of genuine insight. And thank You for the glimpses into the Ultimate.

Be with me today as I seek to get through another creditably. Be with me as I seek You. You have never failed me, even when I have doubted You. And now I thank You that the doubts have fallen away. You are here. You are with me. Thank You.

Amen.

Love Borne of Holiness

“As valuable as the ego would tell you that you are, it still would thwart you being who you are through its denial of the relationships essential to that which you truly are.

“This cultivation then, of the all-encompassing holy relationship that exists within you and without you, both in all you are and all you are in relationship with, is how you are called to live your life and the call you are asked to sound to all your brothers and sisters.” (ACOL, T2:12.11 – 12.12)

This quotation for today identifies our marching orders. We first identify the Self within, and form a union with It. This Self is the Christ-Self, a part of God who dwells within in an unidentified place, but which we have called the heart. Then this Self reaches out to our brothers and sisters in this world, and this Self forms holy relationships with these others. We share, and in the sharing we come to know more of what the Self, in wholeheartedness, really means. Our Christ-Self guides us, day in and day out, as to how to change the world, and, if we go the whole pathway, how to create a new world. Our newly minted Christ-consciousness–Awakening, or enlightenment–shows us the right way to bring into this world what has already been accomplished, something that is done effortlessly and with abundant ease. We are The Accomplished, and in our new state of being we will recognize that this is not an egoic notion, come to claim us again.

The ego fostered independence, but we have traveled far enough long now to recognize that independence is a hollow victory. It never produced what worked. We need sharing in this world, a sharing that reaches from the inner Christ-Self to our brothers and sisters, for only then are we able to thrive. Just as a garden can’t thrive without the relationship of nature’s elements for proper growth.

Our proper growth is before us now. But it takes all of us, thriving in the love borne of holiness, to grow and develop, to change into what we are meant to be. Being who we are is not a static accomplishment. Growth and change occur naturally in God’s world, in true reality. And it is only in sharing in holy relationship with our brothers and sisters, that the Self comes to know who we really are. Being who we are changes over time, but it can never properly change in isolation. We do need each other.

Prayer

What is this “holiness” that I am to emulate? What exactly do I do?

I stay close to You, journaling in dialogue with You. I pray silently, but with real words. I rest, just sensing Your Presence.

The way back is not hard, but it does take some dedication. I mustn’t forget You in my daily round. Remind me gently when I stray.

Amen.

We Are Holy

“Holy are you, eternal, free and whole, at peace forever in the Heart of God.  Where is the world, and where is sorrow now?  (M-15.1)”

Affirmation:  “We are all holy.”

Reflections:

1 – Comfort

This passage is comforting, even when we do not find it (at first reading) to be believable.  We do want to be whole people, able to give and receive love.  And we do want to be free and at peace.

2 – Being Free

Before we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we have an “imprisoned will” (from the Text).  Once we begin, ever so tentatively, to follow Him as our Guide, we learn, slowly at first (usually) what being free actually entails.   The Holy Spirit guides us to our real will, which is totally at One with God’s Will.  The Holy Spirit choose for us (from ACIM); he leads us to our heart’s desire.  But this is our real desire, not the frivolous and useless “pleasures” of the world that soon turn to ashes and dust in our hands.

3 – Heart of God

When we live in the Heart of God, we do not fret or worry.  Of course, and certainly in the beginning, we do not consistently feel God’s mercy.  The transition normally takes some time (though it can happen instantaneously).  We have glimpses of the real world, the world we see just before Awakening.  But we have to realize that these perceptual differences, while miracles, will not last, because miracles are perceptual and nothing perceptual is lasting.  (These are paraphrases from ACIM.)  So let us take one tiny step after another in the direction of God today.  Let us ask for His “felt presence” (a quotation from Eckhart Tolle).

4 – God’s Felt Presence

Sorrow is no more when we are experiencing God’s felt presence.  We know that we are beloved, and we do not agonize about the future (or even the present, and certainly not the past).  We are living in the present, as God would have us do.

5 – Peace

And we are at peace.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Most of us do not really believe that we are holy, and when we are consumed by the ego, being called “holy” seems to be not credible.  But we have not changed from our creation; we are as You created us, and we only made a detour into fear–an egoic mistake because of a “tiny, mad idea.”

Help me to leave all such foolishness behind today.  You know that we all try the best that we can at even given moment.  We make mistakes, but You and we together can correct those mistakes.  I would correct my mistakes today.

Help me to feel the gratitude for You that keeps me safe from all harm.

Amen

A Holy Body

“Use it to bring the Word of God to those who have it not, and the body becomes holy.  Because it is holy it cannot be sick, nor can it die.  When its usefulness is done it is laid by, and that is all.  The mind makes this decision, as it makes all decisions that are responsible for the body’s condition.  Yet the teacher of God does not make this decision alone. . .God’s Voice will tell him when he has fulfilled his role, just as It tells him what his function is.  He does not suffer either in going or remaining.  Sickness is now impossible to him.  (M-12.5)”

Affirmation:  “the Word of God”

Reflections:

1 – The Ideal

This is the ideal.  And not all of us can reach it.  This passage says that the body does not get sick; but our body gets sick.  And sometimes we suffer.

2 – We Are Still Children

This passage gives us a goal toward which to reach.  It does not mean that we have failed if we do not reach it.  As has been said, would you blame a child in kindergarten for not being able to master graduate school work?  We are such a child.

3 – God’s Voice

But what we can do, as has often found its way into this blog, is to listen to God’s Voice in our daily lives.  We can intuit what to say or do next.  We do have some control over how we view sickness.  We can frequently prevent pain from turning into suffering, just by our attitude.

4 – The Body Will Become Holy

If we follow the way pointed out in A Course in Miracles, the body will become holy.  This happens when the only use toward which we put the body is communication.  And we communicate what the Holy Spirit has told us as an inner Guide.  We do not ever make decisions alone:  Either we listen to the ego or we listen to our Guide, the Holy Spirit (an ACIM tenet).  Until we truly listen to the Holy Spirit, we are not often aware that we actually have been seeking advice of the ego.  This egoic bent is what we have been used to following.  But we can change.

5 – Listen to Our Guide

Listen to our Guide today.  See what a difference this change makes in in the day that we have.  And then thank God for this change.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May this day be a glorious one!  I thank You for the increased vitality I have as summer gets underway in a big way.  Help me to appreciate this warm weather, not to rail against it.  Your seasons in this world are a blessing to us.

Be with us in the United States as we celebrate Independence Day today.  Thank You that we are still friends with our British friends.  May we recognize that all of us are One on this earth, and just as the British forgave us for departing, we must look to today’s world for the times that wars have happened, noting forgiveness as a lodestone.

Amen.

Illusions Cannot Dim My Holiness

ACIM Workbook Lesson 299 – for Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Affirmation:  “Eternal holiness abides in me.”

“Father, my holiness is not of me.  It is not mine to be destroyed by sin.  It is not mine to suffer from attack.  Illusions can obscure it, but can not put out its radiance, nor dim its light.  It stands forever perfect and untouched.  (WB448)”

Reflections:

1 – Are We Holy?

We are hesitant to call ourselves “holy.”  We do not seem worthy, regardless of how far along the pathway we have walked.  We think somehow that it is an unseemly thing to say or even to think.

2 – Our Retreat into Feverish Dreams

But Jesus would say that this is the arrogance of the ego.  We are actually holy because God has called us thus.  We have not changed our Self since we were created.  We have merely retreated into feverish dreams, illusions, maya.  But we are still as God created us (from the Workbook).  We are still holy.

3 – Our Holiness = Not Changed by Detour into Fear

Our holiness has not been touched by the detour into fear that we made at the time that we thought that we separated from God (paraphrases from the Text).  We have not, it is true, been in communication with God, for we have been asleep.  But we can awaken, and He will effect this for us when we are ready.  Even early on, we will see glimpses of Awakening before it is sustained.  And A Course of Love is all about the elevated Self of form, the walking in this world of an Awakened individual.  (Many view A Course of Love as a sequel to ACIM, one that was also channeled by Jesus.)

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I feel humble as I retreat from arrogance and contemplate the idea that I am still the holy individual that You created.  May I not let these thoughts cause the ego to reemerge.  May I know that I am still as You created me, though I have detoured into fear, and I have made mistakes that beg for correction.

Help my correction to be gentle.  Jesus says that we do not have to learn through pain.  I ask today that I learn and experience all that You would wish for me, in the manner that You wish.  I do realize that You would not have me suffer pain, and even that You do not grant any credence to this illusion, because it is illusion.  Help me to learn through rewards, which can only come when I have surrendered to Your Teacher, the Holy Spirit.

Thank You for leading me this far, and thank You that my detour into fear has been as benign as it has been.  This does not mean that I will never again know pain, only that it is unnecessary.  May I follow in the Way that You point out to me through Your Universal Inspiration, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.