“Yet you have not remembered that the first union is of mind and heart. The first union is union with the Self. This union with the Self is resurrection or rebirth. All are capable of this life-giving union. All are capable of birthing the Self. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Art of Thought, 9.7)”
Affirmation: “I will seek to birth the Self today.”
Reflections:
1 – Enlightening Passage
This is an enlightening passage. We first unite within ourselves, the mind and the heart into wholeheartedness, and then we move to the union with the Self within. And this is resurrection or rebirth. The words are clear, the meaning clear. We do not have to do anything special by way of meritorious deeds. We can all birth the Self.
2 – Christ-Consciousness
We can all birth the Self! But will we recognize this when we have done so? I think that the knowledge that we are birthing the Self comes upon us gradually, in snatches, even as birthing the Self is seen in snatches (an interpretation, not stated in A Course of Love). I do know that Christ-consciousness, or Awakening, is most often seen in snatches, in glimpses. And the birth of the Self, the rebirth of our entity from just the personal or “little” self is akin to Christ-consciousness or Awakening. And Jesus says further on in the trilogy of A Course of Love that nobody has yet sustained the elevated Self of form. But we are on the cusp of a reformation. We are on the cusp of more and more individuals birthing the Self/Christ.
3 – What Can We Do to Birth the Self?
Is there anything that we can do to hurry the process? Yes and no, and these ideas are interpretations, not stated in A Course in Miracles or ACOL. We can commune with God on an almost constant basis, though constancy is not demanded of us, and may be beyond us. We can study ACIM, but we can read ACOL as though we were reading a story. (There are distinct differences in the way that the two trilogies are best read.) And we can look to answering the needs of our brothers and sisters, in relationship to them, holy relationship to them. ACIM indicates that our way home is through relationship to our brother. ACOL indicates that our way home is through unity and relationship, adding the fact of unity or union.
4 – Union
The fact of union is perhaps an elusive concept. But we join; we do not separate ourselves in any way from the universe or from God or from others. We will be less inclined to go it alone when we have had our heart warmed by God’s love. This time of tenderness is well-described in ACOL. We may cry easily. Certainly we will cry when listening to a poignant story of others’ plights. This is what the time of tenderness does for us. It readies us for the birth of Christ-consciousness (an interpretation, not stated in ACOL).
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
I would seek to begin today to let go of stress and to engage calm, for only in a peaceful mind and heart can the Self the birthed. We cannot run around helter-skelter and expect to know peace. Help me to talk to myself, to talk myself down, when I have let the world intrude on my inner being. I would follow You, and You do not welcome an agitated mind.
Be with me as I walk through today and all the days to come. Thank You for Your felt presence. This feeling of Your being there for me is an enormously comforting and calming state.
Thank You.
Amen.
MIRACLES EACH DAY 