There Are No Idle Thoughts

“There are no idle thoughts.  All thinking produces form at some level.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-2.VI.9)

There is a very serious warning in the quotation for this evening.  Our minds do wander, and when the mind wanders it produces what we erroneously think are “idle” thoughts.  This is not so, as Jesus says to us here. 

We cannot understand what he is saying, but we can get an intimation by thinking of our nighttime dreams.  Form seems very real in nighttime dreams, but when we awaken in the morning, the dreams frequently vanish from our minds, and we accord those dreams no reality at all.  The form is real, though, and perhaps this type of form is what Jesus is seeing.

Jesus has told us that we live in a dream, even in waking reality.  We are living illusions.  And we think that we live in a solid world, a world of form.  We touch, we knock on hard surfaces, and we get resistance.  But our bodies are just as much an illusion as the table that we rap upon. 

Perhaps form in our idle thoughts is like unto this.  Such secular writers as Jane Roberts, in the books channeled by an entity named “Seth,” have said the same.  Our thoughts blossom out in all directions, according to Seth.  And form is not far behind, though we cannot see that happen.

So doesn’t it behoove us to rid ourselves of what we have been calling “idle” thoughts?  Wouldn’t it be better to think along better lines?  Wouldn’t it be better to fill our minds with thoughts that we imagine are like unto those that we imagine God “thinks”?  Certainly the encouragement that we give fantasies can be seen as a false way to spend our time.  Fantasies are not true, but we indulge in them.  We even fall into fantasy when we are contemplating or meditating.  Our minds stay so busy.

Rein in your thoughts today.  Don’t let them get ahead of yourself.  The best thing that we can do is to think as God would think.  Ask Him what He thinks, and see if your imagination doesn’t give you an Answer.

We Create Our Own Reality

“You are thus, as always, the creator of your reality.” (ACOL, Dialogues, Day 29, 29.8)

Jane Roberts, back in the sixties, began channeling, live channeling, an entity who called himself “Seth.” Jane was one of the forerunners of the New Age movement. A principal feature of Seth’s teachings was the idea that we created our own reality.
This seems to be a cornerstone of New Age thinking now. And here Jesus affirms the same idea. We are said, by Jesus, to be “creators” now, not “makers” of an illusory reality headed up by the ego. We are living in the time of Christ, which allows the reality that we create to be true and good.

—

“You started with what you believed you had been given, the self that you saw yourself to be—the self you considered immutable and unchangeable—and proceeded from there. Yet you created in response to ‘reality’ rather than creating reality. Now you are called to create reality—a new reality.” (ACOL, Dialogues, Day 36, 36.5)

When we made a false reality, we remembered, however vaguely, some of what true reality was really like, even though hoodwinked by the ego. Now Jesus wants us to create a new reality, a new world. He doesn’t want us just to “change” the world, though some of us will do that. He holds out to us the better reality of creating a new world. And he also tells us that he doesn’t know what form that new world will take, because he is not being predictive, he doesn’t have these answers.

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“Can you not see that if you can create your experience you can create a new reality—a new world? Can you not see the difference between creating as a separate self in response to a ‘given’ set of circumstances in a ‘given’ world and creating your experience as a creator who has realized oneness and unity—who has realized a new reality? The old reality was that of separation. The new reality is that of union. It is new only in that it has gone uncreated.” (ACOL, Dialogues, Day 36, 36.8)

This quotation is near the end of the Dialogues of A Course of Love, and the Dialogues are the third and final part of ACOL. It is good that we read and reread this quotation, for much is dovetailed in a few simple sentences.

We are to create a new world. We are creators who can do this. We have realized oneness and unity, and in this realization we have seen a new reality. The old, false illusion of separation is no more. The new reality is one of union, and its newness is only because heretofore this new reality has gone uncreated. Now is our chance to create a new world. To walk into the future holding Jesus’s hand.

Imagination Is Key to Our Probable Futures

“What you envision, imagine, desire, hold as being possible is possible, because you make it so. It is your interaction, both individually and collectively with the consciousness that is us, that creates probable futures rather than guaranteed futures. It is your interaction, both individually and collectively with the consciousness that is us, that creates probable futures rather than guaranteed futures. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 6.1)”

1 – Jane Roberts’s Seth

This passage is like Jane Roberts channeled for Seth: We create our own reality, and we move into a complex interplay of probable futures with our brothers and sisters playing their roles as well. We do not have to adopt for ourselves all that Seth promotes, though, to understand that we do choose what we will experience. This is not a choice of the little, individual, personal self, but the Self, the larger Self, the Christ Self, of which we partake on other planes as well.

2 – Probable Futures

We cannot know the future definitely, because of the fact that all futures are probable–thus not sure to turn out the way that we expect. This is why psychics often fail in their predictions; they are tuning into another probable future, one that the self of the moment will not choose.

3 – A Potent Idea

“Probable futures” constitute a potent idea. This means that we can bring into our world those futures that are more promising and happier, if we so choose. Let us choose to find joy today in our futures.

4 – Imagination

Our imagination, our dreaming, in consultation with our innermost Self, is key to creating the future that is best. We do not have to believe in the Law of Attraction in regard to this, but we may (in fact) so believe. The creation of our reality is given in A Course of Love as a more reverent way to influence outcomes, whereas the Law of Attraction works in secular ways as well. We can envision physical, transient, blessings, and they will manifest as much as the more real intangibles of God. The more real intangibles ought to be our goals, for only they are lasting.

5 – Daydream

Spend a bit of time today imagining what future for yourself and others you would like to see. Pray for those outcomes. (God will protect you and save you from disaster if the prayers go awry.) Always ask in the Will of God, for only that procedure brings the best always. We are part of God, and so we are asking our innermost Self to ratify our personal self’s choices. At this point in A Course of Love, the Self is close to a tie with the personal self, what we hope will be a permanent tie. Use that tie to make sure that You ask aright.

6 – The Best

The best means are always the way to go. And going directly to the Source is our best procedure. We cannot ask amiss when we evaluate our asking by running it past the inner Self. We will know when we have done this. The prayer will seem, will be, right.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I use all of my imagination today to create a positive future. This is not the dreams that I am caught in in this world; this is the reality which I have come to know.

May I choose the probable future that is most promising. May I co-create, with You, the Way that You would have me go.

Amen.

Do Nothing to Reinforce Suffering

“Why think you it is loving to believe in suffering? Do you not begin to see that in so doing you but reinforce it? What you might even call the ‘fact’ of it? Can you not instead ask yourself what harm could be done by offering a new kind of observance? (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 29.8)”

Affirmation: “I would lay all belief about suffering aside today.”

Reflections:

1 – We Create Our Own Reality

This passage for today is another example of the truth that we create our own reality. When we give attention to suffering, even when we are sympathizing with those who are suffering, we are causing that suffering to grow. When we turn aside from suffering, we diminish suffering. We fail to reinforce it, and it falls away of its own weight.

2 – Solace

Can we really believe this? Let’s try it and see. This approach does not mean that we will be cruel to those who believe in suffering and who are in the midst of suffering. We would empathize and give solace to such a person. But we won’t exacerbate the phenomenon of suffering by focusing on it, because focusing on it in fact does reinforce, and therefore make it harder to overlook.

3 – Overlooking

We saw this dynamic in the example of anger and attack. When we focused on our brother’s shortcomings (as we perceived them), they grew in our minds and we could not easily overlook them. Yet this overlooking is just what we are called to do in A Course in Miracles. We make real the anger and attack, and then we really cannot overlook it. And we are trapped by our own negative emotional reaction.

4 – Real Suffering

It is similar with suffering, and real suffering (as opposed to pain) is primarily mental, emotional. We build on the pain that we see, and this makes the primacy of negative response. We do no one any good by commiserating loudly. This simply makes the suffering real in our perception and makes it harder to overlook, as we have said.

5 – A Disservice

So today do not lend your emotional upset to the upset that you see in another who is suffering. Do not be unmindful of what you are seeing, but neither exacerbate the feelings by focusing on them. To do so is to do a disservice to your brother or sister, lost in the moment in suffering.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

When I see suffering today, I will offer my sympathy to the other, but I will not focus on that suffering and therefore make it greater. I will not reinforce, but instead turn another’s focus outward and away from the emotional turmoil that he/she is generating. I will offer solace, but not make the suffering larger by focusing on it unduly.

This are lofty ideals. There is a fine line between offering solace and perpetuating the suffering by focusing on it. Help me to know and to carry out the difference. My thoughts are with You as I go about my day, seeing some who suffer. May their suffering be eased into simply pain, or even recovery, taking out the emotional as well as physical basis for complaint. May I be a comfort to those I love.

Amen.

You Create Your Own Reality

“If you observe health rather than disease, abundance rather than poverty, peace rather than conflict, happiness rather than sadness–disease, poverty, conflict and sadness will be no more real to your brothers and sisters than it is to you. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 18.6)”

Affirmation: “I choose health, abundance, peace, and happiness today.”

Reflections:

1 – Reality

In my reading of this passage for today, I see two aspects that are important. The first is that we create our own reality. The second is that what we create affects others as well.

2 – Jane Roberts’s Seth

Creating our own reality is a fundamental tenet of Jane Roberts’s Seth, written in the seventies. Of course, we are listening to Jesus, and I cite Seth to show the emergence of this idea in our culture. Can we really have health, abundance, peace, and happiness just by wishing for it? In part, yes. But I think not entirely. It is our larger Self that actually determines the experiences that we meet, and this larger Self may have plans for us that we need rather than want. It is certainly wrong to blame the victim if bad things happen. The personal self isn’t in full control. Blaming the victim is a particularly insidious trap that makes that person feel even worse than he/she does anyway. The larger Self may make decisions that in the short run appear detrimental. The end result is always good, though, even if the end result is now to cease living on this earth—death.

3 – Affecting Reality of Others

The second aspect of this passage is the more startling and less well known assertion that what we anticipate directly affects the experience of our brothers and sisters. Can we really bring them good things if we think right? I think that this passage is saying “yes.” This behooves us to get right with God, to let our interactions with others be positive always, and to know that what we say and do affects on subtle levels and not just the superficial.

4 – Health, Abundance, Peace, Happiness

May we have the good things today. May we have abundant health, abundant wealth (either material and/or spiritual), peace (of God), and genuine happiness (joy). These positive experiences will follow us all the days of our lives if the larger Self (the Christ within) also believes that these things are in our best interests. The law of attraction is at work, but not in the materialistic fashion that it is sometimes depicted.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would create a good reality today, for myself and, to the degree that I can, for others. I realize that I can use the law of attraction to make the materialistic attracted to myself, but this will be ashes and dust unless my heart is in the right place, unless I seek also for the intangibles of God. May I do so today.

May what I do affect my brothers and sisters is a right way, a good way. May I think, say, or do nothing that will hinder their progress toward You and Home. May we work together today to have the good, but to be equally certain that the good is shared.

Amen.

Heaven on Earth

“You who have followed me beyond the walls of the house of illusion are now called to begin the act of revealing and creating anew the life of heaven on earth. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 9.6)”

Affirmation: “I would seek to help create heaven on earth.”

Reflections:

1 – The Future

What a delightful future! Jesus says in this passage that we are beyond the walls of the house of illusion, and so now is the time to work together to create heaven on earth. Could we ask for anything more in this world? I think not. This is the ultimate promise.

2 – Inner Guide Reveals Our Part

What would we do to reveal and to create heaven on earth? Only our inner Guide, our inner Christ Self, can answer this question, because I think that the answer is different for each of us. We have a common goal, but the means to reach that common goal—heaven on earth—are different for each of us, because our talents differ, our personalities differ, our gifts differ. We are unique, each of us, and that uniqueness means that there is no single answer available.

3 – Contributions to This World

If we had to predict our course in this lifetime, our way to contribute to this world, what would it be? I think that we ought to spend some time contemplating this important question. Of course, our answer will differ as we move through life, because we grow and develop, we change, and we move into different probabilities (from the writings of Jane Roberts, who channeled an entity known as Seth). As times change, we must change with them. And so if the way that we first seek to walk becomes closed to us, if a door is closed, we walk onward, and find an open window. God never leaves us with a closed pathway. Many have so said.

4 – Missions

We are called to a mission, and it is up to each of us to find that mission, though it differs from person to person. Certainly we do not proselytize others to the way of A Course of Love, or of A Course in Miracles, if those others are not ready. Those channeled books are our way, but there are many courses in this world (from ACIM), and each individual interprets from his/her own perspective. Even our teaching of ACOL and ACIM will differ, because the words give different insights to people with varying experiences. This is why no universal theology is possible (from ACIM).

5 – Universal Experience

But a universal experience is not only possible, but necessary (from ACIM). And the universal experience now includes a call to reveal and to create heaven on earth.

6 – Now

May we begin now.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would try to create heaven on earth. I would try to do my small part, guided by You. I will surely try to make amiss if I barge ahead without consulting You. You know the way; I do not. Help me to walk the right pathway, making turns as You indicate, today.

I need to be able to turn on a dime. I need to change my course whenever You indicate that I am traveling along a road that is a dead end. May I walk only sure pathways today.

I would live in this heaven on earth that I wish to help create. And so would my brothers and sisters. Let us go forward today, together, seeking Your way to create heaven on earth always.

May today be truly recognized as the first day of the rest of our lives.

Amen.

Love or Fear Is Your Reality by Your Choice

“Love is at the heart of all things.  How you feel but reflects your decision to accept love or to reject it and choose fear.  Both cannot be chosen.  All feelings you label joyous or compassionate are of love.  All feelings you label painful or angry are of fear. This is all there is.  This is the world you make.  Love or fear is your reality by your choice.  A choice for love creates love.  A choice for fear creates fear.  (A Course of Love, 1.18)”

 

Affirmation:  “A choice for love creates love.”

Reflections:

1 – A Summation of ACOL

This passage is a summation of much that A Course of Love says, in all three volumes of the work.  If we are having a good day, on some level we have chosen love; if we are having a bad day, on some level we have chosen fear.  We cannot simultaneously live in both worlds–the world of love and the world of fear.  We make the choice constantly.  How we begin the day determines, to a great extent, what we will attract into our lives on this day.  We are creating our reality.  (Much New Age literature has said this, beginning with Jane Roberts’s Seth in the seventies.)

2 – Reach Out to Others

We would choose joyous and compassionate feelings, and these are emotions akin to love.  If we choose something else, we will not be happy, and A Course in Miracles indicates that happiness is one of our functions (salvation and forgiveness are other functions given in ACIM).  Happiness is a lofty goal, not an inferior one (as we may have thought).  We can really “be there” for our brothers and sisters when we are happy.  Any less exalted feeling will mean that we are turned back in on ourselves, to the detriment of ourselves and others.

3 – Let the Heart Speak

If we are fearful, we will not know happiness.  It is just that simple.  If we find ourselves overcome with fear, we need to take a timeout for heartfelt prayer.  This is a time to let our heart speak to us (the heart is primary in A Course of Love).  If we just get out of our ego, by whatever means we can, we will be forgiving and loving, and almost inevitably, we will know joy.  Do not let anyone or anything take away joy today.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

When I was stressed yesterday, and again this morning, I was inadvertently choosing fear, and anxiety–fear–is what I got.  I cannot afford to indulge in such foolishness.  My frame of mind cries out for the emotions of love–the joy, harmony, delight in a good day.  I cannot afford to indulge in the darker emotions, because I might be so weak thereby that I would lose some of the emotional stability that I have long enjoyed.  Help me, the next time there is stress on the horizon, to recognize that I can choose differently.  I can take action that will reduce the stress that I am beginning to perceive.  I can slow down.  I can talk to someone.  I can pray or meditate.  Mostly, I can recognize that my anxious feelings are a choice that I would just avoid escalating.

Be wtih my brothers and sisters today as the sun comes up for another day in this beautiful world.  May I do what I can to give those I encounter a good day.  And may I not forget to thank others for the blessings that they too are bestowing.  We are all in this together.

Amen.

The Authority Problem: Who Created Us?

“You must realize it is your desire to make of yourself your own creator that has caused all your problems.  This is the authority problem.  It is pervasive in the life of your physical form and in the life of your mind.  It is only your heart that does not consider this an issue of concern.  This is another reason we appeal to the heart.  (A Course of Love, 1.11)”

Affirmation:  “Listen to my heart today.”

Reflections:

1 – Did We Make Ourselves?

We sometimes, when especially trapped by egoic thinking, believe that we made ourselves, that we are our own creator.  This is an understandable belief, because we are told in many places (especially in Jane Roberts’s Seth books) that we “create our own reality.”  We do, in all likelihood, make the world that we see.  It is a tenet of A Course in Miracles that projection makes perception.  And another tenet:  “There is no world!”

2 – We Are Never Told that We Created Ourselves

But we are not ever told that we created ourselves.  In some of our grandiosity, we may think this, and it is a major stumbling for some of us.  We think that somehow the world evolved with us ourselves somehow creating ourselves.  This could not be farther from the truth.  We may find it difficult that we could make the world of illusion, the universe of illusion, in which we live.  Traditional religion sees a guiding hand behind all of this.  But nowhere, in no religion, are we taught that we created ourselves of our own volition.  Yet we somehow believe this, sometimes.

3 – Made the World but Not Ourselves?

Do we understand this how we could make our world and not ourselves?  Of course not.  And we do not have to rely on exhortations to have “faith.”  We can simply entertain the possibility that these interpretations of illusion are accurate.  If we do accept that what we are seeing is an illusion, and a dream, then we do not have to try to make sense of everything that we see.  None of us accords much credence to the fantastical things that happen in our nighttime dreams.

4 – Are We Real?

We may even doubt, sometimes, that we are real, and instead think that we too are as illusory as the world in which we find ourselves.  But when we look out, projecting from within, we need to know that there is an invisible divinity within.  We are not in touch totally, for we are human.  But the divine is within, and we project the perceptions outwardly that we see.

5 – Our Heart Does Not Fret about These Matters

But our heart does not worry about such things.  This passage makes that clear.  And, if we disregard the body and the mind for a bit, we will see that we really don’t care to get involved in controversies that body and mind would have us seek out..  Our heart knows that love is the only true answer–that, and the forgiveness that brings us to accept our brothers and sisters, and to correct our own mistakes and thereby forgive ourselves as well.

6 – Listen to Your Heart

So let’s listen to our hearts today.  What does our heart say to do or say?  We will find ourselves easily in a forgiving spirit if we listen to our heart.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I listen with my heart today.  May I rest in the understanding that You have given me (I believe) that while the world is illusory, I am not.  There is a divinity in back of all this illusion, and though this is my interpretation, not stated precisely in either A Course in Miracles or A Course of Love, this belief is one that I find comforting and palpable.  Thank You for granting to my questioning mind this level of understanding.

But, as I told You, I will listen to my heart today.  I will leave aside metaphysical interpretations that perhaps cannot be accepted by everyone who reads this blog.  May we join together in common ground that celebrates the wonders of You and this world, however difficult, in which we find ourselves.  This world’s beauty is unmistakable, and it is this in which my heart finds resonance.

Amen.

We See the Journey from the Point at Which It Ended

ACIM Workbook Lesson 158 – for Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Affirmation:  “Today I learn to give as I receive.”

“Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures come and go as if by magic.  Yet there is a plan behind appearances that does not change.  The script is written.  When experience will come to end your doubting has been set.  For we but see the journey from the point at which it ended, looking back on it, imagining we make it once again; reviewing mentally what has gone by.  (WB298)”

Reflections:

The passage is part of the mystical teaching of A Course in Miracles.  It says that we are actually living in the past, standing at the end of the journey, reviewing all that has already happened.  We may not be ready to accept this.  It does seem to partake of predestination, and predestination is a controversial theological concept that we would be wise to fail to take a stand upon.  (Reincarnation is another controversial theological belief that we need to step aside from, as ACIM counsels.)  Theology can only delay us; we would seek an experience only.  And ACIM is always practical in its advice.  We do not want anything that is separating to intrude on our experience, and on the experience of our brothers and sisters.

We know from the Theory of Relativity, Einstein’s theory, that time is an illusion.  Our physics has advanced that far.  So ACIM is not really so foreign to our science, even in this relatively non-advanced place in which we find ourselves.

“The script is written.”  But if we believe in probable realities (as Jane Roberts of the Seth books proclaimed), then we do have some effect upon the direction that our lives will take.  We can choose the short and easy route to salvation and Awakening, or we can disregard words such as given in ACIM, and walk the long and hazardous route back to our Home.  Let us today decide to follow the easy route, following the guidance that the Holy Spirit so gladly offers to all of us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I welcome the mystery of being told that I stand at the end of a journey already completed.  If this be so, then the end is certain; I will find my way home.  You will guide me through the Holy Spirit, when I am flexible enough to turn on a dime, and when I am flexible enough to be willing to step aside and be led.  Let me be willing to step aside for You to lead the way today.

Thank You, as always, for being there for me.  I sometimes forget You.  But please, don’t You forget me.

Amen.

VISUALIZE; a Review of Shakti Gawain’s “Creative Visualization”

by Celia Hales

Gawain, Shakti.  Creative Visualization; Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Life.  ISBN 1-57731-229-5.  Available on the Internet and in bookstores internationally.  Originally published by Whatever Publishing, 1979.

This is a contribution that cannot be underestimated.  An early New Age book, Creative Visualization has remained in print and well-received for decades.  I personally knew most of it by heart at one point in my life, so taken with it I had become.  Its basic message is the same as another New Age author, Jane Roberts, who channeled an entity named Seth, proclaiming, “You create your own reality.”  If I had to sum up what Creative Visualization  says, that would be it.

Shakti tells us exactly how to “create your own reality.”  A thin book (my early copy has 127 pages), there are numerous short chapters, making skimming to find your desired passages an easy task.  She is heavy on affirmations as a way to create one’s own reality, and she gives many examples of positive, life-affirming affirmations that, if said silently, aloud, or written, will presumably have the power to do all of those wonderful things that she promises.  She does not overlook the power of negativity to negate any desired good, and she offer hints of what to do to find one’s own blocks to creating the reality that we desire.  Paper and pencil are not far behind for Shakti.  As much as she champions imagining, she also asks us to do the work of changing our reality by writing about what we want and why, as well as what we don’t want, and why we keep getting it.

There are five parts to this masterpiece:  (1) basics of creative visualization; (2) using creative visualization; (3) meditations and affirmations; (4) special techniques; and (5) living creatively.

In the beginning, Shakti emphasizes the importance of relaxation to effective visualization.  Once relaxed, she invites us to encourage the images to flow; if we have trouble doing so, though, she encourages us by saying that “seeing” is not absolutely necessary to the process.  Just thinking about the desired goal, quality, or object is enough.  She notes that many of us will be ambivalent about consciously creating for ourselves that which is good when so many in our world are suffering.  She affirms that we would not do harm to others by wishing for the good for ourselves; we will reach out to our brothers and sisters as well.  She calls this “outflowing,” and it is essential to effective creative visualization.

She provides a good number of exercises in the middle portion of the book.  These will help tremendously if one does them rather than simply reads about them.  My favorite is the “pink bubble technique,” in which we are encouraged to place our goal in a visualized pink bubble (pink being the color of the heart), and then imagine it floating away into the universe above, waiting to manifest on earth.  Never does Shakti recommend straining, or “efforting,” to reach a goal.  This exertion does actually hinder the manifestation, she affirms.  If we feel too much efforting, we are not ready, or the goal is not right, and we are counseled to hold off and to reconsider.

The paper-and-pencil tasks are found in the fourth part on “special techniques.”  My favorite here is the treasure map, which actually makes of our attempts a game.  We draw what we desire, making it as personal as possible, and placing an image of ourselves on the map itself.  Always, though, we say a mantra that we image this goal for the good of everyone concerned, that this or something better will manifest.

An important chapter is the short conclusion of the book, in which she says that her life is her greatest art.  We are trying to craft a life, not trying to just make a series of achievements to prove anything to anybody.  We are creating our reality.

A Course in Miracles had just been published (1975) when Creative Visualization first appeared..  There is no indication that the former influenced the latter.  But  both are part of the oft-quoted perennial philosophy that Aldous Huxley described so well in his book by the same title.

Shakti has done us a glorious service by bringing us this book, which she attributes to her inner guide.   While she never says that the book was channeled, she does make the “guide” comment.  It seems obvious that Shakti’s attunement with the universe helped to write this book.  Recommended without reservation, as so many others have said as well.

No Separation between God’s Mind and Mine

ACIM Workbook Lesson 110 – for Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Affirmation:  “I am as God created me.”

Selected Passage:

“If you are as God created you, then there has been no separation of your mind from His, no split between your mind and other minds, and only unity within your own.  (WB199)”

Reflections:

1 – Unity and Relationship

This passage presages A Course of Love, viewed by some to be a sequel, channeled by Jesus, to show us our way Home and to let us know that the time of constant seeking is no more.  A recurring theme in ACOL is “unity and relationship,” in which is meant that All is one (i.e., we are One with all of our brothers and sisters, and with God), and that we are in relationship to the All, which includes God as well as our brothers and sisters.

2 – Perfect Honesty = Consistency

“[O]nly unity within your own [mind]” means that we are consistent in our thought; we have perfect honesty.  These are concepts from the Manual.  No thought is at war with any other thought (also from the Manual).  We are truly honest, in that we do not have the conflict that previously engulfed us.  The ego wanted only conflict; indeed, the ego thrived on conflict.  But we are moving beyond the ego now.  We must be patient.  Sometimes the Way opens up to us quickly, but more often we have a slowly evolving training period (a Manual tenet).

3 – No Separation from God

Our mind knows no separation from God’s mind.  This is a more esoteric thought than many in ACIM, because we may have been taught in church, previously, that the world is God’s handiwork, and that He is separate from the world.  But ACIM says repeatedly that God is the All.  This is a concept developed by Jane Roberts in the Seth books, as well as Neale Donald Walsch in the Conversations with God series.  It is New Age thought, but not just this, because it harkens back to Jesus’s declaration in the New Testament that he and the Father are One.  In ACIM, Jesus says that there is nothing that he has that we cannot have, are not meant to have, as well.  We will know this truth when we ask for help, in communion with God, that there be only unity within our mind.  That will mean that the split that seemed to occur in the separation, the split that gave us the ego, has been ended.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I know deeply within my heart and soul that my mind is One with Your Mind.  I realize that this does not mean that we are equal.  I am a part of You, but I am part of the Whole that is One.  May my understanding of this mystical thought grow daily to a fuller knowledge.

May I grow in joy and love for my brothers and sisters, and may I be a blessing to them.  May I be happy, that I might share my life more fully without neurosis.

Amen.

Perception vs. Knowledge

ACIM Workbook Lesson 43 – for Saturday, February 12, 2011

Affirmation:  “God is my Source.  I cannot see apart from Him.”

Selected Passage:

“Perception is not an attribute of God.  His is the realm of knowledge.  Yet He has created the Holy Spirit as the Mediator between perception and knowledge.  Without this link with God, perception would have replaced knowledge forever in your mind.  With this  link with God, perception will become so changed and purified that it will lead to knowledge.  This is its function as the Holy Spirit sees it.  Therefore, that is its function in truth.  (WB67)”

Reflections:

This passage explains better than anywhere in ACIM the difference between perception and knowledge.  In our little minds, we perceive; when God has informed our Self, we know.

Perception is relative, and it is subject to the mistakes of the ego.  Knowledge is always right on target.  And knowledge is always something coming from the Holy Spirit, part of the three-in-One God that is described biblically.  We do not always know when our perceptions are inaccurate, because we are caught in the throes of the ego.  But we do have an inkling about knowledge.  Its main characteristic is that it is always loving.  If our thoughts about a given situation partake of anything but love, we are lost in perception.

We are close here to the concept of “projection makes perception,” an oft-repeated tenet of the Text.  But knowledge comes quietly, and it comes surely.  It is a harbinger of the real world, also a tenet of the Text.  What is the real world?  It is seen only for instances from time to time, when we have had a moment of Awakening through revelation from God.  Then, when Awakening has been sustained (a tenet of A Course of Love), we know rather than perceive on an ongoing basis.

We need not to be impatient for knowledge to overtake us.  As is often stressed, once our journey without distance has begun, the end is certain.  And the end is always accompanied by knowledge, a surety that what we see and recognize is true.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

When I am going about my daily round, I am normally perceiving rather than knowing.  I ask today that I know more often than I have in the past.  This knowing is Your gift, and it comes straight from you.  I know when I have left the ego behind, at least temporarily.  I would leave the ego behind more and more, especially beginning today.

I am not interested in what I project if it leads to perceiving things that are ego-inspired.  Let me fully understand the promptings of the Holy Spirit, so that I will be led to follow them more often.  Guidance is always true.  I would follow Your Holy Spirit today.

Amen.

God = the All

ACIM Workbook Lesson 29 – for Saturday, January 29, 2011

Affirmation:  “God is in everything I see.”

Selected Passage:

“Nothing is as it appears to you.  Its holy purpose stands beyond your little range.  When vision has shown you the holiness that lights up the world, you will understand today’s idea perfectly.  And you will not understand how you could ever have found it difficult.  (WB45)”

Reflections:

God is the One, the All.  This idea has found its way into many of the world’s religion as well as in psychic material.  Jane Roberts’s Seth said that “God is the All.”  (Jane was an early psychic writer of the last century, who channeled Seth in open meetings and also when alone with her husband Rob, who took notes on what was said, and which was later published.)

When we say, as today’s lesson does, “God is in everything I see,” we do not mean to promulgate pantheism, which is the belief that there are many gods in all the various facets of our world.  Instead, we are realizing that God is “in” everything.  And that means “us” as well.  This tenet of ACIM goes against earlier biblical writing that said that the earth was God’s handiwork.  But the two concepts do not have to collide.  God and God’s handiwork are One.  And thus we all benefit from the fact that God is everywhere.

Mythology described by Joseph Campbell said that God made everything, one by one, as the “female” ran away from the “male,” out of fear.  But the man needed his companion, and he sought her repeatedly, becoming whatever creature she had become at the moment.  That, in myth, is how creation came to be.  It is fascinating to reflect upon how early myth captures the essence of what God’s latest revelations tell us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

It is reassuring to know that You are the All, and that You are in me as well as in everything else.  But All is One.  Thank You for leading me to understand this intuitively, though I do not pretend to understand it intellectually.

Be with me today.  When the conflicts of this world intrude on my peace, may I keep my peace–the peace that only You can and do grant.  Thank You for keeping me safe in this sometimes scary world.

Amen.

The Probable Future

“In this time of Christ, this time of direct revelation and direct sharing, the probable future you imagine, envision, desire, will be what you create.  (The Treatises of A Course of Love:  ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 6.4)”

Affirmation:  “May I watch my mind to enable it to create the probable future that is really best.”

Reflections:

This passage asks us to watch our minds, and to fall in line with what our spirits would wish for us.  Let us not fall into “mind wandering,” which A Course in Miracles says we are much too willing to do.  The mind is very powerful, and it will create what we envision.  Let us raise our sights to create the very best that we can.

In the time of Christ, there is no delay in seeing the results of our thinking–at least not as much delay as previously in the time of the Holy Spirit.  A Course of Love presages the time of Christ, as A Course in Miracles describes the time of the Holy Spirit.  The two do seem to overlap, as students study both of these courses.

May we know that what we envision can indeed come true.  Let us watch our minds so that we do not inadvertently bring into “reality” (actually our illusory dream) that which we do not want.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I want the future that you would have for me.  May my mind not drop into negativisms, and thereby help to create a future that I–and You–really do not want for myself.  May I be led to envision the best and brightest future.

May I now try to stay in the dream, even if it is happy.  The dream is not the end that You seek for me.  May my Awakening be soon.

Amen.

What I Imagine Is Possible

“What you envision, imagine, desire, hold as being possible is possible, because you make it so.  It is your interaction, both individually and collectively with the consciousness that is us, that creates probable futures rather than guaranteed futures.  (The Treatises of A Course of Love:  ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 6.1)”

Affirmation:  “May I envision a good probable future.”

Reflections:

This passage is like Jane Roberts channeled for Seth:  We create our own reality, and we move into a complex interplay of probable futures with our brothers and sisters playing their roles as well.  We do not have to adopt for ourselves all that Seth promotes, though, to understand that we do choose what we will experience.  This is not a choice of the little, individual self, but the Self, the larger Self, of which we partake on other planes as well.

We cannot know the future definitely, because of the fact that all futures are probable–thus not sure to turn out the way that we expect.  This is why psychics often fail in their predictions; they are tuning into another probable future, one that the self of the moment will not choose.

“Probable futures” constitute a potent idea.  This means that we can bring into our world those futures that are more promising and happier, if we so choose.  Let us choose to find joy today in our futures.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I use all of my imagination today to create a positive future.  This is not the dreams that I am caught in in this world; this is the reality which I have come to know.

May I choose the probable future that is most promising.  May I co-create, with You, the Way that You would have me go.

Amen.

Is My Best Choice My Free Will?

“Free will does not make the impossible possible.  Free will makes the possible probable.  It is thus probable that you will use your free will in order to be who you are.  But it is not guaranteed!  It is your choice and your choice alone that is the only guarantee.  This is the meaning of free will.  (The Treatises of A Course of Love:  ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 5.9)”

Affirmation:  “probable that I will be who I am”

Reflections:

The “probable” is a concept that was described  by Jane Roberts in the scribed “Seth” books.  Seth talked of “probable realities,” of which we are always at intersection points.  A Course of Love builds on this idea.  In this passage, we learn that we create our own reality, just as Seth said.  Now Jesus seems to be agreeing with this early psychic conclusion.

We need to  “be who (we) are.”  We need to move beyond the little self-contained, separated self to the elevated Self of form in this world.  This will be the certainty that we have risen to Christ-consciousness.  We do not have to struggle to be who we really are.  We need only accept these inspired words of Jesus, and let our free will lead us down the correct pathway.

Unless we find our right pathway, the one that is right for only us, then we will not live out the probabilities that are best for us.  When we live according to the instructions of Jesus, then we will live out those probabilities that are right.  In ACIM, this best way to live was described as following the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  In ACOL, this best way becomes an inner knowing, because Jesus would have all of us live out on Christ-consciousness.

Live today as seems right.  Nothing wrong ever turned out right.  Then the free will that we all desire will be in line with the creative powers of the universe.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I understand “free will” as I never have before.  May I know that my best probable future depends on following the highest and best that I know, whether following the Holy Spirit (ACIM) or an inner knowing (ACOL).

Help me today to have a good day.  It is not one based solely on the “feeling” of a good day, but its actuality.  This may or may not actually feel “good.”  But it will be right, in the highest sense of which we are capable.

Amen.