The Surface Traits of God’s Teachers Are Not All Alike. Their Superficial “Personalities” Are Quite Distinct

1 – Characteristics of God’s Teachers

“The surface traits of God’s teachers are not at all alike. They do not look alike to the body’s eyes, they come from vastly different backgrounds, their experiences of the world vary greatly, and their superficial ‘personalities’ are quite distinct. (M9)”

2 – Everyone

This world has a variety of people, and any of them may have come to see the light, and to follow the way of God. Personalities can conflict, though, and so we may not always like everyone, even when they too are on the pathway. And this, being on the pathway, does not it include everyone?

3 – Surface Traits

The fact that surface traits differ can be reassuring. It does ensure that we will not necessarily recognize our brothers and sisters who are walking the pathway. It makes us more tolerant of diversity. Would God have made us so distinct unless there were a good reason?

4 – Different Pathways

This passage says that we can walk very many different pathways to God. ACIM is just the way that you and I have chosen. We should recognize that other pathways are just as valid for others. Nowhere does the A Course in Miracles contradict this idea.

5 – Differences Are Temporary

“All differences among the Sons of God are temporary. (M9)”

Elsewhere in ACIM we learn the talents of individual people differ in this world, but there will come a time when all talents are shared alike. This is one reason that we need not be vainglorious about differences among us. Only time separates us in differences, and time does not really exist.

6 – Other Side

A second reason that we need not be vainglorious is not discussed in A Course in Miracles, but is widely discussed in other New Age literature. We get help from the Other Side. This includes the geniuses among us as well as us ordinary people. We don’t even have to turn to New Age literature to recognize this phenomenon. Julia Cameron, a creative artist of fiction and drama, who has written and taught widely to undo the blocking of creativity, quotes numerous famous people from the past who credit their work to God. She herself knows that she does not so much think up writing as sense that the writing is coming through her.

7 – Julia Cameron

Julia also recommends initiating a dialogue with Higher Power, in which we pose questions and seek to get answers. We “listen” for answers. This practice works. When I practice it, I find that the advice which I scribe is much superior to anything that I might think “on my own.”

8 – Pride

So let us realize that our differences are temporary, and we have no reason for hubris. We need to realize that we are the same, not different, and it behooves us to be grateful for this sameness (ACIM tenet). The ego would never tell us this, for the ego thrives on differences that seek to set us apart from others. But we will never be happy with such thinking. What pride has not failed to put us in a depressive spiral once the thrill of momentary victory is gone? This is the only happiness that the ego gives, and the ego gives to take away. The ego is always being undone.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

When my sisters and brothers who are on the pathway seem very different from me, may I not despair, but instead give thanks. We need to be different to appeal to different sisters and brothers. The diversity serves God.

Help me to know what to say when I meant someone who seems quite distinct from me. Help me to reach out in the best way, the way that You would have me to reach.

Amen.

The Definition of Prayer

“Thus prayer must be redefined as the act of consciously choosing union.  With this definition, you can see how your life can become a prayer.  This does not negate the fact that a prayer is also a constant dialogue of asking, being answered, and responding.  This is the aspect of prayer that makes of it an act of creation.  (Treatises of A Course of Love:  Treatise on the Art of Thought, 6.3)”

Affirmation:  “I will choose union through prayer today.”

Reflections:

1 – Union

This passage for today emphasizes once again how important prayer is to our well-being in this life.  We are said to make of our whole life a prayer, when we follow what Jesus is saying in A Course of Love.  We consciously choose union with our Self/Christ and God within, with our brothers and sisters in this world and all worlds (even unseen), and we choose to embrace the universe(s).  Union is all-inclusive, and it is a big part of our way home.

2 – Prayer

The second sentence in this passage is important:  “This does not negate the fact that a prayer is also a constant dialogue of asking, being answered, and responding.”  Certainly!  This is the way that we have traditionally seen prayer at its most simple:  asking and being answered.  But here we also see that we are to respond.  And this is the new art of thought.  We learn through receiving and then responding, not only to God, Who has answered our prayer, but also to others who can benefit as well.

3 – Personal Experience

I have personally found that my answers to prayers have increased in very recent days.  What we believe does make a difference, and I have been expecting answers to come at the point of asking.  I have not had to wait long.  Recently I asked for a solution to a minor health problem, and immediately–yes, immediately–the answer to my problem came into my mind, not as a voice, but as an internal word that was my own thought, but yet a bit beyond me.  At first I thought that I had misheard, that another one-word answer was meant.  But as the afternoon wore on, I realized that the initial word had been accurate.  I acted on this precise directive, and my minor health problem cleared up.

4 –  Mind

The word that come into our minds are not always God speaking to us.  There is much left in our minds that alter His messages.  But as we walk further along the pathway to Awakening, the chaff tends to fall away, and our internal hearing does seem more on the beam with God.  We can ask silently, and receive an answer.  We can also journal our questions, and wait for an internal prompting of what to write by way of an answer.  This latter suggestion is championed by a writing expert, Julia Cameron (The Artist’s Way).  And it works.  The fact that we capture on paper what is impressed upon our minds encourages us to reread and to respond in the future to what has been answered in our prayer.

5 – Listening in Prayer

So, pay attention to the internal, silent monologue of thoughts when asking in prayer.  I have been very, very pleasantly surprised that this type of listening increases as it is used.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for the immediate answers to my prayers that I have been receiving.  I realize that this is the way that prayer is supposed to work, for our communion with You answers all problems.

May all of us have a good day.  May anxieties fall away, and may we walk into the sunlight with You.

Amen.