Lack = Fear

“All feelings of lack are synonymous with feelings of fear. Where there is fear, love is hidden. Love is rejected when a choice for fear is made. You cannot be without love, but you can reject love. When you reject love, it is hidden from you, because receiving completes giving. Each of your brothers and sisters are love inviolate. What each gives is incomplete until it is received.” (ACOL, C:25.5)

Loving each other, and giving and receiving as part of the same continuum, are mandatory in this world we hope to inhabit. If we are feeling in any way lacking in something that we need, we are in a fearful state that is best left behind. We have everything that we need, for our needs are met at the point that need is first recognized. The universe does provide; the only missing part might be that we don’t recognize that our needs are provided for. This would be a recognition of lack, and lack means that fear has the upper hand. Not something that we want; we don’t want to go there.

We are meant to share with each other in relationship one to the other. This naturally means that nobody will experience lack, for the giving and receiving that we do ensures that our needs are met.

Our brothers and sisters embody love. When this is all that we see in them, we will have walked a long way on the pathway back to God. We don’t need to see weaknesses and a sense of misplaced trust. These are egoic structures in others that are actually illusory.

All of us are strong in the Christ Self. And it is this strength that we draw on when we relinquish fear in favor of love.

Dissatisfied?

“By saying that giving and receiving are one in truth it is being said that you are lacking only in what you do not give. The belief in lack is a temptation of the human experience. This will relate to all situations in which you feel you have something to gain from some ‘other.’ Again, this will be related to old patterns of dissatisfaction with the self. It has to do with any ideas you may still hold concerning others having more than you have, or to desires that you may feel have gone unfulfilled. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 16.10)”

Affirmation: “I will give today to my brothers and sisters.”

Reflections:

1 – Giving and Receiving

Earlier I mentioned that the idea of giving and receiving being one is so often mentioned that we overlook what it means. We do not lack, because we are constantly in reciprocal relationship with others. We both give and receive, but we do not give because we think that if we don’t, we won’t receive. This statement is an egoic notion, and it behooves us to be better than that. We do not wish to manipulative, and if we still give in order to receive, we give amiss.

2 – Relationship

Giving and receiving happen all the time. It is the condition of relationship.

3 – Union and Relationship

In A Course of Love, union and relationship are twin themes mentioned frequently. We are in union with the All—God—but we are in relationship with all others as individuals (as well as One). And when we give and receive, we are giving and receiving, frequently, one on one. Not exclusively, but frequently.

4 – Of the Ego

We have often been dissatisfied with ourselves, and this dissatisfaction takes many forms, but all are of the ego. When the Christ Self emerges, we are at peace. We give and receive freely, knowing no lack. And we don’t envy others for what they have, of course. We know that in eternity we too can have those things, if we so desire.

5 – We All Have Everything

The fact that we all have everything is a statement from A Course in Miracles. Everything is ours, and so we don’t have to imagine that we are lacking the beauty, or attractiveness, or prowess, or any other thing that a brother or sister seems to have. All gifts are ultimately ours to have in eternity. Only time separates us from other people, and time does not really exist (also from ACIM).

6 – The Good that Is Ours

Be satisfied today with what you have. Don’t be jealous, don’t be envious. The good that is ours is uniquely suited to our needs. And when we fully realize this good, we will be satisfied.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would be satisfied with myself today, but not in the sense of complacency. You would not have me be satisfied from an ego standpoint, of course. But a certain settled contentment is completely in line with this course we are taking, and this contentment goes a long way toward granting us consistent peace.

May I drop neurotic ideas today. May I let stress fall away from me, and with stress, also anger and attack. Neurosis is of the ego, and all of us are leaving our egos behind. May I do so today. I ask this frequently, and yet I still slip up. I fall on my face when stress encourages me to express anger at some totally irrelevant circumstance or remark made by another. Let all of us cease this type of thought, word, and deed today. May we truly know that contentment is akin to the peace that passeth understanding, and may we experience both this contentment and this peace today.

Thank You.

Amen.

Receiving Does Not Imply Lack

“You who are beginning to realize that you have much to give, realize that you have as much to receive and that receiving does not imply that you are lacking! (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Nature of Unity and Its Recognition<, 7.18)”

Affirmation: “I do both give and receive today.”

Reflections:

1 – Trite Expression?
Giving and receiving as one has been so much talked about and written about as to be almost trite. Yet giving and receiving are very profound terms, which we must understand if we are to walk the path to salvation. Especially with A Course of Love. We are told repeatedly that we are in unity and relationship in this world, whether or not our ego still reigns. (And we are told that the ego’s reign for us is well nigh over.) Being in unity as one, but in relationship to the many, mean that giving and receiving occur naturally. It is what we are meant to do constantly in our world.

2 – Give More?

We often think that we ought to give more than we receive, though we pay lip service to the concept that giving and receiving are equal. And in today’s passage, Jesus reminds us that to receive does not mean that we are lacking. He even uses an exclamation point at the close of the sentence to emphasize his point!

3 – Lacking?

Why do we fear that we are lacking? What is the fear of being in lack so threatening to us? I think it is because of our own guilt that somehow we don’t measure up. This is an error, as we are still as God created us (from A Course in Miracles). But we are prone to disbelieve this assertion that ACIM makes, primarily because we can see, internally, so many mistakes and so much lack–as we perceive lack.

4 – An Ego-Driven Thought

All of this second guessing is ego-driven. And we are told in ACOL that we are turning aside from the ego. So we need to accept the truth that guilt is not honest, that we are not being honest with ourselves when we struggle with this complex of ours. We need to take Jesus’s word that we are not lacking! He has even told us that we are The Accomplished, though I doubt that many of us yet believe this. Any vestige of ego could not believe it, and that vestige thinks that we are wrong to contemplate such a joy! Keep in mind that the ego does not mean us well, even though we made it and we have been told that it will not be destroyed (from ACIM).

5 – Joy

We need to think today of ways that giving and receiving can be joyously felt. We need to offer our service to others, even as we accept what others do for us.

6 – Unity

Therein are our brothers and sisters one with us, in unity.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for being with me today, as the day has not particularly begun well. I would start anew and make the whole better. Thank You for the guidance in A Course in Miracles that tells me that I can start a day over just anytime.

May I give at least as much as I receive, though I think I recognize that there may be differences in giving vs. receiving on any given day. Be with me today to let me do for others what they need. And may I especially touch my significant others. I would offer to them the comfort and solace that they need, and I would strive not to be overly needy myself.

Amen

Isolation, Deprivation, and Lack

“A major contribution of miracles is their strength in releasing you from your false sense of isolation, deprivation, and lack.  (T6)”

 

Affirmation:  “I am not isolated, deprived, or lacking–except by my own choice.”

Reflections:

1 – Happy vs. Dark Times

All too often our experience in the world, over the course of our lifetime, is not good.  We know some “happy” times, but these are balanced by dark times.  The Course says that this oscillating nature of life is to be expected.

2 – Personal Experience

If our moods vacillate a good bit, perhaps we need to take a look at our mental health.  If problems that merit a medical intervention are ruled out, then reading A Course in Miracles would be much recommended.  I find that a few minutes of reading, really focusing on the words and content (but not trying to read ahead very rapidly), will immediately put me in a better frame of mind.  Anxiety is also curbed, and this is something that Jesus recommends just before bedtime.  As the Manual suggests, the study and quiet time will orient us away from fear and thereby prepare the mind for rest and sleep.

3 – When Miracles Come

But the oscillating nature of life is expected until we come under the benign grace of miracles.  We then no longer feel so alone and lacking.  Jesus notes that this sense of isolation is a “false” sense, as we are indeed surrounded by the grace of Heaven.  Jesus promises that he will be with us when we ask.  He also mentions “Teachers of teachers” (M64) who help us when the need is there.  (And is there ever a time when the need is not there?)  These Teachers of teachers are, I believe from my reading, on the Other Side, but come in our vicinity when we ask for help.  Jesus suggests elsewhere that the body would not be long maintained if the presence of God were sustained indefinitely.  (This is not the same state, I would suggest, as the Awakening, after which Christ-consciousness is sustained.)

4 – Reassurance

We can ask for miracles and they will be ours.  This is the reassurance of Jesus.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would live a full life today, one without deprivation or lack.  A lot of this is belief in the promises of Jesus in the Course.  May all of us realize that we do not have to live in deprivation.

May I turn to ACIM today when things look grim.  My days always go better when I spend the time that I need with You.  Help me not to forget You today.

Amen.

Isolation, Deprivation, and Lack

“A major contribution of miracles is their strength in releasing you from your false sense of isolation, deprivation, and lack.  (T6)”

Affirmation:  “I wish the strength that comes from miracles.”

Reflections:

1 – The Oscillating Nature of Life

All too often our experience in the world, over the course of our lifetime, is not good.  We know some “happy” times, but these are balanced by dark times.  A Course in Miracles indicates that this oscillating nature of life is to be expected.  The sustainability of peace and joy does not come suddenly, unless revelation reveals the end to us.  And this revelation may not make Awakening sustainable.  In the beginning, it is likely that the glimpses will not last, but they will prepare us for what will last, when that time comes.  As long as we caught by the ego, we will know a movement forward, followed by a movement backward.  If we think about this, we will realize why it is true.  We have not been fully prepared, though the means are being carefully explained to us by Jesus in ACIM (from the Text).

2 – Miracles End the Oscillations

The “expected” nature of oscillations will happen until we come under the benign grace of miracles.  We then no longer feel so alone and lacking.  Jesus notes that this sense of isolation is a “false” sense, as we are indeed surrounded by the grace of Heaven.  Jesus promises that he will be with us when we ask.  He also mentions “Teachers of teachers” (M64) who help us when the need is there.  (And is there ever a time when the need is not there?)

3 – Ask for Miracles

We can ask for miracles and they will be ours.  All too often even advanced students/teachers of ACIM forget that “asking” is necessary.  We think, erroneously, that all should be given us without this humble plea.  But “ask and yet shall receive” (from the New Testament) is still the concept of ACIM.  This is the reassurance of Jesus, when he walked the earth, and, now, when he channeled ACIM.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I ask for miracles today, in my own life as well as the others whom I encounter, plus the readers of this blog.  May we not oscillate from dark to light and back again.  May we know the stasis of peace and serenity always.

If the day seems to turn dark, may I know that this is an illusion.  Regardless of how difficult the outward circumstances appear, it is my dream.  May I invite instead the dreams that the Holy Spirit brings.  And may You be there to comfort me as I walk through this sometimes troubled world.  I know that projection makes perception, and I would project aright today, so that I might perceive aright.

Thank You for Your felt presence.  This means more to me than anything else, especially on days that are difficult.   Be with my loved ones today, and that includes people I have not even met.

Amen.