Freedom

“Can you start to see how many feelings and thoughts you have drowned?  How little spontaneity has remained after ‘growing up’?  How many games have you stopped playing, pretending to look serious and mature?  The time has come when that is past!  Now we replace seriousness with freedom.”  COL bk.2, 9:IV

A Course in Miracles says that seriousness is of the ego.  And A Course of Love says that the patterns of the ego will linger even after we have given up egoic living.  These patterns may hold us back now.  Choose Only Love is saying that it is time to give up seriousness entirely, to move ahead in our lives with the freedom that a child of God deserves.

If we listen to the whispers on our mind and heart, we will know how to find freedom.  Nothing will hold us back any longer.  Certainly we will not attempt to be “mature” because we think games of life are no longer warranted.  Life is meant to be limitless and joyous.  This is what our new freedom will mean to us.

Get guidance for the next step by listening to these whispers that I am talking about today.  Whispers come to all of us, and if we are open to them, we will stop and take a look at the subtle thoughts that they are.  These gentle thoughts will give us a new life.  Choose Only Love calls it “freedom.”  A Course in Miracles calls it “limitless” and “joyous” living.  Are the two received books not saying the same thing?  Talking about the same incredible journey that lies ahead of us?

Be reintroduced to spontaneity in our pathway toward the future.  God’s guidance, the guidance of the inner Christ, and the Holy Spirit all will take us to a new place of contentment and peace. 

We won’t lose anything when we turn aside from seriousness, turn aside from egoic ways of living.  Take the high road as we give up our desire to hold the reins of our life so tightly. 

Be flexible in our decisions, turning on a dime when we receive guidance. 

Experience true freedom for the first time since childhood.

Erase the Lines & Draw Differently

“The very same being could say, ‘I am much too grand to swim in a pool.  I believe I’ll put the little body on an airplane and fly to the grand ocean, to swim in the midst, unbounded by a box.’  The experience of that swimming is much different.

“Your consciousness is exactly like that.  All that you experience from the moment you awake I the morning until you awaken in the morning again (because there is no down time)—everything you see, everything you experience—is the direct result of where and how you have drawn the lines on the blank canvas of consciousness.  And you are free at any time to erase them and draw differently.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 13, Page 164)

We are in the midst of passages from The Way of Mastery that encourage us to be limitless.  We have so often, out of fear and anxieties, placed ourselves in boxes, and then closed the lids. 

We don’t have to do this anymore.  Even if we are quarantined from the coronavirus, our spirit can be free, and this free spirit makes for a limitless experience for us.  The mind is its own place, as Milton told us in Paradise Lost.  We can open ourselves up, but the only way that I know to do that is to love, and love mightily.  Fear contracts our experience, for we are afraid of the pain and suffering that fear brings to us.

Let love overwhelm us today.  Let Love, God Himself, overwhelm us every day.

One Thought that Should Be Remembered: Thought of Pure Joy; a Thought of Peace, a Thought of Limitless Release, Limitless because All Things Are Freed within It.

1 – My Favorite Passage

“There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day. It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace, a thought of limitless release, limitless because all things are freed within it. (M41)”

2 – On the Right Direction

This is far and away my favorite passage from A Course in Miracles. It sets my day on the right direction, regardless of what attack and anger thoughts or deeds have intervened. The words “limitless release” and “pure joy” are blessings beyond my description.

3 – Beautiful Passage

This is one of the most beautiful passages in all of the Course: “pure joy” and “limitless release.” How much we have to be thankful for!

4 – A Good Day

When we remember these words throughout the day, we indeed do have a good day. They are the epitome of peace and happiness.

5 – Our Hearts

The messages these words convey should be etched in our hearts. We can indeed have pure joy, regardless of what surrounds us, because we know that this world is an illusion. This does not give us the right to do just anything, but it does give some distance to the wrongs that we note. We can also know limitless release, because we are free in God and the Holy Spirit. Regardless of what transpires on the outside of ourselves, on the inside we can be free and at peace.

6 – Afraid of Nothing

“How foolish to be afraid of nothing! Nothing at all! Your defenses will not work, but you are not in danger. You have no need of them. Recognize this, and they will disappear. And only then will you accept your real protection. (M41)”

7 – Defenses

We bring up defenses when we feel threatened, and we often feel threatened, not because of anything external to ourselves, but something internal: stress. We are all prone to stress in our busy world. We do want we can to protect ourselves, but A Course in Miracles assures us that our defenses will not work, but we have no need of defenses. We are safe, and we have always been safe. There is no real need for fear—but try telling us this when we are caught in the throes of being afraid.

8 – Our Real Protection

Our real protection seems to be our propensity to follow guidance of the Holy Spirit (though this is not spelled out at this juncture in ACIM). Our real protection is Someone Whom we can accept whenever we get ourselves out of the way sufficiently to accept help.

9 – Help

We need help. Why do we reject what could save us from despair? Ah, that is the question, for we struggle so often in this world, forgetting our lofty beliefs and forgetting how very easy the path becomes when we welcome our brother/sister with an open and serene heart.

10 – Our Way Home

A Course in Miracles puts forth our love for our brother/sister as our way home. This is the way that ACIM is saving us time; we don’t have to devote long hours to contemplation, though meditative moments seem to be encouraged in the Workbook, particularly at the conclusion of this part of ACIM. We live a holy relationship, a relationship saved from specialness, and in the living out, day by day, we are saved from ourselves. We know peace, for when we recognize that our brother/sister’s attack and anger are distress that rests on anger, we can forgive. And we know that because we live an illusion, nothing bad is actually happening to us as we live side by side with others, even others who attack and show anger.

11 – The Best that One Can

Everyone does the best that he or she can at any given moment, given his or her level of understanding. If we could just incorporate this truth in our everyday life, our lives would flow so much more smoothly.

12 – Significant Others

Nor do our significant others have to accept our pathway to allow us to live peacefully with them. We will find, without our trying to change them, that when we accept them just as they are, with no attempts to change, that a change will miraculously happen. Accepting as one really is, is a powerful practice. It is the primary thrust of Hugh and Gayle Prather’s counseling practice for troubled couples. Just accept the significant other as he/she is. Just that.

13 – Ann Landers

Only if there is danger to one’s person do we need to separate. It is sometimes wise to consider Ann Landers, the advice columnist. She asked us to consider, “Am I better off with or without him/her?” when we are in a troubled relationship. Usually we are better off with the individual. Shared history makes for a powerful bond. In this world it is so easy to close our hearts, but that is not the way of love.

14 – Jesus

Remember that Jesus took the long view in the New Testament. We don’t have to believe in a fundamental sense what he said to gain value from his denunciation of divorce. He was onto something.

15 – Marriage

I think it not a far stretch to see that Jesus’s characterization of our special relationships turned holy is a continuation of his primacy of marriage in the New Testament. In A Course in Miracles, we are encouraged to see our brother/sister as innocent; we are in fact told that this is the only way to forgive, totally, completely.

16 – Forgive-to-Destroy

We do not “forgive to destroy” (as A Song of Prayer describes), in that we continue to remember the misthought or the misdeed, remembering and “forgiving” because we are “better” than the other. This is the only forgiveness that this world can give. But we are outside this world when we truly forgive because we see the innocence in our brother/sister. We know that they are not attacking us out of perversion, but simply because, at the time, that is the best that they can do.

17 – Struggling Brothers/Sisters

Our hearts can go out to a struggling brother or sister. So many of those we encounter are struggling. It behooves us to practice our faith. To know that this too shall pass.

18 – To Be Saved

And to recognize that we are saved in our holy relationships, in our forgiveness of our significant others.

Dear Father/Mother,

May today I know the pure joy, peace, and limitless release that Jesus promises. May I know what these words really mean, and may I act on them throughout the day.

Thank you for being there for me always. I do not always sense your presence, and when I realize that I have drifted apart from You, may I get quiet on the inside and remember You are with me.

Amen.

Pure Joy / Limitless Release

“There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day.  It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace, a thought of limitless release, limitless because all things are freed within it.  (M-16.6)”

Affirmation:  “pure joy. . .limitless release”

Reflections:

1 – All Things Freed

This passage is one of my favorites, for it tells us exactly what attitude to bring to this world–even in the midst of this world’s sorrows.  The very words are uplifting–pure joy, limitless release.  And we learn that all things are freed within this attitude.  All things.

2 – Personal Experience

Is this a viable option for us in our daily lives?  I sometimes wonder, but mostly  I remember taking this passage to heart years ago, and returning to these glorious words–pure joy, limitless release–over and over.

3 – Imprisoned Will

We have lived with an imprisoned will (ACIM tenets), because we have given the ego the right to lord over us.  As soon as we get our priorities in order, and we turn our lives, mind and heart, over to the Holy Spirit, His guidance takes the place of the very dubious places that the ego has led us.  And the ego has led us to unhappiness, for that is what an egoistic attitude does.  We have flights of “joy,” but we are then plunged into despair.  We think, in an egotistical way, that we have done better than our brothers and sisters, and then along comes something that lets us realize that we are pretty lowly, miserable, and a failure.  This is the way of the world.  And sometimes, until we are brought very low, we do not question the validity of any of this.

4 – Helen and Bill

When we are brought very low, whether physically or emotionally, we are in most cases led to the same place that Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford (co-scribes of A Course in Miracles) were in the early sixties.  Bill said that there must be another way, rather than to be embroiled in political fights in an academic world.  And Helen spontaneously offered to help Bill find another way.  Shortly thereafter, she began having mystical experiences that frightened her very badly.  Then she heard, “This is a course in miracles.  Please take notes.”  And she did.

5 – Vahle

The story has been told and retold, but it bears repeating, for to my mind it is a place to which we are all drawn before we begin to live differently.  We do not have to take A Course in Miracles as our Way, for there are countless ways.  But to those of us who are drawn to ACIM, it is “our” way, and we would do well to listen to its tenets.  Students/teachers of ACIM have had their lives transformed, but not everybody does have this experience.  Bill did, Helen did not.  (See Vahle’s book review in this blog; look under “Articles and Book Reviews” at the top of the blog.)

5 – Affirm

So, just for today, experiment with saying the affirmation for the day over and over.  If we are lucky, and if we are faithful to the intent of the words, we will have a very good day indeed.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I do believe that today’s title for my posting is my favorite quotation from A Course in Miracles.  Certainly I have returned to these words countless times:  “pure joy. . .limitless release.”  They promise a freer life than sometimes I lead.  Give me that freer life today, please, I ask of You.

Be with all of my brothers and sisters as I go about my little world today.  May I spread some sunshine in my rounds.  And may I know that it is You Who is guiding me.

Thank You for the guidance of Your Universal Inspiration, the Holy Spirit.

Amen