Living in Unity

“In unity, all that you desired was participated in fully by a mind and heart combined in wholeheartedness.  You knew your Self to be the creator, and loved all that you created.  You did not desire and fear something at the same time, and your desires did not change from moment to moment.”  (A Course of Love, C:18.14)

We are now living eons past the time of “first” unity.  This first experience of unity cannot really be recaptured as a sense impression now, but it can be recaptured as we move farther along the pathway back to God.  We lived eons ago in wholeheartedness, knowing ourselves as a creator, a co-creator (if you will), of God Himself.  But because of something that couldn’t really happen, but did (the “tiny mad idea” that A Course in Miracles discusses), we fell from grace into an adolescent rebellion.  We weren’t patient enough to come into the fullness of our Being, our Self.  So we coalesced around a false persona, driven by an ego that we made ourselves, and we fell into deep despair as a result.

We can return to the unity that we have forgotten.  It takes patience and abundant willingness to capture what we have lost, but the recapture is God’s intention for us, and so he is right there helping us every step along the way.

Don’t get depressed that the way seems too long and tortuous.  It may be long, but the way is not tortuous at all.  Not with all the help that we are being given.  Our way back is assured—indeed, has always been assured, from the beginning.  God’s will only takes time in the working out, and time does not really exist, for we live in eternity.

Caught in Our Mind

“There are many in your world who would yet perceive spirituality as a way to get out of the place in which they find themselves, not understanding that they can be nowhere save than in their own mind.  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 20, Page 244)

We are caught in our mind. We can’t escape by any known means (though we can escape from our ego, if given enough motivation).

There are some frequent illusions in spiritual literature to trying to escape by moving house, going elsewhere in the world, or retreating to the quiet countryside. Most writers are making the point that these attempts to save ourselves simply don’t work, because we take our agitated mind with us.

The only way is to heal the mind, and that is not entirely up to our personal self. We need God’s help. And we may also know that Jesus’ healing touch is available to us as well.

When we open our heart, not our mind, to love, then miraculously our mind is healed as well. We don’t have to move to the countryside after all. We have the peace we have sought.

Divine Thought

“The mind was not created for the speculative exercise of thinking.  It was created to receive divine thought.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 10:III

Divine thought is our wisdom, our “inner wisdom,” received from God. When we are lost in speculation, we are likely to be processing thought in an analytical way; this won’t do at all. When we lighten up and let God speak to us, then we are onto something grand. His words solve problems at the moment of their arrival. His words give us comfort and peace. Our wisdom, which is divine thought, is giving us a better life.

A very important quotation, for it says that we have not been thinking well. When we open to divine thought, our heart joins the mind for true thought. We are much better off. And we know it immediately.

When we are caught up in our thinking, our speculative thinking, we are often in conflict. We are lost in our thinking. We need to clear our minds and let God speak to us.

Then the Divinity Who is ours takes over. And, once again, all is well.

Love Comes from Our True Heart

“Remember also that what is not love is nothing; therefore any feeling that is not love does not come from your true heart, just as any thought of fear does not come from your true mind.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 10:I

When we are living in a true mind and a true heart, we will adopt love in all our dealings–not only with our brothers and sisters but with ourselves. We will treat ourselves gently; we will turn aside from fear by knowing that we too are made of God’s Love. Love is the way in which He created us. Love is the way to walk in this world.

Being true to our nature is amazingly important. And here we discover that being true is being in love. With our brothers and sisters, with ourselves.

Love will descend upon us when we ask in all sincerity of thought and feeling, of mind and heart. When we ask God for His blessing, we are asking in His will, and He moves quickly to comfort us.

If disturbed in any way, go to God. If mixed up, tangled up, go to God. His healing power will set our psyche aright again. He may use other people in this endeavor, but the real healing comes from Him. Let Love do its work, and we will be blessed beyond description.

Our Memory Enters the Father’s House

[A]ll that you are in your humanity will be reunited seamlessly with the eternal reality of your holiness.  Your mind has already healed.  Already your heart has been restored to Heaven.  Today, on this day of Divine grace, your memory enters the Father’s house.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 9:II

In truth, we are all living in the Now, for time is an illusion that cannot circumvent eternity. This “present moment” thinking is reflected in the quotation for today. Past and future do not exist in the timeless Now. And this is why we can read in Choose Only Love that all of us have healed memories–today.

We learned from The Way of Mastery (also called The Christ-Mind Trilogy) that our subconscious mind must be healed to awake in Christ. As ideas from the subconscious flood our mind, and our heart responds, we are healed when we accept what is transpiring. We don’t have to “do” anything, but simply “be” in the eternity of Love that God bestows on us. This is what I think Choose Only Love is saying about our memories in the passage. As our memories are healed, we walk in the light of God’s great Love. We know, in a way that we did not know before, what we need to do for salvation. And Awakening is but a moment away.

Allow our healed minds to be informed by our hearts today. When memories are healed, we will walk forward with happiness every day. Our lackluster lives will take on new responsibilities that were hidden to us when we had “good” and “bad” days, never knowing what was wrong or how to fix it.

Let the light of Divinity shine on us today. Let us live with gratitude for all that the miracle of healed memories have given us.

Join in Love

“Beloved friends, peace be unto you always, and always I am with you.  I come to you not alone, but with many who have delighted in creating a resonance with me, and I with them, for no other reason than that power expands exponentially when  minds join in love from a foundation of wholeness and not neediness.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 13, Page 168)

Jesus comes to us in The Way of Mastery by way of Jayem, who channeled “live,” and these three books of The Way of Mastery are the result.  Often in these books, Jesus stresses that he comes with others who join forces to help us all.  He calls his particular group, a very large group, simply “the lineage.”   Their work has been going on for a long, long time; their work is what led up to Jesus’ life 2000 years ago.

When we join with others, our power too is expanded, as Jesus says, “exponentially,” when we are joined in love.  We don’t join with others strictly out of our need, for we will soon come to know that we are whole beings residing in God.  We don’t have to look to others out of this neediness.  We join others because we come to love them.

Right after this passage, Jesus asserts that he and Mary, who are bonded together, do not join because they “need” each other.  He and Mary are joined in love and the result of a common purpose—to save us.  And we might also realize that there are many of us on earth who share that common purpose—though being finite and in physical bodies, we don’t know all that will be known in the cosmic realm.

Join with others of like mind (and heart—as A Course of Love says), if there is love as the overarching feeling.  When we let love lead the way, our ratio of mistakes to truth changes drastically.  We let go of many of our old ways, and walk into a new world being created even as we speak.

God Knows Us

“To believe in a God incapable of experiencing that which comprises the vast range of human experience is to misunderstand.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 2:I

God does understand us, our strengths and our foibles.  As we are part of Him, He is living through us.  His strength informs our own.  And when we slip up, His greater knowledge is there to set everything aright again.

God therefore experiences right along with us.  But I believe that He, as the Infinite, knows the Whole, and our finite minds, even our finite hearts, cannot comprehend that Whole except by intuition, intuition as our pipeline to sensing God.  Our intuition is best experienced as a heartfelt understanding.  Our heart has not had the false value of an ego to lead it astray. 

Our mind, on the other hand, got distracted by the ego that we made up and believed in for so long.  Our highs and lows of egoic longings only served to distract us from real truth.  But now many of us are coming around.  We now know that deemphasizing egotistical and egoic values is the right way in which to live.  We do know better now.

God is not incapable of knowing what goes on with us.  He lives within each of us; He lives within the consciousness of all universe(s).  His Energy transforms us, when we give our assent to Its transforming of our emotions, our mind, our heart.

God does know.  He is a personal God Who answers personal prayers.  We hear Him in silence, but we hear Him surely.

Purpose

“In the depths of your heart is inscribed the purpose of your existence.  Knowledge of that purpose is what we call the wisdom of the heart, an essential part of yourself.  All carry it.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 7:III

May we all reach deep today, inside, listening to our heart, to discover the purpose for which we came to earth.  There is one overriding purpose, though I think there may be different aspects demonstrated over time. 

Help us to discern rightly.  Help us to align our thoughts, feelings, and actions with the will of God (which A Course in Miracles says is the same will that we possess).

If we listen to our heart, we will be well served.  Listening to our heart is the only way to live well.  And the heart functions in love, something we all need to do.

Living in Love

“[L]iving with fear was the reality of the contraction in which you lived.  Now we begin to live consciously without fear, joyfully recognizing that we are the resurrection and will live in love.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 2:III

The only two emotions, fear and love, are polar opposites to one another.  The degree to which we open to love is the degree to which the contraction of fear leaves us.  If we are feeling fear, ever, maybe we ought simply to stop, just stop, and ask ourselves in what way we are not being loving. 

This will make all the difference.  Love cancels out fear, always and forever.  It is true, however, that fear and anxieties may have such a toehold in us that we can’t, right away, focus on love.  First we need to relax.  Let the fear sweep over us, but do nothing about it.  It will come to a conclusion as we relax.  Open then to love and loving feelings.  Think of something or someone whom we truly love.  This shift in feeling will open the way to a tremendous surge, and in this surge, a surge of love, and Love (meaning God), we will be released enough to drop the fear from our mind and heart.

Experiment today, if you are in fear.  Let relaxation quell the emotion of anxiety, and then move serenely into the feeling of love.

Our day will brighten.  Our mind, through Christ, is very powerful: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”  Let the heart rule the mind in this instance of turning to love.

The heart already knows how to do this.

Peaceful Mind & Loving Heart

“Fear is unconsciousness; once you begin to accept that fear is unconsciousness of your true self, you will inevitably take the next step, which is to become aware that unconsciousness is simply the denial of something that you feel or have felt in your heart, or what you think or have thought in your mind.”  COL bk.2, 19:II

We feel with our heart; we think with our mind.  And both are necessary to good living.  Fear turns us aside from good living.  Here, in Choose Only Love, we see fear described as “unconsciousness.”  Certainly we are not in our right mind and not feeling blessed in our heart when we fear.  And so many of us have fears that just won’t leave us alone.

A friend gave me a lovely prayer that is apropos to this situation: “May I have peace in my mind and love in my heart.”  She recommended this maxim as a mantra to help in drifting off to sleep.  But it can be used anything that fear rears its ugly head.  We can’t get over all our fears just by wishing them away, but over time, when we walk back to God, fears diminish and eventually fade from view.

When we are truly ready to relinquish fear, the right reading will find its way into our library.  And we will know the right prayers to pray, the right form of communion to invite with our God.  When we live in the moment, conscious and aware of our being in this world, we invite fear to leave us.

Ask today for a lessening of fear.  When love takes over, fear always scurries away.

Harbor Only Thoughts of God

“Those who live in God do not harbor thoughts that are not of God.  This is essential for those who follow this path.”  COL bk.2, 15:III

How do we know what is “of God”?  We turn to our past, what we have learned of God.  And we learn that He is all Love.  So if any of our thoughts leave out love, then we are misguided.

It is not easy to turn aside from the negativity that is not God.  Our anger, hostility, resentments—all have to go as we walk along the path back to Him.  These inferior thoughts can be avoided if we listen to our heart, which is the beacon taking us to love.  Let the mind rest awhile in God’s peace, listening to what the heart is trying to say.  Let the heart speak to us.

Knowing that every aspect of our thoughts and feelings that are not of Love is not of God should help us move closer to Awakening/Christ-consciousness/enlightenment.  Give the soft answer if rebuffed.  Retreat within ourselves to heal wounds of speech and action.  Know that many in our circle struggle mightily; give them some slack.  And when giving slack, don’t leave out ourselves.  We need to forgive ourselves for our lapses into negativity. 

God is not through with us yet.

Clear Mind and Warm Heart

“Brother, sister . . . let me tell you that you are ready to heal fully.”  COL bk.2, 9:IV

The context of this quotation is that we have let the ego go and that we are merging with our Christ-Self.  If we have taken steps to eliminate fear and judgment, the two forbidden aspects of our thoughts that keep us back, then we are ready to heal—and to heal fully.  Healing is what is happening when we reach Christ-consciousness.  And healing is what happens when we have let neuroses go.

What a blessing this statement really is!  If we can be neurosis-free, then our minds will have learned from our hearts, and we will be walking a flower-strewn pathway.

Much of this philosophy of this post comes from A Course of Love, a received writing that came around the turn of this century.  We need to let our hearts, which have never doubted God, have full ascendancy over our minds, which are characterized by The Way of Mastery, as being “very stupid servants.”  While we may not agree that our minds are stupid, we certainly can know that we haven’t ever doubted God so much in our hearts.  It is only our minds that have given us problems, intellectual problems, about a God we cannot see.

But we can intuit God, and that is what I am asking you to do today.  Listen to the heart.  Know that it does not lie.  And the heart does not need the proofs of God’s existence that the mind seems to throw up while we are in the throes of the ego.

Be ready to heal fully, clear mind and warm heart, and accept this promise of full healing as our birthright.

Introducing Choose Only Love

Note:  I am now going to include, from time to time, passages and my reflections from the new series, Choose Only Love.  The work is being received by Sebastian Blaksley, who lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  The book is presented as a contribution by angels, archangels, Jesus, and Mary.

This is to be a seven-volume series, two volumes of which have now been published.  The publisher is Take Heart Publications.  Available on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com in print and e-book.

Reading the passages slowly and meditatively, part of a devotional, seems to me to be best.

–Love, Celia

—

Little by Little, Let Love Fill Our Being

“Calm your minds.  Calm your hearts.  Close your eyes for a moment.  Stay with me, your Heavenly Mother.  Together let us repose in peace, united in the stillness of Christ.  Give me your imagination, your memory, your will, your all.  Leave everything aside.  Feel how your heart widens when receiving the love of God.  Little by little, let love fill your being and overflow completely, extending to all creation.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 7:IV)

We have in this section of Choose Only Love a contribution from Mary, mother of Jesus.  This passage, like all from her, are soothing in the extreme.  We see the influence of A Course of Love, in that we are encouraged to calm both mind and heart, a dual reminder of the emphasis placed on both mind and heart (“wholeheartedness”) in ACOL. 

Love is at the center of this passage, something that we will see throughout this Volume 2, fittingly entitled, “Let Yourself Be Loved.”  I feel reassured here, for the onus is not placed on us as a command:  to love.  We do not extend Love until we have been assured that we are loved by God.  If we try to move from an unstable core, the ego, we will quickly find that nothing we do will have enough love in it.  It is true that giving and receiving are one, but we love because “He first loved us,” as the Bible says.

Little by little, we read, we fill our being to overflowing with love.  When we have done this, drawing from the celestial realm, we will know a peace and happiness that has eluded us until now.

Mind = Servant of the Awakened Heart

“Those roots of fear must be dissolved at a level that is deeper than the conscious thinking mind can reach.  The mind was never designed to be your master, but to become aligned as a servant of the awakened heart, just like the flower blooms and sends forth its scent for all to see from the depth of the soil that is unseen, but has been well prepared.  So that the only roots that gather nourishment from the soil are the roots of that which speaks of Life and beauty, not that which speaks of fear and unworthiness.”  (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 12, Page 144)

We want the roots of our mind to be well-protected, nourishing new growth in our mind that will serve Love well.  The garden is an apt metaphor for this process.  Our subconscious mind has become polluted by weeds, and it behooves us to do something about this.

Jesus also speaks of Life and beauty, because these blessings will descend when we are truly loving and have cleansed our mind of pollutants.  What are the pollutants?  Hatred, attack, anger, discontent—all of these, plus many others that are hostile to the mind.  These hostile attitudes need to go, and go they will when we turn to love.  And Love with a capital “L,” Who is God Himself.

When we have been anxious and in fear for a long time, it may seem daunting to cleanse our mind of such pollutants.  If we ever want to reach Christ-consciousness, though cleansing the mind of fear and judgment is necessary.  And enlightenment or Christ-consciousness or Awakening—all meaning the same—is the goal of The Way of Mastery.  Jesus wants a genuine Awakening for all people everywhere, something that has never been done before.  But he is trying, and trying mightily, to get through to us, in channeled writings in addition to speaking to our hearts about what we really need to do.

Jesus has companions who work with him; he calls it the “lineage.”  These are entities who have long walked with God, loving and doing good in the world.  Many have now “graduated” from this plane, and return only to help us who are still caught in this world.

Ask today what might be done to rid the mind of weeds that have become an infestation.

Ask today to be shown how to love.

Quiet Mind

“I know that this sounds simplistic for you, but the way is easy and without effort.  Complexity is born of the world, and not from the Mind of God.  Therefore, continue well in that practice, and allow it to be the foundation from which the soil is prepared—the roots of fear are loosened—even in ways that you cannot comprehend with the thinking mind.  For the roots of fear are not merely ideas.  They are the effects of ideas.  They have been allowed to penetrate deep into the unconscious.”  (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 12, Page 143)

The Way of Mastery speaks often of how polluted our unconscious mind has become.  Our unconscious mind cries how for healing, and healing is on its way as soon as we make a nod in that direction.

We don’t have to “do” anything.  Doing will make for a busy mind, which is the reverse of what we seek.  The enlightened mind is quiet, thoughts slow down.  If we are to be comfortable with this new state of affairs, we need to begin somewhere.  We need to prepare the garden of our mind to welcome quietness.  In fact, A Course in Miracles says that a perfectly calm and quiet mind is where we are all heading.  Perhaps we don’t want that now, but that is because too much busyness has clouded our minds from what is the real good.

A friend once questioned “perfectly calm and quiet.”  She was quite a busy person, in work and in personal life.  She was so used to rushing around that we thought boredom would be her lot in life if she slowed down.

A quiet mind does take some getting used to.  But its advantages are many, and as we open to this healing, we will wonder why we used to run hither and yon all day long.  We will think that this rushing is an insane way to live.  And indeed it is.

Give calm and quiet a chance.  Let go of the stress that rushing about engenders.  Be willing to know that there is a better way to live.

Passionately Embrace Love

“The Way of the Heart has been designed to bypass the cognitive or thinking mind, and to strike at the roots of fear that abide in the depth of the mind in a place that is, by and large, unconscious.  All that we do seeks to dissolve that root from the depth of your being.”  (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 12, Page 142)

Our minds get us into trouble.  Our intellect, that intellect that we have often prized, is a handicap as we seek God.  Our intellect depends upon perception, which is an illusory way of viewing the outer world.  It is our heart that will save us, a concept that A Course of Love makes clear.

Uproot fear, reach for the root of it, and then be done with it.  Turn aside firmly, and passionately embrace love.  Love is the realm of the heart.  All that is not love is fear in some form.  And we need to find a way to remove ourselves from the fear.

Our thinking mind has often done us in, though we were taught to be proud of what we “knew” when we were going to school.  This was not true knowledge, which comes unbidden, intuitively.  What we had in school was a perception of ideas, and perception is fraught with illusion.

We need to let the unconscious rise to the surface, and to do this, we need quiet.  We need to spend time in our quiet corner each and every day.  If this is meditation, so be it.  The silence of quiet will heal.  And if the mind is busy, the unconscious won’t rise to the surface, where those thoughts can be healed.

Be patient, for we have many, many years of pushing down into the unconscious those things that disturbed us.  Fears, all.  Be assured that we will have help as we do our quiet part of releasing fears in the unconscious.  Don’t let the rising up be a disturbance.  The rising up is necessary for healing to take place.

Invite the Warmth of God’s Closeness

The holy relationship has been accomplished by the joining of the mind and heart in unity. (ACOL, T3:15.10)

The first and most important relationship is with the Self–the inner Christ-Self–and God Himself (called the Self in Its largest dimensions). When this relationship is formed anew and aright, it changes everything. Our heart and mind are melded into one, and this one is the same One with Whom we are merged in the Godhead Himself/Herself. With this joining of heart and mind, we are primed to have all good things to come to us. We are, at last, on the right track, “separate” from God no longer, even in illusion. And we are not in illusion any longer, but the supreme reality, true reality, a reality that does not fade with each passing day.

When mind and heart are joined, I feel a warmth that is not of this world. I once was accosted at night by a stranger who did not mean me well. Just before he touched me, I felt a Warmth that gave me a tremendous sense of safety and God-given care. And this sense carried me through the experience without any trauma. I ran and I screamed, and he fled. My voice and God’s grace had saved me. In that moment, with the warm feeling, I was in unity of mind and heart with that warmth, though this was years before A Course of Love was channeled. I only knew that God had been very, very close to me in that moment.

How do we invite the melding of heart and mind? We get quiet, we invite warmth, we invite God. If we open ourselves to God’s grace, He will descend upon us, prompting us to join mind and heart into a Unity that will solve all problems, release all neuroses, give us a new lease on life.

Be quiet today, just for a moment. A moment is all that it takes to allow God to speak to us in the Unity in which He abides.

We Are of One Mind with God

“Creation and communication are synonymous. God created every mind by communicating His Mind to it, thus establishing it forever as a channel for the reception of His Mind and will. Since only beings of a like order can truly communicate, His creations naturally communicate with Him and communicate like Him. This communication is perfectly abstract, in that its quality is universal in application and not subject to any judgment, any exception, or any alteration. God created you by this and for this. The mind can distort its functions, but it cannot endow itself with those it was not given. That is why the mind cannot totally lose the ability to communicate, even though it may refuse to utilize it on behalf of being.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-X.5:1- 8)

We are created of “God-stuff.” This is the basic message of this passage. We are beings in communication with each other and with God. We never lose this ability to communicate, however deep into egoic darkness we have traveled.

We are meant to communicate. We were never meant to attempt independence from our brothers and sisters, nor independence from God. Moreover, we cannot be happy in such a scenario. Our mutual joining with others prepares us to live a full and glorious life. Isolation from others keeps us in defeat.

We can open to fuller communication by looking to others with love. When we look to others with fearful thoughts, we will always find reason to be threatened by these others. Then the dialogue breaks down. The fact that others may be on edge, frustrated, or otherwise unavailable to us, is not germane to our communication.

Communication, in love, can also be silent.

Ask for a Balanced Mind

“It would be very intelligent of you to set yourself the goal of really studying for this course. There can be no doubt of the wisdom of this decision, for any student who wants to pass it. But, knowing your individual weaknesses as a learner and being a teacher with some experience, I must remind you that learning and wanting to learn are inseparable. All learners learn best when they believe what they are trying to learn is of value to them. But values in this world are hierarchical, and not everything you may want to learn has lasting value. Indeed, many of the things you want to learn are chosen because their value will not last. The ego thinks it is an advantage not to commit itself to anything that is eternal, because the eternal must come from God.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-4.VII.10:1-7)

The ego is afraid of God, that is the insanity of it. Our mind, taken over by the ego, believes that it will be punished for imagining itself separate from its Maker, Whom it knows to be all-powerful.

If we can open our mind ever so slightly, and realize, even if we don’t feel it, that God is not vindictive, then we will have a reason to trust Him. If we can just entertain the possibility, indeed the certainty, that we have let our mind go insane, and that now we are attempting to retrieve sanity, then we will have motivation to learn A Course in Miracles. Motivation is all that it takes. Jesus can work with a reluctant learner, but he can do nothing for one who refuses the innate inclination to listen to reason. He doesn’t go against our free well. We can refuse to listen, refuse to learn—but who would when suffering and pain, in our egoic state of mind, have been so devastating.

The suffering and pain were inevitable, and these are no cause to blame God. Suffering/pain are a cause-and-effect relationship. Given our strange thinking, we need a Power from beyond us to set all things aright. Without that, the deleterious effects continue. And surely we don’t want that.

Ask for a balanced mind. This mind will welcome guidance. This mind, as prompted by the heart, will take us, finally, back Home.

Way Out of Fear

“Whenever you are afraid, it is a sure sign that you have allowed your mind to miscreate; that is, you have not allowed me to guide it. It is pointless to believe that controlling the outcome of misthought can result in real healing. When you are fearful, you have willed wrongly. This is why you feel you are responsible for it. You must change your mind, not your behavior, and this is a matter of will. You do not need guidance except at the mind level. Correction belongs only at the level where causation is possible. The term does not really mean anything at the symptom level, where it cannot work.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.IX.4:1-8)

Jesus knows that we have not given up fear, that we still have misthought, and we feel the results, in pain often. He emphasizes that a change of mind is far more important, and pivotal, than a change in behavior. A change in behavior will happen when we have changed our mind, then and only then.

He wants us to correct our thinking, and then we will see an improvement in our behavior. It seems that he is not so much concerned with the outcome of misthought as he is with the problem of the mind itself. He wants us to think aright.

A Course of Love, channeled later, emphasizes that we change our mind when we listen to our heart—a heart that has always known what to think, say, and do. Our heart does not need any teaching, but our mind, so long egoic, has still patterns of the ego lingering. And so we need a sounder basis for making decisions, and that sounder basis is our heart.

Everyone knows what the heart means without a tedious telling. Our heart will inform our mind, which will inform our behavior. Then we will really be healed.

When We Unite Mind and Heart, We Unite with the Self

“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 resurrec¬tion or rebirth. All are capable of this life-giving union. All are capable of birthing the Self.” (ACOL, T1:9.7)

This passage for today is a summation of what has gone earlier (and will be expanded upon as we read farther on). First, we unite mind and heart, and when we do that, we have united with the Self Who is deep within us, a part of God Himself. What has actually happened in a resurrection or rebirth of this Self, a Self Who has been cloaked by the egoic, false, self for eons.

And this miracle is not limited in any way. All of us can—and will—have this union eventually. Our part, if we want this union now, a union that is Christ-consciousness, is to remove the blocks to love’s emergence. It is love that emerges, in full form. Our own form becomes “elevated,” in that we are living the truth in a way that has not been possible heretofore, because the ego has held sway over us.

All of us can birth this Self. As A Course in Miracles says, God Himself reaches down and lifts us up—when we are ready. And so asking for this miracle is in His Will. We don’t have to ever be shy about asking. It is the way of creations created by a Creator. It is the way that life is meant to be lived.
“Ask and ye shall receive,” as the New Testament tells us.

The passage for today can be memorized to good effect. It gives us the gist of much that Jesus is telling us in the totality of A Course of Love.

Prayer

I would seek to realize the union of mind and heart, the union that I have been wanting with my deepest Self. When I am deep within myself, I can feel Your warmth, and this warmth is a great blessing, a great blessing indeed. Thank You.

I would feel Your warmth when I am out and about in the world, not just when I am quiet and focused inwardly. I thank You for this assurance that You are always with me, that You love me unconditionally. Help me to love the people in my life unconditionally as well. We all are starved for love. May each of us give it as best we can, leaning on You and our Self for guidance as to how to do that.

Amen.

Rest for a Tired Mind

“The mechanics of your over-worked and over-stimulated mind were what you were asked to leave behind as this act of leaving behind was the only means by which you could allow your mind to be restful enough for it to even contemplate union or the new learning required in order to facilitate your return to union. Your return to union is your return to love and it is accessed at the center or heart of your Self. Your mind was in need of silencing in order for you to hear the wisdom of your heart and begin your return. Now, in order to complete your return, mind and heart must work as one.” (ACOL, T1:1.7)

Most of us have long sensed that we have been working too hard; in Jesus’s words, we have an “over-worked” and “over-stimulated” mind. Isn’t it a great blessing that we give our minds a rest now?

In peace we can contemplate the heartfelt counsel that Jesus gives in A Course of Love. If the mind is restful, it can contemplate union, the union of mind with heart that becomes the oft-touted (in ACOL) “wholeheartedness.” We are going into new learning, at least for a time, the time that we study the Treatises. We are returning to love, and surely this will be welcomed by all of us.

Many of us have long prized our intellect, but we surely have recognized that intellect can take us only so far. And if it has been an egoic leaning, a prideful thing, then we need to leave that prizing behind. Ultimately, we realize that the fact that one person has a higher IQ than another means nothing. We are not our IQ. We come much closer to being our heart, and in the teaching of the heart, union, which is what we need to be, will blossom.

Union is at this point a composite of mind and heart into wholeheartedness. Later on, we will see union in ACOL as the joining of the Self with the All, a blessing that is Christ-consciousness or Awakening. None of us need to wait long for this change, if we live in peace and harmony, if we don’t judge, attack, or make plans against uncertain contingencies to come.

Union is what we are about today. And the art of thought, which we will learn in this treatise, will take us up to the door. All we need to do is knock, and the door will be opened.

Dear Father/Mother,

I would live in peace today, not struggling with my intellect to make progress in this world. I am not about striving today. I know that my own striving actually avails nothing.

May I have Your help to be at peace? May I have Your help to find my way safely and in good grace, today?

Thank You.

Amen.

Remembrance Sets Us Free

“What you gain in truth is never lost or forgotten again, because it returns remembrance to your mind. What your mind remembers cannot not be shared.” (ACOL, C:31.24)

This passage gives an puzzling truth: How can we not forget again? We have to realize that what Jesus is talking about is a remembrance of ultimate things, of God and the universe. Of Christ-consciousness. And once this knowledge is truly gained, there is no turning back to forgetfulness.

And we will share these truths, for “What the mind remembers cannot not be shared.” We will want to share what we have learned. We would not feel whole unless we shared it.

Isn’t it good to realize that remembrance of ultimate things is returning to us? That the long, sad separation from God is coming to an end? Those of us who have been grateful for our good minds will especially invite the truth that we will remember even better in the future: Remembrance will return our minds to ourselves, allowing the illusory ego no say in the matter. This is really what remembrance means: No ego, and so the mind is once again free.

Jesus says a great deal about truth in A Course of Love. Truth may mean many different things to different people, but certainly here Jesus is speaking of God and His wisdom, the wisdom that He will share with us, and we in turn will share our interpretations with others. This truth does not go away; it is permanent. If we lapse, the knowledge comes back, and so when we gain in truth always. We certainly do not lose this knowledge, nor do we forget it. Our ways become the ways of God, and He leads us surely down the pathways of truth.

Dear Father/Mother,

I would know the truth that will set me free. I would know this truth today. I would not remember, and then lapse into forgetfulness; I would hold steady. Help me to do so.

Truth is a great benefit to the struggling individual. If we ask for the truth, it is given us, for You would leave no one out. With Your truth beckoning to our mind, we need worry no more. The things that we need to know will come to us; this is the remembrance, and I thank You for it.

Amen.

Turn Aside from the Mind to the Heart

“What is learned by the mind only rearranges reality. The mind then holds to the new reality as a new set of rules without change. It sees reality through these new mental constructs and calls this way of seeing new. In order to support its new reality it must insist that others follow these new rules.” (ACOL, 1.2)

We must understand that A Course of Love downplays the mind, in large part, I think, due to the fact that the mind has previously been ego-oriented. ACOL emphasizes the heart, which doesn’t get changed by the egoic mind, and which often gives us the solace that the mind cannot. We do learn, as we get deeper in A Course of Love, that the mind and heart need to combine into a state termed “wholeheartedness,” because we cannot function without the mind and heart working together. Our mind is now pretty much free of the ego, if we have been faithfully reading and taking to heart the instructions in ACOL.

Thus we learn at the beginning of ACOL that the mind is dealing in constructs that mislead. We also want others to follow the rules that our mind has laid down.

Quickly we can realize that this won’t work, not long and not well. What are we to do, but deemphasize the mind as we move farther into A Course of Love?

“All the mind can do is rearrange reality and hold it still and captive and rule bound.” (ACOL 1.5)

This is what the mind does to reality. Is this anything that we would want?

—

“The mind will attempt to understand with its own logic and fight the logic of the heart. The mind will see new rules and perhaps be willing to rearrange its reality once again.

“The mind is its own reality. You cannot escape the mind’s reality with the mind. You cannot learn how to escape the reality of the mind with the mind’s pattern of learning or of logic. You cannot live in a new and fresh world and retain the mind’s reality.” (ACOL, 1.8 – 1.9)

These quotations do not say so, but the way to turn aside from the mind’s view of reality is to trust the heart’s prompting. We have to get outside the mind to see what it is really doing. It won’t destroy its own constructs about reality. We don’t want to destroy anything, because violence makes what we would eliminate. We simply gently turn aside, basking in the warmth of the heart’s inner knowing.

And by so doing does our little world come around alright again.

Our Mind is One with God

“Your mind is not contained within your body but is one with God and shared equally with all alike. This is reality.” (ACOL, C:6.2)

This concept, that our mind is not contained within our body, is part of the theology of A Course of Love. We don’t have to understand the concept fully to entertain that what Jesus says just may be true. If our mind is part of Mind, the Whole, the All of God, then we are not limited to a finite, physical form that we call the “body.” The body is the home of the ego, but we are no longer ego; we have left that concept in the dust behind us as we walked into the sunlight with God. We are the Self that is joined, is One, with God.

The mind thus becomes a much larger concept than we have known previously. We are not fooled any longer by illusory form. Our mind will survive our body (this another implication of what this quotation says).

The mind that is One with God is not meant to be weak and frail. It is only the body that can ever appear weak and frail, and these characteristics of physical form are finite. They do not survive the grave. This in itself is comforting, for we can know that our mind will live on. We may not be certain of what overcomes death, but we can be certain that it will be good.

God makes the good on this earth as well. When we know that we are mind rather than body, our health does not so much concern us. We no longer believe the lies of the ego, which would say that we are bound by the body. We are independent of body, and, as mind, we are joined with each other—no longer a separate, finite, spot of illusion that knows not where to go or what to do.

HEALING IN A COURSE IN MIRACLES: A Review of Ken Wapnick’s Healing the Unhealed Mind

Published in Miracles magazine, March – April 2015

Review by Celia Hales

Ken Wapnick considers in Healing the Unhealed Mind the one chapter of A Course in Miracles that is unlike ACIM’s usual focus on forgiveness. He considers Chapter 9 in the Text, the theme of mind and body, basing this book on his 2009 seminar entitled “The Unhealed Healer.” He makes the point that this chapter in the Text goes to the heart of the entire Course.

Repeatedly throughout Healing the Unhealed Mind, Ken asserts that A Course in Miracles is about the mind, not the body. He contrasts this focus with the New Testament, which he says is about the body. He asserts that what has to be healed is the mind’s belief in the ego, not the ego per se.

In Healing the Unhealed Healer, Ken asserts as a main focus that we need to feel peace as we seek to help others. If we feel anything but peace, we have made a bodily identification, and we are just as sick as the person we are seeking to help. We must simply let healing be, and learning to do that is how we are healed. Here is a cogent summary of what Ken’s book emphasizes:

“The process of healing our minds consists of asking for help to choose to undo the ego: our belief in anger, guilt, anxiety, depression, loss, triumph; the belief that using other people to satisfy our own needs is good.” (Page 89)
Those of us who have read Ken know that he writes on two levels when he interprets A Course in Miracles, a level of taking literally what Jesus said (believing him to be the one who channeled the Course); and a level in which he views what Jesus says metaphorically (meaning not taking literally the specific words).

Ken does not make the mistake of fundamentalism, but we must read him carefully in deciding if we agree with his interpretations of what is metaphor and what is literal. He is the most recognized scholar for the Course (though there are other scholars, too, to whom we listen, especially now that Ken has made his transition from this world). Ken writes as one who has a great familiarity with Jesus. This humanizes this particular book and at the same time lets us know that he did enjoy a distinct relationship to Jesus, especially when he and Helen were working together on editing the Course, that is unique. This fact in itself gives great authority to what Ken says.

There is a course for every teacher of God, as the Manual of ACIM says (M-1.3:1), and in Healing the Unhealed Mind, we find one excellent example of Ken’s course. His extensive body of work is a truly one-of-a-kind contribution to our own study of A Course in Miracles.

The Altar in Our Minds Is the Only Reality

“To be in the Kingdom is merely to focus your full attention on it. As long as you believe you can attend to what is not true, you are accepting conflict as your choice. Is it really a choice? It seems to be, but seeming and reality are hardly the same. You who are the Kingdom are not concerned with seeming. Reality is yours because you are reality. This is how having and being are ultimately reconciled, not in the Kingdom, but in your mind. The altar there is the only reality.” (ACIM, T-7.III.4)

The altar in our minds is the true reality. We are not concerned any longer with “seeming” to know reality; we do know reality. We both have and we are—what we are being is consistent with our having the Kingdom of God.

This is deep understanding, and it is hard to recognize on first reading. When we wish to be in the Kingdom, we can focus our full attention upon it, and when we do that, we are no longer “seeming” to know reality, but we are truly knowing reality. Attention, mindfulness, is a way home, a way to salvation, and, ultimately, a way to Awakening, or enlightenment.

What we are in our essence, in the inner altar of our minds, is reality. Nothing else really exists. There is no world, according to Jesus in A Course in Miracles. It is purely and simply illusion, projected from our minds outward in a world, as well, of illusory bodies. Of course, everything seems solid, but that is simply part of the illusion. Projection makes perception, as Jesus also says.

Many of us do not accept that the world is not real. But if we come to see that it is, we are immediately freed from its effects. We realize that there is nothing in an illusion that can ultimately hurt us, and so we stop being defensive.

Jesus also encourages us to avoid defense, saying that it makes what we are trying to avoid.

So there is nothing in this world that can hurt us in any real sense. We see blood in the illusion, but it is not unlike catsup in a movie. We are never ultimately harmed. The only real thing is the state of our mind and heart, the inner altar that is also the home of God.

Mind and Heart Can Heal Just as the Body Can

“Atonement, or correction, is not of you but of God. You might think of this in terms of nature and look upon nature’s ability to correct itself. You are a part of nature. Your body can correct or heal itself, and so can your mind and heart. . .if they are allowed to do so.” (T3:14.12)

We can heal much as nature heals. This is a new idea from A Course of Love, not given in A Course in Miracles. But, like, ACIM, this message from A Course of Love emphasizes that atonement, correction, is of God. In a sense, we have to get ourselves out of the way. We have to let God do His work in us.

We already know that our physical body can heal itself. Here we learn that our mind and heart can heal as well. And we get out of ourselves, and into God, and then the healing occurs.

We will not have to wait long. One good thing about both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love is that Jesus never tells us that we have to wait to experience blessings from God. Even if the healing of the separation will take millions of years (which he says in ACIM), still they can be happy years for us, living the elevated Self of form, and ministering to others who are coming to know what we have come to know.

The future looks bright for us. Once begun, the ending is sure. We will experience atonement, and we will experience Christ-consciousness, and we only need a small willingness to walk into those experiences.

Let us give the Self that small willingness today.

Mind Returns to Full Creation when Atonement Is Accepted

“Your mind does make your future, and it will turn it back to full creation at any minute if it accepts the Atonement first. It will also return to full creation the instant it has done so. Having given up its disordered thought, the proper ordering of thought becomes quite apparent. (T-5.V.8)”

This quotation is, I think, very important to the theology of A Course in Miracles, and it may be easily overlooked. We do “make” our future by projecting from within, but our better nature, once we accept Atonement, is to “create” our future in the real world, the one that isn’t all illusion. This real world comes into being as we approach Awakening.

Our minds have had disordered thought, in that our thought has really been insane. All of us are afflicted with insanity to one degree or another. The insanity starts leaving as we follow along the pathway to return home to God. But not by death. We return home to God by fulfilling the purposes for which He created us. We fulfill the function of salvation, forgiveness, happiness—for all of these are actually one.

Our minds will work right to create a new future when we have given up our insane desire to control reality (as we perceive it). We do not at first perceive true reality, but illusions. And it is these that we give up as we follow the pathway of Atonement.

The Disjoining of Mind and Heart / The Rejoining into Wholeheartedness

“The separated state was nothing more than the disjoining of heart and mind, a state in which mind attempted to know without the relationship of the heart and so merely perceived its own creations rather than the creations birthed in unity. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 2.26)”

1 – Wholeheartedness

This passage alludes to the joining of mind and heart into “wholeheartedness” that the first volume of A Course of Love makes so beautifully clear. We are meant to live in wholeheartedness. In fact, we see that A Course of Love is to the heart what A Course in Miracles was to the mind. Now we have both joined–wholeheartedness.

2 – Separation

We are now ready to leave separation behind, separation from God and separation from our brothers and sisters. We are ready to leave a separated self behind also, to have an elevated Self of form that is wholehearted. Mind and heart are once more joined in unity. And in this state we are able to understand, once again, what it means to be in relationship to all that surrounds us, especially our brothers and sisters.

3 – A Fortunate Fall

We have long lamented the separation from God. But ACOL indicates that this separation was part of the plan. In A Course in Miracles, we learn that this separation happened when a tiny, mad idea crept into the mind of God’s Son. There was nothing to do but to find a plan that could not be subverted, and this plan ultimately culminated in the plan of forgiveness for each other and ourselves. Our egos wanted to call our mistakes “sins,” but to call these mistakes by such a term did tend to make them attractive to us on a continual basis (an ACIM tenet). When we have a mistake, we naturally want to correct it. We have changed its status from a sin to a mistake, and we respond accordingly. ACOL makes the same pronouncement, in slightly different words. Elsewhere we learn that we can turn aside from the things in our personalities that we dislike; we are not bound to keep these lamentable traits. But we are ready to accept Christ in Christ-consciousness, despite what we may still view as flaws. ACIM says that Jesus stands at the end of the journey to undo mistakes that we have not been able to undo. These twin ideas in ACIM and ACOL thus meld into one.

4 – Elevated Self of Form

If we come to understand these concepts, we will be well on our way to the elevated Self of form. We must not let theology delay us; if anything in this interpretation does not resonate with you, then just turn aside from it. A universal experience is mandatory, a universal theology impossible. Why? We see things from different perspectives because our personalities differ. What one may need by way of his/her religion is different from another. Many of us need a personal God, and some find this personal God in the Holy Spirit. A Course in Love, though, says that today the era of the Holy Spirit is over, that we are to learn through the Christ inside of us. This Christ is a part of God Himself, as ACOL teaches. We are a part of God, and so we think with His Mind (an ACIM tenet). We may also come to realize that we feel with God’s heart, in the manner of A Course of Love’s “wholeheartedness,” and this will indeed make our pathway much smoother.

5 – Theology

Don’t let theology delay you, especially if differing interpretations of God’s Word are causing you conflict. Conflict is of the ego, not of either the Holy Spirit or the inner Christ, and certainly not of God Himself. If we are experiencing conflict, we have let the ego intrude once again in our lives, and the results of allowing that mistake could be deplorable.

6 – Come Home

Come home to God today. Never let interpretations lead you to cut back on your moments of solitude with God.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Be with me today as I try to meld my heart and mind into wholeheartedness. Thank You for being with me in the difficult moments. Life is not always smooth, but You are there for me always.

May I turn aside from my mistakes, and may I let Your grace repair my wrongdoings. It is with joy that I look forward to this day.

I find that reading interpretations of Jesus’s words sometimes confuses me. I would not have it so. I would go to his words directly, and interact with those words in as elemental a fashion as possible. Help me to do so. Help me to listen to what You are saying to me about Jesus’s words. Be with me today as I seek to have a good day in Your grace.

Amen.

Perception Can Make Whatever Picture the Mind Desires to See

1 – Justice

“Neither justice nor injustice exists in Heaven, for error is impossible and correction meaningless. In this world, however, forgiveness depends on justice, since all attack can only be unjust. Justice is the Holy Spirit’s verdict upon the world. (M49)”

2 – Heaven

What a wonderful place that Heaven will be! Error impossible! And, of course, we are told that we can enjoy Heaven on earth. Of course, too, if we get enamored of believing that we can make no mistakes, we will be deluded big time.

3 – Holy Spirit

We don’t render justice at all. We turn over justice to the Holy Spirit, who knows all circumstances. We don’t let judgment of ourselves interfere, either. If we judge, we are sure to judge wrongly, and so we let guidance show us the way.

4 – Attack

Attack is unjust, because our brother is actually innocent, even though he/she does things or says thing that hurt. He/she is doing the best possible, given the world view subscribed to. We are living a dream that we ourselves have devised; the Self has devised it. And nothing happens to us that our Self has not approved.

5 – The Path

“The path become quite different as one goes along. Nor could all the magnificence, the grandeur of the scene and the enormous opening vistas that rise to meet one as the journey continues, be foretold from the outset. (M49)”

6 – Personal Experience

Things normally get better as we go along. My immediate supervisor, years ago, asked me one day, in a fit of pique on her part, “Do you live a charmed life?” I think she had recognized that I had far fewer grievances than she herself did, and she may also have noticed how many blessings I did enjoy. Of course, salvation is not always linear, not always a straight line. Once I got away from A Course in Miracles, and my little world started crashing down around me. At this point I didn’t much believe that I lived a “charmed life.” But when I returned to my lodestone, ACIM, life smoothed out once again. I was projecting a better dream, and so once again I knew the “happy dreams that the Holy Spirit brings (from the ACIM Workbook).”

7 – Grandeur

We cannot know when we first start out on the spiritual pathway all that the future holds of grandeur. This grandeur is different from the grandiose fantasies of the ego, and this grandeur does not hold the pain that the ego always dips into. Things will get better. We just have to surrender to our own egoistic desires, make a pact with the Holy Spirit (Who is always there for us), and follow the guidance that comes. We will not be abandoned; we will know real peace for the first time.

8 – Concepts

“All concepts of your brothers and yourself; all fears of future states and all concerns about the past, stem from injustice. Here is the lens which, held before the body’s eyes, distorts perception and brings witness of the distorted world back to the mind that made the lens and holds it very dear. (M49)”

9 – Persona

When we imagine our brothers, we create a perceived persona for them that is not true; this is the “concept” that this passage explains. Likewise, when we fear for the future, for growing older and sinking into illness, we walk ahead of the Holy Spirit. He tries to meet us in the present, always the present, and when we are projecting ahead, we are endangering our good sense, our good dreams.

10 – Projection Makes Perception

When we project a distorted dream from our minds, we are playing with fire, for the projection may seem very disturbing indeed. Try, just today, to live a few minutes in the present—not worrying about what the future may bring. Of course, we all know that the only moment that we can live in IS the present, but we find it very difficult not to look back and not to look ahead. The past and the future are mirages that are not there. Only live in the present, planning as little as possible. If there are plans to be made, the guidance that we get will prompt us what and when to do. We do not have to fear that our lives will fall apart if we live in the present. It is actually the most powerful point available to us; we will be more available for any future problems because we will be “present” to them.

11 – God’s Justice

“Pray for God’s justice, and do not confuse His mercy with your own insanity. Perception can make whatever picture the mind desires to see. Remember this. In this lies either Heaven or hell, as you elect. (M50)”

12 – Heaven or Hell

It is a tenet of the Course that projection makes perception. This may be difficult to understand, but this passage clarifies the issue: “Perception can make whatever picture the mind desires to see.” Jesus declares that in this lies Heaven or hell, as we elect.

13 – Our Life Situation

This understanding puts our life situation back in our own hands. It is how we see the world, how we interpret it, that determines how we will experience it. Our own insanity has made of this world a hell, and we surely do not wish to stay in this perception.

14 – Judging

We are told elsewhere that it is not up to us to judge our brother or sister. God’s justice is wholly that they are innocent people, as are we, people who are doing the best that they can, given the understanding that they have at any given moment. Our understanding can help them to follow God’s way.

15 – Impartial

“God’s justice points to Heaven just because it is entirely impartial. . .Here all attack and condemnation becomes meaningless and indefensible. Perception rests, the mind is still, and light returns again. Vision is now restored. What had been lost has now been found. The peace of God descends on all the world, and we can see. And we can see! (M50)”

16 – Innocent Children

God’s justice is that we are all innocent children of His. He leaves out nobody, throwing the mantle of His care around us all. We know when we experience His Presence that attack and condemnation are ridiculous choices, and if we are very present, we let those choices fall away. When attack and condemnation fall away, we are happy again. It is just that simple.

17 – Our Vision

Our vision is out there waiting for us. Vision, as described in A Course in Miracles, is not the sight of the physical eyes. It is akin to understanding, to accurate perception, to perception verging into knowledge given us by the Holy Spirit. We can see! Our problems just drop away when seen in this light. We can, if we are lucky, have a moment of enlightenment, a satori, and experience God’s love in a way that is new to us. Our vision, restored, helps us walk along a smoother pathway. If we are grateful sufficiently, we have thanked God all that He wants. He, after all, does not need our gratitude; we do. He needs our communication with Him, though, for He recognizes that we sleep and need to be awakened. He recognizes that His channels of communication are closed. We are told also in ACIM that He is lonely when the minds that He created do not communicate with Him. If this seems like anthropomorphism, then perhaps this is OK. God is a very real Presence, and when we are lucky, when we have fulfilled the requirements, we will feel His Presence in our lives.

18 – God’s Presence

Sometimes we don’t feel His Presence, even when we have been diligent in following His way. At such times, we may be experiencing His withdrawal, allowing us a “dark night of the soul.” The only way out is to go through this bad feeling, and the bad feeling may last a very long time. But we are not left comfortless, as Jesus promised in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit will take us where we are and lead us, ever so gently, to the light again. And we will be stronger for having gone through the dark night of the soul. God has, in that dark night, shut us up to Him alone. And we will be grateful that He did.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May my perception be cleansed, so that I elect to see only Heaven. This does not mean that I deny insane things that I see, but it does mean that I choose to see their unreality. This world is illusory, as the Course teaches me.

Help me to see Heaven in my everyday world. Help me not to get lost in dreams that are essentially insane.

Amen.

Jesus’s Difficult Words about Healing

“Healing is the change of mind that the Holy Spirit in the patient’s mind is seeking for him. (M20)”

Affirmation: “Healing is a change of mind.

1 – Of the Mind

Yes! Healing is a change of mind—not necessarily of body! So this is why we have hesitated when we approached Jesus’s words about healing in the Manual of A Course in Miracles. Seeing the body as an illusion, he focuses on the mind.

2 – Healing

And the mind knows healing.

3 – Emotions

This sets the healing in the realm of the emotions, which everyone can recognize is a much easier place to be than the physical. All too often we are “caught” in the physical, seeing effects of illness, and we cannot get beyond this. That is why we doubt healing because of continuing symptoms.

4 – Jesus

But Jesus is talking about a healing of the mind, for the mind, unlike the body, is real. Of course, there may be healing of the body as well, but we do not have to depend upon this to believe Jesus’s encouraging words.

5 – Change of Mind

This passage summarizes the idea that we have been exploring for the last several days. Healing comes about with a change of mind, a change from a desire for illness–external searching–to a desire for health. Nowhere is this concept made clearer in A Course in Miracles than in this one sentence.

6 – Health

It is clear here that the Holy Spirit is for health all the way. Yet He will not stand between cause-and-effect, if our minds desire illness. Even when we don’t recognize that we desire illness, this still is true. It is frequently an unconscious choice.

7 – Death

Death would best come by just laying down the body as finished, its usefulness over (ACIM concept). There is no reason for a prolonged illness to overcome us at any time in our lives, unless we mistakenly think that this external searching will lead us to what we need to know. And often it appears to do so. A Course in Miracles would not choose this for us, though. ACIM would choose health, and by reading such passages as this one, we can see that health is the choice of the Holy Spirit as well.

8 – Holy Spirit

“And it is the Holy Spirit in the mind of the giver Who gives the gift to him. How can it be lost? How can it be ineffectual? How can it be wasted? (M20)”

The Holy Spirit gives healing. This is familiar territory for us, for long have we talked about guidance and the place of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

9 – Giver

The “giver” is the individual seeking to be a conduit to healing for another person. We must not doubt; that is imperative. And we must recognize that the healing will be accepted when it is not a threat.

10 – Sickness as a Way of Life

Elsewhere Jesus talks about healing that must stand aside if an individual has used the sickness as a way of life. He notes that perhaps depression would result from a sudden healing, that the person might even attempt suicide, his loss being so great. So, in such cases, healing must stand aside as too dangerous for the personal self (the “little” self).

11 – Gifts

“What concern, then, can a teacher of God have about what becomes of his gifts? Given by God to God, who in this holy exchange can receive less than everything? (M21)”

12 – God Within

“Given by God to God” is an indication that God is within each of us. God is the All, in the interpretation of A Course in Miracles.

13 – More Certain Healing

This whole exchange about healing in the Manual is an example of the level of the ideal to which ACIM points. Some are ready to meet Jesus at that level, but some are not. And it behooves us to commune with God to reach that level of the ideal. Then healing is far more certain.

14 – Body an Illusion

Certainly healing is of the mind, for the body is only an illusion. So emotional healing will get us home free every time. We won’t worry so much, even about pain, for we know that we are safe.

15 – Home

We have found the medical treatment that works—a healing of the mind. Let the physical symptoms remain, if they seem stubborn. We have found the way home.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to realize that true healing is a change of mind, and that if continuing physical symptoms are present, it does not mean a lack of healing.

Thank you for the many healings that I have known in my life. I know that all of them came from You.

Amen.

Jesus: “I Need Devoted Teachers Who Share My Aim of Healing the Mind.”

I want to focus on several passages from A Course in Miracles in which Jesus is speaking directly to us about what he can and will do for us. They are as follows:

“I will substitute for your ego if you wish, but never for your spirit. A father can safely leave a child with an elder brother who has shown himself responsible, but this involved no confusion about the child’s origin. (T56)”

“I can be entrusted with your body and your ego only because this will enable you not to be concerned with them, and lets me teach you their unimportance. (T56)”

“I need devoted teachers who share my aim of healing the mind. (T56)”

1 – Reassuring Passages

These are all reassuring passages that indicate Jesus is aware of us, and he is able to be with any number of people all at once, a cloning, if you will.

2 – Ego

Jesus will “substitute” for our ego, when we still feel the need to have an ego. Psychology often tells us that we need a well-integrated ego, but this definition of ego is different from the definition in ACIM. The definition in psychology is a center around which the personality can well assimilate. The definition in ACIM is a false belief about ourselves, a persona that doesn’t cause our personality to assimilate properly.

3 – Difference

In this sense, the definition in psychology and the definition in A Course in Miracles are at loggerheads with each other.

4 – Ego re ACIM

We need to focus on the second definition, the one from ACIM. We don’t want to enhance a false sense of self, of the personal self. We want this false sense, this persona, to just wither away, and so we seek to turn aside from it to whatever extent we can at any given moment.

5 – Jesus

Let Jesus assume control of the ego that we recognize. Then the ego is in good hands, and we don’t have to worry about reinforcing it, for Jesus will grant us a positive persona that can give us good days.

6 – Ego and Body

We will not be concerned with either the ego or the body when we let Jesus be in charge. This accepts Jesus as a very personal friend, and this is all that he seeks. This acceptance is all, for him.

7 – Healing

When we let Jesus take over the ego, the healing of our minds is underway. This is the bottom line reason that letting go of the ego is so important.

8 – Healed Mind

And all of us want a healed mind.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May this day we listen to what Jesus has told us in A Course in Miracles. May we set outside any question that we have about the origin of ACIM. May we be healed by these words. May our day be a harmonious, peaceful way to follow the way of the Holy Spirit.

Be with us as we see an end to this day, a beginning to another one. May our day go well, in harmony and peace.

Amen.

Understanding the Lesson of the Atonement, the Sons and Daughters of God Are without the Wish to Attack

“Understanding the lesson of the Atonement, they are without the wish to attack, and therefore they see truly. (T39)”

Affirmation: “without the wish to attack”

Reflections:
.

1 – The Innocent

The “they” in this passage are the innocent, the Sons and Daughters of God, those who have experienced the Self as an indwelling spirit. Not all of us are ready for this blessing immediately. It takes great patience, abundant willingness, and study to see the manifold blessings that are held out to us when we experience the truth of Jesus’s words.

2 – Crucifixion

There is a built-in confusion about the word “Atonement,” because traditional Christianity looks to what is viewed as the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross as our way out. Jesus says in A Course in Miracles that it is wrong to look to the cross, that the resurrection pointed out his part in our Atonement. And what a more joyous interpretation this is! We do not have to see an angry God who demanded sacrifice because of our many “sins,” but a loving Father who gave proof of our place in eternal life.

3 – Personal Experience

I read many years ago that Jesus, as a boy, in all likelihood saw the sacrifice of animals to God as a way of meriting God’s good graces. He may have interpreted the sacrifice of the best which existed as the sole means of finding a way back to God. And, as time proceeded, and he realized his mission, he realized what his end would be. And that end, that time of seeing the crucifixion as the propitiation of our sins, worked for many generations. But we are no longer as open to this interpretation. And ACIM has come along for our generation. The resurrection points out Jesus’s contribution to our salvation, and, ultimately, our Awakening.

4 – Definition of Atonement

In only one place in A Course in Miracles is there a definite definition of the Atonement. It reads as follows: “the restoration of the integrity of the mind. (T74)” There are also broad explanations that encompass a definition that is at odds with traditional Christianity. Jesus asserts that to cling to the crucifixion is a mistake; the crucifixion points out to us that he did not launch a defense under the extreme situation in which he found himself. Not to be defensive is a major Course tenet.

5 – Resurrection

Instead, we are to look to the resurrection, the overcoming of death–the promise of eternal life. This step will bring us peace. Our binding of ourselves to God is a lesson of the Atonement. To do so constantly is a challenge to the neophyte, but not to the advanced teacher of God. We learn more as we progress through the ACIM.

6 – At – One – Ment

Atonement is sometimes viewed as “at-one-ment,” but this is a bit limited in its interpretation. It is this and more. Atonement is the surrender of the little self to the larger Self that is allied with the Holy Spirit. When we make this surrender, we see the futility of attack, and our perceptions are therefore cleansed. Atonement is the correction, the undoing of error (from ACIM). And when our minds are returned to God, that correction has been made for us.

Prayer:

Dear Father,

May I see the futility of attack today, and if and when I am tempted to attack, may I refrain. Often no response is better than a vicious one. But You have taught me that the best response is to run to my brother’s side with love, for he is hurting.

May I look to the resurrection of Jesus as I realize that there is no death. We will all live eternally, because this is Your great promise.

Amen.

Bitterness Is to the Heart What the Ego Is to the Mind

“You may believe that bitterness is just another word, another label for the evil you have always been convinced existed in the hearts of some, but even being that it is just another word, it is one chosen to introduce an idea of such fallacy that it rivals only the ego in its destructive potential. Bitterness is to your heart what the ego has been to your mind. It is the one false idea that has entered this holiest of places, this abode of Christ, this bridge between the human and the divine. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 6.5)”

Affirmation: “I would drop any bitterness from my heart today.”

Reflections:

1 – Drop Bitterness

Bitterness is not stressed in A Course in Miracles, but it rivals the ego in A Course of Love. Here we learn that bitterness is to the heart what the ego is to the mind. And to learn such a lesson means that we ought to drop bitterness entirely. We ought not to hold anything against anybody. We ought to forgive entirely.

2 – A Raw Deal

Why are we sometimes bitter? I think that it is largely a matter of self-pity. We think that life has given us a raw deal, not a fair shake. We think that we ought to have had it better. But is this reasoning sound?

3 – Hard Knocks

Not at all. We may believe that we planned our lives before we were born (though this is not a concept in ACIM or ACOL). Certainly we know now that we have a loving Father who wishes us only well-being. And so the hard knocks of life are there to teach us something. And certainly the hard knocks would not be so hard if we were less stubborn. Our biggest enemy, as many have said, is our own self. We made our own difficulties, and then we project outward on others who surround us.

4 – Insanity

This is insanity. We would not blame another for our own difficult times. We would recognize perhaps that there is something that we cannot understand on this earth, and we would realize that there is a better way to live. This better way is what ACIM and ACOL are trying to teach us.

5 – Madness of This World

May we adopt a smooth walk through this world today. And may we know that the hard knocks are there for a reason, however obscure we may find the way to be. It may just be the madness of this world, and we ought never to underestimate how far into madness we have gone (from ACIM). We will be happier, and life will smooth out very well, when we have come to understand more. Ask God for the answers, and see if those answers don’t begin to come ever more frequently.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would seek some answers today. Why is life sometimes so tough? Is it all just madness borne of the ego and of bitterness? Is there a larger reason that I sometimes struggle? I choose not to go from one crisis to another. I choose to live, with You, in harmony, peace, serenity, calm, tranquility. Help me to live this better way today and every day.

May I do for others what I would like for them to do for me. May I realize that giving and receiving happen in concert, that one leads inexorably to the other. And may I rejoice, with You, at my happiness over the many blessings that You give to me. You want Your children happy. Being happy is a worthy goal. May I remember this always.

Be with me today as I walk through this sometimes insane world. But I would not have it insane today. I would choose only happy dreams, and I would ask for glimpses of a reality beyond what I normally see.

Thank You.

Amen.

Disengage the Ego-Mind

“The closing pages of A Course of Love instructed you to think no more.  A break in time was needed for you to disengage the ego-mind that produced the type of thinking that needs to come to an end.  This ending is but a beginning in truth and has led you to readiness to learn the art of thought.  (The Treatises of A Course of Love:  Treatise on the Art of Thought, 2.1)”

Affirmation:  “May I remember that thinking is not always required.”  

Reflections:

1 – Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now; A New Earth), an enlightened current-day teacher, tells us that his own thinking processes are much reduced in number.  We ourselves usually have such busy minds, busy minds that match our busy bodies.  But we would not have it so.

2 – Break in Reading ACOL

A break is recommended between reading A Course of Love, the original volume, and the remaining two volumes in the trilogy.  The Treatises are the second volume, and to be read next, after the break.  Here we learn the reason for the break.  We needed to teach the ego that it was not in charge any longer.  And the ego has been bent on its kind of learning.  We are now to learn to think a new way, because that is what this treatise is about.

3 – Observation

We are beginning something very new.  The art of thought is basically observation without engaging the thinking mind and its egotistical bent.  We have in truth left the ego behind by now, but we may not fully comprehend what this means.  The Treatise on the Art of Thought will tell us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I truly leave the ego behind in the days and weeks ahead, as I study the art of thought as described by Jesus.  I would not be buffeted about by fate, succumbing to times of depression brought on by an egoic thrust toward ecstasy.  The ego always knows highs and lows, and I would have my right mind seek drama no more.  Drama is not necessary, and the sooner that all of me recognizes this, the better off I will be.

Be with my brothers and sisters today.  May I respond in a compassionate way to real need, though I would not take on obligations that do not belong to me.  May I love with my whole heart, but in no way seek love from another who is unwilling to offer it.  May the blessings of this earth be bestowed on others whom I know, and may these blessings also come to me. 

Amen.

Seek No More

“The first instruction I give to you is to seek no more.  All that you are in need of knowing has been provided within A Course of Love.  That your learning does not feel complete is not a failing of this course or of your self.  That your learning does not feel complete is the result of forgetfulness, which is the opposite of mindfulness.  Your further learning then is learning based on mindfulness or remembering.  (The Treatises of A Course of Love:  Treatise on the Art of Thought, 1.3)”

Affirmation:  “I remind myself that I need seek no more.”

Reflections:

1 – Why ACOL Was Written?

This first passage selected from the Treatise on the Art of Thought encapsulates what may possibly be one of Jesus’s primary reasons for channeling A Course of Love.  We who have studied A Course in Miracles quite a bit do not always feel complete.  For unknown reasons we have sought so long that we want to continue seeking.  But there comes a stopping point, and the only way to stop is to stop.  Jesus would have us stop our hankering for learning by giving us the assurance that we are The Accomplished, that we have learned all that we need to know for salvation,

2 – Seek No More

Our minds have been the troubling part.  Our hearts have always known more than the egoic mind.  And now we are encouraged to join our mind to our heart in wholeheartedness.  But to seek no more.  There is enough in us already.  We must just observe, not “learn.”  And in the observation of daily life we will be fulfilled (an interpretation, not stated in A Course of Love).

3 – Eastern Thought

The Eastern theories about mindfulness are relevant here.  Jesus calls mindfulness “remembering.”  We pay attention to what we do daily, hourly, and even moment-by-moment.  And we are fulfilled thereby.  We rest in the assurance that all is well, that the world is unfolding as it is meant to unfold.  Not that we can’t improve things, because we are not encouraged to forget others.  But we know that when we are peace, the world in which we live seems more at peace also.

4 – Time of Christ

We have forgotten much, and we will call to mind what we need to call to mind when we rest in God.  He will recall those important things to mind for us.  In A Course of Love, the time of Christ, it is no longer the Holy Spirit.  But the Christ/Self within that directs our every thought and mood.

5 – Remembering

We need to ask for remembering today, while we practice the mindfulness that is meant for us.  We think about what we are doing, but we do not analyze it.  Jon Kabot-Zinn has written Coming to Our Senses, a vast compendium of guides to mindfulness in our world.  If additional help in mindfulness is desired, this would be a good place to start.

6 – The Accomplished

But we do not need to “learn” more.  We are The Accomplished.  We do not fully understand this, and to be accomplished, we do not have to be perfect.  This is a major contribution in A Course of Love.  We just turn aside from those thoughts and actions that are less than what we want, and then the thought or action falls away.  That is all, but it is enough.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I take to heart what I wrote in my reflections today.  The basis of those remarks are mostly from Jesus, with some indication that religions other than Christianity have also spoken of mindfulness.  May I live in peace today, not reaching irritably after more and more.  I am enough, if I am living the Self within.  Help me to fully realize this Self within, sooner rather than later.

Be with all of us today as we embark on a new Treatise from A Course of Love.  May our reading inform our lives.  And may Jesus hold our hands as we walk.

Amen.

Time of Christ / Time of Holy Spirit Has Passed

“The way of the heart is the way of the Time of Christ.  The time of the Holy Spirit has passed.  The time of the intermediary is over.  The greatest intermediary of all has been the mind.  It has stood between you and your own inner knowing, caught in a dream of perception.  (Addendum to A Course of Love:  Learning in the Time of Christ)”

Affirmation:  “I would listen to my heart today.”  

Reflections:

1 – Final Passage to Consider Currently from ACOL‘s First Volume

This is the final passage from the first volume of A Course of Love that I will consider presently.  I see this passage as a summary passage, in that the heart is given ascendancy–a major theme of the Course of Love trilogy.  This passage does not link mind and heart together into wholeheartedness, which Jesus does elsewhere in ACOL. Here Jesus emphasizes the limitedness of the mind, which has, as we know, been the home of the ego for eons.  And the ego has not meant us well.

2 – Inner Knowing

We need to include the mind, but because the emphasis has been on the mind for so long, it is welcome now to address the heart.  We know with the heart, not just emotionally, but in practical terms that give us insight into the very nature of reality (i.e., the real world, as described in A Course in Miracles).  This is the inner knowing that the passage for today emphasizes.

3 – Perception of the Mind

The mind, on the other hand, has emphasized perception, which is always erroneous to one degree or another, for when we are perceiving, we are lost in a dream or illusion.  When we know, though, we cease to engage the mind to any great degree.

4 – Intent of ACOL Different from ACIM

The words of A Course of Love are far more abstract than anything in A Course in Miracles, because the intent is different.  The heart knows abstraction, and abstraction is the natural condition of the mind (from ACIM).  It is only when the mind has run amuck that we find that the specificity of detail gets us lost in a dream world.  We would not have it so.  We would awaken sooner rather than later.  And we await God’s timing on this.

5 – Glimpses of Awakening

In the meantime, we are apt to see glimpses of Awakening, from a few moments to a few months.  This is the revelation that is occasionally revealed to us, but for which preparation is needed (a paraphrase from the early pages of ACIM).  The means are explained in A Course in Miracles, which dislodged the ego, and then A Course of Love was channeled to allow us to come farther along the pathway to what our heart (rather than our mind) could show us.  We will not be finished until we give up constant seeking.  Jesus says in A Course of Love that we are the “accomplished.”  And, of course, he does not mean this in an egotistical way.  But the accomplished at stop seeking and rest in knowledge, calm in the certainty of a heartfelt understanding that is more than the mind can ever give.

6 – Stillness and Quiet

Let us rest in stillness and quiet.  Let us turn to Jesus as our companion, our teacher no longer.  He is ready to receive us as equals.  Would we hope for anything less?

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I rest for awhile.  The original volume of A Course of Love has been considered, and we need to take a brief break before we move to the first three Treatises.  May I have a calm mind today, supported by the comforting, abstract thinking that ACOL counsels.  May I be at peace, sure of Your love, certain of the truth of the assertions of A Course of Love.  If we are in the time of Christ, may I know what to do that is different from the time of the Holy Spirit.  Already words comes into my mind from the subconscious that seem to me to be a bit beyond me, but different from the counsel of the Holy Spirit.  Am I learning in the time of Christ?  Is this the way that it is?

We do not have firm guidance in other works for what the time of Christ really means.  ACOL counsels us, and I would do well to listen.  Help me to be relaxed and easy, to take each moment as it comes, to live in the Now.  And may I drop from thought any worry that threatens my peace.

Thank You.

Amen.

Give Up Difficulty for Ease

“Let me be clear.  The seeming lack of difficulty in this course is where its difficulty lies.  To give up difficulty for ease is more than some egos are willing to accept.  (Addendum to A Course of Love:  Learning in the Time of Christ)”

Affirmation:  “May I know ease today.”

Reflections:

1 – Ease

Reading A Course of Love should be a task full of ease.  The difficulty arises when we try to study it as we study other courses of study, including A Course in Miracles.  A Course of Love is more abstract, which is the means by which our hearts are engaged.  We do not have to study, and, if we try, we will go astray.  We will also be greatly frustrated if we try to study it as a textbook.  This is not the right approach at all.  Just let the words drift into your mind, stopping for nothing, taking deep thought for nothing.  Repeated readings will get the gist of it into your heart, actually by bypassing the mind (which wants to analyze).

2 – Beauty of the Language

The beauty of the language is enthralling.  When we let the words flow over us, we are captivated by the content as well, though we may not recognize this at first.  We may think, and rightly so, that we are missing a lot, or that we are reading things that we do not fully understand.  As we move closer to Awakening, the words will begin to make more sense to us, and without any strain at all.

3 – The Ego

Our egos continue to get us into trouble.  The ego wants to make everything hard that is actually meant to be easy, because its rule is to seek but not to find (an ACIM tenet).  Try to loosen the ego’s hold on our minds, but not by overtly resisting it, for resistance makes the ego strong.  The ego is strong in strife (another ACIM tenet).

4 – Easy Reading

A Course of Love is actually easy reading, much easier than A Course in Miracles.  Mari, the scribe, listens with her heart perhaps more than her mind, and Helen (ACIM scribe) listened to her mind.  This approach is exactly what Jesus needed in channeling to the two individuals, for ACOL is to the heart what ACIM was to the mind.

5 – ACIM and ACOL

We will do well when we realize that, after ACIM and now as we consider A Course of Love, we are ready to listen to our hearts.  They know without demanding proof of everything.  They lead us aright.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would choose ease today, especially in reading A Course of Love.  I wish no more to be frustrated by the fact that my mind cannot study ACOL as it did A Course in Miracles.  

May this day morph into one of ease.  May my heart inform my mind that egoic influences are dead in me.  And may that deadness be true.

Amen.

Be True to Love

“This Course has succeeded in ways you do not yet understand and have no need to understand.  These words have entered your heart and sealed the rift between your mind and heart.  Be true to love and you cannot fail to be true to yourself.  (A Course of Love, 32.4)”

Affirmation:  “Be true to love today.”

Reflections:

1 – ACOL Has Succeeded

It is very reassuring to read that A Course of Love has succeeded in ways that I don’t understand.  And that I have no need to understand.  Certainly I do not recall the whole volume, but perhaps it has found a place in my heart.  And the heart does not think intellectually.

2 – How to Practice Love when It Is Hard

How are we to be true to love?  We are to practice love even when it seems hard, even when others attack us and we feel like retaliating.  Retaliating is not the way, for we will only feel worse later on.  Do what we have learned to do in the face of seeing a lack of love.  Perhaps taking a timeout is best.  Or praying in another room.  The temper can get the best of us frequently, especially when we are unwell.  Let us not succumb to crankiness today.  Remain loving, quietly, if in no other way.

3 – Wholeheartedness

In this part of the conclusion of A Course of Love, Jesus reminds us that he has led us from mind and heart being separate, to the wholeheartedness that combines the two.  This is a central theme of ACOL.  When we are true to love, we are true to ourselves.  There is no other way to be true to ourselves.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to practice love today, even when circumstances seem to make practicing love hard.  Our significant others are not always in good moods; they may be doing something that they really don’t want to do; they may be worried about their health.  The problem can be any number of things, but I ask today to have the patience to stay sweet and to wait out the bad mood.

Be with us as we seek You in wholeheartedness, mind and heart combined.  This is the way that is being shown to us, and it is a wholly good way.  May we seek and find You today.

Amen.

Eliminating Perplexities

“While you will at times doubt that you have received an answer or that the answer you have received is correct, you will soon learn to trust this quiet process of discernment.  You will know you have succeeded when you truly feel as if you have ‘turned the question or concern over’ and allowed it to be responded to in a new way.  (A Course of Love, 25.23)”

Affirmation:  “When I have a perplexity, I turn it over to God.”

Reflections:

1 – Perplexities

Perplexities do not have to remain perplexities.  There is a quick solution, as I said yesterday in this blog:  The solution is with the problem (an ACIM tenet).  We are learning better what that means as we read A Course of Love.  We are learning to turn inward, where all is quiet, to our heart, and thereby to receive an answer.  This is an elaboration of what A Course in Miracles teaches, which seems to be another indication that what we have here in ACOL is actually a sequel from Jesus.

2 – “Basket Case”

I read recently from an inspirational writer of one of his family members who came up against severe problems at various junctures in her life.  She would, in his words, be a “basket case.”  But this did not last long.  When he would visit shortly thereafter, she would be calm, though the difficulty was still there.  She would reply, in response to his comment that all seemed well, that she had “turned that over to God.”  The emotional reaction was much more muted.

3 – Turn It Over to God

If we can learn to do this on a constant basis, we will live a much calmer and saner life.  We will not be lost in insanity, the state that all of us exist in until we come to know better.  We leave behind anger and attack, we turn our lives over to God, and we are rewarded by a peaceful life, with the “peace that passeth understanding” (from the Bible).

4 – Heart and Mind = Wholeheartedness

A Course of Love constantly appeals to the heart, and only toward the end do we see that a blend of mind and heart is actually the way for us.  We have to let go of egoic notions of the mind, though.  And the emphasis upon the heart, in the opening pages of ACOL, is exactly what we need to hear in the beginning.  We will come to know better when we give up asking for tangible proof.  The heart already knows.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I quickly turn any perplexity over to You.  You want to help me.  It is a free offer.  Surrender works.  Thank You.

May I be good company today with my brothers and sisters, and especially with those who are my significant others.  May this be a good day.  Help us to know how to turn perplexities into solutions.  This is something that we all need frequently.

Be with us today and always.

Amen.

How to Live in Love

“All Selves are joined in wholeheartedness.  The one Self is solely involved in living love.  (A Course of Love, 25.17)”

Affirmation:  “I am One with all.”

Reflections:

1 – All of Us Are One

We are one, all of us, and often I have made this point in this blog.  But we don’t often believe this.  I must remind myself of the truth of it constantly.  Knowing that we are one with each other, and with God, is a freeing mechanism of the highest order.  We don’t fret any longer.  We know that we are safe.

2 – Living in Wholeheartedness

Living in wholeheartedness is, according to A Course of Love, the union of mind and heart toward which we are headed, as we know all that salvation holds out to us.  We no longer look for “proofs” of the mind that are largely ego-inspired; we listen to our hearts, who know that proofs are not needed.  But we don’t just have blind faith.  We do have understanding that is not perceptive, but understanding that is knowledge from God Himself.  We are led, step-by-step, into the larger world where we can live freely and peacefully with each other.  These are the Selves of which we are one.

3 – The Selves = One

The Selves, then, are actually One, one with everything and everyone.  Let us meditate upon this truth today, and let words fall by the wayside.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would make the decision again today to turn to love rather than fear.  I ask that You accept this determination and shape my desires so that I do not have to repeat myself and pick myself off the floor because I have failed once again.  Help all of us to reach toward You with a certainty and a determination that will brook no failure.  I know that You want us to commune with You in prayer, and that it is through prayer, with the silences of listening, that we will come to know Your greatest joys for us.  Be with us today as we seek to treat all whom we meet with the love that they so richly deserve.

If I fail today, may I recognize that You will rectify all mistakes.  I need not fret that I am not perfect.  Indeed, Jesus tells us in A Course of Love that perfection is not required.  He tells us in A Course in Miracles that he stands at the end to correct any mistakes that we could not..  So thank You that we are in good hands.

May we seek to grow today in lightness, even as we grow in love.  You would not have us approach life with a seriousness that eludes peaceful and easy living.  The light touch, the light burden, all hallmarks of Jesus.  May we incorporate these traits into our own Selves.

Amen.

Wholeheartedness

“No matter which path you follow, the path of the mind or the path of the heart, you will not get where you are wanting to go until they are joined.  You might imagine three paths–one path representing mind, one path representing heart, and one path representing wholeheartedness.  The path of neither mind nor heart alone will take you where the path of unity will take you, and the journey will not be the same.  (A Course of Love, 21.7)”

Affirmation:  “I choose the path of wholeheartedness today.”

Reflections:

1 – Combining Mind and Heart

We have previously been emphasized following the heart, which was necessary as a contrast to following the mind.  But now Jesus is ready to guide us to combine the two, mind and heart.  And this combination results in what he terms “wholeheartedness.”  Our mind is no longer ruled by the ego, and so this is a safe combination.  We need the mind while living in this world.  We also need the heart.  And the two combined give us true direction in this sometimes difficult world.

2 – A Path of Unity

We must join the two–mind and heart.  The passage for today makes this necessity absolutely clear.  We do want to know where we are going.  And it is a path of unity.

3 – Unity as Defined Here

Unity is here used in a different sense than the “unity and relationship” that defines our connection of others in our world.  Unity here is strictly of the mind and heart, within ourselves.  But when we combine the two within ourselves, we are ready to reach out to others.  We are ready for the unity and relationship with our brothers and sisters, with Jesus, and with God.  We can follow the correct path no other way.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I am ready to join mind and heart into wholeheartedness.  You have prepared the way for me, and I know that when I ask Your help in coming mind and heart, I am asking in our joint will.  Help me not to inaccurately think that my heart can do better without my mind.  My heart, being the seat of emotions, can, without the rational, sane mind, lead astray.  I would not be led astray today.  Help me to stay on Your pathway.

Thank You for the emphasis on wholeheartedness that comes near the conclusion of A Course of Love.  There is a reason for this, and I suspect that it is because we have heretofore been far too dependent on the mind.  So You brought us to a dependence upon the heart, which knows without laborious and insane thinking.  Now You would combine easy and sane thinking with the emotions of the heart to form a unity.  What a glorious plan this is!  We are indebted to Jesus for bringing us this truth in a form which is easily accessible and easily accepted.

Amen.

Begin Your Transformation

“A wholehearted choice to abandon all ideas of glorifying the separated self and to let the world be what it is will begin the transformation.  This requires the first unification, the unification of mind and heart, after which unification with God is naturally returned to your awareness, for this unification returns you to the Christ in you and the one mind united with God which you have never left.  (A Course of Love, 19.4)”

Affirmation:  “May I be united with the Christ in me today.”

Reflections:

1 – A Sequence

There is a sequence of occurrences in this passage that is worth noting.

2 – Do Not Glorify the Separate Self

First, we must abandon thoughts of glorifying our separated self (or the self that we think, in illusion, is separated).  So often we seek to glorify the physical, with material objects and the trappings of “success.”  But we are digging our own grave when we do so.  So let us ask today how to avoid glorifying the self.  We will be told, and then when we act on this knowledge (for it is knowledge, not perception), then we will be set on the right path.

3 – Mind and Heart = One

Second, we need to ask that our mind and heart be made one.  We know many things intellectually, for many of us have studied diligently.  But intellectual understanding is often not comforting in the middle of the night, when fears try to overwhelm one.  So we need to invite our heart to join.  This is our emotional aspect, and we do not need intellectual proof when our emotions are involved.   We simply feel the good feeling (or the bad), and we live sanely.  The lack of intellectual “proof” does not disturb the heart, for the heart knows things that cannot be proved.  And the heart does not ask for proof.

4 – Christ/Self

Finally, we seek to unite with the Christ/Self in us.  This is the Self of whom Christ-consciousness is concerned.  We have never actually left this Self, and this point (made repeatedly) is pivotal.  We can clain Christ-consciousness as our birthright, but it is God Himself who makes the decision about when we are ready to receive this blessing..

5 – The Base of ACOL

This sequence is at the base of A Course of Love.  If we can ask for and receive (for receiving is, of course, necessary), then we will have walked the whole pathway.  And all of us wish for this.  We pray for this.  And one day this blessing of Christ-consciousness will belong to us all.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would ask for a transformation to begin today.  I know that I need to turn myself over to You in mind and heart for thsi transformation to happen.  Be with me as I make every effort to turn myself over to You today.

The Christ/Self who is within is my lodestone.  It is my way home to You.  Help me to sense today, if only for a moment, what this Self can do for me.  And may I reach out to others, for it is only in connectedness that we see the light.

Amen.

What Makes This Existence So Chaotic and Erratic

“That you keep yourself from desiring anything fully here is what makes this existence so chaotic and erratic.  A mind and heart in conflict is what keeps you from desiring anything fully and thus from creating.  (A Course of Love, 18.14)”

Affirmation:  “Desire fully or not at all.”

Reflections:

1 – Comparison of ACIM and ACOL

This idea is new, not found in any form in A Course in Miracles.  Perhaps this is because the delineation is made in A  Course of Love between the mind and the heart.  We did not hear much about the heart in ACIM, but the mind’s need to dislodge the ego was paramount.

2 – Desire Fully

When we desire fully, we are not in chaos, doing erratic things.  Of course, we need to be certain that we are desiring rightly.  And this  can come only when  glimpses of the Christ/Self within are guiding us.  We must desire because we know that we are after something worthwhile.  Nothing else will do.

3 – Uncertainty

When we are unsure of ourselves, we act in erratic fashion, and we create chaos and drama because we don’t seem to know any better.  God can take away that lack of certainty.  We have all too often been afraid to desire fully, because we thought we might desire amiss.  Ask, and then we can be sure.

4 – Living Harmoniously

When the mind and heart are one in purpose. we live harmoniously, even in this world.  This world does not seem so difficult as before we made this fusion of mind and heart.  When in conflict, stop and think about why:  Is the mind out of sync with the heart?  Do you want something intellectually but not emotionally?  Here we will find the answer to our dilemma, the answer to the end of chaos.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I move beyond just following my heart, into following both my heart and mind in wholeheartedness.  I would desire fully that which You wish for me, and that is salvation.  I know it, but sometimes I don’t realize it fully.  Help me to realize myself fully today.

I would desire fully those things in this world that are good and true.  I would turn aside, without emotion, those things that are bad for me.  May I encourage my brothers and sisters to follow Your way in everything.  The pathway that You point out is so joyous, and following Your guidance, moment-by-moment, is undoubtedly the more joyous of all.

Amen.

Letting Go of Mind in Favor of Heart

“Letting go of what your mind would tell you in favor of what your heart already knows is but the purpose of this Course.  (A Course of Love, 16.11)”

Affirmation:  “Let go of the mind and welcome the heart’s knowledge.”

Reflections:

1 – Proof

Why do we need to turn to our hearts, increasingly?  Our minds, informed by weakened (but not absent) egos, demand proof for God that no mind can ever have.  Even those of us who think that we have an “intellectual” faith are misguided.  No mind can understand God.  But our hearts can, for our hearts know in a sense that defies explanation, while the mind craves for explanation.

2 – Purpose of ACOL

Herein, in this passage, Jesus defines the purpose of A Course of Love.  He knows that we have dislodged the ego by studying, first, A Course in Miracles, but we may not yet have understood what is to replace the ego.  It is the Self, the Christ, in all of us, and we do know enough, through our hearts, to let this miracle take place.  We do not, though, know the hour nor the day, and that is as it should be.  God Himself makes the determination for our Awakening, our Christ-consciousness, when we are ready, and He alone can tell when we are ready.

3 – Dreams

A Course in Miracles say that we will not be terrified by the light coming on, for we will have been prepared by happy dreams that the Holy Spirit brings (from the ACIM Workbook).  Jesus says that otherwise we would awake with a scream of mortal terror, so accustomed we are to our dreams in this world.  But we do not have to fear.  God will find a way to awaken us gently, and to replace all of our dreams of terror with happy dreams, and then with Awakening.

4 – Awakening and Christ-Consciousness

Awakening and Christ-consciousness seem to be equated (the former from ACIM, the latter from ACOL).  In the meantime, for those of us who await, we can reach out to our brothers and sisters, and we can, under the guidance of Jesus and his helpers, reach a better state of mind and heart, one that will welcome a new day.  When we have been healed, we will be in a position to heal others.  An unhealed healer cannot heal (from ACIM); it is an oxymoron.

5 – Wait Patiently

Be with us today as we wait patiently in this imperfect world.  We made this world, and it is one of seeming separation.  We would not live this way.  We would join with others in unity as One, and in relationship to the many, and we will know the better way that Jesus seeks to point out to us in ACIM and ACOL.  May we study well, and reach our Awakening/Christ-consciousness sooner rather than later.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to listen to my heart today.  When disappointments come, help me to take them in stride.  When difficulties arise, help me to resolve them.  When all seems lost, help me to realize that You are always there, showing me the way.

Be with me as I listen to my heart today.  I am weary of ego-inspired goals, and I would be done with all such foolishness.  Let my heart guide me today, with Your help.

Thank You.

Amen.

Memories

“While you will not realize it at first, because you have no experience but only memory of feeling yourself in such a way, you will eventually realize that the memories you recall of the spirit of others include memories that are your own, memories that are of your own Self.  For no spirit exists that is not part of you, or you of it.  (A Course of Love, 13.8)”

Affirmation:  “My brothers and sisters are one with me.”

Reflections:

1 – Our Spirits Are One

We, our Selves, have no experience, at least now, of the fact that our spirits are one with others.  We do have memories of a time when we knew this.  And this time reaches backwards to a time beyond time, beyond hope of remembrance, except that God intervene.  This idea is alluded to also in A Course in Miracles.  But there it says that the time is past all hope of remembrance, and here we are told that the memory can return.  So there is some conflict between the two ideas.

2 -Unite with Our Spirit

How might we understand this conflict?  Our remembrance, as described in ACIM, is part of our experience, and ACOL clearly says that we can remember the experience of oneness with others.  But there is a part of us, in our spirit, that does lock away the memory.  And  when we come closer to a union with our spirit in everyday life, we will have memories that have heretofore been excluded from us.

3 – Self/Christ

Our Self is the Christ that we all share, and when God has reached down and lifted us up (a metaphor), we will know Awakening (as called in A Course in Miracles) or Christ-consciousness (as called in A Course of Love).  No spirit is alone.  All are part of the one Christ spirit, and that is how we can understand our kinship with Jesus.

4 – Jesus

Traditional Christianity avoids the issue of whether we can have what Jesus had–the Christ embodied, although the New Testament clearly points to the fact that he indicates that there is nothing that he has that we will not one day have as well.  ACIM and ACOL make this similarity conclusive; we are one with Jesus, once we, like him, have walked the whole pathway back to God.  And, because he walked it first, he will help us, and he will clear our imperfections that otherwise we would not be able to alter (an ACIM tenet).

5 – A Great Promise

What a great promise today’s passage offers to us!  May we not forget to offer our gratitude to God for such a glorious plan of salvation.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would welcome memories to my mind today.  I know that it is possible to recall that which has been hidden to me until today, because Jesus says so in this passage, and I trust him.  May I put aside all temperamental thoughts and actions that would negate this great promise, this great blessing.  Be with me as I seek to walk Your way today.

Help us to recognize that the memories that we hold of others include ourselves.  We are not alone in this.  There is a definite joining of minds, and therefore spirits, one with another.  May I sense this today.  And may I give up all attack thoughts, for these are separating, and they, as well, will be felt by the people whom I encounter.

Be with our walk today, as always.  And thank You.

Amen.

Trust

“All that is required to gather this new evidence is to trust in your own heart.  Are you willing to believe what your heart would tell you?

“This exercise should take no time nor break your stride or the flow of your conversation.  All it asks you to do is to become aware of spirit and to allow this awareness to abide within you.  (A Course of Love, 13.6 – 13.7)”

Affirmation:  “May I trust in my own heart today.”

Reflections:

1 – The Mind

If we stop giving our mind so much attention, if we put our mind into neutral, we are then more likely to listen to the spirit within.  We are also more likely to pay attention to the spirits of others, rather than the personality that is so dominated by the mind when it is in egoic mode.  When we pay attention to the spirit in ourselves and in others, we are attuned to our hearts.  And that is a very good place to be.

2 – Turn to the Heart

Jesus would have us turn to the heart increasingly.  That is the primary theme of these first pages of the original volume of A Course of Love.  (Later, he will emphasize the union of mind and heart, into “wholeheartedness.”)

3 – Intellectual Truths?

The heart does not demand intellectual truths.  The mind, when it is dominated by the ego, does so often want intellectual truths.  But the ego is never satisfied; no proof is ever sufficient.  And so we bring our intellectual doubts to the table of God, and we doubt Him.

4 – Heed the Heart

This is no way to live.  If the heart seems to be telling us something, we would do well to heed what it is saying.  We intuitively know that God exists, and that He loves us, and when we live this faith, we live truly–we don’t simply walk through our days like automatons.

5 – Use the Day Wisely

May we spend today looking for the spirit in ourselves and others, and may we pay attention to what our heart is trying to say to us.  If we can sustain this endeavor, we will indeed have used the day wisely.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to trust my heart today.  It will soon be time to meld the mind and the heart into wholeheartedness, but for today I will listen to my heart.  I will see what it has to tell me, and I will heed.

This does not mean that I will do foolish things.  We do not need to let emotions run amuck.  That would not be worthy of ourselves or our concept of God.

Be with me today as I seek to be ever mindful of Your blessings.  You have given me much.  Help me to give back.

Amen.

Love Cannot Be Taught

“What love is cannot be taught.  Remember that your task here is to remove the barriers that keep you from realizing what love is.  That is the learning goal of this course–your awareness of what love is–and no earthy course can take you beyond this goal.  It is only your willingness that is required.  (A Course of Love, 11.5)”

Affirmation:  “May I love today.”

Reflections:

1 – From ACIM to ACOL

There is a movement in these words of A Course of Love that goes beyond A Course in Miracles, which had as its goal the bestowing of forgiveness of ourselves and others.  While love was certainly not absent from ACIM, the focus was on the mind and the ego, while A Course of Love looks to the heart, and, ultimately, the mind and heart in conjunction with each other.

2 – Intuitive Knowledge

We know intuitively that love cannot be taught.  We experience love, and we experience love most often as a function of the heart, without the involvement of the mind and the intellect.  We love someone, and we don’t know why–we just do.  Our emotions are involved, and the emotions, in our understanding, are heart-sent into our lives.

3 – Heart Is Central

This is why we cannot be taught love, because if we could, the mind would be the central player (an interpretation, not stated in ACOL).  And the mind is not.  We sometimes love in spite of ourselves, though often this is in special relationships.  After they turn, with our help and God’s, into holy relationships, then we come closer to the wholeheartedness that Jesus extols in A Course of Love.

4 – Love at the Center

Do not despair that love cannot be taught, because it can be learned, though perhaps not of the mind.  When we ease up, we are in a better position to allow love to overcome us, to grab us.  And then we have placed love at the center of our being, where love belongs.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I offer love its central place today, in my heart, where love belongs.  I can intellectually choose to love somebody; it doesn’t work that way.  We cannot will love into being, and sometimes we love almost against our will.  

But love we will, for it is crucial to our being, the center of our being.  We may not express that love well, but even the most despised of human beings on our earth have loved, in the limited way that they knew.  Love is like a light that will not be extinguished.  And it is the way that joy comes into our lives.

May we all express love today to those closest to us.  May we receive the love that is offered to us.  And may we express and receive in totality.  You are with us always, and, today, when we need You most, You will be there for us, in love.

Amen.

The Body Is a Tool

“The body is a tool made for your use in maintaining the illusion of your separation.  That it has seeming power can only be because you think you put your power there.  If this were true, much power indeed would it wield.  But what you have made cannot be invested with the power of creation without your joining with it.  (A Course of Love, 10.1)”

Affirmation:  “Let me deemphasize the body today.”

Reflections:

1 – Joining?

We do not and cannot join physically with all whom we meet.  That physical joining is limited to very few, or just one.  So what type of “joining” does this passage imply?

2 – Joining = of the Spirit

The joining that we must do is not of the body.  It is of the spirit.  The body is meant to affirm our separation from each other.  The body, like all illusions, fails us in this purpose.  We learn from living in separate bodies that we are not very happy being separate.  So how might we join?

3 – Join in Holiness

We join in holiness, in holy relationships that have, in many cases, been transformed from special relationships.

4 – Join in Minds

We join in minds as well as in spirit, but we do not leave it to our minds to determine all that we need to know.  We listen to our hearts.  And in the listening, we learn that we are not meant to walk along and and to be lonely.  We are made for each other and for God.  There is no better way to live.

4 – Power of the Body

What type of power could the body wield?  Only matters of power and prestige.  The ego.  The things of this world that are tangible.  Success.  Vanity.

5 – Perishable

You get the picture.  Do we really, truly, in our wholeheartedness, want such perishable things?  Let us be glad that their value will not last for us, for in them we lose ourselves.  We instead want the peace, joy, harmony, and serenity that God grants to all who turn to Him.  And He grants this peace, I believe, even to those who have not yet learned that turning to Him is the complete answer.  He is the God of the secular and profane as well as the religious and spiritual, for we are all His children, and He does not forget His own.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would join in spirit and mind with all whom I meet today.  Help me to do so purely.  I know that You do not deemphasize the physical in A Course of Love, but today we are not considering physical joining.  I wish the joining that will bring me closer to being a co-creator with You.

I wish for those things which will last.  And the perishable, tangible things of this world, some of which are necessary for survival, will not last.  I know that You want my material needs met also, but today I focus on the things of the spirit.  May my egoic mind, still a burden in many ways, just diminish in intensity as I seek for the things of the spirit.

Be with me today, as always.  I know that You are with me, for life just keeps getting better and better.  My prayers are being answered, and You are guiding me to find the answers.  Thank You.

Amen.