Release

“Concerns are a thought program.  I ask you now to observe that mechanism, recognized it for what it is, and accept the fact that it comes from fear.  It is fear of uncertainty, of not knowing what the future will bring.  This fear of uncertainty generates a state of anguish that must first be accepted, and then released.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 3:I

Jesus would have us take a look at our fears, and then, after looking at them, release them.  He would not have us just try to dismiss thoughts of uncertainty.  This dismissing never works very well, and the subconscious is less likely to be healed if we eject bad thoughts without considering them.  Of course, we don’t want to make them “real” to us (something A Course in Miracles warns against), and so it seems to be me that the moments of considering need to remain brief, not an obsession.

Acceptance is written all over what Jesus counsels in his channeled works.  If we cower, we will not accept, and then we will remain in anguish.  Just know that there is an Answer, that Jesus is right here with us, when we ask, helping us to move beyond fear.

If we have lived well in the past, our future will be certain to go smoothly.  Some fear death as the greatest uncertainty, but death is like walking through an open door, nothing to fear at all.  If we have not lived well in the past, we can nevertheless entertain a course correction.  We always get a second chance with Jesus.

Pray for the release of concerns and worries, the release of our own hesitancy in the face of a future that will always remain uncertain.  We cannot see the future, and I think this a great blessing. 

But it also means that the future may be brighter than we anticipate, and when we focus on those bright things, they tend to happen.

JOY, PEACE, RELEASE

Note: Published in the May – June issue of Miracles magazine (Jon Mundy, publisher).

by Celia Hales

There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day. It is a thought of pure joy, a thought of peace, a thought of limitless release—limitless because all things are freed within it. (ACIM, COA ed., M-16.6:1-2)

Drape your persona in a mantle of peace and joy. Let who you are shine through the personal self who continues to walk this world a while longer. (ACOL, T2:13.6)

Hold in the mind’s eye all of your domain—your relationships, your careers, your physical objects—and say, “Behold, it’s been a lot of fun!” (WOM, “The Way of Knowing,” Chap. 35)

I have used the words, “pure joy” and “limitless release,” here quoted from A Course in Miracles, almost as a mantra over the years. There is such hope in the promise of joy and release. Previously, we have been so doubled up in agony over the machinations of the ego. And it is such a blessing to know that we need not live this way. We can live in the hope of continual joy and release, and this is just what Jesus is asking us to do in this passage.

A Course of Love continues the theme. We are still here, on earth, walking this world a while longer. And peace and joy are the hallmarks of a well-lived life. It is true that we often think that we have to achieve to merit grace. Yet this is a false concept. We are accepted just as we are, even with all of our mistakes and false notions of an ego-oriented self.

The Way of Mastery introduces a new concept, perhaps a startling concept to us who are still so very serious about life (“serious” itself a plague of the ego). “Have fun!,” these words of Jesus say. It is in the limitless release from ACIM that we discover how to truly enjoy our fun. We relax into our days, knowing that the God Who created us and loves us knows that our lightheartedness is the very way that we need to walk. We only thought that God didn’t want us to have a good time.

Limitless release will lead to a peace and joy that knows no bounds. Say a mantra today that will attract the Love that enfolds us, never to let the seriousness of the ego intrude again.

You Have No Idea of the Tremendous Release and Deep Peace that Comes from Meeting Yourself and Your Brothers Totally without Judgment

“You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment. (T47)”

Affirmation: “meeting. . .totally without judgment”

Reflections:

1 – Just Love

How true! We cannot even comprehend the full blessing of this passage, but we do see glimpses when we try to withhold judgment and just love. The irony is that so long as we judge, we will perceive others as judging us. This is the tenet of A Course in Miracles that projection makes perception. Nowhere will we find this more evident than in both judgment and attack thoughts. Why do we say harsh things, meeting kindness with anger and attack? We are stressed. Or we just got up on the wrong side of the bed. We know better, but we are not able to put into practice our good intentions. We must put into practice our good intentions. The best to do this is through prayer, though ACIM and A Course of Love do not specify this, per se. We need to give our brothers and sisters the love that they deserve, and they do deserve our love, for they are innocent, in illusions, of wrongdoing.

2 – Transformation

The words, “tremendous release” and “deep peace” are comforting in the extreme. Do we not all wish for this? Here we find out how to effect this transformation. The peaceful nature of these words will carry us a long way toward avoiding anger and attack. We do not need to judge the holy one that God has given us to love. We do not need to feel stressed for any reason, and once we have met Awakening, we will know that no situation is there to cause us fear. We will not fear any longer. This is motivation indeed to find within ourselves the wherewithal to follow the teaching of ACIM and thereby learn what we need to understand before Awakening can descend upon us.

3 – Do Not Judge Ourselves

We must remember not to leave ourselves out of the equation. We must not judge ourselves, just as we must not judge our brothers. Frequently, we seem to have an internal judge that chastises us for misdeeds, real and imagined. These we are bade to leave behind, and we will know release and peace.

4 – What to Do when We Are Bad

Good intentions are not enough; we all know that. And we need to know that the Holy Spirit, in prayer, will give us the self-control that we need (a personal interpretation, not given in ACIM and ACOL). We need to recognize that we are good people, though we still make mistakes. Then our propensity for making mistakes will gradually fall away.

Prayer:

Dear Father,

May I leave judgment behind forever. May I know the release and the joy that come from tolerance for my brothers and sisters.

May my day go well today. This will happen if I just remember to be tolerant of my brother’s perceived failings, and I open my heart to love.

Amen.

A Thought of Pure Joy. . .A Thought of Limitless Release

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

1 – A Mantra

I have used the words, “pure joy” and “limitless release,” almost as a mantra over the years. There is such hope in the promise of joy and release. We have been so doubled up with agony over the machinations of the ego. And it is such a blessing to know that we need not live this way. We can live in the hope of continual joy and release, and this is just what Jesus is asking us to do in this passage. “. . .[O]ne thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day.” That message to me embodies hope.

2 – Achievement Required?

We often think that we have to achieve to merit grace. Yet this is a false concept. We are accepted just as we are, in all of our mistakes and false notions of an ego-oriented self. Jesus would not have us stay in such an ignoble state, though. He would carry us through and out of misery. He would have us live a limitless release in daily life, even when bad things happen. We can rise above without suppressing or repressing the bad things. We can know that grace is there for us.

3 – Safety

Jesus continues:

You think you made a place of safety for yourself. You think you made a place of safety for yourself. You think you made a power that can save you from all the fearful things you see in dreams. It is not so. Your safety lies not there. (M-16.6)”

4 – Ego Keeps Us in Conflict

That place of safety was a supposed retreat from the world promised by an ego that recommended to us that we turn to it for safety. Yet there is no safety at all in the ego, because the ego does not wish us or others well. The ego keeps us in conflict.

5 – Highs and Lows

I have mentioned several times in this blog the highs and lows on which the ego takes us. We know exhilaration when we cater to the ego, but we drop down in affect shortly thereafter, because the ego is constantly being undone. That is the way of the world. The ego, a part of our belief about ourselves, was never meant to sustain us. We are not made this way. We are being prepared for Awakening, and the only way that we can reach this degree of salvation is to relinquish our attachment to false ways of perceiving.

6 – Egoistic Ecstasy

Why do we dip low after an ecstasy brought on by the ego? I think it is because we know that we have separated, once again, from our brothers and sisters. And we are meant to be in unity and relationship with them (from A Course of Love). Somewhere we know that our egoistic ecstasy is putting us on a pedestal of our own making, and thus the feeling does not last. In fact, as we have noted, we dip into depression, which is anger turned inward (not a concept of A Course in Miracles or ACOL).

7 – Illusions

What you give up is merely the illusion of protecting illusions. And it is this you fear, and only this. How foolish to be so afraid of nothing! Nothing at all! Your defense will not work, but you are not in danger. You have no need of them. Recognize this, and they will disappear. And only then will you accept your real protection. (M-16.6)”

8 – Depression

Another reason that we dip into depression is that we become fearful after an egoic ecstasy. Our knowledge—and it is knowledge, not perception—lends us a sense that we can do better. Indeed we can, and A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love give us the hope that we not only can, but will.

Affirmation: “I would know limitless release and pure joy today.”

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May this day go smoothly, on an even keel. May I know no highs and lows wrought by the ego. Indeed, may I let the ego slip away entirely today. And every day. This is my hope and my wish. For this, I need Your help. Be with me. Grant me Your presence in the day that hold events that I cannot predict.

Be with my brothers and sisters. May they find peace. May I find peace. We need Your presence to find that peace.

And You will grant us the sense of You when we turn to You in prayer.

Thank You.

Amen.