Rest

“Rest, when truly learned, is a state of being in which struggle has ceased and peace has triumphed over chaos, love has triumphed over fear.

“You may still see but two choices:  peace or struggle.  But with such an attitude, you would soon be struggling to maintain your peace.  There is another choice, and it lies within.”  (A Course of Love, T2:1.6 – 1.7)

We are at rest when we commune with our depths, which is the same as saying that we commune with our God.  He is always there, ready and eagerly waiting to help in any way that we will allow.  He doesn’t interfere if we thwart His ways by not turning to Him; He gave us free will so that we would turn to Him out of our extreme need.

Many don’t turn to God unless and until we are in dire straits.  But what a way to live!  Let intellectual doubts rest in the knowledge from the heart that there is a Supreme Power that dwells in the depths of our souls.  Within and without, He is always there—waiting for our nod in His direction.

We don’t have to choose peace over struggle in some kind of balancing act that seeks to keep the peace and resist the struggle.  We need only rest within, and all struggle ceases easily.  We have peace when we rest within.  And then God reigns.  And all is well in His world—and His world is our own.

Rest in Gentle Assurance

“To read the inspired wisdom of teachers such as these in order to “learn” has prevented the very relationship that these teachers sought to impart.

“What you have “learned,” and since the time of learning had revealed to you, is a new way, the way of direct relationship with God, the way of knowing through discovery. Remember always that knowing through discovery is knowing what was not known before, and keep this in mind as we consider the knowing of abundance.” (ACOL, D:Day3.37 – Day 3.38)

Knowing, real knowing, comes from intuitive understanding, not from our reading, however learned those discourses may be. When we know, we no longer perceive, for perception is of the ego, and we may perceive wrongly. Knowledge, and the acquisition of knowledge, rests on a sure foundation. When we know, we may find it hard to explain to another what we know. It just seems to us to BE. And this being is its salient point.

We are to know that the end of learning is here. We do not need to seek farther and farther afield for information about how to live our lives. We can rest in the inspiration that comes from God Himself. We can know in a way that has eluded us heretofore.

This knowledge is a great blessing. We walk through this world with a surety that we have lacked until now. We have been so confused about what to do and say. And what Jesus is saying is that those times of indecision are at an end—if we will let them rest, and lean on intuition, which gives us a solid foundation from which to act and speak. The way is clear now. If we seem confused, perhaps we are still caught up in a pattern of the ego (though the ego itself is gone from us). We are, in other words, in a habit of being confused, and everyone knows that habits can be hard to break.

Rest in gentle assurance that what Jesus has told us is the truth. We no longer have to restlessly seek further knowledge of things above, further knowledge of Heaven. If we just have the patience to listen to our inner guidance, we will know absolutely all that we need to know.

And we will be happy in that knowledge.

Dear God,

Thank You for solving any and all problems that seem to develop in one fell swoop. Thank You that the solution is always with what I perceive to a problem. That means that no problem lingers. The way out is being shown on an ongoing basis.

Thank You for Your love, showered on me in a warmth that is palpable. Thank You that any dark nights that I ever went through now seem to be in the past. Help me to have confidence in the promptings that You offer so freely. Thank You for wanting a direct relationship with me, one that I can feel and know.

Amen.

It Is Time to Rest

“There is no such thing as a static level in unity where creation is contin¬uous and ongoing. You should have no desire to reach such a state and the awareness that you are in such a state can alert you, or serve as a sign, that the ego-mind and its fear-based thinking has momentarily returned. This does not mean that you will never be at rest or that you will be constantly seeking to arrive. As has already been said, you have arrived and rest exists only in the state of unity.” (ACOL, T2:9.14)

Creation is continuous and ongoing; this is another way of saying that God changes, just like His creation. We have often believed, through traditional Christianity, that God is unmoving, that He is a constant, that He doesn’t change. A Course of Love does not hold to this tradition, and, as such, is a departure from it. Would God be the only part of creation that never changes? If God is deep within each of us, as the Christ-Self, then we can see how change is likely. The Christ does learn, we hear in ACOL. The Christ-consciousness evolves, like everything else. We are not meant to be static, though Jesus has told us that we are The Accomplished, and so no longer need to struggle in our evolving lives.

We are retracing steps that we have made before, going back up a long carpet that rolls up behind us—this from A Course in Miracles. We made the right decision eons ago, and now we simply relive that decision. This is theology, and if it is hard for us to accept, we simply don’t have to do so; we can dislodge the ego and form a new identity without attaching ourselves to any theology. But the way will be clearer if we recognize why we are about what we are about.

None of us would want to live a static, unchanging illusion. This is illusion, and needs now to be left behind. Our true reality will see us growing and changing in spiritual evolution, as we progress toward and beyond Christ-consciousness.

Prayer

Be with me today. It is so easy to get discouraged. I think that I make some progress, and then I fall back into fear. This fear may be only an echo of what has gone before, with the ego. But it hurts. And I would be finished with hurt.

I know that You are with me, living life through me. Help me to know that my echoes of fear are just that—echoes. A pattern of fear that will soon, very soon, fall away.

Thank You for that knowledge.

Amen.

Find Rest for Our Weary Souls

“What a big job you have assigned yourself! It is no small wonder that you live in fear when so much is dependent upon you. And no wonder that when you find a respite, a place of rest and beauty and of love, you want to claim it for your own lest it get away!” (ACOL, C:14.19)

We have been through a lot in the eons since the ego came into being. We are weary, so very weary. Not all the time, but enough time that we long for rest from our labors.

We can have this rest. This rest is what Jesus is leading us to. He knows that there are things still to be done, many things, but he also knows, and assures us, that these things will be done in an easy and effortless way. We will be guided all the way. And we will know such joy and peace that we will know, finally, that we have “arrived.”

We have been fearful because we imagined that handling our lives was our own chore. If this were true, we would have a big responsibility indeed. But handling our own lives is not the task before us, and in truth it has never been the task at all. Our ego didn’t know any better, and the ego had us working long and hard to succeed in a difficult world. The ego even had us trying long and hard to succeed in spiritual matters, in bringing the world’s people around to our way of thinking.

The need was never there. We will largely, now, exhibit traits that embrace others, and we will draw those others to us by our example. We will not seek to proselytize; that is not our purpose. Others will see us as ordinary people living ordinary lives, and in the observation will want to know what is different about us.

Then we are freed to tell these others who have inquired. We don’t have to do anything other than who we really are to bring on this dynamic. And we will rest in the knowledge that this is the easiest “work” that we have ever done.

Our rest will give us peaceful days. We will walk easily ahead as we create a new world not based on effort.

Nourishment & Rest for Our Spirit

“My words call you to the eternal, to nourishment and rest of the spirit rather than the body. That your sights are set on the care of the body alone is another example of choosing an opposite for replacement.” (ACOL, C:9.22)

All of us long, all too often, for comfort of the physical body. And here Jesus encourages us toward something more—comfort of the spirit. The spirit knows invulnerability far more than the body, for the body and its thoughts and feelings can be subdued by fear. The spirit cannot be subdued by fear, for the spirit is the part of us that is joined to the Christ Self. The spirit and the Christ Self are One, and herein is the appeal to the heart made complete.

When we choose an “opposite” for “replacement,” meaning the body, we are seeing in contrasts. This seeing in contrasts was a method that the Holy Spirit used in His time, but we have now moved beyond the time of the Holy Spirit and are in the time of Christ, where a direct knowing is the norm. Previously the contrast enlightened us, but now we know without proof, for we are listening and feeling with the heart. We don’t need proof when we draw in the heart.

Jesus calls us to the eternal, and this eternal can include a new vision for the body (though he does not say so in this passage). This new vision for the body is the Christ-conscious physical form of the Self that Jesus later on calls “elevated.” This means that we can live in physical form for eons, if we so choose. We might come to understand that it will take many of us choosing to live in physical form on this earth to lead the billions back to God. The billions who still live in separation, an illusory separation (of course), but separation indeed. In A Course in Miracles, Jesus said that the separation occurred over millions of years, and that millions more might be needed to heal the separation. And if so, many of us need to be embodied, on earth, to effect this change.

Our brothers and sisters need us here in this world. We can do much good, though A Course of Love is not a call to proselytize. The people in our world will signal when they are ready to hear our truth. Then and only then do we have the golden zipper removed from our lips, and we are free to share what we have come to know.

Rest

“There is no such thing as a static level in unity where creation is continuous and ongoing. You should have no desire to reach such a state and the awareness that you are in such a state can alert you, or serve as a sign, that the ego-mind and its fear-based thinking has momentarily returned. This does not, however, mean that you will never be at rest or that you will be constantly seeking to arrive. As has already been said, you have arrived and rest exists only in the state of unity. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Nature of Unity and Its Recognition, 9.14)”

Affirmation: “I will remember to rest today.”

Reflections:

1 – The Wish to Rest

We often wish to rest. There is a favorite passage in A Course of Love about the “embrace” with Jesus, in which he encourages us to rest in his arms. A very personal passage, this indicates that he too knows of our weariness and seeks to assuage it. We will be able to rest when we have “arrived” and are not burdened by the ego mind. But creation is not static; there will still be things that we are called to do. The joy of doing those things will be palpable, though. We will not struggle anymore.

2 – No Struggle

Not to struggle seems to good to be true. But in the state of unity with our Self and others we are not called to struggle. We rest in God’s peace, and we still find rest as we go about any busy doing that He calls us to. These moments of peace sustain us throughout the day.

3 – Personal Experience

I find that a quick restorative is all that is needed when the day starts off wrong. Sometimes we need just to sit down and talk to God, being certain that we allow Him time to talk to us as well. Just this morning I started rushing around (always a mistake), but I stopped in time, and just sat in meditation for a few moments. That was enough to get me back on track.

4 – Ego-Mind

The ego-mind can return. We are not home free yet. And when the ego-mind returns, we struggle. Let us recall this equation, and know that when the struggle arises, we are once again caught by ego. And we would not have it so.

5 – No Seeking

What does it mean to “have arrived”? It means that we can stop seeking incessantly. We have long, most of us, been on a search for God. But He never left us, and He will show us so if we will get still enough, often enough, to listen.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I wish for peace and rest today, as every day. I long for Your comfort, Your blessing that the ego-mind will depart, and I will be at home in You. Be with me as I find this state of being.

May today be the first day of a string of pearl-like days, filled with the assurances that only You can give me. May the day be well-spent, not selfishly seeking what could only benefit me, but what will benefit others with whom I come in contact.

Amen

The Embrace

“This is a call to move now into my embrace and let yourself be comforted.  Let the tears fall and the weight of your shoulders rest upon mind.  Let me cradle your head against my breast as I stroke your hair and assure you that it will be all right.  Realize that this is the whole world, the universe, the all of all in whose embrace you literally exist.  Feel the gentleness and the love.  Drink in the safety and the rest.  Close your eyes and begin to see with an imagination that is beyond thought and words.  (A Course of Love, 20.2)”

Affirmation: “May I feel the embrace today.”

Reflections:

1 – Most Beloved Passage

This passage for today is one of the most beloved of all passages in A Course of Love.  In it, Jesus is speaking personally to every reader, but he is also speaking from a more universal perspective, saying that the universe is safe and holds us within its embrace.

2 – Gentleness, Love, Safety, Rest

The personal aspect will appeal to some; the more universal, to others.  We are bade to feel the gentleness and love of the embrace, the safety and the rest.  Jesus invites us to close our eyes and imagine what cannot be seen.  Often we have been told (in A Course in Miracles as well as A Course of Love) that our physical eyes cannot have “vision.”  We only have vision for the real world, which is not physical in the way that the illusory world is physical.  The physical world is seen differently in vision, and that is all that we really need to know.

3 – Comfort

This passage is comforting in the extreme, and it would be helpful to return to it over and over when we are ill-at-ease or distraught.  Life does throw us curves sometimes, and we would do well to take advantage of all that Jesus is offering to us.  He is with us, when we make one “unequivocal call” (from ACIM).  Can we understand this?  No, we can’t.  But, somehow, Jesus transcends ordinary physical laws and is with all of us as need arises.

4 – Personal

Do I believe this, truly?  Absolutely.

5 – A Blessing

And I hope that we will all come to believe this blessing also.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I have felt the presence of a person who seemed, to my mind, to be Jesus.  There was a comfort to this presence that I have felt from nobody else.

Be with me today as I seek to work out my intellectual doubts.  There are natural laws about which our science, as yet, knows nothing.  And I think that Jesus’s presence with us is one of those natural laws.  He comes in response to one unequivocal call, as A Course in Miracles tells us.

Thank You.

Amen.

Admit Your Desire to Rest

“Admit now your desire to rest, a desire that could make you weep and make you wish to sleep an endless sleep.  If you but understood the energy required to keep the world of your illusion in its place, you would understand the rest that will simply come of giving up your need to do so.  (A Course of Love, 12.7)”

Affirmation:  “Rest today.”

Reflections:

1 – Exerting Energy

I find the idea interesting that we are exerting energy to keep illusions in place, and that we will feel more rested when we have given up this essentially heartless task.  The world is here, once again, defined as illusion (A Course in Miracles said “dreams”).  We do project our interior to the outside of our seeing eyes.  We make what we view first within.  If hate finds a place in our hearts, we will see a hateful world.  On the contrary, if love finds a place in our hearts, we will view a loving world.  Cannot we see the wisdom in this interpretation?  Cannot we realize that when we see others who are conflicted, we ourselves are at that moment conflicted, and we are conflicted first?

2 – Hugh Prather

Hugh Prather makes the latter point very precisely.  He notes that when he and his wife Gayle see couples in public who need to have something “fixed,” then at that moment the two of them seem to need to have something “fixed” in their normally loving relationship.  How could it be otherwise?  And is not this dynamic something that can be noticed, easily, in daily life?

3 – Fixing the Outer / Inner

When we have drunk too much coffee, are we not prone to pick a fight with our nearest and dearest?  We are too stressed from the caffeine, and we therefore react.  We do not act for no good reason, but we try to fix the outer when the inner has been compromised.

4 – Rest Today

Today would be a good day to decide that we will rest rather than try to prop up the world of illusion by wishing for that which we don’t have.  Just turn inward when stressed, and know that this too shall pass.

5 – Invite Rest

The only way to get rest is to invite it.  And this we do when we stop trying to make this world into something that it is not.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would rest today from my weariness.  I know that I am not nearly as weary as some of my brothers and sisters, but the ego has not yet died in me, and keeping the illusions going has sapped my strength.  I would end this foolishness today.

Thank You for the joy that You have given me today.  I know that the joy comes from You, even as I struggle against egoic impulses.  Be with me as I leave the struggle behind and simply rest.

Amen.

What Do We Really Seek?

“This Course may seem to have come far astray from what you would have it do, for you are looking for something specific from it, though you know it not.  You are looking for the rest and quiet joy that only comes from love.  You are looking for the safety and security of a loving home, even if it is one only of philosophy  You look for the soft assurance of certainty, not of your mind, but of your heart.  (A Course of Love, 12.5)”

Affirmation:  “peace, serenity, calm, tranquility”

Reflections:

1 – Blessings

All of us want the blessings so beautifully mentioned in the passage for today.  Some of us choose to turn aside from the quiet that could come from a genuinely spiritual attitude in life.  And perhaps that is not all wrong.  God is God of the secular, and He does not need our worship (though He does want our communion with Him, according to A Course in Miracles, the Text).  God does not have an ego with which to accept the praise that traditional religion has asked us to give to Him.  But we ourselves do need to be thankful for His generous blessings, and the fact that He is always here for us, even (especially) when we fail to recognize His Presence.

2 – What Do We Want in Life?

Today let us get very quiet within ourselves, and ask in genuine calm if Jesus doesn’t have it right here.  What do we really want in this life?  Jesus mentions rest, quiet joy, love, safety and security, and soft assurance of certainty in our hearts.  Jesus does not mention “success” as the world views success.  Is it not therefore likely that we are amiss when we seek for the successes that this world recognizes?  All blessings in the list are intangibles, even the reference made to “home” is considered to be metaphorical.  If we pray for the blessings in this list, are we not praying in God’s Will?  And will He not grant what is in His Will?

3 – Our Real Will and God’s Are Identical

Remember that our real will and God’s are identical.  He chooses for us what we really want.  But he does give us the free will to reject what He has offered, though He does set limits on our miscreation.  If He did not set limits on our miscreation, we would be lost indeed.  So let us be thankful that we can stray from Him just so far.

4 – Living in a Dream

Pain is the way that, more often than not, we know that we have strayed.  This does not mean that every illness is an indictment from God.  Certainly not.  We live in a world of dreams, and our Selves can choose illness for a myriad of reasons, most often being a way to learn.  Yet we can learn through rewards (an ACIM tenet), and we might spend some time today asking that our pains be reduced and our rewards be increased.  Learning through rewards is lasting, and learning through pain is not.  Sometime, somehow, we realize that there is another way.  And then we are ready to find it.  A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love are two courses that seek to set us on the pathway back to God and all holiness that, in our dreams, we have forgotten.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for the intangibles of rest, peace, certainty of the heart, and the like–intangibles that you have offered to me so freely.  When I seek for success as measured by this world, I often seek amiss.  But Your will is that I have these intangibles that are Your blessings.  When I ask for them, Your giving them to me is assured.  Thank You for the gentleness of Your response.

I would learn through rewards, not pain.  I would choose the way of Jesus, a way which is sure to be lasting.  Pain teaches, but only for a season.  We have to come to know, eventually, that there is another way to live, another way other than encountering pain wherever we look.  I would find that other way today.  And when I do so, I will  not cease to thank You for the joy that You are so desirous to give me.

Amen.

A Valley Full of Lilies

“You realize not that if you were to stop and take your brother’s hand, the race course would become a valley full of lilies, and you would find yourself on the other side of the finish line, able at last to rest.  (A Course of Love, 9.40)”

Affirmation:  “holy relationships”

Reflections:

1 – Holy Relationships

This passage from ACOL is another phrasing of a pivotal assertion of A Course in Miracles.  The passage is especially beautiful in wording.  The central point is that we need to have holy relationships with our brothers and sisters, and that when we reach out to touch them, we are finding our way to heaven.  Heaven is not a place or a condition, but Oneness (an ACIM tenet).  When we hold our brother or sister’s hand, we are aiming for oneness with him or her.

2 – Lilies

The “race course would become a valley full of lilies,” which is a lovely reminder of the lilies mentioned in the Bible as well as A Course in Miracles.  Surely lilies must be one of Jesus’s favorite flowers.

3 – We Want to Rest

We would not have to race about to achieve.  Our achievement is found in the closeness with which we hold our brother and sister’s hand.  We want to rest, for we are very weary.  This world is a place of weariness, and we would not want that if we could change it.

4 – A Blessing

To be on the “other side of the finish line” is a blessing indeed!  May we, in sweetness and light, join our brothers and sisters today in holy relationship.  We do not ask for special relationships, unless we see the means to transform those special relationships into holy.  When we do that, all is well.

5 – Transforming Special to Holy

Our special relationships will not be snatched from us (an ACIM tenet), but transformed into holy ones.  The transformation may be a bit difficult, even very difficult, but the change in goals for the relationship makes the period of transition hard.  We have transformed a relationship entered into for unholy reasons (e.g., attractiveness, ambition for success, ambition for worldly glory) has been transformed into a relationship that will take us home to heaven.  How could we ask for more?

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would know that there is no need to rush about and hurry so.  I am holding my brother’s hand, and that is sufficient.  I ask that all of my holy relationships remain holy, that no attack nor anger mar their beauty.

Help us to find the will to rest.  Often we push ahead when we would be better off to wait, to rest in serenity that You offer to us.

Be with me today.  Help me to know that You are always present with the solution of every problem that presents itself, at the time that the problem presents itself.

Amen.

The Stillness of the Peace of God Is Mine

ACIM Workbook Lesson  273 – for Friday, September 30, 2011

Affirmation:  “The stillness of the peace of God is mine.”

“We need but tell our minds, with certainty, ‘The stillness of the peace of God is mine,’ and nothing can intrude upon the peace that God Himself has given to His Son.

“Father, Your peace is mine.  What need have I to fear that anything can rob me of what You would have me keep?  I cannot lose Your gifts to me.  And so the peace You gave Your Son is with me still, in quietness and in my own eternal love for you.  (WB433)”

Reflections:

1 – Ever-Greater Serenity

Today we return to passages of greater serenity.  We wait in quietness for God to act.  We listen to the Holy Spirit, and we follow what He says.  And by waiting and by listening, we gain the peace of God.

2 – Disregard the Ego / Be Safe

This serenity is unassailable, regardless of what is happening in the illusory world of which we are a part.  As long as we disregard the dictates of the ego, we are safe.  And when we let all our grievances go, we will know that we are safe (from the Workbook).

3 – Let Us Rest Today

May we be in the spirit of forgiveness today.  May today be a particular day of rest in our journey.  We do not need to attack, to judge, or to make plans against contingencies to come.  If there are plans to be made, the Holy Spirit will so tell us (a Text tenet).

4 – God Goes with Us

We can indeed afford to be careful for nothing, knowing that God goes with us wherever we go (an ACIM paraphrase).

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would rest today awhile, secure in the knowledge of Your love for me.  I would disregard the ego, because nothing that the ego says ever made any sense; it was constantly being undone.  The ego’s undoing is part of the honing of our Self in this world.  Thank You for letting me know this.

I thank You for the rest that You will give me today.  The world has been too much with me lately, and I need the respite that only You can bring.  Be with me today as I seek Your respite.

Amen.