Journey No Longer

How much time will be saved by an end to empty seeking?  You have already arrived and need no time to journey any longer.  How much time will be saved by an end to the maintenance required by special relationships?  When all relationships are holy, you have no need to maintain specialness.  (A Course of Love, T1:8.7)

Most of us have been seekers for a long time, maybe a long, long time.  Maybe all our lives, more or less.

This search can end now, when we are on the cusp of developing our special relationships into holy ones.  We won’t have to work so hard to maintain our holy relationships.  Our loved ones will just know that they are loved unconditionally.  And, especially, what we have been seeking in special relationships will fall away.

Our seeking has worn us out.  We went from our early religious training, probably to unbelief, and then returned to the fold of spirituality.  But still we sought for yet another piece of information that would be the end that would make us happy.  But nothing can make us happy, can create happiness for us, except ourselves.  We won’t find it in a book.

I sought happiness in special relationships as well as in books.  So my seeking in relationships and books was twofold, as is true for most of us.  It is very reassuring that we have done enough now.  We know enough.  A Course of Love has finished it off for us.  It is simply up to our Christ-Self, from deep within our being, to teach us more.

So now we are hearing that there needs to be an end to seeking.  Jesus, in channeling A Course of Love, declares its information to be an end point.  We have arrived!  He even says that we are The Accomplished.  While we have trouble believing that, we know that we have a peace inside that has eluded us up to this point.  This peace will elude us no more.  We will linger in contentment, sure that we are in the right place, and, now, in the right time.

Our holy relationships will save us; that is why we need seek no more.  Relationship was primary in A Course in Miracles also.  Our relationship to our brother (and sister) would take us home.  Now Jesus is emphasizing this truth yet again in ACOL.  If we love others enough, we will have won the prize, the Holy Grail, of salvation. 

And we will know not only peace, but happiness, as well.

God’s Love

“Here, there is great richness not found in any other dimension, the richness of the dramas of separation, of seeking—seeking, seeking, seeking. . . .

“The very energy of seeking is the egoic energy.  For only the ego can seek.  Pure Spirit can only extend.  And there is a huge difference!”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 16, Page 197)

We have been seeking for long eons. But there is an end to seeking, and A Course of Love, which followed The Way of Mastery, calls for an end to seeking also. ACOL says that that end has come.

How do we make the shift into something better? Something that truly satisfies?

We develop patience, patience with ourselves. Our extension (“Pure Spirit can only extend”) is the extension of love, Love, God’s Love. And only when we rest in the certainty of knowledge can we feel secure, willing to give up seeking for something elusive that we might have missed.

In patience we possess our souls. We have heard that, but have we believed it? It is true, completely true.

Let us ask for the patience to accept what we already know, that Love, God’s Love, when sensed, is the Answer we have been seeking.

He will do all the rest.

Now Is the Time to End Empty Seeking

How much time will be saved by an end to empty seeking? You have already arrived and need no time to journey any longer. (ACOL, T1:8.7)

Most of us have been seekers for a long time, maybe a long, long time. Maybe all our lives, more or less.

This search can end now, when we are on the cusp of developing our special relationships into holy ones. We won’t have to work so hard to maintain our holy relationships. Our loved ones will just know that they are loved unconditionally. And, especially, what we have been seeking in special relationships will fall away.
Our seeking has worn us out. We went from our early religious training, probably to unbelief, and then returned to the fold of spirituality. But still we sought for yet another piece of information that would be the end that would make us happy. But nothing can make us happy, can create happiness for us, except ourselves. We won’t find it in a book.

I sought happiness in special relationships as well as in books. The special relationships were my dates when I was single; the books ranged from Catherine Marshall to Norman Vincent Peale to the Seth material (Jane Roberts) to Richard Carlson to Deepak Chopra to A Course in Miracles to Julia Cameron to Rhonda Byrne. Quite a list we all have! So my seeking in relationships and books was twofold, as is true for most of us. It is very reassuring that we have done enough now. We know enough. A Course of Love has finished it off for us. It is simply up to our Christ-Self, from deep within our being, to teach us more.

So now we are hearing that there needs to be an end to seeking. Jesus, in channeling A Course of Love, declares its information to be an end point. We have arrived! He even says that we are The Accomplished. While we have trouble believing that, we know that we have a peace inside that has eluded us up to this point. This peace will elude us no more. We will linger in contentment, sure that we are in the right place, and, now, in the right time.

Our holy relationships will save us; that is why we need seek no more. Relationship was primary in A Course in Miracles also. Our relationship to our brother (and sister) would take us home. Now Jesus is emphasizing this truth yet again in ACOL. If we love others enough, we will have won the prize, the Holy Grail, of salvation.

And we will know not only peace, but happiness, as well.

Finding God

When you choose to surrender, to give up the game, to give up the dream of trying to resist the Truth that is true about you always, you will become a mere channel, a mere conduit. You will become no more a seeker, for you will have decided to have found. (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 6, Page 72)

We do not want to remain seekers forever; we want to find. When we open ourselves to the God within, we put ourselves in a place where we can declare that we have found. And this is very sweet indeed. Much of our reading has been seeking behavior. We have wandered in and out of treatises, ancient advice, channeled writing. This has not been wrong; we had to find something that would speak to our hearts. But if we don’t want to remain seekers forever, never to find, we must start listening to our own hearts, sans the advice.

God speaks to each of us, just all the time. His way is clear, when we get out subconscious fears and judgments set aside.

Set aside fear and judgment today. Let God know that we are serious about listening to Him. Not that we will never read again, but that we will bring our own insight to the table. Then our reading can really speak to us.

Conclusion to Endless Seeking

“Ah, imagine now what it will be like to have nothing left to learn, nothing left to become. The pressure is off. The alchemy has occurred. The coal has become a diamond. Ah, imagine now being able to forget all ideas of self-improvement, imagine how much time will be saved by this quest coming to an end. But what now will you do? What now will you be?” (ACOL, E.1)

We have finally “made it.” Jesus is encouraging us to be satisfied with our progress, not to keep seeking, to know that we are safe and in the hands of God. We are The Accomplished, though we may, for a long time perhaps, continue to doubt this. He has encouraged us to realize that there must come a stop to our seeking. We who have constantly wanted more, now have it.

He is assuming, of course, that all of us have received Christ-consciousness, and that is not for certain in all of us. All of us, though, have had glimpses of what Christ-consciousness means and is, and it is these glimpses that will save us. We will know, when we are particularly mellow and gentle with ourselves, that this is what Awakening really means. For us who have taken to heart A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, the Awakening is easy and abundantly gentle. We have been carefully prepared. All we have to do now is wait for God’s hand to lift us up. And then all will truly be well.

Dear God,

Thank You for the glimpses of You that I am receiving today. These glimpses offer me a warm and fuzzy feeling of well-being. Thank You so much.

May the day play out well. Stay with me, allow me to feel Your presence.

Amen.

Seek No More

“The Christ in you has no need to plan. A need to come to know…yes. But a need to plan…no. The Christ in you needs not for you to choose a lesson plan, but to let life itself be your chosen way of learning.” (ACOL, T2:10.19)

This quotation for today is an echo of an admonition from A Course in Miracles. There we are told to weave no plans against contingencies to come, unless these plans are prompted by the Holy Spirit. Planning is part of the trio of activities that will keep Awakening, or Christ-consciousness, from us. Along with attack and judgment, planning separates us from God’s present moment promptings. Of course, there may be practical plans that need to be made, and, if so, we will be told of them. Then and then only should we proceed.

Later on in A Course of Love, we find out that observation of life is our new way of learning. We are no longer to turn to the wisdom of the past, other people’s wisdom. Instead, we are to let our lives teach us what we need to know. And here we see the foreshadowing of this new idea: “. . .let life itself be your chosen way of learning.”

We do need to come to know. Not perceive, but know. And only when we are in right relationship to God will we know anything of value. Perceptions, particularly perceptions of the ego, mislead. But knowing is of God, and therefore blessed.

We have, many of us, been excellent students of past wisdom. We were taught how to learn in school, and we have benefited greatly, as the world views it, from this learning. We are about to find that learning, as such, is no longer needed nor necessary. Of course, we can still choose to learn, but this will be a choice only; and many who want to create a new world will not fall into these paths of the past. We can cease our seeking into various spiritual traditions, if we wish. Our seeking can come to an end, because we have now found. With A Course of Love, we have our way home, our way back to God. And the glory of Christ-consciousness will affirm that we have made the right choice.

When one has found, he/she can be contented in no longer seeking. Many of us have been seekers most of our lives, but where does this end? Jesus has recognized this propensity in us, and he has sought to let us know that we are already The Accomplished, that we have already, now, found. We are the prodigal sons and daughters who have returned home, and, with this final step, we no longer need to seek. We have arrived home, safe and secure at last. Christ-consciousness is only a breath away.

Prayer

Help this day to be good. I have a busy day ahead, as have many of us. I need to realize that planning for the unforeseen is a trap, that planning cannot be predicted, that it shouldn’t be predicted at all. Be with me this day as I let my free spirit out to play.

Thank You for all that You do for me. Even when I am confused, indeed especially then, You clear my mind. I would keep a clear mind throughout the day. With Your help.

Amen.

Rest in God’s Grace

“Seekers are but another category of those who at the precipice act as if they have hit a wall rather than come across a bridge. It is precisely the place at which you stopped that you must return to. Those who continue to seek may have left teachings of the Course or of one or another spiritual or religious tradition only to find another and still another. For those intent on seeking there is always more to seek, but those who find must stop to realize what they have found and to realize that they seek no more.” (ACOL, C:P.23)

A Course of Love represents the final thing sought; we are home again when we have read it all—or so Jesus hopes.

We have long sought, most of us. And there is always another mountaintop of seeking awaiting us, if that is what we wish to find. Jesus knows that this is compulsive behavior for which we need an end. And he provides that end in A Course of Love.

We need to realize that we are The Accomplished. Not in an egoic sense, of course; we have moved far beyond this. But we need to see that at the precipice of the mountain we have found a bridge to the Promised Land, not “hit a wall” (as Jesus warns we are prone to believe).

We don’t have to keep seeking, and is this not welcome news? We have found, and Jesus points that out in ACOL, our final way home. Others have other pathways, but we have selected ours, and ACOL does works for those of us who have chosen it.

There is a proviso, though, one that I have been pointing out for several days now. Not all of us will reach enlightenment when we finish reading A Course of Love, and we may encounter a yearning that is very uncomfortable. Ask for help if this comes to us. Just ask for help. God’s helpers, and God Himself, will be right there with us, taking away the yearning (at least momentarily), and giving us an ease of mind.

This is the best way to be: Not seeking, but just surrendering to God’s grace to come when it may. Just surrender to God. He will do the rest—which may not be Christ-consciousness right away. But he will take away the pain of no reaching where we would go. He will keep us patient and happy in our daily walk with Him.

Living with Certainty

1 – Conclusive

“[The Treatise] will. . .be conclusive. . . .[I]t will do this only to reach a conclusion of certainty from which you can live. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 1.2)”

2 – Overview

The Treatise on the New is the fourth and last treatise in the second volume of A Course of Love, and the entire volume is entitled, Treatises of a Course of Love. This final treatise is written to prepare us for the final book in the trilogy, the Dialogues. The Treatise on the New is a preparatory book to lead into a new age for us in our knowledge of living as the elevated Self of form. At this point, at the beginning of the Treatise on the New, we are not yet ready to turn to inner knowledge only. We still need external guidance in the form of these words.
We are trying to reach a certainty about how to live that will serve us well in a sometimes alienating world. This certainty has eluded all of us, perhaps particularly those of us who are drawn to A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love. Many of us have been seekers all of our lives, and elsewhere Jesus specifically addresses this point. We have always thought that understanding (and knowledge) would be found in the “next” book or the “next” speaker or the “next” experience of religion.

3 – Seeking

Jesus would have us step back and to reassess. He says here and elsewhere, repeatedly, that the seeking is to come to an end. There are things that we know, in the most inward way, and yet we still do not trust our knowing. Jesus would have us to leave all of this foolishness behind, and to trust that we do have the certainty that he is, once again, showing us in this treatise. Once again, he is trying to get his message across, this time with a finality that was not fully accepted by us through studying both the New Testament and A Course in Miracles.

4 – New Readings

Always we have sought a way to be sure, to be certain. In the Twenty-First Century, we do have new readings that point the way for our time and place.

5 – Learning

We are getting ready to leave learning in the old way, through intermediaries, behind. We have sought our Way through readings, primarily, and sermons, sometimes. But now we are going to learn through the observation of our relationships in this world. We will dispense with the intermediaries and see directly.

6 – No Disappointment

We will not be disappointed.

7 – Chosen

“A question has been asked and a response is awaited. Are you willing to be chosen? Are you willing to be the chosen of God? All are asked. What is your answer? (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 1.5)”

8 – Asked

The crucial part of this quotation is the statement, “All are asked.” All to often, we think that being “chosen” somehow excludes others. But Jesus says that all are chosen. All can come to know, and come to know now. We no longer have to wait for someone else, some other reading, to show us the way.

9 – Old Ways

This is welcome news indeed. Seekers, such as most of us have been, have constantly looked to the “next,” the next reading, the next sermon, the next lecture. But there has to come a time that we cease seeking. And that time is almost upon us now. This treatise, and the succeeding part, the Dialogues, will show us that seeking in the old ways is not desirable any longer.

10 – Home

We will be home at last.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I live today with the certainty that You love me. May I live with the certainty that, soon, the seeking will reach a glorious conclusion. I do not have to look always for the “next” pathway, the one that will give me peace and reassurance, ultimately. The time for this reassurance is at hand.

May we prepare ourselves for a new way of thinking, a new way to find solace in a sometimes difficult world. We know that Jesus leads us precisely, and that we do not have to be on an endless pathway of seeking. Thank You for that knowledge. For so long we didn’t know any better. We thought that further seeking was the only way that we could find You. Now we know that we are ready. We have learned enough. And You are here to welcome us home. Thank You.

Thank You for these words of Jesus. May I read and interpret correctly. And may you stay by my right hand always in these moments, guiding my thoughts to fuller understanding.

Amen.

The Now for Christ-Consciousness

“This Course is but a trigger.  These words the prelude to the explosion.  It is as if you have been waiting for someone to whisper:  Now!  The whisper has come.  The time is now.  (A Course of Love, 26.25)”

Affirmation:  “The time is now.”

Reflections:

1 – “Explosion”

The words of this passage refer to the “explosion” that will occur, from a whisper, when we are ready for Christ-consciousness.  We need, some of us, simply to accept that the time is now.  The time has arrived.  We do not have to do or say anything further.

2 – Awakening

Not all of us are ready for this blessing.  But we can rest in assurance that when we are ready, God Himself will act to (metaphorically) reach down and lift us up.

3 – Always Seeking

Always we have thought that there was something else that we had to read, something else that we had to do, some other pathway that we had to explore.  It appears to me that one of the reasons that Jesus wrote this sequel is that students of A Course in Miracles could not seem to cease their seeking.  Here in A Course of Love Jesus gives us the signal to cease our seeking.  We know enough.  We are ready.  Even, we are told, we do not have to be perfect (a belief that many of us have, at least subconsciously).  Just rest and receive from God.  Again, I emphasize that Jesus says that “now” is the time.

4 – Ready for the Awakening

Does not this passage for today seem too good to be true?  We have waited long to read such a passage, such an assurance that we really are ready to receive Awakening or Christ-consciousness.  At first we will see in glimpses, but these glimpses will lengthen, and when they do, we will almost imperceptibly be living in Christ-consciousness all the time.  It is true that some, such as Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now; A New Earth) have sudden experiences of union.  But it would appear from my reading of A Course of Love that such individuals are in the minority.  Most are given, as A Course in Miracles points out, a slowly evolving pathway.  If the light were suddenly turned on for those of us still asleep, we would be very, very frightened.  ACIM makes this clear.  Our happy dreams from the Holy Spirit have prepared us, though, and now we are ready to move into the great blessing of Awakening, or Christ-consciousness, without fear.

5 – Wait Long?

Will we have to wait long?  Not if we take Jesus at his word.  But neither do we want to claim this great blessing before we sense its true arrival.  We do not want to be false prophets, here as we reach the culmination of a long road to the epitome of salvataion.

6 – Christ-consciousness

Pray for Christ-consciousness, and assume that if Jesus has said that we are ready, it is only a matter of time before we will find that his word is indeed true.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I rest in Jesus’s assurance that the time is now for Christ-consciousness.  But I know that the “now” in eternity is not the “now” of this world.  And so I will be patient.  But I will need seek fruitlessly.  Constant seeking is a deterrent.  And I would not defer Christ-consciousness.

Help us to follow in Your way, knowing that You make the decision of the rightness of Awakening.  I would have it no other way, though I admit to being impatient.  Take this impatience from me, and give me peace and comfort in Your grace.

Be with all my brothers and sisters.  We need each other, perhaps as we have never needed each other before.  Help us to say and do and think what You would wish.

And may Christ-consciousness be not long delayed.  Thank You.

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.

An End to Senseless Seeking

“Your willingness to learn is evident or you would not be here.  Yet you learn and then you let the ego come and take all you have learned from you again and still again.  (A Course of Love, P.42)”

Affirmation:  “May my ego be silent today.”

Reflections:

1 – Move beyond the Ego

Jesus is chastising us in a very gentle way in today’s passage.  He is right, of course.  We do learn from A Course in Miracles, and, now, from A Course of Love, and then we don’t move beyond the ego and the ego urges us into poor self-centered thoughts and actions as well as anger and attack.  We must realize that the ego, a part of our belief about ourselves (a definition from A Course in Miracles), is not undone by a frontal attack.  The ego grows strong in strife.  But if we just turn aside, we will find more success in eliminating egoic dictates from our consciousness.  Let us turn aside today.

2 – Still in “Learning” Mode

We are still, in the Preface to A Course of Love, in the “learning” mode.  This learning mode will continue throughout the first volume, which we are considering for a number of months.  Some of what we read is a reconsideration of tenets of A Course in Miracles, and therefore will sound very familiar to us.  But there are new elements, because I believe that Jesus had unfinished business with us following A Course in Miracles, he led to further blessings in A Course of Love.

3 – Why We Need A Course of Love

Perhaps the main reason that we needed A Course of Love is that Jesus saw us still seeking, seeking, and seeking yet again.  He saw us in our confusion, and he sought to clear this confusion up (an ACOL tenet).  We weren’t sure that we had “learned” everything needed, and so kept to our explorations through learning.  After these first and second volumes of A Course of Love are considered, there comes in the third volume a time when Jesus says learning is to cease; we are from here on to observe, to make observation of our surroundings, but not to “learn” in the old-fashioned way.  Let us keep in mind that the early volumes of ACOL are all heading toward this cessation of learning in the old way.  We will eventually need just to stop and to recognize that the glimmerings of Christ-consciousness that come to us will lead the way.

4 – Avoid Needless Seeking

But right now we are at the beginning of the first volume of ACOL.  Let us take heed together, so that we will be ready to stop our needless further seeking  when we have considered all that Jesus now has to tell us.  And we will be blessed indeed.  What a struggle all of our seeking has been!

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I realize that A Course in Love is meant to clear up confusion, the endless seeking that even the most astute of students/teachers of A Course in Miracles finds compelling.  May this senseless further seeking end now.  May I know that A Course of Love brings this seeking, this compulsion, to an end.  And may I bring this compulsion to an end in me.

Be with us as we seek to learn in this first volume of A Course of Love.  Some of it is review of ACIM, but not all, because there are new elements–particularly the central place of the heart, to which Jesus appeals.  May we listen to our hearts today as we read and reflect.  May we have a good day as we go about this illusory world.  And, as always, I plea for reality to come soon.  Thank You for listening.

Amen.