Pure Love Manifested

“Blessed soul, beauty of eternal life!  Here we are, united in a time and place that has merged into the eternal.  Together we are the light of the world.  United we are the sun of life.  From our relationship of pure love, a new reality has been born, a reality pure and holy.  We are one mind, one heart, one holy being.  In our unity we are as we have always been–the immutability of being, expressing itself forever in glory.”  Choose Only Love, bk.7, 1:I.  Message from Jesus.

Jesus’ words are comforting.  He is reassuring us that we have never left the arms of God–and of himself.  He blesses us with his words.

If we have ever felt “not enough”–and all of us have–then we need feel insufficiency no longer.  In the midst of this quotation, we find that our saving grace is in our unity one with another and with God.

We have not changed–not in reality.  We took a detour that we now regret, though because everything is actually perfect, we know that God also, with us, made the decision for separation.  It was first our choice as free beings of free will, but He “let go” because we were so eager to experience all that could be experienced.  

Now we come home, never to leave again.  We are wrapped up in a cocoon of love, and lest we forget, we have God’s promptings to keep us in the know.

Recapturing What We Lost in the Fall of Man

“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.

United with God Once Again

“In seeing the self as separate you have known fear and have been forced to reconcile fear with love.  Now, in coming back to relationship and union with me you have realized that you are not separate and now have striven against the ‘opposing’ force of separation.  With the acceptance of the Christ in you, you are returned to relationship and need no longer strive against the ‘opposing’ force of separation, for you no longer know it.”  (A Course of Love, D:Day40.8)

As we turn from separation, we turn from fear to love.  We may even strive actively to turn from fear to love.  We have realized that we aren’t separate (as we could never be, for we are part of God), and we have striven to get past these ideas of the ego with every force of our personality.  When we accept the Christ in us, we understand that we have returned to a relationship that has long eluded us, and now we no longer need to strive against separation.  We know intimately that we are joined with the Christ Self; we know intimately that we are “separate” no longer.

The separation is another name for what is usually called the “fall of man,” including woman.  If we think about it, we know that we are not living in a world that has been reconciled with God.  His way works; ours does not.  When we seek to turn our minds to a confident belief in ultimates that save, we will be alright.  We won’t be alright as long as we let our egotistical leanings move into the ascendancy.  We know this. 

It is only our lack of understanding of how God works with us that has taken so much time.  He knows no time, for time is simply an illusion—one well understood by our science now.

Turn to our inner knowing.  Turn today.

It will make all the difference.  Attract the good, don’t give any credence to anything that is substandard.

Returning Us to Our True Nature

“You may not feel that you have ever intended to live in fear.  But the displacement of the original intent was so complete that each life has begun with fear and proceeded from this beginning continually reacting fear.  While the original intent remained within you and caused you to attempt to express a Self of love despite your fear, fear has thwarted your every effort and caused the very effort that has continued the cycle of fear.  To have to try to be who you are and to express who you are is the result of the displacement of the nature of love with the nature of fear.  What we now are about is reversing this displacement and returning you to your true nature.”  (A Course of Love, T4:3.5)

We had an “original intent” eons ago, and that was to live in love—not fear.  But fear intervened, and nothing has ever been right since.  This is the crucial, central feature of our lives.  We have displaced love with fear, and then we have lived in this egoic state of fear.  There ought to be a better way.

And there is.  We can learn, and not necessarily by traditional means of study, to displace fear and the egoic self with the Self of love.  This change will make all the difference.  And A Course of Love is showing us how to effect this change.  It is true (as A Course in Miracles says also) that God makes the final decision of when we are ripe for Christ-consciousness or Awakening.  Then he metaphorically reaches down to us and lifts us up.

Yet there are things we can do to remove blocks to the awareness of love.  This in itself will ease our way, and give us a happy experience.  We need to get the idea of suspiciousness out of our minds; we need trust above all else.  And trust we can have; just a decision to have it is enough to bring it to us.  This does not mean that we will be gullible.  We have our own good sense, and this is sense of the real Self, not the ego.  When we place our faith in the inner Christ Self, we are far more likely to be right than to be wrong in our evaluations of others.  Note that this does not mean “judgment” of others, for judging keeps us from attaining enlightenment.  We need to simply rest in the assurance that if we are encouraged to avoid a particularly situation (or person), we will know how and where to do so.  That is all.

Return to Relationship

“In seeing the self as separate you have known fear and have been forced to reconcile fear with love.  Now, in coming back to relationship and union with me you have realized that you are not separate and now have striven against the ‘opposing’ force of separation.  With the acceptance of the Christ in you, you are returned to relationship and need no longer strive against the ‘opposing’ force of separation, for you no longer know it.”  (A Course of Love, D:Day40.8)

As we turn from separation, we turn from fear to love.  We may even strive actively to turn from fear to love.  We have realized that we aren’t separate (as we could never be, for we are part of God), and we have striven to get past these ideas of the ego with every force of our personality.  When we accept the Christ in us, we understand that we have returned to a relationship that has long eluded us, and now we no longer need to strive against separation.  We know intimately that we are joined with the Christ Self; we know intimately that we are “separate” no longer.

Dreams

“You had a dream for you.  God had another.  Yours was a dream of separation; Hers a dream of eternal union with Her son.  Your dream was a nightmare; Hers the endless joy of truth.”  Choose Only Love bk.4, 3:I

Dreams are a fruitful way to look at our experience in this world as well as eternally.  We thought we wanted to experience separation from God, and we did, in disaster.  We did not really separate, for we are part of Him and cannot be separate, but we thought we separated, and in the thought the illusion became complete.

When we dream of union with Jesus, we are dreaming of our rightful place, with him, of Christhood.  He shares his Christhood with us, though he got there first and is still our leader in all that we do.

We want the “endless joy of truth.”  We know enough now to know that trying to live without God is a fruitless proposition, an endless mistake.  But living with Him is endless joy.

He made us for joy, and we are only satisfied when we are living joy—with Him.

Love

“The rebellion against love is what gave rise to fear.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 11:II

We know that this quotation is true. Even today, when we start to feel fear, we can recognize that we are not feeling love–at least not enough love.

So the solution to us of an end to fear is to rev up our love–love for God, love for our brothers and sisters, even love for ourselves. Of course, the quotation harks back to a time before time, when we separated from God because we thought we could make a world we would like better than what He provided. And such a mess we got into.

The way back is to become overwhelmed with love. When we sense even the slightest bit of love, we can “milk” it for more. When we milk the tiny bit of love for all it is worth, we discover what God can do. He meets us more than halfway. He restores our soul to a calm place, a place where there is not fear and we sense only love.

Ask for such a blessing today.

Separation / Fear

“Your attempt at individuation and extension, an attempt consistent with the nature of your being, failed only because you experienced separation rather than differentiation, and fear rather than love.”  (A Course of Love, D:Day40.6)

What, eons ago, were we trying to do when we enter physical matter on earth?  We were not at risk of avoiding God, as long as we didn’t think that we needed separation from Him.  We needed only to be differentiations—individuations—of God, experiencing physical form in this new environment, new for souls such as we.

But we did think that we need to experience what life was like to be separate from God.  This is why this experiment, at first, failed.  To live without God, without communing with God, we needed to construct a separate existence ruled by a separate thought:  the ego.  And so we dropped into pain and suffering, for nothing that deems itself apart from God can survive well in such a harsh climate as we have found ourselves. 

We fell into fear rather than love, and that has made all the difference.  We didn’t known what we were getting into.  Long have we rued that day, though we didn’t know what we were rejecting.  Our attempt at individuation thus became known as the “fall of man,” and we have since struggled mightily to find our way back to our Maker.

It is important to note that extension into physical form was not the problem; it was only how we lived it that was (and is) the problem.  Now we need to recognize that Awakening to reality is what we need.  We have taught ourselves not to commune with God, and this is a most unnatural way to live.  In our finite minds, we can’t know what best to do next.  Only supernatural help will guide us rightly.  And this supernatural help is right within us, in the Christ mind that dwells within.

Let’s make the right choice today, and seek the guidance that only communing with our depths can bring about.

To Decide that Love Is All We Want

“Do you recognize that you have already been every where and every when in the illusion of separation?  Would you be willing, right now, in the quiet privacy of your own heart and mind, to use the power of awareness given unto you to decide to be Love?”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 18, Page 227)

I don’t know if Jesus is using hyperbole when he says “every where” and “every when.” Certainly there are places that our friends and family have been in thought and feeling that we have not. Just knowing that our small circle has had experiences that we have not would lead to the conclusion that Jesus is exaggerating.

Of course, it is quite possible that Jesus is invoking the truth that all of us are One, and all of that One have experienced everything. In this scenario, we are in no way separate from any of our brothers and sisters, all children of God who actually are part of each other.

But one thing is certain: We have tried every avenue that we know to experience separation. And maybe “knowing” each avenue is what Jesus means.

It is time to stop the nonsense of thinking that we can survive separate from God. He is in us, through and through, and He would commune with us often, indeed constantly. His Force of Love is the best thing we have going for us. He created us to need Love, to need His presence, for He is the All, and our part of that All is living through us constantly, forever.

It is time to go Home. It is time to drop confusion, turn from our hates and fears, and offer Love to ourselves, others, and God Himself.

There is no better way. This is what we need. This is what, in our heart of hearts, we want.

Healed Memories

“Now, only now, is your memory restored; the memory becomes clearer and clearer of the first love that God is.  Before this moment, your newly healed memory was adjusting to healing.  Now is when it gets up and begins to walk, that is, begins to remember fully.

“Today, here and now, is when spiritual amnesia is left behind.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 9:II

We are “remembering.” We are walking a carpet that when we finish the walk, will be rolled up behind us (from A Course in Miracles). In this sense, everything has already happened, and we are reliving it. This can be a hard concept to wrap our minds around, but our hearts will understand and be blessed.

The separation from God is over–for all of us. It is just that not all of us have come to realize this, and so we live out lives that are less than they could be. Our “spiritual amnesia” is in full force, at least for those who cannot accept what Jesus is telling us now. Our spiritual amnesia keeps us in the dark from the power of God’s all-loving Force.

God is the Prime Mover, the “first love,” as this quotation makes clear. We have been coming to know, over time, and now we are ready for full acceptance of the Love that God holds out to us. Our memories will be healed the instant we accept this truth.

Our memories will be healed the instant that we ask, in full understanding of what we are requesting.

Practice the Presence of God

“A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct.  This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself as lack.  The idea of order of needs arose because, having made this fundamental error, you had already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs.  As you integrate you become one, and your needs become one accordingly.  Unified needs lead to unified action, because this produces a lack of conflict.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-1.VI.2)

Which of us would not want a lack of conflict?  We can realize, as the Workbook says, “There is another way of looking at this.”  There is also a way of thinking of God that will immediately quell conflict.  If we place our minds on the concept of God, Himself, we will know inner peace.  This is not the only way, of course, but this thought process is the most direct.  We quiet the ego by thinking of God, and in the quietude we live above conflict.  We will overlook the conflict.

We are very conflicted beings, very moody and very antagonistic, initially, to listening to what will give us peace.  After all, we have invested a lot in the ego, and the ego says that it will protect us.  This is not true, of course, because the ego and egotistical thought processes only lead to more conflict and turmoil—exactly what we need to move from.  We are not moving away from conflict now, because we all too often think that we are really living when the drama is high.  This is the insidious thing.

We need to practice the Presence of God in our daily lives, from moment to moment (when we remember).  This Presence does not have to be a constant thing for us, and indeed, it cannot be, for our minds are made of short-term attention spans.  Yet, the more we can welcome God’s Presence in our lives, the better our lives will become.

We are living on different levels, fragmented parts of ourselves that know no better.  We do not have to have multiple personalities to recognize that we partake of this phenomenon; this fragmentation is rampant in our culture, for we have forgotten God as our unifying Force.  He will solve the problems that we think we have; He will show us how to rise above the chaos of the world. 

Divine Play

“Peace, then, be unto you, beloved and holy friends.  ‘Friends’ because you are a part of me, and I a part of you—particles of light dancing in the wave of the one God, the one Mind, the one Truth, the real world.  The joke has been on us!  And we played it upon ourselves well.  Now, the time of rejoicing is at hand, as we arise in our individuation, recognizing our oneness—to dance the dance of creation ceaselessly, extending only the good, the holy, and the beautiful.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 16, Page 200)

What is the “joke”? That we thought we separated from God, formed an ego that led us astray, and now we recognize the folly of our ways and are rapidly, all of us, returning to God. Now we know that Love answers all needs. And when we leave behind judgment and fear (as A Course of Love advises), we are making real progress to a better life ahead. The law of attraction kicks in magnificently to allow us to realize that God is in our corner, has always been in our corner. He was just waiting patiently for us to find that out.

Now we know. We are not meant to be isolated and alone; we need each other, and we need God, the Force of the Universe Who realizes that Love is the only way that reality would work. He knew this from the beginning, when He first awoke and realized, “There is only I. Why be afraid? But I feel lonely. I will create my “children,” and then I will companion with them.”

We don’t really know how God thought, but what I just said is an ancient story retold by Joseph Campbell. And to our finite minds, it makes sense–though we are molding God in our own image, and that may not be good.

Let ideas of God play in our minds. This is companionship, we can feel, for Him–and it is companionship for us. Our “play” has a larger scope, and in Awakening we will come to see more and to know more.

Let God’s Love enfold us today. Even He could wish for nothing greater for us.

Eat Only Good Fruit to Heal the Separation from God

“No one ever told you, and your Creator never insisted, that you eat of the tree of good and evil. For all good fruit has been given you freely. And you are always free to choose which fruit you will eat thereof.” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 8, Page 103)

Here The Way of Mastery, which many believe was channeled by Jesus, he says that Genesis in the Bible got it wrong. We didn’t have to eat “apples” of the tree of good and evil; that was a misunderstanding. In terms of the recently channeled works, we see that separation from God was never foreordained; we could have done it differently. But now we are to eat only good fruit, which means that we are to heal the separation, something that the Holy Spirit or the Christ-Self prepares us for.

How do we heal the (illusory) separation? We go within and commune with our God Who lives in our depths. We have never been externalized, something that we have long misunderstood. We remove the blocks to the awareness of love, as another channeled work, The Course of Love, says. These blocks are fear and judgment, something that is within our power, with help, to turn aside from.

Let’s turn aside from fear and judgment today. Of course, this is easier said than done, and it is impossible unless we turn to our depths. We simply turn, with our awareness, inward, over and over, asking and receiving help.

Eventually we heal the subconscious depths. As each negativity is brought to the surface, we heal because we have the knowledge of what is holding us back. We walk into the sunlight with God, Jesus holding our hand.

There is no better way to live. When the time is right, God Himself will reach down and us up into enlightenment, Awakening, Christ-consciousness—all words for the same ineffable transformation.

In the meantime, we will catch glimpses of Awakening, and these will happen when we are in a particularly receptive frame of mind/heart. Then the glimpses will elongate, and God Himself will act to take us unto His heart with transformation.

We Remain with God

“Separation is painful only to those who believe it can occur in truth. What would a child’s rejection or a parent’s death mean to those who did not believe in separation? Do you believe that God believes in separation? He knows it not, and because He knows it not, it does not exist. Because He knows it not, He has not been hurt by it. He knows no rejection and no death. He knows no pain or sorrow. His son remains with him in his eternal home, joined with him as always in eternal completion.” (C:12.23)

We remain with God, even in this sometimes difficult world. He does not countenance separation from Him, something that He knows (and we now know) is impossible, for we are part of Him. When this passage says that God “knows” not separation, I think it means that He doesn’t put any store by it, not that He doesn’t know of our plight. (There are differing opinions among A Course in Miracles students/teachers about whether or not God knows of our plight in illusion.)

We are here today, merged with God. Our Self is coming into its own, and it is this Self Who is One with God.

Let us relax today in God’s care. He will never leave us nor forsake us. We are safe.

We can trust Him.

Separation from God Is a Mistaken Idea

“The Father did not prevent the idea of separation from taking place, and could not any more than you could prevent an idea from occurring to you. Just as an idea of yours, once born, continues to exist, so too, did this idea of separation. But just as your ideas do not take on a life of their own even though they at times seem to, this idea as well had no ability to be more than what it was, except for as the son chose to participate in it.” (ACOL, C:12.21)

We had a “tiny, mad idea,” as A Course in Miracles puts it. And this same idea is carried out in A Course of Love. We had a thought, and we could have ignored this passing thought, but we gave it serious attention, and in the serious attention, the thought of separation from God took on a life all its own. What madness! We could not actually separate from what and who we are! But we thought we could, and in the thinking, an illusory reality was born.

“The son,” we, chose to participate in this thought. And that has been our undoing. Elsewhere in ACOL, we are told that it was not outside the plan to have physical form, physical bodies. But when we decided that we might find something apart from God that we would like better than cleaving to Him, we sniffed trouble. But we proceeded on, and the ego was born. The ego that gave us a “new” self, a self which thought that it was apart from God, doing things that were against “His will.” And with this came the thought that we were not free unless we rebelled against His will.

What nonsense! We cannot be apart from that which we are: a part of God Himself. And our real will is actually His as well; our wills are One.

But we could not know this in the beginning. And for eons now, we have sought to find God again, some of us more diligently than others. This seeking has now reached a fever pitch, and we know within the pages of A Course of Love that we are finally heading in the right direction. We are told that we need seek no more, for we have found. And in the finding we find glorious fulfillment once again.

Separation is thought to be an evil thought, but separation (or the thought of it) is just a mistake. God does not punish mistakes, and sin does not exist. These are controversial ideas, apart from traditional Christian theology. But these are the ideas of both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, works which many of us believe were channeled by Jesus himself.

Be willing today to “find” (as opposed to “seek”). We are ready. ACOL says that we are “The Accomplished” (though not in any egoic sense).

We are heading home at last. The way is clear, the means assured. Let us follow in the way that Jesus has set out in A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love.

And blessings galore will shower down upon our heads.

Heal the Illusory Separation

“If the body is the surface aspect of your existence and fear lies beneath the surface, see the advantage of this exercise: Place your body out in front of yourself where you can be its silent observer. As you watch your hands go about their work or the shadow form on the ground as you walk to and fro, you will be learning the only separation that can be useful to you.” (ACOL, C:10.23)

This exercise is one of the few in A Course of Love (unlike A Course in Miracles, which has a whole workbook of exercises). We will imagine that our bodies are separate from us, that we are not our bodies. And this is separation that is useful.

Most thoughts of separation are decidedly not useful. We get lost in separation and in thoughts of separation. We think that there is nothing better for us, that we are the created, and that the Creator is separate and apart from us.

This is not true. We are one with the Creator, with God. We are a part of Him. The earth is not God’s handicraft, with Himself being separate and apart. Everything is “God stuff.” And, knowing this, we can realize that God is experiencing everything with us. We live and move in His Being.

We have also thought ourselves separate from God in another sense, in the “fall from grace” sense. We think that we have sinned so badly (or our forebears sinned so badly), that there is no hope for us. That it took Jesus’s death on the cross to propitiate an angry God.

This is so very wrong, and unfortunately it has been a part of almost all of us, because of Christian doctrine. But the Christine doctrine that we heard as children was flawed. Yes, flawed. And we need to forgive the past for the misconceptions that it gave it us.

Now we know that God is One with us. That we never actually separated from Him at all, except in illusion. And this illusion can be overcome. We can know the peace, love, harmony, joy, that life in God really gives to us. These states of being are our inheritance.

And it will be no wonder that we are healed.

Overcoming Intellectual Doubts about God

“Your desire to be separate is the most insane desire of which you have conceived. Over all your longing for union you place this desire to be separate and alone. Your entire resistance to God is based on this. You think you have chosen to be separate from God so that you can make it on your own, and while you long to return to God and the heaven that is your home, you do not want to admit that you cannot get there on your own.” (C:5.22)

Separation, being alone, independent, not needing anything or Anybody else, is just insane. We have invented our special relationships to accommodate this insane desire to be separate but merged. And our special relationships are normally full of drama, highs and lows, separation and mergers, and we know no peace. Only when we transform those special relationships into holy ones, reminiscent of our true relationship to God, do we know any peace. This is why the relationship to our brother (or sister) is the way home for us as described in A Course in Miracles.

The true relationship is one of joining with God, and with our brothers and sisters. We think that to be autonomous is a good thing, but we fail at it repeatedly. And we chastise ourselves for this failure, when actually this failure is a symbol of the fact that we don’t get along very well when we attempt to separate ourselves from our faith in God.

We are part of God; He is living us. So the very idea of separating from Him (or Her) is insane. It is impossible. And the sooner we give up the idea of living an independent life, separate from our Creator, the sooner we will live in happiness. We taught ourselves the very unnatural habit of not communicating with our Creator. And did we ever suffer for such a ridiculous notion!

Of course, some of us have intellectual doubts about God. To those who feel this way, I would say to look, as A Course of Love, encourages, to our heart. Our heart doesn’t need the proofs that the egoic mind demands. Our heart will soften and seek to love. And in that love we will find a love for a Higher Power, for in our heart we know that we are not all alone in the universe. It has been said, borrowing from World War I imagery, that there are no atheists in foxholes. But, closer to home, there are no atheists who listen to their heart in this matter of the reality of God. We try to be intellectually suspicious, but we can’t sustain such an idea when we feel such warmth in our heart. Where is this warmth coming from? How do we know that God exists? For these two questions are identical. And our heart knows the answer to both questions.

Stop the mind from raising objections. Just consider that we have been wrong to trumpet independence as the way to live in this world. Reach out to the others in our lives, and see if that reaching out doesn’t touch the heart. Then and only then, with soft and sweet feelings in the heart, are we open to eliminating our skeptical attitudes toward the loving God Who created us.

Separation and the Ego Are Actually Impossible

“The full awareness of the Atonement, then, is the recognition that the separation never occurred. The ego cannot prevail against this because it is an explicit statement that the ego never occurred. (T-6.II.10)”

The separation occurred only in illusion, when our minds became mad from a “tiny, mad idea” about which we forgot to “laugh.” Because we are a part of God, separation is actually impossible. This is the full awareness that the quotation tries to cover.

We need to turn aside from the ego, and we can do so, particularly, when we realize that this “part of belief” about ourselves never actually occurred. The ego will not be destroyed, but will simply cease to seem to be. We will be Awake, and these vestiges of madness, insanity, will fall away.

The future looks bright with such a prognosis, doesn’t it? We simply turn aside from belief in that which could actually never be, and we return to being co-creators with God, creating in like Mind and living in the Love with which He created us. What this creation will look like, nobody can say. But it will be free of pain and suffering in the illusion that we made for ourselves. We will dwell in peace. And what more could we ask?

Atonement Was Planned Eons Ago, at the Point of Need

“It was only after the separation that the Atonement and the conditions necessary for its fulfillment were planned. (T-2.II.4)”

We thought that we separated from God, and the separation itself, for the myriad of us, happened over millions of years (according to A Course in Miracles). The return will happen, similarly, over millions of years—or maybe longer (as we are also told). But in that moment when the first entities (that’s us) separated from God, had the “tiny, mad idea” about which we “forgot to laugh,” in that instant did God provide the Answer. We can imagine that entities got involved in the planning for Atonement and the conditions necessary for its fulfillment. But we cannot know. Divine guidance led the way, of that we can be sure.

So we move into healing, finally healing, after we have separated. And the Atonement, and Jesus’s leadership in it, were planned. We are just now making our way back. The conditions for Awakening have not been propitious for the 2,000 years since Jesus walked the earth. But things are improving now. We are very weary of this weary world. And, like Helen and Bill, who scribed ACIM, we know that there is another way. We know that this other way is better.

And so we sign on to it.

We can’t know if the conditions will be ripe for each of us to experience Awakening this time around, this lifetime. And we are encouraged in ACIM not to speculate about reincarnation, because this would be a separating factor between us—some who believe in reincarnation would turn off those who don’t, and vice versus. We are told that we live in the Now, the present, and so reincarnation cannot be the issue, now or in the future. It would only divide us theologically, and Jesus doesn’t want that. So we are to focus on this moment in time. And we are to do our part, whatever we are led to understand, for salvation. Each of us does have a part, however great or however small, and it behooves us to ask God’s Voice, the Holy Spirit, what that part is. He will answer, and He will answer as soon as we are ready to hear. He is presumably just as eager for us to ask as we are to hear the Answer.

So we move into healing the separation. And we don’t dwell on how long it might take, though “millions” of years sounds depressing, on first hearing of it. But we can, each of us, only live one moment at a time, and Jesus encourages us to be happy in that moment. Happiness is one of the several functions that he attributes to us. (The others are forgiveness and salvation.)

Ask for healing today. We can do more for others when we ourselves have gotten right with God. Indeed, we can do little until we have gotten this fundamental issue of our relationship to God, settled. The Divine is within and surrounding us, according to A Course in Miracles. He is not distant. He is nearer than our heartbeat; we are part of Him. And in this understanding do we know a serenity that may elude us previously.

Healing is always for today. The Now is our point of entry, according to Eckhart Tolle, enlightened spiritual teacher of our time.

God “Let Go” when We Proved to Be Rebellious

“Your mind, being of God, was constrained by the learning limits of the body and chose to rebel against the learning that was needed in order to come into the time of fullness of a being able to express itself in form, never realizing that this just delayed the learning that had to occur to release you from the limits you struggled against. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 8.9)”

1 – No Rebellion?

We could have had the physical form without our rebellion. We hadn’t learned enough, and in the rebellion, we only delayed learning what we needed to know, and caused ourselves much suffering as well. Such a shame. We ought to get it right this time.

2 – Physical Form

We are told in A Course of Love that we can choose physical form for the foreseeable future, on into eternity, if we embody the elevated Self of form, the one who remembers God and chooses to follow in Love’s way.

3 – New Choice

This is a new choice, a new way to be in the universe. Previously, we ignored the ego in the afterlife, but now we can ignore the ego, just let it go, in the physical life that we enjoy in this world. We don’t have to wait for the Other Side.

4 – Celebration

What joy! Now we don’t have to lament that we are in physical form; instead, we can celebrate it! But it is physical form that follows the eternal laws of God and the universe, not a separated form that brings on pain because we have an imprisoned will. God set the limits on how much we could miscreate, and therein lies our salvation. He wouldn’t let us depart too far, knowing that when pain became great enough, we would realize that there must be another way, a better way.

5 – Elevated Self of Form

We have found that better way, here and now, in the elevated Self of form. When we awaken, we will know that following guidance of our innermost Self is the best way to go. We will be in alignment with God once again, and all will truly be well for the first time in eons.

6 – Rebellious Children

“What do you who are parents do with a child who is too impatient, too bright, too eager, to learn slowly and to mature gracefully?. . .What you do is realize the impossibility of imposing your will and, because of this impossibility, you realize that you must let go. Thus your decision was also God’s decision. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 8.10).

7 – Detour into Separation

This detour in separation was thus partly God’s idea. This is a metaphor, for the things of the universe are so far beyond us that we cannot fully understand. But the metaphor works, for many of us have adolescent children and know what rebellion is all about. God did let us go, knowing that He could not change our minds without violating our free will, and free will is all about what co-creators with God will one day need to fulfill our purpose.

8 – Free Will

God knew that He didn’t want to meddle with free will, and so He did allow us to take the detour into fear, thereby necessitating a return by a “journey without distance” (from ACIM). We did not actually separate, for we are a part of God and could not be alive if we actually had separated. And we are alive eternally. But we could imagine that we were separate, and indeed we did this in spades.

9 – Tiny, Mad Idea

What a mess we made of everything by not being more patient and learning our lessons as created beings of God. We needed to learn more before we could embody the physical without danger to ourselves. We entertained a “tiny, mad idea” (from ACIM), not laughing at it instead, and in the forgetting laugh did the tiny, mad idea seem to have effects. Without cause, the effects became illusion, though, illusion that is only just now being undone.

10 – Succinct Quotation

This passage explains succinctly the course that was taken in the separation from God. No further words seem necessary. Let us contemplate the passage, and let God speak to us about what we ought to do now.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I listen today as You guide me Home to you. You know the way; I too often forget even the little that I know. If I was ever rebellious, and tried to run ahead of Your divine plans for me, help me to grow up today and to drop that rebellion. Thank You for this succinct explanation, because all of us who read what Jesus has said can reflect on what we know of adolescents in our society and sometimes in our homes. May we realize that our “rebellion” from You was necessary, even as the adolescents in our society need to rebel in order to come to understand what their identity really is.

Thank You for today’s comprehensive explanation of what happened in the separation. May the separation be healed today, and may I awake to the blessings that You have for me in my restored state. If I am not yet ready for the separation to be healed, may I do nothing that furthers it. May I turn to You for a full healing and Awakening to the glory that You hold out to me.

Amen.

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.

A Separated Self Is an Illusion

“You can be faithful to but one thought system.  One is the thought system of the separated self and is based on separation.  The other is the thought system of creation and is based on union.  Your faith in what you have made has been shaken now, and you realize you would like to place your faith elsewhere.  (A Course of Love, 11.6)”

Affirmation:  “I choose union today, with God and my brothers and sisters.”

Reflections:

1 – Separation

We have long believed that we are somehow separated from God because we fell from grace and were expelled from Paradise due to our missteps.  Perhaps we need to take another look at these concepts.

2 – Did We Separate from God?

What if we only thought that we had been rejected by God?  What if we have never really separated from Him at all?  These are the thoughts of A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love.  Our belief in separation is based on the illusion in which we live.  It would be impossible to actually separate from God, but we can imagine that we have done so, and thereby experience what it might be like to be “other than” God.  By such thinking, we recognize, eventually, that we are lost in dreams and that we want to return home.  And home is heaven.  We find ourselves welcomed home as the Prodigal Son was welcomed back by his earthly father.

3 – Union

What does “union” mean in this context?  Union is the consciousness of All That Is, the choice to join with God in knowingness and love, and with our brothers and sisters in knowingness and love.  We are One, and in union we come to see how this can be.  There is no separation among those who love each other.  We will all meet again those in our lives whom we have loved, either on this earth or in the world beyond (from the Manual of A Course in Miracles).

4 – We Have Not Separated

Let us put our fatih in a different place today.  Let us reaffirm that we have not actually left God at all, that this choice would be an impossibility.  But that we think that we have left is very possible, and it goes a long way toward explaining our fears and apprehensions.  We think that He is angry with us for “rejecting” Him, and we cringe in tribulation.  All of this is illusory.

5 – A Better Day

May the faith that we reach today, the turning aside from the separated state and the choice for union, give us a better day–and may this better day be the harbinger of many good days ahead.  Would not Jesus choose this for us?  Yet we ourselves make the choice, and if it is in line with what Jesus would see as best, we are poised for a new tomorrow.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would choose today to place my complete faith in You.  You know my needs, and You care for me.  You will guide me to make the right decisions, in the things that I must do to be safe and loved by those about whom I care so much.  Your way is best.  Your way is actually the only sane response.  May my day go well in Your light.

I would join in union with all today, and with All, meaning You.  May any obsessions about my continued safety drop away before Your grace.

I know that to separate from You would be impossible.  But all of my brothers and sisters do not have this knowledge.  May I reach today those whom You would have me reach with this blessed news of Your constant presence in our lives.

May the day go well.  If I am true to You all the day long, paying attention to the promptings, then this day will be good indeed.  Thank You.

Amen.

A Felt Sense of Being Separate = Leads to Sickness

“A sick person perceives himself as separate from God.  Would you see him as separate from you?  It is your task to heal the sense of separation that has made him sick.  (M-22.6)”

Affirmation:  “I would not separate myself from anyone today.”

Reflections:

1 – Theology

This passage is part of the theoretical and theological construct of A Course in Miracles.  We do not have to take on the theology of ACIM if we find it impossible to accept.  Jesus says that ACIM is concerned with the practical most of all, and the practical will prove the validity of ACIM.  If the ideas work in everyday life, then we will then be more open to considering some of the theology and the theory in back of the theology.  Theological debates are always controversial and therefore dividing among people.  We would not be separate from our brothers and sisters, to whom we are meant to bring salvation (a Text tenet).  We do not force our ideas, or even ACIM ideas, on anyone who is not ready.  But when others express an interest in what has changed our lives (ACIM), then is the time to speak.  Always ask the Holy Spirit what to say, and we are told in ACIM that what to say will come unfailingly into our minds.

2 – Sickness = A Physical Reality in an Illusory World

Sickness is a physical reality in our world, but the whole world is illusory.  We are told this with certainty.  This does not mean that we lack sympathy for the ill.  In many cases, recognizing the illusion in which our brother or sister believes may give us more sympathy.  But we ask for a healing, knowing that healing will occur–even when it is healing that we cannot see as either physical or emotional.  The healing has occurred.  This, of course, is more theory, and, just as I said above, we do not have to take unto ourselves anything that is dividing or too controversial.  The more we work with A Course in Miracles, the more likely we are to see its truth and to stop arguing with its tenets.  We are told that we may actively resist some of the teachings of ACIM in the Workbook, but none of this matters.  We are simply to do the exercises, and it is these that will convince us that Jesus is not misleading us.

3 – How to Heal the Belief in Separation?

How do we heal the belief in separation that has caused sickness?  That is not up to us.  It is the Holy Spirit, the Communicator from God, who carries out the miracle.  We are merely the instrument in His Hands.  If we recognize that the sense of separation has caused the sickness, we may be more likely to give up the folly of bringing sickness upon ourselves.

4 – Do Not Blame the Victim

Note that none of this theology blames the victim.  Everyone is doing the best that he/she can, given the understanding that he/she has at any given moment.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I pray for Your wellness to follow me all the days of my life.  Help me fully to understand, while remaining in a positive mind slant, that sickness comes about when we believe in the illusory separation from You.  I would entertain only thoughts and words that illustrate our Oneness.  And I am a part of You, though the separation has made all of us find this idea a difficult one, and possibly one that would even be termed blasphemous.  This truth is not blasphemy.  Knowing–not perceiving–this truth is one of Your greatest blessings to me in this lifetime.

Be with us as we walk through another day.  May we remain grateful for Your manifold blessings to us.  May we focus on thanking You for those blessings.  May we never dwell on the negative, for to do so is to invite more negative.  We need to attract what You would have us attract, and that is only the good.

Thank You for allowing me to experience the felt Presence of You.

Amen.

Illusory Split from God Experienced in Attack

“[The Word of God] is denied if you attack any brother for anything.  For it is here the split with God occurs.  A split that is impossible.  A split that cannot happen.  Yet a split in which you surely will believe, because you have set up a situation that is impossible.  And in this situation the impossible can seem to happen.  It seems to happen at the ‘sacrifice’ of truth.  (M-13.7)”

Affirmation:  “I will not attack under any circumstances.”

Reflections:

1 – Sword over our Heads

We are told elsewhere in A Course in Miracles that when we are tempted to be angry (and to attack), it is as though we hold a sword over our heads.  And it will fall or be averted as we choose to ask for peace and turn aside from the reverse, the anger and attack.

2 – We Are Human

We are human, and we have human frailties.  We will still, sometimes, get angry.

3 – Insanity

If we can, when tempted by anger, to assert that what we are being baited with is just insanity, we will easily (sometimes easily) turn aside.   And what we are viewing is insanity, but it is also a call for help and for love.  The Holy Spirit will teach us this, if we will let Him.  And nobody responds to a call for help with anger.  A call for help is a piteous call, and deserves our sympathy.

4 – Our World Will Smooth Out

If we do well with these ideas, our world will smooth out.  It is when we attack in response that the trouble starts, for we have set up a situation in which baiting happens between ourselves, and our brothers and sisters.

5 – Do Not Respond to a Bait

We would respond to no bait today.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

If we believe in the split or separation from God only when we are in attack mode, then it does behoove us to get out of that mode.  Forgive me if irritation arises today, or if a significant other tempts me to attack, or if I am just in a bad mood and feel like venting.  None of this is in Your Will, and I would live Your Will, though I am human and will always make mistakes that You can lead me to correct.

Be with me to stay in harmony and calm–and joy!–today.  If the individuals I see are having a bad day, help me to stay serene and to do what I can to make that day better.  My own attack, added to theirs, would lead us all down the thorns of the egoistic pathway.  Nobody needs that.

Be with me as this day plays out.  Help me to get enough rest so that I am not as likely to fall into poor ways of behaving.  Keep me in Your care, and lead me to the sure pathway that is happiness in You.

Amen.