Determining the Distinction between Pleasure and Pain

“Determination of pleasure and pain is made with the judgment of the separated self who not only believes it is the body, but that it is at the body’s mercy.  The body has no mercy to offer the separated self.  It is only a learning device.  (A Course of Love, 18.23)”

Affirmation:  “May I avoid judging pleasure and pain today.”

Reflections:

1 – Awaking of Christ-Consciousness

The ideas in today’s passage are echoes of A Course in Miracles.  All in all, A Course of Love is more forgiving of the body, seeing, ultimately, that an elevated Self of form is a legitimate way to live.  We can enjoy this way of living on this earth, and this is when the Christ/Self has been actualized in us.  This is the Awakening or the Christ-consciousness embodied.

2 – Separation

But in the passage above, we are still recognizing a delusional separation from God.  We did not, as we have said repeatedly, actually separate from God, for we are part of Him and thus can only fantasize that we have separated.  In this fantasy our whole world evolved.  And we lost the felt presence of God.

3 – Pleasure

But let us rise to the occasion, recognizing that we want something better (re ACIM).  We want to know God’s happiness, not the pleasures of this world.  We will have pleasure, but it will be more than pleasure, because pleasure is fleeting and never satisfies very long.

4 – Body = Learning Device

The body as a learning device is best used to communicate with others, with out brothers and sisters.  To use it as a way to get out way is a misuse, if our way would be detrimental to another.  So let us be gracious in our understanding of the body, and not try so hard to decorate it with jewelry and fancy clothes.  We may want to be presentable, but the real beauty comes from within.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would see the difference between pleasure and pain today, but I would seek joy–God’s joy–rather than simple pleasure, which is fleeting.

Be with me as I see Your will for my life today.  May my decisions be sound, based on guidance and common sense.

Amen.

Effortless Ease

“Even those who feel the power of these words within their hearts and vow to go slowly and carefully through each page and section, giving total dedication to what this text would have them do, are at risk of trying too hard to be earnest rather than simply desiring to learn.  (A Course of Love, 11.3)”

Affirmation:  “May I read ACOL with simple pleasure.”

Reflections:

1 – Trying Too Hard

Jesus seems to be saying that those of us who have studied earnestly are perhaps trying too hard.  He has say elsewhere that there is an effortlessness about salvation, an effortlessness that many of us have never given any credence.  May we give credence to the ease of salvation today.

2 – Learning Mode

In the first volume of the trilogy, we are still in learning mode and have not yet advanced to the observation that will stand us in good stead for the rest of our lives.  We have sought and sought, seeking new and different methodologies, new commentaries on salvation, and Jesus seems to tell us in A Course of Love that we have not recognized when we have actually accomplished what we set out to do.  We just keep seeking, never stopping, never looking inward, but always going to yet another outward source.

3 – A Time to Be Finished Learning

But there is a stopping point.  And Jesus says in the Dialogues of A Course of Love that the time to be finished with learning is now.  This is, however, the third of the trilogy, and now, still, we are in learning mode in this, the first volume.  Perhaps we need to start a bit of practicing for what will follow, to disengage a bit and realize that what we need to learn will come easily, peacefully.

4 – Jesus

Can you imagine Jesus in his life on earth, struggling to understand what he read in the Torah?  I think not.  When he read the scriptures before others, he asserted that this day what he was reading was fulfilled, and he meant “in him.”  This kind of authority, to my eye, is resplendent throughout A Course of Love (and also A Course in Miracles).

5 – Be Glad

Let us listen to the authority of Jesus, and be glad that we do not have to work so hard to learn.  We can just let the words sink in.  And with a grateful heart,, we will come to understand those words.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I read A Course of Love with effortless ease.  Even as I seek, in reading this first volume, to learn precisely what Jesus has to say.  May my days be spent inn effortless ease, as he would also counsel.  His way is not hard, and it is our own ego, not yet withered away, that seeks to have us try to hard.  Our minds get in the way of our hearts.

Help me throughout this day.  May we rejoice in all that Jesus has said in ACOL.  His way is surely easy and peaceful, and he would have us walk a joyful path.

Amen.