Transformation

“This transformation from a state of fear to Love, or from ignorance (the ignoring of truth) to enlightenment (the embracing and acknowledging of truth) occurs for each mind within the dream in a very specific way.  That is, it must occur according to what is required to release the patterns that have settled into that particular mind.  In a general way, those patterns are the same for everyone.  But in their expression, they take on a perfect uniqueness.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Lesson 22, Page 262)

We must be prepared for transformation through a cleansing of our innermost thoughts. Practically, this means that the subconscious mind gradually opens to those attitudes that need to be changed so that we are truly walking God’s way. Transformation, when following the guidance given in Jesus’ channeled works, is gentle and usually gradual.

We first get glimpses, called a satori in Eastern religion. And then these moment of extreme peace lengthen so that hours may pass in true peace. But there is a particular moment, which we will remember, when transformation comes upon us to stay. If we walk in Love rather than fear, this new state remains with us.

And life is never the same again.

Reading Choose Only Love

“Hear me, all!  Those who come to this work will be my beloved saints unknown to the world, but known forever in my love.”  Choose Only Love bk. 6, 1:III

This statement is a loving affirmation of our task in reading Choose Only Love. We would not be drawn to this work unless we had made contact, however limited, with God Himself. We need do only small things, unknown by the world, but valuable within our circle of family, friends, and acquaintances. When love is the motivator, God can take our small work and amplify it. He can do this best when our hearts are open to receive Him.

If Jesus, Mary, and the angels are loving us, we are blessed indeed. What more could we ask, than this, a part in forwarding the transformation that Jesus began 2,000 years ago?

Effortful Living Transformed

Even the most loving parent, like unto your most loving image of God, having brought a child into a fearful world, became subject to the tests of time.  Thus did the world become a world of effort with all things in it and beyond it, including God, weighed and balanced against the idea of fear.”  (A Course of Love, T4:3.6)

We were raised in a dysfunctional environment—all of us, regardless of how loving our parents tried to be toward us.  They too partook of fear, and thus we were nurtured in fear.  The world became a place in which we sought the approval of our parents, and this approval became something to earn, something about which we must exert effort.

Our relationships continued from this first one, of parents to children (us).  We sought to grow through achievement, our own efforts, and the world became a fairly grim place indeed.  We projected this fear upon our image of the God within, though we didn’t know that He was within.  Most of us saw God as an external Creator, someone, something like Santa Claus, who knew everything that we thought and did, and weighed it in the balance to decide if we were good little boys and girls.  This is indeed a fearful way to view God, and we imagine that this might indeed hurt Him (if the Creator were to have an ego such as we have, which He doesn’t).

So we grew up, supported by our fearful ideas of this world.  Only religious convictions can actually save us from the dilemma in which we find ourselves.  And these do not necessarily have to be of a traditional sense.  God is God of the secular as well.  And He will provide.  We need only ask, though we are apt to forget the asking part when we are fearful. 

“Easy and without Effort”

“The end is always a thought away.  Liberation—a simple choice.  The way is easy and without effort.  It rests in the power to decide.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 18, Page 228)

The “end” is Awakening, enlightenment, Christ-consciousness, transformation. Many long for this, but most don’t know that our power of decision rests in the God within. And if God is within, if we are a part of Him, then our power to decide is not simply a matter of just letting our God decide the timing.

We remove the blocks of fear and judgment, and then we make a simple decision that we long to experience the best of God today. THIS is the “power to decide.” Of course, this sounds difficult to our unknowing ears. But here Jesus says that the way is easy and without effort. When we rest on God’s bosom, things are easy and without effort.

The only problem is that we try to do it all with our finite self. And this won’t work at all.

Surrender to the God within. With this choice, we ready ourselves to a greater transformation than we can ever imagine.

Transformation

There are many lesser conditions that are nonetheless extremely transformative, such as the replacement of special relationship with the devotion of holy relationship that we have already spoken of.  (A Course of Love, D:Day7.12)

Here we see that the turning over of special relationships to oblivion does, in fact, constitute a tremendous transformation when the replacement is made by a holy relationship.  We feel contented and safe, something that special relationships could never give us.  We know, in our bones, that this one—this holy relationship—will continue eternally, if not in physical form then in ethereal.  Even if the relationship should end, we would know that it wasn’t a real ending.  In A Course in Miracles, Jesus says that all who meet will meet again.  And we can understand that this is on the Other Side, or, if we believe in reincarnation, then in another life.  This can give us some of that content that we long to have, for we long for permanence in a changing world.  Eternity gives us that permanence.

If we long to be content in this world, what are our options?  We must indeed turn over everything that has disturbed ongoing content.  And special relationships are at the top of the list.  We know this intuitively, though we may still think, with our superficial mind, that specialness gives us something that we want.

It doesn’t.  Specialness only disturbs our peace.  And it is peace that augurs content.

Be glad to transform all relationships to holiness.  We will never regret this action of the will.  When it is done, completed and finished, we will know that we belong to everybody, and that this connection takes nothing from the significant others with whom we share this lifetime.

Hope for Transformation in This Decade

“We are close now, close to a time in which a new choice can make true living available here and now.  This is the decade in which transformation proceeds, and the time in which the mother’s heart enters to show the way to care of the living, and the end of what does not need to be.  This is time of Mirari:  The Way of the Marys.”  Mirari

The “mother’s heart” is Mary herself, but she extends this to all mothers everywhere.  “The Way of the Marys” is the way of women everywhere.  And this decade Marys will be coming into their own.

One cannot adopt the name Mary without being overcome with love for all beings, all creations of God, all people everywhere.  But when we do adopt this name for our own, we are proceeding into a transformation that will affect all life.

The patriarchal society will be influenced more and more by women, and if women choose love, that change will be a good thing.  Women have historically cared for the living, especially their own children.  But now the female aspect of God is moving to a new level of Being, and the female in our societies will be asked to take a more leading role.

If women succeed, we will have greater harmony throughout the world.  Women have historically been close to intuition, and intuition is of the heart.  It is the way that we hear from God—all of us, men and women.

THIS decade is when all this New will be born, for Mirari was received just in the last few years.  We are fortunate indeed to live in a time of hope, when so much around us seems to be crumbling. 

The old is making way for the New, first announced in A Course of Love.

Warmth from God Transforms Our Concerns

“I ask you to observe the pattern of concern, the recurring pattern of worry.  Always it takes concrete form:  maybe money, a business, health, the safety of the children.  Everyone has an area in which they feel insecure.  Maybe there are several areas, but they are always few and very specific.  We now work with these areas to experience those patterns of thought and emotional responses, and to transmute them.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 3:I

Here Jesus, in channeled writing, says that the areas for which we have concern or worry are always “few and very specific.”  Yes!  The few and very specific may vary over the years, even over the days and weeks, but our finite mind cannot encompass more than a few at any one time.

It is our job now to consider these areas of concern and then to move beyond them, to “transmute” them, as Jesus says.  They have come up out of the subconscious for just such a transformation in our mind.  We had to invite the subconscious into the conscious in order to be ready for Awakening.  We had to transmute that which has troubled us.

If we see these concerns/worries as insecurity, as Jesus also says, then this will help us to deal with them.  We absolutely do not have to feel insecure in God’s world.  When our minds and hearts are listening to His word, we know how to attract those things that bless.  We don’t get lost in negativity that invites disaster.

Turn to God with our concerns.  In a heartbeat He can warm us, cocoon us, and we can know in just that moment that all is well.

Ask God Why Christ-consciousness Delays

“Beloved friends, The Way of Transformation does, indeed, require your commitment.  Where you feel that your commitment has wavered, simply choose anew.  And the end of the journey must be perfectly certain.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 15, Page 180)

It is impossible to go through life without getting demoralized, at least part of the time—and this is especially true on this path to Christ-consciousness (Way of Transformation).  We are apt to get impatient when we try, and try, and try some more, and God doesn’t see it our way.  Because he has to make the decision of when we are ready.

What do we do?  We take a step back and decide that He knows more than we do.  Then we develop some patience with his timing.

The transformation may come suddenly.  I know a man who recently experienced this Awakening in the midst of “venting” his frustration to his wife.  He was very surprised to sense that transformation had indeed occurred—but it was unmistakable.  And in the next second, he knew that this was not a glimpse, that it would last.

What was going on here?  God was telling him that the suppression of his anger, for many years, was not truthful.  He had been actually keeping himself from experiencing Christ-consciousness by trying to be something he wasn’t.

He had thought that fear was the problem.  But the actual moment of Awakening taught him otherwise.

Ask to have blocks like the one of this man removed for us.  God knows what is keeping us with feet of clay.  Ask to be elevated from the Earth today.  Ask what is the impediment. 

He will respond.

Awakening Is Simple, without Effort

“The Way of Transformation is simple, for the way of efforting one’s way into the Kingdom cannot flow from the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 14, Page 169)

We move into transformation when our heart is full, when Love overflows our being.  We don’t get God’s attention by imploring relentlessly and often.  He knows when we want to think that we are ready for Awakening.  He doesn’t always agree.

So we must be patient, know that by our effort we can do only so much.  A Course of Love counsels the removal of fear and judgment from our thoughts and feelings.  When we do this, we are removing the blocks to the awareness of love.  And that is what we need to do.

The only thing we need to do.  Awakening may come suddenly, when we least expect it.  I know someone who had suppressed anger for years, and then when he blurted out his discontent, he knew immediately that grace had descended upon him, and he felt intuitively that this Awakening would last.

God knew all along that he was cloaking his anger, and this very cloaking was standing in the way of genuine loving.  And God certainly wants us genuine.

Know that efforting will stand in the way.  Be ourselves, warts and all.  Then God can act in us to remove the impediments that have kept us from Awakening.  And we will find that removing fear and judgment, in genuineness, takes no effort at all.

Transformation

“The only transformation you can experience in space and time is the reaching down from the depth of the ocean into one tiny, temporary wave and readjusting the little foam drops on the tip of the wave you call the body-mind of the self, so that it begins to be a transparent conduit for an awareness of the ocean itself.  That is the game of awakening.  It is actually the most delightful use of time you will ever find.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 13, Page 166 – 167)

Don’t we want to have delight in our lives?  Well, when we are out of sorts, then we need to adjust that tiny, temporary wave from the ocean that is our body-mind.  This personal self is temporarily inaccessible to a greater understanding.  But we can’t readjust on our own; we need help, and we can have it from God Himself.  Ask for help in removing discontent, moving us to delight.  There is no better use of time.

We are—all of us—engaged in Awakening, whether we are seeing glimpses or are sustaining it.  We can hope that our glimpses will elongate, and elongate they will when our attitude is right.  Ask to have a readjustment whenever we lapse into negativism.  Ask to see things properly again.

Yes, we want delight in living.  And we can have it!  This is the great promise of Awakening.

Transformed

“Let yourself be transformed more every day by my love and you will see that your path will be as serene and harmonious as a summer breeze.”  Choose Only Love bk.2, 21:II

This is a statement attributed to Jesus, in which he affirms the life-changing result of letting ourselves be transformed by the love that he feels for us.   Not the love that we feel for him, but the love that he feels for us.  We therefore have very little to do with our transformation.  We simply have to hold ourselves ready to receive, to receive love from him.

Very little is actually asked of us in salvation/transformation.  That little is the fact of being open to the change, the transformation.  The Holy Spirit (A Course in Miracles) or the Christ-Self (A Course of Love) will effect the change, but only when we are responsive.  We must be ready, but we don’t have to ready ourselves.  A Higher Power will ready us. And we only have to be willing to receive from Jesus and his holy companions.

The outcome of our receptive spirit is a path as “serene and harmonious as a summer breeze.”  Would we not want this?  What are we waiting for?

Clear our mind, open our heart, and be prepared for a transformation.  It is just that simple, and just that profound.

Let’s decide today to allow this alteration in ourselves to come about.  It takes our decision, nothing more.  When we decide for truth, truth finds us.

And we are never the same again.

Transformation

What was created cannot be uncreated. Thus transformation is needed. The miracle makes you fully aware of the embrace and the consciousness of unity and places you outside of time. In this state, no duality exists. Doing and being are one. (ACOL, D:7.5)

The only circumstance under which what was created would be uncreated is if God ceased to love us. And this would never happen, we can imagine. We have never done anything so terrible that He, All Love, would deny us love because we have made mistakes. We have merely been calling for help in our misdeeds, and a call for help (and love) is met by Love, the greatest Love, from God, that can and does exist.

So, since we are not going to be uncreated, we know that we need transformation. And this transformation comes in the form of enlightenment, called in A Course of Love, Christ-consciousness.

A miracle will make this inevitable happening come about. We join in the embrace with the One, and with our brothers and sisters, and Jesus (another brother), and we become aware in a way that we lacked heretofore. The embrace is called upon many times by Jesus in ACOL. It is the recognition that we are loved, and that we are held tightly in that Love. We can appeal for love, we can ask for help, and we can cuddle with Jesus, as we lay our head upon his shoulder. The imagery is very touching as well as very profound.

When a miracle occurs, we are momentarily outside time. Outside time is where the Self of unity lives. There is no duality here, because doing and being are one. This somewhat mystical statement is not totally clear in this context, but it does reappear often in ACOL. We are to both “do” and “be,” in the way of Jesus and of Mary, and as time passes, we will move into just being more and more. We will live as Mary did, deriving our sustenance from relationship. Example lives such as that of Jesus will then be no longer necessary.

Our Way Will Be Transformed

“Observe the personal self with one last act of love and devotion, and in so doing transform the personal self into a representation of the truth. Realize that what we have called “closed eyes” observation is really the observation of a Self beyond the personal self. To call forth observance is to call forth the sight of your true Self. To call forth the sight of your true Self is to call your true Self into observable form. Calling the true Self forth into observable form is the end of the old and the beginning of the new.” (ACOL, T3:22.17)

We are on the cusp of the “Treatise on the New,” seeing here the last daily quotation from the treatise on the personal self. And in observing the self, the Self, we see what we have heretofore found lacking in our everyday life. Others’ words did not ever teach us as much as observing from the events of our life might. And when we observe from the events of our life, everything and everyone is taking us home to God, transforming the egoic personal self into a real personal self that reflects the inner Christ-Self.

What a blessing this is! When we welcome the Christ-Self out to play, we can cease worrying about anything at all. Our way will be transformed. We will experience love in a different fashion from all the preceding years, years in which special love led to dramatic highs and lows that disturbed our tranquility.

We are done with all that now. We are on the home stretch. And the joy of living in the present in upon us. We love our brothers and sisters, all of them, with a greatness that heretofore eluded us. Our significant others do not have to ever worry about diminished love for them now that we are turning aside from loving in a special way. The special way was flawed, and it could lead to a cessation of love as much as anything. Holy love is always there. And our significant others are likely the first recipients of this holy love.

Prayer
I so much want to show holy love for all of my significant others. I want them to feel the depth of my love, and I want that deep love to be unwavering. Help me to realize this greater way of viewing love. Indeed, it is Love with a capital “L.”
Be with me today as I seek to follow in Your footsteps. Help me to commune with my inner Christ-Self so that I know what and how to effect change, good change, that will be lasting.
Thank You for being with me on yet another glorious day.
Amen.

Allow Hope to Transform Our Day

“You must now birth the idea that human beings do indeed change. While you have known instinctively that there is a core, a center to each that is unchangeable, you must now give up the idea that this core or center has been represented by the past. You must forget the idea that the future cannot be different than the past.” (ACOL, T3:15.7)

Our core is the inner Christ-Self, and this Self has not been accurately portrayed by the “little,” or personal self. The personal self has been a persona, and previously it was an egoic persona. Now it is the self only that we present to our brothers and sisters, but it is a self that has been informed by the Christ-Self, the core that does not change. Never presented to others beforehand, of course we didn’t know what people were really like. We had never shown our true face.

Yes, when we allow the Christ-Self to emerge, and when this Christ-Self informs the personal self, we will see that our brothers and sisters will change. We will see that we change. Our misgivings about past misdeeds can be forgotten. The inner core was not represented in deeds of hostility. The Christ-Self is loving and peaceful, and this face will be seen now. The egoic self is no more, in us who are reading A Course of Love. And the personal self that we present to others will be a new face when it is informed by the emergent Christ-Self.

There is much hope in the passage for today. People who have executed deeds that are deplorable can be seen to change, because their core is good. And when they come to understand the Self Who is deep within, they can exhibit good behavior, behavior that has not seen the light of day until now.

The ego needs to die, and this is not the ego of Freud, but the ego presented in ACIM and ACOL, a false version of the self. The ego that needs to die lives in fear, and we know that living in fear is no way to live at all.

Allow hope to transform our day. All people have the potential to become new when a new identity emerges from deep within. This is the transforming hope for our world.

Prayer

I am going to allow hope to transform this day, the first day of the rest of my life. Hope quells illness, among other things. It alleviates any “down” feeling that we have. It is vastly underrated.

Be with me today. Help me to love with an ever-greater love. And may I reach out to those I encounter with genuine love.

Amen.

Transformation

“The ego’s thought system has been replaced by the thought system of unity and you are left, perhaps, feeling unsure of the part you are now to play. There is not one of you who has not begun to experience the transfor¬mation that is, in truth, occurring, although you may not as yet have seen the changes you are experiencing as the transformation to which you have been called. These changes, perhaps, seem like little things—a change in attitude here, a change in behavior there. But I assure you that these changes are mighty and are but the result of the change in cause that has occurred through your learning of this Course.” (ACOL, T3:1.7)

Here we are reassured that we are having a transformation, a transformation from the ego-self to the Christ-Self. And when this transformation is complete, nothing will ever be the same again. The culmination will be Christ-consciousness.

Now, sometimes this transformation happens suddenly, in an instant, and our brothers and sisters are left wondering what has happened to them. We may embark on a great quest to understand how and why we are different, for we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that we are very different indeed. And our significant others see this difference, and some ask questions. Suddenness has made the transformation seem very significant indeed.

Others of us, perhaps the majority, find transformation occurring gradually, sometimes very gradually. We recognize, as this quotation points out, a change here or there in attitude or behavior. We may not fully comprehend the great strides that are unfolding. This is Christ-consciousness occurring in glimpses, a moment of peace and tranquility that steals up on us almost unawares.

Be conscious of these small changes, for they are mighty indeed. Jesus assures us of this. And we will soon have a new persona, a personal self mirroring the inner Christ-Self, to present to others. We will almost not recognize ourselves. But we will be very inwardly glad that the change, the transformation, is occurring.

We will be new people, living in a new world that we are helping to create.

Prayer

I am grateful that I know a few people who have walked the whole pathway to Christ-consciousness. I am having a very gradual Awakening, with a change noted here or there, nothing dramatic and certainly not upsetting. I used to be afraid of Awakening, believing that I would be hurled into reality, though Jesus denies this in A Course in Miracles. My glimpses come when I am especially peaceful, and this seems to me to a harbinger of things to come.

Thank You, dear God, for orchestrating this transformation for all of us so well. It is the next step for all of us. May we be ready, and may we be ready soon. Then we await Your action of reaching down and lifting us up, to Christ-consciousness.

Amen.

A Transformation that Recognizes Heaven on Earth

“The solution lies in transformation, and that is why you are still needed here. Beneath the world of illusion that you have made to glorify the separated self lies the world that was created for your learning, and that so exists in truth. It is not the only world by any means, but it is still heaven because heaven must be where you are. A wholehearted choice to abandon all ideas of glorifying the separated self and to let the world be what it is will begin the transformation. This requires the first unification, the unification of mind and heart, after which unification with God is natu¬rally returned to your awareness, for this unification returns you to the Christ in you and the one mind united with God which you have never left. Creation’s power then returns to you to help all the separated ones remember union.” (ACOL, C:19.14)

A Course in Miracles indicates that we are here to help others, that it may take millions of years for all of us to return to God, to heal the illusory separation. (ACIM also says that the separation similarly happened over millions of years.) We ourselves can help best when we have been transformed, when we have achieved Christ-consciousness. And while this is a choice, it is not a choice that we make alone. God makes the final decision about our readiness; he metaphorically reaches down and lifts us up. And when that happens, nothing is ever the same again—if we sustain the enlightenment.

In the early pages of A Course of Love, we are still caught in learning, but this learning takes different forms as we proceed, and eventually, by the time we reach the Dialogues, we have left learning behind entirely.

We need to stop glorifying the separated self, and this means that we leave behind egotism and self-satisfaction. This also means that we will, once again, even here, find ourselves in heaven. Our mind and heart has been reunified, and, with this, too, nothing is ever the same again.

We WILL remember union. It is not a hard concept. We start with the union of our mind and heart, and this leads to our reunion with God.

We are remembering rather than learning anew. Jesus is taking us “back,” and with this return we find a joy that is ours to share with others. When they see ordinary people living extraordinary lives, others will be encouraged to ask what we have that they don’t. And then we can tell them, then, when they are ready to listen.

Prayer

Dear Father/Mother,

May the remaining egotism fade from my emotions today. I do not wish to enhance the ego in any way at all. I wish to let it disappear entirely, and You can and will help me with this. Thank You.

May this day go well. May my attitude stay straightened out. My “attitude” may still be the biggest obstacle in my pathway now. And with the love that You render to me, you can cancel out the negativity and accentuate the positive.

I ask this of You today. Thank You.

Amen.

Transformation in This Day & Age

“The transformation from a state of separation to a state of unity is a miracle indeed, for this transformation requires recognition of a state that you cannot recognize in separation. While this is a paradox, it is not impos¬sible for the simple reason that you never left the state of unity that you do not recognize. Your lack of recognition can thus be overcome by remem¬bering the truth of what you are.” (ACOL, C:18.19)

We are told in both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love that we are simply to “remember” what we have forgotten. We are traveling back in time to an early moment when all that we had ever known was unity. Then we got impatient to experience more, and more, and then “more” became a trap for us. We weren’t ready for such wide-ranging experience that would eventually culminate in being outside God’s will. We were eager, too eager, and in ACOL we are told that God let go, and allowed our presumed separation, a separation that could not happen in truth, but in which we could believe. This is the “fall” that our biblical Genesis records.

We have been united with God, though, deep within, where we could not access when our minds were befuddled. We are a part of Him, and thus the separation could never happen at all in any meaningful sense. But we could think that it did, and therein lay our downfall.

We are making our way back now, and the transformation is coming soon for many of us. A Course in Miracles paved the way for much that has transformed in the last 50 years, spiritually. Any reader of self-improvement books and spirituality will note the degree to which ACIM ideas have made it into the common religious culture. Now we are poised on the brink for the same spread to happen with A Course of Love. These days are exciting indeed. We must humbly seek to do our part to follow in the pathway pioneered by Jesus.

Transformation that will return us to unity includes, of course, a melding of heart and mind. But it is the heart that will lead us more surely in this time. Everyone reading these words knows what we mean by “heart.” And knows intuitively how to access heartfelt attitudes.

The transformation will be sped along by ordinary people leading extraordinary lives. Others will join us, and then the great, widespread Awakening will dawn.

Prayer

Dear Father/Mother,

May I listen to my heart today, in mellowness and in love. Your will is that I follow what my heart shows me, and in this is my salvation. Help me to keep myself calm as I go about my daily routine. I know that Your way is always best, and it is only residual egoic tendencies that would lead me astray. May the ego die a silent death in me today.

Be with me as I walk through this day. Help me to be of service to others, as they will also seek to serve me. Your way is one of service. May the direction of service bond us all.

Amen.

Would You Rather Be Right or Happy?

“Your mind might still prefer to be right rather than happy, so it is important that you let your heart lead in making this new choice. When you find yourself in a situation you do not like, again offer your willingness to find some happiness within it. These instructions to your heart will begin to make a difference to your state of mind.” (ACOL, C:10.18)

Jesus found a good idea when he decided that the way to transform us was to talk about our relating to our heart. All of us know immediately what he means; it doesn’t take a tedious telling. And we know that when we listen to our heart, we make better decisions. Things come out right in the long run, which is something we definitely can’t say when we listen to the ruminations of our mind.

Being right rather than happy is a quest of the ego, one that keeps the ego going strong, in business, keeping us trapped the way we have been for eons. The next time that we are on the verge of altercation with a friend or loved one, we ought to stop ourselves by realizing, “I am listening to my egoic mind.” That may be all that it takes to stop us from pursuing the wrong path. Our heart will love, always, if given half a chance. And just a little willingness is what “half a chance” is all about. Jesus says repeatedly that a “little willingness” is what we need; this is a theme of A Course in Miracles as well as A Course of Love.

We can find happiness in our everyday lives. We don’t need to get nearly as discouraged about this as we usually do. And I am not talking about flights of happiness, ephemeral happiness, the kind of drama that the ego uses to entrap us. The happiness that we need to woo is a stable happiness, a happiness that is full of peace. And with this new happiness, we will find that listening to the heart becomes a habit.

Be with our loved ones today in peace. A transformation is ahead. Many of us feel it. And the future does indeed look bright. Our heart is taking us home to God. Our heart is leading to enlightenment, to Christ-consciousness. Virtually all of us have had glimpses of enlightenment now. And with the mind and heart joined in wholeheartedness, we will walk into a maintained, and then a sustained, Christ-consciousness in our near future.

Jesus has shown us the way in his channeled writing. Let us do our part to listen carefully to what he has said, and then everything will be different—and far, far better.

A New World Will Arise

“This foreign world where you have been so lonely and afraid will linger for a while where it can terrify you no longer, until finally it will fade away into the nothingness from which it came as a new world rises up to take its place.” (ACOL, C:4.27)

This “new world” is not different from the familiar earth, but our perceptions are transformed, and so everything and everyone looks different. Our perceptions will have been cleansed when we reach Christ-consciousness, Awakening, enlightenment. We will have transformed the mind all the way down through the subconscious, and this purification means that everything and everyone will seem different. But it is we who have changed. Would this purification not be something that we ask the Holy Spirit or the inner Christ Self to effect?

With the ego ruling our minds, we have, for as long as we can remember and eons earlier, been lonely and afraid. We have thought that we are encased in a body, a solitary creature all alone in the world. For regardless of how many special relationships we surrounded ourselves with, we still knew in our depths that these might end for us. Either a premature ending, or by death, and we never knew the day nor the hour.

When we move into finding glimpses of Awakening, we will lose our fear of being solitary, with no one to help us. We will feel safety in the depths, and with this safety comes the peace that passeth understanding. We will no longer be terrified by this foreign world. We will know for sure that it is illusion, and illusion cannot harm us.

So pay attention to the thoughts that well up within us today. A purification of our thoughts needs to happen for Awakening to occur. If we cooperate with this procedure, listening always for guidance, we will accelerate the process of coming to know true living—a true living that is directed by the Christ Self, not the ego. We have to be willing to turn on a dime, when our guidance so dictates. We have to be willing to listen, all the time, to that guidance.

The way is not distant for many of us. Seekers will find, and then, as A Course of Love says, we will seek no longer. We will have found.

Living in Love Creates Transformation

“. . .[L]ove is nothing like your image of your life and has no resemblance to how you spend your days or the way your days will end. Love is all that is set apart in your perception from what you do here.” (ACOL, C:4.18)

Our perceptions of reality are skewed, at this point, early in the reading of A Course of Love. We think that we know how to love, but we really don’t, and it is this lack of knowledge that trips us up. We think we know what we do in our living on earth, but we are living an illusion. So true love actually has no part in what we are doing here; we only want to imagine that the special love of our special relationships is true reality. It is anything but.

We need to open to love in a way that we never have. We need to recognize that love will offer us a future unlike the past, a future that we will enjoy beyond measure. Living in love is the basis of transformation, the basis for Awakening or Christ-consciousness. We give up judgment, we give up fear, and we walk into the sunlight with Jesus. It is just that simple and just that hard, for, make no mistake, this change in orientation to the true world demands the giving of all that we have held dear. We won’t give up our special relationships, though; we will transform them into holy. And the change may be disconcerting, at least for a while. But this change from the special to the holy holds the key to all the rest. Make no bones about it, this change requires the surrender of all that we have held dear, for we have held dear what would imprison God’s Son or Daughter.

It is time to make a choice to give up illusions. It is time to walk Home. Jesus will help us. Other beings will help us. We never walk alone. God Himself will help us. The transformation that is required to see true reality is a change in vision, of the inner eye—not the physical eye. The transformation will come first in glimpses, lengthening in time, over time. Then, if we are very diligent in our forgiveness, in our giving up of judgment and fear, we will move into the maintenance of Christ-consciousness, and then, ultimately, into the sustainability of Christ-consciousness. And with this change, nothing will ever be the same again.

Ask for help in receiving the blessing of Christ-consciousness today. Ask to see the glimpses that foretell the future for all of us. Do not delay. Delay is likely of the ego, an ego that does not mean us well, for we made it, and we made it not through love. Choose love once again, and everything will fall into place.

Recognizing Love Will End Our Madness

“The insanity of your thought process and the world you perceive must be made known to you before you are willing to give it up. You do know this, and yet you constantly forget. This forgetting is the work of your ego. Your true Self does not want to forget, and cannot for even the tiniest fraction of a second. It is precisely the inability of your true Self to forget that gives you hope of learning to recognize love, and, with that recognition, of ending the insanity you now perceive.” (ACOL, C:2.9)

When we are enthralled by love, we remember our real Self, and we forget the ego. At least for the moment. We are going to be leaving the ego behind as we read A Course of Love. Why not do so now? Why not decide that we will do nothing for egotistical reasons, that we will follow guidance as we understand it to be, that we will welcome the Self into our lives. This Self is the Christ whom we all share, the Oneness of an Entity Who knows us intimately and adjusts life to give us what we really need—as long as our free will doesn’t step in to mess things up.

We have been living in insanity. This is a cardinal point of both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love. When someone mistreats us (as we perceive it), we can get over the hurt by saying, “It is just insanity.” And I would have no more of it. So I forgive, something that I can do.

And life will get better. Forgiveness ousts insanity from our experience.

We do know that we have been living in insanity, but, as Jesus says, we constantly forget. This is because the illusion that insanity weaves is so convincing. We had to enter into the whole insane experience to reap the rewards of living a life on earth.

But there comes a time when a transformation is needed. The time for a transformation is here and now. Don’t drag our feet about this. We need to be patient with ourselves, but not so patient that we countenance insanity.

Insanity. What a ridiculous notion! How did we ever, ever, get caught up in this?

We don’t have all the answers. A Course in Miracles says that we were hoodwinked by a “tiny, mad idea” about which the Son of God forgot to laugh. But we can laugh today. We can recognize that this tiny, mad idea has done its worst, and we are still here. We are ready and willing to get over the insanity that this tiny idea fostered in us. May we reach out and touch the love in Creation that will make us ready for the transformation that we all need so very desperately.

CHAPTER 6: ATONEMENT IN A COURSE OF LOVE

Atonement Is Correction of Errors in Perception

“Being willing to be forgiven is the precursor of atonement, the state in which you allow your errors to be corrected for you. These errors are not the sins you hold against yourself, but merely your errors in perception. Correction, or atonement, returns you to your natural state where true vision lies and error and sin disappear.” (C:9.35)

We have long worked with our perception, because we perceive an erroneous world, a world of illusion. We project outward this erroneous world, this world of dreams, illusions.

Jesus would have us here return to our natural state, “where true vision lies and error and sin disappear.” This true vision has nothing to do with the physical eyes; it is a sense of inward rightness with God, a sense of inward justification with the inner Self, or Christ. A Course in Miracles said that true vision would follow once we had perceptually seen little edges of light around the same familiar objects that we have always seen. ACIM continues to say that true vision will follow shortly afterwards, shortly after seeing these little edges of light.

Now we are moving into a relinquishment, finally and completely, of the ego. And when we have done this, our true vision will take the place of what we have viewed before. Our physical eyes will still see the same familiar world, but our inner vision will have been transformed.

This transformation is what we are all seeking, the Christ-consciousness that Jesus is trying to effect in A Course of Love. Christ-consciousness is enlightenment, called Awakening in A Course in Miracles. The transformation is the same.

Enlightenment as a Shift to Vision

“Once you have accepted it [shift to vision] as the only perception you want, it is translated into knowledge by the part that God Himself plays in the Atonement, for it is the only step in it He understands. Therefore, in this there will be no delay when you are ready for it. God is ready now, but you are not. (T-15.IV.1)”

This quotation explains the movement made by God to raise us up to Awakening. We are told here that God does not understand some things about our illusion. The Holy Spirit, God’s Voice, however, does. And the Holy Spirit guides us to the only perception that works: the perception that leads to true vision.

Vision is not of the physical eyes. It sees reality instead, and we do not have to look with physical eyes to identify reality. Once we have vision, we also have knowledge, which is a step beyond perception (according to ACIM) to what is really true. Knowledge cannot be taught, but comes from God when we are ready. And He Himself decides when that is. He calls us to Awaken.

When we Awaken, our channels of communication with God are once again open. He knows that we no longer sleep and need to be Awakened. His metaphorical loneliness is healed, and, not incidentally, our loneliness as well. We had taught ourselves the most unnatural habit of not communicating with our Creator. Now we do communicate, our minds returned to His.

Jesus says that we are not yet ready. We will know the readiness as soon as it appears possible in our experience. God will not delay; He wants us to come to Him as Awakened beings with a knowledge of Love.

ANN GLOVER O’DELL – AN EXPERIENCE OF TRANSFORMATION SUSTAINED

Ann Glover O’Dell has a powerful story to tell, one that we all would benefit from hearing.

More than 30 years ago, she experienced a powerful transformation that students/teachers of A Course in Miracles would call Awakening, and students/teachers of A Course of Love would call Christ-consciousness. She has spent much of the past years pondering the ramifications of what has happened to her. She underwent a powerful change of personality, from a driven individual to one who recommends simply “being.”

Ann has a web site that I recommend to you:

http://anngloverodell.wordpress.com

Her book, based on her experience, can be found by clicking on simply the word “book” on the left-hand side of her web site. The book is available to you at no charge as a pdf file. The first half of the lengthy manuscript details the experience of transformation that enveloped her in, largely, three significant days. The latter half of the book is scholarship, based on wide reading that sought to bring form and order to her experience.

There are other parts to her web site: poetry, meditations, journal entries, and a blog of newly published material that introduces her philosophy of living.

Ann is a personal friend, in my town, whom I have known for nine years. Only in the last year, though, have we become closer, and I found out about the remarkable passage that she has made. I recommend her book and her web site without reservation.

Make the Choice to Be Aware of Who You Truly Are

“To align your will with the Will of God is to make the choice for Christ-consciousness, to make the choice to be aware of who you truly are. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 5.10)”

1 – ACIM vs. ACOL

A Course of Love builds on A Course in Miracles, because the latter had counseled that the Will of God is actually our own real will. This does take the conflict out of our feeling that we are puppets on a string, doing God’s will (which we wonder if we really want to do). We are not puppets. God is the divine spark within, and when we reach inward, we come to know what it is that we ought rightfully to say and to do.

2 – Holy Spirit / Christ Self

ACIM focused on the Holy Spirit as our guide. ACOL counsels a movement, a time, beyond the time of the Holy Spirit, with movement into the time of Christ. We will know what to say or do without strain. Life will move easier for us. We will not feel that tug of resistance, of which so many of us are familiar.

3 – Conflict

The time of the Holy Spirit often meant that we did what we realized we should do, but without wholly wanting to do so. ACIM says that this will result in anger, suppressed or expressed. The time of Christ is different, in that we realize that doing what we sense inwardly, once we have tested it for truth, is the best result. We will cease our struggle, because we will realize conclusively that to do God’s will is to do our own.

4 – Nudges Identical

The nudges from the Holy Spirit are exactly like the nudges of the Christ Self. You, in all likelihood, won’t intuit any difference. You may, I hope, be more willing to follow the inner Self immediately, but this is not for sure. Sometimes, even with the Self in the ascendancy, we will be resistant to the guidance that we receive. We will surely know when we have crossed over into Christ-consciousness, but the nudges will not differ from what we have always known. And perhaps there will be time delay before we really realize that, yes, we are verging into Awakening. Usually, though, there is a moment in which we will know that we have left the old behind. That moment is our saving grace. We will know that we are home free.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May the strain of “deciding” for the Holy Spirit leave me. May I devote myself to following what I know to be Your will in ease and peace. May my struggle cease, because my inward knowledge is guiding me.

Help me to decide for the consciousness of Christ today. Jesus has said that I am ready; may this wonderful declaration come true in my life in joy and wholeness. May I remember again what I forgot long ago.

Thank You for the guidance that knows when You have acted in my life. Thank You for the assurance that is mine today. The Way You point to is Your Will personified. Help me to sustain that Will in my life, daily, weekly, and monthly—on into the distant future.

Amen.

Love Will Transform Normal, Ordinary, Life into Extraordinary Life

1 – Transformation

“Love will transform normal, ordinary, life into extraordinary life. Loving exactly who you are and where you are in every moment is what will cause the transformation that will end your desire to remove yourself from life. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day Eight)”

2 – Jesus

Jesus had earlier, in these 40 days and 40 nights, talked of the need that some of us feel to remove ourselves from life while we metaphorically travel to the mountain top with him. He says that such removal is absolutely unnecessary, and is actually undesired (by him) and undesirable. If we love right where we are, we will have no need to feel that we want to separate from normal, ordinary life. We will be more than satisfied in the present, with Jesus leading the way to the mountain top.

3 – Love

How do we know when we have transformed life by love? We do not really need to ask this question, for when we have actually made the transformation viable, we will be happier than we have ever been before. We will know that this was where we were heading. We will know ecstasy, at least sometimes (though prolonged ecstasy would be debilitating to our bodies).

4 – Love Deeply

How do we love that deeply? We pray to love more deeply; it is just that simple. The prayer to love more deeply is in the Will of God, and He will provide. When we are consumed by our love, we will feel a warmth and a gentle ease that will assure us of God’s Presence, here, now, right in ordinary life.

5 – Rushing About

What a blessing this is! We get in such a rush sometimes, barreling over ourselves to reach God—when He is within us, just waiting quietly for us to realize His Presence. When we rush through life, we miss so very much—and, most of all, we miss God. He can still reach us from within, but it is harder for us to feel Him.

6 – Hard?

We don’t need to make things hard for ourselves. We need only get quiet, calm down, relax, take the easy course—and life with God as a present Reality takes form. This is the Will of God, as well as His pleasure with us. This will bring us the love that we have heretofore felt only in fleeting moments that fell away all too soon.

7 – Acceptance Clarified

“But here is the point that needs clearing up. This is not about acceptance of what you do not like. Do you really think you are being called to accept ‘normal life?’ Called to accept those conditions that have made you feel unhappy? No! You are being called to an acceptance of new conditions! (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day Eight)”

8 – “Don’t Like”

We do not have to accept what we don’t like. This would be acquiescence in the face of negatives that we don’t want to accept. And we wouldn’t get the boon that we hoped to have by acceptance. We realize that we don’t like certain conditions; we just accept that we don’t like them. This “don’t like’ is in itself a form of acceptance. And it will take us farther along the pathway. Much farther than reluctant acceptance of that which we don’t like, simply because we think that this uneasy acceptance is required of us.

9 – New Conditions

The new conditions come as we ascend the mountain top with Jesus. These new conditions include a greater desire to be quiet and calm—not to make drama in our everyday lives. These new conditions are the joy of living, the day-to-day happiness, the relaxation and easy work that we do now. No work needs to be hard, when we are in the pattern of acceptance. We will enjoy what we do, however busy that might be. We are not meant to remove ourselves from life in some superficial desire to be lazy.

10 – Power

“All power to effect change comes from acceptance—not acceptance of the way things are, but acceptance of who you are in the present. Not through acceptance of the way you want to be but of the way you are now. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day Eight)”

11 – Accept Self

We need to accept ourselves, flaws and all. We have a certain perfection of being that is independent of the perfection that we are eventually called to. If we don’t like a certain trait, we just turn away from it, giving it no power because of resistance. What we resist, on the other hand, becomes stronger in the resistance.

12 – Perfect?

I believe that we are intended to become perfect in all respects, but we don’t have to be perfect to realize Awakening, or Christ-consciousness. Anger is such an example. Remember that Jesus showed anger with the activities of the moneychangers in the temple during his last week on earth. Would we believe that he didn’t have Christ-consciousness? Of course not. This is a very real example that allows us to accept ourselves as we are, even though we learned in A Course in Miracles that anger has no justification.

13 – Who We Are

We need, therefore, to accept who we are in the present. We need to cease our relentless seeking, always wanting something more by way of salvation. That something more will come to us when God is ready for us to have—and not a moment sooner. We cannot “achieve” enlightenment, or Awakening, though we can move in that direction by the early seeking that we do. At this point in A Course of Love, though, we need to do less seeking and more accepting. Jesus makes this point over and over. We can do something more, but will that really help us at this point?

14 – Intolerant of Illusions

“Remember that you have been told that your real Self will be intolerant only of illusions and that this intolerance will take the form of seeing only the truth rather than attempting to combat illusion. Thus when you see others gossiping, you are called to see only the truth of who they are—to see beyond the illusion, what would seem to be the ‘fact’ of their gossip—to the fear that feeds it, and beyond the fear to the love that will dispel it. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day Eight)”

15 – Gossip

Jesus uses gossip as an example in Day Eight. He says that we don’t like it, sometimes because we have been the brunt of gossip. We aren’t, however, to denounce the purveyor of gossip as a bad person; it is just a mistake, we feel, and then we turn aside from it without giving it power by resistance. These individuals who gossip are fearful in their lives, fearful because their ego has sway at that point. We can love in spite of the gossip, for we will nearly always find that the person who is conveying gossip about us has done something nice for us at some time. Jealousy, or a wish for the type of life that we have, is often a factor in gossip. And have not all of us been guilty of jealousy at some point, some time wanting what another has in life?

16 – Charmed Life

We particularly need to be aware that others will sometimes see us as “living a charmed life,” because our understanding has allowed our projection to make perceptions that are very good indeed. The world itself is an illusion, and our lives become better once we realize such things as this. We have had a guide in the Holy Spirit as we have created our lives, and thus we have made lives that work better than someone who has never learned these things. So live and let live, knowing that others are looking to us, also, for guidance. They, too, would like to live charmed lives.

17 – Anger

“If anger arises in you now, it does not mean that you will react in whatever way anger once called you to react and it does not mean that something is wrong with you or that you are not spiritual enough! It simply means that you are involved in a situation or relationship that has called forth that feeling. It is in the expression of that feeling that who you are is revealed, not in the feeling itself. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day Eight)”

18 – ACIM

Here we are talking of anger again; Jesus uses this example repeatedly in A Course of Love. It must be that anger is a hot spot for many of us, and perhaps Jesus knows how we have struggled with his words in A Course in Miracles. In ACIM he declares that anger and attack have no foundation in truth and are not justified. But Jesus would know that premature suppression of anger does what it would remove. We find ourselves engaging in behavior that is worse than it was before we had this instruction!

19 – Jesus’s Attitude toward Anger in ACOL

So Jesus takes, in A Course of Love, a more tolerant attitude toward anger. He does not, note, say that it is a good thing. He recommends that we be accepting of our anger as we are of everything else in our lives. We have that certain perfection even now.

20 – Don’t Suppress Anger

He would have us refuse to express anger, which we can do without suppressing it. We can refuse to express anger to our brother/sister, for how could expressing anger help him/her? He/she will feel betrayed, perhaps, for each is doing the best he/she can, given his/her understanding at the time.

21 – Acceptance

“Now, however, it is crucial that you come to acceptance of yourself–in the present, as you are–for only by doing so will you come to full acceptance of who you are and be able to allow the Self of unity to merge with the self of form, thus elevating the self of form. You will also, only in this way come to true expression of the elevated Self of Form. (A Course of Love: Dialogues, p. 136)”

22 – Accept the Present

The title for Day Eight, “Accept the Present,” is particularly apt. Virtually everything in the chapter explains this assertion in some way. We need to accept the present of being in normal life as we spend this time on the metaphorical mountain top. We do not need to separate ourselves from our brothers and sisters, for they are the only way to the love that will give us unity with them. We also do not need to separate ourselves from our normal living routines.

23 – Passivity?

We are not called, however, to accept what we do not like. We are not called to any passivity. We are called to total acceptance of our Self. Once we have accepted the Self, sometimes it will take some time for conditions to change, and sometimes conditions change immediately. This is one of our blessings. Change will not come without first having acceptance of our Self.

24 – Feelings

We should accept our own feelings. Distancing ourselves from our feelings is not only dishonest; it will prevent us from further movement forward. We are called to unity with our brothers and sisters through love. We cannot err when we follow our feelings–for these feelings have now been cleansed. If, however, we have not accepted all that Jesus holds out to us, we must be wary of feelings that take us away from the Self that we want to be, the Self of Christ-consciousness. Then and only then do we need to be wary of following our feelings. (This latter point is an interpretation, not a tenet of ACOL.)

25 – Thinking and Feeling

“Remove all thinking that says that you can err in following your feelings. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day Eight)”

26 – Harbinger

This statement is a harbinger of greater things to come in the 40 days and 40 nights. It is also a statement that intuition works best for us, even when we are tempted to ignore that intuition. We can have better lives when we follow our guidance, and that guidance frequently comes by way of feelings.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to accept myself as I am, knowing that You do. I chastise myself so often, and I think so often that I am not worthy. Jesus would have me to drop these thoughts and the actions that result from them. I am not perfect, but I must accept that You accept me as I am.

If there are things about myself that need to be changed, please give me the grace to change easily. I understand that I have made real progress, and that the elevated Self of form is something that I can attain. I am apt to forget this. Help me to remember this. And thank You for the blessing of the Christ-consciousness that You hold out to me.

Thank You for this good day. May the days ahead string, like pearls on a string, into a beautiful necklace of good feelings brought about by love of others as well as a settled good love for myself. Until I can love myself, I am hindered in loving others. I have not always recognized this truth, but thank You for showing it to me now. Be with me as I walk into the evening of this good day.

Amen.

Healing and Atonement

1 – Identical Concepts

“Healing and Atonement are not related; they are identical. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because there are no degrees of Atonement. (M55)”

2 – The Sequence

If we are right with God (atonement), then the healing of our minds is next to happen. Note that physical symptoms may still be present, but the mind is where the healing happens. Physical symptoms very well may disappear in time (and there is no time, and so this is irrelevant).

3 – Undoing

Atonement, the “undoing,” happens when we surrender to God. We find that salvation has been waiting for us all along. We also find that miracles can and will heal anything that ails us. The fact that miracles do not always happen for us is not a reason to doubt the validity of some miracles. God may be saying “no” to us, and our inner Self will have acquiesced to this denial.

4 – Accept Atonement

“Accept Atonement and you are healed. Atonement is the Word of God. Accept His Word and what remains to make sickness possible? Accept His Word and every miracle has been accomplished. (M55)”

5 – Ideal Level

This assertion belongs to the “ideal” level of A Course in Miracles. The books are written on at least two levels, and not all of us can reach up to the ideal level at all times.

6 – Faith

This is not a reason to lose faith. In fact, Jesus healed when faith was strong—only “believe,” he said.

7 – Unhealed Illness

Of course, you as well as I can point to many examples of sick people who believed that they would be healed, and to our eyes they were not healed. Is this reason to doubt what God has promised to us?

8 – Inner Healing

I think not. Know that an inner healing may happen even when outer circumstances do not change. The inner may be a far superior form of healing than the outer. We will be given the grace to accept our predicament.

9 – Can You Believe?

See if you can reasonably believe in a healing. If you cannot visualize a healing, then chances are good that this healing is not in the cards for you. Our failure to visualize something is almost proof positive that we are on the wrong track (an interpretation, not stated in A Course in Miracles).

10 – Progress

“The progress of the teacher of God may be slow or rapid, depending on whether he recognizes the Atonement’s inclusiveness, or for a time excludes some problem areas from it. In some cases, there is a sudden and complete awareness of the perfect applicability of the lesson of the Atonement to all situations, but this is comparatively rare. (M55)”

11 – Holy Spirit

We need to turn to the Holy Spirit with all of our decisions, but rarely are we courageous enough to do so. It takes time to trust Him. When we come to learn that following His advice brings good, and following our own often leaves us unhappy, we will turn to Him more and more. And our lives will get better, accordingly.

12 – Do Not Rely on Yourself

Sometimes a miracle happens, and as soon as one accepts the Holy Spirit into his or her life, then that person recognizes that the truth is good for all things. We usually don’t experience this sudden awareness, though, because we have been reared to place our dependence upon our own judgment. We think that we are missing something unless we rely upon ourselves. But this is a false doctrine. The world teaches it to us, but the Course teaches just the reverse.

13 – Judgment

Our own judgment can never know all the factors about a given situation. But the Holy Spirit does know all factors. Would we not be foolish to fail to take advantage of such a Helper? This Helper is always available to us, and He has only our best reactions at heart.

14 – Function

“The teacher of God may have accepted the function God has given him long before he has learned all that his acceptance holds out to him. It is only the end that is certain. (M55)”

15 – Healing May Be Delayed

This passage contains a hint that healing may be delayed. Sometimes healing is delayed for our own good, in that a sudden healing might precipitate depression, because we have learned to see our sickness as part of our self-image—and we know not where to turn if healed. (Paraphrases from ACIM.)

16 – All Will Be Healed

In the end, we are all healed, whether now, later, or on the Other Side. We will know abundant health, now or in the future, for sickness has no place in the Son/Daughter of God’s reality, the true reality.

17 – Inclusiveness

“Anywhere along the way, the necessary realization of inclusiveness may reach him. If the way seems long, let him be content. He has decided on the direction he wants to take. What more was asked of him? And having done what was required, would God withhold the rest? (M55)”

18 – Patience

This passage essentially says to be patient. There are illnesses that are contained only by medication, and Jesus himself says in A Course in Miracles that, though “spells,” he does not oppose taking pills if this is what we need to keep down the fear, the anxiety. An increase in fear is the last thing that we need now.

19 – Awakening

We want Awakening, but the way may be long for most of us. Awakening in our current culture in this world is relatively rare, and when it happens at all, it is frequently not sustained, but is instead a passing satori (a glimpse of Awakening). But the end is certain. God wants us to awake, and when we turn ourselves over to Him in all particulars, our way eases. We have happy dreams sent by the Holy Spirit, and these happy dreams teach us what God would have us know, how He would have us proceed before He reaches down to lift us up to Awakening.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May my progress as a teacher of God be rapid. Help me to realize that trusting the Holy Spirit for guidance in all my decisions is the way to go.

I know that You want the very best for me. And You need me to reach out to my brothers and sisters. Help me to do Your will, which is also my own.

Amen.

TRANSFORMATION FOR EVERYONE

Note: I am reblogging this post from a new blog by Ann Glover O’Dell. Ann experienced a radical transformation more than 30 years ago, a transformation that has been sustained. Her blog is located at http://anngloverodell.wordpress.com. She plans to post once a week, often from her manuscript describing the transformation that is also called awakening or enlightenment.

I Am a Transformed Humpty!

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall;
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Could not put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Thirty-five years ago I was dying. One of the two things I vowed not to let happen to me had happened. Cancer loomed large. I went to my pastor for comfort but received instead a strange directive. He told me to listen to the message the pain had for me. What ensued was a conversation between two parts of my personality which resulted in a cooperative venture that saved my life physically and allowed an entirely new personality to emerge.

Part memoir of a miracle and part unique insight into psychological phenomena, Humpty Dumpty Hatched: Transformation for Everyone has indeed something for everyone whose shell is breaking and whose wall is crumbling. It tells the secret that is intended to be shouted from the rooftops. No trying harder. No giving yourself endless affirmations. No getting busy.

As personal story, Humpty Dumpty Hatched suggests our kinship with the nursery rhyme egg, but unlike Humpty, our need is to break open our shell and allow a new being to emerge. A new being that is cleansed of anger and guilt. A new being that has expanded space for creativity and authentic joy. A new being that finds itself satisfied in merely being rather than needing to justify its existence by doing.

Meet the person I was for much of my life—driven, controlling, determined to have life work on my terms. Meet the me after of my shell-breaking, three-day crisis—free, laughing, whole, for all these 30 years.

My repeated question, “Why me? Why has this happened to me?” was, each time I asked it, answered with , “Why not you? Why not everyone?” And I realized that my story is intended for everyone.

Stay tuned next week for part of the Humpty Dumpty story. . . .

Transformation

“As you live with awareness of the love of God within you, you will see that you have no need for special love relationships. You will realize that the love and the Self you now have available to share in relationship are all that you would share in truth. You will recognize that no others have a need for you to make them special for you will see the truth of who they are rather than the illusion of who you would have them be. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 16.15)”

Affirmation: “Let us turn special relationships into holy.”

Reflections:

1 – Holy

This passage for today does not go on to say what Jesus has earlier said: that it is for special relationships to be turned to holy.

2 – The Special

But do we really believe this? Do we not, in our superficial hearts, think that we still need to carry specialness around with us? We think that we have special memories, and a special present, with the relationships in our lives, past and present. Maybe we need to reflect that specialness itself is of the ego, and we do not need to retain “special” feelings for any individual. We can enlarge our boundaries to include all with whom we come in contact.

3 – Will Not Snatch Away

Perhaps all of us (myself included) are not yet ready for this full transformation. Jesus says in A Course in Miracles that the Holy Spirit will not snatch our special relationships away from us; we do not have to fear this. The Holy Spirit will transform our special relationships into holy relationships. And once this is done, we will know what real love is all about.

4 – Marriage

So let us entertain the idea that, if it helps us, that there is no marriage in heaven. Jesus said so in his time on earth. So we don’t cling to individuals, special individuals, so much on the Other Side. Here in A Course of Love Jesus is suggesting, I think, that we carry over some of this idea into this world. We stay true in our marriages, but we recognize that there is a larger world out there, and we have great joy awaiting us in our relationships in general.

5 – No Jealousy

We can assume no jealousy arises on the Other Side. This may still be incomprehensible here, but let us contemplate this idea nevertheless. Love with a large heart.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I must say that I am not yet ready for all of my special relationships to transform into holy. I still see instances of special in my relationships, past and present. But I realize that there is no room for jealousy as we transform our special into holy. There is no need to believe that the special will be less, for actually, once turned holy, the special becomes more.

Help me to relinquish my control over my nearest and dearest. We will go on loving, but without control we will be nearer the idea of holy relationship. I would move to holy relationship, for I know that this is Your will. Help me to realize that there is no loss but only gain when love is in the equation.

Amen.

Growth and Change

“As a tree exists fully accomplished within the seed and yet grows and changes, you exist fully accomplished within the seed that is the Christ in you even while you continue to grow and change. Physical form and action of all kinds are but expressions of what already exist within the seed of the already accomplished. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Nature of Unity and Its Recognition, 6.8)”

Affirmation: “I will focus on the seed that is I today.”

Reflections:

1 – Still Grow and Change

This passage for today explains how we can be The Accomplished, and still need to grow and change. This explanation has not been apparent earlier in the Treatise. We are like seeds, embryos, who are growing and changing with every expression of Self. Like the tree, which is fully formed in the seed, we are fully formed also. But our expression of that form is not yet complete.

2 – Elevated Self of Form

But the expression of that form will become complete, when ultimately we become the elevated Self of form, the Christ Self who currently is hidden deep within ourselves. We do not have to struggle to make this transition. It will come naturally, in the course of things. And we will never be the same again.

3 – Transformation

In the meantime, the transformation may come in spurts; we may experience the Christ Self in glimpses only, maybe for quite a long while. And these glimpses will not last, although some lucky people do undergo a sudden Awakening (as did Eckhart Tolle, who details his experience in The Power of Now).

4 – Help the Seed Grow?

Do we need to help the seed grow? Somewhat, but not entirely. Anything resembling struggle will be of the ego, and we want to turn aside from the ego. We can contemplate, meditate, pray, read, and in the doing of it we will learn by observation where we are headed. But intense study is not required, and indeed would be counterproductive.

5 – Easy Does It

Go easy with yourself, and all will be well, in time, in God’s time.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I need to understand fully what You are asking of me. I need to know that You don’t want me to struggle to transform. But that you do want me to transform.

This change is elusive to me, and I wonder if there is anything else I need to do to comprehend more. Your way is being spelled out, but I still don’t always feel that I am The Accomplished, as said in this treatise. I see weaknesses.

Be with me to transform those weaknesses into strengths.

Amen

Transformed Thinking

“Thus we must dispel, with the illusion of fear, the illusion of specificity.  You have not been asked to request a specific miracle.  Although your thoughts have naturally gone to consideration of the specific, this is but an indication that you are still in the habit of thinking that you learned under instruction of the ego-mind.  This Treatise must change that habit in order for all your thoughts to become the miracles that express the truth of who you are.  (The Treatises of A Course of Love:  Treatise on the Art of Thought, 4.2)”

Affirmation:  “I would relinquish the ego-mind today.”

Reflections:

1 – Thoughts

All of our thoughts will become miracles that express who we are!  That sentence is a quotation from the passage, paraphrased, and is vitally important to understanding what Jesus is trying to say to us.  We are not asked to request a specific miracle, because ultimately all of our thoughts will become miracles.  We will know the truth of who we are.  We will know that we are the Christ/Self who is within us.

2 – Hoodwinked?

Do we feel hoodwinked by this progression of thought, in asking for a miracle?  We should not be, for Jesus is teaching us something very important.  We have always thought in terms of an external God who granted miracles, or of an external Jesus who directed miracles (from A Course in Miracles).  But the real truth is that when we transform, all that we think will become a miracle.  All that we see will be experienced as a miracle.  This is the glory in which we will find ourselves when Christ-consciousness has come upon us.

3 – Wait Long?

Will we have to wait long for this blessing?  Perhaps, but it will not seem long when we have the patience to wait for God’s grace.  He will not leave us comfortless in the interim.  And He will not hesitate, when the time is ripe, to act and to act quickly.

4 – Too Specific in Our Thinking

We have been too specific in our thinking, the specific thinking of the ego-mind.  We need, before we can rightly ask for Christ-consciousness, to do what we can accomplish to let the ego wither away.  We do know when the ego is informing our decisions of what to say or what to do.  And we would not have the ego so inform our decisions.  Be patient with God, but know that He cannot act toward us as long as our own personal selves have the ego in ascendancy.  We need to get our act together first.

5 – Glimpses of Christ-Consciousness

And this is why we see only glimpses of Christ-consciousness or Awakening now.  We have not fully relinquished the ego’s hold on our thought processes.  Until this hold is abandoned, we are not ready for this great blessing that God has waiting for us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

It is a glorious blessing that ultimately all of our thoughts will become miracles.  How can I think this of myself?  I cannot, and certainly I cannot when in the ego-mind.  It is only with Your pleasure that I recognize miracles at all.

Could I recognize a miracle at high noon?  Could I really?  Then, if I could, I am on the right pathway.  May I walk the right pathway today.

Amen.

Transformation

“Your experience here is but an extension of mind into a realm in which experience can occur.  Your ego has made of this something different than it is.  Rather than extension of mind your experience has become a projection of ego.  This can change.  (A Course of Love, 31.35)”

Affirmation:  “I would withdraw from the projections of my ego.”

Reflections:

1 – ACOL vs. ACIM

A Course of Love is more welcoming to experience in this world, in my opinion, than is A Course in Miracles.  ACOL sees real benefits to an experience in this world, provided that we are moving toward the elevated Self of form.  This elevated Self of form is the sustained awareness of the inner Self/Christ which we will know when we have walked the whole pathway, the pathway to Christ-consciousness, or Awakening.

2 – The Insane Ego

Our experience here is of the physical.  In ACOL, such an experience is not denigrated.  But our problem is that our minds have dipped into insanity by way of the creation of an insane part, the ego.  And the ego does not love us or wish us well.  We can frequently see in the ego the old devil, or enemy, concept of traditional Christianity.

3 – The “Devil”

Just what was the devil, or enemy, in traditional Christianity?  It was a fallen angel who took on God as its rival, at times (as in Job) causing God to engage in contests that sought to prove that the devil knew better.  And there is in many of us this dualistic nature of thought still raging.  We have not left behind this egoic interpretation, for that is exactly what the devil really is, an invention of the ego.

4 – Battle with God?

We are not in a battle with God, and neither is our ego.  The ego just thinks that it is battling God.  God doesn’t respond.  He knows that eventually all of us will choose to eliminate the pain from our lives and choose again His way.  We, unfortunately, do not always understand the truth that His will and our will are actually identical.  We want what He wants for us, but we are just unsure about this.  We think that it is an infringement on the free will that he gave us.

5 – An Imprisoned Will

Actually this is a misnomer.  Our will is actually imprisoned when we choose against God (an ACIM tenet).  And we would not choose to live a life that is, essentially, a loveless and painful experience.  We find joy in turning to the God within.  There is no greater joy than communion with Him or with His Universal Inspiration, the Holy Spirit.  Once we realize that truly His will for us is the same as our true inner will, we will no longer be in conflict.  We will no longer be Jonahs, railing against His will for us.  We did not create ourselves, though an agnostic or atheist might have trouble with this assertion.  We need to set to one side our intellectual doubts, and just allow the experience of God to infiltrate our minds.

6 – Agnostic or Atheistic?

We will then not long remain agnostics or atheists.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would transform my experience in this world from a battleground for the ego to an experience of a transformed Self for whom God is very real.  I would see that my ego’s idea that I am battling God is not true.  I would seek to know only the true.  

May all of us walk together toward an experience in this world that is the best that this world can offer, the best that life on the earth can offer.  We will be surprised at the transformation that can occur.  And we need to take steps toward that transformation today.  Thank You for guiding us.  Thank You for Jesus’s inspired words in A Course of Love.

Amen.

Begin Your Transformation

“A wholehearted choice to abandon all ideas of glorifying the separated self and to let the world be what it is will begin the transformation.  This requires the first unification, the unification of mind and heart, after which unification with God is naturally returned to your awareness, for this unification returns you to the Christ in you and the one mind united with God which you have never left.  (A Course of Love, 19.4)”

Affirmation:  “May I be united with the Christ in me today.”

Reflections:

1 – A Sequence

There is a sequence of occurrences in this passage that is worth noting.

2 – Do Not Glorify the Separate Self

First, we must abandon thoughts of glorifying our separated self (or the self that we think, in illusion, is separated).  So often we seek to glorify the physical, with material objects and the trappings of “success.”  But we are digging our own grave when we do so.  So let us ask today how to avoid glorifying the self.  We will be told, and then when we act on this knowledge (for it is knowledge, not perception), then we will be set on the right path.

3 – Mind and Heart = One

Second, we need to ask that our mind and heart be made one.  We know many things intellectually, for many of us have studied diligently.  But intellectual understanding is often not comforting in the middle of the night, when fears try to overwhelm one.  So we need to invite our heart to join.  This is our emotional aspect, and we do not need intellectual proof when our emotions are involved.   We simply feel the good feeling (or the bad), and we live sanely.  The lack of intellectual “proof” does not disturb the heart, for the heart knows things that cannot be proved.  And the heart does not ask for proof.

4 – Christ/Self

Finally, we seek to unite with the Christ/Self in us.  This is the Self of whom Christ-consciousness is concerned.  We have never actually left this Self, and this point (made repeatedly) is pivotal.  We can clain Christ-consciousness as our birthright, but it is God Himself who makes the decision about when we are ready to receive this blessing..

5 – The Base of ACOL

This sequence is at the base of A Course of Love.  If we can ask for and receive (for receiving is, of course, necessary), then we will have walked the whole pathway.  And all of us wish for this.  We pray for this.  And one day this blessing of Christ-consciousness will belong to us all.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would ask for a transformation to begin today.  I know that I need to turn myself over to You in mind and heart for thsi transformation to happen.  Be with me as I make every effort to turn myself over to You today.

The Christ/Self who is within is my lodestone.  It is my way home to You.  Help me to sense today, if only for a moment, what this Self can do for me.  And may I reach out to others, for it is only in connectedness that we see the light.

Amen.

Transformation

“The beginning of all transformation is at the source, and this is as true of illusion as of the truth.  You see your body as your self, and your self as source of all that you have done and felt in all your days upon this earth.  Yet your real source is at the center of yourself, the altar to your creator, the Self you share in unity with Christ.  Christ is the ‘part’ of God that resides in you, not in separation but in the eternal wholeness in which God and you together exist in truth.  (A Course of Love, 10.4)”

Affirmation:  “God is within.”

Reflections:

1 – ACIM

There are some ideas from A Course in Miracles that need to be explored before we take up the passage for today.  When we say (as the passage says, in other words) that God is within, we must also realize that projection makes perception.  And I believe that the earthly concept of the hologram is a correct analogy, that each part contains the whole.  Of course, this bottom line is that All is One, and that is the why that God is within, and we can also project a world outside of ourselves.  We perceive other people, and so they are, but they are also “us.”

2 – Follow Your Heart

Do not let theology delay you.  If the thoughts in the paragraph above do not resonate with you, then instead set them aside, and take only what feels right in your heart.  We are not too concerned with bodies now, but with the center of our being (not the physical organ).  And this center is the heart.

3 – Real Beauty

We would know that the body deceives.  The body deceives by letting us think that if we just make it pretty or handsome enough, we will attract other bodies who want to be with us.  And so we may.  But will this superficial value last?  I think now.  Aging comes to all of us, though the real beauty is within.  And the holy relationship recognizes that the real beauty is within.

4 – A Summary

The passage for today encapsulates a good bit of the good news of A Course of Love.  God is our Source, and we are heart-centered beings who also use our minds as need be.  But we must not let the ego-oriented mind take over.  We must ask that this ego be dislodged, and then we must replace it with something better. ACOL‘s answer is wholeheartedness–a melding of mind and heart to make one, or One.  The One that is God, as well as all things.  Illusion has no place in this concept.  Behind the illusion is the real, and we would peek behind the illusion to see that real today.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I long for this transformation that is described today in the passage selected.  Help me to be patient, as I am not ready, or the revelation would already have occurred.  This transformation is the Awakening or the Christ-consciousness that is the birthright of all of us.  But we may need to wait for this blessing.

Help me to realize that to beautify the body is not enough.  It is good to look good, but even better is to have inner beauty.  And as one ages, the inner beauty becomes more and more apparent.  May we all walk safely along the pathway from birth to old age, and then beyond.  May nothing keep us from You at all times.  Thank You for the guidance that You give me, especially when the guidance comes in unexpected ways and at unexpected times.  You make the decisions.  I will follow.

Amen.