Let’s Play Today

“This is not a test and you cannot fail.  You are merely playing:  Play at observing yourself from above.  Can you look down upon yourself?  And can you skip along and get in front to see your body coming toward you?  (A Course of Love, 10.28)”

Affirmation:  “Let’s play today.”

Reflections:

1 – Skip Ahead

The deeper meaning of the passage for today is that time is an illusion (an interpretation, not stated in A Course of Love).  If we can skip ahead of ourselves, and see ourselves coming ahead, then we are in a fantasy about the future, that we are that future, and that we ourselves are coming along on the pathway just as we ought to come.

2 – A Glorious Play

What a glorious play this is!  Can we be sure that we are following along on the pathway that we ought to take?  But is there even a choice?  How much is preordained?  A Course in Miracles says (as does this passage in A Course of Love) that we are merely reliving the past, that the past is like a carpet that will roll up when the end is reached.  If so, it is obvious, at least to me, that Jesus is here playing with this idea a bit further, and encouraging us to do the same.

3 – The End Is Sure

If we can imagine that the end is sure, and that we are caught in an illusion that does not have to be  painful in the least (we choose), then perhaps today is the time to affirm this understanding in the depths of our being.

4 – In a Joyous Frame of Mind

If we skip ahead, and then look back, we are in a joyous frame of mind and spirit and heart.  May we imagine this game for ourselves today.  May we imagine that we see tomorrow and that it is better than today–even if today is pretty good already.  Is this not where Jesus is leading us in A Course of Love?  He would have us, in the third volume of the trilogy (The Dialogues of A Course of Love), join him on the mountaintop, where we will finally know Christ-consciousness in a sustained and elevated Self of form.  This is where we are headed.  Let us take care that the individual steps on our pathway are well-chosen, so that we will be ready for the mountaintop when that time comes.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for this playful exercise today.  May we imagine ourselves ahead of the time which we are in now, and enjoy the pleasures of a future time.  We will help to make those pleasures real.  Be with me today and always, present and future.

Help me to lighten the mood of those with whom I interact.  Your way is always best, and You are not the solemn God that so many of us may have thought in the past.  Help me to lighten up, even as I seek to help others to do the same.

Amen.

Let Your Words Be Chosen for You

“There are many who must be reached through words, being as yet unable to hear in silence. . . .The teacher of God. . .learns how to let his words be chosen for him by ceasing to decide for himself what he will say.  (M-21.4)”

Affirmation:  “May I hear in silence today.”

Reflections:

1 – Silence

It is quite possible to learn through silence.  Silence is often cited as the way that God speaks to us.  And when there has been no interior “voice,” we are not as likely to be misled, perhaps, by the ego.

2 – Words

But many of us still need words.  And those of us who are teaching do need to speak to make ourselves understood.  We ourselves may have learned through silence, but those we are trying to reach may, as yet, only be able to learn through the words that the Holy Spirit leads us to say.

3 – Mistakes

We can always be mistaken, and this includes the longstanding student or teacher of A Course in Miracles.  So often we want to get it right, and as the ego has not totally disappeared from our minds, we get it so wrong.  But there is a remedy.  We can always ask for help, feeling internally that the help will come, and we will always be answered.  It may take awhile for us to become aware of what help we have received, but the Holy Spirit does not leave anyone bereft.

4 – Our Words Matter

Be aware today that the words that we say may have a profound effect on another.  We do not realize how much our words really mean to another, especially our significant others.  And we need to realize, anew, that attack and anger give us nothing that we want.

5 – Make Time for Silence

So, let us hope for the silence today.  Make time for the silence.  And from that silence go out into the world to say the words that, after prayerful consideration, come to us.  The words will be far wiser than what we might, without divine help, consider saying.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Be with us today.  We need You always, sometimes especially so when things seem to be going so well.  We get cocky then, and think that we are farther along the pathway home than we really are.  Help us to realize the help that we need to walk gracefully is right inside us.  Your Communicator is within us, as You are.  Help us to be grateful that Your plan for the universe was so perfectly created.

Be with us as we seek our way home to You.  And may we always remember that help is only a request away.

Amen.

A Safe Returning Home

ACIM Workbook Lesson 324 – for Sunday, November 20, 2011

Affirmation:  “I merely follow, for I would not lead.”

“So let us follow One Who knows the way.  We need not tarry, and we cannot stray except an instant from His loving hand.  We walk together, for we follow Him.  And it is He Who makes the ending sure, and guarantees a safe returning home.  (WB463)”

Reflections:

1 – The Holy Spirit’s Guidance

The “One Who knows the way” is, in A Course in Miracles, the Holy Spirit, also called the Universal Inspiration.  If we are flexible, if we vow to be remain flexible, we will follow the advice that we “hear.”  And that advice, that guidance, will invariably lead us home–and sooner rather than later.

2 – Final Lessons Meditative

All of the final lessons in the Workbook for Students are meditative, in that they encourage us to commune with God and His Teacher, the Holy Spirit.  Not only do these lessons have a common theme of communion with God, they also emphasize, systematically, the ideas developed in the Text and the Manual.  If we have had trouble with the intensity of the ideas in the Text, we can turn to the Workbook and then gain the great benefit that the more reverent words in the Workbook emphasize.  We will not go wrong when we seek reverence in our study.  And our prayers, our communion with God, will take on new meaning when we mean what we say.

3 – A Course of Love

Nobody gets anywhere in the spiritual life by theory alone.  We must buy into the ideas with our heart as well as our mind.  The idea of the heart’s involvement is developed overwhelmingly in the words of A Course of Love.  ACOL counsels “wholeheartedness,” which is another way of saying that A Course of Love is to the heart what A Course in Miracles is to the mind.  In another way of seeing this, the final lessons of the Workbook, as the year closes, lead us straight into the philosophy of A Course of Love.  This blog has considered two lengthy sections from A Course of Love, and these can be identified and read through taking a look at the months that the postings covered in the “About” section of the Menu Bar.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would return home today.  Thank You that this does not mean that I need to die.  We return home when our hearts and minds act as one in wholeheartedness.  Thank You for the guidance that You give to me.

May I incorporate the tenets of A Course of Love as I walk farther along the pathway.  There is a continuum that I would adopt in my daily study.  Help me to study diligently, and to understand what Jesus says to me.  May I keep an open mind as I compare A Course in Miracles to A Course of Love.

Amen.