Life: The Eternal Expression of Spirit

Everything, in its way, is a gift-even the painful things. In reality, all of life-every moment, every experience-is an expression of spirit.
-Adyashanti Falling into Grace 

Accepting things exactly as they are is not always an easy task but without resistance we can simply experience life as it is in the eternal moment.  Why is it so hard for us to get that?

All is well (exactly as it is).

Choosing what you see

There is another way of looking at the world.

-ACIM: Lesson 33

 

(I know! I know! Recycling pictures.  I just have not been shooting lol)

 

 

These lessons speak to the idea of changing our perceptions which lies in Lesson One. We have a choice of how we see the world around us and in us. We are not victims to the worlds we see but creators of it.  Hmmm! How does that idea go down?  :) 

 

I could see peace other than this.

 

ACIM: Lesson 34

Beyond Mind Change to Letting Things Be

When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; when I sit in my own place of patience what I need flows to me, and without pain. From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me. There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it.
Rumi- (http://www.azquotes.com/quote/528536)


Let it Be
After all that writing on the need to change our minds there is something I am learning.  I won't find or know or be able to teach anything until I allow things to be exactly as they are.

Changing our mind is not where we leave this.  Changing our mind is an action and freedom from the mind we are caught in does not result from action.  Like everything of Truth, freedom  simply results from simply being. We need to allow whatever is happening right here and right now to be what it is.

Huh?

Waking Up in a Huge Net

Imagine yourself caught in a huge net.  You want the freedom of floating in the perfect, crystal clear water around you.  But you are stuck in a net.  You resist the entrapment. You struggle to get out but the more you struggle the more ensnared in this net you get. 

When we begin to wake up and realize we are caught in ego mind and know it is not where we want to be we begin to resist the net which is made up of our attachment, thinking, believing, conditioning, struggle to get ahead etc. We are not where we want to be.  We want the freedom of peace of mind...of clarity of Love...what God has given us as our birthright that exists when and only when we get out of this trap.

We decide, at least in part,  we want the freedom on the other side.  So we begin our spiritual journey to get out of the net.  We begin a struggle against the ego and everything it stands for.  We begin pulling at the strands of mental fiber that are holding us back.  We resist thought or actively try to change it with thought. We work on our thinking.  We attempt to "solve" the problem of ego. We defend and attack against it. We try to "fix" our illusions.  We "read and study" the scriptures and every piece of spiritual wisdom out there. We "give up", "lose" and sacrifice the things of the physical world a little at a time. We "go" inside, seeing meditation as an action, a means to an end.  We "seek" the truth and hold our breaths until we find it.  We give up our peace in the now and struggle to find spiritual reality in the future. What we are doing is "fighting" resisting and struggling to find peace.  Is that not an oxymoron in itself?

Stop resisting

What we are looking for on our spiritual journey will not be found in struggle and resistance. We cannot put an end to thinking traps by thinking, doing traps by doing. What we resists persists, does it not?  This ego hold on us continues to persist as long as we are "actively resisting it". We won't get there if we go from one doing to the next dependent on some future time to have the answers  we are looking for. 

What we have to realize is that we are already where we want to be.  We are in the water, always have been, always will be.  The net is not holding us back...our resistance to it is.  We need to stop struggling, stop fighting, stop seeking, stop "doing" , stop "trying" and just be.  We need to let this moment be exactly what it is, perception of net and all.  When we do that and I mean truly do that...the net erodes away because we realize what it was, was never enough to hold us back.

Truth trumps perception because it just is. Freedom just is. God just is.  We just are!...

We won't find true spiritual sense by doing, just being.  We won't find it in the future, just now.  And we won't know who we are until we realize who we are  doesn't matter.

Be not content with future happiness.  It has no meaning, and is not just reward.  For you have cause for freedom now.
ACIM, Chapter 26:VIII:9:1-3

All About the Healing

Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Wow!  I have been on Lesson One for a long time.  I believe it to be the most important lesson in our healing process.  So what do I mean by healing anyway?

Healing, to me is restoring balance in our lives and reaching or re-establishing holistic wellness. It is creating optimal health in all the dimensions of little self...body, mind, relationships, life circumstances etc so that we are "fit" enough  take the final most crucial step into wellness.  I believe this step begins with being ready to have the little me step back so the greater "I" "Self" can step forward to guide our lives. It ends with our full awakening...our remembering that the greater Self is all we are.

Huh?

I am simply saying that I believe healing involves two stages: the physical world healing and the healing of atonement: waking up beyond the limits of the physical world.

1) Physical World Healing:  We need to take care of the things we perceive with the five senses before we can wake up in this busy world to get beyond them.  :) We need to take care of our bodies, our minds, our relationships with one another and our environment (which includes Mother Earth, of course).

2) Atonement: Here we need to let go of attachment to all the things we worked so hard to take care of in the first stage. We realize there illusionary and temporary nature. We then  go beyond physical sight and sensing to true vision...seeing what is real.  We see we are not the bodies we take care of; we are not the  separate little minds we think we are changing our thoughts in; and this world is not the way we see it.

1) Physical world healing

Taking Care of the Body

I am in the process of attempting to re-establish a sense of physical wellness in my life.  I perceive and experience physical limitation and loss.  I used to be quite fit: I was actually a certified fitness instructor at one point, did an hour of yoga a day, I ran, hiked, danced, skated, and cross country skied to name a few of my active pursuits.  I loved to "move" my body. I loved my work where I taught about the miraculous functioning of the body (among other things). Though I was never the greatest housekeeper  I liked being able to maintain some semblance of cleanliness and order. I thoroughly enjoyed playing with and encouraging activity in my children-we had a blast! I loved and was very attached to the active and full life I had.  Now, I will sometimes be overwhelmed with a great sense of loss because I no longer have it.

Because of  a perceived health condition  I am reduced to working 9-10 hours a week, ten minutes of yoga a day and short walks in the woods as the extent of my physicality. My house which was the first thing I was willing to give up lol...is messy and chaotic most times. Though I still encourage activity in my youngest  I do so from my sedentary position and that makes me a hypocrite. I am by other and "little self" perception limited.

I am looking for away to rise above that with less (to as little as possible) dependence on medicine ( I am not a fan of the medical model or my past experiences with it).  I limit myself to the bare minimum in medication...just enough to keep my pulse from fluctuating too much and keeping the coronary spasms to a minimum. I am aware of what my body is doing and I do my best to listen and learn from my symptoms.  I monitor myself.  I rest when I need to. At the same time, I constantly try to increase exercise and exertion in my daily routine ( I was never one to be afraid of pushing myself physically but after the death of one sister and heart attacks in two others at early ages I know not to push too much).  I eat right following a predominantly plant based diet which I intend to develop into a vegan one. (I sincerely believe that besides stress and negative belief, diet is the biggest indicator of disease). I try to drink enough fluid to keep my valve moving forward smoothly  and my blood pressure up as to avoid the nose plants I am famous for at work. I take care of my body and seek Physical wellness.

Yet I know this is such a tiny, tiny part of my healing because the body is such an insignificant part of who I am.  I also know my body is at the mercy of my mind.  If I truly envision health...I will have health.  If I see illness and limitation that is what I'll have.  I am obviously still dependent on sight over vision so I feel that even more important than taking care of my body, comes the taking care of my mind!

Taking Care of the Mind

The wanna be psychologist in me is so hung up on this notion that if we change our thinking we can have healthy minds, healthy bodies and healthy, abundant lives. Our relationships and external circumstances are never the problem if life isn't going the way we want it to...how we respond to them is. Healing the mind by changing our unhealthy thought processes can definitely heal our lives. It is also the first step into our true healing.

2) True Healing: Atonement

This is where this blog is hopefully taking us.  In order to get beyond the little self to the greater Self; from illusions to Truth and from fear to Love we need to see not with the body's eyes but with Spirit's.  That begins with changing the way we think...thus my big long spiel in Lesson One.

We will get to true healing ...one step at a time, one lesson at a time.

All is well.

Don't Take My word for It

Why am I going on, and on, and on about changing the way we think? lol  Because I believe it is the answer to everything :) Why take my word for it when so many more wiser individuals have said the same thing?

Nothing but your thoughts can attack you.
ACIM: Lesson 26:4:2

As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world.
ACIM: Chapter 21:Intro:1:6-7

As the mind, so the person; bondage or liberation are in your own mind.
Satchidananda (2012) The Yoga sutras of Patanjali. Buckingham:Integral Yoga Publications page

So by changing your mind, you change everything.
Satchidananda (2012) The Yoga sutras of Patanjali. Buckingham:Integral Yoga Publications page 9

Do not model yourselves on the behavior of the world around you, but let your behavior change, modeled by your new mind.
Romans 12:2 ( Jer.Bible)

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of earth.
Colossians 3:2

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think.  When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.
Buddha(https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/thoughts)

Change your thoughts and you change the world.
Norman Vincent Peale ( https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/thoughts)

A man is but the product of his thoughts. what he thinks, he becomes.
Mahatma Gandhi (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/thoughts)

All action results from thought, so it is thoughts that matter.
Sai Baba(https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/thoughts)

And we could go on and on and on.  You get the point.  I will soon leave lesson one but before I do I want to make sure that we all know just how important our thoughts are in determining the quality of our lives and the world we see. If we want to change our lives, we need to change our minds.

All is well

Look to what words point to...not the words themselves!

The truth is that you are responsible for what you think because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice.

ACIM:2:VI:2:5-7

 

 

 Words are powerful tools that help us to learn how to create a positive life experience.  We should be mindful of the words that create thoughts. At the same time we are cautious of the words we use, we can't get too hung up on them.

I love this analogy.

 

There is a story found on this wonderful site I would like you to check out called High Existence . (Please see the references at the bottom of the page).  In this story a Zen teacher was walking on a beautiful moonlit evening . He was asked a question by one of his brightest students, who was walking beside him,  about the troublesome contradictions he found amongst the words of the Buddhist doctrine. 

 

The teacher answered the boy by calling his happy dog who loved to fetch everything to his side.  The teacher pointed to the moon and told the dog to fetch the moon for him. The dog sat where he was, wagging his tail, staring at the teacher's finger. 

 

The teacher then warned the boy not to be like his dog who was confusing the pointing finger with the thing pointed at.

 

Words are only pointing fingers, guideposts leading us to a greater understanding and knowledge. They, in themselves, though powerful are not knowledge.  Be mindful of them, learn from them but know you must fight your way through them to the truth they are pointing at.  

 

All is well!

 



Story  from:
High Existence (n.d.) 7 Zen stories that just might give you a glimpse of enlightenment. Retrieved from http://highexistence.com/7-zen-stories-that-give-you-a-glimpse-of-enlightenment/

 

Lesson One: Learning the Hard Way

 The Mind that accepts attack cannot love.
-ACIM Chapter 7: VI: 2:1 
                                                                                                
I literally heard myself, less than an hour ago, saying to my son while I literally wagged my finger in his direction. "I can't sit back and watch you do this!  You(!!) need to get up and be responsible. You should know better by now: This isn't how adult life works!" I heard myself. I seen myself.  I cringed but I just kept going.  I felt the limitation, the imprisonment, the pressure, the projection, the blame, the guilt and the guilt shifting.  I felt some sick relief from the heaviness of my own guilt. That relief did not last but a second.

I soon felt like a complete  failure as I stood over him with my finger out. "What a hypocrite I am! What a terrible parent!!" I thought to myself. I watched with horror as I spouted out my toxic words. I just yesterday felt so compelled to do a video on the three words to avoid. I did exactly what I said not to do. I used all those three words and a lot more.  Wow!

I did catch myself...eventually... and I sat myself down on the side of his bed.  Of course having   full fledged symptoms because of my emotional reaction had something to do with my need to stop. As I sat there I began to see and "feel" clearly. I knew my worry, my fear, my parental guilt and helplessness had just all come out of me in a whirlwind of emotion, like  a fire ball of yuckiness I spit out of my mouth and onto him.  "You take this stuff!" I was in a sense saying.  "I don't want it in me.  I don't want to have to deal with it. I don't want the responsibility for it.  I don't like the way it makes me feel." I threw it viciously at him. 

I could try to justify it by saying I had to be the parent.  I had to speak to him about his behaviour.  What he was doing was "wrong" and unhealthy. I had to make my point! I had to "make him see" what he was doing.

That, however, was not healthy communication. That was not Love. That, my dear friends, was a form of fear based attack!

Who did I attack?  Obviously him. I also attacked myself.  By trying to provide for the insatiable needs of my little "me" who sees the bodies of others as separate forms of reality, who assumes attack is everywhere and forms defenses against them, and who believes it has the right and power to control these other sinful bodily beings with "guilt"... I attacked the greater "I" .  I attacked the true Self...that which I and my son are inseparable parts of.

When fear is the basis of our communication we attack and reinforce this crazy notion of how separate we are.  We do not connect, resolve conflict, heal our wounds or "help" the other person. And we do not help ourselves though that seems to be our motivation at the time...to project the sting of being human outward onto someone else so we do not have to experience it. Hmm!

Our faulty belief system, devised and maintained so expertly by the ego, creates illusions upon which we act. We see our experience as human beings as something that causes pain. We see how deserving of lack, scarcity, guilt and punishment we are  and we do whatever we can to diminish or eliminate that pain at ego's guidance.  Often that diminishing means we have to project our pain outward onto someone else who we assume is separated from us by body borders. We attack! Or if we find some semblance of pleasure, of "sense", of light in our delusional states we may fear it will be taken from us...so we protect  our illusions at all costs. We defend! When we spend all our energy, time and resources on attacking and defending that which really isn't even real...we do not do what we are here to do. Love!     

I am not here to determine how my son lives his life.  I am not here to fix his problems or anyone else's.  My son is not mine. I think of these  lovely words from  Kahlil Gibran:

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.     (https://quotefancy.com/quote/848351/Khalil-Gibran-Your-children-are-not-your-children-They-are-the-sons-and-daughters-of-Life)               

I am not here to determine and enforce what is right or wrong for other people.  I am here to love!  That's it.  To teach love.  To learn Love.  To expand Love! What I did down there in his room this morning was not Love.  It was merely self-preservation.  I was attempting to protect ego.

Your thinking has done this because of its power, but your thinking can also save you from this because your power is not your making.  Your ability to direct your thinking as you choose is part of its power.
-ACIM Chapter7: VI:2:5-6

In my awareness of my word choice and my behaviour I found a remarkable thing happening, My tone changed.  I calmed down.  I took a deep breath to think about how I was going to rephrase what I had to say. Then I said. " I love you and I am worried about you.  I am concerned about your choices but this is my worry and my concern.  I own it. I am challenged in my ability to cope with this in a healthy way.  I am trying but as you can see I am having some difficulty.  I can and I will master this but in the meantime I am concerned about what my reaction to your choices is doing to our relationship.  I want you to have the healthy happy life you deserve and I feel great frustration, anger and disappointment when I see you making choices I see as unhealthy. I still tend to "react" in ways I don't want to. My frustration and my worry are not good for me, it is not good for you and I don't want to feel this way any longer. This is what I want from you....and this is what I am willing to do if you do that...  These are my choices and my limits.  If you continue to make the choices that you are making I am afraid I will do the following.....to protect my health, you and our relationship."

Wow!  Game changer!

It didn't change him right away.  I didn't get what I wanted from him right away! But it changed me! I felt lighter.  I felt freer.  I felt Love! I see now that he is up, making other healthier choices...his choices...for him.

I have to smile...as I see a little bit of ego slipping away.

All is well.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Three Powerful Words to Avoid

We need to avoid three powerful words when in the process of changing the way we think. These words are:

1. "You!!"
2. Can't
3. Should

Unlisted Videos:

You!!

Can't

Should

Lesson One (Continued) : Change Your Thoughts not the World.

The greatest difficulty is the mental resistance to things that arise, and the underlying assumption that they should not be.

-Eckhart Tolle

When we talk about the importance of changing our thoughts we must consider the above quote from Eckhart Tolle.  We must be willing to put aside our resistance to what is.  We need to stop looking at the world around us and what it supplies as "attack" or potential attack. 

A Course in Miracles refers to our view of the world as one of "vengeance"...always anticipating that we are going to lose something from it, or we will not get it...or someone will take it away...  so we constantly defend and attack with our resistance.  We cannot change the world...but we can change how we think about the world and when we do that the world changes.  For as Lesson 23 states: ," every thought you have makes up some segment of the world you see".

You are creating the world you see.  You are the image maker.

There is no point in lamenting the world.  There is no point in trying to change the world.  It is incapable of change because it is merely an effect. But there is indeed a point in changing your thoughts about the world.  Here you are changing the cause.  The effect will change automatically.

All is well.

References:

ACIM...Lesson 23...page 34

Foundations for Inner Peace.(2007) A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume. Third Edition. Mill Valley: Foundations for Inner Peace.

The In Between

There are things known, and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.
Aldous Huxley


My last entry was a little challenging to understand...I did not articulate the way I wanted to...I did not teach the way I wanted to...so I did not learn the way I wanted to.  :) I understand that this talk about " the real world" and "illusions" is confusing.  Even more so is this talk about who we really are. What makes the teachings from A Course in Miracles so challenging for many of us is that its very simple lesson lies beneath an immense task of undoing the way we presently think and see the world.  I know for myself, before I could even begin to grasp the spiritual significance of A Course, I had to grasp the psychological teachings.  These teachings are the basis of my own preferred learning in psychology.  Change your thoughts; Change your life." One way of doing this is by focusing on the opposite of the things we do not want in our life.

Let's see if I can simplify the major points I was trying to make taking a step by step approach towards understanding:

1. Step One: Know that for most of us, the world is how we uniquely perceive it using our five senses.  Think about it.  Whatever you look upon is just light that is reflected into your retina in its unique bent and crooked way.  It is then  taken to the brain by the optic nerve where it will be interpreted. Your brain will make sense of it in the way your brain makes sense of things.  Your mind which is a collection of memories and past images; recorded teachings and explanations  from others and  thoughts and assumptions about what this thing you are looking upon should be....will provide much of that perceptual detail.  So what you eventually "see" is a product of your senses, your memories, past learning and your expectations.  It is  very much unique to you.  Is it not? Your perceptions determine the world you experience.
2. Step Two: We need to question our physical senses as being a trust worthy way of looking at the world.   We tend to focus on the physical and the visible but that is not necessarily truth or all there is. I think it is obvious that most of us look at the things we can see, touch, hear, taste and smell as being the only "real" things in our world, right? If we see it ...it is real.  If it can be experienced by the five senses it is truth. Yet, our senses provide unique experiences for each of us.   Is it possible that these five senses are limited in what they can show us?  Some of us, for example, have a different visual acuity.  Are only those people who have 20/20 vision experiencing reality and the rest of us living with blurred illusions? Let's conclude that our five senses are not enough to justify what is real and what isn't.  How often do we question if we are perceiving correctly or at least wholly? Is it possible that there is more?  If there is more, can we be more?  Can the person before us be more than what we see? Can the world be more than what we experience?
3. Step Three: What are you perceiving and experiencing now? Are you perceiving lack or plenty?  Beauty or ugliness; light or darkness; illness or wellness? Know then what you are perceiving now may not be unchangeable because the means by which you determine their reality  are not as trustworthy as you think. (In all actuality anything that can be changed is not real...but we will stay away from explaining that more until we master these steps.)  Maybe there is more to be had out there.  Maybe you are capable of more because you are more than this limited focus.
4. Step Four: If you want more, focus on more.  Go beyond what your five senses are telling you are real right now to what you want.  Know that whatever you think is happening  right now...good or bad... is just a result of your perceptions (which we determined are not that trust worthy for gauging reality) and your thoughts about the past.  Choose to think differently.  Seek out the opposites of your unwanted experiences
5. Step Five: Watch your Wording.  Change the thoughts by changing the words you use to create or recreate thoughts.  Use positive uplifting words, and stay clear of the negative words that create a sense of obligation, effort and unease in you
6. Step six: Watch your feelings.  How do the thoughts make you feel?  If you feel good, you are going in the right direction.  If you feel uneasy, disbelief, or a great deal of effort it is time to stop and re-examine your thinking again.  Once it feels right, keep going!!!
7. Step Seven: Stand back and watch what happens when you truly change the way you think and feel about your world. Your world will actually change.  You will see it differently.  You will experience it differently.  And it will be different...giving evidence to this notion that your world is in your mind. Light will shine in on the darkness!

All is well!

Lesson One: Changing the Way We Think Using Opposites

What do you want? Light or darkness, knowledge or ignorance are yours but not both. Opposites must be brought together, not kept apart.  For their separation is only in your mind...
ACIM Chapter 14: VII:1:3-4

Changing the way you think by knowing what you want.

How do we begin to change the way we think and the way we see the world? We need to look at what we are thinking and seeing now and know we actually want the opposite of that.  We need to look at what we have now and know we want more than this? We have to see the contrast in this world and use it here, knowing at the same time it doesn't exist in the real world...and the real world is what we want.

Huh?

Back to Rephrasing our Thoughts

We have spoke of this before so it isn't new. Getting what we want begins with knowing what we don't want and focusing on its opposite... what we do want.  If you have poverty in your life right now, what do you want?  More poverty?  Probably not?  You want financial freedom.  If you have loneliness in your life right now, what do you want?  Connection.  If you have illness in your life right now, what do you want?  Wellness, wholeness. If you have stress and anxiety in your life right now, what do you want?  Peace. If you have sadness in your life right now, what do you want?  Happiness, joy.

Getting what we want all begins with where we place our focus which can be recognized by our thoughts and words. When you are talking to others or yourself about your situation, what do you tend to say?  Do you speak more about what is going on around you that you do not want or do you speak about what you do want, the opposite of what you got going on.  Too many of us get stuck in the  same old repetitive story about those things that are occurring in our lives right now that we wish weren't.

The trick is to be aware of where that mental energy is going; to know that what is going on to you or around  you is probably a result of that directional flow; know you don't want it and be willing to change it.

On the physical level...in this world we think is real but really isn't...we can use opposites to change that flow. Be aware of how many times you use terms that indicate a lack of financial abundance, scarcity, and poverty?  How many times do you catch yourself saying or thinking, "I am so broke; I don't have enough; I can't afford that"? I guarantee, the more that thought flows through your lips or mind, the more broke you are going to feel.  And the broker you feel, the more scarcity will show up in your life.  Yuck!

How many times do you say, "I am sick," "I am alone," "I am so stressed"? Well...STOP IT!!!! lol.  Replace those words with their opposites.  You do not have to jump up the ladder rungs to a positive affirmation if it doesn't feel right,  if you do not believe it...but you can begin by saying, "I want to feel financially free. "   From there progress to, "I am willing to feel finically free," to "I deserve to feel financially free" and finally to "I am feeling financially free. "  It is a step by step process of not only thinking but feeling...using opposites that will eventually become unnecessary when you discover the truth of who you really are.

We use so many words that please ego but are foreign to the Spirit within us...words like "can't, have to, should, must".  Words that imply we are powerless and limitless and if we even want to find even remote peace in this life time it requires effort and guilt. Let's get rid of those words too.  Let's look at their opposites: words that inspire hope, grace and ease like "can, choice, choose, will, and willing"

Our perceptions of the world and life change with our wording. We get closer to the truth with every change in perception. Perception is the medium by which ignorance is brought to knowledge. ACIM Chapter 14: VII:1-7.  The knowledge we are looking for is that all  these situations that surround us that we consider negative or difficult do not have to be...they aren't real.  We were meant to have abundance, grace, ease, Love, peace and joy and we can have it...if we simply change the way we think.

All is well in my world.

Lesson One (continued): Changing the way we look at the world

 

One has not only an ability to perceive the world but an ability to alter one's perception of it; more simply one can change things by the manner in which one looks at them.
-Tom Robbins (http://www.wiseoldsayings.com/perception-quotes/)

What kind of a world do you see when you look around you? Do you see a "good" world or a "bad" one?  Do you see a fair world or an unjust one?  Do you see a kind world or a cruel one? Do you see a beautiful world or an ugly one?

Hopefully, it is understood at this point, that the world you are viewing right now is simply a projection of what you perceive using your five senses.  Every adjective that you apply is simply your perception.  There is no such thing as a bad world or a good world.  There is no such thing as a sad world or a happy world.  The world is whatever you think it to be. Hamlet tells Rosencrantz, in Act Two; Scene Two, in reference to Denmark feeling like a prison to him, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."  

You judge and measure the world around you with your body, your ego-mind and your limited sense of time and space. You determine what kind of a world it is. What you see isn't real anywhere but in your mind?

We have a choice between two worlds.  In order to see one, you must give up the other.  You can not look upon a "good" world and a "bad" world at the same time. It is either/or. We can look about us and see Heaven or we can look about us and see hell? One will free us and bring peace and joy; one will imprison us (as thoughts of Denmark did for Hamlet) bringing fear and suffering.  Where would you rather be?  If you had a choice, and you do,  what kind of world would you rather see? Most of us would say Heaven, yet too many of us are still seeing hell. Which one is real?

According to A Course the hellish world we see and perceive using our five senses is not the real one.

The real world is not like this.  It has no buildings and there are no streets where people walk alone and separate. There are no stores where people buy an endless list of things they do not need. It is not lit with artificial light, and night comes not upon it. There is no day that brightens and grows dim.  There is no loss.  Nothing is there but shines, and shines forever. ACIM:Chapter 13:VII:1:1-7, page 254

 

How do we Change the Way we see the world?

Changing the way we think is a process.  We have looked at the world in one way for so long it will require more than a new pair of glasses to see it differently. Here are some steps that you might find helpful:

1. Be willing to see it differently.  That is the first and most crucial step.  You have to want to change the way you think, to want God's version of reality over ego's.  Are you there yet?
2. Realize that ego's version of reality is an illusion and when we ascribe to it, we are delusional.  When we let go of it, we are healing.
3. Know that ego's world  offers us nothing. Everything you see, taste, touch, hear and smell as you look around you is meaningless.  Everything you think is meaningless. The real world is the inner world that can not be understood with the five sense or with thought and it   offers us everything.
4. Make a conscious choice for healing.  Choose Heaven over Hell
5. Know that every time you look at the world and feel strain, fear, unease you are slipping back into ego vision again.  At those times, call for help from above to guide you away from ego perception and into the truth.
6. Know that every time you have a loving thought, you are well on your way to freedom.  You will soon be seeing the world for what it really is.

But seek this place and you will find it, for Love is in you and will lead you there.(ACIM: chapter 13: III: 12: 10, page 245)

All is well in my world.

Lesson One: Changing the Way You Choose to Think.

Change your thoughts and you change your world.
-Norman Vincent Peale

Choosing Wrongly.

I felt myself straying from peace today.  I found myself worrying over and resenting some choices my 20 year old son who is still so very young in many ways was making. I have been in this situation with him many, many times over the course of his life.  I know that what I am feeling is fear .  If I had to sum up all the feelings of anxiety, worry, guilt, shame, anger and resentment I felt while I watched him make choices I judged as unhealthy over the years, I know what I am experiencing is really just fear. In a nutshell I fear, induced by a collection of past memories. 

I don't want to feel this way.  I also don't want to project my fear onto him when what he truly deserves and needs from me is love. When I am fearful I judge, blame, assume, accuse, express anger, focus on the negative in behaviour, forgetting and excluding the positive and I growl and yell. This doesn't help him.  It doesn't help me. I get nowhere but down!

Fear is a Choice

I would like to say that my fear is beyond my control, that the circumstances validate the worthiness for fear.  I know people would look at our situation and say, "No wonder why you are afraid.  You would be crazy not to be."  Truth is I am crazy for allowing fear into my life.

I am learning, the hard way, that fear is actually a choice I make.  I and I alone am responsible for the fear I feel right now. "When you are fearful, you have chosen wrongly." (ACIM: Chapter 2:VI: 3: 2). I have chosen wrongly and it is up to me to do something about it.  The correction of fear is my responsibility and that brings me back to today's lesson.

We Need to Change the Way We Choose to Think!

I have said this again and again: the world we perceive is in our minds and in our minds only! I will take you back to that lovely piece of  Sanskrit wisdom shared in Satchidnanada's translation of The Yoga Sutras (2011): So the mind, so the person. Bondage or liberation is in in your own mind."   (page 5)

A Couse in Miracles takes this saying a little farther: The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think." (ACIM;Chapter 2:VI: 2: 6-7; page 29)

Until we get that, this first lesson may be challenging to understand but understand it we must if we want to step out of a fearful circumstance and embrace the Love that is there and always was there. Our thoughts bring on feelings. Fear, according to A Course  is the opposite of Love and fear and love are really the only two emotions that exist.  We either love or we fear. We act out on one of these two emotions.  Our world is a projection of one of these emotions.  We can choose to see a world that is fearful or a world of Love.  What would you choose?

The Steps to Correction

When you find yourself tensing up, uneasy, worried, guilty, doubtful, ashamed, angry and acting with strain when faced with the behaviour of another or a life circumstance,  there are steps to correction we can follow.  They go like this:

1. When we find ourselves acting out of fear, we must first recognize we are doing so.  We must be aware and willing to accept that at that moment we are allowing fear into our life. 
2. We must see it as a choice.  Choices not only make us accountable, they give us the power to change.
3. We must accept our responsibility for it and its correction.
4. Then we must be willing to choose differently than the way we were thinking: usually like victims of circumstance and the poor choices of others. Our willingness to change the way we choose to think is probably the most crucial step. With that willingness  to choose differently, the correction will be so much easier.
5. We choose Love instead. 
6. We change the way we think. Any thought that brings about Love instead of fear are the thoughts we need to focus on.

A Course sums up these steps beautifully:

Know first that this is fear.
Fear arises from lack of love.
The only remedy for lack of love is perfect love.
Perfect love is Atonement.
(Chapter2:VI:7:5-8, page 30)

What is Atonement?

Of course, I am no expert when it comes to explaining the lessons of  A Course in Miracles.  There are others out there that make its teaching their life purpose and do so brilliantly.  Please check out the work of Marianne Williamson and Alan Cohen, to name a couple. My understanding of Atonement is this: Atonement is the result of undoing our false thinking, getting beyond the clutter of mental modifications in our mind,  and seeing beyond the  ego to what is really there. Atonement happens when we change the way we think.  It will only come if we choose  to think differently... when we choose the real over the unreal; the eternal over the temporary and Love over fear. 

We can change the way we think.  We begin by choosing to.

All is well in my world.

References:

Foundations for Inner Peace (2007) A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume. Third Edition. Mill Valley: Foundations for Inner Peace.

Sri Swami Satchidinanda(2011) The Yoga Sutras. Yogaville: Integral Yoga Publications.

I am here only to be truly helpful.
ACIM (Chapter 2:V:18:2)

  As I mentioned I am studying A Course in Miracles again, as well as The Yoga Sutras and some Buddhist teachings.  I am open to everything that comes to me and believe me, it has really been coming to me lol. The more open I am to learning, the more the learning tools seem to land on my lap.  As is the way.  Some of the teaching tools I am studying from would have at one time seem to have been too bizarre for me to even consider. Now I am soaking up what they have to offer like a thirsty sponge.

Though there will be lots of tools, lots of teachers, lots of experiences in my own learning that I will share, I have to stress that my own  way of learning is just that...my way.  You will have your way as you will be guided to go.  I don't want anyone to get caught up on the tools and teachers I am using...just the messages being taught.  Try your best not to "judge"... just to hear and feel what is being shared. Find the message within. If you hear a resounding "Yeah!" within yourself...go with it.  If you don't...go without.  These messages from every tool and every teacher I offer here  are universal.

A Course in Miracles speaks to me for reasons I cannot even understand yet.  Despite my initial resistance to the terminology, it calls me back to it again and again. Not because of the teacher, not because of the terms used, not because of the Christian philosophy or even the psychology references which I understand so well...but because of the message.  It is the message that resonates in my core. It is proving to be a wonderful teaching tool and the Teacher it refers me to is by far the most trustworthy teacher I have ever had.  :)

These are the lessons I want to share from A Course  and from my own learning.  I want to teach these ones because these are the ones I most want to learn. I have touched on all of them before in my previous entries but now I want to organize them into a teaching/learning tool that will help me master them by sharing them.  What we teach we learn and what we learn we teach.  :)

Lessons:

1. We need to change the way we think
2. We need to get beyond our "thinking" to the truth of who we are
3. We need to know who we are and from Whom we came
4. We need to understand what the ego is so we truly see it as the "nothing" that it is.
5. We need to detach ourselves from our physical world attachments, including our attachment to the body
6. We need to see fear for what it is so we can get beyond it
7. We need to be open and willing to accept Love in our lives
8. We need to know that our purpose here is to extend that Love

There are all kinds of sub lessons hidden within these big ones but the question to ask is Why do we need to do these things? I should rephrase the "need".  You do not have to do these things. You have free will to an extent.  You can spend the rest of your life doing what you are doing, seeing yourself in the way ego sees you. That is your choice.  But who of us would continue doing that if we knew the alternative? 

We will all get to a point when we will realize we are not happy with version of reality we are living in (which we may or may not know is ego's version)...it doesn't satisfy.  It doesn't sustain.  It leaves us feeling sick, fearful and confused. We may accept it as the only way and learn to "endure" the life it offers but something within will tell us that there is something more than this intended for us...something we cannot find in our worldly pursuits. When we get there...to that point where we ask the question: Is there another way? ...that the lessons will be helpful.  Before then they will go nowhere. Do nothing.  You have to be at the point where you are willing to at least question that you do not have to live like this; that the world does not have to be the way you see it.

When you are willing to question the possibility of another way of being, you are willing to take the first steps to accepting another way.  Then these lessons here...the lessons anywhere that speak of the universal truth...will be what you need.

I am only teaching because I am there.  I am willing to accept a better way.  And I know I cannot learn of it without teaching it.  I cannot teach it without learning it.  :) (That will make more sense as we go on. )

So bear with me as I seemingly step into arrogance...by taking up  a teacher role outside my classroom.  It is not a "special" role nor am I "special".  It is just a blessed role we are all meant to take up so we can learn of this amazing truth we have somehow forgotten. 

It is all good.  It is all so very good.

All is well in my world.

Teach Peace! Teach Love!

Happy New Year to One and All!!!

 

 

 

Here is hoping that all of you move forward onto your path toward peace with love and joy as your guide.  I sincerely wish that for all.

 

 

To have peace, teach peace to learn it.

 

 

My intentions for the New Year is to teach peace so that I learn it.  That is not to say that I have any "special" qualifications to teach because I don't.  I just have a desire for peace and a willingness to share what I learn.  :) Apparently, that is all I need.

 

As I teach, as I learn, I will be using A Course in Miracles, among other spiritual, scientific and psychological philosophies.  I am redoing A Course for the third time. It is a hard read.  There is no doubt about that but for some reason I feel compelled to do it again.  I get something new and a little deeper every time I go through it.  I get an increased desire to learn and an increased desire to teach. 

 

 What do I wish to get and to give?  Love.  It is the only thing I have and the only thing I can give away.  But Love is everything.  :)

 

Teach only love, for that is what you are.

 

So tomorrow...or maybe the next day...(I will not commit more to my writing than my wellness...good thing my mind has me convinced that writing is my wellness lol) ...I will begin sharing what I am learning.  I am convinced that some order will come from it, some true learning potential, for I know for a fact that what ever is typed onto this page  will not come from  the little "me" but from that something so much bigger than me.  I will simply listen, learn, share, listen, learn and share...until peace is what we are left with.

 

All is well in my world.