Peace is an attribute in you. You cannot find it outside. Illness is some form of external searching. Health is inner peace. It enables you to remain unshaken by lack of love from without and capable, through your acceptance of miracles, of correcting the conditions proceeding from lack of love in others. ACIM-T-2:I:8-12
A Familiar Part of the Scenery
Hmmm! I do real good...so I think...at steering myself away from focusing on the health seeking boulder on my path. I can get around it many times to deal with life events and issues on the other side of it. When I can't do that, I distract from it and find some pseudo contentment on this side of it. Every now and again, however, it becomes the focus of my attention. I will stare at it and allow my mind to build story around it, label it as a "major obstacle" to my moving forward in happiness and I may even get frustrated enough to fruitlessly try to push it out of the way...which I cannot do. Sigh.
Most of the time, however, I just accept that it is there and it becomes a forgettable part of my day to day scenery.
It is what it is!
After 109 days , over 15 weeks of waiting...I still do not know what this is that is going on in my body. I can almost "forget" about it until I experience the symptoms. The pain, though definitely more than bearable, is still present, changing in its radiation a bit everyday. It is not there "constantly". I experience it at night and several times during the day and it is honestly quite annoying mostly because of what my mind does with it when I notice that it may me going to another location or changing , however slightly, in intensity.
My mind takes that physical pain and builds up story around it, a not very pleasant one at that. On top of that I have been experiencing headaches and dizziness over the last two weeks. My rational mind chucks it up to nothing more than air quality issues affecting my sinuses . My ego mind, however, drags it right into the previous story line as symptoms occurring in a secondary site. Imagine!
No News is Good News?
I want to just fall right back into the comforting old adage, "No news is good news" which I intended to do from the beginning: allow the system to take charge as I quietly and patiently waited. I, however, lost my trust of that system after the delays and the lectures and the realization of another's agenda. So though it is over the 14 days I was told to wait for the MRI report, I cannot settle in peaceful acceptance that everything must be okay because I have yet to hear back. I am not experiencing "peace".
It is very likely as I assumed it was from the beginning: just ductal ectasia leading to a small cyst formation, some subsequent scar tissue which may be causing the pain and the retraction. Maybe the appearance of the new lump, which seems to be a fibroadenoma...came to be because of that scar tissue. No big deal! I just wish my mind would accept that without question as the cause of my bodily changes. But every time I feel the pain, and on top of that that feeling in my head, I am carried away into this terrible story of "what if".
Missing What Is
On the other side of that is this realization that it has become such a big part of my life over the last four months, I wonder what life will be like without it. If...when...I hear back that it is nothing but a minor benign change, what will I feel like? Relief for sure...but I believe there will also be a bit of grief.
Greif????
That sounds so strange, I know, but part of me will miss it??? This boulder, as hideous as it appears, was actually a distraction from the other life issues that seem to be constantly pulling at me. It was something "heavy enough" for me to say..."Okay! This is in your way. You cannot move forward right now. Just sit here and relax a bit until it is moved. This is a good time to rest your weary mind and body. This boulder gives you an excuse to take care of you."
It was like I could say ( without saying anything out loud to anyone because I have yet to share this) to all the hands reaching out to me, "I can't get to you right now. I have a good reason for that. I will get to you when I can."
External Searching
That takes me back to the above passage from ACIM Illness is some form of external searching. This illness scare was me searching for a worthy excuse to rest, focus on my healing, and to settle in the peace I so long to settle into. I see myself as unworthy of these things unless I do the penance of intense suffering through an actual serious illness or the looming threat of one.
I still don't quite get it that peace is my birthright, it is a gift I have already been given and it is within me now. So I have been searching out there for it but feeling "guilty" I unconsciously sought suffering to cleanse me and make me worthy enough for this peace. Thus the illness/illness scare.
Inner Peace
There would be no need for illness in any of us if we realized that peace was already in us. That peace would be constant and unwavering no matter what others did or didn't do, no matter what Life did or didn't do. All the many conditions that seem to stem from a loveless state can simply be corrected with this awareness.
Peace is an attribute in all of us.
All is well!
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Lessons 101-110
Joy is just, and pain is but the sign you have misunderstood yourself.
ACIM-W-101:6:2
The next ten lessons of ACIM continue to speak to this idea of sin , guilt and atonement we have addressed in other entries. They begin with a big broad statement that will likely be hard for most of to digest but here it goes: There is no sin.
Say What crazy lady???
There is no sin!
I even find that hard to write because it goes against everything I was taught to believe in my religious foundation. It is, according to that doctrine, blasphemy to assume that sin isn't real. Sin and guilt are like two givens for existence, how can we question let alone deny their reality and necessity? Yet, that is what we are told in Lesson 101.
Let me ask you a few questions: Do you believe that we deserve to be endlessly punished until our deaths? Do you believe that happiness, peace and joy are nothing but illusions? Do you believe that salvation is painful and something to escape at all costs? Do you believe that God wants us running from Him in fear and avoiding Him ?
If you say yes to any of these questions than you must believe that sin is real. If you hesitate and say no to any of these than maybe you are ready to see how sin cannot be real. Maybe the following practice statement will finally sink in as the truth:
ACIM-W-101:6:2
The next ten lessons of ACIM continue to speak to this idea of sin , guilt and atonement we have addressed in other entries. They begin with a big broad statement that will likely be hard for most of to digest but here it goes: There is no sin.
Say What crazy lady???
There is no sin!
I even find that hard to write because it goes against everything I was taught to believe in my religious foundation. It is, according to that doctrine, blasphemy to assume that sin isn't real. Sin and guilt are like two givens for existence, how can we question let alone deny their reality and necessity? Yet, that is what we are told in Lesson 101.
Let me ask you a few questions: Do you believe that we deserve to be endlessly punished until our deaths? Do you believe that happiness, peace and joy are nothing but illusions? Do you believe that salvation is painful and something to escape at all costs? Do you believe that God wants us running from Him in fear and avoiding Him ?
If you say yes to any of these questions than you must believe that sin is real. If you hesitate and say no to any of these than maybe you are ready to see how sin cannot be real. Maybe the following practice statement will finally sink in as the truth:
God's Will for me is perfect happiness.
There is no sin; it has no consequences.
This is the truth, because there is no sin.
God's Will for Us is Happiness Not Suffering
Suffering serves no purpose though part of us may question that suffering will offer some form of penance for us. Lesson 102 assures us that it doesn't. ...pain is purposeless, without a cause and with no power accomplish anything. 102-2:1 God's Will for us is happiness not suffering and we share that Will, therefore our only function here is happiness.
How do we know God wants us to be happy? Well if we believe that God is Love, we also see that God is joy. Love and happiness/joy go together. If we see ourselves as guilty sinners however, even just some of the times, we will see God as fear-inducing more so than loving. We will fear God rather than accept His gift of joy. We will misunderstand the unlimited nature of His love and of joy. We will expect and accept suffering.
We need to remind ourselves hourly that God, being Love, is also happiness. To fear Him is to be afraid of joy. (Lesson-103)
We need to remind ourselves hourly that God, being Love, is also happiness. To fear Him is to be afraid of joy. (Lesson-103)
Accepting God's Gifts of Joy and Peace
God, being Love, gifts us with joy and peace and we have a right to them. Too often we are not ready to receive these gifts because we are too busy receiving mind made gifts that bring suffering instead. We need to put down our puny self made gifts that bring nothing but suffering and accept God's gifts for us. Gifts we do want. ( Lesson 104)
The truly given gift entails no loss. It is impossible that one can gain because another loses. 105:1:6
That is hard for many of us to believe . We think that when we give we lose and we when we receive someone else loses. We become afraid of giving and receiving. ACIM teaches that the more we receive God's gift of peace and joy, the more peace and joy God extends to the world through us. We need to recognize that God's peace and joy are ours and by being ours they are for everyone. God wants us to receive these gifts so all can have these gifts!! ( Lesson 105)
That is hard for many of us to believe . We think that when we give we lose and we when we receive someone else loses. We become afraid of giving and receiving. ACIM teaches that the more we receive God's gift of peace and joy, the more peace and joy God extends to the world through us. We need to recognize that God's peace and joy are ours and by being ours they are for everyone. God wants us to receive these gifts so all can have these gifts!! ( Lesson 105)
Listening for God's Voice
Lesson 106 guides us to get beyond the noisy chatter of the ego to the quiet stillness of the Self so we can hear God's wisdom, the Truth of Salvation. We can ask what it means to give and receive. We can offer to give what we do receive.
If you will lay aside the ego's voice, however loudly it may seem to call; if you will not accept its petty gifts that give you nothing that you really want; if you listen with an open mind, that has not told you what salvation is; then you will hear the mighty Voice of truth, quiet in power, strong in stillness, and completely certain in Its messages. ACIM-W-106:1:1
This truth we hear when we listen will be our salvation. It will correct all errors in our mind. Without illusion there will be no fear, no doubt and no attack. When truth has come all pain is over for there is no room for transitory thoughts and dead ideas to longer in your mind. 107:3:2-3. It will end pain and set us free from guilt. It will give us peace. (Lesson-107)
The True Light
The true light that allows us to see clearly through our mind's errors and its creation of suffering is not like the light our eyes use to see. It is a state of mind. Light is tranquility, and in that peace is vision given us and we can see. (108-7:5) It is a state of mind that does not prefer or reject...it doesn't say something is good and should be sought or clung to. It doesn't say something is "bad" and should be resisted or pushed away. It doesn't judge or discriminate. All opposites are reconciled into One thought when Light is present and this brings peace. Therefore giving and receiving are the same thing; they are One in truth. Our practice is to receive what we are giving and to give what we receive. We seek quietness, peace of mind and stillness and we offer that to everyone. (Lesson 108)
Resting in God
In Lesson 109, we ask to rest in God. We ask for quietness, stability, safety, peace, happiness and stillness. We use the simple thought I rest in God to guide us from all other thoughts that do not serve us. It will give us peace. We rest in God's peace together.
And the time when rest will be the only thing there is comes closer to all worn and tired minds, too weary now to go their own way alone. And they will hear the bird begin to sing and see the spring begin to flow again, with hope reborn and energy restored to walk with lightened steps along the road that suddenly seems easy as they go. 109:7:2-3
Seeking the Self Beyond the Ego
In the final Lesson for today, we are reminded I am as God created me. (Lesson 110)
When we accept this identity over the one ego wants us to reinforce we are indeed saved. Ego's puny little self that needs fear, evil, misery and death to keep itself strong is just an appearance. It is not who we truly are. Once we realize and accept who we really are, ego images cannot survive and we heal forever.
When we accept this identity over the one ego wants us to reinforce we are indeed saved. Ego's puny little self that needs fear, evil, misery and death to keep itself strong is just an appearance. It is not who we truly are. Once we realize and accept who we really are, ego images cannot survive and we heal forever.
The Self is the birth place of all miracles If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be substituted for life, or fear for love. ...then there has been no separation of your mind from His, no split between your mind and other minds, and only unity within your own. 110:3: 4.
We are asked then to seek this Self that we really are and to honor it.
All is well!
ACIM-Workbook: Lessons 101-110
Nothing to Forgive?
Teach him that, whatever he may try to do to you, your perfect freedom from the belief that you can be harmed shows him that he is guiltless. He can do nothing that can hurt you, and by refusing to allow him to think he can, you teach him the Atonement, which you have accepted for yourself, is also his. There is nothing to Forgive.
ACIM-T-14:III:7:3-5
There is nothing to forgive?
That is a hard line for many of us to swallow especially if we grew up believing we were "eternal sinners," always at the mercy of attack and condemnation, not only from each other but from God Himself. We are "supposed" to be guilty and because of that we are supposed to make guilt in others so we can be the "better person" and forgive them, right?
People do "bad" things. They (other people) attack us with their words or bodies; they steal and covet; they lie and cheat; and they stab us in the back in a myriad of ways. They break many of the ten commandments throughout the day and it is our job as fellow community members ( whether that community be a family, a work place, a neighborhood, a religion or society at large) to be watchful of these infractions and judge, condemn and punish accordingly. We need to determine guilt in others , make them do some form of penance so we can forgive. That is the traditional way we deal with any form of injury inflicted upon us by another. And we do it in the name of God. That is what we know and that is how we live.
ACIM offers another take on this idea of "forgiveness" beyond the traditionally held beliefs of Atonement/Penance. Atonement, according to ACIM ( and other doctrines) doesn't require 100 Hail Mary's or a stent of community service. It involves a healing that occurs when we see that we cannot be harmed. If we cannot be harmed...no injury occurred and therefore there is nothing to forgive.
Huh?
If there is nothing to forgive the whole world, as we know it, basically falls a part, doesn't it? What are we going to do with the pain we feel when our lover runs off with another? When our best friend says bad things to us? Or if someone attacks us on the street and steals our purse? These things "hurt", don't they? They are "wrong", "evil", "bad" and the person perpetuating them is "guilty", aren't they? Punishment is called for.
The Need For Guilt
If they are guilty, we have something to forgive and forgiveness will distract us from our pain to some degree. It will become our "higher purpose". So we seek to forgive (on ego's terms) but only after the individual does enough to show that they are accepting of their own guilt and is genuinely remorseful. We still need revenge. We need them to pay for what they did to us with a certain amount of guilt, don't we? Guilt itself is the punishment.
When we ascribe to this belief system...what are our day to day experiences like? We may feel a certain "specialness" and a stronger ego identity when we become the better person forgiving the sins of another but is this peace? We are also usually very fearful when guilt is our focus...watching and waiting for an attack on our person from the millions of "guilty" people out there, doing what we can to defend against it. We may become the attackers..."Attack before attacked!" . We are hyper-vigilant and fearful, walking around on what seems to be a very dark and dangerous planet waiting for the "guilty" to pop out in front of us and do something nasty.
More importantly, if others are guilty we must accept that we are too. We have to watch ourselves, defend and attack ourselves. We need to punish ourselves. So we live with that heavy burden of guilt that weighs on us like a ten ton brick greatly obscuring the peace that is our natural birthright.
The more guilty we feel, the worse we feel. To relieve some of that weight we project the guilt outward onto others. We make the world even "guiltier" than it already is to our mixed up minds, perpetuating a big cycle of guilt and so called forgiveness that never seems to end.
Where is the peace? Where is the Love? Where is the joy in this mode of seeing and making guilty? Is this actually forgiveness? Healing? Is this what God intended?
Many great spiritual platforms, including ACIM, teach that forgiveness is the greatest form of healing but that it doesn't come from seeking to make wrong. It comes from seeing that there is no wrong.
Real Forgiveness
Real Forgiveness begins with seeing clearly...not through eyes of judgement and condemnation; not through a need to defend and attack and not through a mind that identifies itself with ego. Forgiveness begins with seeing who we truly are beneath the form identity. That is the first step in atonement.
When we do this we realize that, Only form can be injured. (Eckhart Tolle) ...that is a very important truth to master. When someone says a mean thing to us, the psychological form is injured...not who we are beneath that form. When someone slaps us across the face, only the physical form is injured, not who we truly are.
Who we truly are...this essence, this "Spirit", this piece of God, this consciousness, this higher Self, this vast spaciousness; this Purusa...whatever you wish to call it...can not be harmed. It is eternal, formless, infinite, changeless etc etc. It is real. Everything else is just not that real. Once we realize this we see that no injury can take place upon our being...therefore there really is nothing to forgive.
The individual who attempts to harm our form identity is the same essence we are, hidden behind an ego that is unconscious...not yet aware of It Self. That ego veil may be so heavy and dense they do not see clearly who they are and therefore do not see clearly who they are dealing with in us. They buy into this belief system that there is a need for guilt and forgiveness, defense and attack and live according to that. They are simply "blinded by fear" and striking out in their own created darkness. Can you blame someone who hurts you when they are unconscious; when they know not what they do?
And what part of you are they hurting...only the ego and the ego means nothing. What stings is the ego. What reacts is the ego. What looks to guilt is the ego. The body can get bruised up by another. We do not need to stand there to take a beating from an unconscious individual...by all means run for help or defend yourself... but we need to realize that who we truly are is not harmed by this. The form identity may get hurt...but is that such a bad thing?
We need to separate the deed from the doer and the deed from our ego's need to judge if we want the peace of true forgiveness. The injury we may perceive with a slap across the face, is really not an injury until the mind makes it one. It is simply an incident...a slap across the face causing some physical pain and an activation of the fight or flight response.
It is what our mind does with it that feeds the ego's need for "wrong", guilt, attack and defense. We build story around it, label it, judge it and the other person as "evil". We cling to it and throw it in the big pile of other grievances we collected against this person and people at large. Remove the story, the judgments etc and we remove the sense of "insult" and the need to make guilty. We are really not being harmed.
When we look to the other person who supposedly injured us or has does something the ego judges as wrong we can simply learn to say, as we tap into that deeper part of us, " You can do nothing that can hurt me. You are guiltless. " By doing that we put down what isn't real and are freed by what is.
True forgiveness comes from the higher Self and it is simply a recognition that:
Eckhart Tolle (December 2019) The Nature of Forgiveness/Is It different From Compassion. Eckhart Tolle Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9XHKqn22HY
ACIM-T-14:III:7:3-5
There is nothing to forgive?
That is a hard line for many of us to swallow especially if we grew up believing we were "eternal sinners," always at the mercy of attack and condemnation, not only from each other but from God Himself. We are "supposed" to be guilty and because of that we are supposed to make guilt in others so we can be the "better person" and forgive them, right?
People do "bad" things. They (other people) attack us with their words or bodies; they steal and covet; they lie and cheat; and they stab us in the back in a myriad of ways. They break many of the ten commandments throughout the day and it is our job as fellow community members ( whether that community be a family, a work place, a neighborhood, a religion or society at large) to be watchful of these infractions and judge, condemn and punish accordingly. We need to determine guilt in others , make them do some form of penance so we can forgive. That is the traditional way we deal with any form of injury inflicted upon us by another. And we do it in the name of God. That is what we know and that is how we live.
ACIM offers another take on this idea of "forgiveness" beyond the traditionally held beliefs of Atonement/Penance. Atonement, according to ACIM ( and other doctrines) doesn't require 100 Hail Mary's or a stent of community service. It involves a healing that occurs when we see that we cannot be harmed. If we cannot be harmed...no injury occurred and therefore there is nothing to forgive.
Huh?
If there is nothing to forgive the whole world, as we know it, basically falls a part, doesn't it? What are we going to do with the pain we feel when our lover runs off with another? When our best friend says bad things to us? Or if someone attacks us on the street and steals our purse? These things "hurt", don't they? They are "wrong", "evil", "bad" and the person perpetuating them is "guilty", aren't they? Punishment is called for.
The Need For Guilt
If they are guilty, we have something to forgive and forgiveness will distract us from our pain to some degree. It will become our "higher purpose". So we seek to forgive (on ego's terms) but only after the individual does enough to show that they are accepting of their own guilt and is genuinely remorseful. We still need revenge. We need them to pay for what they did to us with a certain amount of guilt, don't we? Guilt itself is the punishment.
When we ascribe to this belief system...what are our day to day experiences like? We may feel a certain "specialness" and a stronger ego identity when we become the better person forgiving the sins of another but is this peace? We are also usually very fearful when guilt is our focus...watching and waiting for an attack on our person from the millions of "guilty" people out there, doing what we can to defend against it. We may become the attackers..."Attack before attacked!" . We are hyper-vigilant and fearful, walking around on what seems to be a very dark and dangerous planet waiting for the "guilty" to pop out in front of us and do something nasty.
More importantly, if others are guilty we must accept that we are too. We have to watch ourselves, defend and attack ourselves. We need to punish ourselves. So we live with that heavy burden of guilt that weighs on us like a ten ton brick greatly obscuring the peace that is our natural birthright.
The more guilty we feel, the worse we feel. To relieve some of that weight we project the guilt outward onto others. We make the world even "guiltier" than it already is to our mixed up minds, perpetuating a big cycle of guilt and so called forgiveness that never seems to end.
Where is the peace? Where is the Love? Where is the joy in this mode of seeing and making guilty? Is this actually forgiveness? Healing? Is this what God intended?
Many great spiritual platforms, including ACIM, teach that forgiveness is the greatest form of healing but that it doesn't come from seeking to make wrong. It comes from seeing that there is no wrong.
Real Forgiveness
Real Forgiveness begins with seeing clearly...not through eyes of judgement and condemnation; not through a need to defend and attack and not through a mind that identifies itself with ego. Forgiveness begins with seeing who we truly are beneath the form identity. That is the first step in atonement.
When we do this we realize that, Only form can be injured. (Eckhart Tolle) ...that is a very important truth to master. When someone says a mean thing to us, the psychological form is injured...not who we are beneath that form. When someone slaps us across the face, only the physical form is injured, not who we truly are.
Who we truly are...this essence, this "Spirit", this piece of God, this consciousness, this higher Self, this vast spaciousness; this Purusa...whatever you wish to call it...can not be harmed. It is eternal, formless, infinite, changeless etc etc. It is real. Everything else is just not that real. Once we realize this we see that no injury can take place upon our being...therefore there really is nothing to forgive.
The individual who attempts to harm our form identity is the same essence we are, hidden behind an ego that is unconscious...not yet aware of It Self. That ego veil may be so heavy and dense they do not see clearly who they are and therefore do not see clearly who they are dealing with in us. They buy into this belief system that there is a need for guilt and forgiveness, defense and attack and live according to that. They are simply "blinded by fear" and striking out in their own created darkness. Can you blame someone who hurts you when they are unconscious; when they know not what they do?
And what part of you are they hurting...only the ego and the ego means nothing. What stings is the ego. What reacts is the ego. What looks to guilt is the ego. The body can get bruised up by another. We do not need to stand there to take a beating from an unconscious individual...by all means run for help or defend yourself... but we need to realize that who we truly are is not harmed by this. The form identity may get hurt...but is that such a bad thing?
Sticks and stones
may break my bones;
but names will never
hurt me.
We need to separate the deed from the doer and the deed from our ego's need to judge if we want the peace of true forgiveness. The injury we may perceive with a slap across the face, is really not an injury until the mind makes it one. It is simply an incident...a slap across the face causing some physical pain and an activation of the fight or flight response.
It is what our mind does with it that feeds the ego's need for "wrong", guilt, attack and defense. We build story around it, label it, judge it and the other person as "evil". We cling to it and throw it in the big pile of other grievances we collected against this person and people at large. Remove the story, the judgments etc and we remove the sense of "insult" and the need to make guilty. We are really not being harmed.
When we look to the other person who supposedly injured us or has does something the ego judges as wrong we can simply learn to say, as we tap into that deeper part of us, " You can do nothing that can hurt me. You are guiltless. " By doing that we put down what isn't real and are freed by what is.
But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.
If anyone slaps you on the right cheek,
turn to them the other cheek also.
And if anyone wants to sue you or take your shirt,
hand over your coat as well .
Matthew 5:38-40
True forgiveness comes from the higher Self and it is simply a recognition that:
Nothing real can be threatened
Nothing unreal exists
Herein ,lies the peace of God.
ACIM Introduction
All is well in my world.
Inspired by:
ACIM ( 2007) A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume. Foundation For Inner Peace.
Eckhart Tolle (December 2019) The Nature of Forgiveness/Is It different From Compassion. Eckhart Tolle Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9XHKqn22HY
Monday, February 24, 2020
Collecting Sign Posts
See through the mind's tenacious grappling for unanswerable questions. You are a feeling that must be felt, not thought. You cannot locate yourself inside any philosophy, mystical endeavour or spiritual experience, for you are the aware presence of emptiness in which all such activity arises.
http://www.zenthinking.net/blog/tag/transcending+the+ego
I listened to Eckhart Tolle this morning in an address he gave in Winnipeg a couple of years ago and I allowed certain words he shared to become stuck in my head. I did exactly what he encouraged the audience not to do in that first hour of his address: Don't give excessive attention to words. Don't collect sign posts confusing them with the destination. (Tolle 2018...loosely paraphrased) .
A Note Taker
You see, I am one of those people who sits there and takes notes instead of just allowing what is said to sink in. I am a bit of a word addict. I suppose I have to be if I want to call myself a writer but I do take it a step further.
I am an eternal student trained in the "standardized learning" method. I have already spent too many years jotting down the words of professors, lecturers and authors in both my formal and informal learning that it has become a habit, I suppose, to seek out and jot down the words of others. I collect those that I think I can use in my own life and share in my writing. I became a very good note taker even though I can barely make out my own handwriting anymore. :)
A Hoarder of Sign Posts
I pay too much attention to words and I collect sign posts! In fact, I am a bit of a hoarder in that department. My desk is covered in books, scriptures from different religious sectors, philosophies, poetry, sticky notes, quotes written on scraps of paper, note books full of the messages I collected from the people I listened to or read recently. It is a mess really but it all seems so important to me. D. often suggest I throw this or that out and I resist mightily. Someday I may need these words, these sign posts, I argue.
Why?
Well, yes I am a writer and writers need words to do what they do. I am a learner so I feel I need the lessons and wisdom shared by others jotted down somewhere I can retrieve it later just in case I forget. I am also a conceptualizer.
I have this habitual need to understand things with my mind so I can explain them to others with my words. In order to articulate, I need to read, listen, think, analyze, interpret, translate, understand, and transform. So much has to go on in my mind, it seems, before it comes down on the paper. And I seem to need it on the paper before I can learn.
A Deeper Knowing
At the same time I know that I am learning at a deeper level beneath the words, the mess on my desk and the notes I am taking. I am feeling and experiencing something that I cannot describe here. I am not really learning something new...I am...it seems...remembering what I already knew. And I can't explain that in any depth that will make sense with words. Thee is deeper reality that exists beneath each word, label or name we use.
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching as translated by Gia Fu-Feng; https://ttc.tasuki.org/display:Code:gff,sm,jhmd,jc,rh)
I do agree with Tolle and most of the spiritual masters I have read or listened to....there is a knowing in us that is not conceptual...that goes beyond thinking and the mind. There is something which is really no-thing within us that can not be reduced to a label or a name. All the word does, the name does, the verbal teaching does...is point us in the direction we need to go, in order to truly know who we are. The words are not the "wisdom" we seek...they simply point to it, like guide posts on a side of the road we are travelling down on. They simply show us the way. They are not the way...they just point to it.
Recognizing Shunyata
I will still use words to teach and to learn but I will constantly try to remind myself that they do not give me what I need. They just point me inward to where what I need is and always has been.
I like how Tolle explains that: around the word and between each word is the essence of everything. The word, name, label comes from and onto this background of infinite spaciousness...what the Buddhists call Shunyata.
Maybe we can use words in a different way. Maybe we can learn to listen to them or write them down without seeing them as the destination...just pointers to something Greater that really cannot be explained or defined with words. Becoming more mindful, as we do, of that spaciousness that is beneath them .
All is well!
Eckhart Tolle ( 2018) 2018 Winnipeg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTFt13dPHKc
http://www.zenthinking.net/blog/tag/transcending+the+ego
I listened to Eckhart Tolle this morning in an address he gave in Winnipeg a couple of years ago and I allowed certain words he shared to become stuck in my head. I did exactly what he encouraged the audience not to do in that first hour of his address: Don't give excessive attention to words. Don't collect sign posts confusing them with the destination. (Tolle 2018...loosely paraphrased) .
A Note Taker
You see, I am one of those people who sits there and takes notes instead of just allowing what is said to sink in. I am a bit of a word addict. I suppose I have to be if I want to call myself a writer but I do take it a step further.
I am an eternal student trained in the "standardized learning" method. I have already spent too many years jotting down the words of professors, lecturers and authors in both my formal and informal learning that it has become a habit, I suppose, to seek out and jot down the words of others. I collect those that I think I can use in my own life and share in my writing. I became a very good note taker even though I can barely make out my own handwriting anymore. :)
A Hoarder of Sign Posts
I pay too much attention to words and I collect sign posts! In fact, I am a bit of a hoarder in that department. My desk is covered in books, scriptures from different religious sectors, philosophies, poetry, sticky notes, quotes written on scraps of paper, note books full of the messages I collected from the people I listened to or read recently. It is a mess really but it all seems so important to me. D. often suggest I throw this or that out and I resist mightily. Someday I may need these words, these sign posts, I argue.
Why?
Well, yes I am a writer and writers need words to do what they do. I am a learner so I feel I need the lessons and wisdom shared by others jotted down somewhere I can retrieve it later just in case I forget. I am also a conceptualizer.
I have this habitual need to understand things with my mind so I can explain them to others with my words. In order to articulate, I need to read, listen, think, analyze, interpret, translate, understand, and transform. So much has to go on in my mind, it seems, before it comes down on the paper. And I seem to need it on the paper before I can learn.
A Deeper Knowing
At the same time I know that I am learning at a deeper level beneath the words, the mess on my desk and the notes I am taking. I am feeling and experiencing something that I cannot describe here. I am not really learning something new...I am...it seems...remembering what I already knew. And I can't explain that in any depth that will make sense with words. Thee is deeper reality that exists beneath each word, label or name we use.
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching as translated by Gia Fu-Feng; https://ttc.tasuki.org/display:Code:gff,sm,jhmd,jc,rh)
I do agree with Tolle and most of the spiritual masters I have read or listened to....there is a knowing in us that is not conceptual...that goes beyond thinking and the mind. There is something which is really no-thing within us that can not be reduced to a label or a name. All the word does, the name does, the verbal teaching does...is point us in the direction we need to go, in order to truly know who we are. The words are not the "wisdom" we seek...they simply point to it, like guide posts on a side of the road we are travelling down on. They simply show us the way. They are not the way...they just point to it.
Recognizing Shunyata
I will still use words to teach and to learn but I will constantly try to remind myself that they do not give me what I need. They just point me inward to where what I need is and always has been.
I like how Tolle explains that: around the word and between each word is the essence of everything. The word, name, label comes from and onto this background of infinite spaciousness...what the Buddhists call Shunyata.
Maybe we can use words in a different way. Maybe we can learn to listen to them or write them down without seeing them as the destination...just pointers to something Greater that really cannot be explained or defined with words. Becoming more mindful, as we do, of that spaciousness that is beneath them .
All is well!
Eckhart Tolle ( 2018) 2018 Winnipeg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTFt13dPHKc
Saturday, February 22, 2020
Lessons 91-100
Failure to perceive light is to perceive darkness. The light is useless to you even though it is still there.
ACIM-W-91:2:5-7
Truth and Light
There is no darkness...just a belief in the absence of light. So if there is no darkness, all there is, is light. If we experience darkness it is because we are not seeing the light that is always there. Our body's eyes can not see light, only the absence of it. We look out about us in darkness.
A miracle is the ability to see truth. Truth can only be seen in light and with the vision of the True Self. This True Self is much deeper than the body and our identity of "little me".
Our body/little me identification keeps us from seeing our True Self. It keeps us limited and stuck in darkness. Lesson 91 asks that we question who we are if we are not a body or the limitations a body offers us. We state what we aren't but erroneously believe we are, and then affirm what we really are. For example we may say, "I am not weak, but strong." This lesson teaches that all sense of weakness we experience is related to the belief that we are merely a body. We will never see or experience miracles as long as continue to think we are body and therefore continually look about us in darkness.
Not a Body
In Lesson 92 we are asked to accept the fact that we are not a body...to see that a body's eyes cannot truly see nor can a body's brain think. When we look out as body's and little I's we are weak and see only through darkness a world that is terrifying. We in perceive through these separate little forms a world worthy of condemnation and judgment...a world to fear. We hate ourselves. There is no miracles in this body version of a dark world.
The Light of Strength Within
There is, however, a light of strength in us that doesn't flicker or go out. There is something much Greater and stronger within us that sees and thinks through us denying the body's limited version of sight and thought. It sees past appearances to what is real. It will shows us the way if we put away our body's sight for IT.
Not What We Have Made
Our belief in ourselves as sinners not worthy of forgiveness are fixed in our minds and we spend our lives fruitlessly seeking salvation from this suffering the belief leaves us with. We cannot see that we are not who we think we are. True salvation comes when we accept: you are as God created you, not what you yourself have made. That means that light and joy and peace abide in us. ( Lesson 93). Knowing we are as God created us brings complete salvation and freedom from suffering. ( Lesson 94)
One Self
Lesson 95 encourages us to take part in a committed practice of affirming and reflecting on this truth that I am one Self for five minutes at the beginning of every waking hour. There will be times that we may forget to practice this and we are instructed to gently correct ourselves when we do. It assures us that each time we do remember, someone hears the voice of hope, the stirring of truth within his mind, the gentle rustling of the wings of peace.
A lot of our inner conflict comes from experiences ourselves in duality. We see ourselves as two...both good and evil, loving and hating, mind and body. But The self you made can never be your Self, nor can your Self be split in two. We too often mistakenly believe we are bodies and deny our spirit. Spirit makes use of mind as means to find Self expression. And the mind which serves the spirit is at peace and filled with joy. Its power comes from spirit, and it is fulfilling happily its function here. Yet mind can also see itself divorced from spirit and perceive itself within a body it confuses with itself. 96:4:1-4 (Lesson 96)
Spirit Am I
This sums up Lesson 97 beautifully : Spirit am I, a holy Son of God, free of all limits, safe, and healed and whole, free to forgive, and free to save the world.
A Part In Salvation
The next lesson attempts to remove our guilt and therefore our fear by asking us to accept our part in God's plan for salvation. All we have to do is be willing to set aside our illusions and accept the truth. We allow God to do teh rest. (Lesson 98)
What is this salvation that we accept being a part of?
Salvation is simply forgiveness and forgiveness is simply an awareness that we and our brothers were/are not seeing clearly. We recognize that we have mistakenly willed something different than that which God Wills for us. This split in Will, however, cannot be so because we are a part of God. God thinks and sees through us. Any thought that conflicts with the truth that we are already whole, complete peaceful and of Love is not of God. We simply need to recognize the error of those thoughts, and correct them. This is forgiveness. This is salvation. This is our only function here. (Lesson 99)
Joy is Our Function Here
In Lesson 100 we are assured that God's Will for us is perfect happiness. Sadness [or anything other than joy] is the sign that you would play another part, instead of what has been assigned to you by God. We must realize that joy is our function here. It is our joy that will help save the world.
All is well!
ACIM (2007) A Course in Miracles: Combine Volume. Workbook: Lessons 91-100. Foundations For Inner Peace.
ACIM-W-91:2:5-7
Truth and Light
There is no darkness...just a belief in the absence of light. So if there is no darkness, all there is, is light. If we experience darkness it is because we are not seeing the light that is always there. Our body's eyes can not see light, only the absence of it. We look out about us in darkness.
A miracle is the ability to see truth. Truth can only be seen in light and with the vision of the True Self. This True Self is much deeper than the body and our identity of "little me".
Our body/little me identification keeps us from seeing our True Self. It keeps us limited and stuck in darkness. Lesson 91 asks that we question who we are if we are not a body or the limitations a body offers us. We state what we aren't but erroneously believe we are, and then affirm what we really are. For example we may say, "I am not weak, but strong." This lesson teaches that all sense of weakness we experience is related to the belief that we are merely a body. We will never see or experience miracles as long as continue to think we are body and therefore continually look about us in darkness.
Not a Body
In Lesson 92 we are asked to accept the fact that we are not a body...to see that a body's eyes cannot truly see nor can a body's brain think. When we look out as body's and little I's we are weak and see only through darkness a world that is terrifying. We in perceive through these separate little forms a world worthy of condemnation and judgment...a world to fear. We hate ourselves. There is no miracles in this body version of a dark world.
The Light of Strength Within
There is, however, a light of strength in us that doesn't flicker or go out. There is something much Greater and stronger within us that sees and thinks through us denying the body's limited version of sight and thought. It sees past appearances to what is real. It will shows us the way if we put away our body's sight for IT.
Not What We Have Made
Our belief in ourselves as sinners not worthy of forgiveness are fixed in our minds and we spend our lives fruitlessly seeking salvation from this suffering the belief leaves us with. We cannot see that we are not who we think we are. True salvation comes when we accept: you are as God created you, not what you yourself have made. That means that light and joy and peace abide in us. ( Lesson 93). Knowing we are as God created us brings complete salvation and freedom from suffering. ( Lesson 94)
One Self
Lesson 95 encourages us to take part in a committed practice of affirming and reflecting on this truth that I am one Self for five minutes at the beginning of every waking hour. There will be times that we may forget to practice this and we are instructed to gently correct ourselves when we do. It assures us that each time we do remember, someone hears the voice of hope, the stirring of truth within his mind, the gentle rustling of the wings of peace.
A lot of our inner conflict comes from experiences ourselves in duality. We see ourselves as two...both good and evil, loving and hating, mind and body. But The self you made can never be your Self, nor can your Self be split in two. We too often mistakenly believe we are bodies and deny our spirit. Spirit makes use of mind as means to find Self expression. And the mind which serves the spirit is at peace and filled with joy. Its power comes from spirit, and it is fulfilling happily its function here. Yet mind can also see itself divorced from spirit and perceive itself within a body it confuses with itself. 96:4:1-4 (Lesson 96)
Spirit Am I
This sums up Lesson 97 beautifully : Spirit am I, a holy Son of God, free of all limits, safe, and healed and whole, free to forgive, and free to save the world.
A Part In Salvation
The next lesson attempts to remove our guilt and therefore our fear by asking us to accept our part in God's plan for salvation. All we have to do is be willing to set aside our illusions and accept the truth. We allow God to do teh rest. (Lesson 98)
What is this salvation that we accept being a part of?
Salvation is simply forgiveness and forgiveness is simply an awareness that we and our brothers were/are not seeing clearly. We recognize that we have mistakenly willed something different than that which God Wills for us. This split in Will, however, cannot be so because we are a part of God. God thinks and sees through us. Any thought that conflicts with the truth that we are already whole, complete peaceful and of Love is not of God. We simply need to recognize the error of those thoughts, and correct them. This is forgiveness. This is salvation. This is our only function here. (Lesson 99)
Joy is Our Function Here
In Lesson 100 we are assured that God's Will for us is perfect happiness. Sadness [or anything other than joy] is the sign that you would play another part, instead of what has been assigned to you by God. We must realize that joy is our function here. It is our joy that will help save the world.
All is well!
ACIM (2007) A Course in Miracles: Combine Volume. Workbook: Lessons 91-100. Foundations For Inner Peace.
Need Understand Nothing
You are still convinced that your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing.
ACIM-T-18:IV:7:5-6
No Need to Understand; No Need to Do
Why do I keep coming to this page? I struggle to find an answer as to why. Then I struggle as to discover if I am "doing enough" while I am here.
As human beings we have this tendency to "do" whatever we can to make the world a safer more peaceful place for us to inhabit. We also have this need to "understand" everything in a conceptual way. We would like a nice clearly outlined "purpose" for our existence here so we can conceptually make sense of it and work our way to fulfilling it.
If we are asked "What is Life for?" ...We would likely struggle to come with an answer using words, ideas, images...wouldn't we? We would feel discontent and some form of suffering until we could explain it. And in that definition, if we were able to come up with one, we would probably refer to some action we need to do in order for Life to be what it is.
Like The Tao
The great teachings, however, tell us that there is nothing we need to do. Life will be Life with or without our doing. And the truth of our existence will always be the truth whether we understand it or not. Like the Tao...we need do nothing.
The Tao never does anything, yet through it all things are done. (Tao Te Ching-Chapter 37, Stephen Mitchell's translation...http://taoteching.org.uk/chapter37.html)
Why Make It difficult
We make our experiences more stressful and difficult with this false notion "I should know that! I should understand that!" And," I should do that!"
You make it difficult, because you insist there must be more that you need to do. You find it difficult to accept the idea that you need give so little, to receive so much. ACIM-T-18: IV:1-2
Life Is Always Life
We need to do little and we need to understand little. Our Life...Life in general.... is not something we can understand with our limited minds anyway. We do not need to understand it. Without our ability to name it, label it, define it, judge it ... Life will still be Life. We do not need to strive, reach, succeed, attain and achieve, either, to experience Life. Life just is. It flows through us and we are it.
Three Things We Can Do
If we really feel the need to "do" just to quiet our conceptual addictions we can do the following as proposed by poet Mary Oliver(https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/62038-instructions-for-living-a-life-pay-attention-be-astonished-tell)
ACIM-T-18:IV:7:5-6
No Need to Understand; No Need to Do
Why do I keep coming to this page? I struggle to find an answer as to why. Then I struggle as to discover if I am "doing enough" while I am here.
As human beings we have this tendency to "do" whatever we can to make the world a safer more peaceful place for us to inhabit. We also have this need to "understand" everything in a conceptual way. We would like a nice clearly outlined "purpose" for our existence here so we can conceptually make sense of it and work our way to fulfilling it.
If we are asked "What is Life for?" ...We would likely struggle to come with an answer using words, ideas, images...wouldn't we? We would feel discontent and some form of suffering until we could explain it. And in that definition, if we were able to come up with one, we would probably refer to some action we need to do in order for Life to be what it is.
Like The Tao
The great teachings, however, tell us that there is nothing we need to do. Life will be Life with or without our doing. And the truth of our existence will always be the truth whether we understand it or not. Like the Tao...we need do nothing.
The Tao never does anything, yet through it all things are done. (Tao Te Ching-Chapter 37, Stephen Mitchell's translation...http://taoteching.org.uk/chapter37.html)
Why Make It difficult
We make our experiences more stressful and difficult with this false notion "I should know that! I should understand that!" And," I should do that!"
You make it difficult, because you insist there must be more that you need to do. You find it difficult to accept the idea that you need give so little, to receive so much. ACIM-T-18: IV:1-2
Life Is Always Life
We need to do little and we need to understand little. Our Life...Life in general.... is not something we can understand with our limited minds anyway. We do not need to understand it. Without our ability to name it, label it, define it, judge it ... Life will still be Life. We do not need to strive, reach, succeed, attain and achieve, either, to experience Life. Life just is. It flows through us and we are it.
Three Things We Can Do
If we really feel the need to "do" just to quiet our conceptual addictions we can do the following as proposed by poet Mary Oliver(https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/62038-instructions-for-living-a-life-pay-attention-be-astonished-tell)
Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
When I think of my reason for being here on this page, as well as in Life, I like to believe I am following these wise instructions. I am paying attention to what is happening around me and most importantly in my mind. I am absolutely astonished by it and I come here to tell about it. Maybe I am living a life?
We do not need to try so hard to understand or do that which we falsely believe will ''get us there." We just need to have a little faith and trust in Life while we pay attention to what It is doing; feel amazed by what It is showing us and share our experience of It as it flows through. So simple.
All is well.
Friday, February 21, 2020
The Only Problem
…Man enters into life naked, and naked he departs. The only
thing, the single important thing that concerns his existence on earth, is the
discovery of his soul. For man is not body alone. No human being can bear to
live who regards himself as only a freak occurrence in a freak circumstance.
Man is spirit, clearly and without dispute. Man is the essence of the mighty
intelligence that guides and controls the universe. Man lives in this
intelligence; he is a part of it and the whole of it.
-Uell S. Anderson (Three Magic Words: Forward)
The Only Problem; The Only Purpose
As I contemplate the "only problem," I serendipitously come across another author who echoes what I am reviewing in ACIM. Anderson ( above) tells us that all our attempts to control the world around us while we are here so we feel safe, powerful and peaceful are absolutely fruitless. We cannot control these things and that is not what we are here to do.
The only real purpose we have here, the only thing we really need to focus on... is getting in touch with who we really are. Rediscovering and reconnecting with this true Self, or soul, or purusa, or higher consciousness, or essence or Tao ( whatever you wish to label that which cannot be named) is the answer to all our so called "problems" because the only real problems is the disconnect most of us have with it.
OOPS!
I am experiences some challenges deleting this massive space that follows...but it is not a problem!!! lol
The Disconnection is the Problem; the Reconnection is the Solution
With this disconnection we feel separate, alone, and fearful. We perceive ourselves as "freak occurrences" in "freak circumstances" as we encounter one "problem" on our list after another. They never seem to end . As soon as we "believe" we have solved one crisis, another one comes along. We never seem to be able to cope with them; never seem to be able to get "enough", have enough, be enough and we suffer. Why?
We do not suffer because of the human circumstances we encounter. We suffer because of our mind's inability to see and accept the truth. We have yet to see who we are and what that means for us and the world at large. We have failed to accept the truth that we are not just the bodies we assume ourselves to be. We are so much more. We are spirit and the essence of the mighty intelligence that guides and controls the universe. We are not only part of that intelligence... we are it.
How could there be "problems" if we knew who we were?
How could we be jotting down problems on a problem list if we truly recognized that? How could we be entering problem competitions with one another if we knew that? How could we be collecting grievances, resisting and struggling against what is? How could we be so petty, so selfish, so troubled? How could we be afraid if we knew what we were? And how could we put so much of our energy into defending and attacking, grasping and clinging, violating and hurting each other and the planet in the way we do if we owned that truth?
Is it Blasphemous to Accept Peace?
Yet, for the sake of not being blasphemous and offending the belief structures (be they cultural, religious, familial or personal) that surround us and falsely protect us...we push away that truth...even if it would serve us, each other and the world better to own it. We push away Truth when we do this; we push away God and we push away peace.
All this complexity is but a desperate attempt not to recognize the problem, and therefore not to let it be resolved. If you could recognize that your only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could accept the answer because you would see its relevance. ACIM-W-79: 6: 1
All this complexity is but a desperate attempt not to recognize the problem, and therefore not to let it be resolved. If you could recognize that your only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could accept the answer because you would see its relevance. ACIM-W-79: 6: 1
Accept the Answer
We need to accept that the solution to our suffering can not be found by manipulating our outside worlds or by hiding in fear from it. The solution comes with seeing that our problem lies in our minds and it is there we must go. It is in our minds we falsely perceive separation, leading to endless suffering, and it is in our minds where we can find the truth that can set us free. We can never be separated from our Source...no matter what ego tries to get us to believe. We are a part of it. We are it.
Let us be determined not to collect grievances today. let us be determined to be free of problems that do not exist. The means is simple honesty. Do not deceive yourself about what the problem is, and you must recognize it has been solved. ACIM-W-80:7:1-4
All is well!
ACIM(2007) A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume. Workbook: Lessons 71-80. Foundations For Inner Peace.
Andersen, Uell S.. Three Magic Words . BN Publishing. Kindle
Edition.
OOPS!
I am experiences some challenges deleting this massive space that follows...but it is not a problem!!! lol
Think of it as the shunyata...the empty and vast spaciousness on which the thoughts and words emerge. :) The more space we are aware of the more awake we become. Aha!
My attempts to eliminate this space are fruitless...What does that say about the background of our experiences ?
My attempts to eliminate this space are fruitless...What does that say about the background of our experiences ?
Thursday, February 20, 2020
One Problem; One Solution
Only be certain you do not forget that all problems are the same. Their many forms will not deceive you while you remember this. One problem, one solution. Accept the peace this simple statement brings.
ACIM-W-80:3:3-6
A Long List
I have a big long list of "situations " that I entitle "Areas of Concern" on my desk that I am dealing with. Some of those problematic life events are quite extraordinary. Because of that and the fact there are so many, I have had to seek help outside myself just to sort through them enough so I could see at least dimly into my future. (Well this idea we have of future.)
Secondary Rewards
My ego tells me that what I am looking at is the stuff that soap operas are made from. It assures me there is a lot going on and that some of these things are really "big"!!! If I have to endure them, it goes on, I should at least get a little reward for doing so. I should get a medal or two, some applause, if not just some validation or recognition for my struggles.
It also tells me I am winning in some competition I didn't even know I signed up for. I am, according to ego, "more special" than most people I know because of the amount and nature of the circumstances I am and have been encountering. Ego wants me to keep up that special status even though Self wants nothing to do with it.
Defending the "Special Status" and the Idea of Many Problems
When these problems are diminished by another through generalizations, belittling or comparison to other people's "more normal" problems...ego gets all rawled up and wants to defend and attack this for this "special" status it feels I have earned.
Self just stands back and watches ego make a fool of itself. Self knows that I am not special anywhere but in ego's mind. Specialness is not something it even recognizes. So I am definitely not special because of problems.
It tells me, in fact, that these problems are not even real. What I have jotted down on this piece of paper are not problems. They are simply descriptions of life events I am facing. They are just things showing up in my day to day experience. My mind might want to make them into problems with story, drama, judgment and labelling but they are still simply life events jotted down in list form.
Only One Problem
There maybe many life events on this piece of paper with varying degrees of challenge associated with them but there is and always will be only one problem. Therefore, how can I be "problem special"? How can any of us be? If there is only one problem how can there be varying degrees of difficulty to problems? How can we even expect to take part in such a competition, let alone win it.
Why would we even want to? This focus keeps us from feeling peace. Winning in ego's sense is just not worth it. A long series of different problems seems to confront you. and as one is settled the next one and the next arise. There seems to be no end to them. There is no time in which you feel completely free of problems and at peace.ACIM-W-79:3:3-5
I don't know about you but that is certainly my experience with dealing with problems.
As long as we are caught up in this idea we have many different types of problems we will never solve our real problem. We will never find the peace we are entitled to. To resolve this issue we need to realize there is only one problem and ACIM tells us that that problem is separation .(ACIM Lesson 79)
What is Separation?
Separation is this idea we have that somehow we are disconnected from our Source and from everyone and everything else. It is a journey away from Love, and into fear; away from God and into ego. It is not truth...we cannot be separated... but as long as we believe we are, we will never see clearly. We will perceive we are at the mercy of many different problems and challenges and will constantly feel the need to defend and attack.
Separation is our only problem and it occurs only in our minds.
So what do we do to heal?
We first need to recognize this as the only problem and allow and accept all the things on our list of life events without labelling them and judging them as the source of any lack of peace we may have. Then we need to work at removing the veil that exists between us and the Source we can never be a part from, the peace and Love that will always be within us.
It is ego and our belief in what it tells us that creates the veil between our outer and inner worlds; that prevents us from seeing the truth of who we really are. Ego is the cause of our so called problems. We simply need to relinquish the hold it has on us, to see beyond it to who we truly are. That starts and ends with our minds.
The truth is you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level you can exercise choice. ACIM-T-2:VI:2-6
All is well!
ACIM-W-80:3:3-6
A Long List
Secondary Rewards
My ego tells me that what I am looking at is the stuff that soap operas are made from. It assures me there is a lot going on and that some of these things are really "big"!!! If I have to endure them, it goes on, I should at least get a little reward for doing so. I should get a medal or two, some applause, if not just some validation or recognition for my struggles.
It also tells me I am winning in some competition I didn't even know I signed up for. I am, according to ego, "more special" than most people I know because of the amount and nature of the circumstances I am and have been encountering. Ego wants me to keep up that special status even though Self wants nothing to do with it.
Defending the "Special Status" and the Idea of Many Problems
When these problems are diminished by another through generalizations, belittling or comparison to other people's "more normal" problems...ego gets all rawled up and wants to defend and attack this for this "special" status it feels I have earned.
Self just stands back and watches ego make a fool of itself. Self knows that I am not special anywhere but in ego's mind. Specialness is not something it even recognizes. So I am definitely not special because of problems.
It tells me, in fact, that these problems are not even real. What I have jotted down on this piece of paper are not problems. They are simply descriptions of life events I am facing. They are just things showing up in my day to day experience. My mind might want to make them into problems with story, drama, judgment and labelling but they are still simply life events jotted down in list form.
Only One Problem
There maybe many life events on this piece of paper with varying degrees of challenge associated with them but there is and always will be only one problem. Therefore, how can I be "problem special"? How can any of us be? If there is only one problem how can there be varying degrees of difficulty to problems? How can we even expect to take part in such a competition, let alone win it.
Why would we even want to? This focus keeps us from feeling peace. Winning in ego's sense is just not worth it. A long series of different problems seems to confront you. and as one is settled the next one and the next arise. There seems to be no end to them. There is no time in which you feel completely free of problems and at peace.ACIM-W-79:3:3-5
I don't know about you but that is certainly my experience with dealing with problems.
As long as we are caught up in this idea we have many different types of problems we will never solve our real problem. We will never find the peace we are entitled to. To resolve this issue we need to realize there is only one problem and ACIM tells us that that problem is separation .(ACIM Lesson 79)
What is Separation?
Separation is this idea we have that somehow we are disconnected from our Source and from everyone and everything else. It is a journey away from Love, and into fear; away from God and into ego. It is not truth...we cannot be separated... but as long as we believe we are, we will never see clearly. We will perceive we are at the mercy of many different problems and challenges and will constantly feel the need to defend and attack.
Separation is our only problem and it occurs only in our minds.
So what do we do to heal?
We first need to recognize this as the only problem and allow and accept all the things on our list of life events without labelling them and judging them as the source of any lack of peace we may have. Then we need to work at removing the veil that exists between us and the Source we can never be a part from, the peace and Love that will always be within us.
It is ego and our belief in what it tells us that creates the veil between our outer and inner worlds; that prevents us from seeing the truth of who we really are. Ego is the cause of our so called problems. We simply need to relinquish the hold it has on us, to see beyond it to who we truly are. That starts and ends with our minds.
The truth is you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level you can exercise choice. ACIM-T-2:VI:2-6
All is well!
More Than Specks In Ego's Eyes
Why, then, do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye? ...First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Matthew 7:3-5
If you point out the errors of your brother's ego you must be seeing through yours...
ACIM-T-9:III:3:1
Huh?
Yesterday, I pointed out the errors of other's ways as well as my own in this problem competition we often find ourselves in. Truth is, it was both a defense and an attack.
Not "Problem Special"
You see, I felt a bit stung by the possibly innocent diminishment of "specialness" I received from another the other day when I inferred, in a very subtle nondescript way, that maybe things in "my life" were following a negative pattern. This individual knew my "heavy" history but not what I have been encountering in the terms of "life events " recently. I was not intending to share those events. Still, I felt the need to stand up, be seen and heard, as "special" for enduring what I was enduring. I assumed I would be allotted just one moment on the podium. I didn't get it.
Instead, I got something to the effect that "everyone has problems.". I felt instantly shut down, diminished, and unworthy of sharing (that which I had no intention of sharing anyway) because of one generalizing comment. It seemed the person was saying, "Your problems are no bigger or greater in number than mine or anyone else's, therefore you are not special." Even though that is the truth and something I definitely want to elaborate on in the next entry , that comment, in that moment, lead me instantly to feel the need to defend and attack for this image I was holding of me as "problem special".
This grievance induced defense and attack was internal. I did not respond at the time. I just changed the subject back to their issues but I walked away hurting a bit. I wondered why I felt so stung by that comment. Thus my entry yesterday. I felt the fruitless need to correct what ego had done.
Who did the Stinging?
As I reflect further, I have to ask the question: Who did the stinging? The individual who made the comment is a lovely person. Whether or not they felt we were in a competition and the comment was meant to prevent me from relaying problematic details of my life , thus scoring points that would put me in the lead, I will probably never know. Regardless, it was not the whole person I was encountering in that moment but their ego. I was aware of that.
As I have said before I am often very aware of the ego behaviour in others. I see the unconscious need to get ahead in one way or another in order to feel "right", "special" and/or "better than." How do I see this and become aware of the activated ego in others? Because I see it in myself.
Who got Stung?
I see ego in another because I see ego in myself. In fact, the only part of me that sees ego is ego. Ego recognizes itself in the people we encounter. It takes an ego to know an ego.
And egos love to catch the errors in others, love to collect grievances and point out when others are "wrong". Be sure of that...just watch it in yourself and you will see this is true.
It was ego that got stung and only ego.
It was not the essence of who I am that got stung by that little comment. That truest part of ourselves is above all that pettiness and does not see the need to appear special or to be better at something than someone else. It does not point out the "wrongs" in others because it can only see the "right". It doesn't collect problems as badges of honor. In fact, it does not even recognize life events as being a problem. And when it looks at the person who made the comment, all it sees is pure essence and Love. It can see right through egos as if they are not even there to what is real, what is true.
Ego is only right when it sees it can only be wrong
So since I saw a possible "wrong" in another, it is obvious I was not looking at the situation through the eyes of higher Self; it is a good indication of just how active my ego was in that moment. My ego was active and my ego was right in the only way it will ever be right, in seeing the wrongness of ego in another. Their ego was wrong because ego is always wrong. His ego is always wrong, no matter what it says or does.ACIM-T-9:III:2:10
So how do we make it right?
It is so simple yet we will most likely find it so complicated. Because we refuse to see that the solution can be that easy, we may mistakenly go on being hyper alert to the wrong doings of other egos, collecting grievances, making wrong, defending and attacking our fragile "little I" at the cost of our peace and the peace of others. Sigh!
All we have to do is see beneath the ego to what is there in ourselves and in the other. Beyond this problem collection and competition, beyond this need to be "special" and/or "better than", beyond the ego's insane and foolish behaviour... is the true Self.
It is through those eyes we need to see and into those eyes we need to look. If we operate like that all errors will disappear.
Errors are of the ego, and correction of errors lies in the relinquishment of the ego.
ACIM-T-9: III:2:3
All is well in my world.
ACIM ( 2007) A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume. Chapter Nine, Section III: The Correction of Error. Foundations for Inner Peace.
If you point out the errors of your brother's ego you must be seeing through yours...
ACIM-T-9:III:3:1
Huh?
Yesterday, I pointed out the errors of other's ways as well as my own in this problem competition we often find ourselves in. Truth is, it was both a defense and an attack.
Not "Problem Special"
You see, I felt a bit stung by the possibly innocent diminishment of "specialness" I received from another the other day when I inferred, in a very subtle nondescript way, that maybe things in "my life" were following a negative pattern. This individual knew my "heavy" history but not what I have been encountering in the terms of "life events " recently. I was not intending to share those events. Still, I felt the need to stand up, be seen and heard, as "special" for enduring what I was enduring. I assumed I would be allotted just one moment on the podium. I didn't get it.
Instead, I got something to the effect that "everyone has problems.". I felt instantly shut down, diminished, and unworthy of sharing (that which I had no intention of sharing anyway) because of one generalizing comment. It seemed the person was saying, "Your problems are no bigger or greater in number than mine or anyone else's, therefore you are not special." Even though that is the truth and something I definitely want to elaborate on in the next entry , that comment, in that moment, lead me instantly to feel the need to defend and attack for this image I was holding of me as "problem special".
This grievance induced defense and attack was internal. I did not respond at the time. I just changed the subject back to their issues but I walked away hurting a bit. I wondered why I felt so stung by that comment. Thus my entry yesterday. I felt the fruitless need to correct what ego had done.
Who did the Stinging?
As I reflect further, I have to ask the question: Who did the stinging? The individual who made the comment is a lovely person. Whether or not they felt we were in a competition and the comment was meant to prevent me from relaying problematic details of my life , thus scoring points that would put me in the lead, I will probably never know. Regardless, it was not the whole person I was encountering in that moment but their ego. I was aware of that.
As I have said before I am often very aware of the ego behaviour in others. I see the unconscious need to get ahead in one way or another in order to feel "right", "special" and/or "better than." How do I see this and become aware of the activated ego in others? Because I see it in myself.
Who got Stung?
I see ego in another because I see ego in myself. In fact, the only part of me that sees ego is ego. Ego recognizes itself in the people we encounter. It takes an ego to know an ego.
And egos love to catch the errors in others, love to collect grievances and point out when others are "wrong". Be sure of that...just watch it in yourself and you will see this is true.
It was ego that got stung and only ego.
It was not the essence of who I am that got stung by that little comment. That truest part of ourselves is above all that pettiness and does not see the need to appear special or to be better at something than someone else. It does not point out the "wrongs" in others because it can only see the "right". It doesn't collect problems as badges of honor. In fact, it does not even recognize life events as being a problem. And when it looks at the person who made the comment, all it sees is pure essence and Love. It can see right through egos as if they are not even there to what is real, what is true.
Ego is only right when it sees it can only be wrong
So since I saw a possible "wrong" in another, it is obvious I was not looking at the situation through the eyes of higher Self; it is a good indication of just how active my ego was in that moment. My ego was active and my ego was right in the only way it will ever be right, in seeing the wrongness of ego in another. Their ego was wrong because ego is always wrong. His ego is always wrong, no matter what it says or does.ACIM-T-9:III:2:10
So how do we make it right?
It is so simple yet we will most likely find it so complicated. Because we refuse to see that the solution can be that easy, we may mistakenly go on being hyper alert to the wrong doings of other egos, collecting grievances, making wrong, defending and attacking our fragile "little I" at the cost of our peace and the peace of others. Sigh!
All we have to do is see beneath the ego to what is there in ourselves and in the other. Beyond this problem collection and competition, beyond this need to be "special" and/or "better than", beyond the ego's insane and foolish behaviour... is the true Self.
It is through those eyes we need to see and into those eyes we need to look. If we operate like that all errors will disappear.
Errors are of the ego, and correction of errors lies in the relinquishment of the ego.
ACIM-T-9: III:2:3
All is well in my world.
ACIM ( 2007) A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume. Chapter Nine, Section III: The Correction of Error. Foundations for Inner Peace.
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Problem Competition
The "little I'' seeks to enhance itself by external approval, external possessions and external "love".
ACIM-T-preface
The little I, this entity ego creates and tells us we are, is always trying to enhance itself through getting and gaining something "out there". It seeks to gain approval, possessions and "love". This, it believes will make it "special". Ego likes to be special. Actually, because it is so competitive, it likes to be more special than someone else.
What happens when life doesn't seem to be allowing us to get these things to enhance self with? What happens when our lives seem to be riddled with problems? It may resort to using these so called problems to enhance itself.
Problems?
"You think you got problems, let me tell ya what I got going on?" or "Everyone has problems. I don't know why you think you are so special because of yours!"
These are common responses to hearing someone's expression of their so called problems, even if it is not spoken out loud, aren't they? We seek to build and/or maintain this identity of "special" in one way or another.
Problem specialness may give us an outlet by which we are seen, heard, and ego fed. For that reason problems may become a category in one of egos many competitions.
The Problem Competition
If we are still dominated by ego's urges but unable to enhance this idea we have of self through external reward, we may be unknowingly participating in a "problem competition" with one another. It is a game we want to win by coming out at the finish line "more special" in our eyes or the eyes of others. We win by either having the most challenging problems or the least challenging amount of problems. Either way we can tell ourselves we are more special than the losers.
Assessing the Competition
We are often selective with whom we compete with in this game. We tend to enter this competition with people who have a whole lot less problems or at least smaller problems than us so we can feel superior in our victim status. Or we may choose people who seemingly have a lot more problems so we can feel more special in terms of being more fortunate and blessed. Our goal is to win regardless of what our idea of winning entails!
We are also careful about who our competition is. We like to compete against those who we compete against anyway, people our sense of self is somewhat threatened by in one way or another in other avenues of our lives. If we can't beat them by being better at something else out there than we will sign the competitor and ourselves up for a problem competition, hoping that maybe we can beat them in the problem game.
Making Guilty: An added perk for competition
If our competitor is someone we are in conflict with and holding grievances against for whatever reason, and someone whom we want to see feeling guilty, even better! Beating them in a problem competition seems like a way to make them suffer , doesn't it? "Won't they feel bad about what they said, did, or thought in regards to me when they see how "problem special" I am." For the ego really believes it can get and keep[win] by making guilty. ACIM-T-15:VII:2:5
Avoiding Contenders
Ego likes to win at all costs. We therefore do not want to compete with others who are sure to win the game. We want to come out "special". If our idea of winning is all about having the most problems or the most life altering situations to deal with we do not want to pick a battle with someone who is grieving the loss of a loved one, who was just diagnosed with a life threatening disease or who just lost everything they owned. Do we? We are not going to win that one
What if these "Big and Real" problems were added to a competition that already began? Wow! That puts us in an awkward situation doesn't it? Or what if we suddenly realize that the person we are running against is actually someone who we assume should be there to listen to our problems? How are they going to be there for us if their problems are bigger than ours? "Bigger problems for them makes them more worthy of being seen and heard therefore my "specialness" and right to be seen and heard will be diminished." What do we do in these situations?
Cheating In Order To Win
Well ego wants to win, ego wants to be "special". It is also pretty tricky and will sometimes do what it can to slyly take the competition out on the inside lane when the judges aren't looking. We may diminish, belittle, down play, deny, turn out backs to, pretend we don't know what is going on with the other person, fail to listen, avoid, or generalize their problem or experience so it does not get in the way of our getting the garland of specialness draped around our necks. Something as seemingly innocent as '' Everyone has problems" or "Who doesn't go through that" can be like a sucker punch or a shove down to the ego with a so called problem.
Cheating, winning and losing
I have been at both ends of this ego competition...both determined to win at all costs by showing off what I thought was the biggest, baddest problem list and at the same time finding myself knocked down by diminishing statements or actions from competitors when I attempted to express a problem. I have had people I thought were my friends walk away and close their eyes to me in my grief yet still expected me there to listen to their problems while I was in the height of this grief. I have had others crack very inappropriate jokes during my sharing of life altering circumstances. And many, many times I have heard insinuated that my problems were not greater in number or degree of intensity when I felt my problems were quite extraordinary. I have also been the offender, as well, on many occasions.
Foolish Not Terrible
Are we terrible people for being caught up in these ego games? No...we are not terrible. We are simply foolish. Foolish for following ego's lead and believing what it has to say. Problem competition is not only a game we cannot win but a game we do not want to win!!! And we are too blinded by egos need to create "special little I-ness" to realize that.
Once we become aware that we are participating in problem competitions with others, we can step away from ego long enough to see what we are doing and how it is effecting us and the people we are in competition with. Until we do that we will be duking out until someone gets knocked out.
Failing To Empathize
So what is happening during this competition: We are simply doing what ego does. We are becoming overly attached to the life events we are encountering, feeling seperate and lonely, being self-centered, fearing that if we lose this silly game we will lose our sense of "me-ness" and possibly failing to empathize with the suffering experience of another.
We are failing to empathise. Bad thing, right? Empathy , we are culturally taught, not only involves admitting to and validating that our competitor definitely has a problem, possibly more important than ours, but it also means joining them in that suffering. When we don't join them in that suffering ego shames us further.
The only way to get out of this conundrum is to appear to have more problems than them. That means doing the opposite of empathising.
What we have to realize, however, is that Ego's idea of empathy is actually just a counter attack.
To empathize does not mean to join in suffering, for that is what you must refuse to understand...the ego always empathizes to weaken and to weaken is always to attack. ACIM-T-16:1-2
Say what crazy lady?
Beyond the Competition
There is a way to endure our problems without making them a competition and a way to support others without getting lost in their suffering.
First of all we do not need to go into competition with anyone. That does not get us anywhere.
Next, we need to realize that what we call problems are not problems! What we are collecting on our problem list are just random life events . What makes them into a "suffering" experience is our desire to react to them by labelling them as problematic and resisting and struggling against them.
Thirdly, we need to recognize that though there seems to be so many different types of problems out there that we tend to measure in varying degrees of intensity there really isn't. For example, we may that a person who was just diagnosed with terminal cancer, just lost their house in a fire and their husband just ran off with the babysitter has more problems than an individual who is having chronic stress at work and is suffering from the discomfort of a heel spur. Right?
ACIM tells us that is really not the case. There is only one problem and therefore one solution ( which I will write more about in the next entry)
A problem that has been resolved cannot trouble you. Only be certain you do not forget that all problems are the same. Their many forms will not deceive you while you remember this. One problem, one solution. Accept the peace this simple statement brings.
ACIM-W-80:3
Then we need to see what empathy really is. True empathy has nothing to do with the ego. True empathy recognizes there is no problem anywhere but in the mind. It is a healing ...a putting away this notion of "suffering" and "problem" for what is real. It is recognizing that reality in ourselves and in the person who states they have a so called problem.
Well that is the way I see it but what do I know?
All is well.
ACIM (2007) A Course in Miracles : Combine Volume. Foundations for Inner Peace
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Lessons 71-80
The light of truth is in us, where it was placed by God. It is the body that is outside us, and is not our concern. To be without a body is to be in our natural state. To recognize the light of truth is to recognize ourselves as we are.
ACIM-W-9:1-4
Edging God Out
The ego's plan for us is not God's. I once heard Wayne Dyer using the acronym: Edging God Out...to describe ego and it sticks.
Ego's agenda is the opposite of God's. In fact, it does everything it can to keep us from God. Ego holds grievances, convincing us that our problems and challenges occur out there and therefore can only be fixed out there. It encourages us to put all our energy into changing circumstances, controlling events and manipulating others to act and behave a certain way. Of course, this is an impossible mission and that is another part of ego's plan to keep us stuck, away from complete satisfaction and therefore away from God....to fail. Ego's plan for our salvation then is " Seek but do not find."
While God's plan is for us to seek salvation in the only place we can ever find it...within. Holding grievances is the opposite of God's plan...accepting His will for us is the only means of salvation. We simply need to ask, "What would You have me do? Where would You have me go? What would You have me say and to whom? " (Lesson 71) and listen for an answer.
We Are Not These Bodies
What people do in their body forms is not who they are. Yet ego, which so wants to attack and replace God in our lives, wants us seeing ourselves separate and alone in these vulnerable bodily forms so we depend on it rather than the truth of who we are.
When we hold grievances about what others do in their bodily form we are keeping them stuck in body limitation, we are keeping ourselves stuck in that same limitation and we are attacking God's plan for salvation.
If we create an angry world in our minds where the body is at the mercy of it, then we will need something to protect us. Ego creates this false image of the world and our idea of separation so it can flourish as our pseudo protector. To this carefully prepared arena, where angry animals seek for prey and mercy cannot enter, the ego comes to save you. ACIM-W-72:6:1.
In Lesson 72 we are guided to simply ask God what salvation is , admitting that we do not understand it but reminding ourselves that any grievance is an attack on God's plan for it.
Within Not Without
The world we see through ego eyes is full of idle wishes and grievances. The illusion ego creates with these things stands in our way of seeing the truth of who we are. All our suffering is generated by seeing the world in this way ego wants us to see it and it all happens in our mind. Your picture of the world can only mirror what is within. The source of neither light or darkness can be found without.ACIM-W-73:5:1-3
As long as we continue to agree with ego's version of the world we will suffer. When we see it all as illusion and forgive, choosing to see the world through spirit's light we heal. Grievances darken your mind, and you look out at a darkened world. Forgiveness lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and lets you look upon a world of light. ACIM-W-73:5:3-4
We simply need to accept God's plan for us and wish to remember Who we really are. We will there to be light so we can see we are aligned with God's will for us. (Lesson 73)
God's is the Only Will
We find great peace when we realize there is only One Will so therefore there can be no conflict. The only Will is God's. All ideas that conflict with that are not real. Nothing can disturb us when we accept that reality. He will offer us the only peace we need. ( Lesson 74)
The Light has Come
Lesson 75 teaches us that the light has come. When we don't see ego's shadow hovering over our world... darkness, turmoil and death disappear. We see that we are already healed, that we are already saved, that we are already at peace. More than that, we see that we can share this light and peace. We can heal and we can save.
No Laws But God's
There are certain laws we adhere to at ego's bidding. You really think you will starve unless you have stacks of green paper strips and piles of metal discs. You really think a small round pellet or some fluid pushed into your veins through a sharpened needle will ward off disease and death. You really think you are alone unless another body is with you. ACIM-W-76: 3:2-4
Lesson 76 tells us these are not laws but insane ideas we believe in order to protect the body so we are saved. The only thing we need to be saved from is the mind. The body is not the only being hurt. The mind is hurting itself. The body is endangered by the mind that hurts itself. The body suffers just in order that the mind will fail to see it is a victim to itself. The body's suffering is a mask the mind holds up to hide what really suffers. ACIM-W-76:5:2-4
We do not have to obey the so called laws of medicine, economics, health. There is only one law we are under and that law is God's. We need to hear what God's law is all about by going inward and listening in quiet stillness.
Entitled to Miracles
You are entitled to miracles because of what you are. you will receive miracles because of what God is. And you will offer miracles becsue you are one with God. We are entitled to miracles and we can choose them over grievances. ( Lesson 77 ; 78)
Solving Problems
We need to recognize what a problem is before we can solve it. The only real problem we have is this idea that we are separated from our Source and therefore from each other. This is the source of all our problems yet we do not see it that way. When we are wrapped up in ego's fantasies we see ourselves as separate and as separate beings we have a host of individual problems to sort through on a daily basis. Our heads are full of problematic thoughts that we assume are our problems because they keep us from peace. Identification with this mindscape keeps us from seeing what the real problem is which is that we see ourselves as separate. Once we recognize this as the problem, it is solved. (Lesson 79)
One Problem; One Solution
In Lesson 80 we are to recognize that our problems have been solved. There is only one problem, therefore only one solution. Let me recognize this problem has been solved
All is well in my world!
ACIM (2007) A Course in Miracles; Combined Volume. Workbook Lessons 71-80. Foundation for Inner Peace
ACIM-W-9:1-4
Edging God Out
The ego's plan for us is not God's. I once heard Wayne Dyer using the acronym: Edging God Out...to describe ego and it sticks.
Ego's agenda is the opposite of God's. In fact, it does everything it can to keep us from God. Ego holds grievances, convincing us that our problems and challenges occur out there and therefore can only be fixed out there. It encourages us to put all our energy into changing circumstances, controlling events and manipulating others to act and behave a certain way. Of course, this is an impossible mission and that is another part of ego's plan to keep us stuck, away from complete satisfaction and therefore away from God....to fail. Ego's plan for our salvation then is " Seek but do not find."
While God's plan is for us to seek salvation in the only place we can ever find it...within. Holding grievances is the opposite of God's plan...accepting His will for us is the only means of salvation. We simply need to ask, "What would You have me do? Where would You have me go? What would You have me say and to whom? " (Lesson 71) and listen for an answer.
We Are Not These Bodies
What people do in their body forms is not who they are. Yet ego, which so wants to attack and replace God in our lives, wants us seeing ourselves separate and alone in these vulnerable bodily forms so we depend on it rather than the truth of who we are.
When we hold grievances about what others do in their bodily form we are keeping them stuck in body limitation, we are keeping ourselves stuck in that same limitation and we are attacking God's plan for salvation.
If we create an angry world in our minds where the body is at the mercy of it, then we will need something to protect us. Ego creates this false image of the world and our idea of separation so it can flourish as our pseudo protector. To this carefully prepared arena, where angry animals seek for prey and mercy cannot enter, the ego comes to save you. ACIM-W-72:6:1.
In Lesson 72 we are guided to simply ask God what salvation is , admitting that we do not understand it but reminding ourselves that any grievance is an attack on God's plan for it.
Within Not Without
The world we see through ego eyes is full of idle wishes and grievances. The illusion ego creates with these things stands in our way of seeing the truth of who we are. All our suffering is generated by seeing the world in this way ego wants us to see it and it all happens in our mind. Your picture of the world can only mirror what is within. The source of neither light or darkness can be found without.ACIM-W-73:5:1-3
As long as we continue to agree with ego's version of the world we will suffer. When we see it all as illusion and forgive, choosing to see the world through spirit's light we heal. Grievances darken your mind, and you look out at a darkened world. Forgiveness lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and lets you look upon a world of light. ACIM-W-73:5:3-4
We simply need to accept God's plan for us and wish to remember Who we really are. We will there to be light so we can see we are aligned with God's will for us. (Lesson 73)
God's is the Only Will
We find great peace when we realize there is only One Will so therefore there can be no conflict. The only Will is God's. All ideas that conflict with that are not real. Nothing can disturb us when we accept that reality. He will offer us the only peace we need. ( Lesson 74)
The Light has Come
Lesson 75 teaches us that the light has come. When we don't see ego's shadow hovering over our world... darkness, turmoil and death disappear. We see that we are already healed, that we are already saved, that we are already at peace. More than that, we see that we can share this light and peace. We can heal and we can save.
No Laws But God's
There are certain laws we adhere to at ego's bidding. You really think you will starve unless you have stacks of green paper strips and piles of metal discs. You really think a small round pellet or some fluid pushed into your veins through a sharpened needle will ward off disease and death. You really think you are alone unless another body is with you. ACIM-W-76: 3:2-4
Lesson 76 tells us these are not laws but insane ideas we believe in order to protect the body so we are saved. The only thing we need to be saved from is the mind. The body is not the only being hurt. The mind is hurting itself. The body is endangered by the mind that hurts itself. The body suffers just in order that the mind will fail to see it is a victim to itself. The body's suffering is a mask the mind holds up to hide what really suffers. ACIM-W-76:5:2-4
We do not have to obey the so called laws of medicine, economics, health. There is only one law we are under and that law is God's. We need to hear what God's law is all about by going inward and listening in quiet stillness.
Entitled to Miracles
You are entitled to miracles because of what you are. you will receive miracles because of what God is. And you will offer miracles becsue you are one with God. We are entitled to miracles and we can choose them over grievances. ( Lesson 77 ; 78)
Solving Problems
We need to recognize what a problem is before we can solve it. The only real problem we have is this idea that we are separated from our Source and therefore from each other. This is the source of all our problems yet we do not see it that way. When we are wrapped up in ego's fantasies we see ourselves as separate and as separate beings we have a host of individual problems to sort through on a daily basis. Our heads are full of problematic thoughts that we assume are our problems because they keep us from peace. Identification with this mindscape keeps us from seeing what the real problem is which is that we see ourselves as separate. Once we recognize this as the problem, it is solved. (Lesson 79)
One Problem; One Solution
In Lesson 80 we are to recognize that our problems have been solved. There is only one problem, therefore only one solution. Let me recognize this problem has been solved
All is well in my world!
ACIM (2007) A Course in Miracles; Combined Volume. Workbook Lessons 71-80. Foundation for Inner Peace
The Now Does Not Swing Back and Forth
The Now is deeper than what happens in the now.
Eckhart Tolle
I am reminded of this truth as I reread yesterday's entry. That entry reflects how I am going back and forth between life circumstance to simple presence.
In ego's world I am waiting on some moment in the future to relieve me or to send me on another series of life events. It is all about the circumstance.
In Self's world I am simply still, present in this moment which is the space on which all these life events are taking place. It is the space on which the wait is appearing...but it is not the waiting.
Going back and forth, as that little 100 Days thingy I jotted down yesterday implies, is like a swinging pendulum.( I wrote about this pendulum last June in reference to the Way/the Tao). Duality takes us from "It's all good" to "It's absolutely horrible"; from past to future... but the only place this duality exists is in our minds when we ascribe labels to circumstances. When we do that we do not see beyond the life event to the precious moment on which it sits. That moment doesn't swing back and forth. It just is where it is. It is still. Sigh!
Eckhart Tolle, in an interview with Patrick Kicken, explains how essential it is for us to get beyond this duality, which is often fed by our use of language and our need to explain things using mental concepts, to the still moment.
For example we often use the term "My Life". This is a form of duality creating a separation from a life we own and what we are. There cannot be a "My Life" when we are Life. My Life is just a thought form and we are actually the light of consciousness beneath the thought. (Eckhart Tolle).
So I have this wait going on on the surface of Self...on the Life that I am. It and all I think about it is like a passing cloud over the spacious stillness that is who we all are.
"Little me" may jump in and add drama, story and all kinds of grievances and thoughts to keep me believing I am stuck in that cloud but if I really want to I can see beyond the clouds, the thinking, the life event to what is truly real... to what is never moving, nameless, timeless, thought less...The Now. I want to be there. :)
All is well!
Eckhart Tolle (Feb, 2018) Eckhart Tolle & Patrick Kicken-Complete Interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr-BK7Uc9xA&frags=pl%2Cwn
Eckhart Tolle
I am reminded of this truth as I reread yesterday's entry. That entry reflects how I am going back and forth between life circumstance to simple presence.
In ego's world I am waiting on some moment in the future to relieve me or to send me on another series of life events. It is all about the circumstance.
In Self's world I am simply still, present in this moment which is the space on which all these life events are taking place. It is the space on which the wait is appearing...but it is not the waiting.
Going back and forth, as that little 100 Days thingy I jotted down yesterday implies, is like a swinging pendulum.( I wrote about this pendulum last June in reference to the Way/the Tao). Duality takes us from "It's all good" to "It's absolutely horrible"; from past to future... but the only place this duality exists is in our minds when we ascribe labels to circumstances. When we do that we do not see beyond the life event to the precious moment on which it sits. That moment doesn't swing back and forth. It just is where it is. It is still. Sigh!
Eckhart Tolle, in an interview with Patrick Kicken, explains how essential it is for us to get beyond this duality, which is often fed by our use of language and our need to explain things using mental concepts, to the still moment.
For example we often use the term "My Life". This is a form of duality creating a separation from a life we own and what we are. There cannot be a "My Life" when we are Life. My Life is just a thought form and we are actually the light of consciousness beneath the thought. (Eckhart Tolle).
So I have this wait going on on the surface of Self...on the Life that I am. It and all I think about it is like a passing cloud over the spacious stillness that is who we all are.
"Little me" may jump in and add drama, story and all kinds of grievances and thoughts to keep me believing I am stuck in that cloud but if I really want to I can see beyond the clouds, the thinking, the life event to what is truly real... to what is never moving, nameless, timeless, thought less...The Now. I want to be there. :)
All is well!
Eckhart Tolle (Feb, 2018) Eckhart Tolle & Patrick Kicken-Complete Interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr-BK7Uc9xA&frags=pl%2Cwn
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