tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87266162927937751192024-02-20T19:27:58.196-05:00Course Conversations - A Course in MiraclesConversations with my self about my experience in studying A Course in Miracles.Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-20782948534121135652013-11-04T21:30:00.001-05:002013-11-04T21:31:33.486-05:00Starting Again; Where It All Began<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">Four years ago I stopped writing in this blog, mostly due to a busy schedule, plus we only had dial-up internet service available and I became frustrated with the achingly slow speed. Now we have fast internet and I should be able to find time to make a few entries now and then.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"><u>A Course in Miracles </u>continues to be the center of my life. For many years prior to becoming its student, the Course was calling to me. I didn't realize that at the time, of course. I would find it referenced in other books that I read, and several times I tracked it down in a bookstore, thumbed through it, read a few pages, then put it back on the shelf. It looked overwhelmingly complicated, and, having been brought up in a traditional Christian family, I quite frankly found it scarey! I mean, if Jesus was going to speak to somebody, shouldn't it have been a priest or a monk - somebody who was already into religion? Certainly not an atheist! And I really wasn't convinced about that channeling stuff.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">One evening in 2007, I was reading <u>History of Mysticism</u>, by Swami Abhayananda, and something opened up inside of me. It expanded to fill my heart and mind - a desire unlike any I have ever felt before. Tears streamed down my face and I said out loud, "I want to go Home." I knew that Home had nothing to do with dying. I wasn't sure how I was going to get there, but I knew I would find my way. Shortly thereafter, I bought Gary Renard's <u>Disappearance of the Universe,</u> which, unknown to me at the time, is about <u>A Course in Miracles.</u> I shared Gary's book with my skeptical, antireligious, husband, who, after reading it, suggested we find the Course. We did and have been avid students of it ever since. We have both done the lessons in the workbook and have read the text twice, as well as other books Course-related, such as Elizabeth Cronkhite's translations of the Course text, workbook, and Manual for Teachers into plain English. After studying the Course and absorbing its divine message, both my husband and I fully believe that the Course was indeed channeled to Helen Schucman by Jesus. The Course has changed our lives. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">As anybody who studies the Course will probably agree, you can read the Course and every book that has been written <i>about</i> the Course, but until you make it a part of you, until you actually<u> do</u> what it says, you are standing in front of the stove with the gas turned on, thinking about cooking. You have to be willing to go all the way, and all the way really is only a matter of choice. Yet, there is really only one choice to make:</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>"The truth makes no decisions, for there is nothing to decide <u>between</u>. And only if there were could choosing be a necessary step in the advance toward oneness." (ACIM Chapt. 26, III, 1 (10-11)</i></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>"That there is choice is an illusion. Yet within this one lies the undoing of every illusion, not excepting this." (ACIM Chapt. 26, III, 6 (4-5)</i></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">The thing is -- I'm certainly not there yet. I struggle daily with keeping my mind in line with the Course, but therein lies the problem - I struggle. There is no need to struggle. The Course is very clear that we need do nothing but step back and let the Holy Spirit (the One Whom God Has Given You), take charge. In my mind, I often hear Jesus' voice as he sarcastically says in the Course:</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>"Think not that happiness is ever found by following a road away from it. This makes no sense, and cannot be the way. To you who seem to find this course to be too difficult to learn, let me repeat that to achieve a goal you must proceed in its direction, not away from it. And every road that leads the other way will not advance the purpose to be found. If this be difficult to understand, then is this course impossible to learn. But only then. For otherwise, it is a simple teaching in the obvious." (ACIM Chapt. 31, IV, 7)</i></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">And so I carry on. I'll get there one day. Meanwhile, this blog is helpful as a means for recording and exploring my thoughts about the Course in Miracles.<i> </i></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></span></span>
Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-41807549586634965422009-03-11T12:33:00.008-04:002012-01-28T22:00:51.944-05:00"Is That So?"<span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Thinking about judgment again today (see blog entry of <a href="http://courseconversations.blogspot.com/2008/11/course-in-miracles-and-shoe.html">November 28, 2008</a>). Judgment creates perception which hides the truth from us. The world itself is neutral and everything happening is neutral. If we refuse to judge it, we are what the course calls forgiving it. To forgive, in the course's teachings, is to overlook. Overlook what the world offers because it is not real and our judgment of it is a defense against the truth. Allow the Holy Spirit to judge (see) the world through us and in that sense, it will be judged correctly and we will be given a new perception of the world.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">"Judgment was made to be a weapon used against the truth. It separates what it is being used against, and sets it off as if it were a thing apart. And then it makes of it what you would have it be. It judges what it cannot understand, because it cannot see totality and therefore judges falsely. Let us not use it today, but make a gift of it to Him Who has a different use for it. He will relieve us of the agony of all the judgments we have made against ourselves, and re-establish peace of mind by giving us God's Judgment of His Son." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 311)<br /><br /></span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">"Perception follows judgment. Having judged, we therefore see what we would look upon. For sight can merely serve to offer us what we would have. It is impossible to overlook what we would see, and fail to see what we have chosen to behold. How surely, therefore, must the real world come to greet the holy sight of anyone who takes the Holy Spirit's purpose as his goal for seeing. And he cannot fail to look upon what Christ would have him see, and share Christ's Love for what he looks upon." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 312)</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">The teachings of the Course in Miracles have been compared with Zen Buddhism, and recently I read a book in which a Zen story was quoted that reminded me of the course's teachings about being non-judgmental, neutral, about letting everything be as they are. Here is the story:</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;"><br /><br />Hakuin was praised by his neighbors for living a pure life. When a beautiful young woman in the village confessed to her parents that she was pregnant with Hakuin's child, they angrily confronted him.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;"><br />His only reply was, "Is that so?"</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;"><br />After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin, who by now had lost his reputation and credibility as a teacher.<br />Without a question he took the child and cared for it. </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;"><br />A year later the young woman could no longer endure her dishonesty. She confessed that the real father was a young man who worked in the fishmarket.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;"><br />The parents went immediately to Hakuin to beg for his forgiveness and to retrieve the child. Without a pause he gave it to them. "Is that so?" was his only reply."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">from The Tao of Zen by Ray Grigg, quoted from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><br /><br />I love this story and its emphasis on accepting things as they are. When we see things as "good" or "bad," no matter what they are, we are judging them in that we give them the meaning that we choose to give them. This is true for everything in this world, from sorrow to pain, even to death. Relinquishing judgment to the Holy Spirit allows us to say, "Is that so?" to all that occurs in our lives.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;"><br /><br />"Let me not be your critic, Lord, today, and judge against You. Let me not attempt to interfere with Your creation, and distort it into sickly forms. Let me be willing to withdraw my wishes from its unity, and thus to let it be as You created it. For thus will I be able, too, to recognize my Self as You created me. In love was I created, and in love will I remain forever. What can frighten me, when I let all things be exactly as they are? </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">Let not our sight be blasphemous today, nor let our ears attend to lying tongues. Only reality is free of pain. Only reality is free of loss. Only reality is wholly safe. And it is only this we seek today." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 268)</span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-38121945329974713512009-02-14T13:20:00.003-05:002009-02-14T13:40:33.375-05:00Love is all There Is<span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">"Every loving thought that the Son of God ever had is eternal. The loving thoughts his mind perceives in this world are the world's only reality. They are still perceptions, because he still believes that he is separate. Yet they are eternal because they are loving. And being loving they are like the Father, and therefore cannot die. The real world can actually be perceived. All that is necessary is a willingness to perceive nothing else. For if you perceive both good and evil, you are accepting both the false and the true and making no distinction between them." ACIM text pg. 210, para 2</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">"Do not . . . be deceived in your brother, and see only his loving thoughts as his reality, for by denying that his mind is split you will heal yours." ACIM text pg. 213, para 9, line 2</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">"Perfect love casts out fear.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">If fear exists,</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">Then there is not perfect love,</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">BUT</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">Only perfect love exists.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">If there is fear,</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">It produces a state that does not exist.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">Believe this and you will be free." ACIM text pg. 14-15</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Today, on Valentine's Day, is a good time to write about Jesus' teaching that only love exists. This is not the imperfect kind of love that we celebrate when we run out and buy our lovers chocolates, flowers, or a stuffed bear. The love that is all that exists is God's Love and it is not totally comprehensible by us in our time-and-space existence except through loving thoughts.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Loving thoughts exist forever. They make people do more than purchase cards, chocolates or jewelry. They are the force that stirs a mother to stay up all night with a sick child, a neighbor to bake a cake for someone who is hurting, a person to open up their home to a family who lost theirs in a fire, or someone to take in a stray puppy. Loving thoughts are eternal. They exist in God's World - </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">our</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"> world, when we choose to see </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">only</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"> our brother's loving thoughts. That is how we can go Home. Think only loving thoughts; </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">SEE</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"> only loving thoughts. See what is real, what is </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">only</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"> real: perfect love - the Love of the Father.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Loving thoughts are what made one man willing to be crucified, unwilling to see himself as persecuted, because all that he saw in his tormentors were their loving thoughts.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">"The message of the crucifixion is perfectly clear:</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">Teach only love, for that is what you are.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">If you interpret the crucifixion in any other way, you are using it as a weapon for assault rather than as the call for peace for which it was intended. The Apostles often misunderstood it, and for the same reason that anyone misunderstands it. Their own imperfect love made them vulnerable to projection, and out of their own fear they spoke of the 'Wrath of God' as His retaliatory weapon. Nor could they speak of the crucifixion entirely without anger, because their sense of guilt made them angry." ACIM text pg. 94</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">"As you read the teachings of the Apostles, remember that I told them myself that there was much they would understand later, because they were not wholly ready to follow me at the time. I do not want you to allow any fear to enter into the thought system toward which I am guiding you. I do not call for martyrs but for teachers." ACIM text pg. 95</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Teach only love - that is our mission in this world, our calling. Not to be crucified in order to fulfill our role; that was Jesus' lesson for us.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Teach only love </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">for that is what we are</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">! God is Love. We were made in the image of God. Our essence is Love. We are only fulfilling our role when we are loving. When we think loving thoughts and see only other's loving thoughts, we are acknowledging our own reality and that of our brother.</span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-59858539784438170912009-01-09T13:57:00.004-05:002009-02-13T11:34:39.881-05:00Away From the Goal<span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Sometimes this world crushes me beneath a rubble of dreams that haven't come true, feelings of inadequacy, awareness of lack - a host of poisonous thoughts that I find easy to succumb to. My melancholy and confusion are like a veil before my mind, fogging it up so I cannot see. It turns into a vicious circle of resentment against myself for being so lazy and dispirited that I never seen to progress beyond my starting point. Where am I going? I ask myself. Where have I been? What have I done? Is there anything of my life worth preserving? Have I been using up space on this planet that someone more worthy could make better use of? It gets pretty bad - these negative feelings trip me, drain my energy, darken the day. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Despite this, I'm actually very happy. I have a wonderful home, a terrific husband, and adequate income. Yet at times the ego nudges me and insists that I listen to its maniacal rantings, its spotlighting the things I HAVEN'T done with my life, its reminder that I'm more than halfway DEAD! Oh, the bleakness, the fear, the dread that pollutes my thoughts when I listen!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"When you are sad, KNOW THIS NEED NOT BE. Depression comes from a sense of being deprived of something you want and do not have. Remember that you are deprived of NOTHING except by your own decisions and then DECIDE OTHERWISE."<br />ACIM Text pg. 63<br /><br />"Watch your mind for the temptations of the ego, and do not be deceived by it. It offers you nothing. When you have given up this voluntary dispiriting, you will see how your mind can focus and rise above fatigue and heal. Yet you are not sufficiently vigilant against the demands of the ego to disengage yourself. THIS NEED NOT BE.<br /><br />The habit of engaging with God and His creations is easily made if you actively refuse to let your mind slip away. The problem is not one of concentration; it is the belief that no one, including yourself, is worth consistent effort. Side with me consistently against this deception, and do not permit this shabby belief to pull you back. The disheartened are useless to themselves and to me, but only the ego can BE disheartened."<br />ACIM text pg. 63-64<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Jesus says my feelings of depression are voluntary; once again, we create the world we see. Don't I already know that? How many times must Jesus remind me? Why do I insist on going it alone, ignoring his outstretched hand of help?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Don't I already know that this world where I think I am - but am not - offers me nothing, and that any path I choose, no matter how satisfying and wonderful it appears at the time, will lead me to nothing but despair as long as it is IN THIS WORLD?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"The roads this world can offer seem to be quite large in number, but the time must come when everyone begins to see how like they are to one another. Men have died on seeing this, because they saw no way except the pathways offered by the world. And learning they led nowhere, lost their hope. And yet this was the time they could have learned their greatest lesson. All must reach this point, and go beyond it. It is true indeed there is no choice at all within the world. But this is not the lesson in itself. The lesson has a purpose, and in this you come to understand what it is for.<br /><br />The learning that the world can offer but one choice, no matter what its form may be, is the beginning of acceptance that there is a real alternative instead. To fight against this step is to defeat your purpose here. You did not come to learn to find a road the world does not contain. The search for different pathways in the world is but the search for different forms of truth. And this would KEEP the truth from being reached."<br />ACIM text pg. 653-654<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">How insane it is for me to believe that any kind of peace can be found in this world! There is no better example of this than the billionaire who recently committed suicide because he lost so much money on the investments he made with Madof, that now he is only a MILLIONAIRE! He only has $500 million left! How insane is this world that we think we live in!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">My alternative choice is not of this world. I can only see one world at a time -- this world of illusions, or the world of TRUTH: God's world, the world where my Identity has always been and always WILL be, no matter what the ego tries to tell me! I am perfect as I am, whole and perfect, even if my perfection and holiness may remain out of my conscious awareness.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">If I am to progress on the pathway toward finding the truth, I know I must remain vigilant in my study of the course. I WILL get there; God has promised me that, and He has provided me help - Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The course is not difficult, but I must remain willing to learn it and abide by Jesus' direction in it. I sense a hint of sarcasm when Jesus says:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">"To you who seem to find this course to be too difficult to learn, let me repeat that to achieve a goal you must proceed in its direction, not away from it. And every road that leads the other way will not advance the purpose to be found. If this be difficult to understand, then is this course impossible to learn. But only then. For otherwise, it is a simple teaching in the obvious."<br />ACIM text pg. 654-655<br /><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Obviously, I must move in the direction Jesus leads through the course. Alright, Jesus, I get the message loud and clear!</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-34933194037076581622009-01-02T14:47:00.003-05:002009-01-02T14:53:15.734-05:00What do I want to see in 2009?<span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">“How simple is salvation! All it says is what was never true is not true now, and never will be. The impossible has not occurred and can have no effects. And that is all. Can this be hard to learn by anyone who wants it to be true?” ACIM text pg. 645</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Do I want salvation? Do I want to see a perfect world? Or do I prefer to continue dreaming this world of pain and despair, heartache and disappointment, loss and death? I have the power to decide. Just as I made this illusion of a world, I have the ability to listen to the truth. All that I need to do is to WANT to listen, to be willing to bend my ear in the direction of the Holy Spirit’s Voice. It is my choice. Oh, eventually I WILL see - that is a promise given by Jesus in the course. I WILL see the truth, that in God’s perfect world, everything is good and pure, including me. I WILL see that my true Self still resides with God, untouched by this illusory world, still safe and protected from all that I wrongly think could harm me. All that I need do is answer the call to see, in the language in which the call is made. The call is not a call to DO anything; it is a call to see truth for what it is, and in my seeing will what I see <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">change</span>. It will change to the <span style="font-weight: bold;">changeless,</span> to that which is, always has been, and always will be. God’s world is perfect and I abide in that perfection. It is not possible for it to be any other way!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">“How wrong are you who fail to hear the call that echoes past each seeming call to death, that sings behind each murderous attack and pleads that love restore the dying world. You do not understand Who calls to you beyond each form of hate; each call to war. Yet you will recognize Him as you give Him answer in the language that he calls. He will appear when you have answered Him, and you will know in Him that God is Love.” ACIM text pg. 647</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">“You are deceived if you believe you want disaster and disunity and pain. Hear not the call for this within yourself. But listen, rather, to the deeper call beyond it that appeals for peace and joy. And all the world will give you joy and peace. For as you hear, you answer. And behold! Your answer is the proof of what you learned. Its outcome is the world you look upon.” ACIM text pg. 647-648</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I don’t make New Year resolutions anymore because they are so easy to break and that is one more way that the ego lays guilt upon me. But . . . “He will appear when you have answered Him, . . .” -- if I were to make one, it would be this: That in 2009 I will hear the call and will answer in the language of love in order that I may see the world I truly want to see. </span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-28835639427031927342008-12-24T11:43:00.008-05:002008-12-24T13:55:06.851-05:00Welcome Him<span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I welcome Jesus this year, not as a babe in a manger who was born to sacrifice himself for the sins of the world, but as the savior who brought to us a message of peace and love and how to recognize my true Self, of power unlimited and beyond my imagining. I welcome him as the Prince of Peace who tells me that I share in the Sonship with God with him, as do all of my brothers. I welcome him with open arms and open heart and hope that I am worthy, but I know that I am because he has said that I am, as is everyone. I welcome him and give him the gift that I will receive back:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"The gift of union is the only gift that I was born to give. Give it to me, that you may have it. The time of Christ is the time appointed for the gift of freedom, offered to everyone. And by your acceptance of it, you offer it to everyone." ACIM text pg. 324-325.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">In this season and every season, I will remember my true Self and share in the Christ with all of my brothers everywhere. I will ask Jesus to help me to see the light in the darkness and accept it wholeheartedly. I will forget about sacrifice and remember Jesus' words in the course, that sacrifice is separation from love and brings guilt as surely as love brings peace. I will listen to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, the One Who Knows, so that I may remember my true Identity.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come. He comes demanding nothing. No sacrifice of any kind, of anyone, is asked by Him. In His Presence the whole idea of sacrifice loses all meaning. For He is Host to God. and you need but invite Him in Who is there already, by recognizing that His Host is One, and no thought alien to His Oneness can abide with Him there. Love must be total to give Him welcome, for the Presence of Holiness creates the holiness that surrounds it. No fear can touch the Host Who cradles God in the time of Christ, for the Host is as holy as the perfect Innocence which He protects, and Whose power protects Him."</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">ACIM text pg. 327</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I will remember that I am NOT a body, for:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"As long as you perceive the body as your reality, so long will you perceive yourself as lonely and deprived. And so long will you also perceive yourself as a victim of sacrifice, justified in sacrificing others." ACIM text pg. 328</span><br /><br />I will remember the true reason Jesus came to earth:</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">"The Prince of Peace was born to re-establish the condition of love by teaching that communication remains unbroken even if the body is destroyed, provided that you see not the body as the necessary means of communication. And if you understand this lesson, you will realize that to sacrifice the body is to sacrifice nothing, and communication, which must be of the mind, cannot be sacrificed. Where, then <span style="font-weight: bold;">is</span> sacrifice? The lesson I was born to teach, and still would teach to all my brothers, is that sacrifice is nowhere and love is everywhere. For communication embraces everything, and in the peace it reestablishes, love comes of itself."</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">ACIM text pg. 328</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">"Teach only love, for that is what you are. " ACIM text pg. </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">94</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Let there be peace on earth and it<span style="font-weight: bold;"> has</span> to begin with me.</span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-61585449557640431902008-12-22T12:07:00.002-05:002008-12-22T12:13:33.625-05:00The Fountain of Youth<span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Throughout the day my husband and I share bits of insights that we gather from the course in our daily readings. Yesterday he said to me, “Did you know that the Fountain of Youth is mentioned in the course?” My reply was, “No way!” Surely I would remember if I had read that! To never grow old, to live forever . . . well, my first thoughts when he said that, as they probably would be for anyone, was of a Fountain of Youth for the BODY. I looked at him and he had a mischievous grin on his face so I knew there was more to the story. Of course, we are NOT a body, and the course does not mention a “Fountain of Youth” in those terms, but read this:</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“In Him you have no cares and no concerns, no burdens, no anxiety, no pain, no fear of future and no past regrets. In timelessness you rest, while time goes by without its touch upon you, for your rest can never change in any way at all. You rest today.” </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“Each hour that you take your rest today, a tired mind is suddenly made glad, a bird with broken wings begins to sing, a stream long dry begins to flow again. The world is born again each time you rest, and hourly remember that you came to bring the peace of God into the world, that it might take its rest along with you.”<br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“Time is not the guardian of what we give today. We give to those unborn and those passed by, to every Thought of God, and to the Mind in which these Thoughts were born and where they rest. And we remind them of their resting place each time we tell ourselves, ‘I rest in God.’” <br /><br />(quotes are from ACIM Lesson 109)<br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">This is the Fountain of Youth that I’ll gladly dip into! </span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-53800102966621150972008-12-18T13:46:00.004-05:002008-12-24T17:06:44.471-05:00In the Quiet Stillness<span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalms 46:10</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“In quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly resolved.” ACIM Text pg. 574</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“Learn to be quiet, for His Voice is heard in stillness.” ACIM Manual for Teachers, pg. 38</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“Let this day be a day of stillness and of quiet listening.” ACIM Lesson 125</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“I will be still an instant and go home.”</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“When you are still an instant, when the world recedes from you, when valueless ideas cease to have value in your restless mind, then will you hear His Voice.” ACIM Lesson 182</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">In the Course in Miracles, stillness is emphasized over and over as the condition by which God’s Voice can be heard. How easy it is to believe I am in stillness and quietness and yet my mind is babbling on about this or that. Stillness - true stillness, whereby the mind is still, takes practice. And yet, if I practice Lesson 182 on a daily basis, on an instant-by-instant basis, I know I can succeed.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I wonder what project I’ll make next.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I will be still an instant and go home.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">What should I cook for Christmas? </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><br />I will be still an instant and go home.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Will he like the gifts I got for him? </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I will be still an instant and go home. </span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I really should clean the kitchen floor today.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I will be still an instant and go home.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I wonder if I have any new e-mails. </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I will be still an instant and go home. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">In this season of the year, when all it stands for, from a religious or spiritual perspective, should be a time of stillness and peace, too often we are too caught up in the hubbub and stress to stop and listen to God’s Voice. Let me go away, not just from the din of the throngs of shoppers in the mall, but away from the ceaseless chatter of my thoughts. When I neglect my 10 minute meditation first thing in the morning, as I have done lately, I see the difference throughout my day. Something seems “off.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“Learn to be quiet in the midst of turmoil, for quietness is the end of strife and this is the journey to peace. Look straight at every image that rises to delay you, for the goal is inevitable because it is eternal. The goal of love is but your right, and it belongs to you despite your dreams.” ACIM Text pg. 219</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, and are passively condoning your mind’s miscreations. The particular result does not matter, but the fundamental error does. The correction is always the same. Before you choose to do anything, ask me if your choice is in accord with mine. If you are sure that it is, there will be no fear.” ACIM Text pg. 29 (Jesus referring to fear and conflict)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"Let me be still and listen to the truth." ACIM Lesson 106</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven.” ACIM Lesson 48, pg. 76</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I will be still in my mind. It is in the stillness that I will hear the voice of the Holy Spirit/Jesus - the Voice for God. It is in the stillness that I will return to the Kingdom of Heaven.</span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-63843067331569724642008-12-07T10:01:00.006-05:002008-12-24T10:54:56.835-05:00Sacrifice & the Dream<span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"></span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“Awareness of dreaming is the real function of God’s teachers.” ACIM Manual for Teachers, pg. 32</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“The world will end when all things in it have been rightly judged by His judgment. The world will end with the benediction of holiness upon it. When not one thought of sin remains, the world is over. It will not be destroyed nor attacked nor even touched. It will merely cease to seem to be.” ACIM Manual for Teachers, pg. 36</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“It will merely cease to SEEM to be.” </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">We are dreaming up this illusion that we call the world. The Course makes that very clear. My thoughts are creating the world that I see with my eyes. I must step aside and allow the Thoughts of the Holy Spirit to look at the world and judge it for what it is - meaningless.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“The first illusion, which must be displaced before another thought system can take hold, is that it is a sacrifice to give up the things of this world. What could this be but an illusion, since this world itself is nothing more than that?” ACIM Manual for Teachers, pg. 33</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">When I first read this passage, I thought it was saying that I had to physically give up my material possessions - all of them - in order to see the Truth. Well, to do that - to give everything away - would be to keep it because by doing that and by my thinking that I am giving it up - I make it real, and nothing in this world is real. It would be akin to looking on sin and then forgiving it. You can’t do that because sin is not real, nor are the “things” that I possess. To give up the things of the world in the Course’s context, then, is not to be attached to them. Not to see loss if they are taken from me. Some people may view this thought system as escape from reality, but it is actually an escape into Reality. The thinking of the world is upside down from what the Truth is. You keep what you give away. Give away love, then. Give away the Word of God. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“’And the last to be overcome will be death.’ Of course! Without the idea of death there is no world. All dreams will end with this one. This is salvation’s final goal; the end of all illusions. And in death are all illusions born. What can be born of death and still have life? But what is born of God and still can die?”</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">ACIM Manual for Teachers, pg. 67</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“There is no death. This sword does not exist. The fear of God is causeless. But his Love is Cause of everything beyond all fear, and thus, forever real and always true.” ACIM Manual for Teachers, pg. 46</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">See what we call "death" for what it is - meaningless, and a merely laying aside of the body. See no loss in it. If you can forgive death, then you can break through to the Truth.</span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-65876505775708648372008-11-28T13:53:00.004-05:002008-12-07T10:07:14.261-05:00The Shoe<span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“Without judgment are all things equally acceptable, for who could judge otherwise? Without judgment are all men brothers, for who is there who stands apart?” <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">ACIM</span> Teacher’s Manual, page 12</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“When you feel tired, it is because you have judged yourself as capable of being tired. When you laugh at someone, it is because you have judged him as unworthy. When you laugh at yourself, you must laugh at others, if only because you cannot tolerate the idea of being more unworthy than they are. All this makes you feel tired because it is essentially disheartening. You are not really capable of being tired, but you are very capable of wearying yourself. The strain of constant judgment is virtually intolerable. . . . if you wish to be the author of reality, you will insist on holding on to judgment.” <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">ACIM</span> text page 47</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">The Course makes clear that we not only SHOULD not judge, but we CANNOT judge. Only the Holy spirit can, because He sees everything. Our judgment about anything is flawed. It cannot help but be. Even our reactions to events, other people, circumstances, are flawed because we don’t know the reasons for them.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“I do not know what anything, including this, means. And so I do not know how to respond to it. And I will not use my own past learning as the light to guide me now.” <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">ACIM</span> text pg. 298</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">So all of the judgment I do about anything is based on what I believe about it from my past learning.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">For example, take a shoe. I tried this example when my DH and I were trying to explain the Course to his daughter and she thought I was crazy, I know. But - what is a shoe? A shoe is a compilation of materials stitched together in a manner that fits onto my foot and keeps my foot dry/warm/uninjured. And I can judge that to be a good thing. But had I never seen a shoe before from the moment I was born, I would not know what it was for. I had to be taught in the past what a shoe was for and that the right size, shape, even color, would be a good thing for me. Yet - what about a shoe on another person’s foot coming at me from behind? Well, I know that would hurt based on previous learning (from my past) and that makes that particular shoe a bad thing. (Because, let’s face it, a bare foot would hardly have the same impact.)</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Any judgment that I make is based on my past learning and my perception of what is good or bad. Any judgment the Holy Spirit makes is based on knowledge, not perception. And so - I must relinquish judgment to the Holy Spirit. My wanting to be my own god - the “author of reality” - is what keeps me bound to this world. I am not the author of reality - only God is. I must learn to let it all go.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">“Your past is what you have taught yourself. Let it all go. Do not attempt to understand any event or anything or anyone in its ‘light’ for the darkness in which you try to see can only obscure.” <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">ACIM</span> Text pg. 297</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">When I try to see anyone or anything in its “light” - as I see it in this body, this physical world of perception - I see it in darkness.</span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-2144655170574773522008-11-27T09:56:00.002-05:002008-11-28T13:57:16.533-05:00Thanksgiving and A Course in Miracles<span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"I thank my Father for His gifts to me." ACIM Lesson 123</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"Today in gratitude we lift our hearts above despair, and raise our thankful eyes, no longer looking downward to the dust. We sing the song of thankfulness today, in honor of the Self that God has willed to be our true Identity in Him. Today we smile on everyone we see, and walk with lightened footsteps as we go to do what is appointed us to do." ACIM Lesson 123, para. 4</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I am thankful today for the true Me that God created. I am grateful to Him that He has given me everything, for there is not anything that exists that He has not given me. I am thankful for the seeming problems that arise in my worldly life, for they are opportunities for forgiveness and shine on the road home. The Holy Spirit can use such difficulties to show me the way. I am thankful for my brother. One with me, we share the Sonship and I cannot enter Heaven's gate without him. </span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-75945342464698487162008-11-24T12:18:00.003-05:002008-11-24T12:41:29.533-05:00The Decision for God<span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"Whenever you are not wholly joyous, it is because you have reacted with a lack of love to one of God's creatures. Perceiving this as 'sin,' you become defensive because you expect attack. The decision to react in this way is yours, and can therefore be undone. It cannot be undone by repentance in the usual sense, because this implies guilt. If you allow yourself to feel guilty, you will reinforce the error rather than allow it to be undone for you. . . The first step in the undoing is to recognize that you actively decided wrongly, but can as actively decide otherwise. Be very firm with yourself in this, and keep yourself fully aware that the undoing process, which does not come from you, is nevertheless within you because God placed it there . . . return your thinking to the point at which the error was made, and give it over to the Atonement in peace. Say this to yourself as sincerely as you can, remembering that the Holy Spirit will respond fully to your slightest invitation: </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of my wrong decision if I let Him.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me."</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">ACIM text, pg. 89-90</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I fully realize that every moment is a decision either for God or for the ego. You cannot walk with both. (You cannot serve two masters or you will love one and hate the other.) I really have to be on my toes because it is the little things that trip me up. I don't have any BIG problems in terms of the way the world describes problems, but the seeming little ones creep up on me. For example, there are issues with our neighbors and the fact that they don't behave responsibly with their dogs, which impacts not only the dogs but the wildlife in the woods. So yesterday I found myself walking with the ego and becoming angry about the dog thing. My peace went out the window. Finally, when I came home and meditated about it, I gave it over to the Holy Spirit but yet my decision hasn't been fully made because I still find it irritates me, and, as the Course says, there are no small upsets.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind." ACIM Lesson 5</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Also, "I am never upset for the reason I think." ACIM Lesson 5</span> <br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"I am upset because I see something that is not there." ACIM Lesson 6</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"I see only the past." ACIM Lesson 7</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I am seeing the past behavior of the dogs' owners and the past way the dogs act. Each moment, each encounter with another, is a chance to be "born again" and see them as they are IN THIS MOMENT and not as they were even a MILLISECOND ago. Because time does not exist, only the holy instant exists. And in the holy instant, everyone/everything is as God created them - holy, pure, divine and without any fault. And when I think about ANYTHING through my self versus my Self (my Divine Self guided by the Holy Spirit), my thoughts are meaningless.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Boy, this is very complicated but I GET it! I just have to practice it. This dog thing is an "in my face" thing every morning when I walk and so I'll get plenty of practice.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"If you could accept the world as meaningless and let the truth be written upon it for you, it would make you indescribably happy." ACIM Lesson 12</span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-12337846891466179622008-11-22T13:46:00.003-05:002008-11-22T13:58:50.793-05:00The Call<span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"This simple courtesy is all the Holy Spirit asks of you. Let truth be what it is. Do not intrude upon it, do not attack it, do not interrupt its coming. Let it encompass every situation and bring you peace. Not even faith is asked of you, for truth asks nothing. Let it enter and it will call forth and secure for you the faith you need for peace. But rise you not against it, for against your opposition it cannot come." ACIM text pg. 370</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"To you who have acknowledged the Call of your Redeemer, the strain of not responding to His Call seems to be greater than before. This is not so. Before, the strain was there, but you attributed it to something else, believing that the "something else" produced it. This was never true. For what the "something else" produced was sorrow and depression, sickness and pain, darkness and dim imaginings of terror, cold fantasies of fear and fiery dreams of hell. And it was nothing but the intolerable strain of refusing to give faith to truth and see its evident reality." ACIM text pg. 371</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I believe I ignored the Call for so many years and that is why I had some difficulties, although, looking back, those difficulties brought me to the place where I am today. Now I am more peaceful than I have ever been in my entire life. When I try to have faith through my ego, I block the Holy Spirit from showing me the truth which leads to faith and, ultimately, peace. And isn't that what we are all looking for? Peace. When I ignore the Call (which I don't do anymore; I can't!!), I get bogged down in the world and the pain that this world and the ego try to give. I like how the Course says "dim imaginings of terror" and "cold fantasies of fear" because that is all they are - imaginings and fantasies. There is no terror and there is no fear. These things cannot have any effect on me because they are not real. The Course is very clear about that. Only God is real. But I can MAKE fear and terror (pain and suffering) seem real when I believe in them. You make real what you believe. </span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-30001148660832364582008-11-22T13:35:00.003-05:002008-11-25T18:30:50.857-05:00The Holy Encounter<span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. . . . The Kingdom cannot be found alone, and you who are the Kingdom cannot find yourself alone. To achieve the goal of the curriculum, then, you cannot listen to the ego, whose purpose is to defeat its own goal. The ego does not know this, because it does not know anything. But you can know it, and you will know it if you are willing to look at what the ego would make of you. This is your responsibility, because once you have really looked at it you WILL accept the Atonement for yourself. What other choice could you make? Having made this choice you will understand why you once believed that, when you met someone else, you thought he WAS someone else. And every holy encounter in which you enter fully will teach you this is not so. You can encounter only part of yourself because you are part of God, Who is everything. " ACIM, text, pg. 142-143</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Last evening at our weekly meeting with the neighbor, we discussed how we are to view other people. We know we are all One and part of the Sonship, and when we meet others, our goal is to let us see them through the Holy Spirit's eyes, which is seeing them through our true Self. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Before our neighbor came, I had just read this section in the Course and then couldn't find it again while we were talking about it, although we had many other references. Finally, with the use of the concordance because I did remember that it had the word "everything" in it, I found the reference but not until after our neighbor departed. This kind of thing happens a lot. Thank goodness for the concordance, but that isn't always helpful when there are a gazillion references to "God," for example. My DH is still looking for the reference he saw in the Course about how when you finally get enlightened, you will see everyone as spirit, but they won't see you that way until they get there also. </span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-32134652284917514032008-11-20T17:39:00.001-05:002008-11-20T17:49:53.082-05:00I am Not a Body, I am Free<span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0); font-style: italic;">"It is impossible to see your brother as sinless and yet to look upon him as a body . . . The body is the means by which the ego tries to make the unholy relationship seem real . . . Who sees a brother's body has laid a judgment on him, and sees him not. He does not really see him as sinful; he does not see him at all . . . Your question should not be, 'How can I see my brother without the body?' Ask only, 'Do I really wish to see him sinless?'" ACIM text pg. 440-441</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Who am I? Who is the 'me' who is doing the asking? In my meditation today I tried to establish my true identify in my mind, in terms of a wife, a daughter, a crafter, etc., and I came up empty handed. Why? Because all of those "identities" are linked to this physical body and the </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">brain</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">, and we all know that ultimately they pass away. And so the peeling away of the personality (who I appear to be to myself and others) brought me to my true and only reality - that of spirit, a child of God, a part of the Sonship - and when I got to that point, I was no longer empty handed, but my hands were full with real substance. It also brought to my conscious awareness the fact that anytime I see another person, another living being, as a body, I am not seeing anything. I am not seeing them. For nobody is a body - no person, no animal. All is spirit, part of God. </span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-18865706324538839052008-11-16T11:36:00.000-05:002008-11-16T11:43:56.198-05:00Only the Truth is True<span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is reral, and everything beside it is not there. Let Me make the one distinction for you that you cannot make, but need to learn. Your faith in nothing is deceiving you. Offer your faith to Me, and I will place it gently in the holy place where it belongs. You will find no deception there, but only the simple truth. And you will love it because you will understand it." ACIM Text pg. 272 (message from theHoly Spirit)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"The quietness of its simplicity is so compelling that you will realize it is impossible to deny the simple truth. For there is nothing else. God is everywhere, and His Son is in Him with everything. Can he sing the dirge of sorrow when this is true?" ACIM Text pg. 274</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Only the truth is true and all else is an illusion. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I have been so busy lately, really getting into my crafting (sewing, crocheting, knitting, felting) and now I'm getting into the writing mode and focusing energy on that. I think by me being interested in so many different things, it is the ego's way of sidetracking me from the Course, keepingme caught up in the world, taking my time away from reading the Course and meditating. Yet, I must remind the ego that by practicing forgiveness I am finding my way back home. Even if I never read another word in the Course (since I have read the text twice and done the lessons once and read the Manual for Teachers and Clarification of Terms twice), if I forgive and forgive, I </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">will </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">return home sooner rather than later (for we shall ALL go home eventually). </span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726616292793775119.post-88234835095382323312008-11-16T11:27:00.000-05:002008-11-16T11:34:09.226-05:00This World is the Opposite of Heaven<span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">"For this world is the opposite of heaven, being made to be its opposite, and everything here takes a direction exactly opposite what is true. In heaven, where the meaning of love is known, love is the same as union. Here, where the illusion of love is accepted in love's place, love is perceived as separation and exclusion." </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"> ACIM Txt. pg. 341</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">This world is the opposite of heaven. Everything separate - identities (via the ego), physical forms, opinions, beliefs, skin colors, separation of a baby from its mother at birth, separation of a body from the world and its family at death - all of it is opposite of heaven, because in heaven, all is love, all is union and wholeness, which is the make-up of God.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">We live in this world and we react to the multitude of difficulties we think we face here, but in reality, anything of this world is an illusion, one we made up to "hide" from God, to be gods to ourselves. We have buried God and the love and peace and joy we could experience by uniting our minds with His, under a blanket of ego that keeps His face hidden from our view, Yet, by looking on the face of Christ (and using Jesus' face in form if a symbol is needed?), we can come to remember who we truly are and when we remember, we can go home. The way to remember is through forgiveness of everything in this world and forgive our brothers because our brother's actions or inactions or whatever grievances we hold against him, are untrue and never occurred at all.</span>Aletahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02682565517324544381noreply@blogger.com0