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.
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!
"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."
ACIM Text pg. 63
"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.
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."
ACIM text pg. 63-64
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?
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?
"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.
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."
ACIM text pg. 653-654
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!
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.
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:
"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 text pg. 654-655
Obviously, I must move in the direction Jesus leads through the course. Alright, Jesus, I get the message loud and clear!
Friday, January 9, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
What do I want to see in 2009?
“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
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 change. It will change to the changeless, 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!
“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
“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
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.
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 change. It will change to the changeless, 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!
“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
“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
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.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Welcome Him
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:
"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.
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.
"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."
ACIM text pg. 327
I will remember that I am NOT a body, for:
"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
I will remember the true reason Jesus came to earth:
"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 is 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."
ACIM text pg. 328
"Teach only love, for that is what you are. " ACIM text pg. 94
Let there be peace on earth and it has to begin with me.
"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.
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.
"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."
ACIM text pg. 327
I will remember that I am NOT a body, for:
"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
I will remember the true reason Jesus came to earth:
"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 is 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."
ACIM text pg. 328
"Teach only love, for that is what you are. " ACIM text pg. 94
Let there be peace on earth and it has to begin with me.
Monday, December 22, 2008
The Fountain of Youth
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:
“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.”
“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.”
“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.’”
(quotes are from ACIM Lesson 109)
This is the Fountain of Youth that I’ll gladly dip into!
“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.”
“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.”
“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.’”
(quotes are from ACIM Lesson 109)
This is the Fountain of Youth that I’ll gladly dip into!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
In the Quiet Stillness
“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalms 46:10
“In quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly resolved.” ACIM Text pg. 574
“Learn to be quiet, for His Voice is heard in stillness.” ACIM Manual for Teachers, pg. 38
“Let this day be a day of stillness and of quiet listening.” ACIM Lesson 125
“I will be still an instant and go home.”
“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
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.
I wonder what project I’ll make next.
I will be still an instant and go home.
What should I cook for Christmas?
I will be still an instant and go home.
Will he like the gifts I got for him?
I will be still an instant and go home.
I really should clean the kitchen floor today.
I will be still an instant and go home.
I wonder if I have any new e-mails.
I will be still an instant and go home.
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.”
“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
“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)
"Let me be still and listen to the truth." ACIM Lesson 106
"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
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.
“In quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly resolved.” ACIM Text pg. 574
“Learn to be quiet, for His Voice is heard in stillness.” ACIM Manual for Teachers, pg. 38
“Let this day be a day of stillness and of quiet listening.” ACIM Lesson 125
“I will be still an instant and go home.”
“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
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.
I wonder what project I’ll make next.
I will be still an instant and go home.
What should I cook for Christmas?
I will be still an instant and go home.
Will he like the gifts I got for him?
I will be still an instant and go home.
I really should clean the kitchen floor today.
I will be still an instant and go home.
I wonder if I have any new e-mails.
I will be still an instant and go home.
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.”
“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
“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)
"Let me be still and listen to the truth." ACIM Lesson 106
"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
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.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Sacrifice & the Dream
“Awareness of dreaming is the real function of God’s teachers.” ACIM Manual for Teachers, pg. 32
“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
“It will merely cease to SEEM to be.” 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.
“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
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.
“’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?” ACIM Manual for Teachers, pg. 67
“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
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.
“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
“It will merely cease to SEEM to be.” 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.
“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
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.
“’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?” ACIM Manual for Teachers, pg. 67
“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
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.
Friday, November 28, 2008
The Shoe
“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?” ACIM Teacher’s Manual, page 12
“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.” ACIM text page 47
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.
“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.” ACIM text pg. 298
So all of the judgment I do about anything is based on what I believe about it from my past learning.
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.)
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.
“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.” ACIM Text pg. 297
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.
“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.” ACIM text page 47
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.
“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.” ACIM text pg. 298
So all of the judgment I do about anything is based on what I believe about it from my past learning.
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.)
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.
“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.” ACIM Text pg. 297
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.
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