Reflections 127 to 140
127/ The Power of Belief
4th June 2021
A Course in Miracles is unequivocal.
This course will be believed entirely or not at all. For it is wholly true or wholly false, and cannot be but partially believed. (ACIM, T-22.II.7:4-5)
No one steps into A Course in Miracles if they have the answers. It just wouldn't happen. The fact is, something within it resonates with us, and it leads us on a journey of discovery. We learn that there are always two ways of looking at things. And only one is right.
It's always choice. A choice to continue, or a choice to stop. It's self-study. There's no organisation breathing down your neck. We like it, or leave it.
What we find is that all our belief systems are questioned. What we consider real, is not real at all. And what we thought was fantasy, might actually be real. It is the process of finding out what heaven and hell really is, where love and fear comes from, the difference between joy and misery.
There is archive footage of the rock group Queen on YouTube. Brian May, the lead guitarist, was asked what he thought was most important in his life. He thought deeply, and then said "love". Freddie Mercury, the lead singer who passed in 1991, was asked if he wanted to go to heaven. He said no, hell was much more interesting. He would meet much more interesting people there.
Two friends. Opposite sides of the same coin. One looking more serious, and one acting not so serious. In many ways, we are all like that. We have our serious side, and our light side. A Course in Miracles will merely teach us what is true, and what is false. It's our choice where we put our belief.
You will identify with what you think will make you safe. Whatever it may be, you will believe that it is one with you. Your safety lies in truth, and not in lies. Love is your safety. Fear does not exist. Identify with love, and you are safe. Identify with love, and you are home. Identify with love, and find your Self. (ACIM, W-pII.5.5:1-8)
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128/ Living By the Day
5th June 2021
Sometimes, a day goes by in a blur; there just isn't enough time to do all the things we want. And occasionally the day might drag; we struggle to fill it.
Either way, a day has been given us. How we use it is up to us, and this is one of the joys of living.
A Course in Miracles does give us some advice as to how we spend our day. One thing it says is that we should start the day properly. There are also 365 exercises in the Workbook. We can make this a daily practice, if we want.
However, a poem, published in 1913 and written by Francis Xavier Lasance, an American Catholic priest, sums up perfectly how a day should be used. The essence is that we should live for today, and not worry about tomorrow. The poem has been transcribed below.
Living by the Day
It is a blessed secret - living by the day. Anyone can carry his burden, however heavy, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly and purely until the sun goes down. And this is all that life ever really means to us - just one little day.
Do today's duty; fight today's temptations. Do not weaken yourself by looking forward to the things you cannot see and could not understand if you saw them.
God gives us nights to shut down the curtain of darkness on our little days.
We cannot see beyond. Short horizons make life easier. They give us one of the blessed secrets of a brave, true, holy living.
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129/ When Decisions Have to Be Made
6th June 2021
"Better to die fighting for freedom, that to be a prisoner all the days of your life." Bob Marley.
***
Our lives are shaped by decisions. It could be political. A country going to war is just an example. Or familial. Where we were sent to school, and the upbringing we were given.
However, if we look back on our lives, we will remember a myriad of personal decisions that have shaped our destiny. Where, and who, we are today have depended on those decisions.
Perhaps we are heading to a point in our lives which might be a defining moment?
A Course in Miracles tells us that when we come to a branch in the road, and we have to make a decision as to which way to go, the first few steps in the new direction can be hard. It tells us that the major component of any decision should always be whether it makes us feel peaceful.
Peace doesn't arise naturally when thinking with the ego. Too much depends on past hurts, and future dreams. A lot depends on our sense of self-worth. But if we allow ourselves to be quiet, knowing that there is an alternative, then coming to a branch in the road can seem less daunting.
With any decision, past or present, A Course in Miracles gives us this bit of advice. To give it over to the Holy Spirit. The reflection below is a simple practice that allows us to help ourselves.
I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace.
I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise.
I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace.
I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of my wrong decision if I will let him.
I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me. (ACIM, T-5.VII.6:7-11)
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130/ The Force Within Us
7th June 2021
A Course in Miracles tells us that there is a Force within us that can move mountains. We are also told that we can't overcome illusions by force. We merely have to understand that all illusions contradict reality.
This poses the obvious questions. What is illusory and what is real?
Reality opposes nothing. What merely is needs no defense, and offers none. Only illusions need defense because of weakness. (ACIM, T-22.V.1:6-8)
Finding out what illusions are, and what reality is, is the purpose of studying A Course in Miracles. We are told that only love is real, and that fear is the illusion, just as only the Holy Spirit is real, and the ego is the illusion.
Going within, and finding this out for ourselves, is the only way to gain true understanding. We need to have the courage to ignore all the negativity our ego will throw at us. We need to learn why we forgive. If someone comes at us with harsh words, and we make it real, we haven't understood the nature of illusions. We haven't understood the nature of true forgiveness. We haven't understood that nothing has really happened.
A Course in Miracles tells us this: Forget not, when you feel the need arise to be defensive about anything, you have identified yourself with an illusion (ACIM, T-22.V.6:1). It continues by saying that every illusion revolves around the fact that we feel lonely, separate and alone.
We need the Force within us to help us overcome our feelings of separation. Our forgiveness practice is the catalyst for doing this.
Then, despite the inevitable slip ups along the way, we just keep on going. The silent work never stops. We just do it again and again.
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8th June 2021
So much of our lives is spent thinking. We shape our lives around thought. It is like we live life on automatic pilot, going from one thought to another, and hardly being aware of it.
A Course in Miracles challenges us to look at our thinking. It asks us whether we want freedom of the body, or of the mind? It tells us that freedom of the body has no meaning. The freedom has to be in the mind, and we then allow the body to serve a different way of thinking. These are peaceful thoughts, which have no opposite.
The mind, then, is the means to serve the Holy Spirit, which is the Voice for God, or the ego, which is the voice of separation. To serve the ego keeps the mind asleep. To serve the Holy Spirit allows the mind to awaken from the dream, and to know what we really are. The body just follows the directions of a clear-thinking mind.
Anita Moorjani , whose near-death experience was featured on the 9th February (reflection no.12), gave a Ted Talk in 2013 in which she talked about how her mind has been transformed from living life fearfully to living life fearlessly. In it, she lists the five lessons that she learnt from her NDE, and why they will help in transforming the mind.
The five lessons are:
1/ To love. This means that we should especially love ourselves.
2/ To live life fearlessly. We spend too much time worrying.
3/ To embrace humour, laughter and joy. We need to bring these qualities into our lives.
4/ To know that life is a gift. All the challenges we face are a gift.
5/ To always be ourselves. To shine our light as brightly as we can, and embrace our uniqueness.
Anita's talk can be found on YouTube. It can be listened to by entering ‘Dying to be me! Anita Moorjani at TEDxBayArea’. The link is below.
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132/ We Fear What Isn't There
9th June 2021
We might ask ourselves honestly how we feel about our life. Are we happy with how it is?
If we look at our night-time dreams, we might get an honest appraisal. A Course in Miracles provides the following assessment.
Dreams show you that you have the power to make a world as you would have it be, and that because you want it you see it. (ACIM, T-18.II.5:1)
This is the same for both waking and sleeping. The central teaching of A Course in Miracles is that the world in which we live is nothing more than a dream. It tells us we literally make up our lives as we go along.
When our dreams are threatening, or when our lives are challenging, A Course in Miracles says it is only because we are seeing ourselves as vulnerable, and at the mercy of others. It says that this is only a projection of the mind.
This happens when we think with the ego, and it is the basis for our dream. To change this perception, we are asked to place our faith in what is unseen and intangible. This requires, literally, a giant leap of faith.
When we place our faith in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit then works with us, and through us. Instead of feeling vulnerable, we feel protected. Instead of being fragile, we are strong. Instead of fearing death, we choose a pleasant dream full of life.
Those who know they are dreaming cannot fear what isn't there.
They watch the dream figures come and go, shift and change, suffer and die. Yet they are not deceived by what they see. (ACIM, M-12.6:7-9)
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10th June 2021
“To the quiet mind all things are possible.” Meister Eckhart.
***
According to A Course in Miracles, there is the mind at war and the mind at peace. The two cannot co-exist in any way. One is an illusion, and one is real.
So many of us walk around with a mind at war, even if we don't realise it. We battle with ourselves and create a mind which makes it impossible to be still. Occasionally it feels like a 'bomb' has been dropped, or an attack threatens our security.
This is how we live our lives. The imagery plays cruel tricks on us, and sometimes we live and die without any clue that there is another way.
The other way exists with the Holy Spirit. This other way is the mind at peace. There is no battle between the mind at war and the mind at peace, because the mind at peace has no opposite. It is quietly unaware that there is a war going on. This is because what is illusory only battles with itself. Truth is simply aware of itself. Truth alone is completely real.
The purpose of A Course in Miracles is to highlight the power of finding our quiet mind, of becoming aware that there is always an alternative to war. It is really about nothing. The war is over whenever we truly commit to peace.
A Course in Miracles tells us this: Illusion meets illusion; truth, itself. The meeting of illusions leads to war. Peace, looking on itself, extends itself. (ACIM, T-23.I.12:1-4)
The quiet mind therefore doesn't know conflict. Conflict and peace are complete opposites.
As A Course in Miracles puts it: Where one abides the other cannot be. (ACIM, T-23.I.12:7)
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134/ Two Worlds that Are Worlds Apart
11th June 2021
“I have put duality away. I have seen the two worlds are one.” Rumi.
***
When considering the two worlds, we might consider this: Life not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere. (ACIM, T-23.II.19:6)
Studying A Course in Miracles provides the shift we need in order to understand what these two worlds are. One is Heaven and one is hell. ACIM shows us what is real and what is unreal.
We also see the difference between peace and fear. A peace that fluctuates never relates to Heaven. A Course in Miracles tells us it only relates the world we see, and it all happens in our minds. We are creating our own heaven and hell.
A Course in Miracles also tells us it's all a dream. The only thing that is real is our oneness with God.
The near-death experience can also show us that what we experience in our lives is not our reality. Heidi Craig’s NDE mirrors this. She instantly knew that we are all connected, we are all one.
During her experience, she received three messages over and over again - that we are unconditionally loved, that everything is always how it's supposed to be, and that everything will always be alright.
She asks us to follow our intuition, and not to dismiss it. This becomes apparent when we listen to her story. Her story is of two worlds that are worlds apart.
Heidi Craig has a number of accounts on YouTube, and one is with Anthony Chene. The link is below.
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135/ There Is no Compromise
12th June 2021
Make no assumptions about A Course in Miracles. It leads us to a place this world doesn't understand, a place where only God exists and fear does not. To even assume that such a place exists really requires a giant leap of faith.
We have to trust implicitly, because we can be sure our minds will tell us that we are searching for the impossible.
On 29th April, there was a reflection entitled Simple, not Easy. It started by stating that A Course in Miracles claims that its message is simple, but never once mentions that it is easy. It does.
This Course is easy just because it makes no compromise. Yet it seems difficult to those who still believe that compromise is possible. (ACIM, T-23.III.4:1-2)
Our egos love to compromise. There always seems to be another way, and this is the way our minds work. We are led by a voice that just doesn't know the way. And that is why we are stuck.
A Course in Miracles provides a solution. It repeatedly say that, in order to rise above the battleground, we need to practice true forgiveness; it says that attack in any form is never justified. We simply have to go within to find the truth.
Those who believe that peace can be defended, and that attack is justified on its behalf, cannot perceive it lies within them. How could they know? (ACIM, T-23.III.5:1-3)
A Course in Miracles tells us we do not know what it is to leave the battleground. We mistake truce for peace, and compromise for the escape from conflict.
The battleground is in our minds. We don't understand that this is so, but we have to assume that it is there. We have to be firm in our belief. It's all or nothing. There is no compromise.
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136/ When Life Does not End
13th June 2021
Some of us might be quite pleased to think that life has an end. Some of us may not. One thing is certain. We live from day to day, and change is inevitable.
The body lives and dies. We are all going to suffer grief at some stage in our lives. We are all going to suffer pain. We are all going to have good times, and bad times.
Making sense of the nonsensical usually happens when we have had enough of the bad times. When we find A Course in Miracles, we simply look past the body and into the mind. A Course in Miracles is what it says it is. It is a course in transformation.
How can a body be extended to hold the universe? Can it create, and be what it creates? And can it offer its creations all that it is and never suffer loss? (ACIM, T-23.IV.2:7-9)
God does not share His function with a body. He gave the function to create unto His Son because it is His Own. It is not sinful to believe the function of the Son is murder, but it is insanity. (ACIM, T-23.IV.3:1-3)
The limitations of identifying as a body become apparent. We learn we are so much more than that. A Course in Miracles gives us the chance to undo the insanity of our thinking, so we can change our minds about what we see. Everything lies within us, and it is up to us to find out what is real.
We are told that life does not end. Life gets easier when we learn what it is, and who we are. Life really begins when we totally understand that it is only the mind that is important
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137/ The Willingness to Question
14th June 2021
“I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.” Arthur C. Clarke.
***
It's a Monday today, the start of a new week. Everyone has their own feelings about Mondays. Many might consider it to be a depressing day. It's back to the drudgery of work
And yet the summer is here. The sun has been shining. Nature looks beautiful and abundant. Most would think the summer to be a joyous time of the year.
Our thoughts might be torn. The weekend is over, and yet the sun is still shining. Regardless of what we do for a living, of how we exist, it's clear that the external plays a part. We have no real idea of what it is to be content, whatever the day, whatever the weather.
A Course in Miracles is the catalyst that allows this to happen.
Forget not that the motivation for this course is the attainment and the keeping of the state of peace. (ACIM, T-24.in.1:1)
To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. (ACIM, T-24.in.2:1-2)
We probably have to go through many Mondays as we learn this course. The summers will pass. But the end-result is something that is timeless. It allows our senses to take the day off. We can replace what we see with a sense of wonder as we go about our day. We can replace what we hear with a sense of peace.
What we think controls our reality. What we believe shapes our world. It's a Monday and the sun is still shining. It's up to us how we perceive this day. It's really up to us how we perceive this moment.
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15th June 2021
“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.” Dr. Seuss.
***
This is the Buddha's description of the seven qualities of a good friend.
"Monks, a friend endowed with seven qualities is worth associating with. Which seven? He gives what is hard to give. He does what is hard to do. He endures what is hard to endure. He reveals his secrets to you. He keeps your secrets. When misfortunes strike, he doesn't abandon you. When you're down and out, he doesn't look down on you. A friend endowed with these seven qualities is worth associating with."
For most of us, friendships come and go. Some of us are more prone to cultivating friendships than others. We might not realise, however, that probably the biggest friendship we need to cultivate is the one we have with ourselves.
A Course in Miracles states that what we see in someone else is merely a reflection of what we see in ourselves. When our ego is dominant, the negativities we feel about ourselves are projected out onto other people. However, when we work with the Holy Spirit, those negativities disappear. We can only connect. We don't have to be friends with everyone, but everyone can be our friend.
Because we feel isolated, it's hard to believe another person is our ticket home. The ego tells us that someone has to be either friend or foe. The Holy Spirit tells us that everyone is the same. A Course in Miracles asks us if it would be possible to hate our brother if we knew we were like them? We are then told: You are his enemy in specialness; his friend in a shared purpose. (ACIM, T-24.I.6:4)
Your brother is your friend because his Father created him like you. There is no difference. You have been given to your brother that love might be extended, not cut off from him. What you keep is lost to you. God gave you and your brother Himself, and to remember this is now the only purpose that you share. (ACIM, T-24.I.7:1-5)
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139/ Comparing Ourselves to Others
16th June 2021
The allegory of the long spoons is a good example of how we interact with one another. It's a parable that shows the difference between heaven and hell, illustrated by people eating with long spoons.
In heaven, they feed each other. In hell, they starve because they can only think about feeding themselves.
A Course in Miracles is quite clear that the key we need to unlock the door to Heaven is in each and every person who crosses our path. It's the thought that we are somehow better, or worse, that keeps this door firmly shut. We think that we are all separate, individual human beings when in fact none of us are separate at all.
The key you threw away God gave your brother, whose holy hands would offer it to you when you were ready to accept His plan for your salvation in the place of yours. (ACIM, T-24.II.14:1)
A Course in Miracles tells us that none of us are special. Not one person is better than another. If we think we are, then we are creating a rod for our own back
We are told that the truth is just the same for all of us. See the truth in one person, and we see it in everyone. This is precisely what the ego doesn't want us to do, and precisely what the Holy Spirit does.
The sentence that follows might well be compared to the allegory of the long spoons.
Here stands your brother with the key to Heaven in his hand, held out to you. Let not the dream of specialness remain between you. What is one is joined in truth. (ACIM, T-24.II.7:6-8)
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17th June 2021
A Course in Miracles ends one section of the Text with this: The print of nails is on your hands as well. Forgive your Father it was not His Will that you be crucified. (ACIM, T-24.III.8:12-13)
There's also a lesson in the Workbook that's entitled: The stillness of the peace of God is mine. (ACIM, W-273)
Here’s the crux of what A Course in Miracles is teaching us. We crucify ourselves with the ego. We free ourselves through the Holy Spirit. It’s always our choice as to what we do.
A Course in Miracles also asks that we forgive God for our suffering
Forgive the great Creator of the universe, the Source of life, of love and holiness, the perfect Father of a perfect Son, for your illusions of your specialness. Here is the hell you chose to be your home. He chose not this for you. Ask not He enter this. (ACIM, T-24.III.6:1-5)
This is blunt and to the point. We are being told that we are responsible for our own suffering. It has nothing to do with an external source, and nothing to do with God. We are being asked to forgive our reality.
Undertaking A Course in Miracles can seem daunting. It might feel complex and dense, and is packed with information that conveys a simple message. What we think is real is not real. And what we think is not real, is real.
Gary Renard, one of the principle teachers of A Course in Miracles, is able to undo a lot of the complexity. He is the author of the trilogy of The Disappearance of the Universe books, and has a number of interviews on YouTube.
One interview is with Rick Archer of Buddha at the Gas Pump. The conversation lasts for just over two hours, and there are plenty of topics covered. The link is below.
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