Reflections 183 to 196

 

183/ Changing to the Changeless

30th July 2021

“Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” Hermann Hesse.

***

We are so immersed in what changes. Days turn into weeks. Seasons come and go. The body undergoes change all the time. How could we possibly know what it is to not change at all?

Equally, there are so many different factors to cope with.  Maybe it is pain,  financial problems, bereavement, violence - the list is endless? With this in mind, a question arises. Do we stay as we are, or do we work to get ourselves out of this mess?

A Course in Miracles asks us this: Why would you not perceive it as release from suffering to learn that you are free? Why would you not acclaim the truth instead of looking on it as an enemy? Why does an easy path, so clearly marked it is impossible to lose the way, seem thorny, rough and far too difficult for you to follow? (ACIM, T-29.II.1:1-3)

The path out of suffering can seem daunting. It can seem a struggle. The final destination, as illustrated by the passage above, can seem abstract and unreal. What is it to be changeless? How do we even know that we want it?

This is the big question. Clearly, if we are interested in change, then we need to do something about it. We need to confront our fears, and this takes courage. Our ego knows nothing about changing to the changeless.

A Course in Miracles is nothing if not realistic. It is quite blunt about the world, and the state in which we find ourselves. It simply gives us a solution, and the solution is the path  that is out of here.

What you have given "life" is not alive, and symbolizes but your wish to be alive apart from life, alive in death, with death perceived as life, and living, death. (ACIM, T-29.II.6:2)

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184/ Beyond Our Dreams

31st July 2021

A Course in Miracles tells us this: Within the dream of bodies and of death is yet one theme of truth; no more, perhaps, than just a tiny spark, a space of light created in the dark, where God still shines. You cannot wake yourself. Yet you can let yourself be wakened. (ACIM, T-29.III.3:1-3)

Essentially, to awaken, we have to learn these truths.

We are all just one spark of light. That spark of light is within each one of us, but it is not separate. Everything else is just a dream. Giving is the proof of having. 

To awaken, we essentially have to overlook our brother’s dreams.  This means anything that is being thrown at us – anything that is obscuring the truth.

Our goal is to see the light in him or her. This means that we always send our light to others, no matter what is being done to us. 

We have to give to prove that we have.

And as you see him shining in the space of light where God abides within the darkness, you will see that God Himself is where his body is. (ACIM, T-29.III.3:6)

A Course in Miracles is simply about lifting the darkness from our minds. It is about knowing that there is one spark of light that is shining  equally in all of us.

There is just one spark of light. This is beyond our dreams. But it is every inch a part of reality.

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185/ Getting to the Core

1st August 2021

Peace is stronger than war because it heals. (ACIM, T-5.II.7:8)

***

What is our core? A Course in Miracles tells us that our core is our true authentic Self. However, it is hidden by layer after layer of unconscious guilt. This is the cause of our suffering, and we learn to undo our suffering by the practice of forgiveness.

The practice of forgiveness removes the layers of our guilt from our minds. In Your Immortal Reality, the second of the trilogy of Disappearance of the Universe books by Gary Renard, the analogy of an onion is used. It’s a helpful image to have because of its simplicity.

The analogy suggests that the removal of guilt is just like layer after layer of an onion being peeled away. It’s a subtle process. We might have no idea that it is happening. However, we are told that the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit is actively removing our guilt as we practice true forgiveness. The unpeeling of the onion is therefore a simple metaphor for something that is far more powerful than we could ever imagine. Eventually, we get to the final layer of the onion. When this is removed, the onion is gone. This means that the ego has gone. When the ego is gone, there is nothing left but the experience of who we really are.

 

True forgiveness therefore means getting to the core of what we really are. A Course in Miracles tells us that the Holy Spirit is our only Helper. The Holy Spirit is our only option. The Holy Spirit rests in the mind just like the ego rests in the mind. ACIM provides the means by which we can distinguish between the thoughts of the ego and the thoughts of the Holy Spirit.

The ego wants to keep us contained and manageable. The Holy Spirit wants to set us free. By practicing true forgiveness, everything changes. We are no longer contained. The Self that we are becomes liberated and is free.

The Holy Spirit is your Guide in choosing. He is in the part of your mind that always speaks for the right choice, because He speaks for God. He is your remaining communication with God, which you can interrupt but cannot destroy. (ACIM, T-5.II.8:1-3)

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186/ The Goal Beyond the Ego

2nd August 2021

A Course in Miracles tells us that arrogance is of the ego. It tells us that arrogance opposes truth. However, it also tells us this: But when there is no arrogance the truth will come immediately, and fill up the space the ego left unoccupied by lies. (ACIM, W-319.1:3)

Our thoughts are a narrative fed by our ego. The ego's arrogance has put us under its spell. Delusions of grandeur can plague us. We become the ruler of our little world, or our big world, without a thought that there could be anything else. 

A Course in Miracles also tells us that Creation is within us. We learn it really is that simple. We can put aside all our views of God the Father and the Son, and simply understand that the Son creates like the Father.  Who we really are extends the love of what really created us. It has nothing to do with the ego, and nothing to do with arrogance.

Creation is simply the opposite of illusions. It is the opposite of the ego. It is the opposite of arrogance. Creation is the love and light that is within us.

We are told that Creation is the sum total of all God’s Thoughts, which are unlimited and infinite. 

Creation has always been, and always will be. It is within us now, and at no point can it ever suffer loss.

A Course in Miracles simply puts all this in a perspective we can understand. Each one of us has Heaven and peace within us. The goal beyond the ego is to find this peace. 

There is a place in you where this whole world has been forgotten; where no memory of sin and of illusion lingers still. There is a place in you which time has left, and echoes of eternity are heard. There is a resting place so still no sound except a hymn to Heaven rises up to gladden God the Father and the Son. Where Both abide are They remembered, Both. And where They are is Heaven and is peace. (ACIM, T-29.V.1:1-5)

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187/ The Spiritual Quagmire

3rd August 2021

There are numerous solutions for bringing about spiritual change. Some overlap with each other, and a lot would centre around the body. A Course in Miracles centres around the mind. We take care of the mind, and the body responds accordingly.

Getting lost in the spiritual quagmire is easy. There are so many choices. There are so many people who claim to be enlightened. This is how cults are set up. We put our trust in fallible human beings.

A Course in Miracles is a self-help course. Ultimately, it comes down to our own effort, regardless of whether we study it by ourselves, or in a group. It is unlike any other teaching in that it tells us we are sleeping, and reality comes from waking up. It tells us that everything going on around us is going on within us. It tells us that we are dreaming a dream, and the people we see are simply images projected into that dream.

It also tells us that the only choice we have is between the ego and the Holy Spirit. The ego's dream is always based on fear, regardless of how happy we feel. As long as the ego is in charge, fear will colour everything we do. 

A Course in Miracles shows us that forgiveness is the key to ending all our dreams. Its whole purpose is to show us we really are immortal and all we need to do is to put our trust in the Holy Spirit. This is our spiritual practice. 

Ultimately, we don’t know what is around the corner. We never really know where any spiritual practice will lead us. A Course in Miracles does. It teaches us, and it is nothing we would ever have imagined.

What seems eternal all will have an end. The stars will disappear, and night and day will be no more. All things that come and go, the tides, the seasons and the lives of men; all things that change with time and bloom and fade will not return. Where time has set an end is not where the eternal is. God's Son can never change by what men made of him. He will be as he was and as he is, for time appointed not his destiny, nor set the hour of his birth and death. Forgiveness will not change him. Yet time waits upon forgiveness that the things of time may disappear because they have no use. (ACIM, T-29.VI.2:7-14)

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188/ The Futile Search

4th August 2021

A Course in Miracles keeps reminding us not to seek outside of ourselves. It tells us repeatedly it is a futile search.

Seek not outside yourself. For it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls. (ACIM, T-29.VII.1:1-2)

Seek not outside yourself. For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found. (ACIM, T-29.VII.1:6-7)

Seek not outside yourself. The search implies you are not whole within and fear to look upon your devastation, but prefer to seek outside yourself for what you are. (ACIM, T-29.VII.4:5-6)

The first line mentions an idol. An idol is anything we look to in the hope that it will make us complete. This could be in the form of ideas and concepts; money, fame and adoration are just examples. Idols are the ego's playground, and even the ego itself can be seen as an idol.

A Course in Miracles is direct and uncompromising. However, as a student, it's important to allow ourselves to just be normal. We don't need to feel guilty about what we have. And we don't need to crave what we don't have. 

Our futile search for things external is what we do every day. It has been going on since day one. Ultimately it all comes down to our fear of the death of the body. The ego is fearing its own collapse. 

A Course in Miracles reminds us that the fear of God is the fear of loss of idols. It tells us that the fear of God is the fear of loss of our reality.

 

God dwells within, and your completion lies in Him. No idol takes His place. Look not to idols. Do not seek outside yourself. (ACIM, T-29.VII.6:3-6)

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189/ The Substitutes for Reality

5th August 2021

An Idol is just what the title says - a substitute for reality. If we knew better, then we wouldn't need these false 'gods'. But we don't know better. We create idols to try and halt our sense of unease. A Course in Miracles puts it like this.

An idol is a wish, made tangible and given form, and thus perceived as real and seen outside the mind. Yet it is still a thought, and cannot leave the mind that is its source. (ACIM, T-29.VIII.3:2-3)

Idols therefore represent anything that our fearful minds demand. Idols mask our unhappiness. They reinforce the guilt that is within us. They keep our guilt dormant and unrecognised.

This means the source of the fear never gets looked at. Collectively, within nations, it's the fuel for wars and suffering. Individually, within each one of us, it's the fuel for our ego. We don't look at our ego because it scares us. But A Course in Miracles teaches us that the ego is utterly false. It has no reality. It does not exist. The ego is just based on the fear of separation

The truth is always within us and ultimately all idols are just substitutes for reality. This is the central teaching. This is what we need to know.

A Cloud does not put out the sun. No more a veil can banish what it seems to separate, nor darken by one whit the light itself. (ACIM, T-29.VIII.3:8-9)

A Course in Miracles teaches us the complete interconnection we have with God, and with each other. Currently we have forgotten this. Deep down, however, we know the following is true.

God doesn’t have many Sons. He has only One. 

God gave us all there is, and this is within each one of us.

Every living thing is a part of us, as we are a part of God.

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190/ The Passing of Childhood

6th August 2021

A Course in Miracles tells us that we act like children playing with toys. This sounds patronising but sometimes we need to be spoken to directly. We just need to hear it as it is.

Below is a gist of what we are being told, and what we are going through.

Little child, the light is there. You do but dream, and idols are the toys you dream you play with. Who has need of toys but children? They pretend they rule the world, and give their toys the power to move about, and talk and think and feel and speak for them. Yet everything their toys appear to do is in the minds of those who play with them. But they are eager to forget that they made up the dream in which their toys are real, nor recognise their wishes are their own. (ACIM, T-29.IX.4:3-8)

Our nightmares are therefore childish dreams in which the toys have turned against us. 

Our judgments are where we pretend to be an adult, but only with the wisdom of a little child.

The passing of childhood begins when we learn to listen to the Holy Spirit. We learn that judging others is simply the same as judging ourselves. Judging is the obsession of the ego. Our task is to focus on spirit, both in ourselves and others. It's the same as a child discarding their toys and reaching for the parent. There's utter trust and endless love.

We are told we are living a dream of judgement. A Course in Miracles provides the solution to waking up from that dream. This comes through the steady and consistent practice of forgiveness. It's a wonderful thing to know that it's time to wake up. It's a wonderful thing to know that there's light at the end of the tunnel.

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191/ Our Days Are not at Random

7th August 2021

"It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well."

"Your gifts lie in the place where your values, passions and strengths meet. Discovering that place is the first step toward sculpting your masterpiece, Your Life."

The quotes above are attributed to two artists. The first is Vincent van Gogh. He was voracious in his work, and yet ended up killing himself aged 37, penniless and depressed. The second is Michelangelo, maybe the greatest artist of all time. He died aged 88, celebrated and revered.

The author Irving Stone wrote about both these men in his biographical novels Lust for Life and The Agony and the Ecstasy. Their lives give a context as to how the ego or the Holy Spirit will view us. Van Gogh's life mirrors the ego's desire to punish us. Michelangelo's mirrors the Holy Spirit's desire to celebrate us. Either way, our lives are run by what we think.

A Course in Miracles tells us we can decide upon the sort of day we want. We simply let the ego or the Holy Spirit decide. The two are mutually exclusive. One has anxiety as its motivation. The other has peace as its motivation. If we decide with the Holy Spirit, we let go of all judgement. If we decide with the ego, we judge continuously.

The following passage from the Text might help to illustrate this.

Nothing can be caused without some form of union, be it with a dream of judgement or the Voice for God. Decisions cause results because they are not made in isolation. They are made by you and your advisor, for yourself and for the world as well. The day you want you offer to the world, for it will be what you have asked for, and will reinforce the rule of your advisor in the world. Whose kingdom is the world for you today? What kind of day will you decide to have? (ACIM, T-30.I.16:4-9)

A Course in Miracles tells us our days are not at random. Our thinking makes them what they are.

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192/ The Wonder of Our Will

8th August 2021

What is our will? Probably what the ego tells us it is. We might think of ourselves as strong-willed or weak-willed, and we see others in the same way. A Course in Miracles simply asks us this:

Do you not understand that to oppose the Holy Spirit is to fight yourself? (ACIM, T-30.II.1:1)

A Course in Miracles tells us that we are so much more than what we think. We are so different to what our ego tells us we are. Our will is infinite, and yet we just don't know it.

Your will is boundless; it is not your will that it be bound. (ACIM, T-30.II.3:4)

A Course in Miracles tells us that God wills that we are not bound. ACIM tells us us that God made us co-creators of the universe along with Him.

 

In other words, there is wonder in our will. Unless we do this will, we are not free.

With this in mind, we just need a subtle change in our way of thinking to embrace our will. A near-death experiencer, Ellen Whealton, is able to articulate this. 

Ellen had a near-death experience when she was 12 years old after having been kicked on the head by a horse. Her experience showed her that we get so caught up in our thoughts, and in the stories that we create. The things we worry about on earth do not matter. Our will is free to create what we want. We just have to learn to tap into it. 

She now works as a music therapist, healer and presenter. You can hear her interview with Jeff Mara  on YouTube. There are others as well. The link is below.

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193/ The Limits of Form

9th August 2021

“Every human being in the human form has limitations.” Eckhart Tolle.

***

When we get to the heart of the teaching of A Course in Miracles, we come to realise that we are seeking something that we never left. This is the formless. It is alive, real and with us all the time.

Form is transitory. It changes. It has no lasting value. Form is like our thoughts. They come and go at such a rapid pace, we barely know what we are thinking.

The formless is permanent. It doesn't change. We don't have to go anywhere to find it because it is always there. The formless is within us. We come to know it by being quiet.

We all need the essentials of life. A Course in Miracles doesn't want to deprive us of anything. But it does want us to change our minds. It wants us to change the focus of our attention.

It is not form you seek. What form can be a substitute for God the Father's Love? What form can take the place of all the love in the Divinity of God the Son? What idol can make two of what is one? And can the limitless be limited? (ACIM, T-30.III.2:1-5)

A Course in Miracles is telling us to stop looking for substitutes. It tells us not to be content with small ideas and petty things.

The formless is so much bigger than what we think. If we came to understand its magnitude all at once, our form might be too limited and restricted to cope. But the Thought of God exists within us, and we are gently preparing ourselves for the day we come to know it.

The thoughts you think are in your mind, as you are in the Mind which thought of you. And so there are no separate parts in what exists within God's Mind. It is forever One, eternally united and at peace. (ACIM, T-30.III.6:7-9)

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194/ Appearances Deceive

10th August 2021

Appearances deceive because they are appearances and not reality. Dwell not on them in any form. They but obscure reality, and they bring fear because they hide the truth. (ACIM, T-30.IV.5:1-3)

A Course in Miracles is telling us that we always fight illusions. We make illusions up in our minds and attack what is not there. Appearances deceive and we are taken in by them.

A Course in Miracles tells us that all these appearances are merely a projection from our minds. This is life as we see it. This is how the ego - our separated self - sees it. This is how we spend our whole life. It is an illusion of reality. Things just appear to be real.

This means our lives are but a dream. The dream will vary from happy dreams to sad dreams, from angry dreams to peaceful dreams. The fact remains we are simply asleep. Reality is with us constantly yet we are simply unaware of it. To be aware of it is simply a change of perspective.

Reality observes the laws of God, and not the rules you set. It is His laws that guarantee your safety. All illusions that you believe about yourself obey no laws. They seem to dance a little while, according to the rules you set for them. But then they fall and cannot rise again. (ACIM, T-30.IV.4:1-5)

A Course in Miracles tells us our dreams are for nothing. No dream can offer us anything we could ever want.  ACIM teaches us to set our resolve to step out of them. Only then we can find our freedom.

Appearances deceive. The good news is that they don't if we became aware of what they are.  This takes some work, but there's a part of the mind that knows that this is true.

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195/ What is Peace?

11th August 2021

Peace is evasive. Sometimes we find it and sometimes we don't. But we do search for it. Everyone needs at least a little peace at various times in their lives.

A Course in Miracles is quite clear. We won't find peace in this world. It might occasionally make an appearance, but it will fade and disappear. We have to go to a deeper state of awareness. And this is only possible when the mind is quiet.

There is this world, and there is the real world. This world is a world of duality. It is the world of the ego. With peace comes disturbance. There will always be something that will disturb us. There will always be something that takes away our peace.

The real world is a state of mind that produces peace because there is nothing to oppose it. The ego has gone. Our mind is calm. Our unconscious guilt has been dissolved through our practice of forgiveness. It is a world seen through the eyes of the Holy Spirit.

If we realise that each and every person we meet is really a meeting with ourselves, then we will get some insight into our state of mind. A Course in Miracles is a simple training to change our state of mind. We learn to look peacefully at everyone because that is what we want in ourselves.

When brothers join in purpose in the world of fear, they stand already at the edge of the real world. Perhaps they still look back, and think they see an idol that they want. Yet has their path been surely set away from idols toward reality. (ACIM, T-30.V.7:1-3)

Peace comes when our minds are not driven by our needs. Peace comes when we can see the peace within. Peace comes when we undo the ego and live with the Holy Spirit.

Peace is always here and we can find it.

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196/ To Heal is to Make Whole

12th August 2021

To heal is to make whole. And what is whole can have no missing parts that have been kept outside. Forgiveness rests on recognising this, and being glad there cannot be some forms of sickness which the miracle must lack the power to heal. (ACIM, T-30.VI.8:3-5)

When we study A Course in Miracles, it is necessary to get familiar with the metaphysics. They just don't make sense to the way we think. They definitely don't make sense with respect to what we’ve been taught. The framework of the teaching is a whole new way of thinking.

A small overview is this. There is no world. The world is just a projection from our minds.

We need to forgive. However, forgiveness means that what we forgive has never happened. It never happened because we made it up in our minds.

All forms of sickness are the same. They just arise from the unconscious guilt which lies deeply buried in our minds. Forgiveness is the undoing of this unconscious guilt.

The simple fact is we just have to deconstruct the core beliefs about ourselves. This requires time and commitment. It requires that we practice consistently the type of forgiveness as mentioned above.

A Course in Miracles tells us that no one who holds unconscious guilt can avoid the fear of God. Forgiveness saves us from this dilemma. 

Nothing should be overlooked. There is nothing that can’t be undone by true forgiveness.  Nothing lies beyond true forgiveness.

To heal is to undo our core beliefs about ourselves. Only then can we begin to understand what it means to be completely whole.