Reflections 240 to 253

 

240/ The Call to Joy

25th September 2021

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” Rabindranath Tagore.

***

A Course in Miracles tells us the Holy Spirit is the spirit of joy. Whenever we don't feel this, we are listening to the wrong voice, and for most of us this probably means most of the time. It also tells us the Holy Spirit is God's Answer to the separation.

We all have needed help with feelings of separation at various stages of our lives. A Course in Miracles reminds us we have the help within us. It tells us the Voice for God was given us the moment the separation came in being. To consolidate our desire to become clearer channels for this Voice, it might be helpful to consider this.

The choice for the Holy Spirit is the choice for God. God is not in you in a literal sense; you are part of him. When you chose to leave Him He gave you a Voice to speak for Him because He could no longer share His knowledge with you without hindrance. Direct communication was broken because you had made another voice. (ACIM, T-5.II.5:4-7)

A Course in Miracles gives us the Workbook to help us train the mind to listen to the Voice for God. It needs us to learn to be still. Each lesson is a unique opportunity to learn that stillness. We also need to be aware that the Holy Spirit will work in ways that is uniquely perfect for each one of us. Each way is a call to joy. The Holy Spirit is playful and wants us to be too. What we are dealing with is the complete opposite of what we are used to. It is therefore useful to know this.

The Voice of the Holy Spirit does not command. It is incapable of arrogance. It does not demand.  It does not attack. It merely reminds. It is never loud. It is always quiet.

To listen to the Holy Spirit is a call to joy. Why would we want to listen to anything else?

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241/ The Ticking of a Clock

26th September 2021

When we hear the ticking of a clock, we only hear the ticking. We don't hear the space in between the ticks. Equally, the sound is not understandable to the silence and the silence is not understandable to the sound. It seems that both arise within the mind, so it's a useful metaphor for what A Course in Miracles is trying to teach us.

The ticking of a clock can symbolise the world as we see it. For example, we might feel that time is passing us by and we haven't achieved what we want to with our life. Maybe it reminds us that we need to rush what we are doing now? Or maybe it alerts us to the fact that we should be doing something different. Either way it gets us thinking with the ego. We're distorting the beauty of the present moment.

There's a source of power that controls the ticking of a clock. The clock might not know its source but the clock is dead without it. It makes no sound. The source of power is a useful metaphor for God. God sustains us and keeps us ticking over. We might seem to be dead when the Source of power is withdrawn, but we will find out what happens when that time comes. Perhaps we still will be, and the Source of power still is? We just aren't making the ticks.

We can hear the ticking of a clock day and night. It never stops. It's quite consistent. It never seems to speed up or slow down. However, external noise can drown it out. This might be a useful metaphor for the ego drowning out the Voice of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the ego is quiet and sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it sends in its big guns and is really noisy. Then we're not going to hear the ticking of a clock. But it's still there. We just have to wait for the noise to subside, and then we hear it again.

The purpose of A Course in Miracles is to get us to undo all the unconscious guilt that stops us being authentic to what we really are. Nothing's happened. No one has gone anywhere. We have just forgotten our true Identity. We are eternal. We never stop. We are like the ticking of a clock.

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242/ The Aim of Our Curriculum

27th September 2021

The World trains for reliance on one's judgement as the criterion for maturity and strength. Our curriculum trains for the relinquishment of judgement as the necessary condition of salvation. (ACIM, M-9.2:6-7)

***

Anyone who is interested in meditation, anyone who desires to be free of pain, anyone who wants to escape compulsive thinking - all have the same goal, whether they know it or not. This is to be in present moment awareness. In the language of A Course in Miracles, this is salvation.

A Course in Miracles tells us that salvation is an undoing that does nothing. In other words, it fails to support anything that doesn't bring us peace.  ACIM tells us a single Thought of Peace is within each one of us but our judgements simply obscure it. What is real is clouded by what is not real.

Our internal voice therefore has to be monitored. Judgments need to be censored. And slowly we begin to replace the voice of the ego with the voice of the Holy Spirit. A Course in Miracles tells us that wisdom is not judgement; it is the relinquishment of judgement. ACIM tells us there is only one judgement that we should make, and that is to use the Holy Spirit within our minds. 

The aim of our curriculum is simply to know this - that we don’t know all the facts. It is impossible for us to know past, present and future, and how it all links together.  We don’t know the bigger picture. We are unclear about why we are here and what we are doing. All we can do is simply trust. We trust in the curriculum.

Remember how many times you thought you knew all the "facts" you needed for judgment, and how wrong you were! Is there anyone who has not had this experience? Would you know how many times you merely thought you were right, without ever realizing you were wrong? Why would you choose such an arbitrary basis for decision making? (ACIM, M-10.4:1-4)

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243/ A Gentle Substitution

28th September 2021

A useful question to ask is this: How is peace possible in this world? It is not an unreasonable question to ask considering what we see on the news every day. A Course in Miracles has this to say.

Peace is impossible to those who look on war. Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace. How easily, then, is your judgment of the world escaped! It is not the world that makes peace seem impossible. It is the world you see that is impossible. (ACIM, M-11.4:1-4)

The purpose of A Course in Miracles is not to get us to accept peace theoretically, but to incorporate it into our lives practically. But we need to let go of our preconceptions. God, heaven, hell, sin, death - all are loaded with judgements. We are given the means  to find out what is true for ourselves. Over time, the truth becomes clearer and clearer.

Martin Luther King said: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." A Course in Miracles teaches exactly the same. Over time, we gently substitute the Holy Spirit for the ego. Light then drives out darkness, and love replaces hate.

The world we see is up to us. We are continually told this in no uncertain terms, and it's no more than a gentle substitution - in other words, our perceptions change, and a new world appears. Another way of putting it is that we let go of form and trust in the formless. If this is difficult to take onboard, it's almost certainly because we are using that part of the mind we are being asked not to use. When we let go of the ego, everything else will change.

What the world is, is but a fact. You cannot choose what this should be. But you can choose how you would see it. Indeed, you must choose this. (ACIM, M-11.1:9-12)

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244/ The Purpose of the Body

29th September 2021

A Course in Miracles tells us this: For the body is a limit on love. The belief in limited love was its origin, and it was made to limit the unlimited (ACIM, T-18.VIII.1:2-3). It tells us the body is a dream. It tells us the body is simply an image projected from the mind. However, it does not say we should ignore the body. It tells us instead that we need to put the emphasis on the mind. 

The body is outside you, and but seems to surround you, shutting you off from others and keeping you apart from them, and them from you. It is not there. There is no barrier between God and His Son, nor can His Son be separated from Himself except in Illusions. (ACIM, T-18.VI.9:1-3)

What is, then, the purpose of the body? The purpose of the body is whatever purpose our minds give it. With the ego, its motivation is fear. With the Holy Spirit, its motivation is peace. We operate accordingly. The body, then, is the instrument of the mind. The mind is not the instrument of the body.

The body is our vehicle for expression in this life. When we have fulfilled our purpose, A Course in Miracles tells us we should gladly give it up. We discard the body like we discard an old overcoat. We thank the body for the use it has given us.

The central lesson is always this; that what you use the body for it will become to you. Use it for sin or for attack, which is the same as sin, and you will see it as sinful. Because it is sinful it is weak, and being weak, it suffers and it dies. Use it to bring the Word of God to those who have it not, and the body becomes holy. Because it is holy it cannot be sick, nor can it die. When its usefulness is done it is laid by, and that is all. The mind makes this decision, as it makes all decisions that are responsible for the body's condition. (ACIM, M-12.5:1-7)

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245/ The Meaning of Sacrifice

30th September 2021

“The sacrifice which causes sorrow to the doer of the sacrifice is no sacrifice. Real sacrifice lightens the mind of the doer and gives him a sense of peace and joy. The Buddha gave up the pleasures of life because they had become painful to him.” Mahatma Gandhi.

***

Sacrifice is frightening to a mind that has fear. Sacrifice is confusing to a mind that does not know what is real. Sacrifice means loss to a mind whose true Identity is obscured.

A Course in Miracles advises us that sacrifice only has meaning in the world. Otherwise it is an illusion just like the world is an illusion, and there are no half measures in this. ACIM tells us that sacrifice is either total or it doesn't exist at all.

It takes great learning both to realize and to accept the fact that the world has nothing to give. What can the sacrifice of nothing mean? It cannot mean that you have less because of it. There is no sacrifice in the world's terms that does not involve the body. Think a while about what the world calls sacrifice. Power, fame, money, physical pleasure; who is the "hero" to whom all these things belong? (ACIM, M-13.2:1-6)

A Course in Miracles tells us that the real meaning of sacrifice is the cost of believing in illusions. It tells us that this is the cost that must be paid for by the denial of truth. 

We do not see what we are asking for. Ask for truth and we will get truth. Ask for illusions and we will get illusions.

A Course in Miracles tells us that if we ask for sacrifice we get pain.  The choice is ours: "Seek but do not find" remains this world's stern decree, and no one who pursues the world's goals can do otherwise. (ACIM, M-13.5:8)

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246/ Healing the Split Mind

1st October 2021

A Course in Miracles tells us that the separation is just another term for a split mind, the mind being split between the ego and the Holy Spirit. What it says is this: The ego is the symbol of separation, just as the Holy Spirit is the symbol of peace. What you perceive in others you are strengthening in yourself. You may let your mind misperceive, but the Holy Spirit lets your mind reinterpret its own misperceptions. (ACIM, T-5.III.9:4-6)

Here are some fundamental rules we need in order to heal the split mind. They are taken from a section in the Text entitled: The Guide to Salvation (ACIM, T-5.III).

The way to recognize your brother is by recognizing the Holy Spirit in him. (ACIM, T-5.III.1:1)

There are two diametrically opposed ways of seeing your brother. They must both be in your mind, because you are the perceiver. (ACIM, T-5.III.3:1-2)

The Voice of the Holy Spirit is weak in you. That is why you must share it. (ACIM, T-5.III.4:1-2)

The Holy Spirit has the task of undoing what the ego has made. He undoes it at the same level on which the ego operates, or the mind would be unable to understand the change. (ACIM, T-5.III.5:5-6)

The Holy Spirit is the perfect Teacher. He uses only what your mind already understands to teach you that you do not understand it. (ACIM, T-5.III.10:1-2)

The ego made the world as it perceives it, but the Holy Spirit, the reinterpreter of what the ego made, sees the world as a teaching device for bringing you home. (ACIM, T-5.III.11:1)

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247/ The Greatest Love of All

2nd October 2021

In the Manual for Teachers, there is a line that says this: Learn to be quiet, for His Voice is heard in stillness. (ACIM, M-15.2:12)

In the Text, there is this line: I heard one Voice because I understood that I could not atone for myself alone (ACIM, T-5.IV.4:1). Jesus is telling us that, by listening to one Voice, it also implied a decision to share it in order to hear it for himself.  The Mind that was in him was irresistibly drawn to every mind that was created by God.

In the Workbook, there is a lesson entitled: God is in everything I see (ACIM, W-29). The lesson wants us to know that we can see all purpose in everything, regardless of what we are looking at. God is all around us, within us, and outside of us.

The three sections that make up A Course in Miracles are all pointing us in the same direction - to find the peace that is eternal in us. Many have tasted this peace in other ways, and the near-death experience is just one example of the potential healing power of what has no opposite.

David Ditchfield had his near-death experience in 2006, the result of being dragged under a train. When he was out of body and in another realm, he felt himself being healed of his injuries, essentially finding himself becoming one with the universe and all that Is. After returning to his body he became an artist and composer, finding that the creativity simply flowed through him. He didn't have these talents before his NDE

He has a few accounts on YouTube. His most recent interview is with Anthony Chene Productions, and was posted on the 22nd September 2021. He ended this particular account by saying the following words: "And when you see your true Self, it's a great feeling. It's the greatest Love of all." The link is below.

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248/ The Symbol of the Ego

3rd October 2021

If the ego is the symbol of the separation, it is also the symbol of guilt. Guilt is more than merely not of God. It is the symbol of attack on God. This is a totally meaningless concept except to the ego, but do not underestimate the power of the ego's belief in it. This is the belief  from which all guilt really stems. (ACIM, T-5.V.2:8-12)

***

A Course in Miracles tells us that the ego is the part of the mind that believes in division.

A Course in Miracles tells us that if we identify with the ego, we perceive ourselves as being guilty. By definition, this means that we fear punishment. 

A Course in Miracles tells us that the ego is quite literally a fearful thought.  The ego is insane. The ego represents a delusional thought system. 

A Course in Miracles tells us that, when we listen to the ego’s voice, we feel it is possible to attack God. An unconscious fear of retaliation then follows because our guilt is so overpoweringly strong, and this fear is then projected. 

A Course in Miracles informs us that whatever we accept into our minds has reality for us. Ultimately, ACIM tells us this. We only have two choices.

The Holy Spirit and the ego are the only choices open to you. God created one, and so you cannot eradicate it. You made the other, and so you can. Only what God creates is irreversible and unchangeable.  (ACIM, T-5.V.6:8-11)

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249/ The Belief in Magic

4th October 2021

A Course in Miracles defines magic in two ways. One way is to think that anything outside of ourselves will make us completely whole. All solutions lie within. The other is the belief that whatever is of form cures form; in other words, that the body is healed by things external.  ACIM teaches us that the body is simply a projection of the mind, and that the only cure is in the mind.

Both beliefs are defined as magical thinking. However, A Course in Miracles is a high teaching. It teaches absolute truth, and not many of us in the world are at this level of truth. It's natural to look to externals, and definitely right to visit a therapist when the body is in pain. We have to do whatever we feel is appropriate for ourselves but, as we do, we can also understand that true peace only comes through learning to change the mind.

This is what A Course in Miracles says: A magic thought, by its mere presence, acknowledges a separation from God. It states, in the clearest form possible, that the mind which believes it has a separate will that can oppose the Will of God, also believes it can succeed. That this can hardly be a fact is obvious. Yet that it can be believed as fact is equally obvious. (ACIM, M-17.5:3-6)

Opposing the Will of God sounds fearful. It feels like we might be punished. To undo this fear is the whole purpose of A Course in Miracles. It simply teaches us to undo the control of the ego, and to waken to the peace of the Holy Spirit. This is the same as saying we awaken to the peace of God

To change our whole belief system requires patience and willingness. To change is to know what a magic thought is and what it is not. We learn that magic thoughts arise from a thought system that doesn't exist. We just need to see them for what they are.

Magic thoughts need not lead to condemnation, for they do not really have the power to give rise to guilt. And so they can be overlooked, and thus forgotten in the truest sense. (ACIM, M-17.8:10-11)

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250/ The Solution to Anger

5th October 2021

"Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” Buddha.

***

A Course in Miracles tells us that the solution to anger is in our relationships: All anger is nothing more than an attempt to make someone feel guilty, and this attempt is the only basis the ego accepts for special relationships. (ACIM, T-15.VII.10:3)

The special relationship arises out of judgement. We judge someone in a certain way, and we react accordingly. The holy relationship arises out of love. All judgement is suspended. We see that person as they truly are. 

To make a relationship special requires the ego. To make a relationship holy require the Holy Spirit. Anger only arises out of the ego. Peace only arises out of the Holy Spirit. 

A Course in Miracles tells us that anger makes guilt real. It keeps reality from our minds. The ego then controls our destiny, truth is blotted out, and we suffer deeply. When we suffer anger, we destroy ourselves and each other. It is this that this keeps the miracle away from us.

The solution to anger is therefore in the mind.  The solution to anger is within our relationships. The solution to anger is simply within us. There is nowhere else that it can be.

Your patience with your brother is your patience with yourself. Is not a child of God worth patience? I have shown you infinite patience because my will is that of our Father, from Whom I learned of infinite patience. His Voice was in me as It is in you, speaking for patience towards the Sonship in the Name of its Creator. (ACIM, T-5.VI.11:4-7)

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251/ Justice and Injustice

6th October 2021

What the world views as justice, A Course in Miracles views as injustice. There are no half measures in this, just as there are no half measures between the ego and the Holy Spirit. Both the ego and the Holy Spirit are diametrically opposed. One is based on truth and the other is based on illusion.

All concepts of your brothers and yourself; all fears of future states and all concerns about the past, stem from injustice. Here is the lens which, held before the body's eyes, distorts perception and brings witness of the distorted world back to the mind that made the lens and holds it very dear. (ACIM, M-19.3:1-2)

Justice according to the world stems from when we condemn. It comes from judging. We continually use judgment and condemnation, but don't understand that the world we know would never exist without them. And this is true. It is through the ego that this form of justice exists. A Course in Miracles labels it injustice, and understands that it causes us nothing but pain.  ACIM tells us that the opposite of injustice can be defined as salvation.

Salvation is God's justice. It restores to your awareness the wholeness of the fragments you perceive as broken off and separate. And it is this that overcomes the fear of death. For separate fragments must decay and die, but wholeness is immortal. (ACIM, M-19.4:1-4)

Our  wholeness is God’s justice, and it is onto this wholeness that we have projected injustice. We blame God for our troubles and our strife. We say that injustice now belongs to God and not to us. We are afraid of God, but A Course in Miracles tells us what we really fear is the Self within us.

Both justice and injustice therefore exist within our minds. This is the same as saying that both the world and Heaven exist within our minds. A Course in Miracles tells us that no justice is needed in Heaven since Heaven is perfect oneness. But justice is needed in a mind that is divided.

Justice is therefore seeing everyone through the lens of Love, no matter what we think they may have done. Injustice is when we don't. It is as simple as that.

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252/ The Peace of God

7th October 2021

First, how can the peace of God be recognised? God’s peace is recognized at first by just one thing; it is totally unlike all previous experiences. (ACIM, M-20.2:1-2)

***

What is the peace of God?

How

can

words

describe

the

peace

of

God?

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253/ The Limitation of Words

8th October 2021

“The limit is not in the sky, the limit is in the mind.” Unknown.

***

Ask from the heart.

God does not understand words.

The prayer for things of this world will bring experiences of this world. (ACIM, M-21.3:1)

Herein lie hell and Heaven. The sleeping Son of God has but this power left to him. 

It is enough. 

His words do not matter. (ACIM, M-21.3:6-9)