Reflections 352 to 365

 

352/ Truth is True

15th January 2022

"No legacy is so rich as honesty.” William Shakespeare.

***

A Course in Miracles mentions the door of nothing (ACIM, T-14.II.7:6) and the sleep of darkness (ACIM, T-14.II.7:9). It tells us that God is everywhere, and His Son is in Him with everything (ACIM, T-14.II.8:7). It emphasises the following: The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and everything beside it is not there. (ACIM, T-14.II.3:3-4)

This is the world of all or nothing. We either open the door to nothing and remain asleep, or we open the door to light and wake up.

A Course in Miracles dismisses the world that we see with our physical eyes. It says we make it up in our minds. It tells us there is only one mind, and there is only one ego. Everything we see is just an interpretation of the ego.  

We might feel that there are billions of egos. We might feel that there are billions of minds. A Course in Miracles draws us away from this line of thinking. ACIM talks to us all as one, because we are all one. And, while it does, it continually tells us we are trying to make the untrue true.

A Course in Miracles tells us that, if we have faith in nothing, then we will find the nothing that we seek. ACIM doesn’t tell us that our needs should not be met. But it does tell us that we place our faith in only what we see. What we see is the world of form. Real happiness is found through the world of the formless.

A Course in Miracles tells us to stop trying to make happiness out of unhappiness. It says that, if we change our minds, our lives will change. What is false just disappears. Only the truth is true.

The universe of learning will open up before you in all its gracious simplicity. With truth before you, you will not look back. (ACIM, T-14.II.6:4-5)

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353/ Guilt and Guiltlessness

16th January 2022

Learning is living here, as creating is being in Heaven. (ACIM, T-14.III.3:2)

***

A Course in Miracles tells us that guilt interferes with truth. It distorts it. Guilt makes truth something that it is not. Guiltlessness, on the other hand, allows our thoughts to be free. Guiltlessness is not something we can really comprehend. It is like a tiny fish trying to comprehend the vastness of the ocean.

Choosing between guilt and guiltlessness is the same as choosing between the ego and the Holy Spirit. Both exist within the mind. Guilt won't go easily. The ego clings to guilt like a barnacle clings to the rock. Guilt keeps us bound to a body. It keeps us bound to thoughts of death. It keeps us bound to a life of fear.

A Course in Miracles wants us to be happy. It wants our thoughts to be free. It makes it clear that we make our own suffering. Everything that lies within us has to be looked at. We have to decide what is real and what is not real.

You believe that guilt and guiltlessness are both of value, each representing an escape from what the other does not offer you. You do not want either alone, for without both you do not see yourself as whole and therefore happy. (ACIM, T-14.III.2:2-3)

We might be quite unaware of our guilt.  We might think it does not exist. We might be quite unaware of what our guiltlessness means. We have no concept that our innocence is a fact.

A Course in Miracles simply tells us that to wish for one is at the expense of the other. To wish for one pushes the other from our sight.

The miracle teaches you that you have chosen guiltlessness, freedom and joy. It is not a cause, but an effect. It is the natural result of choosing right, attesting to your happiness that comes from choosing to be free of guilt. (ACIM, T-14.III.5:1-3)

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354/ The Only Decision

17th January 2022

“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.” Unknown.

***

A Course in Miracles teaches that God is the only Cause.

Remember always that mind is one, and cause is one. You will learn communication with this oneness only when you learn to deny the causeless, and accept the Cause of God as yours. (ACIM, T-14.III.8:5-6)

A Course in Miracles teaches us that the ego thinks only of itself.

Whenever you choose to make decisions for yourself you are thinking destructively, and the decision will be wrong. It will hurt you because of the concept of decision that led to it. (ACIM, T-14.III.9:1-2)

A Course in Miracles teaches us the power of our thinking.

No thought of God's Son can be separate or isolated in its effects. Every decision is made for the whole Sonship, directed in and out, and influencing a constellation larger than anything you ever dreamed of. (ACIM, T-14.III.9:4-5)

A Course in Miracles teaches us to trust the Holy Spirit. 

Say to the Holy Spirit only, "Decide for me," and it is done. For His decisions are reflections of what God knows about you, and in this light, error of any kind becomes impossible. (ACIM, T-14.III.16:1-2)

A Course in Miracles teaches us how to do this. It teaches us that this is the only decision that we need to make. 

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355/ The Disordered Mind

18th January 2022

“The root of suffering is attachment.” Buddha.

***

In reverse order, these three excerpts appear in one section of A Course in Miracles.

The guiltless and the guilty are totally incapable of understanding one another. Each perceives the other as like himself, making both unable to communicate, because each sees the other unlike the way he sees himself. (ACIM, T-14.IV.10:1-2)

The Atonement was established as the means of restoring guiltlessness to minds that have denied it, and thus denied Heaven to themselves. (ACIM, T-14.IV.9:2)

When you have learned how to decide with God, all decisions become as easy and as right as breathing. There is no effort, and you will be led as gently as if you were being carried down a quiet path in summer. (ACIM, T-14.IV.6:1-2)

To decide with God is the natural state of the mind. The disordered mind, on the other hand, can only jump from past to future. The disordered mind is a mind that constantly makes judgements about everything. The disordered mind is a mind that is never quiet. It has no sense of peace.

If we want to bring order to the disordered mind, everything that has obscured the truth has to be undone. This means removing guilt though forgiveness. Nothing and no one is excluded.

An ordered mind sees its wholeness in everything. Everything and everyone is included. An ordered mind is quiet and peaceful. All fear is a memory, and nothing remains except the truth. Guiltlessness is therefore a state of mind in which all disordered thought has been removed.

 This state, and only this, must you attain, with God beside you. For until you do, you will still think that you are separate from Him. (ACIM, T-14.IV.2:3-4)

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356/ The Cause of Peace

19th January 2022

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” Mahatma Gandhi.

***

A Course in Miracles tells us the following: The only part of your mind that has reality is the part that links you still with God (ACIM, T-14.V.1:1). It tells us that this is the Cause of peace. Mostly, though, our cause of peace is something external. We reach for something to calm us down.

The real Cause of peace is never external. It can't be found anywhere except within the mind. A Course in Miracles describes it as being within the circle of Atonement (ACIM, T-14.V). This is where the mind has no judgement. The ego is excluded. This is where all minds are treated as equal.

We can see the circle of Atonement as being a metaphor for total acceptance. We either accept someone totally or we don’t. We accept them as spirit or we accept them as a body. Anything in between is outside the circle.

Each one you see you place within the holy circle of Atonement or leave outside, judging him fit for crucifixion or for redemption. (ACIM, T-14.V.11:1)

A Course in Miracles teaches us that our minds can only crucify or redeem. We either see the body or the spirit. We only see what is permanent or what is impermanent.

The Cause of peace is therefore anything in line with the thinking of the Holy Spirit. It has nothing to do with the ego. The Cause of peace is the healing of the mind, which is what the Atonement is.

When we accept the Atonement for ourselves we accept it for everyone. The Cause of peace is a therefore a holy circle. Nothing is outside of it, and everything is within.

Come gladly to the holy circle, and look out in peace on all who think they are outside. Cast no one out, for here is what he seeks along with you. (ACIM, T-14.V.11:7-8)

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357/ The Undoing of Opposites

20th January 2022

Attack will always yield to love if it is brought to love, not hidden from it. (ACIM, T-14.VI.2:2)

***

The journey that we undertake together is the exchange of dark for light, of ignorance for understanding. Nothing you understand is fearful. It is only in darkness and in ignorance that you perceive the frightening, and shrink away from it to further darkness. (ACIM, T-14.VI.1:1-3)

A Course in Miracles is an undoing. It is a re-discovery. It is the knowledge that we haven't ever left what we are trying to find.

The undoing of opposites is therefore the laying aside of everything that does not bring us peace. 

A Course in Miracles also has this line: Death yields to life simply because destruction is not true (ACIM, T-14.VI.4:1). This means there is only life. Nothing opposes it. Everything we fear is just an illusion in the mind. 

The near-death experience is another way in which we can learn about life and light. Ina K's NDE taught her that "death is the liberation from pain." Her NDE occurred as a result of a serious sexual assault as a 15-years old. She couldn't breathe, then found herself witnessing the assault from above without fear or judgement. Light began to flood her with love. Life continued. Her experience didn't heal her, but ensured she was able to deal with the trauma when she returned to her body.

"I believe that we come from the light, and that we come down here to learn, and that we go back to the light afterwards. I can't prove it but that is what I believe."

Ina's account can be seen on YouTube, and is with Thanatos TV. The link is below.

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358/ Releasing Double Vision

21st January 2022

“Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.” Albert Einstein.

***

A Course in Miracles starts a section in the Text with the following: What do you want? Light or darkness, knowledge or ignorance are yours, but not both. Opposites must be brought together, not kept apart. For their separation is only in your mind, and they are reconciled by union, as you are. (ACIM, T-14.VII.1:1-4)

Later, it adds: Light cannot enter darkness when a mind believes in darkness, and will not let it go. Truth does not struggle against ignorance, and love does not attack fear. (ACIM, T-14.VII.5:1-2)

A Course in Miracles tells us that truth is union (ACIM, T-14.VII.1:5). We have two thought systems within our minds, and the two have to be brought together. The false one then fades away in the light of truth.

These two thought systems mean we can see in two ways. One is with fear and the other is with love. If we want complete peace in our minds, A Course in Miracles tells us we have to bring the undesirable to the desirable. We have to face every fear we have ever held, and bring it to the Love.

We can't do this alone. Keeping our double vision means keeping all the fear and loathing that the ego holds for us. Releasing double vision simply means releasing this fear.  This means giving all it all over to the Holy Spirit. There is nothing the ego can do when faced with the light of Holy Spirit.

A Course in Miracles makes this quite clear. The ego offers us alternatives, but ultimately it offers us death. The alternative that the Holy Spirit offers us is life.

The single vision which the Holy Spirit offers you will bring this oneness to your mind with clarity and brightness so intense you could not wish, for all the world, not to accept what God would have you have. (ACIM, T-14.VII.7:7)

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359/ The Wandering Mind

22nd January 2022

“Your goal is not to battle with the mind, but to witness the mind.” Swami Muktananda.

***

The mind is busy. The world is busy. If we don't think there is a connection, then we haven't read A Course in Miracles.

If we want a world that is peaceful, we need a mind that is peaceful. We might all occasionally feel peace, but rarely for extended periods. A permanent state of peace belongs to those who have awakened. To think then becomes a choice. There is no more need for the mind to wander.

A Course in Miracles gives us the opportunity to awaken, but we have to want it. ACIM demonstrates that the ego is ruthless in its grip on the mind. It tells us that the ego will never let go unless we discipline the mind. It tells us we are much too tolerant of our minds wandering. It says we are passively condoning it.

The mind is very powerful, and never loses its creative force. It never sleeps. Every instant it is creating. It is hard to recognize that thought and belief combine into a power surge that can literally move mountains. (ACIM, T-2.VI.9:5-8)

The wandering mind needs to be disciplined. It needs to go beyond past and future to what lies in the present. A Course in Miracles tells us that truth is. It tells us there is no substitute for truth. In fact, this one line is all we need to know: Where God is, there are you. Such is the truth. (ACIM, T-14.VIII.4:4-5)

A wandering mind simply means we have lost sight of our wholeness. We have lost sight of all that we have. We think that our thinking is natural. We don't realize it can also make our lives hell.

Behind the dark doors you have closed lies nothing, because nothing can obscure the gift of God. It is the closing of the doors that interferes with recognition of the power of God that shines in you. (ACIM, T-14.VIII.1:3-4)

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360/ The Gift of Oneness

23rd January 2022

Unite with what you are. You cannot join with anything except reality. (ACIM, T-14.VIII.3:5-6)

***

Earth can reflect Heaven or hell; God or the ego. (ACIM, T-14.IX.5:4)

Bringing illusion to truth, or the ego to God, is the Holy Spirit's only function. (ACIM, T-14.IX.1:4)

So here we are. Another day starts. For some of us, the day looks promising. For others, it doesn't. Our lives are as they are. No one can deny that being in a body is a hard existence. At the very least, we could call it precarious.

Nothing is worse than having a lack of control. We can feel life slipping through our fingers, but we don't know where to turn to. When A Course in Miracles comes across our path, it's assumed that at least we are in a position to start taking control.

Yesterday, a homeless man was pacing up and down outside the local shop. He was agitated.

Yesterday, two friends lost their partners. They would never pass through their doors again.

Yesterday, Thich Nhat Hanh passed away. He was 95.

A Course in Miracles tells us that the only control we have is in our minds. The homeless man, the friends, the Buddhist monk, all are images in our minds. The gift of oneness is ours if we want it. 

The gift of oneness lifts the illusion of separateness. The gift of oneness is with us whether we are alive, separate, or half dead.

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361/ The Observer of Thoughts

24th January 2022

If you believe you understand something of the "dynamics" of the ego, let me assure you that you understand nothing of it. For of yourself you could not understand it. The study of the ego is not the study of the mind. (ACIM, T-14.X.8:4-6)

***

Our reality is made up of thought. How could it be otherwise? A Course in Miracles tells us there is nothing external to us. The world is just a projection of the mind. The mind we have is dominated by thought.

What we think is either a reflection of the ego or of the Holy Spirit. A Course in Miracles says that any thought that is not to do with Heaven is motivated by the ego. The ego relies on judgement. It judges what is worthy and what is not. 

By definition, just being able to observe our thoughts in action means there has to be an observer. The observer is beyond thought. It never judges, it just observes.

The observer knows that the mind is blank. It simply observes what we put on the screen.

A Course in Miracles tells us to order our thoughts. The ego acts like it owns us. It doesn't. The Holy Spirit is here to help us. We need to observe what is going on in our minds.

The fact is, we have no idea what our next thought is going to be. It is impossible to predict. So we just give each moment to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can organise our flow of thought. Peace is the inevitable outcome if we allow this to happen

We are the observer of thought. Our presence knows that this can only be.

Take no thought for yourself, for no thought you hold is for yourself. If you would remember your Father, let the Holy Spirit order your thoughts and give only the answer with which He answers you. (ACIM, T-14.X.10:3-4)

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362/ And Yet and What If

25th January 2022

Yet the essential thing is learning that you do not know. (ACIM, T-14.XI.1:1)

***

We all have a lot of 'and yets'. A Course in Miracles asks us this: Can God learn how not to be God? And can His Son, given all power by Him, learn to be powerless? (ACIM, T-14.XI.2:3-4)

We all have a lot of 'what ifs'. A Course in Miracles tells us the following: Your past is what you have taught yourself. Let it all go. (ACIM, T-14.XI.3:6-7)

None of us know where we are on our spiritual journey. Maybe there's not even a journey? Maybe it's all happening now?  The 'and yets' and 'what ifs' will always cross our minds until we complete the mission for which we came. The ultimate goal, so we are told, is to be wholly free of fear. 

The near-death experience also raises a lot of 'and yets' and 'what ifs', although it also provides a lot of answers. Richard Allyn had his NDE over 50 years ago due to an automobile accident, and it is still as fresh in his mind now as it was then. He says that as soon as the truck crashed into his car, he knew he had died thousands of times before.

Richard says we are always on the edge of something or nothing. We really don't go anywhere. He says that the universe is big and expansive but it really doesn’t occupy any space or time. Everything is just different levels of consciousness. When the truck hit his car, the shift to a different level of consciousness was virtually instantaneous. This was because his own level of consciousness wasn't blocking the shift.

Richard Allyn currently has a couple of accounts on YouTube, and one is with the Jeff Mara Podcast. The link is below.

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363/ The Need for Miracles

26th January 2022

"Many people are alive but don't touch the miracle of being alive." Thich Nhat Hanh.

***

A Course in Miracles tells us the following: You cannot be your guide to miracles, for it is you who made them necessary (ACIM, T-14.XI.7:1). This might sound like we are being blamed for our situation, but we are not. ACIM is simply pointing out the obvious.

We think that form is the miracle but the miracle is the formless. We think what can be seen is a miracle but the miracle lies in what can’t be seen. We are told that miracles are around us every day and yet every day we are completely unaware. None of this makes any sense to the ego. The ego can’t analyse what is impossible to explain

We never see the obvious because we never see with a clear mind. Our minds are in a constant state of flux. We might feel like it would take a miracle to clear our minds, and this is true. The ego powers the mind into a state of thinking where peace rarely ever gets a look in.

The paradox is that A Course in Miracles says that the ego does not exist, while we totally believe that it does. It's hard to take on anything that goes against what the ego considers real and solid. ACIM's first chapter starts with the fifty principles of miracles, which makes the ego delighted. This is because it makes no sense at all to the ego, and is therefore considered a complete waste of time. 

To the Holy Spirit, it all makes complete sense. Nothing is clearer than the clarity of miracles.

A Course in Miracles proves that miracles are as natural as breathing. The need for miracles is only here because we are dreaming a separation that doesn't exist. They are simple proof that help is always with us. Through miracles, we find out who we really are.

It is only because you think that you can run some little part, or deal with certain aspects of your life alone, that the guidance of the Holy Spirit is limited. (ACIM, T-14.XI.8:4)

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364/ Peace and Understanding

27th January 2022

Listen in silence, and do not raise your voice against Him. For He teaches the miracle of oneness, and before His lesson division disappears. (ACIM, T-14.XI.11:4-5)

***

A Course in Miracles is quite clear. The test of true awakening is whether we have perfect peace. Perfect peace stays within us no matter what the circumstances.

Not many of us can claim perfect peace for ourselves. Perfect peace eludes us even under the most benign of circumstances. That is why we are here - in order to find it. Everyone has perfect peace within them, but we just get distracted into thinking that we don't.

A Course in Miracles is holographic. Everything comes back to three things. We are one. There is no separation. And nothing in this universe exists except for God and His One Son. We learn that there is only perfect peace, and perfect peace is fuelled by love.

Perfect peace is impossible for the ego. There is absolutely no chance that perfect peace can ever exist with the ego in the mind. To the ego, there always has to be an opposite. There has to be something else that is in store for us. A Course in Miracles merely tells us that there isn't.

A Course in Miracles tells us that peace and understanding go together. They are inseparable. One cannot exist without the other.  It tells us that, if we accept that we do not understand anything, we can then become like a little child. Everything can be seen in a new light.

We are promised the Holy Spirit will never abandon us. Everything we need to know is all within the mind. If our minds can begin to connect with what is repeated time and time again within the framework of A Course in Miracles, then we will find that peace and understanding go hand in hand.

Leave room for Him, and you will find yourself so filled with power that nothing will prevail against your peace. And this will be the test by which you recognize that you have understood. (ACIM, T-14.XI.15:5-6)

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365/ A Trip Around the Sun

28th January 2022

If you but knew the meaning of His Love, hope and despair would be impossible. (ACIM, W-168.2:1)

***

A Course in Miracles tells us that God speaks to us. ACIM tells us that God loves us because we are all His One Son: There is no certainty but this, yet this suffices. He will love His Son forever. When his mind remains asleep, He loves him still. And when his mind awakes, He loves him with a never-changing Love. (ACIM, W-168.1:8-11)

This is part of lesson 168 in the Workbook of A Course in Miracles. The words sum up our predicament. We have everything that we need in this moment. However, our minds aren't still enough to know it.

Then, when we reach the end of the Workbook of A Course in Miracles, it is like a beginning. Everything starts again. Nothing ends. They say that if you read just one lesson in the Workbook, and understand it completely, there is no need to read anymore.

The first lesson in the Workbook has this title: Nothing I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] means anything (ACIM, W-1). The essence of this lesson is that we see everything through the eyes of the ego. This means that everything is labelled, and is given form.

The final five lessons of the Workbook are all the same. The lessons are simply four sentences, and begin with this: This holy instant would I give to You (ACIM, W-361-365). This is our only option. Each moment is either lost to the ego or given to the Holy Spirit. A Course in Miracles tells us there is no other choice.

The 365 lessons in the Workbook are our foundation for the understanding of the Holy Spirit. For some of us, the Workbook might take years to complete. For others it can be quicker. However, no one completes the Workbook in under a year. That is the rule.

One year is a trip around the sun. We have travelled full circle. Regardless of how we have changed at a very deep level, a trip around the sun begins again. All we can do is to start once more.