Reflections 57 to 70
26th March 2021
"A grateful mind is great mind which eventually attracts to itself great things." Plato.
***
Waking up in the morning , our mood might vary. Regardless of how we feel, disciplining the mind by giving silent thanks for what we have is a soothing way to start the day. It is simple and heartfelt.
A Course in Miracles puts gratitude into context with this: Gratitude goes hand in hand with love, and where one is the other must be found. (ACIM, W-195.10:2-3)
There is no harm, though, in questioning the source of our gratitude. Are we offering gratitude out of relief that our lives are the way they are? Or are we offering gratitude out of thanks that our lives are perfect just the way they are?
Gratitude is a lesson hard to learn for those who look upon the world amiss. The most that they can do is see themselves as better off than others. And they try to be content because another seems to suffer more than they. (ACIM, W-195.1:1-3)
This is the way the egoic mind works. The alternative is to see everyone and everything as if we are seeing them through the eyes of our Creator. Equal in every sense. The same Identity, and the same Source.
From this perspective, we extend our gratitude.
We give thanks for every living thing, for otherwise we offer thanks for nothing, and we fail to recognise the gifts of God to us. (ACIM, W-195.6:3)
In this sense, we have truly woken up to gratitude.
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27th March 2021
"We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow." Fulton Oursler.
***
It can be but myself I crucify (ACIM, W-196) is the title of a lesson from the Workbook of A Course in Miracles. The word crucify could just as easily be substituted with attack.
A Course in Miracles wants us to know that each day, literally every moment of the day, we crucify ourselves. it is a metaphor for the ego. It is something we do, and have no idea we are doing it.
Our lives always revolve around the body. This is what we focus on. The two examples below, both taken from the lesson, show us we need to focus on the mind.
The dreary, hopeless thought that you can make attacks on others and escape yourself has nailed you to the cross. (ACIM, W-196.5:1)
For once you understand it is impossible that you be hurt except by your own thoughts, the fear of God must disappear. You cannot then believe that fear is caused without. (ACIM, W-196.8:3-4)
The lesson tells us that our greatest fear is our own salvation. We fear our own liberation from pain and suffering.
The lesson demonstrates that we fear our strength and freedom. This means we fear anything the Holy Spirit offers us.
Within the Text, there is a section called The Message of the Crucifixion (ACIM, T-6.I). There, Jesus teaches us that the crucifixion is just an extreme example of what we do to each other every day. He is not expecting us to be crucified. He is asking us only to do this.
"Teach only love, for that is what you are." (ACIM, T-6.I.13:2)
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28th March 2021
Thinking is the key here. Both the miracle, and spiritual sight, are about choosing the right thinker.
Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual. (ACIM, T-1.I.12:1-3)
If we think spiritual sight is about seeing, we might confuse it with what we see through the physical eyes. What we see with the body is related to the world we see. Neither the miracle nor spiritual sight are within this framework.
It is our choice of thought that is the catalyst for spiritual sight, and for the miracle. We have two choices of thought; that of the ego and that of the Holy Spirit. The ego means we think fearfully. Spiritual sight means we learn to think with the thoughts of the Holy Spirit. This takes time and training.
A Course in Miracles begins with fifty principles of miracles. The twelfth one is at the top of the page. The thirty sixth one is as follows.
Miracles are examples of right thinking, aligning your perceptions with truth as God created it. (ACIM, T-1.I.36:1)
The first step in being familiar with the miracle of spiritual sight is that we have to want it. We then have to become aware of our thoughts and where they lead us. We finally allow ourselves to surrender to the higher power that is the Holy Spirit.
This requires trust and faith. We are told it is all within us.
The power of God, and not of you, engenders miracles. The miracle itself is but the witness that you have the power of God in you. (ACIM, T-14.X.6:9-11)
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29th March 2021
We might think we have the answers. We might think we know how life works.
Or maybe the opposite is true? We feel lost. We feel a little stuck.
A Course in Miracles tells us that the essential thing is learning that you do not know (ACIM, T-14.XI.1:1). We are taught that we perceive the world through our minds. We are taught the world is a dream, and that we are the dreamer of the dream.
Below is another home truth that we are taught.
Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free. (ACIM, W-332)
A Course in Miracles is a course in forgiveness. It is also a course in harmlessness. We have to trust the process. Step by step, day by day, we just follow the directions.
For example, through forgiveness, all our other dreams away are swept away, even though, in itself, forgiveness is still a dream.
Through forgiveness, we feed our inner desire to waken.
Through forgiveness, our fear lessens and the all fears are replaced by dreams of peace.
A Course in Miracles tells us this: What disappears in light is not attacked. It merely vanishes because it is not true. (ACIM, T-14.IX.2:4-5)
When we learn that we do not know, we can stop relying on the ego for our answers. Through applying forgiveness, we begin to see we were wrong all along. Then situations begin to change. Through forgiveness, we begin to know we are on the right track.
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30th March 2021
A Course in Miracles tells us that the ego and the body go hand in hand. One cannot live without the other. Both have nothing to do with our reality.
The ego holds the body dear because it dwells in it, and lives united with the home that it has made. It is a part of the illusion that has sheltered it from being found illusory itself. (ACIM, W-199.3:3-4)
A Course in Miracles also tells us that the mind is so much more than what is contained within the body. The body's mind is the mind of the ego. The Holy Spirit's mind is unlimited and unending.
Keeping an open mind can therefore mean that we might consider there is another way of thinking.
The mind that serves the Holy Spirit is unlimited forever, in all ways, beyond the laws of time and space, unbound by any preconceptions, and with strength and power to do whatever it is asked. (ACIM, W-199.2:1)
Those who have had a near-death experience usually report that they return with an expanded mind. They might have a heightened sense of perception. They might question the way they live their life, how they think, and what they do. They often have overcome their fear of death, feeling compelled to live life more fearlessly.
Barbara Bartolome had a near-death experience in 1987. She says that integrating it was difficult, while talking about it was met with resistance, particularly from those in the medical profession. However, she talks of the peace that can arise when we are open to the phenomena of the NDE.
She says this: "We are spiritual beings having a physical experience, as opposed to physical beings having a spiritual experience."
Barbara has a number of accounts that can be found on YouTube. One is: 'Present! Barbara Bartolome's Near-Death Experience'. The link is below.
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62/ Forgive and Let Go
31st March 2021
“Whatever comes, let it come, what stays let stay, what goes let go.” Papaji.
***
Forgiveness and the release of judgement are two important goals when undertaking A Course in Miracles. Neither bears any resemblance to what the world might teach us. This is because the world does not exist within the framework of ACIM. ACIM tells us that the world we see is just a projection of the ego. And the ego is just an illusion. The training is therefore to see the world through the eyes of the Holy Spirit. Everything then changes. The world becomes real because it is the real world.
Our minds judge all the time. Something is too hot or too cold. Someone is too fat or too thin. Judging is just what the ego does. Combining forgiveness and judgement is impossible under the guidance of the ego. It's like smoking a cigarette and trying to breathe deeply at the same time.
Clearly, we need to judge what is safe and what is not safe. Otherwise, we would end up under a bus. The judgement A Course in Miracles is talking about is negative self assessment.
We let judgement go by listening to the Holy Spirit. We forgive all things with the understanding that they never happened.
A Course in Miracles tells us to become aware of our thinking. It tells us to give it over to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit knows exactly what to do in all circumstances. All we have to do is to be aware of what is going one in our minds.
It's up to us to apply the principles. And it's up to us to always forgive ourselves when we slip up. Nothing in the world is going to make it easy for us. But ultimately we learn that nothing in the world really exists. A Course in Miracles goes completely against the world's thinking. ACIM completely undoes the world.
Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. It does not pardon sins and make them real. It sees there was no sin. And in that view are all your sins forgiven. What is sin, except a false idea about God’s Son? Forgiveness merely sees its falsity, and therefore lets it go. What then is free to take its place is now the Will of God. (ACIM, W-pII.1.1:1-7)
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1st April 2021
It takes great learning to understand that all things, events, encounters and circumstances are helpful. (ACIM, M-4.I-A.4:5)
***
Everyone's experience of life is different. But everyone will have something that has to be learnt. It might be a problem that we feel is insurmountable.
It is unique to us. We might be able to speak about it, we might not.
If we think we have overcome it, it might appear in a different form, just to test us.
A Course in Miracles is here to help us. A Course in Miracles wants us to be happy. How do we know? Because the quiet Voice inside of us always affirms. It always reassures. It always supports.
A situation might occur where we are tested. We might even feel that we have failed. But that is not how life works. A Course in Miracles tells us that we are tested only when we are ready.
Some of your greatest advances you have judged as failures, and some of your deepest retreats you have evaluated as success. (ACIM, T-18.V.1:6)
The Holy Spirit is on our side. We can see the positive or the negative in anything. If we want to awaken, we have to embrace everything.
We are asked not to let the ego rule us. We are told there is something much bigger within us. It is spirit. It is unseen. It is an encounter with the other side.
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2nd April 2021
"If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" Steve Jobs.
***
We might not think we have a routine of compulsive thinking, but we do.
It is likely that our compulsive thinking hasn't taken us to where we want to go. Maybe we are in physical or emotional pain? Maybe we just aren't happy? We need something to break the cycle of our negative thoughts.
If we think about it, there can't be any compulsive thinking in the present moment. Within the context of A Course in Miracles, this is called the holy instant.
The holy instant is this instant and every instant. The one you want it to be it is. (ACIM, T-15.IV.1:3-5)
A Course in Miracles tells us that truth is simple. Complexity is of the ego (ACIM, T-15.IV.6:1-2). We need some help to get us through our waves of past and future thinking. We need a thought to help us to break our routine.
What is written below is found in the Text of A Course in Miracles.
There is a light that this world cannot give. Yet you can give it, as it was given you. And as you give it, it shines forth to call you from the world and follow it. For this light will attract you as nothing in this world can do. (ACIM, T-13.VI.11:1-4)
It is likely that we will have to break our routine to find this light. The world in which we live cannot show it to us.
Breaking our routine means doing something different. The light is always there. Compulsive thinking won't find it. Sometimes, it is as simple as taking a moment to pause.
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3rd April 2021
In the transition there is a period of confusion, in which a sense of actual disorientation may occur. But fear it not, for it means only that you have been willing to let go your hold on the distorted frame of reference that seemed to hold your world together. This frame of reference is built around the special relationship. Without this illusion there could be no meaning you would still seek here. (ACIM, T-16.VI.7:4-7)
***
We shape our world by where we live, what we do, and who we know. Our frame of reference is whatever is familiar to us.
A Course in Miracles wants us to change our frame of reference only if it isn't bring us peace. This is the only rule we need to live our lives by.
Our minds hold the truth of who we are. This is both from the ego's and the Holy Spirit's frame of reference. The ego knows our whole history as a body. The Holy Spirit knows our whole history as spirit.
The frame of reference the ego uses is distorted. It is based on past hurts and future conditions. None of it is real. It all occurs within the mind.
The frame of reference the Holy Spirit uses is only light. This is how the Holy Spirit sees us, and it is what we are. It is a state of mind that is infinite and unending. And it has nothing to do with the light that the body's eyes can see.
A Course in Miracles tells us that everything that is real has no opposite.
A Course in Miracles tells us that everything that is real is so different to anything we have ever known, and yet we do know it.
A Course in Miracles tells us that everything that is real is completely outside our frame of reference. It comes through a single perception, based upon one frame of reference, from which one meaning comes (ACIM, W-108.3:3). This perception is our ultimate goal.
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66/ Today is Easter
4th April 2021
"God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us.” Saint Augustine.
***
Easter marks the day of the Resurrection. Christ appeared to two of his followers on the road to Emmaus and was risen from the dead.
A Course in Miracles asks us this: Would you join in the resurrection or the crucifixion? Would you condemn your brothers or free them? Would you transcend your prison and ascend to the Father? (ACIM, T-11.VI.2:1-3)
A Course in Miracles then tells us that these questions are all the same. They are answered together.
We all live in this world and each one of us appears to be independent. A Course in Miracles states that each one of us has the Christ within. We all think we are independent human beings but we are all One. There is one Christ, and therefore one of us.
Christ is perfect love. Perfect love is within each one of us. Jesus embodied the Christ within him. He saw perfect love in everyone.
As individuals, we appear to walk around independently. A Course in Miracles tells us this is just a mental projection. The passage below, taken from the Manual for Teachers, is the only passage in the whole of ACIM where Jesus is mentioned in the third person. It sums up what we are talking about.
The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do. Yet who can save unless he sees illusions and then identifies them as what they are? Jesus remains a Saviour because he saw the false without accepting it as true. And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions. (ACIM, C-5.2:1-6)
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67/ The Blanket of Fear
5th April 2021
"Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions." Hafez.
***
Anyone who has experienced a blanket of fear will know that it is overwhelming. When the blanket of fear arises, we probably forget everything we have learnt on the spiritual path.
It might be useful to know that there is only one ego for all of us, just like there is only one Holy Spirit. There is also only one mind.
The ego only sees the body. We have the ego in our mind, and this will form our reality. The ego just sees separate identities.
To the ego the mind is private, and only the body can be shared. (ACIM, T-15.VII.8:5)
The ego's purpose is fear, because only the fearful can be egotistic. (ACIM, T-5.V.1:3)
The ego is the part of the mind that believes in division. (ACIM, T-5.V.3:1)
The Holy Spirit cannot teach through fear. The Holy spirit teaches through communication. He teaches through the One Mind. A Course in Miracles leads us on a path where we have to learn to ask the Holy Spirit's guidance.
When the blanket of fear comes down, A Course in Miracles doesn't seem simple. But ultimately it is. There are just two choices. The ego or the Holy Spirit.
We come to realise we always have two choices in whatever the situation. That of fear or love. As we understand this, then things begin to change.
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68/ Saying I Love You
6th April 2021
Prayer is the medium of miracles. It is a means of communication of the created with the Creator. Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed. (ACIM, T-1.I.11:1-3)
***
How often we say "I love you" probably depends on our culture and upbringing. When it is natural and spontaneous, saying "I love you" is probably the most beautiful phrase in the world.
A Course in Miracles, however, tells us that the world is simply a reflection of the egoic thought system. This means that there are always conditions to the love. Something is always wanted in return.
The real world is seen through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has a different perspective on love. There are no conditions. There is just acceptance.
We need to return to our right minds to fully understand the meaning of love. If we feel we are a failure in love, we are just told this: Accept your sense of failure as nothing more than just a mistake in who you are. (ACIM, T-15.VIII.3:6)
So we might want to start the journey to find out what love really is? This requires a commitment to study, and a desire to know. It also requires a lot of courage because we are confronting love's opposite, which is fear.
We are told we have a fear of forgiveness (ACIM, T-15.VIII.1:6). We are told we have a lot of unconscious guilt. When we hear this, we might react or deny. A Course in Miracles simply teaches us to undo the guilt through a practice of forgiveness.
Spirit is love, and is always saying "I love you". Learning to mirror that back is the lesson of life. If we can do that, then the real meaning behind these words is quietly revealed.
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69/ The Promise of What Is
7th April 2021
Salvation is a promise, made by God, that you would find your way to Him at last. (ACIM, W-pII.2.1:1)
***
We need people in front of us to reflect back to us how we are doing. We know how we are doing by how we react. Maybe we are able to cope with situations better than we did before? Maybe the same buttons get pushed but we just recover quicker?
Everyone and everything is our teacher. But occasionally a Teacher appears who gives us what we are looking for. They are able to give us all we need to know in such a way that we feel motivated. We feel motivated because we know that we are finding the cause of our problems.
It is like a signpost on the way.
A Course in Miracles is that Teacher. It tells us all we need to know about what we are and who we are. It tells us the cause of our fears and why we feel so limited.
Limits are demanded by the ego, and represents its demand to make little and ineffectual. (ACIM, T-15.IX.4:3)
A Course in Miracles teaches us that everything we need can only be found through the Holy Spirit.
This is the promise of what Is. The near-death experience can also show us what Is. Jim Macartney's NDE happened in 1997, and is a humbling and inspiring account. Jim saw the Source of all that Is, in a way that was perfect for him. He summed it up with this: "The effects of this experience is to recognize that who I am is the universe in form."
There are a number of his interviews on YouTube. One is called: 'Present! Jim Macartney and the near-death experience'. It is around 12 minutes long. The link is below.
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70/ Choose Once Again
8th April 2021
The body is the central figure in the dreaming of the world. There is no dream without it, nor does it exist without the dream in which it acts as if it were a person to be seen and to be believed. (ACIM, T-27.VIII.1:1-2)
***
As we get into A Course in Miracles, we learn more and more about the two choices. The two different voices. The ego and the Holy Spirit. As different as day and night.
To learn to distinguish one voice from the other requires us to practice the Workbook. We learn to discipline the mind. Ultimately, though, it just comes down to desire. Which voice do we want to listen to, and how much do we want to listen to it?
Our state of mind will be reflected back to us in our night-time dreams. But as we practice forgiveness, and learn to undo our unconscious guilt, we come to understand that we can wake up from another type of dream we hadn't anticipated. We do this by allowing our minds to receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Your Immortal Reality by Gary Renard uses the example of the child who is dreaming. If a parent of a four-year old girl sees that she is having a nightmare, the parent doesn't shake her awake. The parent knows she is dreaming. The parent knows it is not real. The parent whispers to the child and allows her to wake gently. Otherwise it is too much of a shock.
We are like that four-year old girl. The fact that our mind is dreaming the world would never have occurred to us. However, it is the central message of A Course in Miracles. The Holy Spirit is whispering to us. And each one us is the dreamer of the dream.
Like a child sleeping, the Holy Spirit slowly wakens us from the dream. It whispers to us. Whether we are deeply asleep or about to awaken will depend on our sense of awareness. Some of us might have been sleeping for a very long time.
All we have to do is to commit to the practice. How long we take, and how committed we are, is entirely up to us. We can choose to stay asleep any time we want. Freewill has been given us. This is the beauty. The choice is entirely up to us.
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