Of course, it’s difficult to make a choice if you don’t know another choice is available. If I think the ego’s illusory world is all there is - is the ‘real’ world, as in ‘get real’ and quit all this airy fairy metaphysical stuff, then I don’t have a choice, because I’m already dealing with all the reality there is.
But, if on the other hand, you sense you are part of something greater than yourself…. So in order to choose spirit instead of ego, first, I’ve got to believe spirit is a real choice. Second, I’ve got to believe spirit is the best choice. And third, I’ve got to believe I can actually choose spirit, that it’s possible to get there from here, that I don’t have to sacrifice anything or become a nun, monk, or weirdo to do it.
That’s where forgiveness comes in. When someone makes a mistake, you forgive them, right? Thinking the ego’s illusory world is all the reality there is, and that we have separated from God, is a mistake to be forgiven, not a sin. Identifying with the ego instead of spirit is a choice that our decision maker has made, in our minds. It is a mistaken choice. Spirit is still there, where it’s always been, in our minds, waiting for us to choose It.
Being mindful as I go thru my day and paying attention to how I perceive myself, others and the world, provides an opportunity for forgiveness - to correct my mistake, choose again, and tells me which teacher I’ve chosen, ego or spirit. If I find myself becoming bored, depressed or critical of others, it is because I’ve identified with ego, and chose to see myself at hateful and selfish, first. I see the world as I see myself. Instead of feeling guilty about this, which is ‘normal’ in the ego illusion, I need to forgive myself.
But I don’t. Rather than forgiving myself and accepting responsibility for that choice, I project it out and see the hate in someone or something else. I need not continue to do that. I can choose a different teacher, spirit, and choose to perceive myself, others, and the world differently.
Being mindful and understanding that I see the world as I see myself, alerts me to the fact that my ego reactions can be reminders that I made the wrong choice. Perceiving the pain, anger, fear, or even the fun and excitement this way, allows me to return to my mind where my decision maker made the mistake, forgive myself, because it was only a mistake, not a sin, and choose again. Thus, no matter what, it is never the other person or thing I forgive, but myself for making the wrong choice.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Forgiving
The metaphysics I’ve been working with and sharing with you, say that only the non-specific, formless love that comes from identifying with our own formless love, the oneness we share with spirit, is real. Everything else is illusion.
Identifying with our own formless love, and the oneness we share with spirit means we don’t deny our bodies or experience, tho they are form and are specific, but realize instead, that everyone and everything tho appearing to be part of the ego’s illusion, is actually neutral, and can be used by spirit or the ego. It’s our choice.
Used by spirit, everyone and everything can reveal and reflect the reality of the formless, non-specific love and oneness we share with spirit. Used by ego, everyone and everything serves to make our separation from spirit and our sense of form and specifics real(er). It’s our choice.
Spirit is formless, the space between the thoughts, because thoughts, being specific tho ethereal in form, not only deny our formless, non-specific reality, they add to it. “All thinking produces form on some level.”
Again, no sense feeling guilty about thinking, form and specifics, it’s reality in the ego world. What we can do however instead of feeling guilty is to forgive everyone and everything. After all, knowing that the world is an illusion, how can we justify making meaningful distinctions here? In truth, everyone and everything is part of the one life, as am I. Forgiving everyone and everything, no matter what [which is extremely hard to do from the ego perspective], says, nothing else is true but the one life everyone and everything shares. Forgiving looks beyond form to the essence that everyone and everything shares.
Forgiving is a choice. What possible difference can there possibly be in seeing differences between what is equally unreal? Our attitude, forgiving or not, toward the forms we perceive, toward everyone and everything, hastens or retards our awakening, our journey home to the life that is our source. Chose to forgive and moveon, don’t forgive and remain in the illusion.
Identifying with our own formless love, and the oneness we share with spirit means we don’t deny our bodies or experience, tho they are form and are specific, but realize instead, that everyone and everything tho appearing to be part of the ego’s illusion, is actually neutral, and can be used by spirit or the ego. It’s our choice.
Used by spirit, everyone and everything can reveal and reflect the reality of the formless, non-specific love and oneness we share with spirit. Used by ego, everyone and everything serves to make our separation from spirit and our sense of form and specifics real(er). It’s our choice.
Spirit is formless, the space between the thoughts, because thoughts, being specific tho ethereal in form, not only deny our formless, non-specific reality, they add to it. “All thinking produces form on some level.”
Again, no sense feeling guilty about thinking, form and specifics, it’s reality in the ego world. What we can do however instead of feeling guilty is to forgive everyone and everything. After all, knowing that the world is an illusion, how can we justify making meaningful distinctions here? In truth, everyone and everything is part of the one life, as am I. Forgiving everyone and everything, no matter what [which is extremely hard to do from the ego perspective], says, nothing else is true but the one life everyone and everything shares. Forgiving looks beyond form to the essence that everyone and everything shares.
Forgiving is a choice. What possible difference can there possibly be in seeing differences between what is equally unreal? Our attitude, forgiving or not, toward the forms we perceive, toward everyone and everything, hastens or retards our awakening, our journey home to the life that is our source. Chose to forgive and moveon, don’t forgive and remain in the illusion.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Lucid Dreaming, 2
A lucid dream is a dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. The term was coined by the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik (Willem) van Eeden (1860–1932).[1] In a lucid dream, the dreamer can actively participate in and manipulate imaginary experiences in the dream environment.[2] Lucid dreams can seem real and vivid.[3] Lucid dreaming has been researched scientifically, and its existence is well established.
The Course in Miracles, suggests that what we take to be real life, is in truth a lucid dream; that in reality we are at home with God, dreaming we are here. The miracle the Course teaches does not awaken us, but merely shows who the dreamer is. If it’s a ‘bad’ dream filled with terror, guilt, blame, and horror, focusing on specifics and our reality as bodies, we dream with the ego. If it’s a ‘good’ dream filled with peace, harmony, cooperation, and love, focusing on timeless transcendance, we dream with spirit.
The Course’s purpose is to move us towards awakening and show we have a choice of dreams while we still sleep. It is our choice. Who are we dreaming with and what is the dream’s purpose? Is the purpose love, inclusion, oneness and wholeness, or exclusion, hate, fear, blame, punishment and judgment? It’s our choice. For mySelf, I want to know that the reality of spirit surrounds me with love and friendship. I let it radite in my envioronment, bless everything I touch, make whole that which is weak, turn fear into faith, and accomplish the miracle of healing through love.
I am welcoming the opportunity to love fully, completely and joyfully inherent in every seeming ‘bad’ feeling, situation, or person. [This brings to mind the injunction to be careful for what I ask for.] I am believing in mySelf, because I believe in the reality of spirit and my oneness with It. I chose to dream a lucid dream with spirit, not ego, accepting life fully, completely, and without reservation, holding to the conviction that good is the eternal reality and that God is the everlasting, everpresent, and enfolding presence that guides and sustains me. What dream will you choose; what purpose will it serve and who will you dream it with?
The Course in Miracles, suggests that what we take to be real life, is in truth a lucid dream; that in reality we are at home with God, dreaming we are here. The miracle the Course teaches does not awaken us, but merely shows who the dreamer is. If it’s a ‘bad’ dream filled with terror, guilt, blame, and horror, focusing on specifics and our reality as bodies, we dream with the ego. If it’s a ‘good’ dream filled with peace, harmony, cooperation, and love, focusing on timeless transcendance, we dream with spirit.
The Course’s purpose is to move us towards awakening and show we have a choice of dreams while we still sleep. It is our choice. Who are we dreaming with and what is the dream’s purpose? Is the purpose love, inclusion, oneness and wholeness, or exclusion, hate, fear, blame, punishment and judgment? It’s our choice. For mySelf, I want to know that the reality of spirit surrounds me with love and friendship. I let it radite in my envioronment, bless everything I touch, make whole that which is weak, turn fear into faith, and accomplish the miracle of healing through love.
I am welcoming the opportunity to love fully, completely and joyfully inherent in every seeming ‘bad’ feeling, situation, or person. [This brings to mind the injunction to be careful for what I ask for.] I am believing in mySelf, because I believe in the reality of spirit and my oneness with It. I chose to dream a lucid dream with spirit, not ego, accepting life fully, completely, and without reservation, holding to the conviction that good is the eternal reality and that God is the everlasting, everpresent, and enfolding presence that guides and sustains me. What dream will you choose; what purpose will it serve and who will you dream it with?
Thursday, October 6, 2011
An Emply Space
Knowing people and events as God knows them – a wonderful, liberating experience – is only possible when I interpret myself, people and events as God would – without judgment, with love, and without the ego’s interpretation of myself, people and events. The ego makes bodies and specifics to keep us busy in its illusory world and to keep us unable to see that world differently, with spirit, instead of ego.
Unlike guilt and fear, which are of the ego and must be projected as specifics in the ego’s illusory world, from the mind that thinks it is a body in that illusory world, love does not have to be projected. Love being true, completely abstract and beyond all specifics, simply is and we remember its abstract being as we make room for it through forgiveness – letting go of the investment in the specifics of our ego lives. This doesn’t mean we deny we’re in the world, but reduce our investment in being here and take it less seriously.
“An empty space not seen as filled, an unused interval of time not seen as spent and fully occupied, become silent invitations to the truth to enter, and to make itself at home. For what you, as an ego, leave vacant God, your true Self and reality, will fill. There are no symbols – words and other specifics – for this, for nothing points (which is what symbols do – point) beyond the truth, for what can stand for more than everything? There is no symbol for totality.
“Reality is ultimately known without a form, un-pictured and unseen. Habits and rituals vanish, symbols fade, and nothing that the eyes have ever seen nor ears have heard remains to be perceived. A power wholly limitless has come, not to destroy, but to receive its own. Give welcome to the power beyond the ego’s illusory world of symbols and limitations. As It merely is, so we, merely are.”
There is nothing to prove and nothing to do, but be one with It and allow our oneness to manifest. That is the purpose of an empty space not seen as filled, an unused interval of time not seen as spent and fully occupied; to silently invite the truth to enter, and to make itself at home…..
Unlike guilt and fear, which are of the ego and must be projected as specifics in the ego’s illusory world, from the mind that thinks it is a body in that illusory world, love does not have to be projected. Love being true, completely abstract and beyond all specifics, simply is and we remember its abstract being as we make room for it through forgiveness – letting go of the investment in the specifics of our ego lives. This doesn’t mean we deny we’re in the world, but reduce our investment in being here and take it less seriously.
“An empty space not seen as filled, an unused interval of time not seen as spent and fully occupied, become silent invitations to the truth to enter, and to make itself at home. For what you, as an ego, leave vacant God, your true Self and reality, will fill. There are no symbols – words and other specifics – for this, for nothing points (which is what symbols do – point) beyond the truth, for what can stand for more than everything? There is no symbol for totality.
“Reality is ultimately known without a form, un-pictured and unseen. Habits and rituals vanish, symbols fade, and nothing that the eyes have ever seen nor ears have heard remains to be perceived. A power wholly limitless has come, not to destroy, but to receive its own. Give welcome to the power beyond the ego’s illusory world of symbols and limitations. As It merely is, so we, merely are.”
There is nothing to prove and nothing to do, but be one with It and allow our oneness to manifest. That is the purpose of an empty space not seen as filled, an unused interval of time not seen as spent and fully occupied; to silently invite the truth to enter, and to make itself at home…..
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Seeds, 3
I’m most mindful and aware of the seeds I’ve planted and am nurturing at the extremes of my experience in the ego illusion, either very good and enjoyable or very bad and painful. At the ‘good’ points I try to be grateful and to remember the enjoyment is but a reflection of spirit in the world and at the ‘bad, painful’ points I try and remember that negation may be an experience and a fact here in the ego’s illusory world, but it can never be an ultimate truth.
Spirit is all there is, our only reality. Spirit is only good: love, peace, joy, compassion and inclusion. We are spiritual beings dreaming we are having an earthly experience. Everything else is seeming real, illusions created by the ego to keep us believing we are separate from our spiritual Selves. At some point, more often the more we practice mindfulness, we will realize this.
Awakening to my reality as spirit, I can then refuse to contemplate evil as an actual power, knowing that it will dissolve in the light of love – my experience of oneness with spirit. I know that hate cannot exist where love is recognized. I turn the light of love on everything I experience, allowing the light to dissolve every dark and dreary image of sin and evil. Love makes the way clear before me and I am guided into an ever-widening experience of living. Every person I meet and every event I experience partakes of this love and the givingness of spirit. It is this love and givingness that I meet in every person and event, experience as ‘good’, and am mindful of and grateful for. In this light of love, I can know people and events as God knows them.
Spirit is all there is, our only reality. Spirit is only good: love, peace, joy, compassion and inclusion. We are spiritual beings dreaming we are having an earthly experience. Everything else is seeming real, illusions created by the ego to keep us believing we are separate from our spiritual Selves. At some point, more often the more we practice mindfulness, we will realize this.
Awakening to my reality as spirit, I can then refuse to contemplate evil as an actual power, knowing that it will dissolve in the light of love – my experience of oneness with spirit. I know that hate cannot exist where love is recognized. I turn the light of love on everything I experience, allowing the light to dissolve every dark and dreary image of sin and evil. Love makes the way clear before me and I am guided into an ever-widening experience of living. Every person I meet and every event I experience partakes of this love and the givingness of spirit. It is this love and givingness that I meet in every person and event, experience as ‘good’, and am mindful of and grateful for. In this light of love, I can know people and events as God knows them.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Seeds, 2
The power of a seed is awesome! Think of a weed, an apple or malaluca tree, or cancer, or hope or of any living event that emerges from within itself. It is the degree to which it obeys its inner commitment to unfold a certain pattern that enables it to overcome all of the resistance and the obstacles in the environment, and to demonstrate itself as a manifestation of the energy of life. What seeds are we nurturing within us right now? The seeds of peace, love and compassion, or the seeds of hate, fear, blame and exclusion?
Look around at your life, by the fruits you shall know what seeds you have planted. We are the gardeners, the planters, the decision makers (in spite of Bush’s claim to that title). What we grow and nurture is our choice. The power is there, inherent in the seeds, ready to spring forth, it is our choice what seeds we plant, what to grow and nurture; not God’s, government’s, or our parent’s.
The life force of spirit – love, peace, joy, compassion and inclusion - is within us, seeking, even demanding to grow and thrive and be more. Will we heed it? Will we get our bloated illusory ego nothingness out of the way of the divine circuits? Or will we insist that our tiny, fearful ego consciousness is all there is and knows better? We waste time, energy and life resisting the seeds of spirit within us. Let the seeds of the unexpected talents and treasures spirit planted within blossom. Be mindful of what you’re nurturing and choose what is actually the easier path and allow the potent force of spirit to carry you.
Look around at your life, by the fruits you shall know what seeds you have planted. We are the gardeners, the planters, the decision makers (in spite of Bush’s claim to that title). What we grow and nurture is our choice. The power is there, inherent in the seeds, ready to spring forth, it is our choice what seeds we plant, what to grow and nurture; not God’s, government’s, or our parent’s.
The life force of spirit – love, peace, joy, compassion and inclusion - is within us, seeking, even demanding to grow and thrive and be more. Will we heed it? Will we get our bloated illusory ego nothingness out of the way of the divine circuits? Or will we insist that our tiny, fearful ego consciousness is all there is and knows better? We waste time, energy and life resisting the seeds of spirit within us. Let the seeds of the unexpected talents and treasures spirit planted within blossom. Be mindful of what you’re nurturing and choose what is actually the easier path and allow the potent force of spirit to carry you.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Like a Star....
Here are some re-assuring ideas from the Course. “Even though we have left love [our real and natural connection with spirit, for the ego’s illusion], love has not left us…. Whom God has joined as one, the ego cannot put asunder…. The thought God holds of you is like a star, unchangeable in an eternal sky. So high in Heaven is it set that those outside of Heaven know not it is there. Yet still and white and lovely will it shine through all eternity. There was no time it was not there; no instant when its light grew dimmer or less perfect (than) ever was.
“Who knows (spirit) knows this light, for It is the eternal sky that holds it safe, forever lifted up and anchored sure. Its perfect purity does not depend on whether it is seen on earth or not….”
“Let us be glad we can walk the world, and find so many chances to perceive another situation where (spirit’s) gift can once again be recognized as ours! Thus will all vestiges of hell, the secret sins and hidden hates be gone. And all the loveliness which they concealed appear, to lift us high above the thorny roads we traveled before…
“When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter [that you are in the learning laboratory, with another opportunity to learn, and an opportunity to be free of judgment and guilt]. As you see this person you will see yourself. In this person you will find yourSelf or lose yourSelf.”
You are not a stranger to yourSelf, nor has yourSelf made you a stranger. The thought God holds of you is like a star….
“Who knows (spirit) knows this light, for It is the eternal sky that holds it safe, forever lifted up and anchored sure. Its perfect purity does not depend on whether it is seen on earth or not….”
“Let us be glad we can walk the world, and find so many chances to perceive another situation where (spirit’s) gift can once again be recognized as ours! Thus will all vestiges of hell, the secret sins and hidden hates be gone. And all the loveliness which they concealed appear, to lift us high above the thorny roads we traveled before…
“When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter [that you are in the learning laboratory, with another opportunity to learn, and an opportunity to be free of judgment and guilt]. As you see this person you will see yourself. In this person you will find yourSelf or lose yourSelf.”
You are not a stranger to yourSelf, nor has yourSelf made you a stranger. The thought God holds of you is like a star….
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