Rest in Love, Rest in Truth
You are loved! Most of us do not allow ourselves to feel it. Why? Don’t we believe we are lovable? You ARE loved, warts, gifts and all! Give yourself the gift of feeling it. Really feel it. Go to a silent place within, close your eyes and feel yourself being held, as if you were a small child again. Feel yourself being rocked gently and a soft hand stroking your cheek and telling you that you are loved. Feel the care and sweetness in your heart. That is how God loves you. Your spirit is love and as bright, as soft and innocent like this blossom.
I invite you to go to the A Course In Miracles website and listen to Lesson 109, I rest in God, being read to you as you close your eyes.
Here is the link to past in your browser: https://acim.org/workbook/lesson-109/
The Course offers 365 lessons, one for each day of the year. We being at lesson number 1 and read a lesson per day and on the 109th day of the year we learn we can and DO rest in Love, in God and can be at Peace. We just need to accept it. At the end of the 365 lessons you will never be lonely again or feel unloved…….when you remember your true identity – God’s Holy Precious Son.
Happy New Year!
Christmas: Giving and Receiving
Years ago our youngest son looked inquiringly at his Dad and said “Why Christmas?” It was a perceptive and honest question from his little three year mind. How would you answer that question? It is a good question to pose to our grown up selves. We rush about planning and making lists and drive ourselves crazy or get on the internet and figure out the best deals. We fret over what to give to whom and will they like it, that’s the big question. And then we imagine them opening it up and watching carefully for the expression that comes in that twinkling moment.
Maybe that “instant” is our gift! That shining twinkling moment when we made someone happy, made them smile and gasp with surprise. Then we hear their laughter, hopefully not a groan, and words of thanks or maybe a smooch!
My husband’s father loved Chocolate Covered Cherries. Every year we gave him a box. Finally one year he opened the gift and said, “Oh No, not Cherries again.” That was the last year we gave him cherries! How many of us have opened presents we definitely did NOT like and managed to feign appreciation showing we “love it” and have “always wanted one?”
Back to Why Christmas? Well it is all about Jesus and his Birth right? Look at how we avoid Jesus and his teachings these days. A few years ago I was reading a book about Jesus. The author had put his beautiful face smack on the cover. A gentleman stopped to inquire what I was reading. I closed the book and showed him the cover. You would have thought I was pointing a machine gun in his face! He was absolutely horrified, shocked! His eyes were big, brows shot up and he looked like someone had hit him with a stun gun. His adverse reaction was palpable. He said “Oh” and hurried away as quickly as he could.
Where does that reaction come from? For over 2,000 years the world has had Jesus to deal with. All faiths have their concepts but where does that “aversion” comes from.
One reason (and I am not a scholar) could be because the Bible claims he is God’s ONLY begotten son. So where does that leave the rest of us and the horrified man? We know of families that have a favorite child whose attributes out shine everyone else; that special child. Could it be collective unconscious jealousy runs through a society feeling resentment and somehow unloved. It can fester over a lifetime and throughout the ages. How many of us, deep down, feel as adored as that baby? The sweet song, ‘Away in the Manager’ always brings tears to my eyes.
If we don’t resent him we may try to out-do him! Climb the highest mountains; make the most money; give the biggest gift; have the biggest house or most expensive car or? We are all looking for love and appreciation. Maybe God (and others) will love us if we do such and such.
And yet we celebrate baby Jesus at Christmas and sing carols to him not knowing that baby is also us, you and me. If we had been students of the spiritual book, A Course In Miracles, at the time our young son asked, we could have told him that baby Jesus was (and still is) loved very much by God and YOU my child, are too! We are all God’s sons, the Christ. God being Eternal Unchanging Love never condemns or rejects anyone. In the First Chapter of the Course Jesus tells us:
“You are a perfect creation, and should experience awe only in the Presence of the Creator of perfection. Equals should not be in awe of one another because awe implies inequality. It is therefore an inappropriate reaction to me. An elder brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience, and obedience for his greater wisdom. He is also entitled to love because he is a brother, and to devotion if he is devoted. It is only my devotion that entitles me to yours. There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. I have nothing that does not come from God. The difference between us now is that I have nothing else. This leaves me in a state which is only potential in you.” ACIM I.II.3.
So….Jesus our elder brother is devoted to us, YOU and ME, everyone! He demonstrates to us our potential. No one is excluded from Love not even a politician. He tells us we are all the same in the ego world because we feel separated from God and our only need is to choose love instead of fear and hatred. And like Jesus we can offer tolerance, love and yes forgiveness too as we free our spirit from the tight grip of judgment and hatred. For 2,000 years his wisdom has endeavored to open our hearts and minds to the clarity of healing light. We come here to learn lessons, to see through the ego and world programming and to exclude no one from our love. All hate is from the ego; all love is God. When we give Love, we receive love.
That is giving and receiving.
Be like God – Love Every ONE!
Visit http://www.acim.org or http://www.facim.org
To find out more about A Course In Miracles
Peace is Release – Release is Peace
The Course says that each decision that you make is one between a grievance and a Miracle. Every decision is actually a judgment! Every thought can be one of inclusion or exclusion. The inclusive thought brings inner peace. The exclusive thought brings separation and guilt. It is hard to believe that a judgment can bring guilt but it does. We heap guilt upon our souls with every seemingly insignificant harmless judgmental thought.
But guilt is not harmless. It ego eats at your soul. The ego is addicted to “sugar” – and its sugar is judgmental thoughts, grievances, grudges, jealousy, resentment, worry and the distraction of controversy. The ego seeks to keep you in guilt rather than in the arms of the Holy Spirit and peace. You will never be happy until you look at the ego and examine its hold on your life and how it colors your perceptions.
When you feel the gnawing sense of un-ease in your gut, just retrace your previous thoughts. What has you by the throat? What is it about? Is it a worry a gripe or a grudge against someone, a relative, friend or possibly yourself?
Just LOOK at the unease. Bring all the details into awareness and imagine holding the hand of the Holy Spirit. Say: “Look at this with me. Help me see it differently.” When we share all the details with the Holy Spirit we are taking it out of the ego’s clutches.
Now Wait! You have brought it to awareness. It is no longer festering below in the unconscious ready to percolate to the surface at a moments notice.
This Looking help with the RELEASE. The release is the process of letting go. You have given it to God. Breathe into the letting go to speed it on its way.
The RELEASE comes with looking and by passing the ego. The ego is no longer in charge of the gripe or the grudge or the upset.
Release is Peace! Peace will arrive! The grudge, grievance will lessen and at some point you will laugh at the silliness you put yourself through. We do it to ourselves!
See: A Course in Miracles lesson 78. Let miracles replace all grievances.
” Perhaps it is not quite clear to you that each decision (judgment) that you make is between a grievance and a miracle.”
You are LOVED!!
Visit: http://www.acim.org – click on workbook lessons
Peace and Joy I Offer You
We cannot find peace if we continue to remember and replay hurtful events from the past. Are you happy being stuck on automatic thinking about an old event? Are you replaying blame, pain and guilt? Was it their fault or yours? If it was your fault you feel guilty. If it was theirs, you feel victimized. Neither are happy making!
What part of your mind is doing the replaying? Ask Yourself: Do I want peace and joy rather than guilt or victimhood?
If the answer is YES, then decided to STOP replaying the past!
HOW? It is up to you……yes YOU! You are doing the replaying yourself!
You could choose to look at it another way.
Say: “OK – I’ll look at this another way for the sake of my own peace.”
Begin to think of the people involved (or the situation) and realize that you are denying them peace and joy (that is their right under the equal laws of God) AND you are ALSO denying peace and joy to yourself.
WOW: If you hold a grievance against someone….it is held in your MIND! You are trapped in the grievance with them. Are you happy? You are trapping your light and joy!
Think of the people involved a little while and tell them in your mind:
* “My brother/sister/: peace and joy I offer you,
That I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.”
We don’t think that just because we have denied peace and joy to someone that we are in effect really denying peace to our Self. If you hold hate or a grudge in your mind, you are the one doing the HOLDING, so you are the effect of your own suffering! Do you like how you feel?
Do you think your brother is suffering? We don’t know but we know you are.
Would you rather say to that brother?
My brother/sister/myself: misery and suffering I offer you
That I may have the ego’s misery and suffering as mine.
Which version do you choose? If the word God bothers you, take it out. God won’t care. That mystery which is love, never condemns. It doesn’t know how to. Make a copy of the pledge and paste it around the house. Take yourself on as a student and train yourself to accept that peace and joy is your inheritance and that you are worth it.
* The quote is from A Course In Miracles, Workbook lesson 105 God’s Peace and Joy are Mine. Visit www.acim.org go The Workbook lessons and then click the lesson selector. You can also click “hear” and listen to the entire lesson and close your eyes. Choose peace!
Hint: When you give you also receive!
In the fox holes of life!
In the fox holes of life: ‘I Am There.’
Easter and Passover join hands this year! Passover and Good Friday on March 30 and Easter April 1. Jesus always takes center stage for Easter. For years I had problems with the concept of Jesus until I started studying the spiritual psychological non- dual metaphysical book, ‘A Course In Miracles.’ Maybe since he was proclaimed the CHOOSEN one i.e. the favorite son of God, it made me wonder about the rest of us. Did he (God) care about me or anyone else for that matter? I decided probably not. But Jesus in the Course tells the scribe, Helen Schucman, that yes, he is a Son of God but so are you and I. He is not special. We are equals and all equally loved!
“The miracle is a sign of love among equals. Equals should not be in awe of one another because awe implies inequality. It is therefore an inappropriate reaction to me. An elder brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience, and obedience for his greater wisdom. There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. I have nothing that does not come from God. The difference between us now is that I have nothing else. This leaves me in a state which is only potential in you.” T.1.II.3.4-12.
He also says that we do need help and He and the Holy Spirit are here for us.
“I go before you because I am beyond the ego. Reach, therefore, for my hand because you want to transcend the ego. My strength will never be wanting, and if you choose to share it you will do so.” T. 8.V.6 7-9.
Hold out your hand i.e. your mind and he is there. Yes, He is the Christ but so are you and I and everyone, whether we accept it or not.
Another wonderful thing about the Course is that since Jesus’s Mind joined with Helen’s we know he is not dead! He tells us throughout the Course that there is no death. He did not die on the cross! His body did but HE did NOT!
I have come to believe that Jesus is really REAL! Not in the bodily sense but within the fox holes of life where faith holds our hand and trust, the light. God does not need us but we need to know, that HIS love and grace are always here with us – Within.
Recently I learned about the mystical poem ‘I am There’ by James Dillet Freeman. He is sometimes known as “the poet laureate of the moon” because two of his poems are on the moon. ‘I Am There’ was taken by Astronaut, James B. Irwin in 1971 and ‘Prayer for Protection’ by Lunar Commander ‘Buzz’ Aldrin in July 1969. Here are the poems of assurance and a blessed Passover and Easter to all.
I am There
Do you need Me?
I am there.
You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by.
You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice.
You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands.
I am at work, though you do not understand My ways.
I am at work, though you do not recognize My works.
I am not strange visions. I am not mysteries.
Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know Me as I am, and then but as a feeling and a faith.
Yet I am there. Yet I hear. Yet I answer.
When you need Me, I am there.
Even if you deny Me, I am there.
Even when you feel most alone, I am there.
Even in your fears, I am there.
Even in your pain, I am there.
I am there when you pray and when you do not pray.
I am in you, and you are in Me.
Only in your mind can you feel separate from Me, for only in your mind are the mists of “yours” and “mine.”
Yet only with your mind can you know Me and experience Me.
Empty your heart of empty fears.
When you get yourself out of the way, I am there.
You can of yourself do nothing, but I can do all.
And I am in all.
Though you may not see the good, good is there, for I am there.
I am there because I have to be, because I am.
Only in Me does the world have meaning; only out of Me does the world take form; only because of Me does the world go forward.
I am the law on which the movement of the stars and the growth of living cells are founded.
I am the love that is the law’s fulfilling. I am assurance. I am peace. I am oneness. I am the law that you can live by. I am the love that you can cling to. I am your assurance. I am your peace. I am one with you. I am.
Though you fail to find Me, I do not fail you.
Though your faith in Me is unsure, My faith in you never wavers, because I know you, because I love you.
Beloved, I am there.
The Prayer of Protection
The light of God surrounds us;
The love of God enfolds us;
The power of God protects us;
The presence of God watches over us;
Wherever we are, God is!
Learn more about the history and mystery of ‘I am There’ by James Dillet Freeman at http://www.unity.com.
January Peace of Mind
OK – So it is mid January! You may have made some resolutions about things you want to happen or do this year. How you doing? The only part of your mind that would care or “seem to mind” is the ego. The ego is the part of your mind that carries the judge’s gavel and seems to run you around like the cartoon road runner.
But what if you set your goal at the beginning of each day so that no matter what happened that day you would have peace?
A Couse In Miracles Lesson 34. I could see peace instead of this.
“Peace of mind is clearly an internal matter. It must begin with your own thoughts and then extend outward. It is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception of the world arises.”
Go to http://www.acim.org – click on lessons and then scroll to lesson 34. You can even close your eyes and have it read aloud to you.
So – each morning, before you get out of bed lie there for a few restful minutes and ask yourself: “What kind of a day do I want? What do I want to have happen today? Run through all the events and circumstances that you think the day will hold.
Then looking at them all say:
“But above all, today I choose peace. No matter what happens I want the peace of God.”
Then it won’t matter if you get the job interview; the check you’ve been expecting; the date or meeting you’ve been waiting for or the diagnosis you’re hoping for. No matter what happens since your goal is PEACE, you will have it regardless of the outcome of any of the circumstances in your life.
On my white board in the kitchen I’ve written: Today I want the Peace of God. You can put it on a note card you carry in your pocket.
In Chapter 17. of the Course, Section VI. Setting the Goal, p.4. (pg. 366)
The value of deciding in advance what you want to happen is simply that you will perceive the situation as means to make it happen.”
If we decide in advance what we want, then we will perceive it and even if we don’t, we will be upset and then remember “Oh, I could see peace instead of this.”
Even if you get what you want, how long will it make you happy?
No matter what happens in our crazy mixed up world, you can have peace!
From Darkness to Light
The Course in Miracles tells us that the memory of God comes to the quiet mind. Is your mind quiet? Do you want it quiet? If so, then why isn’t it?
This is an age old question but the answer is simple: We can’t have a quiet mind if we are judging people. Judging is the ego’s primary goal and it keeps us in separation and guilt. We cannot enter God’s Presence alone. We need to take along our “brother” (the brother we are judging) which means the ACCEPTANCE of Him/Her/Them i.e. everyone.
We are judging people if we cannot accept them as Holy and therefore we are outside of holiness as well.
Look at the judgments and above all – do not judge yourself for making them or the ego has you by the throat. When you judge yourself (good or bad) you are making the error (the ego and the body) real. When we hang onto the hate, grievance, upset we are keeping it, the ego’s hate ALIVE!
But we have a purpose in keeping the grievance ALIVE?
When we see the other person, in our dream as separate and split off, they serve as scapegoats for the part of our self we do not want to accept or recognize.
If you don’t see others as holy…..you are not holy.
Judgment is purposive. It keeps us unholy and bound to guilt. If we were holy we would be One with God, with Love and we would disappear. Our individuality would be zero. We are afraid of Love. We want to stay unholy, keep the ego and our judgments in order to stay in the world and be FAR away from God….away from Love.
Freedom lies in looking at the hate with Jesus/Holy Spirit beside us. This is a Course in attaining the light by looking at the darkness. We expose the darkness by taking gentle steps. Look at it and going to the quiet center with Holy Spirit say
“I see this anger/hate/fear/grievance, but I don’t want it anymore. It is keeping me away from peace, from God and from Love. Help me see it differently. Help me recognize it is a projection, it is not real, this is a dream and a script I chose to experience when I * separated from God.”
Peace is attained by each one of us looking and undoing the hatred in ourselves. Self-hatred creates guilt and guilt protects us from love. Joy is finally recognizing you are FORGIVEN and all GUILT is GONE!
* We NEVER left God. We just think we did when we chose the ego!
Reference: A Course In Miracles – Chapter 11. God or the Ego, Section III. From Darkness to Light.page 198.
See Love or the Call for Love
See either Love or a Call for Love
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The United Nation’s International Day of Peace is Saturday, September 21. Imagine all the people in all Nations of the World stopping for 24 hours to think about Peace! Peace with other countries, counties, family and neighbors! The above symbol is love in Arabic.
We don’t have to hate. Do we? Do we have to judge or condemn? If a trusted adult tells us that others are offensive we may tend to believe them especially when we are young. We are taught and most of us believe and accept but we certainly don’t have to. For example my mother was prejudiced against a certain race. I had played with some of these kids at school and liked them so I did not accept her belief but I did obey her and not go to their house. As it turned out my sister married a man of that race and low and behold, she changed her mind. A mind is a beautiful thing to change. Mom was a lovely person but she accepted her conditioning and passed it on. It reminds me of the Roger’s and Hammerstein South Pacific song, “You have to be taught.” But we do not have to accept society’s teaching. Hate is a choice.
Could it be that a part of our mind enjoys hate? Think about how you feel when you are in the “hate” emotion. Doesn’t it make you feel strong and powerful and above all right! Years ago I worked in an office with a young man who was mentally impaired. He was from a rich family and he annoyed me and I disliked him. Looking back after years of spiritual work I wondered what that was about. I think I hated him because he reminded me of my own mental impairment. I always thought I was stupid! We project onto others that which we have inside yet do not want to see or admit. It is projected out and seen elsewhere but heaven not in me! When I think of him now, I send love to him wherever he is and I believe his soul receives it. I know mine does.
Hate and anger are harmful to the hater in many ways. Have you ever tried to be nice when you didn’t want to? What does that type of mental activity do to the brain/body? Check out the Every Day Health website, https://www.everydayhealth.com/news/ways-anger-ruining-your-health/ this site document from various studies, the side effects of hate and negative emotions on the heart and brain, creating stress hormones causing depression and even inflammation. The ego is the “Master Judge” in our mind that runs our lives until we understand we are in fact miserable and see through the fog and decide to change our thoughts and choose peace. The ego very wisely uses projection and hate as a road block to love. We choose the ego until we decide not to. We however have a choice because we are a decider!
Hate is offensive. When we see angry people it is very ugly and distasteful. We feel a churning inside. TV and movies offer a heavy diet of violence and hate an onslaught to the nervous systems. To be honest we need to admit the hate we see reflected in the world outside, is also within. If we can admit that then we are no longer in conflict and it dissipates. Instead of pulling the “wool” over our eyes we just look honestly and in looking, it dissolves. If we don’t fight it or put up obstacles we avoid a pile of buried guilt being placed deep within the psyche to emerge unexpectedly, which it will. Look squarely at the angry person and see either love or a call for love. Try it. You will access a place of peace. You do not need to say aloud “I love you” merely think it. The mind is choosing love instead of the ego’s automatic response of disgust or hate. Their anger is their momentarily condition but not their reality. In giving love, you receive it. You don’t know if or what you will “do or say” as the situation will depend on wisdom from the higher Self. But you can always think love.
This quote is attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “To defeat an enemy, make him a friend.” You could also say “To defeat an angry person, recognize it is also within and see either love or a call for love.”
If I exclude love from others; I am excluding love from myself. With compassion we no longer condemn.
We are the same, we all people and nations need peace. The Spark of the Divine is within everyone, so I challenge myself to look for it.
We don’t have to hate. Do we?
Isn’t hate a judgment?
Isn’t hate a decision?
Isn’t hate a belief?
Isn’t hate enjoyable?
Isn’t hate harmful to the hater?
Isn’t hate offensive?
Does hate infect us with psychic guilt?
The answer is YES, to all of the questions.
We cannot hate unless we have made a judgment about someone or something that we decide is offensive. We have decided we KNOW what is right or what is wrong.
We cannot hate unless we have been taught that something is offensive or disgusting. We are the product of our family, societal beliefs and our culture.
We must realize we find a certain enjoyment in hating. Maybe you hate Trump. Isn’t he fun to hate? Maybe you hate Obama. Isn’t he fun to hate? We enjoy hating because it makes one feel big, strong, and above all right. We KNOW we are right and they are wrong. We LIKE being RIGHT.
For example: We decide being a cheat is terrible. We’ve been taught and we believe cheating is bad, even sinful so we hate cheaters. We see the “sin” of cheating in THEM and hate them for it. What we are really doing is projecting our own “cheating sins” onto them and hating them for it and consequently we are released. They are the sinner not me! We all have cheated at one time or another but we know it is wrong so we see it in THEM and that makes us feel innocent.
This is the ego’s strategy to keep us projecting and hating and conflicted and separate!
It also keeps us blinded, in misery because we are bereft of love, which is gleeful to the ego while still being mired in unconscious guilt.
The KKK and Alt Right hate Liberals. Liberals hate the KKK and the Alt Right. Both groups think they are right. Both groups enjoy hating the other and see the other as being sinful and wrong. Both are projecting on the other what they refuse to see in themselves.
The Liberals “hate” the haters, but don’t want to recognize it within and hate the KKK for being blatantly hateful.
The KKK & Alt Right certainly have “hate” but don’t want to recognize it as bad, and hate the Liberals for judging them, something they also do.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hates Trump. Trump hates Kim Jong Un.
We all know deep down that hating is wrong so why do we continue to do it.
The ego wants to keep us in a state of hate because it keeps us mired in guilt. If we are feeling guilty we cannot be happy. Ego’s Mission Accomplished!
Abraham Lincoln said: “To defeat an enemy, make him a friend.”
I say:
1. To defeat an enemy, look within.
2. Find the offense. “I really hate__________.”
3. Realize it is a projection. You don’t have to know “why” just know you are projecting and that is enough.
4. Own It. “I’m doing this, holding this thought. No one is forcing me.”
5. Look at it. “OK, but it’s not pretty” says the ego.
6. When we look, we are actually forgiving. We have exposed it and acknowledge it. We let it go, and we are released from the judgment.
7. We are free.
With understanding we can no longer condemn. We are the same. We all suffer from the same ego judgment. We all feel guilty. We all need release.
I admit I am a liberal. I maintain that if I exclude love from someone; I am excluding love from myself. I do not agree with the KKK because I exclude no one from my love……even them. I know the Spark of the Divine is within them too so I must look for it.
God Bless!
See! Here is a divine spark. Just like yours!
Am I a Body or Spirit?
As students of A Course In Miracles we are asked to consider our True Identity.
We are born into a body, in a particular family of certain circumstances but seeking the answer to the age old question: Who am I? We learn (gradually) we are NOT who we THINK we are!
The Course tells us we are Spirit and little by little we come to understand that YES, that is true, our (eternal) spirit does reside in our body for now but the time will come when we will leave the body, thank it for its service and move on. We are really caretakers (or not) of our soul that is currently inhabiting this body!
The more and more we REMEMBER we are in fact SPIRIT, the more peace we will have. When the body has a problem, which it will, it is a chance to say: NOPE – NOT ME!
Of course we take care and “fix” the body and do whatever we can to stay in the world and learn lessons that are sure to come. A elderly friend became sick recently and the sickness was such that she decided NOT to “fix” her body! That was courageous but I know the time will come when I will make that same decision. I will know what’s right when that time comes and I will leave knowing I did the right thing.
Workbook lesson 199. I am not a body. I am free, is a wonderful lesson to explore the feelings of not being the body. You can go to http://www.acim.org and click on lessons and then close your eyes and listen quietly to let it sink in.
Remember, you are a decision making Mind! You have the power to choose! You have two choices: Love or Fear. You can listen to the ego’s fear or listen to the Holy Spirit’s grace and faith.
Isn’t it great to know you have a CHOICE! That is why you are not a victim.
http://www.facim.org – Lesson 199: “I am not a body. I am free. I hear the Voice That God has given me, and it is only This my mind obeys.”
