Tag: Buddhism

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Guilt: The “gift” that keeps on giving until…..

On By SallyIn Uncategorized1 Comment

 

Spring 2014 2014-03-12 022Guilt: The “gift” that keeps on giving until…..

The bad news: guilt never gives up.

The good news: you have the power to stop it.

Have you noticed that guilt just doesn’t go away? You observe it but it creeps back again and again and you continue to deny it and let it go but there it is, back again. “I thought I forgave that.” Guilt is the leaky faucet. You think you’ve turned it off but it drips, drips in the background of your thoughts. Where is it coming from? It seeps under the surface like an oil slick on a beautiful beach. Guilt is the energizer bunny with an eternal battery that never runs down and in fact continues to be energized until you look at it with the love, your inheritance, in your mind.

ACIM Workbook Lesson 4. These thoughts do no mean anything.

We believe the thoughts that run through our mind and 99.999% come from the ego (the false self) and that is why they don’t mean anything. But we believe these thoughts. The ego’s job is to keep you from Love and in a state of constant guilt. It feeds guilty thoughts at every opportunity and never wants you to turn against it. We have a split mind. You choose which split, which side to listen to and believe. We can choose between the ego’s ranting and judgments or choose to listen to the voice of peace within (the right mind) the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit that is always available.

Judgment is the origin of all guilt. Our first judgment was a selfish one according to A Course In Miracles; we separated from God at the moment of the “Big Bang” in choosing the ego. It turns out that was a “mistake” (really never happened) because when we chose the ego, we threw God away. But…..it never happened because it is not possible to separate from the God; the God written about in A Course In Miracles that is.

We believe the ego and think we have separated and that is at the crux of our pain and anger. We blame God for the separation instead of ourselves.  We made up a false “god”, a punishing, warring, petty vindictive god who angrily threw Adam and Eve out of the garden. Ask yourself: Would a loving God do that?   The ego set itself on the ‘god’ throne and we listen to it and obey it. Guilt was born. We are bereft, thinking we threw away our innocence and will never get it back. We either accuse and blame ourselves or project blame onto others, i.e. those guilty and sinful ones. The ego keeps rubbing the guilt wound with self-doubt, blame, selfishness and shame.

Guilt is insatiable. You are its hostage until you decide to be Host to God instead. We need loving help in looking at it.   The Course tells us to hold the hand of love that comes from your right mind i.e. Jesus or the Holy Spirit and say “Please look at this guilty thought with me because I want to see it differently.” Visualize a tight grip on a warm hand. When we hold love’s hand and listen, a thought of understanding will come. Maybe tears will come but those tears will dissolve the “blocks to the awareness of love’s presence” that the introduction to the Course describes. Believe and trust that forgiveness will come. We need to forgive ourselves for the separation from God……which never happened because it is IMPOSSIBLE! The thought of Truth will be gentle and embracing.

When a guilty through crosses your mind, say: “This thought does not mean anything. The past is over; I have no need of this. I am One with God.”   This is a critical conscious decision; a statement of choice that you will no longer listen or believe the ego. You are a “Decider”, a Holy Son of God and you have the power to no longer let the ego abuse you. You are Host to God and not hostage to the ego.

If you haven’t started them, I recommend the Course In Miracles Workbook lessons. The first lessons deal with letting the past go; focusing on the thoughts that bring pain and realizing they are not of God. There is a lesson for each day and the introduction to the workbook will help you begin.

It is a wonderful adventure. Just do a lesson each day and if you don’t understand it – keep going – don’t let the ego sabotage you. If you don’t understand a lesson, just keep going because the “light” will dawn eventually.

The Love within you will defeat guilt. It is a power within that is your natural inheritance.   Accept God’s peace and joy as yours. Your salvation is up to you.

www.acim.org  (history and what it says)

www.miraclecenter.org   (to find a study group near you)

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Rest in Love, Rest in Truth

On By SallyIn A Course In MiraclesLeave a comment

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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!

 

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See Love or the Call for Love

On By SallyIn A Course In Miracles, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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.

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You Are Aware Consciousness

On By SallyIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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“The mind of an enlightened human being is flexible and adaptable. The mind of an ignorant person is conditioned and fixed.”  Ajhan Sumedho, ‘Don’t take your life seriously’, Buddhist Publishing Group

As a student of non-duality, a friend recently loaned me the above book. Ajahn Sumedho. Ajahn, (“teacher” in Pali) was born Robert Karr Jackman, July 27, 1934, in Seattle. He is the senior Western representative of the Thai forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. A bhikkhu since 1967, Sumedho is considered a seminal figure in the transmission of the Buddha’s teachings to the West.  During the Korean War he served for four years from the age of 18 as a United States navy medic. He graduated in 1963 with an MA in South Asian studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Per Wikepedia

A Course In Miracles has many similarities with Buddhism and the one that stands out from all others is our judgment of ourselves and others. I don’t know about you but I’ve been fixated on politics, our nation and world conditions since the January changes in government. Chaos and change happens in our lives and that creates nervousness and anxiety, the opposing poles of inner peace.   Ajahn says the world is: “just the way it is!” Accept! We are not at peace when we judge anyone; feel superior or inferior to others.” As Babies we were not born with a self-view. That is developed over our lifetime. We therefore become a “created concept” and we suffer and seek answers to the suffering.

Whatever our self-concepts are we are not that!  When we choose, we can acknowledge innate pure consciousness to receive wisdom. Wisdom operates through the marriage of awareness joining with consciousness. Suffering is the theme in The Four Noble truths. Judgment is suffering. As we become aware of pure consciousness, judgments shift and soften: “so it is” or “like this” to pure subjectivity. The ego personality says: “I like this or I don’t like that.” It is my choice then, should I get caught up in the annoyance, suppress it or try to change it? I know I want my way but can I be assured that will bring me peace? Until I can accept the world is just ‘like it is’ and ‘what is just – is’, I am the one choosing to suffer. Buddha called it Dukkha.

When you say: “I AM pure consciousness uncreated” your mind is at rest. Say it slowly with eyes closed. Say it slowly with eyes open. Pure consciousness does not have a sex, nationality or a world view. It means, I AM – not a permanent body; rather I am eternal, consciousness. Consciousness is behind awareness and when melded spark an awakening experience, like the Buddha, or Christ .

Contrast this with the impermanent, unsatisfactory “not self” that we think we are. The idea of “me and mine” created out of ignorance and separation from pure consciousness. The personality and life circumstances always change. You don’t stay the same person as the ego personality is reactive.   Old age is another seeming failure but pure consciousness does not age. Awareness transcends the conditioned ego state. If we continue to give our allegiance and beliefs to the ego rather than to our natural pure awareness, we will suffer – until we tire of it.  We can see seek refuge in awareness and pure consciousness.

As we look at national and world conditions, be aware and say: ‘so it is.’  The Course calls it our script.  It just is and we can view it through the ego i.e. suffering or Awareness i.e the Holy Spirit.  Consciousness is stainless, it cannot be contaminated. I am reminded of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, working for peace yet staying in pure consciousness throughout the tumult of his life and Jesus who assures us we are “As God Created Us” and not the thing or ego we created.

Perhaps we will become enlightened as insanity propels us to approach pure consciousness; non-attachment vs pure hell.  The Holy Spirit within that is the alternative voice to the ego.

As the months and years unfold, our mindful practice, whether with Buddhism or A Couse In Miracles workbook lessons, will guide us to the wisdom and peace available at the center of our One luminous being.

See A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson 45. God is the Mind with which I think

http://www.facim.org

http://www.acim.org

http://www.miraclecenter.org