Tag: feelings

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Christmas: Giving and Receiving

On By SallyIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

peace

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

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Peace is Release – Release is Peace

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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

 

 

 

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January Peace of Mind

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Mt. Shasta's Heart

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Am I a Body or Spirit?

On By SallyIn Uncategorized1 Comment

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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.”

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Love Makes No Comparisons

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I have been listening to a CD series of  Dr. Ken Wapnick called: The Experience of A Course In Miracles, A Commentary on the section: “Development of Trust.”  This 10 CD series covers the development of trust and the six stages a student goes through while on the path set forth by the Course.

All of the ten characteristics of God’s teachers rest on Trust which is the first.  The other nine are: Honesty; Tolerance; Gentleness; Joy; Defenselessness; Generosity; Patience; Faithfulness and Open Mindedness.  I am sharing the below notes because it is a powerful look at the dynamic  of why we “LOVE to hate!  (You can purchase the CD series at http://www.facim.org)

Notes from Ken Wapnick, Ph.D. – Development of Trust CD 2.4

“Love makes no comparisons. Love is perfect Oneness.  In Heaven there is no duality – no comparing – no judgment.   In Heaven there is only ONE – not even God and Christ are separate and that One knows nothing else.  God does not know we are here. God  does not know of illusions – if He did it would make it true. No Duality – only One. (For those who are put off by the term “God” just think Love because no one knows what the mystery of God could be.)

In this world however, we have the ego’s distortion of love which in the Course is called “Special Love.”  Here, in the world of duality, everything is based upon comparisons. You have something that I lack and therefore what I lack is what I want – so I set out to get it from you.  We make special relationships very interesting in all the ingenious ways we go about getting or stealing from others what we think we need for our own salvation.

This works both in the forms of special love and special hate.  Special hate is when what you have, that I lack, which is innocence, I then feel sinful because I believe I’m a sinner (and I compare you to me) therefore what I do is I project my sin onto you thereby making you the sinner, and thereby making you worthy of my hate!

That’s why we all love to hate in our world. I hate you because if I make you are the repository of sin, then I am innocent because in the ego thought system it is always one or the other. (So when I hate someone that makes him the sinner and therefore  I am innocent….. per the ego.  This is why we “love” to hate.  We get rid of our guilt nice and neatly.  I’ve always wondered why it is we “love” to hate – especially those of another political party, or someone who is richer, prettier, more talented, etc.  Find an example in your own life to understand the projection/psychology behind it but don’t feel guilty about it just look at what your ego does to keep love away!)

Everything in this world is based upon comparisons. It is impossible to avoid this. Perception is all about comparisons and judgments. You couldn’t see otherwise. When we perceive something we’ve already make the judgment that it is important and everything else is unimportant.

The Right minded use of comparisons is to evaluate the difference between the ego’s thought system and the Holy Spirits. What is the ego’s thought system is all about is judgment and separation.  When we catch the ego’s tricks we understand what it is up to. We see it is false and it is all made up. Our resistance in looking is what makes this so difficult.”

I recommend going to the book: A Course In Miracles; see the Manual for Teachers towards the back of the book; and see # 4. What are the Characteristics of God’s Teachers, I. Trust. and A. Development of Trust.

http://www.facim.org

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Elusiveness of Peace and Joy

On By SallyIn Uncategorized1 Comment

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The Elusiveness of Peace and Joy!

Do you want peace and joy?  Of course you do.  As least you think you do until you have a judgment or an upset that you won’t let go of.   You are sure something was done to you and you are right and the offending party should go to hell.  Or places like that.   OK – maybe you are right but do you want peace and joy?  You can’t have it if you want someone to go to hell or hold onto an upset that you will not consider in another way.

I know someone who is holding onto a grievance.  He was actually attacked, pushed up against a fence and would have been hit if someone had not interfered.  Why did the perpetrator assault him?  He had responded to an insult with his own insult and that angered the attacker and so he took matters into his hands, literally.  Who started it?  It doesn’t matter.  What matters is how we now find the peace that eluded us the first moment we reacted.  That will be the subject of another article and an important one for now, let’s look at where we find ourselves and how can we choose another way back to the peace we want.

We have not found peace by remembering and replaying the event because we are stuck in our belief system and we are sure we are in the right.  But are you happy being in the right?  Would you rather be right or happy?  Now when we see that person or think of them we are unhappy.  Ask yourself: Do I want peace and joy?

If the answer is YES, then decided to STOP the set belief in your mind (just for a moment) and choose another way to look at this?  Say:  “OK – I’ll look at this another way for the sake of my own peace.”

*“Begin to think of that (person) brother who has been denied by YOU the peace and joy that is his right under the equal laws of God.  You have denied them to yourself and now you claim them as your own. Think of this brother a little while and tell him in your mind:

My brother 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 someone else that in so doing we are in effect really denying them to our self.  If you hold hate or a grudge in your mind, you are the one HOLDING the hate and the grudge in yourself.  You are the sufferer.  Do you think your brother is suffering?  We don’t know but we do know you are.

Would you rather say to that brother?

My brother, 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 is love and 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.

* This quote comes from the spiritual book, A Course In Miracles, Workbook lesson 105 God’s Peace and Joy are Mine.  Visit  www.acim.org  go The Workbook lessons and then when the lesson comes up, click on “hear” and listen to the entire lesson and close your eyes.   Choose peace!

Hint: When you give you also receive!

 

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Can we ever agree?

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Yes we can agree and it happens when we find common ground on SOMETHING!
The gift is in finding what that SOMETHING is that we can agree upon!
When we are in agreement there is peace.  Where is peace when we disagree?
Eventually when we master the Course In Miracles we will have PEACE even when “disagreement” is seemingly before us.
The Course says “See love or the call for love.”
As we learn to master the Course, little by little  the judgments are fewer.
They gradually become challenges to find shared values rather than separation.
I wanted to share the link below of Professor George Lakoff of the University
of California Berkley.  He explains why we disagree and has an example of how
we can learn to find common ground and become more agreeable!
It is 27 minutes  interview with Tavis Smiley of PBS  (if you cannot open it just google
Tavis Smiley)
 
Professor of Cognitive Science, George Lakoff, UC Berkeley:
 
“Teach only love, for that is what you are.”  ACIM T.6. I.13.
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The Light Has Come

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The Metaphysical/Spiritual book called A Course In Miracles contains a workbook that offers a lesson for each day.  The lessons are offered online so you do not have to buy the book to get started.   http://www.acim.org – see directions below.

You can start the lessons anytime you want but be sure to start at lesson #1, as they follow a mind training process that is powerful and helps us see through the world and the illusions that make us sad, angry, depressed, anxious, happy at times, sadness over death, destruction, injustice and more.  I believe the Course has brought many back from the brink hopelessness because it did for me.

Would you like to forgive the world?  It may not seem that you need to but the world has a way of showing us what we dislike as well as what we like.  The world is dualistic.  It contains the opposites that we then judge as good or bad!  We gradually give the world up by forgiving seeing it for what it is and in doing so we become the Light that is our true identity!

Today, March 16th is the 75th day of the year and today’s Lesson 75. The Light Has Come.

The lessons can be read online and they have been recorded so you have the option of sitting back and listen to the lesson being read to you!

“The Light Has Come.”

Go to http://www.acim.org

click on Online Lessons

click on Workbook table of Contents and

Choose 75!    Enjoy being in the Light!  Listen to a lesson any time you want!

 

New Years Promise

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January 3, 2017!!

What a trickster time is!

“For what is time without a past and future?  It has taken time to misguide you so completely, but

it takes no time at all to be what you are. Begin to practice the Holy Spirit’s use of time as a

teaching aid to happiness and peace.  Take this very instant, now, and think of it as all there is of

time.  Nothing can reach you here out of the past, and it is here that you are completely absolved,

completely free and wholly without condemnation.  From this holy instant wherein holiness was

born again you will go forth in time without fear and with no sense of change with time.” 

The above quote is from A Course In Miracles, Chapter 15. The Holy Instant, Section I. The Two Uses of Time, p.9. 2-7.

The ego uses time to age us (we think we are bodies); heap regret and guilt; plant the seeds of self doubt and or grandiosity; keep us in fear of the future by reminding us of the dreaded past and we are suffocated by grievances we have promised never to overlook or forgive.

But, when we choose to use the Holy Spirit’s practice of accepting the holy instant as soon as we become upset and remember “God Is” present at this very moment – our mind is free.  Sometimes when I am aggravated, beyond words I repeat “God Is” quickly, about 10 to 20 times!  It shifts me from the ego to the Holy Spirit, from Hell to Heaven.  Does it last – no!  But gradually, little by little, I have Faith that I am ascending the ladder and One Day, One Fine Day,  I will reach True Perception and the Real World.

My New Year’s Resolution….. To use the Holy Instant and remember when upset, to STOP and take that very instant and think of it as being “Out of Time”- no past, no future, just God Is, God Is, God Is!  This is what the Course calls the Atonement: Remembering that the “seeming” separation from God is an illusion!  Not True!

Bless you in 2017 and for that matter – for eternity!

For more information about the Course check the following websites:

http://www.facim.org

http://www.acim.org

http://www.miraclecenter.org

http://www.circleofa.org

 

 

 

 

 

YOU ARE COMPLETE, HEALED AND WHOLE

On By SallyIn A Course In Miracles, forgivenessLeave a comment

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  • Note: You may not believe the statements below, you may not accept or welcome them but do not allow yourself (the ego mind) to question or judge them.  Merely find one that resonates with you and repeat over and over several times a day.   The purpose of repetition is that eventually you WILL believe.  Repeat it at night as you go to sleep, while driving the car, waiting in line at the grocery store or anytime you notice your mind  wandering to various thoughts. The ego will try to convince you this won’t work to keep you from ascending the ladder HOME and ultimately be free of it.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice!

FIND A  STATEMENT THAT “FEELS RIGHT.”  REPEAT IT OVER AND OVER SEVERAL TIMES A DAY , WHEN DEPRESSED OR UPSET.  PRINT OUT A COPY TO CARRY WITH YOU, TAPE IT TO YOUR BATHROOM MIRROR, DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT.

  • I AM COMPLETE, HEALED AND WHOLE.
  •  I  AM SPIRIT, A HOLY SON OF GOD.
  • I AM ONE WITH GOD.GOD IS LOVE AND THEREFORE SO AM I.
  • GOD GOES WITH ME WHEREVER I GO. GOD IS IN MY MIND.
  • GOD PUT THE HOLY SPIRIT IN MY MIND TO ANSWER PROBLEMS.
  • RECOGNIZING I HAVE A SPLIT MIND, IN THIS DUALISTIC WORLD, I CHOOSE THE HOLY SPIRIT IN MY RIGHT MIND, NOT THE EGO.
  • IN QUIET I ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR HELP – NOT MY EGO.
  • WHEN I GIVE LOVE TO EVERYONE I FEEL THE LOVE THAT I AM.
  • I AM LOVED, I AM A MIND, I MOVE FORWARD WITH CONFIDENCE BELIEVING IN THE STRENGTH OF MY SPIRIT AND GOODNESS.
  • I AM NOT GUILTY OR A VICTIM THE EGO WOULD HAVE ME BE.
  • I AM A DECISION MAKING MIND, AN INNOCENT HOLY SON OF GOD WITH POWER TO CHANGE MY MIND ABOUT THE WORLD.
  • INNER PEACE IS IN MY MIND – I CHOOSE PEACE NOW.
  • FORGIVENESS IS: RECOGNIZING PAINFUL THOUGHTS AND GLADLY BRING THEM TO THE HOLY SPIRIT AND LET HIM HEAL EVERY LITTLE THOUGHT OF HURT.
  • IN MY DEFENSELESSNESS MY SAFETY LIES.
  • I CAN BE HURT BY NOTHING BUT MY THOUGHTS. I THEREFORE CHANGE MY THOUGHTS AND CHOOSE PEACE.
  • I EXCLUDE NO ONE FROM MY LOVE.
  • I AM ALWAYS HELPFUL AND HARMLESS IN ALL THINGS.
  • YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE IN GOD, BUT GOD BELIEVES IN YOU AND LOVES YOU
  • The above inspirations from the Spiritual/Metaphysical book: A Course In Miracles Visit THESE WEBSITES
  • http://www.facim.org
  • http://www.acim.orgwww.miraclecenter.org
  • NOW IS THE TIME TO TRAIN YOUR MIND…..PLACE YOURSELF UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF THE LOVE WITHIN YOUR MIND AND YOU WILL HAVE PEACE.