Are you running on Ego-matic?
The other day I was tooling along not watching my thoughts (as A Course In Miracles asks us to do) but one finally got my attention. It didn’t feel good, it was: “Why doesn’t she do something with her hair?” What part of my mind would care about something as insignificant as someone’s messy hair and why?
When our thoughts run unnoticed, they can easily jump to egomatic. This is not a word my computer thesaurus recognizes but I know what it means. It means senseless; usually condemning; mostly ugly; and always a thought of judgmental ego separation. The mind has been programmed from birth into two columns: love and fear. Everything not from love is in the fear column and that amounts to hundreds perhaps thousands of distinctions. The ego has an endless list. The choice is simple: Heaven or hell.
When practicing the mindfulness of the Course we are in the “heaven” column. We are looking through the Self, i.e. the eyes of Christ, of love, with kindness and accepting of what is. If we ae on egomatic, we are in the “hell” of darkness, believing our misshapen thoughts are true.
Thinking someone has messy hair is up to me. No one can make me think anything. When I think a thought of love, what am I giving/receiving? If the thought is condemning what am I giving/receiving? What I give OUT, I also receive IN.
When my thinking is judgmental: I’m the one with the problem; I feel separate and alone; and in believing it is true, I’m also receiving guilt. That’s why I didn’t like the feeling.
We don’t realize what we do to ourselves, our soul when we place a judgment on someone. Instead of giving the thought away, projecting and getting rid of it, we are in effect keeping it, and making it our problem plus getting a dose of guilt. I judge her for being “messy” but I must also be “messy” in order to know what it is. Projecting is a trick my ego plays to get rid of my messiness by seeing it in someone else. It doesn’t work, I still messy.
In A Course In Miracles, Lesson 108. To give and receive are one in truth.
P.2. “True light that makes true vision possible is not the light the body’s eyes behold. It is a state of mind that has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all.”
Isn’t that the state of mind you want to live in? When you catch the silly judgments think what this lesson reminds us to do. Simply say:
To give and receive are one in truth. I will receive what I am giving now.”
Do I want to receive the judgment I am dishing out? The lesson goes on in paragraph 8.
Then close your eyes and for five minutes think of what you would hold out to everyone, to have it yours. Say:
To everyone I offer quietness;
To everyone I offer peace of mind;
To everyone I offer gentleness
Wait. How do you feel? What you offered will come back to you in the amount that you offered it. That is giving and receiving. Instead of offering judgment or “messiness” to my friend I now offer acceptance and that is what returns to me.
Was I in heaven or hell judging my friend’s hair? I realized I didn’t “feel good” and that feeling of being in “hell” helped me see the egomatic thought process.
We have been trained well throughout our formative years and adult lives. But now I can awaken to the fact that my thoughts have consequences on me. We are told that stress causes illnesses. Where does stress come from but our thoughts? This lesson gave me the chance to change my mind and offer quietness to everyone. And when I did, I received quietness.
Go to http://www.acim.org – Workbook Lesson 108 – click to have it read aloud to you!
Remember: You are the Light of the World and God IS the LOVE within!
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