Effects Without a Cause

 

Creation of Sandy Wythawai Starbird

When listening to a YouTube audio recording of Joel Goldsmith from the early 1960s, time and again the subjects he broached were things which have become major disruptions today. As an overview of the many specifics, he says that if all the people in universities were studying ways to save humanity rather than ruin it, the world would be a utopia. He mentions marketing and the selling of needless and/or harmful things to us; he talks about war and how we’ve convinced ourselves it’s okay to kill others, if it’s to protect ourselves; he dares to say religious doctrine is leading us down hopeless paths. And here we are today, ruled by marketing and media, killing each other at an alarming rate, watching environmental disruptions roil up all around. As I write this, I know that no matter how upset I become about events, it will do nothing to rectify what has been done. I am reminded of a Paulo Coelho quote which goes something like this: We cannot change the past, but what we do in the present redeems the past and changes the future. I’m going to listen to more Joel Goldsmith tomorrow and keep an open heart and mind, trusting myself to recognize paths of righteousness. 

“The plans you make for safety all are laid within the future, where you cannot plan. No purpose has been given it as yet, and what will happen has as yet no cause. Who can predict effects without a cause? And who could fear effects unless he thought they had been caused, and judged disastrous now? Belief in sin arouses fear, and like its cause, is looking forward, looking back, but overlooking what is here and now. Yet only here and now its cause must be, if its effects already have been judged as fearful. And in overlooking this, is it protected and kept separate from healing. For a miracle is now. It stands already here, in present grace, within the only interval of time that sin and fear have overlooked, but which is all there is to time.” 

—A Course in Miracles T-26.VIII.5:1-9

“Speaking of the origin of mortals, a famous naturalist says: ‘It is very possible that many general statements now current, about birth and generation, will be changed with the progress of information.’ Had the naturalist, through his tireless researches, gained the diviner side in Christian Science, — so far apart from his material sense of animal growth and organization, — he would have blessed the human race more abundantly.” 

—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 548: 18-25

Uplifting Interactions

Communing With Art at Meow Wolf

Sometimes we meet someone with whom we feel an immediate kinship. We experience a “meeting of minds”, so to speak. We find that it doesn’t matter if there are spaces in which we differ in beliefs or understanding, because we respect them and enjoy hearing their thoughts. There have been times when hearing particular ideas (from people with whom I seemingly share no common ground) have caused me to want to flee or lash out. This is a reaction I’ve worked hard to neutralize, as it helps no one and causes me to fill my thoughts with irrelevant discord. It helps to remind myself that we are all made up of the same “stuff”. Our material bodies are remarkably similar to each other, and our spiritual selves are absolute in Oneness. And so today I will look for the middle of the road when interacting with people. It really doesn’t matter the topic, it can always be an uplifting and informative conversation. As my daddy always said, “If I can’t learn something from the dumbest man I know, then I’m just not listening.” Ha!

“Today we will accept our union with each other and our Source. We have no will apart from His, and all of us are one because His Will is shared by all of us. Through it we recognize that we are one. Through it we find our way at last to God.”
—A Course in Miracles W-329.2:1-4

“Think of this, dear reader, for it will lift the sackcloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft-winged dove descending upon you. The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares.” 
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 574:25-30

The Matter With Things

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

The lifework of Iain McGilchrist has captured my attention. His book, “The Matter With Things”, and the multitude of youTube interviews he has given, are deeply profound. For the first time, I’m beginning to understand some interesting patterns of thought in society. Many of us have become ruled almost entirely by the left brain. This side of our thinking organ is necessary because it is logical and literal. But the right side is ruled by intuition, and both sides are needed for us to be fully-functioning people. When we decide music and art are not necessary, when we shut down our creative side, we become more willing to believe what we are told, without question. Dr. McGilchrist gives the example of two people in a car. The driver is being directed by GPS and the map on the screen is showing that they are at a particular intersection. The passenger says, “Wait a minute! That’s not where we are. Look out the window.” But the driver refuses to even look because he is positive he is being told the truth. This is the difference in being ruled by the right and left brain. In my lifetime I’ve watched many things disappear from our educational system, including free play and civics. It’s easy to believe things have gone to hell and we can’t do anything about it. Some of us “think different”.

“When you say you are acting on the basis of knowledge, you are really confusing knowledge with perception. Knowledge provides the strength for creative thinking, but not for right doing. Perception, miracles and doing are closely related. Knowledge is the result of revelation and induces only thought. Even in its most spiritualized form perception involves the body. Knowledge comes from the altar within and is timeless because it is certain. To perceive the truth is not the same as to know it. “
—A Course in Miracles T-3.III.5:7-13

“Beauty is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind and reflects the charms of His goodness in expression, form, outline, and color. It is Love which paints the petal with myriad hues, glances in the warm sunbeam, arches the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with starry gems, and covers earth with loveliness.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 247:21-27

Recognizing Our Innocece

Photo courtesy of Datura Böes

Righteous indignation: There's a lot of it going around, don't you think? Perhaps I notice it because I'm expressing it, too. Maybe I'm too quick to jump on my high horse and adopt a holier-than-thou attitude. Some people think of forgiveness as looking the other way and doing nothing, but we are learning that forgiveness is seeing past the illusion of separation to the reality of our unity. With this view, I can set aside my stories of right and wrong, opening thought to the reality of Love. Some people wonder what good this could possibly do in a world rife with confusion. If everyone lived Love, opening themselves to listen for guidance on how to understand and practice this type of forgiveness — well, just imagine the utopia! There exists a voice audible to anyone willing to listen. Forgiveness, the releasing of illusions, allows this voice to be found. In our unity, one release is everyone's gift. There is no you, me, and God. There is only One. What a joy to be finding our voice!

"In the Apocalypse it is written: 'And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.' In St. John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spiritual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed human concepts advancing and receding, is represented as having passed away. The divine understanding reigns, is all, and there is no other consciousness."
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 536:1-9

“The blameless cannot blame, and those who have accepted their innocence see nothing to forgive. Yet forgiveness is the means by which I will recognize my innocence. It is the reflection of God’s Love on earth. It will bring me near enough to Heaven that the Love of God can reach down to me and raise me up to Him.”
—A Course in Miracles W-60.1:3-6

The Beauty of All Art

The Church at Auvers

Vincent van Gogh

For those of you who are in a book club, I highly recommend “Mona’s Eyes” by Thomas Schlesser.  (You’ll enjoy it whether you discuss it with others or not!) This entertaining and informative book takes us through 52 works of art, as seen through the new eyes of a 10-year-old girl and her extremely educated and knowledgeable grandfather. We could have talked about these painters and their subjects for days! I had the privilege of hosting this group of Novel Women in my home, and that, in and of itself, is a most wonderful thing. The great food and camaraderie of old friends is cause for celebration! Throw in a good book discussion and my gratitude overflows …

“Portraits, landscape-paintings, facsimiles of penmanship, peculiarities of expression, recollected sentences, can all be taken from pictorial thought and memory as readily as from objects cognizable by the senses. Mortal mind sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and sees its own thoughts. Pictures are mentally formed before the artist can convey them to canvas.”

—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 86:25-32

“Let us join in celebrating peace by demanding no sacrifice of anyone, for so you offer me the love I offer you. What can be more joyous than to perceive we are deprived of nothing” 

—A Course in Miracles T-15.XI.8:2-3

Rising From the Ashes

Photo courtesy of Mark Hughes 

Here in Eureka Springs, about two-and-a-half years after St. James Episcopal Church went up in flames, it was reborn on Christmas Eve of this last year. Its small congregation never considered closing their doors, and through hard work and perseverance, it has risen from the ashes in the most beautiful reincarnation. Watching their resurrection has turned my thoughts to our own individual rising from the ashes. I often joke that I wake up in a new world every day, but maybe that’s not a bad thing. Starting over holds fearful connotations for many of us, but perhaps it need not be so. Looking at the world in a new light, seeing the purity in everyone, can bring the new beginning we are all craving. It seems necessary to metaphorically burn the house down in order to build back without the material mistakes we have come to believe are insurmountable. May we all examine our beliefs and do our best to release them into the ethers, making room for divine Love to rule our every thought. Namasté…

“The resurrection demonstrated that nothing can destroy truth. Good can withstand any form of evil, as light abolishes forms of darkness. The Atonement is therefore the perfect lesson. It is the final demonstration that all the other lessons I taught are true. If you can accept this one generalization now, there will be no need to learn from many smaller lessons. You are released from all errors if you believe this.”
—A Course in Miracles T-3.I.7:6-11

“In the sacred sanctuary of Truth are voices of solemn import, but we heed them not. It is only when the so-called pleasures and pains of sense pass away in our lives, that we find unquestionable signs of the burial of error and the resurrection to spiritual life.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 232:26-31

Free Listening

What would you do if you saw a person sitting on the steps of a building with a sign that said, “Free Listening”? I read an article about a man, Kip Clark, who did this on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his words, "Listening is at the root of anything good that exists between people. It can have a powerful impact when done with sincerity and presence." I’ve been noticing how often people only hear a portion of what is being said — or written. This leads to misunderstandings and hurt feelings. The man featured in this article says he offers no advice, but pays attention without judgment, speaking if it seems appropriate, but mainly listening. Feelings of loneliness and isolation are at an all-time high, and we are searching for ways to help others feel included. Perhaps this is the way. We can all listen with attention and respond when it feels right, allowing true communication to create unity. This could pertain to someone who lives in our home, or a friend far away, or the clerk in the food market. I feel excited at the prospect of being a sounding board during these times of immediate response and rebuttal via social media! 

“Be still and listen to the truth today. For each five minutes spent in listening, a thousand minds are opened to the truth and they will hear the holy Word you hear. And when the hour is past, you will again release a thousand more who pause to ask that truth be given them, along with you.” 

—A Course in Miracles W-106.9:1-3

“Ears. Not organs of the so-called corporeal senses, but spiritual understanding. Jesus said, referring to spiritual perception, ‘Having ears, hear ye not?’ (Mark viii. 18.) 

—Mary Baker Eddy Science & Health Page 585:1-4