Can Fiction Lead to Truth?

An upside down world seems normal to us. We have become accustomed to believing that the testimony of our physical senses is reality, while intuition is often discounted as being imaginary. Many of my favorite authors write about metaphysical concepts, and some of them use the genre of fiction to allow the leeway to take this new/old thought all the way, without the need for empirical evidence in support. And I applaud this method! What better way to introduce ideas to a skeptical audience than through the entertainment field? Dan Brown is an expert at this form of writing. He brings us thought-provoking concepts without asking us to accept them as true, such as in his book, "The Lost Symbol". Paulo Coelho gently hits closer to home in two of my favorite books, "The Alchemist" and "The Aleph". The enjoyment of these novels is softly preparatory for the life-changing concepts presented in A Course in Miracles and, also, Science & Health. Without prior opening of thought, the ideas contained in these books can be jarring indeed! We have been preparing for this opening of mind and heart for all eternity, and we are ready! 

“Walk safely now, yet carefully, because this path is new to you. And you may find that you are tempted still to walk ahead of truth, and let illusions be your guide. Your holy brothers have been given you, to follow in your footsteps as you walk with certainty of purpose to the truth. It goes before you now, that they may see something with which they can identify; something they can understand to lead the way.” 
—A Course in Miracles W-155.9:1-4

"In Spirit there is no matter, even as in Truth there is no error, and in good no evil. It is a false supposition, the notion that there is real substance-matter, the opposite of Spirit. Spirit, God, is infinite, all. Spirit can have no opposite."
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 278

Slow Down and Enjoy Life

Mount Timpanogos Goat - photo credit: Aaron Springston

What if life was “better” before the industrial age? We have been taught that people were worked to the bone simply providing for their daily needs, and once machines were invented, our lives became easier. According to Iain McGilchrist, who did extensive research for his book The Matter With Things, before the age of factories and machines, the average person had more than 180 days a year of leisure. Not only that, but they would take two or three-hour lunch breaks and do things which make life full and happy. So, although we have been taught that life became easier after industrialization, perhaps that is a myth along with much of our so-called history. Yes, there was much hard work involved in doing the wash and cooking and gardening and taking care of animals, but what of the difficult work we do today? Did washing machines and microwaves actually make life easier for us? In this age of technology and the monstrous creations it has spawned, we must make time to enjoy real things — such as, flowers and butterflies and walking in the woods. Finding enjoyment in interactions with our children — or people, in any way possible — is the way to true happiness. I highly recommend listening to Dr. McGilchrist’s latest video which you can find on youtube under the heading of “The Counterintuitive Need to Slow Down and Find Spaciousness”. It holds much wisdom for us to ponder.

“Unselfish ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, — these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute individually and collectively true happiness, strength, and permanence.”
—Mary Baker Eddy- Science & Health Page 58: 7-11

“Today we seek no idols. Peace cannot be found in them. The peace of God is ours, and only this will we accept and want. Peace be to us today. For we have found a simple, happy way to leave the world of ambiguity, and to replace our shifting goals and solitary dreams with single purpose and companionship. For peace is union, if it be of God. We seek no further. We are close to home, and draw still nearer every time we say: There is no peace except the peace of God, and I am glad and thankful it is so.
—A Course in Miracles W-200.11:1-9

Cleaning the Windowpane

 

Art by Catrin Welz Stein 

What am I? This question has been asked from the beginning of recorded history -- and probably longer. Spiritual seers inform us that we are not a body. So if I am not a body, what am I? Intellectually, we can say that we are the reflection of God. We can tell ourselves and others that we're not material, we're spiritual. But then we'll stump our toe and declare that we can't be blamed if it hurts because we're not walking on water yet. We make jokes to explain why we aren't living the precepts which Jesus tells us are our heritage as children of God. But really, why is it that we've been so stunted in our realization of what all this means? Actually, we're not evolving slowly. There is no evolution involved in spiritual awakening, there is only getting rid of material belief and dogma. What we're doing now is cleaning the windowpane so the light has a transparency to flow through, rather than trying to look through thousands of years of grime which is hiding our illumination. What are we? We're finding out more every day, and that's the miracle! 

“Whatever I see reflects my thoughts. It is my thoughts that tell me where I am and what I am. The fact that I see a world in which there is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the representation of my insane thoughts, and am not allowing my real thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see. Yet God’s way is sure. The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not my will that they do so. My will is His, and I will place no other gods before Him.” 
—A Course in Miracles W-53.5:2-7

“The epoch approaches when the understanding of the truth of being will be the basis of true religion. At present mortals progress slowly for fear of being thought ridiculous. They are slaves to fashion, pride, and sense. Some time we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has created men and women in Science. We ought to weary of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which hinders our highest selfhood.” 

—Mary Baker Eddy Science & Heath Page 62: 32-6

The Space Between Thoughts

Choy Moo Kheong - Blue Whispering Day, 2022.

I can be perfectly calm and contented if I don’t talk to people! I’m sure many of you know what I mean. It’s easy to be unpleasantly surprised by the behaviors and reactions of others. When we see instances of people exhibiting their highest good, then witness the opposite in the next instant-- well, it gives pause. In this world, where we want to analyze everything and find answers to questions we don't even know how to ask, it's tempting to become angry in the face of divisive behavior, bullying actions, and accusations from those who should know better. But let's not, okay? Rather than react, let’s go to “the space between our thoughts”. There are many techniques for doing this, and people like to label the activity as prayer or meditation. It doesn’t matter what we call it, as long as we’re able to do it. I think this is one of the reasons I love duplicate bridge. When I’m playing, there is no room in my mind for worrying or wondering. It’s a single-minded enjoyment of mental gymnastics, and I love to lose myself in the world of cards, with nothing to think about but the coziness of something I know so well. I hope you don’t hesitate to lose yourself in a beloved activity! Namaste …

“It is impossible to accept the holy instant without reservation unless, just for an instant, you are willing to see no past or future. You cannot prepare for it without placing it in the future. Release is given you the instant you desire it. Many have spent a lifetime in preparation, and have indeed achieved their instants of success. This course does not attempt to teach more than they learned in time, but it does aim at saving time. You may be attempting to follow a very long road to the goal you have accepted. It is extremely difficult to reach Atonement by fighting against sin. Enormous effort is expended in the attempt to make holy what is hated and despised. Nor is a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body necessary. All such attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose. Yet the means are tedious and very time consuming, for all of them look to the future for release from a state of present unworthiness and inadequacy.”
—A Course in Miracles T-18.VII.4:1-11

"We may well be perplexed at human fear, and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?"
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 563:4

Seeing What Is

Photo credit: Mark McGee

Everyone has heard the tale about blind people touching different parts of an elephant, and their interpretations of what they are feeling. It seems to me that's where we are in the current political imbroglio. Some people see Democrats as the devil's spawn; others see Republicans as brainwashed automatons. Where does it end? An election won't stop the disagreements, any more than a civilized debate will resolve our differences. For years I've looked for common ground on which to stand with one another. You would think love, peace, health, and happiness would be desired by everyone, but it seems people interpret these values in different ways. This is one of the reasons I love A Course in Miracles. We are taught to release any preconceived notions concerning what things mean. Look at a table and see it for what it is; not what you think about it and what it brings up in memories. As we practice doing this with things and situations, something shifts within us, allowing truth to be known and belief to be released. We don't automatically become all-knowing beings, but we learn to recognize the fallacy of our interpretations. So next time you think you're touching a snake, remember it just might be an elephant's trunk!

"Science shows that material, conflicting mortal opinions and beliefs emit the effects of error at all times, but this atmosphere of mortal mind cannot be destructive to morals and health where it is opposed promptly and persistently by Christian Science. Truth and Love antidote this mental miasma, and thus invigorate and sustain existence."
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 273:29

“Let all your brother’s errors be to you nothing except a chance for you to see the workings of the Helper given you to see the world He made instead of yours. What, then, is justified? What do you want? For these two questions are the same. And when you see them as the same, your choice is made. For it is seeing them as one that brings release from the belief there are two ways to see. This world has much to offer to your peace, and many chances to extend your own forgiveness. Such its purpose is, to those who want to see peace and forgiveness descend on them, and offer them the light.”
—A Course in Miracles T-25.III.7:2-9

The Original Mothers’ Day Proclamation

Around 1870, mothers from both sides of the Civil War came together in an attempt to stop the fighting brought on by what they called “irrelevant agencies”. In other words, stop sending our sons to their death for whatever-in-the-heck reasons you may come up with. Julia Ward Howe wrote this letter calling on women to come together. Finally, in 1907, Woodrow Wilson watered down the idea and made up Mother’s Day in an attempt to appease women. And so it goes …

“Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: ‘We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.

‘Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.’

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, ‘Disarm, disarm! The sword is not the balance of justice.’ Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each learning after his own time, the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.”
—Julia Ward Howe

“Illusion meets illusion; truth, itself. The meeting of illusions leads to war. Peace, looking on itself, extends itself. War is the condition in which fear is born, and grows and seeks to dominate. Peace is the state where love abides, and seeks to share itself. Conflict and peace are opposites. Where one abides the other cannot be; where either goes the other disappears. So is the memory of God obscured in minds that have become illusions’ battleground. Yet far beyond this senseless war it shines, ready to be remembered when you side with peace.”
—A Course in Miracles T-23.I.12:1-9)

The Most We Can Do

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

The substance of the following quote often runs through my mind: “We do ourselves a great disservice when we let the bitter opinions of others mingle and subvert our own thoughts.” (Dodinsky) It’s easy to feel hurt by what others say, or to become angry, or to react in various non-productive ways. One of my favorite gurus is Don Miguel Ruiz, and his Four Agreements are something I try to incorporate in my daily life. So when someone tells me they’re upset with the actions of another, I often relate his advice: “Don’t take anything personally.” Ultimately, the bottom line is given us by Gandhi’s wisdom: “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change toward him.” Our thoughts and actions are important. The least we can do is also the most.

“Consider all the distortions you have made of nothing; all the strange forms and feelings and actions and reactions that you have woven out of it. Nothing is so alien to you as the simple truth, and nothing are you less inclined to listen to. The contrast between what is true and what is not is perfectly apparent, yet you do not see it. The simple and the obvious are not apparent to those who would make palaces and royal robes of nothing, believing they are kings with golden crowns because of them.”
—A Course in Miracles T-14.II.2:3-7

“Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts."

—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 261:4-7