Metaphorical Sunbeams

Pine Forest in Tirol - 1890

Art by Bertha Weggman

A cantankerous friend, who insists he’s an atheist, engaged me in a discussion about God. His diatribe consisted of stories from the news about people’s actions in the name of their church and beliefs. He told me of close friends who profess to be Christians, yet have become increasingly hateful in their speech in the last few years. I countered each of his stories with stories of my own which illustrated what I think of as God. I told him of a non-dualistic God, one which doesn’t sit up on a cloud granting favors and dispensing retribution, but which is found within. I endeavored to explain how this ever-presence wasn’t pantheism because God is not IN us, but God IS us — in much the same way as a sunbeam is the expression of the sun. We are the experience of divine Love, Mind, Soul, Truth, Spirit, Life. The peace of God is shining through me now.

“The peace of God is shining in you now, and from your heart extends around the world. It pauses to caress each living thing, and leaves a blessing with it that remains forever and forever. What it gives must be eternal. It removes all thoughts of the ephemeral and valueless. It brings renewal to all tired hearts, and lights all vision as it passes by. All of its gifts are given everyone, and everyone unites in giving thanks to you who give, and you who have received.”
—A Course in Miracles W-188.3:1-6

“Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose ‘light shall we see light;’ and this illumination is reflected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false material sense.”
—Mary Baker Eddy Science & Health Page 510:9-12

Perceiving Our Oneness is Healing

 

Bad Bunny at Super Bowl Halftime Show

Many times I day, I must remind myself to “practice what I preach”. It’s easy to see how others are allowing their thoughts and actions to work against the greater Good — or the lesser good, according to perceptions. But to recognize it within myself, that is more difficult. I tend to rationalize my way of thinking about things, pretending my words are coming from love, not fear. The main reason for keeping my thoughts above the onslaught of material turmoil is that it will do no good to join in the anger and sadness. No matter how bad I feel, it will not improve the situation. This goes for not only the global craziness we are witnessing, but the health issues many of our friends are in the midst of minding. My compassion doesn’t require me to cry and repeat symptoms to others, but it does demand that I lift up my thoughts about the situation. And by that I mean: seeing through the picture and recognizing the reality hidden by the illusion. As someone who has witnessed the beauty of spiritual/metaphysical healing since childhood, I also recognize how easy it is to fall into by-rote thinking about physical causes and cures. And so today I shall double down on my desire to know the Truth about our true, spiritual selves. Join me!

“Healing is a thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them, and lets God go out into them and through them. Only the healed mind can experience revelation with lasting effect, because revelation is an experience of pure joy. If you do not choose to be wholly joyous, your mind cannot have what it does not choose to be. Remember that spirit knows no difference between having and being. The higher mind thinks according to the laws spirit obeys, and therefore honors only the laws of God. To spirit getting is meaningless and giving is all. Having everything, spirit holds everything by giving it, and thus creates as the Father created. While this kind of thinking is totally alien to having things, even to the lower mind it is quite comprehensible in connection with ideas. If you share a physical possession, you do divide its ownership. If you share an idea, however, you do not lessen it. All of it is still yours although all of it has been given away. Further, if the one to whom you give it accepts it as his, he reinforces it in your mind and thus increases it. If you can accept the concept that the world is one of ideas, the whole belief in the false association the ego makes between giving and losing is gone.”
—A Course in Miracles T-5.I.1:1-14

“You render the divine law of healing obscure and void, when you weigh the human in the scale with the divine, or limit in any direction of thought the omnipresence and omnipotence of God.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 445:14-18

Independent of Doctrines

You may have read Lessons in Chemistry, or perhaps watched the Apple TV series based on this lovely book. The main character, Elizabeth Zott, defies the norms of 1960s life. She is a scientist and scholar, living with a man to whom she is not married, having a child without a husband, and speaking her mind calmly and concisely no matter what the circumstance. She reminds me of Mary Baker Eddy, who in the mid-1800s followed a calling which was unheard of for woman — writing about new/old ideas which people thought of as blasphemous, giving speeches in public about them (a lady preacher?!), and starting a school, then a church, to keep the ideas flowing into the future. When yellow journalism was doing its best to smear her name, she started a newspaper with the motto: “To injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” To this day, you can count on The Christian Science Monitor to tell the truth and bring the world to our doorstep. Thank you to every calm, assertive woman who refused to go away when she was told to do so!

“Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page vii:13-18

“Knowing is not open to interpretation. You may try to ‘interpret’ meaning, but this is always open to error because it refers to the perception of meaning. Such incongruities are the result of attempts to regard yourself as separated and unseparated at the same time. It is impossible to make so fundamental a confusion without increasing your overall confusion still further. Your mind may have become very ingenious, but as always happens when method and content are separated, it is utilized in a futile attempt to escape from an inescapable impasse. Ingenuity is totally divorced from knowledge, because knowledge does not require ingenuity. Ingenious thinking is not the truth that shall set you free, but you are free of the need to engage in it when you are willing to let it go.”
—A Course in Miracles T-3.V.5:1-7

Responding With Fear or Love?

What are your feelings when you hear someone justify their actions by stating that someone else did the same or “worse”? Do you cringe when you hear mention of woman being made from a man’s rib, and so she should be subservient to him? Does the extreme duality of the majority of religions cause you to wonder if they know the meaning of One? When someone is feeling hurt by another’s actions, why is it so difficult for them to speak out and state that? These are a few of the questions which have been brought to my attention. I, of course, could expound on my opinions concerning these dilemmas, but I’m trying to listen for the deeper questions here. As all things are a product of fear or love, what would the loving response be in these scenarios? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

“Comparison must be an ego device, for love makes none. Specialness always makes comparisons. It is established by a lack seen in another, and maintained by searching for, and keeping clear in sight, all lacks it can perceive. This does it seek, and this it looks upon. And always whom it thus diminishes would be your savior, had you not chosen to make of him a tiny measure of your specialness instead. Against the littleness you see in him you stand as tall and stately, clean and honest, pure and unsullied, by comparison with what you see. Nor do you understand it is yourself that you diminish thus.” 

—A Course in Miracles  T-24.II.1:1-7

“Human thoughts have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual understanding, human thought has little relation to the actual or divine.” 

—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 297:21-28`

Bowing Continuously

Art by Abbott Henderson Thayer

Forgive Me - Poem by Mary Oliver

Angels are wonderful but they are so, well, aloof.

It’s what I sense in the mud and the roots of the

trees, or the well, or the barn, or the rock with

its citron map of lichen that halts my feet and

makes my eyes flare,

 feeling the presence of some spirit, 

some small god,

 who abides there.

If I were a perfect person, I would be bowing

continuously.

I’m not, though I pause wherever I feel this

holiness, which is why I’m so often late coming

back from wherever I went.

Forgive me.

~ Mary Oliver

“Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love, but human belief misinterprets nature. Arctic regions, sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers, and glorious heavens, — all point to Mind, the spiritual intelligence they reflect. The floral apostles are hieroglyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons. The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns naturally towards the light.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 240:1-9

“Forgiveness turns the world of sin into a world of glory, wonderful to see. Each flower shines in light, and every bird sings of the joy of Heaven. There is no sadness and there is no parting here, for everything is totally forgiven. And what has been forgiven must join, for nothing stands between to keep them separate and apart. The sinless must perceive that they are one, for nothing stands between to push the other off. And in the space that sin left vacant do they join as one, in gladness recognizing what is part of them has not been kept apart and separate.”

A Course in Miracles T-26.IV.2:1-6

Friendship and Common Causes

When the Surgeon General issued a statement calling loneliness and isolation an epidemic, it caused me to notice people around me and wonder if they felt lonely. My street is the epitome of community. We talk to each other and help out in times of need. I could write pages about how much I love my neighbors! But then I think about a few friends who have devoted their lives to spouses or jobs, which they no longer have. Many, if not all of them, seem to be looking for something they don’t think they’ll ever find. I have wondered in these writing why people don’t reach out to each other, why we don’t band together in friendship and common causes, what might we be afraid of in opening ourselves to others? I’m not sure I have any more answers now than when I last addressed this issue, but I do know more people are talking about the subject and finding avenues to help bring us together. I’m also thinking of days past when I may have felt lonely myself, and identifying reasons this is no longer my plight. I don’t feel separated from anyone or anything I love. And I’m no longer putting limitation on where that love can flow. And so, friends, my prayer for today is that we can be honest with ourselves and reach out to others when we need them or they need us. Namaste…

“Let him no more be lonely, for the lonely ones are those who see no function in the world for them to fill; no place where they are needed, and no aim which only they can perfectly fulfill.”
—A Course in Miracles T-25.VI.3:6

“Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love. When this hour of development comes, even if you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will force you to accept what best promotes your growth.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 266:6-12

Consciousness Loving Itself

Art by Amanda Cass

On this beautiful day when the world celebrates love, I would like to quote words from an Eckhart Tolle talk: “To feel empathy with another human, to feel love or lovingkindness, isn’t an emotion. Emotion is the neediness of attachment to another human being, but the outflow of lovingkindness or love towards another human is not a turbulence; it’s a deep thing that comes out of the recognition that the consciousness that I am is the essence of who you are, also. So what I love in you is consciousness loving itself.” Today I will make a point of thinking of people who are expressing divine Love in various activities, living a life of grace, and let them know how important they are to me and others. Happy Valentine’s Day to us all!!

“The Holy Spirit has given you love’s messengers to send instead of those you trained through fear. They are as eager to return to you what they hold dear as are the others. If you send them forth, they will see only the blameless and the beautiful, the gentle and the kind. They will be as careful to let no little act of charity, no tiny expression of forgiveness, no little breath of love escape their notice. And they will return with all the happy things they found, to share them lovingly with you. Be not afraid of them. They offer you salvation. Theirs are the messages of safety, for they see the world as kind.”
—A Course in Miracles T-19.IV-A.14:1-8

“Love alone can impart the limitless idea of infinite Mind.” 

—Mary Baker Eddy Science & Health Page 510:18-19