Ancient Truth, Newly Born

Photo courtesy of Don Matt 

A dear friend will be having major heart surgery. I was reminded of this daily writing from a few years back:

I was chatting with a local health care professional who had open heart surgery. He tells me that many people in the "zipper club" (as a group of bypass patients call themselves) are anything but open-hearted. He says many people are angry that their lives have changed so much. He told me that some don't want to go forward, but rather they spend time and energy wanting their old lifestyle back. I find this difficult to understand. Having gone through a life-changing physical event, I found the major changes to be exhilarating and exciting. If I had this surgery, the name "open heart" would cause me to smile every time I thought of it, leading me to open myself to everything that life has to offer and bringing a new appreciation. Certainly it has for many, as it did for the beautiful man with whom I shared this conversation. I open my heart to happiness, safety, comfort, certainty of purpose, and peace so perfect it can never be upset. I am grateful, moment-by-moment, for all that I am learning and seeing demonstrated in daily life. Thank you greatly!!

“Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 3:25-26

“Open your eyes today and look upon a happy world of safety and of peace. Forgiveness is the means by which it comes to take the place of hell. In quietness it rises up to greet your open eyes, and fill your heart with deep tranquility as ancient truths, forever newly born, arise in your awareness. What you will remember then can never be described. Yet your forgiveness offers it to you.”
—A Course in Miracles W-122.8:1-5

Only Truth Remains …

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

I've been pondering lies and truth. There is only one way to tell the truth, but there are scores of ways to lie. Perhaps you're not admitting certain events occurred the way they did, spinning webs of words to keep from admitting something you want to hide -- or think needs to be hidden, for a multitude of reasons. Then there's the lie involved in turning your head and ignoring something. Or maybe you're blatantly denying what you know to be truth. We could name many other forms of lying, but to take an oath to tell the truth -- well, there's only one way to do that. For years, people have told me lies are necessary, and I haven't believed it. Long ago, a friend's husband was dying of colon cancer. They never talked about it, never acknowledged it was happening, and pretended everything was okay and he would be out of the hospital soon. So there are also lies born of fear. But the truth is still sitting there waiting to be heard and seen. Nothing can change truth, but many things change lies. I can't imagine lying until it seems like truth. I pity those who have done so.

“What can correct illusions but the truth? And what are errors but illusions that remain unrecognized for what they are? Where truth has entered errors disappear. They merely vanish, leaving not a trace by which to be remembered. They are gone because, without belief, they have no life. And so they disappear to nothingness, returning whence they came. From dust to dust they come and go, for only truth remains.”
—A Course in Miracles W-107.1:1-7

“Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind, we begin with Mind, which must be understood through the idea which expresses it and cannot be learned from its opposite, matter. Thus we arrive at Truth, or intelligence, which evolves its own unerring idea and never can be coordinate with human illusions.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 467:29-3

Crazy Thoughts or Baby Goats?

My mind is full of strange ideas, brought to me courtesy of the people on earth. Why would anyone think that Alex Jones is a reporter giving us news? Why do people believe the earth is flat? What about a new world order making tunnels beneath the ground, with headquarters under the Denver Airport, and that's why that crazy horse with glowing eyes is out front? Really?? What are we thinking? The United States of Conspiracy is a PBS, Frontline, documentary which prompted these thoughts and more. Have I ever believed a conspiracy theory? Probably. Maybe I still do. In my youth, my dearest friend thought our government was being run by lizard people (basically aliens from somewhere far, far away). It seemed logical. Everyday unbelievable tidbits are tossed into our collective minds, and if we choose to believe it, we're doing more than ourselves a disservice. Every thought is important, don't you think? The collective consciousness of life truly is a thing. What goes around, comes around, whether it be thoughts or actions. We have a choice, so let’s allow compassion, kindness, understanding, truth, love, to fill our head -- and when something else tries to crowd its way into our thinking, just look at a picture of a baby goat. Sending happiness and love to each and every one of you!

“The wearying, dissatisfying gods you made are blown-up children’s toys. A child is frightened when a wooden head springs up as a closed box is opened suddenly, or when a soft and silent woolly bear begins to squeak as he takes hold of it. The rules he made for boxes and for bears have failed him, and have broken his ‘control’ of what surrounds him. And he is afraid, because he thought the rules protected him. Now must he learn the boxes and the bears did not deceive him, broke no rules, nor mean his world is made chaotic and unsafe. He was mistaken. He misunderstood what made him safe, and thought that it had left.”
—A Course in Miracles T-30.IV.2:1-7

"Arise from your false consciousness into the true sense of Love, and behold the Lamb’s wife, — Love wedded to its own spiritual idea. Then cometh the marriage feast, for this revelation will destroy forever the physical plagues imposed by material sense.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 575:1-5

Full Disclosure

Would you be frightened to see a living creature which is not like us, one which has come to our planet from somewhere in the universe? No one I know well would be freaked out by such a happening, and most would welcome an extraterrestrial visitation. The general opinion of our so-called leaders is that humanity could not handle the knowledge, and the world would fall apart because everything we have ever held true would not be. The same supposition seems to be held by our religious leaders: if people knew the truth of what Jesus taught, the world would be in turmoil, because people’s belief basis would have to shift. It is my personal opinion that neither of these things are true. I feel that people would welcome the understanding that there is a reason things are not working out well. Wouldn’t it be a relief to see the light which is being hidden by beliefs? Perhaps our world is in turmoil because nothing is built on a solid foundation; we have based our civilization on a shaky basis. Every time our churches and political establishments tell us we have to believe them “just because”, our minds either open a bit more in search of truth, or they close more with a layer of false protection. I think that not knowing, not understanding, is far more frightening than the alternative. Let’s listen, love, and learn!

“Eternal Truth is changing the universe. As mortals drop off their mental swaddling-clothes, thought expands into expression. ‘Let there be light,’ is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love, changing chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres. The mythical human theories of creation, anciently classified as the higher criticism, sprang from cultured scholars in Rome and in Greece, but they afforded no foundation for accurate views of creation by the divine Mind.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 255:1-10

“It can indeed be said the ego made its world on sin. Only in such a world could everything be upside down. This is the strange illusion that makes the clouds of guilt seem heavy and impenetrable. The solidness that this world’s foundation seems to have is found in this. For sin has changed creation from an idea of God to an ideal the ego wants; a world it rules, made up of bodies, mindless and capable of complete corruption and decay. If this is a mistake, it can be undone easily by truth. Any mistake can be corrected, if truth be left to judge it. But if the mistake is given the status of truth, to what can it be brought?”
—A Course in Miracles T-19.II.6:1-8

Peace To Struggling Hearts

Photo courtesy of Chris Flanagin

Recognizing anger in my heart, irritation in my mind, often brings shame. In striving to work through these feelings, I have been listening to many of my favorite seers. Thich Nhat Hanh tells me to embrace that anger. He relates a story of a woman in the kitchen, busily cooking dinner, when she hears her baby crying. She rushes to the infant, embraces it, and discovers why it is crying, transforming its anguish by finding out what is wrong, changing its diapers, calming its fears, meeting its needs. So, he tells us, by embracing our anger, we are able to look deeply at it, get insights into its cause, by which we are able to liberate our feelings and transform them into freedom. Once I am free, I no longer see myself as a victim and I am in a position to be a catalyst for positive change. I feel immense gratitude towards this gentle man, as he leads me on the path of peace. Namaste...

"The material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace. The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth."
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 96:12

“The holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love. And They come quickly to the living temple, where a home for Them has been set up. There is no place in Heaven holier. And They have come to dwell within the temple offered Them, to be Their resting place as well as yours. What hatred has released to love becomes the brightest light in Heaven’s radiance. And all the lights in Heaven brighter grow, in gratitude for what has been restored.”

—A Course in Miracles T-26.IX.6:1-6

A Future Very Different From The Past

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

“A new species is arising on the planet. It is arising now, and you are it!”
—Eckhart Tolle

“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

“From new perception of the world there comes a future very different from the past. The future now is recognized as but extension of the present. Past mistakes can cast no shadows on it, so that fear has lost its idols and its images, and being formless, it has no effects. Death will not claim the future now, for life is now its goal, and all the needed means are happily provided. Who can grieve or suffer when the present has been freed, extending its security and peace into a quiet future filled with joy?”
—A Course in Miracles - W-314.1:1

No Order of Difficulty in Miracles

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

When I first encountered A Course in Miracles, I was bothered by the use of the word "miracle". In Christian Science, I had learned that what we tend to think of as a miracle is actually the demonstration of divine law. In most cases, when someone says, "It's a miracle", there's the implication that material laws have been set aside for something unbelievable to happen. I have come to see that A Course in Miracles is using the word miracle in much the same way as Mary Baker Eddy refers to it. It is the demonstration of divine Principle, which is realized by replacing material illusions with spiritual sense. This experience is referred to in Science and Health as "not supernatural, but supremely natural". I love that we are seeing ourselves as complete beings, utilizing our so-called sixth sense in everyday life, and not being surprised when "miraculous" things happen! ACIM also tells us that there are no degrees in miracles, so we needn’t think of little miracles and unbelievable miracles. When we wash away the dust of material belief, the light of Love can shine through, giving us strength where we before thought we were weak. We need not worry about which road to take when we trust our inner knowing, our intuition, our true Self.

"The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law."
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 135:6-8

“There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not ‘harder’ or ‘bigger’ than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal.”
—A Course in Miracles T-1.I.1:1-4