Searching...

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #201 Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #181 "I trust my brothers, who are one with me."

"Searching For the Wrong-Eyed Jesus" is a documentary on life in the South of the United States. This film takes us to small towns where people turn to drugs and/or religion when they've given up all hope of finding happiness. I watched in fascination, realizing for the first time what people find in so-called "holy-roller" churches. In their feverish love of God, they find the pleasure they crave. Others turn to mood-elevating drugs for the same reason. One person in the movie says that everyone is "lonely for God" in these desolate towns. Another line which struck me was this: "He was just a regular ol' Southern lunatic. In his quest for union, he ended up being more separate than ever." There is such Truth to be found in their longing! I longed with them as they jumped up and down, speaking in tongues and dancing in odd jerky movements. There wasn't much difference in the drunken barroom scenes on Saturday night and the gyrations of the Sunday morning gatherings. They're all looking for the same thing: They want to fill the emptiness inside. They want excitement, fun, a way to pass time without feeling alone. I can't keep from thinking of how they would be set free with the knowledge of their true Being. The only way this can happen is if I realize it -- really realize it! --not just intellectually, but with my heart.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good."

Science & Health Page 518:15-19

Trusting My Brothers

photo credit: Dale Johnson

ACIM Workbook Lesson #201

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #181 "I trust my brothers, who are one with me."

"Searching For the Wrong-Eyed Jesus" is a documentary on life in the South of the United States. This film takes us to small towns where people turn to drugs and/or religion when they've given up all hope of finding happiness. I watched in fascination, realizing for the first time what people find in so-called "holy-roller" churches. In their feverish love of God, they find the pleasure they crave. Others turn to mood-elevating drugs for the same reason. One person in the movie says that everyone is "lonely for God" in these desolate towns. Another line which struck me was this: "He was just a regular ol' Southern lunatic. In his quest for union, he ended up being more separate then ever." There is such Truth to be found in their longing! I longed with them as they jumped up and down, speaking in tongues and dancing in odd jerky movements. There wasn't much difference in the drunken barroom scenes on Saturday night and the gyrations of the Sunday morning gatherings. They're all looking for the same thing: They want to fill the emptiness inside. They want excitement, fun, a way to pass time without feeling alone. I can't keep from thinking of how they would be set free with the knowledge of their true Being. The only way this can happen is if I realize it -- really realize it! --not just intellectually, but with my heart.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good."

Science & Health Page 518:15-19

As Free As A Dream

photo by Alden Stallings

ACIM Workbook Lesson #219

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #199 “I am not a body. I am free.”

Have you ever dreamed you could fly? My favorite freedom dream is one of running fast, sometimes leaving the ground and floating in mid-stride. Although I haven't had this recurring dream for some time, I can still fell the perfection of it. As I watch people dance and use their bodies in other life-affirming ways, I marvel at the beauty and grace expressed in these activities. Just as physical boundaries are broken and new records set, there is more to come in this so-called physical existence. We are learning of the limitlessness of divine Mind’s ideas, of which we are One.   What is your highest ideal of freedom? 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"This mortal is put off, and the new man or real man is put on, in proportion as mortals realize the Science of man and seek the true model." Science & Health Page 408:22-26

Whisking Away Unreality

photo courtesy of Alden Stallings

ACIM Workbook Lesson #199

“I am not a body. I am free.”

We have had the privilege of hosting a group of Buddhist monks in our village. They created a beautiful mandala on the top floor of one of our historic hotels. As I always like to look up definitions of words in order to spur inspiration, I looked up the meaning of mandala and found this interesting psychoanalytic slant for the term: “a symbol in a dream, representing the dreamer's search for completeness and self-unity.” How interesting! The recognition that we are not a body and that we’re free dovetails with many aspects of the mandala, so I will ponder them today, reaffirming what my true Self is and whisking away what it is not!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"I am the image and likeness of God; no mortal mind can confine this image in a mortal body, harm or touch it in any way, Mind has set me free from every error. Divine Love fills every avenue, flows through every channel and removes every obstruction."

[This is an excerpt from an article entitled "Body" by Mary Baker Eddy, filed in the Congressional Library, January 19, 1886, found by Lyda Sandifer Hord]

August 7, 2014 - Freedom

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #219

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #199 “I am not a body. I am free.”

Have you ever dreamed you could fly? My favorite freedom dream is one of running fast, sometimes leaving the ground and floating in mid-stride. Although I haven't had this recurring dream for some time, I can still fell the perfection of it. As I watch people dance and use their bodies in other life-affirming ways, I marvel at the beauty and grace expressed in these activities. Just as physical boundaries are broken and new records set, there is more to come in this so-called physical existence. We are learning of the limitlessness of God's ideas, of which we are One.   What is your highest ideal of freedom? 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"This mortal is put off, and the new man or real man is put on, in proportion as mortals realize the Science of man and seek the true model." Science & Health Page 408:22-26

June 12, 2013 - Life is Timeless

"Timeless Beauty"
photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #163 

"There is no death. The Son of God is free."

There are many meanings, both literal and metaphorical, which come to mind when thinking of the word "death". The first thought which came to me upon reading today's topic was the death we experience when we are born into this existence. Suddenly our spiritual sense is deadened by the deluge of materialistic stimuli which constantly bombards us. In this forgetting of the Truth of our Being, life becomes very uncertain. We vacillate between inharmonious circumstances, until we recognize our relation to divine Mind. Then we begin to see glimpses of eternity. We start to realize the unreality of time and space. I think we've always known this. Perhaps it's part of the dissatisfaction so often felt when "feeling out of sight for the ends of being and ideal grace." (Browning)  We know there's something more than this, and we keep grasping at what it might be. We search for freedom from the belief that we are victims of circumstance. We have the choice of waking up! Today's lesson gives many examples of how we allow death to be stronger than life. To wake up from this dream of erroneous thought, let's switch on the light of Truth. Then we are able to see that we have it backwards. There is no need to fear this life which can only end in death. Instead we'll allow ourselves to see through the veil we have hung to hide the truth of our being. With this sight will come the understanding of Life as timeless.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The chief stones in the temple of Christian Science are to be found in the following postulates: that Life is God, good, and not evil; that Soul is sinless, not to be found in the body; that Spirit is not, and cannot be, materialized; that Life is not subject to death; that the spiritual real man has no birth, no material life, and no death.”

Science & Health Page 288:20-25

October 5, 2012 - Quantum Entanglement

A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson #278

“If I am bound, my Father is not free.”

"World Cup in South Africa"

At times, the miasma of materiality seems overwhelming. It's easy to feel bound by illnesses and painful injuries, financial burdens, grief, and the many beliefs we see as reality. Our lives and the events in them may appear to have a beginning and an end. Physicists tell us of a perspective known as quantum entanglement, in which particles separate yet remain connected, duplicating reactions to stimuli even though they no longer occupy the same space. In a book by Dan Cowan, "Mind Underlies Spacetime", he explains, "...this direct connectedness occurs because each real entity is already everywhere." This perfectly explains our Oneness with All That Is, and this understanding of our permanence in God frees us from fear of human circumstance. This omnipresence is our perfect identify, without boundaries, which we express more every day as our understanding of it increases. What expansion in thought awaits us today? I invite contributions from you on the blog, or in reply to this email.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The admission to one's self that man is God's own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This conviction shuts the door on death, and opens it wide towards immortality. The understanding and recognition of Spirit must finally come, and we may as well improve our time in solving the mysteries of being through an apprehension of divine Principle. At present we know not what man is, but we certainly shall know this when man reflects God.”

Science & Health Page 90:24-31

July 28, 2012 - Love is the Liberator

"God is Love - Woman in Mexico"
photo by Jim Young 

Course in Miracles Lesson #209 (review)

Central Theme:

“I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me.”

Specific review: (#189) “I feel the Love of God within me now.”

To feel Love from a source outside ourselves is impossible. To express a material sense of love is an illusion. But to be the Love which is God, that is Truth. God is Love, and we are Its manifestation. Hence, we are Love. The recognition that we are Love is liberation in and of itself. In a poem by Mrs. Eddy she says, "Love looseth me and lifteth me a'yont hate's thrall". Can you tell she was a fan of Shakespeare? Old-fashioned language aside, she's saying that Love sets us free, lifting us above and beyond any hate we may perceive.  I was talking to a man today who must have been accustomed to inducing angry reactions from people. He said a number of ugly things in a rather loud voice, fully expecting to get a rise out of me.  I found him rather amusing, like a little boy having a tantrum, and so I spoke to him as such. Very calmly I told him that we don't speak that way in Eureka Thyme, that this is a space of Love and beauty, and he really should go outside if that's the way he wanted to act. I’ve mostly given up trying to change anyone, and usually I can resist the urge to want to fix others, but I've come to see that it's my purpose to show them the way to freedom of living in the Truth of their Being. By actions and words we assist ourselves, and thereby everyone, in the realization that Love is the only reality. To live Love allows a total release from past habitual thought and the pain we've chosen. And then there is no need for blame, guilt, nor forgiveness. We are free.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The history of our country, like all history, illustrates the might of Mind, and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking. A few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipotence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market; but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love is the liberator.”

Science and Health Page 225:14-22