Saved by Truth

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

A dear friend tells me that it has taken her seven decades to stop believing the things her parents told her about herself. They said she was ugly, stupid, worthless, and other hurtful damnations. She believed these things and they stayed with her, until being in a group with spiritually-aware people allowed her to see the truth about herself. She no longer feels unworthy of love and goodness. Hallelujah! Her salvation has come! How often do we believe lies about the reality of our being? We don’t realize we have chosen guilt for ourselves, but thankfully we are recognizing this and understanding that we have a choice. Nothing outside of our own self can save us; nothing from outside can bring us peace. The source of salvation and peace lies within. This acceptance is, indeed, a cause for celebration!

“Innocence and Truth overcome guilt and error.”  

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 568:1

“Salvation seems to come from anywhere except from you. So, too, does the source of guilt. You see neither guilt nor salvation as in your own mind and nowhere else. When you realize that all guilt is solely an invention of your mind, you also realize that guilt and salvation must be in the same place. In understanding this you are saved.” 

A Course in Miracles W-70.1:2-6

The Grievances I Cherish

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

Cleaning cobwebs from dark corners feels similar to finding hidden grievances within myself. It's possible I'm holding onto some of these simply because it's comfortable. The story I've created for myself might just fall apart if I let go any part of it. I may have convinced myself that I like my history and wouldn't want to give up any of it, much less all of it. I'm like a little child holding on to a stuffed animal, feeling like it's my security. Or maybe I'm a little older, holding onto cigarettes because they feel like friends, and I'm not sure what I'd do without them. These are stories I've been building for years and years. It seems if I let them go, I may disappear. But what brilliance is hiding behind the cover of these grievance clouds? What light have I hidden behind the illusions I've created for myself and the world? I know something wonderful is there, just out of reach. So when an old story comes to mind, I will turn thought instead to contemplation of the wondrous Truth which flows in, out, and through me when I lift the veil created by my grievances. Now that's spring cleaning!

“The manifestation of God through mortals is as light passing through the window-pane. The light and the glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality--much error--in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides the sun.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 295:14-24

“From where you stand, you can see no reason to believe there is a brilliant light hidden by the clouds. The clouds seem to be the only reality. They seem to be all there is to see. Therefore, you do not attempt to go through them and past them, which is the only way in which you would be really convinced of their lack of substance.” 

A Course in Miracles W-69.5:1-4

No Grievance in Love

Art by Diana Harvey

Some painful memories seem to stay with us. Throughout the years, certain events have re-played regularly in my mind. Although these re-runs are mostly gone now, there are current events which seem to beg me to take offense. They jump up and down asking to be retold, wanting to hold me to them with emotions. To hold a grievance, you must live in the past. I remember a line from a little book by Alan Lightman called "Einstein's Dreams". He tells us that those who live in the past are condemned to live there alone. Habitually recounting what used to be, or wishing for what never was, or wanting what could have been, are thought processes which are symptoms of holding grievances. Today's Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson commentary tells us that forgetting that I am Love, forgetting that everyone is Love, forgetting that everything is Love, is holding a grievance. So today I will hold thought to a return to Love -- a figurative return, as I remember that I never left, and neither has anyone else. This Love replaces all grievances in my thought, and by this process I am safely and peacefully at one with all.

“The circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 574:27-30

“It is as sure that those who hold grievances will redefine God in their own image, as it is certain that God created them like Himself, and defined them as part of Him. It is as sure that those who hold grievances will suffer guilt, as it is certain that those who forgive will find peace. It is as sure that those who hold grievances will forget who they are, as it is certain that those who forgive will remember.” 

A Course in Miracles W-68.3:1-3

From Love and Light …

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

What is love? As a personal value, love changes and shifts. Friendships end over disagreements, marriages fall apart, societies struggle to remain cohesive while accepting those who think differently. The Love we are learning about changes our material expectations, along with our perceived shortcomings. There was a time when two people I care about did not get along with each other. I tried hard to see them both in their true identity as spiritual expressions of Love. They both shared in the wisdom of the ages, because they reflected divine Mind. When we see others as the expression of Love, they can see themselves this way, too. Seeing ourselves as complete allows a shift to occur in the way we treat others and ourselves. All problems, large and small, are symptoms of a basic misconception that we are fallen humans separated from God's Love. The acceptance that we are Love, wholly and purely, starts a domino-effect which inevitably includes everyone in this shift of thought. Through this acceptance, our views shift from unreal beliefs of what we are, to the pure understanding of ourselves as Love.

“From Love and from the light and harmony which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections of good can come. All things beautiful and harmless are ideas of Mind. Mind [Love] creates and multiplies them, and the product must be mental.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 280:4-8

“Meditation is the art of divine appreciation of the outer forms, because meditation gives us an understanding of the divine Love which produced the form. Meditation develops the insight which carries us from the outer form to its creative principle and then, with this new insight, the world is revealed as it really is.” 

Joel Goldsmith

“Love created me like itself. Today’s idea is a complete and accurate statement of what you are. This is why you are the light of the world. This is why God appointed you as the world’s savior. This is why the Son of God looks to you for his salvation. He is saved by what you are. We will make every effort today to reach this truth about you, and to realize fully, if only for a moment, that it is the truth.” 

A Course in Miracles W-67.1:1-6

My Only Function

Painting by Carol Peacock

As a restless young person, I resisted the only thing which was required in order to experience peace. I thought that to live in Spirit would be predictable and boring. Decades past that time, I find that everything is exciting and new! Without the willingness to be open to the field of all possibilities, I would be repeating by-rote behaviors and following learned beliefs. That, I now see, is what would be boring! By being willing to go inward and listen, I'm never sure of what I will say or do, but I'm confident of where that guidance will lead. On the occasions I forget to listen but rather hold forth with long-held, strong opinions, things don't usually work out in the same harmonious ways as they do when I'm willing to yield. That is a strong reminder to remember that I, of my own self, know nothing. 

"This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace."

Mary Baker Eddy- Science & Health Page 265:10-15

“The full acceptance of salvation as your only function necessarily entails two phases; the recognition of salvation as your function, and the relinquishment of all the other goals you have invented for yourself.

This is the only way in which you can take your rightful place among the saviors of the world. This is the only way in which you can say and mean, ‘My only function is the one God gave me.’ This is the only way in which you can find peace of mind.”

A Course in Miracles W-65.1:4–2:3

My Function is Happiness

Photo from John Rankine’s series:

A Community at Peace 2008

Truth has always been very important to me. Having this great love of truth, it came as quite a surprise to find out that the life I'd lived for 37 years, the name I'd used, the birthdate I'd celebrated, the people I'd called my mom and dad, were not the ones I'd been given at birth. When I was two months old, my parents took me from a niece who was 17 and had given birth with no one to help her. Her boyfriend had skipped over the border into Mexico. Her family ignored her, in an effort to convince her to give away her baby. After two months of being on her own, she relented and gave me to her aunt -- which is what her family had wanted all along. These wonderful people (who were the only parents I had ever known) then moved across the country and made a new beginning for us all. They did this in part to save this baby from the flood of criticism and judgment which accompanied a child born out of wedlock in the 1950s. Perhaps it was their living of this huge lie which caused them to instill truthfulness so solidly within me. For whatever reason, I am thankful to have it. Because of this love of truth, I've always wanted to know it -- in every way. But in the past two decades, it's taken the form of spiritual Truth, which shows me my function and is my happiness. And it has set me free!

“You will listen to madness or hear the truth. Try to make this choice as you think about the premises on which our conclusion rests. We can share in this conclusion, but in no other. For God Himself shares it with us. Today’s idea is another giant stride in the perception of the same as the same, and the different as different. On one side stand all illusions. All truth stands on the other. Let us try today to realize that only the truth is true.”

A Course in Miracles W-66.10:1-8

"Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 57:18-21

Forgive Yourself

Pure Love

Have you ever been accused of something you did not do? An unjust charge carries with it a terrible feeling. This same feeling follows many of us around because we have been told that we are born sinners — and that there is nothing to be done about the life sentence. We have come to believe it is our function on this earth to try ever so hard in order to overcome this innate badness. Isn't it a wonderful thing to experience teachings which show us that this is not true? The understanding of our essence as the pure expression of God — and the realization that anything unlike this expression is a material illusion, one which is brought to us courtesy of tainted human beliefs — frees us to be happy. Gone is all the guilt we may have carried around, thinking we were condemned by a power from which we couldn't escape. There has been no condemnation by any power, only illusionary powers to which we have given credence. Breaking free from these beliefs, we are free to be happy, healthy, whole -- and we bloom! 

“Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of God or God’s absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the Father. The rule of inversion infers from error its opposite, Truth; but Truth is the light which dispels error. As mortals begin to understand Spirit, they give up the belief that there is any true existence apart from God." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 282:28:3 

“Nothing the body’s eyes seem to see can be anything but a form of temptation, since this was the purpose of the body itself. Yet we have learned that the Holy Spirit has another use for all the illusions you have made, and therefore He sees another purpose in them. To the Holy Spirit, the world is a place where you learn to forgive yourself what you think of as your sins. In this perception, the physical appearance of temptation becomes the spiritual recognition of salvation.”

A Course in Miracles W-64.2:1-4

Peace to Every Mind

 “There is a place of peace in the heart that looks out and sees the foolishness of the world but does not judge, criticize or condemn but compassionately accepts the unawakened behavior of others.

This place is called Love.

It is that which cannot be taught, only shown by example.

It is not a lesson to give, it is a relationship with life.

It is not a beating with a stick, but a caress with an open hand.

It is the strongest force in the universe, but needs time to be understood.

The one who encourages you to be afraid is not your friend. The one who shows the unity and interconnectedness of all things will not want something from you.

When you are afraid you are already the victim.

When you are loving, you are exactly where you want be.

This sharing of love without conditions is the way of the heart.”

Michael Kewley

“How holy are you who have the power to bring peace to every mind! How blessed are you who can learn to recognize the means 

for letting this be done through you! 

What purpose could you have that would bring you greater happiness?” 

A Course in Miracles W-63.1:1-3

"Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear,--this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony. 

The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 324:3-5

Walking in the Light

Hillspeak- Eureka Springs, AR

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

“I wish I'd known about this way of thinking earlier in life,” a friend once said to me. He was concerned that he wouldn't have enough time to assimilate these ideas. Many responses came to mind, but I chose to say none of them. Time -- what a concept! We are eternal, so how can there not be enough time to realize something we've always known? Yes, that does sound rather esoteric, or perhaps a bit airy-fairy -- but doesn't it feel true? As Deepak Chopra tells us: "Time is something we've made up so everything doesn't happen all at once." When thinking of time in this way, don't we already know everything that ever has been or ever will be? It feels as though our purpose is to remember the knowledge of our true self. With that remembrance, we open the gates of understanding in all areas of existence. There are no limits as to time and space. We have the ability to grasp concepts, to actualize ideas, and to function as the light of the world. The lovely thing about all of this is: No matter how much I may think I grok, there is always more to experience in this never-ending adventure! 

“It is your forgiveness that will bring the world of darkness to the light. It is your forgiveness that lets you recognize the light in which you see. Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world. Through your forgiveness does the truth about yourself return to your memory. Therefore, in your forgiveness lies your salvation.” 

A Course in Miracles W-62.1:1-5

“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

Recognizing Humility

Art by Catrin Weltz-Stein

Humility is my focus during this Lenten season. The priest at the Catholic Church where I provide musical accompaniment requested that his congregation choose a virtue to focus on every day, and I feel this is the one in which I need the most practice. While some think it is arrogant to accept our divinity as a child of divine Mind (a/k/a God), students of Mary Baker Eddy and A Course in Miracles feel it is the ultimate humility. It’s a yielding which allows us to realize that Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, the Principal of all that Is — these things are all-inclusive, defining God, and all of creation. To rejoice in being One with everyone, to live from Love rather than fear and its imaginings, is to humbly accept the goodness inherent in us all. My focus on humility will hopefully lead me to turn away from the illusion of material problems, as I wholeheartedly accept my function as a reflection of God, and see that image mirrored in everyone I meet.

“To the ego, today’s idea [I am the light of the world] is the epitome of self-glorification. But the ego does not understand humility, mistaking it for self-debasement. Humility consists of accepting your role in salvation and in taking no other. It is not humility to insist you cannot be the light of the world if that is the function God assigned to you. It is only arrogance that would assert this function cannot be for you, and arrogance is always of the ego.”

A Course in Miracles W-61.1:1–2:5

"Praying for humility with whatever fervency of expression does not always mean a desire for it. If we turn away from the poor, we are not ready to receive the reward of Him who blesses the poor. We confess to having a very wicked heart and ask that it may be laid bare before us, but do we not already know more of this heart than we are willing to have our neighbor see?"

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 8:20-27

The Faces of Fear

Art by Vladislav Yerko

"Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.” 

-- Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom From Fear 

“Had Blondin believed it impossible to walk the rope over Niagara's abyss of waters, he could never have done it. His belief that he could do it gave his thought-forces, called muscles, their flexibility and power which the unscientific might attribute to a lubricating oil. His fear must have disappeared before his power of putting resolve into action could appear.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 199:25-31

“How safe the world will look to me when I can see it! It will not look anything like what I imagine I see now. Everyone and everything I see will lean toward me to bless me. I will recognize in everyone my dearest Friend. What could there be to fear in a world that I have forgiven, and that has forgiven me?” 

A Course in Miracles W-60.3:2-6

A Wider Sphere of Thought

Photo credit: Arthur Bruno

I've never understood political conflict.  It seems to me that if everyone is for the good of all, what in the world is there to be conflicted about? I simply do not know why we have these clashes, and certainly have no desire to talk about these disagreeable scenarios. Times of major elections in our United States bring out interesting opinions from unexpected places. I try not to listen to any of it, holding to the knowledge of our true selves as the expression of Love, while looking past all the rhetoric and seeming idiocy. If God is the Mind with which I think, and that Mind is (and can only be) light, no fear nor condemnation is necessary. With this realization, we could stop trying to change others' thoughts to what we think they should be. Knowing that every thought which is a reflection of divine Mind grows exponentially, I find cause for continuing the quest to be a clean mirror. 

"This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 265:10-15

“Let me not look to my own eyes to see today. Let me be willing to exchange my pitiful illusion of seeing for the vision that is given by God. Christ’s vision is His gift, and He has given it to me. Let me call upon this gift today, so that this day may help me to understand eternity.” 

A Course in Miracles W-59.2:3-6

Perceiving My Holiness

“The perception of my holiness does not bless me alone. Everyone and everything I see in its light shares in the joy it brings to me.” This is part of today’s five-lesson review in A Course in Miracles. We are learning that this holiness is our true state of being as reflections of Love. This Love is realized through forgiveness in its purest sense. When I assert this truth about myself, I affirm it for everyone. Many of us think that such a statement about ourselves is arrogant; something to be avoided. What if the opposite is true, and it’s arrogant to think we can do everything through our individual, human intellect and reasoning?  Perhaps true humility is acknowledging our holiness, allowing divine Mind to guide us, knowing we are all One. 

 “My holiness is my salvation. Since my holiness saves me from all guilt, recognizing my holiness is recognizing my salvation. It is also recognizing the salvation of the world. Once I have accepted my holiness, nothing can make me afraid. And because I am unafraid, everyone must share in my understanding, which is the gift of God to me and to the world.” 

A Course in Miracles W-58.4:1-5

"We know that a desire for holiness is requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we desire holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it. We must be willing to do this, that we may walk securely in the only practical road to holiness. Prayer cannot change the unalterable Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding of Truth; but prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us into all Truth. Such a desire has little need of audible expression. It is best expressed in thought and in life." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 11:22-32

Living From Truth

Photo by Aaron Springston

I have often been asked if Christian Science is a cult. Having been affiliated with this  life since childhood, it’s easy for me to say it assuredly is not. I've never been controlled by anyone, or asked to worship anyone, or any of the other criteria necessary to qualify for this categorization. I'm sure Course in Miracles students often get the same type of questions, as a quick search of the internet indicates. What we do ask of ourselves is a radical reliance on God, a wholehearted acceptance of Love as the only power, and the desire to let Spirit lead every action. Both of these schools of thought ask us to give up material beliefs and rely on Truth. And this may not be as difficult as it seems. Shouldn't it be easy to allow spiritual principles to guide our actions, rather than accepting material rules which make no sense? Living from the Truth within, rather than made-up rules of material existence, this is the free thought which will lead into harmonious peace for all. 

“When I see the world as a place of freedom, I realize that it reflects the laws of God instead of the rules I made up for it to obey. I will understand that peace, not war, abides in it. And I will perceive that peace also abides in the hearts of all who share this place with me.” 

A Course in Miracles W-57.4:2-4

"The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal. Through many generations human beliefs will be attaining diviner conceptions, and the immortal and perfect model of God's creation will finally be seen as the only true conception of being."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 260:7-12

Connected — or Not!

Real Connections

I’ve been contemplating our connectivity and, also, our lack of connection. Many people say that we are suffering from loss of connections with real people; that we have given ourselves over to technology, thinking we are making connections when we're actually just passing time. I wonder if the face-to-face conversations we have are any more "real" than the computer relationships we sustain. So far, my conclusion is that any relationship can be shallow or deep, and how we connect makes no difference. Admittedly I don't sit on my front porch with neighbors, watching the sunset and chatting. It seems the great majority of one-on-one communications I do have consist mainly of mindless chatter. On the other hand, friendships I keep up with on the computer tend to be more substantial. No one emails me and tells me gossip about mutual friends or the details of their gallbladder operation. Although I have received no great insights about how changes in communications have affected friendship or global affairs, I do know that we have more opportunities to enjoy each other than ever before, and I want to take advantage of every moment of it!

“God is in everything I see. Behind every image I have made, the truth remains unchanged. Behind every veil I have drawn across the face of love, its light remains undimmed. Beyond all my insane wishes is my will, united with the Will of my Father. God is still everywhere and in everything forever. And we who are part of Him will yet look past all appearances, and recognize the truth beyond them all.” 

A Course in Miracles W-56.4:1-6

“Here let a word be noticed which will be better understood hereafter,--chemicalization. By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal mind and body undergo in the change of belief from a material to a spiritual basis.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 168:30-2

The Vanishing Sense-Dream

Hillspeak - Eureka Springs, AR

Photo by Blake Lasater

Wouldn't it be great to live in a world where losing is impossible, where love lasts forever, where hate does not exist, and vengeance has no meaning? It would be grand if we never had misunderstandings, because communications were clear and precise, without the burden of forming words to tell others what we mean. There would be no hard feelings between people, as we wouldn't blame others for thinking differently than we do, because we know that at our core all of us are One. The world we have created is wonderful in many ways, but there are also horrors beyond words, and that causes people to lose faith in this thing we call God. We have created an un-God-like world and blame an unknown deity for what we think we cannot change. What if we're wrong and what we see is not true creation? Imagine that!!

“That which material sense calls intangible, is found to be substance. What to material sense seems substance, becomes nothingness, as the sense-dream vanishes and reality appears." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 312:3-6

“What I see is a form of vengeance. The world I see is hardly the representation of loving thoughts. It is a picture of attack on everything by everything. It is anything but a reflection of the Love of God and the Love of His Son. It is my own attack thoughts that give rise to this picture. My loving thoughts will save me from this perception of the world, and give me the peace God intended me to have.” 

A Course in Miracles W-55.2:1-6