Unspeakable Peace

I saw a picture of a man in a tee-shirt which said, "Give peace a chance". Then it had a photo of a big gun and the words: "I'll cover you if it doesn't work out." Where did we ever get the notion that we could be protected by violence? Later in the day, I saw an article from a few years back in which President Jimmy Carter told us the time for peace is now. He brought up our odd system of retribution, wherein we kill people for killing people, and how governments wage wars in the name of enforcing peace. There are a multitude of ways we seem to think that violence will end violence. I look back over the last few decades and it is astounding how often teachers, parents, and authority figures think they can control children with threats and corporal punishment. I’ve been studying the work of Gabor Mate, who examines the effects of violence in childhood, and the after effects which appear in later life. Many of our choices are not facilitating peace, so let’s choose again

“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

“Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 264:24-27

Celebrating Independence

Photo of unknown origin

A national celebration of independence is happening as I write this. My celebration occurred while I was on the front porch, watching fireflies rise from my overgrown flowerbed-of-a-lawn. I could hear the far-away noise of fireworks, police sirens wailed somewhere in the distance, but I was smelling the flowers and herbs rather than the pungent odor of explosives. I commemorated freedom with my cats, while reveling in the peace on my porch. The terrible political turmoil our country is wrapped up in is easier to see through from my porch. I receive daily newsletters from historian/teacher Dr. Heather Cox Richardson. Today she gave us ways to stay the rising tide of treachery in our country. Basically, she directs us to use our unique talents in order to save democracy. She gives talks; I write daily essays. Don’t be shy when it comes to sharing your purpose!

“Like our nation, Christian Science has its Declaration of Independence. God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 106:6-11

“Ideas must first belong to you, before you give them. If you are to save the world, you first accept salvation for yourself. But you will not believe that this is done until you see the miracles it brings to everyone you look upon. Herein is the idea of giving clarified and given meaning. Now you can perceive that by your giving is your store increased.”

A Course in Miracles W-187.3:1-5

Arrogant or Humble?

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

Would you feel uneasy, perhaps arrogant, if you were to say that the salvation of the world depended on you? I know I would have in the past, but that was before I realized that the opposite is true. The realization that we are united with All that Is, this is quite a humbling experience. It's easy to get this concept backwards, believing that if we recognize our oneness with God, we are displaying braggadocio. I have found boastful behavior comes about from thinking that my material, personal beliefs are more valid than the experience I share with the divine Mind. It takes a yielding of my self-important intellectual sureness in order to admit that I want nothing other than to know God. The gratitude I feel from the realization of our unity is priceless!

“The scientific unity which exists between God and man must be wrought out in life-practice, and God’s will must be universally done.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 201:3-5

“Let us not fight our function. We did not establish it. It is not our idea. The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. All that we are asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility, and not deny with self-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. What is given us to do, we have the strength to do. Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us by One Who knows us well.”

A Course in Miracles W-186.2:1-7

Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson

“It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,

talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of

God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people

permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

Our presence automatically liberates others.”

—Marianne Williamson

Calm and Exalted Thought

Pembrooke Farm

Eureka Springs, AR

I met a woman who had lived in our mountain town for about a year. She wasn't happy here; not in any way. She told me how she couldn't stand the weather, her job, her apartment, the lack of public transportation, our farmers' market. For most of her diatribe, I calmly listened to her and agreed that she should probably go back to Houston where she was happier. But when she started to put down our local farmers' market, I verbally retaliated in a fashion more vehement than expected! Looking back on the situation, I realize the "peace of God" (which we are contemplating in today’s Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 185) has nothing to do with degrees. Divine Love doesn't become riled up if someone says something derogatory about a cause which is close to Its heart. It doesn’t become a bit upset over something, and ragingly defensive over something else. Today my focus will be on experiencing peace in every situation, not just the ones I have no emotional connection towards! 

"The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 506:11-12

“The mind which means that all it wants is peace must join with other minds, for that is how peace is obtained. And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given, in a form each mind that seeks for it in honesty can understand. Whatever form the lesson takes is planned for him in such a way that he can not mistake it, if his asking is sincere. But if he asks without sincerity, there is no form in which the lesson will meet with acceptance and be truly learned.”

A Course in Miracles W-185.6:1-4 

Seeing Something Where There Is Nothing

Sculpture At Crystal Bridges

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

From the moment we come into this form, we are taught what things are called, what those names represent, and the meaning we should place on them. These names and meanings tend to separate us from each other: they de-unify us. We think of learning as knowing what these things are, and then we study to find out everything about them. In this world we have made, we need these symbols, these names, in order to convey information. And yet, we keep getting glimpses of true communication -- and, if you're like me, you want more! Watching birds fly in formation is but one way we witness a higher form of knowing. Rather than learning more about the illusion of names and notions, I'd rather work toward knowing the reality of a shared unity, by way of understanding the infinite Mind which flows through everything. The knowledge that the confusion we are faced with in daily life is not true creation, this is a key to the door of Truth, wherein peace is found.

“The press unwittingly sends forth many sorrows and diseases among the human family. It does this by giving names to diseases and by printing long descriptions which mirror images of disease distinctly in thought. A new name for an ailment affects people like a Parisian name for a novel garment. Every one hastens to get it.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 196:31-5

“This space you see as setting off all things from one another is the means by which the world’s perception is achieved. You see something where nothing is, and see as well nothing where there is unity; a space between all things, between all things and you. Thus do you think that you have given life in separation. By this split you think you are established as a unity which functions with an independent will.”

A Course in Miracles W-184.2:1-4

Who Are You Without Your Name?

Basin Park, Eureka Springs, AR 

Photo credit: Richard Quick

There is an Eckhart Tolle video called "The Flowering of Human Consciousness." This talk starts out with him asking us to pretend we have no name. He wants us to examine how this feels and see who we are without this part of our "story" in place. I feel fortunate to have discovered that my personal history isn't exactly what I had been told it was. My parents took me from a relative shortly after my birth, moved to another state, and invented a history for their new baby.  Finding out at the age of 37 that my given name and birthdate were fiction enabled me to begin to see who I Am, in reality. My only parent is divine Mind. I have no birth date as I am eternal, without beginning or ending. Every single part of my material history is a temporary illusion which can be released in favor of Truth. This doesn't mean that I will lose my individuality. On the contrary! I am set free to be more of mySelf when I dismiss the limitations imposed by heredity, circumstance, and other material beliefs concerning my past. Although this changing of history was rather traumatic when I discovered my personal data was fiction, I rapidly found out what was important in this life on earth. Our sustenance, our comfort, are all found within. We are free!

"Man's individuality is not material. This Science of being obtains not alone hereafter in what men call Paradise, but here and now; it is the great fact of being for time and eternity." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science  & Health Page 285:2-6

“Today you can achieve a state in which you will experience the gift of grace. You can escape all bondage of the world, and give the world the same release you found. You can remember what the world forgot, and offer it your own remembering. You can accept today the part you play in its salvation, and your own as well. And both can be accomplished perfectly.”

A Course in Miracles W-183.9:1-5

True Home

“Homeless … Again”

Ceramic Sculpture by Ken Starbird

A number of friends have told me they don't feel they belong here. I think we all, at some time or another, have felt this way. What if, rather than us not belonging here, this "here" we speak of isn't what we think it is? What if we don't belong in this crazy world, but the world we see isn't as solid as we think it is? Perhaps our true home is something we've sensed is there, sort of like seeing something out of the corner of your eye, but when you look directly at it, it's not there.  For years, I grasped at straws while ignoring the vast Truth of eternity. We're not strangers in a strange land when we realize the truth of the land in which we abide. We think everything is real that we touch and see, but it's shifting and changing, as opposed to the omnipresent stability of our true home. So let's be still a moment and ask to know what that home is. We want it so badly, but we've forgotten what it is. Now we're not afraid to remember!

“This world you seem to live in is not home to you. And somewhere in your mind you know that this is true. A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place that called you to return, although you do not recognize the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds you of. Yet still you feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown. Nothing so definite that you could say with certainty you are an exile here. Just a persistent feeling, sometimes not more than a tiny throb, at other times hardly remembered, actively dismissed, but surely to return to mind again.”

A Course in Miracles W-182.1:1-6

“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 282:30-32

Beyond the Appearance

Drumming in Eureka Springs

Photo courtesy of Richard Quick

“I trust my brothers, who are one with me.” I'm very happy to have this beautiful Course in Miracles lesson to guide my thoughts away from a defensive mode to an understanding which affirms the goodness of all -- and explains the reason why. Many teachings help us to deal with material circumstances, and they are lovely reminders of how to improve what we call the human condition. Some teachers tell us that we're humans having a spiritual experience, but very few tell us that we're actually spiritual. In divine metaphysics we learn that everything is an idea of God. I am a spiritual idea right here and now. And you are, too! And so are all those who don't realize the truth of their spiritual being. I'm going to pick a person who seems to fall into this category and concentrate on their true Being as an expression of divine Love. This feels like a Science experiment, don't you think? I shall record the results!

"It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind … one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood…will be established."

Mary Baker Eddy, Science & Health  Page 467:9-13

“Trusting your brothers is essential to establishing and holding up your faith in your ability to transcend doubt and lack of sure conviction in yourself. When you attack a brother, you proclaim that he is limited by what you have perceived in him. You do not look beyond his errors. Rather, they are magnified, becoming blocks to your awareness of the Self that lies beyond your own mistakes, and past his seeming sins as well as yours.”

A Course in Miracles W-181.1:1-4

Unity of Spirit

 

Photo courtesy of Susan Luddy

Words from Kahlil Gibran

“Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion. 

Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave 

and eats a bread it does not harvest. 

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, 

and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful. 

Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream, 

yet submits in its awakening. 

Pity the nation that raises not its voice 

save when it walks in a funeral, 

boasts not except among its ruins, 

and will rebel not save when its neck is laid 

between the sword and the block. 

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, 

whose philosopher is a juggler, 

and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking 

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting, 

and farewells him with hooting, 

only to welcome another with trumpeting again. 

Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years 

and whose strongmen are yet in the cradle. 

Pity the nation divided into fragments, 

each fragment deeming itself a nation.” 

― Kahlil Gibran, The Garden of The Prophet

“You operate from the belief you must protect yourself from what is happening because it must contain what threatens you. A sense of threat is an acknowledgment of an inherent weakness; a belief that there is danger which has power to call on you to make appropriate defense. The world is based on this insane belief. And all its structures, all its thoughts and doubts, its penalties and heavy armaments, its legal definitions and its codes, its ethics and its leaders and its gods, all serve but to preserve its sense of threat. For no one walks the world in armature but must have terror striking at his heart.”

 A Course in Miracles W-135.2:1-5

“Unity of spirit gives new pinions to joy, or else joy’s drooping wings trail in dust.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Page 58:2-4

Amazing Grace

There are many definitions given in the dictionary for the word grace. It is a noun, a verb, and an adverb, so it covers a lot of ground. The definition which best suits today’s Course in Miracles Review of Lessons 160 and 170 would be this: "Divine love and protection bestowed freely on people." This grace which is ours shows itself in many ways. Perhaps it is seen in our kindness to others, and in theirs to us. Grace is emerging in the synchronicities we see in daily life. Perhaps it is demonstrated in an apology, or an act of benevolence, a charitable deed, or an acceptance of someone's opinion which is opposite of ours. Grace is mine today, simply by acknowledging its presence. To quote William Blake:

“To see the world in a grain of sand,

And heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.”

“Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other means and methods.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health  Page 67:23-24

“Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real.”

A Course in Miracles W-169.2:1-2

The Affection and Purpose of the Heart

Photo courtesy of Aaron Springston

When someone tells me I’m mistaken about a “fact”, or that I’m interpreting something incorrectly, or maybe that my memory is faulty, I’m grateful for the correction. Much in the same way I’m thankful when someone tells me my skirt is stuck in my waistband — thereby sparing needless embarrassment — I’m glad if knowledge keeps me from spreading information which is not factual. Apparently not everyone feels this way! Not only are we seeing public figures who are afraid to say “I was wrong and I’m sorry”, but I’ve been witnessing a situation with a friend whose family has maligned him for years because of his understanding of current events. When did knowledge and the accumulation of information become something to be ridiculed? Metaphysical practitioners recognize that energy follows thought, and so I do my best to not replay memories of behaviors which I don’t want to manifest. Some days it’s a full-time job!

“We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are. If a friend informs us of a fault, do we listen patiently to the rebuke and credit what is said? Do we not rather give thanks that we are ‘not as other men’? During many years the author has been most grateful for merited rebuke. The wrong lies in unmerited censure, — in the falsehood which does no one any good.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 8:28

“You do not recognize the enormous waste of energy you expend in denying truth. What would you say of someone who persists in attempting the impossible, believing that to achieve it is to succeed? The belief that you must have the impossible in order to be happy is totally at variance with the principle of creation. God could not will that happiness depended on what you could never have. The fact that God is Love does not require belief, but it does require acceptance. It is indeed possible for you to deny facts, although it is impossible for you to change them. If you hold your hands over your eyes, you will not see because you are interfering with the laws of seeing. If you deny love, you will not know it because your cooperation is the law of its being. You cannot change laws you did not make, and the laws of happiness were created for you, not by you.” 

A Course in Miracles T-9.I.11:1-9

Let Spiritual Harmony Reign

Photo credit: Mark McGee

In these times of radical religious pontificating, we often hear disparaging words about science. So when the subject of melding science and religious is mentioned, many people think it is impossible. In the traditional meaning of religion, this would be true. Religion has taken on too many facets to be purely the knowledge of God. On many levels, it has become more political than spiritual. Science, on the other hand, means knowledge. But since its definition includes rational explanations and predictable results, it has long been left out of spirituality. Typically, religion encompasses the knowledge of God, but could never qualify as a provable science. When Mary Baker Eddy discovered the science of the Christ in the 1860s, she envisioned that religious leaders would be excited and happy to share in her vision. In her 600-page textbook, Science and Health, With Key to the Scriptures, she explains this Science to be demonstrable by anyone and everyone. In this time of rapidly shifting perceptions, many people are grasping what this means and embracing the beauty and perfection of it. Mary would be pleased!

“When the final physical and moral effects of Christian Science are fully apprehended, the conflict between truth and error, understanding and belief, Science and material sense, will cease, and spiritual harmony reign.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science and Health Page 288:10–14

“Brother, this day is sacred to the world. Your vision, given you from far beyond all things within the world, looks back on them in a new light. And what you see becomes the healing and salvation of the world. The valuable and valueless are both perceived and recognized for what they are. And what is worthy of your love receives your love, while nothing to be feared remains.”

A Course in Miracles W-164.6:1-5

Destroy Erroneous Belief With Truth

Photo from Aaron Springston

An article was making the rounds on social media which concerned a public school in Tennessee forcing children to participate in Muslim practices. The comments to this post ranged from mildly ignorant to wildly speculative. Finally, someone named Doug calmly recited all the reasons this is not happening, stating that the article is a satirical joke, and nicely asking if all the responders felt silly for believing it. In other words, The Emperor has no clothes!!  We see this same scenario take place numerous times a day, in some form or fashion, and usually we look the other way — possibly because it’s happening on the television news! We must speak truth to error of all sorts. I encourage everyone to refute lies which are “going viral”. May the calm voices of reason prevail!

“Erroneous belief is destroyed by truth. Change the evidence, and that disappears which before seemed real to this false belief, and the human consciousness rises higher.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health  Page 297:12-15

“Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. But part of it is now unnatural. It does not look on everything as one. It sees instead but fragments of the whole, for only thus could it invent the partial world you see. The purpose of all seeing is to show you what you wish to see. All hearing but brings to your mind the sounds it wants to hear.”

A Course in Miracles W-161.2:1-6

Laugh and Choose Again!

I'm listening to Eckhart Tolle's classic book, A New Earth. It seems quite appropriate at this time of quickly-changing values. As consciousness unfolds into form, we are witnessing fearful reactions from millions of people who are stuck in old ways of thinking. Living from Love should be as easy as pie, but apparently mortal mind (as Mrs. Eddy refers to it, or ego as it’s known in A Course in Miracles) can misinterpret anything in multitudinous ways. Eckhart has reminded me that every one of us who accepts this shift from fear to Love helps to pave the way for others to move into this space. While every thought we have is important, let's not beat ourselves up when we feel we have failed -- because thoughts of failure and guilt are, once again, the ego jerking our chain. Let's learn to laugh at ourselves as we choose again and go forward with joy!

“Erroneous belief is destroyed by truth. Change the evidence, and that disappears which before seemed real to this false belief, and the human consciousness rises higher.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 297:12-15

“There is a stranger in our midst, who comes from an idea so foreign to the truth he speaks a different language, looks upon a world truth does not know, and understands what truth regards as senseless. Stranger yet, he does not recognize to whom he comes, and yet maintains his home belongs to him, while he is alien now who is at home. And yet, how easy it would be to say, ‘This is my home. Here I belong, and will not leave because a madman says I must.’”

A Course in Miracles W-160.2:1-4

Love Leaves No Room For Fear

Glacier National Park

A friend went on an 8-month camping trip to remote regions of the United States. She’s 74-years-young and she jumped into her car with a pup tent, a few blankets and changes of clothing, her sketch pad, her dog — and not much else! She slept under the stars, when possible by a river, and met many interesting people, while getting quite an education about Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Arizona, and Utah. As I related some of Lizzy’s adventures to a mutual friend, she said she could never do anything like that until she “conquered her fear”. Hum, what an interesting concept! I suppose we are taught that fear is something to be overcome, but I think of it as something to be replaced. I suggested she start by ceasing to listen to or watch the news, and definitely not to watch any crime dramas on television or horror movies. She thought I was joking, as she can’t imagine life without any of those activities. The conversation caused me to stop and think about the things I’m indulging unnecessarily which may bring on angst. I find there are a few!

"One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 589: 8-11

“Into Christ’s Presence will we enter now, serenely unaware of everything except His shining face and perfect Love. The vision of His face will stay with you, but there will be an instant which transcends all vision, even this, the holiest. This you will never teach, for you attained it not through learning. Yet the vision speaks of your rememberance of what you knew that instant, and will surely know again.”

A Course in Miracles W-157.9:1-4

Peace For the Restless

Photo courtesy of Aaron Springston

Often we realize change is necessary in our lives, but various reasons may keep us from moving forward. Perhaps there are factors of fear, stubbornness, or hedonistic desires involved in our reluctance. Almost 30 years ago, I was prompted to make some major changes. I brought my children to Eureka Springs and started a new life. We changed everything from our furniture to our way of thinking and daily activities. The cleansing effect of this change brought happiness and peace where drama and turmoil had been before. Through an in-depth study of the works of Mary Baker Eddy, and eventually A Course in Miracles, life has become a walk on the path of “perfect holiness” — for which I am most grateful. Accepting that “God is Love and so am I” brings peace to the restless soul. Namaste …

"… we must first turn our gaze in the right direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfecta models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 247:25-29

“There is a way of living in the world that is not here, although it seems to be. You do not change appearance, though you smile more frequently. Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet. And the ones who walk the world as you do recognize their own. Yet those who have not yet perceived the way will recognize you also, and believe that you are like them, as you were before.”

A Course in Miracles W-155.1:1-5