Leaving The Old For The New

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

In the last few days' reviews we have released the past, the future, and the present. How do we let go of the memory of an event which haunts us? How do we forgive an incident which seems unforgivable? The ultimate understanding is that it never happened; that it's an illusion, a projection of thought from our mortal mind, and nothing more. But how do you see that reality when the seeming-reality keeps coming back, causing you to relive the painful memory? When my mind wants to replay a circumstance in all its glorified pathos, I recognize that I have a choice: I can choose again and not see that person, that event, in a way which causes me to feel yet more pain, anger, or sorrow. I can think instead of the goodness, kindness, and love inherent in everyone, and allow its reality to form an image in my thought. I can play lots of games with myself in this way, and perhaps cajole myself out of thinking badly or sadly, but to get to the root of this circular dream, the answer may lie in the ideas we're studying today: "It can be but my gratitude I earn". I take this to mean, in part, that I needn't worry about what anyone else thinks about me. If I am being true to myself, to God, that is enough! 

“Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear, — this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 323:32-4

“How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their thoughts can do. Deny your strength, and weakness must become salvation to you. See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. Nor will you leave the prison house, or claim your strength, until guilt and salvation are not seen as one, and freedom and salvation are perceived as joined, with strength beside them, to be sought and claimed, and found and fully recognized.”

A Course in Miracles W-197.2:1-4

It Can Be But You Whom You Crucify

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

Years ago, I jokingly told someone that my neighbor was so upset with me that I feared he might tie himself to a cross in my yard and set it on fire. In today’s review we are told that, “…you will realize that to attack another is but to attack yourself. You will be free of the insane belief that to attack a brother saves yourself. And you will understand his safety is your own, and in his healing you are healed.” Thinking about these past events, I wonder if I am attacking my neighbor and myself by not forgiving. And how do I know I haven’t forgiven these things? Because I remember them.

“When we realize that there is one Mind, the divine law of loving our neighbor as ourselves is unfolded; whereas a belief in many ruling minds hinders man’s normal drift towards the one Mind, one God, and leads human thought into opposite channel where selfishness reigns.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 205:22-27

“Salvation’s song can certainly be heard in the idea we practice for today. If it can but be you you crucify, you did not hurt the world, and need not fear its vengeance and pursuit. Nor need you hide in terror from the deadly fear of God projection hides behind. The thing you dread the most is your salvation. You are strong, and it is strength you want. And you are free, and glad of freedom. You have sought to be both weak and bound, because you feared your strength and freedom. Yet salvation lies in them.”

A Course in Miracles W-196.9:1-8

On Firmer Ground

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

“Love is the way I walk in gratitude." A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson #195. Today’s review causes me to remember a time when I was relearning to walk. Having spent six months in a wheelchair after an amputation, I was eagerly putting one foot in front of the other with the aid of a prosthetic device. It was odd because, in that short time, I had forgotten some of the finer points of walking. I would watch other people to see what I was or wasn’t doing right, as nothing felt natural. This unnaturalness can also be observed in people who know something is missing in their lives, but aren’t sure what it is. When we meet someone who shines forth with goodness, has a spark in their eyes, a feel-good energy emanating from their being, we naturally want to emulate that person. As I walk through this day, I shall do so in gratitude, thankful to recognize that “certain something” when I see it — and follow it!

“As the crude footprints of the past disappear from the dissolving paths of the present, we shall better understand the Science which governs these changes, and shall plant our feet on firmer ground.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 224:4-7

“Therefore give thanks, but in sincerity. And let your gratitude make room for all who will escape with you; the sick, the weak, the needy and afraid, and those who mourn a seeming loss or feel apparent pain, who suffer cold or hunger, or who walk the way of hatred and the path of death. All these go with you. Let us not compare ourselves with them, for thus we split them off from our awareness of the unity we share with them, as they must share with us.”

A Course in Miracles W-195.5:1-4

A New World

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

Science fiction, the speculation of how life could be, has always fascinated me. The serene surroundings of those who neither want nor need anything is very appealing. A place where there is no room for anger or warlike behavior, because all actions are filled with Love. A place where the rare disagreement is settled through the decision of a "fair witness". It feels as though these dreams of future perfection are here with us now. They are being realized in a myriad of ways. Do an internet search on good deeds, or Age of Aquarius, or peaceful living, if you feel the need for affirmation that this reality is with us here and now. I recently saw a movie in which a 102-year-old woman said these words: "We ain't what we should be, we ain't what we gonna be, but at least we ain't what we were." These major shifts in thought are making many people uncomfortable. It is tempting for many to cover these feelings of distress with alcohol and drugs, perhaps even with extreme physical activity. Let’s not be afraid, but rather hold thought steadily to the good and true. Follow your intuition to find ways to assuage this discontent. I see now that nothing can keep the miracle away, no matter how hard we try.

"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." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 255:1

Forgive, and you will see this differently. These are the words the Holy Spirit speaks in all your tribulations, all your pain, all suffering regardless of its form. These are the words with which temptation ends, and guilt, abandoned, is revered no more. These are the words which end the dream of sin, and rid the mind of fear. These are the words by which salvation comes to all the world.”

A Course in Miracles W-193.5:1-5a

Freed From the Past and Future

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

I’ve had a shift in thought toward my parents. They were beautiful, kind, generous people; this I've always acknowledged and appreciated. But those memories seemed to be dimmed by the stronger remembrances of their latter days. I had feelings of anger and betrayal, plus guilt concerning my part in it all. I've realized that many things they did came from their love, although their actions were influenced by strong opinions about the way things should be. Regrets come from my actions which were based in selfishness and fear. In acknowledging these memories, (which may not be the way things actually occurred, but merely the way my ego remembers!) I feel as though they are falling out of me and I’m sweeping them away into the ethers. With every release of well-rehearsed past events, peace becomes reality for me. It doesn't matter if anyone was right or wrong, it doesn't make any difference what motives were involved, part of me has been emptied to be filled with the only reality: Love.

“We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be emptied. Let us disrobe error. Then, when the winds of God blow, we shall not hug our tatters close about us.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 201:13-15

“The past is gone; the future is not yet. Now am I freed from both. For what God gives can only be for good. And I accept but what He gives as what belongs to me.”

A Course in Miracles W-214.1:2-5

Intuition, Recognized and Lived

When I think of instances where friends have followed intuition, my thoughts go to a time when a dear friend followed her heart, left the life she had carved for herself, and embarked on an adventure. Susan was visiting friends in Santa Fe and had been to the market to pick up supplies. On her way home, she had the radio on and suddenly a man’s voice caught her interest. The station was fading in and out, and the man seemed to be using two or three different languages. She couldn’t understand him, but she told me it sounded like “flowers coming out of the radio”. When she got home, she called the station and found out who it was she had heard. His name was Martin Prechtel and he lived in Ojo Caliente, a small village between Taos and Santa Fe. She discovered he was a teacher of knowledge which he had accumulated from his childhood on a Pueblo reservation in New Mexico and his adult life in Guatemala. Susan knew, intuitively, that she must study with this man. She left everything she knew well, packed her bags and moved into a tiny room in a house in his village. She was living her life in the way she was called to do. I admire anyone who follows their dream, but especially those who don’t stop one step before fulfilling it!

“Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 298:13-15

“I seek the function that would set me free from all the vain illusions of the world. Only the function God has given me can offer freedom. Only this I seek, and only this will I accept as mine.”

A Course in Miracles W-212.1:2-5

Created As My Self

 

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

 On Laws - BY KAHLIL GIBRAN

“Then a lawyer said, But what of our Laws, master?

    And he answered:

    You delight in laying down laws,

    Yet you delight more in breaking them.

    Like children playing by the ocean who

build sand-towers with constancy and then

destroy them with laughter.

    But while you build your sand-towers the

ocean brings more sand to the shore,

    And when you destroy them the ocean

laughs with you.

    Verily the ocean laughs always with the

innocent.

 

    But what of those to whom life is not an

ocean, and man-made laws 

are not sand-towers,

    But to whom life is a rock, and the law

a chisel with which they would carve it in

their own likeness?

    What of the cripple who hates dancers?

    What of the ox who loves his yoke and

deems the elk and deer of the forest

stray and vagrant things?

    What of the old serpent who cannot

shed his skin, and calls all others naked

and shameless?

    And of him who comes early to the

wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired

goes his way saying that all feasts are

violation and all feasters lawbreakers?

 

    What shall I say of these save that they

too stand in the sunlight, but with their

backs to the sun?

    They see only their shadows, and their

shadows are their laws.

    And what is the sun to them but a caster

of shadows?

    And what is it to acknowledge the laws

but to stoop down and trace their shadows

upon the earth?

    But you who walk facing the sun, what

images drawn on the earth can hold you?

    You who travel with the wind, what

weather-vane shall direct your course?

    What man’s law shall bind you if you

break your yoke but upon 

no man's prison door?

    What laws shall you fear if you dance

but stumble against no man’s iron chains?

    And who is he that shall bring you to

judgment if you tear off your garment yet

leave it in no man’s path?

 

    People of Orphalese, you can muffle the

drum, and you can loosen the strings of the

lyre, but who shall command the skylark

not to sing?”

Kahlil Gibran

“In silence and in true humility I seek God’s glory, to behold it in the Son whom He created as my Self.

I am not a body. I am free. 

For I am still as God created me.”

A Course in Miracles W-211.1:2-5

“God creates neither erring thought, mortal life, 

mutable truth, nor variable love.”

Mary baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 503:24-25

Don’t Carry That Weight

Photo by Aaron Springston

There are many great stories about choosing joy rather than pain. The one I’m thinking of today concerns a glass of water. We are asked how much a glass of water weighs. Then we are told it doesn't matter what its weight is, it matters how long we hold it. If we hold it a minute, it's light. If we hold it an hour, our arm and/or hand may become uncomfortable with the weight. If we hold it all day, our arm will feel paralyzed. This scenario is a metaphor for holding on to worries and fears. If we keep them with us, we become convinced that they are impossible to overcome. We are paralyzed from the carrying of this weight. All we have to do is put the glass down to be released from our burden. Then we are free to feel the joy which is innately ours as a child of Love!

“Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not gained stronger desires for spiritual joy? The aspiration after heavenly good comes even before we discover what belongs to wisdom and Love. The loss of earthly hopes and pleasures brightens the ascending path of many a heart. The pains of sense quickly inform us that the pleasures of sense are mortal and that joy is spiritual.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 265:23-30

“It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression. No one but yourself affects you. There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing what you are. As you perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept your holy will as theirs. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence and holiness.”

A Course in Miracles W-190.5:1-8

Love is the Liberator

Thailand- photo by Aaron Springston

During my lifetime, I've seen various types of oppression evaporating. I admit that there are more walls waiting to fall  — but just look how far we've come! Despite these strides, a man told me that he was afraid to come to Eureka Springs. Of course, I asked him why. He said if we were having one of our "diversity" weekends he didn't want to be here. He assured me he had nothing against gay people, but he didn't want it “rubbed in his face”. This is a learned behavior of prejudice on his part; It has nothing to do with the way he felt when he came out of the womb into this life. As we release what we have come to believe, all of those things which we’ve been taught to think, we open the way for divine Love to guide us. Love truly is the liberator!

“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.” 

Mary Baker Eddy- Science and Health Page 225:14-22

“This is the world the Love of God reveals. It is so different from the world you see through darkened eyes of malice and of fear, that one belies the other. Only one can be perceived at all. The other one is wholly meaningless. A world in which forgiveness shines on everything, and peace offers its gentle light to everyone, is inconceivable to those who see a world of hatred rising from attack, poised to avenge, to murder and destroy.”

A Course in Miracles W-189.3:1-5

When You Lift Up Women, You Lift Up Humanity

Some Novel Women

Melinda French Gates is doing good work. In June, she left the foundation which she and her husband, Bill, started numerous years ago. It has done good work, but she wants to do more. So she has taken off on her own, pledged a billion dollars to accelerate the pace of social progress by removing barriers that hold women back. She says, “Because when you lift up women, you lift up humanity." She has done a series of youtube videos interviewing women who facilitate change. This morning I watched her interview Oprah and her lifelong friend, Gail. They talked about the importance of friendships and the need to have good women friends. This evening was my monthly book club meeting. We are a group of women who have met for two decades, and through the years we have become best friends. Tonight there were only five of us present, because of numerous reasons. It doesn’t matter if there are five or 12, we are lifted up every time we get together. Whether it’s a billionaire helping thousands of people, or a few women gathered together in friendship, we lift each other up — and the world is a better place!

“The shining in your mind reminds the world of what it has forgotten, and the world restores the memory to you as well. From you salvation radiates with gifts beyond all measure, given and returned. To you, the giver of the gift, does God Himself give thanks. And in His blessing does the light in you shine brighter, adding to the gifts you have to offer to the world.”

A Course in Miracles W-188.4:1-4

"Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the kingdom of heaven,—the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 208:20-24

Leaving The Old For The New

Torin and the Rainbow

“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.” Kahlil Gibran

These words seem especially powerful to me today. I’ve thought of the public figures who have openly wept from compassion or joy. Most of my life, people were taught that crying was a weakness to be avoided. Every time I see a strong person brought to tears, I am grateful for a society which encourages people to express their true feelings. And honest laughter is a thing of beauty, don’t you think? A fake smile is easily seen through, because the eyes are not smiling. A true belly laugh expresses joy which goes deeper than a giggle brought forth from a joke, or one caused by embarrassment or another uncomfortable situation.  And a “great” person who does not bow before children — wow, this one takes my breath away! When a person panders to young children in an attempt to seem loving, the ugliness stays as a mental image in thought. On the other hand, the awe shown by people when they truly enjoy and love children — These people, I am grateful for. And I am grateful for everyone who shows honest emotion, no matter what some may think of their actions. My heart is full of gratitude today. 

“Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear, — this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 323:32-4

“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

Good Things Are Happening

I’ve noticed myself (and others) mindlessly repeating things we have heard, whether it be truth or rumor, good news or a horrid happening, or simply inanities. In the volatile atmosphere of our emotionally-charged country, it is particularly important to scatter joy and express kindness. Kindness goes hand-in-hand with compassion, but that doesn’t mean we must exacerbate others' pain by adding our own to it. I’ve heard it said that worry is much like praying for something bad to happen. With this in mind, I will try to only see, hear, and repeat good. This does not mean I will ignore injustice in all its many faces, nor does it mean that I'll turn my back on someone in need. It does mean when I hear of yet another travesty against mankind and the environment, I will see it through different eyes, translating it into what can occur to move us into our true selves as images of the divine. Planning to refrain from rehashing horror stories, or engaging in inane conversations, or telling my own stories which top the bad things others have experienced, these are things I can and will do at every opportunity. Every thought matters, and ours may be the one which turns it all around!

“And so we find our peace. We will accept the function God has given us, for all illusions rest upon the weird belief that we can make another for ourselves. Our self-made roles are shifting, and they seem to change from mourner to ecstatic bliss of love and loving. We can laugh or weep, and greet the day with welcome or with tears. Our very being seems to change as we experience a thousand shifts in mood, and our emotions raise us high indeed, or dash us to the ground in hopelessness.”

A Course in Miracles W-186.8:1-5

“The power of the human will should be exercised only in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judgment and free the lower propensities. It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 206:2-7