July 27, 2012 - Peace is Easy -- until you walk out your door

"Hawaii - 2003"
photo by Aaron Springston

A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson #208 (review)

“I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me.”

Specific review: (#188) “The peace of God is shining in me now."

Having spent two days in stillness, happily communing with mySelf, it seemed impossible to feel anything other than peace. Then I went outside the sanctuary of my home. Apparently all my senses were intensified, as the strong odors from everything and everyone were overwhelming. Then I was surprised by the jarring words of others. Every idle observation I heard was negative and filled with discomfort, anger, or ennui. Were these observations my perception of them? Of course. Were they misperceived or were they interpreted as how they were meant to be communicated? Who knows!! And I saw that it didn't matter. To simply be present, enjoying the heightened sense of events through the "peace of God [which] is shining in me now", was enough.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle,—is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal.”

Science & Health Page 306:25-28

July 26, 2012 - Blessings for the World

A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson #207 (review)

“I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me.”

Specific review: (#187) “I bless the world because I bless myself.”

"Morning Meditation in Mongolia"
photo by Aaron Springston

Isn't it wonderful how we're realizing what blesses one blesses all? We're starting to realize that it's not selfish to open our hearts to the knowledge of God as Love. To accept our goodness as a sinless image and likeness of God is freedom like none other we have felt. This Love lives within us. We're seeing this as we clear away the clutter which has hidden its presence. Blessing myself with the beauty of this acknowledgement is blessing all. While I realize that no words are necessary to convey this message to others, very often I can't be silent. I have learned that when people are telling me their problems, most of the time they are not interested in hearing what I think about it. They just want to talk. But recently I was in the grocery store and a man I've known for a few years began telling me about his cat which had contracted something called bobcat fever and died. He told a rather long story about how he didn't feel it would be responsible for him to get another cat, as he felt he would be dooming it to the same fate because this disease is supposedly rampant in the woods where he lives. During the whole conversation, I sent him love, and when he was through I hugged him and,  with a deep look into his eyes, started to walk away. But he shouted after me, Isn't that right? So I turned back and said, No, it is not. So in the produce section we had quite a talk about what is true materially and what is True in spiritual reality. While I don't plan to carry around a soapbox to jump up on and preach to people, I will not be afraid to correct erroneous thought when asked point blank. Now is the time for us all to realize our goodness and purity. By this knowledge, it spreads out to everyone, because we are all One.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Shall we ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own work? His work is done, and we have only to avail ourselves of God's rule in order to receive His blessing, which enables us to work out our own salvation.”

Science & Health Page 3:6-10

July 25, 2012 - What is your function?

A Course in Miracles Lesson #206 (review)

Central theme:

“I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me.”

Specific review: #(186) “Salvation of the world depends on me.”

"Germany 2006"
photo by Aarro Springton

So often I hear it said that humanity is too far gone for salvation. Looking at the material state of the world, this could seem true. I don't need to reiterate the travesties we hear about every day. You know them as well as I. This is why it's imperative for us to accept our function. And this doesn't mean that what we're doing now isn't important. On the contrary! Everything we do is of utmost importance. It's our function to open our hearts to accept what we should be doing every moment of our life. Part of today's lesson tells us that we have the gifts of God and we must give them where they are intended to be given. This is why it's essential that we allow ourselves to receive. We cannot give what we do not have. This giving takes many forms, and I'm sure you can identify many yourself. Recently I watched a documentary on a group of people whose average age is 80. These delightful people sing in live performances all over the world. Their songs are surprising and joyous, bringing happiness to all who hear them. This ever-changing group of joyful givers call themselves "Young @ Heart", and the film bears the same name. They inspire me to give of what I have been given, to be willing to share the salvation which is mine and yours. And so whenever I forget my true Self, the memory of these resplendent people will remind me that we're all here for each other, and that with giving we receive, and with receiving we give.

Mary Baker Eddy quotes:

"Knowing that Soul [God] and its attributes were forever manifested through man, [Jesus] healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the divine Mind [God] on human minds and bodies and giving a better understanding of Soul [God] and salvation. Jesus healed sickness and sin by one and the same metaphysical process."

Science & Health Page 210:11-18

"Truth casts out error now as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago. All of Truth is not understood; hence its healing power is not fully demonstrated."

Science & Health Page 495:3-5

July 24, 2012 -- Oneness Blessing

"Peace in Mongolia"
photo by Aaron Springston

A Course in Miracles Lesson #205 (review)

Central Theme:

“I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me.”

Specific Review: “(#185) I want the peace of God.”

There appear to be countless ways in which our peace is taken from us. We may wake up and hear some terrible news, or find that we have a flat tire on the car, or perhaps we take our peace away with the remembrance of an injustice we think has been done to us. What do these things have in common? They are all material conditions. The peace of God is a spiritual quality which cannot be affected by anything. We start out by realizing that such a higher peace exists and is a very present possibility in our existence. Then we find ways to realize peace. There are so many avenues to this end. I think the first step is to realize what peace is, and there are many effective ways of doing this. One way which I have experienced is through the receiving and giving of the Oneness Blessing. This process is very appealing to me because there is no need to delve into all the reasons we are not peaceful. When becoming a Oneness Blessing Giver, you first go through an intense day of releasing the past. We started with rectifying our relationships with our parents. And this is not done by counting all the ways we feel we have been wronged, or that we have wronged them. It is a release, then a replacement of the space left with peace, through the realization of divine Love.  When you are given this Oneness Blessing you can expect to feel happiness. After completing my training, I gave one to my son. He almost immediately started to laugh. I asked why: was he nervous? No, he said, he just felt happy. And this is what this transmission of divine Love is all about. Leaving us free to feel happy, to be the peace of God. This peace and joy are inherent in our Being. To receive Deeksha (which is the true name for this process, but you know how we're afraid of foreign words in the United States!), or to learn to be a Blessing Giver, there are many websites which will tell how to find these events in your part of the world. This is but one way I have found to facilitate the process of realizing I Am the peace of God. Let me know ways you've found to know this Truth!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace. The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.” Science & Health Page 96:12-20

July 23, 2012 - What is My Inheritance?

"Mark in Mongolia"
photo by Aaron Springston

A Course in Miracles Lesson #204 (review)

Central theme:

“I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me.”

Specific review: (184) “The Name of God is my inheritance.”

When thinking of inheritance, many material notions come to mind. We may think of things supposedly given us by parents -- the way we look and act, perhaps diseases and other DNA-based things. I've proven in my life that these things are simply material illusions. Although my racial heritage is largely Mexican, I carry none of the physical characteristics associated with these wonderful people. The reason for this is based in thought. I was raised as a VERY white person. My parents were so determined that I not carry what they saw as the burden of being a Chicano in the United States, that they carried forth an elaborate plan to negate this. And it worked! I tell you this to illustrate that all material illusions are changeable. We are able to deny any mortal belief, not on the basis of our material manipulations of matter, but based on our understanding of the Truth of our Being as God’s reflection.  In the proverbial twinkling of an eye, perceptions can change and Life may be lived free of illusions, in our Oneness with God.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have learned from error, and man's real existence as a child of God comes to light.”

Science and Health Page 288:31–1

July 22 2012 - Tolle: The Flowering of Human Consciousness

A Course in Miracles Lesson #203 (review)

Central theme:

“I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me.”

Specific review: (183) “I call upon God's Name and on my own.”

"Where We've Been"
photo by Aaron Springston

I feel fortunate to have had the experience of discovering that the name my parents gave me was not the original one given, that my birthdate was untrue, that the whole story of my birth  had been falsified, including who my parents were. Why would I find this to be a fortuitous happening? At first I didn't. I was very angry that my parents, who had taught me to be truthful in every circumstance, had perpetuated a lie concerning my birth. I found out about this around twenty years ago, and within a short time of this revelation, I came to understand that it doesn't matter about all these so-called facts. What matters is who loves you and guides you through the early years, not who actually gave birth to you and what the details of that are. Recently  a YouTube video by Eckhart Tolle has come to my attention: 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. This is why I feel fortunate to have found out years ago that I wasn't who I thought I was. It enabled me to begin to see who I Am. Our only parent is the source of All That Is. We have no birth date as we are eternal, without beginning or ending. Every single part of our material history is an illusion of the existence we have perpetuated. It can all be released in favor of Truth. I Am a child of God, an idea of divine Mind. I Am only Love. This doesn't mean that I will lose my individuality. On the contrary! We are set free to be more of ourSelves when we release the limitations imposed by heredity, circumstance, material beliefs concerning our capabilities. We are also freed from the pain of guilt, blame, and other derogatory emotions. When we call on God's name, we are calling on ourSelf. Our sustenance, our comfort,  are all found within.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"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."

Science  & Health Page 285:2-6

July 21, 2012 - It's only words

A Course in Miracles Lesson #202 (review)

Central theme

“I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me.”

Specific review: (182) “I will be still an instant and go home.”

"Top of the Mountain in Mongolia"
photo by Aaron Springston

Many of us feel uncomfortable with traditional Biblical language which may cause us to cling to past beliefs concerning God. Personally, when I hear many of these terms I vacillate between seeing God as a Santa Claus and/or a thunder-bolt throwing Zeus -- and I wasn't even raised to see God in physical ways! But after a lifetime of education, whether collective or individual, it's easy to see God in our mind's-eye as something entirely opposite to what we're learning through this study. So I have become accustomed to changing "Him" to "It" and "His" to "My".  I urge you to use whatever terms feel right to you. I feel absolutely certain it's all right with God! But ultimately, it doesn't matter. What we are trying to do is release all beliefs, and this includes, but is not limited to, the way we perceive the words we read and hear. The spiritual sense we're developing enables us to interpret everything without the material meanings we have developed. In line with our daily review which instructs us to "be still an instant and go home", we allow ourselves to listen rather than immediately think we know what everything is all about. To go home in this way means, to me, to go in thought to the secret place which can only be known when we cease to place learned meaning on everything. The freedom we experience when releasing thought about the meaning of God also allows us to free ourselves from what we believe we are. And knowing ourSelves as the likeness of God then becomes a present reality!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Man in the likeness of God, as revealed in Science, cannot help being immortal. Though the grass seemeth to wither and the flower to fade, they reappear. Erase the figures which express number, silence the tones of music, give to the worms the body called man, and yet the producing, governing, divine Principle lives on,--in the case of man as truly as in the case of numbers and of music,--despite the so-called laws of matter, which define man as mortal. Though the inharmony resulting from material sense hides the harmony of Science, inharmony cannot destroy the divine Principle of Science. In Science, man's immortality depends upon that of God, good, and follows as a necessary consequence of the immortality of good.”

Science & Health Page 81:17-30