August 12, 2012 - "Compassion in Emptiness"

A Course in Miracles Lesson #224

"A Gathering of Friends"
photo by Marsha Havens

“God is my Father, and He loves His Son.”

The Dalai Lama always has such profoundly beautiful messages for us! He speaks of peace and love, reminding us of our true identify in such an unassuming and pure manner. His gleeful words never leave me where they found me, and for this I am most grateful. Not long ago I watched a DVD of his entitled "Compassion in Emptiness". As usual, every time I read or listen to him, another little chip falls away from any leftover hardness of heart I'm holding on to. This hardness could be in the form of anger, pain, sorrow, any negative emotions I've liked too much to let go. In this most recent DVD, he speaks to the importance of relationships based in honesty and trust. The joyfulness birthed in these relationships is essential to our liberation from fearful illusions. This peaceful happiness is the Truth of our Being. Let's not be afraid to share this with those we know -- and those we don't know! This trust and honesty the Dalai Lama speaks of isn't limited to those who have "earned" it. It isn't limited in any way. When today's ACIM lesson tells us that God is my Father, it means that God is everyone's Father, and by that revelation we are all the same, all worthy of goodness and love. So as we go through our daily activities, let's remember to treat everyone with the loving respect and courtesy with which we would afford a dearly beloved parent or child. Let kindness and joy spread to every person you come into contact with today, and everyday. And if you happen to forget what that feels like, pick up a DVD of the Dalai Lama and let him remind you!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Give up your material belief of mind in matter, and have but one Mind, even God; for this Mind forms its own likeness. The loss of man's identity through the understanding which Science confers is impossible; and the notion of such a possibility is more absurd than to conclude that individual musical tones are lost in the origin of harmony.”

Science & Health Page 216:30-5

August 11, 2012 - Freedom in Unity

"Colorado Wildflowers"
photo by Aaron Springston

A Course in Miracles Lesson #223

“God is my life. I have no life but His.”

The freedom which comes from admitting my unity with all of Creation came as a great surprise to me. The majority of my life I was insistent on doing it my way -- whatever that way happened to be. I rebelled at authority in any form and believed myself to be a nonconformist. Even the thought of such rebellion makes me chuckle at its silliness. Now I find that true freedom only comes from the acceptance of my being as a creation of divine Mind. In reading our subject for today's lesson, many remembrances of events and circumstances pass through my mind. "God is my life." I could say so much about this. But the cool breeze being swept in with the attic fan says it all. After numerous weeks of extremely hot weather conditions, we have cooler days, with a hint of fall in the atmosphere. The cool night air is exquisite.. Resting in this perfection is enough. One of my favorite expressions of gratitude is a Native American saying.  I reach out to everything, to all that is, with a silent "Thank You greatly!". I allow this feeling to flow through me as the cool air flows through this house. Life is good. Thank You greatly.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"God is divine Life, and Life is no more confined to the forms which reflect it than substance is in its shadow. If life were in mortal man or material things, it would be subject to their limitations and would end in death. Life is Mind, the creator reflected in His creations. If He dwelt within what He creates, God would not be reflected but absorbed, and the Science of being would be forever lost through a mortal sense, which falsely testifies to a beginning and an end.”

Science & Health Page 331:1-10

August 10, 2012 - Leaving Old Pathways

Doll created from a 40-year-old blouse,
signifying leaving old beliefs
for Reality

ACIM Lesson #222

“God is with me. I live and move in Him.”

We are waking up from our oblivious stupor, from our dream of separation from God and all that Is. This awakening is taking many forms, and I'm sure you are seeing examples everywhere, too! The admittance to ourselves that we are divine has taken us to another level of action to correspond with our thought. I'm seeing people changing life-long habits because they suddenly find them repugnant or useless. For quite some time, I've known that I can no longer eat meat. This is not because I feel I shouldn't eat something which was once alive and feeling, because I know that plants have the same attributes, although on a different level perhaps. While this decision does have something to do with kinship with all life, it is mainly because of the horrible ways we choose to raise and slaughter animals. When I was a child, my parents had a small meat processing business. People would bring in the animals they had raised and they would be quietly killed and packaged. This is the image I've had in my mind of what happens in the meat preparing process. This is no longer so, as we all know. There is no respect for the animal itself, no love involved in the taking of its life, and generally no care taken in the preparation of this food for consumption. From listening to my heart, this space deep inside beyond belief and habit, I have come to this decision. For me, this is living and moving in God. Not the decision itself, but the listening and following. Today's ACIM lesson states this: "God is with me. He is my Source of life, the life within, the air I breathe, the food by which I am sustained, the water which renews and cleanses me. He is my home, wherein I live and move ..." There are so many ways we as humans have gone astray. I join with you in watching and listening for the Truth of our existence, and to be aware of ways to demonstrate this in every action. Namaste'.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The theory that soul, spirit, intelligence, inhabits matter is taught by the schools. This theory is unscientific. The universe reflects and expresses the divine substance or Mind; therefore God is seen only in the spiritual universe and spiritual man, as the sun is seen in the ray of light which goes out from it. God is revealed only in that which reflects Life, Truth, Love,-- yea, which manifests God's attributes and power, even as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror, repeats the color, form, and action of the person in front of the mirror.”

Science & Health Page 300:26-4

August 9, 2012 - New Old Thought

"South Africa Sunrise"
photo by Aaron Springston

A Course in Miracles Lesson #221

“Peace to my mind.  Let all my thoughts be still.”

Today marks a transition with the Course in Miracles Workbook Lessons. The first 220 lessons have been exercises in giving up beliefs, habitual thoughts, inane or destructive actions, and numerous other things which have held us captive to sense. We now know how to differentiate between ego thoughts and the ideas of Mind. And we're not afraid to listen and trust what we hear in that silence between the words. We've been exercising our spiritual sense, while quieting our physical senses. And now we want the "direct experience of truth". Now we are ready to shift attention within ourselves, to the source Itself, letting go of any ritualistic words and dogma we have been harboring. We now understand what forgiveness is about. It's the understanding that there is nothing to forgive. We have also reached the point where we don't need specific times during the day to remind us to think about our nature as a child of God. This shift from habitual, material thought to inspired, divine ideas is feeling more natural to us now. And so, today I see us as quietly devoted to the peace of God. Every time we silently turn whole-heartedly to God -- knowing that all is Mind, Truth, Love -- we remember more of our original Being. We feel a perfect peace which allows our actions and words to be those of divine Mind, without worry, with total trust, knowing that our lack of expectation frees us. To quote from today's lesson: "This year has brought us to eternity."

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The effects of Christian Science are not so much seen as felt. It is the ‘still, small voice’ of Truth uttering itself. We are either turning away from this utterance, or we are listening to it and going up higher. 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. The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.’"

Science & Health Page 323:28-6

August 8, 2012 - Choose Peace

A Course in Miracles Lesson #220 (review)

“I am not a body. I am free,

For I am still as God created me.”

Specific review: (#200) “There is no peace except the peace of God.”

"Buzzards in Eureka Spring"
photo by Marsha Havens

In reading and pondering the above words, my mind turns to events in the past where I had the choice of either living peace or doing what I thought would defend my "cause".  A few years ago, I became embroiled in a controversy concerning turkey vultures roosting in our wooded town. Mosts of them were congregated in our neighborhood, in a hollow between two residential streets. Some of my neighbors were convinced that the birds were dangerous and needed to go away. Through their efforts, sonic cannons were going to be fired with the hope of sending the birds somewhere else. At this point in my life, I try not to have strong opinions about anything. But for some reason, I chose to jump up on my high-horse and start gathering signatures on a petition to stop the cannons. Eventually the whole neighborhood was up in arms over this and most of them were not speaking to me. At a particularly hostile point, the realization came that I had made the wrong choice. I had not chosen the peace of God, but my own self-righteous reasoning, and no one was the better for it. The vulture known as buzzard is called the "peace eagle" by the Cherokee people. It is named this because it's the only bird which does not kill. And so I quietly backed away from the situation. This doesn't mean that I stopped being an advocate for the birds, but I did change my actions. From an approach which was mainly on the material plane, rabble-rousing and trying to change things, I shifted to quietly seeing the Truth of everyone and everything in the situation, knowing that we are all reflections of divine Love.  By affirming that divine order is ever-present and that I didn't need to do anything other than allow that order to guide my thoughts, any sense of personal responsibility was released.  If you're wondering what happened, they did shoot off the sonic cannons, the birds left temporarily, and within a short time they came back. Everyone is speaking to each other again, and we seem to be closer than ever for the conflict. Isn't it wonderful that we can always choose again!!

Mary Baker Eddy quotes:

“Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.”

Science & Health Page 261:4-7

August 7, 2012 - I Am Free

"Drumming in Eureka Springs"
photo by Richard Quick 

A Course in Miracles Lesson #219 (review)

Central Theme:

“I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me.”

 Specific review: (#199) “I am not a body. I am free.”

We all have heard of instances where people have bypassed material laws of physical possibilities and performed some heroic act, such as lifting a car off of a loved one. While today's lesson is telling us that our true being is not this body, that we are actually Spirit and all that implies, most people balk at the thought that the physical body should conform to spiritual laws. As today's lesson tells us, the body's purpose now is unambiguous. Once we have freed thought from the enslavement of the limitations of the body, then it is free to perform its function as your servant. These words, "I am not a body, I am free", were beautifully demonstrated during a drumming in Basin Park on Saturday evening. This drumming goes on for two hours, as does the dancing and other freedom-from-limitation activities such as hula-hooping. In the 100-degree heat, a large group of people vigorously played hand drums, danced, and joyfully expressed themselves with no thought of anything other than the primal energy surging through their bodies. The illusion of age plays no factor in this timeless activity, with small children and so-called senior citizens keeping pace with Angelo, the beautiful African man who leads these love-ins. The joy spreads much farther than we can see! Let's all find activities which raise our level of happiness in this way and practice them regularly! Sing and dance while doing housework! Find the joy in every activity. As Wayne Dyer tells us, "If you drop a pen and don't enjoy picking it up, drop it again."  (For a taste of the spirit of Eureka, do a search on drumming in Eureka Springs on youTube)

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The inharmonious belief does not create an inharmonious condition. The belief of lack is the lack. The belief of disease is the disease. That is why the body seems to change as man's thinking changes. It is simply as beliefs of disease and imperfections fall away, and our thinking is corrected and held true to Truth, so that mental chaos and confusion no longer cloud our vision, we see the body as God sees it, as it eternally is. Then it stands revealed to us in its beauty and its glory, the temple, not made with hands. All that our ignorance does is to affect our vision, or view of things. It does not change anything that God has made.

'We do not handle substance through our personal thought to change it. We only see according to our thought, our degree of enlightenment. Walt Whitman said, "The world is jagged and broken,  to him who is jagged and broken," to him whose mental realm is dark. If one's thought is ignorant and unenlightened, it changes his vision as a cloud of mist. As he looks through the cloud he sees this world, the body, all things, distorted, abnormal and wrong.

'If the mental atmosphere is dark and dense, we see but dimly and are not able to perceive the perfection that is. Man does not by mental effort bring God into manifestation, neither does he through wrong thinking prevent God's manifestation. God IS and God is manifest, and it is not in the power of unenlightened personal thought or mental effort to obstruct or hinder the activity of God, or to mar or to deface the perfection of God's creation."

From a statement copyrighted by Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy at the Congressional Library in Washington, D.C. January 19, 1886

August 6, 2012 - Waking Up

"Happiness at Real Salt Lake"
photo by Aaron Springston

A Course in Miracles Lesson #218 (review)

Central Theme:

“I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me.”

Specific Review: (#198) “Only my condemnation injures me.”

We stand aghast at injustice. It seems rampant everywhere we look. How have we allowed corruption to reign supreme? Why is our food poison, our water scarce, what we value meaningless? How has this happened while we stand by believing that everything is as it should be? Why do we allow it to happen? The recognition of our unity is a major turning point in our evolution. With the knowledge that everything is connected, that what affects one affects all, we are prompted to stand up and make the change within ourselves that we would like to see in the world. This interconnectedness of All that Is first was shown to me by my Beagle, Harry. He was so sensitive to feelings around him that the mildest irritation about anything on my part would send him to the farthest depths of the closet, where he would remain until I had "cleared my energy field" -- so to speak. And now I watch my moods and thoughts affecting the demeanor of customers in my business. If I am tense and irritable, that's what I draw to myself. Seeing that there are only two choices, Love or fear, helps lead me from the blindness which has held us all helpless for so long. We have within our Being the ability to change the world. True evolution is the evolution of consciousness.  What a wonderful thing, to see through awakened Thought! To wake up from the hypnosis we have allowed ourselves to fall under is a very exciting proposition, isn't it? Reality, as we have accepted it, is falling away to reveal a way of life we have thought of as impossible. Love is the liberator. Embrace the change which is moving from human intellect back into the space of the heart. Open yourself to the divine and live as you were created. Accept your reality as the reflection of God, with no fear, only Love guiding your every action. The time is now to live Love and all that implies!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts! Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of human hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, hath elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.”

Science & Health Page 49:16-22