September 9, 2012 - True Identity

"Aaron at Glacier National Park
photo by Heather Magnan

A Course in Miracles Lesson #252

“The Son of God is my Identity."

Our true identify is so much more than we have ever imagined. In this time of shifting perception and actualized reality we humbly and happily accept our identity as the child of God! To illustrate this awakening, let's take as a metaphor the act of falling asleep in our favorite chair. The coziness of it is hard to resist, and even though you may be doing something you enjoy and are engaged in -- such as active reading and writing -- the lure of oblivion is strong. So we succumb to the blissful sleep, which includes both sweet dreams and nightmares. But, then again, anything is possible in our dreams, so perhaps this falling into sleep isn't only oblivion. Perhaps there's more to this dream state than we realize. Maybe it comes to allow us to experience what seems impossible in daily living. But now we're realizing the limitlessness of our true Selves. And so today I'm not going to worry if my waking dream of material existence seems fraught with limitations and unwanted beliefs, because I know these can be transformed in the "twinkling of an eye". This true Self with its shimmering, brilliant purity and limitless Love seems far away when we're looking at life from the outside. And so today in my waking dream I will see this real identify as it looks from the inside, in the calm of quiet certainty, with exalted angel-thoughts leading me through this day. With each loving action, I will catch glimpses of my true Identify and joyfully expect to see more!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried its fondest earthly hopes. With white fingers they point upward to a new and glorified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels are God's representatives. These upward-soaring beings never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to the divine Principle of all good, whither every real individuality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us, and we entertain ‘angels unawares.’”

Science & Health Page 299: 7-17

September 8, 2012 - I need only Truth

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Lesson #251

“I am in need of nothing but the truth."

How reassuring it is to know I need nothing but the Truth! All worry and anxiety disappear when I'm not chasing something illusive which I can't quite name. Oh, sure, we may put lots of names on these things we seek in good faith, totally believing they will bring us the happiness we crave -- names like success, fame, marriage. The list of personal fulfillments desired can be quite long. We are even encouraged to make lists of these goals, to create affirmations surrounding them, to hold them in thought until they become realities in our existence. At this point, I must quote a Bible verse: "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all these things shall be added unto you." And this kingdom is found within, in the understanding and acceptance of our Source. So let's set aside material desires, just as quickly as we turn from fears. When these desires are no longer with us, the void left by them cries to be filled, and it's tempting to just let the old, outgrown expectations come back in. Today I choose to look only toward the Truth we are learning to recognize; to want nothing else; and to listen confidently for where that takes me.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Dost thou ‘love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind’? This command includes much, even the surrender of all merely material sensation, affection, and worship. This is the El Dorado of Christianity. It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the divine control of Spirit, in which Soul is our master, and material sense and human will have no place.”

Science & Health Page 9:17-24

September 7, 2012 - Limitless Life

A Course in Miracles Lesson #250

“Let me not see myself as limited."

"Principia goes to Mongolia - 2009"
photo by Aaron Springston

Today we are reminded to view ourselves as unlimited. A limited view of ourselves traps thought into a circumstance undeserving of our true being as unlimited consciousness. To view myself as unlimited is to view others that way, too. I'm reminded of the importance of refraining from talking about people's seeming mistakes and weaknesses. For that matter, it's important to avoid ANY negative banter concerning others. While we're cleaning up our act, let's not indulge in deprecating thoughts about ourselves. All these activities are impediments to the consciousness which sees beyond the material picture of life. In seeing past this illusion, we are able to witness the other-dimensional realization of life as Life. Even if we see no other people today, there will be many opportunities to practice this. When we free ourselves of our stories, we free ourselves (and everyone!) to the actualization of our true identities. And this identity is an unlimited idea of divine Mind. Let's celebrate that!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“It would require an infinite form to contain infinite Mind. Indeed, the phrase infinite form involves a contradiction of terms. Finite man cannot be the image and likeness of the infinite God. A mortal, corporeal, or finite conception of God cannot embrace the glories of limitless, incorporeal Life and Love. Hence the unsatisfied human craving for something better, higher, holier, than is afforded by a material belief in a physical God and man. ” 
Science & Health Page 257: 30-6

September 6, 2012 - Forgiveness Ends Loss

A Course in Miracles Lesson #249

“Forgiveness ends all suffering and loss."

"Glacier National Park"
photo by Aaron Springston

I remember a time when so-called new-age thought was not often spoken of in the media or anywhere other than the privacy of our homes. Now these new-old ideas are seen and heard everywhere. Every day we are witness to more proof that this shift in consciousness is happening now -- and we're talking about it! Thanks, Oprah! And even when these ideas are fictionalized, as in best-selling novels such as "The Lost Symbol", these possibilities are easily translated into plausible realities. This shift in consciousness allows us to embrace peace and harmony. Through this change in perception, we are understanding Truth and the demonstration thereof. It is happening now. We each support this realization in our own individual way. Every instance of pure peace we feel, each yielding of our personal sense to spiritual sense, brings us closer to living this realm of Love. This is where we always have been, but we've forgotten. We are all much-needed at this time, to calm the tumultuous collective thought which fights the idea of such freedom!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“God fashions all things after His own likeness. Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and permanence. Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light."

Science & Health Page 516:9-13

September 05, 2012 - What, me suffer?

"Aaron"
unknown photographer

A Course in Miracles Lesson #248

“Whatever suffers is not part of me."

I am reminded of a family friend from long ago. She was a wonderful, spiritually-aware person who showed me the Truth of the above statement. Over the course of a year, her husband passed on, her daughter was in a car wreck which left her in a coma for months before she died, and her house burned down. While I know she felt grief, I'm not sure there was despair. She always had a twinkle in her eye and a generous heart. When she herself passed on some 20 years later, I am told she went with a smile on her face. I often think of her. "Whatever suffers is not a part of me". This is not a heartless statement. It doesn't deny the feelings we have in favor of a hardness which excludes emotion. On the contrary! It's a pure Love which allows us to pass through the hard times with a firm understanding of the beauty of Truth. I've always found it cleansing to totally wallow in sadness, to experience everything there is to feel there. And when the grief has been spent, I'm free to see that nothing can touch my true Self or change the reality of Love.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“A blundering dispatch, mistakenly announcing the death of a friend, occasions the same grief that the friend's real death would bring. You think that your anguish is occasioned by your loss. Another dispatch, correcting the mistake, heals your grief, and you learn that your suffering was merely the result of your belief. Thus it is with all sorrow, sickness, and death. You will learn at length that there is no cause for grief, and divine wisdom will then be understood. Error, not Truth, produces all the suffering on earth.”

Science & Health Page 386:16-25

September 4, 2012 - Forgive and See

"Aaron in Zion National Park"
photo by Heather Magnan

ACIM Lesson #247

“Without forgiveness I will still be blind."

The sight which comes with forgiveness is our topic today. And we are told that sin is the symbol of attack. The topic of sin and forgiveness is a tough one. I feel this is because they are not a part of our real Being, and so we recoil at the words.  And that’s what this lesson today is about: the nothingness of sin and the meaning of forgiveness. I think of sin as being anything

-- anything at all  -- which separates us from the Love which is God. And since we are the image and likeness of God, there can be no separation other than in our belief. This thing we call forgiveness isn't some sort of divine pardon, but a yielding within ourselves to the purity of our thought, without the impediments of holding on to memories of wrongdoing, resentment, and pains of all sorts.  This yielding includes the release of things which we think have been done to us, and things we think we have done to others. So let's choose again, rest in Love, and go and sin no more!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Sin was, and is, the lying supposition that life, substance, and intelligence are both material and spiritual, and yet are separate from God,”

Retrospection and Introspection (p. 67).

September 3, 2012 - Love All

"St. Louis Zoo"
photo by Aaron pringston

A Course in Miracles Lesson #246

“To love my Father is to love His Son."

One of my favorite Mary Baker Eddy quotes is, "Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you." I've always thought of that statement as meaning that the human hatred of others cannot reach me. I now see that it procludes the hatred I may feel toward others, also. It's very easy for me to think that I don't hate anyone or anything. Actually, it's a word I have pruned from my vocabulary and simply do not use. BUT if I am irritated by another's actions or words, or if I replay a past situation in my mind which caused anger in the past, or if I allow criticism to gnaw at me and I think of retaliatory statements which could have been made -- isn't that human hatred? Wearing this cloak of Love calms these nagging feelings and thoughts. I know that if I'm wearing the armor of Love, hatred cannot enter from inside or out!

"God is universal; confined to no spot, defined by no dogma, appropriated by no sect. Not more to one than to all, is God demonstrable as divine Life, Truth, and Love; and His people are they that reflect Him -- that reflect Love."

Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896 Page 150