June 1, 2013 - My Decision

Photo by Aaron Springston

A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson #152

“The power of decision is my own.”

A dear friend sends out a monthly newsletter. The focus of the latest one is how much he enjoyed a movie about Jackie Robinson. He tells us of how racial prejudice has changed since the days he was a child. While he acknowledges that its face has changed, he feels it is still prevalent, and perhaps worse. Today's topic addresses this in its expansive infinity: "The power of decision is my own."  The way I think about things can be changeable, but the way I really think about things, in my function as a reflection of God, is unchangeable. Basically the only decision I need make is whether to think in changeable, material beliefs or allow myself the freedom to think as God does. I know this can seem impossible, but it is certainly a worthy endeavor! My parents considered themselves to be free of prejudice. After all, my dad had married a Chicano girl from South Texas, and in 1931 this was tantamount to marrying outside of "your race", which wasn't often done. I'll always remember a day when I was around 10 years old and we riding in the car. My mom and dad were talking about Sammy Davis, Jr., a black man, marrying May Britt, a very white woman. I piped up and said, "I wouldn't mind marrying a black man". Dead silence ensued. Not another word was said until we got to our destination and my mom took me aside and told me never to say anything like that again. I didn't understand it then, and I don't understand it now. The difference is that now I have the option of making a decision to stand with Oneness as my only choice in Life. We are all the children of God. There is no decision to be made when you leave aside the strange human interpretations we have placed on everything in this world. So I will continue to strive to recognize what we have created in this illusive world, look through it to the other side, and live that as my reality. Namaste' to the World!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The point for each one to decide is, whether it is mortal mind or immortal Mind that is causative. We should forsake the basis of matter for metaphysical Science and its divine Principle.”

Science & Health Page 195:11-14

May 31, 2013 - Sawtelle dogs

"Happy Dog in Colorado"
photo by Aaron Springston

ACIIM Workbook Lesson #151

“All things are echoes of the Voice for God.”

I love the affirmative nature of our metaphysical studies! It is not necessary to deconstruct ourselves in order to figure out what is wrong so we can fix it. That belief doesn't even exist in the vastness of spiritual sense we are building. By acknowledgement that all true seeing, hearing, and feeling, is spiritual -- or "echoes of the Voice for God", as today's lesson expresses it -- all we need do is practice this truth and the error falls away. Tonight was another great book club night for me. We discussed "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle". It could be described as a book about dogs-- and it is that, and more. But it left me hanging -- on so many levels! Materially, it left unanswered questions. Metaphysically, it could have gone all the way, but it stopped short of everything at which it hinted. Perhaps that's why I loved the book! It showed me what could be, and described why it isn't. That's what we see every day, and that's what we aspire to surpass -- the beliefs that we've accepted this as the way it has to be. This story asks us to take a journey which, in many ways, is not plausible to our belief system.. I don't know where those what-ifs will take me, but I do know it'll be a fun story. Just like this book! Namaste', one and All!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Your mirrored reflection is your own image or likeness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also. If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in accord with yours. Now compare man before the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by creation; and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere.”

Science & Health Page 515:25-6

May 30, 2013 - Opening to Reality

ACIM Workbook Lesson #150

Review of:

#139 "I will accept Atonement for myself." #140 "Only salvation can be said to cure."

The main thought to hold to in this review: “My mind holds only what I think with God."

Remember the hit movie, "The Matrix"? There were some profound metaphysical principles addressed! I particularly liked when Neo is in what appears to be a center for extraordinary behavior. He goes up to a person bending a spoon without touching it. Neo tries to bend the spoon with his mind, but cannot. He is told that the way to do this is through knowing the truth: The spoon is not there. And this is what metaphysical healing is all about. Today's workbook lesson review makes plain that the only cure is the understanding that there is no place where sickness can abide. In other words, the spoon is not there. Awakening to this knowledge brings with it the revelation that all which seems to be unlike good, God, has no reality. If we are attempting to change a material condition, it's just like trying to bend the spoon by the power of your mind. Only by the knowledge of its unreality is it seen for what it actually is: an idea. We are all ideas of divine Mind. We are all One in this reality. What will this realization unfold in experience today? I am open with no expectations!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The Science of Mind denies the error of sensation in matter, and heals with Truth. Medical science treats disease as though disease were real, therefore right, and attempts to heal it with matter. If disease is right it is wrong to heal it. Material methods are temporary, and are not adapted to elevate mankind."

Science & Health: Page 381:22-27

May 29, 2013 - Learning a new Language, of Spirit

"June and June"
photo by Richard Quick

ACIM Workbook Lesson #149

Review of:

#137 "When I am healed I am not healed alone." #138 "Heaven is the decision I must make."

The main thought to hold to in this review: “My mind holds only what I think with God.”

Through the practice of releasing any meaning I've placed things, I'm learning a new language. This is the language of Spirit, which we're discovering in our study of divine metaphysics. For instance, the word "Spirit" as I used it in the last sentence has an entirely different meaning from its use on the Ghost Tours at the Crescent Hotel! The capitalization of "Spirit" not only creates a synonym for God, but incorporates all the other nuances which are a part of its spiritual interpretation. For instance: Spirit is tangible; Spirit is substance. It "blesses the multiplication of its own pure ideas". (MBE) As with the learning of anything new, it requires practice for it to become second-nature to us; to be able to incorporate these ideas into our lives without specific thought of doing so. As we bring this Truth to our illusionary beliefs, we understand that healing is universal, we see there is no choice between heaven and anything else. It's what we know when allowing "what we think with God" to be heard. Have a joyous day everyone!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness."

Science & Health Page 264:15-19

May 28, 2013 - Defenses and Yielding

"Bonfire in Mongolia"
photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Lesson #148

Review of: #135 "If I defend myself I am attacked." #136 "Sickness is a defense against the truth."

The main idea to hold to in this review: “My mind holds only what I think with God.”

These two review topics take us all the way down the rabbit hole! If you simply want feel-good, improve-your-relationships, make-more-money types of reading material, I suggest you stay away from this. And I don't mean that in an ugly way. I've found that a momentary recognition of the Truth of Being leads me to want more. But I've known many people who don't want to go there. And that's cool, too. The present material beliefs we espouse and demonstrate in daily life are comfortable to us, and it can be hard to let them go. Sometimes we have held on to stubborn memories of the past for so long that we can't seem to dig our way out and up. These things can be frightening, especially if we've convinced ourselves we don't like change. So if you start to become afraid while trying on the new thoughts you are now having, realize that Love is all there is. Sing a Beatles song or two! Do anything you can to cultivate joy. Live Life fully in the whirlpool of divine Love! Go all the way down the rabbit hole, knowing every step is sure when you walk with Love. 

Mary Baker Eddy quote: “Mind, supreme over all its formations and governing them all, is the central sun of its own systems of ideas, the life and light of all its own vast creation; and man is tributary to divine Mind.”

Science & Health Page 209:5-8

May 27, 2013 - Reality

ACIM Workbook Lesson #147

Review of: #133 "I will not value what is valueless." #134 "Let me perceive forgiveness as it is."

The main thought to hold to in this review: “My mind holds only what I think with God.”

God is All. I am a reflection of that all-ness: Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love and everything which that implies. Namaste' ~~~

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Everything good or worthy, God made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not make, -- hence its unreality. "

Science & Health Page 525: 20:22

May 26, 2013 - Live Love Out Loud

"Black Snake in Ozark Woods"
photo by Chris Fischer

A Course in Miracles Lesson #146

Review of:

#131 "No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth." #132 "I loose the world from all I thought it was."

The main thought to hold to in this review: “My mind holds only what I think with God.”

When I read today's review and saw the words, "I loose the world from all I thought it was", my mind immediately went to something I've decided to believe about spiders. I never watch doom-and-gloom television shows, and steadfastly refuse to listen to people's stories of their fear of nature and its consequences. But recently I saw a short snippet of a video about brown recluse spiders, which are prevalent in our area. The narrator of this video was telling us how spiders don't attack unless they're surprised or bothered in some way, and they showed a clip of a spider resting on a stack of wash cloths with a person's hand going toward them. Yikes!! Well, that image has stuck in my mind to the extent that I look for spiders on every towel or washcloth I touch. And the odd thing is, I try to pretend I'm not doing this! Who do I think I'm fooling? Myself? God? This is the type of fearful living which I refuse to acknowledge, but yet I'm doing it. Now, I can choose to analyze this behavior and rationalize that I don't worry about spiders in other places so why here. But that's all it would be: a material rationalization, trying to convince myself there's nothing to fear. So in following today's teachings, when this thought comes to my mind, I'll ask myself what God thinks about spiders. And that's how I'll think of them, too, because "my mind holds only what I think with God". If I'm to "loose the world from all I thought it was", doesn't this include fears and worries about what-if situations? Our review tells us we cannot fail when seeking to reach the truth of Being. I rejoice as these pure spiritual ideas replace any fearful thoughts which may intrude. Harmonious actions are assured in this space where I realize the nothingness of material beliefs and the Truth of spiritual reality, leaving me free to live Love right out loud!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Science reveals only one Mind, and this one shining by its own light and governing the universe, including man, in perfect harmony. This Mind forms ideas, its own images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light, intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, 'whose seed is in itself.' Thus God's ideas 'multiply and replenish the earth.' The divine Mind supports the sublimity, magnitude, and infinitude of spiritual creation.”

Science & Health Page 510:28-6