December 8, 2014 - Accepting Forgiveness

Thailand Morning

ACIM Workbook Lesson #342

"I let forgiveness rest upon all things,

For thus forgiveness will be given me."

I am amazed that it is so difficult to accept myself for what I truly am! In Christian Science, this acceptance is often called "knowing the Truth". In A Course in Miracles, it is forgiveness. Of course, there are many other ways to define this, but it's all semantics. What it boils down to is not just talking about it but really, truly knowing it. We are not material, we are spiritual. Spiritual perception is reality; material illusion is just that. I can talk about this until the cows come home, but it doesn't make it true in my consciousness unless I quit talking and begin knowing! Our learned behavior is strong, but not as strong as Truth. Ego, mortal mind, wants us to stay with what seems real. I've convinced myself it is real and it seems impossible to release this fallacy. I will hold to the Truth of spiritual reality until the false falls away. 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things. The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth. Spiritual facts are not inverted; the opposite discord, which bears no resemblance to spirituality, is not real. The only evidence of this inversion is obtained from suppositional error, which affords no proof of God, Spirit, or of the spiritual creation. Material sense defines all things materially, and has a finite sense of the infinite."

Science & Health Page 207:27-4

December 7, 2014 - What is a Miracle?

A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson #341

"I can attack but my own sinlessness, and it is only that which keeps me safe."

Today's lesson begins the next to the last section which is entitled, What is a Miracle? There is such confusion surrounding this topic, so I will simply copy this beautiful introduction here. May it help you to see the miracle of grace, the miracle of Life, the miracle of Love.

"A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness. Thus it stays within time's limits. Yet it paves the way for the return of timelessness and love's awakening, for fear must slip away under the gentle remedy it brings.

A miracle contains the gift of grace, for it is given and received as one. And thus it illustrates the law of truth the world does not obey, because it fails entirely to understand its ways. A miracle inverts perception which was upside down before, and thus it ends the strange distortions that were manifest. Now is perception open to the truth. Now is forgiveness seen as justified.

Forgiveness is the home of miracles. The eyes of Christ deliver them to all they look upon in mercy and in love. Perception stands corrected in His sight, and what was meant to curse has come to bless. Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love. And each is laid before the Word of God, upon the universal altar to Creator and creation in the light of perfect purity and endless joy.

The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand. Yet faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it rested on is really there. And thus the miracle will justify your faith in it, and show it rested on a world more real than what you saw before; a world redeemed from what you thought was there.

Miracles fall like drops of healing rain from Heaven on a dry and dusty world, where starved and thirsty creatures come to die. Now they have water. Now the world is green. And everywhere the signs of life spring up, to show that what is born can never die, for what has life has immortality."

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love."

Science & Health Page 494:15

December 6, 2014 - Be Glad!

ACIM Workbook Lesson #340

"I can be free of suffering today."

On this date last year, I wrote about a snow and ice storm we had which brought the holiday activities in our tourist town to a standstill. Today, we had lovely temperatures and a steady rain, Our Christmas Parade of Lights was postponed for a couple of weeks. A line from today's ACIM workbook lesson tells how I felt about all this: "Be glad today! Be glad! There is no room for anything but joy and thanks today." Each time someone came in the gallery expressing distress that the parade had been cancelled, I told them how happy I was that we were having a nice warm rain. On gray days, all the holiday lights look brighter! In the rain, there are reflections of them in the streets, on windows, and everywhere we look! What a joy it is to be in our sweet town with all the natural beauty and happiness flowing from every place. The gratitude I feel at the end of this peaceful, laid-back day is immense. And the Tour of Homes is tomorrow, and John Two-Hawks holiday concert, and many other reasons to be GLAD!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Mind: The only I, or Us; the only Spirit, Soul, divine Principle, substance, Life, Truth, Love; the one God; not that which is in man, but the divine Principle, or God, of whom man is the full and perfect expression; Deity,which outlines but is not outlined."

Science & Health Page 591:16-20

December 5, 2014 - What Do I Wnat?

ACIM Workbook Lesson #339

"I will receive whatever I request."

I was reminded recently of a meeting in which a woman confided a situation of abuse from her childhood. Some of the people in the metaphysical meeting we were attending insisted that she had chosen this scenario, whether to rectify something from a "past life" or for some other reason. This woman became very upset to think that a little girl would be tortured and want such a thing. Today's workbook lesson iterates that no one desires pain, but often we are confused about what we would want. Without going into the possibility of past lives, or reincarnation and retribution, I remind myself that all I want is One Thing. My only desire is to know God, and everything else will be attained without my delineation of what that is. I also remind myself not to judge others in any way, as we are all on an individual path. That's what it's all about, after all. We are the experience of God, and there are no outlines as to what that means.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual evidence, contradicting the testimony of material sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the ever-present, is becoming understood."

Science & Health Page 297:20-24

December 4, 2014 - Only Thought ...

ACIM Workbook Lesson #338

"I am affected only by my thoughts."

When our nearly 100-year-old Christian Science church was on the Christmas Tour of Homes, a man came in and told me he knew lots of Baptist jokes, because that's what he was, but he only knew one Christian Science joke, and asked if I wanted to hear it. Of course I did! A little girl comes home from school and tells her mother that her teacher, Mrs. Smith, is sick. The girl's mom says, No, dear, she only thinks she's sick. A few days later the girl comes home and tells her mother that Mrs. Smith is still sick. The mother once again explains that Mrs. Smith only thinks she's sick. A few days later the little girl comes home and tells her mom that Mrs. Smith thinks she's dead. While I chuckled with him over this joke, I also told him that the reason it was really funny was because it was true! And then we had a big laugh!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The artist is not in his painting. The picture is the artist's thought objectified. The human belief fancies that it delineates thought on matter, but what is matter? Did it exist prior to thought? Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force; but all might is divine Mind. Thought will finally be understood and seen in all form, substance, and color, but without material accompaniments. The potter is not in the clay; else the clay would have power over the potter. God is His own infinite Mind, and expresses all."

Science & Health Page 310:1-10

December 3, 2014 - Safe and One

Phi Phi Island, Thailand"
photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #337

"My sinlessness protects me from all harm."

The sinlessness which protects us from all harm refers to a realization of our unity with God. Remember, we've defined sin as anything which separates us from the Love which is God. I have a very dear friend who was a Marine in the Viet Nam conflict. He spent two years in hell, at times shooting people with machine guns for so long he couldn't feel his arms. Even though he doesn't often speak of those days, his life has been a series of tragedies and illnesses. It could be said he's a victim of life's circumstances. I so often wish he could see his sinlessness as a child of Love. Only through the eyes of God can he be seen in this sinlessness. Left to material sense, there is blame, guilt, shame. I pray today that we recognize the untouched purity which is our birthright as the evidence and experience of God. Namaste' ~~~

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The sinless joy, — the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain, —constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual."

 Science & Health Page 76:22-26

December 2, 2014 - Sweeping Away Distortion

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #336

"Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined."

"Forgiveness sweeps away distortion, and opens the hidden altar to the truth."  Looking at this sentence, even through the limited eyes of our mortal mind, it seems so beautifully true! I was chatting with a friend who tells me that her neighbor is convinced there is a mountain lion in their country neighborhood. He's going through all sorts of interesting practices in an attempt to "insure his family's safety". I live in town and my next door neighbor has strobe lights going all night long off of his back porch, attempting to deter turkey vultures from bedding down in the trees surrounding his house. Both of these people are afraid for reasons only they know. I can join them, either by fearing along with them or thinking about how silly I believe their actions to be. Either way would exacerbate their fears. So knowing that our minds are joined by virtue of our parent Mind, I choose forgiveness and allow love to replace any feelings of ridicule which may tempt me. Now that I've said it, let's see if I can do it!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The nearer a false belief approaches truth without passing the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes for destruction. The more material the belief, the more obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its domain, dominates all matter, and man is found in the likeness of Spirit, his original being."

Science & Health Page 97:14-20