February 25, 2015 - Connected -- or not!

"Camels in Mongolia"
photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #56:

Today we review Lessons 26-30

I've been contemplating our connectivity and, also, lack of connection. Many people say that we are suffering from a loss of connections with real people; that we have given ourselves to technology and think we are making connections when we're actually just passing time. I wonder if the face-to-face connections we so often have are any more "real" than the computer relationships we sustain. So far, my conclusion is that any relationship can be shallow or deep, and how they come about really has nothing to do with it. Admittedly, I don't sit on my front porch with neighbors watching the sunset and chatting. But I've noticed that the great majority of communications I have with people have nothing to do with Reality, but have everything to do with mindless chatter. On the other hand, friendships I keep up with on the computer tend to be more substantial. No one emails me and tells me gossip about mutual friends or the details of their gallbladder operation. Although I have received no great insights about how changes in communications have affected our friendships and how they affect the world, I know that we have more opportunities to enjoy each other than ever before, and I want to take advantage of every moment of it!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Here let a word be noticed which will be better understood hereafter,--chemicalization. By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal mind and body undergo in the change of belief from a material to a spiritual basis.”

Science & Health Page 168:30-2

February 24, 2015 - Healing

photo by Heather Magnan

ACIM Workbook Lesson #55:

Today we review Lessons 21-25. For a guide to this review, and a short description, go to this link:http://A Course in Miracles.org/Lessons/lesson.html?lesson=55

This review is so exciting that I want to write about each and every one of the five topics -- but I've already done that! So I'll just go with the first part of the review, which is from lesson #21 in the Course in Miracles workbook: "What I see now are but signs of disease, disaster and death. This cannot be what God created for His beloved Son." Christian Scientists are often criticized for attempting to use Spirit to heal disease. Obviously, this would be impossible. Alternatively, we are chastised for doing nothing when faced with this thing called disease. If you have a so-called disease, it does no good to pretend it's not there. While affirmations, visualizations, different psychological techniques are often effective at changing matter, that is not what metaphysical  healing is all about. Some people think that the metaphysical treatment of disease is an attempt to affect a change in your experience. It is not. And some think that spiritual healing through prayer is asking God to heal disease. It is not. Yet others feel that prayer is doing nothing. It is not. Seeing past the material illusion to a single moment of spiritual Truth, that is what spiritual healing is about. This knowledge and the demonstration thereof is available to anyone, anywhere, anytime. This Principle is changeless and eternal. All we need do is awaken to it. Today I am determined to see!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a diviner sense, harmony is the real and discord the unreal. We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, death. We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?”

Science & Health Page 563:1-7

February 23, 2015 - Determined to See

ACIM Workbook Lesson #54

Today's review is of Lessons 16-20.

Since spending almost three weeks in the hospital, I have been on a rainbow of prescription drugs. This regimen is foreign to me, having not taken so much as a vitamin supplement in the past. Having committed myself to doctors' care, I readily acquiesced and was willing to do what they wanted. But it is becoming more and more obvious (as I've always known, but not personally experienced) that what they recommend is no more than an educated guess. This guesswork becomes more complicated when their judgment is swayed by pharmaceutical companies telling them what they should do. I feel that each and every doctor I have seen in the past two months is a wonderful person, and that they are doing the best they can with what they have to work with. They have made a decision to help mankind and have devoted their lives to this noble pursuit. As our lesson reviews tell us, in part, today: I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing and I am determined to see. Today I vow to devote my thought more steadfastly to the spiritual Truth I want to see. That is the one thing I desire, and I am not alone in this seeing!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of materiality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will reopen with the key of divine Science the gates of Paradise which human beliefs have closed, and will find himself unfallen, upright, pure, and free, not needing to consult almanacs for the probabilities either of his life or of the weather, not needing to study brainology to learn how much of a man he is."

Science & Health Page 171:4-11

February 22, 2015 - We're Ready!

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #53

Today is the third of a ten-day review of the first lessons. 

The Age of Aquarius. Harmonic Convergence. The Shift. Ascension. Activating DNA Strands. What do these things have in common? They are events which herald the change in thought which has been happening for as long as I can remember. We have been seeking and hoping that a way will open for us to understand, to experience the meaning of Life, and to demonstrate this Reality. In today's ACIM workbook five-lesson review, there is much talk of seeing a "meaningless world". You may wonder why anyone would want to see a meaningless world.  I'm not sure we would want to see a meaningless world, but that's certainly what we're doing! As we begin to glimpse the difference in spiritual realities and material illusions, we see that the world we hold in place through belief and misperception is a meaningless world. God did not create a meaningless world, and to see the world as God did create it, we must give up the beliefs and illusions we have created. These exercises we're doing are designed to prepare us to accept the knowledge which wakes us up to this unseen Reality. A single glimpse of this is enough to make me want to throw open wide the door! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote: "Spiritual attainments open the door to a higher understanding of the divine Life." Science & Health Page 10:15-16

February 21, 2015 - House Rules

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #52

Today is the second in a ten-day review of the first lessons. For a guide to this review, and a short description, go to this link: 

Having just finished a novel entitled House Rules, written by Jodi Piccoult, I am taken to that world when thinking about today’s topics. In the book, we are taken into the world of a young man who is diagnosed with a syndrome known as Asperger’s, which is a form of functional autism. I particularly enjoy insights into his literalism — or taking words verbatim with no interpretations. For instance, if you tell him to go fly a kite, that’s exactly what he thinks you want him to do. In looking over the five lessons for review, a few sentences jump out as points of beauty: “I am always upset by nothing.” “I will look with love on all that I failed to see before.” Let me learn to give the past away, realizing that in so doing I am giving up nothing.” “The choice is not whether to see the past or the present; the choice is merely whether to see or not.” “I have no private thoughts.” Many comparisons come to mind, correlating and juxtaposing these thoughts with the things in the book I just read. But that would be enough for a  book in and of itself! So I will simply say — Namastė.

 Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to human progress. The age seems ready to approach this subject, to ponder somewhat the supremacy of Spirit, and at least to touch the hem of Truth's garment."

 Science & Health Page 270:22-27

February 20, 2015 - A Blank Page

photo by Richard Quick

ACIM Workbook Lesson #51:

Today we begin a ten-day review of the first lessons. For a guide to this review, and a short description, go to this link: http://A Course in Miracles.org/Lessons/lesson.html?lesson=51 

     

Today we begin a review of the first 50 topics we have covered in A Course in Miracles workbook. I'm very happy to be doing this as I have chosen to reinvent myself this year. I made this choice because my physical circumstances have changed, but I am happy about it because I want my mind to be guided by the all-knowing Mind rather than just wandering around in confusion. Recently, I experienced symptoms of either food poisoning or a terrible "bug", although I had not eaten anything questionable nor been out in public to be exposed to any of these diseases I hear are running rampant. I'm very happy that I needn't examine the cause or prognosis for this malady. As it's a snow day, bitterly cold, and I don't have a business to open, I have the luxury of hanging out in my pajamas, reading and listening to wonderful music. I am free to explore the ideas for this review:  (1) Nothing I see means anything. (2) I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me. (3) I do not understand anything I see. (4) These thoughts do not mean anything. (5) I am never upset for the reason I think. These five ideas leave me pondering spiritual Truth, the reality of my being as a reflection of God, Love. I look forward to what this will reveal!

Mary Baker Eddy quotes

“Spiritual perception brings out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in deed and in truth.” 

Science & Health Page 203:13-16

February 19, 2015 - The Greatest Thing ...

photo by Steve Shogren

ACIM Workbook Lesson #50:

“I am sustained by the Love of God.”

Everywhere I turn, I seem to be pointed back to basics. The Love that is God is a cornerstone of most spiritual study, and I find it to be particularly palatable reading right now. I have reread Marianne Williamson’s “A Return to Love”. I’m reading Henry Drummond’s “The Greatest Thing in the World”, which examines well-known words from First Corinthians which begin, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not Love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” In this book, he reminds me how very important it is to be kind. Living a solitary lifestyle seems well-suited to me. Perhaps it began when I was an only child of older parents. It certainly continued during three short marriages which only lasted as long as they did because the husbands were away from home working most of the time. Whatever the case, I am happy to have these reminders of the pure essence of Love, and I look forward to sowing Its seeds along with the herbs and flowers of spring!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Psalm XXIII 

[DIVINE LOVE] is my shepherd; I shall not want. [LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures: [LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters. [LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [LOVE] leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for [LOVE] is with me; [LOVE'S] rod and [LOVE'S] staff they comfort me. [LOVE] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: [LOVE] anointeth my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [LOVE] for ever.

Science & Health" Page 578: 3-18