Pink Cows and Silver Pillows

"Andy Warhol Exhibit"

ACIM Workbook Lesson #205

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #185 "I want the peace of God.”

We have the most delightful museum here in northwest Arkansas: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art! Through it, my consciousness has been expanded in ways I never would have dreamed. Today a friend and I went to see the Andy Warhol special exhibit. We knew little about his art other than that he inundated us with Campbell Soup cans and called it art. Today, I learned a bit more about this interesting man. One thing is that he wanted peace and satisfaction in his life and thought he might achieve that through controlling his art, hence the duplication of images. He also had a lively sense of humor, as shown with this room full of pink cows and floating silver pillows. It brings laughter simply to be in their presence! And he had heart, which he showed in his Endangered Species psychedelic prints. Wow, what a day full of calm and exalted thought!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace."

Science & Health Page 506:11-12

Who Am I?

photo from Arthur Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #204

Central theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #184 “The Name of God is my inheritance.”

We, as humans, make up thousands of designations in order to separate ourselves. We may be proud of our heritage, putting plaques on our walls telling that our ancestors came over on the Mayflower. We teach our children “where they came” from and tell them reasons they should be proud of this. We proclaim what state we hail from, what school we attended, which football teams we cheer for — the list goes on and on. Today’s lesson says, “Learning that stops with what the world would teach stops short of meaning.” I want to see past tribes and nations. I don’t want to think of myself as a Razorback or a woman. I don’t want to think of myself at all, but would rather rest in the knowledge that I am an Idea of God, individually expressing that in whatever way is my function! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have learned from error, and man's real existence as a child of God comes to light.”

Science and Health Page 288:31–1

What's in a Name?

"Grand Tetons"
photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #203

Central theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #183 “I call upon God's Name and on my own.”

If you ask a hundred people what they think God is, you will get that many different answers. Whether it’s an old man sitting in the sky and pointing a finger or an ethereal presence, we have created an image in thought from years of propaganda, and that is what we envision today. This is one of the main reasons I prefer to think of It as divine Mind or infinite Love. It’s easier for me to depersonalize this God I have made in my own image, to turn the tables and allow myself to be the expression of Mind, the experience of Love. 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Question. — What is God? Answer. — God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.” .

Science & Health Page 465:8-10

Home IS Where the Heart Is

"Grand Tetons"
photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson # 202 

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #182 “I will be still an instant and go home.”

Many of us are resistant to change. We like the security of things staying the same, and often rebel against changes even though we innately sense they would be wonderful. And the changes that aren't always so pleasant -- the loss of a loved one, being fired from a job, losing a home to fire or other devastating circumstance -- those things are feared and dreaded and worried about. I'm sure you know people who have faced such seeming loss and appear to be serene and happy, accepting whatever may come. They know what it means to”be still and go home". Once we realize that home is within, that nothing can change in our true home where divine Love is always constant, then we can rest assured that all is well, no matter what the circumstance may be in form. For this I am very grateful!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Erase the figures which express number, silence the tones of music, give to the worms the body called man, and yet the producing, governing, divine Principle lives on,--in the case of man as truly as in the case of numbers and of music,--despite the so-called laws of matter, which define man as mortal." Science & Health Page 81:19-24

Wholly Sinless

ACIM Workbook Lesson #201

"Grand Tetons"
photo by Aaron Springston

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #181 "I trust my brothers, who are one with me."

This past week, it has appeared that things are slipping out of harmony around me — and it’s not my fault! (I say this with laughter:) There have been problems with getting the correct modem for internet service, my car is having issues, there are ego-related matters occurring with a group I  care about very much — I think I’ll stop right there and see how this relates to “trusting my brothers who are one with me.” One sentence which seems to apply to these situations is: “When you attack a brother, you proclaim that he is limited by what you have perceived in him.” Although I haven’t been casting stones at those involved in the hold-ups and mix-ups, it would be easy to do so, and so I will use today’s lesson to see all of this another way. When my focus goes beyond so-called mistakes, I will see a wholly sinless world.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good."

Science & Health Page 518:15-19

Peace - July 19, 2015

photo courtesy of Alden Stallings

ACIM Workbook Lesson #200

“There is no peace except the peace of God.”

Peace is a spiritual attribute. While we may perceive peace as changeable, that is only our material perception of it. As our topic today tells us, "There is no peace except the peace of God." Now, this statement may bring to mind a picture of a big Buddha ohm-ing away up in the sky, because that's the way we've come to think of deity -- something outside of us, looking down on us, watching over us, giving us things. But that's not the God we're beginning to know as Life, Truth, Love. This divine Mind, infinite Spirit, eternal Soul is you and me. As I learn to recognize the difference in material belief and spiritual truth, life becomes easier. The peace that is God is mine right now for the acceptance of it. We can't lose it, because it's eternally available no matter what the outward circumstance!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Truth will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul.”

Science and Health Page 390:10-11

Whisking Away Unreality

photo courtesy of Alden Stallings

ACIM Workbook Lesson #199

“I am not a body. I am free.”

We have had the privilege of hosting a group of Buddhist monks in our village. They created a beautiful mandala on the top floor of one of our historic hotels. As I always like to look up definitions of words in order to spur inspiration, I looked up the meaning of mandala and found this interesting psychoanalytic slant for the term: “a symbol in a dream, representing the dreamer's search for completeness and self-unity.” How interesting! The recognition that we are not a body and that we’re free dovetails with many aspects of the mandala, so I will ponder them today, reaffirming what my true Self is and whisking away what it is not!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"I am the image and likeness of God; no mortal mind can confine this image in a mortal body, harm or touch it in any way, Mind has set me free from every error. Divine Love fills every avenue, flows through every channel and removes every obstruction."

[This is an excerpt from an article entitled "Body" by Mary Baker Eddy, filed in the Congressional Library, January 19, 1886, found by Lyda Sandifer Hord]