No Division Possible

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #41 

“God goes with me wherever I go.”

Contemplating today's topic brings many platitudes to my mind. I smile at them and reach deeper within for silence. Many great teachers, including Jesus, tell us the same thing: The kingdom of heaven is within. For years I've known this, but it's taking a while to understand, and without understanding, it’s nothing but blind belief. For years, I suffered all the symptoms of separation from God: depression, anxiety, worry, a sense of helplessness and loneliness. I also went through the typical material means to quiet these feelings, but none of them worked for long. It took a major wake-up call to break the spell, and I am so grateful to have answered it! When we're thinking "God goes with me wherever I go", it's very easy to visualize a little angel on our shoulder, or someone walking beside us. Hence the importance of going deep within and silencing the multitudinous beliefs we have acquired in this existence. Knowing ourselves as consciousness, melded like a drop of water with the ocean, or a ray of sunshine with its source -- that's the feeling we're hoping to remember. I say remember because it's something we've always known, but perhaps have forgotten. Peace, joy, happiness: these are ours in the kingdom of heaven within, no matter what the outward circumstances may appear to be. Take a deep breath and feel the Oneness!

Mary Baker Eddy quotes:

“Existence, separate from divinity, [divine] Science explains as impossible.” 

Science & Health Page 522:10-11

Happiness Actually

photo credit: Richard Quick

ACIM Workbook Lesson #40:

“I am blessed as a Son of God."

I’ve noticed that some people are always happy, no matter that circumstances seem to dictate the opposite. One such person stands out in memory. When I was a teenager, a woman who was a friend of my parents had a series of things happen which we would think of as bringing sadness. In a three-year period, her husband passed on, their house burned down, and then her daughter was in a car accident which left her in a coma for over a year before she died. Oh — she had also lost an infant daughter years before. This woman lived joyously into her 80s, always helping others, and died with a smile on her face (so I'm told). I often wondered how she did it. I see now that she knew the open secret of Life. With each loved one who passes on, with each beloved animal I’ve known through the years, something is growing more certain within me: They haven’t gone anywhere. Never born, never dying. If there’s a beginning, then there must be an end. That thought brings a certain smile to my heart!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Man is, and always has been, God's reflection."

Science & Health Page 471:17-18

Points of View

photo credit: Alden Stallings

ACIM Workbook Lesson #39:

"My holiness is my salvation."

My iPad died this morning. This may not be more than an inconvenience for many people, but I felt like I’d lost a friend. Every task I attempted today seemed stymied in one way or another. Finally, I realized that my off-centered-ness probably stemmed from the fact that I had neglected to set my intention first thing in the morning as I usually do. This activity could be called prayer, or meditation, or study — I think it encompasses all these things, and I had done none of them. Now, I am not trying to imply that if I had started my day recognizing my holiness, that my iPad wouldn’t have died. BUT I certainly would have looked at the situation differently from the grief which I felt! So I started my day over, even though it was the middle of the afternoon. Suddenly I remembered that a year or so ago a friend on the west coast had told me he never used his iPad and if I ever needed it, I could have it. And so I called him and it will be in the mail tomorrow. This feels like salvation to me! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The periods of spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind’s creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness — yea, the divine nature — appear in man and the universe never to disappear.”

Science & Health Page 509:24-28

Expanding Thought

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #38:

"There is nothing my holiness cannot do"

I love the first two sentences of today's ACIM lesson: "Your holiness reverses all the laws of the world. It is beyond every restriction of time, space, distance and limits of any kind." Haven't you always felt this to be true? Isn't that the appeal of Harry Potter books and movies? We know -- we just know! -- that there is more to all this than meets the mortal eye.  I get very excited when pondering these concepts! I'm so grateful to live in an age when we can write and talk about such topics. It hasn't been that long ago that people were thought subversive and perhaps crazy to speak of these concepts. I will spend today celebrating no limits to thought and dedicating myself to expansion!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours. Material sense does not unfold the facts of existence; but spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth." 

Science & Health Page 95:28-32

We Are The World

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #37

"My holiness blesses the world."

Have you seen the movie or read the book, “The Hundred-Foot Journey”? It’s very beautiful for many reasons. We are shown lovely French countryside, exquisite food, and a wonderful acceptance of and by people who are learning about their Oneness. When we accept our holiness, we do so by realizing that we are the expression of God. When we see this truth, we understand that we are not alone, as we are all the reflection of divine Mind. How can we express racial prejudice, or any other form of hatred and fear, when we know these things? I am freed by the understanding that the act of seeing everything in its spiritual reality is my function. It is everyone's function! By our realization of spiritual Truth, we see that everything is already complete and whole. I look forward to seeing more of this expanding vision which awaits us, just beyond the horizon of our material views.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"We are all sculptors, working at various forms, moulding and chiseling thought. What is the model before mortal mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering? Have you accepted the mortal model?" "We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives." 

Science & Health Page 248:15-17 and 26-29

Overwhelming Gratitude

photo credit: Arthur Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #36

"My holiness envelopes everything I see."

In the 1970s, I spent a good deal of time in a bar called The Swingin' Door. I fell in love with Texas music and more than one musician. It was an interesting time in popular music history, with the Beatles still stirring our souls and disco bringing a canned cadence to music most of the people in my circles shunned. We were all sure we knew the secret to happiness, and holiness had absolutely nothing to do with it. As years passed in a blur, we found the alcohol and drugs no longer brought satisfaction. It took years for me to realize that holiness was found within and reflected outwardly in everything. What a long and interesting road it's been to this point. The gratitude I feel for Life is overwhelming!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree, will uplift the physical and moral standard of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify and elevate character."

Science & Health Page 492:7-11

Expansive Ideas of Mind

photo by Richard Quick

ACIM Workbook lesson #35

"My mind is part of God. I am very holy."

Stepping outside our ideas of who and what we are can be an interesting experiment — and we are asked to stand back and do so in today’s lesson. The reason for this is that we cannot possibly understand what it means to be part of divine Mind, accepting our holiness, as long as we’re seeing ourselves as all the beliefs we have built up over a lifetime. These beliefs we hold about ourselves may be positively grandiose or absolutely debased, it matters not, as they all veil our unity with divine Love. Time and again in these studies we have been and will be asked to give up all our beliefs about ourselves as a person, exchanging them for the expansive ideas of Mind. We are asking Holy Spirit who we truly are, and there is no reason to fear Love’s answer!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science.”

Science & Health Page 469:30-5