Inextinguishable Light

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #75

"The light has come."

Perseverance in dropping false testimony of the material senses is celebrated today: The light has come! Of course, it has always been there, waiting for us to notice it. Thinking that we need a tribe in order to prosper, or that family is necessary for us to feel whole, or that a religion is needed to see God, these are all beliefs we have come to rely upon. We are seeing the Truth, and it has nothing to do with belief, dogma, or creed. The light has come! Critical mass tipping point isn't 51%, because just a taste of goodness spreads exponentially, as all Reality must. The light has come! To very loosely quote Mahatma Gandhi: I am Muslim. I am Hindu. I am Christian. I am woman. I am man. I am gay. I am straight. I am everything and nothing. I am free!The light has come! Let's join thought today in the realization that Love is all that is enduring. Other things pass away, but not this light which cannot be extinguished.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor material power as able to destroy. Let us rejoice that we are subject to the divine 'powers that be.' Such is the true Science of being. Any other theory of Life, or God, is delusive and mythological.” 

Science & Health Page 249:6-10

One Will, One Mind

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #74

“There is no will but God’s.”

Yesterday we pondered what it means to “will there be light”. Today we examine the thought, “there is no will but God’s”, and then ask ourselves what, exactly, that means. I don’t take this to mean that there is a divine laundry list which I am expected to complete each day to win favor from a higher being. Rather, by realizing that my will and God’s will are the same thing, by virtue of the fact that I am an idea of divine Mind, I can comfortably allow myself to listen inwardly for this thing we call intuition, trusting that I will be led in paths of productivity, harmony, and Love. I vow today to not dictate what those paths are, but I will go forward with an open heart and mind, letting my will be God’s! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The scientific unity which exists between God and man must be wrought out in life-practice, and God’s will must be universally done.” 

Science & Health, with Key to the Scriptures 202:3-5

To Infinity and Beyond!

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #73

“I will there be light.”

"Quantum information is like the information of a dream. We can't show it to others, and when we try to describe it we change the memory of it." (Charles Bennett) This information we are learning is very difficult to put into words. We have already assigned long-held interpretations to many of these words, and  hearing them in a different context can be confusing and even upsetting. That is why we are asked to see everything with no meaning, so that Truth becomes visible.  Many new-age teachings advocate affirmations and various hypnotic means of convincing ourselves of certain things. The "will" spoken of in today's lesson has nothing to do with our own personal will power. As the expressions of divine Mind, we have access to an all-encompassing will which we can tap into by our willingness to do so. Looked at from this perspective, "I will there be light" sort of means "To infinity and beyond"!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The power of the human will should be exercised only in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judgment and free the lower propensities. It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man. Material, erring, human thought acts injuriously both upon the body and through it."

Science & Health Page 206:4-9

An Upside Down World

photo credit:
Arthur-Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #72

“Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.”

An upside down world seems normal to us. We have become accustomed to believing that the testimony of our physical senses is reality, while we discount the feelings gained through what we think of as otherworldly intuitions. Many of my favorite authors write about the metaphysical concepts we are discovering, and some of them use the genre of fiction to allow them the leeway to take this new/old thought all the way without empirical evidence in support. And I applaud this method! What better way to introduce ideas to a skeptical audience than through the entertainment field? Dan Brown is an expert at this form of writing. He brings us thought-provoking concepts without asking us to accept them as true, such as in "The Lost Symbol". Paulo Coelho gently hits closer to home in his books. Two of my favorites are "The Alchemist" and "The Aleph". These and other novels are softly preparatory for the life-changing concepts presented in A Course in Miracles textbook and also by Mary Baker Eddy's writings. Without prior opening of thought, the ideas contained in these books can be jarring indeed! In the lesson today, we learn that God did not create this body. God created everything that is real and eternal, and it's our realization of this true Self which brings us peace and harmony of being. I find that revelations in thought such as this open doors to understanding. Oftentimes what we think of as religion leads us down dead-end streets, with no logical explanation. "A creator wholly unlike [its] creation is inconceivable." (ACIM) "[You are] not material,[you are] spiritual." (MBE) These concepts are slowly beginning to be understood. To me, this is salvation! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Divine metaphysics explains away matter. Spirit is the only substance and consciousness recognized by divine Science. The material senses oppose this, but there are no material senses, for matter has no mind. In Spirit there is no matter, even as in Truth there is no error, and in good no evil. It is a false supposition, the notion that there is real substance-matter, the opposite of Spirit. Spirit, God, is infinite, all. Spirit can have no opposite."

Science & Health Page 278:3-11

Surrender to Unity!

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #71

“Only God’s plan for salvation will work.”

The topic for today's workbook lesson could be misinterpreted as meaning there is some sort of predestined plan which we must follow if we are to achieve happiness and fulfillment. What we are learning has nothing to do with blindly following something we don't understand. It involves knowing that we are the expression of God, and until we realize what that means, we have no hope of trusting what we hear within our being. Mortal mind (the thoughts which come to us from material teachings and long-held beliefs) tells us that to listen to anything other than "logic" is foolishness. And so we plant our feet on the shifting sands of materialism and think we're doing the best we can under impossible circumstances. Salvation is an ongoing event, facilitated by releasing our belief in separation. I’m ready to surrender to unity! How about you?

Mary Baker Eddy quotes: "Salvation is as eternal as God. To mortal thought Jesus appeared as a child, and grew to manhood, to suffer before Pilate and on Calvary, because he could reach and teach mankind only through this conformity to mortal conditions; but Soul never saw the Saviour come and go, because the divine idea is always present." Unity of Good: 59:13-18

Salvation Within

Spring in Eureka Springs
photo by Richard Quick

ACIM Lesson #70

“My salvation comes from me.”

Today’s lesson tells us that nothing outside of ourselves has the power to hurt us, to upset us, or to disturb us in any way. Do you believe this? It sure seems that something “out there” is responsible for any angst we may experience. Today I was in a store picking up a few things. When I got to the check-out counter, the checker told me he was waiting for a woman to get some money from her car. I said, That’s cool; I’ll look at the sunglasses while I wait. Well, she came back in, all flustered, handing him a few coins and starting to pull things out of her purse. I was reminded of a scene from the movie Terms of Endearment when Debra Winger doesn’t have enough money and a tense situation ensures. I walked over and asked her how much she needed. It was $1.46, which I gave to the clerk. The woman was upset and tried to give me the few pennies she had found in her purse, but I just hugged her and told her to pay it forward. We spoke for a short while and then she left, smiling. In this brief encounter, I trust she felt the light we both share and has gone forth shining!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Students are advised by the author to be charitable and kind, not only towards differing forms of religion and medicine, but to those who hold these differing opinions.” 

Science & Health Page 444:13-16

Spring Cleaning!

Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas
photo by Richard Quick

ACIM Workbook Lesson #69

“My grievances hide the light of the world in me.”

The last words of today's lesson are: "Be sure to tell yourself: If I hold this grievance the light of the world will be hidden from me, if you are tempted to hold anything against anyone today." I think of spring cleaning in my home as similar to rooting out hidden grievances which are hiding the light within myself. Perhaps I'm holding on to some of these illusions because it's comfortable. Maybe I  have convinced myself that I like my history and wouldn't want to give up any of it, much less all of it. But what brilliance is hiding behind the cover of these grievance clouds? What light have I hidden with illusions I've created for myself and the world? I know something wonderful is there; I can feel it. So when an old story comes to mind, I will turn thought instead to contemplation of the wondrous Truth which flows in, out, and through me when I lift the veil created by my grievances. Now that's spring cleaning!

Mary Baker Eddy Quote:

“The manifestation of God through mortals is as light passing through the window-pane. The light and the glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality--much error--in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides the sun.” Science & Health Page 295:14-24