Leaving False Landmarks

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #63

“The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness.”

It’s easy to feel peaceful when all things are going according to our plans, but what about those unexpected events such as loss of a job, breaking up of a marriage, illness and accidents? At such times, it can feel as though our peace has been disrupted, perhaps never to be felt again. In order to extend peace to others, we must accept it for ourselves. How grateful I am for this inkling of knowledge about the Science of Being! The unfolding reality which has replaced the shattering illusions around me have been facilitating a change in perception and an acceptance of peace. It’s sort of like Michelangelo chiseling away everything but the image he was seeing. We are working to release everything unlike Love, leaving behind pure peace! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear,--this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony. The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress."

Science & Health Page 324:3-5

Remembering my Function

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #62: "Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world."

“I wish I'd known about this way of thought earlier in life,” a friend once said to me. He was concerned that he wouldn't have enough time to assimilate these ideas. Many responses came to thought, but I chose to say none of them. Time -- what a concept! We are eternal, so how can there not be enough time to realize something we've always known? Yes, that does sound rather esoteric, or perhaps a bit airy-fairy -- but doesn't it feel true? I know I've mentioned this Deepak Chopra quote before, but it bears repeating: "Time is something we've made up so everything doesn't happen all at once." Looked at in this way, don't we already know everything that ever has been or every will be? This is our function: to remember. And through forgiveness, we grasp our strength as the expression and experience of God. With that knowledge of our true Self, we open the gates of understanding in all areas of existence. There are no limits as to time and space. We have the ability to grasp concepts, to actualize ideas, and to function as the light of the world. The lovely thing about this is (no matter how much I may think I know) there is always more to this never-ending adventure! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote: “Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose ‘light shall we see light;’ and this illumination is reflected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false material sense.” Science & Health Page 510:9-12

Revelation and Progress

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #61: “I am the light of the world”

A lot has changed in the last couple of millennia, don't you think? We could spend hours listing changes in thought and our understanding of our universe! Some things which have not changed much are our ideas about God. Religion has pretty well held us locked in to what has been thought of as truth. Many of us are fearlessly admitting that we are all the expression and experience of God. We're happily allowing our thought to embrace new concepts such as, "I am the light of the world"! This is not a self-important declaration, but an all-inclusive, divine-Love centered exclamation of the wonder we know as Life. Our expanding thought is bringing a joy we never dreamed would be possible on this earth plane. We're starting to understand that the kingdom of heaven is right here, waiting for us to embrace it. Let's go forth today and shine!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Light: Symbol of Truth; revelation and progress."

Science & Health Page 591:23-24

A Higher Plane of Action

photo credit: Arthur Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #60

Today we review Lessons 46-50. 

Love, forgiveness, salvation -- these and many other words have taken on interesting connotations through our material interpretations and beliefs. Often our version of love includes jealousy, attachment, and various demands we insist upon for someone to be a worthy recipient of our human-based love. Forgiveness seldom is an acknowledgement that there is truly nothing to forgive, but carries with it thoughts of superiority and magnanimous gestures. Salvation has an odd interpretation which includes paying penance to someone or something. As we turn away from the material conceptions of these words, we are allowed to glimpse Love, wherein there is no forgiveness nor salvation as we think of them. We are told in the first lesson review today that forgiveness is "the reflection of God's Love on earth." When looked at from this view, it seems senseless to say that we can forgive but not forget. If we truly are, in reality, the perfect reflection of divine Love, if this is the spiritual reality (hence, the Only reality), it becomes easy to lay down the sword and go forward living from the heart rather than the brain. We can let go all thoughts of retaliation or revenge and live by the law of grace. How I long to forget everything and begin again from Love!

Mary Baker Eddy quote: "Advancing to a higher plane of action, thought rises from the material sense to the spiritual, from the scholastic to the inspirational, and from the mortal to the immortal. Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man." Science & Health Page 256:3-8

A Wider Sphere of Thought

photo credit: Nick Franchi

ACIM Workbook Lesson #59: Today we review Lessons 41-45. 

With physical or emotional maladies, as with other seeming discord or inharmony, it's not our job to figure out where we went wrong — rather it’s our task to see how we are right! It may be said that metaphysical treatment is "denying error and declaring Truth”, but there is no set way to go about this process. When we glean a bit of spiritual Truth, we often think we can repeat it over and over, as a sort of mantra, and this will heal us. We can tell ourselves that disease is an illusion and that it's no part of us, but until we know the reason why, it does nothing more than further the illusion. When we find ourselves beginning to understand that disease cannot be in matter because there is no matter for disease to manifest in, then -- and only then -- are we coming close to understanding this Truth of which we speak. It may seem impossible to make this shift in thought, but I love the baby steps leading to it! One of my favorite scientists, Lothar Schafer, is leading others to see the unreality of matter in his latest book, Infinite Potential: What Quantum Physics Reveals About How We Should Live. I invite you to travel with him in this adventure!

Mary Baker Eddy quote: "This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace." Science & Health Page 265:10-15

A Holy State of Being

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #58:

Today we review Lessons 36-40. 

This review speaks of "my holiness" in four of the five summarized lessons. What does that mean? Is my holiness different from your holiness, perhaps based on actions or thoughts? We are learning that this holiness is our true state of being as reflections of Love, realized through forgiveness in its purest sense. When I assert this Truth about myself, I affirm it for everyone. The urge to micro-manage things is strong in most of us, because we've been taught to make plans, to set goals, to nail down all the details. But most things in this life are beyond our control, aren't they? How many times do we make intricate plans only to have to change them when circumstances change? I could write a book! We may hear that worry is counterproductive, because if we can do something about a situation, we will; if we can't do anything about it, what's the use in worrying? Living by this precept has brought a freedom I wouldn't have known had I held onto my old drama queen ways. My mantra is: Only Good can come of this. For this realization, I am most grateful.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

 "Man walks in the direction towards which he looks, and where his treasure is, there will his heart be also. If our hopes and affections are spiritual, they came from above, not from below, and they bear as of old the fruits of the Spirit." Science & Health Page 451:14-18

Freedom of Thought

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #57:

Today we review Lessons 31-35. 

I love the freedom of our lesson reviews for today!  "I am not the victim of the world I see."  "I have invented the world I see." "There is another way of looking at the world."  "I could see peace instead of this." "My mind is part of God's. I am very holy." I know quite a few people who are ready to stop the madness and let freedom of thought take us to new heights of equality! And it's not just the airy-fairies who think this way, but physicists and learned people from all walks of life. Every thought counts! Let's go forward today with joy, knowing that's something which will spread without any effort — other than the sheer happiness of it all!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal. Through many generations human beliefs will be attaining diviner conceptions, and the immortal and perfect model of God's creation will finally be seen as the only true conception of being."

Science & Health Page 260:7-12