Spiritual Activism

Central Park, NYC
photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #135 "If I defend myself I am attacked."

I know many people who consider themselves social activists. They have worked for years to improve our environment, politics, and the multitude of things in need of advancement. Some have told me they are tired of the fight. I am extremely grateful to each and every one of you who work to clean up rivers, who are passionate about producing uncontaminated food, who stand up to various tyrants and declare, "The emperor has no clothes!" Not a single person has told me that they're tired of the physical effort involved in these projects; it's the butting up against thought stuck in strong opinion, or fueled by hate and fear. That is what is frustrating to them. This is where our metaphysical advice can be helpful: Don't try to change anyone else's mind, only your own. More and more of us are witnessing Truth brought to seemingly impossible situations, and we're finding that new avenues of action appear when this is done. There is no need to defend ourselves nor to proclaim our own strong opinions in support of this Truth. Knowing it, within our own selves, is sufficient!

Mary Baker Eddy quote: “As when an acid and alkali meet and bring out a third quality, so mental and moral chemistry changes the material base of thought, giving more spirituality to consciousness and causing it to depend less on material evidence.”  Science & Health Page 422:14-18

Love Is Alive

"Utah" PC: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #134 "Let me perceive forgiveness as it is."

Righteous indignation: There's a lot of it going around, don't you think? Maybe I notice it because it's alive and well-established within me. Maybe I'm too quick to jump on my high horse and adopt a holier-than-thou attitude. It seems there are many injustices which need righting. We have been told that forgiveness is looking the other way and doing nothing, but we are learning to see forgiveness as looking past the illusion of separation from God to the realization of our unity. With this view, I can set aside my stories of right and wrong, opening thought to the reality of Love. Some wonder what good this could possibly do in a world rife with confusion. If everyone lived Love, opening themselves to listen for guidance on how to do that — well, just imagine the utopia! There is a voice audible to anyone willing to listen. Forgiveness, the releasing of illusions, allows this voice to be found. In our unity, one release is everyone's gift. There is no you, me, and God. There is only One. What a joy to be finding our voice!

Mary Baker Eddy quote: “Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action.” Science & Health Page 454:18-21

Unchangeable Values

Photo Credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #133

"I will not value what is valueless."

The ACIM workbook lesson today tells us to not value what is valueless. To discern what is valueless we are asked if it is changeable and if we feel any form of guilt surrounding it. Joel Goldsmith has said any number of things which have shaped my life, but this is one I’m reminded of often: “Groups of people who have shared spiritual Love are bound together for eternity.” I have friendships which run so deep I’m sure our essence has been together before. Having said this, I must note that it could not be any other way if we truly are One. There is no birth, no death, nothing other than an exchange of the energy which is divine Love, infinite Mind, endless Spirit. I revel in this shared Being!!

Mary Baker Eddy quotes:

“Everything good or worthy, God made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not make,--hence its unreality.”

Science & Health Page 525:20-22

Tempest-Tossed Human Concepts

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #132 "I loose the world from all I thought it was."

Have you ever felt there isn’t time to study this way of thought? With a slight shift in thinking, it becomes apparent reality isn't what we've always believed it to be. When this happens, we don't need to set aside specific times to practice a spiritual discipline. Without the negative prayer of worry, by the refusal to dwell in fear and dread, we have more time to hold thought to "the enduring, the good, and the true". (S&H Page 261:4) By allowing this new way of thinking to become a present reality, I am stepping closer to where Mrs. Eddy was standing when she said, "The divine understanding reigns, is all, and there is no other consciousness." Every glimpse I have of this divine Principle is a moment which frees the world from the bondage of my thought. What a gift!

Mary Baker Eddy quote: "In the Apocalypse it is written: 'And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.' In St. John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spiritual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed human concepts advancing and receding, is represented as having passed away. The divine understanding reigns, is all, and there is no other consciousness." Science & Health Page 536:1-9

Fear of Humiliation

photo credit: Richard Quick

ACIM Workbook Lesson #131 "No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth."

I've heard it said the fear of humiliation is at the top of our dread list, which contributes to why we remain with the familiar. As I think of the things we do in life, the foods we eat and how we obtain them, modes of transportation we utilize, the lies we tell ourselves every day — realization surfaces that we are craving simpler ways of doing everything. We want to eat fresh food in season. We want to heat our homes and travel without sucking the life out of the earth. What does this have to do with "seeking the truth"? In opening to our inner knowing, to the Truth that is waiting for us to remember it, solutions to problems which may have seemed insolvable to material sense suddenly are found. Ways of approaching everything in our lives, from healthcare to relationships, are seen in a different light and we wonder why we never thought of it that way before. How will you, personally, see it? That, I do not know. This adventure is quite an individual trip! However truth is seen in your world gives you glimpses of the Oneness we speak of. This pearl of great price, recognized and known, is what I seek today.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"All nature teaches God’s love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual.”

Science & Health Page 326:8-11

What Am I Accepting as Truth?

photo credit: Chris Fischer

ACIM Workbook Lesson #130

"It is impossible to see two worlds."

Today’s lesson topic reminds me that there is a world of Love, and there is a world of fear, and I cannot see them both at the same time. A friend recently asked me what frightens me. My first reaction is that nothing does, but upon examination I see perhaps everything does! Is it possible to think I’m living a life of Love while underneath the surface I’m not accepting this spiritual truth as my own? Maybe I’m just mouthing the words and not living Truth. I am going to examine these thoughts very closely today, asking to see what I truly am accepting. Having built a reality for myself, is it possible there is no basis for it? Not truly, no. But illusions are strong and belief seems solid. Which world am I seeing? I can’t see them both.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will surely appear sometime and in some way. There will be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away. When you read this, remember Jesus' words, 'The kingdom of God is within you.' This spiritual consciousness is therefore a present possibility.”

Science & Health Page 573:29-2

Imagine That!

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #129 "Beyond this world there is a world I want."

To the uninitiated in this way of thought, the sentence above may appear to refer to a world experienced at the change we call death. The "beyond" spoken of here is made manifest through the death of old beliefs and a rebirth in new thought. Wouldn't it be great if we lived in a world where loss is impossible, where love lasts forever, where hate does not exist and vengeance has no meaning? What if we had no misunderstandings, nor hard feelings between people, because we didn't blame others for thinking differently than we do? Our world is wonderful in many ways, but there are also horrors beyond words, and this is what causes people to lose faith in this thing we call God. We have created an un-God-like world and blame an unknown deity for what we think we cannot change. What if we're wrong and what we see is not true creation? Imagine that!!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“How true it is that whatever is learned through material sense must be lost because such so-called knowledge is reversed by the spiritual facts of being in Science. That which material sense calls intangible, is found to be substance. What to material sense seems substance, becomes nothingness, as the sense-dream vanishes and reality appears."

Science & Health Page 312:1-6