Taking Off Human Shackles

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

I received a call from a political pollster which has left me confused about more than a few things. Mainly, I’m wondering when three words in particular began to imply varying degrees of lunacy. Here are the words, with a short definition: Liberal - open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values. Conservative - holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation. Moderate - average in amount, intensity, quality, or degree. These words and their definitions do not convey the extreme meaning which the news media apparently wants us to feel. When I was asked by the pollster which of these three I considered myself to be, I was speechless. But then I threw caution to the wind and answered boldly, remembering what I write about every day: change of thought, seeing a new world where illusions appear to be, living fearlessly as Love!

“Progress takes off human shackles. The finite must yield to the infinite. 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.” 

Mary BakerEddy - Science & Health Page 256:1-5

“So would I liberate all things I see, and give to them the freedom that I seek. For thus do I obey the law of love, and give what I would find and make my own. It will be given me, because I have chosen it as the gift I want to give. Father, Your gifts are mine. Each one that I accept gives me a miracle to give. And giving as I would receive, I learn Your healing miracles belong to me.” A Course in Miracles W-349.1:1-6

Old Friends, New friends …

60 years of friendship

Having spent the last two days at a class reunion with childhood friends, I am more grateful than ever before for friendship. Old friends, new friends, and everything in between are about the best thing which can happen to us on this sweet earth. Every friendship is individual, but they all have a commonality: love. The compassionate caring which wells up when we hear of a friends’ hardship, or accomplishments, feels like a primal instinct to me. When I heard stories of friends’ lives, my heart swelled with a deeper understanding of these people I’ve known for six-plus decades. The laughter we shared over memories — sometimes it would simply take one word to send us into belly laughs in remembrance of events — well, it has filled me with joy during these two days. One of the saddest plights of humanity is the loneliness of isolation. Next time you’re going to a meeting — such as a Democratic Party function — invite a shut-in neighbor, or an acquaintance who rarely participates in community events, anyone you think would enjoy meeting new people. Spread the love!

“It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 467:9-10

“You look still with the body’s eyes, and they can see but thorns. Yet you have asked for and received another sight. Those who accept the Holy Spirit’s purpose as their own share also His vision. And what enables Him to see His purpose shine forth from every altar now is yours as well as His. He sees no strangers; only dearly loved and loving friends. He sees no thorns but only lilies, gleaming in the gentle glow of peace that shines on everything He looks upon and loves.” A Course in Miracles T-20.II.5:1-6

Friendship

Having enjoyed the first day of a two-day, 50-year class reunion, I simply send out this quote on friendship.

“Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less than beautiful. Men and women of riper years and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness or gloom.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 249:3-7

I Chose Fear …

Yesterday I began my daily writing with these words: Everything we do, say, and think, plants us firmly in either the world of fear or the realm of Love. Today I fell into a fearful reaction without even giving a thought to the other choice. I was doing laundry in a neighboring town. A man came in to use the restroom, smiled at me and said hello, then left with a cherry greeting. He went to the far end of the building and sat on a wall, where he proceeded to shout out various angry-sounding things. I went out to my car to get something and suddenly felt very fearful. I went back in, listened to him for a while, and called the police, asking them to check on him. They arrived in a few minutes, spoke with him, and then came in to tell me he was harmless, they knew him, and he has Tourette’s Syndrome. I have never, not once in my entire life, called the police about anything, and I am most disappointed in myself for doing it today. Usually in such a situation, I would have spoken to the man and asked if everything was all right. But for some reason, probably the collective consciousness of our shell-shocked nation, I was afraid. This has been a good lesson for me. If a genie gave me three wishes, one would be to have a redo of today’s fearful choice. Namaste to the man to whom I could have extended kindness …

“The first corrective step in undoing the error is to know first that the conflict is an expression of fear. Say to yourself that you must somehow have chosen not to love, or the fear could not have arisen. Then the whole process of correction becomes nothing more than a series of pragmatic steps in the larger process of accepting the Atonement as the remedy. These steps may be summarized in this way:

Know first that this is fear.

Fear arises from lack of love.

The only remedy for lack of love is perfect love.

Perfect love is the Atonement.” A Course in Miracles T-2.VI.7:1-8

“Wise sayings and garrulous talk may fall to the ground, rather than on the ear or heart of the hearer; but a tender sentiment felt, or a kind word spoken, at the right moment, is never wasted.” Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896 Page 127:27

A New Language

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

Everything we do, say, and think, plants us firmly in either the world of fear or the realm of Love. Moment by moment, we choose what we accept as the truth. A number of years ago, through my daily writings, I became friends with a man in the Netherlands. He has studied Christian Science for decades, and at some point added A Course in Miracles. While I have been familiar with the work of Mary Baker Eddy all my life, there are facets of her writings which I am now looking at with new eyes. In the early 1900s, a group of people explored the supposition that Mrs. Eddy had written a new language, a spiritual language, centered around the seven synonyms for God, which are well-known to readers of Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures. By a thorough understanding of these capitalized words, (Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love) we are able to apply them to all experiences, allowing them to be spiritualized in thought and realized in the demonstration of Oneness. By consistently turning thought away from mortal concepts and utilizing spiritual interpretations, we are choosing the world we want to see. A close friend once wrote an essay entitled, "Upper Case Living". I will think of it as I choose the world I see today!

“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.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 573:29-2

“My brothers in salvation, do not fail to hear my voice and listen to my words. I ask for nothing but your own release. There is no place for hell within a world whose loveliness can yet be so intense and so inclusive it is but a step from there to Heaven. To your tired eyes I bring a vision of a different world, so new and clean and fresh you will forget the pain and sorrow that you saw before. Yet this a vision is which you must share with everyone you see, for otherwise you will behold it not. To give this gift is how to make it yours. And God ordained, in loving kindness, that it be for you.” A Course in Miracles T-31.VIII.8:1-7

Mind Is …

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

A number of my friends and acquaintances have become mentally lost this year. Some had a slow progression, but one particularly good friend has had a rapid fall into dementia. It’s a mystery why these things happen, and there are as many theories as there are people. A book I mentioned a few weeks ago, Super Brain, addresses the loss of brain cells and the ability to regrow them. It also speaks to reasons we slowly lose our mental capabilities due to lack of intellectual exercise. Physical reasons for disease is generally what we look at, but more and more we are realizing how mind affects the body. Various testing situations show that the brain can be physically manipulated, too. I want to know the difference between the brain and the mind. Questions such as: What is consciousness? Where does intuition come from? What is divine Mind and how does it affect what we think of as our mind? These are the questions I love to contemplate. My study of books by Margaret Laird, Max Kappeler, Joel Goldsmith, Mary Baker Eddy, and others, are the reason I find every day to be an exciting adventure. We can never know everything about the inner world we call spirituality, and this brings me great joy!

“The notion that both evil and good are real is a delusion of material sense, which Science annihilates. Evil is nothing, no thing, mind, nor power. As manifested by mankind it stands for a lie, nothing claiming to be something, — for lust, dishonesty, selfishness, envy, hypocrisy, slander, hate, theft, adultery, murder, dementia, insanity, inanity, devil, hell, with all the etceteras that word includes.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 330:25-32

“You also believe the body’s brain can think. If you but understood the nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth; or that you held the world within your hand, securely bound until you let it go. Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body’s eyes can see; the brain can think.

“It is God’s strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it is His Mind with which you think. ²His strength denies your weakness. It is your weakness that sees through the body’s eyes, peering about in darkness to behold the likeness of itself; the small, the weak, the sickly and the dying, those in need, the helpless and afraid, the sad, the poor, the starving and the joyless. These are seen through eyes that cannot see and cannot bless.” A Course in Miracles W-92.2:1–3:4

Miracles Occur Naturally

Painting by James Yale

I love this quote attributed to Albert Einstein: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Through various religious teachings, most of us think of a miracle as divine power setting aside a material law, allowing something otherworldly or supernatural to occur. What if a miracle is simply a correction of our limiting beliefs, opening us to divine Mind and the limitless Life which is our true heritage as a child of Love? By this remembrance, we heal our mind of separation, giving us a clarity of thought and sight before unknown. There is no special dispensation required. All are welcome to partake.

“The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God’s unchangeable law. Spiritual evolution alone is worthy of the exercise of divine power.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 135:6-10

“Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.” A Course in Miracles T-1.I.3:1-3