Joy and Freedom in the New Year

Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, AR

Photo credit: Richard Quick

The last day of the year! It’s always an exciting time, when people make decisions on how they will change their lives, full of hope and expectations. We love to dream of how we will become “better”, and often are disappointed in ourselves when this doesn’t happen the way we have dictated. Perhaps one of the problems with these resolutions is that we want to take away things from ourselves, but have nothing to fill the space left behind. So I’ve decided not to attempt to delete anything from my existence, but rather to add heaping helpings of loving actions toward the world and its creatures. I vow to be aware of every thought I allow into my mind, knowing we are what we think. While striving to stay away from judgmental thoughts and actions, the freed space in my mind will be listening for ways to productively cleanse our environment, fill the needs I witness around me, and to scatter joy freely! May we all bring in the new year with a fresh, clear perspective on Life! Namaste…

“Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. 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. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.’”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science and Health Page 323:32-7

“So will the year begin in joy and freedom. There is much to do, and we have been long delayed. Accept the holy instant as this year is born, and take your place, so long left unfulfilled, in the Great Awakening. Make this year different by making it all the same. And let all your relationships be made holy for you. This is our will. Amen.” 

A Course in Miracles T-15.XI.10:8-14

Joyful Change

Photo Credit: Richard Quick

In this time of great change, it’s easy to long for the comfort of ritualistic actions and old habits. It feels nice to simply float along, happily enjoying yesterday’s fruits. But life doesn’t often allow us that ease. We wake up every morning to a world quickly changing. These changing circumstances necessitate a shift in our collective values. I hope we can all hold onto each other and know that this is a good thing. Personally, I have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but I relish the possibilities!

“We have repeated how little is asked of you to learn this course. It is the same small willingness you need to have your whole relationship transformed to joy; the little gift you offer to the Holy Spirit for which He gives you everything; the very little on which salvation rests; the tiny change of mind by which the crucifixion is changed to resurrection. And being true, it is so simple that it cannot fail to be completely understood. Rejected yes, but not ambiguous. And if you choose against it now it will not be because it is obscure, but rather that this little cost seemed, in your judgment, to be too much to pay for peace.” A Course in Miracles T-21.II.1:1-5

“The time is not distant when the ordinary theological views of atonement will undergo a great change, — a change as radical as that which has come over popular opinions in regard to predestination and future punishment.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health 24:15-19             

Footsteps of Truth

 

Photo credit: Richard Quick

Almost two decades ago, Jim Young and I brought together a group of people which became known as Metafizzies. During the years we were affiliated with this metaphysical group, I got quite an education! I have sat in a metal pyramid, holding a crystal skull, chanting Sanskrit. Psychic readings, Akashic Records, Sufi dances — We welcomed people to present their views to us every other week, and they were all based in love, no matter how farfetched they may have seemed on the surface. I tell you this to give you an idea of my background in spiritual matters. My parents were Christian Scientists. When I left home at 16, I thought there must be something better, but after years of wandering through the in-vogue thought systems of the 1970s, I had found nothing more comprehensive than the book Science and Health, With Key to the Scriptures. Sometime in the 90s, I was at a yard sale and picked up Wayne Dyer’s book When You Believe It, You’ll See It. Immediately I wanted to know who he was because his ideas were exactly what I had learned from Mary Baker Eddy’s writings. And so I discovered A Course in Miracles, including it in the study which had always felt so natural to me. Truth is truth no matter where it is found, and there are many beautiful pathways in this world. Namaste, dear Friends …

“All roads will lead to this one in the end. For sacrifice and deprivation are paths that lead nowhere, choices for defeat, and aims that will remain impossible. All this steps back as truth comes forth in you, to lead your brothers from the ways of death, and set them on the way to happiness. Their suffering is but illusion. Yet they need a guide to lead them out of it, for they mistake illusion for the truth.” 

A Course in Miracles W-155.7:1-5

“Whatever furnishes the semblance of an idea governed by its Principle, furnishes food for thought. Through astronomy, natural history, chemistry, music, mathematics, thought passes naturally from effect back to cause. Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observation, invention, study, and original thought are expansive and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of itself, out of all that is mortal.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 195:15-22

Truth or Error?

Yesterday I wrote about “present truth”. More than one person has responded with ideas and questions about this subject. So I spent a few hours looking up references in Science & Health and the ACIM Textbook to gain a deeper understanding of the subject. While there are more than 4,000 references between the two, the recurring theme is that truth and error are opposites and incompatible with each other. Time and again, I hear people speaking of “my truth” and “your truth”. It seems to me that any changeable truth is nothing more than a perception or belief. My goal is to respect people and their beliefs, but not to fall into the material trap of believing rather than knowing. Perhaps it’s the years of spiritual teaching in which mainline religions have told us that God is unknowable. When searched for from a material perspective, this is true. Most material belief is fear-based, and with that acknowledgement we begin to want to know more about spiritual reality. I love these studies because we can never know everything! But when we grok a single bit of Truth, it colors our lives. 

“The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page vii:13-18

“Knowledge is power because it is certain, and certainty is strength. Perception is temporary. As an attribute of the belief in space and time, it is subject to either fear or love. Misperceptions produce fear and true perceptions foster love, but neither brings certainty because all perception varies. That is why it is not knowledge. True perception is the basis for knowledge, but knowing is the affirmation of truth and beyond all perceptions.” 

A Course in Miracles T-3.III.1:5-10

Present Truth

 

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

There are many personal identities we cling to, and it's certainly difficult to keep from mentioning one or more when asked "who are you?”. In the new year, I plan on putting my focus on truth. Whether it’s my personal self or the whole world, let there be TRUTH! It doesn't matter to me what horrible things happen as the result of truth being known; I simply want everything to be out in the open. While pondering that, I realized that the predilections we identify with are decisions we have agreed upon as our personal truth. As part of my new, more-open thought, I resolve to not fault anyone for thinking in ways I find to be odd or disconcerting. We all have different expressions of the divinity we are, and it is not my place to pass judgment — although I'm not sure what's up with people who think the earth is flat! In the coming new year, I want to stop lying to myself and about others, while living in the honesty of the present moment, and celebrating every moment of Life!

"Love, too, would set a feast before you, on a table covered with a spotless cloth, set in a quiet garden where no sound but singing and a softly joyous whispering is ever heard. This is a feast that honors your holy relationship, and at which everyone is welcomed as an honored guest. And in a holy instant grace is said by everyone together, as they join in gentleness before the table of communion. And I will join you there, as long ago I promised and promise still. For in your new relationship am I made welcome. And where I am made welcome, there I am." 

A Course in Miracles T-19.IV.A.16.

“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.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health  Page 205:4-9

Hardwired For Goodness

 

I read a review of the book, “Blueprint, the Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society”, written by Nicholas Christkis, a professor at Yale. His basic premise is that love, friendship, cooperation, and teaching have been hardwired into human beings, but we tend to deploy these qualities selectively, only toward those who are like ourselves. He says America is an unprecedented social experiment, testing whether we humans can share these behaviors more broadly. This statement of his feels especially true: “The less segregated we are — not just racially, but by ideology, religion, income, and education — the stronger the democracy.” His conclusions I’m sure are many, but one discussed in this review is that we need to overcome the urge to tribalism, if we are to have a diverse democracy. He believes that political tides can push against our innate desire for love, friendship, and cooperation, “but only for a while.” I am thrilled to read of this and other messages of hope! 

"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 wlll be established." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 467:9

“The Holy Spirit was given you with perfect impartiality, and only by recognizing Him impartially can you recognize Him at all. The ego is legion, but the Holy Spirit is one. No darkness abides anywhere in the Kingdom, but your part is only to allow no darkness to abide in your own mind. This alignment with light is unlimited, because it is in alignment with the light of the world. Each of us is the light of the world, and by joining our minds in this light we proclaim the Kingdom of God together and as one.” 

A Course in Miracles T-6.II.13:1-5

Christ Within

Hubble Image

“The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come. He comes demanding nothing. No sacrifice of any kind, of anyone, is asked by Him. In His Presence the whole idea of sacrifice loses all meaning. For He is Host to God. And you need but invite Him in Who is there already, by recognizing that His Host is One, and no thought alien to His Oneness can abide with Him there. Love must be total to give Him welcome, for the Presence of Holiness creates the holiness that surrounds it. No fear can touch the Host Who cradles God in the time of Christ, for the Host is as holy as the perfect Innocence which He protects, and Whose power protects Him.” A Course in Miracles T-15.XI.2:1-9

“The star that looked lovingly down on the manger of our lord, lends its resplendent light to this hour; the light of Truth, to cheer, guide, and bless man as he reaches forth for the infant idea of divine perfection dawning upon human imperfection, — that calms man’s fears, bears his burdens, beckons him on to Truth and Love and the sweet immunity these bring from sin, sickness, and death.” Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896 Page 320