Can’t Bully a Wave

“Have you ever tried to bully a wave in the ocean?” This is the question a 104-year-old Buddhist nun asks her great-granddaughter in a beautiful novel titled, A Tale For the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki. The two went into a store to get food for a picnic on the beach. A group of gangster girls were hanging around outside the store and harassed them as they went in. When they came out, the old woman bowed deeply to the group of young women before walking away. After they got onto the train to go to their destination, the older woman wondered aloud if it was a holiday of some sort, mentioning that the girls were all dressed so brightly and seemed so happy. The granddaughter tried to explain that they were gang colors, and that they were being derisive in their words and laughter. The grandmother didn’t see it that way and asked her young charge if she had ever tried to bully a wave, explaining that no matter how much you hit at it or yell into it, it stays what it is. That is its function, and that is our function. I love that!

“The peace of God is everything I want. The peace of God is my one goal; the aim of all my living here, the end I seek, my purpose and my function and my life, while I abide where I am not at home.” A Course in Miracles W-205.1:2-3

“The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the dreamer and dream are one, for neither is true nor real.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 530:26-29

Projecting a Quiet Mind

Image from Alexandra Bochkareva Photography

 “The world is a reflection of our internal state. If we dwell on turmoil, anger and confusion then that is how the world will be perceived to an individual. A quiet mind and and an open heart are important attributes to project into the world.” Ram Dass 

“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. All things are created spiritually. Mind, not matter, is the creator. Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 256:1-8

“Peace, then, be unto everyone who becomes a teacher of peace. For peace is the acknowledgment of perfect purity, from which no one is excluded. Within its holy circle is everyone whom God created as His Son. Joy is its unifying attribute, with no one left outside to suffer guilt alone. The power of God draws everyone to its safe embrace of love and union. Stand quietly within this circle, and attract all tortured minds to join with you in the safety of its peace and holiness. Abide with me within it, as a teacher of Atonement, not of guilt.” A Course in Miracles T-14.V.8:1-7

Thinking Makes It So …

 

Unknown photographer

A friend once said to me: “You can’t help what goes through your mind; it’s what you do with it that’s important.” As she always got upset when I talked about perception and how things are as we see them to be, I didn’t think I should tell her I disagreed with her statement. I do think we can keep rampant negative thoughts out of our head. I also think we can stop ourselves from flitting from one memory to another, flowing through a tangent of remembrances and idle repetitions. Through these spiritual studies, we are practicing training our mind away from blame and guilt, away from circular, meaningless thought, and hence allowing our function as the expression of divine Mind to flow through us, beautifully blossoming for others to share and experience. On this perfect day, I will work toward cleansing my thoughts of unnecessary chatter, while opening myself to my function as the reflection of Love!

“Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.” 

A Course in Miracles W-189.7:1-5

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. 

Science & Health Page ii:4

Truth Through Fiction

Photo credit: Alden Stallings

An upside down world seems normal to us. We have become accustomed to believing 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 metaphysical concepts, using the genre of fiction to allow them 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 our thought, the ideas contained in these teachings can be jarring indeed! Let us not fear stepping through doors which are waiting to show us a deeper understanding!

"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." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 278:3-11

“Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual.”

A Course in Miracles T-1.I.12:1-3

The Joy of an Uncharted Journey

 

After a Metafizzzie Meeting

I inherited some recordings from metaphysical meetings we held a number of years ago. One of the weekly meetings included a discussion where people told how they came to live in Eureka Springs. In this joyous conversation everyone had a different story, but there was a common denominator: they had not consciously made the decision, but in various ways had been led to be here. There was something at work which had nothing to do with human will. People talked about divine guidance, serendipity, blind luck — it all involved a will which had nothing to do with logic or human understanding. The events which led to us being in the same room talking about metaphysics, God, Life, Love — all the while laughing and openly expressing joy — seemingly came about by chance. Life is wonderful when we don’t have to know what’s going to happen next!

“Will, as a quality of so-called mortal mind, is a wrong-doer; hence it should not be confounded with the term as applied to Mind or to one of God’s qualities.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 597:24-26

“Follow the Holy Spirit’s teaching in forgiveness, then, because forgiveness is His function and He knows how to fulfill it perfectly. That is what I meant when I said that miracles are natural, and when they do not occur something has gone wrong. Miracles are merely the sign of your willingness to follow the Holy Spirit’s plan of salvation, recognizing that you do not understand what it is. His work is not your function, and unless you accept this you cannot learn what your function is.” 

A Course in Miracles T-9.IV.6:1-4

The Art of Spiritual Healing

Lothar, Jim, and Jenny at a Sunday Salon

It could be said that metaphysical treatment is "denying error and declaring Truth". There is no set way to go about this process. When we glean a bit of spiritual Truth, we often think we can repeat this over and over, as a sort of mantra, and this will heal us. Often we can talk ourselves out of symptoms -- but usually this is a temporary hypnotic fix. 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's nothing more than further 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, led us to see the unreality of matter in his book Infinite Potential: What Quantum Physics Reveals About How We Should Live. I invite you to travel with him in this adventure!

“If we would open their prison doors for the sick, we must first learn to bind up the broken-hearted. If we would heal by the Spirit, we must not hide the talent of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor bury the morale of Christian Science in the grave-clothes of its letter. The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 366:30-9

‘Miracles praise God through you. They praise Him by honoring His creations, affirming their perfection. They heal because they deny body-identification and affirm spirit-identification.” A Course in Miracles T-1.I.29:1-3

Love For Lent

 

The lenten season means many things to many people. Some of us choose to see this as a time to give up behaviors which do not bring peace, dedicating this time to reconciling actions which have been less than conducive to harmony. For instance, something may be standing in the way of getting along with a neighbor, or perhaps angry words have broken a friendship. There are many things considered to be impediments to living a loving life. Today social media has told me about a multitude of ways to change my actions and become a better person. These memes, together with a homily given by a priest in a service where I provide musical accompaniment, have made me realize only one thing is needed, and that is to Love more. When someone espouses an inane or insane idea, I will love the spiritual reality of that person, not the erroneous material sense they are expressing. Every moment of the day, we have a choice: react from fear, or respond with Love. Let's find out what happens when we return to Love!

“The message of the crucifixion is perfectly clear: Teach only love, for that is what you are.” 

A Course in Miracles T.6.2

“A musician demonstrates the beauty of the music he teaches in order to show the learner the way by practice as well as precept. Jesus’ teaching and practice of Truth involved such a sacrifice as makes us admit its Principle to be Love. This was the precious import of our Master’s sinless career and of his demonstration of power over death.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 26:19-25