Dickinson

 

Emily Dickinson has always held a certain fascination for me. The image of her I created from high school English was of a solitary, rather plain, young woman sitting in her room writing poetry which no one read. There’s a fun series based on her life which is on Apple TV. I enjoy watching this interesting program, set in the mid-1860s, but utilizing modern music and mores in the most surprising ways. She is portrayed as beautiful with multi-faceted desires, leading a fairly normal life for the time period. But the words which flow from her mind to her pen are exquisite in their emotion and are a constant source of interest. The time she spent in solitude is what I dream about, with her thoughts resting in a meditative state, and then whirling with the beautiful expression of her words. Oh, Emily, how I’d love to be a friend of yours!

“Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry, and the power of expressing them. Spirit, God, is heard when the senses are silent. We are all capable of more than we do. The influence or action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phenomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 89:18-24

“A messenger is not the one who writes the message he delivers. Nor does he question the right of him who does, nor ask why he has chosen those who will receive the message that he brings. It is enough that he accept it, give it to the ones for whom it is intended, and fulfill his role in its delivery. If he determines what the messages should be, or what their purpose is, or where they should be carried, he is failing to perform his proper part as bringer of the Word.” 

A Course in Miracles  W-154.5:1-4

False Sense Mentally Entertained

 

Nothing can be imaged forth in form unless it exists in consciousness. What??  I know, I know. You may say you had never heard of such and such disease until you got it. Well, collective consciousness counts, too. Yikes! So how do we keep from contracting every disease and imaging forth all the horrors of the world? This is exactly what Gary Renard tells us in "The Disappearance of the Universe" and what Mary Baker Eddy means by "there is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter". When we put more faith in matter than Spirit, then, yes, we are subject to every little quirk of the universe. But the realization of Truth puts us under no governance but that of divine Mind, God. It may seem that it would be impossible to come out from under the tent of materiality in favor of Spirit. I've had enough glimpses to know it is indeed very possible, but it takes work. When you listen to detailed stories of disease, it become embedded in consciousness. I'm never surprised when something jumps out of that vast forever, but I do negate it in thought -- to the best of my ability. And practice does make perfect, so I won't give up!

“Disease is always induced by a false sense mentally entertained, not destroyed. Disease is an image of thought externalized. The mental state is called a material state. Whatever is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is imaged forth on the body.” Mary Baker Eddy-Science and Health 411:21-26

“Wrong-mindedness listens to the ego and makes illusions; perceiving sin and justifying anger, and seeing guilt, disease and death as real. Both this world and the real world are illusions because right-mindedness merely overlooks, or forgives, what never happened. Therefore it is not the One-mindedness of the Christ Mind, Whose Will is one with God’s.” A Course in Miracles C-1.6:1-3

Live Like an Immortal

Written by Alison Nappi “Live like an Immortal. Because you are one. Stay true to your Soul and be incorruptible. It will move you through the world like a spinning prayer, or a long winding story, or an epic battle. Sometimes all of these and more.

Live like an immortal, because you are one. Follow your aliveness, your wildness, your ancientness back to the place where holiness dwells. Read the writing etched into the walls in a language that time forgot, but you didn't.

Live like an immortal, because you are one. Then you are free of enemies, free of strife. Act on every divine impulse, and have no regrets. Do not be left to wonder at the end of your incarnation if you lived well, if you were alive, if you made it count, if you fulfilled the desires of Creation to be you.

Live like an immortal, because you are one. And when the world lets go of you, you will still exist, as wild and free as you were when alive, as the new world dawns in your being.”

Written by Alison Nappi

“The realization that all inharmony is unreal brings objects and thoughts into human view in their true light, and presents them as beautiful and immortal. Harmony in man is as real and immortal as in music. Discord is unreal and mortal.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 276:12-16

“You are immortal because you are eternal, and ‘always’ must be now. Guilt, then, is a way of holding past and future in your mind to ensure the ego’s continuity. For if what has been will be punished, the ego’s continuity is guaranteed. Yet the guarantee of your continuity is God’s, not the ego’s. And immortality is the opposite of time, for time passes away, while immortality is constant.” 

A Course in Miracles T-13.I.8:5-9

Correction at the Thought Level

 

Art by Catrin Welz-Stein

It seems there are any number of errors to correct in this world. It’s quite a relief to discover that I only need to correct them in my mind, not in the fearful and angry minds I witness around me. If I look at things with horror, or disgust, or anger, or fear, I have become a part of them and share in them. If I look on the people perpetrating said acts as Love’s reflection, there is forgiveness. By making such statements in public, I run the risk of someone telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about — and, perhaps, they wouldn’t be using words quite so kind! There is a young woman who makes videos about these teachings. She is often verbally attacked in the comments section of YouTube. If the speaker and her supporters are willing to give these derogatory words energy in retaliation and defense, they are accepting attacks within themselves. But if we send forth forgiveness, realizing we are all One in Truth, then we give the gift of Love — and receive it ourselves. Therein lies correction!

“Because Truth is infinite, error should be known as nothing. Because Truth is omnipotent in goodness, error, Truth's opposite, has no might.” Mary Baker Eddy- Science and Health Page 367:3-1

“It is essential to remember that only the mind can create, and that correction belongs at the thought level. To amplify an earlier statement, spirit is already perfect and therefore does not require correction. The body does not exist except as a learning device for the mind. This learning device is not subject to errors of its own, because it cannot create. It is obvious, then, that inducing the mind to give up its miscreations is the only application of creative ability that is truly meaningful.” 

A Course in Miracles T-2.V.1:7-11

Happiness For Life

Désiré François Laugée, 1882.

 Following a beautiful bookclub meeting this evening, I offer a quote from one of our favorite books from years ago. 

"There are random moments - tossing a salad, coming up the driveway to the house, ironing the seams flat on a quilt square, standing at the kitchen window and looking out at the delphiniums, hearing a burst of laughter from one of my children's rooms - when I feel a wavelike rush of joy. This is my true religion: arbitrary moments of nearly painful happiness for a life I feel privileged to lead.”

Elizabeth Berg -The Art of Mending

“Elusive happiness, or happiness in changing form that shifts with time and place, is an illusion that has no meaning. Happiness must be constant, because it is attained by giving up the wish for the in constant. Joy cannot be perceived except through constant vision. And constant vision can be given only those who wish for constancy.” 

A Course in Miracles T-21.VII.13:1-4

“Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real enjoyment.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 60:29-3

Doing or Being

Sergei Arsenievich Vinogradov - 

At the Dacha in Summer, 1869-1938

We probably all have at least one friend who is always in motion. I know a woman who won’t let her children have a moment of peace because she feels like it’s a waste of time to not be involved in some type of activity. She herself is a whirlwind of doing and going. The following Thich Nhat Hanh quote caused me to think of her. I wish I could tell her it’s okay to simply be. As Wayne Dyer often reminded us: We’re human beings, not human doings!

“We have a tendency to think in terms of doing and not in terms of being. We think that when we are not doing anything, we are wasting our time. But that is not true. Our time is first of all for us to be. To be what? To be alive, to be peaceful, to be joyful, to be loving. And that is what the world needs most.”

Thich Nhat Hanh 

“Listen in deep silence. Be very still and open your mind. Go past all the raucous shrieks and sick imaginings that cover your real thoughts and obscure your eternal link with God. Sink deep into the peace that waits for you beyond the frantic, riotous thoughts and sights and sounds of this insane world. You do not live here. We are trying to reach your real home. We are trying to reach the place where you are truly welcome. We are trying to reach God.” 

A Course in Miracles W-49.4:1-8

“Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power, and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These angels of His presence, which have the holiest charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of Mind, and consequently reproduce their own characteristics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do know that their natures are allied to God’s nature; and spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 512:8-16

The Guest of God

Over the years, many friends have told me they don't feel like they belong here. I think we all, at some time or another, have felt this way. What if, rather than us not belonging here, this "here" we speak of isn't what we think it is? What if we don't belong in this crazy world, but the world we see isn't reality? Perhaps our true home is something we've sensed is there, similar to seeing a movement out of the corner of your eye, but when you look directly at it, it's not there.  For years I grasped at straws while ignoring these glimpses. We're not strangers in a strange land when we realize true substance isn’t what we can physically touch. So let's be still a moment and ask to know what that home we desire so badly truly is. When we’re not afraid to remember, shift happens!

“Your Kingdom is not of this world because it was given you from beyond this world. Only in this world is the idea of an authority problem meaningful. The world is not left by death but by truth, and truth can be known by all those for whom the Kingdom was created, and for whom it waits.” 

A Course in Miracles  T-3.VII.6:8-11)

“If you launch your bark upon the ever-agitated but healthful waters of truth, you will encounter storms. Your good will be evil spoken of. This is the cross. Take it up and bear it, for through it you win and wear the crown. Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 254:27-30