“Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love.”
Mary Baker Eddy- Science & Health Page 277:20-22
“Your wholeness has no limits because being is infinity.”
A Course in Miracles T-7.VIII.7:5
A
“Epitaph"
by Merrit Malloy
When I die
Give what’s left of me away
To children
And old men that wait to die.
And if you need to cry,
Cry for your brother
Walking the street beside you.
And when you need me,
Put your arms
Around anyone
And give them
What you need to give to me.
I want to leave you something,
Something better
Than words
Or sounds.
Look for me
In the people I’ve known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live on your eyes
And not on your mind.
Hands touch hands,
By letting
Bodies touch bodies,
And by letting go
Of children1
That need to be free.
Love doesn’t die,
People do.
So, when all that’s left of me
Is love,
Give me away.”
“When your body and your ego and your dreams are gone, you will know that you will last forever. Perhaps you think this is accomplished through death, but nothing is accomplished through death, because death is nothing. Everything is accomplished through life, and life is of the mind and in the mind. The body neither lives nor dies, because it cannot contain you who are life.”
A Course in Miracles | T-6.V-A.1:1-4
“If the belief in death were obliterated, and the understanding obtained that there is no death, this would be a ‘tree of life,’ known by its fruits. Man should renew his energies and endeavors, and see the folly of hypocrisy, while also learning the necessity of working out his own salvation.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 426:12-16
It can be difficult to understand how salvation and forgiveness are a part of this material dream, and that there is, in reality, nothing from which to be saved nor forgiven. A distinction between illusion and reality is essential to this understanding. Even a bit of understanding may not preclude a desire to hold onto unreality. I was shown an illustration of this reluctance while sleeping. I had a long and elaborate dream involving not being able to find, nor help, a loved one who was in trouble. There was snow so deep it couldn't be passed, along with many other impediments which produced anxiety and distress in my slumber. The dream seemed to go on forever, and I kept trying to climb out of it. But when I woke up, my first thought was of going back to sleep to see how the dream would end! As I was sliding back into sleep, the thought came to me that this wasn't necessary. Why should I care how it ended? Couldn't it end any way I wanted it to?? As I came back to conscious awareness, it occurred to me that this was a perfect analogy, illustrating our desire to hold onto illusions. From this perspective, I will notice my actions and thoughts today, looking at them from all sides to see if they are coming from divine Mind or my own personal ideas of how things should be.
“Dreams are chaotic because they are governed by your conflicting wishes, and therefore they have no concern with what is true. They are the best example you could have of how perception can be utilized to substitute illusions for truth. You do not take them seriously on awaking because the fact that reality is so outrageously violated in them becomes apparent. Yet they are a way of looking at the world, and changing it to suit the ego better. They provide striking examples, both of the ego’s inability to tolerate reality, and of your willingness to change reality on its behalf.” A Course in Miracles T-18.II.2:1-5
"... Is there any more reality in the waking dream of mortal existence than in the sleeping dream? There cannot be, since whatever appears to be a mortal man is a mortal dream. Take away the mortal mind, and matter has no more sense as a man than it has as a tree. But the spiritual, real man is immortal." Mary Baker Eddy -Science & Health Page 250:22-27
During a conversation, I was asked how I could have managed a certain emotional time without some form of psychological therapy. I hadn't considered that as an option, but in retrospect, I see that it was because I accepted reality over illusion. The reality is that I am as God created me. The illusion is a false sense developed from the stories which could affect how I feel about myself and others. Let's say, for instance, you find out about something which happened in the past. This new knowledge changes many material truths you have always a believed, including your name, age, and heritage. What reaction would you have? Perhaps your initial response would be anger. People would say this is a normal reaction to betrayal. With the realization that you are as Love created you, this situation is seen to have absolutely nothing to do with your true self, allowing the hurtful illusion to dissipate as mist hit by sunlight. Our hurt feelings, our fears, can disappear into their native nothingness, being replaced with the Truth. Anything other than our true creation is changeable, and so today I choose unchanging, eternal Truth!
“True light is strength, and strength is sinlessness. If you remain as God created you, you must be strong and light must be in you. He Who ensured your sinlessness must be the guarantee of strength and light as well. You are as God created you. Darkness cannot obscure the glory of God’s Son. You stand in light, strong in the sinlessness in which you were created, and in which you will remain throughout eternity.”
A Course in Miracles W-94.2:1-6
“In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 259:6-9
“Forgiveness-to-destroy has many forms, being a weapon of the world of form. Not all of them are obvious, and some are carefully concealed beneath what seems like charity. Yet all the forms that it may seem to take have but this single goal; their purpose is to separate and make what God created equal, different. The difference is clear in several forms where the designed comparison cannot be missed, nor is it really meant to be.” A Course in Miracles S-2.II.1:1-4
“Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love. When this hour of development comes, even if you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will force you to accept what best promotes your growth.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 266:6-12
Time is on my mind this evening … :)
“How amazing time is, and how amazing we are. Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration. Yesterday we complained of time and feared it, but today we love and embrace it. Indeed, we have begun to perceive its purposes and characteristics, and to comprehend its secrets and enigmas.”
Kahlil Gibran
“Breaking away from the mutations of time and sense, you will neither lose the solid objects and ends of life nor your own identity. Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a skyward flight.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 261:24-30
“Time is your friend, if you leave it to the Holy Spirit to use. He needs but very little to restore God’s whole power to you. He Who transcends time for you understands what time is for. Holiness lies not in time, but in eternity. There never was an instant in which God’s Son could lose his purity. His changeless state is beyond time, for his purity remains forever beyond attack and without variability. Time stands still in his holiness, and changes not. And so it is no longer time at all. For caught in the single instant of the eternal sanctity of God’s creation, it is transformed into forever. Give the eternal instant, that eternity may be remembered for you, in that shining instant of perfect release. Offer the miracle of the holy instant through the Holy Spirit, and leave His giving it to you to Him.”
A Course in Miracles T-15.I.15:1-11
Every day, we are made aware of situations which seem to have no solutions. One of those is the practice of capital punishment. The proponents and opponents are often very vocal on this issue, and sometimes it seems they both have valid points. Ultimately, I know I wouldn’t feel better about a loved one’s death because someone else was put to death to “pay” for it. The eye-for-an-eye dogma of Moses was replaced by Jesus’ message of peace, facilitated by forgiveness. Is there a happy medium to be reached between these two ways of thought? There must be a better way than what we’ve settled for up to now. One Course in Miracles workbook lesson tells us that miracles are seen in light. We are told that light and strength are one. The strength we feel from seeing past an age-old belief is, indeed, a miracle!
“Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose ‘light shall we see light;’ and this illumination is reflected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false material sense.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health 510:9-12
“It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go together. This needs repeating, and frequent repeating. It is a central idea in your new thought system, and the perception that it produces. The miracle is always there. Its presence is not caused by your vision; its absence is not the result of your failure to see. It is only your awareness of miracles that is affected. You will see them in the light; you will not see them in the dark.”
A Course in Miracles W-91.1:1-7
Photo credit: Aaron Springston We have many experiences which bring us a taste of “the stillness of the peace of God” [ACIM Lesson #273] I l...
