Upside Down?

Photo courtesy of Richard Quick

What if everything is upside down from what it seems to be?  We have all these ideas about what is true and what is false, what is good and what is bad, but what if we don't know? What if we are wrong? We have fact-checking sites to help us decide if something is true, we have preachers and politicians to tell us what is right and wrong -- but I think we're all tired of the constant push and pull of facts versus rumors and outright lies. My favorite thing about A Course in Miracles might be the workbook lessons, because they help us give up our beliefs about everything. I know some people think this is a "bad" thing, because they’ve been taught you MUST believe in something or else you're gullible and will fall for anything. What if that's upside-down thinking, too? When we allow ourselves to release what we think we know, we can step back and see what actually is, without putting labels on everything, then backing away from or embracing something without even knowing why. In my interactions with various forms of thought, it's often difficult to put my feelings and beliefs to the side and simply hear what is being said. But I'm working on it! Non-reaction, simply being with the words, is a peaceful, joyous way to live. I think we all want peace, but some of us have forgotten. Let's keep on remembering to look at things as they are, not as we've decided they are. 

“A miracle contains the gift of grace, for it is given and received as one. And thus it illustrates the law of truth the world does not obey, because it fails entirely to understand its ways. A miracle inverts perception which was upside down before, and thus it ends the strange distortions that were manifest. Now is perception open to the truth. Now is forgiveness seen as justified.” 

A Course in Miracles W-pII.13.2:1-5

"Human thought never projected the least portion of true being. Human belief has sought and interpreted in its own way the echo of Spirit, and so seems to have reversed it and repeated it materially, but the human mind never produced a real tone nor sent forth a positive sound." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 126:8-14

Understanding Through Food

I love cooking shows, and there are some very innovative ones these days. I’m watching one called Taste of a Nation, in which Padma Lakshmi travels around the United States, meeting immigrants and visiting with them in their homes and restaurants. The first show was from El Paso, and it spoke frankly about immigration problems which have not been solved, but rather multiplied in these last few years. It was heartening to hear everyone supporting each other, no matter what their particular conservative or liberal leaning was. Hearing about people’s lives and watching them cook is so much fun! I love how they bring new ideas for my kitchen, and a knowledge of their heritage, both in their cooking and personal history. It’s a wonderful way to be an "accidental tourist" and to visit other cultures from the recliner. Ah — life is good. Have a fabulous time today!

"Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the demands of the affections, and should never weigh against the better claims of intellect, goodness, and virtue. Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish, therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 57 

“A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct. This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself as lacking. The idea of order of needs arose because, having made this fundamental error, you had already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs. As you integrate you become one, and your needs become one accordingly. Unified needs lead to unified action, because this produces a lack of conflict.” 

A Course in Miracles T-1.VI.2:1-5

Always Indivisible

Art by Courtney Lee

Humans are apparently pack animals. We love to divide ourselves into groups and hang around with people who think like we do. We create churches, sororities, sewing circles, and numerous other clubs in which to gather and share our commonality. Perhaps the time has come for us to recognize that many of these tribal separations are keeping us from seeing the greater good in all humanity. Maybe if we can open ourselves in a more selfless manner, embracing each other because of our sameness, rather than in spite of our differences, perhaps we can stop worrying about what others may think of us and pull out all the stops for some honest to goodness truth. I don’t want to wait another moment for something which feels so right!

“Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health  571:18-21

“God’s Son will always be indivisible. As we are held as one in God, so do we learn as one in Him. God’s Teacher is as like to His Creator as is His Son, and through His Teacher does God proclaim His Oneness and His Son’s. Listen in silence, and do not raise your voice against Him. For He teaches the miracle of oneness, and before His lesson division disappears. Teach like Him here, and you will remember that you have always created like your Father. The miracle of creation has never ceased, having the holy stamp of immortality upon it.  This is the Will of God for all creation, and all creation joins in willing this.” 

A Course in Miracles T-14.XI.11:1-8

Involved or Committed?

Photo credit: Jerry Dupy

I play keyboards for two congregations of St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in our area. Father Joseph, a young Nigerian priest, began one of his homilies by asking if we knew the difference between being involved and being committed. He then told us if we were having a breakfast of eggs and bacon, the chicken would be involved, but the pig would be committed. While getting a laugh from the congregation, it made his point clear: If you’re not giving 100%, you’re not committed, but merely involved. There may be a number of issues in which we are involved, but it's difficult to be committed to something which is, perhaps, far away from home. Also, it's overwhelming to think of all the issues which need our help. If that is true for you, too, pick something in your town, in your neighborhood, in your backyard, and be committed today! Let's sweep our own front porch — and our neighbors’, too, if they need help. Good works grow exponentially, don't you think? 

“Spiritual perception brings out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in deed and in truth.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 203:13-16

“Preoccupations with problems set up to be incapable of solution are favorite ego devices for impeding learning progress. In all these diversionary tactics, however, the one question that is never asked by those who pursue them is, ‘What for?’ This is the question that you must learn to ask in connection with everything. What is the purpose? Whatever it is, it will direct your efforts automatically. When you make a decision of purpose, then, you have made a decision about your future effort; a decision that will remain in effect unless you change your mind.” 

A Course in Miracles T-4.V.6:6-11

Building Community Through Food

“When we traded nature for concrete, we destroyed our soul.” I heard this in a documentary series called “Broken Bread”. This show highlights people who are working to change the way we think about food. In many parts of our country, the only nearby places to buy food are convenience stores or liquor stores. The question was asked: Why are we normalizing the fact that fresh food is not available nearby? One man in Los Angeles says, “You don’t have to be a critical thinker to figure this out. Plant vegetables!” And so he has done this in vacant lots and areas which would usually be given to grass. He even has banana trees! By doing this and allowing others to pick what they need, they are being empowered to grow food in their own small spaces. This, dear friends, is exactly what the “new world” looks like: seeing ways to bring us closer to the earth and each other and acting on them! Building community through food is a great way to begin. 

"As a material, theoretical life-basis is found to be a misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine Principle of man dawns upon human thought, and leads it to 'where the young child was,' -- even to the birth of a new-old idea, to the spiritual sense of being and of what Life includes. Thus the whole earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light, chasing away the darkness of error." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 191:8

“Let us come daily to this holy place, and spend a while together. Here we share our final dream. It is a dream in which there is no sorrow, for it holds a hint of all the glory given us by God. The grass is pushing through the soil, the trees are budding now, and birds have come to live within their branches. Earth is being born again in new perspective. Night has gone, and we have come together in the light.” 

A Course in Miracles W-pII.2.4:1-6

Zombies?

Zombie Crawl - Eureka Springs, AR 

Countless people dressed up as zombies have flocked to our little town of Eureka Springs. It’s time for the annual zombie crawl and a constant, cold rain has not deterred them. I, personally, have never understood the appeal of dressing up in ugly apparel, with macabre makeup, and bloody accoutrement. As I drove through “the loop” on my way home this evening, I contemplated the zombie phenomenon. Why dress up in this way and congregate to parade the streets? I truly cannot imagine why they enjoy doing it! Perhaps “living dead” personifies what many of us are exhibiting in these human bodies. Maybe we’re simply animated flesh, performing our human activities without ever realizing we’re alive. The dead-eyed stares of these Halloween zombies are vaguely familiar. When we haven’t looked beyond the surface of our human existences, there isn’t a whole lot to be excited about. I’m reminded of Bruce Springsteen’s song “Dancing in the Dark” — 

“I get up in the evening 

And I ain't got nothing to say 

I come home in the morning 

I go to bed feeling the same way

I ain't nothing but tired 

Man, I'm just tired and bored with myself 

Hey there, baby 

I could use just a little help.” 

Could it be the zombies are helping us wake up? I hope so!

“The way of error is awful to contemplate. The illusion of sin is without hope or God. If man’s spiritual gravitation and attraction to one Father, in whom we ‘live, and move, and have our being,’ should be lost, and if man should be governed by corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead of by Soul, man would be annihilated. Created by flesh instead of by Spirit, starting from matter instead of from God, mortal man would be governed by himself. The blind leading the blind, both would fall.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 536:10-18

“The body is the ego’s idol; the belief in sin made flesh and then projected outward. This produces what seems to be a wall of flesh around the mind, keeping it prisoner in a tiny spot of space and time, beholden unto death, and given but an instant in which to sigh and grieve and die in honor of its master. And this unholy instant seems to be life; an instant of despair, a tiny island of dry sand, bereft of water and set uncertainly upon oblivion. Here does the Son of God stop briefly by, to offer his devotion to death’s idols and then pass on. And here he is more dead than living. Yet it is also here he makes his choice again between idolatry and love. Here it is given him to choose to spend this instant paying tribute to the body, or let himself be given freedom from it. Here he can accept the holy instant, offered him to replace the unholy one he chose before. And here can he learn relationships are his salvation, and not his doom.” 

A Course in Miracles T-20.VI.11:1-9

Truth Coming to Light

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

Every day more truth comes to light in our world. Every day another person is shown to be a ravenous, money-hungry wolf pretending to be a helpful Saint Bernard. Preachers and politicians are the expected charlatans, as they are so publicly blatant in their use of words to manipulate their flocks. But occasionally we see someone whom we think of as the finest representation of goodness in our community, or a sweet little old lady, showing their true colors. I heard about a white supremacist group, a statewide organization, which features a local deputy as one of its prominent members and organizers. In the same organization was a woman from the big city who is a nurse. She has since retracted her affiliation with this militant, bigoted group of people. This is the sort of uncovering which assures me that everything is going to be all right. Whatever horrors people are perpetrating on others, they will eventually become known. While we must witness the nasty workings of these vicious minds, we can also see those who rise up to meet the hatred with love. We are finding out how adamantly we must love in order to overturn the ingrained attitudes of centuries. And we know we can do it, because we've been practicing for a long time. I have a vision of Sean Connery as King Arthur rising up shouting, Never surrender! Let us go forward with joy and wisdom, facing whatever challenges are in our path. Namaste...

"Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity."  

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 571:18

“Whatever lies you may believe are of no concern to the miracle, which can heal any of them with equal ease. It makes no distinctions among misperceptions. Its sole concern is to distinguish between truth on the one hand, and error on the other. Some miracles may seem to be of greater magnitude than others. But remember the first principle in this course; there is no order of difficulty in miracles. In reality you are perfectly unaffected by all expressions of lack of love. These can be from yourself and others, from yourself to others, or from others to you. Peace is an attribute in you. You cannot find it outside.” 

A Course in Miracles T-2.I.5:1-9