We Are More

Art by Jane Newland

“Don't abandon yourself. Not when you're sick. Not when you're tired. Not when you've lost the thread, the thought, or the thing you thought defined you. 

You will die many times in one life and create yourself anew. This is natural. This is a gift. I've died a few times now here in this world. The person I was: gone. 

Throw that older skin into the water. Give it to the sky. Step into what wants to emerge now. Nothing can hold you back when you are willing to be yourself.”

Jeannette Enchinias

"[We are] more than a material form with a mind inside, which must escape from its environments in order to be immortal. Man reflects infinity, and this reflection is the true idea of God."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 258:9-12

“Perception is not an attribute of God. His is the realm of knowledge. Yet He has created the Holy Spirit as the Mediator between perception and knowledge. Without this link with God, perception would have replaced knowledge forever in your mind. With this link with God, perception will become so changed and purified that it will lead to knowledge. That is its function as the Holy Spirit sees it. Therefore, that is its function in truth.”

A Course in Miracles W-43.1:1-7

Pure Vision

Unknown Photographer

"Gut feelings" are often discounted as being invalid, for numerous reasons. Some say they're no more than paranoid thoughts, others may think of them as wishful thinking, but few think of them as divine vision. In this familiar world, we must reinterpret everything we see. Looking at our surroundings with human eyes, hearing with mortal ears, brings to us a false projection of Truth. Discord and inharmony are but misinterpretations we perceive. Through right identification and reinterpretation, we see with a pure vision. As an example, when we see train tracks coming together in the distance, we immediately reinterpret that into the truth of the situation. We know that those tracks aren't coming together and that it will not be dangerous to travel on the train which carries us toward that end. We have been taught to translate many similar situations, and we do not fear them. The metaphysical studies we've embarked upon are doing the same thing: teaching us to recognize misidentification and translate it into Truth. Translating erroneous thought is a present possibility!

“Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 393:12-15

“God is indeed your strength, and what He gives is truly given. This means that you can receive it any time and anywhere, wherever you are, and in whatever circumstance you find yourself. Your passage through time and space is not at random. You cannot but be in the right place at the right time. Such is the strength of God. Such are His gifts.” 

A Course in Miracles W-42.2:1-6

One is a Whole Number

Art by Marianne Faguy

“Deep within you is everything that is perfect, ready to radiate through you and out into the world. It will cure all sorrow and pain and fear and loss because it will heal the mind that thought these things were real, and suffered out of its allegiance to them.” A Course in Miracles W-41.3:1-2

“The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love.

It may look paradoxical to you, but it's not. It is an existential truth: only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of another person, without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other.

They allow the other absolute freedom, because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now.

Their happiness cannot be taken by the other,

 because it is not given by the other.”

~ Osho

“Today's idea will eventually overcome completely the sense of loneliness and abandonment all the separated ones experience. Depression is an inevitable consequence of separation. So are anxiety, worry, a deep sense of helplessness, misery, suffering and intense fear of loss.” 

A Course in Miracles - Workbook Lesson #41

“Wilderness: Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 597:16-19

I Am an Eternal Creation of Love

Beaver Bridge in Beaver, Arkansas

Photo by Stephen Shogren

Why can’t we all just be happy? I’ve heard this question voiced numerous times, and I’ve probably said it a time or two myself. People may tell you that poverty and abuse keep many people from being happy. On the flip side, what of people who have everything a person could want, but yet they are terribly unhappy? When I was a teenager, a friend of the family had a series of unfortunate events occur in her life. In a three-year period, her husband passed on, their house burned down, and then her daughter was in a car accident which left her in a coma for over a year before she died. And she had also lost an infant daughter years before. This woman lived well into her 80s, always happily helping others, and I was told she died with a smile on her face. At the time, I wondered how she did it. I see now that she knew the open secret of Life. With each loved one who passes on, with each beloved animal I’ve known and loved through the years, something is growing more certain within me: they haven’t gone anywhere. Never born, never dying. If there was a beginning, then there must be an end. Seeing myself as a blessed eternal creation of Love brings me joy!

“Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you? In no fantasy have you ever seen anything so lovely. Nothing you see here, sleeping or waking, comes near to such loveliness. And nothing will you value like unto this, nor hold so dear. Nothing that you remember that made your heart sing with joy has ever brought you even a little part of the happiness this sight will bring you. For you will see the Son of God. You will behold the beauty the Holy Spirit loves to look upon, and which He thanks the Father for. He was created to see this for you, until you learned to see it for yourself. And all His teaching leads to seeing it and giving thanks with Him.” 

A Course in Miracles T-17.II.1:1-9

“As the reflection of yourself appears in the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 516:2-8

The Days and Seasons of Mind’s Creation

Photo Courtesy of Aaron Springston

“No one needs practice to gain what is already his.” (ACIM Workbook Lesson #39) We tend to forget that holiness is and always has been ours, simply for the acknowledgement of it. By experiencing our holiness, we extend it to everyone and everything. With the understanding that we can choose our experiences by listening for the divine Mind which flows through all that is, we reach beyond our beliefs and see salvation. This state of Mind is the answer to anything we may ask. I am grateful for Life, Truth, and Love. I am grateful for everything leading to this point in time. Thank you greatly —- 

“The periods of spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind’s creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness — yea, the divine nature — appear in man and the universe never to disappear.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 509:24-28

“My holiness is my salvation. Since my holiness saves me from all guilt, recognizing my holiness is recognizing my salvation. It is also recognizing the salvation of the world. Once I have accepted my holiness, nothing can make me afraid. And because I am unafraid, everyone must share in my understanding, which is the gift of God to me and to the world.” 

A Course in Miracles W-58.4:1-5

Reversing the “Laws” of the World

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

"Your holiness reverses all the laws of the world. It is beyond every restriction  of time, space, distance and limits of any kind." [ACIM Workbook Lesson #38] Haven't you always felt this to be true? Isn't that the appeal of Harry Potter stories? We know -- we just know! -- that there is more to all of this than what we see with our mortal eyes. It’s very exciting to ponder these new/old ideas!  The writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the teachings of A Course in Miracles reveal the spiritual interpretation of our material belief. A multitude of teachers give us books and videos to help us understand. The internet has brought us a plethora of information which can be accessed in an instant. Tapping into our inner knowing is facilitated by the knowledge that it is possible. There are many ways to practice recognizing intuitive knowledge. And that's all it is: recognition. No one is without this ability. As with many decisions in life, if we choose based on material evidence, everything may seem to be a matter of luck. When we allow our holiness to guide us, there is only the peaceful certainty of Good.

"Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours. Material sense does not unfold the facts of existence; but spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth." 

Mary baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 95:28-32

“My holiness is unlimited in its power to heal, because it is unlimited in its power to save. What is there to be saved from except illusions? And what are all illusions except false ideas about myself? My holiness undoes them all by asserting the truth about me. In the presence of my holiness, which I share with God Himself, all idols vanish.” 

A Course in Miracles  W-58.3:2-6

Seeing Ourselves as Whole

Photo Courtesy of Aaron Springston

Have you seen the movie or read the book, “The Hundred-Foot Journey”? It’s very beautiful for many reasons. We are shown lovely French countryside, exquisite food, and a wonderful acceptance of and by people who are learning about our connection with each other. When we accept our holiness, we do so by realizing that we are the expression of Love. When we see this truth, we understand that we are not alone, as we are all the reflection of divine Mind. How can we express racial prejudice, or any other form of hatred and fear, when we realize these things? I am freed by the understanding that the act of seeing everything in its spiritual reality is my function. It is everyone's function! By our realization of spiritual Truth, we see that everything is already complete and whole. I look forward to seeing more of this expanding vision which awaits us, just beyond the horizon of our material views.

"We are all sculptors, working at various forms, moulding and chiseling thought. What is the model before mortal mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering? Have you accepted the mortal model?" "We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 248:15-17 and 26-29

“My holiness envelops everything I see. From my holiness does the perception of the real world come. Having forgiven, I no longer see myself as guilty. I can accept the innocence that is the truth about me. Seen through understanding eyes, the holiness of the world is all I see, for I can picture only the thoughts I hold about myself.”

A Course in Miracles W-58.1:1-5