Surrounded With Beauty

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

The more tumultuous world activities become, the greater is my desire to be surrounded with beauty. Almost every day, I plant seeds of some sort, and my garden is a source of great joy. My cats are calm and happy, so I seek to emulate them. The accompaniment of beautiful music without words is with me during household tasks, and words of wisdom fill my earbuds many times during the day. Plant-based meal preparation is a calming, joyous event. Having repeatedly written about the exponential growth of our thoughts, I’m practicing what I preach, noticing every inharmonious thought which comes to mind, quickly turning it around into one of productive peace. A conscious desire to live in loving harmony seems necessary nowadays, and I’m willing to make that effort. Everyone I come into contact with is either actively living Love, or else they are agitated and fearful. I know it’s not easy to translate and reinterpret the news of the world, but it can be done. Namaste, my dear Friends!

“Beauty is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind and reflects the charms of His goodness in expression, form, outline, and color. It is Love which paints the petal with myriad hues, glances in the warm sunbeam, arches the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with starry gems, and covers earth with loveliness.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 247:21-27

“When you are still an instant, when the world recedes from you, when valueless ideas cease to have value in your restless mind, then will you hear His Voice. So poignantly He calls to you that you will not resist Him longer. In that instant He will take you to His home, and you will stay with Him in perfect stillness, silent and at peace, beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt, sublimely certain that you are at home. 

A Course in Miracles W-182.8:1-3

Oneness with the Universe

In my heart, I know we are close to a tipping point in mass consciousness, a point in which everyone sees that there is no difference between any facet of humankind. In this sight, there is a world bathed in peace and contentment. There are no conflicts because everything is done for the good of everyone, and nothing contrary exists because we cannot have such thoughts in the face of beauty and Love. Once again, I must mention expanded identity. We have a terribly limited view of who we are, don’t you think? When we identify with our closest family, our community, our nationality, the color of our skin, our gender — perhaps this sets us up for conflict. A larger identity, a broad and firm foundation of who I am, these are the things I long to understand. Every day I listen for clues which will guide me to that utopia. Catching but a glimpse of it, causes me to want more!

“I trust my brothers, who are one with me.

No one but is my brother. I am blessed with oneness with the universe and God, my Father, one Creator of the whole that is my Self, forever One with me.

I am not a body. I am free. 
For I am still as God created me.”

A Course in Miracles W-201.1:1-6

"We cannot build safely on false foundations. Truth makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away and ‘all things are become new’."  

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 201: 7-9

The World Perceived Differently

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

In these volatile times, perhaps you've witnessed anger spreading quickly with regard to current events. I’m convinced that peace spreads just as quickly as anger! I once had a demonstration of peace quelling anger -- visibly, quickly, thoroughly. I was leaving work in the early evening and, as I started down a stairway across from Basin Park, a man sitting on a bench began to sing the beautiful Louis Armstrong song, "What a Wonderful World". I stood at the top of the stairs listening to him, and was filled with on overwhelming sense of happiness and buoyant peace. These feelings were so encompassing that I barely noticed voices shouting to my left. When the man finished singing, I glanced over at three people sitting on the wall and shouting obscenities directly at me. It was as though I couldn't comprehend what they were doing, and I just kept smiling and looking directly at them, with this incredible feeling of Love still growing inside of me. As I watched the young people and their angry faces, it seemed that they were deflating like balloons. All of their anger was seeping out of them; I watched the visible shift in their demeanor. I joyfully waved at them and went down the stairs. I'll never forget that palpable feeling of light displacing darkness. I'll bet they haven't either!

“Peace is the bridge that everyone will cross, to leave this world behind. But peace begins within the world perceived as different, and leading from this fresh perception to the gate of Heaven and the way beyond. Peace is the answer to conflicting goals, to senseless journeys, frantic, vain pursuits, and meaningless endeavors. Now the way is easy, sloping gently toward the bridge where freedom lies within the peace of God.

A Course in Miracles W-200.8:1-4

"Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 264:24-27 

Who Are You?

Sitting on my porch, enjoying flowers and fireflies, encouraging seedlings to grow, enjoying the rosy twilight sky: this was my perfect evening. Shortly thereafter, a friend from the west coast called and asked me what I thought the definition of a bohemian is. Hum — something I’ve never thought about! And this is why I enjoy this particular 80-year-old, retired airplane mechanic: he makes me think. The reason he was asking is (according to him) he needs a definition of himself, so he can tell people what he is. He is in flux because he’s been breaking ties with organizations he’s enjoyed most of his life — i.e., the national rifle association, among others. Even though he wants to step outside of “tribalism”, he craves a word to define himself. What a delight to find that the current Course in Miracles workbook lesson is “I am not a body. I am free!” How many of us cling to long outgrown ideas about ourselves and other things? I suggested to him that he do things which bring him joy, letting the definitions fall where they may. I thank my friend for prompting me to reexamine my definitions of myself. It’s a good feeling to think I’m a lover of life!

“Freedom must be impossible as long as you perceive a body as yourself. The body is a limit. Who would seek for freedom in a body looks for it where it cannot be found. The mind can be made free when it no longer sees itself as in a body, firmly tied to it and sheltered by its presence. If this were the truth, the mind were vulnerable indeed!”

A Course in Miracles W-199.1:1-5

“If we are sensibly with the body and regard omnipotence as a corporeal, material person, whose ear we would gain, we are not ‘absent from the body’ and ‘present with the Lord’ in the demonstration of Spirit.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 14:1-5

I Am Grateful

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

Perhaps you think you should be appreciated more, or maybe you know someone who is always "fishing for compliments". Both of these mental mud puddles fall under the category of expecting something which you already have. When you appreciate yourself, when you are grateful for the wonder which is you, that's all you need. And it is an all-encompassing gratitude! This recognition is one of the after-effects of releasing the bonds of materiality. The more we let go of expectations and beliefs, the more opportunity there is for Truth to take their place. We needn't do anything but clear the way! And I am grateful for glimpses of reality. 

“The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror yours. Your gratitude is all your gifts require, that they be a lasting offering of a thankful heart, released from hell forever. Is it this you would undo by taking back your gifts, because they were not honored? It is you who honor them and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who have received the gifts.”

A Course in Miracles W-197.3:1-5

“Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 3:21-26

The Prison of Condemnation

It seems impossible to stay away from thoughts of condemnation. While it may be tempting to jump up on our high horse and expound on the rightness and/or the wrongness of external events, this desire is only from the standpoint of belief. Mortal mind, ego, tells us that certain situations are real, and then tells us we must do something about it. So we go off on a tangent, telling people how they should change their ways, feeling certain that everything will be better when they do so. Much like the internet, we have an instant, constant connection with each other through our Oneness as spiritual beings. It's akin to flipping on the light switch in a dark room. If we don't know that's possible, we continue to sit in the dark. But when we listen with quiet expectation that divine Mind will supply us with all we need, we may just find ourselves walking over to that unknown element and turning on the light! 

“Condemn and you are made a prisoner. Forgive and you are freed. Such is the law that rules perception. It is not a law that knowledge understands, for freedom is a part of knowledge. To condemn is thus impossible in truth. What seems to be its influence and its effects have not occurred at all. Yet must we deal with them a while as if they had. Illusion makes illusion. Except one. Forgiveness is illusion that is answer to the rest. 

A Course in Miracles W-198.2:1-10

"I am asked, 'What are your politics?' I have none, in reality, other than to help support a righteous government, to love God supremely, and my neighbor as myself." 

Mary Baker Eddy Miscellany 276:23

The End of Error

 

Photo Credit: Blake Lasater

At this point in the Course in Miracles workbook lessons, we are repeatedly told that we are on the brink of realizing salvation, revelation, heaven. The belief systems we have put into practice throughout the years may begin to talk back to us in protest of our new way of thinking. Fear not! We have the tools to stand fast in our knowledge. We have each other as reminders in support. We have inner knowing to tap into for verification on our path. We can move onward, upward, inward, fearless and secure in Love.

“This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace. The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 96:12-20

BUILDING A MATRIX OF LIGHT FOR THE NEW WORLD

“Now that you rise at last out of the miasma of Earth consciousness into the glorious expanse of freedom, I Am here with you, ready to gift you with the awareness that freedom comes in the transfer of your life energy and awareness into consciousness rather than thought. All of the feeling that is alive and yours must shift now from emotion to the true divine feeling of My living and beating heart. The currency that you use for life must now become energy, not thought or emotion and certainly not materiality which is the deepest form of the illusion that is you.”

From The Messages From God - Circle of Light

“There is no Thought of God that does not go with you to help you reach that instant, and to go beyond it quickly, surely and forever. When the fear of God is gone, there are no obstacles that still remain between you and the holy peace of God. How kind and merciful is the idea we practice! Give it welcome, as you should, for it is your release. It is indeed but you your mind can try to crucify. Yet your redemption, too, will come from you.”

A Course in Miracles W-196.12:1-6