Freedom From Fear

 

Art by Vladislav Yerko

"Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of couragewhich help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people, conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right, to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery, courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.”  

Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom From Fear 

 

"The rights of man were vindicated in a single section and on the lowest plane of human life, when African slavery was abolished in our land. That was only prophetic of further steps towards the banishment of a world-wide slavery, found on higher planes of existence and under more subtle and depraving forms." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 225:31

“Father, my freedom is in You alone. I did not understand what made me free, nor what my freedom is, nor where to look to find it. Father, I have searched in vain until I heard Your Voice directing me. Now I would guide myself no more. For I have neither made nor understood the way to find my freedom. But I trust in You. You Who endowed me with my freedom as Your holy Son will not be lost to me. Your Voice directs me, and the way to You is opening and clear to me at last. Father, my freedom is in You alone. Father, it is my will that I return.

“Today we answer for the world, which will be freed along with us. How glad are we to find our freedom through the certain way our Father has established. And how sure is all the world’s salvation, when we learn our freedom can be found in God alone.”

A Course in Miracles W-321.1:1–2:3

The System Needs Work

 

Words from Ram Dass

"One of the systems we’re part of, of course, is the political system. We may wish we weren’t part of it often, but we are. And all of those people playing with the power of the medium of politics, and its effect on the media and its effect on collective human consciousness, and those people that are addicted to power are there because of us. It boils down to that. That we create a field in which they can play with power, and that power is more or less compassionate. And the political system is a system in which as long as you have a passport, you are a member of it whether you like it or not. You’re part of a government, and your not voting is voting. So there’s no way out. You can’t say, 'I’m not going to have anything to do with politics.' You can say it, but you’ve got to watch where you’re saying it from. You may say, 'I’m not going to get involved with politics because I am so busy with something else that I think is my dominant theme, and I’ll vote, but I’m not going to put my time into campaigning for candidates and things like that, or issues, because my energies are best used here.' That’s fine. If you’ve thought it through and felt that way and can look somebody in the eye and say, 'This is the way it is.' If you’re saying, 'I’m not having anything to do with politics because it’s too dirty and because I don’t approve of it,'. Forget it – you are abdicating your responsibility to society. It’s as simple as that.

We’re at an interesting moment within the shift of collective consciousness, specifically around the way in which we’re integrating the changes in power structures. Now business holds sway over government, over religion, in terms of social power. And business is like pirates on the high seas – the question is, do you control it from the outside, or does it control itself? Does the whole process have a meta-game that’s controlling itself, and can you stand back far enough to see how it’s playing out? How is the shift in collective consciousness going to evolve and what part do you play?

Part of the curriculum is looking at the systems that you are a part of and being able to say 'That system needs work.' It’s important to be able to shift your game so that you’re not simply pushing the system away and saying 'I don’t think about that stuff, because it’s too complicated. Let somebody else worry about it.' Because as long as you get really frustrated with Americanism, you may be standing in the way of everybody’s survival." Ram Dass -1995

“Your influence for good depends upon the weight you throw into the right scale. The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable. Evil is not power. It is a mockery of strength, which erelong betrays its weakness and falls, never to rise.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 192:21-30

“My Father gives all power unto me. The Son of God is limitless. There are no limits on his strength, his peace, his joy, nor any attributes his Father gave in his creation. What he wills with his Creator and Redeemer must be done. His holy will can never be denied, because his Father shines upon his mind, and lays before it all the strength and love in earth and Heaven. I am he to whom all this is given. I am he in whom the power of my Father’s Will abides.

“Your Will can do all things in me, and then extend to all the world as well through me. There is no limit on Your Will. And so all power has been given to Your Son”

A Course in Miracles W-320.1:1–2:3

Weary Wanderers …

Everything is Waiting for You by David Whyte

"Your great mistake is to act the drama

as if you were alone. As if life

were a progressive and cunning crime

with no witness to the tiny hidden

transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny

the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,

even you, at times, have felt the grand array;

the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding

out your solo voice You must note

the way the soap dish enables you,

or the window latch grants you freedom.

Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.

The stairs are your mentor of things

to come, the doors have always been there

to frighten you and invite you,

and the tiny speaker in the phone

is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into

the conversation. The kettle is singing

even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots

have left their arrogant aloofness and

seen the good in you at last. All the birds

and creatures of the world are unutterably

themselves. Everything is waiting for you."

“Millions of unprejudiced minds--simple seekers for Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert--are waiting and watching for rest and drink.”

Science & Health Page 570:14-17

“I came for the salvation of the world. Here is a thought from which all arrogance has been removed, and only truth remains. For arrogance opposes truth. But when there is no arrogance the truth will come immediately, and fill up the space the ego left unoccupied by lies. Only the ego can be limited, and therefore it must seek for aims which are curtailed and limiting. The ego thinks that what one gains, totality must lose. And yet it is the Will of God I learn that what one gains is given unto all.

“Father, Your Will is total. And the goal which stems from it shares its totality. What aim but the salvation of the world could You have given me? And what but this could be the Will my Self has shared with You?”

A Course in Miracles W-319.1:1–2:4

The Dismantling of Democracy

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Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

Along with Bob Woodward and others, I had hope (albeit faint) that our president-elect would recognize his opportunity to bring people together and create for himself an honorable legacy. As I watch him choose his prospective cabinet, it seems more like a bad comedy sketch than a gathering together of noble people for a just cause. I urge everyone to support the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and any other group of attorneys which can help us resist this dismantling of democracy which we are already witnessing. And take good care of yourselves: meditate, exercise, bring your mind back to peace through calming music, kiss your kids, hold your neighbor’s hand. As I heard someone say today: “Go and love intentionally, unconditionally, the broken world waits in darkness for the light which is you.”

"Knowing the Science of creation, in which all is Mind and its ideas, Jesus rebuked the material thought of his fellow-countrymen: 'Ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?' How much more should we seek to apprehend the spiritual ideas of God, than to dwell on the objects of sense! To discern the rhythm of Spirit and to be holy, thought must be purely spiritual."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 509:28-5

“In me salvation’s means and end are one. In me, God’s holy Son, are reconciled all parts of Heaven’s plan to save the world. What could conflict, when all the parts have but one purpose and one aim? How could there be a single part that stands alone, or one of more or less importance than the rest? I am the means by which God’s Son is saved, because salvation’s purpose is to find the sinlessness that God has placed in me. I was created as the thing I seek. I am the goal the world is searching for. I am God’s Son, His one eternal Love. I am salvation’s means and end as well.

“Let me today, my Father, take the role You offer me in Your request that I accept Atonement for myself. For thus does what is thereby reconciled in me become as surely reconciled to You.”

A Course in Miracles W-318.1:1–2:2

The Way Appointed Me

Photo credit: Gerry Toler

While wondering why many people in public office and positions of leadership seem to be headstrong and, quite often, unhappy, I’m thinking perhaps they are not "following in the way appointed [them]". I look at friends who are following the path of Love, and the joy which they leave in their wake is contagious! Those who have turned away from conventional life pursuits to follow their heart are listening to Truth and acting on what they hear. Some might say that everyone can't do this or there would be no one to deal with the day-to-day necessities, their lifework consisting of what many consider to be drudgery. I watch an individual close to me who works in a job which is considered to be mundane (at best) and I see that he is happy, because it's more than just a job; it's his ministry. He's always noticing ways to help others and bring joy to situations. He, too, is listening and following. I will not let this day leave me where it found me, as I follow and rejoice.

“I follow in the way appointed me. I have a special place to fill; a role for me alone. Salvation waits until I take this part as what I choose to do. Until I make this choice, I am the slave of time and human destiny. But when I willingly and gladly go the way my Father’s plan appointed me to go, then will I recognize salvation is already here, already given all my brothers and already mine as well.

“Father, Your way is what I choose today. Where it would lead me do I choose to go; what it would have me do I choose to do. Your way is certain, and the end secure. The memory of You awaits me there. And all my sorrows end in Your embrace, which You have promised to Your Son, who thought mistakenly that he had wandered from the sure protection of Your loving Arms.”

A Course in Miracles W-317.1:1–2:5

“Jesus’ promise is perpetual. Had it been given only to his immediate disciples, the Scriptural passage would read you, not they. The purpose of his great life-work extends through time and includes universal humanity.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 328:27-31

 

All Gifts Are Ours

Photo credit: Christopher Fischer

All the good that is being given and received by everyone, everywhere, is goodness being given by and to me, right here, right now, all the time. Well, how far out is that??! After expressing this thought to someone, they said, "But what about the bad? Isn’t it given and received by everyone, and doesn’t it cancel out the good?" We could go through lots of conversations about these points, concerning the unreality of bad and the only-ness of good. But I don’t want to think in those terms any longer -- of right and wrong, good and bad -- so I won’t speak or write in those ways either. There is only One God, expressing only Itself. If we are the idea of God, there’s nothing else to consider. God is Love. We are Love and that’s a powerful principle by which to abide! “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” Rumi

“All gifts I give my brothers are my own. As every gift my brothers give is mine, so every gift I give belongs to me. Each one allows a past mistake to go, and leave no shadow on the holy mind my Father loves. His grace is given me in every gift a brother has received throughout all time, and past all time as well. My treasure house is full, and angels watch its open doors that not one gift is lost, and only more are added. Let me come to where my treasures are, and enter in where I am truly welcome and at home, among the gifts that God has given me.

“Father, I would accept Your gifts today. I do not recognize them. Yet I trust that You Who gave them will provide the means by which I can behold them, see their worth, and cherish only them as what I want.”

A Course in Miracles W-316.1:1–2:3

“… that joy which finds one’s own in another’s good.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 127

Weaving Threads of Humanity

Art: Elin Manon

“Here's to the bridge-builders, the hand-holders, the light-bringers, 

those extraordinary souls wrapped in ordinary lives who quietly 

weave threads of humanity into an inhumane world. 

They are the unsung heroes in a world at war with itself. 

They are the whisperers of hope that peace is possible. 

Look for them in this present darkness. 

Light your candle with their flame. And then go. Build bridges. Hold hands. Bring light to a dark and desperate world. Be the hero you are looking for. 

Peace is possible. It begins with us.”

Written by L.R. Knost 

“All gifts my brothers give belong to me. Each day a thousand treasures come to me with every passing moment. I am blessed with gifts throughout the day, in value far beyond all things of which I can conceive. A brother smiles upon another, and my heart is gladdened. Someone speaks a word of gratitude or mercy, and my mind receives this gift and takes it as its own. And everyone who finds the way to God becomes my savior, pointing out the way to me, and giving me his certainty that what he learned is surely mine as well.

“I thank You, Father, for the many gifts that come to me today and every day from every Son of God. My brothers are unlimited in all their gifts to me. 

Now may I offer them my thankfulness, 

that gratitude to them may lead me on to my Creator and His memory.”

A course in Miracles W-315.1:1–2:3

"In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever 

blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes,--

Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply."

Science & Health Page 206;15-17