A Higher Plane of Action

photo credit: Arthur Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #60

Today we review Lessons 46-50. 

Love, forgiveness, salvation -- these and many other words have taken on interesting connotations through our material interpretations and beliefs. Often our version of love includes jealousy, attachment, and various demands we insist upon for someone to be a worthy recipient of our human-based love. Forgiveness seldom is an acknowledgement that there is truly nothing to forgive, but carries with it thoughts of superiority and magnanimous gestures. Salvation has an odd interpretation which includes paying penance to someone or something. As we turn away from the material conceptions of these words, we are allowed to glimpse Love, wherein there is no forgiveness nor salvation as we think of them. We are told in the first lesson review today that forgiveness is "the reflection of God's Love on earth." When looked at from this view, it seems senseless to say that we can forgive but not forget. If we truly are, in reality, the perfect reflection of divine Love, if this is the spiritual reality (hence, the Only reality), it becomes easy to lay down the sword and go forward living from the heart rather than the brain. We can let go all thoughts of retaliation or revenge and live by the law of grace. How I long to forget everything and begin again from Love!

Mary Baker Eddy quote: "Advancing to a higher plane of action, thought rises from the material sense to the spiritual, from the scholastic to the inspirational, and from the mortal to the immortal. Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man." Science & Health Page 256:3-8

A Wider Sphere of Thought

photo credit: Nick Franchi

ACIM Workbook Lesson #59: Today we review Lessons 41-45. 

With physical or emotional maladies, as with other seeming discord or inharmony, it's not our job to figure out where we went wrong — rather it’s our task to see how we are right! It may be said that metaphysical treatment is "denying error and declaring Truth”, but there is no set way to go about this process. When we glean a bit of spiritual Truth, we often think we can repeat it over and over, as a sort of mantra, and this will heal us. We can tell ourselves that disease is an illusion and that it's no part of us, but until we know the reason why, it does nothing more than further the illusion. When we find ourselves beginning to understand that disease cannot be in matter because there is no matter for disease to manifest in, then -- and only then -- are we coming close to understanding this Truth of which we speak. It may seem impossible to make this shift in thought, but I love the baby steps leading to it! One of my favorite scientists, Lothar Schafer, is leading others to see the unreality of matter in his latest book, Infinite Potential: What Quantum Physics Reveals About How We Should Live. I invite you to travel with him in this adventure!

Mary Baker Eddy quote: "This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace." Science & Health Page 265:10-15

A Holy State of Being

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #58:

Today we review Lessons 36-40. 

This review speaks of "my holiness" in four of the five summarized lessons. What does that mean? Is my holiness different from your holiness, perhaps based on actions or thoughts? We are learning that this holiness is our true state of being as reflections of Love, realized through forgiveness in its purest sense. When I assert this Truth about myself, I affirm it for everyone. The urge to micro-manage things is strong in most of us, because we've been taught to make plans, to set goals, to nail down all the details. But most things in this life are beyond our control, aren't they? How many times do we make intricate plans only to have to change them when circumstances change? I could write a book! We may hear that worry is counterproductive, because if we can do something about a situation, we will; if we can't do anything about it, what's the use in worrying? Living by this precept has brought a freedom I wouldn't have known had I held onto my old drama queen ways. My mantra is: Only Good can come of this. For this realization, I am most grateful.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

 "Man walks in the direction towards which he looks, and where his treasure is, there will his heart be also. If our hopes and affections are spiritual, they came from above, not from below, and they bear as of old the fruits of the Spirit." Science & Health Page 451:14-18

Freedom of Thought

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #57:

Today we review Lessons 31-35. 

I love the freedom of our lesson reviews for today!  "I am not the victim of the world I see."  "I have invented the world I see." "There is another way of looking at the world."  "I could see peace instead of this." "My mind is part of God's. I am very holy." I know quite a few people who are ready to stop the madness and let freedom of thought take us to new heights of equality! And it's not just the airy-fairies who think this way, but physicists and learned people from all walks of life. Every thought counts! Let's go forward today with joy, knowing that's something which will spread without any effort — other than the sheer happiness of it all!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal. Through many generations human beliefs will be attaining diviner conceptions, and the immortal and perfect model of God's creation will finally be seen as the only true conception of being."

Science & Health Page 260:7-12

The Emperor Has No Clothes!

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #56: Today we review Lessons 26-30. For a guide to this review, and a short description, go to this link: http://acim.org/Lessons/lesson.html?lesson=56

The first lines from our review are these: “How can I know who I am when I see myself as under constant attack? Pain, illness, loss, age and death seem to threaten me. All my hopes and wishes and plans appear to be at the mercy of a world I cannot control.” When we feel helpless, we’re willing to grab onto anything we think will make us safe. For instance, if an insidious group wants to recruit new members, they look for those who feel bullied, or abused, or worthless, offering them control over their lives, power and security, honor and respect. By the time people find this is not true, they might think they are in too deep to escape the controlling influences which have not delivered what they promised. In our spiritual studies, we are learning to look past illusions to Truth. Let us not be afraid to give up views precipitated by fear, or beliefs held onto for comfort, because when we empty ourselves of these things we welcome a surety of purpose which keeps us moving forward, never fearing to shout out, “The emperor has no clothes!!”

Mary Baker Eddy quote: “Speak the truth to every form of error.” Science & Health Page 418:28-29

Aghast at Nothingness

photo credit: Arthur Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #55:

Today we review Lessons 21-25. For a guide to this review, and a short description, go to this link: http://acim.org/Lessons/lesson.html?lesson=55

This review is so exciting that I want to write about each and every one of the five topics -- but I've already done that, so I'll just focus on the first part of the review, which is from lesson #21 in A Course in Miracles workbook: "What I see now are but signs of disease, disaster, and death. This cannot be what God created for His beloved Son." Christian Scientists are often criticized for attempting to use Spirit to heal disease. Obviously, this would be impossible. Alternatively, we are chastised for doing nothing when faced with this thing called disease. If you have a so-called disease, it does no good to pretend it's not there. While affirmations, visualizations, different psychological techniques are often effective at changing matter, that is not what spiritual healing is all about. Some people think that the metaphysical treatment is an attempt to affect a change in experience. It is not. And some think that healing through prayer is asking God to cure something. It is not. Yet others feel that prayer is doing nothing. It is not. Seeing past the material illusion to a single moment of spiritual Truth, that is what spiritual healing is about. This knowledge is available to anyone, anywhere, anytime; the Principle is changeless and eternal, and all we need do is awaken to it. Today I am determined to see!

Mary Baker Eddy quote: "Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a diviner sense, harmony is the real and discord the unreal. We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, death. We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?” Science & Health Page 563:1-2

Higher and Deeper

photo credit: Arthur Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #54

Today's review is of Lessons 16-20. A short description may be found at: http://A Course in Miracles.org/Lessons/lesson.html?lesson=54

Upon awakening, I had about 20 inane and/or insane thoughts before I realized what I was doing! I started off with, What day is this and where am I supposed to be?, which was quickly followed by a chain of remembrances which took me from a lovely cooking store, to my childhood home, then my little mind zoomed over to a friend's house and a remembered conversation, before zipping back to a neglected household chore. This illustrates the importance of stilling rampant thinking and centering ourselves in Truth before beginning our day. We so often feel bombarded by thoughts of fear and hostility, lack and disease, error and disharmony. To hold thought in accord with divine Mind is a lofty goal, and may seem daunting, but we are learning it is a possibility and that even a glimpse of Truth is tantalizing. Join me in taking a stand for higher, deeper thought today and every day!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Temporal things are the thoughts of mortals and are the unreal, being the opposite of the real or the spiritual and eternal.” Science & Health Page 337:26-28