Who Are You Without Your Name?

Basin Park, Eureka Springs, AR 

Photo credit: Richard Quick

There is an Eckhart Tolle video called "The Flowering of Human Consciousness." This talk starts out with him asking us to pretend we have no name. He wants us to examine how this feels and see who we are without this part of our "story" in place. I feel fortunate to have discovered that my personal history isn't exactly what I had been told it was. My parents took me from a relative shortly after my birth, moved to another state, and invented a history for their new baby.  Finding out at the age of 37 that my given name and birthdate were fiction enabled me to begin to see who I Am, in reality. My only parent is divine Mind. I have no birth date as I am eternal, without beginning or ending. Every single part of my material history is a temporary illusion which can be released in favor of Truth. This doesn't mean that I will lose my individuality. On the contrary! I am set free to be more of mySelf when I dismiss the limitations imposed by heredity, circumstance, and other material beliefs concerning my past. Although this changing of history was rather traumatic when I discovered my personal data was fiction, I rapidly found out what was important in this life on earth. Our sustenance, our comfort, are all found within. We are free!

"Man's individuality is not material. This Science of being obtains not alone hereafter in what men call Paradise, but here and now; it is the great fact of being for time and eternity." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science  & Health Page 285:2-6

“Today you can achieve a state in which you will experience the gift of grace. You can escape all bondage of the world, and give the world the same release you found. You can remember what the world forgot, and offer it your own remembering. You can accept today the part you play in its salvation, and your own as well. And both can be accomplished perfectly.”

A Course in Miracles W-183.9:1-5

True Home

“Homeless … Again”

Ceramic Sculpture by Ken Starbird

A number of friends have told me they don't feel they belong here. I think we all, at some time or another, have felt this way. What if, rather than us not belonging here, this "here" we speak of isn't what we think it is? What if we don't belong in this crazy world, but the world we see isn't as solid as we think it is? Perhaps our true home is something we've sensed is there, sort of like seeing something out of the corner of your eye, but when you look directly at it, it's not there.  For years, I grasped at straws while ignoring the vast Truth of eternity. We're not strangers in a strange land when we realize the truth of the land in which we abide. We think everything is real that we touch and see, but it's shifting and changing, as opposed to the omnipresent stability of our true home. So let's be still a moment and ask to know what that home is. We want it so badly, but we've forgotten what it is. Now we're not afraid to remember!

“This world you seem to live in is not home to you. And somewhere in your mind you know that this is true. A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place that called you to return, although you do not recognize the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds you of. Yet still you feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown. Nothing so definite that you could say with certainty you are an exile here. Just a persistent feeling, sometimes not more than a tiny throb, at other times hardly remembered, actively dismissed, but surely to return to mind again.”

A Course in Miracles W-182.1:1-6

“As mortals begin to understand Spirit, they give up the belief that there is any true existence apart from God.”

Mary baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 282:30-32

Beyond the Appearance

Drumming in Eureka Springs

Photo courtesy of Richard Quick

“I trust my brothers, who are one with me.” I'm very happy to have this beautiful Course in Miracles lesson to guide my thoughts away from a defensive mode to an understanding which affirms the goodness of all -- and explains the reason why. Many teachings help us to deal with material circumstances, and they are lovely reminders of how to improve what we call the human condition. Some teachers tell us that we're humans having a spiritual experience, but very few tell us that we're actually spiritual. In divine metaphysics we learn that everything is an idea of God. I am a spiritual idea right here and now. And you are, too! And so are all those who don't realize the truth of their spiritual being. I'm going to pick a person who seems to fall into this category and concentrate on their true Being as an expression of divine Love. This feels like a Science experiment, don't you think? I shall record the results!

"It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind … one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood…will be established."

Mary Baker Eddy, Science & Health  Page 467:9-13

“Trusting your brothers is essential to establishing and holding up your faith in your ability to transcend doubt and lack of sure conviction in yourself. When you attack a brother, you proclaim that he is limited by what you have perceived in him. You do not look beyond his errors. Rather, they are magnified, becoming blocks to your awareness of the Self that lies beyond your own mistakes, and past his seeming sins as well as yours.”

A Course in Miracles W-181.1:1-4

Unity of Spirit

 

Photo courtesy of Susan Luddy

Words from Kahlil Gibran

“Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion. 

Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave 

and eats a bread it does not harvest. 

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, 

and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful. 

Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream, 

yet submits in its awakening. 

Pity the nation that raises not its voice 

save when it walks in a funeral, 

boasts not except among its ruins, 

and will rebel not save when its neck is laid 

between the sword and the block. 

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, 

whose philosopher is a juggler, 

and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking 

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting, 

and farewells him with hooting, 

only to welcome another with trumpeting again. 

Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years 

and whose strongmen are yet in the cradle. 

Pity the nation divided into fragments, 

each fragment deeming itself a nation.” 

― Kahlil Gibran, The Garden of The Prophet

“You operate from the belief you must protect yourself from what is happening because it must contain what threatens you. A sense of threat is an acknowledgment of an inherent weakness; a belief that there is danger which has power to call on you to make appropriate defense. The world is based on this insane belief. And all its structures, all its thoughts and doubts, its penalties and heavy armaments, its legal definitions and its codes, its ethics and its leaders and its gods, all serve but to preserve its sense of threat. For no one walks the world in armature but must have terror striking at his heart.”

 A Course in Miracles W-135.2:1-5

“Unity of spirit gives new pinions to joy, or else joy’s drooping wings trail in dust.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Page 58:2-4

Amazing Grace

There are many definitions given in the dictionary for the word grace. It is a noun, a verb, and an adverb, so it covers a lot of ground. The definition which best suits today’s Course in Miracles Review of Lessons 160 and 170 would be this: "Divine love and protection bestowed freely on people." This grace which is ours shows itself in many ways. Perhaps it is seen in our kindness to others, and in theirs to us. Grace is emerging in the synchronicities we see in daily life. Perhaps it is demonstrated in an apology, or an act of benevolence, a charitable deed, or an acceptance of someone's opinion which is opposite of ours. Grace is mine today, simply by acknowledging its presence. To quote William Blake:

“To see the world in a grain of sand,

And heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.”

“Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other means and methods.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health  Page 67:23-24

“Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real.”

A Course in Miracles W-169.2:1-2

The Affection and Purpose of the Heart

Photo courtesy of Aaron Springston

When someone tells me I’m mistaken about a “fact”, or that I’m interpreting something incorrectly, or maybe that my memory is faulty, I’m grateful for the correction. Much in the same way I’m thankful when someone tells me my skirt is stuck in my waistband — thereby sparing needless embarrassment — I’m glad if knowledge keeps me from spreading information which is not factual. Apparently not everyone feels this way! Not only are we seeing public figures who are afraid to say “I was wrong and I’m sorry”, but I’ve been witnessing a situation with a friend whose family has maligned him for years because of his understanding of current events. When did knowledge and the accumulation of information become something to be ridiculed? Metaphysical practitioners recognize that energy follows thought, and so I do my best to not replay memories of behaviors which I don’t want to manifest. Some days it’s a full-time job!

“We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are. If a friend informs us of a fault, do we listen patiently to the rebuke and credit what is said? Do we not rather give thanks that we are ‘not as other men’? During many years the author has been most grateful for merited rebuke. The wrong lies in unmerited censure, — in the falsehood which does no one any good.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 8:28

“You do not recognize the enormous waste of energy you expend in denying truth. What would you say of someone who persists in attempting the impossible, believing that to achieve it is to succeed? The belief that you must have the impossible in order to be happy is totally at variance with the principle of creation. God could not will that happiness depended on what you could never have. The fact that God is Love does not require belief, but it does require acceptance. It is indeed possible for you to deny facts, although it is impossible for you to change them. If you hold your hands over your eyes, you will not see because you are interfering with the laws of seeing. If you deny love, you will not know it because your cooperation is the law of its being. You cannot change laws you did not make, and the laws of happiness were created for you, not by you.” 

A Course in Miracles T-9.I.11:1-9

Let Spiritual Harmony Reign

Photo credit: Mark McGee

In these times of radical religious pontificating, we often hear disparaging words about science. So when the subject of melding science and religious is mentioned, many people think it is impossible. In the traditional meaning of religion, this would be true. Religion has taken on too many facets to be purely the knowledge of God. On many levels, it has become more political than spiritual. Science, on the other hand, means knowledge. But since its definition includes rational explanations and predictable results, it has long been left out of spirituality. Typically, religion encompasses the knowledge of God, but could never qualify as a provable science. When Mary Baker Eddy discovered the science of the Christ in the 1860s, she envisioned that religious leaders would be excited and happy to share in her vision. In her 600-page textbook, Science and Health, With Key to the Scriptures, she explains this Science to be demonstrable by anyone and everyone. In this time of rapidly shifting perceptions, many people are grasping what this means and embracing the beauty and perfection of it. Mary would be pleased!

“When the final physical and moral effects of Christian Science are fully apprehended, the conflict between truth and error, understanding and belief, Science and material sense, will cease, and spiritual harmony reign.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science and Health Page 288:10–14

“Brother, this day is sacred to the world. Your vision, given you from far beyond all things within the world, looks back on them in a new light. And what you see becomes the healing and salvation of the world. The valuable and valueless are both perceived and recognized for what they are. And what is worthy of your love receives your love, while nothing to be feared remains.”

A Course in Miracles W-164.6:1-5