Goodness and Light

"The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness.  See it not outside yourself, but shining in the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 15, Section XI, 2:1-2

Joy and more joy, goodness and light... these are signs of the coming of Christ, the awakening of the Son of God.  These are the Self-attributes we experience, as we realize we are the light, and that shining in the darkness is what we're here for!  

This Christmas, don't look out there for the source of joy.  You are the Goodness and Light of God.  Share your joy...

Christmas love and blessings to all!

Mary  

One Son

"It should especially be noted that God has only one Son.  If all His creations are His Sons, every one must be an integral part of the whole Sonship.  Any part of the Sonship can believe in error or incompleteness if he so chooses.  However, if he does so, he is believing in the existence of nothingness.  The correction of this error is the Atonement." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 2, Section VII, 6:1-2, 7-9

"Our emphasis is now on healing [God's Son].  The miracle is the means, the Atonement is the principle, and healing is the result." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 2, Section IV, 1:1-2

As a coach and spiritual director, every single client I have ever worked with has mirrored this one error... and according to every spiritual tradition, it's our only error.  The split mind that results from believing ourselves to be separate from God and each other and all creation... this fragmented perception is the source and sum of all the problems we think we have.  We're always focused on the fragments, on what is irreparable... "and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again."  It's not possible to 'fix' what amounts to fictional perceptions.  Just as it's not possible to 'fix' the delusional perceptions of the mentally ill.  What heals them is the dawning awareness that they are delusional. 

ACIM reminds us that all of this belief in our own fragmented perception is the belief in magic.  "The whole distortion that made magic rests on the belief that there is a creative ability in matter which the mind cannot control.  This error can take two forms; it can be believed that the mind can miscreate in the body, or that the body can miscreate in the mind.  When it is understood that the mind, the only level of creation, cannot create beyond itself, neither type of confusion need occur." (ACIM; Chapter 2, Section IV, 2:8-10)  The Course calls the correction of these errors the miracle, and the principle on which all this is based is the Atonement, our Oneness with our Source.  This Oneness is principle, unchanging, the rock on which the healing of all our holy minds depends.

There is a Light in each of us that can be seen and remembered.  The way to return to this wholeness of perception is through the regular, habitual forgiveness and release of our false perceptions, and the habitual asking for the miracle of true perception instead.  This is the willingness to see through the eyes of Christ.  It's through seeing the Light in each other, and in every aspect of creation, that we again see the face of Christ, the One Son of God, in all things.  "The Atonement can only be accepted within you by releasing the inner Light." (ACIM; Chapter 2, Section III, 1:1)

We are One Son... the very Light of God, pure Spirit, safe in the Mind of God, as are all things.  

"The Thought God holds of you is like a star, unchangeable in an eternal sky." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section III, 8:4

Repeat the Sounding Joy!

"Metaphysics is above physics, and matter does not enter into metaphysical premises or conclusions.  The categories of metaphysics rest on one basis, the Divine Mind.  Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 269, Lines 11-15

"There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day.  It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace, a thought of limitless release, limitless because all things are freed within it." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 16.6:1-2

Joy to the World!  It's the time of year that we hear that phrase (and the word joy) a lot.  To most people, though, it seems like just a word.  Ask yourself, what is joy?  Don't most of us think about personal gratification, about getting something we want?  We think of enjoyment, good consumers that we are.  But joy is a metaphysical reality, and has nothing to do with physical enjoyment or gratification.  Joy is pure BEING... or to quote Paramahansa Yogananda, "God is ever-new Joy."  So Joy is an attribute of God, and of our Being as we reflect our Source.

I lost a beloved canine companion this week... Claire, my soul-friend for nearly 15 years (http://www.clairefoundation.ws/).  As her transition drew near, the cats and other dogs would check on her frequently, and lay quietly nearby.  I noticed that the sadness I felt at seeming to lose her was transformed shortly before she passed.  The very air felt lighter and freer.  The Divine Idea that Claire IS had expanded and was free... and I could FEEL the joy she felt, that she feels.  The Christmas Carol sings: "While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy!"  That's what it felt like... that all of creation was a little lighter, a little brighter, through her passing.  The joy of remembering Who We Are... and the Christ is born again.

Thank God for all of creation, to remind us... the rocks and hills and plains, the animals, and each other... repeat the sounding Joy! 

"God's Will for you is perfect happiness, because there is no sin, and suffering is causeless.  Joy is just, and pain is but the sign you have misunderstood yourself." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 101, 6:1-2

The Son of God Awakes!

Joel Goldsmith was a great twentieth century Christian mystic.  His writings have been companions of mine for many years now, and I return to them from time to time for their wisdom, clarity, and uncompromising honesty.  So today, I want to look at three quotes from his writings, and what these words mean for us here and now.

First, what do we know about who we are?
"There is an existence, eternal in the heavens, eternal in divine consciousness, which has existed even before Abraham was.  Do you see?  I AM, infinite individuality, cannot be wiped out or destroyed or absorbed into another being.  I AM simply IS, forever.  As we find our true Self, as we come more and more into the realization of our spiritual individuality, we find a certain groove or rhythm in consciousness in which we individually 'fit'.  And when so located we find ourselves in outer circumstances or places or conditions of eternal peace and harmony.  This peace is not a static peace, but a vital state of spiritual being and activity.  This peace is sometimes a deep stillness within, a quiet joy in worldly affairs.  But sometimes it may appear temporarily as warfare, which represents the battle for the surrender, sometimes painfully, of our false sense of self with the realization of spiritual harmony and spiritual Selfhood.  In meditation, in quiet contemplation of the soul, we achieve or attain this groove or spiritual rhythm.  Then, and only then, do we know the government of the realm of Spirit, the recompense and activity of the Christ.  Then our values are no longer based on material estimates, but rather are measured by the infinite standards of the Kingdom, which is Love."

I love the idea of a divine groove or rhythm that is uniquely ours... and I love the awareness that uniqueness and individuality are not exclusive.  They are inclusive attributes, like the uniqueness of each snowflake is inclusive of the entire snow bank!  Only a false sense of egoic self sees separateness and exclusivity and competition among the unique ideas of God that we are.

Next, what do we know about Who God Is?
"We must come to know the nature of God, and to do that we must experience God.  We cannot go on talking about God; the time has come when we must experience God.  This is the most important part of our journey.  We must know God, really know God now, without waiting to know more or do more or to die.  We must experience God now, and this we do directly through our periods of silence, our periods of peace... the quiet listening to the still, small Voice within that reveals Itself to us." 

How willing are we to be quiet?  How willing are we to set aside frequent times during each day to simply be still?  Do we really want to experience God, or do we want to just talk and theorize, to look spiritual?  The Bible tells us to "Be still and know that I Am God."  We are all destined to directly experience God, the Truth of our Being.  

And what must we do to experience God?
"We read in the gospel of John, "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father."  There is the crux of the whole matter.  No human being can see God or know God.  Only the Son of God, the Christ consciousness of you and of me, can ever witness and behold the presence of God.  In other words, it is not our human mind that will know God.  Never with the human mind will we see or know or understand God or spiritual living.  But the Son of God, the Christ consciousness, our spiritual sense, can behold the Truth that is God.  This is where the human world has failed... trying to know God through thinking, trying to know God with the intellect, trying to explain God.  It cannot be done.  God is discerned and known only through spiritual sense."

Our human attempts to know things by objectifying and intellectualizing are really egoic methods of maintaining our illusory separateness and autonomy.  We think if we can grasp something intellectually we are controlling it while keeping it at a distance.  These imaginary exercises are entertaining, and we have built enormous institutions and social constructs on these self-impressing edifices.  But ultimately there is only one thing to be known, truly.  And that is to return to our right mind, to the awareness of Oneness, the Christ consciousness that is called the Son of God.  This awareness is already sleeping within us, like the Christmas story of the innocent babe lying in a manger.  We have only to be quiet and gently awaken our sleeping innocence... and then, behold!  The Son of God awakes!  The awareness of the Allness of God dawns on us like the radiance of the Christmas star... the most natural awareness in the world.  Glory to God in the highest!  The awakening of the Son of God is our only real purpose in all the illusory undertakings of this weary world.

"The power of decision is our own.  And we accept of Him that which we are, and humbly recognize the Son of God.  To recognize God's Son implies that all self-concepts have been laid aside and recognized as false.  Their arrogance has been perceived.  And in humility the radiance of God's Son, his gentleness, his perfect sinlessness, his Father's Love, his right to Heaven and release from hell, are joyously accepted as our own." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152, 10:1-5

Angels

"He will give his angels charge over you, to guard you in all your ways." -- The Bible; Psalm 91:11

"The Thought God holds of you is like a star, unchangeable in an eternal sky." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section III, 8:4

I've always been fascinated and comforted by the thought of angels, as many of us are.  I've even had a couple of actual encounters with what I believed at the time to be angelic beings.  And there have been many, many times that I felt an 'overshadowing,' like a comforting Presence in the midst of sorrow or suffering.

What I've come to accept is that all forms and beliefs are made up, mental constructs by human egos trying to maintain a separate identity by looking for something outside to react to and believe in and be rescued by.  But the content of everything is always angelic... We are the eternal Thoughts of God, always in a divinely circulating activity of Oneness.  Only the Thoughts of God exist.  God creates all that is Real by extending the Oneness that we are.  

We rest in the Mind of God in perfect peace and perfect joy.  And when we forget Who and Where we are, the angel Thoughts of God hold us, sustain us, and bring us gently back to ourselves.  That these aspects of Self appear sometimes as glorious beings of Light is perfect... they are symbols of the Light and Truth of God, as we are.  That angels resonate so deeply in our collective consciousness shows how very much aware we all still are of our true Home and our true Self. 

I will continue to believe in and see and even have conversations with angels in this life.  They symbolize all that is Real to me, just as my conversations with Jesus and the Holy Spirit help return me to my right Mind again and again.  And yet I know that beyond this dream we call life, there is our True Life, which needs no symbols and no reminders... and that Life is our eternal Being in God.  So thank God for all the precious symbols and reminders in the dream.  Thank God for Angels.

"Wholeness needs no form because it is unlimited." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section III, 3:2

I wrote a little parable about our journey through the dream we call life, called "Follow the Star."  You can click on the title to go to that link. 

Sailing on Light

 "Light carries not just energy but also momentum -- a story told by every comet tail, which consists of dust blown by sunlight from a comet's core." -- Setting Sail into Space, Propelled by Sunshine; by Dennis Overbye for the NY Times, November 10, 2009

"Being must be extended.  The Kingdom is forever extending because it is in the Mind of God.  Your Self-fulness is as boundless as God's.  Like His, It extends forever and in perfect peace.  Its radiance is so intense that It creates in perfect joy, and only the whole can be born of Its Wholeness." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 7, Section IX, 2:6, 4:1, & 6:7-9

Sometimes I read a phrase or even a word, and I'm transported or returned.  Sometimes it will be a passage of music or the eyes of a friend.  Whatever the symbol, whatever the reminder, it returns me momentarily to my Self.  It can be anyone, anywhere.  It IS everyone, everywhere.  And the awareness of expansion, of inclusive vision, IS our natural state.  So when I read the above quote in the NY Times this morning, it worked in consciousness like yeast in a loaf of bread... 

We are such expansive Beings, living and moving and having our Being in the Mind of God.  We are emanations of that Light, in relationship with It like the sunbeam is to the sun.  The notion that light has not just energy but momentum is pregnant with meaning for us.  It means that just by being what it is, light creates.  It means that the simplicity of Being is our vital and essential function, and that function has energy and momentum.  We are.  We radiate.  We extend.  Just like our Source.

Unlike our material experience with its limited life spans, ideas expand and extend without limit when they're shared.  We're spiritual creations, ideas in the Mind of God, and are blessed with each other to allow the Love and Light that is the core of our Being to extend and emanate forever.  As it says in Christian liturgy, "Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.  Amen."  We're still always and only talking about the Oneness and Allness of God.  The Son emanates from the Source, and Spirit extends, expands, communicates and expresses.  To paraphrase the quote from the NY Times, the Allness of Being (God) extends ItSelf through energy and momentum that are forever One with their Source.

What does this mean for us?  Or is this just a beautiful abstraction?  Oh, it's so much more than that.  It's an affirmation of the simplicitiy of Being, a reminder that all our human machinations are beside the point.  That whatever we do, wherever we find ourselves in our human drama, Who we are is untouched and eternal and forever emanating the Light of God.  It's not ours to decide.  It's not ours to do.  It's simply ours to BE.

Let there be Light.  I Am as God created me.  I Am Being, sailing on Light, extending as the Light and Love of God.  No other prayer is needed.

"God is All in all in a very literal sense.  All being is in Him Who IS all Being." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 7, Section IV, 7:4-5

     

The Webs We Weave

"Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear." -- Mahatma Gandhi

"If the mind, which is the instrument of projection and is the basis of all activity, subsides, then the perception of the world as an objective reality ceases. On scrutiny as to what remains after eliminating all thoughts, it will be found that there is no such thing as mind or physical world apart from thought. Just as the spider draws out the thread of the cobweb from within itself and withdraws it again into itself, in the same way the mind projects the world out of itself and absorbs it back into itself." -- Ramana Maharshi

There are a lot of beautiful spiders around right now. They are spinning huge, elaborate webs everywhere, in the woods and by the barn, anywhere they can connect the dots. I love watching them, especially early in the morning with dew or frost on them, when they sparkle like something precious and brilliant. Ironic that they are really for the capturing of prey and the feeding of a predator... a symbol of our human belief that someone or something must lose in order for another to gain. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "There is but one mistake; the whole idea that loss is possible, and could result in gain for anyone."

That two wise and brilliant spiritual minds used webs to illustrate the human mind, and that I just happened to read both quotes on the same day is such a delicious synchronicity. The image of our human projection being like a spider spinning its web and then withdrawing it back into itself is a perfect illustration of what happens when we fall asleep at night. Where are all the images, people, sounds, etc.? They cease to exist when the mind is at rest. This is the experience and testimony of wise women and men throughout the ages. But it frightens us when we awaken without thought or identity. We fear losing... whether it's our name, our ideas about life, or our sanity, the loss of human memory is a big cultural demon. The dread word Alzheimer's is everywhere. What would Carl Jung have to say about that?

Some blessed souls, like Byron Katie, Gangaji, Eckhert Tolle and a host of others, have awakened without identity and without fear. Though they sometimes take on new identities in order to serve, they remain awake to Self. The key to seems to be the absence of fear.

My mother has dementia... she remembers very little, and what remains is like an old recording worn thin. The characteristic of her disease is constant fear. That is the real disease... a fear so great that there is complete withdrawal from self-awareness, and therefore from the possibility of awakening. The only gift I have to give her is my silent and continual awareness that every imagined fear and loss that she is running from has been forgiven and released, gradually withdrawing into the belly of the spider of fear in her gut, a web of her own creation. I see her innocence. I see beyond the web.

What webs of fear are you weaving in your life? Where do you fear lack and loss? Where are you hiding from Love and its Light? What good news that the webs we weave are simply our own cobwebs, and can be withdrawn and released at any time! The Truth remains self-evident without the cobwebs. Love remains, unchanging and sure, the only justice God knows.

"The miracle of justice can correct all errors." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 26, Section II, 4:1