"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
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
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
"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
Sunday, October 18, 2009
The Choiceless Path
I just read a book about the idea that everything is already decided, predestined. It posits that choice is just an illusion. Of course, it was based on the assumption that material life is our reality, and that it has life and substance and meaning. But what if predestination simply refers to our spiritual Reality?
While walking in this dream we call life, we seem to move in endless reaction to the world around us. Sir Isaac Newton described it with his Third Law of Motion: "Whenever a first body exerts a force F on a second body, the second body exerts a force -F on the first body. F and -F are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction." This endless action and reaction, whether physical or emotional or mental, is what constitutes the sowing and reaping Jesus talked about, or the wheel of samsara referred to in Eastern philosophy, the wheel of karma. In this endless spinning of action and reaction, it seems the only real choice is the choice to get off the wheel. But how do we do that? This has been the quest of wise women and men throughout time.
I like to think about it this way: even a wheel has to be spinning in space. What is the space that contains the wheel? What is the "I" that contains all my ideas about the world? Moving our attention to the unchanging, limitless Self that holds it all, we realize what Lao Tzu meant by these words: "There is a Being, whose name I do not know. It surrounds everything with Its Love, like a garment. I do not know Its name, and so I call it Tao, the Way... and I rejoice in Its Presence."
I call this Presence God, or our True Self... but you can use whatever name is big enough, inclusive enough for you. Names and symbols shift and change, but God remains unchanging, as do we. Consider the following quote from A Course in Miracles: "As God created you, you must remain unchangeable, with transitory states by definition false. And that includes all shifts in feeling, alterations in conditions of the body and the mind; in all awareness and in all response." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152, 5:1-3) This is not the action and reaction of Newton or karma, but is the unchanging, choiceless Reality that holds everything in Its embrace.
Our true Life is not as we imagine it to be when we're bouncing around like ping pong balls in endless reaction to the people and circumstances of our lives. The choiceless, effortless Path is revealed as we come to realize that "The choice you fear to lose you never had." (ACIM; Chapter 27, Section III, 7:4) Only through forgiveness do we find release from the imagined cause and effect of the material dream, from the wheel of samsara. And in the quiet light of forgiveness we see the eternal, choiceless Love that is our true Life.
"In quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly resolved." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 27, Section IV, 1:1
While walking in this dream we call life, we seem to move in endless reaction to the world around us. Sir Isaac Newton described it with his Third Law of Motion: "Whenever a first body exerts a force F on a second body, the second body exerts a force -F on the first body. F and -F are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction." This endless action and reaction, whether physical or emotional or mental, is what constitutes the sowing and reaping Jesus talked about, or the wheel of samsara referred to in Eastern philosophy, the wheel of karma. In this endless spinning of action and reaction, it seems the only real choice is the choice to get off the wheel. But how do we do that? This has been the quest of wise women and men throughout time.
I like to think about it this way: even a wheel has to be spinning in space. What is the space that contains the wheel? What is the "I" that contains all my ideas about the world? Moving our attention to the unchanging, limitless Self that holds it all, we realize what Lao Tzu meant by these words: "There is a Being, whose name I do not know. It surrounds everything with Its Love, like a garment. I do not know Its name, and so I call it Tao, the Way... and I rejoice in Its Presence."
I call this Presence God, or our True Self... but you can use whatever name is big enough, inclusive enough for you. Names and symbols shift and change, but God remains unchanging, as do we. Consider the following quote from A Course in Miracles: "As God created you, you must remain unchangeable, with transitory states by definition false. And that includes all shifts in feeling, alterations in conditions of the body and the mind; in all awareness and in all response." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152, 5:1-3) This is not the action and reaction of Newton or karma, but is the unchanging, choiceless Reality that holds everything in Its embrace.
Our true Life is not as we imagine it to be when we're bouncing around like ping pong balls in endless reaction to the people and circumstances of our lives. The choiceless, effortless Path is revealed as we come to realize that "The choice you fear to lose you never had." (ACIM; Chapter 27, Section III, 7:4) Only through forgiveness do we find release from the imagined cause and effect of the material dream, from the wheel of samsara. And in the quiet light of forgiveness we see the eternal, choiceless Love that is our true Life.
"In quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly resolved." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 27, Section IV, 1:1
Thursday, September 24, 2009
A Way of Being
"Quantum systems imply that undivided wholeness is not only the content, but also the manner of working." -- Physicist David Bohm
This is the longest I've gone without posting on this blog, so apologies to those of my readers who have contacted me out of love and concern. I've been consumed with writing and editing, preparing a manuscript for publication. This has me thinking about the principle of wholeness, an attribute of God. It's very true that as I edit, even when I'm working with specific words or parts or sections, I'm really working with the idea of the whole. Good editing can only happen within this awareness of wholeness. It's really a way of being.
When I cook I experience the same thing. There is a field of awareness of the dish I'm making, and within that awareness there are individual things to do, ingredients to add, substitutions to be made. But it's all done within the awareness of the dish I'm creating... the manner of working is with the wholeness of the end result as the field of awareness in which everything else takes place. This is not done in a linear, control manner... the dish, the book, whatever is being created is not defined or limited in any way. It may look or taste completely different than I initially conceived it. But the wholeness of the divine idea emerges in its completeness. The form is irrelevant. It's the content that is eternally whole.
Wholeness is a manner of working, a way of being. A Course in Miracles says, "You can't have what you're not willing to be." If we return in awareness to the completeness of being that we are in God, then we have and are everything. We can lack nothing. We can't lack initiative. We can't lack inspiration. We can't lack ability. We can't lack opportunity. We can't lack fulfillment. We can't lack knowledge. We can't lack support. We can't have screwed it up. All of the areas in which we may have seen ourselves lacking are impossible... we live and move and have our being in God, in Wholeness ItSelf. We are God's Son, and we are eternally whole, as God Is One and Whole and unchanging. We are whole and beloved and provided for out of the fullness of God's Being every moment of every day.
Every perception of lack is also a manner of working and a way of being, even though it's ultimately not true. We can conceive ourselves to be lacking, and then experience it as being wholly true. Just as we can lose ourselves in a good book or good movie... and when we wake up, or simply return to the awareness of the room around us, we find we had experienced the drama as if it were true. But we know that it's not. In the same way, when we return to awareness of Self, in God, we find that we have simply been having an experience of lack based on a mere concept of self, a mere thought form... an illusion.
Awareness of God and of Self is not a concept... it's the Way of All Being, an unconditioned awareness without thought or concept. It is the Ground of All Being, and is what we are and what we know when all thoughts and concepts are forgiven and released. It's Home.
"Remember always that you cannot be anywhere except in the Mind of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 9, Section VIII, 5:3
This is the longest I've gone without posting on this blog, so apologies to those of my readers who have contacted me out of love and concern. I've been consumed with writing and editing, preparing a manuscript for publication. This has me thinking about the principle of wholeness, an attribute of God. It's very true that as I edit, even when I'm working with specific words or parts or sections, I'm really working with the idea of the whole. Good editing can only happen within this awareness of wholeness. It's really a way of being.
When I cook I experience the same thing. There is a field of awareness of the dish I'm making, and within that awareness there are individual things to do, ingredients to add, substitutions to be made. But it's all done within the awareness of the dish I'm creating... the manner of working is with the wholeness of the end result as the field of awareness in which everything else takes place. This is not done in a linear, control manner... the dish, the book, whatever is being created is not defined or limited in any way. It may look or taste completely different than I initially conceived it. But the wholeness of the divine idea emerges in its completeness. The form is irrelevant. It's the content that is eternally whole.
Wholeness is a manner of working, a way of being. A Course in Miracles says, "You can't have what you're not willing to be." If we return in awareness to the completeness of being that we are in God, then we have and are everything. We can lack nothing. We can't lack initiative. We can't lack inspiration. We can't lack ability. We can't lack opportunity. We can't lack fulfillment. We can't lack knowledge. We can't lack support. We can't have screwed it up. All of the areas in which we may have seen ourselves lacking are impossible... we live and move and have our being in God, in Wholeness ItSelf. We are God's Son, and we are eternally whole, as God Is One and Whole and unchanging. We are whole and beloved and provided for out of the fullness of God's Being every moment of every day.
Every perception of lack is also a manner of working and a way of being, even though it's ultimately not true. We can conceive ourselves to be lacking, and then experience it as being wholly true. Just as we can lose ourselves in a good book or good movie... and when we wake up, or simply return to the awareness of the room around us, we find we had experienced the drama as if it were true. But we know that it's not. In the same way, when we return to awareness of Self, in God, we find that we have simply been having an experience of lack based on a mere concept of self, a mere thought form... an illusion.
Awareness of God and of Self is not a concept... it's the Way of All Being, an unconditioned awareness without thought or concept. It is the Ground of All Being, and is what we are and what we know when all thoughts and concepts are forgiven and released. It's Home.
"Remember always that you cannot be anywhere except in the Mind of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 9, Section VIII, 5:3
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Inclusive Vision
"There is no place for hell within a world whose loveliness can yet be so intense and so inclusive it is but a step from there to Heaven. To your tired eyes I bring a vision of a different world, so new and clean and fresh you will forget the pain and sorrow that you saw before." -- A Course in Miracles; T31, VIII. 8:3-4
"Truth is not fragmentary, disconnected, unsystematic, but concentrated and immovably fixed in Principle. The best spiritual type of Christly method for uplifting human thought and imparting divine Truth, is stationary power, stillness, and strength; and when this spiritual ideal is made our own, it becomes the model for human action." -- Retrospection and Introspection by Mary Baker Eddy; p.93, lines 11-16
I love that the words 'intense' and 'inclusive' are used in the same sentence, in the above quote from ACIM. It is no easy task to return our minds to inclusive thinking. It requires focus and willing discipline... the willingness to surrender our fragmented , selfish ideas to the inclusive vision of our High Self, the Holy Spirit. It requires the focus to notice when we're not doing that. It requires the willingness to Awaken.
All of this is done in consciousness. Notice Mary Baker Eddy points out that lifting our thought in this way is done through stillness and strength, through stationary power. It's never about the outer, which is only the image-making projection of what lies in consciousness. What appears without is projected, and therefore illusory. As Mrs Eddy says in her scientific statement of being: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; p. 468, lines 9-10)
I was reminded of this in a very dear way by a friend. I was in the process of sending out a letter about some business matter. My friend commented that by sending out the letter in this way, I am in effect acknowledging that I see it happening to me, taking place 'out there,' and that I somehow need something else to happen 'out there.' She suggested that I write a letter in consciousness, thanking the recipients for having already met the requirements... in effect, forgiving their debts... and for the opportunities and income that have resulted for so many. All of this taking place in consciousness. Not out there. The letter will never be sent. Its purpose is not to get anything to happen 'out there.' There is no 'out there!' The purpose of the letter is to return my mind to Wholeness, to the realization, in stillness and stationary strength, that it is all taking place in consciousness, where every imagined problem, separation, or need is seen to be nothing. Whose consciousness? My dream is occurring here in my mind... and in the stillness I remember that there is only One Mind. I can release and forgive my aberrant dreams, the scattered dreams that see separate, fragmented selves.... and I can again welcome the inclusive, expansive vision of my High Self, the Holy Spirit. This all-inclusive vision is the Holy Spirit's gift to us when we are willing to once again be still.
Inclusive Vision is not about manipulating or trying to change the dream. It's about returning our mind and heart to what is true. There is only One, only God, only GOOD. Inclusive Vision returns us to the Wholeness of our right Mind. It is the Grace of God made manifest, on earth as it is in the Heaven of Oneness.
"In returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." -- The Bible; Isaiah 30:15
"Truth is not fragmentary, disconnected, unsystematic, but concentrated and immovably fixed in Principle. The best spiritual type of Christly method for uplifting human thought and imparting divine Truth, is stationary power, stillness, and strength; and when this spiritual ideal is made our own, it becomes the model for human action." -- Retrospection and Introspection by Mary Baker Eddy; p.93, lines 11-16
I love that the words 'intense' and 'inclusive' are used in the same sentence, in the above quote from ACIM. It is no easy task to return our minds to inclusive thinking. It requires focus and willing discipline... the willingness to surrender our fragmented , selfish ideas to the inclusive vision of our High Self, the Holy Spirit. It requires the focus to notice when we're not doing that. It requires the willingness to Awaken.
All of this is done in consciousness. Notice Mary Baker Eddy points out that lifting our thought in this way is done through stillness and strength, through stationary power. It's never about the outer, which is only the image-making projection of what lies in consciousness. What appears without is projected, and therefore illusory. As Mrs Eddy says in her scientific statement of being: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; p. 468, lines 9-10)
I was reminded of this in a very dear way by a friend. I was in the process of sending out a letter about some business matter. My friend commented that by sending out the letter in this way, I am in effect acknowledging that I see it happening to me, taking place 'out there,' and that I somehow need something else to happen 'out there.' She suggested that I write a letter in consciousness, thanking the recipients for having already met the requirements... in effect, forgiving their debts... and for the opportunities and income that have resulted for so many. All of this taking place in consciousness. Not out there. The letter will never be sent. Its purpose is not to get anything to happen 'out there.' There is no 'out there!' The purpose of the letter is to return my mind to Wholeness, to the realization, in stillness and stationary strength, that it is all taking place in consciousness, where every imagined problem, separation, or need is seen to be nothing. Whose consciousness? My dream is occurring here in my mind... and in the stillness I remember that there is only One Mind. I can release and forgive my aberrant dreams, the scattered dreams that see separate, fragmented selves.... and I can again welcome the inclusive, expansive vision of my High Self, the Holy Spirit. This all-inclusive vision is the Holy Spirit's gift to us when we are willing to once again be still.
Inclusive Vision is not about manipulating or trying to change the dream. It's about returning our mind and heart to what is true. There is only One, only God, only GOOD. Inclusive Vision returns us to the Wholeness of our right Mind. It is the Grace of God made manifest, on earth as it is in the Heaven of Oneness.
"In returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." -- The Bible; Isaiah 30:15
Sunday, July 26, 2009
An Affirming Flame
This excerpt from a poem by Auden moves me to tears, because it could have been written about the thought currents and fears of the world today:
Poetry like this is powerful because it points to what we all must face. We have to accept and acknowledge the world around us as we have projected it... "The appreciation of wholeness comes only through acceptance." (A Course in Miracles; T11, V, 13:2) Acceptance means we no longer blame or project, but that we realize what true forgiveness is... "This is the shift that true perception brings: What was once projected out is seen within, and there forgiveness lets it disappear." (ACIM, MT4, 6:1)
Why is seeing and accepting the negation that is the world so important? Aren't we supposed to simply focus on what's good and positive and affirm the nothingness of everything else? This is the common wisdom in new thought traditions. The thing is, by denying what seems to be, we're simply engaging in self-deception. We haven't realized that we're the one projecting it. We may see our thoughts as having cause and effect, but we don't actually see that everything is thought. We're not actually aware that we can only see our own projections, our own interpretations... "Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward." (ACIM; WB304, 1:3-4)
A Course in Miracles reminds us that "Perception can make whatever picture the mind desires to see. Remember this: In this lies either heaven or hell, as you elect." (ACIM; MT 19, 5:2-4) The acceptance of this, taking responsibility for our own projections and perceptions is the first step in true forgiveness, which realizes that "there can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an unforgiving thought. Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal." (ACIM; WB198, 9:5-6) Only by facing our own projections, our own shadows, can we finally see that they are all made up. We have done this. And this we undo, day by day, through forgiveness.
We become the Just, the points of light in Auden's poem. We don't deny the world, we transform it. We are the forgiving, affirming flame.
"What cause have you for anger in a world that merely awaits your blessing to be free?" -- A Course in Miracles; T30, II, 4:1
I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-Second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade;
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives...
Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out whenever the Just
Exchange their messages;
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
Poetry like this is powerful because it points to what we all must face. We have to accept and acknowledge the world around us as we have projected it... "The appreciation of wholeness comes only through acceptance." (A Course in Miracles; T11, V, 13:2) Acceptance means we no longer blame or project, but that we realize what true forgiveness is... "This is the shift that true perception brings: What was once projected out is seen within, and there forgiveness lets it disappear." (ACIM, MT4, 6:1)
Why is seeing and accepting the negation that is the world so important? Aren't we supposed to simply focus on what's good and positive and affirm the nothingness of everything else? This is the common wisdom in new thought traditions. The thing is, by denying what seems to be, we're simply engaging in self-deception. We haven't realized that we're the one projecting it. We may see our thoughts as having cause and effect, but we don't actually see that everything is thought. We're not actually aware that we can only see our own projections, our own interpretations... "Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward." (ACIM; WB304, 1:3-4)
A Course in Miracles reminds us that "Perception can make whatever picture the mind desires to see. Remember this: In this lies either heaven or hell, as you elect." (ACIM; MT 19, 5:2-4) The acceptance of this, taking responsibility for our own projections and perceptions is the first step in true forgiveness, which realizes that "there can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an unforgiving thought. Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal." (ACIM; WB198, 9:5-6) Only by facing our own projections, our own shadows, can we finally see that they are all made up. We have done this. And this we undo, day by day, through forgiveness.
We become the Just, the points of light in Auden's poem. We don't deny the world, we transform it. We are the forgiving, affirming flame.
"What cause have you for anger in a world that merely awaits your blessing to be free?" -- A Course in Miracles; T30, II, 4:1
Saturday, July 25, 2009
The Other Road
I love when a quote works in awareness, like a zen koan. This quote from Krishnamurti has that effect: "You can't ever see what to do, you can see only what not to do. The total negation of that road is the new beginning, the Other Road. This Other Road is not on the map, nor can it ever be put on any map. Every map is a map of the wrong road, the old road."
A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "Nothing the world believes is true. It is a place whose purpose is to be a home where those who claim they do not know themselves can come to question what it is they are." (WB 139, 7:1-2)
The mind boggles at this. This world is a negation, like darkness, nothing in itself. Seeing the absolute absurdity of this is the beginning of awareness. Our human minds that imagine themselves separate from other minds collectively spin this web of negation... imagining ourselves to need this, to seek that, to achieve it, acquire it, or make it. The very act of seeking, achieving, or acquiring means we're following the map of the world, whether we think it's spirituality we're acquiring or whether we think it's material achievement. There is absolutely no difference. If we think we have a map, a structure, a path to follow that will save us or make us better, then we're simply spinning a different version of the same negation.
The trackless desert is an archetypal image in all wisdom traditions. The willingness to release all our seeking and all our maps and head into what seems like an endless desert with no distinguishing features and no way to tell where you are... this seems the height of folly. Yet this is the image that describes what is really going on. All of our signs and directions and efforting are simply mirages... an avoidance of Reality. We have to be willing to walk the desert of our own making, to become aware of the negation that is our human experience, so that we can finally see that a negation is just that.... nothing at all. And we don't need plans or maps or defenses to be what we effortlessly are, or to see what has always been true. We don't need to be told who we are. We just need to see, to really see what is not true. When the negation is brought to awareness, the unchanging Reality is effortlessly seen and experienced.
Who we are, collectively, is seamless Wholeness. As ACIM reminds us, "Wholeness has no form because it is unlimited." (T. 30; III, 3:2) We are a collective emanation from the Mind of God, of Pure Spirit: "God has not many Sons, but only One. Who can have more, and who be given less?" (T. 29; VIII, 9:1-2) Maps, directions, goals, religions, everything the world advocates, all of it, are attempts to negate that wholeness, to say that something more than everything is needed or wanted. We really are wandering in the desert with manna all around us. We really are like ostriches with our heads in the sand.
We have a way to wake up in the midst of this. We take the pathless path, the journey with no destination, no map. A Course in Miracles explains that forgiveness (the releasing of all our judgments, the maps that make up the world) is the process of asking for the miracle of healed perception. Who are we asking? Our very God-Self. What are we asking for? The awareness of the nothingness that our judgments have seemed to hold in place. We are giving ourselves permission to see the negation, and to remember our Self. And the miracle of healed perception is that we then walk within this dream with new awareness of Wholeness, each time we choose to forgive and remember. This is the Other Road.
A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "Nothing the world believes is true. It is a place whose purpose is to be a home where those who claim they do not know themselves can come to question what it is they are." (WB 139, 7:1-2)
The mind boggles at this. This world is a negation, like darkness, nothing in itself. Seeing the absolute absurdity of this is the beginning of awareness. Our human minds that imagine themselves separate from other minds collectively spin this web of negation... imagining ourselves to need this, to seek that, to achieve it, acquire it, or make it. The very act of seeking, achieving, or acquiring means we're following the map of the world, whether we think it's spirituality we're acquiring or whether we think it's material achievement. There is absolutely no difference. If we think we have a map, a structure, a path to follow that will save us or make us better, then we're simply spinning a different version of the same negation.
The trackless desert is an archetypal image in all wisdom traditions. The willingness to release all our seeking and all our maps and head into what seems like an endless desert with no distinguishing features and no way to tell where you are... this seems the height of folly. Yet this is the image that describes what is really going on. All of our signs and directions and efforting are simply mirages... an avoidance of Reality. We have to be willing to walk the desert of our own making, to become aware of the negation that is our human experience, so that we can finally see that a negation is just that.... nothing at all. And we don't need plans or maps or defenses to be what we effortlessly are, or to see what has always been true. We don't need to be told who we are. We just need to see, to really see what is not true. When the negation is brought to awareness, the unchanging Reality is effortlessly seen and experienced.
Who we are, collectively, is seamless Wholeness. As ACIM reminds us, "Wholeness has no form because it is unlimited." (T. 30; III, 3:2) We are a collective emanation from the Mind of God, of Pure Spirit: "God has not many Sons, but only One. Who can have more, and who be given less?" (T. 29; VIII, 9:1-2) Maps, directions, goals, religions, everything the world advocates, all of it, are attempts to negate that wholeness, to say that something more than everything is needed or wanted. We really are wandering in the desert with manna all around us. We really are like ostriches with our heads in the sand.
We have a way to wake up in the midst of this. We take the pathless path, the journey with no destination, no map. A Course in Miracles explains that forgiveness (the releasing of all our judgments, the maps that make up the world) is the process of asking for the miracle of healed perception. Who are we asking? Our very God-Self. What are we asking for? The awareness of the nothingness that our judgments have seemed to hold in place. We are giving ourselves permission to see the negation, and to remember our Self. And the miracle of healed perception is that we then walk within this dream with new awareness of Wholeness, each time we choose to forgive and remember. This is the Other Road.
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