Alcoholism

United or Divided: I Accept, understand and love you!

As of this writing, November 24, the new President Elect Joe Biden is now allowed to transition his new administration with the White House. But it is evident from watching the voting and election disputes that our beautiful country, lovely America is at odds with one another, Republican’s and Democrat’s.  “United We Stand – Divided We Fall” sorrowfully comes to mind.  Is that OK with you?  No matter who wins, the condemnation and division will make us miserable until we decide or at least try to understand each other and heal the division.   Understanding brings acceptance or visa versa perhaps.  We need to interview each other, meet up online and reach out to learn what we have in common.  We are the same! We live; eat and breathe and we die.  We are in the same boat on the same planet.  That should be enough to get us to the table of toleration.  What do we love?  That is the question.   

Besides those basics there is another profound sameness.  Mystics and Saints tell us of the spark that is at the center of everyone who is here, has come or is yet to come.   This innocent spark at your center is truth that cannot be extinguished.  It carries you throughout your life, a north star, the guide to constant peace within.  It cannot die and you take it with you when your leave this earthly plane.  Cherish and engage this spark, it is your touchstone, your Spirit identity, the driving force that guides you to Truth and the knowledge of what and whom you are.  It is the life force living within and without in everyone.  It is a guide for any circumstance that comes, if consulted, you will know what to do, where to go and what to say and to whom.  There will be no doubts in your holy mind because peace has entered the rock on which you stand as you go forth with the guidance given. Guilt is nowhere to be found in your holy mind.  You have nothing that you lack and nothing can endanger or put out this life spark, no circumstance is too difficult to understand and no amount of hate can extinguish its holy light. 

The spark is in Trump; Biden; Republican’s; Democrat’s; Independent’s….in everyone.  It is in those who protest Black Lives Matter and those who don’t.  It is in the shooter who kills and he who is shot.  The only difference: refusing to acknowledge the spark in us, is also in the other.  We judge “them “as immoral, criticize, and demonize others with aversion, ignoring, denying the spark could possibly be in them.  We close our minds but the spark still burns within all of us.  Each of us is responsible for recognizing, enriching and honoring the spark in ourselves and in those we condemn.  It will emerge, blossoming as we cultivate endeavor to “see” and claim its reality.  After all, it is Love.

Love and the evidence it brings dissolves the barriers that cover the spark.  Look into a little child’s eyes or sweet smile.  Hear her call of “Hi” in response to your smile or wave; look into the eyes of your pet; grandchild; look at the love that comes at you.  It is a gift from the spark, the spark we share.  Love calls to love and cannot be stopped, destroyed, hurt or buried. 

I don’t know what will happen with politics but you and I have a life to live.  With Covid we don’t know how long or well but we can still live with the fullest amount of love we can give.  If you need to go to a protest in the coming weeks, make a sign “I love you no matter what.” Recognize the spark of love dwells in the person or persons in the next car; to the kid walking down the street; the talking head on TV no matter if you agree with them or not; it is in the woman in the grocery store line; the homeless guy with the sign; and the person standing or sitting next to you.  Send love; send acceptance, toleration and compassion.  Open your mind to surround everyone you see and include yourself.  Exclude no one from your love or acceptance and we will unite and never be divided by politics, religion or any circumstances life or the world brings.  I send Love to you….right now.

A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson 30: God is in everything I see because God is in my mind. (Click on the lesson, click on the arrow, close your eyes and the lesson will be read to you.)

You are Loved!

Lesson 30: God is in everything I see because God is in my mind. • Foundation for Inner Peace: Publisher of A Course in Miracles (ACIM)

Ego Mode: The Virus Blame Game

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After listening to a wonderful youtube presentation by Tim Wise and Lyn Corona, (see the link below)  I realize how addicting the ego voice is.  We are in “ego mode” when we search for and MUST find something or someone to blame.  We want to blame the pain and fear on something!  The source of inner pain and even bodily pain is from listening to the ego…believing this faulty thinking is right and then choosing to be in ego mode.  All depression, anxiety, worries and guilt are caused by believing the ego.

We are all addicted to something, alcohol, sex, TV, News, gambling, food, air, gossip, but everyone is addicted to one thing: the inner voice we hear in our minds:  the ego.  The false voice.  We also ALL have an alternative however.

Right now we have the coronavirus circling the world.  Who are we going to blame? Some foreign people, the military, all the Politian’s?  It is the ego part of our mind doing the blaming and we believe it because we want to!  We need to blame and project onto someone so we can feel better.

The ego is attracted to pain because it means the body is REAL, the world is REAL and we are important.  It keeps us trapped in the dream of being a body in the illusion.  We are a puppet of the ego when that happens.

When we decide we are tired of this blame game because of the pain it causes, we look within and see, according to the Course that our only problem is the separation we feel from God.  That is impossible.  We cannot be separate from God because we are In God at this very moment, but we don’t think we are.

If we choose blame, we are continuing the separation from God because that is what we did to Him when we chose the ego.  Yes, the “tiny mad idea” in the Course tells us we chose the ego to be separate from God.  If we blame ourselves or feel guilty from separating from God we are still listening to the ego mode and we are in the blame game.

The solution: We take a deep breath, step aside from the ego in your mind, take the hand of Jesus – the Holy Spirit that connects us to God and say:  “I am as God Created Me, help me see this differently.”   See A Course In Miracles, Workbook Lesson 110.

We insist on finding a “bad guy” to blame because we don’t want to take responsibility for the decision to separate from God.  We do it every time we blame someone and make them the guilty one.  We do unto them, what we did unto God.  But we also do it to ourselves.

You are NOT separate from God because that is impossible.  But in this dream we “believe” we are.  To get out of the dream of pain ask Jesus:

“I am stuck, take my hand, help me see the way you do.  Help me let go of this judgment and blame I place on ______ as I let go of my projections, believing the ego’s lies that hurt me.”

The tiny mad idea that we can be separate from God is just that…..a mad idea!  An idea is not real.  You are not a puppet.  You are a Mind, an innocent Son of God with the power in you to follow the loving kindness in your heart, holding the hand of Love and going home to Heaven where you really are and have always been.

Here is the YouTube video with Tim Wise, Lyn Corona and others from the School for A Course in Miracles, discussing the Corona Virus:

 

http://www.acim.org  Weekly Lessons – Lesson 110 – I am As God Created Me

Lesson 110: I am as God created me.

Other websites:  http://www.miraclecenter.org

http://www.facim.org

Remember your Reality:  You are LOVED and you are LOVE!

 

 

 

Easter Moon reminds us “I am there”

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Spring is here and Easter Sunday always follows the first full moon after the spring equinox. That full moon was shining in my bedroom window last night. Passover is April 9, Easter Sunday the 12th and Ramadan on Friday April 24.   However the only ones feeling “spring like” these days, are the birds and the daffodils. Aren’t they lucky to not have to stay inside or six feet away from each other? Thankfully, we can go outside to visit and thank them for their songs and yellow loveliness. There will be no Religious gatherings indoors this year and I know many will miss this spring ritual. I must admit that Easter has always left me feeling sad with the crucifixion of Jesus. Even dressing up or hunting for eggs, bunnies and candy never took away the unhappiness.

I felt relief after I began studying the spiritual, psychological, non- dual, mystical and metaphysical book, ‘A Course In Miracles’ where the concept of resurrection is more prominent than crucifixion because as eternal beings our soul never dies.  There is no death of the Self we share with God.  The body dies because we are mortal. Being mortal we have a split mind with a treacherous ego that crucifies ourselves (like Jesus was crucified) and/or others non-stop with doubts, judgment, war and attacks. Jesus in the Course told the scribe, NY Columbia Presbyterian Psychologist Helen Schucman, that he is our equal and elder brother, “The miracle is a sign of love among equals. Equals should not be in awe of one another because awe implies inequality. It is therefore an inappropriate reaction to me. An elder brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience, and obedience for his greater wisdom. There is nothing about me that you cannot attain.   I have nothing that does not come from God. The difference between us now is that I have nothing else. This leaves me in a state which is only potential in you.” Text Chapter 1.II.3.4-12.

He assures us that he and the Holy Spirit are always there for us. “I go before you because I am beyond the ego. Reach, therefore, for my hand because you want to transcend the ego. My strength will never be wanting, and if you choose to share it you will do so.” Text Chapter 8.V.6 7-9.   If we take his hand he is there to share his strength. He is the Christ but so are you and I and everyone, whether we accept it or not and equally loved by God.

At this time we need a strength that is not of this world.  Many brave people are in the trenches, the Doctors, Nurses, medical staff, sick patients, relatives, friends and you and I are with them. The hand of strength, grace, and faith is there for us, for you whenever you are despondent or fearful.  It is waiting by your side, with arms ready to hold you up and kissing the top of your head when you pray. That love is made exquisitely clear in the poem ‘I am There’ by James Dillet Freeman. He is sometimes known as “the poet laureate of the moon” because two of his poems are on the moon. ‘I Am There’ was taken by Astronaut, James B. Irwin in 1971 and ‘Prayer for Protection’ by Lunar Commander ‘Buzz’ Aldrin in July 1969. His poems of assurance are circling above us on the Easter Moon, blessing you and me and our World this spring.

I am There

Do you need Me?

I am there.

You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by.

You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice.

You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands.

I am at work, though you do not understand My ways.

I am at work, though you do not recognize My works.

I am not strange visions. I am not mysteries.

Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know Me as I am, and then but as a feeling and a faith.

Yet I am there. Yet I hear. Yet I answer.

When you need Me, I am there.

Even if you deny Me, I am there.

Even when you feel most alone, I am there.

Even in your fears, I am there.

Even in your pain, I am there.

I am there when you pray and when you do not pray.

I am in you, and you are in Me.

Only in your mind can you feel separate from Me, for only in your mind are the mists of “yours” and “mine.”

Yet only with your mind can you know Me and experience Me.

Empty your heart of empty fears.

When you get yourself out of the way, I am there.

You can of yourself do nothing, but I can do all.

And I am in all.

Though you may not see the good, good is there, for I am there.

I am there because I have to be, because I am.

Only in Me does the world have meaning; only out of Me does the world take form; only because of Me does the world go forward.

I am the law on which the movement of the stars and the growth of living cells are founded.

I am the love that is the law’s fulfilling. I am assurance. I am peace. I am oneness. I am the law that you can live by. I am the love that you can cling to. I am your assurance. I am your peace. I am one with you. I am.

Though you fail to find Me, I do not fail you.

Though your faith in Me is unsure, My faith in you never wavers, because I know you, because I love you.

Beloved, I am there.

And

The Prayer of Protection

The light of God surrounds us;

The love of God enfolds us;

The power of God protects us;

The presence of God watches over us;

Wherever we are, God is!

Please visit the A Course In Miracles website – http://www.acim.org and especially lessons 40 through 48.  Lesson 47. God is the strength in which I trust.   Hold that in your heart and know that you are LOVED.

Lesson 40: I am blessed as a Son of God.

 

Guilt: The “gift” that keeps on giving until…..

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Guilt: The “gift” that keeps on giving until…..

The bad news: guilt never gives up.

The good news: you have the power to stop it.

Have you noticed that guilt just doesn’t go away? You observe it but it creeps back again and again and you continue to deny it and let it go but there it is, back again. “I thought I forgave that.” Guilt is the leaky faucet. You think you’ve turned it off but it drips, drips in the background of your thoughts. Where is it coming from? It seeps under the surface like an oil slick on a beautiful beach. Guilt is the energizer bunny with an eternal battery that never runs down and in fact continues to be energized until you look at it with the love, your inheritance, in your mind.

ACIM Workbook Lesson 4. These thoughts do no mean anything.

We believe the thoughts that run through our mind and 99.999% come from the ego (the false self) and that is why they don’t mean anything. But we believe these thoughts. The ego’s job is to keep you from Love and in a state of constant guilt. It feeds guilty thoughts at every opportunity and never wants you to turn against it. We have a split mind. You choose which split, which side to listen to and believe. We can choose between the ego’s ranting and judgments or choose to listen to the voice of peace within (the right mind) the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit that is always available.

Judgment is the origin of all guilt. Our first judgment was a selfish one according to A Course In Miracles; we separated from God at the moment of the “Big Bang” in choosing the ego. It turns out that was a “mistake” (really never happened) because when we chose the ego, we threw God away. But…..it never happened because it is not possible to separate from the God; the God written about in A Course In Miracles that is.

We believe the ego and think we have separated and that is at the crux of our pain and anger. We blame God for the separation instead of ourselves.  We made up a false “god”, a punishing, warring, petty vindictive god who angrily threw Adam and Eve out of the garden. Ask yourself: Would a loving God do that?   The ego set itself on the ‘god’ throne and we listen to it and obey it. Guilt was born. We are bereft, thinking we threw away our innocence and will never get it back. We either accuse and blame ourselves or project blame onto others, i.e. those guilty and sinful ones. The ego keeps rubbing the guilt wound with self-doubt, blame, selfishness and shame.

Guilt is insatiable. You are its hostage until you decide to be Host to God instead. We need loving help in looking at it.   The Course tells us to hold the hand of love that comes from your right mind i.e. Jesus or the Holy Spirit and say “Please look at this guilty thought with me because I want to see it differently.” Visualize a tight grip on a warm hand. When we hold love’s hand and listen, a thought of understanding will come. Maybe tears will come but those tears will dissolve the “blocks to the awareness of love’s presence” that the introduction to the Course describes. Believe and trust that forgiveness will come. We need to forgive ourselves for the separation from God……which never happened because it is IMPOSSIBLE! The thought of Truth will be gentle and embracing.

When a guilty through crosses your mind, say: “This thought does not mean anything. The past is over; I have no need of this. I am One with God.”   This is a critical conscious decision; a statement of choice that you will no longer listen or believe the ego. You are a “Decider”, a Holy Son of God and you have the power to no longer let the ego abuse you. You are Host to God and not hostage to the ego.

If you haven’t started them, I recommend the Course In Miracles Workbook lessons. The first lessons deal with letting the past go; focusing on the thoughts that bring pain and realizing they are not of God. There is a lesson for each day and the introduction to the workbook will help you begin.

It is a wonderful adventure. Just do a lesson each day and if you don’t understand it – keep going – don’t let the ego sabotage you. If you don’t understand a lesson, just keep going because the “light” will dawn eventually.

The Love within you will defeat guilt. It is a power within that is your natural inheritance.   Accept God’s peace and joy as yours. Your salvation is up to you.

www.acim.org  (history and what it says)

www.miraclecenter.org   (to find a study group near you)

Experience the mystery of God!

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“The most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the source of all true art and science. He whom this emotion is a stranger who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, can’t know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive form, this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religion.” Albert Einstein

The time has come to liberate ourselves from the ego and experience God!  God is Love the exact opposite of the ego.

How many of us blame things on God? For example we say that something that happened must have been God’s Will or God’s Plan? Even the Insurance Industries describe disasters as “An Act of God”!  Is an earthquake, a forest fire or a hurricane an act of God?  We could blame an earthquake on the shifting of tectonic plates or forest fires and hurricane’s on Global Warming BUT that would mean pointing the finger at ourselves.

Some people don’t like to mention God these days because that mystery, whatever it is, now seems to be out of favor like an old computer or girdles.   Only the people who are politically on the far right or are religious fundamentalists get to believe in God.   But, I’m a liberal, I’m on the left and I believe in God!  I know other liberals who believe in God aka the Creator, Yahweh, a Supreme Being, or the Great Mystery.  Atheists don’t think there is such a thing and they may be right but I bet when push comes to shove and they are in trouble they say “God Help.”

In The Course In Miracles,  Manual for Teachers,  20. (pg. 51) What is the Peace of God, states: “It has been said that there is a kind of peace that is not of this world.  How is it recognized?  God’s peace is recognized at first by just one thing: in every way it is totally unlike all previous experiences.  It calls to mind nothing that went before.  It is a new thing entirely.”   The past just slips away and in its place is everlasting quiet.  Only that.”

Our busy ego mind does not like quiet.  Are you aware that your mind is always running on some life theme, a problem or fear of the future?  The Manual goes on to say “God’s peace can never come where anger is, for anger must deny that peace exists.  Who see’s anger as justified in any way proclaims that peace is meaningless and must believe it cannot exist. Therefore, forgiveness is the necessary condition for finding the peace of God.”

This is probably why people don’t think God exists.   We enjoy our anger too much to forgive.  If we enjoy the anger we won’t forgive so our minds are busy hating and never quiet enough to allow the experience of God, which the ego mind does not want you to have anyway.  So it keeps the anger going and the idea of forgiveness never enters and our chances of experiencing the quiet which allows the peace of God is hijacked!  We don’t think God exists.  We do not have to allow or give the ego thoughts that kind of power.  When the thought comes just say “that is not what I choose to think.”  ” I no longer want to hate and be angry.”  Or This I do not choose!

We can give up anger if we want to.   We can and will have the experience of the peace of God if we are willing to do that.  When we give up anger we are forgiving, letting go and choosing peace.  We give up attacking, judging or condemning  and we experience the quiet mind and the peace of God.  Replace attack and judgment with love.

We can *silence the ego and the Course indictes that we can  because it states:  “How is the peace of God retained once it is found?  Returning anger in any form will drop the heavy curtain once again and the belief that peace cannot exist will certainly return.”  So this indicates that we can and will experience God, as we work on giving up anger, and sure enough when anger returns we will feel that heavy curtain again.

“Stop for a moment now and think of this: Is conflict what you want, or is God’s peace the better choice which gives you more? A tranquil mind is not a little gift. “The memory of God comes to the quiet mind.” 

We need to decide to forgive everyone and everything including the world!  “Forgive the world and you will understand that everything that God created cannot have an end, and nothing He did not create is real.”  God created you and you are as real and as eternal as He!  Yes, bodies die but never the eternal spirit that you share with God, as his Son.   God did not create the ego, the false self, He created His Son as Spirit like Himself.

His, God’s Will is without opposite.  His Will is yours.  “The mighty Will of God Himself is His gift to you.  He does not seek to keep it for himself.  This is your heritage.  God’s peace is the condition for His Will.  Attain His peace, (let go of anger and forgive) and you remember Him.”  And you will experience the “radiant beauty” Einstein suggested in the above quote.

*One way to silence the mind is to do the Workbook lessons.  This self study program helps identify the ego and leads you to the mind you share with God.

You are LOVED!!

A Course in Miracles – Manual for Teachers,  #20. What is the Peace of God. Page 51

http://www.acim.org

http://www.facim.org

http://www.miraclecenter.org

 

Open Your Mind: Open Your Heart

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Does an open heart, open the mind or does an open mind, open the heart?

Maybe it doesn’t matter which one happens first, but for me, when I’m waiting in line at the market feeling anxious because the line is slow, my mind is locked, closed and my heart constricted. That is why having a practice in watching the mind helps because when aware of the “agitation” I can say “I want to see this differently” and with that I am open to the Souls who share the line with me and let go and relax. I can see the silliness in spending energy on something trivial like agitation. I want and choose peace, inner peace. The Course In Miracles tells us the goal of the Course is inner peace and the workbook lessons certainly guide us in helping to look at the blocks we have put up to keep peace away, and as it turns out LOVE too. The ego is the culprit but it is ONLY a thought.  The ego has a game plan:  Keep You Upset, guilty and miserable!  It is JUST a thought and PLEASE do not believe it.

Monitoring your thoughts and mind is the key to freedom: How do YOU feel? Are emotions in charge of you or are “YOU” in charge of them via your Mind?  We have to look at the emotions not to indulge or believe them but when we ” look”, which is part of the forgiveness instructions, in What is Forgiveness link below, they dissipate like smoke on a windy day. We no longer live from them or let them run aka ruin our lives unless it serves us somehow.   There are those who like an emotional state of anxiety and fear because they think it keeps them motivated but it is not good for the health of the body, which we need in order to go through the lessons we came here to learn and it is also not good if inner peace is our goal.

We don’t have to believe our thoughts just because we think them. An example is my boss told me he’d like to see me in his office for a meeting the next day at 2 pm. I hadn’t a clue what it could be about but I can tell you thoughts ran rampant through my mind, and they were not all good thoughts. What could it be? Maybe I’d be fired or asked to resign! Well, it turned out I received a compliment and a promotion! All that energy spent in worry, fear of the future, fear of the past! Everything but: “Right Now, all is well.” Ahhhh…..right NOW….all is Well. This instant is the only time there IS! Everything else is my projecting into the future and the ego fear running amok.

As students of the Course we are told we are the Christ, a Holy Son of God and Jesus our elder brother will guide us, if we take his hand and invite him in. Share all your emotions and thoughts with your elder brother. He awaits your invitational prayer – this is one I use:

“Jesus Christ, Holy Son of God, Dear elder brother, please guide my heart and mind and help me look at and remove the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is my natural inheritance, as I journey to the Home and Father, I never left.”

I try to repeat this whenever I am upset about something and especially when I can’t sleep at night because I’m ruminating about a worry; a meeting I dread; a bill to be paid; someone I need to forgive but don’t want to. Unlock your mind and look at all those thoughts with your loving elder brother; let him give you a thought to replace the ones you think are true…..and your Heart will Open.

Click on these links and click on the arrow, “play” and have it read to you – close your eyes.

ACIM: Introduction https://acim.org/acim/what-it-says/

Workbook Lesson 185. W. pg. 348. I want the peace of God. https://acim.org/workbook/lesson-185/

What is Forgiveness –W. pg. 401 https://acim.org/workbook/what-is-1/

You are worth it because you are LOVED!

 

Identify with Love and you are safe

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In A Course In Miracles Workbook lesson #261 – God is my refuge and security, W.pg 426,  we are gently guided to see God aka LOVE as our security blanket in all situations.  Yes, you can even suck your thumb if needed!

My youngest son used to drag his security blanket, an old white one that I continually had to make smaller because of the ragged condition, until it finally became the size of a small towel.  He would hold the blanket under his arm with his thumb as his comfort.  Sometimes he would have “White-ie”, our white cat tucked under his other arm.

So like him we can use God as our security blanket or whatever we imagine God to be, placing Him in a safe spot to carry around during the day.

If you read in the Workbook pg. 425, What Is the Body?  Jesus tells us in the last paragraph:

“You will identify with what you think will make you safe  Whatever it may be, you will believe that it is one with you.  Your safety lies in truth, and not in lies.  Love is your safety.  Fear does not exist.  Identify with love, and you are safe.  Identify with love and you are home.  Identify with love, and find your Self.”

As you go throughout your day, driving, waiting in line, working, walking or exercising, project LOVE out at the world and everyone and everything.  Just look and with your powerful mind…..beam LOVE!  Love is our Security Blanket in all situations.

Beam love at yourself in the morning mirror!  Beam it at anyone  you are holding a grudge against; your boss, old girl or boy friend, a Politian and remember what you are Holding in your MIND you are identifying with, be it hate or love or fear!

Go to http://www.acim.org and click on lessons,  you can “hear” the lesson read to you, close your eyes and take it in.

You are Precious, LOVED and constantly surrounded by the LOVE of God whether you recognize it or not.  Just say:  “I am Loved!”

God Blesses you!

 

 

 

 

Good Politics: The Service of Peace

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If you are depressed over the current politics in our Country I want to share with you a hopeful message!  I am not a Catholic but I honor all messages of inclusion and peace for You, Me, Everyone and the World!

I recently watched a video called “Pope Francis, A Man of his Word.” If you need some inspiration I highly recommend it.  The 52nd World Day of Peace was January 1, 2019. Pope Francis’s message was:

“Good politics is at the service of peace.”

He made several points but the first was “Peace be to this house.” What he was saying was “peace for our family, our house, our communities, our country, our continent and importantly our common home our world.”  Here is the link to his message to paste in your browser:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/peace/documents/papa-francesco_20181208_messaggio-52giornatamondiale-pace2019.html

Here is a summary of what he said that was so inspiring for all people of Faith regardless of their religion of spiritual beliefs and especially as our politics take the stage for the next year and we watch the debates and delve into the upcoming election we might keep his thoughtful recommendations in mind.
He expanded on several pertinent points by suggesting that “charity and human virtues along with service of human rights and peace be the basis of politics. He suggested those running for office should recall the “Beatitudes of the Politician” which were proposed by Vietnamese Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyễn Vãn Thuận, who died in 2002.
Here they are:

Blessed be the politician with a lofty sense and deep understanding of his role.
Blessed be the politician who personally exemplifies credibility.
Blessed be the politician who works for the common good and not his or her own interest.
Blessed be the politician who remains consistent.
Blessed be the politician who works for unity.
Blessed be the politician who works to accomplish radical change.
Blessed be the politician who is capable of listening.
Blessed be the politician who is without fear.

He suggests that every election and re-election, and every stage of public life, is an opportunity to return to the original points of reference that inspire justice and law. One thing is certain, “good politics is at the service of peace. It respects and promotes fundamental human rights, which are at the same time mutual obligations, enabling a bond of trust and gratitude to be forged between present and future generations.”
Watching it was like a breath of fresh “political air.” If we look for and vote for those who from all appearances, seem to hold these values we would have leaders that we, the world and future generations deserve.

He also brought up political vices: dishonesty, self-service, corruption, exploitation and denial of rights and plundering of natural resources for the sake of quick profit to name a few. Good politics inspires and promotes participation of the young and trust in others and fosters confidence that we can all work together for the common good.

Politics at the service of peace finds expression in the recognition of the gifts and abilities when everyone contributes his or her gifts to help build trust especially in our times marked by mistrust and rooted in fear of strangers. The world has a need for security rather than nationalism and division.

There is a need to reaffirm that peace is based on respect for each person, whatever his or her background.  Peace entails a conversion of the heart and soul; it is both interior and communal; and it has three inseparable aspects:

1. Peace with oneself: Rejecting inflexibility, anger and impatience; by showing “a bit of sweetness towards oneself” in order to offer “a bit of sweetness to others”;
2. Peace with others: Family members, friends, strangers, the poor and the suffering, being unafraid to encounter them and listen to what they have to say;
3. Peace with all creation: Rediscovering the grandeur of God’s gift and our individual and shared responsibility as inhabitants of this world, citizens and builders of the future. When any of our brothers and sisters suffers we are all affected. God sees with his heart. Even the atheist shares the same love. Maybe that’s the only common bond we all have, the bond of God’s love. Other than that we are free, even free not to love Him.

Here is more inspiration:

Lesson 194: I place the future in the Hands of God. (paste the link in your browser)

Lesson 194: I place the future in the Hands of God.

 

 

To everyone I offer quietness because I want it for myself. When I give I receive.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Are you running on Ego-matic?
The other day I was tooling along not watching my thoughts (as the Course of Miracles asks us to do) but one finally got my attention. It didn’t feel good, it was: “Why doesn’t she do something with her hair?” What part of my mind would care about something as insignificant as someone’s messy hair and why?

When our thoughts run unnoticed, they can easily jump to egomatic. This is not a word my computer thesaurus recognizes but I know what it means. It means senseless; usually condemning; mostly ugly; and always a thought of judgmental ego separation. The mind has been programmed from birth into two columns: love and fear. Everything not from love is in the fear column and that amounts to hundreds perhaps thousands of distinctions. The ego has an endless list. The choice is simple: Heaven or Hell.

When practicing the mindfulness of the Course In Miracles we are in the “heaven” column. We are looking through the Self, i.e. the eyes of Christ, of love, with kindness and accepting of what is. If we ae on egomatic, we are in the “hell” of darkness, believing our misshapen thoughts are true.

Thinking someone has messy hair is up to me. No one can make me think anything. When I think a thought of love, what am I giving/receiving? If the thought is condemning what am I giving/receiving? What I give OUT, I also receive IN.
When my thinking is judgmental: I’m the one with the problem; I feel separate and alone; and in believing it is true, I’m also receiving guilt. That’s why I didn’t like the feeling.

We don’t realize what we do to ourselves, our soul when we place a judgment on someone. Instead of giving the thought away, projecting and getting rid of it, we are in effect keeping it, and making it our problem plus getting a dose of guilt. I judge her for being “messy” but I must also be “messy” in order to know what it is. Projecting is a trick my ego plays to get rid of my messiness by seeing it in someone else. It doesn’t work, I still messy.

In A Course In Miracles, Lesson 108. To give and receive are one in truth.
P.2. “True light that makes true vision possible is not the light the body’s eyes behold. It          is a state of mind that has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all.”

Isn’t that the state of mind you want to live in? When you catch the silly judgments think what this lesson reminds us to do. Simply say:

             “To give and receive are one in truth. I will receive what I am giving now.”

Do I want to receive the judgment I am dishing out? The lesson goes on in paragraph 8.

P. 8.  “Then close your eyes and for five minutes think of what you would hold out to          everyone, to have it yours. Say:
           To everyone I offer quietness;
           To everyone I offer peace of mind;
           To everyone I offer gentleness”

Wait. How do you feel? What you offered will come back to you in the amount that you offered it. That is giving and receiving. Instead of offering judgment or “messiness” to my friend I now offer acceptance and that is what returns to me.  Offer quietness daily to keep control of your thoughts and how you are feeling.

Check yourself by asking: “how do I feel?”   I was in hell judging my friend’s hair when I realized I didn’t “feel good” and that feeling of being in “hell” helped me see the egomatic thought process.

We have been trained well throughout our formative years and adult lives. But now I can awaken to the fact that my thoughts have consequences on me. We are told that stress causes illnesses. Where does stress come from but our thoughts? This lesson gave me the chance to change my mind and offer quietness to everyone. And when I did, I received quietness.

Go to http://www.acim.org – Workbook Lesson 108 – click to have it read aloud to you!

Remember: You are the Light of the World and God IS the LOVE within your Holy Mind!

God is your Hard Drive

IMG_8935Workbook Lesson 44. God is the light in which I see

The Course in Miracles Workbook has 365 lessons. These lessons are our pathway to peace. Knowledge is not the goal of the Course. Peace Is.

In Lesson 44. Jesus tells us that we cannot see in darkness but we also cannot make light. God is the light in which I see because God is in my Mind.

We can and do make darkness with our thoughts and misperceptions. The world is a place of darkness and it distracts us constantly with the chaos of war,  sickness, death and disaster.

Jesus tells us we think we see in the darkness of the world.  But light reflects life and is therefore an aspect of creation. Creation and darkness cannot coexist. It is like trying to mix water and oil.

Light and Life do go together being aspects of creation.
“In order to see, you must recognize that light is within, not without.”

Workbook Lesson 43: God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him
Perception is not an attribute of God. His is the realm of knowledge. When we link to our Hard Drive, our computer chip aka God and Light, our perceptions will become so changed and purified that it will lead to knowledge…..and inner peace.

The light INSIDE of you is TRUE. Light is understanding, it is vision – not the perceptions our stray thoughts and judgments that wander in and out of our awareness.

The equipment for seeing (God and Light) is INSIDE of your MIND.
“An essential part of this equipment is the light that makes seeing possible. It is with you always, making vision possible in every circumstance.”

You cannot be WITHOUT God. He is your equipment. He is the computer chip the Processor, Ram, Memory and Hard Drive in your MIND.

You share HIS MIND. The Mystery that is God, is within your mind, Eternal, it can never die, you can never die, death is impossible because your Spirit and Mind is forever shared with God.

With God as the Hard Drive, the Light within, your Identity as Spirit is one with Him.

Workbook Lesson 44. Paragraph 7. Let go of every kind of interference and intrusion by quietly sinking past them. Your mind cannot be stopped in this unless you choose to stop it. It is merely taking its natural course. Try to observe your passing thoughts without involvement and slip quietly by them.

You are letting the LIGHT guide you, God is your Source, You cannot see apart from him.

Go to http://www.acim.org

Listen to these lessons and you will realize that God is your Hard Drive, the eternal computer chip that is always PART of YOU.

You ARE LOVED!