miracles

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!

 

 

 

Feel Loved this Year

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You are loved!  Most of us do not allow ourselves to feel it.  Why?  Don’t we believe we are lovable?  You ARE loved, warts, gifts and all!  Give yourself the gift of feeling it.  Really feel it.   Go to a silent place within, close your eyes and feel yourself being held, as if you were a small child again.  Feel yourself being rocked gently and a soft hand stroking your cheek and telling you that you are loved.  Feel the care and sweetness in your heart.  That is how God loves you.  Your spirit is love and as bright, as soft, pure and innocent like this blossom.

I invite you to go to the A Course In Miracles website and listen to Lesson 109, I rest in God, being read to you as you close your eyes.

Here is the link to paste in your browser:   https://acim.org/workbook/lesson-109/

The Course offers 365 lessons, one for each day of the year.  We being at lesson number 1 and  read a lesson per day and on the 109th day of the year we learn we can and DO rest in Love, in God and can be at Peace.   We just need to accept it.  At the end of the 365 lessons you will never be lonely again or feel unloved…….when you remember your true identity – God’s Holy Precious Son.

Happy New Year!

Peace is Release – Release is Peace

 

IMG_2998The Course In Miracles says that each decision that you make is one between a grievance and a Miracle.  Every decision is actually a judgment!  Every thought can be one of inclusion or exclusion.  The inclusive thought brings inner peace.  The exclusive thought brings separation and guilt.  It is hard to believe that a judgment can bring guilt but it does.  We heap guilt upon our souls with every seemingly insignificant harmless judgmental thought.

But guilt is not harmless.  It ego eats at your soul.  The ego is addicted to  “sugar” – and its sugar is judgmental thoughts, grievances, grudges, jealousy, resentment, worry and the distraction of controversy.   The ego seeks to keep you in guilt rather than in the arms of the Holy Spirit and Love.  You will never be happy until you look at the ego and examine its hold on your life and how it colors your perceptions.  The ego is not your friend. and its job is to make you miserable and feeling separated and alienated.

When you feel the gnawing sense of un-ease in your gut, just retrace your previous thoughts.  What situation or judgment has you by the throat?  What is it about?  Is it a worry a gripe or a grudge against someone, a relative, friend or possibly yourself?

Just LOOK at the unease.  Bring all the details into awareness and imagine holding the hand of the Holy Spirit.  Say:  “Look at this with me.  Help me see it differently.”  When we share all the details with the Holy Spirit we are taking it out of the ego’s clutches.

Now Wait!  You have brought it to awareness.  It is no longer festering below in the unconscious ready to percolate to the surface at a moments notice.

This Looking help with the RELEASE.  The release is the process of letting go.  You have given it to God.  Breathe into the letting go to speed it on its way.

The RELEASE comes with looking and by passing the ego.  The ego is no longer in charge of the gripe or the grudge or the upset.

Release is Peace!  Peace will arrive!  The grudge, grievance will lessen and at some point you will laugh at the silliness you put yourself through.  We do it to ourselves!

See: A Course in Miracles lesson 78.  Let miracles replace all grievances. 

” Perhaps it is not quite clear to you that each decision (judgment) that you make is between a grievance and a miracle.” 

You are LOVED!!

Visit:  http://www.acim.org  – click on workbook lessons

 

 

Am I a Body or Spirit?

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We are born into a body, in a particular family of certain circumstances but we seek the answer to the age old question:  Who am I?  We learn (gradually) we are much MORE than a body.  We are NOT who we THINK we are!  Many spiritual paths lead us to our true identity and ultimately HOME!

The Course In Miracles, tells us we are Spirit and little by little we come to understand that YES, that is true.  Our eternal spirit does reside in the body for now.  I have come to learn lessons that my Soul needs to learn.  So whatever lessons come – they are the ones I need to learn.  They are important lessons and once I have learned them I get to go HOME.  I am happy to learn them!  Well……some lessons I may not like  – BUT if I know those lessons will help me – why wouldn’t I want to deal with them.  I am happy to be in a body because it allows me to BE HERE NOW!  We are really caretakers (or not) of our Soul-Spirit and so let us be loving caretakers of this eternal jewel within.

However, as the lessons come, I am helped immensely when I REMEMBER I am in fact SPIRIT.  With that knowledge I can be at peace!  The more I remember, the more peace I will have.  When your body has a problem, which it will, it is a chance to say:  NOPE – NOT ME! My body has a problem but I don’t!  Yes, I will take care of the problem but I always have that inner gentle smile that says “I am an eternal Spirit.”

We take care and “fix” the body and do whatever we can to stay in the world and learn soul lessons that are sure to come.   A elderly friend became sick recently and the sickness was such that she decided NOT to “fix” her body!  That was courageous but I know the time will come when I will make that same decision.  I will know what the right thing to do is when that time comes.  I will leave knowing I did the right thing as the eternal Spirit I am.

Workbook lesson 199. I am not a body. I am free, is a wonderful lesson to explore the feelings of not being the body.  You can go to http://www.acim.org and click on lessons and then close your eyes and listen quietly to let it sink in.

Remember, you are a decision making Mind!  You have the power to choose!  You have two choices:  Love or Fear.  You can listen to the ego’s fear or listen to the Holy Spirit’s grace and faith. It is that quiet voice inside and it always brings peace!

Isn’t it great to know you have a CHOICE which voice to listen to?  That is why you are not a victim.

http://www.facim.org – Lesson 199 –

“I am not a body.  I am free. 

I hear the Voice That God has given me, and it is only This my mind obeys.”

God Blesses YOU!

You Are Pure Consciousness

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“The mind of an enlightened human being is flexible and adaptable. The mind of an ignorant person is conditioned and fixed.”  Ajhan Sumedho, ‘Don’t take your life seriously’, Buddhist Publishing Group

As a student of non-duality, a friend recently loaned me the above book. Ajahn Sumedho. Ajahn, (“teacher” in Pali) was born Robert Karr Jackman, July 27, 1934, in Seattle. He is the senior Western representative of the Thai forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. A bhikkhu since 1967, Sumedho is considered a seminal figure in the transmission of the Buddha’s teachings to the West.  During the Korean War he served for four years from the age of 18 as a United States navy medic. He graduated in 1963 with an MA in South Asian studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Per Wikepedia

A Course In Miracles has many similarities with Buddhism and the one that stands out from all others is our judgment of ourselves and others. I don’t know about you but I’ve been fixated on politics, our nation and world conditions since the January changes in government. Chaos and change happens in our lives and that creates nervousness and anxiety, the opposing poles of inner peace.   Ajahn says the world is: “just the way it is!” Accept! We are not at peace when we judge anyone; feel superior or inferior to others.”As Babies we were not born with a self-view. That is developed over our lifetime. We therefore become a “created concept” and we suffer and seek answers to the suffering.

Whatever our self-concepts are we are not that!  When we choose, we can acknowledge innate pure consciousness to receive wisdom. Wisdom operates through the marriage of awareness joining with consciousness. Suffering is the theme in The Four Noble truths. Judgment is suffering. As we become aware of pure consciousness, judgments shift and soften: “so it is” or “like this” to pure subjectivity. The ego personality says: “I like this or I don’t like that.” It is my choice then, should I get caught up in the annoyance, suppress it or try to change it? I know I want my way but can I be assured that will bring me peace? Until I can accept the world is just ‘like it is’ and ‘what is just – is’, I am the one choosing to suffer. Buddha called it Dukkha.

When you say: “I AM pure consciousness uncreated” your mind is at rest. Say it slowly with eyes closed. Say it slowly with eyes open. Pure consciousness does not have a sex, nationality or a world view. It means, I AM – not a permanent body; rather I am eternal, consciousness. Consciousness is behind awareness and when melded spark an awakening experience, like the Buddha, or Christ .

Contrast this with the impermanent, unsatisfactory “not self” that we think we are. The idea of “me and mine” created out of ignorance and separation from pure consciousness. The personality and life circumstances always change. You don’t stay the same person as the ego personality is reactive.   Old age is another seeming failure but pure consciousness does not age. Awareness transcends the conditioned ego state. If we continue to give our allegiance and beliefs to the ego rather than to our natural pure awareness, we will suffer – until we tire of it.  We can see seek refuge in awareness and pure consciousness.

As we look at national and world conditions, be aware and say: ‘so it is.’  The Course calls it our script.  It just is and we can view it through the ego i.e. suffering or Awareness i.e the Holy Spirit.  Consciousness is stainless, it cannot be contaminated. I am reminded of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, working for peace yet staying in pure consciousness throughout the tumult of his life and Jesus who assures us we are “As God Created Us” and not the thing or ego we created.

Perhaps we will become enlightened as insanity propels us to approach pure consciousness; non-attachment vs pure hell.  The Holy Spirit within that is the alternative voice to the ego.

As the months and years unfold, our mindful practice, whether with Buddhism or A Couse In Miracles workbook lessons, will guide us to the wisdom and peace available at the center of our One luminous being.

See A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson 45. God is the Mind with which I think

http://www.facim.org

http://www.acim.org

http://www.miraclecenter.org

 

Give up the grudge & grievance

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It is hard to believe that our grudges, grievances, worries and envious thoughts do us

more harm than good.  That is because they hide the light.

We actually hide it from our selves.

We are the culprits and are the victims of our own thoughts!

Our mind is as twisted as this snag on the Pacific Crest Trail.

Today devote some time to bringing all dark thoughts to

the Light within.  Shine the light on them and honestly look at how they hurt

your beautiful Mind.  Do they make you happy?  Do they bring you peace?

Recognize the light of Truth is within YOU and no where else.  Replace all attack

on others or yourself with acceptance.  It is as simple as not believing the thought!

As long as we attack and judge we cannot know the Light and we are keeping

ourselves in misery and away from salvation.    Say the following:

“I will there be Light.  Darkness is not my will” and allow Peace to flow over you.

You are Loved!

http://www.acim.org

http://www.facim.org

 

The Elusiveness of Peace and Joy

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The Elusiveness of Peace and Joy!

Do you want peace and joy?  Of course you do.  As least you think you do until you have a judgment or an upset that you won’t let go of.   You are upset because something was done to you and you feel you are in the right and the offending party should go to hell.  Or places like that.  Right?  OK – Let’s say you are right but do you still want peace and joy?  You can’t have it if you want someone to go to hell or hold onto an upset that you will not consider in another way.

I know someone who is holding onto a grievance.  He was actually attacked, pushed up against a fence and would have been hit if someone hadn’t interfered.  Why did the perpetrator assault him?  He had responded to an insult with his own insult and that angered the attacker and so he took matters into his hands, literally.  Who started it?  It doesn’t matter.  What matters is how we now find the peace that eluded us the first moment we reacted.  That will be the subject of another article and an important one but for now let’s look at how we can obtain the peace we want.

We have not found peace by remembering and replaying the event because we are stuck in our thoughts and we are sure we are in the right.  But are you happy being in the right?  Would you rather be right or happy?  Currently whenever we see that person or think of them we are unhappy.  Ask yourself: Do I want peace and joy?

If the answer is YES, then decided to STOP believing the set belief you have in your mind (just for a moment) and choose another way to look at this?  Say:  “OK – I’ll look at this another way for the sake of my own peace.”

*“Begin to think of that (person) brother who has been denied by YOU the peace and joy that is his right under the equal laws of God.  You have denied them to yourself and now you claim them as your own. Think of this brother a little while and tell him in your mind:

My brother peace and joy I offer you,

That I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.”

We don’t think that just because we have denied peace and joy to someone that in so doing we are in effect really denying them to our self.  If you hold hate or a grudge in your mind, you are the one HOLDING the hate and the grudge in yourself.  You are the sufferer.  Do you think your brother is suffering?  We don’t know but we do know you are.

Would you rather say to that brother?

My brother, misery and suffering I offer you

That  I may have the ego’s misery and suffering as mine.

Which version do you choose?  If the word God bothers you, take it out.  God won’t care.  That mystery is love and love never condemns.  It doesn’t know how to.  Make a copy of the pledge and paste it around the house.  Take yourself on as a student and train yourself to accept that peace and joy is your inheritance and that you are worth it.  You are worth it and you will experience peace and joy when you offer it to others and especially to the one you are upset with or have judged or who has offended you.

* The above quotes come from the spiritual book, A Course In Miracles, Workbook lesson 105 God’s Peace and Joy are Mine.  Visit  www.acim.org  go The Workbook lessons and then when the lesson comes up, click on “hear” and listen to the entire lesson and close your eyes.   Choose peace!

Hint: When you give you also receive!

Can we ever agree?

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Yes we can!  Agreement happens when we find common ground on SOMETHING!
The gift is in finding what that SOMETHING is that we can agree upon!
When we are in agreement there is peace.  Where is peace when we disagree?
Eventually when we master the Course In Miracles we will have PEACE even when “disagreement” is seemingly before us.
The Course says “See love or the call for love.”
As we learn to master the Course, little by little  the judgments are fewer.
They gradually become challenges to find shared values rather than separation.
I wanted to share the link below of Professor George Lakoff of the University
of California Berkley.  He explains why we disagree and has an example of how
we can learn to find common ground and become more agreeable!
It is 27 minutes  interview with Tavis Smiley of PBS  (if you cannot open it just google
Tavis Smiley)
 
Professor of Cognitive Science, George Lakoff, UC Berkeley:
 
“Teach only love, for that is what you are.”  A Course In Miracles Text Chapter 6. Section I, 13.

You are a Decision Making Mind

 

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You are a decision making mind!  Right?!

However, you are a decision making mind that has decided it is NOT a decision making mind!  At least not all the time and here is why.

IN our world of illusion we have a split mind: the ego and the right mind which the Course calls the part of the mind we use to access the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the Love within.  Observe your mind when it is on automatic.  There are thoughts of worry, envy, judgments, fear, and also thoughts of appreciation, a friend, a loved one, clouds or spring flowers, raspberries, chocolate, or coffee.  Understand that there are various categories of ideas, thoughts running helter skelter, hither and yon and where are you?  If you are following your ego lock, stock and barrel you are not using the right mind.  You are off course!  The Course in Miracles, tells us our egoic thoughts are not out real thoughts.  Our real thoughts are the thoughts we share with God, with love.  It also says the memory of God comes to the quiet mind.   Suicidal thoughts are NOT the thoughts of God.  They are painful thoughts of the false mind, the ego.  You are NOT the ego.

The Course In Miracles has a workbook of 365 lessons, one per day, that trains us to see through the clouds and reclaim our decision making mind and the light that you are.  That process helps us learns to make the choice between the ego and the right mind.  It is a journey without distance.  You don’t need to travel to see a guru or take a workshop but you will be led by a quiet voice of love within.  The journey is inner, it is between your Self and the Love within that will hold your hand the entire time and for all time.  Take the journey with the intention and determination that you are doing something very Holy.  It is truly a mind training and life changing journey and you will succeed.

Take the journey to your real home.  Start at lesson number 1 and read one every day no matter if you understand it or not.  Keep going!

When you get to lesson 35 you will read: “My mind is part of God’s I am very Holy.”

Keep going – your decision making mind is in charge!  You are on your way HOME to the true Self!

www.acim.org – look at the lessons and the text

www.miraclecenter.org – find a study group in your area.

www.facim.org – lots of wonderful books by Dr. Ken Wapnick

The Light Has Come

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The Metaphysical/Spiritual book called A Course In Miracles contains a year long workbook study that offers a lesson for each day.

You can start the lessons anytime you want but be sure to start at lesson #1, as they follow a mind training process that is powerful and helps us see through the world and the illusions that make us sad, angry, depressed, anxious, happy at times, sadness over death, destruction, injustice and more.  I believe the Course has brought many back from the brink of suicide and hopelessness because it did for me.

Would you like to forgive the world?  It may not seem that you need to but the world has a way of showing us what we dislike as well as what we like.  The world is dualistic.  It contains the opposites that we judge as good or bad!  We can give up our suffering by  forgiving everything and everyone and when we do we ultimately know the inner Light that is our true identity!

Below is a link to the lessons.  Today’s lesson #75.The Light Has Come.

The lessons can be read but they are recorded so you have the option of sitting back, closing your eyes and have the lesson read to you!

Go to http://www.acim.org

On the Left column click:  Online Lessons

Click on Workbook table of Contents

Choose 75

Enjoy being the Light that you are and see it everywhere!