PTSD

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!

See Love or the Call For Love

See either Love or a Call for Love

792117b3-73b6-4b15-a99d-cfa35fbc7325[1]

The United Nation’s International Day of Peace is Saturday, September 21. Imagine all the people in all Nations of the World stopping for 24 hours to think about Peace! Peace with other countries, counties, family and neighbors! We don’t have to hate. Do we? Do we have to judge or condemn? If a trusted adult tells us that others are offensive we may tend to believe them especially when we are young. We are taught and most of us believe and accept but we certainly don’t have to. For example my mother was prejudiced against a certain race. I had played with some of these kids at school and liked them so I did not accept her belief but I did obey her and not go to their house. As it turned out my sister married a man of that race and low and behold, she changed her mind. A mind is a beautiful thing to change. Mom was a lovely person but she accepted her conditioning and passed it on. It reminds me of the Roger’s and Hammerstein South Pacific song, “You have to be taught.” But we do not have to accept society’s teaching. Hate is a choice.

Could it be that a part of our mind enjoys hate? Think about how you feel when you are in the “hate” emotion. Doesn’t it make you feel strong and powerful and above all right! Years ago I worked in an office with a young man who was mentally impaired. He was from a rich family and he annoyed me and I disliked him. Looking back after years of spiritual work I wondered what that was about. I think I hated him because he reminded me of my own mental impairment. I always thought I was stupid! We project onto others that which we have inside yet do not want to see or admit. It is projected out and seen elsewhere but heaven not in me! When I think of him now, I send love to him wherever he is and I believe his soul receives it. I know mine does.

Hate and anger are harmful to the hater in many ways.  Have you ever tried to be nice when you didn’t want to? What does that type of mental activity do to the brain/body? Check out the Every Day Health website, https://www.everydayhealth.com/news/ways-anger-ruining-your-health/ this site document from various studies, the side effects of hate and negative emotions on the heart and brain, creating stress hormones causing depression and even inflammation.   The ego is the “Master Judge” in our mind that runs our lives until we understand we are in fact miserable and see through the fog and decide to change our thoughts and choose peace. The ego very wisely uses projection and hate as a road block to love. We choose the ego until we decide not to. We however have a choice because we are a decider!

Hate is offensive.  When we see angry people it is very ugly and distasteful. We feel a churning inside. TV and movies offer a heavy diet of violence and hate an onslaught to the nervous systems.   To be honest we need to admit the hate we see reflected in the world outside, is also within. If we can admit that then we are no longer in conflict and it dissipates. Instead of pulling the “wool” over our eyes we just look honestly and in looking, it dissolves. If we don’t fight it or put up obstacles we avoid a pile of buried guilt being placed deep within the psyche to emerge unexpectedly, which it will. Look squarely at the angry person and see either love or a call for love.

Try it. You will access a place of peace. You do not need to say aloud “I love you” merely think it.  Your mind is choosing love instead of the ego’s automatic response of disgust or hate.   Anger is their momentarily condition but not their reality. In giving love, you receive it. You don’t know what or if you will “do or say” anything.  The situation will depend on wisdom within from the higher Self within.  You can always think LOVE.

This quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “To defeat an enemy, make him a friend.” You could also say “To defeat “my(ego)self”, make myself a friend and see love or a call for love.”

If I exclude love from others; I am excluding love from myself. With compassion we no longer condemn.

We are the same, we all ONE people. The Spark of the Divine is within everyone, so I challenge myself to look for it in others and REMEMBER…..It is also with ME!

A Course In Miracles, Lesson 187 – I bless the world because I bless MYSELF.

http://www.acim.org   (click on workbook lessons)

 

Am I a Body or Spirit?

Reno July 2014 095

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

IMG_1876

“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

 

The Elusiveness of Peace and Joy

IMG_1854

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!

New Year Promise

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

January 3, 2017!!

What a trickster time is!

“For what is time without a past and future?  It has taken time to misguide you so completely, but

it takes no time at all to be what you are. Begin to practice the Holy Spirit’s use of time as a

teaching aid to happiness and peace.  Take this very instant, now, and think of it as all there is of

time.  Nothing can reach you here out of the past, and it is here that you are completely absolved,

completely free and wholly without condemnation.  From this holy instant wherein holiness was

born again you will go forth in time without fear and with no sense of change with time.” 

The above quote is from A Course In Miracles, Chapter 15. The Holy Instant, Section I. The Two Uses of Time, p.9. 2-7.

And what are you?  The ego is a trickster, it uses time to age us (we think we are bodies); heap regrets and guilt; plant the seeds of self doubt and or grandiosity; keep us in fear of the future by reminding us of the dreaded past and we are suffocated by grievances we have promised never to overlook or forgive.  The ego doesn’t know what you are!

But to know who you are, chose to use the Holy Spirit’s practice of accepting the holy instant as soon as you become upset and remember “God Is” present at this very moment – your mind is free.  Sometimes when I am aggravated, beyond words I repeat “God Is” quickly, about 10 to 20 times!  It shifts me from the ego to the Holy Spirit, from Hell to Heaven.  Does it last – no!  But gradually, little by little, I have Faith that I am ascending the ladder and One Day, One Fine Day,  I will reach True Perception and the Real World.

My New Year’s Promise:  To use the Holy Instant and remember when upset, to STOP and take that very instant and think of it as being “Out of Time”- no past, no future, just God Is, God Is, God Is!  This is what the Course calls the Atonement: Remembering that the “seeming” separation from God is an illusion!  Not True!

When I remember God Is, I cannot think of hurting myself because I want to be in the Holy Instant, In Peace where eventually I will reach the Real World of True Perception.

Bless you in 2017 and for that matter – for eternity!

For more information about the Course check the following websites:

http://www.facim.org

http://www.acim.org

http://www.miraclecenter.org

http://www.circleofa.org

I bless myself when I bless you

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The title of Workbook Lesson 187 in A Course In Miracles is:

I Bless the World because I Bless Myself.

The lesson begins: “No on can give unless he has.  In fact, giving is proof of having.”

If you are depressed it is time to send Blessings to Yourself and the way to do that is to bless someone else too!  When you give LOVE to someone with your thoughts you are holding LOVE in your mind!   Therefore you are also receiving that love!

We make room for thoughts that bless someone or something then we share in that blessings in our mind and heart.  If you don’t have anyone to bless, what about your favorite flower, tree, river, lake, mountain, the world, teacher, coach, dog or cat?  When we send a blessing i.e. LOVE then we also bless ourselves wherever we are right now!

Bless yourself for all the thoughts of love that you have ever extend to friends and family.  Extend love to the person you saw standing in line at the grocery story who you judged as _________ (fill in the blank) by sending them message now.   A simple little thought like -“I saw you there and my ego judged you but now I withdraw that thought and see you as a Holy Son of God that you are.”

Since you send the blessing you have right now blessed yourself.  You have also blessed the world because you powerful mind sent a the powerful thought of LOVE and acceptance.  The Course says all minds are JOINED at some level, so just know your loving thought was received not only by that person but to others – the whole enormous family!

In the Course, Chapter 1,  Page 14 in the text:

            Perfect love casts out fear.   If fear exits, there is not perfect love.  But

          Only perfect love exists.  If there is fear, it produces a state that does not exist.

Your perfect love casts out not only fear but all the worries, doom, gloom you are holding onto in your life.  Let it all go and the way to do it is to LET LOVE IN…..NOW.

Visit

http://www.acim.org  and click on Lessons to see lesson 187

God Bless!

 

 

Can Peace Be Found in this World?

img_1267

When we look out at the world, the problems, the Presidential Election, no matter which one you like or dislike…..and we wonder……where is the PEACE?

Peace can be found but IT is not found in the world.  Well you say, what about the quiet stream and the birds singing and the flowers and the walk in the woods.

Yes, some remnants of peace can be found in the world BUT…..for how long?  Snippets at a time.

Then what are your thoughts about as you sit by the steam?  What are you thinking about?  When you took the kids fishing and….. OH….and that son is now dead.  Where is the peace?

Peace can only be found when we FORGIVE EVERYTHING and FORGIVE OURSELVES from thinking I am a separate little EGO and a lonely little person and instead remember:

“I could choose peace instead of this thought.”  Then the thought doesn’t matter.  Yes that son is now dead but A Corse In Miracles says there is no death in this world.

This world is not REAL.

Yes, this world has betrayal, upsets, even fun, excitement, danger, competition and strife but the only way to BE in the WORLD but NOT of IT is to remember with the help of that tiny small voice found only inside:

RISE above the BATTLEGROUND……this is NOT ALL THERE IS.  Yes you may be looking at devastation but this world is not REAL.

PEACE is within and what is found within is that still small voice that reminds you there is TRUTH and it is not here…..but it is REAL.  God IS

Peace can be found in a Spiritual Path….that is where GOD IS.

There are thousands of Universal paths….and they all say “The Son of God is innocent.”

One path to Peace is: A Course In Miracles  –

http://www.facim.org  (Ken Wapnick books and tapes found here)

http://www.acim.org

http://www.miraclecenter.org   (You can find a list of the world wide study groups on this website)

world

Love or Hate – which will it be?

IMG_0686

During this political season you probably “hate” one candidate and “love” the other?

Right?

We harbor both within our Mind however, our true identity is attached to light and love.  Therefore “hate” is the intruder into your beautiful mind.

But you are the boss!  You can decide not to hate anyone – including yourself.  You have that POWER!  You are the decider!

Say: “I refuse to hate myself or anyone – it makes me miserable and I let all the grudges and judgments GO!”  Really!  You can do this.  Why do you hold onto the old grudges that make you miserable.  Do you like being miserable?  Nope –  so let it ALL Go!

It is that EASY!  TRY IT!!

For example – Decide you will be happy for the next hour!  Look at the clock – write down the time.  State your decision….I will let go of thinking about _______ and worrying about ______ or fretting about ________.  I will spend the next hour releasing and breathing and focusing on being pleasant.

The spiritual book, A Course In Miracles advocates forgiveness for inner peace.   However the Course sees forgiveness as looking at whatever or whomever is bothering us and finding it within ourselves.  We project onto others what is in fact within our mind and thoughts.  So if you are angry with Donald Trump because he is a rude bully – find the rude bully in you.  See the “content” and aspects of being a bully and rude within – even if it is only in the way you “think” but would never say aloud, and sure enough, it is there so now we can let it go.  If you hate Hilary Clinton because she is not trustworthy, look within.  Are you trustworthy?  Really?  When were you not trustworthy?  Don’t go to guilt because that is ego territory.  In “looking” you are forgiving  and awakening. Try it with all those worries and little annoyances you listed above.  Then you are free!

Try it!  You have the Power and the Time is NOW!

If you or a friend are considering suicide please do one little thing:

Read Lesson 360 from A Course In Miracles

LESSON 360

Peace be to me, the holy Son of God.
Peace to my brother, who is one with me.
Let all the world be blessed with peace through us.

Commentary:

Workbook Companion Commentary: Lesson 360

1 Father, it is Your peace that I would give, receiving it of You. I am Your Son, forever just as You created me, for the Great Rays remain forever still and undisturbed within me. I would reach to them in silence and in certainty, for nowhere else can certainty be found. Peace be to me, and peace to all the world. In holiness were we created, and in holiness do we remain. Your Son is like to You in perfect sinlessness.  And with this thought we gladly say “Amen.”

And visit http://www.circleofa.org and click on “Miracle” and read the lessons that tell you the TRUTH about you.  You are God’s child not the ego’s.  You are a Holy Son/Child of God having the experience of being and living in a body and are here to learn lessons, forgive and be joyous!

 

 

 

 

Peace of Mind is an internal matter

IMG_9619

 

“Peace of Mind is clearly an internal matter.

It must begin with your own thoughts and then

extend outward.  It is from your peace of Mind

that a peaceful perception “of the world arises”

A Course In Miracles Lesson 34.  I could see Peace Instead of this.

W. 34 P. 1.2 – 4

We think peace comes from anywhere but our own Holy Mind.  We seek

peace in places of solitude, a quiet path through the woods or perhaps

having tea with a friend.  But it is our thoughts that either create peace or

chaos.  We may have a quick judgmental thought and then realize it does

not bring peace.  When that happens just notice it and forgive.  Don’t go

to guilt.  The Course says the “ego always speaks first” and it does!  So

What?!  Get back to into the peace of the Right Mind and tell yourself

“I could see peace in this situation instead of what I now see in it” and

peace will return.

It may be hard to believe that peace comes from within yourself but

watch your thoughts and you will be surprised and realize that

YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF WHAT YOU THINK!  IT IS UP TO YOU!

http://www.acim.org – Workbook Lessons – Lesson 34.