solace

Peace and Joy Are Available

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If you are contemplating suicide it is because you are replaying hurtful events in your mind.

We do not find peace by remembering and replaying hurtful events because we are stuck on automatic!  Are you happy being stuck in a belief?  Even if it WAS your fault you may think you are “right.”  Does being right make you happy?  Even if it was your fault you think you are wrong and suffering guilt!  Are you happy being guilty?  Or, even if it WAS NOT your fault, remembering and replaying the past still does not make you happy!  Ask Yourself: Do I want peace and joy rather than guilt and grievances?

If the answer is YES, then decided to STOP replaying the past!

It is up to you……yes YOU!

You can choose to look at it another way.

Say:  “OK – I’ll look at this another way for the sake of my own peace.”

Begin to think of the people involved (or the situation) and realize that you are denying peace and joy that is their right (under the equal laws of God.)  You have ALSO denied peace and joy to yourself.

Think of that:  If you hold a grievance against someone….it is held in your MIND!  You are trapped in the grievance with them.  Are you happy?

Think of the people involved a little while and tell them in your mind:

My brother/sister/myself:  peace and joy I offer you,

That I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.”  (Include yourself in this prayer.)

We don’t think that just because we have denied peace and joy someone else that we are in effect really denying peace to our Self.  If you hold hate or a grudge in your mind, you are the one HOLDING the hate and the grudge so you are the effect of your own suffering!

Do you think your brother is suffering?  We don’t know but we know you are.

Would you rather say to that brother?

My brother/sister/myself: 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 of love is that it 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.

* This quote comes 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 click the lesson selector. You can also click “hear” and listen to the entire lesson and close your eyes.   Choose peace!

Hint: When you give you also receive!

Quite your Holy Mind

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The Course in Miracles tells us that the memory of God comes to the quiet mind.  Is your mind quiet?  Do you want it quiet?  If so, then why isn’t it?

This is an age old question but the answer is simple:   We can’t have a quiet mind if we are judging people.  Judging is the ego’s primary goal and it keeps us in separation and guilt.  We cannot enter God’s Presence alone.  We need to take along our “brother” (the brother we are judging) which means the ACCEPTANCE of Him/Her/Them i.e. everyone.

We are judging people if we cannot accept them as Holy and therefore we are outside of holiness as well.

Look at the judgments and above all – do not judge yourself for making them or the ego has you by the throat.  When you judge yourself (good or bad) you are making the error (the ego and the body) real.    When we hang onto the hate, grievance, upset we are keeping it, the ego’s hate ALIVE!

But we have a purpose in keeping the grievance ALIVE?

When we see the other person, in our dream as separate and split off, they serve as scapegoats for the part of our self we do not want to accept or recognize.

If you don’t see others as holy…..you are not holy.

Judgment is purposive.  It keeps us unholy and bound to guilt.  If we were holy we would be One with God, with Love and we would disappear.  Our individuality would be zero.  We are afraid of Love.  We want to stay unholy, keep the ego and our judgments in order to stay in the world and be FAR away from God….away from Love.

Freedom lies in looking at the hate with Jesus/Holy Spirit beside us.  This is a Course in attaining the light by looking at the darkness.  We expose the darkness by taking gentle steps.  Look at it and going to the quiet center with Holy Spirit say

“I see this anger/hate/fear/grievance, but I don’t want it anymore.  It is keeping me away from peace, from God and from Love. Help me see it differently.  Help me recognize it is a projection, it is not real, this is a dream and a script I chose to experience when I * separated from God.”

Peace is attained by each one of us looking and undoing the hatred in ourselves.  Self-hatred creates guilt and guilt protects us from love.  Joy is finally recognizing you are FORGIVEN and all GUILT is GONE!

*  We NEVER left God.  We just think we did when we chose the ego.

You are HOLY whether you think you are or not and you are LOVED.

Reference: A Course In Miracles – Chapter 11. God or the Ego, Section III. From Darkness to Light.page 198.

http://www.acim.org

http://www.facim.org

 

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

 

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!

New Year Promise

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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 AM COMPLETE, HEALED AND WHOLE

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Note: You may not believe the statements below, you may not accept or welcome them but do not allow yourself (the ego mind) to question or judge them.  Merely repeat over and over several times a day, while falling asleep or upon awakening or anytime you find your mind wandering.   The purpose of repetition is that eventually you WILL believe.  The ego will try to convince you otherwise to keep you from ascending the ladder to be HOME free!

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice!

How do you attain inner peace?  Practice, practice, practice!

CHOOSE ANY STATEMENT THAT “FEELS RIGHT” AND REPEAT SEVERAL TIMES A DAY, WHENEVER DEPRESSED, HAVE SUICIDAL THOUGHTS OR WORRIED ABOUT ANYTHING.  PRINT THE STATEMENT OUT, CARRY IT IN YOR POCKET AND TAPE IT TO YOUR BATHROOM MIRROR!

  • I AM COMPLETE, HEALED AND WHOLE.
  •  I  AM SPIRIT, A HOLY SON OF GOD.
  • I AM ONE WITH GOD.GOD IS LOVE AND THEREFORE SO AM I.
  • GOD GOES WITH ME WHEREVER I GO. GOD IS IN MY MIND.
  • GOD PUT THE HOLY SPIRIT IN MY MIND TO ANSWER PROBLEMS.
  • RECOGNIZING I HAVE A SPLIT MIND, IN THIS DUALISTIC WORLD, I CHOOSE THE HOLY SPIRIT IN MY RIGHT MIND, NOT THE EGO.
  • IN QUIET I ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR HELP – NOT MY EGO.
  • WHEN I GIVE LOVE TO EVERYONE I FEEL THE LOVE THAT I AM.
  • I AM LOVED, I AM A MIND, I MOVE FORWARD WITH CONFIDENCE BELIEVING IN THE STRENGTH OF MY SPIRIT AND GOODNESS.
  • I AM NOT GUILTY OR A VICTIM THE EGO WOULD HAVE ME BE.
  • I AM A DECISION MAKING MIND, AN INNOCENT HOLY SON OF GOD WITH POWER TO CHANGE MY MIND ABOUT THE WORLD.
  • INNER PEACE IS IN MY MIND – I CHOOSE PEACE NOW.
  • FORGIVENESS IS: RECOGNIZING PAINFUL THOUGHTS AND LOOKING WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, ASK TO SEE IT DIFFERENTLY.
  • IN MY DEFENSELESSNESS MY SAFETY LIES.
  • I CAN BE HURT BY NOTHING BUT MY THOUGHTS. I THEREFORE CHANGE MY THOUGHTS AND CHOOSE PEACE.
  • I EXCLUDE NO ONE FROM MY LOVE.
  • I AM ALWAYS HELPFUL AND HARMLESS IN ALL THINGS.
  • YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE IN GOD, BUT GOD BELIEVES IN YOU AND LOVES YOU!

The above was inspired from the Spiritual/Metaphysical book: A Course In Miracles

Visit:  www.facim.org or

http://www.acim.org or

http://www.miraclecenter.org

Who Are You?

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Are you aware of every thought that shows up and runs through your brain?

Yes you are and it is this that makes you despondent or depressed.

You are listening to the ego which is not WHO YOU ARE!

You are consciousness itself – aware – looking out through the eyes

of the Holy Son of God that you are?  You may not believe this however

how many times have you been misled by the ego?

You are not your thoughts or your beliefs.

You are innocent because God does not create guilty people.

Only the thoughts you think with God are your True thoughts.

The rest of them ignore!
The ego says you are guilty. Guilty for “thinking” you left God.

We are born into the world and we “think” we left God but that

is not true.   We have silly thoughts and we believe them and we separate

ourselves from others and God and then wonder why we feel lonely.
Your ego would have you believe you are not part of God. But…..

How can the wave leave the sea?

He is in your MIND – how can you leave your MIND?

You cannot leave the Mind you share with God.

You cannot leave God.  Isn’t that wonderful to know?

See A Course In Miracles and read lessons 59 and 60  –

These lessons are all about your relationship with God.

This is where you will find the solace you seek.

http://www.acim.org