Being in the Flow
Awareness of dreaming
Dec 30th, 2009
Today I was aware of dreaming. I just flowed happily along in a detached way as I drove my wife to Boston, where she had a very positive experience showing her art work. As I looked at cars and people, they no longer had a sense of hard physicality about them, which I found to be refreshing and fun. Everything unfolded perfectly.
But when we got home at about 3:30 I realized that I had lost a lens from my sunglasses somewhere during the ride home. Then I opened my e-mail and found that my son had requested that I deposit some money in his bank as he was about to overdraw his account. This set up clicked with me as I remembered that his bank and my bank each had branches in Goffstown. I felt certain that I would find my lens if I went to back Goffstown.
Tags: Forgiveness
Sickness - The Big Picture
Summarized from David Hoffmeister
Dec 29th, 2009
All apparent symptoms of sickness are the result of an attack thought, the attempt to project unconscious guilt stemming from the belief in separation onto the body. The mind believes it is guilty; and it is so determined to hang on to that concept, that sickness seems like a small price, because sickness is a witness that the body can tell the mind how to feel. It is a witness that smallness, that vulnerability must be true. The deceived mind so much wants to be right about being a separate self that it uses the body as proof. The sick body is the witness that it calls to the stand.
In the miracle it is seen that the mind was mistaken about what it thought it was; it no longer sees that it is in the body and no longer needs to see the body as a symbol of sin or as proof that separation is real. That is where the patient can rise up in the miracle and say, “I have no need of this.” Because the decision is seen to be a decision of mind and returned to the mind. The body is no longer victim.
The Choice for Health
My experience
Dec 29th, 2009
The initial thoughts are summarized from A Course in Miracles, Lesson 136.
The Truth is whole and gives me everlasting life. Truth wants to give me happiness. I am not a body; I am free, for I am still as God created me.
But my wrong mind is attached to body identification, to war and vain imaginings. My mind is deluded. When truth arises I perceive it as a threat and defend against it. I use sickness as a defense against the truth, as a way to hide reality. A defense takes parts of the whole, sees them as wholes within themselves, and assembles them into an illusion, which stands as an attack upon the whole.
This is the process: When truth arises I instantly perceive it as a threat, decide to defend against it by falling sick, believe I am sick, and forget having made this decision. My sickness then seems to have come from outside and to be beyond my control. My not remembering that I made the decision is the sign that my decision is still in force.
My apparent sickness proves to me that I am a body and that I am separate from the truth. I suffer pain because the body does. This little pile of dust can even command me to die, proving that it is more powerful than God.
I believe the illusion of me being a sick body because I made it up. It has nothing to do with the truth of my creation. Truth merely wants to give me happiness.
The illusion of time lets me think that what God has given me is not the truth right now. Yet what God Wills is here, and I remain as He created me. I can find the truth any time I want to.
I introduce truth with a healing prayer:
Sickness is a defense against the truth. I will accept the truth of what I am, and let my mind be wholly healed today.
Healing will flash across my open mind, as peace and truth arise to take the place of war and vain imaginings. My mind is healed. And now the body is healed because the source of sickness has been opened to relief.
The body should not feel at all; its usefulness remains and nothing more.
I maintain my health by watching my mind for attack thoughts (The mind cannot attack; only a body can attack and I am not a body) and for making plans that assume I have a bodily identity.
And this is my experience:
Last night I was convinced I had caught a nasty flu and collapsed on the couch. I tried telling myself that I was Spirit and that sickness was not possible, but it wasn’t working.
I put more genuine desire into my mind. I told myself that I reversed my decision to be sick because I had no need of it. I repeated, "I have no desire to be a separate, weak body when I am Spirit. I am God’s Son, complete and healed and whole."
Then I seemed to be given a hint: the thought that by lying down I was demonstrating that I was sick. I thought: I learn by teaching and I teach by demonstrating. So I got up and demonstrated my health by shoveling the snow off the driveway. While shoveling I told myself: "I am not weak, but strong; God’s Will for me is perfect happiness; I accept God’s Will for happiness for me; God’s Will is wholly without opposite; I am sustained by the Love of God; I want the peace of God."
The symptoms disappeared. The choice for God is the choice for health. I am filled with gratitude for this miracle.
Attentiveness to Spirit
Paying attention over the holidays
Dec 28th, 2009
This letter is from Kirsten Buxton, a Messenger of Peace with Awakening Mind.
Dear Friends,
Christmas seems to be a time where extra vigilance is required to stay right-minded. Expectations to see or call relatives and maintain past associations come into the mind, providing many opportunities to ask the Holy Spirit to ‘decide for God for me’. This is the perfect time to strengthen in the Spirit, to choose to look at the motivation behind each call or connection, and to honestly observe ‘how do I really feel’ before, during and after these interactions. The ego sets the relationships in this world up, and so they do involve reciprocity and guilt. With the purpose of awakening, each interaction and communication must be for the purpose of forgiveness; otherwise the purpose is maintaining guilt. And this we do not want.
I am here at `the Ashram' in NewCastle with Melanie, Michael and Karen during this Christmas time and we have joined together in prayer around all decisions regarding who to contact and how long each visit or encounter will be. This prayerful approach gives a framework for mind-watching that is very supportive. With reference points, such as feeling connected to a mighty companion, together we join to see the resistance to following Guidance, and the ‘add-ons’ to the Plan which lead away from being present with the Spirit and feeing connected to our Source.
Because the Path we have chosen involves an authentic awakening, the Spirit does not guide us to indulge (oh well, it's just one visit so I'll just go along with whatever happens) or avoid (I don't want to deal with specialness so I'll avoid it altogether). Guidance from the Spirit is individualized, and will be given to support what is most helpful right now for seeing and releasing guilt and specialness from the mind in an authentic way that leads towards lasting peace.
It is easy to see afterwards which interactions felt like the old way, and so we have had ‘debriefing sessions’ after each encounter. These little adventures are great ways to see the subtleties of people-pleasing and the thoughts or temptations that arise that lead to falling into old patterns and old ways of relating. The patterns I'm referring to here are ones that are like an automatic pilot way of being – such as deferring or taking control as a defense (way of coping) – neither of which feel like the Grace of the Spirit. Other patterns may be offering to help out or say yes to invitations that are not Guided. I heard a great analogy of the Holy Spirit the other day, being like a GPS system. You're never wrong or lost, because the Spirit can always recalculate to bring you back on track. However, the less that commitments made with the ego have to be undone to realign with the Spirits Plan, the easier it is on the mind.
We had a conference call with friends around the world today who are doing the Mystical Mind Training Program, and they shared many miracle stories and experiences of mind-watching and heart-opening experiences over Christmas. It is such a joy to join with devoted brothers and sisters, it feels like we are all linked, arm in arm!
The transfer value of attentiveness to following the Spirit's prompts is huge – it is the perfect way to move into a ‘new year’. The potential for joy is unlimited!!!
With love and happiness,
Kirsten
Tags: Awakening Guilt Relationships
Peace of God
His Will is wholly without opposite
Dec 26th, 2009
The peace of God is the simple understanding that His Will is wholly without opposite... Now is the mighty Will of God Himself His gift to you. He does not seek to keep it for Himself. Why would you seek to keep your tiny frail imaginings apart from Him? The Will of God is One and all there is. This is your heritage. The universe beyond the sun and stars, and all the thoughts of which you can conceive, belong to you. God's peace is the condition for His Will. Attain His peace, and you remember Him. M-20.6
Tags: Awakening
Oneness
My mind/Christ Mind
Dec 26th, 2009
My mind can never be lost. "In me is His Creation sanctified and guaranteed eternal life."
I have been playing a game of mind asleep, of self-deception, of separation. I have found no real enjoyment in this.
Undoing Linear Time
David Hoffmeister
Dec 19th, 2009
Hypothetical thinking is the whole problem, that things could somehow be different from how they are. Thinking that the future can be different than the past keeps you stuck in time. The script is written. Only handing over what you see to the Holy Spirit will get you out of time. Learn to give time over to the Holy Spirit and you shorten time for everyone. See it completely differently, in the now. There are no problems right now. They are all time-based, all hypothetical; the future is the past. Seeking to change the world is seeking to change the past. “I see only the past.” W-7 It is over and gone. The mind fears future consequences; protects the body. We believe there is safety where there isn’t safety.
But the whole thing is a trick. What if you set aside your fear of consequences and live from love? The ego spun out the linear script. But to the Holy Spirit, time is simultaneous. The Holy Spirit is about the collapse of time in the holy instant and that is brought about by desire. You do nothing, let your mind rest. Stillness is energizing; this is a complete reversal of the thinking of the world.
Demonstrate You Are Not an Ego
Bill Thetford's example
Dec 18th, 2009
Frances Vaughan speaks of a particularly important aspect of Bill's acceptance:
One of Bill's gifts was a presence that enabled people to grow. He was very accepting. He never tried to impose his own views on anybody. I would describe his way of being as an absence of personality noise. He created a safe place for people to be who they were. He was definitely very attentive to whomever he was with; it was as though he didn't need to take up any room. By making a space for you to fill up, he made you feel that you could just be who you are.
Tags: Ego
Vision
Lesson 158
Dec 14th, 2009
"Into His Presence would I enter now," W-157 ushers in the experience of the joy of life, a touch of Heaven. This experience leaves me with an awareness of perfect Love, [metaphorically] a transformative vision of Christ's face, that I can offer everyone. The Holy Spirit has dreamed this journey for me.
In Lesson 158 Jesus gives me a gift--Christ's vision! This is the point of the lesson. "Our concern is with Christ's vision. This we can attain." Unlike the revelation of Oneness, I can learn vision. "Today I learn to give as I receive." I demonstrate vision in order to learn it. Jesus explains it clearly:
Have a Happy Day
Dec 12th, 2009
Your day is not at random. The script is written. There is no freedom from what must occur.
This is not a problem, however, because you do have freedom in whether or not you experience happiness. Your happiness is linked to how you make decisions.
Two must be joined before there can be a decision; so you always ask advice before any decision is made. Your happiness is set by the counsel of the advisor you choose to make the decision with.
Three Songs
Resta Burnham
Dec 11th, 2009
Be lifted up, high above the ground. Be lifted up where holiness looks down
and shows you that the battlefield of angry ghosts was never real,
and shows you all is in your mind: The world's a mask you hide behind.
Be lifted up, into a higher place. Be lifted up, beyond all time and space.
Let Spirit teach you how to see, the miracle will set you free
from images that never lived, that disappear when you forgive.
Be lifted up, into the quiet truth that lets you share love's gentle point of view,
where fragmentation is undone within the wholeness of God's Son.
A different world then shines with peace when grievances have been released.
Be lifted up into your holy home. Behold the light of glory that's your own.
Remember Who You really are, the Child of God, safe in His heart.
Remember that He ever sings this song to lead you back to Him.
Be lifted up. Be lifted up. Be lifted up to God.
Tags:
The Script is Written
Condensed from Awakening Mind
Dec 09th, 2009
Life seems to be linear: the past is behind me, here I am now, and I’ve got certain things to deal with in the future. But the Course teaches that the script is written. W-158 The script is past and over. It is like watching a movie. It is not an interactive thing. It just seems interactive as long as it is perceived to be fragmented and to not be over.
During that tiny instant of madness, all of the perceptions that ever could be were spun out. The script is written, over and done. In the Rules for Decision it says there is no way of avoiding what must happen. It is not a question of free will. Jesus says that my will does not have anything to do with this world; my will is in Heaven. My will is complete happiness in my Father’s Will. It doesn’t meaningfully translate to the world. My will seems to be imprisoned while I am in this world. We can’t equate that with choice.
Tags: Ego Forgiveness Miracle Time Vision
Watching My Mind
The process
Dec 08th, 2009
I pay attention to what I am thinking and feeling. I notice when I am not at peace and ask myself what is causing my upset. I often think my upset is caused by a person, event or situation.
I am wrong. I need to remember that I am never upset for the reason I think, that the reason for my upset is never in form.
Tags: Body Ego Forgiveness Guilt Judgment
His Holy Sinlessness Itself
Thank you
Dec 06th, 2009
I got out of bed today and went right to my morning meditation. I was thinking time was short because there were three things I wanted to get done before 8:00AM. In meditation, I kept trying to let go of them, become still, and focus on spirit. But my mind kept drifting back to what I was planning to do.
I finally became frustrated—a sure signal to me that I needed the Holy Spirit’s help. I became still and asked sincerely for that help, went above the battleground, and had a serious talk with myself. What is important here? What is it for?
Tags: Awakening Forgiveness Guilt Miracle
Go Deeper Within
Selections from David Hoffmeister
Dec 04th, 2009
When progress in meditation and peace of mind seems slow and frustrating, this is always a Call to go deeper within. There is a tremendous fear of looking within, for the ego has convinced the sleeping mind that God will punish those that have “left” Heaven.
Christ teaches in the Course:
