Quote of the Week: March 27, 2011

Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem. Is it not madness to think of life as being born, aging, losing vitality, and dying in the end? We have asked this question before, but now we need to consider it more carefully. It is the one fixed, unchangeable belief of the world that all things in it are born only to die. This is regarded as “the way of nature”, not to be raised to question, but to be accepted as the “natural” law of life. The cyclical, the changing and unsure; the undependable and the unsteady, waxing and waning in a certain way upon a certain path,—all this is taken as the Will of God. And no one asks if a benign Creator could will this.

Manual for Teachers, 27,1

At the source of all illusions is the concept of “death.”  It is an idea so ingrained into our awareness that it forms the central theme of all our thoughts, and activity.  To us it is a given, an undeniable, unavoidable, and apparently obvious fact of life:  that all things that have a beginning have an end; that the goal of life is death.   We can all agree that we do experience life as cyclical, changing and unsure, undependable and unsteady, waxing and waning, and finally ending in the dramatic transformation we call death, but what we fail to question is whether or not this concept and its experience is true, or even makes any sense.  If we agree that our lives end in death, then God, who created us in his image and likeness must also be subject to death.  But this cannot be for it directly contradicts our basic understanding of God’s nature, namely:  all powerful, all knowing, and all present, which all testify to His eternal nature.  Furthermore to believe in death is to believe that God is cruel and vengeful, as opposed to benign, benevolent and caring.  

 

Clearly there is a glaring flaw in the idea that death is the goal of life.  But let us examine this concept from our common experiential level by asking the question:  Does anything really die?  What becomes of a tree or a human being when it “dies?”  We need not consider the “Soul” in our analysis, because it is an accepted fact that it continues on after “death”, so we have only to consider the physical material parts that remain, which slowly decomposes into their component elements.  Is it not more accurate then to say that what we perceive is not a death, but simply the deconstruction and subsequent transformation of one life form into another.  This is a process that is constantly going on in and around us, which we simply call growth, or evolution.  As time passes each of us grow from being a baby, to a child, to a teen, to a young adult, to a mature adult, to a senior, with each stage arising from the previous and giving foundation to the next.  And in each of these transformations we could say that the previous stage “died” to give birth to the next stage, but instead we simply say that one stage grew into the next.  The only difference between this and the more dramatic transformation we call “death” is that in the case of humans, we don’t easily perceive or know what the next stage of transformation is.  But for another species, the caterpillar, we are able to perceive the next stage which is the creation of the butterfly, where it is clear that there is no death, only an elegant and continuous process of growth.  

 

From still another perspective, all religions state that there is something after “death,” something happy or something unhappy, but in either case “something” exists after “death,” so where O’ where death is thy fearful sting, which we seek so desperately to postpone as long as possible?  Even science which understands everything to be energy or more correctly vibrations, declares in its first law of thermodynamics that the total quantity of energy in the universe is a constant; that no energy can be created or destroyed, and that all life is simply the transformation of energy from one form to another. Clearly this fundamental belief in death has no real foundation, for it is found wanting from every perspective.  

 

Perhaps it is not so much death that we fear, but much more the aftermath of death, what religions call final judgment.  Aha that indeed would be something to be feared, but only if we believed in a vengeful and punishing God.  For those believing in a loving and compassionate God, final judgment is a welcomed homecoming; an event for celebration; a reunion; the return of the long lost prodigal son to his father; indeed, the awakening of the holy son of God.  

 

So be not saddened by the idea of death my siblings for it is but an illusion, a dream that engenders fear in those who see it not as an illusion.  The wise, however, recognize it for what it is and therefore grieve neither for the living nor the “dead,” knowing both to be illusions that arise and fall like waves on the ever stable and unmoving ocean of eternal bliss consciousness that is God.  God suffices because there is nothing else that exists but Him.  God is dependable unavoidable and inescapable for He is One, and never changes, even while appearing in all the infinite multiplicity of forms in creation.  You and I are part of that unchanging multiplicity, so we too are One with each other and One with Him.  In scientific terms, in the mathematics of infinity: One + One = One, and in the immortal words of the Upanishads:

Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman, the totality); 

Tat Tvam Asi (you too are that totality);

Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma (All this is Brahman, the totality).

Purnam adah purnam idam purnat purnam udachyate
purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavashishyate
(That absolute existence is full; this relative existence is full;
from that absolute fullness, this relative fullness comes out. 
Taking fullness from fullness, what remains is fullness.)

Quote of the Week: March 13th 2011

Recognize what does not matter, and if your brothers ask you for something “outrageous,” do it because it does not matter. Refuse, and your opposition establishes that it does matter to you. It is only you, therefore, who have made the request outrageous, and every request of a brother is for you. Why would you insist in denying him? For to do so is to deny yourself and impoverish both. He is asking for salvation, as you are. Poverty is of the ego, and never of God. No “outrageous” requests can be made of one who recognizes what is valuable and wants to accept nothing else. 

ACIM Chapter 12,III,4

 
The distinction between what is valuable and what is valueless is an important one.  It is easy to relinquish the invaluable when it is recognized as having no value, and easy to cherish what is valuable when it is recognized as such.  But if the distinction is not correctly made, there is a potential to treat that which has great value as though it was valueless, and to treat that which has no value as though it was valuable.   For one who knows this distinction, his path is clear and simple:  keep what is valuable and release what is valueless.  Certainly you would have no reason to deny a request of someone who asks you for that which you recognize to be valueless.  He requests it because he believes it to be of value, so if you refuse, you would be agreeing with him that his request is valuable, and so are joining him in his inability to correctly distinguish between the valuable and valueless.  Therefore:  ‘Recognize what does not matter, and if your brothers ask you for something “outrageous,” do it because it does not matter.’   

In addition, God’s law of giving and receiving which states that what is given to one is given to all, and what is received by one is received by all, is an additional reason for granting the request, outrageous though it may be for that which is valueless; for to deny it would be to deny both our brother and our self the opportunity to correctly distinguish between the valuable and the valueless.  A child that asks an adult for a toy believes it to be of value, but the adult who know it is valueless can easily begin the process of correcting the child’s value error by granting his request.  If the adult denies the request, he is then endowing the toy with even greater value in the eyes of the child who then becomes even more convinced that the toy is valuable.  The job of the adult, which is to teach the child to correctly distinguish between the valuable and the valueless, is now much more difficult because the child’s wrong conviction is greatly increased.  Furthermore, if the adult only grants the request of the child and does nothing more, he has done some little bit, but has not helped the child learn to make the distinction for himself.  With this purpose in mind, it becomes clear that both the valuable and the valueless (as requested) must be given so that the child can learn to correctly distinguish between them.   

This is how it is between us and God.  We his children, are constantly asking for that which is valueless, for we have a conviction that it is valuable.  To correct our mistake, God grants us the wisdom of His voice in the form of the Holy Spirit who knows this distinction clearly, as well as all that we desire believing it to be valuable, but which He knows is valueless.  God knows us, for He created us, and by granting our request and in addition providing the contrast of the valuable, we are now able to make a better choice.  Of God, ‘No “outrageous” requests can be made’  for He clearly knows the distinction, and so it is for us as well, when we too correctly recognize the difference.  We can just as easily substitute the words “real”  and “unreal” for valuable and valueless respectively, for both are the same.  That which is of God, like His children, are valuable, and nothing else is of value. Our value is inherent in what we are:  the Holy children of God, endowed with all the power, wisdom and glory of the Father.  When we acknowledge and accept our true identity, we too will recognize how simple it is to decide between the valuable and the valueless.

Quote of the Week: March 6th, 2011

Suppose a brother insists on having you do something you think you do not want to do. His very insistence should tell you that he believes salvation lies in it. If you insist on refusing and experience a quick response of opposition, you are believing that your salvation lies in not doing it. You, then, are making the same mistake he is, and are making his error real to both of you. Insistence means investment, and what you invest in is always related to your notion of salvation. The question is always twofold; first, what is to be saved? And second, how can it be saved? 

ACIM Chapter 12,III,2

This idea that ‘insistence means investment ’ and its corollary that ‘what you invest in is always related to your notion of salvation,’ is both startling and unfamiliar to our normal way of thinking.  It is fairly easy for us to see that insistence is a result or reflection of investment, and indeed this concept is at the basis of our laws regarding “conflicts of interest.”  We recognize that to be invested in someone or something creates a powerful bias in our perspective of anything related to that person or thing.  In other words, because we wish to protect our investment we loose our objectivity with respect to that person or thing.  The corollary that our investment is always related to our notion of salvation is less familiar to us, and it is this that the quote is bringing to our attention.  

 

Our insistence in doing or not doing a certain thing indicates where our investment lies, and our investment is a statement of our notion of salvation.  We would not invest in something unless we believe that it will bring us to a better place on some level, whether physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual, and the investment of our time, attention and resources is always in proportion to our edification.  We choose:  our friends, and acquaintances, our education and social connections; our career, political and spiritual affiliations, our neighborhood, possessions, and even our style of dress, all for our own edification.  Furthermore we are willing to fight tooth and nail, to suffer and commit insult and injury in the defense of our choices, because at a very deep level of our consciousness we believe our very salvation depends on these choices.  

 

This belief in our choices as a means to our salvation is at the root of all our conflicts.  We believe our choices are the way not simply to edify, but to deify ourselves.  We believe this because we believe we are something much less than the divine children God created us to be.  Instead, we see ourselves as: bodies, limited, weak, frail, vulnerable, sinful, and therefore desperately in need of salvation -- what a different world it would be if only we believed in our God given divinity.  In truth we need no salvation, for we are now, always was, and always will be as God created us, since we cannot change the will of God.  But we do need salvation from our belief in the ego-personality we created and the concept of “sin” which gives rise to our belief in salvation, thus giving rise to the questions of “what” is to be saved, and “how?”   It is only our minds that need salvation, for it is our mechanism of decision, and it can only be saved by the removal of conflict and the establishment of peace.  

 

The conflict is our wish to have a Truth different from the Truth God created and established within our minds.  And since Truth and illusion cannot abide in the same place, we split our minds and projected our wish, the cause of the conflict, outside our ego-personality, superimposing it on the world God created.  Our projection is an illusion that covers (without changing in anyway) the Truth God created, and this is why conflict is inherent in our experience of the world, for it is literally built on conflict, better known as duality*.  

 

Peace comes only when illusions are recognized for what they are and relinquished in exchange for Truth--the only state of lasting peace.  In the state of peace, the mad idea of “separation” from God and from our divine inheritance is simply laughed at, for in that state, we recognize clearly our true identity with God and with each other; there we recognize the law of giving and receiving in a different light:  that what we give to each other we give to ourselves, and what we receive all others receive as well.  When we see this clearly, we also recognize what is real and what is illusion, and in recognizing illusion, we also recognize that there cannot be orders of magnitude between one illusion and another, and therefore no orders of magnitude in the solution to any of them.  Regardless of how outrageous and different they may seem, illusions are unreal, have no effects, and do not matter at all.  The solution to any illusion is always the same, bring it to Truth, like darkness to light, and watch it disappear.  

 

As we relinquish our hold on illusions we begin to withdraw our projection and awaken to the real world God created; we understand that neither our illusions nor our brother’s matter, and in this awakening we can easily do whatever outrageous thing our brother asks of us, for then we recognize that his “outrageous” request like our own is simply a request for salvation, and to deny him his request would be to deny it from ourselves.  We are one, so what is given, is given to all, and received likewise.

* The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1,4,2 states: “Dvtiyad via bhayam bhavati”  Certainly fear is born of duality.  Duality gives rise to fear and fear is the source of all conflict.

Peace, Edmond

Quote of the Week of February 27th, 2011

Seek not outside yourself.  For it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls.  Heaven cannot be found where it is not, and there can be no peace excepting there.  Each idol that you worship when God calls will never answer in His place.  There is no other answer you can substitute, and find the happiness His answer brings.  Seek not outside yourself.  For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found.  What if it is not there?  Do you prefer that you be right or happy?  Be you glad that you are told where happiness abides, and seek no longer elsewhere.  You will fail.  But it is given you to know the truth, and not to seek for it outside yourself.

ACIM Chapter 29,VII,1

‘Seek not outside yourself’  is a statement of what is true about us as holy children of God.  We cannot actually seek outside ourselves because our Self is everything, so it is impossible to seek for something outside of everything.  We are everything because God, who is everything, created us like Himself and so we share His characteristics and identity as one with everything.  This does not mean that we are equal to God, for He created us but we did not create Him.  But because He created us like Himself, we too can be Father to our creations and share our oneness with them.   

A tidal wave is one with a small ripple on the ocean because they share the common characteristics of ocean-ness and wetness, but they are certainly not equal in size or power.  To say that two thing are one is to say that they share a common basis, that theey share the same characteristics and potentials, that what is possible for one is possible for the other.  But to say that they are equal is to say that they are one and the same thing, with no distinction between them.  This is also true of our relationship with God, we are one and the same, but this divine oneness makes sense only from His perspective.  From our perspective there is still the distinction that He created us.  

‘Heaven cannot be found where it is not, and there can be no peace excepting there.’  Peace of mind is what we want most, and the only place we can find peace is in Heaven, and since Heaven is within us, true and lasting peace can only be found within us.  The thing that separates our inner Self from our outer self is the body, which acts as a fence or a limitation on our one true, eternally unlimited Self.  The body is the outward expression of our insane desire and vain attempts to find peace outside of God’s kingdom.  It is impossible to separate into parts that which is everything.  Just as it is illusory to see a ripple, a current, a wave, or a whirlpool as separate or distinct from the water of which it is a part, just so it is illusory to see a body, or an ego-self as separate or distinct from the one eternally divine consciousness of which it is a part, and from which it arises, is sustained for awhile, and finally resolved back into.  

All that we want now, ever wanted, and will ever want, is here inside us, for that is where God, the source and fountainhead of all that is exists, and we too exist along with Him in our true state without the illusory limitations imposed by bodies.  So why insist like petulant children on searching outside ourselves, demanding that what we want is there, rather than where it truly is.  Choose happiness instead of righteousness and find the peace you seek where it is, inside yourSelf.  This inner searching is not only simpler and more fruitful, it is the only sure path to peace.