Quote of the Week: November 13th, 2011

Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought—you are as God created you, not what you made of yourself.  Whatever evil you may think you did, you are as God created you.  Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about you is unchanged.  Creation is eternal and unalterable.  Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.  You are and will forever be exactly as you were created.  Light and joy and peace abide in you because God put them there.

ACIM Lesson 93,7

 Let us examine the implications of the thought—"you are as God created you, not what you made of yourself."  Firstly, we must realize that God is the foundation of this thought; if we understand God’s nature to be perfection, then this thought will yield implications based on perfection.  If we take God’s nature to be something other than perfect, then it will yield implications based on imperfection.  Clearly the concept of perfection is absolute in nature; you cannot be a little bit perfect, or even mostly perfect; you are either completely perfect or imperfect.  Furthermore perfection is a permanent state of being, for once having been achieved it cannot be lost, changed or altered in any way whatsoever, for if it could be changed then it was not perfect to begin with, for changeability implies that there is room for either improvement or loss, while unchangeability implies eternity for it is unaffected by time, space and form.  Water (H2O) for example, has three common forms: liquid, solid, and vapor, but even though these forms change in accordance with the temperature, the essential nature of the elements Hydrogen and Oxygen remain constant, and therefore unchangeable relative to temperature.  Similarly, God’s nature which is our essential nature is unchangeable with respect to all changes in time, space or causation.

If we take God’s nature to be imperfect, the implications are huge:  our salvation becomes questionable, for there would be some chance for error, miscalculation, luck, or favor.  If God is imperfect, it means that His love and His word holds no guarantee, and cannot be fully depended on—it may work out or it may not but we cannot be certain.  If God be imperfect it means that God can fail to have things be as He wills it be; it means that ‘sin’ exists and sinners have an opportunity of entering Heaven, and the king of sin has a chance of “winning” against the “All-mighty” will of God, in which case we must then describe God’s will as “almost-mighty.”  

Ask yourself honestly, can this be the true nature of God?  Can this possibly be what we truly believe in our hearts about God?  In our minds and senses when we feel alone, lost, or confused, perhaps, but not in our hearts, where God willed that we forget Him not.  His is the only source of power that exists and if we have any power at all, it comes to us through Him and Him alone; this is the little light within our hearts, the small but insuperable voice through which He communicates to us; the one part of our dream that is real and perfect, and which cannot be covered over by the veil of ignorance and denial that blinds our mind and senses to His presence within us.  Let the key to awakening to this truth be these words continually uttered from our lips so that we may always remember who we really are:
 

“Let me remember I am one with God.”  

Yes, this is Truth eternal, and therefore the perfect Truth.  God being Almighty, has the power to do His will and therefore cannot fail in what He wills.  His will is not open to question, far less to chance, and is farther still from being an option.   Being All-mighty means that there is no will that can oppose His, no seeming or potential error that cannot be anticipated and thereby corrected before it occurs, and nothing that is not in accord with His divine will can occur.  

Yes, God is perfection, and as such He is unchangeable, and therefore eternal.  All that He creates also must be perfect, otherwise He Himself would not be perfect.  So to guarantee the perfection of His creations, He made them exactly like Himself and joined with them in eternal oneness.  Just as every single piece of a holographic image contains the whole image, just so are we the little individual pieces that contain the hologram of God, and so the logic goes:  If God be perfect and we, His creation, is an inseparable part of Him, then we too must be perfect, unalterable, and eternal.  Just as we are able to dress up in various costumes and play certain character roles, just so, all that we may think and do does not change the essential nature of who we are--one with God.  The implications of this truth is that ‘sin’ is unreal, like a nightmare or an illusion perceived by our senses, but has no reality and therefore no effect of its own.  God is perfect, therefore sin cannot exist.  God is perfect, therefore His will, His world, and His love are forever true, and therefore guaranteed!  Accepting this truth is all we need for our salvation.

Quote of the Week:  September 4th, 2011

 

My Happiness and My Function are One:  The ego does constant battle with the Holy Spirit on the fundamental question of what your function is.  So does it do constant battle with the Holy Spirit about what your happiness is.  It is not a two-way battle.  The ego attacks and the Holy Spirit does not respond.  He knows what your function is.  He knows that it is your happiness.

Acim Lesson 66,2

Knowing one’s true Self or identity is the basis for knowing one’s true function.  Since God is the soul source of our identity, and our function is based on our identity, it follows that God is also the sole source of our function, and furthermore, both our identity and function must be in accordance with what God is.  So what is God’s nature, essence, or character?  We have conceptualized the nature of God as being that of perfect Love, Joy, Peace, Freedom, etc.  We can think of an infinite number of essential attributes, but for brevity, we can condense all other attributes of God into some variant of these.  Now since the source, course, and goal of all these attributes is happiness, and by extension we can conclude the same for any other attribute, I posit that happiness is what God must be in His essential nature.

What God gives must be based on what God is.  We can then conclude that happiness is all that God gives, and can give, and since God created us, happiness must  therefore be our essential nature also.  It would be inconceivable for God to give anything not in accord with what He is, i.e., happiness, for it would contradict his essential nature.  God cannot, for instance, give evil, so, following our logic, we can define evil as anything that is not happiness.  Furthermore, if God could give us anything other than happiness, it follow that He would be evil.  It becomes critically important that we understand the logic here, for to believe that God could or would give us anything other than happiness directly contradicts our notions of God as happiness.  This logic is also verified in our everyday experience where we observe that animals and plants produce offspring, fruit and seed in accord with what they are, in accord with their nature; its in the DNA you might say. 
 
The nature of anything must be in accord with the nature of its source.  Since God is the single source of all that is, and God is happiness, it follows that the nature of the holy children of God, as well as all that exists in creation, must also be happiness.  This bring us to a huge revelation, so hold on to you seats:  If the holy children of God and all else that exists in creation are essentially happiness, appearances notwithstanding, it must mean that, we the children of God must be God’s only creation*; we are the creation; we are the world; we and the world are one!  Woooohooo, ponder that for awhile!  

To know that our true nature, the true nature of God, and the true nature of all that exists is one and the same, is the basis from which we can look past the apparent diversity and see the unity that we are.  We differ only in our awareness of this truth, and superficially in appearance; we seem to be many, but we are really one.  To borrow a colorful phrase, “a pig with lipstick is still a pig!”  Knowing that our true nature is happiness gives us clarity about our function, and what else could be the function of happiness but to be happy!  Our single function then, is simply to be ourselves, to be what we already are, by knowing, remembering, and being conscious of our true nature:  ‘My happiness and my function are one.’  To remember this is to remember who we really are, and remembering who we really are is the key to fulfilling our function. 
 
The converse of the truth that happiness is both our essential nature and our function is also true, which means that whenever we don’t feel happy, then we are not fulfilling our God-given function.  Happiness is our essential nature so we can never be completely without some joy**; we cannot ever cease to be who we really are.  Happiness is the scale on which we exist, and while we cannot choose to be off this scale, we can choose to be anywhere we wish along it, from very little happiness at the low end, to estatic joy and eternal bliss at the high end.  This is our freedom and our function, so choose wisely the degree of happiness you wish to experience.

* If A = B and B = C, then A = C, or if the children of God is happiness and all else in creation is happiness, then the children of God and all else in creation must be the same single creation.

** The Taittiriya Upanishad 3.6.1 declares that “Out of bliss these being are born; In bliss they are sustained, and to Bliss they go and merge again.”

Quote of the Week: August 14th, 2011

God Goes With Me Wherever I Go:   Deep within you is everything that is perfect, ready to radiate through you and out into the world.  It will cure all sorrow and pain and fear and loss because it will heal the mind that thought these things were real, and suffered out of its allegiance to them.

ACIM Lesson 41,3

It is still true even though it has become clichéd to say things like “the kingdom of Heaven is within you,” “God goes with me wherever I go,” or “God is the strength in which I trust,”  But think of the immense implications these statements express.  If it is true that the all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present Creator is always with you, how can ignorance, sorrow, pain, fear and loss really exist?  Certainly these things are not of the Creator, and if He is with us then they cannot really exist for us either.  And that is just a consideration of the negative side of the equation.  On the positive side, the implications are even more immense, for it means that we have access to the divine characteristics of the Creator, such as infinite peace, wisdom, and power.  What problem or situation can remain when addressed from this level of knowing, and what blind illusion can hide in the light of such reality?  From this level of knowing, all things become possible for us, for this knowing not only brings all apparent problems to complete resolution and peace, but endows us with the supreme knowledge that in reality there are no problems.  This supreme knowing rests on the knowledge of our true identity as children of God, i.e., godchildren, i.e., gods, which thereby grants us the ability and confidence to perform miracles.  We can perform miracles even now for it is our birthright and inheritance, and because the power of the Creator is with us always, but presently, we lack the deep faith of this supreme knowing that would give us the confidence to actually do what we are innately capable of. 

Our apparent suffering is due to the ignorance of our true identity; to our disbelief and faithlessness in the truth that we are children of God; and to the learned belief that our projected sense illusions are real.  Generation after generation through the long corridors of time have we suffered in ignorance of our true identity, so captivated are we still by our self-created sense illusions.  We believe these illusions to be real because we made them, and because each generation learned to believe in them from the previous generation.  This is how the lie that we are bodies, without wisdom, vulnerable, and mortal is perpetuated.  But now, let us deny that lie, let us begin to embrace the glorious truth that we are as God created us, perfect, spirit, and free.  Let us embrace this, not in an egotistic way, but through the loving understanding that given our lineage, we can be nothing less.  And by acknowledging this truth, also embrace the responsibility to express it all that we think say and do.  

Let us re-discover the perfection so long covered and hidden deep within us and radiate it out into the world, for only that perfection will permanently “...cure all sorrow and pain and fear and loss because it will heal the mind that thought these things were real, and suffered out of its allegiance to them.”   “Yes, yes,” you may say in protest “...but it took us generations to believe as we believe now, would it not take a similar amount of time to turn our belief around?”  
Perhaps it could, but given who we really are, and given our willingness (our ability to will what we will,) and given the fact that it matters not how long the darkness has lasted, it is immediately removed by the first ray of light and love and truth; given that, it need not be a long time.  

Let us gradually and deliberately open the door to the light of perfection within us, through our daily practice of opening our awareness to it, until the dawning of the light of knowledge grows into the full sunshine of the divine grace of eternal peace.   It begins by spending a few minutes away from the cares of the world, a few minutes opening our awareness to the deep unfathomable peace within us; be still a few minutes each day; be still and you will come to know the divine presence within you.

Quote of the Week: July 24th, 2011

There Is Nothing My Holiness Cannot Do:  If you are holy, so is everything God created.  You are holy because all things He created are holy.  And all things He created are holy because you are.

ACIM Lesson 38,3

If we really knew ourselves to be the holy children of God, then we would know that all wisdom and all power belong to us.  If our belief that we are the holy children of God, were the size of a mustard seed, we would be able to move mountains.  Since this is not the level of power we typically demonstrate, clearly our belief that we are the holy children of God is much smaller than the size of a mustard seed.  Indeed we hardly believe it at all, yet we can still move mountains, granted though, it does take great effort, time, and energy, just because of our tiny wisdom and belief.  But such is the power of God that can accomplish anything, for it is inherent in us and can never fully leave us even when our belief in it is the size of a subatomic particle.  

So how can we increase the size of our belief?  The story of the prodigal son can perhaps provide us with some insights and comfort.  It is the story of a child who having received the wealth of his father left home to try making a life and name for himself, and who after some time found himself destitute.  Sounds familiar doesn’t it?  Concluding that his situation would be far better if he lived as a servant in his father's house, he returned home only to find his father surprisingly neither angry nor disappointed, but instead greatly rejoicing in his return, and lavishly bestowing on him all the love, honor, and appreciation of one who had accomplished great things.  He was surprised by his father’s reaction because he thought himself a failure, guilty of doing wrong, foolish or “sinful” things, and was therefore unworthy of such generous praise.  His father’s reaction came from the joy he felt at the return of his son, similar to the joy one feels when something of great value that was lost is found again.  The son did not realize that he himself was his father’s greatest treasure, and the return of that treasure was the cause of his father’s joyful reaction.  

This story offers us two important insights:  the first is in recognizing that we are the children of God, our Creator, and as such we inherit our characteristics and value, our genes if you will, from Him.  Being perfect, God created "His only begotten son" perfect and one.  We the children of God are His only begotten, perfectly unified son-ship.  We are therefore not merely valuable to our Creator, we are His most valuable treasure because we are His only treasure, made in His image and likeness.  Just as all children share the basic characteristics of their parents, even though each child expresses them differently, we the children of God express His basic characteristics in unique and individual ways, but remain unified because of our common source.  Even when we fail to appreciate our value, it is not lost for it is inherent.  Similar to the value of a hundred dollar bill that we have misplaced, whose value is not affected when we find it again, even if we found it is crumpled, worn or dirty.  We rejoice because its inherent value is unaffected.   Our inherent value as children of God comes not from what we think or say or do, but from who we are, and therefore can never be lost, diminished, tarnished or changed in any way.  The eyes of our Father looks joyously upon us at all times and rejoices when we return to Him.  

The second, and more important insight is in recognizing the true nature of our Creator as the “ALL-That-Is", the Alpha and the Omega, the omnipresent One who pervades all existence like wetness pervades water, and like space pervades all that we perceive.  Because God is omnipresent, we are not now, nor can we ever be separate form Him, for there is nothing that exists that can be outside or apart from that One Thing which is Everything.  Being in everything, He exists in us and we in Him, as One, whole, and therefore holy.  Because we are an inherent part of Him, we too are holy.  We are and remain as God created us, holy, spirit, perfect, and free!  Our existence, our very being-ness, resides in God, at-one with Him, and therefore at-one with everything that exists.  

Regardless of what we may think we are (human, vulnerable, separate, etc.,) God knows us to be what He is, as part of His Self, forever established and residing in His Beingness.  His ubiquitous presence is His power and His power is His ubiquitous presence.  As His creation, this is who we, the holy children of God, really are, and because ‘...there is nothing the power of God cannot do,’ there is nothing we cannot do.  But to demonstrated this we must re-cognize and re-member ourselves as the holy, all-powerful children who are forever at-one with their holy, all-powerful Creator.  Religion by definition is that which returns us to our source, so anything that accomplishes this re-turn is by definition a religion.  Like the wise prodigal son, let us make our religion be to turn away from separation and suffering, and re-turn to joyful oneness with our Father, for only in God can we be truly free, truly valued, and truly appreciated.  

The beautiful simplicity of this religion or re-turn is that we can turn no where else, for God is everywhere, in everyone and as everyone, without exception.  But our re-turn is simpler even than this for we can never really turn-away from ubiquity in the first place, so our re-turn is already accomplished; wherever we turn God is already there, patiently awaiting our re-cognition of Him.  Our less-than-simple task is only to re-cognize Him in each other and in ourselves.  He is everywhere, and appears in everything as individual, apparently separate beings.  Re-cognizing the true nature of everyone and everything as a holy child of God, as God dressed in various clever disguises, we will re-cognize God in ourselves and re-member our oneness with each other and with our Creator.   There is an ancient, sacred word that can help us do this: 

Namaste!

(the God in me re-cognizes the God in you, and in this recognition, we are One.)

Say this word to everyone and everything, silently or out loud, to help dispel the illusion of separation, and help us re-member the true nature of our oneness with all that we perceive.  Say this word to re-mind you of who you really are, and of who everyone and everything is -- one with God.

 

Quote of the Week: July 17th, 2011

I Do Not Know What Anything Is For:  Purpose is meaning.  Today’s idea explains why nothing you see means anything.  You do not know what it is for.  Therefore, it is meaningless to you.  Everything is for your own best interest.  That is what it is for; that is its purpose; that is what it means.  It is in recognizing this that your goals become unified.  It is in recognizing this that what you see is given meaning.

ACIM Lesson25,1

Purpose gives meaning to things.  Without purpose we do not really know what something means.  It is the purpose we have for something that defines its meaning, and without a purpose it is meaningless to us.  A chair, for example, is used for sitting; that is its use, but without a purpose for sitting, the use of the chair is rendered meaningless to us.  To loose purpose therefore is to loose meaning.  Our purpose is what gives to or removes meaning from all that is in our environment, and also for our very lives.   Without purpose therefore, life itself becomes meaningless to us, and only when purpose is established, does life regain its meaning.  

It is critical then that we understanding our purpose.  Meaning is based on purpose, which in turn is based on self-identification, i.e. who I am or more importantly, who I think I am.  If I identify my self as an ego, then that ego becomes the basis for understanding my purpose, which in turn gives meaning to my life and to all that is in the environment around me.  Similarly, if I see myself as a holy child of God, created in the image and likeness of my Creator, blessed and perfect, then it is this identification that becomes the basis for understanding my purpose and the meaning of life for me.  

As a holy child of God, ‘Everything is for your own best interest.  That is what it is for; that is its purpose; that is what it means.’   This is how we give meaning to everything, and it is also why things have different meaning to different people.  The meaning we assign to something speaks volumes about who we think we are.  And the more meaning or importance we give to something, the more clearly it identifies us.  Every choice and decision we make is a statement about who we think we are.  Our self-identiy is so important to us that we go out of our way to announce it to everyone and everything around us, in subtle and not so subtle ways, from our style of dress, the car we choose to drive, the house and neighbourhood we live in the people and parties we associate with, the career we persue, etc.  

The lesson here is that since our self identity is reflected in everything we think, say and do, it is worth some time and energy to identify more with who we really are, as opposed to who we think we are--our true divine Self, as opposed to our made-up ego self.  We are Spirit, created in the image and likeness of our Creator, and our spirit-ness cannot ever be changed or diminished in any way, even while we are having this physical experience of being in bodies.  So while we are here in bodies, it would be in our best interest to identify with our spirit-ness, for then we will be identifying with what is permanent, powerful, and perfect.  Our divine identification shines the light of divine wisdom on our purpose, which in turn brightens the meaning of life for us.   

Quote of the Week: June June 12, 2011

A therapist does not heal; he lets healing be.  He can point to darkness but he cannot bring light of himself, for light is not of him.  Yet, being for him, it must also be for his patient.  The Holy Spirit is the only Therapist.   He makes healing clear in any situation in which He is the Guide.  You can only let him fulfill his function. He needs no help for this.  He will tell you exactly what to do to help anyone He sends to you for help, and will speak to him through you if you do not interfere.  Remember that you choose the guide for helping, and the wrong choice will not help.  But remember also that the right one will.  Trust Him, for help is His function, and He is of God.  As you awaken other minds to the Holy Spirit through Him, and not yourself, you will understand that you are not obeying the laws of this world.  But the laws you are obeying work.  '’The good is what works' is a sound though insufficient statement.  Only the good can work.  Nothing else works at all.

ACIM Text:9,V,8

This quote like so many others in the course reminds us that our only function is to provide the little willingness needed for the Holy Spirit to perform His function.  Though our part, our willingness, is little, it is critical to the fulfillment of our awakening; for without it, the Holy Spirit cannot perform His function.  But His support is there for us, even to help us complete our little function.  He provides the inspiration, insight and guidance to help motivate us to become more open to Him, more trusting and less fearful of Him.  And as we grow in the knowledge and understanding of His omnipotence, his omniscience, we naturally begin to resonate more with His knowledge and understanding.  Because He knows who He truly is, He cannot fail.   We, not knowing who we truly are, often question the value of our little part, or if we can even fulfill it.  But even while we ponder this, all that we are, all that we think, say and do is supported by Him; His support is our bedrock, and for that reason, we too cannot fail; it is inevitable that we will eventually come to Self-knowledge and recognize who we really are.  What facilitates this awakening in us is the humble acknowledgment that it is complete when we give our little willingness to Him who's function it is to awaken us, and reveal to us the light that we are.  To let the light of Self-knowledge radiate from within us, all we need do is 'let healing be', and let the Holy one complete His function to provide all the necessary means and guide us to our enlightenment.

Quote of the Week: June 5th 2011

If you are wholly willing to leave salvation to the plan of God
and unwilling to attempt to grasp for peace yourself,
salvation will be given you.

ACIM Text:15,III,11

This quote reminds us that our path is quite simple but we must first humbly acknowledge that we do not know how to get to God.  We know this acknowledgment is true simply because we don't really know ourselves (always trying to “find ourselves”) so it must follow that we really don't know God either, and therefore we cannot possibly know how to get to God.  Yet this quote opens the door to this awareness in two easy steps, first be wholly willing to leave salvation to the plan of God, and second, be unwilling to attempt to grasp for peace yourself.  Just these two steps and salvation will be given you.

Though these two steps seem simple in theory, they are not at all trivial for we who are so certain that we know how to bring about our own salvation, or to find our own peace.  We are pretty certain of it, or if we're not, we know someone (a friend, relative, teacher, celebrity, etc.) who knows the way and who fortunately has a plan, and we certainly are willing to follow that plan to the best of our ability.  Furthermore, we are so habituated to striving and suffering and sacrificing in the name of reaching our goal that we spend precious little time questioning if we truly understand the magnitude of the goal, what it requires for completion, or at least some basic principles upon which the plan for accomplishing this goal is formulated, so that we can be confident that it is a viable plan.  Instead we busy ourselves, sleeves rolled up, bent over, nose to the ground, shoulder to the grinding stone executing “the plan” weather we understand it or not.

But, fortunately, we have a plan, given to us by God, that is at last infallible, for God’s creations are complete in all ways, so there is no need for contingency plans or reactive measures.  His plan for our salvation was created at the moment of our creation and remains with us.  It was designed to handle every possible wrinkle or nuance that could ever arise in our experience, so there can be no doubt about its viability, or its ultimate success.  His plan is simplicity itself, it asks us in a word to simply, BE; to relinquish all other plans and activities we have formulated in the name of finding salvation.  It asks us to give up any notion that any plan we could ever formulate is going to work, if for no other reason than the very obvious fact that we just don't know who we are; we are clueless.  So give it, give it all up.  No more efforting to get to God, no more grasping, grunting, striving, struggling, and sacrificing.  Just release all that “busy work” and humbly and willingly, just “Be still.”  For the very act of calming ourselves down, slowing down and eventually stopping the endless activity in the execution of “our” plan, leaves us without any activity, and the best description we can give for that state of being, is stillness.  And in that stillness, all that you could ever desire and more will be given you!   I don't think it gets simpler than that folks!