Let me recognize my problems have been solved.
“If you are willing to recognize your problems ….” – THAT YOU THINK YOU ARE SEPARATE FROM GOD AND OTHER PEOPLE – …“you will recognize that you have no problems. Your one central problem has been answered and you have no other. Therefore, you must be at peace.”
How simple.
Your only problem has been solved!
Repeat this over and over to yourself today, with gratitude and conviction. You have recognized your only problem, opening the way for the Holy Spirit to give you God’s answer.
This is totally amazing.
So if you are still angry, depressed, confused, or fearful, it means only one thing: You don’t know Who you are, or you have forgotten Who you are. You’ve forgotten God. You’ve forgotten your Oneness.
You must still be using your body’s eyes, and you must still believe in a world of separation because that is the only way you could still be in conflict.
Once you remember that your only problem is separation, true communication becomes possible and then there are no problems.
The smaller problems all disappear and dissolve.
You are at peace. You become happy for no reason at all.
This is so much cooler and interesting than the previous way of acting/reacting and behaving.
All your problems are solved!
I’d like to hear from you about your experiences with these lessons, because if you still believe you have problems, we need to clean that up. I don’t want you to carry your confusion into these next lessons, because we are moving into new territory and there is no need to carry old baggage, problems or grievances into the next phase.
“Your problems have been solved.”
lisanatoli2@gmail.com
I want to hear from ALL OF YOU. Tell me what is going on in your life as a result of practicing these lessons. If you are grateful and happy, tell me that. If you are confused, tell me that. If you are afraid, tell me that. If you have fallen off the wagon and have stopped doing the lessons, tell me that. If you do not have the Course and are only showing up here out of curiosity, tell me that. If today is your first day here, tell me that. If miracles are occurring, tell me that.
I don’t care where you are in your own mind, I want you to write to me and tell me about yourself.
This is not a test. There are no right or wrong answers. You are not going to be judged.
All I ask is: BE HONEST!
I’ve seen too many people with the Course hide behind false certainty, or they hide in their silence, or they go along thinking the “miracle” or “transformation” will happen later … and then years go by and they are no further along then when they started. Nothing happens later. There is no such thing as being healed later. The healing and miracle has happened already, and if it doesn’t seem that way, it is only because you are covering your eyes.
I know a lot of people who are angry because they still find themselves in the world and they are waiting for the world to disappear … BUT THERE IS NO WORLD!
It’s over!
You are home in Heaven while you still believe you are in hell. It was a success. What you are looking at now is over and gone, and there is nothing to fix, do or heal. All time is already past. The world you see is a memory. It’s exactly the same thing as a memory from 5 or 20 years ago. It’s past. It’s in your mind.
If you have been doing these lessons correctly, you should be at peace. There should be no conflict. No problems. No grievances.
Happiness, appreciation, love, joy, and gratitude should be your range of emotion.
If this is not the case with you, I want to help clean this is up with you, because the miracle has already happened.
lisanatoli2@gmail.com
I’m not here to teach you anything to learn, as if I’m the entertainment committee just passing time for fun, I am here to help you step into a brand new space and I want to know where you are, and the only way I can know is if you tell me.
This is Easter week. YOUR RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD.
By Sunday, you should be entirely brand new. Completely transformed standing in the light – in your own purity, innocence and guiltlessness – a place where darkness has vanished forever.
THIS IS THE REAL MEANING OF EASTER.
You rise from the ashes of your dark dream of disaster. Jesus’ resurrection is YOUR resurrection … and it happens this week. It happens now.
And you cannot be helped as you hide under the covers, so please write to me:
lisanatoli2@gmail.com
I love you.
Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.
You think you have lots of problems. Most people’s problems fall into three categories:
1. money
2. relationship
3. body – health/sickness/weight issues
All problems that you think you have are concerned with the body. Look at it. All three categories boil down to SAFETY/PROTECTION/COMFORT which are only concerned with the body.
THE BODY.
Look at it with open eyes.
You want money so your body can survive. Spirit needs no help. You want a relationship with another body so that you feel safe and secure. You want to feel loved and you go looking for that love in form, in something solid & external.
And you’re constantly worrying because your safety cannot be found in external things.
You’re afraid that you’ll be left alone and homeless. You worry about retirement. You worry about growing old and lonely. You fear the people you love will leave you and you’ll be left alone in a cold, cruel place. You worry about the economy collapsing. You worry about losing your job or your house. You worry about losing the things you love. You worry about how to pay your bills. You worry about debt. You worry about wars and gun violence.
You need two hands to count your problems.
But do you really know what the problem is?
If you think your problem is money, you will devise all sorts of ways to get it. But is this really your problem??
Do you notice that when you are worried about money, and then you get money, you still have the problem of fear, worrying how you will pay your bills next month or into retirement. Getting money does not solve your money problem, except temporarily.
So then, money is not your problem.
It must be something else.
Today we are recognizing what that “something else” is.
Today we are going to recognize the problem so it can be solved.
A problem cannot be solved when you do not know what it is.
“The temptation to regard problems as many is the temptation to keep the problem of separation unsolved. The world seems to present you with a vast number of problems, each requiring a different answer. This perception places you in a position in which your problem solving must be inadequate, and failure is inevitable.”
I was talking with a friend yesterday who has a ton of problems: health issues, money issues, housing issues, and she may even have to leave the country.
She was frantic and crying trying to figure out how to solve her hopeless situation and what I noticed as I listened is that she is trying to set things up so her body is safe and protected. She is trying to fulfill her own needs so that she can live in the world and feel safe.
But here’s the thing: there is no safety or protection in the world. You can solve a problem temporarily, but you will never feel safe forever as long as you are trusting in yourself. Anything can happen at any time, and usually does. Your safety is not in the world. Your safety is in God.
That’s why you have to get out of the world. You must align your purpose (your function in life) with God. In Heaven, there are no problems.
While you think you are a body in a human condition, your list of problems is endless. There is no solution that lasts.
I was reminded of the first episode of Eckhart Tolle & Oprah when Eckhart said that most people ask the question “What do I want?” when the question really should be: “What does life (God, the universe) want of me?”
How can I serve?
How can i be helpful?
And herein lies the solution to all your problems. Stop trying to figure out what you can do to feel safe and protected, and start using your life to make other people feel safe and protected. Give of yourself. Let the Holy Spirit use your body for His Purposes. Let God take care of you.
And then you will be perfectly safe. Nothing can harm you.
This lessson says:
“Your only problem is separation.”
That’s your only problem. Separation. Look at all your problems and you will see, if you have the willingness to look honestly, that there is one “underlying constancy in all your problems that seem to confront you” and that is that you think you are alone, and that there is no one to take care of you, and that you must take care of yourself, and solve all your problems by yourself …. SEPARATION.
S-E-P-A-R-A-T-I-O-N.
Today’s lesson says:
“You will be successful to the extent to which you do not insist of defining the problem.”
So don’t list your problems, just do the lesson from A Course in Miracles. That means go find your book now and open it up to Lesson 79 and read the lesson. Do what it says. And if you don’t have the book yet, right now would be a good time to buy it.
There is a solution to all your problems. Every single one of them. Trust me. Trust God. But in order to see this, you must have a willingness to listen and do something different than what you had been previously been doing: which was trusting in your own strength.
There is a quote I love: “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.”
That’s logical. It means that if you want something new/different to happen, you must have a willingness to get off the path you have been following and try something new.
I suggest practicing the lessons of A Course in Miracles.
These lessons have worked for me and they will work for you.
Wow!!!
This is amazing.
This week’s webcast of Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose with Oprah. Chapter 3.
The whole show is great. You should see it for yourself. It’s 90 minutes.
Click Eckhart Tolle photo to watch:
Let miracles replace all grievances.
I find myself lately STUNNED TO THE CORE by people who have A Course in Miracles for 10 years (and more) and who are still struggling.
WHAT IS UP WITH THIS?
It’s one thing if you are new and are just starting the workbook lessons for the very first time … but I know a lot of guys who have done the workbook lessons 10 times and more – all 365 lessons – and they still persist on being angry, depressed and uncertain.
WHAT THE HECK?
It is the most bizarro thing I have ever witnessed.
I am told specifically how to be happy. I am told there is no need for grievances, that grievances are a direct attack on God, and then I am told – in specific step-by-step instructions – how to change my mind to experience a miracle in its place. It works! I have within me the power to change my mind in every situation: from uncertainty to certainty, from sadness to joy, from anger to peace. It’s so simple that I honestly cannot understand what difficulties anyone could possibly have.
It is all written down here in black and white in simple easy steps.
But of course, this rant is a grievance about other people who aren’t getting it.
Why should I be concerned about other people?
These lessons remind me there is nothing outside of me, and I’m the only one who needs help or correction. Not someone else. Me.
Today we will attempt to go past grievances. First you start out by realizing that every choice is between a miracle and a grievance.
If you are unhappy, tired or confused, you are doing it to yourself. You are holding yourself in hell, thinking other people are doing things to you. No one is doing anything. You are doing it to yourself. The light is all around you.
Today, choose someone who annoys you.
“Someone, perhaps, you fear and even hate; someone you think you love who has angered you; someone you call a friend, but who you see as difficult at times or hard to please, demanding, irritating or untrue to the ideal he should accept as his, according to the role you set for him.”
“You know the one to choose; his name has crossed your mind already. He will be the one of whom we ask God’s Son be shown to you. Through seeing him behind the grievances that you have held against him, you will learn that what lay hidden while you saw him not is there in everyone, and can be seen.”
Okay, that was easy. His name crossed my mind immediately.
Now I am asked to hold him in my mind, and review him: “You will review his faults, the difficulties you have had with him, the pain he caused you, his neglect, and all the little and larger hurts he gave. You will regard his body with it’s flaws and better points as well, and you think of his mistakes and even of his “sins.” “
Okay. Did you do that? Did you find a person who annoys you and did you consider all of his flaws, mistakes, neglect and difficulties?
Do that now.
Now you are going to attempt to see him differently.
“Then let us ask of Him Who knows this Son of God in his reality and truth, that we may look on him in a different way, and see our savior shining in the light of true forgiveness, given unto us. We ask Him in the holy Name of God and of his Son, as holy as Himself:
Let me behold my savior in this one You have appointed as the one for me to ask to lead me to the holy light in which he stands, that I may join him
Now while you are thinking of him who grieved you, let your mind be shown the light in him beyond your grievances.
For me, I know this light in him. He knows the light in himself. He knows A Course in Miracles backwards and forward. My upset is that he keeps reverting to darkness, when he knows better. I don’t understand it at all.
My job is not to fix him. My function is acceptance and recognition of truth. He’s my savior, despite all appearances.
My job is to “be very quiet now, and look upon your shining savior. No dark grievances obscure the sight of him.”
I don’t understand his behavior but that’s okay. Understanding is not necessary.
All I need to do is realize: that’s my savior over there, in the one who has disappointed me.
I keep wishing there was something I could do or say that would make his and the world’s confusion go away.
I am asked today, in simplicity, to do the lesson for myself. That’s the solution. To accept the lesson for myself. To look beyond images. My confusion over other’s confusion is the confusion of the world.
God thanks me for practicing. He thanks you.
I am asked to lay images aside.
“We will remember this throughout the day, and take the role assigned to us as part of God’s salvation plan, and not our own.”
Let miracles replaces all grievances.
I am entitled to miracles.
I did a 10-minute video clip yesterday about Chapter 3 from A Course in Miracles and hopefully it will be up today for you to watch.
What struck me about Chapter 3 is the simplicity of this message, when you stop trying to understand what it says.
Chapter 3 says a simple thing that will make you realize why you are entitled to miracles, and how that is accomplished. The difficulty most people have is that they expect miracles to happen by proceeding from their current state of consciousness in which they stand NOW with all their problems, grievances, upsets, mistakes, conflict, confusion and all the rest. They try to let the past go, try to let everything be brand new, try to trust, try to pray, and then try to go forward from there with a clean slate.
AND THEN THEY WONDER WHY NOTHING HAPPENS.
I’m going to tell you why nothing happens, and it’s in Chapter 3:
“Your starting point is truth, and you must return to your Beginning. Much has been seen since then, but nothing has really happened. Your Self is still in peace, even though your mind is in conflict. You have not gone back far enough, and that is why you become so fearful”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have not gone back far enough.
You cannot start from where you are as a complex human being with all your problems and ideas. You must go back to the Beginning before the separation occurred and that is your starting point.
Start there, and you will realize you have no problems.
When you go back to the beginning before the separation occurred … you will KNOW your perfection and innocence, not as a nice idea but as a reality. This is no fantasy. This is no idle dream. There are no bodies at the Beginning. There is only God. There is only perfection.
Start there. Stay there. And you will never have another problem ever again.
“Innocence is not a partial attribute. It is not real until it is total.”
Where is darkness when all is light?
You must take yourself back to the beginning before the whole mess began.
“Your starting point is truth, and you must return to your Beginning.”
Can you hear what this says??? Your starting point is truth. Your starting point is NOT looking at your grievances. Your starting point is NOT looking at the confusion & darkness and trying to figure out a solution. Your starting point is NOT looking at your childhood or your shortcomings. No. Your starting point is truth. Your starting point is NOT trying to figure out what you need and how to achieve it.
Your starting point is truth.
Go back to the beginning, before time began and start there. This obviously would erase your lifetime. This would erase all your mistakes. There would be nothing left to fix if you went back to the beginning because it would mean that what you thought occurred did not occur. Do you see? It’s like traveling back in time. ONLY BETTER! Nothing happened! There is nothing to fix! There are no problems!
You are not just going back to the beginning before you were born. You are going back to THE BEGINNING before time began, before the world began, before the idea of separation occurred. This erases every idea the world has ever had: war, conflict, boundaries, countries, nationalities, men, women, children.
Go there. Go where all is One.
“Your starting point is truth.”
Forget about your problems. Forget about your grievances. If you start with truth, what miracle could you possibly need, because there would be no problems and no needs. All your problems would be solved because they never occurred.
Amazing, right?
Do you see how simple this is?
What problems could you have when you are standing in the light, one with everything? If you go back to the place where you are one with God, with no needs, and there is only love, what is left to figure out? Solve? Plan for?
There are no problems there, and everything that you think is happening now does not exist.
Lesson 77 confirms this: “Today we will claim the miracles which are your right, since they belong to you. You have been promised full release from the world you made. You have been assured that the Kingdom of God is within you, and can never be lost. Today, however, we will also make sure that we will not content ourselves with less.”
This means, very simply, that you must get out of the world that you have made in order to claim the miracles that you are entitled. Stop trying to solve one little piece of the problem by your own attempts. Stop trying to hold things together. Let go of everything. Stop rushing around like a crazy person with your head cut off, trying to see how you can make things work smoothly for your life. Stop relating to form. Forget your problems. Forget the world. Forget what you think needs to be done.
GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
GO WHERE GOD IS.
“Your starting point is truth.”
Your problems are not solvable because they are not real. As long as you think your problems are real, you will be trapped in them, searching for bodies to help you and external situations to change.
Looked at logically, you will see this kind of thinking creates sequential time. You believe you have a past in which problems occurred. You believe you are in the present moment where you are unsure of a solution and praying for a miracle. And you believe in a future in which there will be either success or failure. Look at it. This is insanity. This is madness.
But if you go back to the beginning, you have no problems. There is nothing to solve. There is nothing to do. In the space, you are eternally happy.
Let me ask you this … don’t you believe if the Holy Spirit needed something done, then He would have the power to do it through you???
Don’t you believe that He would give you everything you needed to accomplish His Will?
Don’t you believe He would show you and tell you what to do?
This is the reason why you can stand still and do nothing until specific instructions come your way.
In the meantime, go back to the beginning before time began.
In that space, there are no problems. There is nothing to solve. There are no needs. And you will be happy.
You are entitled to miracles.
I am under no laws but God’s.
This is one of the most confused lessons in A Course in Miracles. People read it and think: Oh good, this means I can do what I want. I can go faster than the speed limit in my car, I can be late for work, I can ignore my brother’s requests for help, I don’t have to do the dishes or help out around the house, I can drink and smoke and do whatever I want. I’m under no laws but God’s!
THIS IS NOT WHAT THIS LESSONS SAYS!
It says “I am under no laws but God’s”
Almost everyone I meet when they first do this lesson thinks of all the worldly laws they can break instead of thinking about the laws of God.
You are under no laws but God’s MEANS you are under God’s Laws.
What are the Laws of God?
God knows only love.
He gives all to all.
He holds nothing back.
He doesn’t hold grievances.
He knows only light.
There is total responsibility, clarity and joy when you start thinking with the Mind of God.
See the difference? You are not going around breaking worldly laws, but rather instead you are following God’s Laws.
Being under no laws but God’s means that you are standing in Heaven, being the light of the world, extending His Love and Grace into a darkened world, and trusting that all your needs are taken care of perfectly by the One who has chosen you to fulfill this function.
“You really think that you would starve unless you have stacks of green paper strips and piles of metal discs. You really think a small round pellet or some fluid pushed into your veins through a sharpened needle will ward of disease or death. You really think you are alone unless another body is with you.”
“It is insanity to think these things. These are not laws but madness.”
What does Jesus say in this lesson about God’s Laws?
“Listen further. He will tell you more. About the Love your Father has for you. About the endless joy He offers you. About His yearning for His only Son, created as His channel for creation; denied to Him by his belief in hell.”
“His belief in hell” means your belief in worldly laws: that you think your body needs protection, that you believe you need money to survive, that you need to take care of your body with proper nutrition or you will wither away and die, that you need to be funny, sexy & cute to have a relationship with another body so you can feel safe and loved. This is what hell is. This is madness. It is insanity to think these things.
You are perfectly safe under the Laws of God.
The question then is: are you following God’s laws? Or is your dedication divided? You cannot be a little bit in Heaven. You can’t follow God’s Laws sometimes and follow worldly laws at other times. You cannot serve two masters. You must choose. If you follow worldly laws & God’s Laws you will get inconsistent results: you will see love sometimes followed by chaos and confusion.
That’s just the way that works.
But as you make a decision to TRUST and follow God’s Laws, you will see that A Course in Miracles is true: there is only love and miracles are happening all the time.
“If miracles are not happening, something has gone wrong.”
What has gone “wrong” (if miracles are not occurring) is that you are following worldly laws, meaning you are most likely still holding onto a grievance or upset, and you will get the result of that kind of thinking.
There is no exception in this rule. If miracles are not happening, then you are still being a human being, doing human being things. Planning for your safety, judging, holding grievances, gossiping, subtle (or overt) manipulation to get your way, protecting the body or trying to make it more beautiful so people like you. Just look at it honestly and see if this is true.
What’s the solution?
Be under no laws but God’s.
Be in Heaven. Stand with God. Be bright. Be helpful. Love. Give. Extend the light that you are … and you will see that everything is taken care of for you. The Holy Spirit will go ahead of you and remove all stones and obstacles from your path, making sure you don’t stumble and fall.
Doesn’t this sound better than trying to provide for your own needs and protection?
Put all your faith in God, follow His Laws only, and watch what happens.
You will be amazed that this works.
The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you seek him, you will find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you.” – Chronicles 15, Verse 12.
exclamation point!
The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him!
This bible quote is identical to my two favorite sections in A Course in Miracles that were a turning point for me:
ACIM Chapter 16:
Step gently aside and let healing be done for you. Keep but one thought in mind and do not lose sight of it, however tempted you may be to judge any situation, and to determine your response by judging it. Focus your mind only on this:
I am not alone, and I would not intrude the past upon my Guest.
I have invited Him, and He is here.
I need do nothing except not to interfere.
“He will not desert you, but be sure you do not desert Him. You are not sure that He will do His part, because you have never yet done yours completely.”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow.
And this from Chapter 11:
“You may complain that this course is not sufficiently specific for you to understand and use. Yet perhaps you have not done what it specifically advocates. This is not a course in the play of ideas, but in their practical application.”
And what does Jesus specifically advocate?
That LOVE be your one and only response to everything.
That you drop all your grievances (all of them!)
That you be happy.
“Only appreciation is an appropriate response to a brother.”
This is not a course in the play of ideas, but in their practical application.
For several days now I have been wanting to tell you all about my friend Tanja’s blog. She is amazing. She blogs every day about her experiences with A Course in Miracles workbook lessons. I go there daily. I never miss a day. She is a daily dose of bright light. She is clear and uncompromising, a pure channel of communication for God. Lately I’ve been loving her blog so much that I’ve been wanting to lift and steal sentences from her! I think to myself: “I wish I’d written that!” The good part is that I don’t have to steal, because she’s over there giving freely. She has a different way of expressing the message than I do, but the content is exactly the same. She reminds me of what I want to remember. She’s a beauty. She keeps it simple and is constantly reminding me of the IMPORTANCE of practicing.
Every day: practice, practice, practice. Apply, apply, apply.
So head on over to Tanja’s blog: THE LIGHT HAS COME.
Because the light has come.
“You are healed and you can heal. The light has come. You are saved and you can save. The light has come. You are at peace, and you bring peace with you wherever you go. Darkness and turmoil have disappeared. The light has come.”
Notice this is written in the PRESENT tense???
The light has come. It’s accomplished.
You are saved and you can save. Accomplished.
You are at peace, and you bring peace with you wherever you go. Accomplished. True now.
Darkness and turmoil have disappeared. Accomplished.
The light has come.
You are at peace. Is this true for you? Darkness and turmoil have disappeared. Is this your experience?
Or are you still standing in a dark cloud? It’s not raining anymore. The light has come. If you are not at peace and if you still see darkness and turmoil, it means you are doing it to yourself. The light is all around you. You can put your umbrella away. You can put your grievances and judgments away. The sun is shining brightly. You don’t need to cover up or protect yourself anymore. You can be happy. The light has come.
Here … is the new beginning. Here is the start of your new life.
Today, you begin looking only with Christ vision. You stop looking at form to see where you are in your own mind. You stop looking at your broken body and your broken relationships because they cannot show you anything at all, because form is not real. It is meaningless. What your body’s eyes show you is not what life is!
You start training yourself to relate only to what is real and true and eternal: in you and in others. Only the light is real. Form has no meaning, so stop relating to it as if it has importance. Relate only to the light.
What you will notice in about 90% of the population is that this light is covered over by darkness, stories, sadness, clouds, sickness, and depression. BUT THE LIGHT IS THERE! It is your job to find it! It may be just a spark, but it is there! Your brother is waiting for release and only you can give it to him!
It is your job, function and purpose to see the light.
Look beyond people’s stories of addiction and sadness, and see the light and relate only to that.
You can heal your brother and the world. How? By giving your brother what he cannot provide for himself: attention, appreciation, a smile, a helping hand, or a kind word.
You can listen with all your attention to what someone is saying. Just listen. Stop what you are doing and LISTEN. Stop injecting your story. Give your full attention, without adding your own commentary. Just listen. This, in my opinion, is one of the easiest & fastest ways to heal. Try it with someone today and watch what happens.
Give your full attention and listen.
There is a great story in Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth about a woman from Nazi Germany who was filled with grievances, anger and was a huge ego and loved to complain. One day this woman went to Tolle’s house to complain some more and he just sat there listening while she raged on and on. He sat listening with non-judgment and total presence. He didn’t respond to her story. He just listened. And then all of a sudden in the middle of an angry tirade, she stopped. She stopped and said “this isn’t important, is it?” Then she laughed. Then she went home and the next day she said to Eckhart “what did you do to me??????” She said that night was the first night in her life she felt at peace, and she slept like a baby the whole night through.
Great story. See. You can heal.
“What did you to me?”
I listened and gave you what you really needed: love and attention.
It’s easier than you think. Just give someone your full attention. You heal someone by joining them, by being present, by listening.
I kept reading Tolle’s book yesterday and I’m really in love with it. It’s great stuff. It gets better as I go along. I really struggled with the first half of the book which is all about the ego and the pain body, but then it gets good. Have you bought it yet? It has some nice practical advice in here.
I love this sentence: “If you can neither enjoy or bring acceptance to what you do – stop.”
HA!
If you can neither enjoy or bring acceptance to what you do – stop.
Stopping will bring a moment of stillness – an empty space not filled with your frantic rushing, planning, old ideas in which you can remember the truth.
The light has come. I have forgiven the world.
It’s almost Easter now: your resurrection. Born again. Raised from the dead. Brand new. The past disappears. The space is clean. You are whole and perfect as God created you.
“Your forgiveness entitles you to vision.”
Listen to this:
“From this time forth you will see differently. Today the light has come. And you will see the world that has been promised you since time began, and in which is the end of time ensured.”
From this time forth you will see differently.
Jesus is talking to you and he’s talking about now. From this time forth you will see differently. That’s a miracle. From this time forth, you have the ability to see only light everywhere. From this time forth, you see only love.
You will still look upon chaos and problems, but you now have within you the power and willingness to see beyond form & falsity.
Your response will be differently. It will come from a place of clarity and you will remember there is only one appropriate response to all situations: appreciation.
Why? Because the light has come.
You have forgiven the world. Your forgiveness entitles you to vision.
There is no will but God’s.
I have seen/heard several fantastic things on the Eckhart/Oprah webcast A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose but my very favorite thing so far was on the very first show, in the first 15 minutes, when Eckhart was talking about life, consciousness, the universe … and Oprah interrupted him and said “What do you call it? I call it God.”
haha.
That was by far, the best moment for me. It was like she was giving him permission, freedom and courage to say the word God on national television.
Like: let’s not dance around this thing. We are safe to be ourselves and to not worry about ratings or advertisers.
“What do you call it? I call it God.” – Oprah Winfrey
haha.
Time to come out of the spiritual closet – time to come out of hiding – and declare what you’ve been keeping secret in your heart all these years.
I used to keep A Course in Miracles hidden in a closet, as if it was pornography. It was my big secret. I didn’t want anyone thinking I was a Jesus freak. I didn’t want to be labeled as religious nut or worst of the worst words of them all: spiritual. I thought: what will my parents think? What will my friends think? What will my co-workers think?
Finally there was a turning point when someone gave me the courage to come out of hiding and declare my love for Jesus (a guy named Chris, who I met at a party on the Upper West Side in Manhattan in 1997)
“What do you call it? I call it God.” -Oprah Winfrey
That’s awesome.
Look at this sparkling gem from ACIM Lesson 74:
“God’s is the only Will. When you have recognized this, you have recognized that your will is God’s. The belief that conflict is possible is gone. Peace has replaced the strange idea that you are torn by conflicting goals. As an expression of the Will of God , you have no goal but His.”
Amazing, right?
If you accept today’s idea, there will be no conflict for you anymore. Nothing will disturb you ever again. All your problems will disappear in the instant of your recognition: THERE IS NO WILL BUT GOD’S.
I am really loving the Eckhart/Oprah webcast, but Eckhart is leaving something out – he’s holding back – AND OPRAH KNOWS IT.
She’s reading his book, she’s practicing presence and she keeps asking two very good questions:
1. Now what?
2. What’s it for?
I’m loving her determination. So she climbs the stairs, focusing on every step, she’s being entirely in the moment, but now what?
She’s looking at her hand, she’s feeling the inner force of her hand, she’s looking at a flower, she being present with eyes closed, she’s in nature, but now what? What’s it for?
These are great questions. I know Eckhart Tolle has practiced A Course in Miracles – all 365 workbook lessons. It is absolutely, positively OBVIOUS. He’s awake. He has the clarity, peace and joy that comes as a result of daily practicing.
So I would like to hear him tell this to the world. He did not get that clarity from looking at a flower. That’s the starting point.
Oprah knows there is something else. She wants to have an experience. She is really determined. It is lovely to witness, but there is also frustration and confusion in her because you know SHE KNOWS there is more.
Walking up the stairs, being present at every step, does not solve grievances.
Looking at a flower without naming it does not make anger and problems disappear.
Knowing the life energy in your hand or body does not make fear disappear.
It’s not just about acceptance and presence. There is another step to take. It’s about a change of mind: converting a thought of fear to love, from sadness to joy, from loneliness to function, from a grievance to peace, from confusion to purpose, from conflict to happiness.
It requires active participation to change a picture of ugliness to one of beauty. It’s a miracle to turn an enemy into a friend in an instant, simply by changing your mind. We are not dealing with externals here. You stand in the chaos and choose to change your mind. Actively, in every moment.
That’s why the ACIM workbook lessons are so great. It’s constant repetition and constant reminders to change your mind, drop your grievances, remember the truth of your Identity in God, and be in the light.
Noticing is not enough. Being present in the NOW is not enough. You need to have willingness TO FLIP A THOUGHT UPSIDE DOWN. This is what conversion is. This is why A Course in Miracles says “it is the opposite of the way you see now.”
Do you see why looking is not enough? You can be present till the cows come home, but until you change your mind, you will not see differently. You will feel moments of peace when you have stilled your mind (to walk up the stairs, to feel your breath, to see if you are still breathing, to look at a flower, to notice the life force of your hand) but when you finish the exercise, you still have your problems. You will quickly realize that being present does not accomplish the goal of being happy all the time, with no exceptions.
Oprah knows! She’s asking great questions:
1. Now what?
2. What was that for?
3. What did that accomplish?
Presence is the starting point. It’s where you begin. Then you need to take every thought – look under every stone, to notice every cobweb – to become aware of the way you think and behave – and then by your active participation of watching your thought patterns: YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND TO A NEW WAY OF THINKING.
This is why I teach A Course in Miracles. It’s specific. It goes straight to the heart of the problem … which is your own thinking. I teach conversion. I teach “there is another way of looking at this.”
I’m positive Eckhart Tolle has done all 365 lessons of A Course in Miracles. That’s why there is that clarity, peace and joy. He’s undergone his own awakening process, so I am waiting on the edge of my seat for him to say something about it.
One thing for sure: I’m loving it. The door is open. The world is ready for this experience.
There is no need for conflict. There is no will but God’s.
“What do you call it? I call it God.” – Oprah
I love that.
She is something else. No fear. Full function for God.
Another great thing Oprah said: “Everyone knows I love shoes. I have lots of them. But I’d give them up if I had to.”
That’s commitment and dedication. To have willingness to give up the things you love if you had to. That’s all that’s being asked of you.
And what do most people love? Pain, fear, grievances, conflict and being right.
I am willing to let all these things go so that I can be happy.
Thanks for showing up here.
love, lisa
I will there be light.
Wow, look at this: Lesson 73 (I will there be light) is identical to all the other lessons since the review 13 days ago.
All these lessons are the same. They keep circling back on each other. Constant repetition. A constant reminder about light, function, and purpose. These lessons are designed to show you WHO YOU ARE and WHAT YOU ARE.
And look at this .. haha … I am laughing….
“Today we will try ONCE MORE to reach the world that is accordance with your will.”
haha. Every day, there is Jesus saying: okay, let’s try this again.
I will there be light.
I will to see the light. I will to know my own Identity. I will to see only what is true and real and eternal. I will to know my inheritance. I will to know peace, joy and happiness.
“Your picture of the world can only mirror what is within.”
1. Grievances darken your mind, and you look out on a darkened world.
2. Forgiveness lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and lets you look upon a world of light.
I am reading these sentences as I type and laughing out loud. Look at this:
“We have repeatedly emphasized that the barrier of grievances is easily passed, and cannot stand between you and salvation.”
haha. WE HAVE REPEATEDLY EMPHASIZED…
haha, I’ll say. Every day for the last 13 days. Drop your grievances. Stop holding grievances. Go to the light. Go past the clouds. Go past the darkness. Forget your problems. Drop your grievances. You are the light of the world. Grievances are an attack.
In the words of Bob Newhart: Stop it. You big baby.
Here’s some questions to answer:
Do you really want to be in hell?
Do you really want to weep and suffer and die?
There is a point beyond which all illusions cannot go.
I’m going to repeat that, because it’s very important:
There is a point beyond which all illusions cannot go.
It’s above the battleground. So get up there. Once you are above the battleground, illusions cannot touch you. There is a point beyond which all illusions cannot go. You cannot find peace within the conflict in which you currently find yourself. This is what it means to leave everything behind. This is what it means to go to Heaven. This is what Jesus meant when he asked the guys in the field to drop everything and follow him. They wanted to go back and get their possessions and wife and kids and he said: NO.
Matthew 24:
17 Let him which is on the rooftop not come down to take anything out of his house
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
Which means – you can’t take anything from your life with you if you expect to go to the light. When you go to God, you must leave everything behind. Everything. There is no other way. This might seem difficult to you and might seem to require some kind of sacrifice until you really look at what it is saying.
It goes with all these recent lessons in the course: In order to get to the light, you must leave the darkness. You must go beyond the clouds. You must leave your life behind.
Shed your life like a snake sheds its skin.
DROP EVERYTHING.
Drop your story. Drop your grievances.
That grievance you are still holding from yesterday (or a week ago, or ten years ago): Drop it. Why are you holding on to it? Let it go.
Let go of all your grievances.
If you are having difficulties with these lessons or if it seems like this Course is not working for you, or if you are wondering why you are not happy yet, or why you still have problems, or why you cannot see the light … I AM TELLING YOU WHY.
It’s impossible – LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE – to get to Heaven while continuing to stand in the darkness. You cannot be in the light while you are examining your problems. Look how simple this becomes. You cannot see the light while you hold on to anger, judgment, worry or fear. It’s impossible. You have to drop it all.
This is why I say to delete the word “ego” (and “pain body” while you are at it) from your vocabulary.
Drop it like your life depends on it.
There is no ego. There is no pain body. There are no problems.
There is no need to suffer.
Why would you hold onto conflict?
What have you got to lose?
Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?
“Above all else, you want the freedom to remember Who you really are.”
You will succeed today. I am telling you how simple this is. Let go of every idea, every problem, every grievance … and you will be in the light.
I was watching two 3-year old kids yesterday and they are happy for no reason.
They have no problems. They know they are perfectly taken care of. Jesus means what he says: YOU MUST BECOME LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN.
Onward.
Chapter 3.
Week 3/Chapter 3. Please read.
I got a brand new copy. This is great news. Clean pages without any past markings. Nothing underlined. No stars. No exclamation points. No dots. No hearts. A brand new beginning with fresh white clean pages.
I’m psyched.
We are on to Chapter 3. I might just do a weekly video from now on for the remainder chapters, where you can SEE me talking. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Okay, now. WHERE’S MY PEN?
Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.
Have you noticed that these lessons constantly repeat themselves? They were designed that way. One lesson says: today we will attempt to reach the light.
Then the next day the lesson says: today we will try again.
Then the next day the lesson says: today we will make another attempt.
Then the next day the lesson says: Okay, we’re going to try again.
And the same is true with specific themes and ideas, like grievances: they keep repeating themselves to reinforce the lesson they were designed to teach until they are learned.
It’s like working out in a gym. You don’t just do one exercise for one day and forget about it if you expect to see results. You have to keep working those same muscles, with the same exercises over and over and over and over and over and over … until finally you are changed and transformed, completely brand new.
This is A Course in Miracles.
Practice, practice, practice. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Apply, apply, apply.
Do you realize how many recent lessons are specifically aimed at getting you to give up your grievances? ALL OF THEM, since the review.
This is a systematic mind training program and if you are doing the lessons correctly, practicing in every moment of every hour of every day, one day you will realize there are no more grievances for you to forgive.
You will be totally changed by practicing these ideas in your daily life.
I am reading Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth and while I like it, I feel that it lacks the structure of a workbook. Practical exercises are necessary if you expect to see a change. You can’t just read a book. Everything Eckhart says in A New Earth is TRUE TRUE TRUE but there is no where for me to practice what he is saying.
If I didn’t have A Course in Miracles already, and I was reading Eckhart’s book I would want to know how to apply all that he is saying in my daily life. How do you let go of the pain-body? He says some nice stuff on the topic, but there is no where for me to practice and apply.
I’m 100% percent certain Eckhart has A Course in Miracles and has practiced it. I am 200% certain. I would bet money on it because many of the sentences in this book are directly out of the course, almost verbatim.
I keep wondering why he does not mention it.
I feel the workbook is the most important part of the course, and the fast track to knowing yourself as God created you: peace, joy, love and happiness. Without the practical application of a workbook, you are left with a bunch of true ideas, but no idea how to apply them into your life.
Are you still practicing these lessons on a daily basis? I’d like to hear from you.
If so, you should be experiencing some dramatic shifts by now.
If you have been practicing correctly, you should be at the point where holding grievances no longer makes any logical sense to you.
You should be experiencing terrific moments of peace and joy, for no reason at all. Just pure bliss at the new clarity of mind you have found within yourself.
So today’s lesson is YET ANOTHER ATTEMPT to let your grievances go. These lessons are designed so that you never have to go back to earlier lessons, because each new lesson keeps reinforcing past lessons.
You’ve been told ten days in a row to focus solely on the light within you. Focus only on what is true: THE LIGHT.
No where in here does it say to examine your grievances.
It says: Let them go.
It says: Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.
The best I can say about the pain-body that Eckhart is talking about is that it is a real experience HOWEVER … it dissolves in a moment, in a flash, if you don’t give it any reality. Completely ignore it and it will disappear. This is an experience I want you to have for yourself. Pay no attention to pain. Let it be what it is and accept it as part of your experience in that moment. It is neither good nor bad. It is nothing. Don’t name it.
I was a little surprised that the first 2 chapters talk about recognizing the difficulty with names and labels but then Eckhart goes and gives a new sophisticated term for everyone to talk about: The Pain Body.
Everyone I know who is reading this book now is talking about their pain body, and they say it exactly like this: “my pain body is now ….”
Notice the use of the word “my”. “My” pain body. Eckhart talks about this in great detail: my, mine, I, me, me, me.
Be careful with this. The Pain Body is not real. It’s another name for a false condition. Let everything be energy and it will shift almost immediately.
You can bypass the pain body (which is ego) today if you feel like it. All the lessons this week in A Course in Miracles tell you specifically how to accomplish this.
This is why I love A Course in Miracles above all else. These lessons tell me precisely how to go beyond the darkness, beyond the veil, beyond your problems, and beyond limitations – above the battleground – TO THE LIGHT THAT IS THERE BEYOND AND ABOVE ALL PERCEIVED DIFFICULTIES.
There is no need for you to suffer.
Be careful with descriptions, stories and concepts. They will trap you in yet another sequence of time, and you will believe you are gaining progress. Be careful with this. There is no process. Either you are fully in the light now or you are trapped in time.
God’s plan has already been accomplished. There is no need to suffer.
There is no need for pain.
There is no need for problems.
There is no process. I will say it again and again, over and over. There is no process. Your “pain body” is not real. It’s not doing anything. There is no therapy involved in this. If you use the word “pain body” to describe something that is happening to you, you are trapped in the story of your dream.
It’s neither good nor bad … just be aware if you do it.
Be aware when you are telling stories.
Be aware when you are identifying with a false condition … AND MAKE A DECISION TO STOP TELLING LIES.
Be as God created you, perfect.
There is a light in you that is shining as brightly as it always has. It has never dimmed.
See how simple this becomes? There’s no story anymore. Where is pain now?
When pain comes, just observe it and let it be what it is without naming it, and without trying to change it.
I’ve told the story before about my last episode with pain. I thought I was going to die. It was physical pain in my neck and head. I became paralyzed. It was NOT emotional pain. It was intensely physical. It had no came out of nowhere. I didn’t sleep for a week. I cried non-stop it hurt so much. But I stayed focused on not naming it. It hurt like hell, but I didn’t tell a story about it. When people asked what was wrong with me, I said simply: “I’m not sure.” And that’s the truth. I didn’t know what was happening to me. All I knew with certainty was that GRATITUDE WAS REQUIRED. I stayed grateful through the worst intense pain of my life.
Thank you God for this new experience.
I felt it was pain coming from the depths of my cells and I was determined to release it. I was not going to push it back down again. And how is this accomplished? Very simply. By the very act of acceptance and gratitude.
ACCEPTANCE & GRATITUDE.
When there is pain, this is the fast track for releasing it …
THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.
Over and over, again and again, give thanks. Be totally grateful like you are at a party or celebration.
And move. Move that energy. Don’t lie in bed, wishing it to change. Get up and extend the light within you. Laugh. Dance. Watch a funny movie. Be determined to let “pain” shift by focusing on something else besides the pain. Ignore the body altogether. Stop identifying with the false, and think only about God.
This is my 2¢.
On a practical level, how is this accomplished?
By letting go of grievances.
Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.
You will be in pain as long as your hold grievances. Guaranteed.
And you will be forever happy when you let them go. Guaranteed.
did you watch this week’s 90 minute webcast on Oprah.com?
Week 2/Chapter 2 of A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.
Here’s the link.
http://www.oprah.com/obc_classic/webcast/archive/anewearth_archive_main.jsp
“God’s plan for salvation works simply because, by following His direction, you seek for salvation where it is. But if you are to succeed, as God promises you will, you must be willing to seek there only. Otherwise, your purpose is divided and you will attempt to follow two plans for salvation that are diametrically opposed in all ways. The result can only bring confusion, misery and a deep sense of failure and despair.”
- ACIM Lesson 71
You must be willing to seek there only.
This lesson astonishes me and delights me like nothing else:
“Begin the two longer practice periods by thinking about today’s ideas – Only God’s plan for salvation will work – and realize that it contains two parts, each making contribution to the whole:
1. Only God’s plan for your salvation will work.
2. All other plans will not.
Only God’s plan for salvation will work.
I am laughing. I wrote a little post this morning, first thing, about making a new commitment to my relationship with God. About not scattering my energy to two masters. About serving God, strengthening my relationship with Him, and letting that be my ONE and ONLY goal.
Father, I am Yours.
And now I open A Course in Miracles to read today’s lesson and it says: Only God’s plan for salvation will work.
haha. I’m laughing. I’m so excited about what the day holds. Everything seems so brand new to me right now in this moment. I have no idea what will happen next. I don’t care. I feel so happy. I feel like a kid on my birthday or Christmas morning, in the total wonder of celebration.
I had no idea that taking a stand for God could feel so liberating and exciting.
I feel like this is my first day alive.
“Only God’s plan for salvation will work. There can be no real conflict about this, because there is no possible alternative to God’s plan that will save you. His is the only plan that is certain in its outcome. His is the only plan that must succeed.”
LET US PRACTICE RECOGNIZING THIS CERTAINTY TODAY.
AND LET US REJOICE THAT THERE IS AN ANSWER TO WHAT SEEMS TO BE A CONFLICT WITH NO RESOLUTION POSSIBLE.
All things are possible in God.
Remembering this, let us devote the remainder of the extended practice period to asking God to reveal His plan to us. Ask him very specifically:
What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to whom?
I love it. I love it. I love it.
God is in charge. I am His faithful servant. I let go of all other plans. I belong to God. It’s all I care about.
Father, reveal Your Plan to me.
What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to whom?
This lesson is great.
“The very fact that you are doing the exercises proves that you have some willingness to listen. This is enough to establish your claim to God’s answer.
I’ve been getting lots of messages lately asking me to take a stand. To decide what I want and stick with it. To not serve two masters. Choose one or the other (money or God) but do not try to serve both.
Max said: What do you really want to do? Choose something, stick with it, and give it your full attention. He said to give it at least a week, and to not think about anything else at all except my decision.
I said: I want to serve God.
He said, then just do that.
Then a Joel Goldsmith article came to my attention last night (posted below), confirming my decision:
You owe nothing to this world, and you have nothing to give this world. You owe nothing to your patients or your students. You owe NOTHING to the Infinite Way. You owe to yourself one deep debt. And you’re never going to be out of that debt. You owe it to yourself to make your God Contact and to maintain it and to see that you make it everyday of the week and that you maintain it every day of the week. That is your function in life.
Forget the world, forget trying to save the world and forget your patients and forget your students and forget The Infinite Way. Forget everything. Have only ONE goal and ONE ambition. And that is to make and maintain your individual relationship with God, your individual contact with God. Then, out of that contact if the opportunity presents itself to you to do healing work, to do teaching work, to do lecture work, to support this activity in any way from material dollars to spiritual support, do it. But, do it only as an ADDED thing, as an extra thing. Do it only as a consequence, as a direct result of your daily, spiritual contact.
Then my friend Pamela e-mailed me part of yesterday’s lesson (Lesson 70) which further confirmed my choice:
“Since all illusions of salvation have failed you, surely you do not want to remain in the clouds, looking vainly for idols there, when you could so easily walk on into the light of real salvation. Try to pass the clouds by whatever means appeals to you. If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy”
Amazing. All illusions HAVE failed me. Why am I still looking in the clouds? There is nothing there.
Have only ONE goal and ONE ambition: And that is to make and maintain your individual relationship with God, your individual contact with God.
This is lifted from Kristen’s Illuminate Mind blog, which was lifted from Joel Goldsmith ….
and definitely worth reading:
by Joel Goldsmith:
The most important thing for students.
The main concern at this moment is this:
It isn’t the Infinite Way, that’s not your concern. The world, that isn’t your concern. The affairs of this world that is not your concern. At this moment there is only ONE thing that is your concern and that is the degree of your God Contact. If you never heal a case, if you never teach a student, if never play a part in the world affairs, none of that’s important, not a bit. There’s only one important thing and that’s YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.
You owe nothing to this world, and you have nothing to give this world. You owe nothing to your patients or your students. You owe NOTHING to the Infinite Way. You owe to yourself one deep debt. And you’re never going to be out of that debt. You owe it to yourself to make your God Contact and to maintain it and to see that you make it everyday of the week and that you maintain it every day of the week. That is your function in life.
Make that God Contact and keep it!
Forget the world, forget trying to save the world and forget your patients and forget your students and forget The Infinite Way. Forget everything. Have only ONE goal and ONE ambition. And that is to make and maintain your individual relationship with God, your individual contact with God. Then, out of that contact if the opportunity presents itself to you to do healing work, to do teaching work, to do lecture work, to support this activity in any way from material dollars to spiritual support, do it. But, do it only as an ADDED thing, as an extra thing. Do it only as a consequence, as a direct result of your daily, spiritual contact.
Now, I can say this to you, because truthfully, this has always been my attitude. I have no feeling of wanting to save the world. I have no feeling of wanting to save even you. I have no feeling about students or patients. I have no feeling about this world at all. I have only ONE feeling and that is that I can’t live separate and apart from my God Contact. And the minute I come out of it a little, I am in misery. And I have to get back into it. And, it so happens that through that God Contact, this work has developed and been drawn to me and I fulfill it.
If I had the nerve, I’d run a thousand miles away from it, ten thousand miles and hide. But, I’m just afraid to for fear of what my Papa upstairs will do to me if I renig. But, for my own sake and my own comfort, be assured of this that going into class work is more punishment for me than taking a physical whipping. I don’t seek it, I don’t look for it. And not all the profits or money that could be involved in it can make me do it more than when I can’t get out of it. And that’s a strange thing.
But, it’s the truth and it always has been the truth. Class work and lecture work is punishment to me. And I do it only because this inner urge forces me to it. And the people keep writing and writing and phoning and wiring and cabling and coming and I just feel I can’t go back on it or neglect it, because that’s why I was given this God Contact to begin with.
And so, as many times as I promised to stop it, the next thing you know, I’m back at it again. But, believe me, it isn’t a thing that you would want to go into voluntarily. It isn’t. Because it’s, whatever it is, it is, anyhow and it isn’t nice. The fruitage is beautiful, but it really and truly tears you to pieces inside…probably because of the responsibility.
-Joel Goldsmith
My salvation comes from me.
I love this lesson. It means that I can be happy now. Everything that happens to me is by my decision and choice. The Power of God within me allows me to change my mind in every instant, choosing what I want to see.
I want to see peace. I want to know love as all there is. I don’t want conflict. I want to be happy. I want to give as God gives. I see the importance of salvation.
“Guilt is solely an invention of your mind.”
That’s amazing. Nothing can affect you. It means you can let go of guilt and pain now. You can let go of sickness now. You can stop being a human being, trapped within a prison house called the body. You do not have to wait for circumstances to change because circumstances do not change, YOU CHANGE.
As you change your mind, the world changes with you.
The body is solely a means of communication for extending the light that you are. When you use the body in this way, it takes care of itself. It needs no care, no concern, no thought about how to keep it healthy.
Remember, the body is nothing. It’s not solid. It’s not real.
Fix your attention on the eternal, and the body will take care of itself to serve the Holy Spirit.
I remain as God created me, meaning I remain unaffected by things in form.
“Nothing outside yourself can save you; nothing outside yourself can give you peace. But it also means that nothing outside yourself can hurt you, or disturb your peace or upset you in any way.”
“Today’s idea places you in charge of the universe, where you belong because of what you are. This is not a role that can be partially accepted. And you must surely begin to see that accepting it is salvation.”
THIS IS NOT A ROLE THAT CAN BE PARTIALLY ACCEPTED.
Over and over, again and again, Jesus in A Course in Miracles says this is a total commitment, make no exceptions and do not compromise.
“Atonement is a total commitment.”
In every second things are going to be happening to you – thing breaking, people saying things, situations occurring that do not go the way you like – but in every second is the Power of God inherent in your mind. You have the power to change your mind and see things differently … now.
That’s why this course is called MIND-TRAINING. You are training your mind in a systematic way. You are practicing daily, moment by moment, to think like God, to give like God, to love like God.
In every second of every minute of every day, you are catching the thoughts you think and observing them.
Are you extending truth or projecting error?
Suddenly you become aware of the tiniest behavior in you. Like an actor observing himself. You realize you are in charge of the universe. It’s a huge role. Are you being mindless and unconscious, not aware of your behavior OR are you realizing the importance of salvation, conscious, with a total commitment to be as God created you.
This is not about pretending to be holy or spiritual, or your idea of perfect. No. This is about being yourself as God created you: passionate, joyful, happy, creative, and bright.
God only gives. This is the function given to you, because you are what God is.
God knows only love. This is the function given to you.
Lesson 70 is another attempt to reach the light in you, to go past the clouds, to go past the darkness, to go past the veil.
“You cannot find it in the clouds that surround the light, and it is in them you have been looking for it. It is not there. It is past the clouds and in the light beyond. Remember that you will have to go through the clouds before you can reach the light. But remember also that you have never found anything in the cloud patterns you imagined that endured, or that you wanted.”
I love it. It’s true. No form has ever satisfied me completely. Which means that everything I want and need is in this moment, in the formless, right now.
“My salvation comes from me. Nothing outside of me can hold me back. Within me is the world’s salvation and my own.”
My grievances hide the light of the world in me.
“Today let us make another real attempt to reach the light in you.”
What does this mean?
TRY, TRY AGAIN.
If you fall down, get up, and try again.
If it seems like this is not working, try again.
If it appears like you’re failing, try again.
TRY, TRY AGAIN.
Show up daily, forget your past mistakes, and try again.
Practicing is the entire basis of A Course in Miracles.
The simple message is this: keep going.
Do not give up.
Surrender, yes. But do not give up. There is a huge difference between surrender and quitting.
I finished reading Steve Martin’s book last night Born Standing Up and it is such an inspiration to me. Steve Martin spent the majority of his young adult life chasing after his dream to be in showbiz, and he went entirely on blind faith. It appeared like he was failing. He kept thinking that maybe success was never going to come to him. He was broke. He spent more money to get to the shows that booked him, then the money they paid him. He played to crowds of 10-20 people. He got bad reviews. He considered taking another job and giving up on his dream. But he couldn’t do it. All he wanted was to be a comedian. Despite the appearance of failure, something in him kept pushing him forward. He loved the feeling of being on a stage. He loved the physicality of it, the movement, and the precision of being a comic.
This book reaffirmed my commitment to salvation. It sometimes appears like nothing is happening or changing and that maybe this is as good as it gets (?) and that I should just go get a job and make money.
But there is something in me now that won’t allow me to wander off. My house is built on stone. I was born to do this – to be the living breathing demonstration of the Love of God, and the message of Jesus – here on earth.
This is my function and the only reason I’m here.
Faith.
Trust.
Keep going.
Try, try again.
Sometimes years go by and it looks like nothing is changing. It looks like things will always stay the same. There is always going to be the tendency to give up.
Keep going.
Follow your heart.
There was a message in my e-mail box from my mother: “Do what makes your heart sing. I love you.”
That’s my mother. Isn’t she amazing? That’s it, in all it’s simplicity: Do what makes your heart sing.
There is only today.
Be in the light. Attempt again to reach the light. Don’t get sidetracked. Do not accept something less than what is your true inheritance. Don’t settle for less than everything. Don’t compromise.
Shoot for the stars.
“We are trying to let the veil be lifted, and to see the tears of God’s Son disappear in the sunlight. Let us begin our longer practice period today with the full realization that this is so, and with real determination to reach what is dearer to us than all else. Salvation is our only need. There is no other purpose here, and no other function to fulfill. Learning salvation is our only goal. Let us end the ancient search today by finding the light in us, and holding it up for everyone who searches with us to look upon and rejoice.”
!!!!
“Let us end the ancient search today by finding the light in us, and holding it up for everyone who searches with us to look upon and rejoice.”
Now practice the lesson. It’s practical and it tells you precisely what to do – with specific instructions – to reach the light in you.
This is not difficult. It’s a matter of willingness and motivation.
Doing what you love – what makes you happy – is what it means to go into the light.
(and its opposite is true: sacrificing and compromising and doing something you dislike because “you should” or because “you have to pay bills” is the reason for depression)
Do what makes your heart sing.
Go for it.
Reach the light within you today. Seek it and find it. It’s there for you to see.
”You are not what happens, but the space in which it happens.” – Eckhart Tolle
This 3 minute video is great:
