I picked up Kierkegaard in a second-hand shop for $1, and I am utterly amazed. I have never read him before and I am practically speechless by the beauty of this book.
It is Either/Or.
By Soren Kierkegaard:
“What portends? What will the future bring? I do not know, I have no presentiment. When a spider hurls itself down from some fixed point, consistently with its nature, it always sees before it only an empty space wherein it can find no foothold however much it sprawls. And so it is with me: always before an empty space; what drives me forward is a consistency which lies behind me. This life is topsy-turvy and terrible, not to be endured.”
“My view of life is utterly meaningless. I suppose an evil spirit has set a pair of spectacles upon my nose, of which one lens is a tremendously powerful magnifying glass, the other an equally powerful reducing glass.”
And this:
“Tested Advice for Authors: Set down your reflections carelessly, and let them be printed; in correcting the proof sheets a number of good ideas will gradually suggest themselves. Therefore, take courage, all you who have not yet dared to publish anything, even misprints are not to be despised, and an author who becomes witty by the aid of misprints, must be regarded as having become witty in a perfectly lawful manner.”
-Soren Kierkegaard, 1843
“Find what you love, do that and nothing else.”
- Max
I will be still an instant and go home.
My horoscope freaks me out a little today (yes, I get my horoscope – Taurus – by email every day, and yes, I love it)
TAURUS
See if you can stick with present-day activities today — you need to let the future take care of itself. Of course, eventually you’ll need to make a plan or two, but now is not the time for that.
This freaks me out because I really feel like I NEED to make a plan. On July 10, I fly back to Wisconsin and I don’t have a job or a place to live. I woke up this morning thinking “Okay, today’s the day I’m going to organize for something to happen in the future. I’m gonna make something happen.”
And then I open up my email and it says “Stick to present day activities today – you need to let the future take care of itself.”
Wow. Okay.
I will follow instructions and “stick to present day activities today.”
Which is really today’s lesson: I will be still an instant and go home.
“The world you seem to live in is not your home And somewhere in your mind you know that this is true. A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place that called you to return, although you do not recognize the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds you of. Yet still you feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown.”
Boy, is that the truth!
I have always felt like an alien here in the world, ever since I was a little girl. Nothing has ever made sense to me. Sure, I have learned to adapt but that doesn’t mean that I ever thought anything was logical here. Death, sickness, sorrow, murders, war, pain, suffering, and anger never made any sense to me, and no one could answer any of my questions. I wanted to know WHY.
Why do people die? Why do people kill? Why do people get sick?
And no one could answer a single question.
Which also baffled me, because I thought the adults and teachers knew all the answers.
But no one could answer my questions. And then in the 3rd grade, I started going deaf. My whole life I have wondered about it, but it seems to me now that I made a conscious decision to shut out the noise and live in God.
Being deaf has not slowed my mind down. Instead it has made me more active. It’s made me more focused and aware. I have to really listen and pay attention, and that’s a gift.
Some people say they can do 5 things at once: watch television, type on the internet, have a conversation, smoke a cigarette and hear their kids in the next room, but I can only do one thing at once. ONE THING AT A TIME. I cannot have a conversation with music going on the background. Being in a room full of talking people is mass confusion for me. I can’t write and talk at the same time.
My whole life people have been saying to me: “wow, you’re a great listener” and I would think to myself: yea, that’s because I’m deaf. I HAVE to pay attention. I have to be face-to-face with you in order to hear you. I don’t have a choice.
But mostly, I wanted to be left alone in the quiet … where worlds upon worlds and universes upon universes would open up to me.
To this day I am more fascinated by what goes on in my own mind than what happens in the physical world. It’s far more interesting to me to “go home” than anything I could do here in a body: travel, make money, go to parties, etc.
So today’s lesson confirms what I’ve always known: there is a Child inside of me who does not belong here.
And the same goes for you.
“Yet there is a Child in you Who seeks His Father’s house, and knows that He is an alien here. This childhood is eternal, with an innocence that will endure forever. Where this Child shall go is holy ground. It is His Holiness that lights up Heaven, and that brings to earth the pure reflection of the light above, wherein are earth and Heaven joined as one.”
In Chapter 9 of the Text (audio is now posted in the right sidebar, on Talkshoe), there is a great sentence that says:
“The Second Coming is merely the return of sense.”
There is not going to be any physical reappearance because Jesus is in his resurrection proved that the body isn’t real and death does not exist. He’s not going to “reappear” because he never went anywhere and he’s here now. He didn’t die. He’s here now. There is not going to be an appearance in a body of flesh, because there is no such thing as a body.
There is ONLY the Mind of God.
Why would Jesus, who proved once and for all that life is eternal … why would he backtrack and show up in a body?? Why would he do that?? (he wouldn’t) His entire message is that life is eternal and that this world is not your home. You are the light of the world. You are the Son of God. You are Spirit. You are love.
What are you waiting for??
Everyone seems to be waiting for something to happen, which is what being trapped in time and space is! You are a prisoner here while you wait for something in the future to occur. Everyone is waiting for something to happen in the physical world – which is a contradiction of the whole message of Jesus! There is nothing in the physical world. There is only love, and it surrounds you now. What could possibly happen in the future that is not happening now?? You can be happy today. You can find God today. You can reach Heaven today. You can go there now.
The Second Coming, which is everyone is so terrified of is “merely the return of sense.” Which obviously can occur for you in this moment, or any moment.
It is the return to sense that this world is not your home. This world is not where you belong.
So my horoscope does make perfect sense. Thank you Yahoo for the great reminder.
I can forget about the future and be present today. If I do what is in front of me, the future will take care of itself.
“When you are still an instant, when the world recedes from you, when valueless ideas cease to have value in your restless mind, then you will hear His Voice.”
Nice, huh?
“This Child in you needs your protection. He is far from home. He is so little that he seems to easily shut out, His tiny voice so readily obscured, His call for help almost unheard amid the grating sounds and harsh and rasping noises of the world. Yet does He know that in you still abides His sure protection. You will fail Him not. He will go home, and you along with Him.”
I love it.
This Child in you trusts in you.
“He came because He knew you would not fail. He whispers of His home unceasingly to you. His patience has no limits. He will wait until you hear His gentle Voice within you, calling you to let Him go in peace, along with you, to where He is at home and you with him.”
“Rest with Him frequently today.”
The Child in you wants to go home. All He asks is that you give a few minutes during the day today and shut off all your plans, all your preoccupations, all your goals, forget everything … and go home. Be still. Remember God.
Be still an instant and go home with Him, and be at peace a while.
Another one of my favorite lessons:
“I trust my brothers, who are one with me.”
This can be a very difficult lesson until you learn that there is nothing outside of you.
Until you recognize that your brother is literally you, you will think that other people are doing things separate from you, acting in ways that are not in harmony with the way you think events & circumstances should go.
Look at it. How many times have you had an idea of how something should happen? You think someone should do something in a certain manner or act in a particular way.
And when it doesn’t happen in the way you have predetermined based on your own script … you get upset.
Then you try to manipulate (mostly in unconscious subtle, charming ways) in order to get your way.
But today’s lesson says: “I trust my brothers, who are one with me.”
Imagine doing this.
Imagine trusting your brother, even in all of his insanity.
Imagine trusting your brother, with all of his mistakes and wild ideas and madness.
Imagine accepting him exactly the way he is, without trying to change him.
Imagine allowing everything to be exactly as it is.
Imagine being in a state of acceptance.
Imagine not correcting other people.
I speak from deep personal experience. I will give you an example. I am an expert when it comes to organizing food events: weddings, parties, catering. I have worked in the food industry for over 20 years, and I have a degree in hotel/restaurant management. I am a certified food snob. I have worked with a company in NYC that caters to celebrity events. I was the head server at Mayor Guiliani’s wedding and was part of his personal catering staff for a year. I have served Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey and Caroline Kennedy, along with hundreds of others who are used to first-class service. I have been trained by the best of the best: the most professional servers in the world. So I have it in my mind that that there is a certain (right) way of doing things when it comes to food service.
So, on the opposite end of the scale I have worked in regular places where the servers don’t know where the fork or the wine glass goes on the table.
This has caused enormous conflict in me over the years. I wanted everyone to do it my way … since I know the right way it should be done. I could never understand how servers could be so sloppy and careless in serving guests, especially when it comes to someone’s wedding.
And then one day – miracle of all miracles – I decided to start trusting my brothers who are one with me.
What I realized was that even though I was no longer working in the #1 catering company, I was still working with some really great people. The working conditions might have been a little more chaotic than I was accustomed to, and I always still felt there was room for improvement … but what I began to notice is that the job still got done and guests were happy.
And the biggest thing I noticed is that I regained my peace of mind.
I stopped trying to control everything.
I stopped caring if the dinner fork was exactly 1 inch away from the edge of the table. I relaxed.
From there I realized: ultimately, none of this matters.
That was my moment of freedom.
From that time on, I decided that the only person who needed to give 100% was me. I didn’t have to be concerned with what other people were doing. I only needed to focus on what I was doing, how much I was giving, how much care I gave in my actions. If the managers gave me 3 tables with 8 people at each table, then I focused only on those 3 tables and those 24 guests. I stopped worrying about the other 100 tables (and 800 guests) in the room.
I started trusting my brothers, who are one with me, to take care of their own tables and their own guests.
I trust my brothers to live their own lives, to make their own mistakes, to fall, to get up, to try, to fail and to succeed.
This is total freedom.
Now I focus only on what I am doing and I trust that everyone else is doing their part perfectly … and if my brother needs help, I help him.
But I don’t need to correct anyone anymore. I don’t need to control.
I can allow everything to be exactly as it is.
What I realized is that I was so focused on form (where the dessert spoon goes on the table) that I was blind to content (that is my brother over there, whom I love).
Everything I did was based on past and future goals (what I thought people should be doing based on things I had learned in the past, and what I thought the outcome was going to look like in the future – how the evening was going to go). I was completely absent from the present moment.
Now, years later, I can’t remember a single event, wedding or dinner although I do remember some extraordinary individuals I met along the way.
“A major hazard to success has been involvement with your past and future goals. You have been quite preoccupied with how extremely different the goals this course is advocating are from those you held before. And you have also been dismayed by the depressing and restricting thought that, even if you should succeed, you will inevitably lose your way again.”
“How could this matter? For the past is gone; the future is imagined. These concerns are but defenses against present change of focus in perception. Nothing more. We lay these pointless limitations by a little while. We do not look to past beliefs, and what we will believe will not intrude upon us now.”
This poem is great, except with one small change: that you were important in the life of another.
THIS SPEAKS FOR ITSELF (from A Course in Miracles):
Our next few lessons make a special point of firming up your willingness to make your weak commitment strong; your scattered goals blend into one intent. You are not asked for total dedication all the time as yet. But you are asked to practice now in order to attain the sense of peace such unified commitment will bestow, if only intermittently. It is experiencing this that makes it sure that you will give your total willingness to following the way the course sets forth.
Our lessons now are geared specifically to widening horizons, and direct approaches to the special blocks that keep your vision narrow, and too limited to let you see the value of our goal. We are attempting now to lift these blocks, however briefly. Words alone can not convey the sense of liberation which their lifting brings. But the experience of freedom and of peace that comes as you give up your tight control of what you see speaks for itself. Your motivation will be so intensified that words become of little consequence. You will be sure of what you want, and what is valueless.
And so we start our journey beyond words by concentrating first on what impedes your progress still. Experience of what exists beyond defensiveness remains beyond achievement while it is denied. It may be there, but you cannot accept its presence. So we now attempt to go past all defenses for a little while each day. No more than this is asked, because no more than this is needed. It will be enough to guarantee the rest will come.
Review lesson from A Course in Miracles:
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
(169) By grace I live. By grace I am released.
(170) There is no cruelty in God and none in me.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
These lessons are self-explanatory. They don’t need further commentary by me. By grace I live. By grace I am released. There is no cruelty in God and none in me.
That’s it!
This course is not complicated. It’s the simplest thing in the world when you decide to accept your perfection as God created you. There’s nothing to heal. There’s nothing to do. There’s nothing to forgive. There’s nowhere to go.
There is only now. God’s grace is given to me. I claim it now.
Which means, today is the day when everything happens.
In The Ancient Aramaic Language
|
Galilean transliteration of the Lord’s Prayer Avvon d-bish-maiya, nith-qaddash shim-mukh. |
Matthew 6:9-13 “Therefore, this is how you shall pray: |
I like that this is in the present tense. Most versions suggest a future time in which God’s Will is done. When it fact, God’s Will is already accomplished.
Whatever ideas you have about a future time, they are contained in this moment, in this very day. There is only the Mind of God. Time and space do not exist.
Here is a great passage from Charles Fillmore:
“Man can never discern more than a part of the circle in which he moves, although his powers and capacities are susceptible of infinite expansion. He discovers a faculty in himself and cultivates it until it opens out into a universe of correlated faculties. The farther he goes into mind, the wider its horizon, until he is forced to acknowledge that he is not the personal, limited thing he appears, but the focus of an infinite idea.”
“The idea contains within itself inexhaustible possibilities. These possibilities are projected into man’s consciousness as an image is reflected in a mirror, and through the powers vested in him, he brings them into manifestation.
“God is life, and wherever the pulse of life beats, there God is.”
-Charles Fillmore, 1953
This is yesterday’s lesson … today. I got lifted and carried yesterday – out into the open sea – and there was no time for my feet to hit the ground.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
(167) There is one life and that I share with God.
(168) Your grace is given me. I claim it now.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
I am sailing away
set an open course
for the virgin sea
cause I’ve got to be free
free to face a life that’s ahead of me
on board I’m the captain
so climb aboard
we’ll search for tomorrow
on every shore
and I’ll try
OH LORD, I’ll try
to carry on
Wow. I can’t believe these message from all of you FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. Oh my God. These letters are beautiful. Thank you. I am in a state of joy and wonder over here. Who would have guessed that giving could feel so good???
So climb aboard. Come sail away. We’ll search for tomorrow. On every shore.
If you ever feel like your spiritual tubes are clogged, they probably are, and the best way to unclog them is by giving something away. Open the channels. Open the windows. Let in some light. Let in some air. Throw some Drano down there.
All channels open. The light has come. There is but one life, and that I share with God.
Father, Your Grace is given me. I claim it now.
Today’s review lesson from A Course in Miracles:
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
(165) Let not my mind deny the Thought of God.
(166) I am entrusted with the gifts of God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
Great lesson for me today as I got my first cell phone ever yesterday. It came in the mail and I spent the entire day yesterday playing with it, reading the instruction manual, and setting it up. A good friend bought it for me and added me to her phone plan, as I would never have bought a cell phone for myself.
The reason I have resisted all these years is I like my freedom and quiet. I like disappearing for a week (like last week in Maine) and having no one be able to find me.
But I will admit: I am loving this phone.
It’s really cool.
Which is why today’s lesson comes at a perfect time: LET NOT MY MIND DENY THE THOUGHT OF GOD.
Last week, I got several messages from readers saying that the audio talk I gave on Chapter 8 of the text of A Course in Miracles (archives are in the right sidebar, in the blue Talkshoe box) is the best talk I have ever given, and that if this is the result of me being on a holiday, then I should stay on a permanent holiday.
LOL.
I agree. My best work is accomplished when my mind is relaxed and quiet and thinking with God.
I don’t want to become someone with a computer, cell phone, busy calendar schedule, etc . … although it seems to already be happening.
This is where vigilance is required.
Let me get out into nature, and leave all this behind. Let me unplug myself (literally) and be free in the heart of God.
Last week I found a great book in Goodwill for $1 called The 4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. It was written for me. It’s all about cutting back on the electronics (emails, phone, meetings) and getting your mind focused and clear to do your best work. It’s about working remotely from wherever you are (getting out of 9-5) and starting to live the life you have imagined for yourself … starting now.
What he means by the “new rich” is having the freedom to travel and live your life now, without waiting for retirement. He’s not talking about money. He’s talking about freedom. Where you could just get up and travel to Jerusalem as part of your job, if you felt like it.
It’s about finding out how to do the work you love, anywhere in the world.
For many jobs, it is now possible to work anywhere with the use of computers and cell phones (unless of course you are in the hospitality business, people business, show business, or a health-care profession – doctors, nurses, nursing home, hospitals, etc.)
But for people who work desk jobs in an office, this is a great book.
For me, this is ideal as all I want to do is help as many people as possible find their way back to God – back to the peace and joy that is your inheritance – and the internet has provided me with a way to reach thousands of people that I would never have met otherwise.
On the opposite end of the scale, my mom and I were talking the other day and she asked what would happen if somehow we lost all connections with phones and internet, and if we could no longer travel because of some worldwide catastrophe … and she asked “what would we do then?” and I said, well then, it would just be me and you and this community here in Maine. We’d learn to go talk to that guy over there. We’d probably all get together at the church or town hall. I’d go back to paper and pens. Money would be meaningless. The guy with the food and water would suddenly become the “richest” man and we’d learn to get along.
I think most people would freak out without internet or phones. I know I would go through a period of adjustment, no doubt about it.
So then, today, Let not my mind deny the Thought of God.
I am entrusted with the gifts of God.
Let me remember the Source of all things.
Let me remember where my safety lies … in God … in this moment. It does not lie in the trinkets and the toys.
I am grateful that I have a constant connection with the Holy Spirit and nothing can ever break that connection. I am perfectly safe in every situation.
I am entrusted with the gifts of God.
God is but Love and therefore so am I.
(163) There is no death. The Son of God is free.
(164) Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.
God is but Love and therefore so am I.
I am at my dad’s house now in New Hampshire.
I took Sophia (my dad’s dog – she’s a Carolina Dog/an American Dingo) for a walk this afternoon near an old church and saw the most awesome sign with a passage from the bible James 1: 2-4
It was about staying in a state of joy, no matter what trials come your way.
I thought this was appropriate to today’s lesson which says “There is no death.”
“Death is the one idea that underlies all feelings that are not supremely happy.”
Amazing, right?
Death is: sadness, fear, anxiety, doubt, anger, faithlessness, lack of trust, envy, jealousy, concern for bodies. This is death.
But there is no death. The Son of God is free.
God created only life.
You should be joyful … no … matter … what.
There is no death. There is no sickness. There is no pain. These are false ideas in a delusional mind and they have no reality whatsoever.
You were created in light, as light, and only light. There is nothing else in you. I don’t care what your story is. You are the light of the world.
What an awesome way to live – to be joyful when everything is going wrong and to be joyful when everything is going right. To be joyful no matter what the circumstances.
I came home and tried to find the James passage online and found many different translations depending on which bible you look at.
So here’s a few translations for you, from James 1: 1-4
The King James version:
1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
2My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
4But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
From The Message:
James 1: 2-4
2 -4Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
from New Living Translation:
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
from the Amplified Bible:
2Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations.
3Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience.
4But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.
From The New American Standard Bible:
2Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
To read the entire chapter of James (I highly recommend it!), click here:
