The “single largest step this course requests in your advance towards its established goal” is the recognition that all love is equal, that there is no love but God’s. LOVE IS ONE. Lesson 127.
That’s amazing to me.
I just “got ” this myself, seemingly last night while I slept. I went to bed one way and I woke up this morning and I saw everything clearly. THERE IS ONLY THE LOVE OF GOD.
Everything is what God is.
There are not different kinds of love. There is only the love of God. This is the reason why the special relationship has to be relinquished. Because there is no specialness in God. He doesn’t make exceptions and He has no favorites.
In God’s eyes, we are all exactly the same: His beautiful precious perfect children who have never sinned, and who were created to create like Him.
I can’t stop laughing today. It’s so good!! Thank you Jesus. All love is the same.
I don’t know how this new revelation is going to play out in my life. I am so used to compartmentalizing. Is that a word? It is now.
I love you. Whoever you are, wherever you are, I feel such gratitude that you are reading this, and that somewhere our paths have crossed. I must have done something right!! What a gift.
“Let us give thanks today that we are spared a future like the past. Today we leave the past behind us, never more to be remembered. And we raise our eyes upon a different present, where a future dawns unlike the past in every attribute.” – Lesson 127
Do you believe there are different kinds of love for your spouse and friends?
Is the love you give to your wife or husband EXACTLY the same as the kind of love you give to your friends and to strangers?
It should be EXACTLY the same. There is only the love of God. There are not different kinds of love.
This is Lesson 127 in A Course in Miracles: There is no love but God’s.
“Perhaps you think that different kinds of love are possible. Perhaps you think there is a kind of love for this, a kind of love for that, a way of loving one, another way of loving still another. LOVE IS ONE. Love’s meaning is obscure to anyone who thinks that love can change. He does not see that changing love must be impossible. And thus he thinks he can love at times, and hate at other times. He also thinks that love can be bestowed on one, and yet remain itself although it is withheld from others. To believe these things of love is not to understand it.” – Lesson 127
If you are experiencing difficulty in your life, chances are, SPECIALNESS is the cause of it.
If you allowed everything and everyone to be EXACTLY THE SAME – and had only one response to everyone and everything – THE PERFECT LOVE OF GOD – you would have no problems. You would treat everyone with kindness, respect, appreciation and love and because cause and effect are not separate, everyone would treat you with kindness, respect, appreciation and love.
ONE LOVE.
Amazing, huh?
I was married for 7 years and it fell apart because I treated my husband differently than I treated other people. I thought I loved him “more” than others. I put him above everyone else. I gave more of my time and attention to him than I gave other people. I put him first in everything I did. I even put him before God. I thought that was what one was supposed to do in marriage. In the process, I changed. I became quieter, more withdrawn, less enthusiastic, and more like “my idea” of what I thought a wife was supposed to be like – supportive, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health.
A Course in Miracles calls “special love” a “slaughterhouse”. It is a kind of love where you see a body, and then believe that it is real and that that person/body can offer you peace or safety. At this point, if you believe all this is true, you’re trapped in the illusions – a prisoner in a prison-house – and you will believe in all the laws of the world. This is where things get totally insane & crazy.
After a certain time with this body, you will begin to see the cracks in the relationship and you will start to believe that a different body can offer you what you really want. Then you start substituting, looking for the perfect person/body to fulfill your needs and make you happy.
At this point, you’re so far off-course, you have no idea what you are doing.
I’m talking about myself here, of course. When I say “you” I mean “me”. I had no idea what I was doing.
It has taken me 8 months on my own alone, with the Holy Spirit’s help, and major amounts of forgiveness, to see how I specialized love. I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to love equally now, and to put God first in everything that I do.
These past months have been the best of my life because I AM MYSELF again – all my passion, joy and enthusiasm is back. I feel like a child again in many ways, free and spontaneous.
It great to finally locate the SOURCE of my happiness. It doesn’t come from other people. It comes from God. It comes from me.
I want to use my body ONLY as a means of communication for God’s Love.
That feels so good to say that, and to really mean it!!
A Course in Miracles says:
“Hear him gladly, and learn of Him t hat you have need of no special relationships at all. You but seek in them what you have THROWN AWAY”
To read the whole section, click here:
The Holy Instant and Real Relationships, Chapter 15, Section 9
RELATE ONLY WITH WHAT WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU.
“Every special relationship that YOU have made IS a substitute for God’s Will”
That just blows my mind. It says LOVE IS FREEDOM.
I love that. That’s exactly what I am learning. Everything I need and want is contained within me because there is nothing outside of me. THERE IS ONLY GOD WHICH IS WHAT I AM, WHICH IS WHAT YOU ARE.
I love you.
Here is a new recording on Lessons 68, 69 & 70
Love holds no grievances
My grievances hide the light of the world in me.
My salvation comes from me.
To anyone who says “I don’t know how to be happy” …
Max’s response: “You are doing everything in your power to stay separate from God. You are doing everything in your power to stay in conflict. You are doing everything in your power to keep happiness at bay.”
Click to listen:
NEW SHOW. CLICK TO LISTEN: March 10, 2010: Love holds no grievances.
This article is THE BEST.
It’s from The New York Times from two years ago – May 4, 2008 – but it’s still one of the most inspiring articles I’ve ever read:
Click this link to read:
I really love A Course in Miracles.
Every solitary single thing that is in your life, right now, this second, is a lesson that God would have you learn. Everything! There are no exceptions. It’s so beautiful.
And everything is an another opportunity to let go of resistance, to let the past go, and to allow this moment – THIS MOMENT RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW – to be a new beginning.
It’s so incredible. Thank you Jesus.
These past couple of months (10 months to be exact) I have been working practically non-stop on a new project to help people heal from food addiction using the principles of A Course in Miracles. It’s called It Matters Totally. It’s been awesome. It’s a 40-Day program that focuses on 40 topics that have to do with self-care and self-expression and nurturing. I am so grateful. It’s not a diet. It has nothing to do with food.
I have received the most mind-blowing incredible letters from people who have spent their whole life battling food addiction, who are now just getting happy and experiencing the possibilities of being alive in this moment, without waiting for some future far-off time to start living.
So all my attention has been on that project – writing a book and creating a website – with my co-creator of the 40-Day Program, Marielle School.
http://www.itmatterstotally.com
I always like to think that I am the kind of person who can do 10 things at once and be in 10 places at once – and that I can just write a book over the weekend – but it’s not the case. I can only do one thing at a time. And whenever I do something, it requires 100% focus.
But it feels sooooooo good that we just did it. When I get an idea to do something I like to follow through and just “do it.” I am a “put all your eggs in one basket” kind of girl. I like living on the edge. It’s just my way. There is no better feeling in all the world than EXTENSION and CREATION and PASSION.
Which is how it was for me with Gorgeous for God. I FELT ALIVE!!! I love this website. I truly do. The world disappeared while I wrote every morning. There would be nothing except the daily lesson and I just so totally loved that.
And I thought I was done over here, but I really miss teaching the Course every day.
Today at “It Matters Totally”, I was writing about Day 19: Setting Intentions and the lesson is about writing down a list of priorities. Setting intentions is different from setting goals. Setting goals is future-oriented. Setting intentions is NOW. It’s all about aligning in the energy field of the thing you want, right now.
Setting intentions about realizing what is MOST IMPORTANT to you, right now.
What are your priorities? What is important to you? Are you living the life you want? Are you happy? Are you doing what you love?
It’s such a great lesson.
And it requires vigilance and mind training to keep coming back into THIS VERY MOMENT and remembering what is important. What is the truth? What is there in this day that is going to give me the most joy??
Does a lot of “doing” make me happy? No. It does not.
I like simple. I am a very old-fashioned kind of girl. I love writing. I love A Course in Miracles. I love Jesus. I love you. That’s about it.
What else is there??
That’s all there is.
We’re moving into springtime, Easter! The resurrection. The time of RE-BIRTH. I love that there is always a clean slate again. It’s always brand new.
So, I’m back. I missed you.
Some fun questions to answer:
What are your priorities? What is important to you? What do you want?
I can see how people would be thrown into doubt by using the body’s eyes. But if you can stay in the frequency of joy despite appearances (and joy is a VERY uncomfortable energy field if you are not used to it) I guarantee you – the picture & circumstances of your life will change.
Something to observe: How long can you stay in the energy field of joy before something pulls you back down into energy fields of worry, doubt, anger or depression? An hour, two hours, a week, a month? Once you’ve gone a month in consistent joy, I’m telling you: you’re out of those lower energy fields forever.
We’re baaaacccckkkk!!!!!!!!
“My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability”
Click to listen:
New episode of The Max & Lisa Show: My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability
My friend Marielle and I have launched a new website (and we have a new book coming out) to help people with food addiction.
YEA!!
You can check out the website by clicking this link:
http://www.itmatterstotally.com
Lots of great information on the site, and you can sign up to receive 3 free audios and a free book chapter excerpt.
Lesson 364 from A Course in Miracles:
This holy instant would I give to You.
Be You in charge. For I would follow You,
Certain that Your direction gives me peace.
I read something from Deepak Chopra’s book “The Third Jesus” that I would like to share with you:
“It’s impossible to quantify if you are on the spiritual path or how far along it you may be. But progress is always marked by transformation. The path isn’t about feeling better. It’s not about knowing who you are, or ending your suffering, or finding peace, or healing your deepest wounds. It’s about a transformation so profound that illusion is traded for reality. Jesus survives to this day as a force in the world because he embodied that truth completely. As we are headed for God-consciousness, our own transformation cannot stop halfway; we can’t settle for a better life or even the best life, for a glimpse of God, or even for God as a daily companion. The state of God-consciousness represents a leap in human development that you and I must be prepared to make personally. The middle of the path brings us to the leaping-off point. The end of the journey will look nothing like the world we took the leap from.”
“What will it feel like to finally arrive in God-consciousness? Anyone traveling the spiritual path will naturally ask this question. The middle of the journey isn’t the same as the destination.”
I repeat:
“The middle of the journey isn’t the same as the destination.”
“The mixture of old and new self must eventually resolve into a completely new self. Sin will no longer exist. God’s grace will be abundant, and his presence will guide our every action.”
That’s Deepak Chopra. Amazing, right?
So, if you feel that you are in the middle of the journey, still not quite there yet, all I can say is: Increase your efforts. Give more of yourself. Keep Going. Don’t give up. The middle of the journey is NOT the same as the destination. In one stroke of brilliant light, you will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. You will not get a continuation of small miracles and minor transformation (which is what the middle of the journey offers), but in one sudden motion, you will be entirely brand new. That’s the destination.
I love this little exchange with Don Juan & Carlos Castaneda:
“You have never taken responsibility for being in this unfathomable world,” Don Juan said in an indicting tone. “Therefore, you were never an artist, and perhaps you’ll never be a hunter,” he said.
“This is my best, don Juan.”
“No. You don’t know what your best is.”
“I’m doing all I can.”
“You’re wrong again. You can do better. There is one simple thing wrong with you – you think you have plenty of time.”
He paused and looked at me as if he was waiting for my reaction.
“You think you have plenty of time,” he repeated.
“Plenty of time for what, don Juan?”
“You think your life is going to last forever.”
“No, I don’t”
“Then, if you don’t think your life is going to last forever, what are you waiting for? Why the hesitation to change?” Don Juan asked.
Sickness is but another name for sin.
Healing is but another name for God.
The miracle is thus a call to Him.
Ha! I burst out laughing when I got to this third line!!! The miracle is thus a call to Him. How about that? The miracle is not something you wait for. The miracle is given immediately when you turn your attention to God. That is the miracle! It is not piles of money appearing in your mailbox and it is not seeing your body transformed.
It is the peace and joy that is given to you in that same second you call to God, as you remember Who you are.
A miracle is a correction, meaning by the time you remember to turn your focus to God, you have already shifted your consciousness. The shift in consciousness IS the miracle.
Turning towards God IS the transformation. You are healed instantly in the same second that you take your focus away from your problems and start thinking about God. That’s the miracle. That’s the shift in consciousness that is required and necessary.
Sickness is but another name for sin. You are sick when you are thinking about your problems.
Sin means OFF THE MARK.
In classical Greek, sin means “to miss the mark” or “to miss the target” which was also used in Old English archery.
In the biblical Hebrew, the generic word for sin is het. It means to error, to miss the mark. It does not mean to do evil.
So if your goal is God, then a perfect bulls-eye would be constant love, joy, peace and happiness. And if you are feeling any emotion other than perfect joy, all it means is that you missed the mark. Your aim was too high or too low, and chances are you were being lazy and sloppy. As with archery, practice makes perfect. Anyone can do it. It’s not like open-heart surgery designed only for the select few. Anyone can take a handful of darts (a handful of real-life problems and situations) and perfect their focus and aim.
You keep practicing and practicing, until finally one day, you hit a bulls-eye every single time. You never miss. In every situation, it’s God, God, God. It’s Love, Love, Love. It’s Give, Give, Give. You remember your wholeness and perfection and Identity in God in every situation. It’s easy to do if you are practicing every day, and putting in the effort. You don’t just hit it once, you hit it EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Father, the miracle reflects Your Love.
Your Name – God – replaces every thought of sin, and who is sinless cannot suffer pain.
