You can search inside the book!
“You don’t have to work at being in the high vibration that is natural to you, because it is natural to you. But you do have to stop holding the thoughts that cause you to lower your vibration. It’s a matter of no longer giving your attention to things that don’t allow your cork to float or don’t allow you to vibrate in harmony with who you really are.”
- Abraham-Hicks
Max is a genuis. My computer died last night and I couldn’t even shut it down. It wouldn’t do anything. It was stuck. I couldn’t even watch movies since I watch them on my computer. At first I was frustrated, but then I was laughing since just two days ago I wrote that I wanted to get away from the internet and all things electronic, and then my computer dies. I’m always getting what I asked for. What a cosmic joke.
So I spent last night reading A Course in Miracles. Chapter 27. Since I had nothing better to do. Ha ha. Amazing. I was reminded, once again, this is a dream.
I’m in the 2nd half the of the dream – the happy dream – but it’s still a dream. I’ve come to the point where I realize there is nothing outside of me. I know that whatever is happening, I asked for. There are no accidents. I realize I am the cause of everything that seems to occur and the effects are not real.
I’m looking at the reflection of my own mind. And here is where my devotion increases.
I wrote a contract with God this morning. More like a RENEWED contract. The old one expired. I like the new agreement. We’re working together, as always, but with a new dedication. A new beginning. I am intrigued at how differently my mind works away from the computer. It’s works in a whole other manner. It’s fun to witness.
Once the contract was written, I met up with Max at Starbucks and I told him about my crashed computer and he said: take out the battery.
I did that, and my computer started right up again, and here I am.
But with a new contract and new awareness.
I am here only to be helpful. To be the physical message of Jesus: the total demonstration of the Love of God and the Laws of Heaven on earth.
“Thy Will be done. On earth as it is in Heaven.”
Cool, huh? We’re fulfilling the prophecy of the Lord’s Prayer. We are Jesus’ disciples. Now the bible has become practical in our own daily lives. Not something that was written 2000 years ago, but A LIVING BREATHING LIFE-FORCE that is applicable today in our own lives.
Suddenly, we ARE the bible. We are the message. We are the words.
I was thinking, once again, how everyone is “tuned in” 24 hours a day/7 days a week. It’s astonishing.
People say: “you need a cell phone.”
I say: why?
People say: so you can be reached, in case there is an emergency or something. Or if someone is running late and needs to call you and let you know they can’t meet you at the appointed time.
And here’s where I shake my head and laugh. I need to get a cell phone so you can cancel with me? That’s marvelous. I’d rather make it difficult for you. I’d rather have you cancel your others plans and have your reason be: “I have to go meet Lisa, because she doesn’t have a cell phone and I can’t reach her. I guess I have to go meet her in person.”
I read recently that the way we interact with people is changing because of technology. People cancel more, and people are late more because they can text message on a cell their excuse. And usually their excuse is that they were delayed because of some other electronic device.
If I was to meet you in a restaurant and you needed to cancel, and I didn’t have a cell phone, what would you do?
You’d figure out a way to reach me. Or you would simply show up as planned.
Ten years ago, how did we manage without cell phones? Fifteen years ago, how did we manage without the internet? Fifty years ago, what did we do in our spare time without television? Without the telephone, how did we communicate?
You say: but that was then, this is now.
I say: I don’t want to live in a world of text messaging when I can walk down the street and see my friend in person (thank you Ankie, for that story!)
I don’t want to live in a world where we communicate through voice-mail messages, without ever actually speaking to a person.
I don’t want to live in a world of pre-packaged sound bytes, and photo-shopped images. Come on. Time to put away our toys.
I want to stay continually focused, with constant reminders, in order to not be sidetracked or distracted. I am asking for help.
Jesus asks: “How willing are you to escape effects of all the dreams the world ever had?”
I say: VERY.
How willing are you to see that you are the cause of EVERYTHING that is happening in the world?
How willing are you to take responsibility for every person, place, situation, event?
VERY. VERY. VERY.
It’s gets simpler once you answer the basic questions. Do you want to be happy? How willing are you to see things differently? How willing are you to let all things be exactly as they are?
Nothing bothers me. My computer dies. Who cares? I must have asked for it.
And now it’s working again. In the meantime, I wrote a contract with God which makes me tremendously happy and which I never would have done while I had the distraction of the internet. You see? You ask for something and you receive it, and often it takes the form of your life falling apart. Be grateful.
Whatever is happening to you, no matter how bad it looks, you asked for it.
Be exceedingly glad.
It is given to you to change your mind about what you want. To start speaking with the Holy Spirit. To start listening. To pause. To disrupt your usual routine. To pray. To count your blessings.
First day of Christmas Advent, and I cannot think of a better way to spend it than by writing & signing a renewed contract with God.
What if you had six months to live?
If I had answered this question yesterday, I would have written a whole list of things I wanted to do, places I wanted to travel, and people I wanted to see.
But last night around midnight I read a sentence in the book “The Starter Wife” (see below) that changed all my ideas about everything.
STRENGTHEN THE CORE, AND THE REST FOLLOWS.
“Gracie sipped her margarita and leaned back, sucking in her lower stomach and she always did when she heard her Pilates instructor’s voice egging her on in her mind – “strengthen the core, and the rest follows.”
I was like, Oh my God. That’s it.
Strengthen the core, and the rest follows.
Everything I want is mine as I strengthen my core, which is my relationship with God.
You build a solid rock foundation.
I was in Starbucks the other day with Max when a 3-year old girl walked in. Max said: Look at her.
I looked and saw a perfectly happy little girl, smiling and laughing.
Max said, “Look how perfect her posture is. She knows who she is. Uncertainty has not yet started to set in.”
Now look around. See how almost everyone is slumped over. Shoulders slouched. Tired. Worn. Beat Down. Overweight.
If I had six months to live, I’d stand up straight. I’d let myself shine bright. I’d remember how much I have to give. I’d extend love in every direction. I’d remember my gratitude. I’d let every day (every moment!) be a perfect adventure. I’d be consciously aware of the small details. I’d do what I love.
Do I like sitting behind a computer?
No, not really.
I love writing and blogging – and I have a few websites that I love to visit – but that only takes me an hour or two in the morning. Three hours tops. The whole rest of the time in front of the computer is spent just fooling around … searching searching searching … for something interesting.
What am I searching for? I don’t even know.
Occasionally I find a little snippet of information that amuses me or makes me sit up and think, but mostly I just click click click and find a whole lot of BLAH.
If I had six months to live, I’d spend less time in front of the computer. I would start strengthening my core by remembering God, my gratitude, and my joy.
I would only do work that I absolutely love to do.
Reading. Writing. Sending letters. Cooking. Inspiring people. Going to Starbucks. Traveling.
If I had six months to live I’d be Gorgeous for God.
So in effect, I’d be doing what I’m already doing with less time in front of the computer.
What is Gorgeous for God?
It is a constant reminder of everything you keep forgetting about yourself.
You keep forgetting that today is all there is. You keep forgetting that you are pure light. You keep forgetting that your function is forgiveness. You keep forgetting that God loves you.
You keep thinking other people are doing things to you. You keep thinking that sometime “later” your life will be better. You keep thinking there are things you can do IN THE FUTURE, instead of remembering there is only now.
What I think is interesting is that we have been conditioned as humans to think in terms of ordinary moments and extraordinary moments.
What are the extraordinary moments?
When you get a raise? Or a new job? When you travel to Europe? Or you meet someone new? Have a baby? Or something exciting happens?
We think in terms of “special” events that only come once in a blue moon.
For me, it’s when my mind is active and I feel totally free. Which is every single day of my life. Free from worry, free from pain, free from thinking about the past or future. The extraordinary moment is when I force myself to be entirely focused in the present, in the NOW.
You have to force yourself to be in the present. That’s why it’s called MIND TRAINING. You have to train your mind to do this. It takes practice. It takes willingness. It takes dedication.
Stop waiting for a “miracle.” Stop praying for things to change. That implies a future. There is no future. There is only now.
What are you waiting for?
You are missing a million sensations in this very moment.
A million things are happening right now and you are missing them.
A Course in Miracles is the simple reminder to wake up. Open your eyes. Stop sleeping.
It includes a workbook that has 365 lessons all designed to train your mind, in a systematic way, to use your eyes in a different way. To begin training your mind to think differently. To become aware of your Identity in God.
You are pure light.
There are no ordinary moments.
Think of people who live extraordinary lives. Who do you think of? Oprah? People with money? People who travel? People who make things happen? People who are doing what they love?
Think about it.
Are you living an extraordinary life? Does your name come to mind?
It should be first on the list – before Oprah. Your name should be #1 on the list of people living extraordinary lives.
This does mean you have to run out and start doing things. Your life becomes extraordinary the minute (this minute!) you choose to open your eyes, and became aware of everything that is going on around you.
Think about it.
You are what everything is.
In you is every mind, every person, every event, every circumstance. Past. Present. And future. You have the power to change all things by changing your mind.
You are literally holding the whole world in your hands.
In you is every war, the U.S. Government, every country, every leaf and flower, every person … born and unborn, past, present and future.
You have the power to change the world because you are what the world is.
Think like this and the ordinary moments translates into the extraordinary immediately. Like right now, while you are reading this blog post on your computer.
You become brand new in this moment, right here, right now.
This is what is being offered here.
To stop thinking that your life begins on Friday at 5pm when the weekend comes. To stop thinking your life begins when you lose 30 pounds. To stop thinking your life begins after the holiday after all the craziness ends and things are “back to normal”.
There is only today.
There is no other time to start living.
Today is the day you have been waiting for.
What will you do?
“Do not be a magician;
be magic.”
- Leonard Cohen
I just read in a book that the 40 year journey it took Moses to get the Hebrews out of Egypt and into the promised land is only an 11-day trek!!!??!
I did not know this. According to this article (and if I’m wrong, someone correct me), it says they kept traveling around the same mountain for 40 years, wandering around in the wildnerness, time after time, circling around, obstacle after obstacle, not making any progress.
An 11-day journey took 40 years!
Sound familiar?
Instead of moving forward we keep going around the same familiar route, not even realizing “I’ve done this before.” And worse yet, you realize “I HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE” and yet, you keep doing what you’ve always done, circling around … same old route that has never led you anywhere.
Lately, it keeps coming into my mind that it’s easier to convey a message of hope, joy and salvation in my own mind than it is to express a message to the whole world, verbally to each and every separate body.
Every mind is in my mind. So whatever I need to express I can do it in my own mind, and every person will hear it.
Then when the time is right, there will be an opportunity to express it physically and verbally … and because everyone already heard it in their own mind (without realizing it), acceptance will be easier once they hear it verbally.
Does this make any sense?
I could get 10,000 people in a stadium and express a message of truth OR I can hear it in my own mind and every single person in the whole world hears the message instantly.
I keep thinking – okay, people have expressed this message throughout history way better than I can do (AND ARE EXPRESSING THIS MESSAGE TODAY, VERY SUCCESSFUL PASTORS AND INDIVIDUALS INSPIRING MILLIONS) and yet, the world is still depressed.
What is going on here?
If a message of God is being expressed, and a total solution is being offered, then why aren’t people applying the message to their daily lives?
Why aren’t things changing?
Wouldn’t one awesome weekend workshop be enough to change everyone who attended? Wouldn’t a #1 selling book be enough to change the way we think and behave?
Books have been written. Words have been spoken.
Why then, are we still doing the same things over and over? Why aren’t people happy?
Because I’m the only One who needs to accept the message and apply it in my daily life. Me. Not someone else. Me.
“Other” people don’t need to hear about God – I NEED TO HEAR AND BE THE DEMONSTRATION.
In my acceptance, the world accepts it.
I love the fact that Jesus never traveled more than 30 miles from his birthplace. He didn’t go teach the masses. He let himself be in counsel with God first, and then the people came to him.
All Jesus did was make a commitment to do God’s Work … and God took care of the details. Jesus didn’t have to work out a program of getting the world to hear. He knew something MUCH GREATER and MUCH BIGGER was happening, through him. Through his own acceptance of truth and resurrection of his limited idea of himself as a body, and 2000 years later, we are still talking about him. Still being inspired by him.
For every 5 minutes I spend in listening to the truth, 1000 minds awaken. For every 5 minutes spent in communication with God, 1000 years are collapsed. This is how God works.
And it is the way I want to follow Him.
I don’t want to waste time doing things the worldly way. It’s too slow. I want to keep being still, spending time alone, listening, hearing, praying, communicating with God … and let God tell me what to do next.
When I read this story about Moses last night I realized I’ve been traveling around the same mountain for a long time. The Promised Land is so close I can touch it, but in order to reach my destination I have to get off the beaten worn path.
The old beaten path is thinking that I can somehow reach someone through this blog … that somehow I will find a new expression that makes a difference in someone’s life.
But it will never work that way. The only person who needs to hear the message is me. I only ever needed one dedication reader, and that’s what makes this blog a complete success.
I’d rather have one totally dedicated reader who really loves this blog, and is being changed by it … than 100,000 curious bystanders who only read me because I am on their RSS feed on Google.
The Promised Land is the realization that I heal the world in my own mind, through the healing of my own mind.
There are no other people. There is only me, healing the split of separation, in my own mind, which has already been healed.
This is why I need do nothing.
Because in the “stopping” (which usually occurs when I am in the bathtub) do I realize the tremendous power within me, that comes from God, with the ability to heal all things while I sit in the bathtub!
It’s always a good moment when I realize that everyone I think I see is only supporting me and helping me. So, thank you.
Everyone else is just waiting for me, totally holding up me up, giving me everything, say Go Lisa Go, and it’s really spectacular.
I sometimes think “how do I get this amazing message of Jesus and A Course in Miracles to be heard by the world??” and then, in a moment of clarity, I remember it gets “heard” through my remembering and hearing.
I hear it, then the world hears it.
This is God we are talking about. All power. All grace. Every miracle given and received in the moment it was asked for.
I’ve been like Moses wandering around for 40 years, stumbling over obstacles, focusing on problems, when my DESTINY is right there over the next hill. I can actually see it.
The solution is to circling around my familiar habits and routines, and face my eyes and feet in the new direction: TOWARD GOD.
It says here “God finally jolted them out of their complacency. He said to them, “You have dwelt long enough on this mountain.”
HA!
I love it. Bible stories are so contemporary. They apply to everything in our lives, now.
You have dwelt long enough on this mountain.
Time for a jolt out of complacency.
Time to start heading in a new direction.
The old way, obviously, just kept you circling around for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, however long you have been in a dead-end job, a dead-end relationship. Time to move away from the mountain, into the land flowing with milk and honey.
And what is the WAY appointed to me???? I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.
This is the way that is appointed ME.
So many people think “the way” is a path. But it’s not a path because there is no journey. The “way” is a state of mind, it is a new way of looking, a new way of thinking of yourself and everyone in the world.
“THE WAY” is the way you carry yourself.
It is appointed to you to see yourself as God created you, perfect.
This is the way that is appointed to YOU:
YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.
In A Course in Miracles, the lessons are written in a way that YOU speak them and apply them to yourself.
Jesus means what he says, and he does not mince words. If he says you are the light of the world, do you think he’s lying? Or does he mean what he says?
He says I’m the light of the world, and that’s written in present tense which means NOW. Not sometime later in the future, but now.
I am the light of the world.
So many people think “I’ll be bright later when circumstances changes” completely disregarding the statement that they are ALL LIGHT, NOW.
This morning I searched all over Google and Yahoo! for images of LIGHT or LIGHT BODY and I looked at hundreds of photos and none of them really captured the idea of WHAT LIGHT LOOKS LIKE and then a lightbulb when off in my head and I realized I have the perfect photo to show you what LIGHT LOOKS LIKE:
ME!
Here I am!
I am the light of the world.
This is what light looks like.
This is the path appointed to me.
This is the journey – the begining and the ending, all captured in this one photo.
Find a photo of yourself in a happy state.
That’s pure light. That’s true light. That’s what you are. That’s the path appointed to you. That’s your natural state.
I love you.
Do you realize that everything that is past and future is in you?? Today.All your memories are contained in you. You already know the future because it’s contained in your mind.
You already know how the story ends because it’s already happened.
I wonder if you realize this?
All your ideas of a future are contained in you now. Events and experiences are already accomplished.
And yet, you think you have a future unknown to you.
Everything you want is contained in you now, and that’s why the miracle is simple. That’s why there is no order of difficulty in miracles. That’s why you can ask and receive, because it’s already accomplished … and yet … you may still believe in sequential time, in which you think random things happen to you that have nothing to do with you or the way you are thinking.
You think you are limited, or weak, or small. You think you are old or fat. You think you are bound to remain in poverty, or in a job you don’t like. You may think you’ll never be healthy because your whole life has been one of sickness.
These are ideas.
And as long as you stay in the limiting thought … you might as well hear it … nothing new can occur.
You can change these ideas and begin to think of yourself as God created you: ALL LIGHT. You can begin to think of yourself as eternal and free, not bound by the body with all its restrictions.
That’s why you must always train yourself to come into today as a brand new beginning. Today is a new day. Every day is a new opportunity to begin again.
YOU ARE PERFECT.
The life you wish to have is a life you can start living today.
What do you want?
You can be happy and free, starting now.
I repeat this over and over and over, because I always forget and slide back into old habits and routines.
I say TODAY IS A NEW BEGINNING to remind myself of the truth. That’s the beauty of “training your mind in a systematic way.”
You keep bringing yourself back to the basics. You keep being a beginner. You keep wiping the slate clean. You keep expanding your mind to new possibilities. You let your vision go beyond a wider range than you’d previously allowed yourself.
Why?
Because in God all things are possible.
But not while you keep yourself in a small box, limiting the power of God to what you already know.
Let go of the chains. Let go of your ideas of how you think a thing will work out. Let go of your beliefs that you need to help God along.
God does not need your help to give you a miracle. All He needs is your willingness to allow it to occur in your life.
He needs you to get out of the way, and stop trying to organize how something new will occur in your life.
He wants to give you everything, but you have to let Him.
Stop, listen, and receive.
I like my horoscope today because it goes along with something I was saying yesterday:”Your thinking takes a philosophical turn today and you may decide that it’s time to re-evaluate your goals or ambitions for the next few years. It’s all positive, so face it with an open heart.”
I was teaching A Course in Miracles on Paltalk yesterday, and I asked everyone listening to go get a sheet of paper and a pen.
I asked them to date the sheet of paper – so if you are doing this now, go get a sheet of paper and date it November 12, 2007 – and I asked them to write down:
TODAY IS A NEW BEGINNING
SETTING THE GOAL
I asked everyone to take some time during the day to write down 5 things you wish for, desire, want to be. 5 Things you want to have, be or do.
You don’t want to get to the end of your life and find there are regrets. You want to become fully alive, and to GO FOR IT. Stop waiting for the time to be right, or for circumstances to improve, or to settle for what is thrown to you like scraps to a dog.
The point of this exercise is to move you into action, from being a spectator to being an active participant in your own transformation.
You need to know where you are going, in order to get there. You need a map. You need to set the goal. You need to know what direction you are heading, otherwise you will just float along aimlessly waiting for a “miracle” to happen to you. But what “miracle” could happen to you, if you don’t even know what you want????
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
Many people, once they find a spiritual path, get a little lazy in the concepts. They think they are “above” doing things now because they are “holy.” They spend their time meditating, or listening to other spiritual teachers, or teaching their spiritual ideas. Their whole life is suddenly about helping other people “wake up.”
I am laughing how everyone has a blog nowadays, and how everyone is a self-help teacher, and believe me … it does not escape my attention that I have written a book that falls into this category … along with a blog, a clip on youtube, and my own MySpace.
haha.
I cannot believe how many spiritual teachers are out there now, all with advice on how you can improve your life.
It is a little overwhelming to see the sheer number of bloggers. I think it’s also funny see how much time they spend on DESIGN and APPEARANCE, but there is NO real content. We used to make our bodies look good to make people like us – pretty packaging with nothing inside – and now we make our blogs look good to make people like us, but there is nothing inside. No real content.
Also annoying is the overload on links. In order to be a successful blog nowadays you need tons of links. You need tons of friends. You scratch their back and they will scratch yours. Blah. So I click on links on beautifully designed blogs, which lead me to other BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED blogs with tons of links, but again … with very little interesting content. So I click on the links on that blog … HOPING TO FIND SOMETHING WITH A LITTLE SUBSTANCE … and I could spend all day long clicking on links.
It’s gotten a little ridiculous.
I’ve realized the best place for real substance is in my own mind. If I want fresh content or to read something interesting, I realize I have to write it myself.
(or I e-mail my friend Evan, who is pure inspiration and his writing flies off the charts – 5 STARS – but he doesn’t have a blog, so I have to e-mail him direct to read his stuff).
I don’t care about how to make this a more succesful blog. When I see “delicious” or “digg-it” on a site, I know the site was thrown together to draw traffic, and not necessarily because there is a “GREAT NEED” to write.
I need to write.
If I wasn’t here on this blog on the computer, I’d be sitting over there on the couch with my pen and journal. I need to write, like an athlete needs to move his muscles. I really don’t care how many people show up here. I don’t want advertisers. I don’t want links I don’t care about.
I don’t care about being successful.
I simply want to be an inspiration – to myself and to you who is reading this.
In Field of Dreams, there is a great line “if you build it, they will come.”
It was a baseball field!!! not something fancy. Not something based on what was hip and cool. Not the latest fad. Not some big technological advanced spectacular thing that the world had never seen.
It was a baseball field out in the middle of nowhere.
And if you have seen the movie (you should!), you realize he built it thinking it was for other people to come, but in the end it was only for him.
He built a baseball field, because HE needed to build it, because the spirit was moving him to do it. He didn’t really have a choice in the matter.
He wasn’t thinking how to be successful. He was simply out there building a damn baseball field like Noah building an ark.
Do you see?
That’s the value of the sheet of paper and pen today. You stop being spiritual. You look squarely at what desires, wishes and needs you have in your own mind. Be honest. You can say “oh, I am above wanting things in the world” and “there is no world” … but I am finding there is a whole lot more energy in CREATION. Of actually allowing your mind to be totally present.
There is no energy in trying to be ethereal.
So, today is the new beginning. Draw yourself a map. Have fun with this list. It’s okay to write things like “I want the peace of God” and “I want to be happy” but also put some worldly things on that list too. Okay? Shoot for the stars. If you want to write a book, or travel to Europe, or live in a big house, or win an Academy Award … just put that down there, okay?
The other reason you need to re-evaluate your goals is because everything is changing all the time. The last time you wrote down a list of things you want … that was a totally different time. You have changed. Your priorities have changed. Most likely you have accomplished some of your prior goals.
So today, we are erasing all our old ideas. Coming squarely into the present moment. Forgetting all of our failures. Forgetting all of our mistakes, and we are letting ourselves SHOOT FOR THE STARS.
Have fun.
ps: my list is gooooooood. I put it off till last night, but it’s really good. It’s got me all excited and fired up.
You MUST read Lily’s blog today. OMG. It made me cry.Angel in the Postal Service-Lily’s Blog.Click Here to Read.
