Day 365: Journey's End

And so this journey concludes… Though my writing has been absent, my studies have continued. I revisit this forum to share these final words arising from the Divine within:

You are my Son.
You are my Father.
You are the Sum of All Creation.
You are All There Ever Was, and All There Ever Will Be.
You are God.

This past year as laid the foundation for the remembrance of Who You Are.

As you transition into the next phase of your life on earth, let your life be a reflection of the Divinity within.  All you see here is an illusion, but it can be a Grand one.  Know that nothing harmed was ever really done.  And so you are set free.  And so you see the Light within your Holy Self made manifest among the earth’s illusions.  And so you recognize the Oneness that you share with All of Life, for We are One.  We are the Son.  We are the Father.  We are the Sum of All Creation.  We are All There Ever Was, and All There Ever Will Be.

We are God.

The best is yet to come.

***

Thank you for journeying with me,
Journeyman81

Days 221-230: What is Forgiveness?

Our topic in the workbook of A Course in Miracles over the last ten days has been Forgiveness.  This is the first group of lessons in Part Two of the workbook.  While introducing these ten meditation lessons, the Course tells us this:

Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not not occurred.  It does not pardon sins and make them real.  It sees there was no sin.  And in that view are all your sins forgiven.  What is sin, except a false idea about God's Son?  Forgiveness merely sees its falsity, and therefore lets it go.  What then is free to take its place is now the Will of God.

This radical idea can be quite a challenge to fully grasp.  Take, for instance, the recent shooting in Tucson, Arizona.  How is it that we can begin to absolve the shooter for his actions and start to comprehend that what he did did not actually occur?  What of the families who are grieving over their lost loved ones?  Tell them their child, their father, their grandmother did not really die; and they will point you to the grave site and shed tears as proof of their loss.  But what A Course in Miracles advocates is denying the offense by Seeing the Truth of our indestructible Lightness of Being.

We are eternal, which means we cannot die.  Death is an illusion.  Pain only affects the body, and as the body is not everlasting, the Course would say it is not Real.  What we see, then, is not always what we See.  Our eyes see differently than our Heart.  Our Heart is always True, but our eyes see only what we want to believe.  Believe in sickness, and our eyes will see it.  Believe in death, and we behold it all around.  But believe in Love and Joy and Everlasting Peace, and our eyes will start to witness it, denying the reality of darkness to reveal the Light beyond.  Though the shadows of this world will try to contradict what's really Real, we have the power to deny them power by remembering Who We Really Are.  Where it seems that sickness, death and violence have taken hold; we must know that in Reality we never could be harmed.  That is how we See the Truth.  That is how we may forgive.

Following the Course's introduction to this section are the following meditation lessons, which are geared to help us prime our minds so that we may be better able to forgive:

Day 221: Peace to my mind.  Let all my thoughts be still.
Day 222: God is with me.  I live and move in Him.
Day 223: God is my life.  I have no life but His.
Day 224: God is my Father, and He loves His Son.
Day 225: God is my Father, and His Son loves Him.
Day 226: My home awaits me.  I will hasten there.
Day 227: This is my holy instant of release.
Day 228: God has condemned me not.  No more do I.
Day 229: Love, which created me, is what I am.
Day 230: Now will I seek and find the peace of God.

While preparing to write this post, I reviewed each of these lessons again and meditated upon their meaning.  What came to me was the idea of presence, which is to say being fully invested in the Present.  The past is but a memory, and it can only harm us to the degree with which we let it.  The future is yet to come, and so it poses no threat to our current state of being.  Our only reality is this very moment.  Right now.  At this moment, you are reading these words, and whatever thoughts are coursing through your mind right now is what comprises your reality.

Now, the reality which we experience here on earth is a reflection of our way of thinking.  So, depending on whether or not our thoughts are in alignment with our True Selves (that is to say the Eternal Lightness of our Being), we may not experience the reality in this present moment as God intends for us.  God wills that we know our full Magnificence.  He wishes for us only Love, Peace and Happiness.  Yet our thoughts may send us astray, and when they do, we fail to experience our Ultimate Reality.  We fail to recognize Who We Really Are.  And so, though the present moment is all that's real, it is possible even then, here on earth, to step out of Ultimate Reality - a reality so Perfect, so unchangeable, that in it we could never deny the Holy Truth of Who We Are.

While sipping my green tea this afternoon outside on the terrace of my apartment building, I marveled at the sight of shimmering sunlight reflecting off the long, thin blades sprouting from the tops of the nearby palm trees.  It was a gentle reminder - that every living thing is made of Light; that day or night, we need but look up and see that light shines all around us; that whether it's the sun or moon or stars, the Light will never cease to shine.  We are the stars, and we are the Light that shines forth from their home within the sky.  After all, each one of us was born from stardust.  It's a scientific fact.  God created the cosmos, and from them all Life arose.

Our Light will never go out, so what have we to be angry for?  What cause is their for pain?  Why fear the lonely shadows in this world, when they cannot harm us?  Let us be still.  There we will find the Peace of God which He Himself has planted deep within us.  Let us listen to the Love within our Hearts.  It will answer our call and the call for peace from our dear Brothers.  Let us lend them our compassion, especially when the call comes through in pain, however it may manifest.  Forgiveness is the mirror of God's Light we hold before our troubled Brothers.  Forgiveness is the Gift we give to them and to ourselves.  Forgiveness is the road by which we find our way back Home again.

Peace be with you all; and may you be reminded every day, every hour, every minute of each moment that the Light within your soul shines brightly; safe and everlasting.

Until next time,
Journeyman

Days 201-220

Happy New Year!

If you've been with me on this journey every step along the way, you know that yesterday we completed our final lesson of Part One in the workbook of A Course in Miracles.  Each day for the last twenty days (lessons 201-220), we have been reviewing the previous twenty lessons, adding the following before and after the idea for the day as we meditate: I am not a body.  I am free.  For I am still as God created me.

Below are the lessons which we have been studying these past forty days:

I trust my brothers, who are one with me.
I will be still an instant and go home.
I call upon God's Name and on my own.
The Name of God is my inheritance.
I want the peace of God.
Salvation of the world depends on me.
I bless the world because I bless myself.
The peace of God is shining in me now.
I feel the Love of God within me now.
I choose the joy of God instead of pain.
I am the holy Son of God Himself.
I have a function God would have me fill.
All things are lessons God would have me learn.
I place the future in the Hands of God.
Love is the way I walk in gratitude.
It can be but myself I crucify.
It can be but my gratitude I earn.
Only my condemnation injures me.
I am not a body.  I am free.
There is no peace except the peace of God.

It has been quite some time since I've written here about my experiences with the Course.  As we conclude this section, I must share that I am feeling generally more calm in my daily life.  It has crossed my mind, however, that this may be attributed largely in part to the fact that I just spent a few weeks vacationing back at home with my family.  To whatever degree that may weigh in, I am nevertheless confident that the last forty days of meditations have contributed to my more peaceful state of mind.  I can say with certainty that a transformation has occurred.  If Part One of the workbook is meant to prime us for what awaits, if it is meant to reconfigure our minds so that we see ourselves and the world we inhabit differently, then I consider it done.

The notion that we are not our bodies, that we are free and still as God created us - this is the crux of our review period during the final section in Part One of the workbook.  As long as we believe ourselves to be the bodies we inhabit, we cannot be free, for we will continue to perceive the body's limits as our own.  But we are not our bodies.  We are as God created us.  And God created us His Holy Children, One with All another, and each component you and I with a unique and special purpose.  Our role within these bodies and upon this very earth is to restore Salvation to ourselves.  We can only begin to do this once we are able to discern between that which we are not and Who We Really Are, and then accept the Truth of our Being.  These last forty lessons pave the way for us to do just that.

This series of lessons begins by asking us to recognize that we are One with each other, and through this recognition that we must maintain our sense of trust.  I trust my brothers, who are one with me.  For many of us, our ability to trust each other does not come easily.  Yet if we withhold our trust from one another, we are projecting fear in its place.  To shift our consciousness, we must shift the way we relate to others.  We are trained in this world to be wary, that trust is something earned.  Indeed, there are dark forces of which we should be cautious, but none so dangerous as that of fear.  When fear has taken place of trust, we have veered off our path.  That is not to say that we should go about this world blindly, for trust does not ask that we sacrifice our awareness.  Trust simply sees the good in others in place of condemnation.

Our next lesson reminds us to be still and take a moment every day to return to our True Home in God.  I will be still an instant and go home.  This is yet another gentle reminder that we are not our bodies, that our perception of who we are in this world is not Who We Really Are.

I call upon God's Name and on my own.  In the description of this lesson in the workbook, the Name of God is never mentioned, for in truth God has no name which we could understand in earthly terms.  The Real Name of God is one He shares with all of us, for we are all a part of Him.  To call upon God's Name is to usher in the Light which will shine away the darkness of this world, for that is what is Real.  As God's Children, His Name is our birthright.  The Name of God is my inheritance.

Our sole purpose of this course and our journey here on earth is to attain the Peace of God.  I want the peace of God.  We should have no other desire but this.  The beauty here is that His Peace exists in all of us.  We must only learn to call it out.  And our voice for doing so is unique and precious, like each and every one of us.  Though We are All One, we are also an individual part of the Whole.  Every voice is unique; everyone's role is just as vital as the next.  Salvation of the world depends on me.

To change the world, we must first bless it, knowing that in doing so, we bless ourselves.  I bless the world because I bless myself.  The world we perceive is all a projection of our thoughts.  It is a reflection of what we think about ourselves.  By inviting the Grace of God into our being, into our mind, into our way of thinking; we position ourselves to shine His Grace upon the world and witness only Light in all that we may see.  Here is the Peace that we so desire.  When we bless the world, we can feel it welling up within us.  The peace of God is shining in me now.  Peace is the stillness which accompanies the unconditional and ever-present Love of God.  When His Peace shines within us, so does His Love.  I feel the Love of God within me now.

With the Love of God comes Joy.  Nothing in its presence could harm us.  Why, then, would we ever choose pain over our inherent Happiness?  It is only the worldly misconception of "trade" and "sacrifice" which could give birth to such a notion.  I choose the joy of God instead of pain.  We need not suffer pain to experience Joy.  Let us remember this whenever we are tempted.

I am the holy Son of God Himself.  This is the very reason we need not endure pain at all.  Would God have His own Son suffer?  Let us remember Who We Are and know that Joy is our birthright.  Joy is our only purpose, which we achieve fully through Love and Forgiveness.  Let us embrace this truth and accept the uniquely-designed function God has given us to carry out our purpose.  I have a function God would have me fill.

As we continue along our journey through this life, let us be aware that everything we see, every person we encounter, and every situation that befalls us contains a lesson that will guide us on our path toward Salvation.  All things are lessons God would have me learn.  To see the world in this light is to re-envision every obstacle as an opportunity, a stepping stone to take us onto higher ground.

What happens in this world ultimately does not matter.  Why lament over the past?  Why worry about the future?  I place the future in the Hands of God.  In truth, there is no time - only Here and Now.  Where we go is certain - back to Eternal Peace within God's loving heart.  With Him as our Guide, we go forth in Love and confidence.  Let us give thanks for Who We Are and for the path He leads us on.  Love is the way I walk in gratitude.

Along our journey, let us not be tempted to attack another, for we must remember We are One.  With this understanding, we will know: It can be but myself I crucify.  As such, all thanks we give we give unto our Holy Selves.  It can be but my gratitude I earn.  Nothing can harm us on our path.  Any pain we feel is a result of our own condemnation.  Only my condemnation injures me.  Let us bless where we would otherwise condemn, and we will move with swiftness toward our destination.

As we progress, let us not forget that we are not our bodies, but something far greater.  We are indestructible Beings of God, made with the Everlasting Light of Creation.  I am not a body.  I am free.  Our Joy comes from our ability to Love.  By this we will transcend the limits of our bodies and embrace our freedom.  By this we will achieve True Peace, which only is attained when we accept the Will of God as ours.  There is no peace except the peace of God.  God is All There Is, and all that He intends for us is Peace.  Let it be so, let it be known, and our journey is complete.

And with that I conclude my summation of these last forty days.  As we move on to Part Two in the workbook of A Course in Miracles, I look forward to sharing my thoughts here as we advance to an even greater awareness and more consistent Peace on the path of our spiritual development.

Until next time,
Journeyman

Days 181-200

Dear readers,

I know that I have fallen off the map these last few weeks.  After our previous review period, and as I entered the end-of-year frenzy while wrapping up work and preparing to leave town for the holidays, I have neglected my writing.  For this I am sorry.

It has been tough to commit to my initial plan of posting a new blog each day.  In addition to reading the text and meditating upon the workbook lessons in the Course, writing and publishing a blog has become a part-time job in and of itself.  As the lessons have progressed, I have also begun to find myself at a loss for words.  What can I say that has not been said already?  In progressing through A Course in Miracles, it seems to me that we are covering ground which we have already walked upon.  The same ideas are being repeated over and over again, in alternate arrangements of the same words.  How can my own writing here be any different?

Perhaps the repetition is necessary, like the repetitive motion of piercing the earth with the sharp blade of a shovel.  To reach the treasure buried underneath, we must continue digging.  We must continue to revisit the same Holy Thoughts in their many variations in order to move past the faulty ways of thinking which the world has encrusted in our minds.

And so, as we move forward, forgive me for recycling what you may have read already.  I will also be adopting a new schedule for my writing.  No longer will I post here every day.  Such a commitment has become too taxing for me to continue while preserving the integrity of the Course work for myself.  Instead, I will write a new post at the conclusion of each section of the workbook.

Just yesterday, we began the Sixth Review period.  Unlike the previous review sections, this one focuses on only one lesson per day for the twenty lessons we are revisiting.  After this final review, which concludes Part One of the workbook, I will share my own thoughts and feelings and any related experiences for the topics introduced in lessons 181-200, which are repeated in lessons 201-220.  To bring you up to speed, below is a list of the lessons we have recently covered and will continue to revisit over the next few weeks.  During the review period, we are asked to meditate upon each lesson morning and night, adding the following before and after the idea for the day: I am not a body.  I am free.  For I am still as God created me.

181. I trust my brothers, who are one with me.
182. I will be still an instant and go home.
183. I call upon God's Name and on my own.
184. The Name of God is my inheritance.
185. I want the peace of God.
186. Salvation of the world depends on me.
187. I bless the world because I bless myself.
188. The peace of God is shining in me now.
189. I feel the Love of God within me now.
190. I choose the joy of God instead of pain.
191. I am the holy Son of God Himself.
192. I have a function God would have me fill.
193. All things are lessons God would have me learn.
194. I place the future in the Hands of God.
195. Love is the way I walk in gratitude.
196. It can be but myself I crucify.
197. It can be but my gratitude I earn.
198. Only my condemnation injures me.
199. I am not a body.  I am free.
200. There is no peace except the peace of God.

Again, I apologize for my absence as of late.  I hope that when I pick up my writing here again, you will continue to join me on this journey.  Let us dig together so that we may reach the treasure buried deep within.

I wish you all a blessed and joyful holiday season and a new year filled with hope, love and laughter.

Until next time,
Journeyman

Day 180: Review - Lessons 169 & 170

Below are the lessons we are reviewing today, with links to my previous posts:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

By grace I live.  By grace I am released.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

There is no cruelty in God and none in me.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Until tomorrow,

Journeyman

Day 179: Review - Lessons 167 & 168

Below are the lessons we are reviewing today, with links to my previous posts:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

There is one life, and that I share with God.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Your grace is given me.  I claim it now.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Until tomorrow,

Journeyman

Day 178: Review - Lessons 165 & 166

Below are the lessons we are reviewing today, with links to my previous posts:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Let not my mind deny the Thought of God.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

I am entrusted with the gifts of God.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Until tomorrow,

Journeyman

Day 177: Review - Lessons 163 & 164

Below are the lessons we are reviewing today, with links to my previous posts:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

There is no death.  The Son of God is free.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Now we are one with Him Who is our Source.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Until tomorrow,

Journeyman

Day 176: Review - Lessons 161 & 162

Below are the lessons we are reviewing today, with links to my previous posts:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

I am as God created me.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Until tomorrow,

Journeyman

Day 175: Review - Lessons 159 & 160

Below are the lessons we are reviewing today, with links to my previous posts:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

I give the miracles I have received.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

I am at home.  Fear is the stranger here.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Until tomorrow,

Journeyman