Day 80: Let me recognize my problems have been solved.

In yesterday's workbook lesson, we were asked to recognize that all of our problems stem from one root problem - that we perceive ourselves as separate from God and one another.  Today we are told:

Let me recognize my problems have been solved.

It is done.  Having seen that the only problem we truly have is believing that we are divided, the solution is implicit in its recognition - we must realize that we are all One.  In setting our mind right and ridding ourselves of the root problem, all of our other perceived problems have been solved as well by default.

Now, though we know inherently that this is true, the ego is a great deceiver.  With the multitude of problems in the world, and by the mere fact that we appear as separate bodies driving in separate cars and living in separate houses, it would seem that our central problem of perceiving ourselves as separate certainly has not yet been solved.  What we must remember, of course, is that physical reality is but an illusion.  We must remind ourselves of this daily.  We must look past the holograms we see, no matter how concrete they may seem, and find the Light within.  It's the same light that resides in every single one of us.

This evening I had the privilege of seeing two great spiritual leaders.  Swami Kriyananda, one of the last living direct disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda, spoke today at the Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.  He was introduced by Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God.  Neale spoke briefly of our purpose on this planet.  He said that it is to remind others of their own divinity.  How do we do this?  He suggested that it's as simple as looking at one another in the eye, as our eyes are the windows to the soul.  This is what he called making "I" contact:

- Look one another in the eye for 5 seconds, and you will connect with each another.
- In 10 seconds, you will share with one another.
- In 20 seconds, you will love one another.
- In 40, you will reveal yourselves to one another.
- And in 60 seconds, you will achieve oneness with each other.

After Neale spoke, he introduced Swami Kriyananda.  He's an older man of 84 years and was taken to the stage in a wheelchair.  In spite of his physical frailty, Kriyananda was strong and passionate in spirit.  He spoke of how he came upon his spiritual quest in discovering that God is Consciousness, and that as a conscious being, he is a part of God.  He realized then that his goal in life was to come closer to God's Consciousness, to be united with it.  Doing so led him to awaken others in their own consciousness.

Swami Kriyananda went on to explain that our common denominator is that we are all seeking the same bliss.  Joy is our ultimate aim (and A Course in Miracles would agree).  That alone, he said, is reason enough to love everyone.

Seeing these two gurus reinforced today's lesson.  Two different men who have gone on two different spiritual journeys have come to the same conclusion A Course in Miracles teaches us: We are, indeed, all One.  Inherently, then, we must know this.  We simply need to be reminded from time to time.  And when we are reminded, we are able to look past the physical illusions of this world and recognize that we are not alone - we are not separate from God or from one another.  In doing so, we will realize that all our problems have already been solved.

I'll conclude this evening with an excerpt from the text portion of A Course in Miracles that I find particularly beautiful and apropos to today's lesson:

How can you who are so holy suffer?  All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing.  I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had.  I have purified them of the errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in their own perfect radiance.  They are beyond destruction and beyond guilt.  They came from the Holy Spirit within you, and we know what God creates is eternal.  You can indeed depart in peace because I have loved you as I loved myself.  You go with my blessing and for my blessing.  Hold it and share it, that it may always be ours.  I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share.  The heart is pure to hold it, and the hands are strong to give it.  We cannot lose.  My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our being.  His quiet children are His blessed Sons.  The Thoughts of God are with you.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman