Day 130: It is impossible to see two worlds.

Today's lesson in A Course in Miracles tells us simply, "The real and the unreal are all there are to choose between, and nothing more than these."  We are asked six times today to take five minutes meditating upon the following:

It is impossible to see two worlds.  Let me accept the strength God offers me and see no value in this world, that I may find my freedom and deliverance.

The world so commonly portrayed in our news reports is not the Real World.  Wars, famine, violence, abuse - these are the things of hell.  Yet the Course informs us that we can shift our perception and See something else beyond:

Accept a little part of hell as real, and you have damned your eyes and cursed your sight, and what you will behold is hell indeed.  Yet the release of Heaven still remains within your range of choice, to take the place of everything that hell would show to you.

This reminds me of a proverb I once heard.  The version below can be found in the book Peace Tales by Margaret Read MacDonald:

A man once asked to visit heaven and hell.  When he reached hell he was amazed to find people seated around a huge banquet table.  The finest foods were piled high on the table.  What a feast!  Perhaps hell was not so bad after all!

But when he looked closely at the diners he saw that they were all starving despite the food before them.  You see, each diner had been given chopsticks which were three feet long!  There was no way they could carry the food to their mouths with these long chopsticks.  No one could eat a bite.  What a hell indeed, to sit so close to a banquet and yet be unable to taste a morsel.

The man was then taken to heaven to observe life there.  To his surprise he saw people seated around a banquet table in exactly the same situation.  Each person had been given three-foot-long chopsticks in heaven too!  But here everyone was happily consuming the delicious food.  The residents of heaven . . . were using their yard-long chopsticks to feed each other.

What this story teaches us is that the difference between hell and Heaven is simply a matter of perspective.  Though the physical conditions of this world and the world of Truth beyond may be the same, our perception is what dictates which world we live in.  Ultimately, this will alter even our physical surroundings until all we see is a reflection of the permanent Joy and Love we share.

I meditated upon today's lesson while going for a run this evening.  It was what I like to call an "active" meditation.  While my feet hit the pavement of the cracked and crooked sidewalks, I listened to the harmonic string tones of Gustavo Santaolalla.  Making a turn into a brightly-lit park, I suddenly felt exposed.  Old men and women sat chit-chatting on the rusty benches near the tennis courts.  A little boy zoomed past on his scooter.  A tall and lanky girl danced carefreely in the middle of the grass.  And here I was, this outsider, dashing through their calm and cheerful evening.  I wanted to be part of it.  But I also felt the need to "stay in the zone" - keep my breathing even and my pace consistent.  As I made my round through the park and returned to the straight and narrow path along the street, something struck me.  Amid the cars zipping by and the headlights glaring at me, I had an epiphany.  To See the world beyond, to perceive Heaven here on earth, we must relinquish all control.

I'll say that again: To See the world we really want, we must relinquish all control.

This is the very reason we are afraid of the world beyond the one we know.  Yet our sense of security, of control, is a false one.  We have no ultimate control over what this physical world presents us.  We therefore do not know it at all.  Where Real Knowledge lies is in the world we do not see with our frail, human eyes.

This is what it means to "let go."  When we give up control and let God take over, we place all values and all faith in Him, rather than on the things and circumstances which we were "controlling."  Our Trust in God will guide us through all situations, ensuring that we make the highest choice no matter what comes up.  This is the foundation upon which the brighter world beyond is built.

With this understanding, let us be aware today that at any given moment, we are perceiving either one of two worlds - that which is Real and Holy and True, or that which is unreal and degraded and false.  Perhaps both look the same in every way, with exception of the Joy only the Real world holds.  We recognize this by the Love with which our eyes can perceive, and by the sharing which is inevitable in such a place.  Shift your perspective now, give up all your false sense of control to let God take the driver's seat, and you will begin to see the Miraculous wherever you go.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman