Day 86: Review - Lessons 71 & 72

Day 71: Only God’s plan for salvation will work.

Day 72: Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.

During my first meditation today, while reviewing the idea that Only God’s plan for salvation will work, I had an extraordinary experience...

I began by looking within myself.  I let the world around me fade into the outer orbit of my consciousness.  I went past the shell of my body, past the muscle tissues, past the beating heart, into the cells, and into the atoms of those cells.  I went beyond the tiniest particles known to humankind and entered the fabric of my mind.  I traveled past the swirling thoughts, the long-held-onto beliefs that had become crystallized, and further still until I saw a glowing globe of light within – the glimmer of God nestled in the depths of every core of my being.

I watched as this light began to expand and extend outward, back through the swirling thoughts, shining through the shards of ingrained beliefs, out into the atoms, the molecules, the cells, the tissues, into my heart, illuminating my body, out into the world around me.  I saw the light of every other person, every other living being, radiating outward with mine.  Our Light blended together and continued to extend outward, into the moon, into our neighboring planets, into our sun and the solar system, moving further still filling the galaxy with our combined effervescent Light, and even further beyond until reaching the very Center of our Universe – the Dwelling Place of God, our Creator, the Origin of our Being.

All I could see was Light.  Bright, white Light.  I pulled myself out of the blanketing Light to see the Whole beautiful picture, so that I could look at God directly.  It was Magnificent.

From the ever-expansive glowing Center of the Orb, an infinite number of rays extended outward on all sides.  When the rays reached their furthest point of extension, they looped around and returned to the Central Light – like a solar flare.  (The photo below does no justice to the image I saw, but it will give you a small semblance of what I am describing.)

There was a fluid motion of the rays beaming out from the Center.  I could see particles within the rays moving outward and then returning inward.  These rays, God told me, are the infinite pathways of Life.  Each represents a journey.  Each is an individuated Aspect of Divinity.  They are you, and they are me.

God enlightened me on the Holy Trinity as I looked at His Magnificence, to better understand our place in it:

• God is both Masculine and Feminine, the Origin, the initial Idea, the Creator.  Her Masculine energy extends outward.  His Feminine energy pulls inward.
• The Son is initially Male as He moves outward, seeking to extend God in every possible facet.  He then becomes Female, the Daughter, as She returns to God, traveling inward.  He/She comprises the Aspects of Divinity, and we are His/Her individuations, sent by God to Experience Life and forge new paths.
• The Holy Spirit is both Masculine and Feminine, keeping God connected to the Son/Daughter, reminding the Son/Daughter Who He/She is.  The Holy Spirit is a Force.  He is Masculine when acting as forward motion, keeping the Son aligned as He extends outward.  She is Feminine when acting like gravity, setting the Daughter on the path of Return to God.

What we can conclude from this is that we are ALL masculine and feminine.  The masculine energy extends outward.  The feminine energy pulls inward.

On a tangent, it is interesting to note that we have categorized our sun, the center of our own solar system, as male, since it shines its light outward upon us.  Yet it also, like God, is feminine, as its gravitational pull keeps us in orbit.  We have categorized our earth as female, since she is our home.  She keeps us connected to her always.

Keeping in mind the Vision I saw and the concepts of masculinity and femininity in all of us, it is easy to come to the conclusion that only God’s plan for salvation will work.  How could it not, with such an intricate and glorious framework?

Moving on to the second part of today’s review, we can now come understand how holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.  It is a feeble and useless attack, because it literally halts our progress along the ray of light on which we are traveling.  Our spirits are always in motion, either extending outward in navigating ever further-reaching possibilities (our masculine aspect of the Divine), or retracting inward on our return back home to God (our feminine aspect of the Divine).  Holding grievances stops that motion.  We become immobilized in a false dream state.  The longer we remain there, the more difficult it becomes to wake up.  Meanwhile, other souls continue to pass us by.

We cannot grow in this state, nor can we experience Joy.  Our fear-based thoughts continue to bring us fear-based experiences – anger, hatred, guilt, shame, loneliness, hurt – over and over and over again.  It is as if we have turned our backs on God.  His Light shines brightly behind us, but we are looking into darkness.  If we would just turn around – that is to turn our thinking by 180° – we would see the Glorious Light that shines upon us.  We could leave are darkness in the dust and continue along our God-given path.

My hope today is that you recognize the Aspect of your own Divinity, that you see God within you, and that you aim to look beyond any grievances that may appear on your path.  Turn your thinking around to see the Light of God in yourself and others.  We are all on our own journey, but our Origin and Destination is One and the same.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 85: Review - Lessons 69 & 70

Here are the links to my postings for lessons 69 and 70:

Day 69: My grievances hide the light of the world in me.

Day 70: My salvation comes from me.

Up to this point, I have defined “holding a grievance” as anytime we have withheld forgiveness from someone (including ourselves) or from a situation.  I’ve used the term synonymously with “grudge.”  Though this is true, I realized today that grievances also come in much subtler packages.  Yesterday I attempted to define Love, and in doing so, recognized that past associations, preconceived notions and projected expectations are Love’s antitheses.  These too, I realized, are grievances.

For instance, when riding in the car this morning (or driving/riding in general), I become tense anytime passing another vehicle while in their blind spot.  This is a grievance.  This is a fear I’ve held onto for years ever since I was in an auto accident where I was side-swiped.  This is a situation that, on some level, I haven’t completely forgiven.  If I had, the fear would no longer be there.

We may say, then, that grievances also apply to any worries or doubts we have.  These emotional responses are built upon past associations.  They make up our preconceived notions and fortify our projected expectations.  As long as we hold onto them, we will continue to live in a world where fear reigns.

When we do manage to wipe away our grievances – when we are able to look beyond any fear, any anger, or any sorrow and see the light within – we will recognize that the light which resides in us is not only our own, but the whole world’s.  The Light of the entire world exists in each and every one of us, because this Light is God.

I had the privilege of going to a spa resort today, in celebration of my partner’s birthday.  We relaxed in hot mineral springs, bathed in red clay mud, and rejuvenated with cool aloe body masks in an underground grotto.  It was, indeed, a luxury.  Yet I believe it is also much closer to our natural state than how most of us otherwise live.  I say this because, while we were there, no grievances appeared to follow.  My partner and I were in bliss, as were the other patrons at the resort.  Everyone greeted one another with authentic smiles.  Their glow was apparent.  We all were in a state of Godliness.

Being in such a state opened the gateways to spiritual insight.  While relaxing by the pool, I had an epiphany.  Though we were obviously indulging in activities at the spa that nurtured and restored our physical bodies, doing so also revitalized our spirits.  I realized then that being enlightened does not mean that we must deny the physical world.  Yes, we must recognize that the physical world is an illusion, but we can still cultivate joy from the physical.  It would serve us to do so, because we are spirits who have incarnated into a physical world.  Yet we need to understand that it is not the physical element itself (whatever it may be) that is bringing us happiness – It is what that element represents.

For example, if I am eating ice cream and in a state of bliss, it is because that particular ice cream is bliss, incarnated as ice cream in that moment.  If I am relaxing in a whirlpool, it is not the whirlpool itself that is relaxing – It is what that whirlpool represents: relaxation.  Relaxation, a Godly state, is manifested physically as a whirlpool to provide me with that feeling.

Of course, in recognizing the truth in this (which admittedly can be difficult at first to grasp), we also recognize that the physical things ultimately do not matter.  If we can detach them from their representations, then we can also experience the emotional states they conjure in us without associating them with anything of the physical world.  In other words, no matter what situation we find ourselves in, we can always reside in a space of Godliness.

This is what being truly grievance-free is all about.  This is what will unblock the light of the world within us permanently.  And the process of doing so is our salvation.  We must each take this journey.  Since “my salvation comes from me,” no one else can deliver it to me.  We are each our own Savior.  The Light is within each of us.  It cannot be given to anyone, because it is already there.  What we can do is help others to find their own inner light.  Doing so is a Godly endeavor.  As we shine our light upon the world, others will recognize their own light, and they will thus save themselves.

So join with me in lighting up the world.  Join with me in relinquishing all grievances and being present in the here and now.  Join with me in retaining a blissful and loving emotional state, regardless of the physical circumstances.  Join with me in bringing salvation to ourselves and, by effect, to the world in which we live.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 84: Review - Lessons 67 & 68

Here are the links to my blog postings for lessons 67 and 68:

Day 67: Love created me like itself.

Day 68: Love holds no grievances.

I mentioned in my original post for lesson 67 that God is Love, and if God created us in His own image, then we too are Love.  So I thought to myself today, "What is Love?"  Let's try to define it here, so that we can better understand not only Love, but also ourselves.

What is the "stuff" of Love?  It is difficult to grasp, since Love is not tangible.  Love, then, is not of the physical world, since it cannot be held in our hands or seen with the human eye.  Love is an energy, a shared connection.  It is a feeling of Joy, radiating outward.  It is a soothing Light, beheld within.  Love is innocence and wisdom wrapped into one.  Love is not having expectations or preconceived notions, for it is the absence of judgment.  It is the absence of fear, the absence of doubt.  It does not know guilt, nor blame, nor anger.  Love sings in harmony and dances with wild abandon.  Love draws in, pulls together - never apart.  Love recognizes itself in everyone and everything, and celebrates this recognition.  Love never dies, but only changes form.  One day it appears in the flash of a child's smile.  The next, it flows through the clouds and over the treetops.  It can never be seen on the impressions of our irises, but it can be felt, and it can be called by the yearnings of our spirit.

This is what Love means to me.  It exists only in the Here and Now, for that is all there really is.  It cannot hold grievances, because even the subtlest of these depend on past associations.  The future consists of merely projected expectations, and Love cannot be there, for expectations are contrived from past experiences.  If Love can only "be" right here, right now, then we can forget the rest.  We can choose Love every moment of every second of every day of our lives.  That is the blessing Love has given us.  That is the blessing of which we are made.  For we are Love.  Let us never forget it.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 83: Review - Lessons 65 & 66

The review continues!  Below are links to my earlier postings for lessons 65 and 66 in the workbook of A Course in Miracles:

Day 65: My only function is the one God gave me.

Day 66: My happiness and my function are one.

We only have one function, and as we have been told in previous meditation lessons, that function is forgiveness.  Forgiveness is synonymous with Love, which is also synonymous with Joy (as lesson 66 tells us).  The action of love, which we call forgiveness when it involves overlooking any perceived form of attack, brings us joy.  As such, and as they come from one source - God - they are one and the same.

The question, one which I've posed in previous postings, is how do we forgive?  I meditated upon this today.  Forgiveness can be difficult in a world where people seem to attack one another left and right.  Whether it's something as small as someone cutting us off in traffic, or as large as the rape and murder of a loved one, forgiving someone is not always easy.

One way to go about forgiveness is to look at it as blessing someone else.  That's precisely what forgiveness is anyway.  Blessing someone can be as simple as praying for the person who has wronged us: May God be with you.

If you're more a visual person, and a particular circumstance makes it especially difficult to look past someone's behavior at the light residing within them, another way to bless that person (before letting your ego react for you) is by looking within at your own light.  Imagine that light shining outward and extending into the other person.  By them being basked in your light, you won't see them as apart from you.  You won't see them as your attacker.  Instead, you will have performed a miracle, choosing Love over fear.

So wherever we are, whatever we're doing, let us not forget that we are here but for one reason, and one reason only: to forgive, which is to love.  Doing so can and will bring us nothing but joy.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 82: Review - Lessons 63 & 64

Here are the links to my previous postings for lessons 63 and 64 in A Course in Miracles:

Day 63: The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness.

Day 64: Let me not forget my function.

Today I made the mistake of not meditating soon after I woke up.  Marianne Williamson reminds us all the time during her Tuesday night lectures in Los Angeles that the mind is more open and less cluttered in the morning when we get up.  This is the best time to meditate, as it will ground us spiritually before we move into our everyday stresses.  Well, today I did not heed that advice.  It wasn't for any particular reason.  I thought, "I'll log into my email to see if there's anything pressing."  That turned into an hour, then two.  Then the repairmen came to fix a leak in my bathroom, so that wasn't a very convenient time to meditate.  Then I had to eat lunch.  Before I knew it, the day had taken me away.

By the time the afternoon rolled around and I was actually about to meditate, I got into a petty fight with my partner.  I doubt this would have happened if I had started my day off in a heightened spiritual place.  Without getting into specifics, I'll just say that my ego went into defense-mode.  I got upset because, in trying to extend love toward him and the situation, he, at that time, was unable to receive it.  At least that's what I perceived.  Pretty soon I was playing the blame game, and what was at first a small misunderstanding had escalated into "I just can't stand it anymore!"  My ego had obviously gotten the better of me.  I realized then that I really could have used that morning meditation.

So, after my partner-suddenly-turned-enemy left to run some errands, I finally sat down to meditate.  The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness.  Yesterday's lessons echoed throughout my mind: Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.  Okay, I'd definitely forgotten my function in the argument I'd just had.  Appropriately so, today's review also covered the lesson Let me not forget my function.  So the question I asked during my meditation was, "How?"  How do I forgive?  How do I do this so that I may fulfill my function, so that the light of the world can bring peace to every mind?  We are all connected, so I know that if I can figure this out, we all can, and we all will.

Well, the answer I received was to not expect any reciprocation when offering love and forgiveness.  This would defeat the point, for love and forgiveness is not an exchange.  It's an action, freely given.  It is revealing one's own light to another, so that they may recognize the light inside themselves.  It is not our job to see the evidence of their recognition.  Our love and light may have to cut through a thick layer of darkness before it can penetrate their light and radiate outward.  Once love and forgiveness has been given, our job is done.

After my partner returned from running his errands, I apologized for lashing out.  He understood that it was just my ego overreacting.  He reflected the light I'd been shown in my meditation right back at me.  All was forgiven.  We had, through our forgiveness, brought peace to every mind.  We had remembered our function in that moment.

The remainder of the day continued brightly.  As today is Tuesday, we both attended Marianne Williamson's lecture in the evening.  She was radiant, as always, and reaffirmed today's lessons in her own words: "I am only on this earth to be an instrument of Love."  That applies to each and every one of us.

So let us all fill this world with the beautiful music and harmonious vibrations that only Love, Forgiveness and Joy can produce - and we will all see the earth light up before our very eyes.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 81: Review - Lessons 61 & 62

Today we begin the second review section in A Course in Miracles.  We'll be revisiting two previous lessons each day for the next ten days, starting with lessons 61 and 62.  Below are the links to my original blog postings for days 61 and 62:

Day 61: I am the light of the world.

Day 62: Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.

These particular lessons were a good reminder for me today, as I awoke to some slightly upsetting news.  Months ago I had entered a short film I'd written into a screenplay competition.  I woke up with an email waiting, announcing the winners of the contest.  I was not one of them.

Now, I realize that this is quite insignificant compared to all the tragedies befalling others in the world right now.  All the same, it was a disappointment to me, and it dampened my spirits a bit.  Meditating on today's lessons helped, and some insight came to me in the process.

If outside circumstances are preventing us from seeing our light within, one thing we may do is adopt the glow in others.  I'd spoken before in Day 61 about joy, and how we all seem to glow when we are feeling joyous.  Well, if we are feeling down, one sure way to pick our spirits up is to surround ourselves with happy people.  Or, if everyone around us is also in a muck, we can find something to do that makes us happy.  Of course, this is easier said than done, as the old saying "misery loves company" tends to hold true when we're feeling down.  This is because our egos have already begun to take hold, and they want to make sure they retain control over our minds.

This is not to say that we should just "perk up" immediately in the presence of an unsettling situation.  Feeling sad, hurt or angry is okay.  We are human, and to deny our emotions only buries them deeper, turning them into something far darker in the long run.  Marianne Williamson tells us that we are all "crucified" (or in other words, we all experience difficult times).  We must acknowledge this to move on, but we also must not dwell on it.  Otherwise, we would never experience the "resurrection" (or the lifting of our spirits).

So the solution?  Acknowledge how we feel, and once we've done so, give it up to God.  Then we are in a position to adopt the glow in others.  Doing this will remind us of our own light, which will, in turn, bring us peace.

Another saying that came to mind during my meditation was "Look on the bright side."  As I thought about this, I considered the joy that the winners of the writing competition must be feeling.  Then I thought, if we are all one, I have won the contest.  I also thought about how happy I'd be for those writers if I were one of their friends (rather than their competitor).  Immediately, I began to feel my spirits lift.  I began to feel the light inside of me shine brighter.  So looking on the bright side literally means to look on the bright side.  I'd never put that together until today.

Let us not forget the subject of forgiveness in the review of Lesson 62: Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.  To "adopt the glow" or "look on the bright side" is all well and good, but what if someone or something seems to make a direct attack upon us?  Well, as I've mentioned before (and what A Course in Miracles would tell us) is that when someone attacks another, it is actually a cry for help.  It is a calling for love.  Though our ego-minded reaction would be to defend ourselves, what we must re-train our minds to do is extend love to the other.  This is the only way to remain at peace.  As we have heard before, "They know not what they do."  That is exactly what has occurred when someone (including ourselves) lashes out in anger.  At that moment, we are experiencing what we perceive to be a lack of love.  We simply need to be reminded that it's still there.  That is the gift we can offer someone who seems to be attacking us.  That is what forgiveness is.

But what if the circumstance itself is what we have trouble forgiving?  One thing we can remember is that if it's situational, it isn't personal.  In reality, nothing is personal (only we can perceive it as such), but this concept is easier to grasp when no one in particular is initiating the attack.  Take the subject of death, for instance.  Oftentimes people take the death of a loved one personally.  With nobody to blame, they blame God.  In doing so, they are unable to forgive the situation.  Yet if we look on the bright side, if we realize that our loved one has moved out of the physical realm and into the peaceful arms of God, we could find our ability to forgive.  Again, this is far easier said than done, but the more we remind ourselves that there is a bright side, that nothing is personal, and that there is a light within us all that is inextinguishable, the easier it will become.

Let us pray, then, to be lifted out of our miseries, however trivial or serious they may appear to be.  Let us ask how we may forgive, how we may learn to look on the bright side and surround ourselves with those whose glow we may borrow.  And let us be reminded of the beautiful and peaceful Light that resides in the core of our being - indestructible by the sheer fact that we are all God's Children.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

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