Day 163: There is no death. The Son of God is free.

Only two things in life are certain, right?  Death and Taxes.  Perhaps this has been true within the world that we have made, but these two things oppose the World Beyond, and as such are not so.  We are eternal beings.  There is nothing that could change that.  Only by confusing our True Self with our physical bodies will we then believe that death is possible.

The notion of "taxes" is another foreign concept, for in Heaven there is nothing that could be taken from us - Everything is ours and belongs to All of us, shared freely with each other for the joy of Love we're given.  This freedom from taxation is our release from the idea of death, for in it we will recognize that Love can never die.  After all, the final tax that this world would demand is our own life.  Would you accept this as your fate?  Or would you rather look within and See that you are Love, and that you will live forever?

If all Thought is Source, then everything that we conceive will be.  This is the Power of our Mind which God has given us.  As our will is also free, we have misused that power and constructed dark and lonely shadows here on earth.  This evil we have made is not of God, but a dream within this world.  Our experience of it may seem very real though indeed.  But these grim illusions fade away as soon as we awake to Truth.  They cannot follow us to Heaven, for therein is only Life.

All false illusions sprung from fear have only one result: Their end is death.  But their death is not our own.  Consider this: Can you conceive of not existing?  No.  Of course you can't, and for this simple reason we exist eternally.  Death is the ultimate illusion of our fears, but as it's sprung from nothing that we ever could conceive, death itself but marks the end of the illusions it has made.

Our only goal then is to See the Truth of Who We Are.  To help us on our quest, A Course in Miracles offers us this detailed prayer today:

Our Father, bless our eyes today.  We are Your messengers, and we would look upon the glorious reflection of Your Love which shines in everything.  We live and move in You alone.  We are not separate from Your eternal life.  There is no death, for death is not Your Will.  And we abide where You have placed us, in the life we share with You and with all living things, to be like You and part of You forever.  We accept your thoughts as ours, and our will is one with Yours eternally.  Amen.

Let your Light shine brightly on this day, with confidence that you were made by God to last forever.  See the Life of Love in all the things you look upon today, and know that everything you touch is just a shell of all the Joy that waits for you beyond this world.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 162: I am as God created me.

We repeat an idea introduced previously in the workbook of A Course in Miracles:

I am as God Created me.

As our explanation for our lesson today tells us:

This single thought, held firmly in the mind, would save the world.  From time to time we will repeat it, as we reach another stage in learning.  It will mean far more to you as you advance.  These words are sacred, for they are the words God gave in answer to the world you made.  By them it disappears, and all things seen within its misty clouds and vaporous illusions vanish as these words are spoken.  For they come from God.

Today I had the privilege of exploring a local arboretum.  If you ever feel disconnected, take a walk in the midst of Nature's beauty.  The abundance of life will awaken your senses and enliven your mind.

While meditating on our lesson today, sitting upon soft grass under the shade of a large tree's sprawling branches, a poem came to me:

God created me the rivers and the oceans.
God created me the fruits upon the trees.
God created me a rainbow of emotions.
God created me the depths of all the seas.

God created me a song along the skyline.
God created me an angel in the breeze.
God created me a Child of the Divine.
God created me as who I'll always be.

God created me the sun and moon and starlight.
God created me the distant galaxies.
God created me and watches as I take flight.
God created you to come along with me.

God created us as two birds of a feather.
God created us a single melody.
God created you and me to be together,
Bound by Love for us to share eternally.

After spending the day walking through the beautiful botanical gardens, chasing peacocks and feeding the geese and squirrels, my partner and I treated ourselves to some delicious Thai food and saw the film Eat Pray Love at the discount movie theater.  I'd like to share with you a few of my favorite quotes (some of which I've had to paraphrase here):

"God dwells within me... as me."

Meditate while smiling, not only with your lips, but also with your mind, your heart, even your liver... every part of you.

"To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life."

When you find happiness for yourself, you end up giving it to "tutti" (which means "everyone" in Italian).

What a nice way to round out the day!  From feeling at one with Nature to savoring the spices of ethnic cuisine to seeing an inspiring film filled with words of wisdom; I felt peaceful, blissful, and grateful - just as God created me.

May your day bring you the sweet assurance that you are as Pure and Bright and Beautiful as the day that God created you.  In Truth you always have been and will never cease to be.  See yourself in every joyful thing you look upon today, and know that you're unlimited in Who You Are and how you come to be.  You are at One with All Creation.  Bless this day with gratitude and Love as you remember these few words:  I am as God created me.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 161: Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.

Today we See each other as We Really Are.  Today we recognize that each person we encounter is our Savior.  They may be young or old, fit or fat, black or white, intelligent or not; they may appear to you as doctor, lawyer, teacher, priest or prisoner; you may see them in the grocery store, sit with them on the bus, or toss coins into their jars as they lay shivering on the streets... but it does not matter how they come.  These are illusions anyway, just labels that obscure the Truth of Who We Really Are.  Everyone we meet is our Savior, a Holy Son of God.  We See the Light in them today and ask for their blessing:

Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.  I would behold you with the eyes of Christ, and see my perfect sinlessness in you.

Our meditation from A Course in Miracles today reminds us that to See the Light in one another is to See the Light within ourselves.  This is what the Course refers to by "the eyes of Christ."  If you don't believe in Christ, it is no matter.  Christ is but a symbol for the Perfect Child of God, who exists in all of us.  For some it is the Buddha they believe.  For others it may be another figure.  In the end, it makes no difference.  The goal here is to recognize the Light in everyone, for that is our True Self.  And that is how we See our Self reflected in each other.

We cannot ask someone to bless us if we see them as beneath us.  Know, then, that we are equal, each and every one of us.  We cannot ask someone to bless us if we see them as attacking.  Know, then, that attack is only in our minds, our fear projected outward.  We cannot ask someone to bless us if we see them as unholy.  Know, then, that we are Divine, our bodies only shells hiding the Light of Truth within.

I know this isn't easy.  It's still a struggle for me, too.  It is one thing to know something intellectually, but putting it to practice is another thing entirely.  How, then, do we see each person we encounter as our true equal?  How do we perceive their assaults as illusions in our mind?  How do we envision them as Holy, bearing gifts of our salvation?

The Course advises that we start with just one person in our mind:

Select one brother, symbol of the rest, and ask salvation of him.  See him first as clearly as you can, in that same form to which you are accustomed.  See his face, his hands and feet, his clothing.  Watch him smile, and see familiar gestures which he makes so frequently.  Then think of this: What you are seeing now conceals from you the sight of one who can forgive you all your sins; whose sacred hands can take away the nails which pierce your own, and lift the crown of thorns which you have placed upon your bleeding head.

Our daily practice will make way for us to See more clearly.  One will turn to many, and before we know it, we will find that Vision has replaced our former faulty way of seeing.  Everyone we look upon will only come as Light.

So I say to all of you, some I know and some I don't, wherever you may be I want to thank you for your presence.  Inside yourself there is a Light so bright it moves my heart.  That Light is powerful enough to outshine our very sun.  It gives life to those around you, for it is Life of itself.  Without your Light, we would not be - not any single one of us.  For your Light is the same that shines from God and All Creation.  It is there, in you, even when you do not realize it.  So I ask of you, oh Holy one, my Brother here on earth, that you offer me your blessing, as I offer you my own.  Let us give that Light we share together to one and another, so that we may reunite ourselves in Brotherhood and Love.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 160: I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.

Today's workbook lesson of A Course in Miracles begins with this: "Fear is a stranger to the ways of love.  Identify with fear, and you will be a stranger to yourself."  Fear is the devil's playground - the devil, of course, being our ego.  The ego is like the devil on our shoulders.  It is the part of our mind that has convinced us we are separate from one another.  It is the part of our mind which would have us believe that we are our bodies and will one day die.  It is the part of our mind which feeds upon our fears, growing stronger every step we take away from the Truth of Who We Are.

We are at Home in God, and God's Home is not complete without us there.  We have never really left Him, but we have imagined that we have.  This is the trick the ego's played on us.  This is the basis of all fear - that we are all alone, isolated from each other, apart from God and of only temporary existence.  This may be the truth about our bodies, but our bodies are not Real.  Anything of temporary being is not Real in the Mind of God, for in the space of God there exists but Here and Now - an Eternal State of Being.  This is the Home where our souls dwell.  This is Who We Really Are.

I am at home.  Fear is the stranger here.

Have you ever felt a stranger to yourself?  I know I have.  Heck, we all have.  It's called "adolescence."  Seriously.  Can you think of a period of time in your life more terrifying than that?  During adolescence, we are more apt to identify with our bodies than at any other age, and that is where belief in separation all begins.  The physical changes are apparent.  We begin to feel strange within our very skins.  But then the social pressures take us like a great big wave - the popular and outcast groups emerge, and dividing lines grow wider.  Remember that Pure Love will only join together.  Fear is what divides us.  If anything for certain can be said of adolescence, it's that divisions are made clear.  You're either "in" or you are "out," and even when you're "in" you can't help feeling all alone.  We are classified as one thing or another, and no longer do we have a place that we can call our home.

Thankfully, this traumatic period does pass.  But it sets in us a fear that lingers with us for a while.  For some this fear will last for the remainder of their lives.  For others (like yourself), by seeking Truth within themselves, they come to recognize that they are not what they once thought they were.  They come to realize that those dividing lines - from "loser" to "most popular" - are only in our minds.  We are all Worthy.  Otherwise, we would not Be.  And if we are all worthy, then we must be tied to something Greater which has made us so.  Every single one of us is Great.  But joined together, we are Greater - joined together, we are the Son of God Himself.  And what but Love could have the power to connect us so?  What but fear could try to tell us that we are not Whole?  The Truth of Who We Are is certain.  We are at Home in God, joined together by His Love.  There is no power that could alter this.  And that is why fear is the stranger here.

Break down those lines that divide you from the rest of the world today.  Do it with Love, and you will remember the Truth of Who You Are.  A Light will start to shine so bright and so familiarly that you will know it is the Light that takes you Home.

So take off those "Kick Me" signs, people... It's time.

Until tomrorow,
Journeyman

Day 159: I give the miracles I have received.

Before I begin, a moment of celebration: This is my 100th consecutive blog!  If this were a television series, it would be syndicated.

Alright, now to the juicy stuff...

A Course in Miracles outlines the principles of miracles in the first few pages of the text.  Here is a handful of those principles:

There is no order of difficulty in miracles.  One is not "harder" or "bigger" than another.  They are all the same.  All expressions of love are maximal.

Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love.  The real miracle is the love that inspires them.  In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.

Prayer is the medium of miracles.  It is a means of communication of the created with the Creator.  Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed.

Miracles are thoughts.  Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience.  One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual.

Miracles are teaching devices for demonstrating it is as blessed to give as to receive.  They simultaneously increase the strength of the giver and supply strength to the receiver.

Miracles transcend the body.  They are sudden shifts into invisibility, away from the bodily level.  That is why they heal.

Miracles make minds one in God.  They depend on cooperation because the Sonship is the sum of all that God created.  Miracles therefore reflect the laws of eternity, not of time.

Miracles reawaken the awareness that the spirit, not the body, is the altar of truth.  This is the recognition that leads to the healing power of the miracle.

Miracles are natural signs of forgiveness.  Through miracles you accept God's forgiveness by extending it to others.

The miracle acknowledges everyone as your brother and mine.  It is a way of perceiving the universal mark of God.

Simply put, a miracle is a shift in perception from fear to Love.  We are told in today's workbook lesson that all miracles have been given to us, but we cannot know we have received them until we give them to each other:

You understand that you are healed when you give healing.  You accept forgiveness as accomplished in yourself when you forgive.  You recognize your brother in yourself, and thus do you perceive that you are whole.  There is no miracle you cannot give, for all are given you.  Receive them now by opening the storehouse of your mind where they are laid, and giving them away.

Remember that to Truly give is also to receive.  To receive then means that we must give as well.  This is a concept that is difficult to grasp at first, because it goes against the laws of this world.  Here, to give means that we no longer possess the thing we're giving.  But when we give the gifts of timeless value: Love, Joy, Peace and the Vision of All Life as One, we receive them back in magnitude.  That is our reminder for today.

We ourselves are miracles, for we ourselves are Love.  Love has no boundaries, no separate entities.  Love is the through-line that connects us all together.  Any barriers that we put up come crashing down with Love.  When we Truly See another, Love recognizes itself.  The miracle we give to others, from which all miracles come, is the knowledge that each person we encounter is our Savior.  Even when we look upon our earthly enemy, we must See the Savior there within.  By doing so they are our enemy no more.  They may still pose a challenge for us while we're here on earth, but to see that challenge from Heaven's perspective is to see it as an opportunity for growth.

We all possess the potential to alter our way of thinking so that we may see the Love in everything.  Little by little, we will begin to see the fearful images of this world wash away, while in their place a Light of Truth awaits to take their place.  Give this gift of Holy Vision to all those you meet today.  All that need be done is that you See the Love within them.  When you do, you will behold the bond between you and your Brother, and from there you will then realize those ties extend from you and him and God to everyone, connecting us eternally together.  This is how we give the miracles we have received.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 158: Today I learn to give as I receive.

We have learned in prior lessons that to Truly give is also to receive.  Today we learn the root of what it is that we are giving.  The experience of God is not one that we can give, for that comes to every individual at the precise time he is ready.  A Course in Miracles tells us that our gift to one another is to See the Light in everyone.  This Vision is the core of all Forgiveness, Love and Peace.  Of this important Gift, the Course says the following:

It does not look upon a body, and mistake it for the Son whom God created.  It beholds a light beyond the body; an idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful mistakes, and fearful thoughts of guilt from dreams of sin.  It sees no separation.  And it looks on everyone, on every circumstance, all happenings and all events, without the slightest fading of the light it sees.

To See the Light in All is to See past all illusions.  To See the Light in everyone is to See only Perfection.  The Light we see in others is the very Light which shines in all of us.  Together We are One - the Innocent and Beautiful Divine Child of God.  All else is false perception.

I've noted here before that to do this is not easy.  This way of thinking is completely opposite from what the world teaches.  But are we satisfied with what the world has offered us?  Or would we benefit to look beyond the bounds of this place and bring back with us the Wisdom that restores our minds to Heaven?  To see another as yourself can only foster Peace.  To see everyone as the Divine could only foster Glory.  Would we not want these Heavenly experiences here on earth?  They can be ours if we can learn to share this Vision with our Brothers.  Like all Gifts from God, we only can receive it if we give it to another.  See the Light in everyone, and yours will reflect back to you.

The challenge here is looking past the errors of our ways.  Many go through life seeing themselves as only victims, for this world teaches that we will all one day fall prey to death.  This breeds in us a feeling of defensiveness and drives us to attack.  But to realize that we can never die will free us from the chains that hold us hostage to our egos.  Though our bodies die, our souls do not.  There is nothing that can harm the Real You and Me.  This is the means by which we start to See the Light of Truth in one another.  See all attack as just a misguided belief, for that is all it is.  Do not let it affect you, but perceive instead the Truth within the one who is attacking.  They will recognize your gentle gaze, for it is the gaze of God they see in you.  Somewhere within them they will feel a resonating tone, one that matches yours and everyone's, for it is the frequency of our Creator.  If even for an instant, their heart will open and you'll see your inner light reflected in their own.  This is how we give the Gift of Vision, and how it is then given back to us.

Today I learn to give as I receive.

May you be blessed today with Gifted Sight that you may See all God's Creations as yourself in our Shared Light.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 157: Into His Presence would I enter now.

Today we are invited to enter the Gates of Heaven.  As A Course in Miracles tells us, we have now come to an understanding deep enough to carry us into the Timelessness of Perfect Bliss:

Today it will be given you to feel a touch of Heaven, though you will return to paths of learning.  Yet you have come far enough along the way to alter time sufficiently to rise above its laws, and walk into eternity a while.  This you will learn to do increasingly, as every lesson, faithfully rehearsed, brings you more swiftly to this holy place and leaves you, for a moment, to your Self.

My meditation for today was powerful indeed.  The moment I had closed my eyes, I saw great doors before me as they broke open, revealing floods of Light from far within.  I glided through the entryway and found myself in Stillness.  Though I did not move, I felt that I was falling.  Yet there was no ground to land upon, nor walls, nor ceiling either.  Where I was I cannot say, for it was nowhere I had been before.  All around me images were flashing - different worlds among the Universe.  I realized then that I was in the Birthplace of Creation.  As I listened closely, I could hear the pulsing of a Heartbeat.  It was not my own, but something far more rapid and succinct.  I soon found myself within a glowing Orb of Light.  It flickered like a strobe with each pulsation, and I felt inside of me a well of recognition.  This is Where it All began.  This is Where All Life springs forth.  This is Where it will continue still, Forevermore, into Eternity...

I pray that each of us can have a glimpse of this experience today.  Take a moment for yourself and let the Light of God guide you back Home.  Just for an instant, lay all your daily concerns aside, and let the Gates of Heaven open up for you today.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman