I draw your attention to a comment made on our new blog** referring to last week's notes.
Here I am on an elevator. Next to me is a mom and a beautiful little baby just radiating love and peace, I look at them and my heart opens, but then next to me is this smelly homeless person, a man and woman having an angry abusive conversation, a business man on a phone manipulating a deal. Who do I love? How do I love?
Well, “smelly homeless man” and “beautiful little baby girl radiating love and peace” sound like judgments. All judgments block our awareness of Love. They don’t allow it to shine. The key is to drop all judgments. Not just the ugly ones but the pretty ones as well. Drop them all. Only then can Love truly shine. Love does not pick and choose. It just shines. We pick and choose. And every time we pick and choose, Love takes a back seat. It goes unseen. And in its place, an impostor appears before us, claiming to be love.
There is no “smelly homeless man radiating filth and disgust” (I added “radiating filth and disgust”). There is no “beautiful little baby girl radiating love and peace.” Those are illusions. But that is the world we have made apart from God - a world of “smelly homeless men” and “beautiful little baby girls.” It’s all BS. It’s not real.
“Do I choose love or fear, truth or illusion or light or darkness?”
10/18/11
We began to explore choice.
You know you have freedom of choice, but there are so many influences that contribute to the way people act. Your actions are motivated by past hurts or woundedness, defenses that you have built up to protect yourself, doubts, fears, addictions and compulsions, ego needs to impress or get attention, and so many other factors, both conscious and unconscious.
How many times have you said to yourself, “Why the heck did I do
that?” from Christ in Training p. 37
Matthew Chapter 12
The thinking mind, the mortal intellect can only think in separation. It is always thinking about subject and object that is simply how it is made. Even in the best of circumstances it will still be thinking about separation.
(1-8) Guilty and separate
check out 13(36-43) 1-3 to get a bit of a clearer idea of how guilt and separation play a role in our thinking.
I’m not going to get into the whole guilt thing right now because it just did not seem to be something that people resonated with at the moment.
I’m going to suggest though that since guilt (as a powerful illusion) plays a significant role in NTI and ACIM that you allow yourself to become aware of the subtle influences of guilt. (Initially the Course will suggest that guilt comes from thinking we did something to separate ourselves from God). We might think we didn’t do anything. We might even think we know we didn’t do anything. Well, if that’s true, why do we experience ourselves as separate?
The Holy Spirit is here to “show you truth.”(1-8) 7
I think one of the most significant challenges in this chapter is (9-14) 5 “You must open your eyes. I cannot do that for you.”
The way I take that is that, “You must be willing; you must put yourself into a state of surrender, I cannot do that for you, but this openness that you choose allows Me to work and through you.”
PLEASE NOTE HERE THAT OUR LANGUAGE IS LIMITED. ALTHOUGH WE DO NOT WANT TO, WE ARE SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE OF SEPARATION. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT A SEPARATE ENTITY. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE TRUTH OF WHO YOU ARE.
(15-21) A teacher of mine likes to suggest, “You are the meaning maker of your life.”
You decide what things mean.
The challenge here is, are you going to give the thoughts, actions, and circumstances of your life the meaning of Truth or something else?
Here is a brief summary of Chap. 12
Nothing happened. (You did nothing wrong.)
There is No sin. (There never was. Nothing can separate you from God’s love).
You Not your body, or your mind or your emotions. You are limitless.
The Spirit tells us who we are (do not listen to anyone else).
What you think of as your own thoughts are crazy.
Truth can only be seen if you choose to see it.
Thoughts of separateness must be let go of to see the Truth.
I(the Holy Spirit) will lead you.
In the Old New Testament Chapter 13 contains the parable of the sower and the seeds. You might want to read it over and then soak in this new interpretation
You choose what kind of soil you will plant yourself in. The soil is made up of those thoughts, ideas, etc. you choose to focus on.
You continually open yourself to guidance, until the most natural thing in the world is to flow with Spirit.
(10-15) v3. “it is your choice you must guard.” Don’t be concerned about your brother’s choices.
Here again we are called to awareness.
There are some beautifully consoling thoughts in (24-30) and (31-32)
I would suggest reading those sections over and over.
Another very significant thought in (33) “It is through your choice, but not your effort, that the Kingdom of Heaven is given…”
I believe this passage is stating the same thing as “You must open your eyes” and then let the Spirit do Its work, which will happen beyond and deeper than your understanding.
The challenge that will continually repeat itself is the challenge to see through illusion and untruth.
(36-430 3-6 “When you see yourself in this forgotten state, and you believe that you are guilty and you live in a fearful world, it is then that you suffer. And yet, you believe these thoughts. And in believing these thoughts, you suffer. And in believing these thoughts, you believe the evidence of these thoughts, and you suffer more.”
We look at the news and we believe there is war, and then we might say to ourselves, “Well if I make myself more peaceful that will make my brother more peaceful.” That is probably very true, but notice what we are doing we are inadvertently reinforcing the reality of war.
Suppose I was to think, “Here I am perceiving my brother as being angry, confused and in the need to defend himself. Dear God, how do I let go of this one? How do I heal my limited perception?”
We are often reminded that we are not alone(36-43) 7-13
Let us open to love, freedom, peace, and let Spirit do its work.
Prayer:
Spirit of God, you are my Truth. You are the Truth of who I am. Hold me. Wrap me in this truth that I may be open to your guidance this day.
Remind me to stop often and simply ask, “What would you have me do.” Help me to listen and to act in love, peace, and joy. Amen
All opinions and ideas expressed here are only true for you if they resonate with your Being. These thoughts and ideas are subject to change as the author becomes more aware of The Truth.
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Gerry, a couple of thoughts that came following your comments on the limitation of language.
ReplyDeletePLEASE NOTE HERE THAT OUR LANGUAGE IS LIMITED. ALTHOUGH WE DO NOT WANT TO, WE ARE SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE OF SEPARATION. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT A SEPARATE ENTITY. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE TRUTH OF WHO YOU ARE.
The more we speak, the less we say.
All these words. They just lead us around in circles. Sooner or later we arrive back to where we first began.
We are moving more and more toward “saying nothing”, because in the end, there is nothing to say. When you “see” what needs to be done, you just do it.
If I get up before dawn and watch the sunrise, there is nothing that I can say that adds to my “seeing”. Mankind wants to sleep in and read about it in the morning paper.
Hope to make it to your class one Tuesday evening. Currently I have a little scheduling conflict. Perhaps next week.
Your work is greatly appreciated.
Blessings,
Glenn L.