Prayers Transformed for the New Year

Each morning, my wife and I pray and do affirmations. The prayers we use are a mix of traditional Hebrew and New Thought. The following are three of the traditional prayers, transformed into New Thought:

Blessed art thou, oh Lord our god, king of the universe. Heneni, rebono shell olam.

Blessed are we, oh wondrous Spirit, one with everything and everyone; fully present in and around us, right now. We feel Your guidance, love, grace, compassion and peace and joyously allow it to use us. Thank You.


And I love the Lord my God with all my heart, all my soul and all my might.

And I feel the peace, joy and compassion of my oneness with Spirit constantly, all the time, and in all that transpires, and allow it to flow through me into the world.

Forgiveness and Sameness

“God’s sons [and daughters, the Course’s name for our un-separated Selves] are equal to each other, for they share not only the same mind but the same goal: a unity of self and purpose,” Ken Wapnick says. “Recognizing this shared purpose undoes the belief in differences that was the foundation of sin [the idea that we separated from God and by so doing, destroyed Him, thus sinning]. The vision of sameness becomes the radiant means of salvation, leading us out of the darkness of sin into the light of Heaven’s love.”

“You and your brother are the same,” the Course says, “as God Himself in One and not divided in His Will. And you must have one purpose, since He gave the same to both of you [without favor, be you Muslim or Buddhist, Jew or Christian]. To you and your brother is given the power of salvation [not only to Jesus]; that escape from darkness into light be yours to share; that you may see as one what has never been separate, nor apart from all God’s Love as given equally.”

Thus, “kindness is inevitable, and is the only joyful response to the world, regardless of what seems to happen.” Since we are all the same to forgive one, to awake and realize what seemed to happen didn’t really happen because it is part of the ego’s nightmare, is to forgive all. “Our only task,” Ken says, “is to forgive the person in front of us – mentally [if only in our thoughts, the person could be dead] or physically. The extension of our forgiveness to the entire world [and thus, salvation] happens automatically.

“Leave then, the transfer of your learning to the One Who really understands its laws, and Who will guarantee that they remain unviolated and unlimited.” I will work with the person before me now [especially myself, but know that] thousands stand behind him, and beyond each one of them are a thousand more.” My only task is to forgive the person in front of me.

We are all the same

Everyone - Democrats and Republicans, terrorists and victims, male and female – is wrestling with the same basic problem/opportunity – release of the ego nightmare and awakening to spirit – and therefore we are all the same. How would it be if we acted as if this was true – that we share the same basic problem/opportunity? Would we be more peaceful, compassionate, kinder? Probably.

There is not one of us who deep within does not experience the pain of existence, a yearning for an end to the suffering that seems endless and without purpose. In desperation we silently cry out for help, but hear only the ego’s call to analyze, judge, blame, then attack and punish; all maladaptive attempts to find relief from the guilt of our original sin - the ego idea that we have separated from God and destroyed Him. This actually reinforces the very guilt we are attempting to defend against (defenses do what they would defend), leaving all of us – victim and victimizer, guilty and innocent – locked in the ego’s vicious circle and prison of sin.

To see everyone the same and wrestling with the same basic problem/opportunity is to understand that all the forms of attack – blame, judgment, doubt and fear – are never justified; that judgment is impossible, and peace our only true emotion. The Course says, “I will be still an instant [cease struggling, analyzing, judging, blaming, attacking and punishing] and go [be] home [awake and aware of my spiritual reality].”

To see everyone the same and wrestling with the same basic problem/opportunity is to understand that no one and no thing can truly harm us. For sure we can be battered and bruised here in the illusion, but what could stand against the truth of our reality as spirit? That’s what the famous bible story of the fiery furnace and Meeshack, Shadrack and Abednego was trying to show us.

Peace, joy and salvation are available right now, regardless of what seems to be happening here; because in truth, nothing is happening here. It’s all in our minds, not our brains, and once we return to the awareness that mind is the only player in the ego’s game of separation, that in fact the separation never happened, we will know that the mind is a decision making tool we can use right this second, and that we always have the ability to choose peace and joy over imprisonment and pain.

Judgment and Regret

Lately, I notice a feeling of regret and guilt when I blame, criticize or judge another person, or even myself. The feeling of regret doesn’t always come immediately after I do the deed, tho it does more and more, but usually a little later when I’ve had a chance to reflect and be centered. My thoughts go something like: There I go again! Or, what did that accomplish? Or, feel better now? Or, gee, I could have had a V8 (juice) – made things better, instead of worse. The more I’m able to catch myself doing what I don’t want to do, being with the ego instead of spirit, the more I’m able to be with spirit instead of the ego.

The decision for the right-minded teacher, spirit, is the choice for vision over judgment. It is the moment to moment release of the ego’s nightmare that is held in place by my belief that my judgments of myself and others are justified and deserved. As soon as I become aware of thinking that my judgments of myself and others are justified and deserved, it’s time to pause and say: There I go again! Or, what did that accomplish? Or, feel better now? Or, gee, I could have had a V8.

Judgment, a form of attack, is impossible when I appreciate that everyone: Democrats and Republicans, terrorists and victims, male and female, are all wrestling with the same basic problem/opportunity – release of the ego nightmare and awakening to spirit – and therefore we are all the same.

Attack and judgment are merely mental/emotional tricks, defenses set up by the ego, to keep us busy here in the world, instead of being with spirit. In truth, we are alike in sharing the shared interest in awakening from this hellish dream of separation and death. And a simple thing like being aware I’m judging and blaming then pausing to say: There I go again! Or, what did that accomplish? Or, feel better now? Or, gee, I could have had a V8, can move us towards awakening.

Victory for the Terrorists Denied, 4

Does this – this pain, joy, news report, this experience – impede or contribute to my goal of awakening from the ego’s dream of separation? That’s all I need do, just ask this question. No analysis of the news, or source of the pain or joy, for all that is illusion, tho God help me, I believe it’s real; and so do you. That’s what we have in common – two things: the belief that the illusion is real and the need to wake from it.

Asking this question each time we find ourselves taking things seriously, which is all the time, will undo the ego and is part of the process of awakening from its illusion. This question shifts our focus from the nearly all consuming world of the ego to the source of our ego experience, the decision maker in my mind.

In truth, you and I are not held captive by what the Course calls the body’s “engine of destruction” nor its “rotting prison”, but only by the mind’s having chosen the wrong teacher, the voice for differences and specialness, rather than the voice for sameness and oneness. And that being the case, we can choose again.

Victory for the Terrorists Denied, 3

The Course in Miracles reinforces the need for us to take responsibility for the way we think about things, such as the ‘threats’ in the defense authorization legislation, and work from the inside out to deal with them. Doing that instead of blaming and fearing what’s outside our minds, is the change of thinking Einstein mentioned when he said you can’t solve the problem at the level of thinking that created it in the first place. The level of thinking we’ve been using is outside-in. It’s that level of thinking that holds the problems in place and perpetuates them.

“You would not react at all to figures in a dream you knew you were dreaming,” the Course says. “Let them be as hateful [or happy,] as vicious [or kind] as they may, they could have no effect you unless you failed to recognize you’re dreaming.”

In other words, all dream figures are the same because they all have no effect on our [waking] lives, unless we give them that power” and believe them to be real. This means that the ‘miracle’ - the awakening from the dream and experiencing the very same phenomena differently, as reflections of spirit’s love, compassion, goodness, joy and creativity, is the same no matter what we’re dreaming. So the Course says, “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.”

The dreams of others affect me only when I choose to make myself part of their dreams of separation, suffering, and attack. Understanding this makes me responsible, not for the egos of others, but only for my reactions to their egos. In this sense, others – those I label terrorists, friends, lovers or enemies, are irrelevant to my reactions and feelings.

Thinking I’m in the world - the ego’s nightmare, and knowing that the ego always speaks first, I will react to others. But then I can catch myself, pause, and ask ‘do my reactions impede or contribute to my goal of awakening from the ego’s dream of separation’ and contributing to a world that works for everyone and everything, and if it impedes, as 99.5% of every experience does, then I can invite the decision maker in my mind to choose again.

Victory for the Terrorists Denied, 2

Addressing problems by asking everyone and everything I encounter: ‘Does this impede or contribute to my goal of awakening from the ego’s dream of separation,’ enables me to return to the source of my experience (my mind) and if necessary, choose again. Asking continues the process of undoing my investment in the ego’s projections of responsibility onto others instead of myself, thus doing what Einstein recommended - solving the problem at a level of thinking different from the level that created it in the first place, and agrees with Pogo that we have met the ‘enemy’ and they is us.

Imagine how meaningful our lives would become if this question were uppermost in our minds as we went through each day. The seemingly separate events, relationships, situations and our responses to them would be unified in a new way, giving us a sense of purpose we lacked. Asking the question puts the goal of awakening from the ego’s nightmare and experiencing the reflection of spirit’s love here, at the center of our lives.
And really, what else is there? Isn’t that all we really want?

Victory for the Terrorists Denied!

The Course in Miracles reinforces the need for us to take responsibility for the way we think about things, such as the ‘threats’ in the defense authorization legislation, and work from the inside out to deal with them. Doing that instead of blaming and fearing what’s outside our minds, is the change of thinking Einstein mentioned when he said you can’t solve the problem at the level of thinking that created it in the first place. The level of thinking we’ve been using is outside-in. It’s that level of thinking that holds the problems in place and perpetuates them.

When we take responsibility for our own hearts and minds, refusing to be manipulated, shifting to inside-out thinking, guidance and solutions enabling us to contribute to a world that works for everyone and everything, thus solving the problem, will be available. There is something within us that knows, that is not overwhelmed by the interdependent complexities surrounding us, but appreciates the interdependence and can use the complexities, not by simplifying them or dumbing them down into sound bites and slogans, as we do now, but by accepting them and our responsibility for them.

“Choosing vision over judgment,” Ken Wapnick, a powerful interpreter of the Course says, “we can no longer make others responsible for our pain or joy. Remembering that nothing exists outside the projecting mind, we know that everything comes from decisions the mind makes, generated from the basic choice between the ego and (spirit).” Knowing this, experiencing the peace and joy that can come from this knowledge, we want to “meet everyone (and everything) in the same way, with an openness of heart and mind that frees us from the prison house of hate.”

Meeting everyone (and everything) in the same way, “allows us to return to the source of all worldly things and experiences.” We return to the source by asking “one simple question of absolutely everything that befalls us throughout our lives: Does this impede or contribute to my goal of awakening from the ego’s dream of separation. We are not asked to be ego free, but simply to ask the question, thus beginning the process of undoing our investment in the ego’s projections of responsibility onto others instead of ourselves,” and thus solving the problem at a different level of thinking than what created it in the first place, as Einstein recommended, and agreeing with Pogo that we have met the ‘enemy’ and they is us.”

Victory for the Terrorists?

Osama bin Laden is dead, or so we’re told, but the President of the United States and the US Congress have given Al Qaeda, Hizbolah, the Taliban and all the other anti-democratic terrorists the greatest victory they have ever had, a victory they could have never, ever, have gotten on their own. By a margin of 87 to 13 the US Senate passed and the President will ‘reluctantly’ sign the defense appropriations bill that includes three provisions that effectively undo the 5th and 6th amendments to the US Constitution, allowing the President or his designees to arrest and detain anybody, US citizen or no, and hold them incommunicado, if they are labeled by said President or his designees as aiding, supporting or in anyway participating in acts of terrorism against the US and its allies.

Think about that! Do you hear the sigh of relief going up to heaven around the nation? At long last we are finally safe! Thank God! Now, a person can be labeled a terrorist by some bureaucrat, picked up and held, but not tortured of course, the US doesn’t torture, and held until God knows when. So what, you say, I’m not a terrorist. You are if ‘they’ say you are. That’s all it takes, and you have no recourse; can’t have a lawyer, can’t confront your accusers who need no evidence; you just go to jail. Too bad for your family and business; too bad for you.

This passed 87-13 and will be ‘reluctantly’ signed by the President. Who are these people? What do they think they’re doing? What happens to common sense, compassion and support for the Constitution once these people get to Washington? We have met the enemy and they is us. We did this to ourselves, not the Nazis, Commies or terrorists, but our so-called elected ‘representatives.’ Who or what do they represent? Don’t they take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States? Which Constitution are they protecting and defending?

Fear, blame, anger, laziness and competition – the way we’ve been thinking about things and doing things lately in the good old USA, has taken us to this place. It’s a place we’ve never been before, one that doesn’t bode well for Truth, Justice and The American Way. If we always do what we always did, we’ll always get what we always got. Haven’t we had enough of this garbage? Must we go the way of the Roman and British empires? Can’t we stop before it’s too late?

Einstein said you can’t solve the problem at the level of thinking that produced it in the first place. We’ve met the enemy and they is us. If we want things to be different we’ve got to be different. We’ve got to change how we think and behave. We’ve got to look within at our own hearts and minds, not without at terrorists. It’s us. The terrorists are only doing what they’ve sworn to do. What are we doing? Who have we become? What’s going on in our hearts and minds? Can we finally take responsibility for our own thinking and behavior? If we can’t or won’t do that, control ourselves in our own homes, what chance do we have to control others?

The fear mongers and terrorists we’ve got to watch out for are the people we elected in Washington and in many state capitols. The level of thinking we need to solve our current problems is within us, not outside us. We’re the ones eviscerating the Constitution and endangering our own safety. We’re the ones who need to take responsibility for our dysfunctional thinking and behavior. If we do that, we have a chance. If we don’t, we’re doomed. Business as usual, blaming, denial and finger pointing will destroy us.

I don’t have the answer. I don’t think there is an answer. I think wanting a single answer and not wanting to face the uncertainty of dealing with the complexities we’ve created, is a big part of the problem. But I do know that if we don’t recognize the real problem – our own thinking and behavior – we’ll never find a viable solution.

I invite you to think about this, see and understand the problem, then join with me in exploring new ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that as Einstein said, take us to a new level so that we can, together, people of all beliefs and natures, come up with something that will deny the terrorists, both foreign and domestic their victory, and enable us to contribute to a world that works for everyone and everything.

Sameness and Oneness

Everyone – men and women, grown-ups and children, Americans and Africans, old and young – is the same, facing the same minute-to-minute choice in our minds, between our transcendent reality as spirit or acceptance of the ego’s illusion of the world. No matter what I choose in this moment – ego or spirit - this sameness is the truth and the reality behind all appearances of difference. And no matter what I choose in this moment – ego or spirit – eventually, I will come to experience this sameness in everyone and everything, and know my reality as spirit.

This process of constantly choosing, understanding and moving towards my sameness/oneness with spirit, begins as I learn that my interpretation of the sensory data, brought by my sensory organs to my brain, is solely instigated by the mind, because ideas leave not their source. So, its not the sensory data I need to work with but my mind’s (my decision maker’s) interpretation of that data. Does my interpretation of what I’m perceiving bring me closer to spirit, revealing the sameness beneath the appearances of difference, or does it entangle me more deeply in the ego’s illusion?

So, I come to understand that projection – what I’m experiencing outside me as a result of my decision maker’s choice for the ego – makes perception. Once I have projected the mind’s interpretation of differences beyond the mind and onto the world, I conveniently forget I have done so. Thus, there is no way out of this vicious cycle of projection and perception unless I begin to question the validity of my perceptions. “Escape is impossible,” the Course says, “until [I] see that [I] have responded to my own interpretation” of my own projection. What I perceive, “is the witness to [my] state of mind, the outward picture of an inward condition.”

Understanding this projection/perception phenomenon is the beginning of constructive change and spiritual growth.

Joy!

Joy is different from happiness. Joy, arising from an awareness of my reality as spirit, is available all the time. Happiness, arising from my experiences in the world, is available only when things go ‘right’ in the world.

Most of us are rarely happy for no reason. Happiness is dependent on something happening outside of us. Joy, on the other hand, can just well up and be experienced for no reason, without anything happening.

Of course I can experience joy and happiness at the same time and often do. But just knowing that joy - the feeling of grace, gratitude, meritless well being and peace, is always available, encourages me to access it more often. I’m practicing joy – choosing to go within, realize my Reality, and consciously choose joy.

Joy, joy, joy! I’m getting so good in my practice that often all I have to do is see the word, hear it in my mind or say it to myself and I can experience it. I’m practicing this no matter what’s going on around me. It’s amazing! Stuck in traffic, stubbed toe, malfunctioning computer, even cancer - joy, joy, joy, and I begin to feel it.

As soon as I get over my initial disappointment, anger, fear, doubt and worry (remember, the ego always speaks first), I pause, take a deep breath and invite joy in…and it comes…eventually. Sometimes sooner than others, but it always comes.

It’s so cool! Try it. You don’t have to be special, do anything special or have anything special happen, just pause take a deep breath and invite joy in. It comes…eventually. In fact, all you can do is invite it and make it welcome. Any other activity is part of your bloated nothingness and will block the divine circuits. Try it, invite joy in now.

Direct Democracy, 3

So, our so-called ‘representatives’ do not write nor read legislation - staff and lobbyists do that; they are more loyal to their parties and ideologies than to the majority of the people they supposedly represent; they do what their parties or a small faction in their parties, not their consciousness’, tell them to do, cashing in their integrity, hearts and souls to keep their jobs (again please note the glaring flip flops of McCain and Romney, but not Ron Paul).

We can tinker around the edges of this system of so-called ‘representative government’ encouraging third parties, redistricting, campaign finance reform, etc – which we should do. But really, it’s broken and can never be truelyfixed, especially by the people who are in it and benefiting from it [fixing the system from within is a foolish, non-viable cliché]. We need something else some other system, a system of direct democracy in which the people represent themselves without intermediaries. This is the same issue Martin Luther addressed when he nailed his 95 to the church door.

Here’s my paraphrasing of what Luther was saying: priests, rabbis and gurus (representatives) and the churches and other religious institutions (political parties) have a place but that place is not between God and individual human beings. We too, need nothing between ourselves and our government. I am not sure, nor have I thought seriously about, how we will replace the current system. However, I do know, as I hope you do too, that it is broken almost beyond repair and that before it implodes completely, tearing down our nation and society, we need to be thinking about alternatives to it.

With computers and the internet we now have the technology to support an alternative. The subject matter expertise in Congressional staffers and corporate lobbyists is necessary and can never be duplicated by individual voters. New scientific research on crowd sourcing reported in a book of that name and a book called, The Starfish and the Spider, show that rather than the stereotype of crowd as a dangerous mob, the crowd has access to greater intelligence about more sustainable solutions and opportunities. Somehow, we need to figure out how to use these tools to directly inform and involve voters, once the so-called ‘representatives’ are gone – to transition to a form of direct democracy.

The intent of this series of posts is to invite readers to awake to the need for a change in our current political system, join with each other, and together, create a more effective and efficient political system more in line with our ideals and aspirations, and then develop the means to transition from what we have, to the better alternative. This is something to start thinking about now, before we’re torn apart by the flaws of the current system. It won’t be easy, but it is necessary. This is a time of great opportunity! We need to seize it! The parallels between this time, Washington’s and Martin Luther’s are there and can be seen if you look for them.

We have more in common than what separates us. We are all Americans! Let’s get in touch with that – our shared, ideals, hopes and aspirations. Everyone has a right to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Can’t we agree on the facts and work from there to build a system and a world that works for everyone and everything?

Direct Democracy, 2

Tell me, what’s the difference between a ‘campaign contribution’ and a bribe? It’s always been this we and we know it, but the problems with this system of ‘representation’ are becoming more critical now, than ever before.

It needn’t be this way. Please get that! It needn’t be this way. So many of us see the charade of so called ‘representation’ for what it is, but don’t know what to do about it, or think there’s nothing to be done, so we do nothing or drop out, leaving the field to fanatics and idiots. One only has to look at the current crop of Republican presidential candidates to see that. It needn’t be this way.

What would replace the current system? Let’s examine what we’ve got before we answer that. What really, bottom line, is the function of our so called ‘representatives’? Is it to write legislation with the best interests of the majority of the people in their districts in mind? That’s the concept everyone gives lip service to, but is that what they really do? No. What do they really do? They do everything they can to keep their cushy jobs and represent the moneyed interests who can keep them in those jobs. They are just like any other group of employees, doing what their bosses - the people who pay them, want them to do.

In addition to that, they are there as negotiators, brokers and deal makers. Given the current system, that is their only legitimate role, the closest they come to ‘representing’ ‘the people’ in their districts. They do not really write legislation, their staffs and lobbyists do that. They do not study situations comprehensively nor seek ways to create sustainable opportunities for the majority of ‘the people’. They fight fires.

Eyes fixed on the media - which is a player in its own right that doesn’t really try to inform nor educate the population but merely tries to keep it riled up, stressed out, entertained and confused so its sponsors will benefit - our so-called ‘representatives’ address the so-called ‘issue’ of the day – Janet Jackson’s costume malfunction, gays in the military, flag burning, Michael Jackson’s physician, the basketball player’s greed, ball players’ use of steroids, etc. Anything but the really substantive challenges and opportunities like health care, energy and the environment. Anything to keep ‘the people’s’ minds off the really important stuff.

Together, the media and so-called elected ‘representatives’, serve the moneyed interests who own them by providing the fear of Al Qaeda and the bread and circuses that keep us immobilized and unable to find sustainable opportunities for growth and improvement. The status quo is what they serve and who they represent.

Direct Democracy

The intent of this series of posts is to invite readers to awake to the need for a change in our current political system, join with each other, and together, create a more effective and efficient political system more in line with our ideals and aspirations, and then develop the means to transition from what we have, to the better alternative. This is something to start thinking about now, before we’re torn apart by the flaws of the current system. It won’t be easy, but it is necessary. This is a time of great opportunity! We need to seize it! The parallels between this time, Washington’s and Martin Luther’s are there and can be seen if you look for them.

We have more in common than what separates us. We are all Americans! Let’s get in touch with that – our shared, ideals, hopes and aspirations. Everyone has a right to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Can’t we agree on the facts and work from there to build a system and a world that works for everyone and everything?

Perhaps, given the current dysfunction in DC and at the state level, it’s time to take a fresh look at the concept of ‘representation’ in government. Perhaps the very idea of ‘representative government’ is fundamentally flawed, and always has been.

How well are ‘the people’ represented when they elect someone and send them to the legislature? Who do the so-called ‘representatives’ really represent? Who has access to these so-called ‘representatives’? Who can speak with them on the phone or drop by their offices for a chat? Who actually drafts the legislation that they vote on, more often than not, without reading or fully understanding it?

You know the answers to these questions, they’ve been the same since the founding. Moneyed interests – the people and so called ‘corporate individuals’ who can give large sums of money. Tell me, what’s the difference between a ‘campaign contribution’ and a bribe? It’s always been this we and we know it, but the problems with this system of ‘representation’ are becoming more critical now, than ever before.

It needn’t be this way. Please get that! It needn’t be this way. So many of us see the charade of so called ‘representation’ for what it is, but don’t know what to do about it, or think there’s nothing to be done, so we do nothing or drop out, leaving the field to fanatics and idiots. One only has to look at the current crop of Republican presidential candidates to see that. It needn’t be this way.

A Thing of Wonder

It is possible, from a place of oneness with spirit, to experience spirit in everything that happens. It is possible to look upon all things with love, appreciation and open mindedness, understanding that no thing is as it appears and that its holy purpose stands beyond my ego’s little range, but accessible from the place of oneness.

Allowing the decision maker to choose again, I can see all things differently, with a mind that holds only what it thinks with God. The holiness of this thought extends to embrace the world and all its seemingly separated fragments. No longer deceived by perceptual illusions of special differences, my vision sees beyond appearances to the loving beauty of the right mind that is in each broken piece. And I am able to see in this beauty the doorway to eternity.

“All this beauty will rise to bless your sight as you look upon the world with forgiving eyes. For forgiveness literally transforms vision, and lets you see the real world reaching quietly and gently across chaos, removing [the] illusions that had twisted your perceptions. The smallest leaf becomes a thing of wonder, and a blade of grass a sign of God’s [and my own] perfection.”

The Stately Calm Within

As I stay centered in the decision maker’s choice for the “stately calm within,” my outer world, like the spokes of a wheel with spirit at its hub, radiate and extend the “holy stillness”. My interactions with the world of matter would share the same purpose of learning to be kind, caring, gentle, and loving. Spirit is not actually present in matter, for all is illusion, but I may experience Its reflection and purpose there, if I am with It in my mind. That is what forgiveness is - not holding to past perceptions generated by the ego, but choosing to see spirit’s purpose of loving kindness and oneness in all the “little things” of the world. So of myself, I do nothing but allow mySelf to shine through.

“All things are lessons God would have me learn,” opportunities to recognize the ego’s illusion, return to my mind and allow, encourage, the decision maker to choose again. The greater the discomfort, disease, guilt, fear, and anger – the greater the difference between the ego’s interpretation of the world and spirit’s - the greater the motivation to see things differently and choose again.

So, the Course says, “God is in everything I see because God is in my mind. From this idea will the world open up before you, and you will look upon it and see in it what you have never seen before…we are trying to see in the world what [the reality of spirit that] is [already] in our minds…trying to join with what we see rather than keeping it apart from us.” To do this - join with everything I experience and accept it all as a learning opportunity, I become aware of my choices and seek to no longer project the ego’s purpose of reinforcing guilt about the perceived original sin of separation.

The separation never happened; could not have happened; it is a “tiny mad idea.” We are one with spirit right now as we have always been.

Patience and Doing Nothing

Patience is the natural teacher of God. All it sees in the certain outcome of timeless love and peace stretching out before it like an endless vista of sea and sky. Filled with this certitude, why would we even attempt to make things happen? Wouldn’t we let the forms of our behavior be guided by the content of our loving thoughts? Wouldn’t everything we think, feel and do be done with kindness and caring, gentleness and love?

Patiently centered in spirit, our earthly lives become like spokes of a wheel, the hub being our choice for spirit. Now, this quiet center informs our thoughts, feelings, words, and actions, determining the outcome of situations and relationships, bringing peace and love instead of conflict and fear.

“To [be patient and] do nothing is to rest,” the Course says. “And make a place within you where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention. Into this place spirit comes and there it abides.” It will still be there when we forget and the body’s activities return to occupy your conscious mind. “Yet there will always be this place of rest to which you can return. And you will become more aware of this quiet center of the storm than all its raging activity.

“The quiet center, in which you [patiently] do nothing, will remain with you, giving you rest in the midst of every busy doing on which you are sent. For from this center will you be directed how to use the body sinlessly.”

The Outcome is Certain

“Love knows no bodies [or things], and reaches to everything created like itself. Its total lack of limit IS its meaning. It is completely impartial [and unconditional] in its giving….” When I feel frustrated and lose my peace, I am without love and attributing my upset to something outside me. The absence of love manifesting as guilt, urgency, a hierarchy of values, fear, worry, and blaming – either myself or someone/something else, tips me that I am out of my mind, and not with the decision maker who must have decided wrongly.

Asking to experience things differently, getting my bloated nothingness out of the way of the divine circuits, and allowing my decision maker to choose again, this time peace and love, enables me to function in this world effectively, efficiently and kindly until I am able to release myself and choose mySelf.

Understanding this, I understand that there is nothing outside me and so there can be nothing that can affect me either positively or negatively. But understanding this, difficult as it is, is still easier than living it. Faith and practice build confidence. Giving over guilt, urgency, my hierarchy of values, fear, worry, and blame and acting as if, nothing outside myself can save me or give me peace, that only spirit can do that, also means that nothing outside me can hurt me, disturb my peace, or stop the love that is mySelf from flowing into my experience.

The outcome is certain - giving over guilt, urgency, a hierarchy of values, fear, worry, and blaming always allows the peace and love which were always present, to manifest. Why furiously press forward with something that is not there, stubbornly convinced that if I do not, the ‘right thing’ will never happen?

Reflect – this attitude – which I suffer greatly from, makes no sense if I am already sure that the result of anything done with mySelf, will be loving and peaceful. Patience is natural when my beingness is with mySelf, for I’m focused on a certain wonderful and inevitable outcome, the time and details unknown to me, but never in doubt.

Knowing and Doing

Knowing the things I posted yesterday, isn’t the same as doing them. And doing them, isn’t the same as immediately getting the results – the feeling of oneness, peace, and connection to Source. It’s not easy to undo identification with ego, even for a moment. But ah, when I am able to, it’s so worth while!

I’m going thru a period of heavy ego identification right now. There’s something I want to do, and will do that ego doesn’t want me to do. Or, part of the ego - the parent, moralistic, punishing part doesn’t want me to. Whenever I think of what I want to do - something new and slightly dangerous, something on the fringes of main stream acceptability, but something I’ve wanted to do for my entire life, I get the thrills of anticipation, then the stress of doubt, anxiety and guilt.

Of course, it’s all ego – both what I want to do and the fear of what I want to do. However, the part that wants to do, feels more inspired and spiritually connected, as if it’s leading me to a fulfillment and completion. So, I commit to doing what I want to do, even tho the punishing, fearful ego is making me crazy, trying to talk me out of doing it and almost ruining it by taking the edge off and the joy out.

So, I pause, breath deeply, say a mental ‘thank you’ for the opportunity to remember and actually experience the ideas: by grace I live and by grace I am released, and the lord doeth the work, and invite my decision maker to let go of the ego and choose spirit instead. I forgive myself for once again falling into the ego’s web of illusion. No guilt, no blame, no drama, just a deep breath, a sigh and a ‘there I go again.’ Eventually this will work. But it’s a constant, frustrating back and forth until it does. But at least I have this to do. If I didn’t, I’d be crazier and more depressed, less happy and less creative than I am.

Knowing What to Do

One of the ‘things’ I go back and forth on, given the ideas of living by grace, and the spirit within doeth the work, is: if anything I do is OK as long as I’m doing it with spirit, then how do I know what to choose when what I choose to do kind of doesn’t matter, how do I know what to choose to do in any given situation?

The Course says the ego always speaks first and loudest, meaning that my first, often habitual and therefore most comfortable reaction/decision/choice arises from the ego. But what about intuition and gut, I think of these as more spiritual? Don’t these often speak first but more softly? Yes. I’ll often have an intuitive sense of or gut feel for what to do but talk myself out of it.

Spirit’s still small voice is always there, always advising, always whispering of grace and release of ego, sometimes as intuition and gut feel. But even these things can become habituated to my world view and obscure my grace and reality as spirit. Besides, the ‘answers’ to so many questions and concerns in the world are counter-intuitive. For instance: the best thing to do to improve myself, is to not improve myself, but to get my bloated nothingness out of the way and allow mySelf to shine through. MySelf, being of spirit, needs no improvement, is already perfect as spirit is perfect, and if I, of myself, seek to improve myself, others or the world, I am deep in the illusion and under the influence of ego.

Yet I believe I am here in the world and do seek to improve myself, others or the world itself. To know what to do or refrain from doing, I need to undo the illusion of the ego and awake to my reality as spirit. This is a choice by choice process, an often frustrating, ongoing, never ending process. I discover what to choose by knowing how I feel when I choose the ego.

When I think about choosing something, and whenever possible I need to develop the habit of pausing, thinking, reflecting and gut checking before I choose - if I’m feeling rushed, urgent, excited, worried, ‘should’ or ‘must do’ and worst of all, ‘have no other choice’, then I’m deep with ego.

When those feelings and thoughts are present, my practice is to pause, breath deeply, say a mental ‘thank you’ for the opportunity to remember and actually experience the ideas by grace I live and by grace I am released, and the lord doeth the work, and invite my decision maker to let go of the ego and choose spirit instead. I forgive myself for once again falling into the ego’s web of illusion and wanting to fix everyone and everything but myself. No guilt, no blame, no drama, just a deep breath, a sigh and a ‘there I go again.’ Then from that place, the choice is usually clear.

This is a moment by moment, choice by choice process, an often frustrating, ongoing, never ending process. But the more I do it, the easier it gets and the more I want to do it.