Building Spiritual Muscle

“And please remember, this is a process, a never ending process. Know that each time you’re tempted to believe in, honor and serve the ego’s idols of darkness and fleeting passions is an opportunity to choose yourSelf instead. Ask to see things differently, with yourSelf instead of yourself.

 “Doing this, asking to see things differently, is a discipline that builds spiritual muscle. And the more you do it, the stronger that muscle becomes. Rather than seeing the world as the ego sees it - a dark trial between life and death with brief periods of peace and joy with death being inevitable, see it as a classroom in which you can learn who you really are, awaken from the ego’s nightmare and feel and share your reality, true love, compassion and glory with everyone and everything you encounter.”

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Shabby Reality?

“Consider the arbitrary shabbiness of what we have accepted as reality – honor, fame, fortune, glory, guilt, war, fear, cancer, judgment, punishment – when instead we could accept the gifts of Spirit – the peace that passeth understanding, perpetual never ending blessings, eternal love and oneness with all that is,” Devorah said.

“We have chosen graven images, earthly idols that we ourselves have made, in place of ourSelves, what we could never make, but nonetheless are.  Please let go of the shabby substitutes given by the ego! Experience them as the arbitrary worthless idols they are. Let go of your grievances against yourself and others. You are as God created you! Fear not that you will lose yourself and disappear into nothingness. Go through this fear and terror and acknowledge your Identity, and you will indeed disappear, but into your Self, not to be lost, but to be found!”

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The Ego's Revenge

“Humanity’s greatest spiritual teachers and metaphysicians have told us the world and our experience of it is an illusion,” Devorah said. “That there’s something greater, a greater Reality than our everyday thinking allows us to perceive and we can turn to It, and use It to guide and enlighten us instead of the ego.

“A first step to moving toward the greater benign Reality is to question what we take to be reality now, and to see our so-called reality as arbitrary, as merely a set of subjective, capricious psycho/social conventions. But beware, when we begin doing this, tho the rewards are great, when we violate its arbitrary rules, the ego is threatened, becomes vicious and attacks with a range of things from an itch to cancer, so that we hastily retreat to the safety of our habitual ways.”

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Illusions, last of three

“Would the benign loving power we call ‘God’ really want It’s children and It’s creation thought of in this way? No! Thus this idea (that how we treat one another and creation may not be ‘God’s’ will) shows the arbitrary illusory nature of our perceptions and beliefs about ‘reality’. So, starting with this understanding (about the arbitrary nature of our perceptions and beliefs about ‘reality’) enables us to perceive them as illusions, not facts, and move beyond them to the greater Reality that is the Source of all beliefs, perceptions and experience.”

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Illusions, part two of three

“It’s difficult to go directly from how we’re thinking now (our everyday ego based reality) to the idea that it’s an illusion, a mere shadow of the greater benign Reality behind it. A first step to moving toward the greater benign Reality is to question what we take to be reality now, and to see our so-called reality as arbitrary, as merely a set of subjective, capricious psycho/social conventions.

“For example, is it true that a certain set of rituals is more pleasing to God than another set; that the ‘chosen’ and ‘God-given’ set of rituals will bring us a better life and keep us from hell; and that those who do not follow the ‘chosen’ and ‘God-given’ rituals will not only be damned but are our sworn enemies determined to convert and destroy us? It this really God’s will, or a set of arbitrary cultural subjective, capricious psycho/social conventions? 

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Illusions, first of three parts

“Our greatest spiritual teachers and metaphysicians have told us that the world and our experience of it is an illusion,” Devorah said. “Tho our everyday ego based reality denies this, I have experienced it and you probably have, too. The usefulness of this idea (that the world and our experience of it is an illusion) lies in the fact that if this is true and it is, then there’s something greater, a greater Reality than our everyday thinking allows us to perceive and we can turn to It, and use It to guide and enlighten us instead of the ego.
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Both/and Thinking

“I’m a big believer in ‘both/and’ thinking instead of ‘either/or’ thinking,” Devorah said. “Of including, tolerating, and accepting instead of excluding, judging and blaming. The fear, hatred and competitiveness we experience (even within ourselves) are the fruits of ‘either/or’ thinking. Our experience of living would be different and better if we used more ‘both/and’ thinking.

“And yet, ‘either/or’ is essential in one crucial respect. We must decide whether we’re spirit or ego. We can’t be both. They are mutually exclusive states. We and everyone and everything else is either spirit or ego. It seems as if we can be both and our experience vacillates between both because we haven’t made the tough decision about what our fundamental nature is.

“Both/and thinking, inclusion, tolerance, peace and joy flow from a decision to identify with our Self, with spirit. Either/or thinking, exclusion, intolerance, hate, fear, and ‘my way or the highway thinking’ flow from identifying with the ego self.

“Unfortunately when you look around at the wars, pain, suffering, exclusion, hate, blame and environmental degradation, it’s clear we’ve chosen to identify with the ego. But that choice is a mistake and can be undone. Each time you’re tempted by ego to hate, blame, fear, worry, judge, punish and exclude, realize that it’s either/or, self or Self and choose Self. Each time. It’s a never ending process because the ego is the world’s default. But, the more you choose spirit, the more spirit becomes the default.

“What are you choosing right now? Think about it. The power is yours to use. You’re not a robot. How are you using your power? How’s that working for you? If it’s a mistake, let it go and choose differently. It’s not as difficult as you think and the results will be amazing!”

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Competition and Pundits

“Most of the commentary on current events from so-called pundits focuses on competition between two sides,” Devorah said, “as if there were only two sides and as if the competition itself were important. The more we focus on competition, the more we all lose. Do we really want to make half of us losers? And will the losers simply forgive and forget? Life is not a football game, no matter how much so many of us wish it were. There is no season, no referee and few rules that apply equally to everyone.

“Take the so-called punditry surrounding us with many grains of salt; be not seduced by the entertainment value of competition. It’s the rising above competition and the search for common ground that is important. We are in desperate need of pundits that will bring us together; who believe there really is common ground, point it out to us and help us reach it.”

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Sin

“It is essential,” Devorah said, “that error be not confused with sin. It is this distinction that makes salvation possible. Sin calls for punishment, error for correction. Thinking we are separate from the one loving power we call ‘God’ is a mistake, not a sin. We are and can never be separate from the one power. It is only our stinkin’ thinkin’, our misuse of the power that makes us think a separation has occurred. We but mistake interpretation for the truth. Salvation is realizing a mistake is not a sin, that the one loving power has not forsaken us nor ceased to be.”
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Specialness

“Whenever we feel special,” Devorah said, “make judgments or are deeply engaged in anything of the ego (the world: pleasure or pain) we are saying we don’t want the peace, joy and compassion the power we call ‘God’ intends for us and have accepted the ego’s substitute instead.” Devorah sighed.

 

“We project out the guilt we feel over this mistaken choice and thus harbor grievances and find fault with everyone and everything.” Devorah smiled. “The idea is not to judge ourselves for doing this, for projecting, but to be aware of what we have done and the tremendous cost to us for having done so. The world is a classroom. Let us use it, learn, be mindful and choose again, every time!”

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Miracles Webinar

Are you entitled to miracles? Join Devorah and I in a free 25 minute webinar exploration of this and other Course in Miracles concepts a week from today on Wednesday, February 12 at 7:30 AM. Reply for more info. 
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Faith

“Because faith is so powerful, people talk about it as if it were only good, for the benefit of everyone and everything,” Devorah said. “We say ‘faith can move mountains’ and that’s true. However, in reality, faith is neutral and can be used for either good (inclusiveness - for the benefit of everyone and everything) or ill (exclusiveness – for the benefit of a few).

 

“We’re never without faith. We always have faith in something. What do you have faith in? The goodness of human nature? The wrath of God? The danger of big government? How’s that working for you, your family, the planet? Perhaps it’s time to shift and put your faith in something else. After all, if you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got….”

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