Oops! 3

If we give our bodies over to spirit, returning to the decision maker in our minds, we will gradually, slowly – too slow and too gradual for me, most of the time – allow our bodies will serve a different purpose - to show ourselves and the other selves we associate with our true Self. Giving over the pain, fear and guilt and understanding that I, and you, simply made a mistake [easier said than done!], we can return to our minds and choose again. That’s what the ‘Oops!’ does.

This is gradual slow process, but you will notice an attitudinal shift, identifying less with your body and ego and more with compassion, forgiveness and gratitude. Do the ‘oops’ thing and watch for your experience to change. Rather than feeling imprisoned in a body, you will begin to see your experiences as opportunities to learn, shift, say ‘oops!’, and give over to spirit – letting go and letting God.

When I do this, I am not changed and shifted alone. As I am freed from the thought system of separation and the guilt, fear and hatred that goes with it, everyone must be freed as well, because we are all one. Again, this experience of oneness is difficult to understand from our fragmented perspective here. Yet, if you think about it, you’ll realize everyone has had moments of total peace and acceptance which are the reflection of the reality of our oneness with spirit. The way to truly heal the world, is to heal myself by accepting mySelf. I can do that now, no waiting, nothing to prove, no dying. I am doing it but it’s gradual and slow. But each ‘oops’ brings me a little closer.

Students riot as Joe Paterno gets fired.

Oops, here I go again, taking things too seriously and ranting about them.

Some students at Penn State, and I hope it’s only some, are rioting because Joe Paterno was fired. They’re not rioting because for many years, I’ve heard as many as nine, young children - young male children, were raped and sodomized by a predator in Paterno’s employ, and the rioters have compassion for those poor innocent victims and want justice for them. No, they’re not rioting for that. They’re not rioting because current arrangements, sometimes known as the ‘system’, are shackling them with huge life-long debt for an ‘education’ of questionable value. No, they’re not rioting for that.

They’re not rioting because they won’t have decent jobs and will have to live at home [if it hasn’t been foreclosed] with their parents. No, they’re not rioting for that. They’re not rioting because of global climate change and the wholesale destruction of dolphins, other species and the potential destruction of the planet itself. No, they’re not rioting for that. They’re rioting because the great god of football, America’s religion, has been fired.

I heard a couple of them on TV a few minutes ago, talking about how the nasty school administration ‘over-reacted’ by firing their god. Soon, some alumni will withhold their donations and stop supporting the school.

When I first heard that the Board of Trustees fired both Paterno and the University president, I couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe that in this day and age of amazing, unbelievable public hypocrisy, sham objectivity and hyper attention to the ‘bottom line’ – money and winning, that a group of people would actually risk the wrath of the no-nothing bottom liners, and do the right thing. But they did and instead of some students and some alumni appreciating their courage, they’re rioting and withholding donations.

The veils of rhetoric that have masked our hypocrisy as individuals and as a nation are falling away. Now we see that a winning football team is much more important and valuable than the lives and health of a bunch of male children. Now we see who and what counts in America, and sadly, what has always counted. Sports, right wing politics and military preparedness are what count, not a silly, idealistic and unrealistic, compassionate, fair and just society. Winning, winning, winning – as another football god, the great Lombardi said, “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing!”

But the students rioting saddens and depresses me most. They are the future. I like to kid myself that the young people understand what’s important and are learning from our mistakes and will bring on a better future. Apparently not. At least for some of them, sports and winning trump morality and justice. Too bad, not just for them, but for us, as football, the modern equivalent of the ancient Roman bread and circuses, leads America laughing, high and drunk down the same path the Romans took to decline, third rate status and obliteration.

But the fact that Paterno was fired and that only some students and some alumni are assholes means there might be hope.

Oops! 2

“There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand,” the Course says, speaking of the either/or nature of the ‘relationship’ between spirit and ego. Spirit knows nothing of the ego. Spirit is real and eternal, the ego is unreal, an illusion. The ego, aware of spirit, fears it, knowing if we were ever to waken to our reality as spirit, the ego would disappear.

There is no way a separated mind could comprehend the reality of eternity, timelessness and the illusion of time. Our whole existence is based on time; everything here is governed by the clock. As long as we identify with the body, how could we ever understand time’s non-linear and illusory nature?

“Yet, we need not fully understand the true nature of time and the Course’s metaphysics in order to understand how to forgive and the power of forgiveness to reflect spirit’s qualities here. All that is required is a willingness to be taught; to choose spirit as our teacher instead of the ego.

“Eternity is always present, and totally unaffected by the dream of time – a few minutes or a few billion years makes no difference to an illusion. What never happened [the separation from spirit] never happened. Oneness cannot be compromised or lost. The journey home [the awakening to our reality as spirit] is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed. Despite the pained discomfort of our lives, they are still part of a dream.

The separation only seemed to occur. Choosing to remember oneness must be illusory, since we never left it. Spirit does not demand we accept this now, for it knows we ultimately will, and have already done so. So, if we experience spirit pressuring us to accept our oneness, it must be the ego. The urgency we feel comes from our pain and discomfort – the ego’s need to make the illusion real. Oops, there I go again!

Oops, there I go again!

“Oops, there I go again, taking myself too seriously.”

“Our faith,” the Course says, “lies in the Giver [our Self], not our [selves]. We acknowledge our mistakes, but He to Whom all error is unknown is yet the One Who answers our mistakes by giving us the means to lay them down, and rise to Him in gratitude and love.” To me, this means we do not deny our identification with the ego’s world illusion. We think we are here, so we are here – cogito ergo sum. We need not feel guilty about it nor fight it, we simply need to have faith in the Giver and know we can choose to receive our birthright from It and awaken to our Selves anytime we turn from the world, return to our minds and allow the decision maker to choose anew.

When we catch ourselves taking things here too seriously, all we need do is say, “Oops, there I go again!” and let go and let God. This is a constant, second to second thing, a never ending process, as long as we think we are egos in bodies in the world.

We experience the reflection of spirit’s love and peace in this dream world by preparing for it, by admitting – gladly and gratefully – that we have been wrong about our identity. We experience only the reflection of spirit’s love and peace, because spirit is not in the world, because the world is an illusion and spirit knows nothing of illusions but only Its reality as all inclusive love and peace. There is no way for us to understand spirit’s reality here, in the world, the Course says; only the reflection of that reality. We cannot speak, nor write, nor even think of this at all because of our investment in the ego, duality and knowing through contrast and opposition.

So because we can not know, we accept spirit’s reflection here and take as our goal awakening from the dream; the undoing of the illusion, not its solidifying. We ease off taking ourselves too seriously and making our lives in the illusion happier or more peaceful. Instead, we use our experiences here as a means to be mindful, awaken from the dream, and return to the decision maker in our minds so we can choose again.

Just saying, “Oops, there I go again!” when we catch ourselves taking things too seriously is a great way to do begin to undo the illusion, be mindful, awaken and choose again.

Form and Content

The Course in Miracles says we have a simple, either/or choice to make – do we identify with our egos or with spirit? The more we identify with the body and the world, the more we choose the ego instead of spirit. Both the ego and spirit are in our minds, which transcend, our brains. It is the decision maker within our minds that chooses. Fearful of the decision maker's ability to choose against it, the ego has developed a strategy of mindlessness, wherein we identify almost completely with it and our bodies (form) and not the decision maker in our minds and the choice it is making (content).

The ego tells us if we are to remain secure in our individual and special identities, that we avoid the mind and root our awareness totally in the external world, the ego's projected dream of separation. To further the aim of self-preservation as opposed to Self-awareness, we are attracted to anything in the world as a means of entrenching us there, reinforcing the amnesia, and avoiding the mind and decision maker that can choose heaven or hell at any instant.

The miracle the Course speaks of, does not awaken us from the ego's dream of a world separate from spirit, but merely shows us who the dreamer is. It teaches there is a choice of dreams while we still sleep, that the content of the dream, not its form, is where the choice lies. And, that being there is a choice and that the decision maker in our minds must make it, we need to look past the dream/illusion of the world (the form) and return to our transcendent minds and choose again (the content).

More Humor

Paraprosdokian: Figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently used in a humorous situation.

"Where there's a will, I want to be in it," is a type of paraprosdokian.

~ I thought I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted paychecks.

~ Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says, 'In case of emergency, notify:' I put 'DOCTOR.'

~ I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

~ Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

~ Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.

~ A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.

~ You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

~ Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.

~ I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure.

~ You're never too old to learn something stupid.

~ To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

~ Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

~ Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

~ Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

~ A diplomat is someone who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to the trip.

~ Hospitality is making your guests feel at home even when you wish they were.

~ I always take life with a grain of salt. Plus a slice of lemon and a shot of tequila.

~ When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.

Humor

Paraprosdokian: Figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently used in a humorous situation.

"Where there's a will, I want to be in it," is a type of paraprosdokian.

~ I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.

~ Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

~ The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on my list.

~ Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

~ If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

~ We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

~ War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

~ Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

~ Evening news is where they begin with 'Good Evening,' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

~ To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

~ A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.