Since God is love there cannot be any love but God’s.
Since God is all there can be no love but God’s.
From ACIM workbook for today (my comments in parenthesis):
Perhaps you think that different kinds of love are possible. Perhaps you think there is a kind of love for this, a kind for that; a way of loving one, another way of loving still another. Love is one. It has no separate parts and no degrees; no kinds nor levels, no divergencies and no distinctions. It is like itself, unchanged throughout. It never alters with a person or a circumstance. It is the Heart of God, and also of His Son…
(According to Kabbalah there are three aspects to the love of God. There is the Mother’s unconditional love, the father’s conditional love and finally the Christ balanced love of beauty. These are not different types of love so much as different ways of looking at the same infinite absolute love from a dualistic point of view. It is a way for us to understand God’s love.)
Love cannot judge. As it is one itself, it looks on all as one. Its meaning lies in oneness. And it must elude the mind that thinks of it as partial or in part. There is no love but God’s, and all of love is His. There is no other principle that rules where love is not. Love is a law without an opposite. Its wholeness is the power holding everything as one, the link between the Father and the Son which holds Them both forever as the same.
No course whose purpose is to teach you to remember what you really are could fail to emphasize that there can never be a difference in what you really are and what love is. Love’s meaning is your own, and shared by God Himself. For what you are is what He is. There is no love but His, and what He is, is everything there is. There is no limit placed upon Himself, and so are you unlimited as well…
[] Today we practice making free your mind of all the laws you think you must obey; of all the limits under which you live, and all the changes that you think are part of human destiny. Today we take the largest single step this course requests in your advance towards its established goal.
If you achieve the faintest glimmering of what love means today, you have advanced in distance without measure and in time beyond the count of years to your release. Let us together, then, be glad to give some time to God today, and understand there is no better use for time than this.
For fifteen minutes twice today escape from every law in which you now believe. Open your mind and rest. The world that seems to hold you prisoner can be escaped by anyone who does not hold it dear. Withdraw all value you have placed upon its meager offerings and senseless gifts, and let the gift of God replace them all.
Call to your Father, certain that His Voice will answer. He Himself has promised this. And He Himself will place a spark of truth within your mind wherever you give up a false belief, a dark illusion of your own reality and what love means. He will shine through your idle thoughts today, and help you understand the truth of love. In loving gentleness He will abide with you, as you allow His Voice to teach love’s meaning to your clean and open mind. And He will bless the lesson with His Love.
Today the legion of the future years of waiting for salvation disappears before the timelessness of what you learn. Let us give thanks today that we are spared a future like the past. Today we leave the past behind us, nevermore to be remembered. And we raise our eyes upon a different present, where a future dawns unlike the past in every attribute.
We will remember them throughout the day, because we cannot leave a part of us outside our love if we would know our Self. At least three times an hour think of one who makes the journey with you, and who came to learn what you must learn. And as he comes to mind, give him this message from your Self:
I bless you, brother, with the Love of God, which I would
share with you. For I would learn the joyous lesson that
there is no love but God’s and yours and mine and everyone’s.
***
When I did my first meditation today I intended to get into a deep state for exactly thirty minutes. The whole field of perception disappeared. Next thing I knew I was opening my eyes and exactly thirty minutes had gone by. It was an interesting experience based on freeing the mind of all. I felt very happy.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. No great love but no hassles or lack of love.
Again when I did a meditation the world disappeared but this time I think I was sleeping because I was tired. There is a difference of the world disappearing from being awake and from being sleep. The first I was happy and invigorated and the time of the meditation was precise as intended. The second time I awoke when the phone rang way beyond the intended time. I felt a bit groggy and tired…
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Some of the claims in A Course in Miracles are alien to me.
From the ACIM workbook for today:
Today’s idea, completely alien to the ego and the thinking of the world, is crucial to the thought reversal that this course will bring about. If you believed this statement, there would be no problem in complete forgiveness, certainty of goal, and sure direction. You would understand the means by which salvation comes to you, and would not hesitate to use it now.
Actually today’s idea is self evident to me. Since I believe there is only one entity which has Ultimate Reality all that I give is given to my real self by definition. After I had my first mystical experience (the unity of the universe) I found being kind and forgiving to others so much easier. The event happened forty three years ago and I understood that there is only one.
I understood that when I’m kind, I’m kind to myself and when I’m not I betray myself. It did not make me into an angel and I have been unkind many times since then. It did make me into a slightly better person and now that I’m studying ACIM I’m improving a little more.
The problem with spontaneous mystical experiences may be that after experiencing the truth you return to consensus reality and habits (selfishness, vengeance, unkindness, lack of forgiveness take over again).
To continue with ACIM:
Today we try to understand the truth that giver and receiver are the same. You will need help to make this meaningful, because it is so alien to the thoughts to which you are accustomed. But the Help you need is there. Give Him your faith today, and ask Him that He share your practicing in truth today. And if you only catch a tiny glimpse of the release that lies in the idea we practice for today, this is a day of glory for the world.
Give fifteen minutes twice today to the attempt to understand today’s idea. It is the thought by which forgiveness takes its proper place in your priorities. It is the thought that will release your mind from every bar to what forgiveness means, and let you realize its worth to you.
In silence, close your eyes upon the world that does not understand forgiveness, and seek sanctuary in the quiet place where thoughts are changed and false beliefs laid by. Repeat today’s idea, and ask for help in understanding what it really means. Be willing to be taught. Be glad to hear the Voice of truth and healing speak to you, and you will understand the words He speaks, and recognize He speaks your words to you.
As often as you can, remind yourself you have a goal today; an aim which makes this day of special value to yourself and all your brothers. Do not let your mind forget this goal for long, but tell yourself:
All that I give is given to myself. The Help I need to learn
that this is true is with me now. And I will trust in Him.
Then spend a quiet moment, opening your mind to His correction and His Love. And what you hear of Him you will believe, for what He gives will be received by you.
***
I just did a wonderful forgiveness, loving kindness meditation by listening to a tape by Jack Kornfield. It is a Buddhist loving kindness meditation. You start with asking forgiveness for harm you have done to others, then ask forgiveness for harm you have done to yourself and finally forgive all who have harmed you. Next you send loving kindness first to yourself, then to your loved ones and finally to all sentient beings.
I felt greatly at peace after doing this meditation. Of course it affirms today’s thought. All the loving kindness and forgiveness is ultimately to and from the One as the only thing that exists is the One.
Anyway, the biggest truth is that the universe is a mirror and all perception is projection. You get what you put out. Send love and you receive love back. Send our vengeance and hatred and you get it…
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Be still and know that I’m God. That’s what it’s all about. At times when in deep, deep meditation I see the light and experience the bliss. I wrote in the present tense (see and experience) as these times I am in the eternal present or better still in the Eternal Presence. These are in reality glimpses of the Truth (Al Haque – Allah – God as a unity not the name of a god as many ignorant people including ignorant Muslims believe).
However, these are only glimpses of the Ultimate Reality, the One, the Spirit, the Self or whatever else you may call it. Remember the words of Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching:
The Tao which can be names is not the true Tao…
That’s to say as soon as we use words we move away from the Ultimate Reality which is beyond all thoughts and conceptions…
***
From ACIM workbook for today:
Let this day be a day of stillness and of quiet listening. Your Father wills you hear His Word today. He calls to you from deep within your mind where He abides. Hear Him today. No peace is possible until His Word is heard around the world; until your mind, in quiet listening, accepts the message that the world must hear to usher in the quiet time of peace.
This world will change through you. No other means can save it, for God’s plan is simply this: The Son of God is free to save himself, given the Word of God to be his Guide, forever in his mind and at his side to lead him surely to his Father’s house by his own will, forever free as God’s. He is not led by force, but only love. He is not judged, but only sanctified.
In stillness we will hear God’s Voice today without intrusion of our petty thoughts, without our personal desires, and without all judgment of His holy Word. We will not judge ourselves today, for what we are can not be judged. We stand apart from all the judgments which the world has laid upon the Son of God. It knows him not. Today we will not listen to the world, but wait in silence for the Word of God.
Hear, holy Son of God, your Father speak. His Voice would give to you His holy Word, to spread across the world the tidings of salvation and the holy time of peace. We gather at the throne of God today, the quiet place within the mind where He abides forever, in the holiness that He created and will never leave.
Today He speaks to you. His Voice awaits your silence, for His Word can not be heard until your mind is quiet for a while, and meaningless desires have been stilled. Await His Word in quiet. There is peace within you to be called upon today, to help make ready your most holy mind to hear the Voice for its Creator speak.
Three times today, at times most suitable for silence, give ten minutes set apart from listening to the world, and choose instead a gentle listening to the Word of God. He speaks from nearer than your heart to you. His Voice is closer than your hand. His Love is everything you are and that He is; the same as you, and you the same as He.
It is your voice to which you listen as He speaks to you. It is your word He speaks. It is the Word of freedom and of peace, of unity of will and purpose, with no separation nor division in the single Mind of Father and of Son. In quiet listen to your Self today, and let Him tell you God has never left His Son, and you have never left your Self.
Only be quiet. You will need no rule but this, to let your practicing today lift you above the thinking of the world, and free your vision from the body’s eyes. Only be still and listen. You will hear the Word in which the Will of God the Son joins in his Father’s Will, at one with it, with no illusions interposed between the wholly indivisible and true. As every hour passes by today, be still a moment and remind yourself you have a special purpose for this day; in quiet to receive the Word of God.
***
It is a noisy day today in fact. We are adding our taxes and thinking about how I can earn more than eight dollars an hour after about twelve years of university education. You see in spite of everything and perhaps because I’m not spiritual enough, I cannot survive for long earning eight dollars an hour and reporting to high school graduates. We are paid half as much as the porters and yet have to do porter tasks at times…
My joke to my boss who is a high school graduate (barely) was: “If you want us to do porter work, you better give us porter salary.” Of course this and many other thoughts had to go silently. It’s like living in “Down and out in London and Paris,” by George Orwell…
So it is not easy to be still and receive God in. There are the two sides of my (his) life as in reality this is only a game but like playing any game it ends up being important and appearing so real…
***
A long time ago – way before computers were so powerful that we could imagine about virtual reality I thought that this life was like seeing a movie. It was very real appearing and sure you got into the story line. However, it was like watching a movie.
The real observer on some level realized that this is not reality and is only a game, a play acting.
When you get quite and still you are aware of the watcher and get less involved in the drama. In deep meditation the universe is perfect. I imagine I’m omnipotent (aren’t we all after all). At these time I know I could change anything I want and yet I do not change anything at all. I think this is just imagination and is a metaphor for Ultimate Reality. The only point here is that from God’s point of view (by definition) everything is exactly as it ought to be.
It is only from our point of view (duality) that things may appear wrong and need changing.
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Of course I’m one with God. That is a given. The question is which I? Again we should know that the real I is eternal and impersonal. The I we associate with is the personal mortal time bound I. In many systems we talk about body/mind/soul. I believe in the existence of at least four ways of looking at the person (based on the four ancient elements of earth,water,air,fire). This system adds spirit to give body/mind/soul/spirit.
The body is an organism (not a mechanism as many believe).
The mind is an information processing system dependent on the body and controlling the body.
The soul is the bridge between the mind and the spirit. It is still personal and more connected with the individual than the impersonal.
The spirit is the impersonal bridge between the personal to the Ultimate Reality. That’s to say it is the bridge between the soul and the Spirit.
It is important to understand that body/mind/soul/spirit is a single unity and these are ways of thinking about the single unity. It may be best to consider them as levels of reality. These levels are not higher or lower perhaps types of reality is a better term. I’ll use the term level since we used to use that terminology in the sixties when I first discovered revels of reality.
So in order to remember that I am one with God I have to be on the soul level and connect to the Spirit through the spirit.
***
From ACIM workbook for today:
Today we will again give thanks for our Identity in God. Our home is safe, protection guaranteed in all we do, power and strength available to us in all our undertakings. We can fail in nothing. Everything we touch takes on a shining light that blesses and that heals. At one with God and with the universe we go our way rejoicing, with the thought that God Himself goes everywhere with us. (my comments:
- God is beyond all conceptions such as gender.
- God is beyond all conceptions such as time and space.
- Even so from the soul/spirit point of view time and space do exist and God walks by our side – it is all a question of levels of reality – perhaps aspects of reality is a much better term.
[] God, Who loves us with the equal love in which we were created, smiles on us and offers us the happiness we gave.
Today we will not doubt His Love for us, nor question His protection and His care. No meaningless anxieties can come between our faith and our awareness of His Presence. We are one with Him today in recognition and remembrance. We feel Him in our hearts. Our minds contain His Thoughts; our eyes behold His loveliness in all we look upon. Today we see only the loving and the lovable.
We see it in appearances of pain, and pain gives way to peace. We see it in the frantic, in the sad and the distressed, the lonely and afraid, who are restored to the tranquility and peace of mind in which they were created. And we see it in the dying and the dead as well, restoring them to life. All this we see because we saw it first within ourselves. (This is beautiful and so true – God shows us her face in all ways).
No miracle can ever be denied to those who know that they are one with God. No thought of theirs but has the power to heal all forms of suffering in anyone, in times gone by and times as yet to come, as easily as in the ones who walk beside them now. Their thoughts are timeless, and apart from distance as apart from time.
We join in this awareness as we say that we are one with God. For in these words we say as well that we are saved and healed; that we can save and heal accordingly. We have accepted, and we now would give. For we would keep the gifts our Father gave. Today we would experience ourselves at one with Him, so that the world may share our recognition of reality. In our experience the world is freed. As we deny our separation from our Father, it is healed along with us.
Peace be to you today. Secure your peace by practicing awareness you are one with your Creator, as He is with you. Sometime today, whenever it seems best, devote a half an hour to the thought that you are one with God. This is our first attempt at an extended period for which we give no rules nor special words to guide your meditation. We will trust God’s Voice to speak as He sees fit today, certain He will not fail. Abide with Him this half an hour. He will do the rest.
Your benefit will not be less if you believe that nothing happens. You may not be ready to accept the gain today. Yet sometime, somewhere, it will come to you, nor will you fail to recognize it when it dawns with certainty upon your mind. This half an hour will be framed in gold, with every minute like a diamond set around the mirror that this exercise will offer you. And you will see Christ’s face upon it, in reflection of your own.
Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will see your own transfiguration in the glass this holy half an hour will hold out to you, to look upon yourself. When you are ready you will find it there, within your mind and waiting to be found. You will remember then the thought to which you gave this half an hour, thankfully aware no time was ever better spent.
Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will look into this glass, and understand the sinless light you see belongs to you; the loveliness you look on is your own. Count this half hour as your gift to God, in certainty that His return will be a sense of love you cannot understand, a joy too deep for you to comprehend, a sight too holy for the body’s eyes to see. And yet you can be sure someday, perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will understand and comprehend and see.
Add further jewels to the golden frame that holds the mirror offered you today, by hourly repeating to yourself:
Let me remember I am one with God, at one with all my
brothers and my Self, in everlasting holiness and peace.
***
When I did the long meditation my body disappeared but my mind was racing. Suppose it’s because of the disappointment I had yesterday. However, the good thing about a racing mind is that it can think logically. So soon the thought for today changed into one of:
Let me remember you are one with God
The mind races and soon thoughts changed:
Let me remember you are God
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Someone once said every second above the ground is sacred and a gift of God which is best appreciated. Such an attitude of gratitude brings peace and bliss in our lives. By having such thankful feelings we find it easier to forgive apparent transgressions by our brothers and sisters.
From ACIM workbook for today:
Today let us be thankful. We have come to gentler pathways and to smoother roads. There is no thought of turning back, and no implacable resistance to the truth. A bit of wavering remains, some small objections and a little hesitance, but you can well be grateful for your gains, which are far greater than you realize.
A day devoted now to gratitude will add the benefit of some insight into the real extent of all the gains which you have made; the gifts you have received. Be glad today, in loving thankfulness, your Father has not left you to yourself, nor let you wander in the dark alone. Be grateful He has saved you from the self you thought you made to take the place of Him and His creation. Give Him thanks today…
Today in gratitude we lift our hearts above despair, and raise our thankful eyes, no longer looking downward to the dust…
We do not go alone. And we give thanks that in our solitude a Friend has come to speak the saving Word of God to us…
Receive His thanks and offer yours to Him for fifteen minutes twice today. And you will realize to Whom you offer thanks, and Whom He thanks as you are thanking Him. This holy half an hour given Him will be returned to you in terms of years for every second; power to save the world eons more quickly for your thanks to Him.
Receive His thanks, and you will understand how lovingly He holds you in His Mind, how deep and limitless His care for you, how perfect is His gratitude to you. Remember hourly to think of Him, and give Him thanks for everything He gave His Son, that he might rise above the world, remembering his Father and his Self.
My experiences:
Today was an interesting day in the same way the Chinese believe one of the worst curses is, “May you live an interesting life.” I had some great highs and some lows as I was disappointed. The interesting thing is that only the highs caused the lows. The end of the day was the same as the beginning but the fact that I became hopeful in the middle made the disappearance of that hope appear like hopelessness.
It is like the psychological test where you place a finger of one hand in hotish water and one of the other in cold water for a minute and then once they are used to the respective temperatures the fingers are both placed in a mixture of the two temperature waters (warm water). Now the finger which was used to the hot water will feel the water as cold and the other used to the cold water will feel warm.
In the same way my false hope made me feel bad later on.
However, in the two long practice periods when I was being thankful I experienced pure joy and bliss. This bliss has no let down it is unipolar rather than duality which is composed of opposites. It is beyond good and evil which only exist in duality.
As I’m writing this I’m getting a glimmer of gut understanding on living in this world of duality while at times (in deep meditation) being in touch with the Ultimate Reality and Unity.
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Do you want to be happy or right. It might as well be do you want to be peaceful or have vengeance. Or do you want to be safe or do you want to have power. The list is endless. You can be unconditionally loving, full of compassion for you fellow human beings, or be out for number one never getting any true happiness.
At this stage I need to talk about a person at work who is disliked by just about everyone. In a cut throat industry he goes way beyond the limit. He steals everyone elses commissions. I see him as my angel. He gives me many chances to forgive each day and I must admit I’m failing often.
When I get home and I’m away from the source of selfishness I can understand him, have compassion and forgive him totally. I do not yet know how to forgive whille standing for my own rights. Last year around this time I got a major opportunity to forgive and I failed very miserably attempting (in only a small way) to be vengeful. The law of karma got me in a strong way and that was very good for my spirituality (exceptionally bad for my finances).
Then that is alright as I have learned my lesson and like all God’s children I’m forgiven. However, this is not so much about the lack of immediate forgiveness in me but in the effect of selfishness in my brother. When new people join the organization he may steal from them for short term gain but most people hate him and stop any cooperation with him. Much worse still he is never in peace. He is constantly struggling and yet calm and true happiness elude him.
From ACIM workbook for today:
What could you want forgiveness cannot give? Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it. Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world? Do you want care and safety, and the warmth of sure protection always? Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never can be hurt, a deep, abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be upset?
All this forgiveness offers you, and more. It sparkles on your eyes as you awake, and gives you joy with which to meet the day. It soothes your forehead while you sleep, and rests upon your eyelids so you see no dreams of fear and evil, malice and attack. And when you wake again, it offers you another day of happiness and peace. All this forgiveness offers you, and more.
Forgiveness lets the veil be lifted up that hides the face of Christ from those who look with unforgiving eyes upon the world. It lets you recognize the Son of God, and clears your memory of all dead thoughts so that remembrance of your Father can arise across the threshold of your mind. What would you want forgiveness cannot give? What gifts but these are worthy to be sought? What fancied value, trivial effect or transient promise, never to be kept, can hold more hope than what forgiveness brings?
***
Remembering the gifts forgiveness gives, we undertake our practicing today with hope and faith that this will be the day salvation will be ours. Earnestly and gladly will we seek for it today, aware we hold the key within our hands, accepting Heaven’s answer to the hell we made, but where we would remain no more.
Morning and evening do we gladly give a quarter of an hour to the search in which the end of hell is guaranteed. Begin in hopefulness, for we have reached the turning point at which the road becomes far easier. And now the way is short that yet we travel. We are close indeed to the appointed ending of the dream.
Sink into happiness as you begin these practice periods, for they hold out the sure rewards of questions answered and what your acceptance of the answer brings. Today it will be given you to feel the peace forgiveness offers, and the joy the lifting of the veil holds out to you.
Before the light you will receive today the world will fade until it disappears, and you will see another world arise you have no words to picture. Now we walk directly into light, and we receive the gifts that have been held in store for us since time began, kept waiting for today.
Forgiveness offers everything you want. Today all things you want are given you. Let not your gifts recede throughout the day, as you return again to meet a world of shifting change and bleak appearances. Retain your gifts in clear awareness as you see the changeless in the heart of change; the light of truth behind appearances.
Be tempted not to let your gifts slip by and drift into forgetfulness, but hold them firmly in your mind by your attempts to think of them at least a minute as each quarter of an hour passes by. Remind yourself how precious are these gifts with this reminder, which has power to hold your gifts in your awareness through the day:
Forgiveness offers everything I want.
Today I have accepted this as true.
Today I have received the gifts of God.
My reaction:
I went very, very deep in both long meditations. Perhaps because I know forgiveness offers all I want. It is a question of not judging my fellow human beings when apparent transgressions happen. Forgiving them half an hour later, or at the latest next day is automatic for me. As I mentioned earlier, I did go against my own values of forgiveness last year and I suffered to no end for that.
What I would like to happen is that I no longer forgive since I feel no reason to forgive. Surely that’s when you are actually in touch with the ultimate unity. If you are me and I am you…
There are no mistakes, there are no sins, there is nothing to forgive.
Another thing is that is this is all an illusion, there is no thing to forgive. Then knowing that there is no thing, you can live in peace, love, compassion without the need to forgive.
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Forgiveness is the linchpin of my hypnotherapy practice and the seminars I give. I always talk about the Zen master who said, “Not forgiving and holding resentments is akin to drinking a bottle of poison and expecting the other person to suffer.”
When talking about forgiveness I also use the metaphor of a child burning hand on a stove. The child learns to avoid the burning stove and will not be psychologically scarred for life. In fact I still have the mark of burning my wrist on an old iron. This was before they had electric irons in my native country of Iran. It was filled with red hot coals. Anyway, I burnt myself before I was two and I don’t remember the event.
The point is that I don’t go around moping that I’m damaged for life or join adults who were burnt by iron groups – actually perhaps I could start such a group and be the president and the only member. Why do we not resent inanimate objects?
Because we don’t ascribe volition to them.
From ACIM workbook for today:
The unforgiving mind is full of fear, and offers love no room to be itself; no place where it can spread its wings in peace and soar above the turmoil of the world. The unforgiving mind is sad, without the hope of respite and release from pain. It suffers and abides in misery, peering about in darkness, seeing not, yet certain of the danger lurking there…
The unforgiving mind sees no mistakes, but only sins (remember original meaning of sdin was missing the mark – JH)…
Forgiveness is acquired. It is not inherent in the mind, which cannot sin. As sin is an idea you taught yourself, forgiveness must be learned by you as well, but from a Teacher other than yourself, Who represents the other Self in you. Through Him you learn how to forgive the self you think you made, and let it disappear. Thus you return your mind as one to Him Who is your Self, and Who can never sin.
Each unforgiving mind presents you with an opportunity to teach your own how to forgive itself. Each one awaits release from hell through you, and turns to you imploringly for Heaven here and now. It has no hope, but you become its hope. And as its hope, do you become your own. The unforgiving mind must learn through your forgiveness that it has been saved from hell. And as you teach salvation, you will learn. Yet all your teaching and your learning will be not of you, but of the Teacher Who was given you to show the way to you.
Today we practice learning to forgive. If you are willing, you can learn today to take the key to happiness, and use it on your own behalf. We will devote ten minutes in the morning, and at night another ten, to learning how to give forgiveness and receive forgiveness, too.
The unforgiving mind does not believe that giving and receiving are the same. Yet we will try to learn today that they are one through practicing forgiveness toward one whom you think of as an enemy, and one whom you consider as a friend. And as you learn to see them both as one, we will extend the lesson to yourself, and see that their escape included yours.
Begin the longer practice periods by thinking of someone you do not like, who seems to irritate you, or to cause regret in you if you should meet him; one you actively despise, or merely try to overlook. It does not matter what the form your anger takes. You probably have chosen him already. He will do.
Now close your eyes and see him in your mind, and look at him a while. Try to perceive some light in him somewhere; a little gleam which you had never noticed. Try to find some little spark of brightness shining through the ugly picture that you hold of him. Look at this picture till you see a light somewhere within it, and then try to let this light extend until it covers him, and makes the picture beautiful and good.
Look at this changed perception for a while, and turn your mind to one you call a friend. Try to transfer the light you learned to see around your former “enemy” to him. Perceive him now as more than friend to you, for in that light his holiness shows you your savior, saved and saving, healed and whole.
Then let him offer you the light you see in him, and let your “enemy” and friend unite in blessing you with what you gave. Now are you one with them, and they with you. Now have you been forgiven by yourself. Do not forget, throughout the day, the role forgiveness plays in bringing happiness to every unforgiving mind, with yours among them. Every hour tell yourself:
Forgiveness is the key to happiness. I will awaken from the
dream that I am mortal, fallible and full of sin, and know
I am the perfect Son of God.
My reaction:
First long exercise period – there is a gentleman (actually he is anything but gentle) at work who irritates me (and most of the other coworkers). However, I do not have any enemies. Minor annoyances, but no enemies. In fact I feel a great compassion for this person as he has many enemies and his worst enemy by far is himself.
I do not think that I, my ego, the personal source of volition has an independent existence. To put it even more plainly I think my free will is illusory. So I cannot ascribe a free will to others. To put it another way, we all do the best we can given the resources available to us. If I were the other (the person who annoys me) I would act in exactly the same manner. I’m not saying that I do not take actions to make my own life easier.
I do mean that I have love and compassion for this person but you can love and have compassion for a scorpion without getting too close.
In the first exercise I saw him surrounded by light and love. I felt his pains and sorrows. I sent him love and received love from him.
As it happened I spent most day outside and did not interact with this person much.
Today, I’ll see what hapopens.
***
Second long exercise:
I thought about my wonderful loving parents. My extended family has had its share of dysfunction like any other family. All my cousins and many strangers love my parents as exceptional human beings. So when I hero worship my parents it is not because they were my parents but because they were the people that they were.
Even so, they did make mistakes with us their children. They were not major mistakes but there were mistakes. No human being is perfect – in true Islam we are thought that even the Prophet of God was not perfect…
I know the mistakes they made were out of sheer love. The point is that after forgiving my parents, I felt more compassion to every human being. If my parents made mistakes with me and they loved me selflessly and unconditionally, how can I expect any better from others.
The second exercise was even more useful than the first to me.
I always tell people that we are unique individuals and what works for one may not work for another. However, I suggest you think of the person(s) you love the most and see if you have any resentments toward them and forgive them.
If you believe in a totally loving unvengeful God, you could forgive God for all the apparent hurts in the world. Once you realize that there are things in absolute perfection that you do not approve of you’ll find it easier to forgive the sinless (using the ACIM terminology) children of that God.
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You must have heard of the idea that when the student is ready the teacher will appear. In fact the opposite is just as true: “When the teacher is ready the student will appear.”
As far as A Course in Miracles is concerned the main teacher is the book itself. For example today ‘;m going back to new days with day 121 the thought is:
Forgiveness is the key to happiness. I will awaken from the
dream that I am mortal, fallible and full of sin, and know
I am the perfect Son of God.
Yesterday a few events happened when I felt hurt and unappreciated by my brothers. I had grievances against at least three people I remember. I even complained about them to friends.
So today, I learned that the thought for today is:
Forgiveness is the key to happiness.
So I now understand these (the brothers and sisters I imagine hurt me) are in fact my angels and my teachers.
As part of acceptance of whatever is, it may be important to always understand that there are positive lessons in everything that happens. We need to know that there are no good or bad events. Events and things have no meanings. That is one of the first lessons in A Course in Miracles. It is something like nothing in this place means anything and I have given everything I see all the meanings it has for me.
I had a choice to feel unloved yesterday or see how I had a perfect learn ing opportunity. I could have forgiven immediately without needing top get to today’s lesson.
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I’m taking a little time off from this blog as I’m doing the review days. Will be back very soon with new thoughts of the day. One of the review days was about “I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.” I remember the first time I did this exercise I naturally removed the word will from the thought of the day.
This time I wish to comment fully on a few of these words. The first word is will. Anybody who has studied any goal setting or use of affirmations knows that these are best said in the present tense, rather than the future.
After all if I will accept I do not need to accept at this time. Moreover according to A Course in Miracles time does not exist in reality so I do not quite understand why I will rather than plan old I accept.
However, I have a larger issue with one of the words used in A Course in Miracles. I is that word.
I signifies the ego. I, me, my is the whole problem. I is the illusory entity which does not exist. So a reasonable question is, “Who is this I which will accept its role in salvation?”
Perhaps an even more important question to ask is who is the I which is writing this piece.
I know, I do not exist. I know that I do not know. Fair enough. But who is this I who knows that I do not know. So the problem is one of self reference and infinite regress.
So before I return to the new thoughts for the day I have to think about the question of some of the wording. I personally got most use by applying the word you instead of I. For example when I say silently to each person I meet, “You are spirit,” or “You are essential to God’s plan for salvation,” I feel much better and can appreciate the other more.
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While I’m doing these review days I’ll use the time to just write ideas that come to mind thanks to doing A Course in Miracles workbook.
Typically when people say that someone thinks that he’s God’s gift to humanity they are denigrating the person, however in reality every person who is born is God’s gift to humanity. If only we realized how precious people are the world would be so much more wonderful.
If only we realized that even the most sinful person deserves to go to heaven…
At this time two explanations are needed:
- The Greek word in the New Testament which is translated as the English word sin was a word used in archery and meant missing the mark.
Note: Jesus did not speak Greek but spoke Aramaic so we have no way of knowing his exact words but only what was written about him between twenty years after his death by a person who had never met Jesus and by his own admission persecuted the followers of Jesus (Saint Paul) to about eighty years later (The Gospel of John) by someone who had never met anyone who personally knew Jesus.
Anyway, since we don’t know what Jesus said but we do have the Greek New Testament I use the term sin as missing the mark.
- In reality we never left heaven and all we have to do to have the awareness that we are in heaven and we are in heaven.
As is written in the New Testament: “The kingdom of heaven is within.”
Also note that in Genesis chapter two God puts Adam (prototypical human being before the fall = separation) into a deep sleep. But no where is it mentioned that Adam was awaken.
All we have to do is to wake up and note that we are still in the garden and time and space do not exist from the point of view of Ultimate reality.
If only we realized that even the most sinful person deserves to go to heaven we would wake up from that deep slumber and the world would be heaven. Then we would realize that each person that we meet is truly God’s gift to humanity.
That is one of the reasons I love the Hindu greeting of Namaste which means that part deep in me which is the Divinity greets that part deep within you which is Divinity or to put it in a mystical Christian way: “The Christ in me salutes the Christ in you.”
Namaste
Amen!
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