(Paper 1093-37)

The awareness is that everyone you meet, or see, associate with or even think about is a witness to you, either of The Christ or the ego.  This perception is obviously not coming from them, as they don’t even have to be present.  Similarly, it matters not what they are doing or saying as the “judgment” you make is coming from your own mind.  Therefore, you have the choice of seeing that person or that situation as representative to you of either The Christ or the ego.  The choice is yours and only yours.  So it is senseless to “blame” others or outside “causes” in making you a victim, when it is strictly coming from your own mind.  As you “see” the person or situation, so will you see yourself.  Therefore, it only makes logical sense to look for, and see, The Christ in things and thereby see it in yourself.  If you keep anyone or any part of anyone in darkness, so you keep yourself locked into the dream of the ego.

As we go through life it is often hard to see certain people or situations as The Christ, when our ego sees them as an ego, which appears to be doing bad things to us.  But you can’t be a little bit pregnant.  You either see only totally Christ in everyone or you keep them and yourself in darkness.  Some are easy to see (the beautiful ones), some a bit more difficult, and others absolute lessons for us.  This is what FORGIVENESS is.  To see only the Christ in everyone and not the appearance of the ego that I think I see.  It helps to remind ourself that God CREATED each one perfect and equal.  What we think we see in ego is what each made of himself.  But underneath, each is still that perfect, innocent Child of God that He created and that cannot be destroyed or altered no matter what he or I may think of him.  Being perfect, we need nothing more.  We certainly do not need what seems to be going on around us.  What we need is to be in the Peace of God in our mind, already given by God.

God realized it would be hard for us to see and always remember this, so He gave each one of us the Holy Spirit always present in our mind.

So when “the thunder of the meaningless” is at its worst, be still, “go inside” (as in prayer or meditation) and listen for guidance and memory to the still, small Voice of the Holy Spirit.

So, all the people and situations in your life are witnesses to what you perceive from your own mind.  Nothing happens by accident.  Everything is a lesson to be learned.  You are always in exactly the right place, at the right time for what you need to learn.  Not you, but the Holy Spirit, knows what is for your own ultimate best good, even though you cannot see or understand it from your vantage point.  Go within, ask the Holy Spirit for help to have the intuition to make the choice for love in each and every situation and then let it go and TRUST that it will be looked after by the Holy Spirit.

“If you but knew who walks beside you on the way you have chosen, fear would be impossible.”
 (T—353)

“If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you.  And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy.”
(W-119)  (L-70)

Then, with your other hand, reach out and take the hand of the one who gives you the most trouble in life.  Then, as you walk along, you have joined the Circle of Atonement as you walk to God.  And the journey that began with but one or two faltering steps, becomes a mighty stream leading back to the home we never left.
 

The Course uses expressions such as “you murdered God,” you denied His existence, and rendered Him as non-existent.  Sometimes, I feel that these expressions and concepts do not convey what I personally felt and did.  In our classical religious training, we were told that God made heaven and earth and everything in it (“all things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.”)  Well, I thought, what about all the things that weren’t beautiful or wonderful?  I thought I could certainly improve on what I saw around me - and set out to correct it.  For 40 years I laboured at least 16 hours per day in the wilderness.  But no matter how hard I worked, or what dreams I pursued, when they were realized, they never gave me what I was looking for.

All during this time I had a concept of God (and Jesus) as being absolutely holy, sacred, perfect and untouchable.  I built a beautiful holy shelf high up in my mind and put them on it so they would be safe and secure and holy.  I would think, “I haven’t got time to be with you, or think about you right now because I have all this other stuff to do that’ s really important.”  So I postponed God.  I didn’t deny Him, murder Him or hate Him.  I just postponed Him.  In fact, He was so sacred and holy to me that I never swore (that is - taking “the Lord’s Name in vain”), and whenever anyone in my presence did, I always cringed in absolute discomfort and pain.  Of course, I used lots of “socially incorrect” words and phrases; but that wasn’t “swearing.”

So while the “postponement” of God, wasn’t really the denial of God, it was probably its first cousin.  It had the same effect in that I was able to delay remembering, thinking about or talking to God.

Eventually certain (guided?) events in my life opened doors to my mind and I began to read, study and experience A Course In Miracles.  It was then that I came upon what I consider to be one of the greatest, most powerful thoughts ever realized by man: -
“You were redeemed the instant you realized you had abandoned God.
 

When I read that line, it struck home like “a ton of bricks”!  It said that there was a God and that He had not left but that it was my choice to abandon Him.  The feeling was so moving and powerful that I wept with relief and release.  I saw God still sitting on my beautiful shelf in infinite and unconditional patience and love.  The feeling of patience and love just flooded in and lifted me away to a place of infinite peace and being that could only be described as heaven.

And so it was that I first knew God and Truth were the same and that the expression of Truth was Love.  In that love we are One with all living things in peace and joy eternally.

As always, messages from God are brief, to the point and absolutely meaningful.  Like: We say, “God Is.”  And then we cease to speak.  Or “Love Is.”  Or “I Am.”

In the Letter, we see it comes from Heaven, which is a “place” in mind; God and Us being, in essence, pure abstract thought.  The date is now, the eternal instant without any concept of past or future.  The salutation (My Holy Son), reminds us of who we truly are, being the sole, the only, creation of God.  The body of the letter admonishes us to BE STILL, to leave the noise and confusion of our ego, go within and listen to the still, small “voice” of the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God within each of our minds.  It is then the “AND KNOW” starts to become clear to us as we realize that all there is is God: and We in Him and He in Us.  Then we will know that God is I AM; and that We are I AM, and that all is ONE in that Unity.  The Peace of God envelops us as a totally comforting sense of oneness; and we are Home, where we truly never left.

Think of the things you give - children, a meal, care to those sick or less fortunate, a poem, a song, a painting, whatever is the expression of your heart.  As Mother Theresa said, “Life is not doing great things, but doing small things with great love.”

You are the Spirit of Life itself, dancing in the clay, delighting in the glorious opportunity of incarnation, exploring your life in matter to the fullest which blesses the earth and all therein.  Be AWARE of what you are doing, put your whole heart and mind into it and: -
“Give only love, for that is what you are.”

Within the dream, the illusion, it is interesting to consider the notion that we have four “minds” (or our mind is divided among four “places”) and that we dwell in any one of three situations.

Firstly, mind.  There is our conscious mind; our subconscious, (or soul mind); our super-conscious (or spirit-mind); and our universal consciousness, where all minds are joined as one.  These are our own minds; we can use them whenever and however we choose.  They belong to us.  Most of us use our conscious mind while awake rather continuously.  Sometimes we use our subconscious and super conscious when we go to sleep and dream or in that twilight zone of “lucid dreaming” associated with meditation.  Few of us, however, have ever used the infinite resources of our universal consciousness on a regular basis, except for certain genuine mystics, clairvoyants (like Edgar Cayce) and the avatars.  The exception of course is when we go to sleep or into meditation and give a suggestion to our subconscious and super conscious minds from our conscious mind.  Then when we remove the block of our conscious mind, the other two are able to “go” to our universal mind for any answer we may require in any given situation.  Having accomplished the transmission, the information is then available to our conscious mind upon awakening.

Since our universal conscious mind is a giant computer “library” of infinite resource and information on all things past, present and future, we have everything there we could ever possibly want or need.  The password for access to our universal mind is honesty of thought and purity of purpose.  Deceit, greed, and other forms of fear will preclude access.  To have love as our purpose and our goal gains us access and allow accomplishment of the expression of our life on the conscious level.  Before this simple, limitless, and foolproof system can be used, however, it is necessary that we understand its principle so that we can access its resource.

Secondly, on the level of “place” in being, we dwell in one of three levels.  They are incarnate, discarnate, and carnate.  The carnate state is as we experience our life in matter.  We have chosen forms and situations in which to experience ourselves.

In this “solid” state we can use our five senses to learn lessons that eventually will bring us to the certain knowledge of what we truly are.  If we set up so many blocks to this awareness during a particular lifetime, we will not come to that full realization, then, although we will come a little closer each time.  We would then pass through what we call a physical death and enter into the discarnate state.  Here we have the opportunity of pausing, gathering our strengths, re-assessing ourselves and deciding what we believe is necessary for us to do next to attain our own perfection.  Just because we “die,” we are not automatically holy and perfect.  If we were ignorant and stupid while alive, we will be just as ignorant and stupid while “dead”.

It should be noted that we have the option at anytime while in the carnate or discarnate states, of perfectly and completely realizing what we are (I AM), making any further “time” in either state completely unnecessary, unless it is our will to so remain there for another purpose.  Once the knowing of I AM becomes a complete integration, we can “proceed” to the final state of the incarnate, whereupon we take our place on “the lawns of heaven”, at the gate of heaven and await God’s final step.  Since time and space are only properties of the carnate state, it matters not at all if we “wait” on the lawns for an instant or millions of years.  We wait there for all our other “parts,” our brothers, to join us.  Since we “descended” into the dream, the illusion, as one mind, we will return as one, when all the infinite fragments of the “dropped and shattered mirror” are back together, showing the one reflection of heaven once again, and our collective journey will be completed.

We must always remember that since we did not create our Self, we cannot alter or destroy our Self, and that most importantly, we do not take the journey alone.  The Voice for God, Holy Spirit, was placed in our minds by God and walks with us as our Guide, Direction, and Comforter.  It is to His small, still voice that we “listen” when we be still, go inside and let Him lead our way.  For, in truth He, not we, knows what is for our own ultimate best good, even if it seems otherwise to the narrow vision of our Carnate eyes.

Remember, it IS your dream.  You made it from your mind, and therefore you can decide to AWAKEN from it at ANY TIME you choose.

“If you knew who walks beside you on the way you have chosen, fear would be impossible.”  (T-353)

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