Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now

REVIEW VI I am not a body. I am free.  For I am still as God created me.

Lesson 219

1. (199)  I am not a body.  I am free. 

I am God’s Son.  Be still, my mind and think a moment upon this.  And then return to earth, without confusion as to what my Father loves forever as His Son.

I am not a body. I am free, for I am still as God created me.[1]

Meditation

Today our meditation focuses on both our theme for Review VI and our review of lesson 199.  Today we will focus our thoughts upon perceiving ourselves not as a body but as a spirit, a free mind, serving Holy Spirit and being unlimited in every way forever.  When we review Lesson 199, we read that thoughts that attack others cannot enter such a mind because it is given over to the Source of love, and there is no fear in love.  Our minds rest in God, and so how can we be afraid?

Hold today’s idea very close to your heart, Jesus tells us.  He goes on to tell us to meditate upon the idea today and every day.  This is the world’s call to freedom.  We are no longer slaves to our bodies and without the power to enslave us, our bodies become worthy servants of the freedom in which our minds united with Holy Spirit seek.

We are free.  And we are meant to share this freedom with others who believe that they are enslaved within a body.  No more are we bound and helpless and afraid.  Love replaces fear through those of us who have practiced and come to know this idea as truth.  This is our salvation and once we accept God’s gift of salvation, we return the gift of salvation by sharing this freedom with all who are sent to us or whom we are sent to share it with. 

We are not bodies.  We are God’s Son.  We live forever.  Think about this today.  Practice it.  When we look upon others let us see past their flesh and blood and perceive their immortality rather than their humanity, releasing them from certain death and despair.

Jesus tells us that God extends His Love and happiness each time we say today:  I am not a body.  I am free.  I hear the Voice that God has given me, and it is only This my mind obeys.  As we quiet our minds and still our hearts, we ask:

Dear Father, Let me hear the Voice for God inside of me today.  Let the Voice for God lead and guide and comfort me.  Give me a mind agreeable to Your Truth.  Let me not doubt, cast aspersions, or hold on to any thought that is not acceptable to Holy Spirit.  I am not a body.  I am free.  For I am still as You created me.  In the name of Jesus with whom we are one.  Amen. 

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[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 219. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).

Audio credit: The Friar Patch @ http://www.eckiefriar.com

Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now

REVIEW VI I am not a body. I am free.  For I am still as God created me.

Lesson 217

1. (197) It can be but my gratitude I earn.

Who should give thanks for my salvation but myself? And how but through salvation can I find the Self to Whom my thanks are due?

I am not a body. I am free, for I am still as God created me.[1]

Morning and Evening Meditation:

This morning we sit in quietness and stillness. We go to the inner altar of our minds and bow our humanity before it.  This is what we made, O Father, to take Your place and here we offer the multitude, the diverse, the different to Your Holy Spirit to restore to us the one Self of Christ, Your Son.  Our true and everlasting Self.  The One which never left us since You breathed life and love and laughter into Your image of You, extending God forever.  We are not bodies; we are free.  We are still as You created us. 

Find the words, the phrases, the images that Holy Spirit gives to each of us to complete the wholeness and holiness of God to understand our refrain for Review VI.  Wait before Him who created us until you know in your heart who and what you really are – past your body, past your ego, past all the calls and causes of our shared humanity to that true Self, the Son of God. 

This is the Self that we give our gratitude to for restoring us to oneness in Christ.  This is the Self who has been calling to us, the wayward splinters who have found themselves trapped in time, in a body, in an ego – lonely, desperate, not knowing how to live in a world seemingly separated by time and space, sin and shame, fear and disaster, darkness and death from our Loving Father.  We offer gratitude to our Self for remembering who and what we are in Christ.  Sons of God.  The whole and magnificent, the powerful and holy “we” instead of the timorous, tiny, terror-ridden shard of a “me.” 

No more do we believe the ego’s lies of our Father.  He is not vengeful.  He has no spite toward us.  He yearns for us as much as we yearn for Him.  He will never forsake His Creation although His Creation seems to have forsaken Him.  He has prepared a feast to celebrate our return, to rejoice in our salvation from a hallucination of adrift and alone, of castoff and forsaken.  As we choose our true identity in Him, we have only our truth, our Self in Christ, the Son of God to give our gratitude. 

This is not a hard concept to get our mind around once we accept Christ as our Savior and realize that the parable of the prodigal son in our own life that stands as a symbol for all of Creation.  We left our Father’s Kingdom where we were one in Sonship to make our own way in a world that promised adventure, independence, satisfaction, and fulfillment.  Jesus tells us in our Course that those of us who ended up in this world are the ones who wanted to take Creation and make something else of it, to do it our own way, to separate from the “we” of God’s Sonship and become a “me.”  We were wooed away from the Everything of God to the nothingness of the world in which we would make up lies to take the place of truth.  We would live out the lies, we would make them so real in our minds that we would be caught in this web of fiction with no apparent escape. 

And yet there was and is and always has been an escape.  God has never left us.  Our salvation resides within each of us because we belong to Him, He will never leave us, His Kingdom resides in us in all its glory.  It is there where it has always been – it is our true and only Self, yearning for His oneness, homesick for His Kingdom, knowing that this world, this body, this substitute for all we are will never take His place. 

When the prodigal left his father’s house, his father did not preach at him, quote scripture at him, shout dire warnings to him as he tramped down the road to get away.  His father gave him his inheritance.  His father knew that the world would take from his son everything and give him nothing in return, and yet the father did not lock him up, the father did not strip him of his wealth, or take away his family name. The father did not try to get his son the right kind of friends or get him involved with sports or bible camps or other forms of healthy alternatives to the call of the wild.  The father knew that for this son, the only thing that would do was for him to experience for himself, the world.  To be stripped bare, to experience the emptiness, the nothingness, the false friends, hopes, and promises that separateness assures.  And then when he came back – there were no whips and chains.  There were no lectures.  There was no “I told you so.”  There was a feast, a robe, a ring, a resounding and loving welcome.  The son who had separated himself into a lonely, lost, and lustful “me,” had come home to take his place in the “we” of family, friendship, and fidelity.

He came back because he remembered who he was.  He remembered the truth about himself.  He belonged to his father and nothing that he had done could ever take that away.  He got up and out of that pigsty.  He found his way home.  He had only himself to thank – his father had not left; his father had not changed; everything was there where it always was, but the son had to make his way back, his son had to make the plan, he had to put one foot in front of the other.  It was not magic.  His father did not come and pick him up and bring him home.  He had to find his own way.  And he had only himself to thank for remembering who he was and where he belonged. 

Today our lesson reminds us “it can be but my gratitude I earn.”  When we hark back to the original lesson we are reminded that the world is not pitted against us, it is our own thoughts about the world that we transfer to God that trap us in the pigsty of sin, shame, and that deep sense of unworthiness.  Like the prodigal, let us remember today who we really are!  Sons of God.  Let us make our way back to Him, putting off our fear of God and embracing Him with the assurance of His Son, as we forgive the world and all who are in it for not being able to keep its promises, to show its gratitude, to be pure and righteous and holy.  Now we know.  Without Him it is a ruse; it is a freak show; it is a battleground; it is death.  With Him we are saved and the world with us.  Let us thank ourselves for making our way back to our Father’s love.  We are not bodies, we are free.  For we are still as God created us.[2] 

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[1]A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 217. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).

[2] Audio credit: The Friar Patch @ http://www.eckiefriar.com

Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now

REVIEW VI I am not a body. I am free.  For I am still as God created me.

Lesson 218

1. (198) Only my condemnation injures me.

My condemnation keeps my vision dark, and through my sightless eyes I cannot see the vision of my glory.  Yet today I can behold this glory and be glad.

I am not a body. I am free, for I am still as God created me.[1]

Today’s Meditation

Here we are this morning nearing the end of Review VI.  By this time, our review theme should ring resoundingly in our minds:  I am not a body.  I am free.  For I am still as God created me.  We can take this with us throughout the rest of our journey home and let the words guide us, refresh us, remind us, and so let our light shine from within.

It is only our condemnation toward others that leads us down a path of forgetting who we are in Christ.  When we raise up our defenses against others and rail against the bad examples they are setting themselves up to be, the poor life choices they are making, air their sins and rage over the minimum sentences that they receive for their crimes against humanity – we allow our minds to be filled with the lies of the world instead of the glory of God.  In other words, we are valuing the valueless, cherishing thoughts of fear and discord which blinds us to our freedom, liberty, and magnitude with God. 

The other day I enjoyed about as perfect of a day as I can have in this world.  I woke up with a sense of energy, quickness, and gratitude long before the sun came up.  I had a sweet, creamy cup of French roast coffee and a quiet time with God before James roused from sleep.  When he had his coffee, we sat on our sunny, spacious deck and enjoyed our Course lesson and time of devotion together.  Later we went on a little shopping spree, indulged in a delicious lunch at Cracker Barrel, enjoyed our ride, our conversation, the little treasures and good things to eat that we bought while we were out and about.  When we got home and had everything put away, we stretched out and took a little snooze, got up and had a glass of iced coffee, some more conversation and then both of us got to work.  I worked in the garden and harvested a big basketful of juicy red tomatoes, green peppers, zucchini, and some green beans.  James tiled our retaining wall on the south side.  Later we had a light supper and James asked me for a date in the hot tub. 

All day long I enjoyed a sense of peace, well-being, and communion with God and with James. My mind was filled with gratitude for our lives, health, blessings, and even for our trials and that which challenges us for I saw them as lessons designed for our spiritual growth and deepening of our understanding.  For the first time in my life I am experiencing on a daily, moment-to-moment basis a sense of security, well-being, a release from fear, anxiety, and condemnation.  It has been a journey to get to this, it is not magic, it has taken a full-fledged commitment and daily practice to free my mind from all that had warped, distressed, and caused me both mental, social, and physical torment. 

So there I was after our dinner – wiping off the counters, rinsing off the plates, putting the dirty dishes and glasses in the dishwasher – not hurrying necessarily but certainly not poking around.  I was looking forward to getting in the hot tub, laying back in the warm water and gazing at the stars and moon, talking, and extending the sense of comradery and closeness that we had enjoyed all day.  Except a dark shadow crept into my consciousness in the form of a video clip stored in my mind: Tony Soprano lurking in the backyard waiting to exact bloody vengeance upon a former mobster living under an assumed identity.  For years I had been hooked on The Sopranos and to this day hearing the opening theme, remembering the plot lines of the troubled characters, salivating over Carmela’s Italian dishes, and shivering over the Pine Barrens episode thrills my mortal senses.  And yet tonight I did not want to think of the Tony’s in the world, creeping into my joy and love and peace, rekindling a smokescreen of menace and danger while Lover and I sat under the stars soaking up the bubbles in our spa. 

With thoughts of the fictional Tony, my mind traveled to a decade’s old tale of home invasion, arson, torture, rape, and death.  The tragedy that befell Dr. William Petit and his first wife and two daughters stands in my mind for all the horror and evil in the world.  For years Dr. Petit’s story haunted me, kept me awake at night, drawing me out of bed to check locks, investigate suspicious noises, and live in fear.  Now the ego was inviting me to take up its cause again, to give up the peace of God, to fill my mind once again with thoughts of danger, vulnerability, and fright. 

Fear would have paralyzed me at one point in my life. Always having been afraid of the dark, the lonely, unanswerable questions evoked by the endless black of the night sky above, there was no way I would have sat outside in the hot tub without all the lights on, with no safeguards against wild dogs, midnight prowlers, or things that go bump in the night. 

Never again!  I have had my fill of interrupted sleep, mental fatigue, distrust of others, the lack of peace and joy and well-being.  Only my condemnation injures me. I forgive the world for its crooked paths, its predatory nature, its horrors, pains, cruelties, and caprice.  In paragraph four of Lesson 198, we read:  Forgiveness is the only road that leads out of disaster, past all suffering, and finally away from death.  I will never again oppose this plan of God. I will not argue with it.  I will not try to find ways in which it would fail or must be wrong.  I will not look for another way.  I will not seek to punish, to condemn, to hold accountable, to take up arms, or call for war.  I will forgive!

Only my condemnation injures me.  Only my own forgiveness sets me free. Let our words for today free us from all that would haunt us, torment our minds, give us cause to worry, fret, or be afraid.  Stand along with me as we resolve to never oppose, argue with, or find fault with God’s plan of freeing us from all that is not of love.  We can stop searching for other solutions for there is no other way.  When we forgive and hold no condemnation toward the world all we fear is washed away. 

Thank you for listening and have a forgiving and forgiven day!²

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[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 218. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). 

²Audio credit: The Friar Patch @ http://www.eckiefriar.com

Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now

REVIEW VI

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

Lesson 216

1. (196) It can be but myself I crucify.

All that I do, I do unto myself. If I attack, I suffer. But if I forgive, salvation will be given me.

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.[1]

Morning and Evening Meditation

In our Course study today we went over today’s lesson.  We sat with the thought I am not a body, I am free.  For I am still as God created me.  We let our minds ponder this, imagining if you will the freedom we experience from the demands of our physical forms.  We let our minds rest in the state of sinlessness, purity, and innocence in which we were created and the state in which we find ourselves in Christ.

As we reviewed and discussed Lesson 196’s main idea, we shared how often we have experienced “It can be but myself I crucify.”  Last year at this time, I had been keenly drawn up about some of the ways in which even at day 216 in our Course study I was still crucifying myself by an ongoing habit of crucifying others in my mind, unforgiving of their process, picking at their faults and weaknesses and holding others accountable for that which I was doing myself.  I would love to say today that I no longer engage in such behavior.  That the Course teachings have taken root in my mind and that no longer do I crucify myself by gloating over or cherishing the sins and shortcomings of others.

Honestly, it happens far less frequently than last year but there are times I still find myself tempted to nail others to the cross.  The only difference now is that now I know better!  I know that if I nail you to the cross, I am the one that experiences the nails, the crown of thorns, the gaping wound, the shame and humiliation of nakedness, thirst, suffering, and vulnerability.  I am the one that wakes up in the night and feels the whip lashes of my own condemnation.  I am the one that ends up lonely, despised, and depressed.  Loveless and alone, the only way I can escape is to offer forgiveness to all who have offended me, including my own sorry self. 

As Linda read over the lesson review and Lesson 196, Jesus spoke to my mind and heart through her words.  It is a dreary, hopeless thought to think that we can attack any part of creation and escape the attack we made on that with which we are one.  This puts us in a hellish realm where we are attacking God Who is one with His Creation and every single part of it.  When we set ourselves against another – call them names, make fun of them, mock their efforts to better themselves, judge them for their mistakes and wrongdoing – we are attacking God.  This puts us in a precarious position in our minds for when we make an enemy of God, it really does scare us on a deep, unconscious level.  We find ourselves in a hellish realm, a state of madness and insanity.  We go from person to person trying to find allies to boost up our self-image, to justify our outrage and indignation, but nobody – no matter how nice they are to us, no matter how many times they pat us on the back and take our side, no matter how many drugs they give us, no matter what they do to drown out our pain and sorrow – will ever stop the sense of crucifixion that we bring upon ourselves. 

Until we realize that the only one who can deliver us from the cross upon which we crucify ourselves is ourselves we will live in a hellish realm of blaming God for giving us a raw deal,  Maybe He didn’t give us the right kind of mother and father, sisters and brothers.  We will blame God for making us black in a world that prefers white or making us white in a world that holds whites accountable for every crime against humanity ever committed.  We will blame God for letting us marry the wrong person or giving us rotten kids.  We may not be aware that we are blaming God, but when we blame other people for our own unhappiness, our hurts and sorrows, our disappointments, trials, and tribulations, we are saying: “God gave me a raw deal.  He made me suffer.  He gave someone else a far better life than the sorry excuse He gave me.  He must hate me for giving me a sister who would break my toys, flirt with my husband, and steal the affection of my only daughter.” 

This idea sounds difficult and perhaps a little bit like self-condemnation until we realize that when we learn that it is not other people we hurt with our attack, but only ourselves, we do not have to worry about vengeance and pursuit.  We thought we hurt others, we thought that our cruel words, our mean jabs and our angry thrusts hurt God and His Creation, but nobody is coming to take us away, nobody is coming to get us, nobody is plotting our demise –  because we only hurt ourselves.  When we recognize the strength and the freedom that today’s idea holds, we accept our salvation from the mad idea that we hurt others when we attack them. 

In God’s Kingdom, He is our Father and we are His Son along with Christ.  We lay down our arms, we put down our defenses, we are no longer afraid.  God has got us in the palm of His Hand, in the center of His Heart.  We have nothing to fear.  His kindness and mercy envelope us forever.  As we accept the mind of Christ as our own, we become one with Him who created us.  Nothing can induce us to speak evil or harbor ill will in our hearts toward His Creation.  When we see someone use their powers stupidly and cruelly our hearts and minds well up with pity for we know that they are only hurting themselves.  They cannot hurt us because we offer them forgiveness, we offer them mercy, we give to receive that which lasts forever.

We are not a body, we are free.  For we are still as God created us.

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[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 216. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).

Audio credit: The Friar Patch @ http://www.eckiefriar.com

Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now

REVIEW VI

I am not a body.  I am free. For I am still as God created me.

Lesson 215

1. (195)  Love is the way I walk in gratitude.

The Holy Spirit is my only guide.  He walks with me in love.  And I give thanks to Him for showing me the way to go.

I am not a body.  I am free.  For I am still as God created me.[1]

Morning and Evening Meditation

As we open today’s devotional practice we let our mind linger for a while on our refrain:  I am not a body; I am free.  I am still as God created me.  In Lesson 195, we learn to thank our Father for only one thing – that we are united with Him and with every living thing – nothing could take away from the wholeness, the unity, our completion in God.  We are still as God created us. 

Many times when we say to be grateful to God we thank Him for our food.  We thank Him for our clothes, our houses, the beauty of nature, our cars, our mates, our blessed family.  And yet today’s lesson says to only thank God for this one thing which covers all things – He makes us one with all living things and with Him. 

When we no longer fail to recognize what this means, gratitude takes the place of anger, bitterness, and thoughts of vengeance. All the thoughts of fear and sorrow, malice and ill-will are replaced by a deep and abiding gratitude that God cares for us and calls us His Son.  What more could we possibly want?

Jesus tells us that gratitude goes hand-in-hand with love, and where there is love, there is gratitude.  Gratitude is an aspect of the Love that brought forth Creation.  In Christ, our hearts and minds are full of gratitude toward our family members.  We no longer hold spite and thoughts of bitterness toward them for the ways in which they took more than their fair share, the ways in which they withheld their love and affection, the ways in which we were used and abused, misunderstood and thwarted.  With gratitude that comes from Love we remember the delicious meals we shared, the fun games we played, the funny pranks we pulled on people.  With gratitude we remember our trips in the car, the nature hikes, our quirky little habits, the ways in which they supported us and came to us in our hour of need.  We will remember the lessons they taught us, the skills they shared with us.  We will remember their gentle touch, their kind words, their soft, warm hugs, their deep chuckles.  We will remember their forgiveness and their love.  We will remember with grateful hearts and minds that they are our Savior even as we are their Savior for we are one with Christ. 

In reviewing Lesson 195, we come to understand that we have no rivals, that we seek no vengeance, that we make no comparisons – we are only joined in love. 

This is why we train our mind to forgive for when our forgiveness is complete we will experience total gratitude; we will see everything and everyone – including our Selves – with love.  If this frightens you, do not allow the ego to put you off the Course.  You do not want bitterness.  You do not want a self-perception that puts you in a place of callously chasing after that which never satisfies and leaves you depressed, lonely, stricken, and ashamed.  You do not want to feel bullied and sullied, surrounded by those who care nothing about you and where your future looks bleak and empty of love and solace.  If your ego is trying to convince you that forgiveness is for saps, take this time of devotional practice and meditate upon the Love of God.

Love can walk only in the way of gratitude, Jesus tells us.  This is the way we walk to God – with grateful hearts and minds, forgiven and forgiving, giving Him thanks even as He thanks us for being what we are – His Own completion, the Source of Love along with Him. 

Today we close our meditation with this refrain:  I am not a body, I am free.  For I am still as God created me. 

Walk in gratitude for this is the way to God.    

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[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 215. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).

Audio credit: The Friar Patch at http://www.eckiefriar.com

Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now

REVIEW VI

I am not a body.  I am free. For I am still as God created me.

Lesson 214

1. (194)  I place the future in the Hands of God.

The past is gone; the future is not yet.  Now am I freed from both.  For what God gives can only be for good. And I accept but what He gives as what belongs to me.

I am not a body.  I am free.  For I am still as God created me.[1]

Morning and Evening Meditation

As we say our refrain today – “I am not a body.  I am free.  For I am still as God created me.”

Last year at this time, I wrote: “Today’s lesson idea reminds me to place the future in the Hands of God.  Isn’t the future already in His hands anyway?  Well, yes and no.  The gift of free will allows us, evidently, to either place the future in the Hands of God or be otherwise adrift in the ego’s illusion – never knowing what the future holds and not being able to entrust it to anybody or anything because who, other than God, would have a clue as to what is coming next in this chancy world of ours?” 

“Placing the future in the Hands of God then, frees me from my past – and with that out of the way, the past can no longer affect my future.  And trusting in God with that allows me to live in the peaceful, blessed present.  For what God gives can only be good, our lesson today states, and what God gives is what truly belongs to me.  This statement is the ultimate de-stressor.  I can relax.  Nothing is up to me – the future is in the hands of Someone much smarter and bigger and knowledgeable than I am!”

As I read these words today, I realized that throughout the past year, as I have consciously trained my mind through each day’s prayers, meditations, and refrains (with many lapses, periods of forgetfulness, and ego resistance to Course expectations, mind you) I have learned to relax, to not worry and fret, to put down the reins of control and the shield of defense, and to put all of my trust in God.  When I make a mistake, I trust in God to forgive me.  When others make mistakes, no matter how much my ego wants to build a case and cherish my hurt feelings – I let it go, bless them, and offer empathy toward them for our shared humanity, our stabs in the dark to find a way other than the path God has prepared for us. 

Practicing the future in the Hands of God releases us from depression, pain, grief, and worshipping and nurturing sorrows of every kind.  When we place the future in God’s Hands, we no longer strive to make things happen.  We no longer have to put our nosy beaks where they do not belong.  We accept people and their processes through time instead of trying to save them by bullying them into doing things the way we think they should.  We are delivered from the zombie-hood of what we call life here in the body and on this planet. 

Lesson 194 tells us in paragraph four that as God holds our past and present as one, so should we.  No matter how the temporal process tempts our minds to think of it as real, we are asked to put the future in the Hands of God.  When we do this, our checkered past can no longer hurt us!  When we put the future in God’s Hands, the dread of what the world is coming to, old age, disease, abandonment, estrangement, misery, and death no longer have any meaning. 

This is our freedom from bondage to the illusions of the world.  This is our freedom from a past that would run its predictable, ruthless, disease-ridden course straight into our future.  When thoughts of social insecurity, age-related illnesses and complications, being put in a nursing home and ill-cared for in our decrepit old age would come to haunt us, to tickle our imaginations with future woes and disadvantages we can laugh because our future is in God’s Hands.  The future in God’s Hands rules our mind, we pull it from our problem-solving toolbox, we use it as an immediate reaction to any temptation to travel down a path of woe-is-me and what-is-the-world-coming-to?  Jesus tells us in Lesson 194, as we learn to see salvation in all things, the world will perceive its salvation. 

When our minds form the habit of placing our future in the Hands of our Loving Father, all thoughts of sin and evil are replaced by peace and the love of God.  We no longer concern ourselves or fix our expectations upon the shaky systems of the world.  No matter how many mistakes we make, no matter how we may choose to see things wrong, we know that God will correct us and set us aright. If we fall into deception, we choose again with no worries about our Father’s wrath and indignation and dire punishment for our mistakes. 

Today let us lay aside the sick illusions of the world and offer the peace and trust of God.  In God’s Hands, our minds are untroubled.  We can be certain that only good is in store for us.  If we start to needlessly worry and helicopter our loved ones thinking that we can stand between them and the lessons that they need from the world, we can be gently reassured that our future and their future is in the hands of God.  When we entertain resentful thoughts in our minds, God will replace them with ones of forgiveness and blessing.  When we are tempted to arm ourselves and go into attack, we can put down our flimsy weapons and appeal to the One Who would laugh at our defenses and teach us that the world is not our enemy, but the place we have come to remember who and what we really are in God. 

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[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 214. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).

Audio credit: The Friar Patch at http://www.eckiefriar.com

Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now

REVIEW VI

I am not a body.  I am free. For I am still as God created me.

Lesson 213

1. (193)  All things are lessons God would have me learn.

A lesson is a miracle which God offers to me, in place of thoughts I made that hurt me.  What I learn of Him becomes the way I am set free.  And so I choose to learn His lessons and forget my own.

I am not a body.  I am free. For I am still as God created me.[1]

Morning and Evening Meditation

Today we open our practice with the theme of Review VI:  I am not a body, I am free.  I am still as God created me.  Referring to Lesson 193, we learn that God wills nothing except our happiness, that our happiness be undisturbed, forever expanding, and without limit in Him.  This is the Will of God.  The mere fact that this is God’s Will guarantees that this is not only possible, but that it is done.

Last night James and I ate dinner with our dear friends, Roger and Peggy.  On the way to their house, we started to discuss some of the troubling issues that keeps our news media afloat.  Before we became too deeply ensnared into a conversation that had no earthly resolution, we quickly reminded ourselves of the beautiful day that we were experiencing.  The sky was clear and deep with a wordless blue; the sun was shining; we had had a productive day.  We were driving through abundant farmland and then through shaded woods.  We had a good bottle of wine in the cooler, a six pack of Mexican beer, and four individual tubs of ice cream to share with our friends.  In other words we had absolutely no good reason to concern ourselves with that which is not real, true, virtuous, or of good report.  So instead of talking about that which could only disturb our peace and steal our joy – we talked about that which is true and beautiful and lets the light of Heaven through.  Our ride there was fun, we arrived with light hearts and untroubled minds, and we were set to enjoy a wonderful evening of good food, conversation, and fellowship with one of our favorite couples. 

Our evening could not have been nicer.  Roger and James manned the grilled corn and boiled the lobsters.  Peggy and I set the picnic table, dished the slaw and cantaloupe, and made a rich dill and cotija cheese topping for the grilled corn.  We drank champagne and strawberries, sipped at a delicious white wine, and we talked about all our exciting (to us) house projects.  Peggy has just finished designing and turning her old bathroom into a dream bathroom with gleaming new tiles, chrome, and glass and her artistic touches.  We had just finished pouring the cement pad for our kitchen patio which runs the length of our house in back. 

However, later as we sat curled up on the papasan chairs, the conversation turned toward worldly events that brought no spirit of joy or peace to the blissful evening.  We forgot our lesson idea for today; we forgot our resolve to know that all things that happen or seem to happen in the world are lessons that God would have us learn in forgiveness.  Instead of reflecting God’s loving kindness in our words and thoughts, instead of practicing forgiveness and seeing the circumstances differently, we allowed the outside world to become real to us.  We forgot that we could simply practice forgiveness and see the whole thing differently.  We forgot that the peace of God is what we really want, and instead we thought we wanted defense, we thought we wanted attack and counterattack.

Jesus tells us that to all that speaks of terror, answer thus: “I will forgive, and this will disappear.”  To every apprehension, every care, and every form of suffering, these words will dissipate any disturbance to our happiness.  These words hold the key to Heaven’s gate!  These words bring the Love of God the Father down to earth and raises the consciousness of the whole earth heavenward.  Every time something comes up to make us quiver in our shoes, raise our voices in outrage and indignation, point our fingers in blame and shame, say mean, condemning words against others – we are to practice forgiveness and make it disappear.  We are to train our minds to hold nothing but the reality of God. 

Every single thing that happens in our lives is a lesson in forgiveness.  There are no trivial events that have no purpose and no meaning.  We allowed our minds to be bullied by the fears and worries of a media that is intent on disturbing the peace, creating wars and discord, making people afraid of one another in order to be more easily controlled by the dark prince of this world.  When we refuse to let the bad news alarm us and practice forgiveness, we literally undo all effects and intentions of harm and ill will.  This does not just work for us, but it benefits everybody.   

Good news does not sell in this world.  While the media would have us believe that our differences tear us apart, Jesus teaches us that we are one with one another, that our differences are only superficial, temporal, and a lie. 

Today we discussed our lapse into engaging in temptation, into making the illusion real, into letting our minds be disturbed by the lies of the separation.  Just as we nipped our own conversation in the bud on our way to visit our friends, so could we have nipped the conversation with them in the bud.  When whoever started the first jabs in that direction, one of us could have easily refused to take the bait.  “Let’s talk about the goodness of God!” we could have said.  Life is full of love, health, goodwill, truth, peace, joy, and good times.  There is no end to the goodness of God and His love and devotion towards us.  When we focus our attention upon God’s goodness and truth, we encourage others to do the same.  We raise the standard – we offer forgiveness and undo all that would steal our joy and upset our well-being. 

This is God’s Will for you and for me.  Every single thing is a lesson that we are to learn and to learn well.  James and I learned an important lesson last night.  It does not bring us happiness to spout off judgments and condemnation about the upsets of the world, the dastardly deeds of the unrighteous, the outrageous acts of rabble rousers.  It is not God’s Will for us to hold anger or mean thoughts toward others in our minds, it is not God’s Will for us to come up with surefire ways in which to defend our bodies, our country, our belief system.  It is God’s Will that we are happy, secure, and that our peace has no end.  The only way to experience this is through our minds as one with the mind of Christ. 

When we can take all the thoughts that we have about something that hurts us, frightens us, lays us low and turn them into a lesson from God in forgiveness, in undoing the wrong, in setting things right – we experience miracles.  Our minds are transformed.  We realize that we are not a body.  We are free of all that would bind us and confine us and scare the living daylights out of us.  We are still as God created us – His Son, loved, safe, secure forever. 

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[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 213. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).

Audio credit: The Friar Patch at http://www.eckiefriar.com

 

Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now

REVIEW VI

I am not a body.  I am free. For I am still as God created me.

Lesson 212

1. (192)  I have a function God would have me fill.

I seek the function that would set me free from all the vain illusions of the world.  Only the function God has given me can offer freedom.  Only this I seek, and only this will I accept as mine.

I am not a body.  I am free. For I am still as God created me.[1]

Morning and Evening Meditation

In keeping with the instructions for Review VI we open and close our devotional with the theme:  I am not a body.  I am free.  For I am still as God created me.  We begin our day with this; we end our day with this thought.  Every hour, every time we can, without any pressure or stress, we gently train our mind back to this refrain throughout the day.  We consciously and deeply relinquish all the vain illusions of the world – the promises of happiness and meaning and gratification in a world where everything that has the least amount of satisfaction attached to it is both costly and fleeting. 

As much as we can, we will get beyond words today.  We will not use any special postures or forms of practice.  We will instead be quiet and still.  We will put aside all we thought we knew and understood and trust in God to bring us light and truth.  When our thoughts stray to judgment and condemnation, to resistance against the reflection of God’s love, we can simply say, for example: “I do not want this thought against my friend.  I choose instead to forgive her, to bless her.”  And then we will repeat “I have a function God would have me fill.”

Jesus asks us in paragraph eight of Lesson 192, “Who can be born again in Christ but him who has forgiven everyone he sees or thinks of or imagines?”  So let us today dwell upon this question and practice conscious forgiveness toward everyone we see, the people and situations that come to mind, the stories we make up about others in our minds, the memories that tempt us to hold grudges and bear ill will toward others instead of forgiving them. 

Practicing this deeply, reverently, and diligently is our function in Christ.  It is the function that God would have each one of us fill, dear brothers.  No matter how many people we see, no matter how the world tries to stir us against one another, to hold grudges and arm ourselves against those who seem dangerous and insane, our function is to offer forgiveness, to bless them, to hold no one prisoner.  We are here to loose instead of bind, for this is what sets us free. 

We are not asked to do much.  All that God asks of us is to give up our anger.  To give up our spite.  To offer forgiveness.  It involves no sacrifice.  It frees our tortured minds of all the images of pain and shame.  We give up our anger and we are given everything by God.

I have a cousin who has riddled herself with insanity because of the hatred and anger and spite she is unwilling to give up toward her sister.  Everywhere she goes, she spreads vicious tales about her sister’s past wrongdoings, her faults, her vanities.  She wants to remind everyone that her sister is nothing but a whore, a thief, a usurper – from the time she came home from the hospital as a baby the little brat stole all the attention, broke her toys, and sucked up all the air in the room.  Now over 70 years later, the woman has made herself a pariah.  She has so distorted herself with hatred, jealousy, and unforgiveness that those who held her dearest now dread to respond to her calls, visit her, or have much at all to do with her.

There is absolutely no justification for holding another person prisoner in one’s mind.  My cousin’s younger sister is her savior, Jesus says.  She owes her sister thanks instead of pain.  When she learns to show mercy, she will be set free.  Until she sets her sister free, until she accepts her function in God, she is not born again in Christ.  In God’s eyes, it does not matter how much more virtuous she was than her sister.  It does not matter that she went to Bible College, saved her virginity for marriage, and taught Sunday School while her sister was whooping it up in the world.  As long as she is unwilling to forgive her sister for her feckless flirtations and frivolous forays – she is prisoner to the ego, she is not showing mercy, she is denying her function.  She is keeping herself in hell.

This is a very precious and highly personal process and we must never make light of it.  My cousin’s call to forgive her sister is as real to her as an other’s struggles to forgive rape, child molestation, or mass murder.  All of us have people in our lives that we hold prisoner in our minds, that we disparage, look down upon, build cases against, and condemn.  Our way to freedom is to fulfill the function given to us by God.  We are to set them free.  We forgive them.  In the world it is impossible to know love, Jesus tells us.  No matter how much we talk about it, say it, attach the word to all kinds of physical acts, we simply do not understand love.  Forgiveness is the only thing that reflects Love in a world where it is too far beyond our simple grasp. 

Today let our minds reflect God’s Love.  We have a function God would have us fill.  It does not cost us anything.  There is no sacrifice involved.  We simply give up our anger, our hatred, our resentment toward those who have not met our expectations.  Every time we see someone today, think of someone today, imagine someone today – we offer them forgiveness for not being who and what they really are in Christ.  We bless them.  We understand that they are struggling with their humanity even as we are struggling with ours.  We see them, not as flesh and blood, but as Sons of God, here for the same reason we are – to awaken from a dream of separation, in a time-bound process of accepting who and what we really are, to return to the place where we belong.  We look upon them gently, we see that all their faults, their weaknesses, their cruelty and stupidity are all unknown in Heaven, and so should not be remarked upon and made real here.  Forgiveness wipes our slates clean so that the Word of God can replace all the marks and smears the world had written there before. 

Jesus calls to us to be merciful today.  As the Son of God, we deserve mercy.  As one with Christ, when we refuse to forgive our brother, we refuse to forgive Christ.  All of us on earth are called to forgive each other, to accept each other as our own identity, to recognize that there is no difference between me and you because we are all as God created us.  I am what you are, and you are what I am.  Forgiveness shows us we are one.[2]

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[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 212. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).

[2] Audio credit: The Friar Patch at http://www.eckiefriar.com