AT Blog Articles

Habitual Believing & True Compassion – by Rev. Regina Dawn Akers

October 3, 2016

This morning I read an article about a Pakistani man who killed his sister because she married a Christian. To this Islamic family, her marriage was a disgrace. The killing is considered an honor killing.

I have compassion for everyone involved in this story. Everyone involved is suffering from a belief that is believed by nearly every human on the planet. I call it the ‘I am bad’ belief. ACIM calls it guilt. NTI calls it unworthiness. In this article, the word ‘shame’ is used.

The men who taunted the brother about the sister’s relationship were trying to make themselves feel ‘bigger’ in order to deny how ‘low’ and ‘unnecessary’ they feel. The brother who killed his sister preferred to kill his sister than suffer the shame he felt around his taunters. The father approves of the killing and regrets the killing for the same reason, the shame it brings on him.

Imagine that. A father has just lost a daughter to death and a son to prison, yet what is driving his actions? Grief? No. Love? No. Compassion? No. He is driven by the fear of his own shame.

In the Bible, Jesus said that his life was a ransom for many. Buddha sought enlightenment because he wanted to end suffering for all beings. ACIM says that a miracle worker’s only responsibility is to accept the atonement for himself. NTI Ephesians explains how what we believe goes out into the world, has an effect, and then comes back to us again. Michael Singer calls false beliefs “environmental pollution.”

I feel that each of the teachings above point to the same truth. Because of how divine law works, and because we are all one, our personal belief in guilt, unworthiness and shame has an effect on others and on their believing. It is as if we are taunting others, encouraging them to believe that they are worthless whenever we believe it about ourselves or anyone else. In other words, our personal belief in guilt, unworthiness and shame is a part of honor killings too.

I don’t share this in order to increase guilt. To increase guilt would only increase the problem. I share this to help wake us up to the same motivation that Jesus felt (“My life is a ransom for many.”) and that Buddha felt. I say this to help us make a firm commitment to be the miracle worker. How do we do that? By becoming committed to letting go of the belief that some people are better and some people are less/worse. That includes the personal self. We need to be willing to let go of the belief that we are guilty, unworthy, shameful, less than, lacking, etc.

True compassion is letting go of the believing that we do that is also a part of the world’s recurring problems. Some of us will be more motivated to let go of false beliefs when we do it from true compassion just as Jesus and Buddha did. When we are motivated by both the desire for personal peace and out of compassion for all beings, we have more motivation to overcome habitual false believing. And these false beliefs are habits. They are habits shared by everyone who has not yet learned that it doesn’t need to be this way.

The Two Spiritual Goals, by Liz Cronkite

September 2, 2016

No matter a person’s spiritual path there are only two possible goals: To spiritualize the self’s life in the world or to transcend the self. The vast majority of people choose to spiritualize the self’s life in the world. Even if they’ve had higher miracles in which they perceive that the Truth is true and that the world is not they do not feel called to transcend the self. Being aware of Truth improves their life in the world and this is enough for them.

But a few feel called to transcend the self usually because they’ve experienced the reality of Truth in either a direct Revelation (only Truth) or a higher miracle. They feel called to Truth because It is the Truth and nothing else will satisfy them. They are willing to be wholly free from guilt.

Even those who feel called to transcend the self will go through a stage of spiritualizing the self’s life in the world. It is an inevitable stage when embarking on a spiritual path because when you start out all you know is the self. But whether one is satisfied there or feels called to go beyond only the individual can know.

A Course in Miracles is a useful tool for both those seeking a “better way” and those called to transcend the self. But your goal will determine how you read ACIM and which teachers of it, if any, resonate with you. If what you want is a spiritualized life in the world then you will probably spend your life studying ACIM and perhaps other spiritual teachings. But if you are called to transcend the self then you will understand that you are in a long process. You will recognize that the passages in ACIM that are about spiritualizing the self describe a stage through which you will pass. You will eventually reach a point where ACIM, indeed all study, falls away naturally. So it is helpful to discern which goal calls to you. Is a better life in the world because the Holy Spirit (Awareness of Truth in your mind) is with you enough for you? Or are you drawn to Truth like metal to a magnet?

Obviously, anyone I work with is spiritualizing the self’s life. If they were past that point they would not need to work with a mentor. But are they satisfied there or do they feel called to go past the self? This question is always in my mind as I watch their stories unfold. It can help determine how I answer their questions and help them through their blocks. Some know the answer if I ask but unfortunately the majority will say anyway that they want to transcend the self because in their guilt they think that is “superior” to spiritualizing the self. (Of course it is not. Both are temporary and fall away in the end).

Of course one’s goal can change. One may begin by thinking they want to transcend the self but find in time that they are quite satisfied with a better life in the world. And someone who thinks that they are happy spiritualizing the self may have an experience of Truth that then calls them to go beyond it.

If you are honest with yourself, putting guilt aside and what you think you “should” answer, which is your goal? If you have clarity on this, even if it turns out to be temporary, you can take a lot of pressure off yourself now. If you want to spiritualize the self you don’t have to pursue ideas or study that go beyond this. You do not have to try to understand what does not call to you. And if you do feel called to drop the self you can acknowledge that, for the time being, you are in the stage of spiritualizing the self. You can enjoy it knowing that it will pass naturally. You do not have to force yourself to be beyond it now.

Liz’s website

No Outcome, by Chris Celine

August 28, 2016

Exquisite perfection that lives within time. Holy Spirit of Love that walks within time. The use of time in the world is a mystery. It’s a mystery because time being the illusion that it is, having no reality, it could be just dismissed, and almost in every way it needs to be dismissed. It needs to be dismissed as the illusion of what it is, limitation and the thought of separation. And at the same time that it is rejected as Reality, it’s allowing the Holy Spirit to harness the energy of time to be used only for Love.

In its intention to be used only to extend Love and to learn, it becomes a useful tool for the Holy Spirit. Spirit bridges between illusion and reality so that you can walk in this world and still not be of it. And the key to that choosing and to that harnessing of time is to use it only for Love. How is it possible to remember that in every moment you are in the schoolroom of Love? Is it easily forgotten? Absolutely. But the more that the intention is there to surrender time into the Hands of God, to no longer let and allow time to be the slave master, which is its every intention…but rather to be the servant of love. That every moment within time has the potential of blessing and bringing Grace and opening to miracles…every moment…that the Life Force of God is present and can be brought forth in the manifestation of Love.

Within the world it seems that there’s at least 1,000, 10,000, a million ideas about what time is for, including the belief that through time you have aged and you will become such an age that you will no longer live. But, this is the play. This is the Maya, the belief that when you look at the body you see a difference from what seems to be in time 20, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, 50 years ago…. But, in Truth, nothing has changed. Your Divine Self is as it always has been. It is not subject to aging. It can’t be subject to aging, because aging is not Reality. So, you can watch the body age, and you can adjust to the instrument that it becomes through the seeming aging, but still it has nothing to do with the Truth of who/what you are.

Only how this vehicle that is moving through time can look to be slowing down, or look to be wiser with age. But the true wisdom has always been in your Heart, and your eternal Self has always been your Heart. The beautiful place of Peace is the realization that there is absolutely nothing to worry about, for sure. This temporary identity will be as deep a learning as each Beloved is willing to have it be. It is the perfect moment, and this life time, this life time, time in life is the golden Grace of God that brings illumination and perfection to your awareness where you embrace your timeless, divine spirit. And, in this life time, you can embrace that you will never be concerned again about this life time or any life time. All the life times will just disappear because they were not the Truth. And the Divine Holy Spirit that lives within you that is your Divine Self will come forward and be the authentic Self that you truly are…perfect in every way. Not perfect as in good, not according to some ideal or identity that’s been made through rules of being a good person. But the actual Light of the universe, the innocence of all creation, the Wisdom of God available because you live in God, as God, with God. Embrace that divine spirit.

Ask of the Holy Spirit to commune in that spirit oneness. To commune is actually very natural, but it’s just been forgotten. It’s being re-learned, re-met. It would be like coming from a past life of being a dancer, and in this life time you have no remembering of being a dancer but every time you hear music, it begins to move within you and there’s a slight memory of that dancer, and so it is with the Holy Spirit’s memory. The memory of being as this Divine Spirit is there, and every time you hear/feel the words of Love, the extension of Love is touched, it stirs the spirit within you. You remember.

It is truly helpful/necessary to drop into that quiet, still space. When you drop into that quiet, still space, the mind that has been running non stop…you can hear it screeching as it tries to stop or slow down. But, bring patience/trust that the screeching will stop. Wait for the ego mind to settle down as you don’t give it any attention. And, just wait. Wait in trust. Wait in patience without any expectations of what will reveal itself. Not trying to check in ahead so that you can kind of know what’s coming. But, actually, it’s most helpful to not know, because then the mind can’t form any ego ideas of what may come and already formulated and limit anything. So, the more you just wait patiently…in a way, like you would be waiting for a bus. You can stand and wait for a bus and enjoy/embrace the moment and be in the moment or you can let the mind run and think about every 10 seconds, “when is that bus going to come? I don’t like this.” But, that doesn’t bring the bus any quicker. And, in that waiting place of communion, it’s just no longer listening to the mind saying, “what’s going to happen here, what’s going to reveal itself, what’s it going to look like?” All this thinking is fear!

Instead, just peacefully trusting and just allowing the wait. And, nothing, or what seems to be nothing shows up, then within that pearl of what seems like nothing showing up there is a beautiful trust that blesses your heart. Not looking for evidence, but trusting that the Power of God, that everything’s in perfect orchestration. And you don’t know what the healing needs to look like, but, you’re putting yourself truly into the Hands of God and trusting all unfolding.

There is a genuine beauty in that place of stillness and quiet. It’s somewhat like sitting in an easy chair with no agenda and remaining open, but without any expectation, just open. And then that openness becomes more of a natural place. And the openness even starts to go with you into the everyday, even when you’re not sitting in an easy chair quietly, the openness is there. That space where nothing seems to be occurring, it is an exquisite place, and it’s actually very filled with learning. It’s just letting all the mind sit off to the side. Just patience. Just trust. You will never be left without what is absolutely perfectly orchestrated for you. That is the great gift of patience/trust.

Everyone in the world is trusting something, but mostly what is being trusted is the “me” and the thoughts and the ideas. But, you’re turning, you’re turning from that old trust that only said “I can be guaranteed that there will be a problem coming along soon.” Instead, no more problems. Just trust this moment, trust God. Switch your allegiance from the trust of the thoughts and habits to trusting the Power of God’s Grace. When this moment with trust, with patience, affirming that only Love exists, and affirming the devotion to that silent, quiet communion, affirming this sanctuary is filled with Love it is because the universe is all Love. In the silence of Love, affirming the willingness to follow. One Heart.

This prayer is a prayer that definitely could be used and sung as the silence starts to be met, because of the intention, teach me to open my heart. Because you truly want that divine teaching, it is always given.

[sings] Teach me to open my Heart
To those who come here to be healed.
Teach me to open my Heart to this love
To heal all this pain of this world.
We have strayed from the love of our Father,
And wandered in pain since our birth.
It was Jesus who came here to save us all
To release all the pain here on Earth.
Oh my mother the Queen of the Sea,
It’s your Love that I feel inside me.
Teach me to love from the depths of my Heart
To heal all the pain that I see.
My father is here with his Love
He knows how to care for us all.
He loves everyone who has come to this call
All those who have answered his call.
Teach me.
Here, here I am, declaring the Love within my heart.
Here I want to affirm the Love of our Divine Mother.
I’m here forever to Love.
Here in this school of Love, I’ve come to give thanks to all Divine Beings.
Within the Light of our Divine Mother,
I’m here to praise, praise the Truth of Love itself
And to never aggrandize myself.
I’m small with the size of Love, in my mind where I’ve lived.
But within this true Light, I am the fullness of Love.
To love together with all Beloveds, all of us together praising God.
Here within this power we have come to give thanks
To all Beloveds and to our Father and our Mother
For the healing that is being received within the heart.
We praise and give thanks.

Here I am, declaring the Love within my Heart. You don’t need anyone witnessing that declaration. Sometimes there are Beloveds who are witnessing that declaration, but that declaration is really within. It’s bold. It’s a bold place that says “No more fooling around…I am declaring the Love within my heart. I am declaring that I am living and willing to live in Love.” Declaring…it’s bold. It’s usually meant for something that you’re declaring, like a line has been drawn in the sand or you’re declaring a change that is very essential in some way. A declaration. And, this is the most powerful place of declaration: to declare the Love within your heart. To affirm that we are here forever to Love. Affirming. It’s another strong place…affirming. It’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s a natural extension of the power of the strength of God’s Love and your connection with it, because it is the Truth of who you are. And, you’re simply, firmly declaring the Truth.

There’s a beautiful teaching in one of these hymns that says: “I plant my banner. I stand and I plant my banner of Truth.” That may seem a little large, but there is a deep teaching within it, because, when you plant your banner, you are drawing a line in the sand to yourself, saying: “This is what I want. This is what this lifetime is for, and I recognize it and I accept it and I want it. And I accept that this is what I am here for. And I’m so glad to be in this lifetime remembering.” These are powerful statements of the Heart that are declaring the Love within your Heart in every way you possibly can.

Lie Around and Get Zonked.

If we were more devoted, it would have been enough that just one prophet
Would have had to make a personal appearance on Earth.
He or she probably could have easily fixed some important things forever,
Written a book that really gave us the total lowdown
And that no right-wing fanatic dare edit.
God in human form, as some call the avatar or world teacher,
Seemingly could have easily shown us some tasty herb cocktails
That could cure any illness of the mind that humans would ever know.
But looks like it doesn’t work that way.
And what of us mules who like the harness?
What would the workhorses in this world do without some imaginary cause or situation?
We felt needed to be championed or scotch taped.
Heaven forbid everyone might become happy doing basically nothing
Except to lie around and get zonked out on the wonder of our being. [Hafiz]

Lie around and get zonked out on the wonder of our being is very connected to being in quiet silence, because it is in that beautiful inward place where you can become zonked out on the wonderment of your own being. Not in the identity that we made, but in the beingness of God that we are. If we were more devoted it would have been enough that just one great prophet could have made a personal appearance. It doesn’t really matter how many prophets come, it only takes one. All prophets are One! It only takes one sparking of recognition of “Oh, I’m being called in a different direction.”

To have written a book that really gave us the total lowdown, we have those. Thank God. Everything is always provided. Or that it could have been easily shown to us through some tasty herb cocktails. But the truth is that there is no magic bullet. There are so many gifts of helpfulness for sure. But, the only thing that really makes the shift that makes the healing occur is the willingness from within. No one is left without the means to remember.

Everyone is given and drawn to exactly what’s most helpful. It’s just the willingness to recognize it, embrace it, be so grateful for it and listen. It becomes so easy, but the Truth is that all the listening is going to take you to the same place that you need do nothing and to just keep accepting. All the workhorses…do you see yourself as a workhorse with a harness on, needing to be the worker, which is not the same thing as being the servant of Love? You can take off the harness and embrace the lightness, the beauty of the servant of Love, because truly in the servant of Love there is no burden. The harness is off. There’s no goal other than to offer Love.

Imagine living without, day-to- day, just moment to moment, living without any story. That there would be no story that has a beginning, middle and an end that has to be the focus. The form, in the spiritual journey, is being called to be just what kind of comes along for the ride. It’s the vehicle through which you serve. It’s the form through which Love is expressed.

So, whether, using this as an example, whether you’re plowing a field or you’re sitting on a porch, the gift of healing is the same. It’s just the form that looks different. And, what happens in the world is that the form is what gets identified with your belief in “knowing” with being good or bad, or better or worse, or liked or disliked. But, if you let go of the story of the idea of it, it just becomes the expression of Love…the opportunity. And the vehicle may be a form that you are with. But it isn’t the form itself that is the purpose. The purpose is the offering of Love. So, what if you had no outcome to anything that was anticipated or had as the goal of…whatever it was, instead of just offering Love. There would be no outcome because…it wouldn’t in some way conclude that there wouldn’t be an attachment to the outcome because that isn’t the purpose. It’s just to offer love.

I’m reminded of…because I was asked also, so it reminded me…when our Beloved Walter was passing, beginning to pass, there was a call to go and visit. And in the beauty of that there was no, certainly no anticipation of what might be recognition or not recognition. And, of course, in that open Truth it was, of course, perfect. The form of it was perfect, the intention was perfect. Love was all that was really there. And there was no attachment to whether anyone was recognized or not recognized, only as it might serve this Beloved. And everything was just to serve this Beloved for just a few moments or for the rest of eternity. No outcome. No story. No thinking about when he would pass, how close it was or trying to maybe even guess when he might pass. None of it was…the purpose, the purpose was just to offer Love/comfort. To remind, to remind this precious Beloved that he is Love and that he wasn’t dying at all. His eternal life was in perfect harmony and order. And in that moment there was no time, because it doesn’t matter whether it’s two minutes, 20 minutes. Love in the moment is maximal. That’s all that there is. And there’s no story about whether he received it. Of course he received it. It’s Love and Love is the power of the universe. Does it matter whether the mind that was split and made to be in this temporary setting, whether that mind knew it or not? No. There’s no concern about that. The Heart and Mind of God that is the Truth of this Beloved within every Beloved…the Heart and Mind of God is totally there. Nothing to do, nothing to gain, nothing to say it could have been better another way. It was perfect, because it just is what it is. And in that, when there is no attachment to outcome and no story to attach to and no reasons even. What then is the mind going to play with? What is it going to hang onto? It’s going to be much easier to just BE when there’s no reason for the mind to hook onto or no story that has to be a certain way, and no outcome. The outcome is really the food source of the ego. It’s really what the ego really wants is an outcome.

And it wants to know ahead of time what the outcome is so it can actually make the outcome rather than consciously giving the outcome to God and not knowing what would be most helpful, but willing to…”Thy will be done, I’m putting it into Your Hands and letting it unfold. I don’t know what is most helpful.” But with the trust and intention that it’s guaranteed that if you put everything into the Hands of God, step by step, it is guaranteed that God’s Will for you is happiness and peace. It is God’s Will for you. Following the Will of Love is a sure way to remember the joy that God’s Will is for you.

The only thing you’re really asked to let go of is-an outcome, and the temptation, the addiction to the good or bad.

The reason that the ego outcome is wanted is because of the belief in good and bad, and right and wrong, all levels and degrees. You think this knowing keeps you safe/in control. If you let go of the outcome being good or bad and just this moment…is always connected with what’s most helpful and the deepest learning. To learn easily is to let it unfold. To learn while trying to hold on, you’re still learning, but it’s a tougher learn, because there’s a resistance and wanting to take control from the Divine orchestration of movement. So, letting go of outcome is incredibly helpful/necessary. It is a place of deep…a leap of faith. It is faithfulness and it is a deep leap of that faith, because everything in the mind wants to have its own outcome based on the past. Why is it based on the past?

It is based on the past because you have nothing else to glean from, so it’s going to be like the past. And, in the beauty and Divine harmony…to have it be in God’s Will for your happiness and deepest learning is to let go of the outcome because it will not be then of your made-up past. It will be in the harmony of Love. And then you’re just led and called to not judge it. Not judge it as you like it, you don’t like it, good or bad.

Let’s say…we’ll use an example of something simple like somebody gives you free tickets to a concert. And, everything in you wants to follow what is being called for. And, you just don’t get a YES to go. You’re not called to go to that concert. You’re called to give away the tickets. You really wanted to see the concert, but you’re not getting a YES. And, you trust that. You give away the tickets. And, there’s a learning, a learning so deep in there that goes…you are choosing obedience to follow the Truth of God rather than have an opinion about what it’s for.

In that moment, your devotion, your trust, your allegiance is opening, deeply. Then at the time that you would have been there, someone calls you, and you’re guided to speak to them. You don’t know what the importance is of that. You don’t know …whether it would have happened differently if you would’ve been there later. …you don’t know how transformative this is for the Beloved who is calling, but you are following. And, in that moment you have the opportunity to realize that that phone call was perfect and there was no better choice, there was no choice that was a better one because there were tickets to a concert. There’s no way to judge Love and your offering of Love.

In the journey of Love, of remembering, there does come a place that there is a deep surrender of the personal. The personal getting, the personal winning, for the personal needs of the identity. And the beauty of that “personal” starting to fade away is that that personal is completely the ego. It is for the self. And in the beauty of healing Love, you don’t sacrifice anything. There is no sacrifice of anything that you lose in any way. What you’re letting go of in the personal, is what actually was the cause of pain. Aloneness, separation, fear and the belief that you have to satisfy something within you that is…that has needs. But there’s also a guarantee that all of those beliefs of getting something “personal” from the outside are built into scarcity, because there is never enough. And it never satisfies. You can believe you’re going to the best restaurant in the world and it is still not going to give you a sense of completion, a sense of your Divine Self. If you believe that you’re going to eat the dinner, it’s going to be lovely, and it’s going to give you a sense of worth or comfort.. And it didn’t bring you to a place of comfort…maybe temporary worth or food comfort, but, it goes away. The comfort of the Truth is that you are the Light of God and living as that Light. Nothing on the outside will feed that. It comes from the Heart opening and accepting that you cannot be without and that there is nothing to get. And that your communion within is the service of Love. And the service of Love is not a place of sacrifice. And, it’s a learning and it’s about holding your Heart open to each Beloved as perfect and holy and having no opinion about them. None. Only Love.

I wrote down this beautiful teaching.

We must be willing to surrender the life we planned
And accept the life waiting for us.

Imagine no story is a life not planned. It’s giving up the life that you believed and planned in, which means giving up the story and giving up the outcomes and the expectations. What is the life that you planned? It’s all kinds of different things. It changed the whole time you’re walking in time. But there are a lot of agreements and there are a lot of attachment to things that you believed would bring you happiness, like you can have the plan of your life say “I’m going to prove that I’m the smartest kid in the room. I’m going to prove it.” And, that plan stays and unconsciously there’s a proving that’s going on all the time. All of that is being called to be let go. There’s nothing, nothing at all that you have to or can do to actually improve your beingness. That doesn’t mean that in the world in surrender to Truth you’re not offering Love through all of its various forms. But it’s not a drive from within to prove anything about yourself in any way. Because I promise that with the planning of a plan of your identity, proving is right in there. And, proving is a very painful place. It will never not be connected with guilt. It will always be connected with guilt, because you will never succeed through proving. It is never enough when you want to prove your worth. And the upside-downness of it is that your magnificence is so intrinsically beyond anything you could even imagine, and it’s the perfection of the universe. It has nothing to prove against. To prove against you have to have two. You have to have something better, something worse. You are IT. You’re the perfection of all creation. You’re the Light. So, to hold anything to prove has absolutely no meaning and no result that is going to bring you what you’re truly looking for. It’s just the acceptance of your Divine Self. And dropping the plans, and dropping the story and all the reasons and just letting Love guide the way.

“I’m going to go and live among the flowers with my blessed Mother.” That was a declaration from the master that couldn’t read or write and was called to serve humanity. He couldn’t read or write and he obeyed. He just obeyed. In many ways he was caught sometimes in the wonder of it all because maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time instead of at the right place at the right time to receive a message from the Divine Mother saying “you are now the servant of Love”. And for the rest of his life in form, the next 50 years or whatever it was, he served that Love completely. And, he declared “I am leaving everything that I lamented and believed I wanted in the past and now I’m going to go and live among the flowers with my blessed Mother.” And it’s the same declaration. It’s the same place of declaring the Love and your true purpose. It’s not a stretch, it’s just the everyday alignment…I’m here to Love. In the school room of Love. You don’t have to worry about anything. “God’s Will for me is joy God’s Will is peace,” and just accepting it. You either choose pain or you choose joy, moment to moment. And, as you choose one, you have to let the other go. Sometimes it’s not so easy to tell what’s pain and what’s joy because of the habits of the past that kind of turn it upside down. But if you’re not at peace, just choose again. Choose peace. Come back.

Imagine no story, no reason, no outcome. And I will also promise that as you let go of the story and the reason and the outcome, the vibration of your energy field will begin to shift because there is a great deal of fear attached to outcome and the story and the reasons. There’s a great deal attached to your personal attachment to succeeding/winning, and it brings with it a disturbing energy. It’s a tension energy that can really run, and run almost unnoticed because it’s so familiar.

But, there’s a calling in the quiet. In the stillness you’re learning to drop into the quiet and find your harmonious energy field where there is nothing to do, nothing to prove, just your harmonious vibration of Love. And, there’s no push, and there’s no outcome that’s being looked for. Just trusting that everything is right here. And it’s God’s will for you to be at peace, to be in the Truth of Love. Returning to Reality. And that there is no problem. Never a problem. Every problem put into the Hands of God is no longer a problem because the Spirit of Love will break it open and show you there never was a problem there. Give everything into the Hands of God that you used to believe in as a problem, and accept “I’m not separate from God so there cannot be a problem. I’m one and I accept it. I may not know it, I may not feel it, I may not even believe it totally but I’m putting my willingness there.” And following. I will follow.

Why do you want to perceive 1,000 different problems when there are none? Just scoot them all into the Hands of God, everything you thought was a problem and come back to Peace. Peace is here now. Peace is what you are now. Declare it as the Reality that you do accept. Declare your willingness to accept the peace. Rest…rest in Love. And, trust the outcome, whether it’s the outcome of this minute or it’s the outcome of this hour or the outcome of this day…just keep putting it all into the Hands of God and trust the outcome and your mind will be freed. Free to be at peace. Only love.

“Here I am declaring the Love within my Heart.” And then you can feel the vibration within your Heart of that Love. One Heart.

Jeshua: The Script is Written, scribed by Brent Haskell

August 23, 2016

Greetings to you this day. I am Jeshua. And I have come, as always, to discuss with you A Course in Miracles. You have been struggling, as it were, for some time, about some words, which I have placed in A Course in Miracles. And those words are these; “The script is written.”

And what I have told with you with those words is that for everything that seems to happen here, it has already been done. The time when each of you shall come to understand the truth of who you are is set. It is in the script. It is just as if it has been placed at a certain frame on the film that you play out, that you call your life. And only when you arrive at that frame and that moment, that seeming moment in your time, will you truly understand.

And I have said to you that time only seems to go in one direction. Time only seems to go in one direction. And all of this can present such a dilemma for you, can it not?

Here, in your earthly life, what can you do? I have told you that always when you come to the point in time when you understand, when you come to your moment of awakening, you will realize in that same moment the truth that – There was nothing I needed to do.

But your question for today goes even beyond that. For indeed, is there anything that you can do at all? If you are impatient to know the peace of God, can you, in your time, speed up the process? Can you be diligent and make the moment come sooner in your time? Does the time of your study, the time of your contemplation, the time of your simply being silent, does any of that make any difference at all? Or will you simply one day awaken, and say, “Aha, I see.”?

Now I have told you, have I not, so many times, that this world never happened. And I have told you that this world is but illusion. It is not real. And do you know one of the aspects of reality itself – reality is imbued with creative power. That which is real is of God. You are of God. Because you, the reality of what you are — you are real. But this world, ah — ‘tis not real.

And what does that include? That includes your bodies. They are not real. That includes the aspects you see of space and time, the skies and the heavens, the earth about you, the flowers and the trees – none of it is real. ‘Tis but a figment of imagination, if you will.

And this is part of what I have told you, but is so difficult for you. The thoughts you think you think are not real. The thoughts of which you are aware are not real thoughts. And that means this, as I have told you — The thoughts you think you think, the thoughts of the brain, if you will, the thoughts of space and time, are not real. And as such, hear me well, they have no creative power.

So can you, of your thinking, of your planning, of your struggling, of your doing things here, change anything, do anything at all? And the answer must be no. The answer must be no.

This is the fundamental struggle that you, insofar as you believe yourself to be your ego, this is the fundamental struggle that you must deal with. And I have spoken to you and called it the authority problem. As ego, as a conscious thinking being, here, who seems to have life, and seems to have choice, and would seem to perhaps have power associated with your choices, is there anything you can do? And the answer is – no.

Consider for a moment — what if that were not so? What if you, in your conscious thinking, could in fact change your mind and see your life or your world change? Then that would demand that your thinking, the thoughts of this world, had creative power. Suppose that you could, with your body, do acts, do things that would change your world. That would mean that bodies had within them creative power. And that would mean that the thoughts of consciousness, the body itself, would be of God. That which has creative power must be God Itself, just as you, in your reality, have creative power and are God.

So how do you deal with this issue, if I tell you, as I truly am telling you, that nothing that you do in your life makes any difference at all? And one of your great passions, one of your great concerns in being loving and pursuing the spiritual path — for most of you, for so many of you – is that you say, “I want to make a difference. I want, when my life is over, to be able to stand tall and say, ‘I made a difference. I changed my world.’” And do you know that that is? Truly, that is but the voice of the ego crying out not to die.

Ask yourself this — if this world is not real, if it is but illusion, if it has no effect of any kind, in all of eternity — then why would it matter whether your life here makes a difference? That too is but illusion. So if you would be a student of A Course in Miracles, if you would be a teacher of A Course in Miracles, if you would be the writer of books, the sharer of wisdom through lectures or speaking engagements, or workshops — does any of that matter? And the answer truly is – it does not.

Such harsh words, are they not? For have I not just told you that all of your struggling, everything you would do to seek to accomplish good in your life, matters not at all. Do you recall that I said in A Course in Miracles, “Your only goal is to accept the Atonement for yourself.”? And do you recall the words I spoke in A Course in Miracles, that experience cannot be given directly. The only thing you have to offer is the vision of Christ, the vision of the Holy Spirit.

And vision itself, hear me well, has no power to change. Vision is but the experience that you have within yourself when you, in a moment, see this world differently, when you forgive this world. And that, as I have told you, is your only function, to forgive this world, to forgive yourself, to forgive your brother, to forgive me, and to forgive God Itself.

Have you heard these words at the core of your being? You forgive through vision. You forgive not through action, not through doing, not through trying, above all not through studying and struggling and dialoging, if you will.

So what does that mean? What it means is – you must hear these words I speak this day, and these words which you will find in A Course in Miracles as you look for them — it means that you must take those words and experience them. For it you do not, or until you do, you will not know the peace of God. Hear me well.

So if your life matters not – ah, did I say that? Did I say your life matters not? Or did I say that there is nothing you can do to change anything? There is a difference. There truly is nothing you can do to bring about sooner the moment of your awakening. And if you feel that you are awakened already and wish to give the gift to your brothers and sisters, there is nothing you can do whatsoever to hasten the moment of their awakening, as well. The script is written. The time is set.

Time but seems to flow in one direction. What does that mean? You believe in cause and effect. And you believe in cause and effect being separate. That ultimately is the belief in your time. For you believe that an action, a thought, a word, a deed, now, will result in change. The word “will” speaks of the future; do you hear? You believe that a word, an action, a thought, now, can effect what you see as the future. And it is absolutely not so.

I have told you that every single moment of your time is totally independent of every other moment of your time. That is what it means to say that cause and effect are not separate. In the absence of time, the Son of God imagines whatever he will, and in that instant, it is done. There cannot be delay. Delay is but illusion.

And so all of your struggling to become is but your desire to worship time, and to hallow what you would call the future, the result. And it is the grandest delusion of the ego to believe that what you call the future is the result of the past. And if it is, then you can further delude yourself into believing that what you did in one moment affected the next. And thus you believe that you have creative power.

The nature of God, the fact that time itself does not exist, make it impossible that such could be the case. In this moment, you either know the peace of God, or you do not. And the next moment is the same, the next is the same, the next is the same, the next is the same. And creative spirit, which sits at the core of your being, always knows the peace of God.

Did you, Mind, cease creating for a moment to make up a world of illusion? Hear me well. To create is to be. And to cease to create would be to cease to be. Mind never sleeps. It is creating every moment. That I have told you. And what is it that mind creates – nothing but love. For that is all there is.

This world, I tell you — and this fact lies at the core of your forgiveness — this world, every aspect of it, is love being expressed. And in your forgiveness, when you awaken, in your moment of awakening, you will know that to be true. And that shall be the forgiveness that you seek. And in your forgiveness, you shall find the peace of God.

Can you, from within the framework of the ego, from within consciousness, can you rationalize, can you discuss and discover, can you debate and find, can you figure out how it is that this world is nothing but love? Hear me well. Absolutely not. It is the framework of this world, which imprisons you. It is that framework which you use to form that which you call ego, that which you believe yourself to be, but which you are not. From within the domain of the ego, you can not discover, you can not find vision, the vision of the Holy Spirit, the vision of your One Self, the vision of Christ, the vision of God. They are all the same.

How then can you find the peace of God? Do you remember that I have told you — you have but one choice in this world – To which voice shall to listen? One choice – to which voice shall you choose to listen? I have told you that there is nothing you can do to hasten the moment of yours or your brother’s awakening. Your only goal is to forgive. Your only goal is to accept the Atonement for yourself, which is exactly the same thing.

There truly is nothing you can do. For if it were not so, this world would be imbued with creative power, and would be real. And that which you pretend to see would be God Itself. And the universe would be a place of fear and horror. And it is not so. Hear me well.

How do you choose to listen to the Voice of God? How do you choose to hear the Holy Spirit? For when you do make that choice, then what will fill your awareness is the vision of Christ. For truly then, your One Self, the Holy Spirit, I, God Itself, were He to choose to look upon this world, would see with vision, and would see nothing but love.

How do you choose to do that? There is but one way. For the choice you have of which voice to which you shall listen is not really a choice at all. So even in the sense of choosing which voice you shall hear, there is still nothing you can do. Hear me well. For this I have told you before.

The Holy Spirit, the Voice of God, the bringing of the vision of Christ, speaks with the quietest of whispers you could ever imagine. The truth is this, my brothers — you hear the Voice of God in your silence. The only choice you have is the choice to be still, to cease the workings of your conscious mind. For when you do not think, you are free of the busyness of this world, you are no longer burning with a passion to dialogue, or debate, or study, or think, or to use your thoughts to become – when you are free of that, then in your silence there comes a whisper, the Voice of the Holy Spirit.

And as you sit in your silence for more than a moment, then there will come exactly this, a vision. And arising out of your silence, you will be given a new world. But nothing will have changed at all. You will be given a new world because, as you look upon your world and experience this world here beyond the domain of the ego, you will come face to face with the vision of Christ. And everything you see will be the Love of God. And everything you experience will be the Love of God.

And what will you do in your life? You will celebrate. For the fullness of the awareness of that Love will make it impossible for you not to do so. Hear me well this day. That is the measure of your forgiveness. As you look upon your world, do you see nothing but love? As you look upon your world do you see nothing but love in action? As you look upon your world are you filled with joy and wonder at it all? And as you look upon your world are you filled with a total peace that desires to change nothing? For why would anyone desire to change the perfect Love of God? Do you see?

Then what do you do in your life, if all of your doing matters not? And this I have told you, as well. How do you know if you are happy? Do you contemplate and debate, or do you simply know at the core of your being? How do you know if you are filled with love? Do you debate the meaning of Love? Do you define love and write books about love or do you simply experience that which it is? And experience, as I have told you, lies beyond thought, lies beyond your thinking mind, lies beyond the domain of the ego.

So what can you do then? You simply experience your life. If you would do that, you do not plan one moment in the future, but simply experience your life. And do you remember those words? I spoke them even two thousand years ago, and yet again and again. So many times and places. And yet again in A Course in Miracles. If you would simply experience your life, what will you do? And the answer is so extremely simple that you perhaps have never heard it. If you would simply experience your life, you will follow the path of your own joy.

Do you think I was joking when I said, “God’s will for you is perfect happiness.”? And when I gave you the affirmation – God’s peace and joy are mine. Not at all. What if your joy does not lead you to study A Course in Miracles? What should you do? Follow the path of your own joy. What if your joy does not lead you to writing books and going to workshops or seminars or dialoging with your brethren about the nature of truth? What should you do? You should follow the pathway of your own joy. I promise you, if you are not following the pathway of your joy, you are nowhere near, at all, the discovery of the peace of God.

Can you speed up your time? No, indeed. Can you be joyful in your life? Yes, you can. What happens if you truly become silent and open your being, and open your heart, if you will, to the presence of the Holy Spirit, to my presence, to the Voice of God? What happens if you do that? Time itself collapses. I have told you that as well. Miracles collapse time. Those are not new words to you, are they? The only place that time can collapse is in your silence. The only activities that can possibly bring you to the point of time collapsing are those that bring you joy.

And what is the measure of your joy? I have told you this also many times. If you believe you are experiencing joy, then ask yourself – “Can anything of this world threaten my joy?” And if the answer is “yes”, then it is not the joy of God. It is still the ego clamoring and crying out to be heard, and trying to convince someone, somewhere, that it exists, which of course it does not.

In the moment of your silence, in the moment of your joy, in the moment of the collapse of time, then all of time becomes the same instant. Do you hear? And in that instant – in that instant of the forever of your time, as it collapses into a single moment, the time of your awakening is there. And I have, have I not, called that moment the Holy Instant, the moment of the miracle. And that is exactly what it is – the moment of the miracle, the moment in which time collapses.

But remember, you cannot make it happen. You cannot figure it out. You cannot dialogue and discover what it is. You can never, ever, ever, give it as an experience to someone else. The only thing you can do is enter into your own silence, wherein you listen and are still, and wherein you hear the Voice of God, and wherein you gain the vision of Christ, and wherein you see a new world — not a world that has been changed, but the same world seen anew.

And in that moment, you will no longer see a world of illusion. Illusion will pass away, including the illusion of time. And in the moment of forever, you shall awaken. And in your awakening, you will have within you the vision of Christ.

Can you force it upon your brothers? No, indeed. But as you hold that vision, then it is present for anyone and everyone, throughout all of space and time, past, present and future, to experience and to celebrate. And in your own moment of experiencing that vision, truly as I have told you, your silence and the joy to be found therein, make you, without effort, the saviour of the world. And your life, moment upon moment, shall become blessed in ways beyond what you can comprehend, even though the moments of your space and time have changed not one iota.

My blessings upon you all. That is all.

Brent A. Haskell, Ph.D., D.O.

Death to Knowing, by Chris Celine

August 22, 2016

Unchangeable…perfection of God. The Truth of your unchangeable nature, your Divine Self, is the journey of remembering. You’re coming home to your unchangeable, divine Self. And, as this divine being in its perfection is completely unchangeable from its perfection, even while that acceptance brings the yes through faith. This is the Truth. At the same time, you’re being called to surrender all that is seemingly temporary, because everything that is unchangeable within you, the Truth of you, has no relationship with anything temporary. It’s an infinite, permanent, eternal state of Love. And that Love is hiding within the temporary form of limitation, which is completely run by the belief in death…the belief in time.

As each Beloved walks in the journey of remembering, every day, every moment, is a choice between the permanent…infinite Truth of your Divine existence, your Divine Self and the choice of that Truth or the choice of the temporary identity that has been made from the belief in separation. To believe and accept the made up self leaves you in a nightmare that has absolutely no resemblance to the divine Truth. And the thought becomes “how could this be; that it has no resemblance. Haven’t I had any influence on my own self?” Well, the “I” that is asking the question believes in an identity that is by its very nature living in the belief of being flawed, of being wounded or damaged or needing repair of some kind. And the Divine Truth of your exquisite true Self is in need of no repair…in need of nothing, because it is perfection, whole and complete as the reflection of God.

The delusional self that has been carried through lifetimes has its own agenda, and its agenda is to prove that it is right, that it is completely in the realm of making sense. The self-made identity overrides in its determination…It overrides the Truth and continues to want to prove its worth. And instead…Insanely giving the false identity the permission to prove its worth, which has no value, and it can never be proven because it’s not the truth, and putting all of that attention and intention to proving the worth of something that is without value is the main delay to return to Love. It’s just a delay and it’s been delayed through all lifetimes. But there is also, besides the delay, all the trying to prove of worth of a false identity is the main culprit of pain and suffering. It’s where the pain and suffering survives and lives.

All of Love is calling to no longer give loyalty to a false identity. Lifetime after lifetime after lifetime has been spent in protection and in defense. And there is no redeeming value to that defense. Imagine your life, never needing to defend anything. That you would completely be at rest in the beautiful confidence of God’s Will, that there would be nothing within you that could evoke anything to defend. And finally that the I disappears into the Totality of Love/God.

In the beautiful teaching that speaks to turning the other cheek…this teaching has been interpreted through perception of the ego that has made a declaration of its weakness, of its cowardice and made up judgment. In the Reality of Love, to turn the other cheek is to say there is no power in conflict. There is no power in disturbance. There is no power in the belief of problems. I can turn the other cheek because it means nothing. There’s nothing to defend and nothing to judge. Nothing to protect. No harm can be made. And the Divine is freed. In all of the different ways that there might be perception of defense…imagine having words thrown at you that are supposed to annihilate…and they are rejected and dropped away because there is nothing to defend, nothing to bring honor to or prove. The perfection of Love cannot and will never be proven. And then, behind that dropping away of defense is all the Joy! The permanent state of Joy that you truly are has no reason not to bubble through. Where is the Joy of that natural state? It’s in hiding, because the ego is constantly saying it’s dangerous out here. There’s lots to worry about out here. And so joy is asleep because it’s being held back. And, it must have the “YES” to come forward. It must be invited. It must be wanted.

All joy, all peace, all harmony, all resting is in being undefended…completely. What would not be joyous in being undefended? In finding out that the kingdom that you thought you made out of an identity first reveals itself as not a kingdom but a prison. And then in the spiritual journey you actually discover that the door was never locked. And you can choose to leave your wild imaginings and your self-made kingdom in any moment. In this choice you leave everything that was made in the lifetimes of the belief of separation…all of them stay in the cell. And, you walk through the door happily naked, joyously naked, and ready to live…ready to completely Love because you are all Love. Undefended, because there is no enemy, there is no death, because there is nothing to know, only Love.

And this moment of Love…the willingness to affirm, consciously in this moment that the universe is all Love. All that exists, all that is true is all Love. And in this moment, the willingness to accept and affirm, that this Sanctuary is filled with Love. And nothing else can have any sense of reality except the Truth of Love. The acceptance in this moment that there is within , the Life Force of God, and that Life Force is your true life, your eternal existence, your Divine Spirit, the truth of your true Self. It’s a fact. The fact of love. Acceptance of freedom.

In that light…singing, praying, is priming the Heart for the joy to be released. The acceptance of sacred teachings, and the willingness to be transformed by sacred teachings, by the Light; the Power of God that brings the sacred teachings into manifestation. Releasing and returning truly, to the Source of your existence. Returning only in your own awareness because you’ve never left. You’ve been on a journey without distance to a place you never actually left. And then, the nightmare ends and the Truth awakens.

[sings] Returning to the source is the healing of the Heart.
Returning to the source is where the healing starts.
Releasing all the pain is the way to reach your Heart.
I’m opening myself for the healing here to start.
Returning to the source is the way to find your home.
The way is bright and clear if you trust you’re not alone.
Releasing all the past is the way to find your star.
It will guide you, it will lead you to the source of all you are.

There is nothing that God, the Source of all Love, will not give to you. The power of God will give you every Truth, every bit of strength, the courage…all the doors are opened in your willingness and in your wanting. “I’m opening myself for the healing here to start.” That is the YES of the every day. “Every day I’m here for healing, I’m here for remembering, I’m here, ready to return.”

“On the path of light, all divine beings
Open our hearts so that we can learn to be love.
On the path of truth, everyone is called to pay attention
So that we can all be together so we can praise in the Truth of Love itself.

Let us all surrender to the heart of our Blessed Mother.
In each moment is a moment of humility,
The willingness to embrace forgiveness
And of offering charity of Love itself.

Let us all keep moving in this moment of Truth,
Following the Light of Love, the teachings of Love
And to firm ourselves in charity.

Let us follow the Truth, only the Truth.
All of us united. Let us sing and dance
So the Divine will materialize.

Let us all go, walking on this path
With all Divine Beings, following and living,
With faith in our hearts, following the ways
That all Divine Beings have brought.

Oh, my Divine Mother, you are the comfort. You give me love and faith and health
In this moment and in every moment.”

On the path of Truth, every Beloved walks with all Beloveds.

“Dropping keys”

The small man builds cages for everyone he knows.
While the sage, the teacher, the master
Has to duck his head while the moon is low,
And keeps dropping keys all night long
For the beautiful, rowdy prisoners.” [Hafiz]

There is the ego’s small man that builds cages for everyone. That is the way of separation, that each one builds a cage for those that they consider to be familiar and separate. Every time there is a belief of separation, every time there is identification with knowing, there is actually that wish to build another cage. The element of knowing that is the most restrictive is that everyone’s knowing is exclusive to each beloved. There’s no truth in illusions. There’s no truth in knowing. So each Beloved has their own made-up diverse story of knowing. But, with every knowing, there has to be a lie that is projected. So, if you know, then whoever is there as the projection must not know or there wouldn’t be a reason to know. There has to be a division. The ego can look like it’s looking for allies of agreement, but the agreement can only be in your own knowing. No one is looking for an ally to be in “other’s” knowing, everyone is looking for an ally to be in your own knowing. And, this is where all the pain lives.

True healing comes from true correction. And what is it that’s possible that could be corrected or needs correction except knowing? It’s really what stands in the way of the correction. But there really wouldn’t be a need for correction, if there wasn’t already a whole identity with knowing. And what Love is calling you to is that when you cease to confuse interpretation with truth/fact you’re available for Love’s healing. The same thing – interpretation instead of fact – is the same thing as illusion instead of Truth. Interpretation has to come from information…experience and information that has been gathered within the world of illusion and it’s an amazing storehouse of information. Having walked through one hundred lifetimes, or a hundred thousand lifetimes…there’s a lot of lies/knowing that is gathered. And yet, God is calling everyone to stop confusing interpretation with fact, opinions with Truth.

What is the alternative to knowing? It’s just being. The fear shows itself as the fear of dementia, the fear of Alzheimer’s. What would I be without being able to function in my mind with my own knowing? God will never leave you without, but the knower wants to know what that means. What do you mean you’re never going leave me without…you’re leaving me without a mind or a brain…or what? But until you actually enter and say “yes, take me wherever,” you won’t be able to taste the brilliance of being. And that’s you as the Eternal I am. That’s your Divine Self waiting to be surrender and be met with Joy.

There’s a test for peace. You can test yourself in any situation if it’s a possibility of opening for peace or if it’s in the direction of being disturbed and un-peaceful. In every situation if you react or want your way to be right even in a subtle, subtle way just by believing that you need to be right and something is wrong and you want to be right…in that place, you’re affirming the illusion, because in that moment you have this divine opportunity of turning toward the Power of Truth. A fact. And it is waiting for you to surrender your reaction, surrender your perceptions and ask to see the Truth. Ask these questions honestly: How do I feel? Am I at Peace? What do I think I know? Am I willing and asking to be guided in Truth? Am I a little willing to surrender all reactions and judgments about being right?

You now accept and surrender to Love’s Truth that all personal knowing is the making of pain and suffering. It may not be right in that moment that you recognize it as painful because the ego is diligent enough to give you a little boost of being “high” that you’re right, but it is always temporary and does not bring you peace and quickly returns to a place of feeling separation from Love.

To ask in any situation…; this is what makes the everyday so rich with learning, because all day long, every day, you have all of this opportunity, this school room, to make a choice. So, I wrote down a question, “What is your reaction to any situation?” Is there enough Faith/Trust within you to question your reactions? Nobody else is going to question your reactions. But when you want to come home to Joy, when you want to come home to Harmony and Peace, and, you want to walk out of that jail cell and recognize that the door is open, then the question, the inquiry, becomes loving. It is your gift to yourself that you would question, “what is your reaction?” Is it anger, irritation, disturbance? And, only when you’re willing to not know can you proclaim Truth. When you’ve surrendered any reaction that you have to anything…. Imagine that Love looks so upside down from what you think it is within the world. So, within the world you have believed that eventually knowing is going to bring you to love…you believe that you’re honing an identity and a way of being, and it’s going to bring you to Love eventually. But, actually when you ask the question: “What am I believing in?” “What am I reacting to?” “What do I think I know?” That’s actually the Love that is coming through because it’s the truth of who you are, that actually questions.

I asked a question yesterday, “What if you never had anything to give as advice or knowing to anyone again? What if you had no knowing that you think you would have known about?” That you could be with any beloved and choose to put them into the Hands of God, and ask for God’s guidance to be of service, but not to know anything personally. And, that you would have already stepped back, because God was leading. And you have absolutely no care, no energy to have anybody know what it was you thought you knew. Or, what if you were praying for remembering, and you prayed so deeply that Holy Spirit showed up. And, as the Holy Spirit shows up, you recognize that God is right there. And the Holy Spirit says “What is it that you’re wanting?” And your heart says, “I want to come home. I want to walk through the door, and I want to be free.” The Holy Spirit says, “Perfect. Just put everything that you know into this basket over here that’s going to be part of a burning ceremony later. Put everything…every identity you’ve had, every idea that you think you know, every talent that you think you have, every habit that you have developed because you think it is the way.”

Imagine that you no longer have the capacity to tie a bow, because you had an idea that you believed you knew the right way to tie a bow, and, now, it’s in the basket. And you have nothing to tell anyone about anything. Do you hesitate to put everything in the basket, or do you gladly just take it all and put it in the basket? Okay. That hesitation, which is everybody’s hesitation more than likely, is the hesitation that is in the everyday, because every day, as you ask for guidance and “I don’t know what’s most helpful”…that’s what you’re choosing. You’re choosing shedding. It becomes so delicious to not know. You have known that you thought you were separate, and that’s all you’re letting go of. That’s all the different ways that you have believed you are separate, and you’re not.

I brought this (a book) because I was called to read something that I wrote in healing. It doesn’t make sense in its layout because it was just love that was stirring. “There is nothing to plan.” This was my basket. I cannot have tools and plans to work with. I cannot. I surrender all ideas of working. Anything that is not love. I do not and I cannot work with illusion. I cannot. All I have to do is say YES. Be YES. YES, YES, YES, YES. No swords, no battle. Only illusion battles illusion. There cannot be a battle in Love. I am the child of God and I do will there be Light. I don’t know! There are no forces to be protected from. There is no darkness. There is no evil. God is only Love and there is no evil in God. There is no evil in you. Everything else does not exist…only Love.” (Pause)

This is just everything that starts going into the basket. It doesn’t matter that you don’t fill the basket up right away. But, it’s that willingness that…finally recognizing where the pain is coming from. It’s coming from the mind that believes it knows, and it’s unloving and hateful. And, it has no intention of communion. Its main purpose is to prove worth and to control. But, it’s all fear…it’s all been honed to keep you basically in terror.

There’s a relationship with entitlement, which seems really strange. Entitlement is part of the knowing. It’s an entitlement that says I have more to offer. I have more/ better ideas. I have better solutions. I have more. And that entitlement says, I have to make everyone do it my way. But, in Truth, it’s all fabricated. The real secret belief from behind, because there’s all these layers of illusion, and one of the layers of illusion says “I have worked at this. I have worked to be the one who knows. And, I should be listened to.” And, others should be following what you believe. This is where all wars come from. I think I’m right. You have to follow what I think I know. And if you don’t, there is resentment or separation of some kind. That’s what wars are based on. And this is about no longer believing that war has any Truth. No facts, just illusion. The illusion of pain.

If you wake up in the morning and you declare, because you want to be at peace, you want to be at joy, that “today I will judge nothing.” Just for today…I will judge nothing. I will judge nothing. I will have no opinions. I will not allow any conclusions or assessments. I will judge nothing. Because everything I am at war with is in my own mind. There never was anyone out there that was the problem. It was just my knowing. That’s all. And, that’s where the pain is. Why does it always bring anger or resentment or irritation, because that wanting to be right also believes in guilt, believes that guilt has value, that when you’re not right…when others are not right, they deserve to be guilty. All of it is all fabricated. The teacher, the sage, the master is dropping keys because there’s no point to this. There’s nothing to know.

You see somebody who is following a way that they feel called to, and there’s an urge within that wants to say what’s wrong with what they’re doing. Instead of the realization that no one knows…no one knows what anyone’s journey needs to look like at all. What they need to walk through for their own learning. When there is no knowing, there’s no more worry. There’s no more fear out of being not in control. And there is this beautiful resting place that opens that has absolutely no concern about anyone’s journey or the belief that you know what their journey should be, because they’re both painful. It’s both just two sides of the coin. And, what a place of freedom, that is to not know what any one’s journey needs to look like. That you have the power to put into the Hands of God every situation, every Beloved…and then, you rest. You rest in that Love because they’re in the Hands of God. How could they be more graced? How could they receive more blessings than to be put in the Hands of God? To have your loyalty, your service, your offering of holding and giving everyone you know into the Hands of God is the great gift of Love. Because, if you don’t put them into the hands of God, you’re basically saying no…I’m in charge. Let’s leave God out of this. They don’t need to be in the Hands of God. I know what they need. I know what they’re about. I know what it’s for. And, that’s where all the fear is. To take that leap of faith to put them into the Hands of God. Everyone. It’s an offering of Love. It’s actually…it’s what the Beloved who came as Jesus…it was his demonstration. He judged no one. Even in the acting out in the crucifixion, he judged no one. And, he gave them all to God. He blessed each Beloved that was so filled with rage and anger and fear. And he poured his compassion and he gave them to God. And he reveled in their perfection. He reveled in their innocence. And he didn’t know anything of their identity or anything else. He saw them as the innocence of God and he gave them to God. And, that is the teaching…that everyone teaches, but what is it that is being taught? Is it I’m right and I know the right way of this and that and this and that? Or, I don’t know anything? I don’t know what’s best for anyone and I don’t know what their journey needs to look like.

How can I have an opinion? I don’t know what this journey needs to look like. And, in that exquisite humility, the joy begins to come bubbling through, because, without the knowing, there’s no defense. There’s nothing to defend! And, you’re no longer putting value on beliefs that have no value. You’re returning to the Source, because you’ve let go of the knowing. The knowing is not just the blatant knowing of things, it’s the belief that there are differences, and that what you have developed is somehow going to keep you safe. But, in actuality, your safety is in being undefended. Nothing that you’ve known is where your safety is. It’s actually in the not knowing…it’s actually in being undefended, which, are together. To be undefended is to not know. When you’re in a defense of anything or anybody is defending something, what would they be defending except what they think they know?

Love is calling you to no longer be the slave to good and bad, right and wrong, and light and dark. When you give your allegiance to right and wrong and good and bad and light and dark, you are giving your allegiance to illusion. So, no one can be right and no one can be wrong. Everyone is learning, and you don’t know what their journey needs to look like. And you don’t know what yours need to look like either. And in that is the joy of surrender. And in that is the Joy of being guided. That you have at your beck and call a Being of Love that has been assigned to you through every lifetime as you’ve walked in the belief of separation. You have had a divine guide… a spirit guide if you want to call it…an angel…it doesn’t matter what category you put it in, it’s a guide that only can give you Truth. The guide cannot join you in knowing. It only brings Truth, which is why most Beloveds resist guidance, because the knowing is so tempting. But the more that you open to guidance, the lighter your heart becomes, and the more confident you become in being undefended because you’re no longer so worried about outcome. You’re beginning to truly trust that it’s in the Hands of God because you’re following the guidance that’s most helpful. You are now choosing the way of Love because Love is pointing the way for you.

When your guide whispers to you “don’t worry,” this isn’t a friendly reminder, this is a correction couched in Love, but still a correction. Really, “don’t worry.” There’s nothing in worry that has any Truth. So, just hearing the voice of guidance saying “don’t worry” is the blessing of the universe. When you hear the voice of guidance that says “don’t speak,” this is also a blessing. It means, “listen, pay attention, learn.” Learn because that’s why you’re here on this earth plane. Learning the Truth of Love. When you are resistant to something and you have decided already that you don’t want to go someplace, for example, then your guide says “go,” do you listen to your dislike, your “no,” or do you go? That’s the learning of faith and the learning of trust in the guides that have been sent to you. Your ego has had an opinion about not wanting to go to whatever this going is, and, that’s the habit, is to follow the likes or dislikes that are personal opinions. But, your guide is saying “go.” And this is exactly what you have been praying for is to open to the realms of Love that will make the journey so much easier. But it’s not going to align with the ego. It’s not. Not in any way! …that’s why it’s so helpful to voluntarily surrender the belief in likes and dislikes, because they are a false state of opinions, levels and degrees that the ego has developed. And, when guidance begins to say to you go or don’t go…Love wants to lead you because you’ve been praying for that, the resistance is going to come from the ego that says I had another idea, and I know.

There is a terrific, immense freedom that begins to emerge into your awareness, as you let go of knowing. And, the most amazing thing about knowing is that it has so many layers that you start letting go of knowing and it just keeps opening. “Wow, I really thought I knew a lot.” I mean centuries of opinions, history, stories, identities, laws, agreements, cultures…all that I’ve carried in the belief of knowing. And, everybody’s carried them. But, they’re the misery makers, because the illusion…the ego has no other intention except fear, misery, separation. There’s a place in learning of Love that is the acceptance of being ignorant. And, when you come against this realization that you really see that your whole idea of everything is ignorant, it’s a leap of faith, because you’ve spent…I spent, lifetimes, but certainly this early lifetime honing at least a decent identity. And, that’s where being undefended begins to open. Not to defend that production of an identity, not to defend it anymore, and to realize that it’s just the ignorance, not stupidity, but the ignorance of Truth.

And that Love is wanting to offer you the Truth constantly…constantly. To live in that honesty, to live in the gentleness, to live as kindness, to live as forgiveness itself. To trust in the power of God to hold you in every moment; to lead you in every moment. And, that you’re ready to walk out of that cell, out of the kingdom that you thought you made. And, to truly recognize the keys that are being dropped all night for the rowdy prisoners that we have all been. The prisoners are rowdy because they’re screaming I KNOW, and battling with each other to be the knower. And all you have to do is drop the stuff into the basket of what you thought you knew. And you will never miss it. That’s the great surprise. There won’t be any crying. There won’t be sense of loss. You won’t be bereft of anything, because as you drop everything into that basket of your old identity, you’re meeting your Divine Self. You’re meeting the glory, the perfection, the innocence of the perfect child. Not a child because you stay in an identified child body or anything, but a child because every day is new, because every moment is innocent, and there’s nothing to achieve. You are everything…completely.

Do you believe that you teach? Do you believe that you are teaching through the guidance of Love? Because that is what is calling to you-to let your Heart open, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait…for the love to express itself. But in that love, there is no person, there is no pay off for the illusion at all. Only love. And, all of the personal attachment has disappeared, and it’s only Love. And you welcome the keys that open the door, and you welcome the basket to toss everything into. Even if it’s like taking a shower and everyday a little more skin comes off…throw it in the basket, and be happy that there’s a basket to throw it in, not because you need the basket, because the righteous way of remembering is by letting go of what you thought you knew. There is no judgment day. There is no judgment of you as what have you done right and what have you done wrong and how long did it take you to remember, and how many side trips did you take, and how arrogant were you, and how self-involved were you, and how angry were you? Anything else…no, none of it. You forgive yourself for the pain that you caused yourself, and it disappears because it was a mistake. It wasn’t true. You remain the Love of God.

I’ve been reading this prayer, so I’m going to read it again, starting with:

Do you believe in what you know?
If everything you think that you’ve made of your talents and ambitions,
And even the personality self were made in arrogance,
Do you believe you can decide what’s truly helpful?
How do you know what’s truly helpful, if your ego mind is devoted to arrogance?
When true humbleness dawns, you can no longer tolerate doing or speaking anything
Unless, it is obviously coming from the alignment with Spirit.
It is only the Spirit’s use of words and deeds that are truly helpful.

The Holy Spirit will use your voice and actions for what is truly helpful as you surrender. Yet, in order to use our voice and actions, everything must be given of yourselves. Everything must go into the basket. This is very humbling…your true helpfulness is under the direction of the Light of the Christ, and this is the experience of complete Joy, because you are returning to your natural state, your true state, your beautiful, complete Light.

Accept the Will of God in true humility and all you think you made will disappear.
And love will take the place of self-deception.
We lay aside the arrogance, which proclaims that we are damaged, guilty, afraid,
And we lift our hearts in true humility in surrender to our immaculate true Selves.

The power of your YES is in your surrender. We lay aside anything that proclaims that we are damaged, guilty, or afraid, because none of them are true. You are the Light, you are the Way, you are the innocence that has no knowing that needs to interfere. It’s just being Love, resting in Love, as One.

Dropping Distraction by Leo Babauta

June 24, 2016

Digital distractions plague all of us to varying extents, preventing us—myself included—from doing the things we want to do. This is a guide for anyone who wants to devote time to practice . . . but ends up fooling around online or playing iPhone trivia games (is that just me?) instead.

Recognize When it Happens

One of the insidious things about the distraction habit is that we often don’t even realize it’s happening. It sneaks up on us, like old age, and before we know it we’re addicted and powerless.

But we’re not really. The power we have is our awareness, and you can develop it right now. Start paying attention to what sites you visit, how often you’re looking at your phone, how long you’re spending in front of a screen all day.

When I wanted to quit smoking, for instance, I developed an awareness of my smoking urges. I carried around a pencil and a small scrap of paper, and put a tally mark on it each time I had the urge to smoke. I could still smoke, but I’d have to put a tally mark first.

This built my awareness muscle, and it allowed me to insert a small space between the urge and my subsequent action. Into that space, however small, I could eventually fit a choice. That was where the power came in.

See What’s Going On

Once you’re aware of the distractions and urges, you can start to examine their causes. After hours of following temptations online the other day (I was learning about two new interests, programming and cycling), I stopped and asked myself, “What’s this all about?”

It was about fear—the fear that I didn’t know what I was doing and was going to screw it all up. But it actually doesn’t matter even if I do screw it up. My value as a person isn’t tied to my successes or failures.

On the flip side of fear, my distractions are also often about fantasies: I really hope that I’ll be a great programmer or start doing century bike rides or Ironman triathlons. In reality, I don’t have time to do any of that. So I have to let the fantasies go, because they can’t come true unless I’m willing to devote my entire life to one of them for a year or two.

Take Action

So you’re building awareness and you’ve examined your causes. If you haven’t yet, take a few minutes to walk around your office or house—or better yet, get outside—and contemplate these things for a few minutes. This article can wait.

Now there are further, concrete steps you can take to rid yourself of digital distractions and focus on what you want or need to do. Consider taking one or more of these actions:

Close as many browser tabs as you can. Bookmark some if you like, or save them with a “read later” service like Instapaper or Pocket. Let the others go.
Block your favorite distractions for a few hours. Games, social media, news sites. You don’t really need to go to them that often.
Write down the times you’re going to check email and other messages. Want to process email for 20 minutes at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m.? Write that down. Stick to it.
Get away. Go outside for a walk. Ride your bike. Go for a run. Take the kids to the park.
Find a place with no WiFi, or turn off your router.
Delete social media accounts and any distracting apps on your phone—whatever you tend to turn to when you want a bump of distraction.

Of course, there are other things you can do. Go on a retreat. Practice mindfulness in bits throughout the day. Take a day off from looking at any screens. The possibilities are endless.

Consider What’s Important

We try to do everything, but then we’re not really focusing on anything. We’re not going to make any of our little fantasies come true if we pursue all of them at the same time. Decide: What is the one thing you want to pursue right now? Can you focus on that for at least a month? If not, maybe it’s not that important to you.

In the big picture, what’s truly most important to you? Pick three to four of the most important things in your life. How much of your time is devoted to these things? Can you cut out other things to focus on them? Can you give your most important things your full attention?

In my life, my writing, my family, my health, and my learning are my four most important things. And no, I don’t always devote my full attention to them. I often need to step back and remind myself what’s important.

Fall In Love All Over Again

In Pico Iyer’s book The Art of Stillness, he says that “sitting still is a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it.” This is absolutely true, and it makes clear why distractions can be so harmful: they’re turning us away from the miracle of life all around us.

Sit still for a few minutes and pay attention to what’s around you. Notice the quality of the light. Appreciate any people who might be nearby. Notice the quality of your thoughts, the sensations of various parts of your body, the loveliness of your breath as it comes in and out.

Fall in love with life all over again. And then devote yourself to it completely.

HOW TO FORM THE MEDITATION HABIT

Meditation is perhaps the most important habit to maintain if you want to change other habits. It’s a pretty simple habit to form, but the doing is everything:

Commit to just two minutes a day. If you want the habit to stick, start simply. All you’re committing to is two minutes each day. You can go up to five minutes if you’re feeling good about it, and increase it over time—slowly.

Pick a time and trigger. Not an exact time of day, but a general time, like right after you wake up or during your lunch hour. The trigger should be something you already do regularly, like drink your first cup of coffee, brush your teeth, have lunch, or arrive home from work.

Find a quiet spot. Sometimes early morning at home is best, before others in your house are awake and making noise. Or it could be a spot in a park or on the beach or some other soothing setting. It really doesn’t matter where as long as you can sit without being bothered for a few minutes.

Sit comfortably. Don’t fuss too much about how you sit, what you wear, what you sit on, and so on. I like to sit on a pillow on the floor with my back leaning against a wall, because I’m very inflexible. Others use a meditation cushion or bench, but my opinion is that any cushion or pillow will do, and some people can sit on a bare floor comfortably. Don’t go out and buy things you don’t already have.

Focus on your breath. As you breathe in, follow your breath in through your nostrils, then into your throat, then into your lungs and belly. As you breathe out, follow your breath out back into the world. If it helps, count: one breath in, two breath out, three breath in, four breath out. When you get to ten, start over. If you lose track, start over. If you find your mind wandering (and you will), bring it gently back to your breath. Repeat this process for the few minutes of your meditation.

That’s it. Practice for two minutes, every day, after the same trigger each day, and after a month you’ll have a daily meditation habit.

Originally published on Zen Habits, a blog by Leo Babauta.

O, YOU THE PROPHET ASLEEP! – by Josh Newton

June 20, 2016

Scriptures are from the eternal. They belong to eternity.

You’ve no issue with this idea. Yet, do you realise that the one who is holding the tattered book, is holier than that? Don’t you count yourself eternal? Not very much. Hence this rush for the old; for the testaments of the yore, given to the bygones, scribed by the dead.

Don’t you see that you are prophets alive? And that you don’t necessarily be the scholars of the dead?

Sruthi, the heard, the given, the transmitted, had been considered as priceless keepsake by most old civilisations. Indian region had the vedas, the upanishads. The middle east has had the testaments, old, new, then the young one, the koran.

The given were given to the ones who received them. We’ve had five thousand years of interpretations of these scriptures. Even today, every now and then, more interpretations are printed. The remake of the dead word. Humans striving their hardest best to enliven the old words! They label it as ‘new’, ‘fresh’, ‘modern’ interpretations of these ancient scripts.

What a futile labour!

Don’t you see that each of you is a prophet? There has never been the last one or can never be. For you’re the one who always had been! It was you, the Adam, the Abraham, and the Thoth! And the transmission has never ended.

Hush! Listen! The heart has always kept whispering to you. Have you given ears to it? Scriptures in tonnes shall still come through you. For, the wisdom never tires reminding the sleeping dreamer of dream of life, to wake up.

You do not need to go back to the words written and dead on papyrus or pamphlets. For the vision is still flowing through you, yes, you! Only if one would listen with one’s heart. In any which manner has it flowed, to any various of cultures it has arrived, in whatever shape it has been preserved, the wisdom has only the very same dictum to profess. Thou art Self. [ You are That. ]

Why bother anymore to read the old? Listen to the new in you.

Why be the scholar of the dead? Be the prophet of what’s alive.

By Josh Newton & published at AtmaPatha: Bliss of Being, an online magazine.

Josh is a student of A Course in Miracles, NTI and related teachings. He practices Awareness-Watching-Awareness meditation as taught by Michael Langford. Josh lives in India.

How Do I Know What Makes Me Beautiful? by David Hemphill

June 7, 2016

How do I know what makes me beautiful?
The truth is I am beauty.

A critical voice in my head once thought
That I was beautiful because of my body.
That I was beautiful because of my perfection.
It counseled me on all things beauty.
It helped me analyze my days so that
I could fix the flaws in
My body, my personality, and myself.
So that I could be perfect.

On my journey to perfection I asked to hear a loving voice.
The voice told me that I was beautiful
From the very beginning.
That I was beautiful before I decided to be perfect.
Before I started all and any of my journeys
I was beautiful
From the beginning.

A funny thing happened tonight
As I sat with my beautiful self.
I saw memories of my journey to perfection.
In the memories I seeked to make myself beautiful.
To fix my flaws and become perfect.
But then I saw a glimpse of my innate beauty,
And I asked the critical voice,
“How do you know what makes me beautiful?”
But before it could answer, the Loving voice,
With compassion and understanding, said,
“You are beauty.”

And it occurred to me in that moment
That the critical voice
Saw beauty as perfection.
But the truth is that,
And the Loving voice confirms,
I myself am beauty.

And that has been true
Since the very beginning;
Beauty is not attained.
Nor is it perfection.
Beauty is innate.
It is spiritual.
It is knowledge and life.

Transcript of New Conversations with Michael Langford

May 25, 2016

On April 6, 2016, Regina Dawn Akers visited Michael Langford near his home in Nevada.
Two 1-hour audios were recorded that day. Those audios are shared under Featured Talks.

Regina and Michael had additional conversations that day that are not included on those audios. This is a transcript of the most important excerpts from those additional conversations.

Transcript of Conversations with Michael Langford

I Love Days Like Today, by Rev. David Hemphill

May 14, 2016

I love days like today. I have gotten to see so many of my flaws. Five of my major character flaws have come up today, and all of their associated feelings have bombarded me. I have been able to handle them all because today is so kind.

The day has given me life. It has woken me up this morning, it has breathed my breath, and it has beat my heart. I know I can handle anything on days like this. These kind of days support me, and they nourish me.

My character flaws are patterns of behavior and thinking that began when I was a child and that I have carried on into my adult life. They are thoughts that worry about approval, thoughts that are judgements, or thoughts of blame, fear, or anger. These thoughts all come from a time when I thought…

That days didn’t support me. That I had to wake myself up, that I had to breathe, and that I was responsible for pushing on through the day; Thought that I had to make it, and that I had to be strong and persevere. That was never the case. The days support me. They wake me up, breathe me, and they keep coming and going without my agency. They are strong, and they persevere. It’s days like this, like today, that I love.

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