What Am I?

Our special theme says, “We are the bringers of salvation. We accept our part as saviors of the world, which through our joint forgiveness is redeemed. And this, our gift, is therefore given to us. We look on everyone as brother, and perceive all things as kindly and as good.”

Yesterday I addressed a confusion that forms in the minds of some students of A Course in Miracles. The confusion is that one is a divine individual, and the projection of the world comes from the divine individual mind. (For example, the idea that Sally and Sam are projections of Maria’s individual mind.)

We are not divine individuals. The individual is part of the projection of consciousness. That means that the healing of one individual mind does not end the projection of suffering in the world. That is why our special theme says the world is redeemed through our “joint forgiveness.” However, our special theme goes on to say:

And this, our gift, is therefore given to us. We look on everyone as brother, and perceive all things as kindly and as good.

Even though the world will continue with its ego projections for humans who still believe the ego thought system, the one who awakens beyond the ego thought system will see God in all projections. This is what the Course calls “true perception.” It is as Holy Spirit shared with me in one of my first scribal messages, a message that has been named, “The Ego is Not the Devil.” In that message, Holy Spirit said:

Now you may ask, “If I change my belief about the world, will I see no more sickness, no more war and no more threat?” I’ve answered this for you before in many ways, but I will put the answers together for you now so you may see what seem to be pieces as a whole.

You are not an individual. Everyone that you experience in the world is a part of you. You are aspects of one mind. When I say that the world you experience is made by you, I am not referring to you as an individual. That would indicate that separateness is truth. When I say that the world you experience is made by you, I am referring to all aspects of the mind that believe in separateness. As one aspect of the mind lets go of the belief in separateness, more Light is brought into the whole mind. It helps to rouse the Sonship, but as the Sonship continues to sleep, nightmares of separateness continue in the world.

When I indicate that what you will see will change, the word “see” and the word “perceive” are synonymous. As long as you see a world, you perceive. I am not saying that a violent crime could occur around you and that others would see it and you would not. The body’s eyes will continue to show you the seeming actions within the world of illusion. When I say you will see differently, I mean that you will perceive differently, or to be even more clear, that you will feel differently about what you see. Your perspective will be different. Your feelings will be different and therefore, your action will be different.

This message points to true perception, which is still perception, but it feels the presence of God, and it sees the reflection of God in all projections. Bernadette Roberts called this “unity consciousness.”

The Bible teaches that God is in all projections. In the opening of the Book of John, it says:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

When an individual awakens to consciousness, the world itself may not be healed, but the individual mind is healed. Therefore, it is able to see the light that “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” This seeing is the essence of true perception. Although the world may not be renewed to the point of yesterday’s scripture from Isaiah, the one awakened to consciousness sees the real reflected in the world.

We stand together, Christ and I, in peace and certainty of purpose. And in Him is His Creator, as He is in me.

Please read today’s workbook lesson in full. Notice a phrase, sentence or excerpt that you feel particularly attracted to and go into it more deeply through writing.

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What Am I?

Our special theme says, “We are the bringers of salvation. We accept our part as saviors of the world, which through our joint forgiveness is redeemed.”

If we look very carefully at this excerpt from our special theme, we will see that one answer to the question, “What am I?” is, “I am not a divine individual.”

Some students of A Course in Miracles make the mistake of thinking of themselves as a divine individual. In other words, they believe the world is a projection of their individual mind. When they believe this mistaken idea, they also think that as they heal as an individual, all ego appearances will disappear from the world.

However, let’s look closely at what our special theme says:

We are the bringers of salvation. We accept our part as saviors of the world, which through our joint forgiveness is redeemed.

When I was a young teen, my favorite Bible scripture was Isaiah 11:6-9. It says:

The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

My religion at the time was Jehovah’s Witnesses. They taught that Satan would be destroyed in a battle described in the book of Revelation. After Satan’s destruction, the Earth would become the paradise that God intended in the beginning, before Adam and Even ate of the tree of knowledge. Jehovah’s Witnesses called the renewed paradise the “new world.” I was taught that this scripture described what the new world would be like.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are not that far off with this portion of their religious understanding.

Since the ego is the cause of all suffering, all suffering must end when the self-centered ego ends. However, the self-centered ego is not in the mind of one individual alone. The self-centered ego is in the mind of humankind. It is our “joint forgiveness” that could result in the reflection this scripture points to.

We each need to participate in our individual awakening, because humankind’s “joint forgiveness” appears to happen one individual at a time. As an analogy, let’s imagine the individuals in humankind as cells in one brain, the brain of humankind. As healing and awakening spreads through the brain, individual brain cells are renewed and freed of cancerous darkness. When the healing has spread through the entire brain, healing and renewal are complete.

As individuals, we are each like a cell in the symbolic brain of humankind. We have been called to the spiritual path, because it is our turn to be healed and renewed as part of the broader awakening. However, the awakening isn’t complete until all cells have been healed and renewed. As long as ego remains in some cells within the mind of humankind, the projection that comes from the mind will continue to include appearances that come from the ego.

My eyes, my tongue, my hands, my feet today have but one purpose; to be given Christ to use to bless the world with miracles.

Please read today’s workbook lesson in full. Notice a phrase, sentence or excerpt that you feel particularly attracted to and go into it more deeply through writing.

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What Am I?

Our special theme says, “Our use for words is almost over now. … The truth of what we are is not for words to speak of nor describe. Yet we can realize our function here, and words can speak of this and teach it, too, if we exemplify the words in us.”

Today I would like to contemplate the first phrase of this excerpt along with the last phrase of the excerpt. That is:

Our use for words is almost over now … if we exemplify the words in us.

Another way of looking at this is:

Our time of learning is almost over now,
if we are ready to live from what we’ve learned.

The “if” is interesting. It means that we need to make the decision to exemplify the teachings. If we make that decision, we no longer need metaphysical education. We’ve received enough metaphysical education. However, if we are not yet ready to live from what we’ve learned, more education is needed.

In other words, the purpose of education is to bring us to the willingness to live the teachings. Once we are ready to live the teachings, education has fulfilled its role.

The Teachings of Inner Ramana makes a similar statement. It says:

It’s time to go beyond everything you’ve learned.

Everything you’ve learned has been helpful. It’s been helpful toward willingness to take this next step. But without the step that we are taking together now, all that you’ve learned serves no real purpose toward awakening.

Our first year of Gentle Healing included a lot of learning. We’ve learned:

• The person that we think we are is not what we are. It is a false self, made up of thoughts, feelings and misperceptions. This false self, typically called the ego, is the cause of all human suffering.
• The truth of what we are is life-awareness. Awakening is the process of moving from identifying with the false self to knowing our true Self as a permanent direct experience.
• The desire to know truth is the most important motivator in the process of awakening. Without that desire, we will not apply ourselves toward that end. Therefore, anything we can do to increase that desire is helpful.
• At the human level, casting our attention on thought creates neural pathways in the brain. These pathways are the source of our habits, beliefs and way of seeing. Resting attention away from thought allows previously formed pathways to dry up, which undoes previously formed habits of thought, feeling, perception and action.
• Metaphysically, casting our attention on thought feeds energy into the creative principle, which in turn creates all appearances in the world. What we feed into the creative principle also returns to us as another thought or experience. It’s important to remember that like creates like, so focusing on fear creates more fear, focusing on anger creates more anger, etcetera. Unaffectedness (resting attention away from thought and in presence) generates Grace.
• Inquiry is a valuable tool as we learn to step out of our habituated (conditioned) way of being into a way of being based on clarity. We learned several methods of inquiry including Root Cause Inquiry, Byron Katie’s “The Work,” Diedriek Wolsak’s Choose Again process and self-inquiry as taught in The Teachings of Inner Ramana.
• There are two awakenings, the first of which is awakening from the self-centered self to a self that reflects truth. A Course in Miracles refers to the first awakening as true perception. What true perception sees is the real world.
• Abiding as the unaffected self is one key way of permitting the shifts that purify us of the self-centered self and move us toward true perception. Abiding as the unaffected self can be seen as rest-accept-trust as taught by Regina Dawn Akers, never closing the heart as taught by Michael Singer, remaining in noticing presence as taught by Gina Lake or the Loving All Method as taught by Michael Langford.
• Surrender, as it is taught in The Teachings of Inner Ramana, is a valuable tool as we move away from the self-centered self to movement that is not centered in the self. Surrender allows us to be moved by something other than personal will, so we can live in the world effectively without continuing attachment to our self-centered thinking.
• We come to know our true Self through focusing on awareness. We learned to focus on awareness using short glimpses throughout the day and through daily, sustained focus using Awareness-Watching-Awareness, Loving Consciousness and Abandon Release methods of meditation.
• The second awakening is an awakening beyond the self that reflects truth (true perception) to Truth Itself (beyond perception). This is the human’s final awakening, also known as the last judgment, the final end of the ego, manonasa, and nirvana. Beyond this point, there isn’t anything that words can express or mind can imagine. This awakening is the goal of the spiritual path.

We may have learned some other things this year, but these were the main points. These teachings were taught over and over again through different teachers using different words. Hopefully these teachings are now well embedded in our brains.

As our first year of Gentle Healing ends and our second year of Gentle Healing begins, we move from more education to less education and from some practice to living the teachings in all situations. The second year of Gentle Healing will be extremely beneficial, if you live from what you learned in the first year. If you are not ready to live from those teachings, more education is needed. In that case, it is better to go back and repeat the first year of Gentle Healing than it is to continue to the second year.

Repeating the first year of Gentle Healing may feel like being “held back” in the first grade while all of your friends go on to the second grade. However, the reason for holding a student back is to increase the student’s ability to succeed. Without a good foundation, the higher levels are often too challenging for the student—possibly out of reach—and time is wasted. Repeating the first year in order to get a good foundation may be the most effective way for some students to proceed.

I am not a first grade teacher who has the authority to pass first year students or hold them back. I will not make that specific recommendation for anyone. Please let intuition guide you. It may be a matter of whether you applied yourself well to the first year or spent a significant amount of time not applying yourself to our daily lessons and homework. As you review the bullets above, you may know if you effectively digested the education necessary to continue to the second year.

Judgment and love are opposites. From one come all the sorrows of the world. But from the other comes the peace of God Himself.

Please read today’s workbook lesson in full. Notice a phrase, sentence or excerpt that you feel particularly attracted to and go into it more deeply through writing.

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What Am I?

Today we begin contemplation of our last special theme, “What am I?” However, the answer to this question cannot be found in the words written on the page. It’s interesting, because the italicized words at the top of the special theme are written as if they are the answer to the question, but they are not. The better answer to the question is found in the middle of the second paragraph where it says, “The truth of what we are is not for words to speak of nor describe.”

With that said, let’s look at the words in the italicized paragraph and see what helpfulness we can find there:

• I am … complete and healed and whole: These words are helpful, because they mean that anything you find in yourself that is not “complete and healed and whole” is not what you are. You do not need to believe it or identify with it, because it is not you. You also do not want to indulge it, because it does not represent what you are. Instead, notice it, and then let it go (or accept it as it is).
• In me … guaranteed eternal life: This points to the answer to the question, “What am I?” You are to look within (“in me”) and find that which is eternal. Humans tend to think of “eternal” as a measurement of time—that is, endless time. However, eternal transcends time. When looking for that which is eternal, look for that which is always present, absolutely changeless, and you (rather than an object apparent to you.)
• In me is love perfected, fear impossible, and joy established without opposite: Although these words point to the Effectless, we could say these are the effects we experience as we come to know our Self more and more. This is important to know, because our Self is so subtle it can’t be known in the way an object is known. If it could be known, it would be an object apparent to us rather than what we are. However, the effects of knowing our Self can be known. So, although there is no way to measure your progress in knowing your Self directly, you can measure it indirectly by noticing the effects. An increase in inexplicable love, a reduction in psychological fear and self-preservation, and an increase in causeless joy are the signs of coming to know the Self.
• I am the holy home of God Himself: For consciousness, God is an object that is experienced by a subject. Or said another way, “I” experience the stillness of God. This subject-object experience increases as one awakens, but it is also a sign that awakening is not complete. When the subject-object experience of God ends in a non-dual recognition, awakening has completed itself by returning to the point where consciousness departed from Truth. This point is often called “home.”
• I am … Sinlessness Itself, … purity: With “sinlessness” meaning unaffected and “purity” meaning unchanged, these words point to what you are and will help you recognize it. Their opposite is what you are not and can be deemed untrue.

My sinless brother is my guide to peace. My sinful brother is my guide to pain. And which I choose to see I will behold.

Please read today’s workbook lesson in full. Notice a phrase, sentence or excerpt that you feel particularly attracted to and go into it more deeply through writing.

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What is the miracle?

Before leaving this special theme for the next one, let’s circle back and look at this excerpt again:

A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. … It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness. Thus it stays within time’s limits. Yet it paves the way for the return of timelessness and love’s awakening, for fear must slip away under the gentle remedy it brings.

The sense of self is more than self-centeredness. Although the sense of self is not our very existence, it is what feels like existence to us. That means that once the wrong-minded self-centered self ends, the next step in awakening is the end of the sense of existing or the sense of I am. The sense of existing and life are not the same thing. Life, which is what we are, does not end. The sense of existence is an energy that we have mistaken for life.

Remember Nisargadatta’s instructions to the man who said, “I see you smoking!” He said, “At the root is the sense ‘I am’. Go beyond it.”

Here is a brief video by Dr. David Hawkins about his experience with the end of the sense of existing. He calls it the Final Doorway. (The tip continues after the video.)

Note: Here is another brief video where Dr. David Hawkins describes the same experience with a different emphasis.

As our special theme says, the miracle works within time and perception. It moves us from self-centered existence to existence that reflects reality. This existence could be seen as a spotless mirror. Reality is reflected in the spotless mirror—in this sense of existence—but reflected reality is not reality itself.

The miracle cleans the mirror of the self-centered self. When the mirror is spotless, the miracle’s function has come to an end. It is another movement that takes us beyond time and the mirror, a movement that exceeds perception entirely. That movement is known as the final doorway, the eye of the needle, the last judgment, God’s final step, manonasa, etcetera.

Miracles mirror God’s eternal Love. To offer them is to remember Him, and through His memory to save the world.

Please read today’s workbook lesson in full. Notice a phrase, sentence or excerpt that you feel particularly attracted to and go into it more deeply through writing.

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What Is a Miracle?

Let’s review what we’ve already contemplated about the miracle in order to look at the miracle as a whole.

1. A miracle is not a correction. In fact, it is not a change at all. It is a shift in perception, which is a shift in our way of seeing and experiencing.
2. The miracle could be called a shift in meaning. It gently shifts away from the valueless (temporary appearance) and towards the valuable (reality). That means circumstances that we saw as meaningful before gradually have less meaning while awareness, which once had no meaning at all, becomes more present and centrally meaningful.
3. The core shift that occurs with the miracle is a shift from a self-centered existence and way of perceiving to existence that is not centered in the self. Existence not centered in the self is called true perception, because perception is not colored by self’s personal biases. This core shift may be dramatic or it may be gradual, the culmination of many smaller shifts.
4. Because the self-centered self will attempt to cling to its self-centered nature, it is important for the individual to have a desire to go beyond the self-centered self and faith that existence beyond the self-centered self is more valuable than existence as a self-centered self.
5. The way to enable the miracle is to abide, to the best of one’s ability, as the unaffected self. Being unaffected is synonymous with not being self-centered or not believing self-centered thoughts, perceptions and feelings. The Loving All Method is a simple, gentle and clear method for abiding as the unaffected self. When we abide as the unaffected self, we do not cling to the self-centered self. This enables the miracle, because we are no longer fighting against the miracle.
6. The miracle is both personal and impersonal. It is personal, because the medium of the miracle is the only one who experiences the shift directly. It is impersonal because the shift in perception causes material effects through the creative principle. The one who experienced the miracle may or may not witness the material effects.
7. People often confuse a material effect with the miracle by thinking the material effect is the miracle. The miracle is the shift in perception. It is permanent and irreversible. The effect of the shift is not the miracle; it is a temporary appearance.
8. The spiritual aspirant helps in the process of shifting from self-centered existence to existence that is not self-centered by being aware of his own process, participating in it fully, and prayerfully asking for clarity, guidance, and shifts.
9. To continually seek advancement on a journey from the known to the unknown takes faith. If one will have faith and take the journey, miracles and their effects will reinforce faith. This results in confidence, which enables one to go further into the unknown.

Today I let Christ’s vision look upon all things for me and judge them not, but give each one a miracle of love instead.

Today we give the freedom that we seek by practicing the Loving All Method instead of judgment.

Please read today’s workbook lesson in full. Notice a phrase, sentence or excerpt that you feel particularly attracted to and go into it more deeply through writing. I have demonstrated this practice repeatedly by selecting an excerpt from the special theme and writing based on that excerpt. Increased clarity can come through this type of focused contemplation. The clarity that is perfect for you will come through the selection you are attracted to. You can open up to this clarity by asking to see what is most helpful for you to see, and then begin writing with faith that this prayer will be answered.

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What Is a Miracle?

Our special theme says, “The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand. Yet faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it rested on is really there. And thus the miracle will justify your faith in it, and show it rested on a world more real than what you saw before; a world redeemed from what you thought was there.”

When talking about the phases one goes through in the development of trust, A Course in Miracles Manual for Teachers says:

[The teacher of God] thought he learned willingness, but now he sees that he does not know what the willingness is for.  …  He must learn to lay all judgment aside, and ask only what he really wants in every circumstance.  Were not each step in this direction so heavily reinforced, it would be hard indeed!

This paragraph comforted me during many trials along this path. The trials were times that I feared real sacrifice was about to occur. For example, there were times that I feared running out of money, because by following guidance I left a traditional job and began to do what I was guided to do without any direct source of income. I was worried about how I would care for my daughter and myself; my daughter was only a little girl at the time. That paragraph from the Manual for Teachers reminded me to ask only for what I really want, which is awakening, and it promised that the rightness of that choice would be “heavily reinforced.”

My experience has been that this works. It is as Jesus taught, “Seek ye first the kingdom, and all else will be added to you.”

Again today, we are looking at the power of faith and asking, with asking focused on truth and not on conditions in the world. As we stay focused on seeking truth, the creative principle responds by providing the most helpful material circumstances.

When our special theme says, “faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it rested on is really there,” it is pointing to both the shift in perception and its material effects. Both are “witnesses,” which “heavily reinforce” our choice to abide as unaffected.

It is a mistake to expect a specific material outcome as a result of faith. Whenever we expect or desire a specific outcome, we think with ego, and so it is the energy of ego that is fed into the creative principle on our behalf. To feed the energy of the miracle into the creative principle, we must seek only for truth (in whatever way your mind words that aspiration). It is this seeking that brings the miracle, its effects and the positive reinforcement.

I have no cause for anger or for fear, for You surround me. And in every need that I perceive, Your grace suffices me.

Today’s lesson says, “Father, let me remember You are here, and I am not alone. Surrounding me is everlasting Love. I have no cause for anything except the perfect peace and joy I share with You. … God’s grace suffices us in everything that He would have us do. And only that we choose to be our will as well as His.”

Today, let’s notice our concerns.

1. What material changes do you think you need in order to be happy, feel safe, be relieved of anxiety or to focus on God/Truth? Write them down.
2. Look at each desired change, one at a time. Notice how willing you are to let go of that specific desire in trust that as you seek truth, everything that is genuinely helpful will be given. Also notice where you do not feel that willingness or trust. (Simply look and notice.)
3. After looking at yourself in this way, contemplate what you noticed. Just sit and be with what you’ve noticed without judgment or guilt. Our goal is to become more clear regarding ourselves, our fears, our motivations, etc. If you feel guided to write as you contemplate what you noticed, please follow that guidance.
4. When you feel complete with #3, see if a prayer arises in you. If so, pray the prayer that is in your heart.

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What Is a Miracle?

Our special theme says, “The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand.”

There are two points from today’s selection that I would like to contemplate. First, let’s look at faith.

Bernadette Roberts wrote, “Indeed, it is because Truth is unbelievable that man needs faith—faith, which is beyond belief.”

What is faith? Faith is trust or confidence in something based on spiritual understanding rather than proof.

I have learned that faith is better than seeking proof, primarily because we cannot find proof until we have walked the journey and experienced it for ourselves. As Bernadette also wrote, “Complete understanding can only come at the end of the journey.” That’s because complete understanding comes from direct experience.

Every phase of the journey that still lies ahead is not understandable and not provable from the perspective of where we are now. This is why we need faith. We need faith that there is truth or higher seeing beyond our current way of seeing in order to motivate us to continue the journey. Without faith in something beyond our current knowing, our journey may stall.

A hiker keeps up the hike because there is still something to see that hasn’t been seen yet. It’s as the old song goes:

The bear went over the mountain,
the bear went over the mountain,
the bear went over the mountain,
to see what he could see.

Faith is trusting there is something to see that hasn’t been seen yet.

The second point I’d like to contemplate from today’s selection is this: “because to ask for it implies that the mind has been made ready…”

It is wonderful to ask. In my Buddha at the Gas Pump interview, Rick Archer commented that when I asked for something, I received it. It’s true. All along my spiritual journey, as I became ready for a particular phase of the journey, I found myself asking for it, and then that phase of the journey would begin. Of course, I didn’t always know what to ask for. I just knew I was ready for whatever was next. For example, just before The Teachings of Inner Ramana came, I asked for something that would take me to the next step. Just before a massive phase of purification started, I asked for something that would take me higher into love. In fact, the entire spiritual journey began when I asked for truth regardless of what it is.

Asking is grand! I like to begin each day’s contemplation by asking to see whatever is most helpful for me to see now. I begin each meditation by putting the meditation in the hands of Ramana and asking that it be whatever is most helpful for me now.

When we ask from a state of readiness, Grace responds. It is as NTI Revelation says:

You will never be asked to take a single step alone, but you must always be willing to take the lead by deciding the purpose and calling it out to Us.

Anger must come from judgment. Judgment is the weapon I would use against myself, to keep the miracle away from me.

Today’s workbook lesson demonstrates asking when it says, “Straighten my mind, my Father.”

Of course, the words themselves are never the prayer. The prayer that moves Grace is the heartfelt readiness and faith that is at the foundation of the prayer. Until one sees for herself how hurtful judgment is, genuinely tires of the judging mind, and has faith that it is possible to be free of judgment, she will not ask with the dynamism that moves mountains. (Ref: Mark 11:23)

How do we prepare ourselves for a sincere prayer?

We simply be where we are on this journey now to the best of our ability and pay attention to everything. As we do that, we are naturally prepared for our next step. When we are ready for our next step, we will feel it, and we will ask for it sincerely.

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What Is a Miracle?

Our special theme says, “Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love. And each is laid before the Word of God, upon the universal altar to Creator and creation in the light of perfect purity and endless joy.”

This reminds me of the opening of the Book of John in the Bible. It says:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. …

Once I looked up the word “word” in the dictionary to try to get some clarity on this passage from John. As I read the definitions of “word,” they seemed not to apply until I came across this definition:

an utterance

I looked up “utterance,” and found it to be the expression of an idea.

With that, I looked back at the opening paragraph of the Book of John and saw this:

In the beginning was an utterance—an idea expressed—and the utterance was with God, which is life, and the utterance was inseparable from life. It was with life in the beginning. Through utterance combined with life all things were made manifest; without utterance nothing was made that has been made. In the utterance was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. …

From that understanding of this scripture, I came up with this formula:

Life + Utterance = Manifestation

To make this simple, let me express it this way:

When we give expression to an idea by believing it and giving attention to it, it becomes infused with the life of our awareness, and it becomes manifest in some way. This is universal, divine law. It is the Third Principle of God, the creative principle.

With this little bit of clarity, let’s look back at today’s selection from our special theme:

Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love. And each is laid before the Word of God, upon the universal altar to Creator and creation in the light of perfect purity and endless joy.

We’ve already seen that the “lily of forgiveness” is our choice to abide as unaffectedness, which is also the Loving All Method. Each time we abide as unaffected—each time we practice or live the Loving All Method—the expression of that choice becomes a silent utterance fed into the creative principle (the Word of God, the universal altar to Creator and creation) and results in a perfectly pure and joyous manifestation. These manifestations are often called Grace.

Grace shows up in the world in innumerable ways, in any way that is helpful in the moment. Grace is usually seen as a miracle, but Grace is actually the effect of the miracle.

The miracle is the shift in perception from seeing one’s self as affected to seeing one’s self as unaffected. This miracle, the lily of forgiveness, fed into the creative principle, creates its likeness in manifestation, because all ideas manifested through the creative principle manifest in the likeness of themselves.

Today the peace of God envelops me, And I forget all things except His Love.

Today’s workbook lesson says, “Father, I wake today with miracles correcting my perception of all things. … I do not seek the things of time, and so I will not look upon them. What I seek today transcends all laws of time and things perceived in time. I would forget all things except Your Love. I would abide in You, and know no laws except Your law of love.”

In other words, today we do not seek to fix, change, get or avoid things or circumstances in the world, because we know that judgment, as well as thought and action based on judgment, goes into the creative principle and creates like itself—more to fix, change, get or avoid.

Instead, we awake today with the realization of how divine law works. We understand that our safety and the world’s safety lies in our unaffectedness. It lies in living the Loving All Method, because when the safety of the Loving All Method is fed into the creative principle, it manifests like itself, thereby manifesting true safety as Grace.

Our way of being is a more important choice than most humans ever begin to imagine. The miracle today is that we accept this as true, and because we accept this as true, we put more effort into being the Loving All Method.

Be Loving All.
See yourself as that,
instead of as a person.

Being Loving All is forgetting “all things except God’s Love.”

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What is a miracle?

Our special theme says, “Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love.”

Others may not notice our miracles—that is, others may not notice our individual shifts in perception. That’s because each one sees through the filter of his/her mind. If we tell them about our shifts, they may not believe us or they may quickly forget. And that is as it is.

That’s why our special theme refers to the “silent miracle of love.” It is a miracle that is free to go unnoticed by everyone except the one who is the medium of the miracle. The one who abides as the unaffected Self to the point that a shift occurs is aware of the miracle. He/she is also aware of the universality of the miracle, although the miracle may have effects the he/she will never be aware of.

This means that we cannot look outside ourselves for evidence of a miracle or for understanding of what has occurred. The miracle is ours to behold as it has been revealed to us, while also knowing a miracle could never belong to us alone.

I offer only miracles today, For I would have them returned to me.

When we offer miracles, we do not offer corrections for the problems we see in the world. We offer miracles by living the Loving All Method. It is as simple as that. If something is to change in form as an effect of our miracles—well, we leave that to the unpredictability of the creative principle. Outward effects are not our concern. Forgiveness is our only function.

In the Bible, Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:1, 2)

He also said, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38)

These two scriptures point to the same universal law—we receive whatever we give. As today’s workbook lesson says:

Father, a miracle reflects Your gifts to me, Your Son. And every one I give returns to me, reminding me the law of love is universal.

As we live from the unaffected Self, we become unaffected. In this way, we transcend (or overcome) the world. This can be reflected in how we see a situation, and it can be reflected in the situation itself. A situation can change as a result of our way of being. However, it is never for us to decide that a situation must change, because by deciding that is so, we have also decided that we are affected by that situation. By that very decision, we have judged instead of abiding as unaffected.

The subtlety of this teaching is confusing to the mind. When this teaching is explained, people ask questions like, “So, if my husband is beating me, I just continue to let him do that?” Or, “If someone is abusing an animal, do we just stand by and watch?”

As Chapter 12 of The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss explains:

The Loving All Method refers only to your emotions. No changes in your external behavior are required.

For example: if a vase falls and you would normally try and catch it, you will also try and catch the vase while you are practicing the Loving All Method. You do not allow the vase to fall because you are loving the falling.

If someone were to try to punch you in the face and if you would normally duck, you will also duck while practicing the Loving All Method. The fact that you are loving the fact that someone is trying to punch you does not mean you will not duck. You also love the fact that you are ducking to avoid being punched.

The Loving All Method is about emotional acceptance. The Loving All Method is not about changing your actions.

Interestingly, when people ask about the abusive husband or the abused animal, they are usually not in those situations, they are only thinking about them. Thinking is trying to confuse a teaching that can be quite simple. If you forget about hypothetical examples and simply live in the moment, the simplicity of the teaching reveals itself. You will know what to do in each moment, and you will do it.

Today, as you live the Loving All Method, let doing remain in the moment instead of in thinking. Let the day unfold naturally, including your doing, as you concentrate on loving, accepting or allowing, whichever is your highest possibility in the moment.

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