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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