• Widen the horizons of our vision
• Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
• Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
• Intensify our motivation for freedom

• Widen the horizons of our vision
• Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
• Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
• Intensify our motivation for freedom

• Widen the horizons of our vision
• Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
• Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
• Intensify our motivation for freedom

Today’s lesson is quite profound. Inner Wisdom certainly had in mind for me to learn it. I read it early in the morning the day this tip was written and I would like to share my experience regarding the lesson with you. In order to do so, I must give you some details of my day.

One of the things I did today was prepare the Trustee Board Meeting Agenda. As part of our trustee meetings, we contemplate a quote chosen by Regina or myself, depending on which of us is leading the meeting. I felt drawn to a quote by J. Krishnamurti. It was a quote I had mentioned in Gentle Healing during our last session—“I don’t mind what happens.” In looking to ensure it was he who actually said it, I came to review several quotes from him on Wikiquotes. One of these came to mind (as you will see below) as I prepared this tip.

My son kept coming to mind all day. I called him this evening and we had a lovely chat. He told me of an acquaintance who was going through some very difficult times. I told him of an acquaintance of mine who was also having a difficult go of things. I told my son—“There is a lot of suffering in the world. At the very least, these things should make us grateful for our own circumstances in life.”

Shortly after the call, I sat down to read the lesson again. Here is the first paragraph of today’s lesson:

“Gratitude is a lesson hard to learn for those who look upon the world amiss. The most that they can do is see themselves as better off than others. And they try to be content because another seems to suffer more than they. How pitiful and deprecating are such thoughts! For who has cause for thanks while others have less cause? And who could suffer less because he sees another suffer more? Your gratitude is due to Him alone Who made all cause of sorrow disappear throughout the world.”

Wow! Could the message be any more on point? I read on. The lesson states: “Love makes no comparisons. And gratitude can only be sincere if it be joined to love. We offer thanks to God our Father that in us all things will find their freedom. It will never be that some are loosed while others still are bound. For who can bargain in the name of love?”

As I continued to read, I realized that this was the lesson that I discussed with a fellow Awakening Together member at the end of a phone call yesterday. He had seen something in the lesson and wanted to share it with me.

“We have been given everything. If we refuse to recognize it, we are not entitled therefore to our bitterness, and to a self-perception which regards us in a place of merciless pursuit, where we are badgered ceaselessly, and pushed about without a thought or care for us or for our future. Gratitude becomes the single thought we substitute for these insane perceptions. God has cared for us, and calls us Son. Can there be more than this?”

He shared his understanding that without having been given everything, we wouldn’t have the privilege of choosing to be bitter. Thus, he realized he could be grateful for his bitterness.

When I looked at the lesson this evening, I was amazed to see so many of these pieces come together around this lesson. I asked Inner Wisdom to share with me what I should share regarding this lesson. This is what came:

‘Blessings to you in your amazement! Haha. You are that which is loved and that which is love. You are that which extends. You are that which is.

This is the source and the cause of your gratitude. You are not unfamiliar with gratitude. You, yourself have shared that when you are quiet—when you be still—it is gratitude that you find. You found it odd to “characterize” it as such. It is not so odd.

What is the response to the all in all but gratitude? There is never any thing to be grateful for. As J. Krishnamurti said:

Passion is something which very few of us have really felt. What we may have felt is enthusiasm, which is being caught up in an emotional state over something. Our passion is for something: for music, for painting, for literature, for a country, for a woman or a man; it is always the effect of a cause. When you fall in love with someone, you are in a great state of emotion, which is the effect of that particular cause; and what I am talking about is passion without a cause. It is to be passionate about everything, not just about something, whereas most of us are passionate about a particular person or thing. I think one must see this distinction very clearly. In the state of passion without a cause, there is intensity free of all attachment; but when passion has a cause, there is attachment, and attachment is the beginning of sorrow.

Vol. XIII, p. 251

[Note that in the quote Krishnamurti speaks of “passion,” but he could just as easily have used the word “gratitude.”]

It is all causeless. The very idea of time is premised on your notions of cause and effect. Remember means and end are the same. Remember that, that which you would experience must be that which you supply. You cannot continue to think in terms linear and appreciate the nature of your Self.

You are that. Give to each other as if you know that. Give thanks for everything and nothing.’

As our lesson tells us, “We thank our Father for one thing alone; that we are separate from no living thing, and therefore one with Him. And we rejoice that no exceptions ever can be made which would reduce our wholeness, nor impair or change our function to complete the One Who is Himself completion. We give thanks for every living thing, for otherwise we offer thanks for nothing, and we fail to recognize the gifts of God to us.”

Let us then be grateful for everything by learning to see all things as “the gifts of God to us,” for surely they are that. Specifically, let’s use gratitude today to strengthen our spiritual resolve. Let’s have gratitude for everything that reminds us of our spiritual purpose and gratitude for every opportunity to practice our spiritual purpose. This is the way to remember our True Self.

• Widen the horizons of our vision
• Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
• Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
• Intensify our motivation for freedom

Recently my daughter and I were swimming at the pool at my new condo. It was a hot day and we had our drinks in plastic cups sitting at the pool’s edge so we could partake frequently. A shirtless man came along and asked where we lived and told us we couldn’t do what we were doing. I was quite defiant. I had read the posted rules on the board attached to the pool house and saw nothing that made us wrong in our behavior. I demanded that the man tell us what rules we were breaking because I was not going to be intimidated by some random guy who may or may not have any authority to tell us what to do.

Later, when I was closer to being in my right mind, I stepped back and inquired into this scenario and asked myself what did I think I’d gain through this attack on this man. Let’s see, maybe I thought women everywhere were being just a little bit liberated by my not allowing some guy to make me cow down to him and to some rules that, from my perspective, he had pulled out of thin air. Yes, I felt self righteous, indignant even. But did my attack bring me peace? If not, then wasn’t my attack self attack?

He explained he was the board president and the specific rules I had broken were addressed on a laminated sheet of paper attached to each pool side table as well as in the new member packet (which I obviously had not read). That is when I backed down and apologized, but what had my attack gained me?

Liberation and freedom from his attack is what I thought was my gain! But all I found was guilt and remorse. Even if I had been right that there were no rules governing my actions, would I have found the salvation/redemption I was seeking? Would I have felt the attributes of truth and love by challenging the guy whose agenda was different than mine?

I had the crazy idea that my salvation could be found in attacking someone outside of myself. I thought getting my way would gain me something. I thought my attack would make me safe and happy. My salvation was not found, only remorse from having my first encounter with the board president be with this belligerent women who was the newest member of the condo association.

There was no joy, no love. Now I was left suffering. Look at what I created. My attack habit was pure self sabotage. I could see how I put myself in bondage through my attack. It was only when I stepped back that I could grasp the power of my willingness. Willingness is everything. Without willingness we can go a very long time with no change in our attack habits. With great willingness, we can give up attack instantaneously. We can become willing to give up attack when we see that we do not gain through attack; we only increase our own pain.

Might I learn from this lesson and generalize the truth to see that real salvation comes from letting go of all attack forever? Am I not willing to do simple inquiry anytime I see I have forgotten my lesson that “it can be but myself I crucify?”

My salvation will never be found in the split mind. Today’s lesson says: “When you realize, once and for all, that it is you you fear, the mind perceives itself as split.” In my deceived mind I see myself as one entity and the rest of the world (everything else) as another entity. This split, this separation is my living hell and my salvation will never be found there.

• Widen the horizons of our vision
• Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
• Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
• Intensify our motivation for freedom

Today’s lesson is a simple one. We are asked to be grateful today. However, in order for our gratitude to “pave the way to Him, and shorten our learning time by more than you could ever dream of,” we need to be sure our gratitude is right-gratitude instead of mistaken gratitude.

Mistaken gratitude has judgment (comparison) in it. For example, mistaken gratitude might be grateful that my family is healthy as compared to sick, with plenty of food or money as compared to not enough, etcetera.

Right-gratitude has no judgment in it. It is not grateful for one circumstance as compared to another. It is simple gratitude for awareness-life-presence as it is.

Today’s lesson says, “We thank our Father for one thing alone; that we are separate from no living thing, and therefore one with Him. And we rejoice that no exceptions can ever be made which would reduce our wholeness, … We give thanks for every living thing …”

The lesson points out that right-gratitude is healing. That’s because right-gratitude does two things:

1 – It focuses our appreciative attention on truth (awareness-life-presence).

2 – It bypasses judgment, which is a key element of the ego thought system.

As today’s lesson says, “Walk, then, in gratitude the way of love. For hatred is forgotten when we lay comparisons aside. … Today we learn to think of gratitude in place of anger, malice and revenge. … Gratitude becomes the single thought we substitute for these insane perceptions.”

Whenever you experience any wrong-minded thought or emotion today, pause. Focus attention on awareness-life-presence, and let yourself feel gratitude for it. You can use your own awareness-life-presence to shift into right-gratitude, you can use the awareness-life-presence of another, such as a child or a pet, or you can notice awareness-life-presence in nature—in a bird, a flower, the breeze or in the sound of flowing water, etc. Whatever will help you make a genuine shift into gratitude for awareness-life-presence is acceptable.
Another helpful option may be to pause each hour, look back on the hour and remember the wrong-minded perceptions you experienced in that hour. Then, pause with each wrong-minded perception remembered and replace it with right-gratitude.

As today’s lesson says, “Gratitude goes hand in hand with love, and where one is the other must be found. For gratitude is but an aspect of the Love which is the Source of all creation.”

Therefore, when we experience right-gratitude, we experience an aspect of our true Self. We are in genuine right-perspective when we feel right-gratitude.

• Widen the horizons of our vision
• Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
• Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
• Intensify our motivation for freedom

Reading A Course in Miracles and repeating the day’s lesson to yourself hourly is not the path to freedom. Putting the teachings into practice is the path to freedom.

Today we are given another practice to add to our very useful repertoire.

I place the future in the Hands of God.

This isn’t something that we say to ourselves. This is something that we do.

Today’s lesson says, “Today’s idea takes another step toward quick salvation, and a giant stride it is indeed! … If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is, you will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can, to make it be a part of you.”

“I place the future in the Hands of God,” means ‘I do not know what is in my best interest or in the best interest of others, and so I let go of worry and control, and I trust the unfolding as it is.’

Again, this is not something that we say. This is something that we do. We need to actually let go of worry and control, and trust the unfolding as it is. The way to do this is right-reason, through realizing that we do not know what is in the best interest of others and ourselves.

Thinking we know what is best and thinking we are right is the problem. With a little bit of right-reason, we can see that we are wrong about both of those assumptions.

As of this writing, there are more than 7,400,000,000 people in the world, each with a unique point of view. How can any one point-of-view out of 7,400,000,000 points-of-view be right and know what is in the best interest of everyone?

You might agree that you can’t know what is in the best interest of everyone, but still feel that you know what is in your own best interest.

Is that true? Have you ever been wrong about that?

I remember when I was 17 years old. I met this sweet boy who I thought was the love of my life. His name was Scott. Scott and I were separated when his mother sent him to another state to live with his older brother. At the time, I thought she ruined my life. We loved each other so much!!

A few years ago, I became reacquainted with Scott through Facebook. We are so different from one another now that I felt grateful our lives went separate ways when they did, although I couldn’t see that at all at the time.

I’m sure you’ve had those types of experiences too.

If we become really honest with ourselves through right-reason, we see that we don’t know what is in our best interest or in the best interest of others. With this genuine realization, we can let go of worry and control, and simply trust the unfolding as it is.

I place the future in the Hands of God.

“As it becomes a thought that rules your mind, a habit in your problem-solving repertoire, a way of quick reaction to temptation, you extend your learning to the world.”

The lesson says, “Who entrusts himself to God has also placed the world within the Hands to which he has himself appealed for comfort and security.”

Pause and contemplate that for a moment. Doesn’t it make more sense to entrust the world to the Hands of God than it does to try and take control ourselves?

“For in God’s Hands we rest untroubled, sure that only good can come to us.”

Here’s a fun song that will help us remember that we are wisest when we trust the unfolding as it is:

https://youtu.be/9GuA5PZx3K4