Our current goals:

• 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

Yesterday’s Course lesson told us, “Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light within you is sufficient. It alone has the power to give the gift of sight to you. Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts fly to the peace within.”

Today’s lesson gives us more specific instructions:

“Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.”

Our job is to let go of “all obstacles that you have interposed between the Son and God the Father … And with this choice we rest.” That’s it. Nothing more. The Course calls this “simplicity.”

The Course is clear that we remove the obstacles, we rest in awareness-watching-awareness, and “do not make demands, nor point the road to God by which He should appear to you. The way to reach Him is merely to let Him be. For in that way is your reality proclaimed as well.”

Our thoughts are blocks to our awareness of what we are. You cannot hold onto ideas about what you are—necessarily, ideas about what this one you think you are can and cannot do—and know the truth of being. You have heard it said “Ye are gods.” This is a true statement of our nature. Thus, it must carry with it the understanding that as such, we have no limits.

Why do we insist on claiming limits for ourselves? We enjoy kicking this idea around as theory, but our fear keeps us from seriously embracing the truth of the statement. As gods, we are responsible for what we see—who could keep your heart’s desire from you?

When we are asked to “be enlightened now,” our clinging to our habitual conceptions of ourselves twists that directive into a milquetoast entreaty along the lines of “do the best you can.” We are not humans trying to be a better humans. We are gods pretending to be human.

What this paragraph does is invite us—the prodigal son—to return home. Note that in the story of the prodigal son, no one came bounding in to save him from the life he had chosen. It was by his own choice that he returned.

We are made slave by choosing our own mantel. This lesson entreats us to throw off the mantel—acknowledge we have chosen confusion and renounce it. Acknowledge we are confused about who we are, who God is, what is good, what is bad; acknowledge that we cannot reason our way back to sanity or understanding.

The only way back home is to simply offer ourselves unto God (Truth) and ask to be shown our truth. We do this by resting in the silence—not just during sitting meditation, but during our day, in the face of the proffered answers of the thinking mind, despite our confusion about who we think we are or how we think the world works. Turning to these tactics keeps us wrapped in confusion.

We are not being asked to sit in the corner of the room and do nothing. We are being asked to ask our hearts for guidance–ask as if we were little children, who really don’t know. We don’t know what we are, what we should say or do, or what is in our own best interests. This lesson is just reminding us that we need to quit pretending that we do know and surrender to that which does.

As we are reading this week in NTI John, Chapter 10:

“I Am the way, and the thoughts that came before were not. You spent many years listening to the thoughts that came before Me, and they have given you nothing. I Am the way, because I Am the Light, and the Light is the way to Life. Open to Me. Listen to Me. Tune out all other voices by letting go of all other thoughts. The time has come to listen only unto the Light.

How is it that I Am known? I Am the Light, and so I carry with Me the characteristics of the Light and only the characteristics of the Light. You will not find fear in Me. You will find only Love. You will not find attack and war; you will find only peace. You will not find guilt or accusation; you will find only sweet forgiveness that sees that which is meaningless as meaningless and asks it to take on no meaning. You can trust My Voice, because you recognize it as yours, and you know it is yours. I Am the Light, the Light of which you are. We are one and the same, and you are Me. And so you know Me, and you recognize your desire to remember Me as all that you are.”

Our current goals:

• 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

Why wait for enlightenment? Although some like Eckhart Tolle or Bryon Katie might have a big blow out awakening experience, many more of us are awakened or are awake on a moment to moment basis when our heart is open with the Love and Truth of us out pouring from us. As today’s lesson says, “Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all.”

Perception gives way to vision once we start to look within. When we just step back and watch the mind as dispassionately as we can, we are training ourselves to be the witness to the ego’s fear based thoughts.

The thoughts you think with the thinking mind are not you or yours. We have just identified with them. They fade away and are undone when we withdraw ownership from them and withdraw focus on the outside world and our thoughts about the world. And with the relinquishment of fear based thoughts, we realize the truth and freedom that comes is an enlightened moment.

This relinquishment is facilitated with awareness-watching-awareness meditation. Today’s lesson says, “The light within you is sufficient. It alone has power to give the gift of sight to you. Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts fly to the peace within. They know the way. For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream of worldly things outside yourself, become the holy messengers of God [Truth].”

Our current goals:

• 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 begins: “No one can give unless he has. In fact, giving is proof of having. We have made this point before. What seems to make it hard to credit is not this. No one can doubt that you must first possess what you would give. It is the second phase on which the world and true perception differ. Having had and given, then the world asserts that you have lost what you possessed. The truth maintains that giving will increase what you possess.”

You give always. That is what love does. What you would witness you extend. The analogy to increasing thoughts or ideas by giving them away is apt. As ACIM indicates, not only do they increase in this way, but they grow in strength in the mind of both giver and receiver. This is wholly true of inner wisdom. As you draw from the knowledge and strength of the truth within you, you increase the strength of the recognition of truth in all minds. Awakening is, indeed, the spreading of the light in the one mind.

Even in this world you can see the practical nature of this lesson. As a peace maker, you see how peace increases as you give it. As a love giver, you see how love increases as you give it. Indeed, even fear increases as it is given. This is fundamental to our nature.**

Let’s talk about giving and receiving (or giving and increasing) in terms of the familiar phrase that means and ends are always the same. If you wish to become more articulate, how do you accomplish that? Do you read more books? Do you listen to more articulate people? Well, yes, but without employing what you have learned, do you become more articulate? No. If you want to learn to speak Spanish, will mere study without speaking teach you to speak Spanish? No.

You give of yourself by demonstrating what you have learned. Now is the time to employ what your heart has remembered. You give in the face of loss in order to demonstrate your very real knowledge that loss is impossible/not real. You love in the face of hate to demonstrate that hate is impossible. You stride forth in faith in order to demonstrate that fear is not real. All the theory in the world will not prove these things to you. As you give these traits away, you will come to understand that they truly belong to you to give. As the lesson says, you cannot give them unless you have them already.

The lesson tells us to “Protect all things you value by the act of giving them away.” At its core, the lesson is teaching us to be enlightened now, in every moment, as a means of giving what you want to keep.

How do you do that? Let me give you a few examples:

• Someone says something to you that feels like a strong insult. Be enlightened now. Don’t be defensive. Relax. Be present. Be still. Be open. Watch the energies inside of you, but don’t become involved with them.
• You find out that a friend has been taking money and other things from you, a little at a time, so that you hadn’t noticed. Be enlightened now. Instead of seeing your friend as guilty or betraying you, notice that you are unharmed.
• You go with a friend to her elderly mother’s house to help clean the house. While dusting some collectables, one slips from your hand and breaks into dozens of pieces. Be enlightened now. Watch the energies that may arise inside you, but don’t become involved with them. Apologize to your friend and her mother. If they seem upset, turn to intuition for guidance.
• A friend feels he needs some money. You’ve had lack thoughts lately too. Be enlightened now. Help your friend by giving him some money, and realize you are always taken care of.

In this way, you come to learn that the only thing lacking in any situation is what you fail to bring to it. This is what St. Francis demonstrated in his prayer:

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

“O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” Amen.

**Inner Wisdom led me to the idea of fractals as a way of demonstrating what this lesson is teaching, explaining that: “everything shares the same fundamental nature and that nature is exactly the same no matter the scale.” This is known in fractal geometry as “self similarity.” When I did a little research on fractals, I was struck by this phrase: “a fractal tells a story of the processes that created it.” Fractals are created by feeding the sum of an equation back into the equation in an endless loop. This produces repeating  patterns that appear everywhere in the universe.

Here is a 15 minute Ted talk about fractals if you care to further contemplate the analogy:

Our current goals:

• 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 reminder of how important the purpose of awakening is. The salvation of the world depends on our awakening. Although most people may not realize it consciously, they want us to awaken.

Is this true?

Yes, most definitely. Although most of the world may not consciously know it, the heart and soul of each person values awakening more than any other human accomplishment. How do we know that?

As one example, who is more revered in the hearts of most people, Jesus or Caesar Augustus? Both lived at the same time. Most people know at least a little about each man and his accomplishments. Who is loved more? Who touches people’s hearts and minds more?

You see, even though people in general are not consciously aware of it, everyone knows awakening is the most important thing a person can do in a lifetime, and everyone celebrates awakening when it is achieved.

Today’s lesson encourages us to accept awakening as the role given to us by God. Some people may think it is arrogant to think that our individual spiritual paths have such monumental importance, but this lesson points out that is confusion regarding what arrogance is and what humility is. According to the lesson, arrogance is any thought that says awakening is not our God-given function. It could be the thought that I am not worthy of awakening, or it could be the thought that there is something else I want to do. Any thought that denies awakening as my role in this lifetime is arrogance.

Humility is accepting my role with all of my heart, all of my soul and all of my mind.

Today’s lesson asks us to listen to God’s Voice that He may “reveal to us what He would have us do.” That means, listen to the part of you that is always coaching you toward awakening. It speaks to us all through the day. We just need to tap into it, so that we hear its instructions in every instant and can choose to follow them every step of the way.

There are two things that will help us hear (or feel) this Voice within us:

First, we must want to hear (or intuitively feel) this Voice over the personal thoughts in the mind.

Second, it is helpful to ask for this Voice’s guidance. Because the Voice speaks to us all through the day, we want to ask for its guidance all through the day.

A good message that helps us learn to do that is “The Purpose of Surrender” from The Teachings of Inner Ramana. That message encourages us to ask within, “What am I to do now?” throughout the day. It says that this question is a fully inclusive question, which also includes, “How shall I see this?”, “What am I to hear?”, “How shall I respond?”, etc. In other words, when we use the question “What am I to do now?” we are asking inner spiritual intuition to guide us in every aspect of our day.

Today’s lesson says, “He has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives.” This means that inner spiritual intuition will provide guidance for every situation we find ourselves in. In NTI Acts, the Inner Voice says:

In each circumstance and every situation along the way to Me, I am there with you, offering help and guidance. Never am I not there. Never can you make a mistake that will drive Me away. But it is also true that you can only hear My Word and accept My Help if you are willing to see that the answer to all things is Me.

If you choose to limit the circumstances in which I may help, My Help is limited. If you choose to solve your problems on your own, My answer remains unheard. Always, I am with you, able to help. Always, without exception, I am there. But you must be willing to know Me and accept Me in order to receive Me as yours.

Yesterday we inquired into our desires to discover what we truly want, and then we asked for that directly. Today, let’s remember to ask for guidance from the One who knows how to lead us to what we truly want. Let’s let that One guide in every detail of our life.