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ACIM Weekly Reader Carmen-Thomas Designs original. Ceramic 12 ounce mug Measures 3.75" tall, 3" diameter CafePress.com #: 162940753 | Give the gift of hope "Give each other hope, for hope and mercy are yours to give, given to you by God." — from A Course in Miracles "Here is the holy place of resurrection, to which we come again; to which we will return until redemption is accomplished and received. Think who your brother is, before you would condemn him. And offer thanks to God that he is holy, and has been given the gift of holiness for you. Join him in gladness, and remove all trace of guilt from his disturbed and tortured mind. Help him to lift the heavy burden of sin you laid upon him and he accepted as his own, and toss it lightly and with happy laughter away from him. Press it not like thorns against his brow, nor nail him to it, unredeemed and hopeless. "Give faith to one another, for faith and hope and mercy are yours to give. Into the hands that give, the gift is given. Look on your brother, and see in him the gift of God you would receive. It is almost Easter, the time of resurrection. Let us give redemption to each other and share in it, that we may rise as one in resurrection, not separate in death. Behold the gift of freedom that I gave the Holy Spirit for you. And be you free together, as you offer to the Holy Spirit this same gift. And giving it, receive it of him in return for what you gave. He leadeth you and me together, that we might meet here in this holy place, and make the same decision. "Free your brother here, as I freed you. Give him the selfsame gift, nor look upon him with condemnation of any kind. See him as guiltless as I look on you, and overlook the sins he thinks he sees within himself. Offer your brother freedom and complete release from sin, here in the garden of seeming agony and death. So will we prepare together the way unto the resurrection of God's Son, and let him rise again to glad remembrance of his Father, Who knows no sin, no death, but only life eternal." A Course in Miracles — The Lifting of the Veil Christ in TrainingChrist in Training — Second Excerpt — Read the first excerpt - click here. In the Beginning If you have ever looked into a little baby's eyes (and if you have not, please do), what you see looking back at you is Infinity. You discover yourself looking at a being that has it all together. We were all like that once. This is a simple model of how that looks on the inside. Our Spiritual Nature (what we are calling the Soul), is always connected to the Divine and is shining through our eyes. The little ego, which is the beginning of a personality or sense of individuality, does not have much to do and therefore does not interfere with the sense of Spirit within.  The Spirit is the leading energy here. This integration of Soul and ego is what Jesus was talking about when he told us to become as 'little children.' He was encouraging us to enter back into that state of harmony and integration, but to do it consciously. In other words, Jesus asked us to be "born again." He told us to be born again into this integrated awareness of the dominance of the Soul over the ego, and to do that in such a way that we are conscious of it. The little baby is very well integrated with the Soul leading the way, but the baby is not conscious of that integration. It is simply in its natural state. We as adults are asked to enter into that state of integration consciously, and we can exercise the choice to do so. Losing It So what happened? How come we could not just move from unconscious integration to a conscious balance of ego and Soul? Well, what happens is we get duped along the way; we get convinced that we are something other than One with God. We get convinced that other things are more important than being One with God. We become convinced that other things are more important than our Spiritual nature. Now those influences could be significant things in life, like job, or money, or a relationship. These aspects of life are certainly significant, but we have a tendency to make idols or false gods out of these important things. Our "idols" begin to take the place of our Oneness with God, and we start losing touch with our true nature. We do not deliberately choose to put our Spiritual Self aside, but that is what happens. We forget the powerful maxim of Jesus, "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all things else will follow." We forget the beautiful message in Emmett Fox's GOLDEN KEY: "... whatever (concerns you), stop thinking about it and think of God instead."i We begin to seek our joy, our freedom and our sustenance in sources other than God. God is inside of us, but we do not always realize it, acknowledge it, or act on that truth. What is happening here? How do you begin to lose something so significant and meaningful as your own spiritual nature and the Presence of God in your life? There are times when you might wake up in the morning and wonder who is going to show up. Is the person who knows "God is in you" going to show up? Are you going to perceive yourself as being in the flow of life--loving, strong, and gentle; or is this self-centered little ego, who thinks everything is about himself/herself, going to take center stage. Some days, you might not know. This dilemma of knowing what to do, wanting to do it, and yet going against your own positive desires is beautifully expressed by Paul in Romans: "I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can't. I do what I don't want to; I do what I hate." Romans 7:15 Living Bible How do these dynamics happen to unfold? It is important to understand the process of "forgetting," then you can "remember." You can get back to the belief "God is in me," and allow your actions to flow from that belief. Me and My Ego We use the word "ego" quite often. Please understand this is not a Freudian or psychological explanation. The concept of 'ego' here is an expression of your 'limited, separate self.' Your ego is an important part of your vehicle here on earth. One of the major tasks of your ego is to establish a sense of individuality, and although that is a necessary piece of development, it can cause some difficulties. When you begin to make distinctions between yourself and others, you create a distance. Even your language creates a sense of separation; the simple use of the words "me" and "you" create a divide. It is not surprising that the three most important words in a two-year old's vocabulary are "NO, ME, and MINE." This is the time in development when the sense of individuality is consciously expressed, and with it the sense of separation. Your ego also represents your personality, and all the different roles you play in life. Because the ego is responsible for your sense of individuality, your ego also lives with a certain amount of isolation. The ego by its nature has a difficult time seeing beyond itself, and because of its contracted vision and understanding, it experiences other individuals as threatening. It lives in either a constant state of overblown self-importance, or dramatically exaggerated unimportance. It is either saying, "Hey, pay attention to me!" or "Nobody loves me; nobody could love me." The ego can also be viewed as a primitive part of the self. It is an extension of our early evolutionary protection that has become part of our human condition. Imagine you are a little animal trying to survive here on planet Earth. You need to be constantly vigilant. If you are not wary, then something will swoop down and gobble you up. You need to be totally 'self-conscious.' As soon as you start thinking about someone else, you will be distracted and stepped on and/or eaten. The little ego that is a part of you carries with it these same characteristics. Your ego is not a bad thing; it is just limited in its understanding of what is. When your thinking becomes distorted, you think your ego is all that you are. Because the ego is so self-protective by nature, it perceives most other egos as a threat. Even in the most benign of situations, egos can come in conflict with one another. For example, after a child is born and for some time afterward, in most average, loving homes, there is a sense of wonder and reverence around the new baby. The most insignificant things like pooping, sneezing and smiling are looked upon with exaggerated excitement, but after 6 months or so, the tasks of changing diapers, feeding, and cleaning-up begin to produce a bit of ennui or resentment. You might know you should not feel this way but you do. "Why couldn't he just have waited until I got the diaper on before he peed?" "We're all out of pabulum. Now I have to go to the store again, I wish she were eating more solid food." Little by little what was wonderful begins to become abrasive. Of course, there is some natural "newness" that wears off, but another thing that is happening here is that the child is developing its own ego. The baby is forming its own identity, and the child's ego is beginning to "rub" against Mom and Dad's egos. When egos meet, they inevitably clash. So the question arises again, "How did we begin to get so lost in our ego consciousness?" Our model continues to illustrate the process of our earthly development, and offers some ideas about our increasing identification with our ego and its limited perceptions. We begin to move from the integrated state of our Soul's power being predominant over the ego to a stage of exploration and experimentation. Imagine the ego, which is linked to our intellect and our five senses, as a little shuttle craft that sets out to investigate the physical world. Again, presuming a relatively loving environment, the exploring ego finds the world a fairly safe and comfortable place. When you are cold, you get covered; when you are hungry, you get fed; when you are thirsty you are given something to drink; when you cry, someone holds you. To be continued . . . . |
Thursday, October 30, 2008
ACIM Weekly Reader vol 1 no. 9
