Into The Ego: Our Condition


By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach
Denver, Colorado

The Human Condition

The human mind is fragile. Any level of self-remedy is thwarted by our own impulse to self-sabotage. Our mental or inner world are a constant of being deceived and deceiving, in which extensions of love from a caring creator are projected to be threats against our conflicted souls. Our ego functions as to purposely hide the truth from us. Living within our self-created delusions and projections, we are deceived by the seduction of our own self-perpetuated lusts. Extending our unbiased love to others only to relize what was extended as sincere has been misinterpreted through the projections of another.

The unhealed mind faces varying degrees of these types of projections, demons of our past, derived from unhealed emotions caused by perceived attacks and afflictions:'Each one peoples his world with figures from his individual past, and it is because of this that private worlds do differ. Yet the figures that he sees were never real, for they are made up only of his reactions to his brothers, and do not include their reactions to him. Therefore, he does not see he made them, and that they are not whole. For these figures have no witnesses, being perceived in one separate mind only.

It is through these strange and shadowy figures that the insane relate to their insane world. For they see only those who remind them of these images, and it is to them that they relate. Thus do they communicate with those who are not there, and it is they who answer them. And no one hears their answer save him who called upon them, and he alone believes they answered him. Projection makes perception, and you cannot see beyond it. Again and again have you attacked your brother, because you saw in him a shadow figure in your private world. And thus it is you must attack yourself first, for what you attack is not in others. Its only reality is in your own mind, and by attacking others you are literally attacking what is not there.

The delusional can be very destructive, for they do not recognize they have condemned themselves. They do not wish to die, yet they will not let condemnation go. And so they separate into their private worlds, where everything is disordered, and where what is within appears to be without. Yet what is within they do not see, for the reality of their brothers they cannot recognize.'

-ACIM

The Beginning

In the beginning God created man and woman in his image. '… And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.'

God created man and woman to live in perfect emotional and mental freedom without inhibition, shame, or guilt.

The Beginning Of The End

Later God spoke to Adam and said not to eat of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The implications of judging from good and evil are profound. This is a depiction of God forbiding man to set himself up as a god unto himself; judging The Creator, himself, and his brother. God's concern for man was only because he understood that allowing man to be the judge of good and evil would only hurt man.

In his own judgment man has no choice than to feel guilty, because of the predilection to judge himself first as unworthy or to feel ashamed as Adam did in the garden. From the moment that he allows his fragile mind to judge everything in degrees of good and evil he loses a sense of confidence and loses his identity.

The Beginning Of Destructive Emotions

So here we have shame for the first time. Adam was ashamed of himself misjudging himself and than extended that same judgment to Eve.

In similar scenarios we either become self-condemning or critical of others, which is just our projected guilt… "I'm tired of feeling guilty all the time…so now you're guilty." We play this strange type of tag, not realizing that "[There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…"

Usurping The Judgment Of God

Shame is only felt when we perceive to be separated from our creator: 'And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.' As exemplified in Adam's judgment of Eve before God '...And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest [to be] with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.'

We must begin to witness the parallels of Adams condition to our own. Adam's condition is meant to exemplify our preconditioning before salvation just as the second Adam (Jesus) is to exemplify our post-conditioning or our potential. We must release the tendency to usurp the judgment of God.

The Answer

It is by the insight, and by understanding the nature of God and our nature through God that the miraculous occurs. All we need to do is trust the process, healing will take care of itself, as an extension of this self-perpetuating revelation.

Salvation is nothing more than "right-mindedness," which is not the one-mindedness of the Holy Spirit, but which must be achieved before one-mindedness is restored. Right-mindedness leads to the next step automatically, because right perception is uniformly without attack, and therefore wrong-mindedness is obliterated. The ego cannot survive without judgment, and is laid aside accordingly. The mind then has only one direction in which it can move. Its direction is always automatic, because it cannot but be dictated by the thought system to which it adheres.

- ACIM

In Closing

Every day we are given the opportunity: to obey the holy spirit and not eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Every day we choose to eat of the tree; by feeling condemned or guilty, or becoming critical of our brother, and of God.

Feeling condemnation or guilt connotes punishment, for wrong doing. If Christ is your home there is no punishment- this is an extension of his grace. And it is certainly not your place to be condemning toward your brother, unless you are attempting to set yourself up as a god.

I leave you with these parting words:

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God. - ACIM

Into The Ego (Series) 

Thought Systems
Our Condition

Into The Ego: Thought Systems



By: Santi Chacon
Business Coach
Denver, Colorado

The Two Thought-Systems: Our Problem

Two thought systems exist in our lives. One thought system is based on the will or sovereignty of God the other is based on fear. The thought system that is based on fear is called the ego (in the bible it's called 'the old man' or 'the flesh') and the thought system that is based on the will of God is knowledge or truth (under one law, the law of love or God. - ACIM).

The ego's thought system is formed in one of two ways, either, we model unhealthy behaviors in our environment or we make decisions based on what we perceive to be emotional voids or personal attacks. The symptomatic actions that derive from our mis-perceptions are products of a deep rooted belief system that is embedded in our subconscious mind. These actions are played out simply because we don't understand our "truth" or true nature in God.

What we discover later about these actions is that the emotions attached to them become an addiction, in which become self perpetuating. On this note St. Paul states: "The acts of the sinful nature (ego) are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God".

It is this type of addictive behavior that become the illusions to our truth. We mistake physical sensation and fulfillment as the only reality.

Our Three Gifts: Our Solution
  1. Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'there it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."
  2. God determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' 
  3. The third gift is the realization of the first two gifts.  These sentiments weren't meant for the converted, but rather the unconverted. All along he has been with us, and all along we were in Him; and we have been guided by his hand. God is always within us and we inside of him it is what we call: 'OmniPresence'. There is nowhere we can go where God is not. - The Psalmist uttered: "If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there".
The Beginning Of Our Way Out: Our First Step

So, it is here we must begin our journey, to understand the way out of what some have described as a dream or unreality. The ego is simply an extension of our projections, based on a legacy that was left behind by whom the bible called the first Adam.

The Garden of Eden, or the pre-separation condition, was a state of mind in which nothing was needed. When Adam listened to the "lies of the serpent," all he heard was untruth. You do not have to continue to believe what is not true unless you choose to do so.

-ACIM

Into The Ego (Series)

Thought Systems
Our Condition

Our Conclusion



A Summery Of Our Journey Together:

As a student/disciple (disciplined follower) of Christ, as you attempt to understand the material you have before you it's very important that you see the details, the pieces of the puzzle if you will, before you can see the vision of totality.

Just as understanding microeconomics helps to unveil the principles of macroeconomics. The same is true for us in our micro-existence i.e. the internal struggles, thought systems etc., Understanding this internal world will help us to unveil or understand our external world (our macro-existence) better.

This is not a journey of faith; we all have faith. Faith is a fact of our existence, whether we use it for our good or detriment seems to be a more relevant topic. This is a journey of understanding. In understanding the truth, the direction of our faith will be corrected, perceptions healed and at last you will find your way home as a natural extension of your inward journey.

In our short walk together we have discussed:

1.) A thought system based on fear which found a way in our minds and hearts through our lust to judge or to be self-governing, in this we judge God's motives, God's themes, and even God himself in our twisted perceptions.

2.) We have journeyed to understand, when we let go of these judgments, and abide with God in the present it leads to the entrance into our innocents (or back to the garden metaphorically speaking), through Christ.

3.) We need to be students of certainty, the more certain we are of God, the more open the path to The Tree of Life and it's abundance for our lives will be. Once we reach our natural state of perception or existence miraculous things will happen.

In conclusion I leave you with this Quote:

'We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.'

T.S. Eliot



Be still (4 of 4) The Tree of Life

The Journey Back into the Garden



My intention with this last entry, in this series, is to provide the final guiding principles into our journey away from the ego, and into the promise.

Forsaking the Promise

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground- the LORD God formed the man.

God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. God made trees grow out of the ground that were good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watered the garden of Eden. God took Adam and put him in the Garden to work it and take care of it.

God had formed all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air and then he created a woman for Adam. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?

The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"

The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

- Genesis

Do This in Remembrance of Me

In order to understand the implications throughout our conversation we must first see ourselves in Adam, collectively and individually. Born into the promise, through the rendering of mind he became enslaved by his guilt. His self-condemnation opened the door to a tainted perception of himself, his brethren, and God. Shame caused him to hide from God; judging himself as unworthy he consequently forsook the promise to partake of the Tree of Life and to live eternally with his creator.

Our journey to the cross embraces similar principles, except in the reverse. [We are conceived into] The world of perception...[a]world of time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is based on interpretation, not on facts. It is the world of birth and death, founded on the belief in scarcity, loss, separation, and death. It is learned rather than given, selective in its perceptual emphases, unstable in its functioning, and inaccurate in its interpretations [ACIM]. This is the world that Adam was driven into; our world.

We abide in this tragedy until we hear the call of God: "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool". This is the moment we enter the provision of God or symbolically enter back into the Garden of Eden. However, we are still at the mercy of our projections and guilt; we enter the same way Adam left: with shame and self-condemnation. It is at this point that we must learn to forgive.

If we are using perception to justify our own mistakes—our anger, our impulses to attack, our lack of love in whatever form it may take—we will see a world of evil, destruction, malice, envy and despair. All this we must learn to forgive, not because we are being "good" and "charitable," but because what we are seeing is not true. We have distorted the world by our twisted defenses, and are therefore seeing what is not there. As we learn to recognize our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past them or "forgive." At the same time we are forgiving ourselves, looking past our distorted self-concepts to the Self That God created in us and as us [ACIM].

Our goal is to end where Adam started; in a state of perfect love, peace, congruence, and innocence and at last God will once again open the way to the Tree of Life. This will only happen as a result of drawing closer to him, withholding our judgment and '...being still'.

The Power of Certainty

To live a life without vacillation or double mindedness needs to be the progression of our spiritual journey. 'Certainty' can be translated into what most of us know as 'faith' or 'knowing'. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Jesus spoke these words:

"...your faith has healed you."

"According to your faith will it be done to you";

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these..."

"If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

"Everything is possible for him who believes."

"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."

This is the certainty that Adam was conceived into. We need to end where he began; now is our opportunity to begin again.

Beginning again:

Now that we understand a holistic picture of the nature and the journey of our spirituality we should go into the details of these magnificent concepts.

Symbols of Symbols

The Garden of Eden is symbolic of our state of innocence, and the Tree of Life is symbolic of the will or mind of God (also known as Christ mind, Christ consciousness, one mindedness and the perfect will of our father). 'Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.' Although, it is through Christ we find salvation or right-mindedness it is through the self-revelation of the Holy Spirit that we can find the mind or will of God.

Salvation is nothing more than "right-mindedness," which is not the one-mindedness of the Holy Spirit, but which must be achieved before one-mindedness is restored. Right-mindedness leads to the next step automatically, because right perception is uniformly without attack, and therefore wrong-mindedness is obliterated. The ego cannot survive without judgment, and is laid aside accordingly. The mind then has only one direction in which it can move. Its direction is always automatic, because it cannot but be dictated by the thought system to which it adheres.

-ACIM

Our Collective Unconscious

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

- Genesis

Our Progression

The bible speaks of a type of spiritual anthropology. From the moment of Adam’s departure God has continued to reveal himself to mankind in such a way as to figuratively bridge the gap between the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life. Our creator redirected his purpose toward humanity and moved into the realm of intention.

It is through our intention and habit of mind that God allows us into the certainty of his will; this is why we are asked to ‘…continue to work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in [us] to will and to act according to his good purpose.’ It is through our purpose of mind that God has chosen to continue the progression of his revelation to mankind.

He has moved from a polytheistic revelation with our patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) to a monotheistic revelation (Yahwehism, Judaism, Christianity, and ACIM). The progression will continue until we have laid our projections of the truth aside, and have embraced the knowledge of God.

All your difficulties stem from the fact that you do not recognise yourself, your brother or God. To recognise means to 'know again', implying that you knew before. You can see in many ways because perception involves interpretation, and this means that it is not whole or consistent. The miracle, being a way of perceiving, is not knowledge. It is the right answer to a question, but you do not question when you know. Questioning illusions is the first step in undoing them. The miracle, or the right answer, corrects them. Since perceptions change, their dependence on time is obvious. How you perceive at any given time determines what you do, and actions must occur in time. Knowledge is timeless, because certainty is not questionable. You know when you have ceased to ask questions.

-ACIM

From Faith to Faith

Our silent witness entertains moments of perfect freedom; the manifestations of love in it's many forms. We are the silent witnesses to our gift of trust. Our faith, as with our breath, begins outside of ourselves and then flows through us like an exhale. It becons to see God in us, through us, and in our presence; feeding a deep hunger of significance and of purpose.

This eternal energy or force is expressed as we fall in love, conceive a child or a concept that empowers the lives of those around us. We experience our greatness as it is expressed in our presence. We are comforted and secure; confident and loved.

All of us have touched these fleeting shadows of truth. We are witnesses to this truth and reality; only to return to the other side of our projections once again. It's after these moments of complete congruence and inspiration, that we are met with uncertainty, projections or the lack of love toward ourselves, our brethren, and our God.

Enmity

Our affinity toward the destructive is base on a decision, and nothing other than the rendering of mind. It would seem that the opposing ideals would be the easiest to choose; no prudence or forethought necessary. We have literally taught ourselves madness by leaning on our own understanding.

I ask you not to surrender your mind to this insanity, choose to simply hear the voice of God. Allow the holy spirit to lead you into the peace that is you. It's at this moment when the temptation arises to project that you are to pause in your judgments and to "...be still and know That he is God."

'Let us be still an instant, and forget all things we ever learned, all thoughts we had, and every preconception that we hold of what things mean and what their purpose is. Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for. We do not know. Let every image held of everyone be loosened from our minds and swept away.

Be innocent of judgment, unaware of any thoughts of evil or of good that ever crossed your mind of anyone. Now do you know him not. But you are free to learn of him, and learn of him anew. Now is he born again to you, and you are born again to him, without the past that sentenced him to die, and you with him. Now is he free to live as you are free, because an ancient learning passed away, and left a place for truth to be reborn'.

- ACIM

Entering His Rest

It's only here that we can enter into his promise.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.'

We have witnessed in the tribulation of Adam and Eve a journey into unrest. This began in a state of grace, but quickly moved into ego attachment, and into the shadows of the unconscious. It is only by our intention that we can escape, and we must strive to form the habit of thought.

We must maintain the freedom to individually and collectively to journey back to innocence; back to where Adam begin. From our state of innocence only God can bridge the way toward the tree of life.

The Little Garden

It is only the awareness of the body that makes love seem limited. For the body is a limit on love. The belief in limited love was its origin, and it was made to limit the unlimited. Think not that this is merely allegorical, for it was made to limit you. Can you who see yourself within a body know yourself as an idea? Everything you recognise you identify with externals, something outside itself. You cannot even think of God without a body, or in some form you think you
recognise.

The body cannot know. And while you limit your awareness to its tiny senses, you will not see the grandeur that surrounds you. God cannot come into a body, nor can you join Him there. Limits on love will always seem to shut Him out, and keep you apart from Him. The body is a tiny fence around a little part of a glorious and complete idea. It draws a circle, infinitely small, around a very little segment of Heaven, splintered from the whole, proclaiming that within it is your kingdom, where God can enter not.

Within this kingdom the ego rules, and cruelly. And to defend this little speck of dust it bids you fight against the universe. This fragment of your mind is such a tiny part of it that, could you, but appreciate the whole, you would see instantly that it is like the smallest sunbeam to the sun, or like the faintest ripple on the surface of the ocean. In its amazing arrogance, this tiny sunbeam has decided it is the sun; this almost imperceptible ripple hails itself as the ocean. Think how alone and frightened is this little thought, this infinitesimal illusion, holding itself apart against the universe. The sun becomes the sunbeam's 'enemy' that would devour it, and the ocean terrifies the little ripple and wants to swallow it.

Yet neither sun nor ocean is even aware of all this strange and meaningless activity. They merely continue, unaware that they are feared and hated by a tiny segment of themselves. Even that segment is not lost to them, for it could not survive apart from them. And what it thinks it is in no way changes its total dependence on them for its being. Its whole existence still remains in them. Without the sun the sunbeam would be gone; the ripple without the ocean is inconceivable.

Such is the strange position in which those in a world inhabited by bodies seem to be. Each body seems to house a separate mind, a disconnected thought, living alone and in no way joined to the Thought by which it was created. Each tiny fragment seems to be self-contained, needing another for some things, but by no means totally dependent on its one Creator for everything; needing the whole to give it any meaning, for by itself it does mean nothing. Nor has it any life apart and by itself.

Like to the sun and ocean your Self continues, unmindful that this tiny part regards itself as you. It is not missing; it could not exist if it were separate, nor would the whole be whole without it. It is not a separate kingdom, ruled by an idea of separation from the rest. Nor does a fence surround it, preventing it from joining with the rest, and keeping it apart from its Creator. This little aspect is no different from the whole, being continuous with it and at one with it. It leads no separate life, because its life is the oneness in which its being was created.

Do not accept this little, fenced-off aspect as yourself. The sun and ocean are as nothing beside what you are. The sunbeam sparkles only in the sunlight, and the ripple dances as it rests upon the ocean. Yet in neither sun nor ocean is the power that rests in you. Would you remain within your tiny kingdom, a sorry king, a bitter ruler of all that he surveys, who looks on nothing yet who would still die to defend it? This little self is not your kingdom. Arched high above it and surrounding it with love is the glorious whole, which offers all its happiness and deep content to every part. The little aspect that you think you set apart is no exception.

Love knows no bodies, and reaches to everything created like itself. Its total lack of limit is its meaning. It is completely impartial in its giving, encompassing only to preserve and keep complete what it would give. In your tiny kingdom you have so little! Should it not, then, be there that you would call on love to enter? Look at the desert, a dry and unproductive, scorched and joyless‚ that makes up your little kingdom. And realise the life and joy that love would bring to it from where it comes, and where it would return with you.

The Thought of God surrounds your little kingdom, waiting at the barrier you built to come inside and shine upon the barren ground. See how life springs up everywhere! The desert becomes a garden, green and deep and quiet, offering rest to those who lost their way and wander in the dust. Give them a place of refuge, prepared by love for them where once a desert was. And everyone you welcome will bring love with him from Heaven for you. They enter one by one into this holy place, but they will not depart as they had come, alone. The love they brought with them will stay with them, as it will stay with you. And under its beneficence your little garden will expand, and reach out to everyone who thirsts for living water, but has grown too weary to go on alone.

Go out and find them, for they bring your Self with them. And lead them gently to your quiet garden, and receive their blessing there, So will it grow and stretch across the desert, leaving no lonely little kingdoms locked away from love, and leaving you inside. And you will recognise yourself, and see your little garden gently transformed into the Kingdom of Heaven, with all the love of its Creator shining upon it.

The holy instant is your invitation to love to enter into your bleak and joyless kingdom, and to transform it into a garden of peace and welcome. Love's answer is inevitable. It will come because you came without the body, and interposed no barriers to interfere with its glad coming. In the holy instant, you ask of love only what it offers everyone, neither less nor more. Asking for everything, you will receive it. And your shining Self will lift the tiny aspect that you tried to hide from Heaven straight to Heaven. No part of love calls on the whole in vain. No Son of God remains outside His Fatherhood.

Be sure of this; love has entered your special relationship, and entered fully at your weak request. You do not recognise that love has come, because you have not yet let go of all the barriers you hold against your brother. And you and he will not be able to give love welcome separately. You could no more know God alone than He knows you without your brother. But together you could no more be unaware of love than love could know you not, or fail to recognise itself in you.

You have reached the end of an ancient journey, not realising yet that it is over. You are still worn and tired, and the desert's dust still seems to cloud your eyes and keep you sightless. Yet He Whom you welcomed has come to you, and would welcome you. He has waited long to give you this. Receive it now of Him, for He would have you know Him. Only a little wall of dust still stands between you and your brother. Blow on it lightly and with happy laughter, and it will fall away. And walk into the garden love has prepared for both of you.

VIII. Choose Once Again

Temptation has one lesson it would teach, in all its forms, wherever it occurs. It would persuade the holy Son of God he is a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its frailty, and bound by what it orders him to feel. It sets the limits on what he can do; its power is the only strength he has; his grasp cannot exceed its tiny reach. Would you be this, if Christ appeared to you in all His glory, asking you but this:

Choose once again if you would take your place among the saviours of the world, or would remain in hell, and hold your brothers there.

For He has come, and He is asking this. How do you make the choice? How easily is this explained! You always choose between your weakness and the strength of Christ in you. And what you choose is what you think is real. Simply by never using weakness to direct your actions, you have given it no power. And the light of Christ in you is given charge of everything you do. For you have brought your weakness unto Him, and He has given you His strength instead.

Trials are but lessons that you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain that what you chose before has brought to you. In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity Christ calls to you and gently says, 'My brother, choose again'. He would not leave one source of pain unhealed, nor any image left to veil the truth. He would remove all misery from you whom God created altar unto joy. He would not leave you comfortless, alone in dreams of hell, but would release your mind from everything that hides His face from you. His holiness is yours because He is the only Power that is real in you. His strength is yours because He is the Self That God created as His only Son.

The images you make cannot prevail against what God Himself would have you be. Be never fearful of temptation, then, but see it as it is; another chance to choose again, and let Christ's strength prevail in every circumstance and every place you raised an image of yourself before. For what appears to hide the face of Christ is powerless before His majesty, and disappears before His holy sight. The saviours of the world, who see like Him, are merely those who choose His strength instead of their own weakness, seen apart from Him. They will redeem the world, for they are joined in all the power of the Will of God. And what they will is only what He wills.

Learn, then, the happy habit of response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words, I am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing. And I am His Son.

Thus is Christ's strength invited to prevail, replacing all your weakness with the strength that comes from God and that can never fail. And thus are miracles as natural as fear and agony appeared to be before the choice for holiness was made. For in that choice are false distinctions gone, illusory alternatives laid by, and nothing left to interfere with truth.

You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see. What you behold as sickness and as pain, as weakness and as suffering and loss, is but temptation to perceive yourself defenceless and in hell. Yield not to this, and you will see all pain, in every form, wherever it occurs, but disappear as mists before the sun. A miracle has come to heal God's Son, and close the door upon his dreams of weakness, opening the way to his salvation and release. Choose once again what you would have him be, remembering that every choice you make establishes your own identity as you will see it and believe it is.

Deny me not the little gift I ask, when in exchange I lay before your feet the peace of God, and power to bring this peace to everyone who wanders in the world uncertain, lonely, and in constant fear. For it is given you to join with him, and through the Christ in you unveil his eyes, and let him look upon the Christ in him.

My brothers in salvation, do not fail to hear my voice and listen to my words. I ask for nothing but your own release. There is no place for hell within a world whose loveliness can yet be so intense and so inclusive it is but a step from there to Heaven. To your tired eyes I bring a vision of a different world, so new and clean and fresh you will forget the pain and sorrow that you saw before. Yet this a vision is which you must share with everyone you see, for otherwise you will behold it not. To give this gift is how to make it yours. And God ordained, in loving kindness, that it be for you.

Let us be glad that we can walk the world, and find so many chances to perceive another situation where God's gift can once again be recognised as ours! And thus will all the vestiges of hell, the secret sins and hidden hates be gone. And all the loveliness which they concealed appear like lawns of Heaven to our sight, to lift us high above the thorny roads we travelled on before the Christ appeared. Hear me, my brothers, hear and join with me. God has ordained I cannot call in vain, and in His certainty I rest content. For you will hear, and you will choose again. And in this choice is everyone made free.

I thank You, Father, for these holy ones who are my brothers as they are Your Sons. My faith in them is Yours. I am as sure that they will come to me as You are sure of what they are, and will forever be. They will accept the gift I offer them, because You gave it me on their behalf. And as I would but do Your holy Will, so will they choose. And I give thanks for them. Salvation's song will echo through the world with every choice they make. For we are one in purpose, and the end of hell is near.

In joyous welcome is my hand outstretched to every brother who would join with me in reaching past temptation, and who looks with fixed determination toward the light that shines beyond in perfect constancy. Give me my own, for they belong to You. And can You fail in what is but Your Will? I give You thanks for what my brothers are. And as each one elects to join with me, the song of thanks from earth to Heaven grows from tiny scattered threads of melody to one inclusive chorus from a world redeemed from hell, and giving thanks to You.

And now we say 'Amen'. For Christ has come to dwell in the abode You set for Him before time was, in calm eternity. The journey closes, ending at the place where it began. No trace of it remains. Not one illusion is accorded faith, and not one spot of darkness still remains to hide the face of Christ from anyone. Thy Will is done, complete and perfectly, and all creation recognises You, and knows You as the only Source it has. Clear in Your likeness does the Light shine forth from everything that lives and moves in You. For we have reached where all of us are one, and we are home, where You would have us be.

- ACIM

The truth is found in certainty and love is personified in faith. Believe your abundance is found in on still moment, and another and than another, just as each second progresses. Choose just for a moment to be in eternity away from the worldliness we now know as home. If you continue in this vain and seek him in the silence of your mind, heart, and breath be certain that he will reward those who diligently seek him.

You have been blinded by your perception and enforced by your senses in a world where grandeur is your own reality.

Beginning Again

Start today, by sitting down in the quietness of your breath and listen for his sure direction and begin again tomorrow and the next day and the next. Let this become a habit of mind and your new intention to seek him, but for a few minutes daily.

Be still (part 3 of 4) The Certainty of Refuge



Our journey has been about "being still, and knowing he is God.":

Continuing our walk together:

He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. -Psalms

Let's look at a key statement: 'the God of Jacob is our refuge'. There is a differance between providing refudge and being our refuge. You may think this only deals with semantics, but in the subtle differances of these statements lies eternity, lies meaning, God lies with this differance where you will find peace.

Making provision, is something set apart from yourself. In this instance to know intimalty he is our provision, and to know, without vacilation he is the foundation of his continuous provision:
After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. - Genesis

So the concept that we must consider, since relating to God being our provision, is illustrated in the following:


Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. "Who touched me?" Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you." But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me." Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.


This woman had an intimate understanding that Jesus/God was her provision. More than the provision being intimalty tied into him, it was not seperate from him, it was him. When we truly understand the concept it is only at this point that we can truly understand the tree of life. This occures when the most intimate part of our minds and emotions can touch his garment, with the anticiaption, the knowing, or the knowledge vs to be met with the faint faith or the hope, or struggleing to believe that God is the provision.


This anticipation occures when our perception over flows: with this understanding, "being still," now has a meaning..."and to know he is God" - now brings about the change, the healing, or the provision; this is true intimacy.


*..."and to know he is God" is not to think he is God. You know when you get up from your chair, you feet will be drawn by a law called the law of Gravity, and you will not end up flooting about. When you are running late for work, you may think you will make it only 5 minutes late. You know that when you turn on the light switch the light will come on. Thinking causes vacilation, knowing causes certainty. *

Faith that brings about God's provision for our lives needs to be uncousnouse, it needs to be at the very root or foundation of who you are; that you can believe God for your current need and fulfillment without vacilation. Now, the differance of knowing he is God, (which is the same as saying he is your provision) is found in your anticipation, in your peace (small still voice) in an unwavering certainty.


When we intimalty know that he is our provision than the outcomes become miraculouse, the moment you waver to find the faith, the moment you waver or vacilate, is the moment you can recognize their is no faith that he is his wordd or promise. "After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." -God is. His request to us is to know He is.

Be still (2 of 4) Who is you brother?




This series of thoughts began with several implications about: "Be still, and know that I am God". -Psalms

One of the implications, that we need to make in order for this statement to have impact on our soul and inner-most thoughts is: we need to understand 'who God is'. Our rest (or being still) is dependent on our 'knowing'.

It was inferred in my last entry that the reflection, image or implications of God are found in his creation specifically our brother, By truly understanding our brother, we will understand God to a great extent. God made man and woman in his likeness, we are extensions of him.

*The word brother connotes: brother and sister, just as mankind refers to man and woman*

So a logical step is to ask a question:

Who is my brother?

"For it was fitting for him, for the sake of whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in leading many sons to glory, to bring to perfection the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one [God]; for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying "I shall proclaim your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I shall sing your praise. And again, "I will put my trust in him" and again "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me." Therefore, since the children share in blood and flesh, he himself likewise also partook of the same, in order that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For certainly he does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in all things, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to help of those who are tempted."

- Hebrews

We must hold this perfect picture of our elder brother. Our brothers and sisters need to be seen in the image of Christ, not the image of our projections. By truly looking at our brother we will see the nature of God. When we truly understand this we will find rest for our souls.

*Our brother is not the body, that you see with your physical eyes; he just as you, is the quiet observer, within the mind using his body to communicate. One of the dangers, in our spiritual life is 'body identification' to see ourselves as our body, this was the err of Adam, "I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid". *

The Healer

But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. - Hebrews

It is this hardening that moves us to seek temporary measures, hoping they might bring fulfillment or might lessen our pain. It is by the lack of reaching for something that would truly heal, that would also move us further and further from the love of God, in our perception. It becomes a breeding ground for self condemnation and displaced guilt. Our shallow understanding of the truth becomes the root of all our projections and self-loathing. This experience is self perpetuating, disguised as relief; it is by the extension of love, in it's many forms that can offer a way out and bring about healing.

Jesus was the example of what we could become (to be Christ like). The gifts and healing displayed by our elder brother have been given to us, being a reflection of him. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." As an extension of God's love your brother has the power within his grasp to free you from your projections, by the simple extension of love.

*Please don't mistake in your judgement, in thinking that your brother as only the person who is sitting next to you in the church pews. God has given to everyone who would love you, that power to free you or to bring about healing, this person doesn’t have to be a believer - they just need to have correct perception; which is a gift from God. *

Withhold judgment and condition your mind to accept your brother, for the perfection that he is, he is holy as you are holy, ultimately as your father in heaven is holy; learn not to attack him or place your judgments upon him, this is a foundation to having a pure heart. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”.

*I must emphasis that your brother is a spiritual being, whether saved or not, and that spiritual being was created in the likeness of his creator. Your brother is not his body,’ sin' or tendencies, his projections he is (just as you are) that quiet observer.*

If you did not feel guilty you could not attack, for condemnation is the root of attack. It is the judgment of one mind by another as unworthy of love and deserving of punishment. But herein lies the split. For the mind that judges perceives itself as separate from the mind being judged, believing that by punishing another, it will escape punishment. All this is but the delusional attempt of the mind to deny itself, and escape the penalty of denial. It is not an attempt to relinquish denial, but to hold on to it. For it is guilt that has obscured the Father to you, and it is guilt that has driven you insane.

The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God's Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. Look carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so. For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death. Children are born into it through pain and in pain. Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their bodies are hurt. They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. They appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. And their bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. Not one of them but has thought that God is cruel.

If this were the real world, God would be cruel. For no Father could subject his children to this as the price of salvation and be loving. Love does not kill to save. If it did, attack would be salvation, and this is the ego's interpretation, not God's. Only the world of guilt could demand this, for only the guilty could conceive of it. Adam's "sin" could have touched no one, had he not believed it was the Father Who drove him out of Paradise. For in that belief the knowledge of the Father was lost, since only those who do not understand him could believe it.

This world is a picture of the crucifixion of God's Son. And until you realize that God's Son cannot be crucified, this is the world you will see. Yet you will not realize this until you accept the eternal fact that God's Son is not guilty. He deserves only love because he has given only love. He cannot be condemned because he has never condemned. The Atonement is the final lesson he need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation.

-ACIM

*In Commentary to the last paragraph you read from ACIM:

The world did succeed in crucifying a body, but it did not succeed in crucifying the Son of God. The Son was not and is not his body. You are not your body, as one writer put it: "we are a spiritual being having a human experience". *

Be still (1 of 4) Basic Humanity



In my last entry we discussed withholding judgment from God, your brother (meaning mankind) and yourself. What might birth a new conviction, for withholding judgment in the moment, (life is lived moment to moment) is stilling our minds and hearts; this is our journey back to Christ.

God provides a revelation of himself in the following statement:

“Be still, and know that I am God” -Psalms

The Understanding:

The statement: “know that I am God,” requires a point of reference, a point of reference that perhaps we haven’t made fully. Perhaps this is to say or imply we should ever seek to understand him, because being still is found in the fact that we 'know he is God'.

"Knowing", is an awareness that presents itself moment to moment, it provides certainty, and implies being present. It's attempting to live in the present, vs. in your memory of the past, (reflection, and projections) or in your imagination for the future, otherwise detached from the ego (vision, goals, and worries).

Being still, is a gateway to knowing "that he is God”. This is the state which certainty can be born. It’s in the silent resting of our minds and hearts, that God is able to reveal his instruction to you. This act of being mindful assists us in lengthening this great silence of our minds and hearts, so that we discover the voice of God; while at the same time silencing our critic. This is a meditative state.

This concept is exemplified in the following bible passage:

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? -1kings

It’s in this sacred space or silence that we can find rest for our minds and hearts and hear the still small voice of our Father; It is in this silence that we receive nourishment not only for our souls, but for our emotions.

Extending This Understanding to Another:

If you want to understand the ocean, you do not need to understand every cubic inch of the water that lies in the ocean. You simply need a sample of the water to understand that: 'in the part contains the whole'. I can gain great depths of understanding about the entire ocean by understanding the part. We, my friend are extensions of God, just like the waves are extensions of the ocean or a sun beam is part of the sun. Man and woman are created in the likeness of God. Man in his very nature is part of his creator, ‘in the part contains the whole' in order to understand God you need merely understand your brother's true nature. In understanding your brother you will understand God and yourself; being created in the likeness of God.

Now, let me bring this back to point: As we learn to live in awareness and continue to live moment to moment in the sacred space meant for God, than we learn to '...be still', as we fully extend ourselves to one another, we learn to love with out fear, and the intimacy grows between us and our God, because we are part of the whole. Being in relationship with our Lord, manifests in our love and intimacy with each other.

Let me illustrate my point, by quoting several biblical statements:

Jesus - What you've done unto the least of these, you have done unto me.
St. Paul - In him we live, move, and have our being;
Jesus - The kingdom of God is with in you.
God - Love your neighbor as yourself.
St. John - If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar:

If you look at statements like these with the understanding that we are literally a part of God, we were created as an extension of him and being a part of our neighbor as extensions of God's love to them; you will witness how the bible depicts this intimate point.

Our Challenge to Love At Will

'It is only the awareness of the body that makes love seem limited. For the body is a limit on love. The belief in limited love was its origin, and it was made to limit the unlimited. Think not that this is merely allegorical, for it was made to limit you. Can you who see yourself within a body know yourself as an idea? Everything you recognize you identify with externals, something outside itself. You cannot even think of God without a body, or in some form you think you recognize.

The body cannot know. And while you limit your awareness to its tiny senses, you will not see the grandeur that surrounds you. God cannot come into a body, nor can you join him there. Limits on love will always seem to shut him out, and keep you apart from him. The body is a tiny fence around a little part of a glorious and complete idea. It draws a circle, infinitely small, around a very little segment of Heaven, splintered from the whole, proclaiming that within it is your kingdom, where God can enter not.

Within this kingdom the ego rules, and cruelly. And to defend this little speck of dust it bids you fight against the universe. This fragment of your mind is such a tiny part of it that, could you but appreciate the whole, you would see instantly that it is like the smallest sunbeam to the sun, or like the faintest ripple on the surface of the ocean. In its amazing arrogance, this tiny sunbeam has decided it is the sun; this almost imperceptible ripple hails itself as the ocean. Think how alone and frightened is this little thought, this infinitesimal illusion, holding itself apart against the universe. The sun becomes the sunbeam's "enemy" that would devour it, and the ocean terrifies the little ripple and wants to swallow it.

Yet neither sun nor ocean is even aware of all this strange and meaningless activity. They merely continue, unaware that they are feared and hated by a tiny segment of themselves. Even that segment is not lost to them, for it could not survive apart from them. And what it thinks it is in no way changes its total dependence on them for its being. Its whole existence still remains in them. Without the sun the sunbeam would be gone; the ripple without the ocean is inconceivable.

Such is the strange position in which those in a world inhabited by bodies seem to be. Each body seems to house a separate mind, a disconnected thought, living alone and in no way joined to the Thought by which it was created. Each tiny fragment seems to be self-contained, needing another for some things, but by no means totally dependent on its one Creator for everything; needing the whole to give it any meaning, for by itself it does mean nothing. Nor has it any life apart and by itself.

Like to the sun and ocean your Self continues, unmindful that this tiny part regards itself as you. It is not missing; it could not exist if it were separate, nor would the Whole be whole without it. It is not a separate kingdom, ruled by an idea of separation from the rest. Nor does a fence surround it, preventing it from joining with the rest, and keeping it apart from its Creator. This little aspect is no different from the whole, being continuous with it and at one with it. It leads no separate life, because its life is the oneness in which its being was created.

Do not accept this little, fenced-off aspect as yourself. The sun and ocean are as nothing beside what you are. The sunbeam sparkles only in the sunlight, and the ripple dances as it rests upon the ocean. Yet in neither sun nor ocean is the power that rests in you. Would you remain within your tiny kingdom, a sorry king, a bitter ruler of all that he surveys, who looks on nothing yet who would still die to defend it? This little self is not your kingdom. Arched high above it and surrounding it with love is the glorious whole, which offers all its happiness and deep content to every part. The little aspect that you think you set apart is no exception.

Love knows no bodies, and reaches to everything created like itself. Its total lack of limit is its meaning. It is completely impartial in its giving, encompassing only to preserve and keep complete what it would give. In your tiny kingdom you have so little! Should it not, then, be there that you would call on love to enter? Look at the desert--dry and unproductive, scorched and joyless--that makes up your little kingdom. And realize the life and joy that love would bring to it from where it comes, and where it would return with you.

The Thought of God surrounds your little kingdom, waiting at the barrier you built to come inside and shine upon the barren ground. See how life springs up everywhere! The desert becomes a garden, green and deep and quiet, offering rest to those who lost their way and wander in the dust. Give them a place of refuge, prepared by love for them where once a desert was. And everyone you welcome will bring love with him from Heaven for you. They enter one by one into this holy place, but they will not depart as they had come, alone. The love they brought with them will stay with them, as it will stay with you. And under its beneficence your little garden will expand, and reach out to everyone who thirsts for living water, but has grown too weary to go on alone.'

-ACIM