As you have recognized from my
last several posts, I have been fearful, angry, frustrated, and generally upset
about a myriad of things – mostly at myself.
Last week I received the latest
issue of a publication based on A Course In Miracles (ACIM) that I relish
reading. It is The Holy Encounter, a
publication of the Miracle Distribution Center, Anaheim, CA., www.miraclecenter.org. As I began perusing it, “Voilà!” There were
two articles that seemed to be written just for me. Sometimes, as a writer, I
read someone who has stated what I want to say in a way I just cannot improve. The
following excerpts are from the November / December 2014 edition, pages 1, 4.
They are reprinted here by permission of the publisher.
From Beverly Hutchison McNeff: “As the season of gratitude and peace
approaches, it is often difficult for us to believe God is present in the
painful, confusing situations of life, or that anything ‘good’ can come of a
tragic circumstance. And, yet, this is our guarantee, for as we read in the
Course, ‘All things work together for good. There are no exceptions except in
the ego’s judgment.’ (ACIM, T-4.V.1:1)
“The face of God is in that person who judged me unjustly, the hand of
God is working in the internal political struggle our country is going through,
and the peace of God is the final outcome for that battle between those warring
countries. Yes, God is present, not because He caused the problems in our lives
or seeming pains and conflicts in the world. God is present because He can
never be absent from our minds. God is
in our minds as the reminder that there is a better way, that love is our
strength, that forgiveness is the key, and joining with my brother past the
seeming circumstances of life is the way that Christ is recognized. In that
recognition is salvation accomplished. ‘Salvation of the world depends on you
who can forgive. Such is your function here.’ (ACIM, W-p1.186.14.5).
”So, it becomes plain to us that wherever we may find ourselves is
exactly where we should be, for we are there to bring salvation to the world
through our forgiveness of the situation, or rather through our willingness
to let the Holy Spirit’s perception be ours. This healing in thought may
not always bring change in the way we think it should appear or come as quickly
as we think it should happen, but ‘healing is always certain.’ (ACIM, M-6.1:1)”
(underlining is mine)
From Gerald Jampolsky, MD and
Diane V. Cirincione-Jampolsky, PhD: “Spiritual
vision [or seeing with the vision of the Holy Spirit ] is experiencing the
world through Love’s eyes and not through our body’s ego eyes of fear. More and
more we are remembering the only thing that is real and that never changes is
our united connection with our Source. We believe our spiritual vision has a
DNA of happiness, unconditional love, kindness, tenderness, and gentleness. It
is celebrating the Light and Love we know we are and seeing only Love wherever
we go…for that is what we are. It is celebrating freedom from our self-imposed
ego prisons.
“For me, utilizing spiritual vision is remembering I am blind when I
make interpretations followed by judgments of other’s behaviors based on what I
see through my physical eyes. And I am sighted when I remind myself I am not my
past or my glaucoma, nor am I my body. I am the essence of the Peace of God.
Spiritual vision is to see everything through the eyes of a loving and gentle
God; through our hearts and not our heads.”
To see with this kind of divine
vision is not something I can make myself do as an act of sheer willpower. I
can only be willing to allow it to happen. All I need to be able to do is step
out of the way.
I heard a member of the
Fellowship in a recent AA meeting say something that resonated with me. She explained
exactly what I had been doing. She said, “A very good friend in the Program
always told me, ‘You cannot fix this,’ he said while tapping his head, ‘with
this!’ while tapping his head again.”
And that’s what I had been
trying to do – fix my head with my head; fix my egoic thinking with my intellectual
(but egoic) thoughts.
I have been trying to figure out
and understand why I was allowing myself to get so angry, exasperated, and
frustrated. I knew that I knew better, but I was unable to stop the vicious
cycle of fear-anger-frustration, which was only leading to more
fear-anger-frustration the more I tried to intellectually deal with my
fear-anger-frustration. This may not
make sense to you but it surely does to me.
All I need to do is recognize
what is going on and do nothing but acknowledge it and focus my attention on
becoming willing to allow the Holy spirit to help me see things through His
eyes.
I am finally getting back and
what a difference that has made!
Although these messages are
mostly for me, thanks for listening. As always – feel free to forward this
message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual
journey.
Don
#3 November 2014
Copyright, 2014
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