Day 150

Today's Review:

My mind holds only what I think with God.

(139) I will accept Atonement for myself.
(140) Only salvation can be said to cure.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I went to Minneapolis last night for a circle with our master course teacher Isis. That is always such an inspiration. I learned a lot and was reminded of several lessons I already know, but forgot. For example, Isis reminded us that absolutely everything that shows up in our lives we have attracted there. Everything. EVERYTHING. There is no "them" and "us" or "him" or "her" or "they." It is all me. When I can get that - REALLY get that - there will be no one showing up in my space with anything but exactly what I am being. No anger, no sorrow, no judgment, nothing but love, which is what I'm working on.

She said that what I'm seeing, I'm being and what I'm hearing, I'm saying. What a great reminder! The way I can measure how I'm learning this course is to look at the results in my life. Look at my relationships, my health, my happiness, my finances, etc. Everything that is outside myself is there because of what's inside myself.

She also reminded us that we are created in the image and likeness of God, so what God creates He creates like Himself. That means that we have the same creative power and energy as our Creator, and what we create is in the image and likeness of us, which is like our Creator. That reminds me of something Wayne Dyer has been saying in many of his recent lectures. He says if you take a slice out of a pie and put in on a plate, you could say that that piece of pie is like that which it came from. If you have a cherry pie and cut out a slice, it wouldn't be a slice of pumpkin pie - it would be like the pie it came from. We are no different. We are like our Creator. Yet often we forget that and our egos get in the way. We are not our egos. Our egos are trying to make us THINK we are our egos, but we're not. We are who we are - and we end up thinking we are who we say we are. If we say we are our egos, that's not really the truth. All we need to remember is who we REALLY are, and that is the image and likeness of God.

When we get that - REALLY get that - everything else in our lives will fall into place. We don't need to worry about "fixing" anyone else or "helping" anyone else or "worrying" about anyone else. We just need to be who we really are. We need to think about how our actions are reflecting who we really are and start thinking like who we really are, not who we think we are when we're thinking like our egos.

We also talked a bit about guilt last night. Isis told us that guilt is really justification to keep doing the ego-based things we are currently doing. She said that if we slap someone and they slap us back, we can feel guilty about slapping the person because they slapped us back, but that guilt really allows us to keep slapping that person. It lets us stay in the behavior we are currently experiencing. I hadn't thought about it that way.

That may be a little confusing on the surface, but it's really very simple. Today's text helps sort this out a bit. It says that

"Forgetfulness and sleep and even death become the ego's best advice for dealing with the perceived and harsh intrusion of guilt on peace. Yet no one sees himself in conflict and ravaged by a cruel war unless he believes that both opponents in the war are real. Believing this he must escape, for such a war would surely end his peace of mind, and so destroy him. Yet if he could but realize the war is between real and unreal powers, he could look upon himself and see his freedom. No one finds himself ravaged and torn in endless battles if he himself perceives them as wholly without meaning."

Today's review talks about Atonement - and Atonement is really Heaven. Today's text goes on to tell us that "In Heaven is everything God values, and nothing else. Heaven is perfectly unambiguous. Everything is clear and bright, and calls forth one response. There is no darkness and there is no contrast. There is no variation. There is no interruption. There is a sense of peace so deep that no dream in this world has ever brought even a dim imagining of what it is."

And this is what we can choose instead of whatever we're seeing in front of us, if it's not that vision of Heaven. Heaven is there and available for us as our birthright.

What will you choose? Love or fear? Guilt or release? Clear and bright or dark and contrast? When put that way, it's a pretty easy choice for me. Let's all choose peace and love. Now - in this instant. It's that simple.