Day 161

Today's Lesson:

Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.

Today we practice differently, and take a stand against our anger, that our fears may disappear and offer room to love. Here is salvation in the simple words in which we practice with today's idea. Here is the answer to temptation which can never fail to welcome in the Christ where fear and anger had prevailed before. Here is Atonement made complete, the world passed safely by and Heaven now restored. Here is the answer of the Voice for God.

Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. But part of it is now unnatural. It does not look on everything as one. It sees instead but fragments of the whole, for only thus could it invent the partial world we see.

One brother is all brothers. Every mind contains all minds, for every mind is one. Such is the truth. Yet do these thoughts make clear the meaning of creation? Do these words bring perfect clarity with them to us? What can they seem to be but empty sounds; pretty, perhaps, correct in sentiment, yet fundamentally not understood nor understandable. The mind that taught itself to think specifically can no longer grasp abstraction in the sense that it is all-encompassing. We need to see a little, that we learn a lot.

Bodies attack, but minds do not. This thought is surely reminiscent of our text, where it is often emphasized. This is the reason bodies easily become fear's symbols. We have many times been urged to look beyond the body, for its sight presents the symbol of love's "enemy" Christ's vision does not see. The body is the target for attack, for no one thinks he hates a mind. Yet what but mind directs the body to attack? What else could be the seat of fear except what thinks of fear?

Hate is specific. There must be a thing to be attacked. An enemy must be perceived in such a form he can be touched and seen and hear, and ultimately killed. When hatred rests upon a thing, it calls for death as surely as God's Voice proclaims there is no death. Fear is insatiable, consuming everything its eyes behold, seeing itself in everything, compelled to turn upon itself and to destroy.

Who sees a brother as a body sees him as fear's symbol. And he will attack, because what he beholds is his own fear external to himself, poised to attack, and howling to unite with him again. Mistake not the intensity of rage projected fear must spawn, It shrieks in wrath, and claws the air in frantic hopes it can reach to its maker and devour him.

This do the body's eyes behold in one whom Heaven cherishes, the angels love and God created perfect. This is his reality. And in Christ's vision is his loveliness reflected in a form so holy and so beautiful that we could scarce refrain from kneeling at his feet. Yet we will take his hand instead, for we are like him in the sight that sees him this way. Attack on him is enemy to us, for we will not perceive that in his hands is our salvation. Ask him but for this, and he will give it to us. Ask him not to symbolize our fear. Would we request that love destroy itself? Or would we have it be revealed to us and set us free?

Today we practice in a form we have attempted earlier. Our readiness is closer now, and we will come today nearer Christ's vision. If we are intent on reaching it, we will succeed today. And once we have succeeded, we will not be willing to accept the witnesses our body's eyes call forth.
What we will see will sing to us of ancient melodies we will remember. We are not forgot in Heaven. Would we not remember it?

Select one brother, symbol of the rest, and ask salvation of him. See him first as clearly as you can, in that same form to which you are accustomed. See his face, his hands and feet, his clothing. Watch him smile, and see familiar gestures which he makes so frequently. Then think of this: What you are seeing now conceals from you the sight of one who can forgive you all your sins; whose sacred hands can take away the nails which pierce your own, and lift the crown of thorns which you have placed upon your bleeding head. Ask this of him, that he may set you free:

Give me your blessing, holy Son of God. I would behold you with the eyes of Christ, and see my perfect sinlessness in you.

And He will answer Whom you called upon. For He will hear the Voice for God in you, and answer in your own. Behold him now, whom you have seen as merely flesh and bone, and recognize that Christ has come to you. Today's idea is your safe escape from anger and from fear. Be sure you use it instantly, should you be tempted to attack a brother and perceive in him the symbol of your fear. And you will see him suddenly transformed from enemy to savior; from the devil into Christ.

Miracles I'm noticing:

As I read through today's lesson, I'm reminded of something my friend Sharon told me on Friday night. Although she was raised Jewish, she was married in the Catholic Church and has raised her daughters Catholic. She says her husband is a recovering Catholic, so I think they see the world as bigger than either of their religions. She said from all of the awakening she's seeing and hearing about in the world, she thinks the second coming of Christ is the awakening of Christ consciousness in all of us. After all, the Bible (and probably the Koran and Torah and whatever other holy books are out there) tells us that we can do everything Jesus does and more. That would support the notion that our awakening is part of the Christ consciousness.

I used to think that Jesus and Christ were the same thing - the same person - but now I understand that, according to the clarification of terms in the back of our course book,

the name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do. Yet who can save unless he sees illusions and then identifies them as what they are? Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions.

As we try to reconstruct the life of Jesus from a historical perspective, we find that it's not as easy as reading the New Testament. There is a lot more to Jesus than what our Christian Bible tells us. Again from the course:

In his complete identification with the Christ - the perfect Son of God, His one creation and His happiness, forever like Himself and one with Him - Jesus became what all of you must be. He led the way for you to follow him. He leads you back to God because he saw the road before him, and he followed it. He made a clear distinction, still obscure to you, between the false and true. He offered you a final demonstration that it is is impossible to kill God's Son; ore can his life in any way be changed by sin and evil, malice, fear or death.

And therefore all your sins have been forgiven because they carried no effects at all. And so they were but dreams. Arise with him who showed you this because you owe him this who shared your dreams that they might be dispelled. And shares them still, to be at one with you.

Is he the Christ? O yes, along with you. His little life on earth was not enough to teach the mighty lesson that he learned for all of you. He will remain with you to lead you from the hell you made to God. And when you join your will with his, your sight will be his vision, for the eyes of Christ are shared. Walking with him is just as natural as walking with a brother whom you knew since you were born, for such indeed he is. Some bitter idols have been made of him who would be only brother to the world. Forgive him your illusions, and behold how dear a brother he would be to you. For he will set your mind at rest at last and carry it with you unto your God.

Is he God's only Helper? No, indeed. For Christ takes many forms with different names until their oneness can be recognized. But Jesus is for you the bearer of Christ's single message of the Love of God. You need no other. It is possible to read his words and benefit from them without accepting him into your life. Yet he would help you yet a little more if you will share your pains and joys with him, and leave them both to find the peace of God.

That might sound heretical to mainline Christians; however, what in that passage goes against traditional Christianity, other than that there might be other paths to God than in Jesus alone? Everything else supports mainline Christianity without the fear that seems to prevail throughout any mainline religion. As I recognize my own fears from my traditional Christian upbringing, I can shift those fears to love by trying to understand the perspective from which those thoughts came. I can use my intellectual faculties, as I'm learning from my Bob Proctor materials, of reason, will, perception, memory, imagination and intuition to understand love as opposed to fear. And that, for me, is a definite miracle!

I'm reminded of the new Martina McBride song "Anyway," which, itself, reminds me of a poem by Mother Teresa. Here are the words to that song:

You can spend your whole life building
Something from nothin'
One storm can come and blow it all away
Build it anyway

You can chase a dream
That seems so out of reach
And you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway

God is great
But sometimes life ain't good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
I do it anyway

This world's gone crazy
It's hard to believe
That tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway

You can love someone with all your heart
For all the right reasons
In a moment they can choose to walk away
Love 'em anyway

God is great
But sometimes life ain't good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
Yea - I do it anyway

You can pour your soul out singing
A song you believe in
That tomorrow they'll forget you ever sang
Sing it anyway
Yea - sing it anyway

I sing
I dream
I love
Anyway

CHOOSE LOVE, NOT FEAR. That's the miracle!