Even the tiniest thought of forgiveness, of mercy , of love, can
change the trajectory of our lives. I learned at a seminar years ago a technique that I’ve passed on to many
others. We were told to look at people and silently say to them, “The love in
me salutes the love in you.” How often I’ve been in situations where I’ve
done that and seen extraordinary  changes. For all minds are joined. The vast
majority of data we receive is registered subconsciously . We can feel it
when we are being judged, and we can feel it when we are being  loved. Our
greatest power to effect change begins with our power to think differently . There is no greater preparation  for a meeting than to blast the room with
love before we get there. It changes the meeting because it changes you. How you show up in life—no t only what you do, but who you are—
determines in lar ge part the reactions of those around you. Love is the organizing principle of the universe. Just as the body
organically organizes itself, so does the universe when we allow it to. And
just as the body has a tremendous capacity to heal itself when something
has gone wrong, so does the rest of life. Miracles are the natural unfold ment of the universe, an expre ssion of
the Mind of God as every loving thought is followed by another loving
thought. “Mirac les are natural. When they do not occur something has gone
wrong”* (T-3). What has “gone wrong” is a wrong-minded thought—that
is, a loveless one. But God’ s universe is like a GPS. As soon as we take a
wrong turn, the GPS simply recalculates our path. That recalculation, that
return to right-minded thinking when the heart has been closed, is called the
Atonement. The world is moving in a dangerous direction because our
collective thoug ht patterns are infused with irreverence. This is the century
to turn things around. This will be a century of miracles, if we so choose. As someone whose mind has been purified of all ego thought, Jesus has
become one with the Atonement. In calling on him we are reaching for
divine correctio n: the thought, the feeling, the situation that will free usfrom the ego’s grip. He is a portal to a different world because he is a portal
to a dif ferent kind of thought. He cann ot do for us, however , what he cannot do through us. Without
our willingness, the miracle cannot occur . When we are willing to forgive,
be merciful, be gentle, be kind, then we are allowing our lives to be
channels for his appearance. And when he appears the world is made new. Thinking of ourselves as vesse ls through which God is trying  to express
Himself, the birth of Christ begins to make sense on a psychological and
emotional level. The light Jesus brings to the world is the light he brings to
your world. When we are more compassionate, more forgiving, then our
lives begin to change. So often we’re busy searching for an answer to a problem, unaw are that
the answer begins with us—with  the way we’re speaking to others, thinking
of others, or behaving toward others. The solution to whatever problem
confronts us is always available within the ethers of an unlimited universe,
simply blocked when our hearts are closed. Love in our hearts—and most
important, expressed in our behavior—attracts help, respect, and
willingness to help us when we need it. When our hearts are closed, we
deflect the miracles we desperately need and long for . I remem ber years ago when I would sit in a therapist’ s office
complaining about how hard it was for me to attract support in my office. So much  time and money I spent trying to analyze what had happened in
my childhood to create the pattern I constantly reenacted. If only even one
therapist had thought to ask me, “Can we look at how you behave toward
those who are trying to support you? Do you realize that in your pain you
close your heart to others? You are responsible for your effects in life. Your
childhood is not an excuse; no matter where you got the problem, it’s yours
now, and you are responsible for it. No matter what happened in your past,
the miracle lies in who you choose to be now.” It wasn’ t analysis of the
problem that freed me, it was a prayer for a miracle: “Dear God, where I am
harsh, please make me gentle.”
How profound that love truly is the Answer . Salvation itself isn’t
complicated, and perhaps that’s the reason we so often ignore it. We think it
can’t be that easy, that the answers to our problems must surely be more
complicated than simply choosing love. Yet “complexity is of the ego”* (T-
310). The truth is very simple, really . If a child is hungry , you feed them. Voilà.Choosing love is not what’ s difficult; what’ s difficult is getting over our
resistance to choosing love. The ego comes up with very complicated
reasons why love is rarely the right answer , using the power of our own
minds to obscure the obvious. The ego makes strength appear as weakness
and weakness appear as strength. The ego’s thought system is like a consciousness hack, and the mystic
Jesus unhacks it. He transfo rms the world by transforming us. He
transforms our attitudes, our nervous systems, and our relationship to
others. It is not hyperbole to say that he gives us new life. From the immaculate conceptio n to the annunciation, from his birth to
his family’ s flight into Egypt, from his teaching in the temple to his
baptism, from his temptation to his transfiguration, from Gethsemane to the
crucifixion, from his resurrecti on to his ascension, the life of Jesus has
meaning on both outer and inner planes. Yes, those are stories, but they are
also states of awareness. All stages of his life have mystical equivalents. The birth of every child is the birth of God’ s love, or the birth of love into
the world. The thinking of the world then inevitably violate s all of us,
leading to pain and despair; that is the meaning of the crucifixion. When we
choose to respon d with forgiveness, love prevails; that is the meaning of the
resurrection. The lesson of the resurrection is that love corrects all things. That’ s not just the story of our lives; in some ways it’s the story of
almost every situation. Everyone’ s life is different, with unique
circumstances and experiences. Yet on another level there is only one story . Every single moment, we’re living out the same one. The dynamic of the life of Jesus—his birth, his crucifixion, and his
resurrection—is a template for a deeper understanding of the human
experience. As we recognize the workings of those dynam ics, we’re
empowered to claim the miracle of resurrection in our own lives. In him it
is already done. The power of the ego has been overcome in one; therefore
his overcoming is available to all. The point is not to share the crucifixion
of Jesus, but to share in his resurrection. Understanding the mystical journey makes it easier , quicker , more
miraculous. OceanofPDF .comMary’s Love
Just as the figures in a dream are various aspects of who we are, so are the
figures in scripture. The mysti cal Mary represents the human heart, the
receptive feminine aspect of the psyche. Humanity is pregnant with a new phase of its history , and for most of us
it’s a difficult pregnancy . Every life is a microcosm of the evolutionary
changes occurring in the world. We’re experiencing rebirth as individuals as
well as the rebirth of human civilization. We’re either headed  for a death
spiral, or else we are preparing for something new. That something new will
not emer ge just from science or politics; it will emer ge from within us. The esoteric dimensions of Mary’s story hold deep meaning for the
modern seeker . She was a maiden blessed by God, awakened in the middle
of the night by the angel Gabriel and told to go up onto the roof. There, she
was told by the angel she would give birth to the Son of God. Mary’ s was said to be a virgin birth, of course, yet what we read as the
word “virgin” today meant simply “maiden” in the original Greek. The idea
that Mary was impregnated by God rather than by man has mystical
significance whether she was physically a virgin or not. There is something
that happ ens in our hearts when we feel a stirring, a sense we can’t quite put
our finger on, that something new is about to happen. It does not come from
anything or anyone outside us. It’ s unfolding from deep within. Mary is the feminine yin to God’ s masculine yang. God impregn ates the
human heart. What is born from  that divine conception is the Christ, a new
sense of self that we carry into the world. This newborn self is fathered by
God and mothered by our humanness, the truth of who we are, both human
and divine. It’s not just Mary who was awakened from her sleep; all huma nity has
been in a state of spiritual slumber . “Yet the Bible says that a deep sleep fellupon Adam, and nowhere is there reference to his waking up”* (T-18). Who
among us isn’ t feeling the call to awaken? Our personal awakening is a gradual process, not necessarily a eureka
moment heralding a dramatic change. There might not have been a
particular moment or event, or anything that even seemed very significant
at the time. It might have been a prayer or meditation or mindfulness
practice. It might have been a relationship or a book or a teacher or a
spiritual journey . It could have been any form of life-changing experience,
good or bad, that cracked open the heart and led to greater wisdom. It might
have been an almost eerie experience of simply knowing something, though
we couldn’t explain why. No matter what form our initial awakening took,
we reme mber it as something that formed a crack in our resistance and
signaled the arrival of somethin g new. It was that something that awakened
us from our sleep and led us to the “roof” of our higher mind. Mary was to tell no one, and neither are we. The birth of new life is a
mysterious process, whether it’s the birth of a child or the birth  of a better
self. The period of gestation requires nourishment and care. We have an
instinctive understanding that certain ideas should stay within us, protected
from outside exposure until they’re ready to be brought forth. The spiritual
life is difficult to cultivate amid the clanging clamor of the modern world. Not just within Mary , but also within us, the newborn Christ needs
protection. It isn’t safe in this society to talk about our spiritual lives in just
any old setting. Conscious frien dships, therapists, and spiritual or religious
counselors offer protected spaces. Outside those, it can be emotionally
treacherous to share our deepest feelings about the inner life. And what is being born from deep within us is the power that will save
the world. Mary represents a facet of consciousness often referr ed to as the
“divine feminine,” a long-suppressed dimension of both self and society
that is desperate ly needed now. “This is what is meant by ‘the meek shall
inherit the earth.’  They will literally take it over because of their strength”*
(T-20). Mary’ s powers of kindness, gentleness, tenderness, nurturing,
bravery , understanding, and mystery—and most of all, her endurance amid
the deepest grief—are all aspects of self that will help us build a more
sustainable world. Like Mary , we too feel the stirring of new life within us. Like her, we
keep these things within us and we ponder them in our hearts. The whisperof angels is a deeply personal thing. Sometimes it’s insight, the intuitional
hits we get in the middle of the night. Some mysterious force is
encouraging us to be better , to do better , than we have ever been or done
before. We have a feeling that changes are coming and that we have some
work to do. The future of the world depends on our doing it. It will take more than
physical acts of procreation to perpetuate the life of humanity now; it will
take an evolution of human consciousness, a collective wisdo m that does
not yet exist on a massive scale. And just as physical life gestates within the
body , wisdom gestates within the mind. We must be and do differently now
in order for the species to survive. The ego, of course, will have none of that. Herod—the ego writ large—
is always on the lookout. The ego jealously guards its power lest love take
primacy over its worldly interests. It seeks to invalidate and destroy all
expressions of love. Herod wasn ’t having any of it with that powerful baby
who was born to be King of the Jews. He would rather kill all the babies
than allow that one to live. Mary was obviously very vulnerable then, as all
of us feel when new life—whether physical or spiritual—grows within us. Where does our protection lie? It lies in Joseph, the “divine masculine,” the aspect of the psyche that
manages the material world. It makes sure we’re safe as we go through our
transformational process. Joseph received all the instruction he needed. He
was directed to take Mary to Egypt to protect her, just as we learn
appropriate self-care and the gifts of solitude. The land of Egypt means the
sacred self; we retreat to that place within us while the old order falls away ,
incubating our powers until the hour when the culture is ready to receive it. Herod’ s edict to “kill all Jewish babies” means the ego’s desire to nip in
the bud any emer ging hope. Herod’ s sons represent newer generations of
egoic figures, always working to suppress the voices of those  who might
emer ge as a challenge to the old order . The voice of the mystic finds no
welcome in Herod’ s land, but God is with you. You will be delivered to the
manger , a very humble place within your heart. And there you will give
birth. Absolutely that birth is the salvation of the world. You, like Mary, give
birth to the Christ—anytime you enter the present free of the past and with
nothing in your heart but love. Worldly kings will get off their “high
horses” when they realize your power . And the light of your deeperunderstanding of things will help cast out the darkness  of the world. You
will be the same you, but a very different you. Something happened inside
you, and you are changed. The star pointing to the manger where Christ was born is a star that
shines within everyone’ s consci ousness, signaling to the mortal mind that
there is somepla ce else to go. We’ve lingered long enough in the regions of
darkness, thinki ng we are separate from God and from each other . The
delusions thereby manufactured are now threatening to destroy us. As children we learned about evolution. We learned that if a species
consistently behaves in maladaptive ways, it will either evolve or it will go
extinct. An evolutionary altern ative occurs when a mutation happens: a
member of the species demonstrates another way of behavior more aligned
with a survivable future for the species. Humanity’ s fear-based behavioral
patterns are now so maladapti ve that they are a threat to our survival. Humanity’ s current challenge is to survive itself. In order  to change our behavior , however , we will have to change our
minds. The mystic Jesus is a transformer of minds. He is an evolutionary
alternative, the self reborn out of darkness and into light. Mary gave birth to him with all her love. Now it’ s our turn. Dear God,
Please use me. May Y our spirit come over me and pr epare my heart. I surr ender to Y ou who and what I am,
that I might be a vessel of Y our love. Enter me and lift me up
that I might serve Y ou best. Amen
OceanofPDF .comMiracles
In the words of Albert Einstein, “We cannot solve our problems with the
same level of thinking that created them.” There is a quantum field that lies
beyond the limits of the world as we understand it. Our rational mind
cannot grasp it fully, for it is beyond the understanding of the mortal mind. The heart, however , is totally at home there. Miracle-mindedness returns the mind to its proper function, which
means alignmen t with and service to love. The Mind of God is an infinite
ocean of loving thought, and when we think with love we are thinking with
God. The purpose of our lives is to learn to think as God thinks. Every thought is a cause that leads to an effect; the world is like a
screen onto which are projected the nature of our thoughts. The Law of
Cause and Effect was created for our protection, for as long as we think
with love, then love is reflected back to us. But that’s not what is going on here, at least not usually . Hum anity is
dominated by a loveless though t system, the ego’s playground, emer ging
from the mistaken thought that we are separate. The belief in separation
leads to all manner of chaos. Like a cancer cell that has disconnected from
its collaborative function, our thoughts are prone to separating themselves
from their divine purpose. That itself is the essential problem: we’ve been
infected by the malignant thoug ht that “it’s all about me.” Thinking we are
separate, we then consistently attack what and whom we were born to love. The separation itself is an illusion of consciousness, for on the level of
the spirit there’ s no place where you start and I stop. We’re like waves in
the ocean thinking we are separate from other waves. Obviously , there is no
place where one wave stops and another wave starts. Yet think of the
psychological difference between thinking of yourself as a wave that is
separate from the rest of the ocean versus thinking of yourself as one with
it.If I think of myself as one wave separate from every other , how can I
not feel powerless in relation to the rest of the ocean? How can I not live in
constant fear of annihilation, terrified a wave that is bigger than me will
overwhelm me at any mome nt? Why would I not then defend my
separateness, believing that without it I will cease to exist? On the other hand, if I think of myself as one with the other waves, how
could I not feel safe and powerf ul? Identifying with the power of the ocean
itself, I have no reason to fear , because I know that I am part of it. Believing we are separate, yet knowing in our hearts that we are not, we
suffer. Our entire existence is a fixed double bind. We are left with no sense
of meaning, higher identity , or purpose. The world as we have come to
know it—a realm of disordered thoughts, manufactured chaos, and
disconnected events—is not who we are, and we cannot feel safe within it. This is a deadly game, but it is a game we’re playing with ourselves. With our loveless thoughts we have concocted a loveless world. In closing
our hearts we have blinded our eyes. But God did not do this to us; we did it
to ourselves. There is a way to escape this pain. Yet it’s something the ego will not
tolerate. Escape  lies in surrende ring the belief that we are separate, which
the ego finds intolerable because the end of the separation is the death of
the ego. It becom es vicious in its drive to preserve its life. In its panicked,
hysterical drive  to perpetuate itself, the ego takes out all the stops to
convince us that the separation is real and that our oneness is the illusion. It
insists everyone is guilty , even ourselves. It insists we are isolate d specks of
nothingness afloat in a random, uncaring universe. How could this not produce a deep and abiding anxiety , routinely
suppressed yet always haunting us? And from that place of spiritual
ignorance, uninf ormed of who we are and who we are to each other , we
make endlessly foolish decision s. Insisting the separation is real, we look to
the material world for comfort  when our overidentification with it is the
actual source of our discomfort. We build our mental prison, then seek to
decorate it with gold. We use our mind s to attack and defend when the purpose of our lives is
to love and bless—all this in an unconscious drive to perpetuate the
separation that is the engine of our despair . Our thinking upside down, our
lives are upside down. Our hearts invalidated, our lives are filled with
suffering. Our minds confused, our world is filled with terror .Ah, but from this insanity we are miraculously saved. OceanofPDF .comThe Separation
The funda mental premise of A Cours e in Miracles  is that love is real and
nothing else exists. But if only love is real, then why is endless love not our
experience as we go through life? If God is love, why would He even allow
the ego to exist? As extensions of the mind of God, we share His attributes. The only
difference between us is that He created us; we did not create  Him. Free
will means we can think whatev er it is we wish to think. God Himself will
not violate that right. The thought system that dominates this earth is based on fear, not love. That thought system has extraordinary power because it is the power of the
mind turned against itself. Love is natural to us, yet often feels foreign. From a very early age,
natural thinking begins to feel unnatural to us and unnatural thought to feel
natural. We live in a world where thoughts of attack, blame, and judgment
have become more instinctive to us than love and forgiveness. That is the
source of both our personal and our collective despair . We are constantly tempted by an insane resistance to love. We are
driven by a conscious and unconscious opposition to it, and that is the
struggle underly ing every problem. The spiritual journey is the effort to free
ourselves from this mental imprisonment, and Jesus is one of the portals
through which we can make our escape. He frees us by reminding us who
we are. Millions of years ago in time as we know it, we thought a thought that
was not true—a lie so great that it shattered the universe. We began to think
without love. “The opposite of love is fear,” says the Course . “But what is
all-encompassing can have no opposite”* (T-1). When we’re thinking
without love, we actually aren’ t thinking at all. Fear is the mortal
hallucination of a life lived separately from God. People ask, “But if God islove, then why did He allow the creation of the ego to begin with?” And
that’s the point. He didn’ t. The ego is merely a false belief. That belief was our original misperception, or mis-creation. It began as
a moment of disconnection, a separation from love, that is the source of all
horror in the world. It was a “detour into fear”* (T-17), described in the
Course  as a moment when the Son of God forgot to laugh. The proble m is
not that the separation happened millions of years ago; the problem is that
we reenact it in any moment that we close our hearts. It is the chronic
spiritual sickness of humankind, the endless repetition of unloving thoughts
that dominate the world. For the mind is so powerful that what we think, we
manifest. There  is only one problem, and there is only one solution. We
think we have many different problems, but we really only have one: our
separation from love. The original moment of loveless thought was the birth of the ego (the
word used here the way it was used by the ancient Greeks: the notion of a
small, separated  self). The ego is only a belief  that we are separate, yet
belief is very powerful. From that one false belief an entire world of
lovelessness came into being. Two separate worlds, like two parallel universes, would from that
moment coexist. One world is peopled by separate bodies who have forgotten who we
are and forgotten we are one with each other . Our bodies are physical
manifestations of the thought that we are separate. Freud defined neurosis
as “sepa ration from self.” We perceive this world with our physical senses:
our eyes see, our ears hear, our hands touch. But while the physi cal world is
real within our three dimensions, three-dimensional reality itself is not what
it appears to be. It is but a vast matrix of illusion manufactured by the
human mind, not to illuminate but in fact to hide a world that lies beyond it. A parallel world, unseen by the physical eye, is an eternal indestructible
reality . It is God’ s ocean of endless light, love, and understanding, eclipsed
by the ego’ s thought system that now dominates the world. We straddle two universes, attac hed to one while yearning for the other . We live in a world of separate bodies, on a hamster ’s wheel of fear-based
thought and behavior , pervers ely guided by the false belief that our
separateness is our identity , without which we cease to exist. The thought that we are separ ate has led us to believe that we are
separate from God, separate from each other , separate from the universe,separate from the earth, separa te from the animals, even separate from
ourselves. This thought system violates and invalidates, torments and
destroys us, making us mental slaves to its dictatorial insistenc e that we’re
not who we are and that we are who we are not. Beyond all that is our spiritual Reality . It is the indestructible realm that
God created, within which we are one and where our souls know that we’re
at home. OceanofPDF .comThe Holy Spirit
So here we have  been, lost in the illusion of separateness, experiencing
ourselves as alone in a meaningless universe when we ourse lves are its
meaning. Literally from the beginning of time, we have enacted and
reenacted the drama created by this first mistaken thought. God, being perfect Love, has the answer to every problem the moment
the problem occurs. The ego having responded to God, God responded right
back. Into the darkness there appeared a light. What would perfect Love do, in response to the fact that we had
opposed it? Would it force us back to the thought of love? No, because
Love does not force. Would it punish us for thinking without love? No, because Love does
not punish. God wouldn’ t force us to return our minds to love, for that would be a
violation of our free will. We are free to think whatever we choose to think. But in the instant the ego appeared, God created an Alternative , a place in
our consciousness that would guide us back to love should we so choose. This guide, a gentle bridge of perception from fear to love, is called,
among other things, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the eternal communication link between us and God,
the reconnecting  link to our right mind. Created by God, the Holy Spirit is
therefore eternal and will remain in our minds forever . The Holy Spirit also
goes by the name of Internal  Teacher , Comforter , Shekhinah, Thought
Adjuster , and more. From the Holy Spirit comes God’ s greatest gift: a flood
of loving thought with the power to override our fearful perceptions and
bring us inner peace. Jesus was, and is, a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Fear is to love what darkness is to light, not a thing but the absence of a
thing. Just as we get rid of darkness by turning on the light, we get rid offear by replacin g it with love. Fear is the darkness of the mind; the Holy
Spirit, the Light of the World. While the Holy Spirit was creat ed literally millions of years ago, there
lived a man two thousand years ago (the Course  says he is not the only one)
who actualized the mind of the Holy Spirit, eliminating from his
consciousness all thoughts but those of love. He thus became one with the
Holy Spirit, and to call on one is to call on the other . He is the light in the
presence of which darkness cannot be. This light has many names, and Jesus is one. The mystic Jesus is a
purveyor of the Holy Spirit, a way of calling down the Holy Spirit’ s power
within our morta l existence. We do not see Him with our physical eyes, but
we see the ef fects of His power and we know that He is there. Jesus cannot save us from the effects of our thinking, for the Law of
Cause and Effect was created by God for our protection and is therefore
inviolable. He works with us on the causal level, helping us to choose our
thoughts more wisely . Every instant we choose what to think, either consciously or
unconsciously . Thoughts of love bring inner peace, because when we think
with love we are being ourselves. Thinking without love, we are nullifying
our own existen ce. The awareness of our oneness is heaven and the torment
of the ego is hell—not places we go to after we die, but emotional states
right here right now . God doesn’ t send us to hell; He is What delivers us from it. All of us are
tempted at times to deviate from  love, just as Jesus was. Through the grace
of God he rose above the tempt ation. Now he is authorized to help us rise
above ours. All of us have days when for whatever reason we’re discombobulated. In today’s world, things are moving at an unnaturally quick pace. While it
wasn’ t very long ago that our ancestors lived their lives according to the
rising and setting of the sun, today’ s social media environment seems to
have quickened time itself. Our nervous systems literally were not made for
this. Of course we are tempted. Of course we fall. Our civilization needs repair . We need repair . We cannot simply numb or
suppress the pain of living in a world so at odds with who we are. The
world is going to have to change; civilization is going to have to correct its
course. But for any of that to happen, we’re going to have to change
ourselves first.OceanofPDF .comThe Atonement
The Atonement is the correction of our perception, placed within us by
God as an eternal escape route from fear. Through the Atonement, we can
undo the conseq uences of our lovelessness, as we recognize our errors and
ask God’s help in choosing another way to think. All Abrahamic religions,
as well as other s, contain the principle of Atonement, for it is fundamental
to perso nal and collective transformation. We cannot go forward in life
without correctin g our hearts, and this is as true for a nation and a species as
it is for an individual. The Atonement, empowered by nothing short of the
infinite love and the power of God, bestows upon us full relea se from the
insanity of the world we have created, and deliverance to the one that He
did. The Atonement, however , takes  more than a simple “Oops, I shouldn’ t
have done that.” Any Catholic in sincere confession, or Jew in tears on Yom
Kippur , or addict at an Alcoholi cs Anonymous meeting, admitting the exact
nature of their wrongs, has touched the zone of deep contrition where we
recognize we have transgressed and we wish to transgress no more. When we do, something genuinely miraculous happens. Something
changes on a causal level. We fall to our knees, if not literally then
figuratively . And everything begins again. That is where the world is now, or perhaps it is truer to say it’s where
we need to be now: not attacking others, blaming others, playing victim, or
making the problem about someone else. We need to look within ourselves
for the problem, and within ourselves for the answers. We need to forgive
ourselves and others. For that is where God is, and that is where  the Answer
lies. The Atonement principle heals every heart that is open to it. When we
are willing to go back to the moment when the mistake was made, to take
full responsibilit y for the fact that in that moment we did not allow the HolySpirit to guide our perceptions and our behavior , we can choose again. We
can put the mom ent into the hands of the Holy Spirit now. And we need not
feel guilty , for He will undo all consequences of our wrong decision if we
will let Him. The Atonement principle does not come from us, but it is
within us because God put it there. When fear occu rs—a repetition of the original moment of separation—
the universe is always ready to correct itself. The question is whether we
are. All of us fall off the spiritual wagon more times a day than we care to
admit. But at any given moment, we can choose again. That is the power of
the Atonement. In the moment when we close our hearts, choosing fear instead of love,
the miracle we could have had is held in trust for us by the Holy Spirit. It
will be safe in His hands until we are ready to receive it. It might be another
situation, at another time, but the opportunity will be provided. The miracle
available to us in any moment is an undeletable file. We can choose not to
download it, but we can never remove it from the hard drive. In the presence  of perfect love, the universe rearranges itself and
miracles occur automatically . That is the infinite mercy of God. OceanofPDF .comEnlightenment
For thousands of years, both Jews and Christians have conceived of a
Messiah who liberates humanity from spiritual and material bondage. The
Jews say the Messiah is coming, the Christians say the Messiah came, and
Einstein said there is no time. The mystic Messiah won’ t be coming from outside but from the inside. He’s not coming down from the sky; he’ s coming from our higher mind. Thinking of the Messiah only in terms of linear time and the historical
reality of Jesus keeps us bound to limited awareness. The mystic Messiah is
a state of mind, a loving awaren ess of our oneness with God and with each
other . In that sense the Messiah does liberate the children of God. But liberation is not a moment, it’s a process. Time and space, and the
body itself, are learning devices through which we rehearse over and over
again the lessons of enlightenment. Every circumstance is carefully planned
by the Holy Spirit for our maximal soul growth, both challenging and
inviting us to choose love instead of fear . Enlightenment isn’t a change in our bodies but in our souls, not a denial
of the body but a rethinking of its purpose. God honors our creations as we
are asked to honor His. Nothing in this world is holy or unholy except as
determined by the purpose we ascribe to it. The body itself is like a
priceless suit of clothes. Used as a means of healing and comm unication, it
too is a holy thing. In many Christian churches you’ll see it written: “Do this in
remembrance of me.” The mind of Jesus holds nothing but faith, nothing
but love, and nothing but service. In every situation, our spiritual challenge
is to even try to approach that. It’s quite  a task to go over the events of our lives at the end of each day,
asking, “In that situation, did I bring forth my best? Did I show love and
generosity , or fear and selfishn ess? Was I there to give, or was I there totake? Did I bless, or did I blam e?” It’s amazing how the more  we do this,
the more we begin to see that our lives are exactly as we program  them with
our thoughts. We’re not asked by God to be perfect, but to be honest. Every time we
realize “Yep, I wasn’ t my best in that instance,” we can place that moment
into the hands of God, atone for our error , and pray for the chance to begin
again. He will provide it. That is the power of the Atonement. It isn’t a fix;
it’s a miracle. The choice for love is a radica l departure from the way we’ve been
taught to view the world. Enligh tenment is a psychological conversion that
ultimately dism antles a thought system based on fear, but not without
temptation and hardships that every life is privy to. The temptations of the ego are pernicious. How often we self-sabotage,
only to realize afterward that we ourselves were the enemy who hurt us
most. The ego would much prefer that you monitor the faults of others than
to be honest about your own. Yet it’s only when we’re willing to look at
ourselves clearly in the mirror that the path of liberation begins. Enlightenment isn’t a stupendous moment after which everything is
suddenly clear and we’re forever changed. It’s a moment-by-moment, often
arduous process of personal growth that can involve, and in fact usually
does involve, some level of personal discomfort. Growth is messy . The
journey is scary , and a guide—a  friend to support us as we go, solidly there
with us and never to leave, that and more—is the mystic Jesus. He overshadows our consciousn ess, delivering us to thinking that will
set us free of pain. The purpose of our lives is to be happy , and the only way
we can achieve that is if we learn to think as God thinks. Asking Jesus to
help us is a way to get there. There is a mystery to what happens when we
invite him into our heart, something beyond the grasp of our mortal mind. The Course  refers to our relationship to him: “ ⁶ It is possible to read his
words and bene fit from them without accepting him into your life. ⁷ 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”* (MT-88). I have found
that to be true. Giving up how we used to think means giving up who we used to be,
and the old self rarely goes down easily . The journey takes us through a
very dark forest, filled with psychological demons that jump out at us as weseek to make our way: thoughts of past failures, personal humiliation,
shame, self-hatred, regret, and grief. The mystic path is an insistence on meaning in an otherwise
meaningless universe, a dedica tion to purpose in a world that constantly
distracts us with seduction by ultimately unimportant things. It is a refusal
to go along with the corrupting influence of petty judgme nts. It is a
commitment to making forgiven ess the core principle around which we live
our lives. There is so much to unlearn. The temptation to perceive without love—
choosing attack over forgiveness  and blame over blessing—is more than the
dominant norm in our world; it’s the preferr ed one. And it will challenge us
at every turn. Years ago, I told myself not to worry about the devil because that was
only in my head . I remember the moment I realized that that is hardly good
news. The devil isn’t out there somewhere stalking the plane t for men’ s
souls. Rather , it is the temptation in all of us, ever vigilant and ever active,
to perceive without love. Since  all minds are one, as we transcend that
temptation within ourselves, we help purify the thoughts of the world. We’ll be forced by circumstance s to see where we are spiritually strong
and where we are spiritually weak. The Holy Spirit isn’t here to honor our
comfort zones but to bust them,  to bring to our awareness the places where
we still hold love at bay. Only then can we atone for those aspects of our
personality and heal from them. Just as we mentally exercise to build our physical muscles, we exercise
to build our spiritual muscles. Jesus is like a great trainer , going through the
moves with us, correcting us when we didn’ t quite get it right, helping us
develop greater strength with which to do it for ourselves. Yoga or Pilates or
weight training changes the shape of our physical muscles; a consistent
effort to be more loving changes the shape of our personality . By
disciplining ourselves to be more loving, we don’t just become “nicer .” We
become miracle workers, healer s, and agents of transformation. That is why
we are here. As there are objective, discernible laws of physics, there are objective,
discernible laws of consciousness, or metaphysics, as well. You don’t have
“faith” in the power of gravity; you simply understand the power of gravity . At a certain point you don’t have faith in the power of love either; you
simply understand the power of love.If we’re confused, or angry , or intolerant, or triggered, God does not ask
us not to be. He simply asks us to be willing  not to be. Knowing there is a
power that can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves at that moment,
knowing there is within our mind a savior from our confusion and despair ,
it’s up to us whether we choose to call on it. Jesus can’t come into our mind
and simply take those things from us—he can’t take what we don’t release
to him—but if we request his help we will receive it. Part of the art of life is not doing something stupid in the meantime. Just
as physical exercise builds physical muscles, prayer and meditation build
attitudinal muscles. One gives us the strength to move quickly and
powerfully . The other gives us the strength to remain nonreactiv e and still. I
might think you’re the biggest jerk in the world right now—I might not yet
be beyond thinking that—but with enough practice, I can get myself to the
point where I’m not dumb enough to text you that. Every action has a reaction, and every thought takes form on some
level. “A neutral thought is impossible”* (WB-26). A miracle is a
fundamental correction on the causal level of thought. It is useless to try to
change our lives  by simply tinkering with its effects. That’ s like trying to
change the plot of a movie by manipulating the screen. Everything we
experience in life is simply the projection of a thought. The shift from fear to love is literally a transformation of world s; it’s a
change on the causal level of existence that then changes the realm of
effects. God Himself will not violate the Law of Cause and Effect because
His creations are unalterable. The mystic Jesus transforms our lives by
transforming how we think. As humanity changes our thinking, the world
will miraculously change. How often our appetites, our reactivity , our lack of impulse control, our
anger , our defen siveness, our fear get in the way of our good . It can take
more than garden-variety “positive thinking” to get past all that. Perhaps we
were betrayed, or injured, or abandoned, or lied to. Perhaps we lost a loved
one, or we know  that we or someone close to us is dying. Of course we’re
thinking angry , negative, or desperate thoughts. It’s not always easy to
change our mind. Life can be painful and depressing. It’s easy enough to
love when the love around us is obvious—when we’re being treated kindly;
when we feel loved; when circumstances are going well. The difficulty sets in when things are not going well; when we do not
feel loved; when circumstances are not as we’d wish. That’ s when the ego isvery good at convincing us all this love and forgiveness is pure nonsense,
not to be believed, or acted on, or taken seriously in any way . Jesus transform s all that by transforming our mind. That’ s the same
thing as saying he is the light that dissolves the darkness. To “follo w Jesus” means to align our thoughts with unconditional love. In him there are no conditions, no excuses, no illusions that stand in the
way of his love. In him, therefore, our illusions of separation disappear . As
we become his disciples, our minds become more disciplined. We achieve too little because we have undisciplined minds. All of us
have those areas  of life where we are wounded—places in ourse lves where,
usually because of some drama that occurred in the past, the muscles of our
personality have become misshapen. We’re weak where we might be
stronger , if we’d had different parents. We’re harsh where we might be
gentle, had we not been abused. We’re negative where we might be more
positive, had we not been betrayed or hurt. The sum of our accumulated
woundings, from  birth until this moment, takes a toll on our emotional
body . We carry internal scars and bruises, the emotional wounds that have
never healed. It’s one thing to come to see those wounds; it’s another thing
to heal them. All of us are privy to the darkness of the world, and carry it within
ourselves. A traditional psychot herapeutic approach involves analyzing the
darkness, while praying for a miracle means turning on the light. The Light
of the World is a light in your mind. He has risen, and so can we. Dear God,
Please make me who Y ou would have me be
that I might do as Y ou would have me do. Transform my mind and heal my heart. Release me fr om torment
that I might help r elease others. Show me my innocence
that I might mor e clearly see theirs. Bless me that my life might be a blessing on the world. May love and love only be my way , dear God. Amen
OceanofPDF .comChapter Two
Reflections of Light
PEOPLE CAN HAVE an almost pathological need to “make something of
themselves,” as though who they are already simply isn’ t enough. To the ego, you will never be enough. It doesn’ t tell you that you did
something wron g; it just tells you that you are wrong. Few of us, no matter
how kind our parents or how healthy our upbringing, survive into adulthood
without an arsenal of rockets in our head shouting us down before anyone
else has a chance to. That’ s why knowing who you are spiritually is essential to a healthy
sense of self. If we only accept the world’ s estimation, then we’ll never feel
like we’re enough, because the world is dominated by the ego’s vicious
nonsense. If we accept ourselve s as God created us, we recognize we’re no
better and no worse than anyone else. All of us are special, and none of us is
special. At the deepest level of our spiritual identity , all of us are perfect
creations of God. Central to understanding this is recognizing where we came from. A
Course in Mirac les says we have an authorship problem. We seem  to think
we authored ourselves, which if you think about it is incredibly arrogant. Or
we think we were created by our parents, a sperm and egg apparently
carrying magical powers to produce feelings, hopes, great art, and an
ultimate yearning for transcendence. The mortal you is a result of your parents having sex, of course, and
your mortal personality is in many ways a result of how your parents
behaved since the moment you were born. But none of that is the Real you. Your worldly parents parented your worldly self, but God is the parent of
who you really are. We have always lived in Him, and we will always livein Him. Our problem is when we fail to individuate from our parents, yet
individuate too much from God. The ego is like an impostor , a veil, a wall made of broken shards of
glass behind which lies an endless field of roses. It’s a mask we wear that
convinces not only others, but even ourselves, that this imposto r is who we
are. But you are not a body , you are not your personality , and you are not the
mere sum of your human experiences. You are something so infinitely ,
magnificently beyond all that, and all your deep grief is you longing to be
you. There are many ways to expres s all this, none better or worse than any
other . God is loving thought, and you are an extension of that thought. God
is loving cause, and you are its effect. God is Father , and you are His
beloved child. Jesus is someone who actualized all that, and in identifying
with him you begin to identify yourself. OceanofPDF .comApocalyptic Beginnings
When I look back over the span of my life, I sum it up pretty much like
this: “It could have gone either way .”
I’ve met so many people living in dire circumstances I know could have
been mine. One different turn here or stupid choice there, and it could be
me spending years in prison, addicted, on the streets, or even  dead. I’ve
been up close and personal with some of the deepest suffering, and I know
that there but for the grace of God go I.
I was a bit wild when I was young, and I had many opportunities to self-
destruct. The fact that I barely escaped disaster delivered a very powerful
message to me: to spend the rest of my life doing whatever I could to
persuade others not to be as stupid as I had been. To take life more
seriously . To be more responsib le toward myself and others. To try my best
to be the woman God would have me be. This isn’t some goody-goody mentality . It’s simply the gratitude and
praise that millions of us feel, knowing that something bigger than
ourselves delivered us from the lowest rings of hell. A lot of good things
come out of that too, including the develop ment of emotional antibodies of
some kind. Once  you’ve seen the worst, when you see it again you’re not so
scared. Ironically , that this is true for so many people is one of the most hopeful
things happening in our world today . It means we’re ready for what comes
next. While many traditional Christians believe we face the Apocalypse up
ahead, after which there will be a thousand years of peace, the mystic reads
that chapter of the Bible dif ferently . A lot of us have already experienced our personal apocalypse. For some
it was the diagnosis of cancer . For some it was getting sober . For some it
was unutterable loss. For some it was bankruptcy . For some it was divorce. And from the experience, we have grown more wise. Just as Jesus wouldappear during those thousand years of peace, in a way he has appeared to
us. And each of us now carries a piece of the wisdom that, when combined
with the wisdom of others, can and will save the world in time. Either that, or it’s absolutely within the realm of possibility that we
could bring about a global apoc alypse. It’s not up to us what we learn, but
only whether we learn through joy or through pain. If we choo se not to be
wise, we might blow up the world. If enough of us choose to follow the
wisdom we’ve gained from living life so far, then we will avoid a global
calamity and go straight for global peace. In both of those  scenarios, Jesus is standing there when the apocalypse
is over. In a mystical interpreta tion he is with us now, showing us how to
bypass the darkness and go directly for the light. He has already
transcended. Now so can we. OceanofPDF .comThe Power of the Morning
I look at morni ng prayer and meditation the way I look at physical
exercise. If I do it, it works. It takes work to strengthen our attitudinal
muscles, just as it takes work to strengthen our physical muscles. We use
spiritual exercise to counter the emotional gravity of victimization and
anger , shame and self-hatred, the way we counter physical  gravity by
working out. The mystic Jesus is like a spiritual trainer . He can’t do the
work for you, but he can show you how to do it for yourself. There’ s no better time to do it than in the morning. When I was pregnant with my daughter many years ago, I could feel
how much was going on inside me as I simply sat on a chair with my feet
up drink ing a cup of chamomile tea. I was in awe of the thought that new
life was being created inside my body . The greatest way I could serve the
process was to cultivate health and stillness and inner peace, for myself and
for the child within me. Now I’m similarly in awe of the life that gestates in the womb of
consciousness. Sometimes the greatest service I could offer to the child in
my womb was to sit quietly and merely be; a life that’s pregnant with
greater awareness is similarly grounded in stillness and rest. Inner peace is a
fertile field for the birth of the mystic self. It is also its ultimate goal. Giving birth to another human being, but also giving birth to a higher
version of ourselves, means we’re participating in the birth of a new world. While the species can’t continue unless enough of us conceive  children, it
won’ t survive unless we conceive enough wisdom. The effort to become more spiritually conscious involves changes on
both the inner and outer planes. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., we
need “qualitative shifts in our souls as well as quantitative changes in our
circumstances.” Some of those changes are lifestyle changes, one of whichinvolves the earliest hours of our day. All great religious traditions
emphasize the importance of the morning. When we first awaken, our minds are most open to new impr essions. That’ s when we download the state of consciousness that will dominate our
day. We have a sacred responsib ility to ourselves to choose wisely what that
download will be; if we go straight to social media, for instance , rather than
going first to God, it’s like eatin g a bowl of candy for breakfast. Your body
doesn’ t want that, and your mind doesn’ t want it either . Morning should be sacred, a time when we ground ourselves in a
reverent view of ourselves, our relationships, and the world around us. It’s a
time to conscio usly call in the light so darkness won’ t overwhelm us. Particularly given the chaos in the world today , acquiescing to the ego’s
worldview first thing in the morning is one of the most self-sabotaging
things we can do. We do not need to create the world; it has already been created and
created perfectly . Our problem is our attachment to an unreal world that lies
in front of it. The world on this side of the veil is the ego’s kingdom, in which
thoughts of fear and limitation prevail. Through the eyes of the Holy Spirit,
we gain the power to see beyond the veil. Withdrawing our attachment to
one world, we gain the ability to invoke another . Beyond this world is a
world we want* (WB-235). It’s ours to decide which realm  of reality we wish to show on the big
screen that takes up space in our mind. But according to A Course in
Miracles  the vision of one world will cost us the vision of the other. Grounding ourselves in peace and stillness, love and forgiveness, in the
morning is one of the most powerful medicines we can apply to our
wounded souls. Spiritual liberation is not a bursting out, but a gentle
melting in. The mystic Jesus is the tender power at the core of who we are,
and the protector of the mystic mind. We wake up in the morning and take a shower or bath in order to wash
dirt off our body . We want to wash ourselves clean of physical impurities
left over from the day before. Through meditation, prayer , mindfulness, or
whatever spiritu al practice we follow, we do the same thing with our mind. We take a shower to wash away  the dirt that has accumulated on our body ,
and we meditate and pray in order to wash away the stress that has
accumulated on our mind.It’s not just our intellect that is assaulted by the fear and chaos of the
world today: our nervous system  is assaulted by it. And that weakens our
capacity to be effective in the world. We can’t bring peace to the world
around us if we ourselves are not at peace. We’re not going to change the
world if we ourselves remain unchanged. “Do not conform to the pattern of
this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans
12:2, New International Version). That’ s why prayer and meditation matter . Meditation is a scientifically
proven process that shifts our brain waves, leading to chemical changes in
the brain that cause a deep exper ience of inner peace. Time spent meditating
removes the mental plaque that accumulates on our psyche—the layers of
ego thinking that cover over our miracle impulses and make access to the
higher mind impossible. Accord ing to A Course of Miracles , five minutes
spent with the Holy Spirit in the morning guarantees He will be in charge of
our thought forms throughout the day. Simply sitting, reading inspirational
or script ural material, following  a serious prayer or meditation practice, we
allow our mind to be in a receptive mode to something higher than
ourselves. It transforms our experience of life. The ego’s resistance to a quiet moment can be very strong, of course; it
loves to make a direct beeline for our adrenal system, addict us to fearful
thinking, and destroy all impulse control. There are times when it takes
more emotional discipline to be quiet and do nothing than it does to send a
reactive text. That’ s why one of the most undermining things we can do is
check email, Instagram, Twitte r, and so forth before we meditate in the
morning. Just as we train our physical muscles to help us move  powerfully ,
we train our spiritual muscles to help us be powerfully nonreactive and still. Being a mother myself, I know how many young parents are saying to
themselves as you read this, “Oh, but mornings are impossible! She doesn’ t
understand what it’s like having little kids around!” But yes, I do. And this
is what I learned: small children  love it when we say very softly , “Hey , now
we’re going to have our quiet time with God, okay? We’re going to sit here
with each other and just love Him!” I cannot stress how important it is to
help small children get used to spiritual practice. Try to do it early . Once the
eye-rolling years begin, it’ s almost impossible. Nothing would do more to repair the damage to our families than to
cultivate quiet among ourselves. The French philosopher Blaise  Pascal said
that every problem in the world can be traced to man’ s inabili ty to sitquietly in a room  alone. In both Judaism and Christianity , there is the notion
of the small, still voice within, but that voice is easily drowned out by the
cacophonous noises of the world. If we do not fill our minds in the morning with the light of a higher
love, the darkne ss of the world will have its way with us. Our mental energy
is going to go somewhere, and if we don’t proactively direct it, devote it,
and surrender it to love, then it will be used for the purposes of fear. And of
course, that jangles us. Our only two real choices today are between
enlightenment or neurosis. If you’ve chosen a prayer or meditation practice that feels right to you,
try adding this every morning: Close your eyes, visualize everyone you’re
going to meet in the day ahead of you, imagine everyone you don’t even
know you’re going to meet, and simply send love from your heart to theirs. See Jesus embrace them, along with whatever other imagery emer ges. We are far too tolerant of mind-wandering* (T-29), casually traveling
the back alleys of fear and meaninglessness that pervade the world today . We need to consciously , routine ly quiet our minds if we wish to hear the
Voice for God. The mystic Jesus  will speak to us, but it’s our responsibility
to develop the habit of listening. Yes, that means turning off television and
iPads during dinner . Yes, it means pulling ourselves away from addictive
patterns of thought and behavio r. And it definitely means knowing when to
put the phone down. None of this is always easy, but we can at least lean into the changes
that foster our rebirth. Even small changes can have profound results. And
always remember , the mystic Jesus will help you. See yourself taking his
hand as a child would take the hand of an Elder Brother . He will help you. Think of him in order to remove the veil before your eyes, to see beyond
appearances, to penetrate the layers of illusion that otherwise dominate your
mind. As part of your daily spiritual practice, this morning prayer from A
Course in Miracles  is a powerful directive to your subconscious mind to do
the bidding of the Holy Spirit:
Wher e would you have me go? What would you have me do? What would you have me say , and to whom? * (WB-122)Then, as the day winds down, a powerful way to bring the mind to rest
is with an honest appraisal of how we did that day . Whom do I need to for give? Where was I not my most loving? Is there anything I need to correct? What was the part I played in whatever problem plagued me? Is there anyone I owe an apology? Where did I indulge the habit of negativity and blame? Where was I holding on to the past? With each one, simply look at it, forgive yourself and others, place it all
in the hands of God and be at peace. If there’ s something you need to do as
a follow-up, you’ll know . There is something about the word “Jesus” that automatically reminds
the mind of something. It’s not that the name itself carries magical power . It’s that the brain  responds to the name in some way, like a medicine for the
subconscious mind. If a problem seems insurmounta ble, try closing your eyes and see Jesus
walking on water . If you lack faith that a situation can miraculously change,
see him turning water into wine . If you’re acting in service but you lack the
resources you need, see him multiplying the loaves and fishes. If you feel
afraid, reach out for his hand and he will guide you. For mystic  Jesus is the
mind of pure love, and perfect love casts out fear . If you’re having a difficult time in a relationship, see him embracing
you both. Before you go into a meeting, bless everyone in the room. Pray
silently to be a vessel of love, pray that the Holy Spirit pour forth His spirit
on the gathering, and ask Him to use you to help heal the world. Pray to see
and appreciate the value of everyone who is gathered. See Jesus with his
arms around everyone; see him sitting at a conference table where you’re
having an important meeting; see him embracing everyone involved if
you’re having a dif ficult conversation. None of those visions are idle fantasies. If you treat this kind of imagery like a toy, it will have the effect of a toy
in your life. But if you treat it like the power of the universe, so shall it be
for you. There is nothing in the world more powerful than your ability to
use your mind to glorify God. Not by saying His name out loud orproselytizing for your religion, but simply by being the person that you
know He would have you be. “Teach the gospel” means “demonstrate
love.”
Because all minds are joined, everyone subconsciously knows
everything. People you meet today won’ t consciously know they’ve been
blessed by you, but they will feel it. They won’ t know exactly why they like
you so much. They simply will. OceanofPDF .comBeing Saved
The mystic Jesus repudiates and dissolves the power of the ego. He teaches
us how to love in a world where it can often be so hard. The birth of the mystic self is a commitment to becoming who we are
capable of being, a willingness to die to who we used to be in order to
become who we are capable of being. “He that findeth his life shall lose it:
and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39, KJV). Spiritual rebirth  isn’t an easy way out; it’s more like a difficult  way in. And we often run away from such work. We prefer the dull ache of
unconscious living to the sharp pains of self-discovery . Pulling an entire thought system out by its roots is not an easy thing to
do. We’ve been taught since childhood to see ourselves as separate from
others; we’ve been taught that the world is dangerous, that there  are only so
many pieces of the pie to go around, that no one is good enough,
particularly ourselves, and so forth. We’ve been taught in many ways that
toughness is strength and gentleness is weakness, only to learn the hard way
that controlling behavior can turn people off and humility draws them in. We were taught that self-will is everything and grace is just a fantasy , when
in fact self-will is often self-sabotaging, and the experience of grace nothing
short of miraculous. In a world where we are taught to fear, however , we can train ourselves
to think differen tly. Imagine if you had a kind of internal coach, with you all
the time, a Teacher who would take each thought you gave to him and show
you how to uplift it. Who would show you how to love yourself, and how to
love others. Who would guide you in the ways of forgiveness. That is who
Jesus is. If Shake speare dropped by and said he would teach you how to write
better , would you turn down his offer? If Picasso dropped by and offered to
teach you to paint, would you turn down the offer? That’ s what Jesus does,in a way: he makes us an offer— to teach us how to think more clearly , love
more deeply, live more creatively , and so save humanity from itself. Once
you realize it’s an offer like that—just that simple, really , with no strings
attached—it makes you think a bit before you refuse. The only thing we need to be “saved” from is our own fear-based
thinking. Yet fear often masque rades as something it is not: sophisticated
thought, demanding that we bow down to its authority . Self-hate can
masquerade as self-love, selfishness can masquerade as self-care, and
casting a brother out of our hearts can masquerade as having healthy
boundaries. The last thing fear would want us to do is to see that we
ourselves are the main source of our problems. The Holy Spirit  stands on the fence between the self eternally at peace
with God and the self that is lost in the egoic confusion of the world. He
sees you as you really are, and He sees your worldly personality . Most
significantly , He sees and understands the gap between the two. We turn to our Internal Teacher to transform our thoughts, so that even
in this world we can experience the truth of who we are. We do so by handing Him every thought that comes to mind, asking that
He remove the elements of illusion, of fear, and give our thoughts back to
us transformed. An example would be this: There is someone in your life who treats you
in a way that is unkind, unloving, or disrespectful. In response, you are
triggered in various ways, based on childhood wounds or any other factor . Your temptatio n is then to close your heart to them—judgment,
defensiveness, and so forth—as they have closed their heart to you. The ego would have you see yourself as victim, filled with righteous
anger and totally justified in defending or attacking back in some way. Defense itself is an attack, howe ver, and now both of you have jumped onto
the wheel of suffering. And the initial offense might have been anything. It
could have been  a serious trans gression or even something as simple as an
unkind remark on Twitter . Even small annoyances, accumulated  over time,
have the capacity to leave us anxious, devitalized, and depressed . A rampant
mean-spiritedness begins to express itself collectively , as an entire society
can feel itself subject to often subtle, sometimes dramatic expressions of
lovelessness that begin to fill the air . But there is another way. The journey begins in the realm of personal
transformation, and over time has societal effects. In praying for ourselveswe are praying for the world. Dear God,
I am annoyed and hurt by ________’ s behavior . Their lovelessness has trigger ed me and I am not at peace. I give to you the feelings I feel,
asking that you transform them. I am willing to feel otherwise. I am willing to see this situation differ ently .
_OceanofPDF.com_The_Mystic_Jesus_The_Mind_of_Love_-_Marianne_Williamson.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Even the tiniest thought of forgiveness, of mercy, of love, can
change the trajectory of our lives. I learned at a seminar years ago a technique that I’ve passed on to many
others. We were told to look at people and silently say to them, “The love in
me salutes the love in you. ” How often I’ve been in situations where I’ve
done that and seen extraordinary  changes. For all minds are joined. The vast
majority of data we receive is registered subconsciously. We can feel it
when we are being judged, and we can feel it when we are being  loved. Our
greatest power to effect change begins with our power to think differently. There is no greater preparation  for a meeting than to blast the room with
love before we get there. It changes the meeting because it changes you. How you show up in life—no t only what you do, but who you are—
determines in lar ge part the reactions of those around you. Love is the organizing principle of the universe. Just as the body
organically organizes itself, so does the universe when we allow it to. And
just as the body has a tremendous capacity to heal itself when something
has gone wrong, so does the rest of life. Miracles are the natural unfold ment of the universe, an expre ssion of
the Mind of God as every loving thought is followed by another loving
thought. “Mirac les are natural. When they do not occur something has gone
wrong”* (T-3). What has “gone wrong” is a wrong-minded thought—that
is, a loveless one. But God’ s universe is like a GPS. As soon as we take a
wrong turn, the GPS simply recalculates our path. That recalculation, that
return to right-minded thinking when the heart has been closed, is called the
Atonement. The world is moving in a dangerous direction because our
collective thoug ht patterns are infused with irreverence. This is the century
to turn things around. This will be a century of miracles, if we so choose. As someone whose mind has been purified of all ego thought, Jesus has
become one with the Atonement. In calling on him we are reaching for
divine correctio n: the thought, the feeling, the situation that will free usfrom the ego’s grip. He is a portal to a different world because he is a portal
to a dif ferent kind of thought. He cann ot do for us, however, what he cannot do through us. Without
our willingness, the miracle cannot occur. When we are willing to forgive,
be merciful, be gentle, be kind, then we are allowing our lives to be
channels for his appearance. And when he appears the world is made new. Thinking of ourselves as vesse ls through which God is trying  to express
Himself, the birth of Christ begins to make sense on a psychological and
emotional level. The light Jesus brings to the world is the light he brings to
your world. When we are more compassionate, more forgiving, then our
lives begin to change. So often we’re busy searching for an answer to a problem, unaw are that
the answer begins with us—with  the way we’re speaking to others, thinking
of others, or behaving toward others. The solution to whatever problem
confronts us is always available within the ethers of an unlimited universe,
simply blocked when our hearts are closed. Love in our hearts—and most
important, expressed in our behavior—attracts help, respect, and
willingness to help us when we need it. When our hearts are closed, we
deflect the miracles we desperately need and long for. I remem ber years ago when I would sit in a therapist’ s office
complaining about how hard it was for me to attract support in my office. So much  time and money I spent trying to analyze what had happened in
my childhood to create the pattern I constantly reenacted. If only even one
therapist had thought to ask me, “Can we look at how you behave toward
those who are trying to support you. Do you realize that in your pain you
close your heart to others. You are responsible for your effects in life. Your
childhood is not an excuse; no matter where you got the problem, it’s yours
now, and you are responsible for it. No matter what happened in your past,
the miracle lies in who you choose to be now. ” It wasn’ t analysis of the
problem that freed me, it was a prayer for a miracle: “Dear God, where I am
harsh, please make me gentle. ”
How profound that love truly is the Answer. Salvation itself isn’t
complicated, and perhaps that’s the reason we so often ignore it. We think it
can’t be that easy, that the answers to our problems must surely be more
complicated than simply choosing love. Yet “complexity is of the ego”* (T-
310). The truth is very simple, really. If a child is hungry, you feed them. Voilà. Choosing love is not what’ s difficult; what’ s difficult is getting over our
resistance to choosing love. The ego comes up with very complicated
reasons why love is rarely the right answer, using the power of our own
minds to obscure the obvious. The ego makes strength appear as weakness
and weakness appear as strength. The ego’s thought system is like a consciousness hack, and the mystic
Jesus unhacks it. He transfo rms the world by transforming us. He
transforms our attitudes, our nervous systems, and our relationship to
others. It is not hyperbole to say that he gives us new life. From the immaculate conceptio n to the annunciation, from his birth to
his family’ s flight into Egypt, from his teaching in the temple to his
baptism, from his temptation to his transfiguration, from Gethsemane to the
crucifixion, from his resurrecti on to his ascension, the life of Jesus has
meaning on both outer and inner planes. Yes, those are stories, but they are
also states of awareness. All stages of his life have mystical equivalents. The birth of every child is the birth of God’ s love, or the birth of love into
the world. The thinking of the world then inevitably violate s all of us,
leading to pain and despair; that is the meaning of the crucifixion. When we
choose to respon d with forgiveness, love prevails; that is the meaning of the
resurrection. The lesson of the resurrection is that love corrects all things. That’ s not just the story of our lives; in some ways it’s the story of
almost every situation. Everyone’ s life is different, with unique
circumstances and experiences. Yet on another level there is only one story. Every single moment, we’re living out the same one. The dynamic of the life of Jesus—his birth, his crucifixion, and his
resurrection—is a template for a deeper understanding of the human
experience. As we recognize the workings of those dynam ics, we’re
empowered to claim the miracle of resurrection in our own lives. In him it
is already done. The power of the ego has been overcome in one; therefore
his overcoming is available to all. The point is not to share the crucifixion
of Jesus, but to share in his resurrection. Understanding the mystical journey makes it easier, quicker, more
miraculous. OceanofPDF. comMary’s Love
Just as the figures in a dream are various aspects of who we are, so are the
figures in scripture. The mysti cal Mary represents the human heart, the
receptive feminine aspect of the psyche. Humanity is pregnant with a new phase of its history, and for most of us
it’s a difficult pregnancy. Every life is a microcosm of the evolutionary
changes occurring in the world. We’re experiencing rebirth as individuals as
well as the rebirth of human civilization. We’re either headed  for a death
spiral, or else we are preparing for something new. That something new will
not emer ge just from science or politics; it will emer ge from within us. The esoteric dimensions of Mary’s story hold deep meaning for the
modern seeker. She was a maiden blessed by God, awakened in the middle
of the night by the angel Gabriel and told to go up onto the roof. There, she
was told by the angel she would give birth to the Son of God. Mary’ s was said to be a virgin birth, of course, yet what we read as the
word “virgin” today meant simply “maiden” in the original Greek. The idea
that Mary was impregnated by God rather than by man has mystical
significance whether she was physically a virgin or not. There is something
that happ ens in our hearts when we feel a stirring, a sense we can’t quite put
our finger on, that something new is about to happen. It does not come from
anything or anyone outside us. It’ s unfolding from deep within. Mary is the feminine yin to God’ s masculine yang. God impregn ates the
human heart. What is born from  that divine conception is the Christ, a new
sense of self that we carry into the world. This newborn self is fathered by
God and mothered by our humanness, the truth of who we are, both human
and divine. It’s not just Mary who was awakened from her sleep; all huma nity has
been in a state of spiritual slumber. “Yet the Bible says that a deep sleep fellupon Adam, and nowhere is there reference to his waking up”* (T-18). Who
among us isn’ t feeling the call to awaken. Our personal awakening is a gradual process, not necessarily a eureka
moment heralding a dramatic change. There might not have been a
particular moment or event, or anything that even seemed very significant
at the time. It might have been a prayer or meditation or mindfulness
practice. It might have been a relationship or a book or a teacher or a
spiritual journey. It could have been any form of life-changing experience,
good or bad, that cracked open the heart and led to greater wisdom. It might
have been an almost eerie experience of simply knowing something, though
we couldn’t explain why. No matter what form our initial awakening took,
we reme mber it as something that formed a crack in our resistance and
signaled the arrival of somethin g new. It was that something that awakened
us from our sleep and led us to the “roof” of our higher mind. Mary was to tell no one, and neither are we. The birth of new life is a
mysterious process, whether it’s the birth of a child or the birth  of a better
self. The period of gestation requires nourishment and care. We have an
instinctive understanding that certain ideas should stay within us, protected
from outside exposure until they’re ready to be brought forth. The spiritual
life is difficult to cultivate amid the clanging clamor of the modern world. Not just within Mary, but also within us, the newborn Christ needs
protection. It isn’t safe in this society to talk about our spiritual lives in just
any old setting. Conscious frien dships, therapists, and spiritual or religious
counselors offer protected spaces. Outside those, it can be emotionally
treacherous to share our deepest feelings about the inner life. And what is being born from deep within us is the power that will save
the world. Mary represents a facet of consciousness often referr ed to as the
“divine feminine,” a long-suppressed dimension of both self and society
that is desperate ly needed now. “This is what is meant by ‘the meek shall
inherit the earth. ’  They will literally take it over because of their strength”*
(T-20). Mary’ s powers of kindness, gentleness, tenderness, nurturing,
bravery, understanding, and mystery—and most of all, her endurance amid
the deepest grief—are all aspects of self that will help us build a more
sustainable world. Like Mary, we too feel the stirring of new life within us. Like her, we
keep these things within us and we ponder them in our hearts. The whisperof angels is a deeply personal thing. Sometimes it’s insight, the intuitional
hits we get in the middle of the night. Some mysterious force is
encouraging us to be better, to do better, than we have ever been or done
before. We have a feeling that changes are coming and that we have some
work to do. The future of the world depends on our doing it. It will take more than
physical acts of procreation to perpetuate the life of humanity now; it will
take an evolution of human consciousness, a collective wisdo m that does
not yet exist on a massive scale. And just as physical life gestates within the
body, wisdom gestates within the mind. We must be and do differently now
in order for the species to survive. The ego, of course, will have none of that. Herod—the ego writ large—
is always on the lookout. The ego jealously guards its power lest love take
primacy over its worldly interests. It seeks to invalidate and destroy all
expressions of love. Herod wasn ’t having any of it with that powerful baby
who was born to be King of the Jews. He would rather kill all the babies
than allow that one to live. Mary was obviously very vulnerable then, as all
of us feel when new life—whether physical or spiritual—grows within us. Where does our protection lie. It lies in Joseph, the “divine masculine,” the aspect of the psyche that
manages the material world. It makes sure we’re safe as we go through our
transformational process. Joseph received all the instruction he needed. He
was directed to take Mary to Egypt to protect her, just as we learn
appropriate self-care and the gifts of solitude. The land of Egypt means the
sacred self; we retreat to that place within us while the old order falls away,
incubating our powers until the hour when the culture is ready to receive it. Herod’ s edict to “kill all Jewish babies” means the ego’s desire to nip in
the bud any emer ging hope. Herod’ s sons represent newer generations of
egoic figures, always working to suppress the voices of those  who might
emer ge as a challenge to the old order. The voice of the mystic finds no
welcome in Herod’ s land, but God is with you. You will be delivered to the
manger, a very humble place within your heart. And there you will give
birth. Absolutely that birth is the salvation of the world. You, like Mary, give
birth to the Christ—anytime you enter the present free of the past and with
nothing in your heart but love. Worldly kings will get off their “high
horses” when they realize your power. And the light of your deeperunderstanding of things will help cast out the darkness  of the world. You
will be the same you, but a very different you. Something happened inside
you, and you are changed. The star pointing to the manger where Christ was born is a star that
shines within everyone’ s consci ousness, signaling to the mortal mind that
there is somepla ce else to go. We’ve lingered long enough in the regions of
darkness, thinki ng we are separate from God and from each other. The
delusions thereby manufactured are now threatening to destroy us. As children we learned about evolution. We learned that if a species
consistently behaves in maladaptive ways, it will either evolve or it will go
extinct. An evolutionary altern ative occurs when a mutation happens: a
member of the species demonstrates another way of behavior more aligned
with a survivable future for the species. Humanity’ s fear-based behavioral
patterns are now so maladapti ve that they are a threat to our survival. Humanity’ s current challenge is to survive itself. In order  to change our behavior, however, we will have to change our
minds. The mystic Jesus is a transformer of minds. He is an evolutionary
alternative, the self reborn out of darkness and into light. Mary gave birth to him with all her love. Now it’ s our turn. Dear God,
Please use me. May Y our spirit come over me and pr epare my heart. I surr ender to Y ou who and what I am,
that I might be a vessel of Y our love. Enter me and lift me up
that I might serve Y ou best. Amen
OceanofPDF. comMiracles
In the words of Albert Einstein, “We cannot solve our problems with the
same level of thinking that created them. ” There is a quantum field that lies
beyond the limits of the world as we understand it. Our rational mind
cannot grasp it fully, for it is beyond the understanding of the mortal mind. The heart, however, is totally at home there. Miracle-mindedness returns the mind to its proper function, which
means alignmen t with and service to love. The Mind of God is an infinite
ocean of loving thought, and when we think with love we are thinking with
God. The purpose of our lives is to learn to think as God thinks. Every thought is a cause that leads to an effect; the world is like a
screen onto which are projected the nature of our thoughts. The Law of
Cause and Effect was created for our protection, for as long as we think
with love, then love is reflected back to us. But that’s not what is going on here, at least not usually. Hum anity is
dominated by a loveless though t system, the ego’s playground, emer ging
from the mistaken thought that we are separate. The belief in separation
leads to all manner of chaos. Like a cancer cell that has disconnected from
its collaborative function, our thoughts are prone to separating themselves
from their divine purpose. That itself is the essential problem: we’ve been
infected by the malignant thoug ht that “it’s all about me. ” Thinking we are
separate, we then consistently attack what and whom we were born to love. The separation itself is an illusion of consciousness, for on the level of
the spirit there’ s no place where you start and I stop. We’re like waves in
the ocean thinking we are separate from other waves. Obviously, there is no
place where one wave stops and another wave starts. Yet think of the
psychological difference between thinking of yourself as a wave that is
separate from the rest of the ocean versus thinking of yourself as one with
it. If I think of myself as one wave separate from every other, how can I
not feel powerless in relation to the rest of the ocean. How can I not live in
constant fear of annihilation, terrified a wave that is bigger than me will
overwhelm me at any mome nt. Why would I not then defend my
separateness, believing that without it I will cease to exist. On the other hand, if I think of myself as one with the other waves, how
could I not feel safe and powerf ul. Identifying with the power of the ocean
itself, I have no reason to fear, because I know that I am part of it. Believing we are separate, yet knowing in our hearts that we are not, we
suffer. Our entire existence is a fixed double bind. We are left with no sense
of meaning, higher identity, or purpose. The world as we have come to
know it—a realm of disordered thoughts, manufactured chaos, and
disconnected events—is not who we are, and we cannot feel safe within it. This is a deadly game, but it is a game we’re playing with ourselves. With our loveless thoughts we have concocted a loveless world. In closing
our hearts we have blinded our eyes. But God did not do this to us; we did it
to ourselves. There is a way to escape this pain. Yet it’s something the ego will not
tolerate. Escape  lies in surrende ring the belief that we are separate, which
the ego finds intolerable because the end of the separation is the death of
the ego. It becom es vicious in its drive to preserve its life. In its panicked,
hysterical drive  to perpetuate itself, the ego takes out all the stops to
convince us that the separation is real and that our oneness is the illusion. It
insists everyone is guilty, even ourselves. It insists we are isolate d specks of
nothingness afloat in a random, uncaring universe. How could this not produce a deep and abiding anxiety, routinely
suppressed yet always haunting us. And from that place of spiritual
ignorance, uninf ormed of who we are and who we are to each other, we
make endlessly foolish decision s. Insisting the separation is real, we look to
the material world for comfort  when our overidentification with it is the
actual source of our discomfort. We build our mental prison, then seek to
decorate it with gold. We use our mind s to attack and defend when the purpose of our lives is
to love and bless—all this in an unconscious drive to perpetuate the
separation that is the engine of our despair. Our thinking upside down, our
lives are upside down. Our hearts invalidated, our lives are filled with
suffering. Our minds confused, our world is filled with terror. Ah, but from this insanity we are miraculously saved.
Even the tiniest thought of forgiveness, of mercy, of love.
What is the key to changing the trajectory of our lives?
Our resistance to choosing love.
What is the primary problem that we need to address in order to change our lives?
The ego's thought system, which is a result of our own resistance to love; we can overcome it by recognizing our own role in perpetuating the cycle of lovelessness and choosing to change our behavior.
What is the source of our problems, and how can we overcome it?
Our purpose is to learn to think as God thinks, and we can achieve it by letting go of our ego and choosing to think with love.
What is the purpose of our lives, and how can we achieve it?
The Holy Spirit is a guide and a teacher, and we can tap into its power by quieting our minds and seeking its guidance in our thoughts, emotions, and actions.
What is the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and how can we tap into its power?