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The Sacred Light of Winter

by Rev. Margaret Huckabay

The stillness of winter can be a
sacred gift allowing time for
mediation, prayer and silent heart
communion with the Most High.

When any of us allows
sacred periods of “hush” to bring
stillness to our busy world…
Heartseed from on high can
germinate Heart Awareness.

And when we choose to listen,
to hear, to “ponder in our heart the
brilliant light of His great Love”
will breath by breath, step by step
increasingly illuminate His ever
emerging plan for each of us.

What joy to allow the slower pace of
January and February to be a holy
gift of beauty and grace…
born through stillness, contemplation
and increasing heart communion and
atunement with the Most High.

What peace to silently, lovingly
welcome God’s whole and holy plan
for us in this year of our Lord, 2006.

Rev. Margaret Huchabay is a Pathways of Light minister living in Shreveport, Louisiana.

© 2006, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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My Desire to Be Right Causes Me Pain

by Rev. Joan Haber

I was given an opportunity to choose between being right and being happy yesterday and I discovered that I act out of habit. When the situation arose, I instinctively turned on my defenses and made a decision out of wanting to be “right” with this other person.

Right after I did so, I stopped and actually thought about what I did and why. I believe it is this type of vigilant awareness that will eventually save me from this type of situation that only brings me pain.

I also checked in with myself and asked of myself, “How does this behavior feel in your body?” My answer was that I felt a familiar feeling of anxiety and discomfort within my body. I apologized to the person in question, which caused everything to just go “poof” and we were both happy. Thank you God! 

Rev. Joan haber is a Pathways of Light minister living in Sarasota, Florida.

© 2006, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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This Year, Am I Willing to Remember the Mind Boggling Truth?

by Rev. Mary Stoelting

As we begin this new year together, I am struck with the idea that this coming year brings with it an opportunity of ‘mind boggling’ proportions. As students of A Course in Miracles, we all know that it is very important for us to allow our minds to be ‘boggled’ by the Holy Spirit. When we let our minds be ‘boggled’ by the Holy Spirit we remember that in reality, there are no separate minds. We remember that there is only one Mind and that we are all included in the one Mind of Love. We remember that we cannot leave the one Mind of Love because It is our true Identity and we cannot change What we are.

The Course reminds us that if we really want to release ourselves from the bondage of the ego, nothing is more important than being open to receiving the mind boggling truth that nothing has really changed us from the way we were created by the one Mind of Love. The mind boggling truth is still there in our mind, waiting for our acceptance. The mind boggling truth cannot leave our mind, even though we choose not to be aware of it.

If I want to make this coming year be a truly happy and peaceful year, I will allow myself to accept the mind boggling truth that everyone is the same Love and no one can really be anything but Love. I will remember that Love cannot change into something else. I will remember the mind boggling truth that Love is eternal and changeless. 

In Chapter 22, Section II, Jesus tells us, “Only if it were possible the Son of God could leave his Father’s Mind, make himself different and oppose His Will, would it be possible that the self he made, and all it made, should be his master.” (9:6) This mind boggling truth means that the figures in our dream are not controlling us like it seems in our ‘life’ story. It means that if we want to, we can see the great projection of separation for what it is — a defense against the truth — and forgive, or let it go because we see that it is not really giving us the eternal happiness and joy that God provides eternally.

Jesus also reminds us of this mind boggling truth: “Behold the great projection, but look on it with the decision that it must be healed, and not with fear. Nothing you made has any power over you unless you still would be apart from your Creator, and with a will opposed to His. For only if you would believe His Son could be His enemy does it seem possible that what you made is yours. You would condemn His joy to misery, and make Him different. And all the misery you made has been your own. Are you not glad to learn it is not true? Is it not welcome news to hear not one of the illusions that you made replaced the truth?” (T-22.II.10:1-7) Now this is a happy mind boggling that can truly make this coming year a year filled with peace and joy.

Another mind boggling truth is that the whole Sonship — which is the extension of God’s Love — is God’s joy. This means that no one is excluded in being God’s joy. As we accept the mind boggling truth that everyone is God’s joy, we remember to love every one as God loves them. We let the Holy Spirit show us the truth that every brother is pure Love and nothing else. This is what will bring us joy without end this coming year. This is our answer to every perceived problem as we enter this new year. This coming year we would let the mind boggling reality of Love replace every error in our minds and be happy instead of accepting the fearful dream as real.

Jesus tells us what will happen when we are willing to remember the mind boggling truth about every brother. He tells us, “The love of Christ will light your face, and shine from it into a darkened world that needs the light. And from this holy place He will return with you, not leaving it nor you. You will become His messenger, returning Him unto Himself.” (T-22.IV.3:7-9)

When we give the mind boggling gift of seeing every brother as he truly Is, we receive the gift. We return Him unto Himself and see that giving the truth is the same as receiving the truth.

This year, am I willing to remember the mind boggling truth? This is the same as asking myself if I am willing to free myself from pain and suffering or if I am willing to forgive illusions of separation and see that only Love’s oneness is real. The moment I decide to become aware of the mind boggling truth is when it is there for me to see because it has already been given. My job is to let that time be now because why would I want to delay my awareness of Heaven?

Jesus tells us, “The holy instant is the miracle’s abiding place. From there, each one is born into this world as witness to a state of mind that has transcended conflict, and has reached to peace. It carries comfort from the place of peace into the battleground, and demonstrates that war has no effects.” (T-27.V.3:1-3) What a joy it is to know how to truly resolve every perceived conflict, and how to comfort and be comforted in the truest sense by simply being willing to allow the mind boggling truth to enter my mind! This is why Jesus says, “Reality is safe and sure, and wholly kind to everyone and everything.” (T-16.II.8:6)

As we move into the new year Jesus encourages us to remember the mind boggling truth with these words: “This is a year of joy, in which your listening will increase and peace will grow with its increase. The power of holiness and the weakness of attack are both being brought into your awareness.” (T-16.II.7:1-2)

What an outstanding year we can all have as we let this year be a year of joy by listening to the mind boggling truth from the Holy Spirit instead of deciding anything on our own. What an outstanding year we can all have as we remember the simple fact that, “illusions are not fearful because they are not true.” (T-16.V.14:1) What a peaceful and happy year we have ahead of us as we let the truth be true and remember that nothing else is true.

Mary Stoelting is co-founder of Pathways of Light. She lives in Kiel, Wisconsin.

© 2006, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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How a Spiritual Perspective Can Change Your Experience

by Dennis Gaither, MD

We live in a world seemingly determined by events around us and experienced through our senses. We see before us many separate objects and separate bodies with a mind or will of their own. Everything our senses tell us seems to remind us, to convince us, that we are alone and separate in a world of scarcity, competition and danger.  A world in which what we have, what we have worked for, can be taken from us in an instant.

We try to buy some sense of security in this world in countless ways:  relationships (or in the avoidance of them!), through our jobs and roles, through bank accounts and insurance policies. We try to protect ourselves from a perceived threatening world in many other ways. We seek safety in isolation, personal and national weapons, keeping our guard up, and joining with others in alliances against persons or groups.

This perspective has us imbeded firmly in this world, which seems like our only “reality.” From this perspective, our sufferings and our moments of pleasure seem to come from outside of ourselves. We identify ourselves as bodies, with all of the body’s limitations, including, inevitably, its death. We feel a need to protect the body’s vulnerability and take revenge on those other bodies that we feel have harmed us in some way.

We constantly — whether consciously or not — strive to define ourselves and others in terms of the body, by what it looks like or what it does. We use terms like beautiful or ugly, fat or slim, man or woman, successful or a failure, victim and rescuer, hero and villain. We categorize ourselves and others by job, gender, status, income, family situation, sexual orientation and countless other ways.  All of these we use to define a self-concept for ourselves and others. 

We defend our self-concepts vigorously and constantly. There is no surer way to trigger anger or upset than to have our self concepts challenged or questioned.  Even a self concept that obviously causes much pain, such as that of the victim, will be defended and held onto as if it were something essential to the person.

This thought system of separation we call the ego.  From within this thought system our prospects seem bleak indeed, a life of constant struggle, one problem after another. The best we can hope for is some compromise in which we limit our lives to manage our pain as well as possible and get what enjoyment we can.  But even in our moments of pleasure there is always lurking within us the fear that it can be taken away in an instant.

According to A Course in Miracles, our tolerance for pain may be great, but it is not without limit and eventually each one of us realizes that “there must be a better way.”

This is a crucial step because, until we are willing to see that our suffering comes from within us through our thought system, we will continue to play out our ego-based self concepts, feel helpless, betrayed, angry and in pain. It is through our willingness for “a better way” and our willingness to take responsibility for our own experience that we can begin our journey to true healing — a healing of the perception that we are beings separate unto ourselves.

If this ego perspective of the world is not all there is, then what else is there? And how can we see that world instead of this world that seems so real to us?

Whatever this other perspective is, it is not one that we can see with our eyes in the usual fashion. Traditional religions speak of a spiritual perspective, but often through the filter of the ego so that we are separated into believers and non-believers, saints and sinners, the “faithful” and the “infidel.” The ego perspective of separation can use spirituality to divide and separate, justify crusades and holy wars, banishment, judgment, guilt and to sanctify sacrifice. This perspective may be useful at some stage of our spirit’s journey, but it does not bring the deepest healing that we seek. For this we must move on to a deeper experience.

Beyond this world of form there is a world of spirit. It cannot be perceived with the senses, but it can be experienced when we are willing to question and let go of all that stands in the way of it. The defining emotional state of the world of form and separation is fear, while that of Spirit is Love. Our path of healing is one of letting go of all of our blocks to the awareness of Love’s presence. “Perfect Love casts out fear.” (From A Course in Miracles.)
As we are here today we are having an experience of being in this body, in this world.  But we also have an experience of spirit, not at all confined to this body, this place, or this time. Our awareness may be limited only to our bodily experience, but we are having a spiritual experience nonetheless.

In a sense you could say that we are spiritual beings having a human experience.  And there is in each of us a part of our mind that does remember our True Nature as Spirit, our Oneness with all that is. It is called by many names, such as: Higher Power, Higher Self, Holy Spirit, Christ Consciousness, Buddha Nature, Atman. The words themselves are not important except as symbols that point toward an experience of oneness and Love that does exist within each of us, no matter how deeply it can seem to be buried at times.

It is that experience that guides us along our path, helps us release our blocks to Love’s presence — our grievances, resentments, guilts, hurts and wounds, and our perceived need to be separate and special. We have all had glimpses of that experience. Special moments with a loved one or child, with nature, in prayer or meditation, with some sacred symbol (such as a cross, an altar, Star of David, a church, mosque, synagogue) or with sacred scripture that connects us with the sacred in us.

Through those glimpses, those instants of deeper awareness, we begin to see that we are part of a larger reality. We notice the contrast between the quiet inner peace of Spirit and the noisy clamor of the ego world.  And it awakens in us a deep, long hidden desire to return Home, to reconnect with our true Essence, our Source.

As we awaken, the journey Home becomes more intentional, more directed to that one purpose. We find that we can use every situation we encounter as a way to realize our goal, to help us awaken from the dream of sickness and separation. We become more willing to take responsibility for our ego thoughts, look honestly at them and their results, and realize we have another choice.  We learn that we can offer them to our Higher Self perspective to be transformed and healed. This process of healing, we call forgiveness.

In our confusion and pain we have all said and done unloving things. This does not change the Essence of who we are, but it does greatly affect how we feel about ourselves. Our attack thoughts and actions do affect us. They lead us to feel anxious, depressed, guilty, exhausted, alone, separate and physically ill. Through the defense mechanism of dissociation we do not connect the cause of our symptoms with its effects. The belief in guilt in our minds is mostly kept unconscious and projected onto other persons or situations. This keeps the sense of guilt out of our awareness, but does not protect us from its effects. On the contrary, by keeping the guilt unconscious we guarantee that it will continue to produce effects in the form of physical and emotional symptoms. Undoing the unconscious guilt in our minds by first bringing it into our awareness, releasing the emotional energy of it and then being willing to allow a new understanding from our Higher Self perspective is an essential part of real healing.

With each forgiveness we experience a sense of peace, of healing. We see that forgiveness is really not something we are doing for someone else, but something that heals us, brings us peace and frees us from our own limited perceptions. As we forgive others, we free ourselves. As we see the innocence in others, we see it in ourselves. As we extend the peace of God to others, we experience it for ourselves. As we offer healing, we receive it. 

As we learn to see this world through the eyes of Spirit, we recognize that we are all on a journey together, despite the many forms this may take in each individual. As we forgive we feel less angry, fearful and alone. Instead we see the love, peace and joy that we extend out into the world reflected back to us. We feel more complete within ourselves, more at peace and less in need.  We recognize that our real Home lies within us and that It can never be taken away.

Dennis Gaither, MD is a Pathways of Light minister who lives in Bellingham, Washington.

© 2006, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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