Realizing God's Will Is Oneness

I, The Dreamer

How much is made of dreams and little of the dreamer, but the dream is nothing and the dreamer is everything.  I am the dreamer.  I choose.  When I choose to listen to the Voice for God in all things, no matter where I am or whom I’m with, I can see beyond the dream.  I need to practice listening to the Voice for God in stillness.  I need a time to sit quietly and often to listen carefully.  When I don’t take this quiet time, but load up my life with ego/body focused activities, I feel adrift and discontented.  I feel like I am wrapped up in the dream instead of being aware that I am the dreamer of it.  When I take all the time I need to listen to the Voice for God in stillness, I find that I can then still hear the Voice when my life in the dream seems busy.

When I look at the dream that I have spun to wrap me in clouds of forgetfulness, I see an endless parade of symbols that stretch behind me.  When the Course asks where the ego was, there it was in all the places, people, circumstances and events that I dreamed up in form.  I dreamed them to distract me from my fear of God, and then forgot the dream was not real.  All I saw was projected fear and thought the fear was real.  I made a million separate fears to disguise the one fear that was at the core.  I didn’t know this at the time I was walking in the world of ego dream thinking of my many fears, and struggling with them, fighting them, punishing myself for having them.  I wrapped myself in a dream of fearful dark fears in this body life.  Or rather, I thought I did.

Now that I walk the world with Holy Spirit holding my hand and my mind gently, I am awakening to the realilty that the dream I thought I dreamed is just not me.  I look at what I thought was there and see the ego mind that was but is no longer.  As I walk more and more in the light in my mind, I am aware of my Self and the choices that I make.  I can continue walking through the dream giving it my full attention, or I can focus on listening for the Voice for God.  I now listen for the Voice for God.

I now see that listening for the Voice for God is my task, my job, my function.  It is what God asks me to do.  It is what He has always asked me to do since I thought I entered the dream world.  Listening to the Voice for God is of the dreamer not the dream.  God just asks that I be present to Him.  In the dream this is not important enough, but to the dreamer it is everything.  In the dream, stillness is seen as a luxury or unproductive, but to the dreamer, listening is life itself.

Listening to the Voice for God is sometimes solitary activity.  It is quiet work.  It takes time and a turning away from the world and its activities awhile.  It may appear monkish to some, even to me at times, but giving myself over to time spent each day listening only for the Voice for God brings joy.  I see now that when I resist listening I make guilt for myself because I say this is not important enough in a busy world where there are so many details to attend to.  Then I find that I am uncertain of what to do and my life is not ordered in a way that brings me peace.

When I give myself over to the task of listening and order all my activities around this, I feel a sense of purpose.  I feel calm and open to what comes my way.  More of my mind is released to listen and I do not doubt the listening.  Maybe for others it does not take this much time.  Maybe others can better listen on the go.  I seem to need a lot of quiet stillness at this point.  When I ask what could be more important for me, there is no other answer.  We are all called to listen, and to listen with true humility that we are called to listen.  The Course says that not to listen to the Voice for God is spiritual arrogance.  We must all listen as we are called to listen in each moment.

Ultimately, of course, we hope to constantly listen, hearing well the Voice for God whisper to us the sweet harmony of love.  We all want to listen and discern the Voice for God and follow It.  As we do we see that healing is everywhere around us.  First we see that in every ugly story we dreamed there is the beauty of healing waiting to be recognized.  Then we see that we, the dreamer, need no longer choose to write ugly stories.  When we choose to listen to the Voice for God, we can lay down ego boundaries as illusions and answer the call to step forward to new boundaries of living set forth by Holy Spirit for our highest good.

Holy Spirit takes us, the dreamer, gently step by step to see that all boundaries are illusions.  He doesn’t ask us to do anything except follow His gentle voice to lay down destructive thoughts or behaviors we think we dream.  Following Holy spirit is not the way of guilt.  It is the way of joy.  It is the way to God, or rather to recognize our connection to God.  It is the way out of the dream.

I, the dreamer, can listen to the Voice for God.  I can choose to listen as often as I need to, which really is all the time.  The need is always there for quiet focused listening until our spiritual ears are so attuned to the Voice for God that It is unmistakeable and ever-present to us.  Then, I, the dreamer, dream what the Course calls the happy dream of love as I wake up gently.  Wake up as if on a sunny warm morning hearing the birds sing their little songs of joy outside my window, and I immediately know the presence of God is with me and I am one with love.  I, the dreamer, can choose the Heaven experience in each moment by listening to the Voice for God.  “Why wait for Heaven?” goes the Oman and Shanti song.  Why, indeed.  I, the dreamer, do not have to wait any longer.  I can choose it now.  I choose to listen.

© 2004-2011, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Holy Spirit is Merciful

Over this last week my mother was admitted to the hospital with a racing irregular heart beat, and it took three days for the doctors to get it under control and send her home.  Now she has a flock of new medications to take which must be closely monitored.  She is living with my sister in Texas so she is not alone, but on the contrary well loved and cared for where she is.  There was no immediate danger, and in fact it was a blessing that she was scheduled for a stress test this past week and that is why her heart problem was discovered.  Now her condition can be treated properly whcih should extend her life.

During the week I was hearing conflicting voices.  One was saying to cancel all my plans and go to Texas to be with her.  There was no reason for me to rush there, but the voice seemed insistent and I could even feel some urgency in my gut at times - that gut level feeling I’m sure you all know.  Sometimes we get that feeling for which there is no reason but we must pay attention to it.  The voice seemed to be quit real, there was no feeling of fear and the voice just kept presenting this option.

I was not sure if it was the voice of ego or Holy Spirit.  The other voice said the first voice was alarmist, and if I immediately rushed to Texas every one in the family, including my mother would be alarmed.  And the doctors have told my mother she could continue with her plans to attend her 65th high school reunion scheduled for the upcoming week.  At the time one voice was telling me to rearrange my plans and travel to Texas, my mother supposedly would not be there.  I really felt unsure which voice was which. 

Another minister helped me by facilitating an Accessing Inner Wisdom counseling session.  During this I discovered that my real dilemma was not the issue with my mother’s health, but my fear of not listening to Holy Spirit’s voice “good enough.”  It was all about being a “good girl” for God, not my mother.  It brought up a deeper level of concern than the one I thought I had.  I definietely felt in touch with deeper levels of fear about the reality I had made of the separation story.

The Holy Spirit appeared on my counseling journey as the Angel of Mercy, full of llight and love, bring me a message of God’s mercy.  I heard that the Son of God never has to worry about hearing the Voice for God because it not possible to be separated from It.  There was such great understanding and compassion for my confusion and doubt, but the definite message that it was not real.  As the Angel of Mercy hugged me, I felt healed of fear and doubt.  I felt such comfort knowing that all attempts to hear God’s Voice are recognized and appreciated and all attempts are “good enough,” no matter where we find ourselves.  The reality is that we always hear the Voice for God and cannot be apart from it.  The Holy Spirit sees this in love and heals us of our doubt with great mercy. 

There was definitely the message to extend mercy to others who similarly face doubt and anxiety about whether it is the Voice for God or the ego’s voice which seems to be giving guidance.  There is no need for anxiety and guilt about getting it right.  It makes no difference if if sometimes seems that we make a mistake.  Our intent to listen and follow Holy Spirit is what is important, not that we worry about doing it perfectly.  As long as we are in the body there is the ego filter at work.  We are learning and practicing, and God is merciful with His children, seeing only their loving willingness, not their mistakes.

There was great healing for me in this.  All anxieties were calmed.  All sense of urgency disappeared.  I felt all was truly well, no matter how it appeared.  I still am not sure of what to do about when to visit my mother, but I no longer feel any guilt about my level of listening to Holy Spirit for guidance.  I am trusting that all will turn out as it should.

© 2004-2011, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Love Your Neighbor

Who is our neighbor?  Is it the person next door, down the street, across town, over the sea?  Just who is our neighbor?  Must it be someone we know?

The Holy Spirit says everyone is our neighbor, whether we know them or not matters not.  In our real mind they are all the same, all one with us.  This can take on a very practical note when we really begin to consider how we show love to our neighbor.  To the ego mind showing love to our neighbor down the street seems different than to our neighbor half way around the world.  Seeing a brother close by seems more personal to us.  We feel a greater ability to be connected to him because we can see him and talk to him, maybe touch him.  The brother far away we can only connect with in our mind in an abstract sort of way.  The ego demeans this as not being satisfying or real because it does not involve the body.  And yet, the ego is also quite able to label the brother whom we can’t see as the “other,” far removed from us in language, culture and geography, someone with whom communication is very difficult in human terms.

Our neighbor, our brother, no matter whom or where he is, is connected to us in the experience of God.  This goes beyond words or nonverbal language.  When we let Holy Spirit show us an experience beyonds words, beyond feeling, we leave ego behind and truly communicate with our brother.  This is the universal language of love that comes to our awareness when we appreciate its value.  We begin to appreciate its value when we trust Holy Spirit to show us how true communication takes place.  This communication is not dependent on the body or any worldly circumstance, and transcends every cultural understanding.

When we trust Holy Spirit to show us how true communication works, we can extend love to every brother in a real way.  And we can also come to the awareness of certainty that our communication of love has been understood and received.  That is the part that perhaps ego tries so hard to keep our minds from grasping, that there is a communication which transcends the ego mind.  The ego mind only invests in the story of separation and distance, and not in the intimacy of minds joining as one.

When we offer ourselves to the Mind of Love consistently, an awareness comes over us that we are truly bonded with our brother in a way that we cannot explain.  There is a bond of recognition so powerful and so true that we simply are aware of its presence.  We know all of mankind to be our neighbor, our brother in Christ, so connected through Him in the one experience of God that we come to know by the sharing of our experiences of God.  Every experience of God is for the sharing with our neighbor because he is one with us in this.  Only the ego would label experiences of God as separate and different, some better than others.

When we give our means of communication over to the Holy Spirit, He shows us the value in every experience of God.  He shows us the truth of how they are connected when we go beyond words and other symbols the ego recognizes or labels.  Our neighbor’s experience becomes open to us and ours to them.  We join in an intimacy which the ego cannot comprehend and this part of our mind makes frightening in its confusion about who is self and who is neighbor, when in realilty they are one.

When we open to our connection with our neighbor, we are joined in love.  This communication   is real.  When we accept God’s love in the truest way, we accept the responsibility and experience of extending the Heaven experience to others as they are extending it to us in truth.  Love is a mutual experience of God.  This includes everyone.  No one is excluded.  Everyone becomes a dear friend and neighbor in the Mind of God, someone not separate from us. 

For those who follow ego mind as guide, this sounds altruistic and unrealistic, in fact, downright impossible as they look upon the violence they see in the ego world as real.  But these neighbors are in truth no different when we join with them in the Mind of Love.  In truth, joining in the experience of God with my neighbor helps him to open to that mind that we share.  We need not see how this happens or even anticipate some worldly result, for the communication of love is not of the physical ego world.  There may be a result we see, there may not.  In truth, this makes no difference.  The communication of love is all that matters.  The awareness of this communication is all that matters.  There is nothing else.

And so, love your neighbor, wherever he is.  All neighbors are just one neighbor in love.  When we truly love our neighbor we know we are home and all is well.

© 2004-2011, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Forgiving = For Giving Grievances Over to Holy Spirit

The important question to ask myself at every turn is whether I am willing to give my grievances over to the Holy Spirit, for surely I have grievances living in an ego body.  There is ego at every turn in the road projecting the next step if I allow it to do so by forgetting to choose Holy Spirit’s thoughts.  The ego wants to see separation and specialness and struggles mightily to write this script for me to accept as truth.  The ego wants me to hang onto grievances as a way of validating fear, anger and conflict as my existence.

Grievances need not be major ones in the eyes of ego.  Minor ones will do as well as long as I hold onto them and cherish them.  I call them treasured wounds.  Those are the hurts that I think define me because I have held onto them for so long or so tightly.  They can be from childhood or more recently acquired, it makes no difference as long as I keep them close to my heart and make them special. 

Ego wants to keep me feeling “lonely.”  When my mind is following ego as the guide, it thinks it lacks something, especially love, and it then projects this idea so that I am seeking love somewhere outside myself.  I look to relationships I have made special love relationships to complete me.  This search makes me unsatisfied and unhappy.  I can’t find fulfillment from another body no matter how hard I try because there is no love to be found from another ego body.  My expectations are not met and so I blame the other body for my continued lack.  It is this the ego wants to hang onto - the projection of guilt so that it will not have to look at its own perceived guilt.  The ego tries to hide this from me, and looks in yet another special place for love or validation.

Getting caught up in the thinking that my needs are not being met or that others are not caring about my feelings, and then feeling resentful or angry, is just getting caught in ego thinking.  Wanting physical demonstrations of love in order to make me feel loved is just the same trap of ego thinking.  The feeling of making sacrifices and accomodations for the convenience of another which must be reciprocated in kind leads to feelings of anger when they are not.  This is just ego thinking that forms can give me comfort or anxiety depending on the meaning I give them. 

The ego mind uses forms to bring me pleasure which tries to hide the pain that I think I feel lack.  The ego mind clings to forms for safety.  But when meanings change, what was once “good” becomes “bad” and leads to feeling unhappy.  The ego keeps me in confusion and chaos this way, when I forget that all forms are the same, and that some just seem more important than others.  When I let go of my dependence on all forms, then can I finally find some peace.

When I see all kind of errors in my family, friends, or people around the world, I make these people different from me.  I might think I see them as worse than me or better than me, and feel disconnected from them.  I recognize there is no peace in this thinking.  Holiness is of the mind.  It is coming into a willingness to put aside judgments and comparisons, fear and guilt, and really breaking free of this thought system because I disregard it.  As I open my mind more and more to the truth that we all are one, regardless of appearances, Holy Spirit can show me the holiness of my brother and myself both. 

The key ingredient in seeing holiness in my brother and myself is giving over all my grievances to Holy Spirit.  I do not have to deny that I have them for that is not being honest, but I do have to deny that they are real.  I must come to an acceptance that Holy Spirit’s vision is correct, not the ego vision and turn away from this vision that does not serve me.  It truly is my choice on which vision I focus.  Seeing with ego makes me think I see separation which brings anxiety and a feeling of dis-ease.  Seeing innocence with Holy Spfirit brings me true happiness and peace.  I make the choice in my mind.  Either I can hang onto perceived grievances or give them over to Holy Spirit for healing.

If I am willing to see holiness and innocence, Holy Spirit shows it to me.  If I give all to Him, I can see with eyes of forgiveness.  The eyes of forgiveness help me see more, more light, more oneness, more of everything peaceful.  This becomes easier with practice because it is supported by Holy Spirit.  When I am giving over all I see to Holy Spirit, even if I have labeled it as a grievance, Holy Spirit will take it and transform it into holiness.

When there is no longer any desire to exclude anyone from wholeness and innocence, Holy Spirit can bring me complete forgiveness.  The Holy Spirit is in everyone’s mind and when I look at someone not with body eyes but by listening to the Holy Spirit level of truth, I can focus on the connection that exists with everyone.  When I make no exceptions to oneness, then can I feel truly complete and whole for there is the sharing of the Holy Spirit mind in perfect willingness to see oneness.  I am for giving all perceived grievances to Him Who shows me perfect forgiveness.

© 2004-2011, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

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