Daily Reflections, Day Fifty seven, The Choice between two paths

Day Fifty seven

The choice between two paths.

“Revelation is literally unspeakable because it is an experience of unspeakable love. Awe should be reserved for revelation, to which it is perfectly and correctly applicable.” ACIM.T-1.II.2:7,3.1

Some people call revelation a mystical experience. While we use the word mystic to apply to saints of the past, it is rarely applied to people in contemporary times. Are there mystics among us and should mysticism be something that a person should aspire to?

The mystic aspires to have their consciousness united with God on a permanent basis while living in the world of the ego. Jesus taught that we can be in the world but not of the world.

The awakening process of spiritual development goes through five stages according to a scholar of mysticism, Evelyn Underhill, which are: the awakening of Self, purgation, illumination, dark night of the soul, and union with God.

This spiritual development of awakening is an intentional process that the seeker engages in voluntarily once the seeker realizes they have a choice between living on the path of the ego or the path of the spirit. Will I choose forgiveness and Love or fear, guilt, and attack?

Few, in our contemporary times, choose the way of the mystic because they don’t know such a path exists. It is a shame that the mystical tradition of the world’s religions is not taught as a choice that one has in how to live one’s life. If the mystical path is mentioned, it is described as an esoteric practice of old that is beyond the reach of “normal” people in our society. Seekers, though, often stumble across information about the mystical life. It is the choice of a small percentage of the population who have been seduced by the idols presented by the ego.

It is good to know that you have a choice: the way of the ego or the way of the Spirit. The way of the mystic, seeking revelation, is the path of unspeakable love that fills one’s awareness with awe and bliss.

Today, I will take several moments and reflect on my choice to pursue the idols of the ego or the path to God. One way is involved in fear, guilt, anger, and attack, and the other is involved with Love, forgiveness, peace, and compassion.

Daily Reflections, Day Fifty Six, The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

Day Fifty six

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

“Revelation is intensely personal and cannot be meaningfully translated. That is why any attempt to describe it in words is impossible. Revelation induces only experience.” ACIM.T-1.II.2:1-3

The Tao Te Ching says the same thing when it opens in its first chapter with these words: “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things.”

What is revealed to each of us about the transcendent Higher Power cannot be put into words. It is an experience not a dogma or orthodox creed. Francis David, one of the pioneers in Unitarianism back in the sixteenth century said, “We need thought think alike to love alike.”

If you think you know what God is or who God is you have been dabbling in the lies of the ego. When we have actualized our potential for spiritual development we simply can say, “God is………………” and fall silent.

Today, I will avoid bombastic creeds and vain attempts to explain the Ultimate Oneness of the Spirit. I realize that any attempt to explain leads to separation and deductive thinking which will lead me astray. I will take several moments to just relax, clear my mind, and be at One with Everything.

Daily Reflections, Day Fifty five, The Power Of Choice

Day Fifty five

The Power Of Choice

“Revelation unites you directly with God. Miracles united you directly with your brother. Neither emanates from consciousness, but both are experienced there. Consciousness is the state that induces action, though it does not inspire it. You are free to believe what you choose, and what you do attests to what you believe.” ACIM.T-1.II.1:5-9

Actions speak louder than words. If you notice that a person is saying one thing, but doing something else, and you don’t know what they truly believe, you decide for the truth based on what they do.

Most people are not spiritually mature enough to know their own authentic beliefs. If you ask most people, “What makes you tick, they can’t tell you.” How about yourself, do you know what makes you tick? 

The bumper sticker says, “Don’t believe everything you think.” We can read the bumper sticker and the slogan makes us laugh with a glimmer of recognition that we don’t know ourselves very well, we have not been living examined lives, and we have given our lives over to the ego rather than joined with the Spirit.

As the quote above reads, “You are free to believe what you choose…” And if you choose the path of the ego, you will get judgment, guilt, fear, resentment, anger and grievance. If you choose the Spirit you will get Love, peace, forgiveness, Atonement, and bliss. The choice is ours. The choice has always been ours although, on the path of the ego, we may have forgotten our power of choice until a Teacher Of God reminds us that we have a choice.

Today, I will remind myself, especially when I am upset, that I have a choice to ask “what would Love have me do” or to make other people and events responsible for my unhappiness.

Daily Reflections, Day Fifty four, How Do I Want To Live My Life?

Day Fifty four

How do I want to live my life?

“Revelation induces complete but temporary suspension of doubt and fear. It reflects the original form of communication between God and His creations, involving the extremely personal sense of creation sometimes sought in physical relationships.” ACIM.T-1.II.I:1-2

Cosmic consciousness, enlightenment, one with the all, revelation, the experience goes by many labels none of which seem to do the experience justice.

It is a transcendent experience when we seem to be much larger than our bodies and all doubt and fear is risen above and is no longer present in our awareness. Sometimes this experience is achieved in flow and in orgasm. We seek this experience sometimes in physical relationships but the experience has nothing to do with our bodies, but rather with the joining of our minds as we move into the transcendent Oneness of Creation.

Revelation for most human beings is a rare experience but can become more prominent in a person’s life as they become more spiritually awakened. Some people consciously seek revelatory experiences and for others they may appear unbidden and may be experienced as moments of grace.

A person seeking revelation has left the path of the ego and is living a life with a totally different intention having turned their will over to God, their Higher Power, and spiritually has decided to live free and easy instead of full of judgment, guilt, fear, and resentment.

Today, I will take several moments especially when upset and ask myself whether I want to live on the path of the Spirit and experience Oneness with all of creation, or be focused on the particularity of the separateness of the ego with all its doubt and fear?

Daily Reflections, Day Fifty three, Being aware that we are One with Creation.

Day Fifty three

Being aware that we are One with Creation

“The miracle compares what you have made with creation, accepting what is in accord with it as true, and rejecting what is out of accord as false.” ACIM.T-1.1.50:1

Life can seem very complicated, confusing, scary, and not understandable. We can feel very lonely, angry, guilty, and scared. We come to learn, hopefully, as we become more mature, that these thoughts and feelings about our lives and the world are false and nothing but a projection creating an illusion like a bad dream that seems to us in our dreaming as very real.

And then come fleeting moments when we get a glimmer of hope and encouragement that there has to be more to life than this and there must be a better way. It dawns on us that maybe our thoughts and feelings aren’t right but actually we have become wrong minded and there might be a better way if we could only find it and follow it. The dawning then leads to the search for a more constructive and positive path to truth and meaning.

This reorientation from the path of the ego with its judgment, fear, and guilt to the path of the Spirit with its forgiveness, Love, and harmony is what can be called a miracle. What has seemed very complicated, confusing, scary, depressing turns out to be lovely, peaceful, and forgiving in simply choosing to ask the Holy Spirit for help and submitting our will to the transcendent power of creation from which we have separated ourselves in our tiny mad idea that we can be the authors of our own essence and being.

The idea with we have made ourselves and willfully can control our own fate is sheer madness. We have become drunk with our own desire for grandiosity and power. We learn that this fantasy of our own separate greatness and power is a fixed false belief that has been ruining our lives. We learn that the belief in the promises of the ego are false, and that in the end, what is true is that all there is is Love.

Today, I will remind myself that I don’t want the things of the ego and its empty promises. I will clear away these empty idols and reprioritize my attention onto what is loving and helps me join with others to enhance the level of awareness that we all are One with Creation.

Daily Reflections, Day Fifty two, Judgment, guilt, and fear or Love, forgiveness, and bliss?

Day Fifty two

Judgment, guilt and fear or Love, forgiveness, and bliss?

“The miracle makes no distinction among the degrees of misperception. It is a device for perception correction, effective quite apart from the degree or the direction of the error. This is true indiscriminateness.” ACIM.T-1.1.49:1-3

Are we a body with a spirit or a spirit with a body? This is not just a cute or tricky question, the answer makes a big difference to our spiritual development. The answer is that we are a spirit with a body and the body is an illusion because it keeps changing and is merely a vehicle for communication.

Once we realize that we all are Spirit with what appears to be different forms, we realize that we all are One. And this realization is what is miraculous while the forms and their locality make no difference. It is this shift in perception from form and locality to Spirit and nonlocality which is the miracle.

We can choose the ego or the Spirit any time we desire. It makes no difference when or why or what, only the how. We can ask ourselves, “Do I want to go down the path of the ego or the path of the Spirit? Do I want to go down the path of judgment, guilt, and fear or down the path of Love, forgiveness, and bliss?

Today, I will take several moments throughout the day to remind myself that I have a choice. I am a free spirit with the power of intention. Today, I will choose forgiveness and Love.

Daily Reflections, Day Fifty one, Seeking and becoming aware of eternal peace.

Day Fifty one

Seeking and becoming aware of eternal peace.

“The miracle is the only device at your immediate disposal for controlling time. Only revelation transcends it, having nothing to do with time at all.” ACIM.T-1.1.48:1-2

Revelation is the experience of Oneness with God when the world of the ego disappears. It is possible for us humans to have this experience fleetingly. It is rare but does occur. In the 60s we called this “cosmic consciousness.” Some people try to achieve this revelatory state with drugs like LSD, Peyote, Ayahuasca, but these hallucinatory experiences are suspect as true enlightenment experiences and may be merely chemically induced psychosis.

However, the shift in perception from the world of the ego to the world of the Spirit is the miracle when time stands still. It is what is sometimes called “the holy instant.” People often have this experience when they mediate or are involved in activities which facilitate a state of flow. Flow is when the activity seems effortless and we are “in the groove.” There are many ways to achieve flow and often it is called something other than a “miracle” but sometimes we use words like “runner’s high,” “the light bulb went on in my mind,” “I could experience the vastness of the Universe,” “I became one with everything.”

This Oneness with God is our home to which we are returning whether we know it or not. The question of our return is not in doubt; it is only a question of when, how much time it will take. With the miracle we get a little taste, a momentary experience of time standing still.

Today, I will take moments throughout the day and remind myself of my Oneness with God, the source of my being, the Higher Power of which I am an expression and a part. I will thank my Origin for allowing me to be aware of this existence temporarily until the Oneness becomes my eternal state of mind which is abiding peace and bliss..

Daily Reflections, Day Fifty, Appreciating the timeless mystery of life.

Day Fifty

Appreciating the timeless mystery of life.

“The miracle is a learning device that lessens the need for time. It establishes an out-of-pattern time interval not under the usual laws of time. In this sense it is timeless.” ACIM.T-1.1.47:1-3

When a miracle occurs it seems as if time stands still or time flies. When we re-orient to the ego world, we often wonder what happened, the lightbulb went off in our heads, and we feel temporarily enlightened.

This experience of time flying or standing still or being in a timeless place takes us out of the position of feeling victimized by other people or life’s circumstances. We feel like one with everything. What has happened is that in our mind we have shifted from the world of the ego to the world of the Spirit. We have escaped from the world of separation with its guilt, fear, anger, resentments, to a world beyond it all. We have awakened from the nightmare which we usually experience on the path of the ego as our life and find ourselves in a place of Love and peace.

The miracle is both a choice and a gift. Sometimes, it has been called “grace” as in the great hymn whose lyrics are “I once was lost and now I’m found, Twas blind, but now I see.” When we are blessed by this grace it does carry us to an out- of -pattern time interval and we have a sense of timelessness.

Today, I will take periodic moments to just “smell the roses” and shift my attention from the mundane tasks and activities I am engaged in to the wonders of being conscious of my functioning and remember that I have a choice for the ego with its judgment and guilt or the Holy Spirit with its unconditional love and peace. This remembrance and choice is often experienced as a miracle and takes me beyond the immediate into the timeless mystery of Life.

Daily Reflections, Day Forty nine, What will you choose, Love or the Ego?

Day Forty nine

What will you choose, the miracle of Love or the fear and guilt of the ego?

“The Holy Spirit is the highest communication medium. Miracles do not involve this type of communication, because they are temporary communication devices. When you return to your original form of communication with God by direct revelation, the need for miracles is over.” ACIM.T-1.1.46:1-3

The miracle is only needed, and only makes sense, when we are on the path of the ego. The miracle reminds us and helps restore us to the path of the Spirit. If we are already on the path of the Spirit what purpose or function would the miracle serve? It wouldn’t be necessary because we have already chosen to leave the path of the ego for the path or the Spirit.

Miracles then are temporary devices which serve the purpose of helping us become directly aware of our Oneness with God. Miracles clear the way for awareness of Unconditional Love from any obstacles or barriers blocking this experience. The Holy Spirit is the link between the path of the ego and the path of the Spirit and helps us become aware of the choice we always have between the two.

The Holy Spirit reminds us of our power to choose Love instead of the things of the ego. The Holy Spirit helps us activate our witness that can observe our functioning cognitively, affectively, psychologically, socially, and spiritually so that we can objectively perceive our options, our choices.

The ever present eternal choice is between Love and fear. Fear is borne out of separation, and Love is borne out of forgiveness. Forgiveness brings about the Atonement which is a miracle in itself and having experienced the Atonement is no longer necessary.

Today, several times, I will step back, reflect, and ask the Holy Spirit for assistance in choosing Love over separation, choosing the path of the Spirit over the path of the ego. I know that when I choose rightly I will experience peace and when I choose wrongly I will be upset, afraid, and guilty.

Daily Reflections, Day Forty eight, I am called to be faithful, not successful.

Day Forty eight

I am called to be faithful, not successful.

“A miracle is never lost. It may touch many people you have not even met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware.” ACIM.T-1.1.45:1-2

The miracle is the stone thrown into the pond and the ripples proceed outward influencing things never intended by the stone thrower.

When one person changes their mind and accepts the Atonement for themselves miraculous experiences are generated throughout the whole of humanity.

We can just faintly grasp the idea of the interdependent web of existence, and yet we intuit that it is true, that all things are connected somehow in ways we can’t begin to fathom.

We are assured that Love is never lost but once intended Love does its work in ways we have no way of apprehending and the spiritually mature understand this and appreciate that Love’s will will be done, not ours..

Love is a mystery and to live with Love is an awesome and miraculous way to live and be in this world.

Today, I will take several moments throughout the day to remind myself to live in faith and not be attached to any particular outcome or results. I will remind myself that I am called to be faithful, not successful. Whether I am successful or not is out of my hands and not for me to say.

Daily Reflections, Day Forty seven, Who and What you are.

Day Forty seven

Who and what you are.

“The miracle is an expression of an inner awareness of Christ and the acceptance of His Atonement.” ACIM.T-1.1.44:1

This principle makes no sense if you don’t understand the metaphysics of A Course In Miracles. Understanding of the metaphysics of A Course In Miracles provides the reader and reading this principle, provides the reader with an awesome experience of the profound.

“An inner awareness of Christ” is what the hippies called, back in the 60s, “Christ consciousness,” which referred to the experience that all of humanity is One or as the Roman Catholics call it, “The Body Of Christ,” the second part of the Trinity.

Some people have attained the appreciation that “no man is an island” as poet John Dunne phrased it. No person is complete in and of themselves.

“The acceptance of His Atonement” refers to the awareness that we are not separate selves but part of the interdependent web of all existence. We, essentially, are made up of star dust to be poetic or, we are an extension of God’s Grace.

If we ask a person, “Who are you?” “What are you?” most people would stammer and stutter and have no way of answering those questions. People, though, who have experienced the inner awareness of Christ and who have accepted His Atonement know perfectly well who and what they are. They have left the path of the ego and dwell on the path of the Spirit.

Today, take several moments during the course of your day and reflect on who and what you are. Feel the peace and joy arise. Experience the miracle.

Daily Reflections, Day Forty six, Will we experience miracles arising?

Day Forty six

Will we experience miracles arising?

“Miracles arise from a miraculous state of mind, or a state of miracle-readiness.” ACIM.T-1.1.43:1

Kenneth Wapnick, a teacher of A Course In Miracles, calls the “state of miracle-readiness” right mindedness compared to the way of the ego which is wrong mindedness.

Even though, the Course In Miracles can seem very esoteric and complicated to most readers because the metaphysics are so counter-cultural, its teachings are very simple. We have a choice to make: the world of the ego or the world of the Spirit. The path of separation and projection of blame and guilt or the path of joining, alliance, and Unconditional Love.

The Universalists, as a religious denomination, make the choice for Love a couple of centuries ago. Why the witness of Universalists for this choice has fallen out of popularity the last several decades is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps it is our capitalistic, industrialized, urbanized way of life in pursuit of ego gratification which have pushed the other choice into the background. With the coming days of climate change and consequent suffering perhaps a period of reflection, re-prioritizing, and a change in decision making will occur.

The survival of homo sapiens and other species on this earth will take great Love something, up until now, it is not clear that humanity is capable of. However, humanity has not been put to such a test before.

A Course In Miracles teaches that miracles arise from a miraculous state of mind, meaning a loving mind which is congruent with the path of the Spirit. As human beings, who make plenty of mistakes, we can always choose again and find a better way to proceed with our lives. Hopefully, we will choose Love and experience miracles arising.

Today, when I realize I am getting upset, I will pause and recognize it never is for the reason I think. I am upset because I have chosen fear, guilt, resentment, blame, rather than Love, forgiveness, joining, and peace.

Daily Reflections, Day Forty five, "Make me one with everything."

Day Forty five

Make me one with everything.

“A major contribution of miracles is their strength in releasing you from your false sense of isolation, deprivation and lack.” ACIM.T-1.1.42:1

People feel lonely and then project blame on others for depriving them of connection and association. Loneliness is born out of a sense of lack and scarcity. Loneliness, fundamentally, is a spiritual problem not a social and psychological one.

The false sense of isolation, deprivation, and lack only occurs in the world of the ego. In the world of the Spirit there is only unconditional Love and peace. Which world we choose to inhabit is within our power to decide. First, we must recognize that we have the choice. Second, we must acknowledge that the choice is ours. Third, we must act on our choice and focus our attention on one or the other, the world of the ego or the world of the Spirit. In making the choice for the world of the Spirit, the miracle occurs and we become One with Divine Creation.

Today, when I am feeling lonely, I will remind myself that I am not alone, but a part of something much bigger than my separate ego. I will calm myself and clear my mind of all obstacles and barriers to the awareness of pure Being. I will try to experience the becoming of One with Everything and experience the peace and joy that arises.

Daily Reflections, Day Forty four, God doesn't make junk.

Day Forty four

God doesn’t make junk.

“Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. They thus correct, are atone for, the faulty perception of lack.” ACIM.T-1.1.41:1-2

Deep down, truth be told, most humans are afraid that they are inadequate or defective in some way. This feeling of lack generates a sense of shame. We spend our lives trying to prove to ourselves and others that we are okay, that we are whole.

The spiritual term for wholeness is abundance to distinguish this experience from scarcity. Even in marriage we often describe our spouse as our “other half” or our “better half” as if we are lacking in some way and require another person or relationship to complete us.

This principle tells us that our experience of wholeness, completeness, abundance, and not lack, inadequacy, defectiveness is a miracle. This experience of lack arises from our separation from God, the source of our being. We are not the authors of our own lives. Our own consciousness has been given to us, and it is something we must cultivate, and as we cultivate it, we come to realize that we are part of a greater whole from which we have separated ourselves.

When we eschew our egos and willingly return to that from which we have come, peace, and joy and abundance is experienced.

Today, several times, I will remind myself that at my core, I lack nothing. I will remind myself that I am not defective, inadequate, and separate. I will remind myself in turning my will over to my Higher Power that I am one with God and God doesn’t make junk.

Daily Reflections, Day Forty three, In the world of the ego, life is full of forgiveness opportunities.

Day Forty three

In the world of the ego, life is full of forgiveness opportunities.

“The miracle acknowledges everyone as your brother and mine. It is a way of perceiving the universal mark of God.” ACIM.T-1.1.40:1-2

In Unitarian Universalism, people covenant together to affirm and promote seven principles the first of which is the worth and dignity of every person. We are all a part of the Sonship, the Body of Christ, which are extensions of God’s Divine Being.

With this we recognize and acknowledge that every person is part of the all. There is no separation and exclusion. Everyone is included. This insight was taught by the Universalists. The Universalists taught they everyone goes to heaven and no one is outside of the Unconditional Love of God.

Given the world of the ego, this recognition and acknowledgement of the Oneness of humanity is a miracle. We see the Divine Spark in every person including ourselves. When we see this, this perception and understanding brings great peace and joy. We have given up our fear, our guilt, our anger, our resentments, our grievances, our bitterness, our penchant for retribution and punishment, and we realize and give up making other people responsible for our own unhappiness. This giving up of making other people responsible for our unhappiness is what the Course calls “forgiveness.”

Forgiveness involves giving up feeling and thinking like a victim and making others victimizers. This giving up the role of the victim and playing the blame game frees us to become aware of the peace and joy of Oneness.

Today, I will be aware of forgiveness opportunities. These opportunities arise when I am angry, afraid, inclined to blame others for my unhappiness. I will release them from culpability for my feelings and take responsibility for them myself. With this awareness, I can always find a better way to manage my thoughts, feelings, and behavior which will bring me more peace and calm.

Daily Reflections, Day Forty two, Walking out of the shadows of darkness into the light.

Day Forty Two

Walking out of the shadows of darkness into the Light

“The miracle dissolves error because the Holy Spirit identifies error as false or unreal. This is the same as saying that by perceiving light, darkness automatically disappears.” ACIM.T-1.1.39:1-2

We often use the metaphor of “seeing the light.” When we come to a new understanding, a new appreciation, we say that we have been “enlightened.” Just as light cancels out darkness, so does Love cancel out the ego.

When we enter into the space of Love, there is no ego, no guilt, no sin, no fear, no pain, no suffering. When we observe this experience in ourself, and/or in others, we say it is “miraculous.”

Often we are confused about what to choose, what to do, where to focus our attention, energy, and effort. It is a simple thing to ask the Holy Spirit for guidance. The Holy Spirit will gently nudge us in the direction of doing what Love would have us do.

When we move in the direction of doing what Love would have us do, we feel peace and joy no matter what the activity and its outcome. Even in dying, the obituary will read, “Died peacefully on _______________ at _____________.

Today, I will take some moments when I am upset, confused, perplexed, angry and simply ask, “What would Love have me do?” Then I will choose rightly following the course of the Spirit and ignore the temptations of the ego. I will walk into the Light and the shadows of darkness will dissipate and disappear.

Editor's note:

You can access all the Daily Reflections by clicking here.

Dialy Reflections, Day Forty One, Be at One with the Big Picture

Day Forty one

Be at One with the Big Picture

“The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles. He recognizes both God’s creations and your illusions. He separates the true from the false by His ability to perceive totally rather than selectively.” ACIM.T-1.1.38:1-3

The meme of systems thinking is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This awareness that somehow the whole is greater than the sum of its parts is the mystery which the miracle allows us to apprehend. We come to realize that the separation is not real, it creates an illusion of understanding and control, but it is missing the whole understanding and experience.

The Holy Spirit was given to us, members of the Body of Christ, to help us see beyond the illusion of separation and to remember that the ego and its works are not real. When we understand this, we see the truth beyond what we believed which now we understand is false.

We come to see that what we believe is true which turns out to be false is the result of our projection and our egotistical desires to control and satisfy our ego driven desires. We come to realize that the things of the ego world are really messed up, insane. We would do well to turn our will over to the Holy Spirit for guidance and join with It to experience the greater whole of which we are merely a part.

Today, I will not take my projections and desires so seriously. I will admit I don’t really know what anything is for. When I am upset, frustrated, angry, resentful, fearful, I will ask the Holy Spirit to help me rise above my petty grievances and be a peace with the Big Picture.

Daily Reflections, Day Forty, The peace that gradually arises.

Day Forty

The peace that gradually arises.

“A miracle is a correction introduced into false thinking by me. It acts as a catalyst, breaking up erroneous perception and reorganizing it properly. This places you under the Atonement principle, where perception is healed. Until this has occurred, knowledge of the Divine Order is impossible.” ACIM, T-1.1.37:1-4

A Course In Miracles teaches that there is wrong mindedness and right mindedness. Wrong mindedness is thinking with the world of the ego and right mindedness is thinking with the world of the Spirit.

The Atonement principle is the principle that teaches us that the separation isn’t real and that we are still at One with God if only we can remember this fact. As we remember our Oneness with God, our perception and way of thinking is healed. Until we accept the Atonement, our awareness of the Divine is impossible.

The above passage may seem very esoteric and metaphysical and it is, but it also is very simple. All we have to do is choose separation or Oneness. Separation creates the world of the ego, and awareness of Oneness is the world of the Spirit.

Salvation will come when everybody loves everybody all the time. This awareness can come to any person at any time, but, as a species, it appears that we have to wait for everyone to get to the same place at the same time.

Today, I will remind myself several times to take a deep breath, relax, clear my mind, and remember the Oneness of the Divine from which I have come and to which I will return. This thought can fill me with fear, but I will try to sit with it and experience the peace that gradually arises.

All the Daily Reflections can be accessed by clicking here.

Daily Reflections, Day Thirty nine, Do I Want Love Or Fear?

Day Thirty nine

Do I want love or fear?

“Miracles are examples of right thinking, aligning your perceptions with truth as God created it.” ACIM.T-1.1.36:1

Right thinking is when we bring our thoughts into alignment with the world of the Spirit rather than the world of the ego. The world of the Spirit is the truth as God created it rather than the ego which is made up of illusions of our own making.

Our goal is to become aware of our own holiness which is joined with and part of the holiness of others. The miracle is nothing, in and of itself, other than a shift in our focus from the world of the ego to the world of the Spirit. This shift is always within our decision making ability.

We do not have the power over external circumstances and events, but we always have control over how we wish to respond to those circumstances and events. This power can, indeed, seem miraculous.

Today, I will remind myself several times, on what I want to focus my mind. Do I choose the Spirit and the world of Love, or the ego, and the world of illusion? I will ask myself whenever I am upset, “Do I want Love or fear?”

This reflection on the choice between Love and fear is related to the first principle of Unitarian Universalism when we covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

All the Daily Reflections can be accessed here.

Editor's note:

One of the goals of UU A Way Of Life is to help people become aware of their holiness. One of the tools, activities, to achieve this goal is reflection on one's own interior spiritual life. These reflections can be fueled by many ideas and the ideas in this first year of Daily Reflections comes from A Course In Miracles.

The Daily Reflections posted here will also, when appropriate, reference various aspects of Unitarian Universalist Theology. Your help is appreciated by posting comments.

Daily Reflections, Day Thirty eight, All I Have To Give To Others Is My Own State Of Being

Another post has been added to Daily Reflections, Day Thirty eight, All I Have To Give To Others Is My Own State Of Being. To access it click here.