Illinois Eliminated Parole in 1978. These Christians Want to Bring it Back.
A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition.
A component of our faith which is nurtured by A Course In Miracles is the belief that perfect comfort, peace, comes from perfect trust in the efficacy of unconditional love which proceeds from the Creative Force which sustains us and of which we are a part. Separate, alone, we experience anguish and suffering and the attempts to create ourselves ultimately fail. The perfect comfort we seek through conditional love is futile. As we were told earlier, there is a better way.
In Alcoholics Anonymous it is suggested in step three that we make a decision to turn our willfulness over to the will of God.
In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote the search for truth and meaning which is not to be found in the world of the ego. We often looked for love in all the wrong places. There is perfect comfort in the perfect trust in the Atonement which is the healing of the separation.
Today, it is suggested that we step back and consider where it is we are seeking the perfect comfort which we yearn for. Have we been looking in the wrong places? Is it possible that there is a better place to search?
Spiritual vision literally cannot see error, and merely looks for Atonement. All solutions the physical eye seeks dissolve. Spiritual vision looks within and recognizes immediately that the altar has been defiled and needs to be repaired and protected. T-2.III.4:1-3
A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition.
Once spiritual vision has been awakened a person cannot go back to being ignorant. The saying “Ignorance is bliss” is not true. We are all destined, as part of our spiritual development, to wake up. Having woken and become aware of our spiritual capability the awareness of this capability is irreversible. If we fall asleep again, we will be aware that we have fallen asleep and want to wake up again. We would rather be awake than reside in dreams.
In Alcoholics Anonymous it is suggested in step ten that we continually take a personal inventory and when we are wrong to promptly admit it.
In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Once we start on the search it becomes apparent that we have a responsibility to continue with patience and persistence. To give up the search is not possible once we have begun because now faith has been instilled that there is a better way.
Today, we are told that spiritual vision cannot see error but only wholeness (holiness) and when wholeness is not present, we immediately adjust our vision to see what is real and not what is unreal. As it says in the introduction to the Course, “Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.”
Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit. Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a better way. As this recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point. This ultimately reawakens spiritual vision, simultaneously weakening the investment in physical sight. The alternating investment in the two levels of perception is usually experienced as conflict, which can become very acute. But the outcome is as certain as God. T-2.III.3:5-10
A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition.
This is an extremely important passage in A Course In Miracles and is the basis for how the Course came to be recorded to begin with. Helen and Bill were in constant conflict in their academic department of Medical Psychology at Columbia Hospital. One day Bill said to Helen, “There must be a better way” apparently meaning a better way for us to work together. Helen agreed with this statement and then Helen began hearing the voice of Jesus saying, “Take this down “ and Helen began taking notes in shorthand of what she was hearing.
Helen called Bill terrified that she was hallucinating. Bill told Helen that he thought she should listen and take the notes and bring them in the morning early before work and she could dictate her shorthand and he would type it out on the typewriter. This went on for over 5 or 6 years and became known as A Course In Miracles.
The Course teaches that there is a better way and this better way is what the Course teaches. The Course states that it is not the only way or even the best way for everybody but sooner or later, come hell or high water, the lessons it teaches will be learned by humanity.
In Alcoholics Anonymous, in step one, it is suggested that we admit that our lives have become unmanageable. This is known as “step one” work. It is a barrier which many people find unsurmountable until they hit bottom.
In Unitarian Universalism, we join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning, and what is the motivation to begin this search? It can be curiosity, but often it is an existential crisis. We have hit bottom and want to find a better way.
Today, it is suggested that we acknowledge that there is a better way to live our lives and make a decision to find it.
