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.

Normalization of evil

As the impeachment trial unfolds in the U.S. senate, M. Scott Peck's book, The people of the lie: The hope for healing human evil keeps coming to mind.

The basis of the lie is the denial of truth in service of one's own ego.

What we are seeing unfold in the U.S. Senate under the leadership of Mitch McConnell is evil as Republican Senators deny the truth, refuse further information, and enable Presidential lies and deceit.

Our country is in great peril when we have normalized evil and we are seeing it displayed for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Let's call it what it is so that we can deal with it and hopefully ameliorate it.

As human beings we all not only are capable of evil but have engaged in it to protect our egos. When we were kids, it was cute and expected, but as adults it is frightening because the failure to be honest and do the right thing often has grave consequences.

We are living in a political age in the United States where evil has become normalized and even has gotten to the point where it is not politically correct to speak of it. However, we here, at UU A Way Of Life think not only that it is time, it is past time.

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.

Use of the death penalty decreasing in the United States

From America Magazine, 01/20/20

The report by the Death Penalty Information Center, based in Washington, highlighted state actions against the death penalty such as New Hampshire voting to abolish capital punishment, making it the 21st state to do so; California's decision to put all executions on hold; and Indiana's 10-year mark since its last execution.

The report said that all together, 32 states have now either abolished the death penalty or not carried out an execution in more than a decade, and it said this number directly contrasts with the federal government's announcement this year that it would resume executions after a 16-year hiatus.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

The America Magazine article reads: 

This past June (2019), the U.S. bishops voted to revise the death penalty section of the U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults, reflecting an earlier change made by Pope Francis and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2018. The Catechism of the Catholic Church now states that the "death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person."

As a Roman Catholic Unitarian Universalist I believe in the sanctity of human life and the possibility of human redemption. Every person is worth more than their worst act. Join us here at UU A Way Of Life to work for the end of the death penalty.