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SearchCan I be Guided/prompted to say NO?
Description:
David discusses this question/topic throughout the video below, titled "Saying No". General description of video: "No" is an absolutely essential word in the vocabulary of the Holy Spirit. It is not helpful to get into bargaining in relationships, constantly compromising, people pleasing in order to be liked. This re-inforces the idea of my way and your way. When you tune in to Guidance and prompts you can confidently say no. No's from the Holy Spirit are firm no's. "No, but thank you for asking.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx0ixxsCTfo
My meditations have reduced to mere "daydreaming sessions". How can I move through this "dark night of the soul"?
Question:
I wanted to write and tell you I very much enjoyed my trip to see you. I pray daily for guidance and direction, but sometimes I just don't know how anything can change. I feel as if I have been in that so called "dark night of the soul" for half of my lifetime. It seems I have been so close to the change that if it hasn't happened by now, I don't know what will ever cause it to happen. And there are moments when I feel that heaviness inside me like a dead weight and I wish I could free myself of it, but it hangs on. My meditations have been completely worthless now for about two weeks. They seemed much deeper when I started in early July and have now reduced themselves to nothing more than daydreaming sessions. Thanks again for everything. I hope that I will get the chance to share more with you in the not too distant future.
Answer:
Thank you so much for writing and for coming to visit. It has been a blessing to me. I am so grateful that God brought us together and I am honored each time you visit. I have met very few people that are as sincere and open as you are, and your willingness to experience inner peace has carried you farther inward toward the Light than you are aware. I would not be so discouraged by the "daydreaming" during meditation. This will all fade away when you are ready. Readiness precedes mastery, yet readiness is not something that can be forced or rushed and you have a lot that is being undone in the mind at this time. Unconscious beliefs are the thick cobwebs that produce the anxiety and heaviness, and they must be exposed and released for there to be a lasting experience of peace and contentment. Your strength has been your willingness to question and look deeply at what you believe. This willingness has uncovered the meaninglessness of the ego's world, and there has been disillusionment with the discovery that the past has brought no Joy. The past cannot hold you back or hinder your advancement unless you let it. You have done nothing wrong that can hide your Pure Innocence. Our shared Purpose in God's Love is the Source of glee that carries us beyond the darkness to the Light.
Your heart is drawn to reading and pondering and questioning. How glorious! Allow yourself to engage in this more fully than you ever have before. The depths of Stillness are ever Present, yet resistance must dissolve away to be fully aware of Divine Silence. You have made a decision, deep inside, to give the mind permission to Awaken from the dream of limits and boundaries. Now events and encounters are all orchestrated toward that Purpose. You have allowed your mind to hear God's Call, yet unlike most you are actually approaching the point of answering the Call and immersing into our Purpose. You have a function to fulfill. The Purpose for your life is what you have been searching for, yet this Purpose is a State of Mind and not a specific form. It is unlike anything that seemed to come before because it is Given and not made or invented.
Our times together have flown by quickly. For me it all seems like a Homecoming. I meet with those I feel I have known forever and am blessed by the joining in Purpose. I rejoice that the dawn of Awakening is at hand! People from all over the world have shown up in my experience to bring witness to my heart's deepest desire. And my heart is overflowing with gratitude. I am so in love with you, and my deepest prayer is that you experience the love I feel. It is our Self Love and is so brilliant and radiant that all doubts and fears and anxieties must vanish in Its Presence. Your inner Voice told you that you needed nothing when you came to visit. If you can feel a glimmering of the Divine Love we share, trust it. Go into that glimmering. Let that spark ignite and you will end the "dark night of the soul" for the entire cosmos, forever.
I am with you every step of the way! We travel on the Selfsame road and walk hand in hand. There is nothing that we cannot expose and look upon together. For the whole universe looks to our release as its own. As I write this email the back room of the house is being cleared out. I see you in my mind's eye as perfectly free and unhindered. I see you as a witness to what is true right now. It may seem as if what appears to be unfolding is predestined, and the Purpose we share is truly inevitable and happily unavoidable. I pray that you will allow yourself to accept the happiness and love I feel for you.
You are always in my thoughts and prayers. You are always welcome. I am with you always. Thanks for your willingness and devotion to Awakening and your willingness to pour out all your doubts and heaviness and anxiety. They do not have a place in your holy mind, and your willingness to share them is your willingness to not protect them. Without protection they will vanish.
Love,
David
How to maintain the "oneness feeling"?
Question:
Although I have been visiting your sites every day or so and although I have been reading and trying to follow “A Course in Miracles” lessons day after day, I cannot keep the oneness feeling during the rest of my days. I have the feeling that my willingness and acceptance are as sincere as they can be. All day and night long the Holy Spirit and all ACIM Principles are present in my mind only to make my earthly life more difficult. I cannot go back to my former way of thinking and I cannot completely change it either. I feel I am trapped midway in my awakening mind and, worst of all, I feel lonely and helpless. Why do you think it is that I feel like this? When I began reading and studying ACIM, miracles were obvious every day and I felt blessed. I not only felt blessed but apparently looked blessed also and friends started to gather around and we all joined to read and discuss ACIM text and lessons. It was wonderful! But little by little they all started to quit and to feel it was too difficult to maintain the new way of thinking and now they seem to prefer avoiding me rather than to remember Who We Really Are. Please send me some helpful thoughts.
Answer:
The Holy Spirit has all things well in Hand. In moments of distress and discomfort, it is always helpful to remember that God's Plan cannot fail. Everything in this world is backward and upside down, and nothing is as it seems. It is impossible to judge seeming advances/successes from seeming retreats/failures, and difficult trials are always only opportunities to choose again and welcome the miracle. The Movement of Awakening is the undoing of a false sense of identity, and with each loosening shift in self-concept there is fear. The Christ Self awaits but recognition, for It never changes. The journey inward is a lesson in increasing trust, for fear cannot be given up without the trust that there is something else to take its place.
Awakening is the journey through the darkness to the light. What has been repressed and hidden in darkness must be raised to light. What has been pushed out of awareness must be allowed to resurface, that it may be released. The unconscious mind is a belief system of falsity, and what is assumed to be true must therefore be open to question. The ego or false self was made by belief and is dispelled by withdrawing belief. God, Divine Love, is beyond belief, for God can be but known. As belief in the ego is withdrawn, the ego interprets every step in its undoing as a threat to its "existence." Awakening is going on always, and this the ego interprets as painful and disturbing. Yet when belief has been withdrawn from the ego, these false interpretations disappear with the illusion which seemed to spawn them.
Keep the faith and remember that the world simply out pictures the thoughts that you retain. Change your thoughts and think with God, and the witnesses and symbols will reflect this change of mind. Perception mirrors belief, but it is given you to change what you believe and accept the Atonement. This complete change of mind CAN and MUST be possible, for Christ remains as God created Christ; Eternally and Changelessly Innocent. Awakening is inevitable, truly unavoidable. Resistance is futile, yet it will not subside without an increase in trust and many miracles. Miracles light the way and collapse time, and miracles are our means for Awakening. A little willingness for a miracle goes a long way!
What could you not face if you would only stop an instant and remember Who carries you along the road inward? Can the Holy Spirit fail, when success is guaranteed by God? Can error withstand the gentle, certain, Call to Awaken if it is God's Will that Christ be Awake and Happy in Eternity? If friends seem to disappear and the belief in loss rears its head, be of good cheer, for the Holy Spirit Guides the sleeping mind through the keyhole of darkness to the light of forgiveness, and beyond to remembrance of Life Eternal in God. As doors close on the past, the door to the Present opens. As the ego is laid aside the mind seems to be born anew as Divine Mind, for in truth nothing has changed in what is One forever. Divine Mind is our Christ Self, and nothing can change Eternal Love.
Take heart … for Love is Certain.
In Love and Joy,
David
Does the concept of Holy Relationship mean that there is one specific person out there who will be my perfect mirror?
Question:
I don't know if you remember my previous letter, but it was about my sister dying mysteriously at the age of thirty six. You helped me put perspective on that. We discovered since that she was secretly anorexic, and my family clearly has some attitudes about the body that we need to heal together.
My personal issue is about special and holy relationships and whether a holy relationship with one particular person is necessary in order to awaken. I have never had a serious long-term relationship. What if I never have one? The Course talks about holy relationships and how important they are, so I have big expectations for each limited relationship I go into, and they all seem to fail quickly. Am I taking this too literally?
Answer:
Thanks for your openness and your willingness to look deeply at what is underneath these topics and issues. The split mind contains the problem (the ego) and the solution (the Holy Spirit). When they are brought together only One remains.
The body and the world are always the focus of ego's perspective, for it seeks to make real problems and struggles "in the world" and to avoid the inner healing correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the product of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief that it is possible to make an identity which God did not create. The ego is this identity problem and it was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it seemed to arise. This one problem could be described as an authority problem or a confusion in who is the author of Reality. The "mind" that believes in the reality of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, for it believes that it can create itself. This ego mind also thinks it is in competition with God, although this is pushed out of conscious awareness. This unconscious ego thought system is exposed in the ACIM Workbook lessons, and Lesson #13 contains an excellent example of this unveiling:
"A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God."
This is the beginning of training the mind to forgive, for the focus is brought back to the mind, back to thinking, and taken away from the body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are examples of projection, of seeing the "problem" where it is not, which is in the world. The mind cannot tolerate the belief in a "war” with God, so this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue that such a belief entails is then projected to the body and the world. Weight "control,” like any attempt to control the script or the body, is an attempt to control the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that the past can only be forgiven or released or seen as false - not fixed or controlled or changed.
The same ego dynamic is underneath interpersonal relationship struggles of power and control, of wanting to fix or change a person or a self-image. Personal relationships may seem to sail happily along for awhile, yet the make believe self-concept IS the "personal perspective" and thus is always on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is a decision. The ego is a decision. Atonement is the decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is the decision to believe that the mind can be separate from God. Once the mind believed that it had separated and built this time-space world, this time-space world of bodies became its substitute identity, because it believed it had thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The world was made-up as a substitute "identity." The sleeping mind is split on the decision of identity. The Holy Spirit says,”This world is not Identity. This world is an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds the mind constantly,”This world is not your Home. This world is not your Identity. This world is not real." While the mind is split it is hearing another voice (the ego) that's saying: "You've done it. You've separated from God. You'd better make the best of it and find something of the world to identify with. You can never go back, for God will punish you."
Thought-form associations seem to become a substitute "identity." The ego mind seems to be identified with the body, with family, with environments that seem to surround it (I'm an American, Japanese, I'm male, I'm female, I'm from a wealthy family, from a poor family, I'm Catholic, Jewish, Protestant). All of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the little personal self are all part of this construction. The mind is very shaky about this small identity, this small self, this little "me." So the little me is shaky, and it seems like other persons give the little me reality and importance (you're my son, my daughter, you're my boss, you're a loving father) and all the different things that these images seem to be telling this little me seem to be really important. Praise thus seems very important (you are a "person" and you're a "good" one)!
Praise and acceptance from others SEEM to stabilize this very shaky thing. (you're a great lover, you're a great provider, you're great with the children, you have a fine intellect, you have such a heart, you help serve so many other people, you're a great team player, on and on). This aspect of the self-concept says that you are a person, and you have all of these positive attributes that really make you a valuable and worthy person—that make you stand out above the crowd. You're not just anyone—you're someBODY special. The flip side is criticism, which directly reflects the shaky sense of self. Criticism would be: you're not as great as you think you are, you're not such a good team player, such a good provider, so good in bed—all the things that are taken as "insults" to the personal self-concept. That's the flip side of the strokes. To this ego self-concept that believes both sides (the positive and negative) of "thinking" are real, the Holy Spirit is perceived as a great threat, for the Holy Spirit leads to the experience of forgiveness, which is just the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.
When the criticism seems to come, the ego attempts a substitution. It thinks "I don't need this. I'll go elsewhere and start other relationships with people who can appreciate my talents and skills and abilities, appreciate my personhood. I will avoid those 'negative influences' in the world and those negative people. I'll find another 'person' or join a group where people are 'like-minded' and forget about the rest of the world. These new people will like me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an attempt to maintain a sense of specialness, a sense of separation, a sense of individuality (a private mind with private thoughts). Those attempts are special love relationships. They seem to reinforce worth and value and to validate personhood. And they offer a false witness for clinging to the ego as "identity." To the ego, past associations serve to give personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet the Holy Spirit shows that past associations offer nothing of value, for they were made by the ego to deny the truth of God's Love.
Holy relationship emphasizes and reflects Content (right-minded thinking) and has an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. While the ego is believed, relationships will seem to be specific, yet each one will present an opportunity to release the belief in specifics. Divine Mind is Abstract and Universal. Forgiveness is the bridge to the remembrance of Christ and God, Divine Abstraction. Thus the Holy Spirit teaches:
"When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I am always there with you, in remembrance of you.(T-8.III.4.1-8)
The goal of the curriculum, regardless of the teacher you choose, is "Know thyself." There is nothing else to seek." (T-8.III.4-5)
The focus is always a willingness for miracles. Change but your thoughts and your whole perception of the world is changed. The ultimate outcome of this transformation is: I am as God created Me. My Mind holds only what I think with God.
If there is a temptation to buy the bait of thoughts of form, here is a helpful reminder from the Beyond All Idols section of Chapter 30:
"It is not form you seek. What form can be a substitute for God the Father's Love? What form can take the place of all the love in the Divinity of God the Son? What idol can make two of what is one? And can the limitless be limited? You do not want an idol. It is not your will to have one. It will not bestow on you the gift you seek. When you decide upon the form of what you want, you lose the understanding of its purpose. So you see your will within the idol, thus reducing it to a specific form. Yet this could never be your will, because what shares in all creation cannot be content with small ideas and little things.
Behind the search for every idol lies the yearning for completion. Wholeness has no form because it is unlimited. To seek a special person or a thing to add to you to make yourself complete, can only mean that you believe some form is missing. And by finding this, you will achieve completion in a form you like. This is the purpose of an idol; that you will not look beyond it, to the source of the belief that you are incomplete. Only if you had sinned could this be so. For sin is the idea you are alone and separated off from what is whole. And thus it would be necessary for the search for wholeness to be made beyond the boundaries of limits on yourself.
It never is the idol that you want. But what you think it offers you, you want indeed and have the right to ask for. Nor could it be possible it be denied. Your will to be complete is but God's Will, and this is given you by being His. God knows not form. He cannot answer you in terms that have no meaning. And your will could not be satisfied with empty forms, made but to fill a gap that is not there. It is not this you want. Creation gives no separate person and no separate thing the power to complete the Son of God." (T- 30.III.2-4)
This section gives a clear Answer to your question about holy relationship. Think with God, Perceive with the Holy Spirit, and experience the wholeness of forgiveness. A "personal relationship" is still a self-concept and can only be a transitional "step" in Awakening. The Holy Spirit's Purpose offers a forgiven world, a wholeness that transcends the seeming "parts." Glory and thanks to God for creating All as One!
Love & Blessings,
David
Is "positive thinking" helpful in making a better world?
Question:
Is "positive thinking" helpful in making a better world, just by having positive thoughts?
Answer:
Positive thinking always implies an opposite. This is why affirmations are not the complete picture. If you use positive thinking or affirmations and still have unconscious ego beliefs, it is like putting sweet icing on a cake of mud! This is why the path of the Course and all true spiritualities is bringing the darkness to the light - rather than trying to cover the darkness and push it down.
The journey is often wet with tears, and there are many intense emotions as you allow the feelings to come up. One of the things I am enjoying most here in Argentina is the willingness to express emotions and cry. In many gatherings I have in the United States, people do not allow themselves to cry. But this is very healing and cathartic. It is much more helpful than to wear a mask and pretend. A friend was noticing at the meetings that there are mostly women, and occasionally one or two men. We were discussing this last night and I was relating that in the sexual stereotypes it is more acceptable for women to cry. My friend’s husband stated that the "macho men" never come to these groups. This is just another demonstration that it is all based on beliefs and not really a male/female issue. Crying can be a symbol of openness.
Question:
Do you have more men in the American Course groups?
Answer:
There are places where there seem to be more men, but generally I don't notice. I've come to the place where I see everything the same—people, dogs, objects—the tapestry is whole. There are no animate versus inanimate objects, no organic and inorganic, big or small. I see no difference between the city and the country, or highly populated and rural. It is all a matter of purpose.
There is a wonderful section in "A Course in Miracles" called "Setting the goal." If you put your goal out front, it is like carrying a torch of light. When your goal is clearly set, you will perceive everyone and everything witnessing to the goal you have set. You will see no exceptions. When you do not set a clear goal, the situations in your life just seem to happen, and then the ego always looks back on what just happened and decides whether it likes it or doesn't like it. This is always very frustrating.
In the story of Lot's wife in the Bible, she was told not to look back or she would turn into a pillar of salt. Think of that the next time you start looking back on something that has already happened. That is the ego, and it freezes your mind in the past.
Love,
David
Is there any point to buying Christmas gifts for my family?
Question:
A recent message reply brought up some questions. The subject is buying Christmas presents. This year I don't have much to spend. I am thinking of telling my family I am not buying anything this year. This thought makes me feel guilty and into lack and limitation. I am a person who loves to give so I don't understand how I get into this situation. You say we are the meaning of life as spirit and the world of images, persons, places, and things have no meaning. Take this related to Christmas shopping, which is buying things and giving to people. What's the point if they have no meaning?
Answer:
Thanks for writing and for taking a close look at the "What's the point?" question in relation to Christmas shopping. The ego and the Holy Spirit have very different perspectives on the concept of gifts and giving. This "season" is an excellent opportunity to clarify the meaning of gifts and giving that are held in mind.
Christ is a perfect Idea in the Mind of God. God creates Christ and Gives Christ Everything in the Creating. God Gives Eternally and this Meaning is "God Creates and Extends in Spirit." Christ Identity in God is All Meaning and the projections of the time-space cosmos the ego made have no meaning. Eternity is Meaning and the temporal will not last and therefore is without any meaning or reality or existence. ACIM Workbook Lessons 128 and 133 are helpful guidelines in opening to this realization. The world offers nothing of value because nothing of the world will last forever, and Eternity is All Value and Meaning.
The cosmos was the ego's attempt at a substitute "reality,” made to take the place of Eternity. The cosmos was made to deny Divine Mind, yet error cannot veil the Spiritual Truth of Christ. Christ lives forever in the Mind of God and error has no appeal to the mind which has forgiven the world of error. There is no Mind in matter for in the Eternal Now there is no matter. True Giving is Creation. With regard to this world, the only gift worthy of our attention is acceptance of the Atonement, the Correction of error.
In ACIM Christ says: "Look upon all the trinkets made to hang upon the body, or to cover it or for its use. See all the useless things made for its eyes to see. Think on the many offerings made for its pleasure, and remember all these were made to make seem lovely what you hate." (T-20.II.1)
"Gifts are not made through bodies, if they be truly given and received. For bodies can neither offer nor accept; hold out nor take. Only the mind can value, and only the mind decides on what it would receive and give. And every gift it offers depends on what it wants. It will adorn its chosen home most carefully, making it ready to receive the gifts it wants by offering them to those who come unto its chosen home, or those it would attract to it. And there they will exchange their gifts, offering and receiving what their minds judge to be worthy of them." (T-20.II.2)
Later in the ACIM Manual for Teachers a further clarification of the true reflection of the Meaning of Giving is given:
"The term generosity has special meaning to the teacher of God. It is not the usual meaning of the word; in fact, it is a meaning that must be learned and learned very carefully. Like all the other attributes of God's teachers this one rests ultimately on trust, for without trust no one can be generous in the true sense. To the world, generosity means "giving away" in the sense of "giving up." To the teachers of God, it means giving away in order to keep. This has been emphasized throughout the text and the workbook, but it is perhaps more alien to the thinking of the world than many other ideas in our curriculum. Its greater strangeness lies merely in the obviousness of its reversal of the world's thinking. In the clearest way possible, and at the simplest of levels, the word means the exact opposite to the teachers of God and to the world.
The teacher of God is generous out of Self interest. This does not refer, however, to the self of which the world speaks. The teacher of God does not want anything he cannot give away, because he realizes it would be valueless to him by definition. What would he want it for? He could only lose because of it. He could not gain. Therefore he does not seek what only he could keep, because that is a guarantee of loss. He does not want to suffer. Why should he ensure himself pain? But he does want to keep for himself all things that are of God, and therefore for His Son. These are the things that belong to him. These he can give away in true generosity, protecting them forever for himself." (M-4.VII.1-2)
As trust in the Holy Spirit's Guidance grows it becomes apparent that the only gifts worthy of sharing are the beatitudes Christ has spoken of which extend forever. Our very Being is the Gift, and the peace, love and joy Christ radiates will go on forever and ever and ever. The trinkets of the world cannot be "for giving,” yet I rejoice that the temporal cosmos has been "forgiven." The nothingness of the ego has been exposed, and All Value and Meaning remain forever as the Christ.
Only the ego seems to experience guilt. Be of good cheer, for You are not the ego. The ego associated "gifts" with things and money and behaviors. The Spirit knows that Gifts are the Thoughts of God. The ego's "gifts" never fully satisfy the yearning to give and to receive, yet miracles fill the "storehouse" of an open and willing mind ready to have miracles performed through it. Give the miracle as an offering of the Present Moment. Everyone is blessed in the Holy Instant in Which Christ is Born in awareness. Experience how wonderful it feels to Be Everything and extend Everything without limits of any kind. Spirit expects no thing and offers Everything by simply Being. This is Giving as God Gives. In God there is no scarcity or lack. When the nothingness of the ego is exposed guilt is revealed as impossible. No trinket can offer the gift forgiveness brings.
In Peace & in God's Will,
David
How can I love my needy partner who's fear of losing "specialness" seems to imprison me?
Question:
Broadly my question is about loving people whose fear is constantly attempting to cage you. It is not difficult for me to love them, but it is difficult for me to live my life freely around them. In my current relationship, I feel that to keep the peace I must curtail any expressions of sisterly love toward other men. Additionally, I must show him constant admiration, affection and sexual interest or he will feel dejected. Certainly if I was perfectly enlightened this problem would not hinder me, but honestly I sometimes feel that I have a large infant attached to my back that I am obligated to tend to above all else.
I had left my previous relationship for a similar reason. I am still deeply guilt-ridden at having abandoned my brother just because I could not handle his level of fear (for isn't it the most fearful that need healing the most?) It hurts me so much to think that someone would feel unloved or discarded by me, and yet I feel my only alternative is to cater to their fearful demands, to become a slave to them instead of a vessel for God's love. I sense that people are terrified of a love that is not "special,” and they do everything they can to make it "special." This tug-of-war has become a great source of sorrow for me and my greatest challenge on the path back to God.
I would appreciate any guidance you could give me on this matter.
Answer:
Thank you for writing and for sharing what is on your heart. I am so happy to hear from you. The more the ego is exposed and raised into awareness the less it is likely to be believed. Relationships which involve dependency, demands, and expectations are witnesses to the ego. Our shared Purpose will show that the ego is not real and that You are not the ego. One way the ego seems to maintain guilt is through people pleasing or looking for external agreement. This defense seems to smooth out the rough edges of a "relationship" between persons, though it actually keeps a lid on the guilt underneath and serves to hide and protect it. People pleasing is a compromise attempt at minimizing conflict while actually protecting and preserving the sense of guilt that generates the perception of conflict. The sleeping mind would not repeat this insane attempt over and over and over were it not for the belief that love and happiness and intimacy can be found in a particular form. Divine Love is Content (Spirit) and cannot be found in form of any kind. The Holy Spirit Helps shift the search for "love in form" to the search for Love within by reminding that our Will is Universal and cannot be content with form of any kind. This world is nothing more than a pictorial representation of "looking for love in all the wrong places."
You wrote: "I sense that people are terrified of a love that is not "special,” and they do everything they can to make it "special." Specialness is the ego's attempt to make a substitute "love" or intimacy apart from God. God creates Eternal Love as Spirit and the ego, being the attempt to deny Eternal Love, seemed to make up a person-to-person "form of love" to take the place of God's Eternal Love. The belief in and feeling of abandonment experienced in thinking about your previous "relationship" is a cover for the deep seated buried belief and feelings of abandoning God and of being abandoned by God. Working with the Holy Spirit will show you that abandonment of or by God is impossible, for Ideas leave not their Source and Christ could never leave the Mind of God. The guilt you mention seems to be related to persons on the surface of consciousness, yet the ontological guilt of believing it is possible to actually separate from God is the one and only error to be Corrected or forgiven.
As you begin to Awaken it starts to dawn in awareness that everything one perceives is a reflection of what one believes. Believe in abandonment and you will seem to perceive the witnesses to the belief. Believe in fear and you will seem to perceive the witnesses to fear. It becomes apparent quickly that a mind overhaul or a complete transformation of mind is the only way to experience a lasting peace, love, intimacy, and freedom. In the Mind Overhaul journal I share the following ideas:
"Relationships seem to be a difficult undertaking in this world. They seem to be a mixture of love and hate, attraction and repulsion, joy and misery. Jesus refers to special love and special hate relationships as destructive, selfish, possessive, and exclusive. These are ego-based relationships that are songs of praise to their maker. Holy relationship is a metaphor for a special relationship that has been given over to the Holy Spirit for His purpose of forgiveness. Holy relationship is a healed relationship that reflects wholeness and completion.
Beyond all metaphors, one might say that the only real relationship is one of Spirit, of God and Creation, of Father and Son. As the only real relationship is given by God, the holy relationship is learned of the Holy Spirit. As the "scarcity principle" is undone by the Holy Spirit, the sense of lack, inadequacy, weakness, and incompletion that is typical of the special relationship is replaced in the holy relationship by joining, extension, appreciation, and acceptance.
I like to speak of the special relationship in the past tense, for as with everything of the ego, it is history. If we recall the metaphysics we have covered today, the sleeping mind became so terrified of the light that it attempted to hide from God in a world of form. Believing it had torn itself from Heaven, it attempted to set up a body-world self as its "new" identity. It attempted to forget about its Identity as Spirit. As it became identified as a body, it was shaky about this "new" identity because, though it had tried to forget the light, deep down it knew that it was making this world up and that God could and must be remembered. Being uncertain and afraid to go back to the light, it looked for an "external" solution—other bodies with which it could "join" to find happiness and completion. That was how the so-called "co-dependency" of special relationships began.
As soon as the mind believed it was out on the screen of the world, it sought outside itself to alleviate the guilt and fear and loneliness and emptiness it felt within. It looked for other bodies to be its friends and companions. Associations with the "right people,” the sleeping mind's God-substitutes, took on great importance. The whole world became one giant special relationship, because everything that the mind associated with on the screen was set up to be a God-substitute. And the reason why special love and special hate relationships are never completely satisfying and never bring lasting peace and happiness is because there can never be a substitute for the Love of God.
The holy relationship can only be experienced now as a reflection of the Love of God. It is analogous to the real world, complete forgiveness, or healed perception that I spoke of earlier. As one realizes the impossibility of personal judgment, one also realizes the impossibility of special relationships of any kind. Holy relationship, then, is not personal in the sense of bodies relating to one another. It is symbolic of a universal wholeness, a state of mind that can only give of its complete perfection. The concept of "getting" something in return for something else is utterly meaningless in the present moment. Right now, there is only rest, contentment, and fulfillment."
As you release false beliefs and attack thoughts your perception of the world and relationships will change dramatically. Witnesses that are in alignment with your new found Purpose will abound in awareness. Miracles will fill your holy mind and people will seem more like angels than human beings. Your sisterly love is a beautiful reflection of the Purpose we share, and you will see that you are free to fully express this love without limits or restrictions of any kind. It is the Joy of our Heart to express the Unconditional Love of God, and you will gain confidence in this expression each time you allow Love to flow through you. The Calls for Love in our brothers and sisters have been the Call to Love within. You are aware of Love through extending it, and all perceived hurts are only opportunities to let go of illusory beliefs and appearances.
I am joined with you in the Purpose of the Holy Spirit Which leads beyond the ego's personal perspective of "relationships" to the only Real Relationship: God and Creation. We take the journey within together and the Light leads the way in surety. We cannot fail to recognize what God Wills to Be, and so we give thanks.
Love always,
David
How can something so perfect as the human body NOT have been created by God?
Question:
It seems difficult to believe that something so perfect as the human body is not created by God.
Answer:
If you take an honest look at the human body, your perception of perfection may change! It seems to be born, but then it seems to die. It seems to bring many pleasures, but it also seems to bring many pains. The ego hates the body. It believes it deserves a better home. The ego does not know of heaven, and the body was made as a substitute home. It tries to dress it up and make it pretty, like painting lipstick on a skeleton. Yet to the Holy Spirit, the body is neutral. It is neither beautiful nor ugly. It is neither good nor bad. It is a symbol, just like a tree or a car or a pencil. To the Holy Spirit the body is a learning device, or more accurately, an unlearning device. It helps you unlearn a sense of pride, of uniqueness, of individuality. The ego seems to be insulted at every turn of the spiritual journey. So coming back to your original question, that which is eternal is perfect. God is perfect. Christ is perfect, and creation, which is spirit, is perfect. The body, the sun, the stars, the planets, even the black holes, seem to have a beginning and they will seem to have an ending. In that sense nothing in form and nothing in time and space is perfect because it will not last.
Love,
David
What is the difference between prayer and meditation?
Question:
Each of your welcome words carries a passion—all of your heart and your being is infused with God’s love—and that is contagious! But now I want to ask you a question. What is the difference between meditation and prayer? And how I can open more to prayer? Thank you and Bless you.
Answer:
Thanks for writing and sharing what is on your mind. Prayer is sometimes thought of as talking to God and listening for God's Answer. Meditation is sometimes thought of as the practice of stilling the mind and sinking beneath the thoughts of the world. Even though prayer and meditation are often thought of as "activities" or "practices,” they are actually continuous—meaning they are without beginning and end. Prayer is desire, and it truly can be said, "be watchful of what you pray for, for you will experience it." It is possible to experience a Stillness of Mind that is involuntary and never controlled or forced. True meditation, like prayer, is being receptive, aligned, and extending in God's Love. They meet in the Present Moment as a Living State of Being. First the mind becomes still and open to receive the Holy Spirit's Guidance. The Holy Spirit's Guidance dissolves the ego, and thus the ego's "chatter" seems to become less and less apparent in awareness. As the belief in time is undone, only Radiant Stillness "remains."
The aim or goal of prayer and meditation is always: Be Still and Know.
Love always,
David
Am I dealing with my feelings properly?
General description of video:
This question is asked at 2 minutes and 17 seconds into the following video, titled "Using Relationships for Healing, Part 2". Can you hear a call for love in your partner and soften? Open to the one mind's call for love. When you connect your irritations to thoughts in your mind, your relationship becomes a path to healing. Be in touch with your feelings and willing to talk about them. When you shift from attack to love, love is extended and comes back to you, drawing witnesses to love. It just takes willingness to practice. Don't let the ego dissuade you.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjS-LzZO0hw#t=2m17s