I could say that this single idea: ‘I am affected only by my thoughts’, made more impact on the irreversible direction of my life than any other. I recall it as having been the first ‘pure’ ring-true-bell for me… And let me tell you, when you get this; I mean, really get this, it changes everything! Doesn’t it.
When I truly realized that I was responsible, entirely, for everything that was going on in my life, regardless of what it seemed externals might be, l was elated and terrified all at once. There was no longer, really, anywhere to run… For that matter, there was nowhere to turn…~ nowhere, that is, but inward…
~Inward, I have to chuckle, the very place I had been trying to get away from all my life. I had run from looking within using every trick; including running compulsively in all the traditional addictive ways, as well as some I thought original to me. (Ah, the ego and its ingenuity~ passé!) One of my favorite methods was to remake or improve myself. You know, make it better, stronger, faster, get out in front, in head of the crowd… None of it worked. In fact it was the very futility of my ingenuity that led me to its disillusionment… and into my Self within…
All my efforts to escape finally all led back to me… And well, the most surprising thing happened.. Where I had been so sure there was only darkness within; what I called “the loneliness of nothingness”, I found only light: “the incredible lightness of being”… It was a miracle.
The miracle was just waiting for me to get over my little fearful ‘rightness’ and allow its work to be done. Its message was clear: “I am as God created me~ nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God, and I am affected only by my thoughts”…This, turned out to be the peace of Mind I previously sought in escape and projection…
It is the Mind I share with God, the ‘real’ Mind, where illusions have no reign. I can pretend all I want and play a role in the dream about affects of thoughts apart from love, but I am in truth, always, the dreamer of the dream. I can even scare the wits out of myself, worry, regret, feel guilty, get angry, attack, feel remorseful, hurt and terrified to make a move, but this is all illusion….
I know… beneath and beyond the dream, I am aware of my Self; deep within the everything-ness and the nothingness from which it came and it follows; I recognize the light of creation in which I am wholly complete~ extending...choosing my thoughts in the light of awareness…
Love is all there is in truth. And only the thoughts that come from love bring happiness at all. They are the only one’s I want… Keeping this in mind makes it convincingly painless to not take the dream too seriously, as gradually, lucidity within the dream, becomes accessible.
I am affected only by my thoughts. I am deeply affected by my thought of you, my brothers... What happens to you happens to me. You are my thought of love transformed from my thought of fear. Thank you for your light, that I might see my thoughts reflected there. Through it, Mind returns to wholeness. I love you forever and ever as one…
Let me see here, sinlessness is the state of the center where the Self resides. The dark concept of harm cannot coexist with invulnerability; which is the natural state of the Son of God….
Once we become willing to hide nothing, to harbor no thoughts that we would keep private, the belief in harm or vulnerability crumbles in the light of impartiality.
Harm is a concept only valid within the separation-illusion. Without belief in structures and concepts, harm could not exist. The ego’s entire kingdom is pieced together and propped up with the belief structures of scarcity, specialness, attack and harm, producing the illusion of danger and death and attackers and victims, winners and losers …. It’s all smoke and mirrors, easily dispelled when the choice to ‘forgive and see this differently’ takes precedence in value… Then what we see is our unity and oneness, evensimultaneously as the bodies eyes see what they are made to see, within we recognize our brother as our Self…
In choosing Atonement for myself, trust without reservation unfolds and we are forgiving reservations that ego instinctively throws up, as we notice a sense of loosing connection with the center of peace … Willingness to forget fairness and justice concepts and allow the mystery within and beyond to visit truth’s impartial ‘fairness’ that unites, ensues… The letting go of needing to know, to understand and allow, results in an experience of tolerance never imagined. It is a feeling of accepting unconditionally that all things work together for good for all.
‘Nothing in this world can be done to fix anything’, dawns easily, (albeit not always recognized or welcome in the beginning) when we accept Atonement and the single goal of truth. This choice resonates at the energy of inevitability; a sense that what unfolds next has already been tested and true, so to speak… The Holy Spirit is engaged, and brings to life the ongoing gentle waking to the truth where no concepts reside at all.
So, what I’m trying to get at here is although details in the dream seem effected, and choices seem to be made, another experience is ongoing, beyond what seems apparent~ the bigger picture or rest of the story, so to speak.
There is an instant recognition, always; but due to valuing the belief in the reality of sin and you and me, etc., there is no conceptualization for pure life within the structure of the dream, so it seemingly takes time. Yet, the Holy Spirit is the great re=interpreter and once chosen, has given another way of seeing.
An experience that brings peace and safety and certainty comes quietly, but for the single desire for it.... In this state of deep awareness within Mind, actions in this world blend with God’s plan for salvation and its accomplishment.
Then this experience of safety and certainty is paid forward, so to speak and trusting is the desired response, which handles rising fears and boosts faith… I see your sinlessness, I see mine.
“What must I do to know all this is mine? I must accept Atonement for myself, and nothing more. God has already done all things that need be done. And I must learn I need do nothing of myself, for I need but accept my Self.”
What a glorious gift to bring to this worn out diverse reality. Ours for the asking, forgiveness eliminates the need for perception, allowing us to see what is present now; which is the vision of Christ… It is begins with our willingness to close the seeming gap between subject and object, you and me; and to experience the ‘fact’ that minds are joined. As we become increasingly willing to dispel the belief in private thoughts, and value only what can be shared, we come to find ourselves within the whole embodiment of the now. It is profoundly unique in experience of this world which exists only in the past. Yet, the brilliant eternal aliveness of the present moment extends into experience of a forgiven past.
Turns out our willingness ‘to see this differently’ is always, in all ways, enough. The Holy Spirit works within the miracle; beyond yet within the construct in which we currently believe of time; past or future. It’s like He hears our prayer for Atonement within our hearts even before we are aware we have prayed it: “let me see my brother as myself”… Oh yeah, ‘the slightest invitation’ and recognition can be called to mind through the Holy Spirit within our Mind… for it has already done.
This life is like a big déja vu, ne’st pas? That feeling of déja vu, is one of the side effects, if you will, becoming progressively more noticeable as forgiveness transforms judgment’s perception as precedence within the mind. Vision takes the place of what the eyes are seeing and serves up meaning from a unified perspective, leaving the body’s eyes to serve the Holy Spirit’s purpose rather than the ‘specifics’ which the split mind is so full of … the details look ever-so the same. Yet, the experience is present, full and unified. It is alive…
This is the blessing of vision that forgiveness gives; here I feel all of me present within all, and specifics line-up…. It is the miracle in effect, and I notice, in a way that it is clear to me, that it all has been done. Fear of future and guilt of past are vague memory elements, yet the memory of Present Love, is Now….This ‘present’ is the alive texture of my day-to-day life … Within it is room to heal the mind; allowing this ‘forgiveness-lesson-drama/re-gathering of Self, with its stresses, and romances and pleasures and pains, of ‘the character I play, seem like some kind of déja vu dream, ~impossible to take too seriously for long.
Our reality is only Spirit and Spirit’s primacy and grace shine on everything. Forgiveness lets me see that you are me, and that there is one Self, the one we share, uniting us with God.
“In quiet may forgiveness wipe away my dreams of separation and of sin. Then let me, Father, look within, and find Your promise of my sinlessness is kept; Your Word remains unchanged within my mind, Your Love is still abiding in my heart”.
