We have been reading about the holy instant, special relationships, and holy relationships in the past few CMC Ministerial classes. I have been searching for the meaning of romantic relationships and these last few chapters have been very intriguing. This is what I have put together from recent studies.

The special relationship seems to be any relationship outside of the awareness of God’s truth. It is a relationship based on fear and breeds offspring such as guilt and expectations.

In a holy relationship, both remember their divine purpose and are in complete understanding of each other. However, we have a tendency to lean toward special relationships because we feel incomplete and assume that something in another person is what is missing in us. Taking something from somebody else to make ourselves complete is the foundation of the special relationship. When this approach is taken, failure is always experienced. When failures occur, attack ensues.

How do we get out of this cycle? We use the holy instant to bring the relationship back to truth and awareness of God. If we are aware of God’s presence in anything, conflict disappears because, in that instant, we forgive what never happened. When we bring God’s light to any situation, the conflict completely loses any meaning that we gave it. In that moment, we experience a holy relationship. As it is our calling to be aware of the divine in every moment, it is also our calling to maintain this awareness in every relationship. The same principles that Jesus teaches us to use in our individual practice, He is teaching us to use in relationships. When we remain in the moment with God, we experience peace. When two remain in the moment with God, they experience peace in the holy relationship. The holy instant is now and it is the same now that all of the great spiritual teachers of all the ages have told us to remain in, in order to experience our divinity.

The special relationship can be distracting. It delights the senses and makes us feel alive. This feeling of being alive can easily be confused with experiencing God. As with any sense-delight, its efficacy wears off over time. When the illusions lose their luster, we are left with the choice to seek out more specialness or seek true happiness. This is where many relationships hit cross-roads and where distraction turns to attention. This is the part where we realize we will have to start giving and not taking. This is where we can instill God’s purpose or start over on another special path.

All in all, relationships are powerful in that they can be highly karmic and distracting but on the other hand, highly beneficial to our evolution if based on God’s purpose. It is our choice. Jesus spends much time in the text on this topic. I think that it is an important point because we invest so much into relationships, yet rarely question their purpose and meaning. I, personally, can no longer afford so much time for something that does not have a higher, soul-evolving purpose. I spent many years lost in somebody else, only to realize that I was only looking for myself. I now know that it must be God in me who seeks God in another. I am not delusional though. I realize that specialness will be unavoidable at times. But if I find somebody whose sights are set on me and the holy instant, I would be happy to partake.

~Daniel

“The purpose of life, therefore, is the realizing of that prophesy; the unveiling of the immortal man; the birth of the spiritual from the physical, whereby we enter our divine inheritance and come to inhabit Eternity. This is, indeed, salvation, the purpose of all true religion in all times.” (Book 1, Intro.)

I often ponder the “meaning of life”. I have had inclinations to the above quote but have never really been able to put it into words. So the purpose of human life is to awaken as a human and end the karmic cycle of rebirth. We are to awaken to the point that human incarnations are no longer necessary. The key to this is meditation (as the commenter states repeatedly). The wisdom that I have been picking up lately is to meditate, meditate, meditate. Meditation can save you thousands of incarnations.

~*~

“We are to think of ourselves as immortals, dwelling in the Light, encompassed and sustained by spiritual powers. The steady effort to hold this thought will awaken dormant and unrealized powers, which will bring us to the nearness of the Eternal” (Book I, Sutra 13)

Like the Course tells us, we are to keep the spark of Christ in our minds, and he will do the rest to unveil our hidden powers and potential. The practice of the Course is to teach us to steadily remember who we are and what we are.

~*~

“Rightly understood, the desire for sensation is the desire of being, the distortion of the soul’s eternal life. The lust of sensual stimulus and excitation rests on the longing to feel one’s life keenly, to gain the sense of being really alive. This sense of true life comes only with the coming of the soul, and the soul comes only in silence, after self-indulgence has been courageously and loyally stilled, through reverence before the coming soul.” (Book I, Sutra 15)

Life is one pursuit of a temporary feeling of being alive after another. The only way to sustainably obtain it is to go within and courageously and loyally renounce the mind-clouding desires of the material world. We seek stimulus in many forms but underneath, we are only longing to experience the divine.

~*~

“Those who have died, entered the paradise between births, are in a condition resembling meditation without an external object. But in the fullness of time, the seeds of desire in them will spring up, and they will be born again into this world.” (Book I, Sutra 19)

Desire is what keeps us coming back to Earth life. Until we vanquish earthly desires, we will continue the life-death cycle. We are to learn to not be tempted by the sweet fruits nor disturbed by the bitter ones; to only crave the divine presence within us.

~*~

“It is not enough to have intuitions; we must act on them; we must live them.” (Book I, Sutra 21)

Like the Course tells us, we must experience to truly know.

~*~

“The will, which, in its pristine state, was full of vigor, has been steadily corrupted by self-indulgence, the seeking of moods and sensations for sensation’s sake. Hence come all the morbid and sickly moods of the mind. The remedy is a return to the pristine state of the will, by vigorous, positive effort; or, as we are here told, by steady application to a principle. The principle to which we should thus steadily apply ourselves should be one arising from the reality of spiritual life; valorous work for the soul, in others as in ourselves.” (Book I, Sutra 32)

We have corrupted our true nature by seeking earthy pleasure. In their emptiness, we find misery. We must seek only the Divine.

~*~

“By sympathy with the happy, compassion for the sorrowful, delight in the holy, disregard of the unholy, the psychic nature moves to gracious peace.” (Book I, Sutra 33)

Remembering these rules will help us move in grace.

~*~

“A man’s cheerfulness is a measure of his faith” (Book I, Sutra 36)

A truly cheerful person has but his/her trust in God and has no reason to feel fear in all its forms. Imperturbable joy is a sign of and the reward to an awakened person.

~*~

“As we climbed down-hill for our pleasure, so must we climb up again for our purification and restoration to our former high estate. The process is painful, perhaps, yet indispensable.” (Book I, Sutra 37)

In the world of duality, no pleasure comes without a hangover. The more we self-indulge, the harder it is for us to give up those indulgences. The deeper we fall into the abyss of illusion, the longer the journey back.

~*~

“It is, therefore, vital for us to realize that the Yoga system, like every true system of spiritual teaching, rests on this broad and firm foundation of honesty, truth, cleanness, obedience. Without these, there is no salvation; and he who practices these, even though ignorant of spiritual things, is laying up treasures against the time to come” (Book II, Intro.)

We must be pure to maintain a real practice but even without practicing, upholding these virtues reaps great rewards.

~*~

“Here is, in truth, the whole secret of Yoga, the science of the soul. The active turnings, the strident vibrations, of selfishness, lust and hate are to be stilled by meditation, by letting heart and mind dwell in spiritual life, by lifting up the heart to the strong, silent life above, which rests in the stillness of eternal love, and needs no harsh vibration to convince it of true being.” (Book II, Sutra 11)

Mediation and spiritual life centers us and removes the desire for harsh distractions to convince us of our being.

~*~

“The husbandman tills his field, breaking up the clods of earth into fine mould, penetrable to air and rain; he sows his seed, carefully covering it, for fear of birds and the wind; he waters the seed-laden earth, turning the little rills from the irrigation tank now this way and that, removing obstacles from the channels, until the even How of water vitalizes the whole field. And so the plants germinate and grow, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. But it is not the husbandman who makes them grow. It is, first, the miraculous plasmic power in the grain of seed, which brings forth after its kind; then the alchemy of sunlight which, in presence of the green colouring matter of the leaves, gathers hydrogen from the water and carbon from the gases in the air, and mingles them in the hydro-carbons of plant growth; and, finally, the wholly occult vital powers of the plant itself, stored up through ages, and flowing down from the primal sources of life. The husbandman but removes the obstacles. He plants and waters, but God gives the increase.

So with the finer husbandman of diviner fields. He tills and sows, but the growth of the spiritual man comes through the surge and flow of divine, creative forces and powers. Here, again, God gives the increase. The divine Self puts forth, for the manifestation of its powers, a new and finer vesture, the body of the spiritual man.” (Book IV, Sutra 3)

We prepare the temple but God performs the miracles. The farmer plants the seed, but God performs the miracle of its growth.

~*~

“For it is not ordained for the Spiritual Man that, finding his high realm, he shall enter altogether there, and pass out of the vision of mankind. It is true that he dwells in heaven, but he also dwells on earth. He has angels and archangels, the hosts of the just made perfect, for his familiar friends, but he has at the same time found a new kinship with the prone children of men, who stumble and sin in the dark. Finding sinlessness, he finds also that the world’s sin and shame are his, not to share, but to atone; finding kinship with angels, he likewise finds his part in the toil of angels, the toil for the redemption of the world.” (Book IV, Sutra 24)

As we are healed we become healers. This is a major theme in the Course.

~*~

“The battle is long and arduous. Let there be no mistake as to that. Go not forth to this battle without counting the cost. Ages have gone to the strengthening of the foe. Ages of conflict must be spent, ere the foe, wholly conquered, becomes the servant, the Soul’s minister to mankind.

And from these long past ages, in hours when the contest flags, will come new foes, mind-born children springing up to fight for mind, reinforcements coming from forgotten years, forgotten lives. For once this conflict is begun, it can be ended only by sweeping victory, and unconditional, unreserved surrender of the vanquished.” (Book IV, Sutra 27)

Awakening is no easy task. It takes consistent and dedicated practice. We have given much to illusions and will need to give much to awake from them. There will be obstacles all along the way but there is no other goal than complete atonement. The Course is very clear in that the the atonement is not complete until every last soul has completely awakened.

~*~

“It is the very nature of the Soul to be unconquerable” (Book IV, Sutra 28)

It is our destiny to awaken. We have no path but to realize and remember again who we really are. However, there are ways to quicken the process and the greatest of these is meditation. No obstacle can sway us from our path if we realize that the soul is unconquerable. We can choose to be distracted by obstacles or we can do our best to quickly remember that we are on the path no matter what. We can let the pendulum of emotion swing but it will always gravitate to the truthful center.

~Daniel

*Yoga Sutras of Patanjali  [read on-line] ~ an interpretation by Charles Johnston  purchase here

~ Let people speak and chime in when you can be truly helpful. The rest is ego play. Most conversations I experience (myself included) are two or more people with a single goal of saying what they feel they need to say regardless of where it takes the conversation.

~Having an opinion is always a waste of energy. I’ve been particularly judgmental of a certain person recently, convinced that my opinion was justified. After giving heaping spoonfuls of my “advice” and criticism, I’m right back to realizing that what I should have done was love and accept as always. I pray for forgiveness in this area. The Course says that it is impossible for us to make an accurate judgment unless we know every detail about everything, past, present, and future (which is also impossible!)  We all express opinions daily and may even be required to, but I know that deep down an opinion has no ground.

~Jesus calls us to maintain that little spark in our consciousness at all times. The daily lessons are a practice of mind discipline for achieving this. We learn to step back, look at our thoughts, and choose a course of action that increases love. He asks us to merely keep a spark of Christ consciousness in our minds and let Him do the rest.  This is a seemingly small request yet we need A Course in Miracles just to get to that point. May we all move a little of the clutter in our minds out of the way to make a place for Jesus to get comfy and guide. And what is our prize? Real, lasting joy!

~I recently read Doug Thompson’s article in the CMC Ezine which brings up the tired subject of right and wrong interpretations of the Course (which he has found it in his heart to forgive us for). It included a few opinions which brought up opinions of my own. Yet, I took a step back and looked at what I loved about it.

When I started reading the Course, I had to re-read parts. In doing so I would be amazed at the beautiful command of language. It reminded me of how I would read Shakespeare in high school. Well, Doug says the following in his article: “At the very least, ACIM as the longest work of iambic pentameter poetry ever composed in any language should attract interest from literature departments. Regardless of its content, its FORM is unprecedented in human literary history. Jesus embraces Shakespeare and then dances circles around him.” This paragraph gave me goose bumps.

~It seems like some of the most out-spoken people are generally some of the most fearful.

~The truth will weather and correct all errors. Sit back and let it unfold.

~I’ve discovered that I want to dive deeper into my spiritual practice but I have a fear of losing my identity. I see the error now (thanks to ACIM) and am asking for guidance.

~Daniel

By Daniel Tipton*~*LISTENING*~

        I found myself bored the other night with nothing to do. I thought it would be a good time to practice my inner work. I decided to continue reading The Impersonal Life, which I am finding extremely helpful. I recommend this to anyone with those deep, basic, nagging questions.

A Course in Miracles is obviously great at addressing these things but it is interesting to read something different and a bit prior.

After some reading, I felt peaceful and decided to head up to my room by the window where I like to absorb information and ask God what he would have me do (many times out of boredom J). I just started doing this and am finding it helpful.

After sitting by the window awhile, the floor started looking comfortable so I sprawled out next to my cat and drifted into a light nap.

As I woke, a louder-than-usual voice said “True inspiration comes from doing, not wanting”. I don’t get these loud voices very often but it got me thinking how The Impersonal Life stresses that we are our own masters and that our true self and spiritual work are all within; that the physical world is all a reflection of that. It also emphasizes that God is in us, just begging for us to listen and create as he would.

Basically, it calls us to keep the focus within, to let creation spring from that place of wisdom, and that materialistic pursuits are only helpful in leading us back to see that the journey is entirely within.

I began to think how all the answers I need are already inside me. I have gone to other people and places before, hoping to get answers, but I always knew that those “answers” would be filtered by my ego anyway; that they were usually things I already knew but had not yet accepted.

If we already have all the answers then it is important to listen. I recently went to the Course in Miracles Conference in San Francisco where Pamela Silberman spoke about her book, Simply Being. In this book, she has journal entries in which she asked God a question and wrote down the answer she heard. I decided to try this for myself and it was a lovely experience.

The following is my conversation. I’m not proclaiming there to be any deep wisdom for others here but it was very therapeutic for me and I want to share. I think this will be a helpful practice going forth. It may have been the ego speaking, it may have been Holy Spirit, or God, but it made me feel good so it doesn’t matter. I personally believe that all acts are acts of creation and thus involve the Holy Spirit. So if I am one with God and the Holy Spirit, then I can say I wrote all of this. If somebody writes something wonderful, then they are the author because they are an amazing co-creator with God. Whether it is a shopping list, The Cat in the Hat, or a work that inspires millions of people, they are holy acts of creation. So let’s take credit for our grandeur. I think this is what the Course calls us to do.

Moving on now, here is how the conversation went after my nap:

Higher Self: (Words that jerked me from my nap) True inspiration comes from doing, not wanting.

me: If this is a world of illusions, how do I keep from feeling withdrawn?

Higher Self: If you were not delusional, you would not see illusions. Do not hide from them. Confront them that your perception may be healed. Go experience as a child. If you think you want something, do something. Wanting enlightenment is not the same as being enlightened. You are already enlightened, so go be that.

me: Why do I get so bored lately and what should I do?

Higher Self: Boredom is not in the now. You are not paying enough attention. Fear not the bounty of opportunities to create that surround you at any moment.

me: How do I look upon the world with excitement and joy? What is holding me back? It seems like it is right there, but there is always something in the way.

Higher Self: Keep removing your blocks. There is much work to do. You know the answers and you know you know the answers. Stop talking your way out of truth. This is why you feel stuck. Your path is covered in the tar of your fear. As you remove your fear, so will you walk your path in grace.

me: This person makes me uncomfortable because they seem so depressed. How can I feel more naturally comfortable around them?

Higher Self: Imagine how your discomfort is making them feel. Give them the peace you want to feel.

me: How do I stay motivated to practice in the physical world when I know my real work is on the inside?

Higher Self: Your inner work prepares you for experiencing the outer. It is important but not complete unless you use it in an act of creation. Listen, learn, and do are the phases of shedding each layer of the ego. Thought leads to creation, creation leads to understanding. Your dedication to inner work will keep you in appreciation of this process, thereby providing you with the inspiration you yearn for.

~Daniel

By Daniel Tipton*

~*MEDITATION*~