The Eternal Sun

The sun always shines. Perhaps, when we go outdoors, it is cloudy, and we say, “The sun is not out today.” Or perhaps our world has revolved on its axis and it is what we call “night.” But on the other side of the world, or above the clouds, the sun shines still. Just because we don’t see it, doesn’t remove it from the heavens. It is always there, and always has been.

God, the Christ, Heaven, and eternity are the same. They have always been there, and they always will be. They didn’t go away from us. We thought we went away from Them and can no longer see Them. And so it is with Their properties of love, truth, bliss and eternity. They are always present. Heaven is not a place or a condition, but simply a state of Mind. It is with us always; always has been and always will be. It is ONE, total and eternal.

However, we have the experience of Heaven and its peace and love having “left us”. We feel that we have to work hard at becoming holy, better, or perfect to find it again. So we do all the many things that will “improve” us and lead us eventually to that far off peace and light.

But salvation is immediate. It is here and now. More than that, we don’t even have to do anything to have it. We only have to “give up” all the things we invented that block our spiritual sight from seeing It. Heaven, truth, peace, and light have always been within our holy “Spirit” mind, where they were put by God in our original creation. They are indestructible. We cannot alter them, change them, or kill them, although we often think we can, or looking at others, thought they certainly did.

The uncovering of our “clouds,” our blocks to the awareness of the love that we are, is simply letting go of those blocks that we made. It is called awakening. What we awaken to is the truth of what we are, have always been and where we are always. Such is salvation through the Plan of Atonement.

We are instructed that the method for the removal of our blocks is through and with our brother. That person closest to us in our daily experience. We look again, and see in him, and then in ourself, only the Holy Child of God as originally created, “- and so remember God, “Heaven and ourself as the Christ, God’s perfect extension. Once we have done this even once, we will begin to see only “pure innocence” in ALL our “brothers” and “all living things” around us. This experience may be quite startling the first time it is encountered. Each time, it becomes more wonderful and we have a deep knowing that we are firmly on the “road home” at last to the total and eternal innocence that is our natural state of Being. How easy is that journey! How simple! All we need do is awaken to it.

The Experience Of A Holy Instant

Spirits unite and recognize the oneness of their completeness. There is no movement, no space, no need, no time, no want, no necessity to do or be anything at all. Just the absolute indescribable peace and joy of just being. Like the breath of eternity being held in the perfect moment of NOW.

-And all that ever was, or will be, is right now, in a suspended awareness of soul.

A Holy Instant is a glimpse into the Real World, a window on Heaven. We appear to “go into” it and remain there as long as there is no distraction at all in our Mind. All it takes is a thought, a noise, any awareness of our body or our world and we snap back out of it. It may only last a few seconds or a few minutes, but that is enough to make us aware of its existence. Once having experienced a profound Holy Instant, we know with a certainty beyond all else that it is what we truly want and have been searching for throughout our entire journey. How simple is salvation, and how close the “journey without distance” to the goal that has never changed since before time was. In the Holy Instant, we have joined perfectly with the All-That-Is in absolute Unity of the One. It is beyond even a feeling. It is a certainty of Knowing, a sense of Being, so profound, there are no words to describe it.

In the holy instant, all our blocks have been removed, and we are left solely with the experience of the presence of love, which is US. The Manual says (M-73): - “A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary.” A holy instant IS that universal experience.

A continuous holy instant can best be described as Spirit experiencing itself forever. And Spirit is in a State of Grace, forever, being in total communication with God and The Christ in Heaven.

This is the experience of the holy instant in its most profound and deepest sense. It is the knowing, the feeling, the awareness of being totally ONE with the All-That-Is.

It is our natural state in Spirit in our Original Innocence. In it, we know there IS nothing else. Nothing else needed, nothing else desired and nothing else possible at all.

We know this is what we are, without need for description or qualification of any kind. We just are, and are totally Home. The experience is one of pure BEING and is outside of space, time, the world, and the body. In the holy instant there is no need. There is only the perfect peace (“that passeth all understanding”) of just BEING. Nothing else exists or is needed or desired. There is no breath, no body, and no time. It is an awareness of perfect unity with All-That-Is.

We give up what we thought we were and into this quiet place, The Holy Spirit comes and shows us what we truly are and where we are forever. Such is the Atonement learned and known and we are Home, where we never left at all.

MORE THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY INSTANT

There has been much discussion about what a holy instant really is, and how it is experienced. As we approach it, we are often surrounded by meaningful experiences of a deep sense of peace and love. These are truly beautiful, moving, and a real beginning of the opening of the door to a holy instant. However, they themselves are often confused with a holy instant. If the conditions of a total and profound holy instant are studied, it will be seen that the following applies: -

1. There is no sense of having a body at all. It is not that the body is not still present, but we have gone beyond it; it no longer contains us. So any situation where we experience our body or our mind as being happy, content, aware of the beauty of anything or anyone outside us, is not a true holy instant, even though it is certainly close to it.

2. We have no awareness other than being totally ONE. That is one with everything, except that we are not even aware there is an everything to be one with. We simply ARE.

3. The feeling, the sense, is that we are totally BEING with no sense of matter, need, time, form, or THOUGHT at all. There are no words, music, or thought to express this perfect knowing of BEING, because it is not of this world. For an instant, we have become one with God, the Christ and eternity. We are BACK HOME. If a holy instant could be continuous, it would be what is known as being in a “state of grace,” our natural condition. This is innocence; this is the “light” that we are all seeking. This is Heaven itself!

MY MIRROR - MY LIFE

ACIM© uses many symbols such as sun, clouds, light, darkness, ocean, garden, altar, bridge, dream, veil, lilies, vision and, of course, mirror.

My home is in the country where I have many birds, squirrels, trees, and flowers. Sometimes the birds see their home, their forest, reflected in my windows. In a decision to fly into what appears to be this new and wonderful place, they crash into the glass. In a way, this is what we “did in our separation” from Heaven, our Home. We “saw” a wondrous place where we thought we could find our specialness and decided to “go into” the mirror, the reflection of Heaven, our own home. Once there, we tried to make our world heaven, and have been doing it ever since. However, it can never work because it is merely a reflection of heaven, an illusion, a dream. Recently, we have seen in various movies how people wanting to experience another dimension walk or jump through a mirror and pop out on the other side in a new fantasyland of mystery. We remember Alice’s journey “Through The Looking—Glass” and other stories with the same context.

In history it has been said certain explorers carried a pocket mirror so that they could always impress natives they encountered since the explorer carried the native’s “picture” in his pocket. Sometimes the natives feared the mirror as they thought it could steal their soul. Some in our dream, our “mirror” still fear the same thing.

There is a property that mirrors have. If they are held against an object and then looked into, that object will appear upside—down and backwards. It is very hard to understand what is being viewed, especially if words are pictured. Nevertheless, we keep looking, trying to make sure of it all. ACIM© encourages us to “give it up”. We can’t make the dream, the illusion better OR understand it. ACIM© encourages us to look directly at the original, Heaven, and realize that is what really IS, and contains what we really ARE.

In our world, mirrors can play a very important role. Through them, we can learn to see “something else.” If we face our mirror, look directly and deeply into our own eyes, we will begin to “go inward” and get in touch with our true Spirit. Often an opportunity presents itself as when we are seated in the barber’s chair or hairdresser if mirrors have been installed on the facing and opposite walls. We can look at ourself reflected over and over again to infinity and get in touch with our place in eternity.

“I AM ABOUT MY FATHER’S BUSINESS.”

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