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    • (Paper #0595 –31)


    The Ocean And The Drop

    Once upon a time there was a mighty Ocean.  It was infinitely large, wide, and deep.  In fact, it was so much water that it was impossible to measure or even conceive how large it was.  It was also all—powerful.  Ten thousand navies sailed over it in vain.  The winds blew and the ocean rolled.  In its mighty power, it rolled and rolled forever and to infinity.  It needed not consider or think of its own size, power, and majesty, as there was nothing else.  Nothing above it, nothing below it or more than it.  It just was, and so could BE in certainty, peace and quiet, knowing itself.  And that Ocean is us, as the pure Christ Mind, in Heaven.

    But one bright sunny day, a very tiny drop jumped up off the top of a breaking wave, looked all around and exclaimed, “Oh boy” I AM the ocean.”  Without regard to his insignificant size in relation to the rest of him, the immense, all-powerful and mighty Ocean, he now thought that he WAS the All-That-Is.  He felt absolutely important, special, and the center of “his” world.

    In the next instant, without any noticeable amount of time, the drop fell back down into the Ocean, became part of it once again, and was back to Himself as what he really was.

    And so it is with us.  The Ocean is us, as we exist in Reality as the Christ Mind in Heaven.  The drop is us as we believe we separated from the Ocean of Ourseif.  As the drop, we see ourself as this “mighty” ego of a drop that we now think is our whole world.  We are like the tiny mouse squeaking that thinks it is a lion roaring.  Not only does the drop not have any importance at all (except as part of the Ocean), but it doesn’t really exist.  All of time, all of our total experience of history, bodies, worlds, universes and galaxies is experienced in that tiny drop and is over without any notice at all by Us, the Ocean.

    So, the next time you want to think about the purpose of “life”, your existence here, who and what you truly are; go to the sea, watch the waves, notice the tiny drop and get in touch with your “importance,” the meaning of time, and where you really exist forever.

    A Matter of Viewpoint

    Our problem in “seeing” is one of direction.  As I read through ACIM©, I heard comments from Jesus, its Author, like “Behind the door (of our separation and return) is nothing.”  I thought, “Does He mean there is nothing in Heaven?”  I was looking at the message from MY viewpoint.  I was looking UP.  Later, it dawned on me that Jesus, and indeed my Self as the Christ are looking DOWN from their vantage point in Heaven.  They are looking at our “situation” from above our battleground.  Actually, They aren’t looking at all, because only we, not they, believe we are “here.”  It is very difficult to see anything but the battle when you are in the middle of the battleground.  In truth, there is no “we” and “They”, because we are all ONE, in unity, in Christ, in Heaven eternally, simply dreaming we are here.

    While we think we are here, and since we now can’t “remember” anything but our battleground, we have the Holy Spirit, that remembrance of our Self as the Christ within our mind.  He is thinking us.  As Gloria Wapnick says, “we don’t think, we are being “thunk” (by the Holy Spirit).  So when we have those vague remembrances of connection with the greater Us, the Christ Mind, those “intuitions”, those feelings, or just “knowings” of something much more vast, real and meaningful, we are really once more getting in touch with that infinite and eternal Christ, which is our true Self.

    Until we change the direction of our thought, we will never understand what ACIM© is saying.  Immediately the direction of our perception is changed 180 degrees, we will understand all that it means.  We have begun thinking as looking DOWN upon our situation from the eyes of our Self as the Christ Mind, instead of looking UP from our ego mind, as we have been doing.

    And when we, the tiny drop, look UP we realize as ACIM© says:

    “Your OTHER LIFE goes on quite undisturbed, unaware of what you have made.”

    “You dwell not here, but in eternity.  You travel but in dreams, while safe at home.”  (T-240/258)

    SPIRITUAL FREQUENCIES

    Are you sitting quietly in a quiet room?  How many radio stations do you hear?  None, of course, because you haven’t got your radio on.  But how many radio stations are right there in the room with you?  Thousands!  We don’t hear them because we haven’t got our receiver on, or tuned in to whichever station we want to hear.

    Spirituality is exactly the same.  God, Jesus, and our Self as the Christ Mind are broadcasting continuously, all the time.  The Holy Spirit (The Voice for God in our mind) is telling us it is time to switch on and tune in.  When we first turn on our spiritual receiver, there is all kinds of static, and crazy stations from other fractured minds that won’t “help” us at all.  So we must be very selective and “tune” to what we want to hear.  Truth is very constant, but very quiet because it comes from peace and perfect serenity and doesn’t have to yell.  So we must listen very carefully and with a completely open mind as we are going to hear things we now don’t remember hearing or knowing before.  We will love them ‘though, because they are part of our ancient Home, and we will sense a strange attraction and desire to hear them again.

    We don’t have to do all the “tuning” ourselves as our guide, Holy Spirit, is in our minds to help us.  All we have to provide is the “little willingness” to turn on our set, be very quiet, and be willing to “hear.”  But understand that our “little willingness” has to be offered with great willingness, with NOTHING ELSE beside it or before it.

    Like anything else we do, tuning our receiver takes practice.  We probably won’t get “right on the station” the first time and we are all good at “frequency drift”, so we may have to keep re-tuning to stay right on the station.  Our total commitment to “hearing” will keep us tuning accurately.  “Listening” means being aware.  Sometimes the messages come in the strangest forms and at the strangest times.  We might “hear it” from a friend, a casual encounter, a special or holy relationship partner, a book, a sign or a bus, etc.  The important thing is to keep your “set on”, keep tuned to the Holy Spirit’s channel, and listen.  Let your listening be very specific.  You will be told everything you need to know.  And the Song goes on, as it always has, but now I can begin to hear it, and to hear myself singing it.  And the way I sing, is the way I pray.


    To paraphrase the Chinese:-  A journey of 1,000 awareness begins but with the first choice.


    An expression of my old mother was:-
    “He holds the lantern while his mother chops the wood.”

    Which translates to:
    We hold ourselves in our light, while Holy Spirit does the work.


     

    ON TRUTH - THE WAY IT WORKS

    God invented it, Holy Spirit directs it, Jesus and we teach it to our brothers and ourselves.  Awareness of truth is a condition shared by those who temporarily have more with those who temporarily have less.  Eventually we will ALL be the same.  First united in the Real World, and then in Heaven, after God’s final step.

    ON COMMITMENT

    Once upon a time, a hen and a pig were strolling down the sidewalk.  They noticed a sign in the restaurant window advertising ham and eggs for breakfast.  The hen said, “Isn’t that nice, we can contribute to people’s happiness.”  The pig replied, “That’s o.k.  for you to say; from you they are only asking for a donation, from me they want total commitment!”

    Another time, there was a church minister making an impassioned plea to his flock.  To illustrate his sermon, he asked, “Would all those who would like to go to heaven raise their hands.”  Almost all the hands shot skyward.  “Very good,” he said, “And now those who would like to go RIGHT NOW.”  There was not one hand in sight!

    Later, he got on to SIN, and asked all those who realized they were sinners to stand up.  After a pause, only one man stood up.  Thinking he was making his point to at least this one man, he said, “Oh!  And do you recognize you are a sinner?”  To which the reply, “No Reverend, but I didn’t want to see you standing there all alone.”

    Commitment is a funny thing.  None of us mind doing it as long as we don’t have to give up any of our other “good scuff.”  Having TOTAL COMMITMENT requires us to give up absolutely everything we believe in or even thought about, and look at it all from the exact opposite direction.  It requires that change of mind that allows us to see things “another way.”  This is our Turning Point and the beginning of our journey on our road to Truth.  ACIM© says of itself, “This Course will be believed entirely, or not at all.”  (T-440/473)  The way it is “believed entirely” is to realize there is no Course, no world, no you and no me (as ego); To be totally and only my Self.  The Course and the Real World are just illusions also, although the best of all illusions.  Truth simply IS and needs no defense, explanation or justification.

    What got us here was curiosity born out of our own innocence.  What keeps us here is guilt at having done this terrible and “unforgivable thing” of having abandoned our Self (as our Christ Mind) and God, in Heaven.  So forgiveness is our way back.  The process is for us to forgive ourselves and all our brothers for what never really happened at all.  In the end, we will realize that there really is nothing TO forgive, and that we were already “forgiven” by God, so very long ago.

    Our Classroom; Our Road
    Our journey here is but to learn
    With awareness and decision.
    Our classroom is our many lives
    Experiencing the lesson.

    And as we travel on our way,
    Our minds our chosen vessel,
    With wisdom to behold the wit
    And wit to see the lesson.

    We start as seekers for a path
    And change to pilgrims on the way.
    Commitment makes direction sure
    Awareness dawns from day to day.

    A branching of the road makes known
    Our chosen path, at last, back Home.
    Patience, love, and truth unite;
    Bring us to day, from darkest night.

    ON OUR DARKNESS

    We are in an abusive situation with our ego.
    It’s bad - but if I leave it - there is nothing else.

    Being in the world is like a game of “virtual reality.”  We put on the “helmet” and become part of the game.

    The choice is not between this world or nothing; it is between this world and everything. We have forgotten.

    The soul is a cup that only eternity can fill. Love gives without remembering and takes without forgetting.

    I am asked; “Why, can’t you forgive yourself?”
    My answer, “Because I have not yet totally forgiven you!”  (But I am working on it.)
    Wannabes and Yeah—buts

    “Wannabe” and “yeah—but” is the way the mind argues with Spirit.  In ACIM©, Atonement is the means, and at-one-ment is the goal.

    ON LOVE

    We like someone BECAUSE; we love someone ALTHOUGH.

    Of all the music that reaches farthest into heaven, it is the beating of a human heart.  (Henry Ward Beecher)  Love is not looking at each other - but looking in the same direction.

    The kindest and the happiest pair
    Will find occasion to forbear;
    And something, every day they live,
    To love, and then at last, forgive.

    The hardest people to love are those who do not love themselves.

    ON NATURE

    Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God -(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

    OPPORTUNITY

    ‘The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist, the opportunity in every difficulty.” - L.P.Jacobs

     “All things are lessons God would have me learn.” - ACIM©

     Men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quiet in a room alone.”  - Blaise Pascal

    I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened." -Mark Twain

    Faith is what you know; belief is what you think you know.  Faith is of God; belief is of man.

    FAITH

    On looking for an accurate definition of what FAITH means, we have the following thought:

    Firstly, FAITH is an aspect of TRUTH, given us by God.  We do not have to make it or go in search of it; we already have it.  In this way, it is “a gift of God” like love, truth, and eternity.

    But faith can be mis-used and put on things that aren’t real.  Like ego things of form and place and beliefs about things other than God and our true Self as the Christ, you will be whatever you put your faith in; these will be your idols.  God said, “Have no other idols before me.”  He was not just talking about statues of cows.  He meant anything else outside of Himself, His Love and His Kingdom.  This would extend even to a thought of anything else.  One time, we had such a thought, and it “caused” our separation and our seeming present existence.

    Perhaps faith can be understood in the light of what we believe about our house.  When we leave the house, go out and lock the door, we travel to a different place.  (Like a journey in our present dream)  But we don’t forget our house, its contents, and comforts.  We know that it will still be there when we return.  We know what it will look like.  We will unlock the door; walk in and there will be all our rooms and our furnishings.  That is faith.  Even though we can’t see it, we know it is still there.  That is faith.

    And so it is with God, Heaven, and our REAL SELF as the Christ.  We know it is all still there waiting but for our return because we have faith, even if we have been “away” so long that we can’t quite remember all the details anymore.  When we are ready, (like the prodigal son), we will return Home and be at peace again, in absolute love and joy, eternally.

    “I AM ABOUT MY FATHER’S BUSINESS.”

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