Thoughts From Friends
These are stories or insights from friends. We are all in
this together, and we are all going home together. Thank
you, my friends, for joining with me and so hastening our
journey home.
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Wed Apr 15, 2009
Paying for Those Who Are Sick by Regina Dawn Akers
I borrowed this from a posting made by Regina Dawn Akers about praying for someone who was sick. I found it really helpful.
In my prayers I also ask for insight for everyone. We are never alone
in anything. Illusions are created by us as one.
Highly enlightened teachers have "died" of cancer.
Jesus was "executed" on the cross.
They did not bring these things on as individuals who had more fault in their
mind than individuals who died more peaceful deaths. They understood there is no
individual, there is no body and there is no death. Therefore, they accepted
these illusory experiences in peace, because they knew that "nothing real can be
threatened" and we are all that something real that is untouched by our
illusions.
Realizing our truth eliminates fear. Not fearing eliminates illusion. Believing
the illusion is real and I am to blame is the ego's interpretation of spiritual
teaching.
Love, Regina
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Fri Apr 10, 2009
Good Friday by Elizabeth
4/10/09
Today I woke up and realized it is Good Friday as the world calls it! And I agree today. It is good. I read the lesson 100 'my part is essential in God's plan for salvation' and I began to realize that a lot has changed in my thinking during this past year about this day of seeming crucifixtion. I just want to share what I wrote this morning.
Today is good because Jesus knew he could not die. He knew and his Father knew that it didn't matter what others thought about him or said about him or did to him, he just could not and would not die. He is the Holy Son of God himself, perfect in every way and he can not be hurt. Hang him if you wish. You can't stop his strength and power which lives forever. No one can hurt the son of God.
There is only one Son and we're all it. No one can kill the son of God. He is more powerful than death. There appears to be physical pain and emotional pain but the words and thoughts and actions of others are not more powerful than the goodness and the truth of God. No one has the power to crucify us but ourselves. Our ego can. Jesus has no such thought about others or himself. He has no ego.....he can not be crucified. His father didn't do it either. He knows no such thing. But it is a great story of how the ego works.
If I concentrate on the crucifixtion and don't include the ressurection in this part, then I miss the whole point of the story. God's son is not guilty. He never did anything wrong. He is perfect. The dark night of the soul for me begins my process of knowing the truth about who I really am. As I awaken from the dream of thinking there is cruelty in my Father, I am gently reminded that nothing real can be threatened. Today is Good. God's son is safe. His joy is complete and his part is essential in God's plan for salvation.
As I forgive, I will see this day differently. I want to be like my brother, totally free, totally joyous and totally happy today! I will participate in a church activity tonight, and as others cry and weep and moan, I will be smiling and happy and probably stand out like a sore thumb, but my part is essential also! LOL Have a great day! Love to all,Elizabeth
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Sun Jan 18, 2009
From Ben Gilberti - Ho'oponopono
That was a very good discussion about the lesson (18), Myron!
You know, like you so honestly admit, the idea that "Minds are joined, therefore I affect others," just seems to be endlessly mind-boggling. The course keeps making it clear that we are all one, that there is no separation, that there is nothing "out there," that what we see is a result of what we think, and so on and so forth. But it's such a challenge to directly experience what that's all about.
That's what I like about Ho'oponopono. ACIM makes it clear to us that oneness is real. And Ho'oponopono gives us a direct experience of that fact.
When you say in the third phrase of the Ho'oponopono practice, "Please forgive me for whatever is going on within me that is causing this problem," - - - the "problem" you're referring to can be anything at all – it can be some problem or suffering or illness or difficulty that you are experiencing in your own life, or, much more often in my case, it can be some problem or difficulty that someone else is experiencing in their lives, or some problem a group of people are experiencing, or some problem in the world. There really is nothing external to us. Oneness really is real. If we take responsibility for it we can heal it. Not us per se, but the Divinity we invite into the situation through this Ho'oponopono process.
When I say "I Love You," I'm expressing my intent to turn from memories of separation to the Presence of Divinity. When I say, "I'm Sorry," I'm sorry for having turned my back on The Divinity in favor of the memories of separation that are causing the problem at hand. When I say, "Please Forgive Me," I'm asking The Divinity to erase the memories that seemed to make separation real. And when I say, "Thank You," I'm grateful that the memories are erased, that Divine Inspiration can flow once again, and that Divine oneness can once again be in clear evidence.
I Love You; I'm sorry; Please forgive me for whatever is going on within me that is causing this problem; Thank You.
Most often I'm doing it on behalf of someone other than myself; in fact very often for someone who has asked me to do some Ho'oponopono for them, or asked me to do a spiritual healing for them, and I'll say: "I Love You; I'm sorry; Please forgive me for whatever is going on within me that is causing _____________ in ___________'s life; Thank You."
Sometimes I'll even embrace the whole kit and caboodle with the phrase: "Please forgive me for whatever is going on within me that is causing any suffering anywhere in the world." Remember the first principle of miracles:
T-1.I.1. There is no order of difficulty in miracles. 2 One is not "harder" or "bigger" than another. 3 They are all the same. 4 All expressions of love are maximal.
And any of us who have been using Ho'oponopono consistently, and lots of ACIM folks are, know that it does indeed work miracles. As a matter of fact even after all this time, it still keeps amazing me how miraculous the results so often are.
If this is all new to anyone who might be reading this, just visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ho_oponopono_aloha/ where the "Files" and "Links" Sections of that Yahoo Group will provide you with far more than you'll really need in order to learn all about Ho'oponopono and become comfortable and competent in practicing it with ease and confidence. Recently, some folks have had trouble downloading the files. If that happens just drop me a note at b7gilberti@yahoo.com and I'll email them to you.
Much Love,
Ben
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Sun Jan 11, 2009
Emotion vs Detachment by Ben Gilberti
A friend of mine, who is not involved in any spiritual practice, wrote and asked me these two questions:
"Is it better to be "detached," or is it more valid to react with unbridled emotion?"
"What accounts for the difference in the way people react?"
Here's how I replied to him:
Both of your questions relate to the same phenomenon. Both have to do with one's sense of identity. Our lives are like the stories we see when we go to the movies, and those stories involve characters or roles, like Richard Burton playing the role of Macbeth. While Burton's skill at acting does involve his ability to immerse himself in his role emotionally, he at no point forgets that his identity is not Macbeth, but Richard Burton. So while he may display "unbridled emotion" in acting out the Macbeth role, he is at the same time totally "detached" from it, totally free of it, in that he is never fooled into believing that Macbeth is who he really is. If he was, it would be a psychological catastrophe, he would be caught and enslaved in the role, and he would suffer all that Macbeth suffers because he would then believe he actually is Macbeth.
It is this very same psychological catastrophe that afflicts the great majority of people -- their sense of identity is identical to the character or role they're playing in their life story, they're caught and enslaved in it, and they suffer all that's in their story's plot.
But in doing so they've assumed a mistaken identity. Just as much as Richard Burton, were he to get mesmerized into believing he was really Macbeth, would have assumed a mistaken identity.
Any sense of identity that is entangled with the drama and plot of a life story is an object of awareness that awareness is aware of. Clearly this has to be so. Before you can believe you are something other than awareness, you have to in the first place be the awareness that can be aware of that. If you weren't awareness in the first place, you would never be able to be aware of identifying as something else, like a role or character in your life story.
So your true identity is in fact pure awareness. If you realize that, and identify as pure awareness, then you are never caught or enslaved in any role or character you play in your life story. You can act out any role you please, and with great emotional flamboyance if you like, but you're just like Richard Burton having a grand time acting out the role of Macbeth with great flamboyance and convincing emotion, yet always absolutely free of that role, never for one second caught in that role, despite how much he may enjoy playing it and we may enjoy seeing him play it.
Now, as a practical matter, when we identify as pure awareness, we most often are not very interested in flamboyant drama, and so our lives become more emotionally tranquil. Yet if an occasion calls for it, we can act out overwhelmingly intense emotion. But we're never caught in it. The instant we're done, we're again quiet inside.
Much Love,
Ben
www.bengilberti.com
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Thu Dec 11, 2008
How Long Do You Have to be Vigilant? Rev Linda W
Question: Is there a time when you don't have to be so vigilant?
Answer from Rev Linda Wisniewski (linwis@excel.net):
What a great question. Is there ever a time we don't have to be vigilant. When I first started to practice, it felt that every second I was noticing a thought I had to forgive and it felt exhausting. Then I noticed when I didn't have to be so vigilant and I found myself going back to forgetting and getting caught up in the illusion only to go back to having to be vigilant. And then I remembered that my only purpose here was for healing and in the chapter in ACIM on the Laws of healing, it says, if we are not experiencing pain and conflict, there is no cause for healing; but since I do seem to be experiencing pain and conflict in some form, then healing is needed and I know from my own experience that unless I heal the cause which is an unforgiven thought, the issue remains even if it might change form; so now I have finally accepted that my only purpose here is to awaken from the dream and the only way is through forgiveness and paying attention to any unloving thought running amuck in that part of the mind that has separated from God. So now, I am gentle and forgiving of myself and am not as driven but when I do notice an unloving thought I gratefully turn it over to Spirit and allow the healing to come. I am learning not to be so driven about it; the awakening is a gentle process. I know if I am having a nightmare, if I awaken slowly from it, it's not such a shock than when I awaken all of a sudden and it seems the nightmare is still with me.
So, these are some thoughts; have a blessed day. Be gentle with yourself because God is gentle with all His Children.
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Sat Oct 11, 2008
Sonja on the Elections
In a message dated 10/9/2008 7:41:34 A.M. Central Daylight Time, revmyron@hotmail.com writes:
The answer to those questions
will tell me how much value I still place in my own self will, and
how unwilling I am to give it up. I am not going to try to cover my
unwillingness with lovely words and pretty thoughts. Instead I am
going to look unafraid into the ego thought of separation and allow
my mind to be healed.
Myron,
How useful this lesson is to me.
Last night I had the occasion to have a nonACIM sister ask who I had decided to support for President.
I answered truthfully that I take no sides in that contest. I simply pray, ask for Guidance, and let Spirit speak through me at the voting booth.
This was obviously NOT what my sista was looking for. "Not leaning at all one way or another?" Nope, not my decision, I said.
My son, however, had an opinion. It did not agree with my sister's and she launched into an attack on the candidate.
I turned to my son, and simply said, "When people are scared of something, when they are in fear, they will attack."
As you can imagine, a form storm errupted, ending with my sista storming out the door:) Ryan and I then visited about the two very genuine and capable men who are running for a job they both dearly want. Their desire, their commitment, is to serve our Nation.
I am grateful to them both. And to the sista who brought this teaching opportunity forward. I'm not smarter than her, more enlightened than her, farther on the path than her, in fact, I created that opportunity by concensus with her.
I know that Holy Spirit will deliver to her mind that message. But I know she ain't going to want to hear it from my mouth, so I won't attempt it:) That would, of course, be an attempt to be RIGHT.
In love
Sonja
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Fri Jun 27, 2008
Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee
This is from my friend, Alan.
Some of you may be too young to remember Cassias Clay, later called
Mohammed Ali. He is still around, aging and ailing, but in his prime
he was the best heavy weight boxer ever. He had a saying about his
boxing style. He said, "I float like a butterfly and sting like a
bee!" This guy had hands and feet so fast it was hard to see him
move. He'd hit his opponent and return to a defensive posture before
the human eye could catch his movement. He was handsome, light-
skinned good looking, and a smart ass with the ability to back up his
braggadocio with fire. I always liked him. I don't know why. I just
liked him. I didn't make anything of it when he changed his name to
Ali. Back in those days becoming a Muslim wasn't all that bad I
guess. Or I was naive. Maybe I just didn't care.
Ali has become a gentle man in his later years. Disease and time have
taken their toll on him, but he still has an aura of regal-ness about
him. His daughter, now an adult and a boxer herself, is no one to
mess with either. Just like her father she is a superb athlete and
she is intimidatingly beautiful.
But, I digress. What I started out to write about was Ali's
saying, "Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee." I was thinking
of the saying as it relates to the behavior of my ego directing the
free floating anxiety I have inside.
Butterflies are on my mind anyway, and bees, being plentiful in the
woods. The Rhododendron are blooming, white ball shaped clusters of
sticky flowers, and the bees and butterflies flock to them. There are
places where the buzz of insects is louder than the trickle of the
summer time creek. Buzzing like elevator music. It's there, but
rarely really listened to. I spent some time listening to it this
morning.
But there I go, off on a tangent. Back to the free floating anxiety.
It is an anxiety without a source, without a logical reason to exist.
Okay, I have had my ass handed to me by health issues over the last
several months, but today, in this day, there is no reason for this
anxiety to exist. Still, it is there. And it behaves just like Ali
said of his boxing ability. It floats like a butterfly, flitting from
one issue to another. Then, when it lights, it stings like a bee,
leaving my belly in knots. There is no rhyme or reason to what the
ego directs this anxiety to do. It is almost totally unpredictable.
The only weakness I can see in this anxiety is that it has no present
moment. This anxiety is always flitting off into the past or the
future to find something to light on. It goes back to some terrible
memory and lands on it, bringing the memory and the fearful or sad
feelings associated with it into focus in my mind. Or, it dashes
ahead of the moment, making up some fantasy about something that is
going to be awful when I get to it. It holds up the potential for me
to feel guilty for one reason or another when it gets me clearly
paying attention to it in my mind. Then, as I said, my belly knots.
This morning, though, something different happened. Oh, the ego was
directing the anxiety as usual. It flit around from the past to the
future searching for some thought to throw at me and create further
feelings in me that I am separate from the Divine and ultimately
responsible for my own survival and/or misery. But this time the
image of butterflies stayed in my head. I'm not at all afraid of
butterflies. I rather like them, their colors, their flight patterns,
their wispy wings and airborne acrobatics. I even pretend they are
moving along with me if one, two or three of them happen to be flying
in the same direction that I am walking. I talk to them sometimes,
saying hello and telling them they are pretty. I have no fear of
butterflies. So I began to think of this anxiety, this free-floating
anxiety, as a butterfly. What this did was make a space for the
anxiety to exist until I could say with conviction I was not afraid
of the fear. I hope that makes sense. Rather than fighting with the
feeling I held an attitude of warmth toward it and let it be. I even
began to feel a sense of sympathy toward it, straining as it does to
find something not present to scare me with. The more I held the
warmth, the less I felt fear of the fear. The more I focused in on
the sensations in my feet, the sounds in my immediate environment,
the less I felt fear about the fear.
I've continued with this today, holding warmth and sympathy toward
the free-floating anxiety, and this has been the most comfortable
I've been with it in a long while. I forget the basics sometimes, the
simple things I've been taught. For example, in Right Use Of Will I
was encouraged to make love bigger, big enough to embrace all my
feelings, even the ones I normally hate. Well, the tactic worked!! By
taking on a warmer attitude toward the anxiety and kind of making
love big enough to embrace it I have lessened its impact and allowed
it to move around without being greatly disturbed by it.
Funny, I'm always finding something I know I knew and seeing it as if
it's a brand new idea. Well, hell, I may not be the sharpest tool in
the shed, but I am progressing a little bit at a time.
Go ahead, ego, direct the anxiety to float like a butterfly and sting
like a bee. I've got room in my heart today to allow you to be. I am
sorry, please forgive me, I love you, and thank you, you fearful
thing, you.
Alan
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Sun Oct 28, 2007
From Michael on Healing
HEALING
I open darkened closets.
Throwing out heavy wares,
New garments gently spread
Made of lighter tread.
Old pinching shoes
are tossed aside
for new that never lose
soothing comfort and strength.
I take stored memories
out their boxes
and throw them in the trash.
Dusting off pictures of ancients,
I paint color on their cheeks.
My very chromosomes
and DNA are altering.
My cells singing.
Antibodies dancing for lack of work.
A quickening has occurred.
The Love of God is free to roam
with energy of light
and joy of wonderment.
Healing is complete!
Michael
http://miraclescenter.us/carluccio.htm
www.thejasminelette rs.blogspot. com
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Sun Apr 08, 2007
Easter Greeting from Terri
Hey Everyone, all you special souls out there ! (only one of us
really)
Guess what?
J is back !
We thought he died, and we were full of anger and hate towards those
who killed him.
We were also full of guilt for not being able to stop it all from
happening.
And we were in shock because he left us and what in the world were we
supposed to do now?
The fear, the guilt, the emptiness, the loss, the grief and the shock.
J's back.
He says not to worry, he'll be by in a little while to eat dinner and
sit around and talk, to explain things to us, and tell us how to live
our lives.
Heck, he never really left us at all. We just didn't understand what
he meant by all the things he was telling us, about illusions and
such.
He says to be happy.
He says he loves us and there is nothing to forgive.
He says we are ALL SPECIAL and no one is excluded.
He says we are innocent, pure and holy.
He says we are guiltless and sinless, perfect, whole and complete.
He says nothing can destroy truth, and that's why he could prove it.
He says we are just like him, only we don't really know it yet, to
keep practicing....training your mind.
I really like that guy.
Yes, I really, honestly love that man.
He truly is powerful, honest and truthful.
I think I trust him a lot.
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE.....!!!!!!
GOD LOVES YOU TRULY !!!!!!!
Terri
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Mon Mar 26, 2007
On Private Thoughts-Brian Logsdon
“Private Thoughts” is definitely an idea that, although not true, keeps me holding my salvation at arm’s length! It is not an easy task to “let go” of the idea of individuality, but until I accept my Brother as myself and I in my Brothers, I cannot accept the Atonement! I know this on an intellectual level, and I sometimes remember it when I seem to be talking with someone “else.” Some 25 years ago, I listened repeatedly to some “self improvement” tapes by Brian Tracy. One of the exercises was to say frequently, “I like myself.” Although I can safely say that I have (almost) eliminated the counter idea, “I hate myself” (which, although a more “private thought” is equally exclusive,) I continue to “Like my self!” I like who I think I am – this “Brian” person – “Brianhood,” I call it – a personality that I have taken a long, long time defining and defending! “God is no Respecter of persons.” God “sees” only Oneness. My eyes continue to report differences! I define these reports as what I am “different than/from” and thus defend my small self, attempting to make it “real.” How can this “Brian” character have no private thoughts? He seems to hold conversations in which he is telling something to someone who doesn’t seem to have known what it is that he is telling them! How can “Brian” have no effect in the world? Impossible! “I” have been “smarter than” and “taller than” and “different from” my entire perceptual life! I can say that there is only One Mind, and intellectualize it, but can I live that way? Hell, no! And that is where I keep my self – in a hell of its own making. So slowly, using guidance offered freely from the Course, and from the Voice of Spirit as the body of Jeffrey, I begin to “open up.” I start to reveal what it is that I am thinking even when it risks ridicule. (And, at first I experience some of that – which “I” manifested that, I wonder?) Then, more and more, conversations turn to Holy Encounters, as I focus increasingly on the Truth. I begin to speak Truth as I understand it, at Toastmasters, and at home, and at work (eventually.) I know that I cannot stand on two foundations, so I am slowly dragging one foot away from the illusion of separation in my “Brianhood” personality. “Brian” laughs more at his own thoughts, now, and shares the thoughts (and the laughter) with whoever is “in the room.” What before might have had “dire consequences” now has none. My “new belief system” (Belief System” equals B.S.) allows that Spirit will undue the consequences of my “wrong thinking” if I allow Him. I allow by staying present, and not dragging the past along for the ride. I have a new saying to “chant” to my self, “I am Love.” “I know” on some “level” that I am Love extending Itself. I offer to my Brother that He is Love extending. I “see” Him smiling with the idea and accepting it – I am saved! Now, I can be this, too!
But how can I sit in a room with three other Course students and spend my time revealing my innermost thoughts? Doesn’t the very idea of “others in the room” make this a futile effort? Hardly, when so much of my mind still believes in separation. This is a way, a path, to replacing “old beliefs” and “old practices” with “new” ones. It is a way of emptying the Mind of guilt by emptying the stories of guilt and fear that have been so prevalent there. It is a practice – a developing of a “habitual behavior” – that begins to unlock my ideas of “private thoughts” – I see that the “others” hold the same thoughts in similar stories! I see them releasing their fears by looking at them! I experience joy at the mutual release of the private “walls” of thought that seemed to hold “us” apart! We end in laughter, again and again, and walk out the door with freedom in our hearts. The ego begins its insidious ploys as soon as we “enter” into the world, again. Is this group of four “separate” from those “out there?” Do we now share “separate thoughts” that “others” did not experience? Must I then act differently with these “others” in the world? NO! A Thousand times NO! (Sometimes I have to get a little “tough” with “fog monster.”) I will to continue to practice no private thoughts. The Peace of God is my one goal. But what of that special relationship that you are holding in place with your wife and son? You know that this is different, don’t you? “Ye..sss…NO!” I will see only Love, teach only Love, so that I can be only love. “Experience” keeps showing something different. Sometimes I want to give up and chuck the whole thing and go back to sleep. But I can’t seem to sleep the way I used to….
I begin to notice the Universe mimicking my thoughts more and more rapidly. I have an idea of “Specialness,” and someone immediately shows up for me to “test my theory,” to make a new choice, to choose for Love. “Love” is being redefined. It has less and less to do with bodies. OMG, this beautiful young woman wants me? “God, I am content to be wherever you wish (especially if it looks like this!) I ask You, now, where is salvation? What would You have me do, here?”
“My Son, Be Who You Are – Be Love. Love this woman as I have loved you, in the best possible way. Hold no private thoughts about her, be open with her, be truthful. Love withholds nothing.”
Wow! I resist the impulse to run from this “challenge.” I say, instead, “You look marvelous for someone with no body!”
“What do you mean by that?” She looks at me quizzically.
“Well, you know, the Course says that all of this perceptual world is an illusion, but, I (notice the “I”) must say, if I’m dreaming then this is a really good dream!” (Almost had it there, but “fell” back into the dream of differences, didn’t you? No salvation for you, you know!)
“I asked God what He would have me “do” in this relationship. Do you want to know what He said?”
“Yes,” she replies, anxious to know what….He said….I say….I am thinking….who She is….(is this in my ‘private mind?)…who I am….what we are going to “do” next…(yep, I’m in “my mind,” all right)….
“Well…you really want to know?” (You’re chicken, aren’t you? You think that there is a consequence if you tell the truth, and you know there is a consequence if you tell a lie. I told you you’re going to hell….)
“Yes!”
“Well, the answer to my question was this: ‘Love her the best way that you know how.’” Wow, I said it! More words tumble out. “This means that I do nothing to hurt you, or “use” you in any manner unlike Love. I want you to Love your family, and your friends, and even the checker at Wal-Mart. (I am already realizing once again that I am talking to myself, here. The ego had me believing that there was a beautiful woman in the room, there for a minute.) You are the Love of God expressing, I am the Love of God expressing, extending. We are not giving anything to each other – we are extending Who We Really Are – the Love of God.”
In the silence that follows, I notice that I am looking at my hands, wondering what to do with them. I reach over and pull her close in an embrace. “There seems to be two separate bodies here, hugging, but we are One. There is always only One.”
Namaste,
Brian
blogsdon@sletteninc.com
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