August 10, 2014
Last week I suggested there is One Problem and One
Solution; not a slew of problems requiring a slew of answers - but one problem and one solution.
The One Problem is the idea
that we think we are (or think that
we even can be) separate from God. That’s the One Problem. I also said that
being separate from God was unequivocally impossible. Being aware that it’s
impossible and that therefore you ARE an extension of God, is the solution.
OK, how do I do that? Perhaps presenting this idea a
different way, a way that may seem more tangible, will help.
The problem is: a grievance
The solution is: a miracle
But let’s define terms so that we’re all working with the
same definitions, giving ourselves a better chance to communicate.
Grievance:
- · A wrong considered as grounds for complaint, or something believed to cause distress. (my emphasis)
·
First, what a miracle is not: it is not
a “magical” transformation in the physical realm.
- · Miracle: the change of mind that shifts our perception from the ego’s world of sin, guilt, and fear to the Holy Spirit’s world of forgiveness.
- · A miracle also reverses projection by restoring the mind to its causative function, allowing us to choose again.
- · A miracle transcends the laws of this world to reflect the laws of God.
- · Miracles are accomplished by our joining (participating with) with the Holy Spirit, or Jesus, as being the means of healing our own mind.
I’ll
also come back to these definitions shortly.
In order to be able to use the one solution (the miracle),
we first have to be aware of, and accept, a skill we believe in so strongly
that we completely unaware we’re doing it; just like we’re unaware on a daily
basis of our belief that the Sun will go down tonight and rise again in the
morning… yet it is something we believe in deeply.
This skill is a skill that keeps us unconscious of our
proper relationship to the world around us. Has it ever crossed your mind that
you may have a complete misunderstanding of your relationship to the world; or
do you think the world misunderstands you?
Before you can actually recognize there is only one problem
and one solution you have to remove your blinders; the blinders of grievance,
the blinders of, “I’m a victim because they (he or she) do (or did) such and such and it (or they) make me
feel this way or that way.
Let me say this another way; the blinders of, “I feel this
way because _______________.” And the answer isn’t anything other than, “I
chose to feel this way.”
Before you can actually recognize there is only one problem
and one solution, you have to understand and accept that every time you make
someone or something, other than yourself, responsible for your feelings you
are in denial about the reason you are feeling what you are feeling in that
given moment.
What if every time you heard yourself say some version of,
“That makes me mad, that makes me sad, that makes me feel guilty, that makes me
happy, that gives me joy, that makes me feel grateful, etc.; what if every time
you put your pain and joy on someone, or something else, you said to yourself,
“Oops, I’m in denial.” And then you affirmed for yourself, “I feel this way
because I choose to and I can make another choice.”
Until we recognize that we are oblivious to the fact that
we are hiding from our reality we cannot invoke the one solution. Why? Because
we’ll be trying to solve a problem that seems to be in the world rather than in
our mind.
Would
you go to the movies and try to change the movies by altering the image on the
screen? No? If you wanted to change what was happening what was happening on
the screen, you’d have to change those images at their source, i.e. the film.
When
have you changed what is “out there” and it made a permanent change in your emotional state? The answer is never;
temporarily, maybe, but not permanently.
On
the other hand, when we change our mind about something, it doesn’t matter how
much the something shifts we don’t feel any differently unless our thinking
shifts.
Once we can take the, shall I call it
the, “Adult View,” that I am feeling what I’m feeling because I’m choosing this
feeling, then we can do what? (Choose once again!)
If
invoking a miracle is the solution, how do we do it; how do we reverse projection
and restore the mind to its causative function?
Forgiveness.
Now
we have to define again. Forgiveness is:
·
Removing all projections of guilt from
another
·
Removing all projections of
“savior/idol” from another
Forgiveness
lets us recognize that our problem (the idea we are/can be separate from God)
is solved because we have taken back what we thought was done to us and we
recognize we did it ourselves.
Forgiveness will change our vision of the
world and others.
Forgiveness
will awaken us from the dream that we are mortal, fallible, full of guilt and
fear (the problem); and we will know that we are a perfect child of
God (the solution). We employ forgiveness to activate the miracle.
Forgiveness
lets the veil created by projection be lifted up; the veil that hides the face
of Christ from us when we look upon the world with unforgiving eyes.
Forgive,
and sink into happiness.
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(Check
out some amusing “forgiveness” cartoons)
