predencia

‘I am one Self, united with my Creator.’

Today’s idea accurately describes you as God created you. You are one within yourself, and one with Him. You see yourself as a ridiculous parody of God’s creation, weak, vicious, ugly and sinful, miserable and beset with pain. Such is your vision of yourself, a self divided into many warring parts, separate from God, and tenuously held together by its erratic and capricious maker, to which you pray. It does not see the oneness in you, for it is blind. It does not understand you are the Son of God, for it is senseless and understands nothing.

We will attempt today to be aware only of what can hear and see, and what makes perfect sense.

Using the first five minutes of every waking hour for practicing the idea for the day has special advantages at the stage of learning in which you are present. It is difficult at this point not to allow your mind to wander, if it undertakes extended practice. You have surely realised this by now.

Frequent but shorter practice periods have other advantages for you at this time. In addition to recognising your difficulties with sustained attention, you must alsos have noticed that, unless you are reminded of your purpose frequently, you tend to forget about it for long periods of time. Structure is necessary at this time, planned to include frequent reminders of your goal and regular attempts to reach it. We will, therefore, keep the five-minutes-an-hour practice for a while.

Begin today’s practice period with this assurance:

I am one Self, united with my Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and peace.

Then close your eyes and tell yourself again, attempting to allow the meaning of the words to sink into your mind, replacing false ideas:

I am one Self

To everyone you meet today, be sure to give the promise of today’s idea and tell his this:

You are one Self with me, united with our Creator in this Self. I honour you because of What I am, and What He is, Who lives in both as One.

This is the longest lesson so far, and it felt like someone had been reading all my confessions that I haven’t been remembering to say the ideas as prescribed. No I don’t remember every hour on the hour to tell myself that I am as God created me, or that I am one with my creator. Today I even promised myself to set my phone to alarm every hour, and forgot. Even though I practices many times throughout the day, it was not every hour on the hour.

This concept that I am the same as you took a bit of getting used to, and even though I’ve accepted it, I sometimes still have difficulty practicing it in the moment. Two occasions happened today which required me to draw heavily on the lesson. One was a friend’s fantastic news which left me feeling very envious, I wasn’t able to engage totally in his joy till I could see his achievements as my own. The other was at the gym when a woman left the equipment without wiping it down. Instead of focusing on the hygiene aspects of the issue I found myself thinking about how slovenly she looked. When I remembered she is me, I was able to look past her appearance to the pain and distress which resulted in her physical presentation.

It is so easy to see ourselves as separate, so easy to judge others as not good enough or better than ourselves, without recognising that each is simply a part of who we are. I couldn’t remember the long version of the idea but just kept repeating ‘you and I are one.’

Ceroc last night reminded me so much of Oistins in Barbados. I dug out this pic.

‘I am as God created me.’

Today we continue with the one idea which brings complete salvation; the one statement which makes all forms of temptation powerless; the one thought which renders the ego silent and entirely undone. You are as God created you. The sounds of this world are still, the sights of this world disappear, and all the thoughts that this world ever held are wiped away forever by this one idea. Here is salvation accomplished. Here is sanity restored.

True light is strength, and strength is sinlessness. If you remain as God created you, Darkness cannot obscure the glory of God’s Son. You stand in light, strong in the sinlessness in which you were created, and in which you will remain throughout eternity.

Today we will again devote the first five minutes of each waking hour to the attempt to feel the truth in you. Begin these times of searching with these words:

I am as God created me.
I am His Son eternally.

Tell yourself frequently today that you are as God created you. And be sure to respond to anyone who seems to irritate you with these words:

You are as God created you.
You are His Son eternally.

Make every effort to do the hourly exercises today. Each one you do will be a giant stride toward your release, and am milestone in learning the thought system which this course sets forth.

It snowed today, and hailed, and there was blustery winds and driving rain. Last week I was sitting outside, (in fact up till two days ago), sitting in the garden in the sun. I am as God created me, and he created me for a warmer climate. I was very homesick for theCaribbean today. (Hence the picture, to remind me) I had to stand strong against the wind. Darkness may not be able to obscure the glory of God’s son, but it certainly obscured the light of the sun at about 3.30 today.

My biggest beef was with the weather today. As I pulled my jacket tightly around me and jammed my hands into my pockets as I walked back from the garage where I dropped my car off for servicing, (wishing I’d taken up the offer of the courtesy car), I told the freezing rain, ‘you are as God created you.’ Did it make me feel any better – NO.

‘Light and joy and peace abide in me.’

You think you are the home of evil, darkness and sin. You think if anyone could see the truth about you he would be repelled, recoiling from you as from a poisonous snake. These are beliefs so firmly fixed that it is difficult to help you see that they are based on nothing. That you have made mistakes is obvious. That you have sought salvation in strange ways, have been deceived, deceiving and afraid of foolish fantasies and savage dreams; and have bowed down to idols made of dust, – all this is true by what you now believe.

Today we question this, not from a point of view of what you think, but from a very different reference point. These thoughts are not according to God’s will. These weird beliefs he does not share with you. The self you made is not the Son of God. Therefore, this self does not exist at all. And anything it seems to do and think means nothing. It is neither bad nor good. It is unreal, and nothing more than that.

Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Over and over this must be repeated, until it is accepted. It is true. Nothing can touch it, or change what God created as eternal. Light and joy and peace abide in you.

In our longer practice periods today, which would be most profitable if done for the first five minutes of every waking hour, begin by stating the truth about your creation:

Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.

Try to devote at least a minute or two to closing your eyes and realising that this is a statement of truth about you. Should you be tempted to become angry with someone, tell him silently.

Light and joy and peace abide in you.
Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.

How many of you read this and thought, ‘She’s flipped now. This is pure gobbledegook, positivity gone mad.’ Or maybe you are of the persuasion that ‘self-denial and escapism are the order of this lesson and anyone who believe in it.’

I say this because these were my first reactions in 2005. Coming from a psychology background where I’d spent years encouraging people to take responsibility for their actions, I was appalled that this was saying ‘there, there you didn’t do anything wrong.’ I almost gave up the course at this point. This was going against everything I believed in. How could I have any credibility with friends, colleagues, clients with this hands off ‘God loves you, it’s all OK approach.’

What made me engage with the lesson in some way was because the first part resonated with me. I use to say to people (especially men) ‘when you really get to know me, you’ll find I’m not really a nice person.’ And truly I believed I had a streak of evil running though me like writing throughBrightonrock. The lesson wasn’t demanding that I took it all on board, just that I carried out the actions, a bit like soldiers who don’t really want to kill anyone but just follow the orders and carry out the actions.

So I went with it, didn’t manage the five minutes every hour (as I didn’t today) and felt very uneasy at the end of the day, not at all full of light and joy and peace. Now…?

Having accepted the illusionary nature of the world, and with a greater understanding that we are created perfect, and that whatever is layered on top of that does not change who we are at our core, I was much easier with it. Imagine a diamond dipped in excrement. It is still a diamond; the excrement has not changed it. If the excrement is cleaned away the diamond will still be pristine. This is how I see this course; it is helping me to clear away the years of excrement I’ve built up over the years. The work I do is helping people to clear away their excrement and get back to their diamond. Sometimes, if you’re involved in this kind of work, you have to get your hands dirty, put up with a few bad smells.

On the couple of occasions when I found myself getting annoyed with someone today I tried to see the diamond at their core. When I did my brief forays into insecurity and inadequacy I pictured me as a massive diamond and couldn’t help smiling. Try it! You might just surprise yourself. I hope you surprise yourself.

‘Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.’

The idea for today is an extension of the previous one. You do not think of light in terms of strength, and darkness in terms of weakness. This is because your idea of what seeing means is tied up with the body and its eyes and brain. Thus you believe you can change what you see by putting little bits of glass before your eyes.

 You also believe the body’s brain can think. If you but understood the nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth; or that you held the world within your hand, securely bound until you let it go. Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body’s eyes can see; the brain can think.

 It is God’s strength in you this is the light in which you see, as it is His Mind in which you think. His strength denies your weakness. Strength is the truth about you. Truth is a saviour and can only will for happiness and peace for everyone. Strength and light unite in you.

Let us give twenty minutes twice today to join this meeting. Let yourself be brought to your Self. Leave the dark a little while today, and we will practice seeing in the light, closing the body’s eyes and asking truth to show us how to find the meeting place of self and Self, where light and strength are one. Repeat as often as possible the idea for today.

I really enjoyed today’s lesson. The strength I felt from yesterday continued into today. The candle I lit for my practice took on a renewed significance as I gave consideration to the symbolism of bringing light into the meditative space. During the twenty minutes practice session (which went on for about forty minutes) I found the answer to a question I’d been asking myself all week. Finding the purpose of a person in my life has been challenging me for over a week now. I’ve been asking for guidance on how best to move forward with the situation. Within minutes of ending the practice period I received an email which answered all of my questions, and clearly illuminated the path I need to take in relation to this issue.

I went on to have a happy and productive day, despite the fact that most of it was left brain work. I trotted off to Ceroc tonight at the Tally Ho in Edgbaston and had another great night. I’m loving this partner thing, this letting the man take the lead. As I relax and trust God more, I can relax into someone else taking the lead.

‘Miracles are seen in light.’

It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go together. This needs repeating and frequent repeating. It is a central idea in your new thought system, and the perception that it produces. The miracle is always there. Its presence is not caused by your vision; its absence is not the result of your failure to see. It is only your awareness of miracles that is affected.

 To you, then, light is crucial. While you remain in darkness, the miracle remains unseen. Thus you are convinced it is not there. Your faith lies in the darkness, not the light. How can this be reversed? For you it is impossible, but you are not alone in this. Your efforts, however little they may be, have strong support. Today we will devote ourselves to the attempt to let you feel this strength.

Three times today, set aside ten minutes for a quite time in which you try to leave your weakness behind. Begin the longer practice periods with this statement of true cause and effect relationships:

 Miracles are seen in light.
The body’s eyes do not perceive the light.
But I am not a body? What am I?

 If you are not a body, what are you? Ask this in honesty, and then devote several minutes to allowing your mistaken thoughts about your attributes to be corrected, and their opposites to take their place. Say for example:

I am no weak, but strong.
I am not helpless, but all powerful.
I am not limited, but unlimited.
I am not doubtful, but certain.
I am not an illusion, but a reality.
I cannot see in darkness, but in light.

Try to experience these truths about yourself. Concentrate particularly on the experience of strength. Remember that all sense of weakness is associated with the belief you are a body, a belief that is mistaken and deserve no faith. Relax for the rest of the practice period, confident that your efforts, however meagre, are fully supported by the strength of God and all His Thoughts.

Five or six times an hour remind yourself that miracles are seen in light.

Well, today’s lesson certainly woke me up from that sense of security I’d lulled myself into with the last ten days of reviews. It was nearly three pages long, compared with some review lessons of half or two thirds of a page. As I read it I thought of the first words of one of the performers at last week’s conference evening event. Akiel Chinelo from Speakeasy began by asking ‘are we humans have a spiritual experience, or spirit having a human experience?’

Today’s lesson is very clearly saying we are not just human bodies, and all our problems stem from our beliefs that we are tiny insignificant individuals floating around in a big hostile world, at the mercy of the elements and open to attack from all quarters. This naturally leads us to imagine and believe that we are weak, helpless and limited, and as a result we are riddled with doubt and live in darkness.

There is nothing more debilitating that self-doubt. When the voice in your head tells you you can’t nothing anyone says can convince you until you decide to change the voice and make it more permissive. This is what today’s lesson is about. It’s the start of changing the voice in your head, in my head, in our heads.

There was something amazingly empowering in making the statements of opposites. For some reason I found myself standing as I repeated, ‘I am not weak, but strong…’ etc. I actually felt strong, powerful, unlimited. I felt solid, as if I could not be easily pushed over. It was such a very timely lesson for me because I have been harbouring thoughts of limitations, particularly to do with accomplishing my goals for the year, despite an extremely promising start.

Today I felt strong, and sitting out in the sunshine topping up my vitamin D made me feel even stronger. I love spring, and this year I am appreciating it through the lens of my camera. Even since I went toGuyana,BarbadosandMontserratlast year I’ve become addicted to capturing the everyday things around me. At the moment it’s the eruption of colour everywhere.