Today’s run was extraordinary. 23 miles in 4h00 (10.4 m/m).
It’s now 5:30 pm. I finished my run at 1:45. I did take some Aleve, but the achilles is not hurting hardley at all (and it usually does). For some reason, combined with my awesome Gobbler half-mary race, I think my running is finally purified.
In the monastery, I felt guilty for running, although I needed to in order to be sane as well as avoid weight gain. I felt guilty because running shoes and gear cost money; as well as it conflicted with community and prayer. Then, when I came out of the monastery, I continued to feel guilty; like running was still taking time from contemplation. And I felt like racing was a thing of ego grandiosity. Like the shiney medals and ag awards mattered only to self and not to Self. I also felt like running was sort of a way of cheating God out of power over me (like the give and take of injuries, and increased health, were defeating God's old age decrepitude syndrome).
Today’s run, I was repeating a prayer, “Father, in Jesus’ name remind me of (pause) Your love for me and my love for You.” And then I just ran. Gu every 45 min with about 3 oz of water. It was a mostly warm day but very windy. What if somehow running is a talent God gave? I’ve always dis-ed it because I am really not that fast. But on a global scale (looking at all the 50 year old ladies around me), I am an awesome runner. So what if my prayer was answered today by releasing me from my running guilt?
During my vacation, I’ve been studying my spiritual book and reflecting on today and potential futures; and working out every day. There have been spiritual questions answered and my responses have been accepting of God’s gifts.
So now I say: running and racing are remembrances of His love for me and my love for Him. And Jesus must have been running at my side and whispering in my ear.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Holiday Retreat - Day 8
I have been off work and alone for 8 days. My recovery from the world is going well.
Personal Statistics:
Saturday - 80 minutes on ex-machines and a 10 mile run plus a strength workout.
Sunday - 13.1 mile race plus 65 min of jogging for warm up and cool down plus a 59 minute walk.
Monday - 120 min on ex-machines plus 6 mile jog plus a strength workout.
Tuesday - 60 min on ex machines, 10.8 mile run and 41 min walk.
Wednesday - 18.9 miles run plus strength workout.
Thursday - 4 hours on ex-machines, 4 mile run and strength workout.
Friday - 3h41 min trail run.
Saturday - 15 mile walk plus strength workout plus 60 min on ex-machines.
Sunday - ________ TBD.
Pondering:
There is no ego. Hate does not exist.
If I am afraid, I am deceived.
Fear is lack of love. Atonement heals.
Love alone is my reality.
In the holy instant I forgive.
And miracles come forth as love expressed.
The Holy Spirit is the Voice for God.
I hear Him speak quietly in my mind.
I am not alone. Jesus is here.
Jesus is the undoing of the dream.
God is not symbolic. He is fact.
His peace cannot be shaken. I am free.
The innocent always truly see.
Christ vision is their one and only sight.
Into God's Hands I commend my spirit.
And so my mind awakens to His peace.
This is my commitment and the Truth.
Love is my intention as of now.
Personal Statistics:
Saturday - 80 minutes on ex-machines and a 10 mile run plus a strength workout.
Sunday - 13.1 mile race plus 65 min of jogging for warm up and cool down plus a 59 minute walk.
Monday - 120 min on ex-machines plus 6 mile jog plus a strength workout.
Tuesday - 60 min on ex machines, 10.8 mile run and 41 min walk.
Wednesday - 18.9 miles run plus strength workout.
Thursday - 4 hours on ex-machines, 4 mile run and strength workout.
Friday - 3h41 min trail run.
Saturday - 15 mile walk plus strength workout plus 60 min on ex-machines.
Sunday - ________ TBD.
Pondering:
- I made my list of Right Answers (see below). I need this list of non-ego thoughts so that when I am in trouble, I have something true to hang onto. And the list is a way to keep from letting my mind go wherever it wants.
- I realize that the founders of A Course in Miracles and the more well known teachers seem not to have achieved "it." Yet I believe that I can learn from Jesus and escape from ego prison. I am committed to the Course as my spiritual path.
- I seek quiet and solitude because I need to hear something besides the yammering of the ego in the world. "Be still and know God" is a perfectly clear approach.
- I spent Friday running the trails with this in my head: Into Thy hands I commend my spirit. I pondered the giving up of the ego and total reliance on God. Late at night, I felt that I had a moment of clarity: I have accepted God's peace. I am willing to let The Holy Spirit care for me. Yes God I accept Your peace. I said this and meant it. I accepted the power of peace instead of the ego grandiosity.
- Today, walking, I look at the future. The company plans to lay off 600 people. Will I be one? It doesn't matter. I rely on The Holy Spirit.
- Today marks the third day of absolutely no human interaction. I see how different my mind is when there is no one else around to posture before. I am a simple truth without the ego's presence.
- I thought about applying for a job in Germany; but it would mean tons of world wide travel. I accept that solitude is my way or I would have corrected that in the past year instead of going further into solitude. So, I won't apply for the job. I'll wait and see what The Holy Spirit has for me here.
There is no ego. Hate does not exist.
If I am afraid, I am deceived.
Fear is lack of love. Atonement heals.
Love alone is my reality.
In the holy instant I forgive.
And miracles come forth as love expressed.
The Holy Spirit is the Voice for God.
I hear Him speak quietly in my mind.
I am not alone. Jesus is here.
Jesus is the undoing of the dream.
God is not symbolic. He is fact.
His peace cannot be shaken. I am free.
The innocent always truly see.
Christ vision is their one and only sight.
Into God's Hands I commend my spirit.
And so my mind awakens to His peace.
This is my commitment and the Truth.
Love is my intention as of now.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The Miracle is the Right Answer
List of RIGHT ANSWER CORRECTED THOUGHTS
Hate does not exist. There is no ego.
If I am afraid, I am deceived.
Fear is lack of love. Atonement heals.
Love alone is my reality.
In the holy instant I forgive.
And miracles come forth as love expressed.
The Holy Spirit is the Voice for God.
I hear Him speak quietly in my mind.
I am not alone. Jesus is here.
Jesus is the undoing of the dream.
God is not symbolic. He is fact.
His peace cannot be shaken. I am free.
The innocent always truly see.
Christ vision is their one and only sight.
Into God's Hands I commend my spirit.
And so my mind awakens to His peace.
This is my commitment and the Truth.
Love is my intention as of now.
Musings, ponderings, decisions:
I know I hate because I feel conflict when I think of certain people, places, things or situations. But, these thoughts are the ego’s hateful thoughts. However, the ego does not exist unless I think it exists. So I have a choice. I can make choices about what thoughts I have. This choice is my responsibility. But after I decide to choose something different, I can accept help from Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Of myself, I don’t know. But I can let Jesus guide my thinking. A Course in Miracles is a course in mind training.
In 2.VII.1, Jesus says, "...you do not guard your thoughts carefully enough." Guarding thoughts is also a monastic concept. And, training the monkey mind is a Buddhist concept. To make any progress in this world, I must find a way to change my thinking. It is the thing that stops me the most. If I didn't want to know God, in this lifetime, I suppose training my mind would not be necessary. But to know God, I must give up my ego thoughts, lose my life as it were.
Thinking hateful thoughts about another person is a thought attack. I may not go and love them in the physical world, but I can discontinue my thought attack. The end of my hateful thoughts is in and of itself a loving act. It is a miracle, an expression of love.
Every time I don’t watch my thoughts and answer my ego thoughts with a right answer corrected thought from Jesus, I find myself in a thought attack. But, A Course in Miracles gave me the right answers and helped my put them into an easily remembered form. I can retreat at any time from my thought attack and choose a right answer corrected thought.
I must be willing to do this over and over. No quibbling about progress or lack thereof, just make the choice.
My reality consists of what is in my mind. That is why it is so important for me to keep learning what to do about my thinking. It is vital. Nothing in the world is more important than taking up the means of healing which I was given by the Holy Spirit. Nothing.
Hate does not exist. There is no ego.
If I am afraid, I am deceived.
Fear is lack of love. Atonement heals.
Love alone is my reality.
In the holy instant I forgive.
And miracles come forth as love expressed.
The Holy Spirit is the Voice for God.
I hear Him speak quietly in my mind.
I am not alone. Jesus is here.
Jesus is the undoing of the dream.
God is not symbolic. He is fact.
His peace cannot be shaken. I am free.
The innocent always truly see.
Christ vision is their one and only sight.
Into God's Hands I commend my spirit.
And so my mind awakens to His peace.
This is my commitment and the Truth.
Love is my intention as of now.
Musings, ponderings, decisions:
I know I hate because I feel conflict when I think of certain people, places, things or situations. But, these thoughts are the ego’s hateful thoughts. However, the ego does not exist unless I think it exists. So I have a choice. I can make choices about what thoughts I have. This choice is my responsibility. But after I decide to choose something different, I can accept help from Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Of myself, I don’t know. But I can let Jesus guide my thinking. A Course in Miracles is a course in mind training.
In 2.VII.1, Jesus says, "...you do not guard your thoughts carefully enough." Guarding thoughts is also a monastic concept. And, training the monkey mind is a Buddhist concept. To make any progress in this world, I must find a way to change my thinking. It is the thing that stops me the most. If I didn't want to know God, in this lifetime, I suppose training my mind would not be necessary. But to know God, I must give up my ego thoughts, lose my life as it were.
Thinking hateful thoughts about another person is a thought attack. I may not go and love them in the physical world, but I can discontinue my thought attack. The end of my hateful thoughts is in and of itself a loving act. It is a miracle, an expression of love.
Every time I don’t watch my thoughts and answer my ego thoughts with a right answer corrected thought from Jesus, I find myself in a thought attack. But, A Course in Miracles gave me the right answers and helped my put them into an easily remembered form. I can retreat at any time from my thought attack and choose a right answer corrected thought.
I must be willing to do this over and over. No quibbling about progress or lack thereof, just make the choice.
My reality consists of what is in my mind. That is why it is so important for me to keep learning what to do about my thinking. It is vital. Nothing in the world is more important than taking up the means of healing which I was given by the Holy Spirit. Nothing.
Gobbler Grind Half Mary
Pretty cool!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Declaration of Independence...
....from the ego's thought system, to return to the Holy Spirit's thought system, to accept Atonement for myself, to allow Jesus to work miracles thru me.
I am off work for next week. I am on retreat from the world. "Retreat" means pulling back from the ego's illusion and giving more space to God. I am spending as much time as possible for the next nine days, holding my ego suspended and listening to God. I am guarding my thoughts and answering all of the ego's thoughts with one of these:
If I am afraid, I am deceived.
Hate does not exist. The ego lies.
Fear is lack of love. Atonement heals.
Love alone is my reality.
In the holy instant I forgive.
And miracles come forth as love expressed.
I am not alone. Jesus is here.
Jesus is the undoing of the dream.
God is not symbolic. He is fact.
His peace cannot be shaken. I am free.
This is my commitment and the Truth.
Love is my intention as of now.
If any of these thoughts touch you, please take it and use it. These thoughts are a helpful response to any frustration, pain or confusion.
So as I worked out and ran for 3 hours this morning, I keep only these thoughts plus any enlightenments which come from Jesus. These thoughts here are based on A Course in Miracles teachings and they have meanings beyond the definitions known to society.
I am going in a half marathon tomorrow. I must because it is part of a larger plan. But because I want to run again on Monday, I won't be trashing my body for a personal best.
I am off work for next week. I am on retreat from the world. "Retreat" means pulling back from the ego's illusion and giving more space to God. I am spending as much time as possible for the next nine days, holding my ego suspended and listening to God. I am guarding my thoughts and answering all of the ego's thoughts with one of these:
If I am afraid, I am deceived.
Hate does not exist. The ego lies.
Fear is lack of love. Atonement heals.
Love alone is my reality.
In the holy instant I forgive.
And miracles come forth as love expressed.
I am not alone. Jesus is here.
Jesus is the undoing of the dream.
God is not symbolic. He is fact.
His peace cannot be shaken. I am free.
This is my commitment and the Truth.
Love is my intention as of now.
If any of these thoughts touch you, please take it and use it. These thoughts are a helpful response to any frustration, pain or confusion.
So as I worked out and ran for 3 hours this morning, I keep only these thoughts plus any enlightenments which come from Jesus. These thoughts here are based on A Course in Miracles teachings and they have meanings beyond the definitions known to society.
I am going in a half marathon tomorrow. I must because it is part of a larger plan. But because I want to run again on Monday, I won't be trashing my body for a personal best.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Litany of Health
How do I know when to share? This week, my mind has been quite blank minded regarding any thoughts but work and running. Chapter 2 of the ACIM text talks about giving Jesus control over things that don't matter and allowing Jesus to guide my thoughts over things that do matter.
I am always looking for a better way to get through the day. My life is spent just trying to live out one more day. I have little happinesses and interesting accomplishments. I have my God project. I am a student of A Course in Miracles. But I am internalizing the fact that this world is an illusion and becoming more attuned to the thinking I put into it. I put less and less into the form of my life and more into the content of my mind. What is important is the content of my thoughts, not the form of the world; except insofar as the illusion I see witnesses to the type of thoughts I am thinking. It is very difficult to be honest with myself about exactly what thoughts I have and exactly what I mean by them.
Thoughts are powerful. Thoughts are what the illusion world is made of. So in my idle moments and especially when working out, I force my brain to stop thinking just any old thing. I decide what thoughts I want to have. I have a short litany which has specific meaning related to the Course in Miracles. I can recite it to myself to limit the thoughts I'm having. I can meditate on the meaning. I can use it to decipher and correct my thoughts.
The litany grew a bit today. As I was meditating on the text I had studied this morning, I was wondering what my intentions for doing anything are. And I decided that they shall be love. Then as I was running, anouther couplet or two popped into my mind. So here is the litany as of today:
If I am afraid, I am deceived.
Fear is lack of love. Atonement heals.
I am not alone. Jesus is here.
Jesus is the undoing of the dream.
God is not symbolic. He is fact.
His peace cannot be shaken. I am free.
This is the Truth and my commitment.
Love is my intention as of now.
The sentences are nine syllables. It makes for a good cadence while running if I include a silence of four steps between each line. Each of these sentences echoes or even quotes a part of the ACIM text.
I don't do holidays, except for I go on retreat. I come on the internet but otherwise have very little interactions with other people. I take holidays from work. I run alot. I read and ponder. I leave space for listening to God. I'm sure I'll have several blogs.
I am always looking for a better way to get through the day. My life is spent just trying to live out one more day. I have little happinesses and interesting accomplishments. I have my God project. I am a student of A Course in Miracles. But I am internalizing the fact that this world is an illusion and becoming more attuned to the thinking I put into it. I put less and less into the form of my life and more into the content of my mind. What is important is the content of my thoughts, not the form of the world; except insofar as the illusion I see witnesses to the type of thoughts I am thinking. It is very difficult to be honest with myself about exactly what thoughts I have and exactly what I mean by them.
Thoughts are powerful. Thoughts are what the illusion world is made of. So in my idle moments and especially when working out, I force my brain to stop thinking just any old thing. I decide what thoughts I want to have. I have a short litany which has specific meaning related to the Course in Miracles. I can recite it to myself to limit the thoughts I'm having. I can meditate on the meaning. I can use it to decipher and correct my thoughts.
The litany grew a bit today. As I was meditating on the text I had studied this morning, I was wondering what my intentions for doing anything are. And I decided that they shall be love. Then as I was running, anouther couplet or two popped into my mind. So here is the litany as of today:
If I am afraid, I am deceived.
Fear is lack of love. Atonement heals.
I am not alone. Jesus is here.
Jesus is the undoing of the dream.
God is not symbolic. He is fact.
His peace cannot be shaken. I am free.
This is the Truth and my commitment.
Love is my intention as of now.
The sentences are nine syllables. It makes for a good cadence while running if I include a silence of four steps between each line. Each of these sentences echoes or even quotes a part of the ACIM text.
I don't do holidays, except for I go on retreat. I come on the internet but otherwise have very little interactions with other people. I take holidays from work. I run alot. I read and ponder. I leave space for listening to God. I'm sure I'll have several blogs.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
My Vow to Atonement
Jesus is in charge of the Atonement (1.III.1)
My Vow to Atonement
1. If I am afraid, I am deceived.
2. His peace cannot be shaken. I am healed.
3. This is The Truth and my commitment.
My background thinking:
A Course in Miracles is filled with words which have been redefined in the attempt to correct our thinking. Like: miracle, Atonement, forgiveness, ego, salvation, body, world, sickness and healing. I have read the course 6 times and completed the workbook 3, but am still trying to understand and purposefully use the concepts. Undoing 50 years worth of worldly programming takes me time. It doesn’t take God any time, but a sudden rearrangement might scare me so Jesus is working slowly.
Miracle principle 25: "Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement."
The meaning of Jesus is corrected by the Course. The early church, mainly after 200 ac, interpreted Jesus and his teachings incorrectly.
There are no vows to be taken in the Course; but you are asked to make choices. Throughout the course, there are many emphatic statements: just remember this one thing, just do this, your only purpose is this, etc. I believe that each of these emphatic statements are saying the same thing but in different words. The feeling of the idea in my gut is the same for each one. The feeling is a deep and insistent yearning for connection to the Love behind each of the statements. The real meaning is: I am in Love, always have been, always will be, only rely on This Love, It gives me peace and safety.
In chapter 19D, The Fear of God, the text discusses the secret vow made to the ego never to lift the veil of fear which we made to hide the face of Christ, and ultimately God. The ego is afraid of God. This secret vow needs to be uncovered and brought into the light. Hence my idea that a counter vow, used all the time but especially when I am afraid, is beneficial for returning my awareness of my existence to God.
My reflection:
OK, so I was studying in Chapter 2 and learning about the Atonement. The simplest meaning is that the Atonement undoes our incorrect thinking. There are many more facets to the term. The Atonement is/was an act of love, given so that we could defend our minds against incorrect thinking. Use of the defense against the ego’s thought system relieves fear and opens the mind to the inner light, the Holy Spirit’s thought system and we rejoin the truth of our existence solely in the heart of God. “The Atonement is a total commitment” (2.II.7). From my life as a nun, I understand commitment and vow to be related. The vow is a statement of the commitment.
OK, so my head is filled with new synapses, corrected thoughts. Musing on everything said in chapter 2 about the Atonement, the body, fear etc, and laying in bed last night wondering if I was getting a sore throat, I realized that I was afraid and decided to use the Course to relieve my fear and stop the process of getting sick. I looked again at chapter 2 and my mind pieced together, in my own words, the entire meaning of the Course, its entire learning and usefulness and what I am committed to. I’m calling this my Vow to Atonement. It is a litany I can play in my head to keep me “on course” all day, safe in the heart of God no matter what appears to be happening (so called good or bad). The world is an illusion. I am really an idea in the Mind of God. My body is part of my experience in the dream of this world, but its purpose is as a learning device. It does not have a mind of its own and nothing happens in the world which is real.
2.I.1: "All fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception that you have the ability to usurp the power of God. Of course, you neither can nor have been able to do this. Here is the real basis for your escape from fear. The escape is brought about by your acceptance of the Atonement, which enables you to realize that your errors never really occurred. "
So here is my Vow of Atonement:
1. If I am afraid, I am deceived.
2. His peace cannot be shaken. I am healed.
3. This is The Truth and my commitment.
Fear is my agreement to believe the ego’s proposition that I am separate from God and in a world which will hurt me. This thought is not true. What is true is that I have been given the peace of God, which is truly a rock. Knowing God’s peace is in me, fear leaves and my mind is healed. This is The Atonement. This is the Truth and I am committed to the Truth.
Conclusion:
The key core principle that any human must adopt and cling to at all times is reliance on God, not self. This returns the mind to the heart of God and heals the mind of fear. Living in love instead of fear, I project love and deny the ego's hate filled world.
My Vow to Atonement
1. If I am afraid, I am deceived.
2. His peace cannot be shaken. I am healed.
3. This is The Truth and my commitment.
My background thinking:
A Course in Miracles is filled with words which have been redefined in the attempt to correct our thinking. Like: miracle, Atonement, forgiveness, ego, salvation, body, world, sickness and healing. I have read the course 6 times and completed the workbook 3, but am still trying to understand and purposefully use the concepts. Undoing 50 years worth of worldly programming takes me time. It doesn’t take God any time, but a sudden rearrangement might scare me so Jesus is working slowly.
Miracle principle 25: "Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement."
The meaning of Jesus is corrected by the Course. The early church, mainly after 200 ac, interpreted Jesus and his teachings incorrectly.
There are no vows to be taken in the Course; but you are asked to make choices. Throughout the course, there are many emphatic statements: just remember this one thing, just do this, your only purpose is this, etc. I believe that each of these emphatic statements are saying the same thing but in different words. The feeling of the idea in my gut is the same for each one. The feeling is a deep and insistent yearning for connection to the Love behind each of the statements. The real meaning is: I am in Love, always have been, always will be, only rely on This Love, It gives me peace and safety.
In chapter 19D, The Fear of God, the text discusses the secret vow made to the ego never to lift the veil of fear which we made to hide the face of Christ, and ultimately God. The ego is afraid of God. This secret vow needs to be uncovered and brought into the light. Hence my idea that a counter vow, used all the time but especially when I am afraid, is beneficial for returning my awareness of my existence to God.
My reflection:
OK, so I was studying in Chapter 2 and learning about the Atonement. The simplest meaning is that the Atonement undoes our incorrect thinking. There are many more facets to the term. The Atonement is/was an act of love, given so that we could defend our minds against incorrect thinking. Use of the defense against the ego’s thought system relieves fear and opens the mind to the inner light, the Holy Spirit’s thought system and we rejoin the truth of our existence solely in the heart of God. “The Atonement is a total commitment” (2.II.7). From my life as a nun, I understand commitment and vow to be related. The vow is a statement of the commitment.
OK, so my head is filled with new synapses, corrected thoughts. Musing on everything said in chapter 2 about the Atonement, the body, fear etc, and laying in bed last night wondering if I was getting a sore throat, I realized that I was afraid and decided to use the Course to relieve my fear and stop the process of getting sick. I looked again at chapter 2 and my mind pieced together, in my own words, the entire meaning of the Course, its entire learning and usefulness and what I am committed to. I’m calling this my Vow to Atonement. It is a litany I can play in my head to keep me “on course” all day, safe in the heart of God no matter what appears to be happening (so called good or bad). The world is an illusion. I am really an idea in the Mind of God. My body is part of my experience in the dream of this world, but its purpose is as a learning device. It does not have a mind of its own and nothing happens in the world which is real.
2.I.1: "All fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception that you have the ability to usurp the power of God. Of course, you neither can nor have been able to do this. Here is the real basis for your escape from fear. The escape is brought about by your acceptance of the Atonement, which enables you to realize that your errors never really occurred. "
So here is my Vow of Atonement:
1. If I am afraid, I am deceived.
2. His peace cannot be shaken. I am healed.
3. This is The Truth and my commitment.
Fear is my agreement to believe the ego’s proposition that I am separate from God and in a world which will hurt me. This thought is not true. What is true is that I have been given the peace of God, which is truly a rock. Knowing God’s peace is in me, fear leaves and my mind is healed. This is The Atonement. This is the Truth and I am committed to the Truth.
Conclusion:
The key core principle that any human must adopt and cling to at all times is reliance on God, not self. This returns the mind to the heart of God and heals the mind of fear. Living in love instead of fear, I project love and deny the ego's hate filled world.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Adiabatic Spiritual Process
As promised, I mentioned yesterday that I needed to integrate pressure safety design with contemplation. This morning, listening to the boring, stuffy know-it-all experts which form the pressure safety priesthood, I had this realization.
God is adiabatic and His equation of state is Q=0. God has zero entropy.
Huh?
Spiritual engineering is not for the faint hearted.
So, lets start with the word adiabatic. I am a mechanical engineer and I've never been that much in love with thermodynamics. So that word "adiabatic" has surfaced in my career from time to time. I've always at first been confused and then looked it up and then sat and contemplated.
Adiabatic refers to a thermodynamic process that occurs without gain or loss of heat Q (and heat is energy) with the surroundings. Derived from the Greek: impassible to heat, incapable of being crossed. All the change in the internal energy is in the form of work done. The adiabatic cooling of air as it rises in the atmosphere is the main cause of cloud formation.
God however, cannot change energy. God is a constant; Q=0 and God's entropy equals zero too.
Entropy, from the second law of thermodynamics, it the world's tendency to move from order to disorder; and it is a measure of energy not available for work (because it is wasted as heat).
The dream of the Son of God in the world is made entirely imaginary and irrational numbers, which make up an equation of state with continuously increasing entropy.
Many people have belief systems where the temperature, volume and pressure change, and work is done, but they are impassible to exteriorly motivated belief changes. An adiabatic belief system would not be losing energy to the exterior; and that is why the dream of the Son of God is non-adiabatic and has continuously increasing entropy. A lot of energy is wasted in corollary after corollary needed to keep the frozen belief system. A religion, and the individual church itself, is an adiabatic system with increasing entropy. Go check the increasing number of books attempting to prove any catechism is TRUTH, and you'll see the wasted energy and increasing disorder.
But when any individual thought of God (an imaginary part of the Son of God which is dreaming the dream) remembers that his truth is inner peace, he immediately returns to the God constant. The miracle is that the remembrance of one implements peace in all. This is the Atonement: the undoing of the entropy derivative and re-integration into the one Son who always only exists in God.
Seek inner peace. In A Course in Miracles (2.I.5) it says "Peace is an attribute in you." So I sit back and turn my thoughts inward to the gentle peaceful light of Constancy.
God is adiabatic and His equation of state is Q=0. God has zero entropy.
Huh?
Spiritual engineering is not for the faint hearted.
So, lets start with the word adiabatic. I am a mechanical engineer and I've never been that much in love with thermodynamics. So that word "adiabatic" has surfaced in my career from time to time. I've always at first been confused and then looked it up and then sat and contemplated.
Adiabatic refers to a thermodynamic process that occurs without gain or loss of heat Q (and heat is energy) with the surroundings. Derived from the Greek: impassible to heat, incapable of being crossed. All the change in the internal energy is in the form of work done. The adiabatic cooling of air as it rises in the atmosphere is the main cause of cloud formation.
God however, cannot change energy. God is a constant; Q=0 and God's entropy equals zero too.
Entropy, from the second law of thermodynamics, it the world's tendency to move from order to disorder; and it is a measure of energy not available for work (because it is wasted as heat).
The dream of the Son of God in the world is made entirely imaginary and irrational numbers, which make up an equation of state with continuously increasing entropy.
Many people have belief systems where the temperature, volume and pressure change, and work is done, but they are impassible to exteriorly motivated belief changes. An adiabatic belief system would not be losing energy to the exterior; and that is why the dream of the Son of God is non-adiabatic and has continuously increasing entropy. A lot of energy is wasted in corollary after corollary needed to keep the frozen belief system. A religion, and the individual church itself, is an adiabatic system with increasing entropy. Go check the increasing number of books attempting to prove any catechism is TRUTH, and you'll see the wasted energy and increasing disorder.
But when any individual thought of God (an imaginary part of the Son of God which is dreaming the dream) remembers that his truth is inner peace, he immediately returns to the God constant. The miracle is that the remembrance of one implements peace in all. This is the Atonement: the undoing of the entropy derivative and re-integration into the one Son who always only exists in God.
Seek inner peace. In A Course in Miracles (2.I.5) it says "Peace is an attribute in you." So I sit back and turn my thoughts inward to the gentle peaceful light of Constancy.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
God and Engineering
I am off on a seemingly different topic; at least different from running and A Course in Miracles, sort of.
11 years ago, I was working as an engineer completing highly technical calculations for sizing relief valves on chemical reactors. I was doing this work for the company I currently work for. 11 years ago, I had begun to practice silent contemplation. I was filling my head with the works of John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila, Thomas Merton and some Buddhist monks. I was convinced that to carry out my mission to know God, I had to go live in a monastery. So, I engineered a project and quickly found myself confirmed Roman Catholic and installed as a Postulant in a contemplative Benedictine religious order.
4 years later (on the day I was supposed to take vows), I found myself suddenly on the streets. Next, I found myself in a parish and working as a cashier at a bakery.
1 year later, I returned to my engineering profession as I had obtained a job at an ethanol plant located in a small town in Kansas. So I lived there for 5 years, practicing contemplation, solitude and running alot. I worked my way through leaving the Catholic Church, divorcing myself from most of society and adopting A Course in Miracles as my spiritual text.
Last June, I got laid off the ethanol plant job, but obtained a job at my former employer. I have been there for over a year as a Process Safety Engineer. And now, I find myself slowly returning to involvement with pressure safety. Today, I am at a DIERS workshop in San Diego, learning more about the complicated calculations needed to design relief valves for chemical reactors.
I am also reading a book called "The Hermitage Within." Last night I had these thoughts: When I am alone, I have the opportunity to block out the world. And then, simply wait for God; sitting quietly, completely available, listening. I recognize The Presence here and now.
I find it must be my task to integrate a life in the world with contemplation. I must integrate the intricate design of relief valves with the massive silence of God. This idea takes my breath away. People think only monks can be intensely spiritual or that monks have some special place in God consciousness. Read Vatican documents on the place of religious in the world and they clearly state that contemplative nuns are closer into the heart of God than the rest of us.
It simply can't be true if God is love. It must be true that God comes to whoever wants Him and is willing to give up everything else. So, as I sit in class for the next few days, I'll be making prayers of equations for bubbly two phase flow.
I find myself in the heart of God whenever I consciously recognize the fact. Everyone is there with me; but many don't know it. If God is love, so are we. There is nothing else. And so I sit before the massive silence and feel awe; even as some teacher drones on and on about two phase flow.
11 years ago, I was working as an engineer completing highly technical calculations for sizing relief valves on chemical reactors. I was doing this work for the company I currently work for. 11 years ago, I had begun to practice silent contemplation. I was filling my head with the works of John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila, Thomas Merton and some Buddhist monks. I was convinced that to carry out my mission to know God, I had to go live in a monastery. So, I engineered a project and quickly found myself confirmed Roman Catholic and installed as a Postulant in a contemplative Benedictine religious order.
4 years later (on the day I was supposed to take vows), I found myself suddenly on the streets. Next, I found myself in a parish and working as a cashier at a bakery.
1 year later, I returned to my engineering profession as I had obtained a job at an ethanol plant located in a small town in Kansas. So I lived there for 5 years, practicing contemplation, solitude and running alot. I worked my way through leaving the Catholic Church, divorcing myself from most of society and adopting A Course in Miracles as my spiritual text.
Last June, I got laid off the ethanol plant job, but obtained a job at my former employer. I have been there for over a year as a Process Safety Engineer. And now, I find myself slowly returning to involvement with pressure safety. Today, I am at a DIERS workshop in San Diego, learning more about the complicated calculations needed to design relief valves for chemical reactors.
I am also reading a book called "The Hermitage Within." Last night I had these thoughts: When I am alone, I have the opportunity to block out the world. And then, simply wait for God; sitting quietly, completely available, listening. I recognize The Presence here and now.
I find it must be my task to integrate a life in the world with contemplation. I must integrate the intricate design of relief valves with the massive silence of God. This idea takes my breath away. People think only monks can be intensely spiritual or that monks have some special place in God consciousness. Read Vatican documents on the place of religious in the world and they clearly state that contemplative nuns are closer into the heart of God than the rest of us.
It simply can't be true if God is love. It must be true that God comes to whoever wants Him and is willing to give up everything else. So, as I sit in class for the next few days, I'll be making prayers of equations for bubbly two phase flow.
I find myself in the heart of God whenever I consciously recognize the fact. Everyone is there with me; but many don't know it. If God is love, so are we. There is nothing else. And so I sit before the massive silence and feel awe; even as some teacher drones on and on about two phase flow.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
The Morning after the Miracle
A. I have been listening to a series of classes on the 50 miracles principles (see below) which was focusing on the miracle as an expression of love (1) and as natural (6). It was enlarging the definition beyond the standard course definition of a miracle as a perception shift. The definition of a miracle in ACIM has always been different than what the world thinks a miracle is (think parting of the Red Sea). But as a course student, I have always believed that I have not achieved the ability to do miracles.
B. Yesterday (Friday) I had started re-reading the ACIM text for the seventh time. The 50 miracles principles are the very first thing. So I had been praying for understanding yesterday morning.
C. During the day, I had these encounters:
- Very early in the morning, I had stopped to chit chat and tease a grumpy old mechanical engineer.
- I had spent 2 hours during the day working together with a grumpy old electrical engineer.
- I had left my ivory tower office and gone to the basement in order to see the company trainer. I wanted her to know I had accepted her apology for something. I did require prayer on my part to do this. I supposed it wasn’t mandatory and almost skipped it for now, but the trainer was very happy to know she was off the hook.
- At Target, I told a lady to go in front of me in the check out line.
D. And then, bota-bing, standing there in line, I realized I had been doing miracles that day. I knew that I had been naturally doing expressions of love (miracles). Part of this revelation was related to the fact that I often let others go first in lines, but had never accounted that as a miracle.
E. This morning, I was again reading the 50 miracles principles. I realized that they had come into my being:
- I believe in miracles now that I think of them as expressions of love; and not fantastic things and not a sudden land slide of money. I am free of my vague “Marianne Williamson” type definition of miracles.
- I don’t think of miracles as a special privilege from God (7). How many of us have been to Christian revivals and believe that only specially gifted people can do miracles? I am free from the belief that on Moses sized occurrences are miracles.
- We devalue small expressions of love (1).
- We don’t know that all love comes from God and that our true purpose is to be channels of that love (2).
- (9) I had experienced giving love and feeling more love as a result.
- (15) I believed I had used time effectively; and could envision a life focused on expressions of love as all I did each day.
- (26) I had experienced a few moments when my fear was undone. That is, I forgot my fear and approached people with love. I could envision a life free of fear.
- (27) I felt like doing expressions of love was somehow a result of the course, hence I must have the privilege of the forgiven. I believe I am forgiven and so are you.
- (18) I felt like I had honored the other people’s worth.
- (31) I felt like I had honored the other people’s holiness.
- (33) Being free from fear and freely expressing love, I was free from the ego imprisonment of this world. How much do our small egos force us into hold-back-gear and secretly cling to fear?
SO, conclusion: I know what a miracle is and I believe I can do that. I am a miracle worker. I see that my other fears will fall.
My spiritual life is no longer about personal enlightenment, but love. Oh, how grateful I am to Jesus for that shift!
For reference, here are the 50 miracles principles:
1 There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not “harder” or “bigger” than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal.
2 Miracles as such do not matter. The only thing that matters is their Source, which is far beyond evaluation.
3 Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.
4 All miracles mean life, and God is the Giver of life. His Voice will direct you very specifically. You will be told all you need to know.
5 Miracles are habits, and should be involuntary. They should not be under conscious control. Consciously selected miracles can be misguided.
6 Miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong.
7 Miracles are everyone’s right, but purification is necessary first.
8 Miracles are healing because they supply a lack; they are performed by those who temporarily have more for those who temporarily have less.
9 Miracles are a kind of exchange. Like all expressions of love, which are always miraculous in the true sense, the exchange reverses the physical laws. They bring more love both to the giver and the receiver.
10 The use of miracles as spectacles to induce belief is a misunderstanding of their purpose.
11 Prayer is the medium of miracles. It is a means of communication of the created with the Creator. Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed.
12 Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual.
13 Miracles are both beginnings and endings, and so they alter the temporal order. They are always affirmations of rebirth, which seem to go back but really go forward. They undo the past in the present, and thus release the future.
14 Miracles bear witness to truth. They are convincing because they arise from conviction. Without conviction they deteriorate into magic, which is mindless and therefore destructive; or rather, the uncreative use of mind.
15 Each day should be devoted to miracles. The purpose of time is to enable you to learn how to use time constructively. It is thus a teaching device and a means to an end. Time will cease when it is no longer useful in facilitating learning.
16 Miracles are teaching devices for demonstrating it is as blessed to give as to receive. They simultaneously increase the strength of the giver and supply strength to the receiver.
17 Miracles transcend the body. They are sudden shifts into invisibility, away from the bodily level. That is why they heal.
18 A miracle is a service. It is the maximal service you can render to another. It is a way of loving your neighbour as yourself. You recognize your own and your neighbor’s worth simultaneously.
19 Miracles make minds one in God. They depend on co-operation, because the Sonship is the sum of all that God created. Miracles therefore reflect the laws of eternity, not of time.
20 Miracles reawaken the awareness that the spirit, not the body, is the altar of truth. This is the recognition that leads to the healing power of the miracle.
21 Miracles are natural signs of forgiveness. Through miracles you accept God’s forgiveness by extending it to others.
22 Miracles are associated with fear only because of the belief that darkness can hide. You believe that what your physical eyes cannot see does not exist. This leads to a denial of spiritual sight.
23 Miracles rearrange perception and place all levels in true perspective. This is healing because sickness comes from confusing the levels.
24 Miracles enable you to heal the sick and raise the dead because you made sickness and death yourself, and can therefore abolish both. You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator. Everything else is your own nightmare, and does not exist. Only the creations of light are real.
25 Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement. Atonement works all the time and in all the dimensions of time.
26 Miracles represent freedom from fear. “Atoning” means “undoing.” The undoing of fear is an essential part of the atonement value of miracles.
27 A miracle is a universal blessing from God through me to all my brothers. It is the privilege of the forgiven to forgive.
28 Miracles are a way of earning release from fear. Revelation induces a state in which fear has already been abolished. Miracles are thus a means and revelation is an end.
29 Miracles praise God through you. They praise Him by honoring His creations, affirming their perfection. They heal because they deny body-identification and affirm spirit-identification.
30 By recognizing spirit, miracles adjust the levels of perception and show them in proper alignment. This places spirit at the center, where it can communicate directly.
31 Miracles should inspire gratitude, not awe. You should thank God for what you really are. The children of God are holy and the miracle honors their holiness, which can be hidden but never lost.
32 I inspire all miracles, which are really intercessions. They intercede for your holiness and make your perceptions holy. By placing you beyond the physical laws they raise you into the sphere of celestial order. In this order you are perfect.
33 Miracles honor you because you are loveable. They dispel illusions about yourself and perceive the light in you. They thus atone for your errors by freeing you from your nightmares. By releasing your mind from the imprisonment of your illusions, they restore your sanity.
34 Miracles restore the mind to its fullness. By atoning for lack they establish perfect protection. The spirit’s strength leaves no room for intrusions.
35 Miracles are expressions of love, but they may not always have observable effects.
36 Miracles are examples of right thinking, aligning your perceptions with truth as God created it.
37 A miracle is a correction introduced into false thinking by me. It acts as a catalyst, breaking up erroneous perception and reorganizing it properly. This places you under the Atonement principle, where perception is healed. Until this has occurred, knowledge of the Divine Order is impossible.
38 The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles. He recognizes both God’s creations and your illusions. He separates the true from the false by His ability to perceive totally rather than selectively.
39 The miracle dissolves error because the Holy Spirit identifies error as false or unreal. This is the same as saying that by perceiving light, darkness automatically disappears.
40 The miracle acknowledges everyone as your brother and mine. It is a way of perceiving the universal mark of God.
41 Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. They thus correct, or atone for, the faulty perception of lack.
42 A major contribution of miracles is their strength in releasing you from your false sense of isolation, deprivation and lack.
43 Miracles arise from a miraculous state of mind, or a state of miracle-readiness.
44 The miracle is an expression of an inner awareness of Christ and acceptance of His Atonement.
45 A miracle is never lost. It may touch many people you have not even met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware.
46 The Holy Spirit is the highest communication medium. Miracles do not involve this type of communication, because they are temporary communication devices. When you return to your original form of communication with God by direct revelation, the need for miracles is over.
47 The miracle is a learning device that lessens the need for time. It establishes an out-of-pattern time interval not under the usual laws of time. In this sense it is timeless.
48 The miracle is the only device at your immediate disposal for controlling time. Only revelation transcends it, having nothing to do with time at all.
49 The miracle makes no distinction among degrees of misperception. It is a device for perception correction, effective quite apart from either the degree or the direction of the error. This is its true indiscriminateness.
50 The miracle compares what you have made with creation, accepting what is in accord with it as true, and rejecting what is out of accord as false.
B. Yesterday (Friday) I had started re-reading the ACIM text for the seventh time. The 50 miracles principles are the very first thing. So I had been praying for understanding yesterday morning.
C. During the day, I had these encounters:
- Very early in the morning, I had stopped to chit chat and tease a grumpy old mechanical engineer.
- I had spent 2 hours during the day working together with a grumpy old electrical engineer.
- I had left my ivory tower office and gone to the basement in order to see the company trainer. I wanted her to know I had accepted her apology for something. I did require prayer on my part to do this. I supposed it wasn’t mandatory and almost skipped it for now, but the trainer was very happy to know she was off the hook.
- At Target, I told a lady to go in front of me in the check out line.
D. And then, bota-bing, standing there in line, I realized I had been doing miracles that day. I knew that I had been naturally doing expressions of love (miracles). Part of this revelation was related to the fact that I often let others go first in lines, but had never accounted that as a miracle.
E. This morning, I was again reading the 50 miracles principles. I realized that they had come into my being:
- I believe in miracles now that I think of them as expressions of love; and not fantastic things and not a sudden land slide of money. I am free of my vague “Marianne Williamson” type definition of miracles.
- I don’t think of miracles as a special privilege from God (7). How many of us have been to Christian revivals and believe that only specially gifted people can do miracles? I am free from the belief that on Moses sized occurrences are miracles.
- We devalue small expressions of love (1).
- We don’t know that all love comes from God and that our true purpose is to be channels of that love (2).
- (9) I had experienced giving love and feeling more love as a result.
- (15) I believed I had used time effectively; and could envision a life focused on expressions of love as all I did each day.
- (26) I had experienced a few moments when my fear was undone. That is, I forgot my fear and approached people with love. I could envision a life free of fear.
- (27) I felt like doing expressions of love was somehow a result of the course, hence I must have the privilege of the forgiven. I believe I am forgiven and so are you.
- (18) I felt like I had honored the other people’s worth.
- (31) I felt like I had honored the other people’s holiness.
- (33) Being free from fear and freely expressing love, I was free from the ego imprisonment of this world. How much do our small egos force us into hold-back-gear and secretly cling to fear?
SO, conclusion: I know what a miracle is and I believe I can do that. I am a miracle worker. I see that my other fears will fall.
My spiritual life is no longer about personal enlightenment, but love. Oh, how grateful I am to Jesus for that shift!
For reference, here are the 50 miracles principles:
1 There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not “harder” or “bigger” than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal.
2 Miracles as such do not matter. The only thing that matters is their Source, which is far beyond evaluation.
3 Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.
4 All miracles mean life, and God is the Giver of life. His Voice will direct you very specifically. You will be told all you need to know.
5 Miracles are habits, and should be involuntary. They should not be under conscious control. Consciously selected miracles can be misguided.
6 Miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong.
7 Miracles are everyone’s right, but purification is necessary first.
8 Miracles are healing because they supply a lack; they are performed by those who temporarily have more for those who temporarily have less.
9 Miracles are a kind of exchange. Like all expressions of love, which are always miraculous in the true sense, the exchange reverses the physical laws. They bring more love both to the giver and the receiver.
10 The use of miracles as spectacles to induce belief is a misunderstanding of their purpose.
11 Prayer is the medium of miracles. It is a means of communication of the created with the Creator. Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed.
12 Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual.
13 Miracles are both beginnings and endings, and so they alter the temporal order. They are always affirmations of rebirth, which seem to go back but really go forward. They undo the past in the present, and thus release the future.
14 Miracles bear witness to truth. They are convincing because they arise from conviction. Without conviction they deteriorate into magic, which is mindless and therefore destructive; or rather, the uncreative use of mind.
15 Each day should be devoted to miracles. The purpose of time is to enable you to learn how to use time constructively. It is thus a teaching device and a means to an end. Time will cease when it is no longer useful in facilitating learning.
16 Miracles are teaching devices for demonstrating it is as blessed to give as to receive. They simultaneously increase the strength of the giver and supply strength to the receiver.
17 Miracles transcend the body. They are sudden shifts into invisibility, away from the bodily level. That is why they heal.
18 A miracle is a service. It is the maximal service you can render to another. It is a way of loving your neighbour as yourself. You recognize your own and your neighbor’s worth simultaneously.
19 Miracles make minds one in God. They depend on co-operation, because the Sonship is the sum of all that God created. Miracles therefore reflect the laws of eternity, not of time.
20 Miracles reawaken the awareness that the spirit, not the body, is the altar of truth. This is the recognition that leads to the healing power of the miracle.
21 Miracles are natural signs of forgiveness. Through miracles you accept God’s forgiveness by extending it to others.
22 Miracles are associated with fear only because of the belief that darkness can hide. You believe that what your physical eyes cannot see does not exist. This leads to a denial of spiritual sight.
23 Miracles rearrange perception and place all levels in true perspective. This is healing because sickness comes from confusing the levels.
24 Miracles enable you to heal the sick and raise the dead because you made sickness and death yourself, and can therefore abolish both. You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator. Everything else is your own nightmare, and does not exist. Only the creations of light are real.
25 Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement. Atonement works all the time and in all the dimensions of time.
26 Miracles represent freedom from fear. “Atoning” means “undoing.” The undoing of fear is an essential part of the atonement value of miracles.
27 A miracle is a universal blessing from God through me to all my brothers. It is the privilege of the forgiven to forgive.
28 Miracles are a way of earning release from fear. Revelation induces a state in which fear has already been abolished. Miracles are thus a means and revelation is an end.
29 Miracles praise God through you. They praise Him by honoring His creations, affirming their perfection. They heal because they deny body-identification and affirm spirit-identification.
30 By recognizing spirit, miracles adjust the levels of perception and show them in proper alignment. This places spirit at the center, where it can communicate directly.
31 Miracles should inspire gratitude, not awe. You should thank God for what you really are. The children of God are holy and the miracle honors their holiness, which can be hidden but never lost.
32 I inspire all miracles, which are really intercessions. They intercede for your holiness and make your perceptions holy. By placing you beyond the physical laws they raise you into the sphere of celestial order. In this order you are perfect.
33 Miracles honor you because you are loveable. They dispel illusions about yourself and perceive the light in you. They thus atone for your errors by freeing you from your nightmares. By releasing your mind from the imprisonment of your illusions, they restore your sanity.
34 Miracles restore the mind to its fullness. By atoning for lack they establish perfect protection. The spirit’s strength leaves no room for intrusions.
35 Miracles are expressions of love, but they may not always have observable effects.
36 Miracles are examples of right thinking, aligning your perceptions with truth as God created it.
37 A miracle is a correction introduced into false thinking by me. It acts as a catalyst, breaking up erroneous perception and reorganizing it properly. This places you under the Atonement principle, where perception is healed. Until this has occurred, knowledge of the Divine Order is impossible.
38 The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles. He recognizes both God’s creations and your illusions. He separates the true from the false by His ability to perceive totally rather than selectively.
39 The miracle dissolves error because the Holy Spirit identifies error as false or unreal. This is the same as saying that by perceiving light, darkness automatically disappears.
40 The miracle acknowledges everyone as your brother and mine. It is a way of perceiving the universal mark of God.
41 Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. They thus correct, or atone for, the faulty perception of lack.
42 A major contribution of miracles is their strength in releasing you from your false sense of isolation, deprivation and lack.
43 Miracles arise from a miraculous state of mind, or a state of miracle-readiness.
44 The miracle is an expression of an inner awareness of Christ and acceptance of His Atonement.
45 A miracle is never lost. It may touch many people you have not even met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware.
46 The Holy Spirit is the highest communication medium. Miracles do not involve this type of communication, because they are temporary communication devices. When you return to your original form of communication with God by direct revelation, the need for miracles is over.
47 The miracle is a learning device that lessens the need for time. It establishes an out-of-pattern time interval not under the usual laws of time. In this sense it is timeless.
48 The miracle is the only device at your immediate disposal for controlling time. Only revelation transcends it, having nothing to do with time at all.
49 The miracle makes no distinction among degrees of misperception. It is a device for perception correction, effective quite apart from either the degree or the direction of the error. This is its true indiscriminateness.
50 The miracle compares what you have made with creation, accepting what is in accord with it as true, and rejecting what is out of accord as false.
Friday, November 5, 2010
A Course in Miracles - Again
7/29/07
9/20/07
1/23/08
7/25/08
5/28/09
1/28/10
11/5/10
These are the dates on which I have begun reading the 669 page text for A Course in Miracles. Notice that the first time, I devoured the text in less than 2 months. The past 2 times, it has taken me about 10 months. I want to go slower.
I want to know Jesus more. Sitting here, I know I love Jesus. I know it in every photon of my being and I can feel the love in the depth of my soul. It is this love, which really is love from the Source of Love, that is what will make it possible for me to go to work today and love others. It is important to me to walk around each day with this love in my conscious awareness, where it will be projected. The consciousness of love is a gift, but it does take some effort to gain because it is not from the world of busy-ness. It is spiritual and is gained through prayer and surrender of the mind to the Holy Spirit. This consciousness of love is a miracle.
9/20/07
1/23/08
7/25/08
5/28/09
1/28/10
11/5/10
These are the dates on which I have begun reading the 669 page text for A Course in Miracles. Notice that the first time, I devoured the text in less than 2 months. The past 2 times, it has taken me about 10 months. I want to go slower.
I want to know Jesus more. Sitting here, I know I love Jesus. I know it in every photon of my being and I can feel the love in the depth of my soul. It is this love, which really is love from the Source of Love, that is what will make it possible for me to go to work today and love others. It is important to me to walk around each day with this love in my conscious awareness, where it will be projected. The consciousness of love is a gift, but it does take some effort to gain because it is not from the world of busy-ness. It is spiritual and is gained through prayer and surrender of the mind to the Holy Spirit. This consciousness of love is a miracle.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Blue Springs 50/50 - Uncommon Sense
Sense and uncommon sense.
Whenever I do a thing the intention is really to Listen to the Voice for God, walk with Jesus as my Guide, and use Christ's vision instead of my own.
I try not to make decisions on my own. I ask Jesus to decide for me. And this so that I will have a happy day.
So, in the early morning on Sunday, before venturing to the Blue Springs 50 miles race, I asked for a happy day. And I was practicing my lesson: "The peace of God envelopes me today, And I forget all things except His love.” The desire to walk with Jesus sets the stage for uncommon sense. It means that His will is to predominate over my ego.
Whenever I do a thing the intention is really to Listen to the Voice for God, walk with Jesus as my Guide, and use Christ's vision instead of my own.
I try not to make decisions on my own. I ask Jesus to decide for me. And this so that I will have a happy day.
So, in the early morning on Sunday, before venturing to the Blue Springs 50 miles race, I asked for a happy day. And I was practicing my lesson: "The peace of God envelopes me today, And I forget all things except His love.” The desire to walk with Jesus sets the stage for uncommon sense. It means that His will is to predominate over my ego.
Endurance in spirituality is what matters. Hence I mourn the loss of the importance of the world; not whether or not I finish 50 miles. People tell me how sorry they are for me that I didn't run 50 miles. I find this implies that running 44 miles isn't worthy. But when I leave the world of measurement and take spiritual values, the exact number of miles is not a consideration.
To discard worldly values and adopt spiritual values does leave a person like a fish out of water. The other people don't understand. I no longer fit with the group norms. This really hit home with my running this year. In March I was in a 24 hour race. After 20 hours and 80 miles, I decided to stop. I realized that I could have kept walking another 4 hours in order to say "I ran 24 hours;" but I was in severe pain and it wasn't worth it to me. I didn't need to say "I ran 24 hours." The same thing happened yesterday. I stopped after 44 miles because I was destroying one of my toe nails. It was already a goner by that time, but I didn't think running another 75 minutes in pain was valuable just to say, "I ran 50 miles."
His will is mercy. I had mercy on myself and the whole human race by letting myself off the pain hook. I have set myself and the whole world free by letting it out of the ego measurement prison. How insane that we say a person is unfortunate if they don't run 50 miles but only 44; or 20 hours instead of 24. Or....thin vs fat, tall vs short, black vs white, rich vs poor. The group norms are insane and I prefer the mercy of Jesus. I prefer the spiritual value of love.
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