REVELATIONS CHAPTER 2

Revelations Chapter 2

 The beginning of this chapter reminded me of that beautiful quote from Augustine, “You have made our hearts restless, and they will never rest until they rest in Thee.”

When confusion hits, know it is the ego that is confused, not You.

“Do not hate the voice. Simply do not follow it.” Tell it, Thank you for sharing and then open yourself to Divine guidance.

1. 8-11 remind me that “in my defenselessness my safety lies.” (ACIM)

1. 12-13 is great wisdom in dealing with darkness.

You might also want to check out:

Mark 1(43-45); Romans 1(18-32) 1-8; and 2 Thessalonians 2(1-4)

Fear and Guilt go hand in hand, although neither on is the truth they can grab us because we are so used to experiencing those two demons.

We are encouraged to stare them down, as the lies that they are in the powerful presence of God, and let them dissolve away.

REVELATIONS CHAPTER 1

Reflections:           NTI  Revelations    Chapter 1

The old/New Testament book of Revelations was formerly known as the Book of the Apocalypse(meaning The End of the World, Final Judgment, and all those other things). Coming at the end of the New Testament, I always felt as if it was a very definite warning to get your act together because you “did not know the day or the hour.” It did not seem as if anyone was safe.

Even beginning with chapter , the Lord says some good things about a particular church, but then slams them with what they are doing wrong--again, “you better get it together, NOW!”

There is a good bit of fear and trembling here. I often wondered where did the God of Love go to?

In NTI we are also reminded that the time has come, but in a much more gentle loving way. The time has come to claim your inheritance as the Son of God, because you are now aware of this truth. You are Home, or at least you are beginning to know the truth of that. 

It is all a question of what I am identifying with---my ego, my attachments, who I think I am, my past, my fears or my True identity--which is beyond all “I” thinking.

Reflections on v. 1-8

You already know you are more than your body, mind and emotions. Why do you keep identifying with them? This identification and attachment keep you in false perception.

All my thoughts keep shouting, “look at me; I’m real!”

The Truth of who you are is not to be grasped by the intellect, the thinking mind(or as Marianne Williamson calls it, “the mortal mind.”)

Buddha’s reflection on the Golden Rule--”See yourself in others, who then shall you harm.”

My mind still wants an answer, still wants to explain everything. Here is where I get trapped so often.

I want to think/believe that I have some purpose, but that’s the catch, ultimately, there is no “I”

I would also like to explain and understand why we got here, how this whole thing got started. 

Buddha suggested, “It’s none of your business.”

The most consoling message for me is, “You are not alone.” in all your confusion, and even self-doubt and other struggles, You are not alone.

If I could only remember that I would probably struggle much less.

THE MEANING OF LIFE PART 1

After studying ACIM,NTI and other forms of spiritual awareness, many of us are still left with the question, “Why did we start this whole thing if it seems so messy and painful?” “If it is a game, can’t we stop it right now?” or “How did this whole thing get started?”

ACIM explains the beginning of the illusion or life on planet earth as beginning with a “tiny mad idea” of wondering what it would be like to be separate (fromGod). NTI has a similar explanation that it all begin with a wish to experience things different than they are.

My take on all this is that the Western mind is oriented, perhaps even hard-wired to having a mental construct or intellectual framework to operate in initially.

Whenever I was giving a retreat, without even  thinking about it, I would usually spend the first few hours helping to construct a model or intellectual framework that we would be working with. Even though the material would be spiritual in nature, the 12 steps, healing, etc. It always felt natural and comfortable for me have a structure to fall back on even though it essentially became irrelevant) 

What I am beginning to get for myself is that no matter what system we might be working with, traditional Christianity, ACIM, NTI--any other form of Western Spirituality, there seems to be need to explain how it all began, what happened.

Buddhism and Hinduism do not seem to need this kind of explanation.

I am working on becoming less attached to the story, the explanation of how it all got started, whether it was eating an apple, or a “tiny mad idea” or “a wish to see thing differently than they are.” 

All these are “stories”--ways to explain the unexplainable. They have the purpose of shutting up the thinking mind for a while, so the soul can do its work.

Soon the mind will be dissatisfied with the story and go looking for a new one. 

I don’t want to spend my time thinking about or trying to prove a particular story is true or real or not.

 My Soul has more important things to do or not do.

I missed an implication in NTI some time ago,and as I was rereading a passage it hit me.

Romans 4 (13-15) 3-8 p. 266

3In creating you, God extended Himself. 4In extending His Truth, that which is Enrichment was enriched further. 5So in your existence, God Himself is enriched. 6This is why you are His joy. 7You are His own enrichment. 8And that which enriches God must be Enrichment Itself.

The above passage explains the “meaning of life” in a much more positive way than the tiny mad idea, etc. It apples more to my sense of mystery as well as not involving my mind in the pseudo-judgment about guilt, fear ,etc.

I cannot understood the stemming form NTI with my head, only my heart.

The link below will take you to a sound clip from a talk given by Ram Dass. He has a delightful take on this question. There might be a short ad before the .mp3 file is available.

http://www.4shared.com/mp3/1aLqHYCs/meaning_of_life.html

REFLECTIONS ON TITUS AND PHILEMON

TITUS and PHILEMON

I am both at a loss for words and grateful for not needing them.

The next two books, Titus and Philemon stand on their own. I would encourage you to read each one slowly and reverently. Know that you are not grasping these truths with your mind, but you are letting them settle into your heart where you already know them as true. 

REFLECTIONS ON 2 TIMOTHY

2 TIMOTHY

Most of us have collected baggage over this lifetime. I think of my emotional baggage as being “unfinished feelings.” These are feelings that I have not dealt with fully. It might be grief I have denied, resentment that I have not let go of, fears that I have not faced, just to name a few.

All of this unfinished stuff gets in the way of my peace of mind, my ability to see Truth, and to Love more fully. In other words, my unfinised feelings are preventing me from being where I want to be and experiencing what I truly desire to experience.

So in Timothy 2 we dive into the realm of our unfinished feelings that we might let them go and be healed.

(v 1, 2)1It is time to look within at the darkness that blinds you to your awareness of Life. 2You will see many things, all of which are false. 3Hold My hand, and know it is your own truth that you hold to as we look together at all you are not. P. 383

(v 8 – 12)1Life is a rollercoaster of feelings. 2But when you are lost in your thoughts, you rob yourself of the feelings you set out to experience. 3It is as if you skim the surface, but you do not go in for a full flavor of experience. 4And so the desire for experience remains at a level of which you are not conscious. 5The unanswered question remains unanswered, because you have not allowed yourself the full experience by the distraction of your thoughts. (pp. 383-384)

(v 16 – 18)1Release yourself by accepting your own innocence. 2God has granted you the right to have experience. 3You have, within you, the desire to have experience. 4This desire remains until you have let it go. 5But you cannot fear it and let it go also. 6You must let yourself realize the experience to see that the experience can hold no limits that could ever limit or hinder you. (p. 384)

(v 11 - 13)1Here is a trustworthy saying: 2I am all that I am, and that is all I am promised to be. 3But I cannot limit myself through fear, and know all that I am. 41 choose to release the limits I have chosen for myself. 5In their release, I see that I am. 6Make this the constant prayer of your heart. 7In purpose, step forth unto your release. (p. 385)

(v 20, 21)1It is through fear that you are purified. 2Do not shy away from fear. 3It is through fear that you realize your own shine, because it is through experiencing fear and releasing fear that you learn fear has no hold on you. 4The unlimited cannot be limited by fear. (p. 386)

(v 1 – 5)1Let’s remember that this is a course of looking within in order to heal all 6When you look on the world, remember it is only a prop. 7You are never looking on anything real. 8You are not subject. 9You are lord. 10And the world you look on is your own gift given unto you. 11Now look on the world. 12Look without judgment. 13Look with curiosity. 14Look on the world and see it as a harmless and meaningless prop. 15As you do this, feelings will seem to come up in you, feelings that say, “The world is not a prop!” 16Do not turn away from your feelings. 17Turn your attention, now, from the prop to the feelings it has evoked. 18This is the experience you deemed to have. 19Feel the feelings of injustice and anger and sadness and blame. 20Feel hopelessness and anguish and helplessness and pain. 21Allow yourself the feelings from that place within the Heart where the feelings are only an experience, and you hold hands with Me. (pp. 386-387)

11Feel the fullness of the experience. 12In this way, the stage show can be finished and you can move beyond the experience you wanted to have. (p. 387)

6Accept willingness and feel gratitude for it, that it may increase within you. 7Look at resistance with your willingness; focus on letting resistance go. 8This is the way to peace. (v 16 – 18)1You are not deserted. 2When you feel deserted, you have looked away from the Love within yourself. 3Take this moment to be quiet and to ask Me to look at your pain with you. 4I am with you always, but through inviting Me you acknowledge My presence within you. 5In peace we will experience your pain together. 6Through peace, we will joyously let it go. (p. 390)

REFLECTIONS 1 TIMOTHY

1 TIMOTHY

An often quoted statement by Ram Dass: “From the moment we are born, we go into ‘people-training’ or ‘somebody-training.’ Unfortunately all those people who are telling us who we are don’t know who they are!”

By the time we are adolescents we are like an automobile covered with bumper stickers. We are loaded down with labels telling us and everyone else who it is we think we are.

And then we arrive at the place in time when the old definitions just don’t fit anymore. We know we are “more than…”.

We are faced with the challenge of letting go of everything we thought we were. It is a paradoxical place because the good news is “You are not who you thought you were,” but to begin to get at who you really are you have to make room for Truth. Making room means letting go of all that is not true.

All the bumper stickers, all the labels must go, even the precious ones like, grandfather, musician, minister, husband, etc. 

It is not that we have to give up the DOING of all those things, when we are asked to let go of all those labels, we are reminded that none of them are who we are.

5Individual personhood is based on a belief in separateness. 

8Yet I have been teaching that separateness is false and nothing in the world is as it appears to be. 9Since this is true, the individual person that you think you are must not be your truth. l0And the persons that you think others are must be illusion, just as your seeming separateness is illusion also. P. 373

4But one cannot know Itself as Itself if it persists in knowing Itself as something different. 5Therefore, it is time to lay down who you think you are, that you may pick up, once again, the realization and acceptance of That Which you Are. P. 374

The role of the Observer is emphasized again. Whenever we discover we are wrapped up in a label or limited identity we are encourages to step back, Observe and know the limited self is no who we are.

(v 8 – 10)1If you are the observer, the person in the drama must be an act. 2And if the person is an act, it is not you. 3Test this idea, and watch it. 4You will see it is true. 5You can observe the person in act, because the person in act is not you.   P. 376-7

(v 1, 2)1Teach what you would learn. 2In order to teach yourself that you are not a person, you must teach others that their personhood is also false. 3You do this by not believing their personhood yourself. 4You look beyond their story to the one you know they must be, and that is what you hold in your mind as you listen to them. 5In that way, you teach yourself what you would learn, and you silently teach it to them also. (v 3 – 5)1The Mind with which you Think is that which you are, but this Mind has been covered with the mask of personhood. 2When you think within the belief in the mask, you believe that which isn’t true. 3When your belief is placed with the false, you experience that which is false, and the false continues to be reiterated. 4This is like a level of activity occurring at the level of falsehood. 5It is like a false vibration of somethingness within nothingness. 6It is Existence experiencing Itself as illusion. P. 380

REFLECTIONS ON THESSALONIANS 2

THESSALONIANS II

“I am your heart, because I am you.”

Of all the many ways I can translate that idea in my mind, the most meaningful one to me right now is, “You are what you have always been looking for.” 

There is nowhere else to go, no other book to read, no other teacher to seek out, nothing more to be done. “You are it!”

Ah, but that is not where we live. We continue to cling to the filter, the mask of unworthiness. The essence of the pain we suffer in life is to yearn for something so deeply and then to think we do not deserve it.

How long do we need to hold onto that old, limited, destructive idea of self? Not only does it cloud how we perceive ourselves, but also how we perceive others and the world.

“(v 1 – 4)1Look now, deep within your mind and heart. 2We are looking for a false god that you have erected before your truth. 3This is a false image made of yourself through your own judgment that you could be that which is other than That Which you Are.  (p. 370)

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3As a thought comes up in your attempts to rest, look at it gently with no attachment to what it says. 4Ask only this question, “Have you come to me from the Heart? “ 5You will feel the answer immediately. 6Do not doubt what you feel. 7It is the Heart that answers this question in judgment. 8When the answer is no, ask the thought to pass by in peace. 9Feel no resistance to that which you‘ve asked to fade away. 10When the Heart answers yes, relax into listening. 11Relax fully, as you need not question this thought anymore. 12Let your questioning turn to trust. 13Let listening be the practice of the quiet mind. 14You are listening to your true Voice, and it is teaching you who you truly are. P. 372

(v 16)1Peace is always within you, as I am in you and I am you. 2Rest within the gentle knowledge of this as you follow the restful work of ridding yourself of the false. 3What you see cannot disturb your peace, because your peace cannot be disturbed. 4So look within, remembering what it is that you do. 5You have my blessings, as I am joined with you. (v 17)1I leave you now to do the silent work that I have asked. 2But I do not really leave you, as I am the one within that does this work in confidence. (v 18)1Grace be in your mind as well as your Heart. 2Amen. P. 372