Commentary on ACIM Lesson 84
Reviewing :
Lesson 67 (Love created me like itself.)
Lesson 68 (Love holds no grievances.)
'God' is just our name for God. That's important to remember, as there is a big difference between a name for something and its reality. So, what is the reality of God? I mean, how is God actually experienced?
Well, there are a thousand names for that too.... it depends on what the 'Divine Activity' has been 'up to'. Sometimes God is Mercy (Grace, when you don't deserve it), sometimes God is the bestower of a Blessing (A Gift Unasked For). In like manner, Attributes of God abound in all the faiths of the world. The Sufi tradition which ordained me is a good example....God is the Pure, the Holy, the Opener of the Way, the Highest, the Forgiver, the Beautiful, the Majestic (and that's just the beginning). All these names describe attributes of Divine Activity. Yet God is beyond all, even these. Essentially, God is the Unnameable and Absolute Love and Absolute Power and Absolute Truth, and the All, All in One.
Practically, God is 'whatever we obey'. I say that in the sense that while most people have it that their life is their life, and their religion is their religion, how I have it is that our life (and whatever we do in it) IS our religion. That is where the rubber of our beliefs (or faith) meets the road of our actual 'reality'.
What the Course is having us do is question the reality of that reality. In Adviata Yoga, this is called 'inquiry'. (In a way, the Course is a 'Christianized' Adviata, being a teaching of non-dualism in a Christian language system.) The purpose of any inquiry is to see newly. Of course, as the minister at the church I sang at last Sunday said 'What are the four words that are absolutely guaranteed to stop your spiritual growth?' I ALREADY KNOW THAT. So, the foundation of 'inquiry' is NOT KNOWING (or, at the very least, Being Open to Not Knowing).
My own relationship with God is based on 'mysticism'. By that I mean 'the intangible unprovable certainty of infinite being'. Or, said another way, 'the intelligent presence of wholeness and Love'. But the truth is, I don't know the words that would actually say what I mean. I don't even know how to describe how I know what I know. I just know that when I know something, it is simply always true and trustable. I know that I know something because I live it, actually, not 'conceptually'.
Like I know that God Loves Me. It's not because of the Sunday School song that I sang hundreds of times as a child. It is because of experience. If my life could be reduced to 60 second soundbites that were all lined up in a row, and which any one of which could be reviewed under a microscope---- my bet is that within any and/or every one of them (if the microscope went to the necessary power of magnification) would be a miracle of some kind that would demonstrate that the something I call God is actively loving me. And I doubt your life is any different. 'Inquiry' is simply the question "What power of magnification is going to be necessary to see the miracle happening in THIS moment?" The answer will reflect our willingness to "see God" directly.
Look, and you will see this is true. Then look again, and perhaps you will also see the paradox it brings with it. The same 'knowing' that makes 'something always true and trustable' can and does make us also blind. That is the great mystery of the power of the mind. That is why the Zen teaching is "to seek Mind with mind is the greatest of all mistakes."
To this conundrum comes God, with the Light of Love. The experience of God's Love is something we are all very familiar with, as it is never not with us. Just 'use your microscope'. But to invite God to be a conscious living presence of Love in our lives is a powerful shifting of our focus. Simply put, God's Love relieves us of all Questions. It relieves us of our 'mind'. Not a bad way to learn about Love.
This I teach that I may also learn.
Namaste,
David
Reviewing :
Lesson 67 (Love created me like itself.)
Lesson 68 (Love holds no grievances.)
'God' is just our name for God. That's important to remember, as there is a big difference between a name for something and its reality. So, what is the reality of God? I mean, how is God actually experienced?
Well, there are a thousand names for that too.... it depends on what the 'Divine Activity' has been 'up to'. Sometimes God is Mercy (Grace, when you don't deserve it), sometimes God is the bestower of a Blessing (A Gift Unasked For). In like manner, Attributes of God abound in all the faiths of the world. The Sufi tradition which ordained me is a good example....God is the Pure, the Holy, the Opener of the Way, the Highest, the Forgiver, the Beautiful, the Majestic (and that's just the beginning). All these names describe attributes of Divine Activity. Yet God is beyond all, even these. Essentially, God is the Unnameable and Absolute Love and Absolute Power and Absolute Truth, and the All, All in One.
Practically, God is 'whatever we obey'. I say that in the sense that while most people have it that their life is their life, and their religion is their religion, how I have it is that our life (and whatever we do in it) IS our religion. That is where the rubber of our beliefs (or faith) meets the road of our actual 'reality'.
What the Course is having us do is question the reality of that reality. In Adviata Yoga, this is called 'inquiry'. (In a way, the Course is a 'Christianized' Adviata, being a teaching of non-dualism in a Christian language system.) The purpose of any inquiry is to see newly. Of course, as the minister at the church I sang at last Sunday said 'What are the four words that are absolutely guaranteed to stop your spiritual growth?' I ALREADY KNOW THAT. So, the foundation of 'inquiry' is NOT KNOWING (or, at the very least, Being Open to Not Knowing).
My own relationship with God is based on 'mysticism'. By that I mean 'the intangible unprovable certainty of infinite being'. Or, said another way, 'the intelligent presence of wholeness and Love'. But the truth is, I don't know the words that would actually say what I mean. I don't even know how to describe how I know what I know. I just know that when I know something, it is simply always true and trustable. I know that I know something because I live it, actually, not 'conceptually'.
Like I know that God Loves Me. It's not because of the Sunday School song that I sang hundreds of times as a child. It is because of experience. If my life could be reduced to 60 second soundbites that were all lined up in a row, and which any one of which could be reviewed under a microscope---- my bet is that within any and/or every one of them (if the microscope went to the necessary power of magnification) would be a miracle of some kind that would demonstrate that the something I call God is actively loving me. And I doubt your life is any different. 'Inquiry' is simply the question "What power of magnification is going to be necessary to see the miracle happening in THIS moment?" The answer will reflect our willingness to "see God" directly.
Look, and you will see this is true. Then look again, and perhaps you will also see the paradox it brings with it. The same 'knowing' that makes 'something always true and trustable' can and does make us also blind. That is the great mystery of the power of the mind. That is why the Zen teaching is "to seek Mind with mind is the greatest of all mistakes."
To this conundrum comes God, with the Light of Love. The experience of God's Love is something we are all very familiar with, as it is never not with us. Just 'use your microscope'. But to invite God to be a conscious living presence of Love in our lives is a powerful shifting of our focus. Simply put, God's Love relieves us of all Questions. It relieves us of our 'mind'. Not a bad way to learn about Love.
This I teach that I may also learn.
Namaste,
David
posted by Rev. David Seacord at
2:09 AM
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