Commentary on ACIM Lesson 93
©2010 Rev. David Seacord

Light and joy and peace abide in me.


According to this Course, the lesson statement for today is true. And this is what we are here to learn. Learning something very simple can sometimes be very difficult, yes? At other times, it can be easy. What do you think creates this difference?

I will offer my take, which is today based upon experience (ie, another teaching delivered by my son....).

In brief, we needed to return to the dentist we have been seeing during his visit to get his bite adjusted. Today he was two days 'fresh off of' several major dental procedures, one of which had been briefly very painful due to not being numb enough (which of course, was corrected). As we talked about getting his bite adjusted, he was adamant he was going to be numbed again, and he became angry at me for repeating my suggestion that that would not be necessary.

I 'asked for help', and the help I got was to remember a piece of a Landmark conversation about individual realities. I realized my son was 'in a different reality'. So I asked him 'what was so' for him about what 'getting a bite adjustment was'. It turned out he believed that without being numbed, it would be as painful as the pain he had felt a couple of days ago during surgery. And he was absolutely unwilling to have that experience again. I told him I understood what he was saying, and then gave him a piece of information that altered the situation. I explained that the surgery pain had been felt because the drill was in a nerve sensitive part of the tooth. But, bite adjustment was done on the surface, which contained no nerves. Therefore, while he would feel a sensation, it would be more like having his teeth cleaned. I invited him to confirm all this with the dentist. (He did, and had the bite adjusted without being numbed.)

The point of sharing this is that learning something is effected by our reality about that something. Our reality about something is made up of our projections, beliefs, fears, concerns, hopes, and dreams (and more). This is particularly true about our reality about ourselves, which we have been absorbing from our experience of life and our environment for the entirety of our life. This means we have a deep-seated investment in the way we view ourselves.

It is this investment that the Course is asking us to revisit, and consider the possibility that it is of no value. For most people, this is often not an easy thing to do. Values are at our identity core. But it is possible IF we can see we have been operating with false information or assumptions. That is what made a difference today with my son. In my life it has been the same many times.

Spiritually, this is fundamental also. The reality we are generally raised in teaches us to live as if we created ourselves. We didn't. That makes a huge difference. I invite you to consider just how huge. (And I've highlighted a few lines in the lesson for particular focus also.)

Namaste,

David

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 92
©2010 Rev. David Seacord


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


Sometimes I am told that my Commentaries are 'more enjoyable' to read than the lessons. I admit that the Course is not always the easiest reading material. For to study it sometimes requires 'a mental rigorousness'. But I am not writing in order to be a substitute for that rigor, but rather, as an encouragement (for myself also) to engage in it. And maybe to be a 'lighter but nutritious reading dessert' before the main meal. Even if you are not a 'student of the Course', and are reading without that intentionality, these Commentaries serve to give you repeated opportunities to receive from it, simply by being available on the same page. You do, on occasion, read a few lines of the lesson, right? Sometimes such a chanced upon thought is the exact perfect remedy....

For me, the reason I keep coming back to the Course for inspiration is that it reverses my incorrect thinking, and that 'blows my mind'. And the reason I am 'teaching' is not because I know (even though the Self within me does) but in order to learn more deeply.

What do I learn? Besides 'Deep Quietness', I learn to be with what is, for one thing. Sometimes I arrive at 'first draft writing time' full and overflowing with languaged self-expression (words), some times I am a dry bone. Both have their lessons.

Being 'full and overflowing' might be over the top for some readers, and for me, I may miss adding in important details, leaping from concept to concept without clearly drawing the connection. When I see this in hindsight, I sometimes make edits to the archived version as a result. Why not? There are no rules here, except 'to deliver a communion worthy of the time spent'.

Being a 'dry bone' is an opportunity to learn trust and patience. I will sit, be silent, and wait. A thought will be tossed from somewhere onto my mental viewer screen. If I get a strong feeling it is to be part of the Commentary, I write it. Then I wait again. And in a bit, another thought will arrive. Often I am blind, and don't know where I am going. But I have learned my true Author does. In the end, I will suddenly see the whole picture, what is being said. Then I simply work to edit for clarity.

All this is spoken to in today lesson, as it speaks brilliantly to distinguish our connection to the source of our strength. As there is alway (for me) at least a few lines that are potently powerful, I encourage you to give Course material a chance.

But there is no rush. Some small Course-presented idea well-chewed is better than reading the whole thing without comprehension. I will highlight a few worthy candidates.

Namaste,

David

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 91
©2010 Rev. David Seacord

Miracles are seen in light.


Today's 'life lessons' gave me these gifts: 1. I am surrounded and supported by miracles whether I am aware of them or not. 2. I am never without help, whether I am aware of it or not.

As I read the Course lesson, I got these ideas 'as facts'. And, that the entire universe is a miracle, when seen in truth. Nothing can ever be excluded from this. There is no time this is not true. But, it takes us to SEE this, for it to BE true, for us....

My son's flight gave him a teaching, which became my teaching, as he shared it with me. There was someone on his flight that he and everybody else strongly rejected. His judgements blindsided him, and he felt only revulsion, but no compassion. He was 'taken down' (spiritually) by what he was not being awake to (which was his natural unity with others).

As he and I discussed his experience, I recognized this was my experience too. I am 'taken down' and blindsided by whatever I am not being awake to also. He and I are 'normally' highly compassionate people, so to be 'grabbed unawares' by a strong judgement points to the parameters of the boxes we live in. Inside the box, as long as conditions are as we desire, we function compassionately. But if something from outside our comfort zone enters our world, we lose self-awareness without even noticing that we are losing it, and become a justified personal survival-based reaction machine (which is longhand for 'ego'). As such, it is impossible to be the channel for God to offer a blessing or a miracle.

To escape our egoic prison, we need help. What is true is that help is always available, instantly, as soon as we remember to ask for it. As the Course teaches (and I was able to hear ways to compassionately point out this to my son), everything is either an expression of love, or a call for help. So his sharing his grievance about the person he 'couldn't stand being near' on his flight was his 'call for help'. And of course, if I have a grievance about anyone/anything, it is my 'call for help'. For me to get that I am just like him in this is what allowed us to 'become true' again. This is the essence of 'satsang'... becoming true again. It is also the essence of all worship. For true worship re-establishes unity with the world.

This I teach, that I may also so see, and continually learn. From anyone, and especially, from my own Self (as my son).

Namaste,

David

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 90
©2010 Rev. David Seacord

Reviewing Lesson79 (Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.)
and Lesson 80 (Let me recognize my problems have been solved.)

Doing something different. Placing today's short and simple Lesson first, Commentary second.

Lesson 90

For this review we will use these ideas:

(79) Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.

Let me realize today that the problem is always some form of grievance that I would cherish. Let me also understand that the solution is always a miracle with which I let the grievance be replaced. Today I would remember the simplicity of salvation by reinforcing the lesson that there is one problem and one solution. The problem is a grievance; the solution is a miracle. And I invite the solution to come to me through my forgiveness of the grievance, and my welcome of the miracle that takes its place.

Specific applications of this idea might be in these forms:

This presents a problem to me which I would have resolved.
The miracle behind this grievance will resolve it for me.
The answer to this problem is the miracle that it conceals.



(80) Let me recognize my problems have been solved.

I seem to have problems only because I am misusing time. I believe that the problem comes first, and time must elapse before it can be worked out. I do not see the problem and the answer as simultaneous in their occurrence. That is because I do not yet realize that God has placed the answer together with the problem, so that they cannot be separated by time. The Holy Spirit will teach me this, if I will let Him. And I will understand it is impossible that I could have a problem which has not been solved already.

These forms of the idea will be useful for specific applications:

I need not wait for this to be resolved.
The answer to this problem is already given me, if I will accept it.
Time cannot separate this problem from its solution.

**********************
'Let me'. Something inside suddenly asked 'who' am I asking to 'let me'? I thought about it, and had the understanding arise that it was not 'God' I was asking this of, it was me. I am asking my our being to join in a complete oneminded unity and allow into my awareness a specific increase of consciousness. That tips me off to that I must be the one not allowing myself to see that way in the first place.... Ahhhhhh.....

Then I read the line 'The Holy Spirit will teach me this, if I will let Him.' There is that 'let' word again. But this time, it is being clear that it is I that controls if I will 'let' Him . I went to my dictionary. Turns out 'let' is one of those short simple words that has all kinds of finely nuanced meanings. The one seemingly most appropriate here? 1. "Used to express one's strong desire for something to happen or be the case" and also 2. "not prevent or forbid; allow ". Perhaps there is something I can 'let go of' that will 'allow more spirit'. Yes God to that, Let me see.....

**********************

'Today' I have been 'too busy to think'. I have driven, and my son has flown, and we are together for a few days in a large city. He is of course, my teacher, simply by being. His 'nineteen year oldness' and his naturally honest sharing about his life and his desires for it are the subject of my attention as we spend work and play time together. Love is present. And it is easy to 'let be'.

How grateful I am he exists.... To have parents still alive to learn transience and gratitude from, to have a soulful son who is wise beyond his age, to be alive myself and to have a heart quickened by Love of God.... all these merge into a sense that "surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life".

I thank you for your spiritual friendship also..... for these early morning communions with you on this journey to our holiness. Today we celebrate our 90 day/ quarter year milepost. All is 'as well as I will allow' and 'let' my Self receive. For you, I see the same.

Namaste,

David

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 89
©2010 Rev. David Seacord

Reviewing Lesson 77 (I am entitled to miracles.)
and Lesson 78 (Let miracles replace all grievances.)


What is an 'entitlement', in a spiritual sense? Many of us were raised in the spiritual 'culture of unworthiness' that our surviving modern Christianity has (respectfully, I submit, in a lot of cases) devolved to (and I say that particularly as a contrasting reference to Early Christianity, which was full of a majestic communal fearlessness and the power of nowness, and a clear willingness to make the 'ultimate gift' for each other 'in God's Name'). Anyway, (as that is a side journey and a personal opinion) many course students come from a large variety of these 'you are sinners who must be saved' faiths. I am among them. Together, doing Course work (or any well-suited spiritual curriculum), we step by step unlearn the false of this from the true, a process which is, in some subject areas, much easier than in others.

In that light, to claim an entitlement from God can be difficult, and can jam us humans up a lot, emotionally. For instance, maybe I'd rather be passive about it, and humbly wait for God's blessings to 'chose me' as they are being doled out. That's much easier than saying to God 'Hey God, you gave your Word, now come through!' But God doesn't have a problem with that (show me WHAT God has a problem with, if you'd like to) because he loves us/me to be powerful. When we are being powerful, He knows he can get some 'action going'. (Do worry, this is not a message that you have to whip up some frenzy and unleash it on the unsuspecting world--- your unsuspecting world [----which, you're probably right---- 'Isn't Ready for It'].)

God is too smart for that. Just look and see. Doesn't He 'move your head around' in the most incremental of ways, almost so that you'd never notice, except that you're waking up, so you do? And doesn't He open your heart with the most exquisite and lightest of touches (most times, unless you need a kabong)? You gotta get this is an amazing best friend/God combo we've got amping things up in our lives. Yes? But dig this.... doesn't every father want his son as a best friend?

So, to God, He sees that when we claim an entitlement, we've become Ready for the next level, just like a biological father would. We're choosing to apply our own fertilizer to our own growth. This is simply being fully responsible for the divine nature that is our true Self. And that is not being greedy. In fact, it is the opposite of greediness. It is making yourself Ready to Serve, and as the lesson says, to fulfill the function God has given you.

It's worth underlining here that the function that God gives you is specific to you. NOBODY ELSE can do it as you would. You claim your true function, you claim your true, most on-point, on-target, most-fulfilled life. End of story. That is God's mega-thrill, to see each one of us do that.

I say that with some power, as I have (like many before me and all around me now too) given up a lot of material values and attachments (as distinct from possessions/money etc) to become God's Man. I testify that doing so has altered my life and my spirit to a richness that no amount of financial success only was ever going to provide. I am not talking material richness (which 'is available if claimed'). I am talking happiness richness. There is no satisfaction like being God's Man/Woman. It simply 'becomes you'.

Notice I did say 'becomes'. It is a process, at least for me it is (which you already know, if you are a regular reader). I do bottom out, fall into the pit, get lost.... all that, at times. Yet even all of that is 'in the plan' and non-accidental. Behind the scenes, it's still all miracles. Like I said a while back, it only depends on what power of magnification level you need to dial into to get the right view. And, the right view is: it's never not a miracle. Because, when you think about it, simply existing is a miracle.

And now I see why I was prompted to choose 'Frozen Wild Freedom' for today's art image. Beyond it's beauty is the miracle it holds. Over on the right, just on the far other side of the water, if you look you will see a Grizzly. So you know, God loves to paint too. The first time I saw that Grizzly was at least six months AFTER the painting was finished. Don't ask me how. Just say Cool. Way Cool, I'd say. (Which rhymes with:)

Namaste :-),

(But not to forget).... This I teach, that I may also so learn.

David

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 88
©2010 Rev. David Seacord

Reviewing Lesson 75 (The light has come.) and Lesson 76 (I am under no laws but God's.)

A Letter to myself(s).....

Dear david(s), (any when or where...)

Remember "He's the One leaving the lights on everywhere." ? (the closing line of Commentary 75)..... the question now is: Are you experiencing "the lights on everywhere?" all the time? For when you are not, you are trying too hard.

What we mean by that is you are being too busy 'being spiritual' instead of simply 'allowing your spirit to be'. There is nothing you need to do to get (understand) this. Love is the easiest and most understandable of things. It is what you need to Not Do that is 'boxing up' your freedom on the 'dance floor'. When that is happening, you are choosing an Idea of Love, instead of 'standing upon' what actually brings you Into Your Joy. THAT is 'Abandoning your self to God' COMPLETELY.

Don't be so concerned about appearances, as they ultimately have nothing to do with your Happiness. 'Ideas' of God can get old, stiff, rigid. God as a Reality is the opposite.... being Now, flexible, and compassionate. You already know we have you covered. You can see we are working unseen all around you, placing people and events in your life as learning/teaching moments every day. And you do get this, again and again. But then you start thinking.... again. So just stop thinking so much. Practice being more Present. Be Quiet more. Look more deeply at exactly where you are. Remember your breath more. Look at all the beautiful beings you are attracting into your world. They are all leaving their 'lights on' just for you. They are here to be the family of God in your life. They are your perfect teachers, and your perfect friends.....

And do not forget, we are with you. We have known you for ages. Now Allow and Let the Peace of God Heal you...and all pain you still carry from the past. Let it go. It is over and done. It is past. It is not true NOW, and it is not real NOW. You CAN do this....

From this moment onward, Be Ignited, and be fearlessly alive with your Self. Your Self is your 'burning bush'. Your Self is your 'hallowed ground'. Your Self is your always true dance partner..... 'want' no other.

If (when) you would be 'never empty again', refuse to allow any doubt about this into your mind. You have that power, for God's law is always fullness. It is always yours for the asking. Ask for Love's Help constantly.....habitually..... like maybe, 'with each in-breath'..... that would be 'about right', about 'just enough' for constant ecstasy....

You are free. We do suggest you have nothing better to do. And there is no law that is stopping you. :-)

Namaste,

David

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 87
©2010 Rev. David Seacord

Reviewing Lesson 73 (I will there be light)
and Lesson 74 (There is no will but God's)


It is a non-accidental, non-divisible universe. This is good, for if it were otherwise we would be 'outta luck' pretty quickly. However, given that it is non-accidental, it follows that we are exactly were we belong.

Last night I attended a second satsang, to listen to the completion of Krishna's dialogue with Arjuna about Knowledge. The point was made that God is in everything equally. This is a great mystery to the ego and the senses, which lives in an accidental and comparative world where everything is non-equal, and the only place it wishes to be is 'the best'.

Remember my mention of Lao Tzu throwing his poems in the river? (in the original Lesson 73 Commentary). At satsang, I was invited to sing, by the hostess, before the satsang began. What happened was like a Lao Tzu poem, as what I sang was spontaneous and created as it was happening, and was not something I had 'practiced'. When it was over, it was gone forever. But to me and my satsang listeners, it was as if a magical window had opened and we had all been graced. It was pure devotional music, and perhaps 'the best' performance that I had 'done' in a long time. But the magic was that it was not me doing anything. I was 'just willing' to be 'done', be used, be played.

It is always this way in God's spiritually synchronistic world. Nothing rehearsed, nothing practiced, nothing resisted, nothing excluded, nothing doubted, nothing not trusted, nothing missing, nothing impossible, nothing imperfect. God would use us this way at all times, if we would be willing to have it be so.

Here is the truth about that: It is so now. We are always 'being done', even while we imagine we are being the 'doer'. How foolish we are to imagine that this is possible. It is not. For there is no power (and therefore, no 'doer') but God.

This is a 'good reason' (if one is needed) to be grateful for everything. And, how beautifully humbling is this remembering..... that of myself I can 'do' nothing.

Namaste,

David