Commentary on ACIM Lesson 216

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

It can be but myself I crucify.

In my life I have often been 'a foolish man', particularly in adolescence (but certainly not limited to then). And each time, I would learn once again that no matter how painful the embarrassment or shame was, God was the One who did not abandon me. He/She/Spirit was always present to me, listening to my heart crying 'why, why, why didn't they understand me?'...or, 'I wish I could run away so far no one could ever find me again', etc.

Thank God I did not ever get such a wish. Thank God I have been Loved and Guided by Light each and every day of this life. And above all, Thank God I have learned I can forgive.

From my vantage point today, I can see many other pathways that were 'potential' ways to spend this lifetime, none of them now attractive. At the time, each was attractive only because I was under the illusion that they would 'make me somebody', or give me power to make life be what I wanted it to be. But I didn't die of an overdose, didn't get murdered by a cartel, didn't get mauled and eaten by a grizzly, didn't break my neck wrecking a motorcycle, didn't die of an internal bleeding ulcer.... and eventually I discovered something unnameable was caring for me and protecting me, holding sacred a calling in my heart that I had spent many years attempting to deny....eventually I surrendered to this something..... and stopped crucifying myself, and began to trust 'my hearts calling'.

My first lesson in the curriculum I found next to my pillow (so to speak) was 'to learn to love myself'. I am still practicing that lesson today.

My second lesson came closely after: forgive everyone everything you imagine harmed you. Again, I am still practicing that lesson today.

The third lesson, when it arrived, was: recognize that everyone else is you. Again, still practicing.

And the fourth was the foundation of true faith: Understand... there are no mistakes in this universe, ever.

As the Course says, Atonement becomes real and visible to those who use it. Let us then, remember we are still holy, as God created us, and give up to our Source all imagined else. In this direction alone lies our destiny as God's healing hands within this world.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 216

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

(196) It can be but myself I crucify.

All that I do I do unto myself. If I attack, I suffer.
But if I forgive, salvation will be given me.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 215

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

The little talks I am having these days with my father are deep, and touching. Today, I told him that the real reason I am here is to stand beside him as he leaves his body, and to be there to let him know there is nothing to be afraid of....

I told him that he was who I first learned what love was from, and he told how proud he was to be my father. I asked him to search his heart for anyone who had wronged him that he had not forgiven, and he said he could not find anyone right now. Good Dad, because I think you will rise up right next to God if you leave your body with nothing un-forgiven.... He looked at me and said, "I think I am right next to God right now"....

*********

The gifts of life come to us through whatever form that can get the message delivered. Sometimes it's a pet, a child, a chance overheard conversation. Sometimes it's a newscaster, a politician, a priest, or a death row report. Always, we can learn from any of it that love is the only thing here in this experience that is real.... all else is phenomena, the temporary arising of a 'seeming' seemingly real.

As we face the truth of life's illusions, we are freed because we find peace with our own physical death. We know it will come, though not when or how. True life is always lived with (as Carlos Castenada wrote) death on our left shoulder. But for the spiritually minded living awake, this is not feared, for that 'I am not a body' is clear.

Knowing we can trust life to give us the power and strength to fulfill our individual mission is the source of a great and holy peace. This peace is a miracle. Yet, simply loving one another is the most holy of all miracles.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 215

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

(195) Love is the way I walk in gratitude.

The Holy Spirit is my only Guide. He walks with me in love.
And I give thanks to Him for showing me the way to go.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 214

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

I place the future in the hands of God.

You and I don't have to go anywhere to be a servant of God. We just need to be willing to do the work that God has given us today. Everywhere I look I see this is the lesson waiting to be learned.... by me, and also by others. The old saying 'Bloom where you are planted' sums it up, particularly if you add 'now'.

However, let me say that 'now' doesn't mean forever..... It just means don't hold back 'on the lightwork' wherever you are because you have some personal plan to head over the hill. Personally, I think the best way to get over the hill 'karma clean' is to learn the lesson that is available 'here', and complete that curriculum where you are. If that is done, when you leave, you leave behind a family of friends and supporters, AND because of that, you can return with honor. Why set life up to have to re-present the same old lesson in a different place with slightly different circumstances, and different people (except of course the central character, meaning us/me/you).

Sure we develop preferences BUT.... IF you are committed to walking some version of 'the Great Way', and you have gotten to the place where you can see most of the time that you are not this body, then where you are, and what you are doing while there.... they become much less important that they are to somebody who thinks they ARE the body.

This stands on the shoulders of what I spoke of yesterday about freedom. Because my 'simple truth' is that the way I or anyone grows in spiritual freedom is to be willing to serve where they are. In essence, this IS 'seeking the Kingdom of Heaven FIRST.... and allowing all else to be added'.... as a function of wholeness/holiness/God's will being done.

All it takes is a 'little willingness' to find out that most of us can 'be quite happy' with much less than we idealize (in terms of job, location, the kind of culture around us, etc...). Placing the future in the hands of God will ease the pain of being where we 'don't want to be', if that is an issue. If it is, I would suggest 'gratitude work', as a perhaps appropriate remedy. Wherever we are, there is always a lot to be grateful for. We tend to forget that, projecting greener pastures elsewhere. It's hard to stay balanced when projecting. We tend to create a skewed view. Trusting God to know when we are ready to move on, and to give us the go signal when it really IS time, is the same as recognizing that the only thing we are doing that is really important is learning to serve God/Love/Life/Wholeness completely, and without fear.

When the fear of being 'trapped' wherever we are has been burned up in the facing of ourselves where we are, the freedom of a new fearlessness will attract to us a powerful new mission. Which we will be PERFECT for. It's just the way it actually works, at least as I see it.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 214

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

(194) I place the future in the Hands of God.

The past is gone; the future is not yet. Now am I freed
from both. For what God gives can only be for good. And
I accept but what He gives as what belongs to me.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 213

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

All things are lessons God would have be learn.

What is 'being free'? Here in the Course, we have been focusing on 'I am not this body. I am free...'. Let's look at that.

I know freedom has it's many levels. The one I assume we normally think of is 'freedom of self-expression'.... meaning, we assert that freedom is being able to do what we 'want to', how and when we 'want to'.

Most of us spend our lives holding up the banner of this kind of freedom. That is not bad or anything.... I enjoy having that kind of freedom... AND, I'd say that that is 'stopping short of the goal', if that is the ONLY way freedom is understood.

I suggest another level of freedom lies in the relinquishment of the 'I want to'. There are many times, conditions, and circumstances that arise in life.... the kind where 'life is life-ing you'.... that we/I have felt pinned down, when we said we 'could not escape' the situation, and where therefore 'we made do'. This is disempowering to our spiritual journey, if we see it that way. What empowers us is to recognize we are NEVER without choice. Yes, we could have escaped, BUT, we chose not to BECAUSE staying put and walking through 'the coals of fire' that we wanted to escape from was MORE PREFERABLE than the alternative, whatever it was.... So it is empowering to our being to acknowledge that.... that it was and is always our choice. AND, please tell the truth... did the experience truly damage you? Or, did you grow from it? Gangaji once said: "Just tell the truth.... Nothing bad has ever happened to you." I've heard other teachers say similar things too. Even when what had happened to them was (from an egoic point of view) terrible suffering.

At some point in our journey, we/I will get 'beyond question' that Good does not care if it has to lead us through Bad for us to get the message that we are free. That begins to look like 'self-sacrifice', doesn't it? It's not. Those interpreting what they see that way are still referencing themselves as a body. Jesus could not have demonstrated the powers and miracles that he did if he had thought he was a body. This also, by the way, is where the interpretations of his quote "I am the way, the truth, and the life" etc, go astray. Because when he said it, again, he knew he was not a body. Nobody else at the time was getting that, so what we have recorded and the interpretations descending from them spin it as if devotion to Jesus' body is where it is at. Which misses the point that what he was here to teach was the way to BECOME HIM (or at the least, become like him [as in 'identical in spirit]).

In the Matrix (the first one) the climax shows Neil trying to escape, to stay physically free. He failed and got killed. Love re-awoke him, and gave him a transformed sight. He saw the code, the secret behind the illusion.... this empowered true freedom in him, and what he did with it was to cease trying to escape. Escaping is always 'from a fear'. Freedom is always in seeing the fear is unreal, and having no power to harm. Neil ceased to battle his 'enemies', he ENTERED them.

That is what the purified, androgynous Christ Consciousness is doing in this world, through us, today. We are sent here to 'enter' the world. Because it is from Love, we are so doing by teaching BY BEING that "There is nothing to fear". That is true freedom.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 213

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

(193) All things are lessons God would have me learn.

A lesson is a miracle which God offers to me, in place of
thoughts I made that hurt me. What I learn of Him becomes
the way I am set free. And so I choose to learn His lessons
and forget my own.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 212

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

I have a function God would have me fill.

I know this. And, my ego knows this too. I think all my ego's 'guilt complex' arises from it having desires OTHER than God's function for me. That would make anybody 'feel guilty', seems to me. But because I am at least somewhat dis-identifed from this body, it has to get me to agree, as it needs to use this body that is my temple (and God's home) to accomplish it's desires.

What all the spiritual teachers I have ever known have shared is that happiness is never really available from following the ego, although certainly temporary sense-based pleasures are. What I did for a long time "when younger", and what I watched many friends do ---very often in the name of spirituality-- is be pleasure and fun pigs, satiating the senses, and using that satiation to suppress the guilt of 'having so much (ego-based) 'fun'. God, sometimes I still wish it had worked, but it didn't. For me, and I think for anybody that loves God--by any name or form-- once that is real, we/I are on the Divine Hook, with infinitely stretchable (fishers of the pure hearted) 'line' that will let us run as far as we chose, do as many of the worlds games for as long as we wish, BUT that line never breaks. And is the quietness of our being, we can always hear the call to return to our Home in Holiness. Eventually, we do, and begin our true spiritual journey in humbleness.

Please do not misconstrue me as saying that pleasure is bad. It is not. It is only the addiction to pleasure that is the spiritual quicksand that I am suggesting is best to avoid. Nowadays, my practice (when I remember) is to 'be present' and simply allow what IS to be pleasurable--- in other words, I do my best to not SEEK to have fun, but just practice remembering I am always in the right place... that there is no 'better' place to go... that being here in this moment is my curriculum, and that that curriculum leads beyond 'pleasure', and on to the joy of being.

Bottom line, every time I am truly connected to my personal joy of being, I get right then I am fulfilling the function God would have me fulfill.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 212

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

(192) I have a function God would have me fill.

I seek the function that would set me free from all the vain
illusions of the world. Only the function God has given me
can offer freedom. Only this I seek, and only this will I
accept as mine.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 211

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

I am the holy son of God himself.

Referring to the passage in the lesson, to me the 'silence' means true meditation practice. There are numerous wonderful meditation techniques to use--- available in our western culture now, which didn't use to be the case--- all of them have value. Some may be better suited for some temperaments than others, but that is for you to say. That is where humility comes in. What humility really is is being completely self-honest. For when anyone of us is that, we know we are 'nobody special'.... we know we are both 'a Son of God' and at the same, we are absolutely NOT 'favored' of God, for God loves each of us equally. That is the main thing the Course is trying to get us to see.... how to love like God loves, which is TOTALLY EQUALLY towards all beings. How could He not--- He IS everyone, and to give an unequal love would put Him at war with Himself, just like we often are. Lucky for us, our Source is completely clear Who He IS.

What the game plan is for us today is to trust Him.... with everything.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 211

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

(191) I am the holy Son of God Himself.

In silence and in true humility I seek God's glory, to behold
it in the Son whom He created as my Self.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 210

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

I choose the joy of God instead of pain.

I know pain does not seem like our own idea.... it seems like it comes from the world.... and if only the world would cooperate and other people would live like we are all supposed to, then none of us would have the pain in our lives that we do. To this the Course proposes a radical idea: The is no pain but the pain we create. God does not create pain, for God is Love. We are love too, but until we remember that, we are 'in pain' 24/7, even when it seems like we are happy. I say that because there is no happiness that is real happiness unless it arises from the love in our heart, out of the realization that we are the same love that God is. Anything else is what Werner Erhard called 'circumstantially derived happiness'. That kind of happiness is the stuff of suffering in disguise. Eventually the disguise wears thin, and we see we have been fooling only ourselves.

We can stop that if we have the courage to get present with our true being, look into our heart, get quiet, tell the truth, and choose God's Love instead of self.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 210

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

(190) I choose the joy of God instead of pain.

Pain is my own idea. It is not a Thought of God, but one I
thought apart from Him and from His Will. His Will is joy,
and only joy for His beloved Son. And that I choose, instead
of what I made.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 209

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

I feel the Love of God within me now.

What is the 'peace of God'? The question arose, bubbling through my ego mind with a sense of strangeness... why would I be wondering about something like that? But as a wonderful string of answers began to arise, it was those answers that captured my hearts attention.... for it (my heart) desired deeply to know...

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

The peace of God IS when nothing in the world disturbs the love in my heart or the peace of my mind.... So that I am able to be exactly where I am and doing what I am doing with no second-guessing, no wondering SHOULD I be doing something else. The peace of God KNOWS I cannot be 'in the wrong place' ever....

The peace of God contains no guilt. And, no shame.... So that I am able to be authentic and natural.... an open book, hiding nothing from myself, hiding nothing from you.

The peace of God allows me to 'make mistakes'. My mistakes are the gifts of God's education. There is no shame in 'being wrong'. There is instead, the growth of humility.

The peace of God has no imagined 'needs'. God is my complete and total supplier. All that I truly require is always provided by Him. Whenever I am resisting what is.... thinking I need something else before I can be happy.... I give up the peace of God.

The peace of God is fully present, living not in the future, living not in the past. LIving in this moment, living nothing is missing.... When I see from HERE, I have the peace of God.

The peace of God is not 'trying to survive' anything. Only when I think I am a body do I fear the possibility of aging, dying, or illness of the body. When I have actually discovered that, being created by God, I am eternal like him also, then there is no one called I trying to survive, no holding-onto/clinging-to 'my form' beyond its usefulness. Then there is just God-as-me at peace, being a part of God-as-infinity's eternal life.

The peace of God lives in my heart and is my true home. Who I am, in the truest sense, IS the peace of God, for when I am knowing myself as peace, I am naturally the lover of all beings, and my peace knows all beings are my brothers, and actually, even deeper, they are myself.

The peace of God gives me a clear sightedness, and makes me able to see God's hand working in my own life and the lives of those around me. It eliminates confusion from my mind, and provides me with direction and directive that I know comes from God. Thus I have certainty without arrogance.

The peace of God lets me know myself in ways I 'would have thought' were impossible. For only with the courage that arises on the bedrock of God's Peace could I face the challenges that God leads my life to. Each day is a gift...and another test from God.... to see if I am fully stable in my peace. All disturbances are there as gifts to me, to practice exercising being at peace in all kinds of circumstances.....

Therefore,

Let blame come,

Let shame come,

Let nakedness and vulnerability come,

Let wealth come or go,

Let reputation arise or fall,

Let dreams be made real or be dashed to shreds,

Let lovers in, let lovers leave,

Let pilgrimages be made and returned from,

Let the body be decayed or radiant,

To the peace of God, it is all one....

It is the mirror we practice being infinity within...

The Peace of God is who we are,

both the Way to the Goal, and the Goal,

both the practice of the truth, and the Truth,

both the source of existence and non-being.

What is there to doubt when there is no I apart?

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 209

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

(189) I feel the Love of God within me now.

The Love of God is what created me. The Love of God is
everything I am. The Love of God proclaimed me as His
Son. The Love of God within me sets me free.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 208

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

The peace of God is shining in me now.

In a way, I have been doing todays lesson all week, although today is the day I broke out of the tunnel... so to speak.

But.... the whole past week has been very challenging, and many days were spent 'grabbing onto God', usually by meditation or lying on the earth, working to still the swirl of chaos I seemed to be swimming in. As I think I am closer to 'the other shore' now, I can speak of it (like it was a thing in the past now, instead of being in a boat about to sink, which is what a lot of the week felt like).

It all started with a book a friend loaned me, a very challenging book by Paul Hawken, called 'Blessed Unrest'. The journey it took me on ripped me out of a 'God is everywhere and everything is perfect' universe, into confronting a meticulously footnoted multiple century litany of the inhumanity of man to each other and the world ( & other species and the environment), the rapid acceleration of our inhumanity in recent times, and the impact of it on our lives, including that we as a species are fighting for our very existence, while most of humanity is barely aware of what 'the fuss is about' or what the issues are. Along with this the author provided a history of many of the great people who have given their lives (often literally) and their best thinking to create a species survival future. These included Thoreau, Emerson, Gandhi, MLKing, etc. It was riveting reading, and, being empathic, it often hit me in the gut, and left me grappling to reconcile my world with the world being described.

Today I finished the book, which ended on a hopeful note, based mostly on the planetary reemergence of profound and deep spirituality. But in the course of the weeks journey I have been affected, and I see a clearer future for my own work as a teacher of God, and what I have the opportunity to contribute, and to whom, and perhaps, even how.....

Most profoundly, what I have seen is that, like Gandhi, I am my message. (I also see that that is true of everyone... everyone IS their 'message'.) For me though, that message is that the answer to the insanity of the egoic world is selflessness, aka 'brotherly love'. What I had not seen is how many others have also seen this (and how broad the awakening actually is), and, as a result, I have often felt very alone, and culturally isolated. In other words, it is not that I have not cared, it is that I did not know I could make a difference.

Now, what I know is this: It matters not if I make a difference. It only matters that I be true, in this life that God is day by day giving me.... that is what will, in the end, make the most difference. To do that, as I said not too many days ago, I must protect, develop, and maintain the peace of God within me. The challenge of the week was 'how to love others' that are destroying the planet we live on. I.e., how to 'love my enemies'. The breakthrough for me was this realization. Not only are 'they' me, spiritually, but beyond that, I saw it was totally possible, given similar circumstances, that I (in their shoes) could have made the same choices, been as similarly blind to the eventual consequences, and could be now as resistant to changing and suffering financial loss when confronted by people challenging my actions as 'they' are.

Oh. Then that means I am not 'superior' in any way to 'them'. No. Then that means my work is not to judge, but to teach by love, for when all see 'with Love', no brother harms another.... Yes. Thank you God.

And therein lies my peace.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 208

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

(188) The peace of God is shining in me now.

I will be still, and let the earth be still along with me. And
in that stillness we will find the peace of God. It is within
my heart, which witnesses to God Himself.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.