I share this evening a reflection written by Lana Carolan, one that was first posted on the Facebook page of the Foundation for Inner Peace. This foundation is dedicated to publishing, distributing and discussing the writings collectively known as A Course in Miracles (ACIM).
Beautiful and challenging words! Following are more of Lana Carolan’s thoughts on the beauty and challenge of “being mindful of, and present to that which we perceive,” the beauty and challenge of cultivating “present state awareness” and thus “the awareness of our Unity in God and with each other.”
The laws of perception will give us a reflection of whatever we choose to believe is real. These laws will support our deepest depression or our highest aspirations. We become the witness to where we have placed our faith.
A happy dream is a reflection (and the effect) of right-mindedness. It is being mindful of, and present to that which we perceive. It is always choosing Life, choosing Love, choosing Joy, and choosing Peace. The strength of our faith/belief in these choices bears fruit as their effects show up in our everyday lives. We forgive anything that denies the Truth. And as we do, we behold Heaven’s reflection as it unfolds in ways we cannot even imagine . . . no longer a “seeming” victim, we are now a witness to the Laws of LOVE and God truly is in everything we perceive.
Lack of faith is never at issue. We all have faith in something, be it our Truth or our distortions of the Truth. As we become more and more sensitive to the mind’s activities we can catch the ego in the beginnings of its misbehavior. As peace becomes a consistent state, lack of it is like a pebble in our shoes. It serves as a constant reminder to choose again. Our willingness to choose again activates our higher mind, our Holy Spirit, and sets in motion the correction of wrong-mindedness into right-mindedness.
Right-mindedness is Heaven’s reflection. We simply step into it as life unfolds before us. At the level of mind, there is nothing to do other than to be present and bring the mind to stillness (no thinking) and quiet (no talking to ourselves). As we take each step, God goes with us, making straight all the twists and turns of the ego’s distortions. Right-mindedness brings with it clarity, certainty, and peace. This “present state awareness” of stillness and quiet always welcomes us as we accept it. It is not a “doing” so much as it is a “being.”
Yet there will always be this place of rest to which you can return. And you will be more aware of this quiet center of the storm than all its raging activity. This quiet center, in which you do nothing, will remain with you, giving you rest in the midst of every busy doing on which you are sent. For from this center will you be directed how to use the body sinlessly. It is this center, from which the body is absent, that will keep it so in your awareness of it. [A Course in Miracles]
We simply allow and accept Reality to be what it is and Reality provides for everything we could possibly imagine we need. If you notice, the ego-mind will jump in and “seem to” inform us of all the reasons this cannot be so. Did you notice? It really believes it knows more than God does. Yet, just beyond the rantings of the ego, Reality remains Reality. It is our constant companion when we remember to notice IT, embrace IT and accept ownership of ITS amazing grace. LOVE’s Reflection always lights the way to our true home and to the awareness of our Unity in God and with each other.
We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds ~ Anton Chekov
– Lana Carolan
via Foundation for Inner Peace Group
August 6, 2021
via Foundation for Inner Peace Group
August 6, 2021
Related Off-site Links:
How to Live in the Present Moment – Courtney E. Ackerman (Positive Psychology, January 30, 2021).
The Incredible Power of Being Present in the Moment – TheJoyWithin.org (May 31, 2019).
Being Present as a Spiritual Practice – Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat (Spirituality and Practice: Resources for Spiritual Journeys).
What Is the Present Moment? – MyrkoThum.com (August 31, 2008).
Freedom Is Being Present – InnerPeaceFellowship.org.
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Cultivating Stillness
• Be In My Mind, Beloved One
• Your Peace Is With Me, Beloved One
• You Are My Goal, Beloved One
• A Sacred Pause
• Aligning With the Living Light
• Mystical Participation
• The Source Is Within You
Image: “Adnan, in the Moment” by Michael J. Bayly.
What exhausts us in daily life is not the fact of doing many things or receiving a lot of information, but the fact of not perceiving their meaning. Christian expectation is opposed to anxiety. It is not about being anxious about an uncertain future, but about preparing ourselves with joy for a certain future: the presence of God in our midst. The Emmanuel is the antithesis of emptiness and meaninglessness.
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