Scientists tell us that when time began, fourteen billion years ago, something came from nothing. When you awaken to the ground of all Being, in a deep meditative state, you realize that when something came from nothing, the nothing didn’t disappear.

That unmanifest, unborn dimension is the ever-present ground out of which everything is still arising in every moment. It is what the Buddha called “the deathless,” and what others call “eternity consciousness.” When you awaken to this dimension in your own awareness, you will find yourself always already resting in the eternal moment before time began. This is the recognition that liberates:

Prior to everything, I already am. The experience of this recognition is not one of becoming liberated. It is of being already liberated. What you realize when you awaken to that ground is that there is a part of each and every one of us that is already free—from everything.

That part of yourself, which is the ground of Being, has never been bound, trapped, or limited in any way. That’s the part of yourself that I want you to discover. It’s not the part of yourself that needs to become free. It is already free, right now.

By Cynthia (Karima) Clayton
Excerpted from the book “Being & Becoming”

“THAT PLACE!”

I wish for you to find “that place” within yourself, where you don’t need anyone or anything.

That center of stillness, which the world can’t invade. And to go there as often as you can. That is your refuge. That is your answer to pain. It is a space that is not yours personally, but a place all Masters have been, and is there for you to share, and lay down in repose.

The world will never give you what you want. It only fuels the wanting of your ego for more, other, better, me and mine. This tiny self is never happy. Your only happiness will come when you know you are a part of the bigger Self. The only peace you will have, and it’s not to be earned someday but is yours TODAY if you really want it, is to enter “that place” within, in awe, with respect, with love in your heart and a clear quiet mind. Humbly ask to rest there, listen with all your attention, and you will feel loved.

There is no greater feeling than this, no other calling more urgent. The world may be a game on many levels, but that sacred silent place is where reality and divinity exist side by side in their purest essence, and your purest Essence.

When you find that deep stillness, words forming thoughts on the screen are a vague but messy ripple, are annoying, even slightly painful. When you find “that place” at Center, a negative thought actually hurts, a doubt seems disrespectful, a resentment  seems to turn around and jump back on you, a less than perfect vision seems so wrong, and potentially destructive. What is uttered in our hearts in that silence… is sacred creation.

And all that surfaces that we call “less than perfect,” all that sends ripples out on the water, is needed for existence. For duality-reality is born and revolves around the Stillness, in waves of life manifesting. We create our own waves called the life we know. But all of us know that stillness, as well.

And it is ALL holy. It is ALL God.

Source: Ashland Resource Center

A Course in Miracles, a spiritual teaching that stresses the importance of forgiveness, defines forgiveness in this way: Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred.  It does not pardon sins and make them real.  It sees there was no sin.  And in that view are all your sins forgiven.

So, true forgiveness is about taking full responsibility for your experiences.  The people that push our buttons or disturb our peace of mind in any way, whether it be a slight annoyance or downright hatred and anger, are really just symbolic aspects of what needs to be forgiven and healed within.  Most will not likely recognize this because what needs forgiveness within is usually unconscious, so it has been denied and projected outward.  But the only way to be free of it is to forgive your own dark side as seen in others instead of continuing to project it.  You do this by changing your mind about your projected images, recognizing that anyone that triggers upset within you is just a figure in a dream, an illusion, then seeing them as innocent because it’s only a dream.  Thus, it will register in your unconscious mind as you being innocent.  As the Course teaches, “As you see him, you will see yourself.”

This forgiveness process translates to the fact that no one can take your inner peace away from you except by your own decision.  Simple?  Yes.  Easy?  No way José, because the ego part of us loves to be right, and would much rather have us be right than be at peace.  However, the ego part of us can be undone through this forgiveness process, thus making true forgiveness eventually easier to apply as we go along.  In the meantime, this is a practice that takes time, discipline, and willingness to develop.

Now, some folks may think this true forgiveness stuff is a form of denial.  Well, it is, but not in the conventional sense.  As it was put in the best selling book The Disappearance of the Universe by Gary Renard, “The thought system of love and the thought system of fear are both forms of denial.  One of them, the Holy Spirit’s teaching, leads to Heaven by uncovering and reversing the ego’s denial of the truth.”  And as the Course puts it about the inner peace that is a result of this forgiveness process, “It denies the ability of anything not of God to affect you.  This is the proper use of denial.”

So, what is the motivation for doing this forgiveness work?  Well, from my experience, one has to come to a place in his or her life where they realize that nothing outside themselves is going to satisfy them in a permanent way.  No matter what we accomplish here, no matter how many special relationships we maintain, no matter how much money, sex, or any other stimulants that provide instant gratification that we acquire, it will always feel like that something is missing.  That’s because in this world of illusions, something is missing.   What’s missing is our experience of what we really are, the experience of our true Identity as immortal spirit; some may call it Oneness, God, or Heaven, which is described in Disappearance as being “a perfect indescribable ecstasy that never ceases.”  But all un-forgiveness must be removed from the mind in order to experience this “ecstasy” in a permanent way.

As it was put in the Disappearance book, “When you are ready to accept that the only thing that really matters in your illusory lifetime is the successful completion of your lessons of true forgiveness, then you will be truly wise indeed.”  For me, personally, I have nothing else better to do so my number one goal is to forgive the hell out of everyone (for what they haven’t really done) while remembering to laugh in the process.  Giddy up!

Mike Lemieux is the author of Dude, Where’s My Jesus Fish?, a book based on the books of best selling author Gary Renard, who also wrote the Foreword for Mike’s book.  For more information, you can visit Mike’s website: www.giddyupmikey.com

Source: Ashland Daily Tidings