Saturday, February 16, 2008

The Homeless Man

The Homeless Man

It was a cold winter's day that Sunday. The parking lot to the church was filling up quickly. I noticed as got out of my car fellow church members were whispering among themselves as they walked in the church.

As I got closer I saw a man leaned up against the wall outside the church. He was almost laying down as if he was asleep. He had on a long trench coat that was almost in shreds and a hat topped his head, pulled down so you could not see his face. He wore shoes that looked 30 years old, too small for his feet, with holes all over them, his toes stuck out.

I assumed this man was homeless, and asleep, so I walked on by through the doors of the church.
We all fellowshipped for a few minutes, and someone brought up the man laying outside. People snickered and gossiped but no one bothered to ask him to come in, including me.

A few moments later church began. We all waited for the Preacher to take his place and to give us the Word, when the doors to the church opened.

In came the homeless man walking down the aisle with his head down. People gasped and whispered and made faces. He made his way down the aisle and up onto the pulpit where he took off his hat and coat. My heart sank. There stood our preacher ...he was the "homeless man".

No one said a word. The preacher took his Bible and laid it on his stand. "Folks, I don't think I have to tell you what I am preaching about today."

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Friday, February 15, 2008

What Is Enlightenment

Enlightenment as Conscious Metamorphosis:

"The material contained herein is representational of the thinking of a new mindedness. It is an absolutely enlightened order of thought. Face it, the human race is finally going to have look squarely at the idea of atonement or resurrection or a dramatic shift in self-identity or whatever else you call it." Master Teacher

The Necessity for the Transformation

Since the beginning of time, human consciousness has been misguidedly directed by its own continuous perception of fear, conflict, suffering, and death. The fundamental dilemma of objective perception is that we perceive something outside of ourselves and therefore are caught in a continuing posture of defense/attack. We seem caught in an eternal loop where as individuals or as a species, we react to one problem or crisis and then on to another. In this scenario, the avoidance of death alone appears to be the major purpose of life. Until now we have had to be content with band-aid solutions, the proverbial rearranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic. Until now, we have watched how solutions always lead to more problems or merely to the change of their form.

Certainly there must be another manner to employ the passionate energy of the human race than to constantly engage in conflict, revenge, war, and suffering! There must be another way to be!


A Course In Miracles asks us to look again:

"The separated ones have invented many 'cures' for what they believe to be the 'ills of the world.' But the one thing they do not do is to question the reality of the problem. Yet its effects cannot be cured because the problem is not real."

Have you ever really questioned the underlying assumption of your own reality? Have you ever considered the consequences of the quantum revolution to you personally? ( click here to listen to excerpts of the Quantum Awakening CD)

What if there is no reality except the meaning you personally give to anything? Stop one moment and realize that you have no “proof” of any existence here except the perception and interpretation of your own mind. Every conclusion you have ever drawn, every observation you ever made, every person you ever met, every word you’ve ever read, every sensation you’ve ever experienced, every interpretation, all “facts”, are only your idea of them. Nothing has reality outside of you.

"The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause. And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is meaningless. Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. Nothing perceived without it means anything. And where there is no meaning, there is chaos." A Course In Miracles, Chapter 21
In the unprecedented condition of fear and anxiety that besets much of Mankind at this place in time, an uncompromisingly true idea offers inevitable and immediate deliverance. As Teachers of A Course In Miracles, we welcome an opportunity to reveal to the world that there is available, right here and now, a mind-training of continuing moments of giving and forgiving each other, that does indeed lead, through a very real physical, mental, and emotional transformation of ourselves, to a recognition that each of us are a Whole part of the Creative Reality of All That There Is.

We are certain in our hearts and minds that this new understanding of a True Universal Relationship must and will bring bright innovative solutions to the often devastating problems of aggregate human existence that have beset Mankind since the beginning of time.

"The opposite of love is fear, but what is All-Encompassing can have no opposite.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God."


Welcome to the transformational masterpiece of A Course In Miracles!

The Goal of Awakening Is Enlightenment

"True light that makes true vision possible is not the light the body's eyes behold. It is a state of mind that has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all. And thus what is the same is seen as one, while what is not the same remains unnoticed, for it is not there.

This is the light that shows no opposites, and vision, being healed, has power to heal. This is the light that brings your peace of mind to other minds, to share it and be glad that they are one with you and with themselves. This is the light that heals because it brings single perception, based upon one frame of reference, from which one meaning comes." A Course In Miracles, Lesson 108

Drawn from the deep recesses of the mind through the wisdom of a moment of inner listening to the Voice for God, is an experience A Course In Miracles calls a “Holy Instant”. It lies past the doctrinal debates of established religion, beyond the conceptual controversy, at the core of every scientific discovery, at the heart of every theology. It is simply a purity of spiritual experience that is the essence of all religion.

In this experience lies the intimacy of true communication, the healing essence of love, the creativity of the mind, the converting nature of unifying thought, and the recognition of the Oneness of Creation. It is this experience of the singularity of peace for which humanity yearns. It extends beyond all religious boundaries and yet is derived from an action of stillness that enlightened teachers have always taught.

The Course In Miracles is presenting a thought system espoused by Jesus, but which extends beyond all religious boundaries. It was promoted by Socrates, delighted in by the masters of all eastern and western religious traditions, and, is advocated, perhaps unknowingly, by present day quantum physicists in the recognition of the unreality of observed form.

Every great quantum discovery points to it. Neils Bohr tells us that the “fuzzy and nebulous world of the atom only sharpens into concrete reality when an observation is made”. From Einstein’s theory of relativity where time is relative to the observer, to Wheeler’s self-observing universe, it is clear that the world you see is a product of your own mind. No one argues the fact of it…that is, not until it comes to their own personal experience. What if I am totally responsible for the world I see?

"The time has come on earth for the maturing and emergence of individuals with genuinely expanded ranges of consciousness/mind. Historically humans have described these individuals as masters or avatars or adepts or initiates or even saviors or man/gods. The accelerated evolution or even revolution of mind now in progress on the planet involves the metamorphosis of what can be termed later-day masters.

Not incidentally, the original model for all master teachers in regard to individual transformation to spiritual man or Son of Godship or God-manhood is Master Brother Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Not only is he the model but indeed, his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) is the original catechism of the methods to be used to bring about the mind and body transformation of every apparently separated consciousness, to the true conception of self as singular universal truth. Obviously all the method of salvation you could ever, ever need is the practice of “Resist not evil.” This must lead to totally unqualified forgiveness which is finally the simple recognition that nothing real could ever be threatened nor could it be separated from everything, which is what God and truth is.

If it is true then, that this knowledge of a single identity that is eternal happiness and peace can only be gained through a spiritual maturation or mind transformation, whose mind is it that must change? Listen to me now. I say to you with unqualified certainty that the individual consciousness that finally brought and will bring eternal happiness, peace and love to mankind is and was yours. It could never have happened in any other fashion. As one of these later-day masters, I am absolutely certain of your divine brotherhood and saviorship. Literally, as master of your thoughts you are master of the world. Only through your resurrection of mind can the world be saved from the illusion of fear and annihilation."

Master Teacher
Endeavor Academy Online

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Be Thyself




"It will be a marvellous thing - the true personality of man - when we see it. It will grow naturally and simply, flower-like, or as a tree grows. It will not be at discord. It will never argue or dispute. It will not prove things. It will know everything. And yet it will not busy itself about knowledge. It will have wisdom. Its value will not be measured by material things. It will have nothing. And yet it will have everything, and whatever one takes from it, it will still have, so rich will it be. It will not be always meddling with others, or asking them to be like itself. It will love them because they will be different. And yet, while it will not meddle with others, it will help all, as a beautiful thing helps us by being what it is. The personality of man will be very wonderful. It will be as wonderful as the personality of a child.

In its development it will be assisted by Christianity, if men desire that; but if men do not desire that, it will develop none the less surely. For it will not worry itself about the past, nor care whether things happened or did not happen. Nor will it admit any laws but its own laws; nor any authority but its own authority. Yet it will love those who sought to intensify it, and speak often of them. And of these Christ was one. "Know Thyself" was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, "Be Thyself" shall be written. And the message of Christ to man was simply "Be Thyself." That is the secret of Christ."

Oscar Wilde