There are several ideas in this section which inspired me.
Inspiration
Grace does not descend until your Father knows that you are willing to prepare a place to receive it.
What I learned
I have been preparing a space for a long time now. I do it by noticing the thoughts which keep me from receiving and asking the Holy Spirit for help changing my mind. Jeshua uses the analogy of the master gardener. When I have done nothing to prepare for grace it is as if my self is hard ground. Grace descends as a gentle rain and cannot penetrate. As I notice these thoughts which cause anger, fear, guilt and pain, and choose to look at them with the Holy Spirit with a willingness to see them differently, I am working the soil. I am loosening it and pulling at the roots of my fear. Then when the grace descends as that gentle rain it is able to sink deep into my consciousness where the fear has found a place and wash it away.
Inspiration
Of all that has been given that can continue – and will continue to serve you the greatest will be the simple five-minute practice of abiding as Christ. And observing all that you see, all that you feel, all that you think, as though a perfectly awakened Christ was the only one sitting in the chair.
What I learned
I think this jumped out at me because as soon as Jeshua stops talking about my five minutes as Christ, I quit practicing it. I just don’t feel anything dramatic happen when I do it and so I resist it. It feels good, but only if I add some “doing” to the process, such as using the time to extend love to someone. That is a Christ activity I suppose, so maybe that is a good thing, a good way to practice my Christedness. Anyway, I chose this morning to recommit to this practice and I asked the Holy Spirit to help me release my resistance and see this in the way that is most helpful to me.
Inspiration
Some of you are still seeking to understand the mind by seeing it as something that is locked inside the shape of your skull, and is somehow co-habitating with what you call the gray matter of the brain. Rest assured, your mind is unlimited forever.
What I learned
I have really changed my mind about what the mind is. I was truly locked into this vision the mind as being in me. Now I see that I (as body) am in the mind. My mind is vast beyond anything I can comprehend and the body of Myron is just a thought within it. Is it not just the most amazing thing that I have made this body and personality and set it down in the middle of the exact web of relationships in which to watch it grow and learn? When I think about this, I really do have an inkling of what it feels like to be Christ.
At any rate, within my thinking, I have released the mind from the prison of the body. I can sometimes now, experience myself as separate from the body as well. The body has become an interesting and useful tool for learning and communicating, temporary but extraordinary in its way. I like that I am no longer at war with it. I don’t see it as my enemy, the thing that keeps me from being spiritual. I am not so clear on this all the time, but my clarity is growing.
Inspiration
Rest assured, to the degree that you turn your attention to expressing mastery, to the degree that you use time wisely to be the embodied Christ, when the body drops away and it veils from you no longer the magnificence of the Light you are, the light will not be blinding to you. You will not contract in fear. You will merely let this world go gently and as easily as a child has put away a toy that has been outgrown, because its usefulness is complete.
What I learned
I had always assumed that my fear of death was about losing the world I made. As I have gotten older and perhaps wiser, I have decided that the world I made is not all I thought it was. I think I am going to be ok with leaving it behind. What I am learning is that fear of death is not all about loss. Without the body and the restriction of my self that it allows, I will have to face my unlimited and glorious true self. That sounds like it would be easy and yet I can see things within my life right now that show me that I am afraid of my truth. In fact every painful moment, every doubtful moment, every fearful moment that I indulge in reminds me that I am choosing something besides my glory. Why would I do that if I were not afraid of my radiance? I am willing to let go of that fear and ask the Holy Spirit to help me.
Inspiration
There is no one among you who is not the evolving Christ.
What I learned
A friend told me that Mother Theresa, when asked what she saw when she went into the streets of Calcutta, said: “I see Christ in all his brilliant disguises.” When I remember that everyone is an evolving Christ it helps me to look with Christ eyes and to see the truth behind the story.
All quotes are used by kind permission of the Shanti Christo Foundation. To buy a copy of this profound book visit their website at www.shantichristo.com. I invite your thoughts and comments.