Inspiration
Therefore, understand well that The Way of the Heart requires the willingness to commit.
What I learned
In lesson 4 I recognized my desire to awaken, to follow The Way of the Heart. To accomplish this Jeshua is telling me that I must commit my willingness to this decision. Total commitment guarantees that I will succeed. It would be easy for me to become discouraged as I see signs I have not made that full commitment. I am aware of anger, fear, and suffering in my life. My body expresses my lack of commitment to my decision as pain and disease. But I also notice that Jeshua said, “…the way to which you devote the whole of your attention by granting your WILLINGNESS that the way be followed.”
Willingness is what is being asked of me. It is not expected that I make a decision to awaken and then it is done. If that were the case there would not be A Course in Miracles with many pages and 365 lessons. If that were the case The Way of Mastery would not contain three parts, each intended to be studied a year a time. Rather than be discouraged when I see that my decision is conflicted, when I want both to maintain my ego creation, and to awaken from it, I choose to be grateful to have seen the conflict. Because I have become aware of the conflict, I am able to make a choice and each time I choose right-mindedness, I become stronger in my commitment.
Inspiration
And when you change your mind, you literally change what you experience in the world or the solar system in which your self spins.
What I learned
This jumped out at me because it seems to say that it is not the circumstances that change, but my experience of them that changes.
Inspiration
It culminates with the recognition that you do not live Life at all, but rather that Life is living you.
What I learned
I have never thought of it this way before; that life is living me, but this feels right. Jeshua goes on to talk about developing the witness, the part of me that watches from a place of non-attachment. I have been trying to do this and I understand even more how important this is. It takes some vigilance to put this into practice. I have to stop and allow myself to feel this and that is a habit I don’t yet have. It feels like work right now, but only the part where I pay attention, and lend my willingness to witness what is happening around me and through me without judging it.
I visualize myself as rising above the situation and watching what is happening as if it were a movie. I am aware of Myron’s feelings and actions, but I know it is just a movie. Often I get pulled into the drama and temporarily forget it is only a movie. I get caught up in the emotions and forget to be the witness. But because I have made a commitment to this Way, I eventually pull my attention from being Myron to watching Myron. It just takes willingness to practice and it gets easier.
When I master this way of being I will know peace. Jeshua says, “In that peace, the breath of God will move through you. And you will become as the wind, knowing not where you came from or where you are going, but you will abide in perfect trust and perfect rest. The world may not know you, but your Father will know you – and you will know your God.” Later he says that I will be as a conduit through which mystery lives itself and through which Love pours forth.
I don’t know what to say about that except it has changed my life. I seem to have gained an understanding from it that I was unaware of before. What must it feel like to know yourself, not as a separate being, but as that through which God lives. I don’t know, or rather I don’t remember, but I am willing to. Jeshua says to imagine, “… a force and a Source that knows how to express itself through you in such a way that it is constantly and only serving the atonement, the awakening of all of creation to the truth of God’s presence.” Dear God, I have trouble even imagining and I find it hard to conceive of such an existence, but I feel compelled to open myself to the possibility. I want this and I cannot imagine anything in life of more value.
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.