Garden
The Quiet Garden of Forgiveness
Love, too, would set a feast before you, on a table covered with a spotless cloth, set in a quiet garden where no sound but singing and a softly joyous whispering is ever heard. T-19.IV.A.16:1
“There is a garden at the foot of this lovely statue with masses and masses of soft white lilies and little paths between to slowly walk and talk with Jesus. There is a fountain nearby and the forever trickling sound of water reminds us to leave the desert of wrong-minded thinking.” (Winnie)
Forgiveness is truly at the heart of the practice of A Course In Miracles. All of us have had moments of shifting our perception of a difficult situation, and finding peace. On this page I offer you the space to tell us about the stories that have stayed in your mind, times when you felt a real change occur in the way you were looking at a problem or upset. Maybe you were encountering aggressiveness in somone, or were being judged and belittled. Perhaps it was a loved one who had left you, or even a pet that had died. Or maybe there was fear, a threat in your life to you or to a loved one. In all these situations, at one time or another you have found peace beyond the pain, release from shame and sadness, and comfort and freedom in their place. There was always a presence there with you, the company of one who loves you and guides you to see differently. If you have had moments of finding that clear presence, please share it with us here.
A little more technically speaking, these would be moments when you reversed the projection and saw that the problem was not outside you, but with you, your perceptions and thoughts. A sudden moment of clarity perhaps when you saw that the upset was having pushed Love away, and not really what was happening outside you. Or perhaps it was just a moment when despite the upset or problem, you felt safely accompanied and that helped you remain unaffected by the problem, to get a little distance from it.
Please try to write concisely if your story requires a lot of explaining (and teach me something about brevity!). Also, please try to share from the heart and not from the head. It is always nice to hear the simple sincerity behind these inspiring stories.
Re The Rapture: Well, since ACIM says the world is in our mind it would be happy news to have the world end by everyone choosing Love instead of Hate…..that would certainly be Happy News! And then we’d all go ‘poof!’
Here’s a video to alleviate your worries about your pets ‘after the rapture!’ I’m not quite sure if this is serious or just silly? Suppose it depends how your D.M. decides to look at it?
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/8-great-rapture-day-moments.html?page=2
Re the Rapture: Just saw a funny bumper sticker: In case of the rapture, give this car to my mother-in-law.
I also had an inspirational thought: That the rapture really WILL happen today but no one will be taken because we are all ‘sinners.’ We all chose to separate from God. As Ken W. says, ‘Loving people don’t come here!’
Who is really “here,” then, is the only real question.
Who is the “you” who are living in this world?
Spirit is immortal, and immortality is a constant state.
It is as true now as it ever was or ever will be!
And Ken, who is – by all accounts – “enlightened”
Did not go “poof!”
A little question to be raised, perhaps….
*hold on – a think I heard a noise outside my door*
*brains*brains*brains* what the…wha??
Now.
Where were we….ah yes….
Could you come a little closer to the screen please?
Just a little – yeah, that’s it!
Lean in…. yes….
Nice hair!….
Just a little closer, please!
re.501 what Jean said; that is what I would consider the real rapture – when we all as the One Son choose Love and let the false fade away forever with no one left behind. (-: I think poof happens when all the “aspects” have made the final choice never to flip-flop again. Poofiness here we come!
Until we Choose Once Again, that is – for me!
😛
I was just kidding……I know that you all don’t know me well….but how can you if I don’t share? I agree Pam…..it is just that we can approach ACIM on so many levels….so sometimes it is fun to ‘play’ with the ideas that present themselves — like this ‘rapture.’ I had the same thought you shared – but then thought – gee if people really got that no one left earth because we are all believing in ‘separation’ — it could be the start to that wanting to choose love. ALTHOUGH – now I’m guilty because I am thinking the world is real…..I mean, seriously, we couldn’t have a freakin’ conversation if we really tried to apply all concepts in ACIM to all things here! But still, it is fun sometimes!
Another funny is the two Jehovah’s Witnesses came to my door since I last posted…..they were inviting people the the ‘last supper’ which is a day they celebrate each year (the only ‘holiday’ they have) — I asked they why they are doing this since today is the rapture? But I had a fun smile on my face — they just smiled quietly – suppose I would need to go to their celebration to find out how they are experiencing this.
Does anyone remember the Simpson’s episode on the rapture? It was very funny.
Interesting that Bernard is here and Ken will be giving his first talk – the Seminar on ‘The Joy of Learning’ today…..the day of the ‘rapture!’
Love,
Jean
Jean,and you’re getting to know us too. Tongue in cheek and wry humour are a little difficult to pull off in written format,at least for me, but I picked up on the lightness of your comments and there is a tendency to do “blah,blah poof” jokes around here.
Wishing everyone a “rapturous” day.
Hi All,
Thanks, Pam….yes, you are right in that I am getting to all of you, as well. It’s always fun to meet other parts of our ‘split mind!’ I met Bernard and Pat today – I asked Ken if he was there and he pulled me around the the room to the far left near the front and kind of pushed me into Bernard’s lap! Later, I did see Ken giving Bernard a good hair rustling!! Just as Bernard had said he would! haha — It was a great seminar — I’ll leave it to the Mayor to fill you all in. It was so nice to meet them both, though!
Love,
Jean
Tex/Zenmaster – you wrote this as an answer to my “stuck in the stone-poem”:
Relax my dear – you are dreaming!
How would an Army act in dreams?
Any.Way.At.All!
What is valuable IS you!
-this loving whack on my head with your Zen stick brought me right back to this moment
(bowing)
Well done Nina/Grasshopper!
My work here is done!
(bowing in return)
Ours is a happy dojo – is it not?
In response to Nina’s and Tex’s stone poem conversation :::smile:::
::Nameste on a crowded subway::
::Smile on an elevator::
♡
I know I’m a bit late with the rapture conversation but I wanted to chime in on a few things.
Tex, I see you have gone to your favorite place, the field of poppies for the rapture (:
So pretty your new gravatar.
I don’t think I even remember how to create a gravatar.
I like the idea of changing things up a bit and at the same time I also see how attached I am to the symbol I have chosen to represent me in this world of cyber space. I may try a bit of shapeshifting now that the world hasn’t ended.
Jean, I missed that episode of The Simpson’s-did a WiKi search and got the geist of it. Some of the best writing on television is for cartoons. Family Guy is my favorite. In fact the creator of The Family Guy, Seth McFarlane has been given the green light to bring back the Flintstones. After all this reality TV it time to go back to the stone age.
I see now that my posting has nothing to do with forgiveness-time to go poof.
“Time to go poof!” Love it.
Time for more Ken today. Time to get more n’lightened. Okay, just lighter. N lighter. So close, lighter, and laughter.
Wishing you all a great day, from Queensland to Oslo, Singapore to Lethbridge, New York to La Paz… This is one big Village.
Ah, the Treachery Of Images –
“Ce n’est pas un coquelicot!”
But rather, just an O’Keeffe!
And really, not the end of the world –
just the last judgment… an apt metaphor at any rate.
The world will end in laughter, because it is a place of tears.
Where there is laughter, who can longer weep?
See? We had it all the time. We just didn’t know it.
I’m sorry, folks. I know there’s so much to catch you all up on, but it has been very busy over here. I’m just settling behind the computer now at nearly 10 pm, having just arrived back from a dinner with our beloved Zafu. I’ll have to try to find some time to put up some photos from our time with Annie. It’s quite unbelievable, but the morning we left Annie’s to come down to Temecula, our camera stopped functioning and we just can’t seem to get it to work – so no pictures of the Academy yet. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll find the time to get it looked into.
Today’s class was also wonderful, as you would expect. I’m afraid I’ve been very lazy over here – my note-taking has taken a back seat. I’m preferring to just be present with the Maestro himself and try to listen to the ‘music between the notes’. I think that’s the only way I’m going to be able to take another small step forward right now. But do not despair! I have consulted with Jean and she, being a far more diligent student than the mayor, has kindly obliged to share her studious notes with all of us here (thank the Heavens!). Look for her contributions on the Workshop Comments page.
Wishing you all a blessed evening/day, wherever you are.
Bernard – I so understand what you mean. Just lean back and enjoy. The experience of being there, being fully present must be such a joy. I soak in that feeling with you.
Love,
a
Bernard – that is exactly what I do while in Temecula (except for one or two liners written right in the blue book!)
Thank you so much for-as always-thinking of all of us and asking Jean to share!
Gratefully, melody
Had to use babblefish Tex cuz I don’t speak a word of French~looked like a poppy to me (:
Yes Bernard just soak it in! Big hugs to you and Pat.
No need for the sorry,Like a* and Melody said just relax and go with the flow.
Big support, Bernard, to listening between the notes /words. Loves to you and Pat
Bernard, that´s exactly what you should do, only be there enjoying and bathing with all that love. Lots of love to you and Pat.
Thanks for the inclusion Bernard. I’ve been away for a few days and just popped by to catch up. Enjoy your state of BEEEEEing.
I love your new pic, too. It does look like an O’Keefe of a poppy.
Bernard, I was so gratified when I was there to hear Winnie burning that pencil down just beside me. All I could do was drink in the words with the view of Ken speaking before us. I am so grateful to her and Jean for bringing us these notes, and wish I could pay back some of the vision I was enthralled under.
Bev – the flight from Paris direct to LA flew directly over Lethbridge, and I was really tickled to think that I knew someone in that lovely little town just 25,000 feet below me. Guess you didn’t see me waving?
I have told myself:
“I am one who becomes terrified when I meet certain people, and then if I don’t have full control, I may fall into an abyss of domination. It is LIFE -IMPORTANT to foresee these situations and prepare for them. I am this way. Life proves it to me.”
I forgive myself for believing in these thoughts.
It is ONLY when I believe in them that I am caught. But it IS just a thought – and the only power I have is to believe it – or not.
I have condemned myself to a life with horror by believing in this story about “me.”
And beyond this horror-story-me is this river of eternal Love. Unchangeable. Available.
So I have landed on this delicious thought today:
“Maybe I don’t need to believe that fear- and- control-thought?
I see how fast I am whirled into the old familiar story – but gradually I am aware of “there I go again” and can make a decision not to see it as TRUE any longer.
And I am so grateful that the Holy Spirit will do the rest.
{{{Nina}}}
Really very good point Nina: “And I am so grateful that the Holy Spirit will do the rest.”
Lots of hugs,
Lisi
I love this description of how difficult the simple may seem when we “practice”
Buddha’s Dogs
I’m at a day-long meditation retreat, eight hours of watching
my mind with my mind,
and I already fell asleep twice and nearly fell out of my chair,
and it’s not even noon yet.
In the morning session, I learned to count my thoughts, ten in
on minute, and the longest
was to leave and go to San Anselmo and shop, then find an outdoor cafe and order a glass
of Sancerre, smoked trout with roasted potatoes and baby
carrots and a bowl of gazpacho.
But I stayed and learned to name my thoughts, so far they are:
wanting, wanting, wanting,
wanting, wanting, wanting, wanting, wanting, judgment,
sadness. Don’t identify with your
thoughts, the teacher says, you are not your personality, not your
ego-identification,
then he bangs the gong for lunch. Whoever, whatever I am is
given instruction
in the walking meditation and the eating meditation and walks
outside with the other
meditators, and we wobble across the lake like The Night of the
Living Dead.
I meditate slowly, falling over a few times because I kept my
foot in the air too long,
towards a bench, sit slowly down, and slowly eat my sandwich,
noticing the bread,
(sourdough), noticing the taste, (tuna, sourdough), noticing
the smell, (sourdough, tuna),
thanking the sourdough, the tuna, the ocean, the boat, the
fisherman, the field, the grain,
the farmer, the Saran Wrap that kept this food fresh for this
body made of food and desire
and the hope of getting through the rest of this day without
dying of boredom.
Sun then cloud then sun. I notice a maple leaf on my sandwich.
It seems awfully large.
Slowly brushing it away, I feel so sad I can hardly stand it, so I
name my thoughts; they are:
sadness about my mother, judgment about my father, wanting
the child I never had.
I notice I’ve been chasing the same thoughts like dogs around
the same park most of my life,
notice the leaf tumbling gold to the grass. The gong sounds,
and back in the hall.
I decide to try lying down meditation, and let myself sleep. The
Buddha in my dream is me,
surrounded by dogs wagging their tails, licking my hands.
I wake up
for the forgiveness meditation, the teacher saying, never put
anyone out of your heart,
and the heart opens and knows it won’t last and will have to
open again and again,
chasing those dogs around and around in the sun then cloud
then sun.
~ Susan Browne ~
(Buddha’s Dogs)
This is taken from “A day in the life of compassion” By Stephen Levine ( see www. levinetalks dotdom
Just a little different wording maybe – which helps me hear it even better –
oh the lovely last sentence…
As an experiment in compassion, because compassion is so much greater than the fear and judgment that insists it is the basis for the often unreasonable, unloving, rational mind, imagine that within the presence by which you know you are present there exists a love that knows no boundary. Imagine that this presence sees you with the eyes of infinite loving kindness and you that in this very moment it has wiped what ever you believed was your karmic slate clean. That from this very moment you have been forgiven for every unskillful action you have ever done. How remarkable that feels, how seemingly impossible and how completely liberating. Now imagine that you can see yourself through those eyes of infinite mercy and look beyond yourself into a world of self-negating suffering and merciless indifference and see the agony so many are experiencing and begin to embrace them, to wash their feet and their hands with the golden light that emanates from your heart of infinite compassion. If the mind begins to wander the labyrinths of fear disguised as the distrusts of rational thought recall for a moment the words on Gandhi’s tomb which entreat us to take no action without keeping the poorest person in the world in mind. And continue with the process of blessing the wretched and the poor keeping in mind how the most compassionate heart in the world might do it. See as Jesus sees, as the Buddha sees, as the eyes of the great prophets of every faith saw. And see yourself as one of the many no longer separated by fear but joined by an overwhelming care for each other. Feel how the Presence in presence is the pure awareness which is pure love. Notice how only thought keeps it from being so.
Feeling the compassion inherent in our sense of presence that has no boundary but that which we think it does expand beyond thinking and flood the world with mercy. Let it come through you and let its blessing extend out to all those too wounded and numb to feel and all who call out for the end of suffering. Let it feed the hungry heart of loneliness and despair that populate the world. Let it, like Avalokiteshvara, like Quan Yin, like The Mother of Mercy, say to those in need, “My arms are always around you all you need do is put your head on my shoulder.”
Wonderful examples of “looking”,Thanks Nina
I had a lucid dream again. It was so wonderful to know that it WAS a dream! Everything seemed exactly as it is in my waking-dreams – as material as here, and the senses are as strong as now – I was explaining this to a friend in the dream. I wondered if i wanted to change anything – but there was nothing unpleasant, just the usual images of “multitude”. Then I remembered: “I could just forgive this dream anyway!” and with that thought, a rapture flowed through my system.
Then a van ran fast toward me – it was marked “Bills” – and >i though ohmygod will I be handed a big bill I cannot pay?” but the van did a sharp turn and parked with its nose away from me.
I do not owe anybody anything.
And vice-versa 🙂
And so I wanted to share some parts of lesson153 that I think many of us are doing today.
. 3 The sense of threat the world encourages is so much deeper, and so far beyond the frenzy and intensity of which you can conceive, that you have no idea of all the devastation it has wrought.
W-pI.153.5. You are its slave. 2 You know not what you do, in fear of it. 3 You do not understand how much you have been made to sacrifice, who feel its iron grip upon your heart. 4 You do not realize what you have done to sabotage the holy peace of God by your defensiveness.
W-pI.153.13. You who have played that you are lost to hope, abandoned by your Father, left alone in terror in a fearful world made mad by sin and guilt; be happy now. 2 That game is over. 3 Now a quiet time has come, in which we put away the toys of guilt, and lock our quaint and childish thoughts of sin forever from the pure and holy minds of Heaven’s children and the Son of God.
W-pI.153.14. We pause but for a moment more, to play our final, happy game upon this earth. 2 And then we go to take our rightful place where truth abides and games are meaningless. 3 So is the story ended. 4 Let this day bring the last chapter closer to the world, that everyone may learn the tale he reads of terrifying destiny, defeat of all his hopes, his pitiful defense against a vengeance he can not escape, is but his own deluded fantasy. 5 God’s ministers have come to waken him from the dark dreams this story has evoked in his confused, bewildered memory of this distorted tale. 6 God’s Son can smile at last, on learning that it is not true.
Yes, Nina !
L153 was excellent today.
I loved also..
“Salvation can be thought of as a game that happy children play”
and
“Your practicing now will take on the earnestness of love,….”
Nina,Lovely. This one stood out for me…” I do not owe anybody anything. And vice-versa.” May I add…But to freely share we have ALL.(-:
Pumpkins.
I have been soo under the spell today. I digged up many anthills/nests under my garden today, and threw them away, and poured salted water on some of the nests. I was so angry at those ants, saw them as eroding the ground under my home, really hating them – knowing all the time that this was just ego. And after i had thrown a lot of them away. the guilt came as an avalance. Then I had red wine and lots of chocolates!! and I asked H.S. for a correction.
Then I came to the D-U- board and read a post about death-wishes to beat
God to it and that was what I needed: my judgment of all of this fell away, identification gone.
I forgive this dream
I “woke” up in a dream a couple nights ago. I’m walking along a high cliff side and I get to a place where I can no longer go forward. I remember that there had been a fork in the road a ways back. I retrace my steps and I get to an obstacle that I don’t think I can get over; I worry I’ll fall down the cliff. Then I think “this is only a dream” and immediately I’m on a safe path away from the cliff side.
So this is the section of 153 that speaks to me:
W-pI.153.9. We look past dreams today, and recognize that we need no defense because we are created unassailable, without all thought or wish or dream in which attack has any meaning. 2 Now we cannot fear, for we have left all fearful thoughts behind. 3 And in defenselessness we stand secure, serenely certain of our safety now, sure of salvation; sure we will fulfill our chosen purpose, as our ministry extends its holy blessing through the world.
Like Nina I also had many forgiveness opportunities today; the capacity of my mind to judge is “mind boggling” Feeling more accepting of “baby steps” today. Bev(:
Thanks for the great contributions on this page, Nina and Bev. I’m soaking them up. “Chocolates and wine” – what a winning forgiveness combination! Hehe.
Love the alliteration in Lesson 153.9.3…
The capacity of my mind to judge is ‘mind-boggling’ – what a great way to express that thought. So true, and to think that we do it, indeed, to do just that – boggle our mind till it can’t think! But it looks like you’re beating it at its game, Bev!
A suggestion by Winnie led to some lovely changes to the Forgiveness page… Let’s meet in her beautiful Garden more often.
( oh boy, the lilies are all in bloom and oh how sweet their scent!)
Wow Nina and Bev, you both had lucid dreams and in that state neither of you wanted to do anything other than forgive the dream – brilliant + + +
I have met people who would just about kill for a lucid dream, reason being, that they love the enormous feeling of power it apparently gives.
Excellent work !
Nina & Bev – thank you for “speeding us all along” at the level of one mind!
I too, had many forgiveness opps yesterday and will most likely have some today – and yes, Nina I, too am going to have wine and chocolates tonight, after going out for lunch today and dinner this evening. 🙂 *I have already asked for Help! 🙂
Love and Gratitude to all,
m
When I looked at the ants working overtime and felt the old hatred, I got a sudden thought that I could just allow all those feelings of hatred and anger, and forgive them. That brought me down one level to the fear of my home being eroded by invasion-armies…could maybe be a symbol of what we feared we did to God’s Home and power? It felt really scary – like any minute the whole structure might crumble – like an earth-quake – and then the guilt was there – and the wish for punishment –
and I don’t want to believe in all this any longer
please take these beliefs
June 4 Standing before the window in my healing-room, looking out at the ants’ work last day: new heaps of sand meticulously dug out from beneath my house, and spread out on the tiles on the terrace. They use the weeds in the springs between the tiles as camouflage, and dig their entrance to freedom there. In August they will swarm out in billions. I notice that I don’t feel any wishes to harm them any longer. I don’t want to win the fight any longer.I have wanted that fight to get away from Love, to keep the “me”-identity – or what I have believed to be “me”.
I am turning the classical radio on, when the connection is broken, and there seem to be several channels playing on top of each other. It is the same feeling I had when I woke up from this mornings chaotic dreams.
It strikes me that the radio may pick up the chaos in my mind – we’re electronically linked – and I choose to forgive it. I am smiling as I look forward to noticing what turns the connection ON again in the radio.
With the white noise low in the background, I sit down with todays’ lesson: nr.155 – I will step back and let Him lead the way.
W-pI.155.8. Such is salvation’s call, and nothing more. 2 It asks that you accept the truth, and let it go before you, lighting up the path of ransom from illusion. 3 It is not a ransom with a price. 4 There is no cost, but only gain. 5 Illusion can but seem to hold in chains the holy Son of God. 6 It is but from illusions he is saved. 7 As they step back, he finds himself again.
As I sit and practice “3 I will step back and let Him lead the way, For I would walk along the road to Him.
I am taken back to the house we lived from I was 2-6 years. There was a church nearby, and the graveyard with its owls and rabbits was my favorite playground. I used to play there alone each day, and felt safe, loved and protected there. I was in God’s garden. Now I sense myself walking towards the church, and an extraordinary feeling embraces me. This was “the Sunday-feeling” – God’s day. I am walking toward His house in rapture as a little child, and I am re-living that now. I am walking along the road to Him. My favorite Eastern Hymn is singing in my mind:
The bold letters above turned themselves on – on my blog they came in 18 pts.. I tried to edit them to no avail. 🙂
And the radio has cleared up, just as my mind
If you want to hear “Easter Morning eases the Sorrow”, you can listen on my blog – ninotschka dot wordpress dot com
Hi Nina….went to your site but the silly thing is is FRENCH!! LOL! And I couldn’t find the song…..not knowing French……….
Jean
PS…….makes me wonder — is this site – the village — in French in France? It’s in English here! Never even thought about that before…..silly me!
Jean
I see that I did not write the address correctly – silly me (-:
http://ninotchka44 dot wordpress dot com ( I don’t know if it is OK to write it here, Bernard, please tell me)
Jean, please just google Ninotchka44 and you’ll find me on the top of the results. I did not write the address correctly yesterday, sorry about the confusion
Nina, I’ve been watching the forgiviness unfold with you’re ant problem. Wonderful. But I keep having one silly thought that isn’t about forgivness. The thought is….Wow, Norway must have some really huge ants. Silly I know but I must of thought it 6 or 7 times now.(-:
hehe the ants are infinitesimal small, m’dear. But they are really loyal to their place and purpose, which is nourishing the larvae and the queens. We have huge ants too, but they live in the forest ( as far as I know.)
I have had such a crappy-feeling day you can’t imagine – like nothing good happened at all the last days. I read on the D.U group that I should forgive my resistance – and puff went the bad feelings. Just being aware enough to see what is going on is enough. Crucial step, though!