Mayor’s Journal, 4th January, 2011:
2011 – Let’s Get To Work! The Ego-Hangover
The New Year – already?? What happened to November and December? I know time doesn’t exist, but sheesh.
So Christmas and the New Year, not to mention Thanksgiving, have come and gone. All those amazing family celebrations. And to get things started on the right foot this year at the Village I would like you all to submit some of your juicy titbits from these wondrous moments spent in the close company of your loved ones (and of your less-loved ones). After all, if self-honesty is what this is all about, then we have to get stuck into a little personal review from this ‘magical’ end-of-year period, right?
It’s time to take stock. We’re not doing this course because we know it’s going to be peaches and cream the whole way. I mean, what’s the chance that during these past two months of celebrations there wasn’t at least one moment of impatience, of judgment, of excluding someone from your highest consideration. Was everyone you met and whom you dined with during this period included in your mind as a perfect and holy Son of God? I mean, let’s get real. This is your mayor you’re tawkin’ to. After your celebrations there was the party hangover, okay. Now we’re talking about the ego-hangover.
I know Uncle Eustace and cousin Myrtle and nephews Thaddeus and Basil were truly charming and generous as always, but what about the others. Yes, the others. You know the ones I mean. No one escapes feeling at times that they would like someone in particular to be different, to be more sensitive, more participating, more flexible. Or they’d like things to be different. There’s something happening that you don’t like, maybe you wanted things to go differently, maybe things are just not happening the way you wanted (“I can’t believe she just put the salad on the table – she knew it was for later”). Maybe it’s because of someone else, or just ‘life’. But in the back of your mind there’s always someone you’re afraid of disappointing. Someone is not going to understand, is going to get upset. You’ve got to make sure granddad feels included or eats exactly what he wants, and you know the thing you definitely better not say to Auntie Gertrude and the direction the conversation better not take.
I think the true blessing of Thanksgiving and Christmas is not the love we might share between family members. That’s nice, but that’s not it. It is more the burgeoning awareness that despite the love that is sometimes not apparently present, Love is still truly present. It just doesn’t look the way we thought it should. That’s all.
Our sensitivities and upsets, and certainly those of other people, occur only to keep our attention well away from the silent and holy presence that encompasses us all. I, for one, found it funny how I could bridle every time a certain person at my dinner table opened his mouth. It just seemed he was incapable of saying anything sensitive or intelligent. As if he should be something other than the way he was. Why? Why should it be so difficult to include him exactly as he is in my love?
Because then I would have to include myself in that Love.
Inevitably every time we are upset with someone else or the way things are going, we are holding a judgment against ourselves. We don’t really need to dig to find out specifically what it is. We can be pretty sure, however, that it is one version or another of self-condemnation, for not being good enough, for not being acceptable in our own eyes. We have replaced God as judge and executioner. Why bother the Big Kahuna and find out what He really thinks? I can do a better job. In fact, I already know how things turn out.
So when Uncle Benedict opens his mouth and I get upset, it’s because somewhere I have imagined that it’s only when we are coherent, sensitive and ‘intelligent’ that we are acceptable in Love’s eyes. And I hold that exact accusation against myself.
If I knew that no matter how stupid, incoherent and insensitive I really am, Love still accepts and embraces me wholly and completely, then I would just smile and join with my brother in our mutual silliness. It might even become a celebration of silliness, at least the silliness that we could do anything that would exclude us from God’s Love.
What can turbo charge this perception is remembering the specific purpose behind all these upsets – Granddad Hippolytus’, Auntie Gertrude’s, and mine. Now that’s when it becomes really funny. That dinner table which became the breeding ground of tension and unspoken reprimands – it had a purpose, it was designed to fulfil a function.
Love is present, but it must remain unseen. Voilà! That’s it, that’s all.
Every word uttered is focused to take the attention off of the one thing that is so amazingly obvious, and to get the attention back to the illusion, back to appearances. So, another round of “Did you hear about …” followed by a description of some newsy event, the weather, someone’s life details, even just the poor decoration in the recently opened restaurant. Anything will do. As long as the most obvious thing in the world remains unspoken and unmentioned:
LOVE.
Everything points back to Its presence. Their silliness. Our silliness. Everything.
And Love smiles on absolutely unabated.
So let’s welcome these family meetings with open arms. Though we might have been disappointed by them in the past, now we’re protected by a special understanding that there is nothing more to avoid, no troubles that can remove the most obvious Guest in our party. He has come to meet with us, and to meet us where we are. No need for things to be any different from the way they are. Everything is perfect just the way it is.
The perfect result we were seeking for our family meetings does not have a specific shape or form. It is not when everyone leaves with a smile on his or her face, when all the potential problems and pitfalls were avoided. It is when our inner smile stays fixed on the presence of Christ in our family members and sees the Love there, the Love that is simply scared of remembering Itself and makes up a few stories to pass the time together and divert our attention. Tensions and upsets are merely an indication that Love is present, not that it is absent.
If we can manage, even just a little, to see our self-judgments and forgive them when things don’t go quite right, then we bring peace back to the party. And Love has returned once more.
Let us make this year different by making it all the same: let us recognize the efforts we all make to deny Love’s presence among us through our judgments and irritations. Our Guest has come; we can only acknowledge His presence with a gentle smile. We smile at our silly upsets and self-condemnations. We are not up to our expectations – no one is. But we are up to His, no matter how things go.
Mayor’s Journal, 11th January, 2011:
The Blob of OG and My Blessed Insanity
We can learn from anything, right? Reassure me now.
Okay, I accept your agreement.
So these are the thoughts that came to me today.
It is craziness to see something that is not there.
Likewise, it is craziness not to see something that is there.
So what happens when I find I display symptoms of both conditions?
Oy veh.
When the dog refuses to stand still while I towel him dry after he comes in thoroughly muddy from a walk, and I feel myself starting to get upset,
When the vacuum cleaner systematically bumps into furniture as I guide it (gently) through the house and I feel frustration starting to rise (because I might be in a hurry),
When I pull the car out of the driveway and someone shoots past me much too fast on this tiny road missing me by a foot, and I start to feel total fear and then anger,
When I have to leave a message with someone in the administration because they never answer their phone and they say they will call back but never do, and I start to feel this sharp sense of injustice,
When I go out of my way to find nice Christmas presents for family members and receive nothing in return, not even a sincere thank you, and I start to feel a sense of being used and ingratitude,
Whenever I start to feel any of these things, I know I’m going crazy. I mean, stark raving mad.
Why? Because I’m seeing things that are not there.
I’m hallucinating. Totally.
This does not mean that these things are not happening. It means that none of the things that are happening means what I think it means, or means anything in particular. None of them really have the charge I’m giving them. They are just scenes from life, things that are happening, without any innate meaning.
If I follow Ken to the letter, then I can understand all the more how totally insane I am, because in truth I am not even here. Okay, I have a perception of being in a body, true. But that doesn’t mean I’m in the body, just that I think I am.
It helps bring a smile to my face when I start to remember this while I’m toweling the dog or calling the administration. I mean, I can make a big deal about anything. Don’t test me, I’m serious. About anything. Why? Because I can and will use anything to continue to give myself the impression that I’m in this blessed body as a blessed individual. And that includes any situation that presents itself to me. Unknowingly my little mind shall twist and turn some completely innocuous event (the vacuum cleaner bumping into furniture) into some diabolical drama demonstrating that something is there when it isn’t. But I insist it is. And my upset or excitement proves it. Just try to tell me I’m wrong!
It’s funny, I mean truly humorous watching this whole play in action. But it’s not half so funny as the flip side of this play.
It’s even more comical to watch my insane mind refuse to accept that something is there when it plainly and clearly is. Okay, I admit, I’m pretty much an expert at pretending that something is there when it isn’t, you know, the dog, the administration, etc. But I’m much, much better at pretending that something is not there when it is. What does this look like?
When my wife forgets to buy something for the dinner with guests tonight and I ignore the twinge of upset because ‘it’s not spiritual’,
When a family member does not thank me for an important favor I have done and I smile and continue as if nothing happened (because I’m above needing gratification) ,
When someone I’ve done a job for constantly stalls when it comes to paying me and I continue to swallow my anger and sense of disrespect because I think I’ve learned that these feelings will not get me anywhere…
When I refuse to see the upset that is really there and continue to pretend that it’s not, then I know I’m mad. Not only am I mad, thinking that something is not there that is, but I’m also masochistic, denying myself the only opportunity I have to become happy and peaceful once again.
If I follow Ken, then I pay even more attention to these moments of thinking something is not there when it is. I actively look for them, I learn to pay more attention to my thoughts and feelings during the day. And I discover more twinges of upset, disrespect, victimization and guilt than I thought. Okay, this is a good start.
But to really deal with the problem, I have to ask an important question: Why do I not want to see what’s there when it is? Why should it bother me so much to face my real feelings and reactions? And that’s when we come back to our good friend, OG. Let me present ‘OG’, or ontological guilt. OG does not want to be discovered. He likes remaining hidden and will make you think that you don’t want him to be seen and known, either. But you do. It is not shameful or sinful to realize that OG has come to take up residence in our minds. It is freeing. It is while we are afraid to admit that there’s this blob of OG sitting there that we shall truly remain stuck and in pain, and keep pretending that everything is okay when it’s not.
And so I invite all of us to throw back the covers and reveal in all his sticky, gooey inglorious truth, OG. He is much less frightening when really seen for what he is, I promise.
We are all experts in craziness, seeing things that are not there, not seeing things that are. We do this every day. But if we begin to observe our craziness with laughter and lightness, seeing there’s truly nothing wrong with insanity except that it’s a bit unhappy, then we can start to make the whole thing disappear. OG-the-Blob is uncovered for the comical thing that it is, and slowly a smile appears on our faces and replaces our grimaces and gnashing teeth.
The dog becomes just a dog once again, the vacuum cleaner a friend, the public administrator just another insane person in our insane world. Total insanity everywhere, and it makes not one bit of difference to us at all. There’s just this Smile that looks upon the play of life around us, and we smile along, happy to have discovered the secret that unlocks the great mystery of this crazy world.
Mayor’s Journal, 21st January, 2011:
Finding Heaven at McDonalds
My morning’s ramblings…
I’m here at McDonalds (for the internet connection, not the coffee!), looking around me and I’m fighting with myself (resisting a McFlurry? not quite!). The battle today? I’m fighting with the part of me that wants to continue seeing things not as they are but as I want them to be. Out with God, in with me!
You understand, through the eyes of the Holy Spirit, all people are the same, there is only one relationship because we are only One. Life is supposed to be simpler that way, too. But that’s not the way I’m thinking right now. No, not at all. I want to see separated, different people with whom I could have potentially separate, different relationships. These people who look interesting, those people who don’t – that’s what I see, and what I want to see. Different people provoking different feelings in me with the glorious promise of different responses, with whom I would then react differently. That’s exciting! A part of me really doesn’t want to have the same relationship with everyone! Boring, boring, boring. It just wants to believe that I could have a more interesting, satisfying, stimulating relationship with this person rather than with another. Always the hope of something else other than what seems to be this interminable, bland Oneness and singular Relationship that Jesus keeps telling me about.
But there’s a problem, and it ain’t a small one, neither. A cosmological hitch, so to speak.
(Gets up to get another coffee – oh, and they sell croissants here. Bet you don’t have that at your Mikie D’s in the US of A!)
I’m reminded by this persistent Voice in the back of my mind that my way of having relationships is based not in fulfillment, pleasure or satisfaction of any nature, but in pain (yuk), despite what appear to be its wonderful rewards, even if those appearances are very convincing. (And I can convince myself those rewards are convincing.) It is illusory, and that’s why it’s unsatisfying. Like trying to have a relationship with ghosts or dream figures. Ultimately very, very unfulfilling! (Despite rumors, Caspar is not a good conversationalist, and an even less satisfying sex partner.)
And yet it is so enticing, this idea that I could have different qualities of relationships with different people. So seductive, drawing me forward like a magnet – I bet this person has something interesting to say, and this one would like to talk to me, I’m sure. Each person would have a different way of communicating with me and recognizing me. They would put me in a special category, a special place in their minds; they would analyze me, assess me, make me real, different, and important because I people their dream, their world. I make their world real for them! And all this time I am conscious of the way I appear to them, trying to fit somewhere into their world, trying to be noticed, categorized. I want to exist to them. I don’t want to just be a dream figure! And I don’t want them to see right through appearances to the Oneness from which we stem! My uniqueness must be recognized! And I’m not really interested in reminding them they are a dream figure and their seeming existence as a separate being is nothing but a shadow, a vague appearance. I mean, that would ruin my day, not to mention my McEggMuffin.
Still, I have to be perfectly honest, the only satisfaction that such ‘relationships’ (if we could call them that) gives me at all is completely ephemeral. Arghh, says Charlie Brown. If you can hold down your McShake, then read on. My experience of others is purely what I give to the situation by my illusion, my projection, the projection of my thought into the situation. The extension, the over-laying, the imposition of my thought on the situation. Yes, I impose my images on what has no inherent quality or substance at all. Just look around you, try this now and see if it isn’t true. (So you’re not at McDs, that urban haven of spiritual research? Try it anyway even in the office or at home, but grab a donut.) That’s all my relationships are – the imposition of my thoughts and images on a completely vague, neutral and meaningless situation, meaningless groupings of shadows and images. No inherent substance or reality. Nothing really there! Gads! I make it appear to myself there’s something there by playing mind games with myself. Nothing else.
Yes, I play mind games with myself in the hope that those mind games interest other people, and that they enter into the same mind games as me in which I can play a role. I don’t even have to play a big role. They can just acknowledge me as a potential player in their mind game. I will feel that just for a milli-second I existed for them. I exist! I’m not just a dream figure – I exist for them in their dream!
But what kind of reality is that? Is that really existing if I’m just a dream figure in their dream, does that make me or this world real?
Ultimately there is nothing there. Just more silly pictures. Look at these people milling about here… just images on my screen.
No, that’s not strictly true. There is something there, but it is not in the figures or what I think they can give me. It is the coming together of two minds remembering that they are elsewhere simply sharing a dream together. There is tremendous power and experience in that. Absolutely tremendous. Believe it or not, that re-opens the gates to Heaven. There is an extraordinary experience of lightness instead of constraint, strategizing, and manipulation, a solidity and innocence instead of impressions, guilt, and insecurity, and wholeness instead of competition and weakness. And the other person doesn’t even have to be aware that I’m joining with him or her. In my recognizing our perfect sameness and union, we are joined, and peace floods my mind.
That is the true benefit of every encounter here in the mini-metropolis of my mind at McDonalds. It is the same benefit of every meeting both physical and those that are purely within my mind and memory. I get to look again at this person and say, “Man or woman, businessperson or garbage collector, philosopher or gang member, there is something beyond these appearances and beyond my imposition on this person. There is a totality which unites us and makes us all perfectly the same, extensions of One Life, the same in holiness and innocence and strength.” It gives me the opportunity to turn away from an ephemeral, illusory dream and back to something that finally feels real and truly satisfying. Changing my vision returns my mind toward true satisfaction and completion, Wholeness and Beauty.
And yet, and yet…
Even as I re-read these words I have just written, I notice that a part of me still thinks that separation and mental cannibalism can offer me more than wholeness, unity and completion. A world of differences, even one that I realize is totally make-believe, seems to offer me more than God, Heaven, Unity, Wholeness, celestial Beauty, and Magnificence. Wow… I’m looking at the two options and I find myself actually hesitating to choose sameness instead of differences, holiness instead of judgment. I think I must learn to appreciate a little more the calmness and beauty of unified vision, instead of the seductive appeal of fragmented sight.
It would be nice if I could finally offer people more than just my images and silly games.
I’m sure I can.
“If we can manage, even just a little, to see our self-judgments and forgive them when things don’t go quite right, then we bring peace back to the party. And Love has returned once more.”
this is a beautiful and helpful text to me. THank you mr Mayor, and for taking the time to write your longer posts. I think they should be published
Wow, Bernard, your Mayoral post of today is a really powerful one. In fact, it so speaks to me that I am sort of nodding my head with my mouth open in awe.
It speaks to where I might be at this time in recognizing how terribly scared we all are of love. I’m even seeing how terrified I have been of love in countless situations in the past. This (the recognition) is not meant as a way to condemn ourselves. But I think it is beneficial to be aware we are pushing love away 24/7. Not to despair, though, as all we need do is take a look with J at what we are doing.
These parts spoke to me:…
“let us recognize the efforts we all make to deny Love’s presence among us through our judgments and irritations. Our Guest has come; we can only acknowledge His presence with a gentle smile. We smile at our silly upsets and self-condemnations.”
This part shows us that we have a lesser standard of ourselves than Jesus or God. We’ve taken on the job of beating God to the condemnation of ourselves (the ego God). Just that thought has so many angles to it, I’m still in awe:
“We are not up to our expectations – no one is. But we are up to His, no matter how things go.”
You really went to the crux of what we do with this post. Thanks for writing this and posting. I REALLY REALLY needed to hear this.
Hugs!
I agree whole heartedly with Laura’s appreciation of the part of your post, Bernard, that she quoted.
I recall posting about the terrorist battle at Thanksgiving, and then watched the lion lay down with the lamb at Christmas. It was hearteing to see how family can rip at each other, then coo with joy at the next meeting, completely forgetting the strife from last time. I guess that’s how we are with Jesus — blaming Him when life delivers hard knocks, and then resting on His shoulder when we get a whaff of love being okay to accept.
I am always glad to see the ‘stock taking’ time of year pass into the low pressure passing of everyday. What would it feel like if we didn’t have calendars? Doesn’t time seem deceptively real with calendars?
Hugs, katrina
Thanks Bernard, loved your post. A wonderful way to begin this year. I think last year is going to reflect on this year’s work, I felt that all together have given little steps that are going to make this year different. And yes, for sure the holidays were not as we planned them, and people did not act as we wished they did. Lots of great opportunities to return home.
Loved this part: “The perfect result we were seeking for our family meetings does not have specific shape of form. It is not when everyone leaves with a smile on his or her face, when all the potential problems or pitfalls were avoided. It is when our inner smile stays fixed on the presence of Christ in our family members and sees the love there, the love that is simply scared of remembering itself and makes up a few stories to pass the time together and divert our attention. Tensions and upsets are merely and indication that Love is present, not that it is absent.”
Just beautiful, not easy at all, but the most beautiful experience when we just surrender and let Jesus to do the work.
By the way, how are we going to use the Schoolhouse?
Lots of hugs to you all and much love,
Lisi
Bravo
To All,
May this year brings all the forgiveness opportunities that will lead us back to our real Identity. This magnificent, peaceful perfect Light Self we all share in the heart of God’s Mind.
Thank you Bernard for this powerful post. It comes just at the right time and hope this will shape our thoughts for the days to come. This is nice “Our Guest has come; we can only acknowledge His presence with a gentle smile. We smile at our silly upsets and self-condemnations”. Smile is indeed the first step in our healing and can became our natural expression when we recognize what everything is for
With Gratitude.
Eric.
Let me join in on the accolades with this post; well done, well done.
You know its great when everyone wants to post their favorite quote and each one of us picked a different line… just shows you touched on each Villagers secret wound. Well its no secret, we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t wish to be exposed. So let me add my personal zinger to the fold.
“Tensions and upsets are merely an indication that Love is present, not that it is absent.”
That line should feel soothing and it does only when I stand still and open my heart. But the second I want to run away from it I feel the sting of resistance. So that’s the one that hit home for me.
Validates the point that we all go home together or not at all.
With Gratitude indeed,
Annie
p.s. hello Eric
Hello Annie,
I perfectly agree with you. Since we all come from different life experiences, our hearts will be touched by the posts from different “perspectives” or lines. And also depending on our readiness to accept the Love of God that is. This is could be the reason why the Course looks like a big piece of material to grasp. Probably to cover in the forgiveness process most of the “shapes” taken by the ego in this world.
Eric.
Oh my……wonderful post Bernard, and ditto to every one of the above responses! My experience(s) over the holidays, all three of them were a perfect mixture of everything in this post. Wow! The good news, is on N Y Eve it was just my husband and myself, with lobster tails and champagne of which I drank a whole bottle! Yep…..well….er….let’s say I feel like I deserved it!
Anyway, in the midst of it all, I managed to look and watch without judgment and ask for Help–which came—in just the form(s) I needed—at least for holy instants even hours at a time!
This village and ALL of the residents are, for me, the Answer in form(s) of the symbol of Love not of this world!
With Gratitude and Love,
melody
Oh Melody you are music to my ears ( I’m imagining musical notes here as your form)
Delightful indeed (:
Bernard, I just want to say “many thanks” to you. As has been expressed here, you have created a beautiful, safe, intelligent, fun, teaching/learning environment that is just a wonderful place to come to and I appreciate it so much–as does everyone. I look forward to visiting the Village as much as possible in the coming year and touching hearts with all those who come to meet as well. Warmest hugs to you and yours, Donna.
My big thanks and big hugs too for Bernard and all who are here. I could not find a holy instant for the life of me for 3 weeks around Christmas and New Years. But thank God for ACIM and being able to come here to the village and read and Jamie’s site, etc. Because I was able to remember that this would not last and I looked at my ego thoughts and asked for help from J all the time. Then…holding on I came out of it into many peaceful moments as of 1/3/11. The peace is so quiet but I know it is real because I know what it feels like not to be able to find peace and a quiet mind (as we all do!). A quiet mind is not a little gift.
Anyway…I will hopefully be reading and pondering more in weeks to come. Love you guys, Kendall
These lines are my favorite:
“If I knew that no matter how stupid, incoherent and insensitive I really am, Love still accepts and embraces me wholly and completely, then I would just smile and join with my brother in our mutual silliness.”
Since I’m a few days from ny hopelessness I can see how attached I still am to an effect in the outside world. Oh well…. so be it.
Bev, yes, so be it — it seems inevitable since we see only the past.
On the OG:
I love your clear seeing, and the way you write. I don’t know what you choose to do as behavior in these situations, though – and for me, that is part of my life: how i respond or react. Now, just to share my personal ways – not to give advise:
I would have indulged in kicking the vacuumcleaner or the things it bumped into and given some juice language, to not hide my reaction. I would have gone to that customer and requested the money immediately, and noticed my fear inside. I would ask for money before I did the job next time – I would in short indulged myself in my reactions, not trying to be “good” – this is one of the reasons i love the Course; we don’t need to be “nice.”
And sometimes, when people don’t answer the phone and such, I would try and find that overworked too busy person inside and forgive himher for thinking they are anything else than God’s Holy Son – as I am too. Curiously (or not) very frequently these -non-answerers answer when i calm down inside and stop being demanding and impatient.
I also love to practice the sedona-method of releasing in stressful situations – “could I let go of one millionpart of wanting to change the situation?” or ” could I allow myself to REALLY feel as pissed as I am in this situation?” – for me, the last one is a sure winner: not resisting the reactions to the stuff ( but hopefully not burst out with it either.)
Yes, and i would write those receivers of the gifts and tell them that I really tried to find the best gifts for them – and felt sad and strange to not hear anything back – and maybe we should stop sharing gifts -?
Nice writing on OG, Bernard !!
“OG” – Excellent!
As I watch the snow falling today, with having to go out and drive in it, as well as my husband, “I’m never upset for the reason I think….” ah……but it sure SEEMS as if….if I didn’t have to worry about dealing with this snow, safety,etc… my day would be so much easier…. Okay this is how I REALLY FEEL….”J/HS, I’m told that the form is nothing, that it is only a decision in my mind to be separate from Love, not of this world. But, I don’t really believe it. Please help. Use this for your purpose. Oh..and please, help Jim, I, and our kids to get home safely. The other people, too, but…..well…..how I really feel is I don’t care quite as much about them as I do my family. Okay, this is how I really feel, please show me I’m wrong. I’d rather be happy than right. Thank you.”
I’m not smilin’ quite yet….but I sense one underneath it all….or do I just WANT to sense one underneath it all? I really think I’ll be smiling if in several hours from now everyone is home safe and sound. But as I write this, there will be something else to worry about—of this I’m sure. Ah…but to just get through this snow dilemma……
The OG really is adorable! And to think I was, well, still I’m scared of that little blob!
Thanks for exposing him/her for what it is.
I wish to poke my finger into its belly (:
Thank You Mr. Mayor for the perception adjustment.
Thanks Bernard, the OG is great, beautiful, just the most accurate description of our life. I really want to learn to smile so I am going to put it all in practice.
Lots of hugs to you all, a great day and
much love,
Lisi
Put a D in front of OG and call it damn, dirty, devilish, dreary, etc. and you have DOG. Reverse it and you have GOD. Just having fun.LOL
A thumb up Leni! More than fun it is really nice. Our awaken lies in just reverse DOG. Loved it.
Much love,
Lisi
DOG…Man’s best friend.
I miss D of the G
she knew how to do fun (:
Thanks for floating on by Leni…
I miss you too 🙂
Bernard ~ Freakin Brilliant…and it copied and pasted so nicely too. Monday night is my short drive away brick and mortar study group. I just sent all 7 folks in class your post.
We’re reading The Basis of the Dream in Chapter 18 and spent the whole night discussing paragraph II. The basis of this dream we’re all dreaming is clearly our OG. Not only that but this posting of yours is in perfect timing with our current early in the workbook lessons read and practice. Your example of OG is so absolutely perfect in that it is such clear examples of what we choose to see and not see in our everyday lives.
One couldn’t ask for a finer example. Man oh Man…the image that just leapt into my mind is you’ve been a wonderful air traffic controller/docent combo helping us to land safely in this terrain we love to visit and then pointing out the sights that will allow us to experience more fully our own personal story and choices available as you share your simple truthful story telling. The way you use the great clarity and helpfullness Ken offers us is so potent, humorous, digestable and useable! Thank you so very much. xox Michele
I’m looking forward to reading what other folks have commented and will comment at my next visit.
oh Leni and Annie…your Dog musings bring out this in me.
D for the Dream of our OG. Depending on where we are in our willingness to look in our process we could be using both important DOG positions, doing downward facing DOG, the vigilant yet forgiving looking at our blocks or upward facing DOG enjoying the holy instants, our brothers helpful examples, to look at our blocks framed with the relected light of gentleness and humor.
….And we have lift off…
Michele the yoga reference ~ so east meets west…
and yeah Bernard is Freakin Brilliant!
Hmmm Lets check the feelings; some envy that others are so clever with words but mainly a sense of recognition reading our fearless Mayor’s most excellent OG post.
You know, I just had to come back and read this again. Really enjoyable and relief-creating piece of writing !! Thanks seems like an inaccurate/incomplete word for what I’m feeling and wanting to express now, so I’ll just say:
“____”, Bernard.
ps. Bev – glad you spoke of the envy. Me too – that momentary twinge that said –
“nice writing, but look how many comments/compliments Bernard got. I’d like to get that too !! “(:
— smiling as I writing this out.
Ciao for now,
a*
I’m what? Brilliant? Er, I’m looking at these compliments and thinking, hell, I’d like to be the guy they’re writing about. But really it’s just the same ol’ me, folks. Next time I’ll probably write something that will make you all nod appreciatively and solemnly thinking “Mm, heavy, dull, convoluted,…” But I’ll thank everyone anyway for your kind comments.
I liked all your ideas, Nina, and I go through pretty much all of them at the same time, I think. A bit of indulging, a bit of confronting my fear, a bit of forgiving one thousandth of my judgment.
Melody! I just loved your post #17. It had all the greatest elements, awareness of everything that can go through our minds when loved ones might be in danger, all the strangeness and contradiction of wanting real peace but wanting the situation to work out as we want it to. And of course I have to ask, did everyone get home safely??
Bernard,
OG – really funny. Thanks Bernard for providing another easier way to understand what’s really happening in our life. This post emphasizes the work book lesson 12. “I am upset because I see a meaningless world”.
This world is meaningless, but our friend OG gave it a bunch of crazy definitions and useless values. The “void’ has no value at all. OG has to give meaning to all this just to guarantee his own value. Ken gives a nice comment on this in the “Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles” on Lesson 12.
Here he goes: “We are terrified of the possibility that we do not exist. This needs frequent repeating since it is the underlying assumption to these lessons, not to mention A Course in Miracles itself. This thought is the source of the resistance to the Course in general, and to the workbook specifically. I have to pretend I exist, and so quickly make up a thought system that I then project, thereby making up a world — cosmically, (as we are all part of the one Son) as well as individuality. The point is that we always seek to impose meaning, because otherwise we will be confronted by the inherent meaninglessness of our thinking, not to mention our separate self. This takes place on the metaphysical level of the mind, where it is a question of or , as discussed earlier. However, on the level of our personal experience, as bodies living in the world, we fear losing our problems and grievances — all of which establish the self we believe ourselves to be, what the end of the text refers to as our face of innocence (T-31.V.1-3).”
When coming close to our innocence, everything is teaching us that who we really are has nothing to do with this world and that gentle smile will flow naturally.
Lisi: Smile is not something you have to force. It’s the result of the mind shifting process that removes the power from OG which is preventing your natural “smiling state” to be experienced. As you said, just practice and you won’t regret.
Eric.
Yes, thankfully, everyone got home safely! So I’m smilin’…for now…..til the next dilemma comes up! Lol….it was an interesting experience to watch myself get completely caught up in all of the fear, complete with anxiety feelings in the pit of my stomach, yet actually feeling the tiniest part of me completely removed…..I with I could describe it more succinctly, but, along with the awareness of the feeling of being removed, was an awareness of how much *I love the drama! Wow….the smoke and mirrors…..amazing!
Yay for safety,
Yay for Brilliant,
Yay for my Village Brothers and Sisters.
Have a lovely day Everyone.
Yay! OG’s on the way out!
The OG and all the ponderings I have been finding very helpful.
Annie, I miss Debbi of the grotto also. And the others from the monastery days.
Here’s a quote from the monastery days when Jamie was “Head Monk”.
Jamie “Today is another opportunity to weaken my identification with the ego.” Under that I have written from lesson 273 “The stillness of the peace of God is mine.” I keep it taped next to the bathroom mirror so I see it everyday.
I’m sick at home with cold/flu symptoms today. At the level of the body I’m taking care of this ie lots of fluids, resting, chicken soup. But when I check out my feelings I discover that I’m angry. Why? I could make up a story about it but since I’m never upset for the reason I think it’s just good old OG hanging out. Just writing this out makes me feel happier; there really is something very freeing about acknowledging it.
Sounds like you are purging the OG Bev! (:
Hope you feel better by Sunday…the anger may still be there but hey no worries we can talk about anything…or make it up as you say.
Thinking of you and sending good thoughts your way.
Bev, it’s just blobby old OG, as you say. Let’s cuddle our blob of OG, give it a tickle, give ourselves a tickle. And keep up the chicken soup – with noodles. Always with noodles. And a sprinkling of parsley. Yum.
pam- going to bed now but apropos bathroom mirrors: I just wrote on mine something from a Yogi Tea-bag:
See yourself in the mirror of Grace.
Wonderful feeling each morning, to look at the mirror and knowing it reflects Grace –
so it must be inside me then:-)
Natti
Natti Nina and Bev. Nice warm mugs of honey and lemon. We are on the down hill side heading to Spring.
What a day, what a day… I’ve been busting my blob trying to get these Village folks to feel sick and guilty and terrified of me, and what’s the result? Sweet nuttin!
Ah, tomorrow’s another day. At least here in the illusion I get to hope that things will be better in the future. At least – that’s what I keep tellin’ everyone. HAHA! If only they knew, if only they knew. Thank Blob they don’t! I’ll certainly never tell them – it never gets better because it’s already better – for them. It’s always the best, at least for that J kid. He’s got it so easy. Can’t believe it. What does he have to do? NOTHING! He says to everyone, “You need do nothing.” Well, how the hell am I goin’ get anywhere if people believe that kind of crap? I mean if they just stop their runnin’ around frantically desperately trying to make things better, then how am I going to stop them from seeing what’s really going on. No, they gotta keep runnin’. Yeah, Forest, keep runnin’, kid! HIHI! NOOOooooo! That one over there has stopped running. She’s… she’s sittin’ down and lookin’ all peaceful! Get up, ya lazy thing! What’s yer name? Katrina? And yer friend? Bev? You guys have got it alllll wrong! Don’t you feel it, that squishy sense of being so bad and wrong, like you know you’ll never get it right and just gotta keep doin’ things to make it better? No? Whadya mean, NO? You think you can just look at me in the belly like that and say, “I see you and I don’t feel bad and crummy at all?” And for blobssake, would ya stop smilin’ like that?
Uurrgghh, I hope tomorrow’s better.
ROTFLMAO
I never thought he would show his blobby ass here!
Oh this is gonna be Good (;
Oh For Blob’s Sake!! Giggle-Snicker-Gauffe it’s good to stop being serious.
Plenty of chicken soup for the past 2 days and already feeling better. Take that OG. Na na na na na! Smiling Bev
Bev: Happy to hear you are feeling Better and smiling too (:
New Mayoral ramblings on the home page, folks.
Bernard, you wrote: “The extension, the over-laying, the imposition of my thought on the situation. Yes, I impose my images on what has no inherent quality or substance at all. That’s all this is – the imposition of my thoughts and images on a completely vague, neutral and meaningless situation, meaningless groupings of shadows and images. No inherent substance or reality. Nothing really there! I make it appear to myself there’s something there by playing mind games with myself. Nothing else. “
Once again you and i are on the same page in what we think and experience. I wrote about this in my blog today –
“I was about to take my new medication at night – I needed sleep so much – (I thought) and got a thought: why don’t I just lay down in bed and open to the possibility that everything I feel is perfect, and that God is in charge. I don’t need to change anything – but I need to pay attention to what is in my mind, and just notice it with kindness. And I am willing to do that the whole night and not sleep, if that is what is needed and happens. No more controlling whatever seem to be part of the “sleeplessness.”
I was awarded with a gentle warmth in my belly – something let me know that I could relax into everything that was there and not be responsible for it (but to it.)
I don’t know if I have slept or not – I think I must have – but I have been in this gentle place where I notice – I like the word better than look (or watch) –
and somewhere in this process, I was noticing that all of this happened without the slightest twinge of judgment. I sensed something like big chunks of stuck energy releasing itself from my spine – it just happened. I knew that “I” was not doing this – the only thing “I” did, was being willing to notice whatever.
I noticed that any negativity that I named -” foul, putrid, hateful” – when I let go of the labels, and included it, it just was. – And the feelings of “me” and “my story” – these were just feelings too – and would I be willing to notice that these feelings were played out on a screen that was unchanged of any projections at all, and eternally there?
yes
I re-worked this article to make it easier to read. Hope you enjoy it a little more.
♪♫♫♪ you deserve a break toooo daaaay ♪♫♫♪ even the fast food people that tout sameness of flavor, texture ect. still bow down to specialness. Croissants in France,Pancakes in the U.S.,and I hear tell of mutton burgers in India.
Just noticing. (I like this word too Nina it seems smoother more gentle)[notice the judging of this word over another (-: ]
Mickey Dee inspiration…love it Bernard!
Wow Bernard, just beautiful! I understand what you said, in today’s lesson Ken recommended a practice I just did an hour ago, he asks us to look at a mirror and repeat what the lesson asks: “I see only the perishable. I see nothing that will last”. And for sure, I did not like it. A tremendous fear arouse and the first thought that came to me was: “I am not very young anymore, and Jesus is telling me I am perishable!! In that moment I was completely identified with my body, and it took some minutes to stop my ego thoughts and remember that I am learning I am not a body, well, I think this practice is somehow what you were describing about that we impose what we want on everything we see. And with the ego we only impose something that makes this world real, differences, separation, etc. So, I loved this part of your post:
“No, that’s not strictly true. There is something there, but it is not in the figures or what I think they can give me. It is the coming together of two minds remembering that they are elsewhere simply sharing a dream together. There is tremendous power and experience in that. Absolutely tremendous. Believe it or not, that re-opens the gates to Heaven. There is an extraordinary experience of lightness instead of constraint, strategizing, and manipulation, a solidity and innocence instead of impressions, guilt, and insecurity, and wholeness instead of competition and weakness.”
This is in reality what all of us are seeking, no matter how stubborn we are, and how stubbornly we try to find meaning in this world. Finally we will recognize that only the wonderful experience of sharing is really meaningful. I heard something beautiful in Jamie´s last class: He said that while we think we are here we are going to use magic, namely for example, in our relationships, but now with the Course, forgiveness should be the main dish and magic only the side dish. I loved it. He gave priority to right perception but at the same time tells us that while we think we are here we cannot avoid the use of magic.
Thanks again Bernard for giving us your time and your wonderful insights.
Great weekend to you all,
Much love,
Lisi 🙂