A Different Way of Tracking

A different way of tracking: 

it seems I've been learning a different way of tracking, locating animals, birds and reptiles by present signs rather than the tracks they've left behind. This has been an important distinction, not looking for clues of past location in order to find an animal, but recognizing what's occurring right now and allowing my awareness to draw me exactly to the perfect moment for filming. With just a little attention I've managed to discern the water trail of ripples left by a recently passing goose and that of a beaver that just dove beneath the surface - my camera is ready for just the right moment when he rises. There are literally thousands of signs that tell me what's about to happen and where to aim my camera. 

and the spiritual metaphor isn't lost on me. 

this present moment will tell me everything I need to know about my state of mind. There's little need to track a past event, tragic situation, or troublesome person to this exact point in time. I'm not saying that doing so won't facilitate my healing, perhaps so, but more importantly is what's happening right now and where it might be leading me. A thought doesn't exist in the past, it's a ghost trail, and tracking those signs only leads me to what's been left behind through years and memories. It's as if I'm tracking an animal - I could follow a past story and hope it brings me to a magical instant that's ready for filming, or the alternative is to settle into this exact moment, ready, attentive, and allow the present magic to be revealed to me. Perhaps it not a matter of which way is better than the other. I honestly don't know. But this is where I find myself most often, this open, allowing space of presence...

participating in the magic.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit:A Simple Commandment

Also, please visit to buy: Purpose is the Only Choice

Thank you.

A Simple Commendmanet

A simple commandment: 

it's a seamless view of reality, a commandment to finally see exactly who we really are. In the New Testament Jesus is asked which is the greatest of the commandments and his reply is, ultimately, an expression of pure nonduality. 

"love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."

this a commandment only because there is no other way, anything else is simply a delusion of a split mind that sees a world that's broken off into personal and separate realities belonging to each of us alone. To say "love the Lord your God" is imploring us to look within and find that seamless expression of love that resides in all of us - truly knowing the neighbor as ourselves and each of us an aspect of God. And Jesus in A Course in Miracles might simplify this even further:

forgive...and see the love of God.

for only love is real.

and nothing unreal exist.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Of Mantra and Holy Spirit

Also, please visit to browse: A Return to Love

Thank you.

 

Of Mantra and The Holy Spirit

Of mantra and the Holy Spirit: 

when I first began meditating I was struck by the abundance of intrusive thoughts, instantly noting the complete lack of control and inability to tame a raging mind. I thought that I was unique to this, my brain damaged by an overflow of pettiness and useless rumination. Of course that's not the case, most everyone is caught in a similar trap of repetitive thinking. My mistaken belief with meditation was that my mind was supposed to (somehow) empty itself of thoughts, obtaining silence, and to be able to sit tranquility for an ever greater length of time. Several wonderful teachers taught me otherwise. Mantra meditation was a wonderful gift, it's soft focus and self transcending grace allowed me to settle down within the streaming thoughts, be a witness to the stream itself, and return a wandering mind to mantra's gentle sound. There's a science here that I won't get into - but suffice to say, meditation changed how I related to my mind. I befriended my thoughts for the very first time and the effects have been profound and lasting. But this essay isn't really about meditation...

it's about the Holy Spirit.

meditation has shown me the true spacious nature of awareness, completely changing how I relate to the thoughts that still occupy my mind.. This brings me a great deal of peace. I am forever grateful for my continued daily practice. However, it's only been through recognizing the presence of my internal teacher that I've learned what every thought is actually for - and now my peace has deepened even further, a trust unfolding in a continuous lesson that only my most loving thoughts are real. Anything else is simply the nervous flow of a still chattering mind. My job isn't to judge, evaluate, or try to stop a single thought that comes to mind....it's relax. And trust. My real thoughts are only what I think with God.

Every loving thought is true. (ACIM, T-12.I.3:3)

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Purpose

Also, please visit to browse: A Course in Miracles Made Easy

Thank you.

Purpose

Purpose: 

okay, so now I'm beginning to get it, and I mean really understand it to the point that it overflows as an actual practice - according to A Course In Miracles and the Holy Spirit everything, with no exactions, is here for the purpose forgiveness. This is clarity. It's also the end of seeking for any experience outside the peace of God. Of course we can still enjoy the fleeting highpoints of meditative absorption, those moments of ecstatic realization. They're all important guidepoint in someway, meaningful in what they point to - but the only real purpose of anything is forgiveness.

there's a tendency to use any spiritual experience to validate our specialness, becoming a branded seeker of truth and ultimate answers. It keeps us in perpetual motion. Seek and do not find, as the Course says. Or worse, find, but do not ask what the real purpose of the experience is for. This isn't exclusive to our spiritual journey alone. Our only task is to continuously ask what everything is for, discerning purpose through a higher evaluation. And here's the reason for this: 

the purpose of everything...

 is to remove the blocks to the awareness of love's presence. 

that's it.

and that's the only purpose of forgiveness.

it's that simple.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Science

Also, please visit to browse: A Course in Miracles Made Easy

Thank you.

Science

Science: 

so I was a bit interested in science this morning, curious on how forgiveness might actually change the brain. Contemplative practices have been studied quite extensively over the last several decades. We know the benefits of meditation, yoga, chanting, and numerous other inner traditions. But has science touched upon forgiveness? Well, right at first glance I decided not to get too deep in the weeds with this - the science is there, extensive and outlined, and I was quickly reminded that I'm not a science guy. What I am is someone who has seen the incredible shift of focus that has occured in my mind through the practice of forgiveness. And science backs up this mind training.

lesson 122 of A Course in Miracles is my example:

What could you want forgiveness cannot give? ²Do you want peace? ³Forgiveness offers it. ⁴Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world? ⁵Do you want care and safety, and the warmth of sure protection always? ⁶Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never can be hurt, a deep abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be upset? (ACIM, W-122.1:1-6)

All this forgiveness offers you, and more. (ACIM, W-122.2:1)

this lesson has always been my return point, delivering me from actively seeking a lofty goal of enlightenment to a quiet place of gentel practice. Forgiveness truly offers me everything I want, and incredibly, offers it continuous through my everyday affairs. Each moment of forgiveness causes a neurochemical response, reducing stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Structurally we are deactivating the amygdala, increasing prefrontal cortex activity, quelling the anterior insula, and quieting the default mode network by a significant degree. All of this results in a biochemical release of our own "feel good" hormones of oxytocin and dopamine. And we get to repeat this as often as we please, literally shifting from a dangerous mode of thinking towards an experience of the divine. I'll be honest, I don't understand any of the science at all, none of it. But I'm happy it's been documented and shared. It's important to know why our practice is valuable on the level of our everyday affairs. Here's the truth though - science doesn't really matter. Not ultimately at least. My own practice of forgiveness is the gateway from hell to paradise. My body and mind are in a quiet rage with every grievance, each resentment that I harbor traps me in self absorbed addiction, and my judgements against both myself and others isolates me from any truly meaningful relationships. An unforgiving mind keeps me alone, seemingly separated from the very source of happiness.

forgiveness takes me home.

instantly.

repeatedly.

and I'm happy that science supports this with hard evidence.

my own research does as well

every moment.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Otherwise 

Also, please visit to buy: Forgiveness: The Greatest Healer of All

Thank you. 

. 

Otherwise

Otherwise: 

and so it seems that I've carried the weight of a million disappointments through life, an accumulation of views that I've made completely my own. This is my healing work, not addressing each disappointment individually, and even collectively there's no need to let them go - this is really a matter of simply recognizing a truth about myself that solves every judgement ever made. 

here's the key to letting go of every disappointing thought I've ever held about myself, no matter how it might have arrived to me. These words remind me to drop the weight of my own judgements and walk through life with greater ease...

And God thinks otherwise. (ACIM, T-23.I.2:7)

amen.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Light

Also, please visit to browse: Forgiveness and Jesus: The Meeting Place of A Course in Miracles and Christianity

Thank you. 

Light

Light:

and so my only purpose is now laid clear, that I am the light of Christ extending myself through the recognition of my completion. And you - you are the very same light which receives me, and then continues on in an ever greater expansion.

we're divine sparks.

each of us.

I love the simplicity of my role, what I'm tasked to do in such a vital fashion. Look for Christ within all things. No exceptions. Nothing excluded. This can be such a lovely way to move through life, recognizing my truest self in the guise of another. Yes, of course, I'm often confronted with a more challenging disguise, a light that seems so far hidden that it might be impossible to find. I'm only asked to look, to have a little willingness, and to maybe let the light  find me through my own shadows of judgement and fear. 

I think my light can be difficult to see sometimes too.

and I'm so happy when you see it.

thank you, thank you,

thank you.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more form Headless Now, please visit; On My Behalf

Also, please visit to browse: The Universal Christ 

Thank you.