For Our Salvation

For our salvation: 

and so it's really a course in trust, an entire curriculum designed to take us from ego dependence to complete reliance on the Holy Spirit. Our primary tool is forgiveness, learning to shift focus from a material world filled with potential harm and seeing instead a universal Christ that's always extending grace towards us all. A Course in Miracles delivers tools for guidance, workbook lessons with real life applications and a text filled with lyrical prose to assure our understanding. 

but we're not to asked to trust.

not straight away.

only a little willing is required.

and then we're gently led along the way.

learning to trust,

forgiving,

an entire course designed for our salvation.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: In Praise of Doubt

Also, please visit to buy:A Course in Miracles - A Direct Path

Thank you.

In Praise of Doubt

In praise of doubt:

here's a moment of praise for doubt, an important role at play, that finally, finally - there come a beginning point in which the ego's thoughts are questioned. I've written quite a bit this year on trust, how my focus this year was a conscious shift to living by faith more fully. And yet it was many years before this when that the seeds for trust were planted. 

first comes doubt.

trust is a gradual development that grows from the cracked foundation of the ego. My once mighty thought system that guided me so surely began to show it's true design. Why wasn't I happy? And really, why did happiness seem to elusive? The answers that came ti me were simply more of the same, only doubling down on all the things that obviously weren't working.

so doubt began to creep into my thoughts.

along with a single line that held such great meaning...

 there must be a better way. (ACIM, T-2.III.3:6) 

and there is.

it's clear to me now how everything serves the purpose of awakening. The Holy Spirit uses everything to its advantage. Even doubt. Maybe even especially doubt as it's here, one small crack in a once mighty foundation that the seeds of trust are planted...and later come to bloom.

~

I love you, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Resilience

Also, please visit to buy: A Course in Miracles - A Direct Path

Thank you.

Reliance

Reliance: 

thinking about my earlier days with A Course in Miracles and an obvious issue that played through decades of my practice - regulating the role of Holy Spirit to what I considered spiritual concerns alone and allowing ego free reign to the areas I believed it was better suited for. Now, not with hindsight, but with a greater sense of true reliance...

I smile.

my life is coming closer to a full surrender. 

complete reliance.

and only the Holy Spirit has a role. 

 seem like it's been a long arrival.

and yet,

the Holy Spirit was always waiting here.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: It's a Practice

Also, please visit to buy: A Course in Miracles - A Direct Path

Thank you. 

It's a Practice

It's a  practice:

and so I'm happy to be practicing, that's the big thing - there's no frantic energy to arrive anywhere, a complete absence of a seeker, content and even happy right now. There's also a certain amount of physical pain in my life this moment and anxiety still hangs on the edge, ever ready to appear. But through the recent years there's been a definite shift towards a greater sense of joy. I'm more at peace within the moment, no matter what might be present, and what strikes as most remarkable - is coming to terms with those occasion when peace and steadiness seem nowhere to be found. 

forgiveness is such a wonderful tool.

a beautiful practice.

there's no performance here - I don't need to be okay. 

not all the time.

but my practice always sees me through, forgiving my way through darkness without need for an apology, mindful of my position and yet making no demands for change. Just accepting, just accepting...and when the next moment unfolds, accepting still just a little bit more. Whatever life offers. Of course there's a wish to heal, and sometimes I'm still lost in hopeless despair, and find myself dashing for an imaginary escape route. And so that's what I forgive, it's my present moment lesson and I love myself through it. I think it's especially those toughest moments that I eventually find the most joy. Not because I made it through the pain or darkness - but that I found the light even then. 

or at the very least...I reached for it.

maybe not always right away.

but soon after.

I'm happy with my practice - 

and that makes all the difference.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: God Thinks Otherwise

Also, please visit to buy: A Course in Miracles - A Direct Path

Thank you.

Only One is Real

Only one is Real:

it could be said that the ego is a literal grievance against God, a childish wish to move away from home and make our own kingdom away from heaven. On a softer note, the ego is simply a belief in an autonomous self that doesn't really exist. As A Course in Miracles makes clear it's our commitment to the ego as a guiding force to navigate life that's the source of all our troubles. However, this isn't really about the ego - it's about the Holy Spirit.

or more truly,

switching our alliance to a loving thought system.

and not rely on the ego at all.

we have an alternative, much better suited as a guide, a gentle voice for God that whispers of our true power. Somehow we've gained confidence in a false promise, believing that only the ego can keep us safe within such a dangerous world. Yet it's that very promise that keeps us trapped in a belief system that only leads to harm. Listening to the ego is a turn away from God - not because it's evil, or even that it's wrong, but only because it doesn't even exist, and it's every loud promise is a lie. 

anyway,

here's what I really want to talk of -

my own soft turn towards the Holy Spirit, a long life between two voices, and how now, finally, the one for God is more clearly heard then ever. Every hard choice I've ever made has only been a lesson on the futility of choosing alone. I always had a better, more loving option. At first I didn't know,that there was a choice and then later I just didn't believe that this was so. I trusted an option that wasn't even real. And life continued with its lesson. 

⁹There is no peace except the peace of God, and I am glad and thankful it is so. (ACIM, W-200.11:9)

so I'm still learning that the peace of god is all I need, hard lesson continue to follow - yet only one voice is truly believed, and it's the one I listen to most keenly now. 

and that makes all the difference.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: God Thinks Otherwise

Also, please visit to buy: A Course in Miracles

Thank you.

God Thinks Otherwise

God thinks otherwise:

it's how my every mistaken thought is corrected in an instant, a single phrase that wipes clean my mind and restores me to original innocence - 

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

 for me, this one sentence in A Course in Miracles that holds the most promise. It tells me that the worst thoughts used against myself and others simply aren't true in the mind of God. He thinks otherwise. This sets me free form my own dark beliefs about....everything. 

but especially myself.

and most important is it's such a soft mindfulness. I'm not asked to examine these thoughts, to trade them for an instant affirmation of good faith. There's no battle here. Whatever it is the the ego brings, from darkness to depression, no emotions or impression excluded...God thinks otherwise. 

and I'm free.

nothing has to change because reality is already established.

it's an easy recognition.

always true.

no matter what clouds my mind right now.

~

I love you

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: It's Simple

Also, please visit to buy: A Course in Miracles - A Direct Path

Thankyou.

it's Simple

It's simple: 

simplicity, I'm so grateful for my own life being reduced to the value of the Holy Spirit, my path narrowed, and my only choice shown is between love and ego. Over the years my spiritual practice has lost it's urge for specialness. There's little need to search for enlightenment when every awakening opportunity shows up directly at my door. 

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? (ACIM, W-122.1:1-4)

and that one lesson, 122 from A Course in Miracles simplified everything for me. It ended a near life of sifting through complexity for what was present all along. The Course reminds me that complexity is not of God, it's not valued by the Holy Spirit because it's just a collection of the unreal and will only lead me further than my goal. 

and the Goal is always God.

love.

The reason this course is simple is that truth is simple. ²Complexity is of the ego, and is nothing more than the ego’s attempt to obscure the obvious. ³You could live forever in the holy instant, beginning now and reaching to eternity (ACIM, T-15.IV.6:1-3)

there's my choice laid bare, the complexity of pursuit versus a holy instant where everything is given to me at once without my even asking. 

it's simple.

I only want the peace of God.

and so my life now unfolds from this single point on.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Present Memory

Also, please visit to buy: A Course in Miracles: The Direct Path

Thank you.