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

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Present Memory

Present memory: 

and so it seems that forgiveness is the true means of transcending karma, that every effect will stem from the simple choice of choosing ego or the Holy Spirit. With both being the ultimate cause of how my life will unfold from that choice on. Karma is the Sanskrit word for action and the effect that accumulate around the choices that one makes. It's not a theory of retribution, nor a means of justice, but only what follows the actions, based upon thoughts, that are taken. A Course in Miracles breaks this down nicely, psychologically as well as spiritually - there are only two thought systems and only one of them is real. 

love is reality.

 fear, being the ego, is an illusion.  

²Nothing real can be threatened.
³Nothing unreal exists. (ACIM, T-in.2:2-3)

forgiveness cleans the slate of every previous action, continuously pointing to the unreal and erasing it from karmic view. Nothing has truly happened. We're free. By choosing the Holy Spirit's view each moment, or as often as remembered, we're existing in a holy instant that's entirely free of any thoughts of repercussions. Our actions are a holy choice that only delivers the effects of love. Nothing is accumulated because Gold alone exists and is always found within an eternal holy instant. 

it's always now.

and so thoughts of time, and even actions, don't exist within this moment.

we're free, 

forgiveness is the present memory of holiness.

it reminds us that we're home.

right now.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Two Teachers

Also, please visit to buy: A Course in Miracles

Thank you. 

 

Two Teachers

Two teachers: 

the practice has always been simple, easier than I ever previously made it - the mind is split, two teachers, symbols, representing either side. This is often described as our "right/wrong" decision making, and played out in real time, yes, my every ego drive choice has left me wishing I had chosen another way. At least eventually, and especially from the vantage point of 61 years. 

but I'm here now.

so now, recognizing two teachers and only wanting a gentle life, a  kind truly approach to others - and living in the absolute certainty that my needs are met through service to God. My practice is love, that simple choice in every moment that I remember. 

I choose the right teacher.

sometimes.

but more often than ever now.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit:A Deeper Healing

Also, please visit to buy: A Course in Miracles

Thank you.

A Deeper Healing

A deeper healing: 

I've been sleeping in a bit lately, just an extra half or or so in bed to make up for the preceding weeks of sleep nights that seemed to haunt me. Even now my slumber is less than optimal, not the same struggle as before but the quality hasn't yet been restored. Nor has the original cause been addressed, a few more upcoming appointments and maybe they'll be some answers.

regardless, 

a deeper healing has begun.

what I've noticed about sleeping in is the guilt that seems to follow. I'm compressing time while laying in bed, setting my self-created schedule off by what seems a large degree. I feel guilty. Amazingly, this is all my own work flow, I've no one to report to, and few things that actually require a firm commitment. Yet I've conditioned myself so thoroughly to a routine that there's a self-induced pressure to confirm to my own made up schedule. My day feels a bit more rushed now, compromised in a way. And all because of a much needed extra 30 minutes in bed. 

of course it has nothing to do with sleep.

it's about guilt.

my guilt.

already present and in mind.

and so here the real healing begins - forgiveness practiced just before bed, letting go of anything that might linger through my sleeping hours. And any hour that I might awaken through the night is a moment to first be  grateful for any sleep at all, followed again by forgiveness for whatever it is that caused me to awaken. My first thoughts each morning are gratitude and forgiveness, a wish to wipe the slate of the previous day clean and start this one completely open and ease. 

it's truly forgiveness 24/7 now.

a deeper healing at play.

so I'm mindful of those extra minutes in bed, and more so of the feelings they induce. That's the benchmark, a bellwether for my healing. Can I offer myself just a bit of much needed kindness without a backlash of guilt to follow? 

I don't know.

forgiving myself for that as well.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Ask

Also, please visit to buy: A Course in Miracles

Thank you. 

Ask

Ask:

through my own tough days I am regularly reminded of just how much of this I actually choose, my mind set given to all the things that leave me feeling as victim of the world I see and experience. Even after decades of mindful practice I still often forget to ask for a miracle, that all important shift in perspective that brings me directly to the holy instant. 

clear seeing. 

⁷Forgive, and you will see this differently. (ACIM, W-193.3:7)

and there's the miracle, the healing that's available this very moment and doesn't require anything other than a sincere request. I am a participant in this, asking the Holy Spirit for every gentle reminder that a miracle is ready for me right now. Forgiveness is my prayer of healing, and there's no sense being brought down to my knees before I ask for a miracle. 

right now is the holy instant.

forgive...and we will see.

we'll know.

and all we have to do is ask.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Some Mornings

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Some Mornings

Some mornings:

for the first time in some years my writing has been a bit more of a struggle, tension gathered around my desk as I wait for the right words to arrive. It's not writers block, there's always infinite things to write of, and I'm always inspired to share my thoughts. Yet some mornings, not all, but more than a few lately - I find myself without anything that seems like it's meant to shared, not a single thought arrives that feels ready to be given to the page. 

some moments aren't meant for writing.

and I need to honor that.

and there's the tension, when ritual no longer fits the moment and the air becomes tense with expectations of an easiness that just isn't there. Writing isn't meant to be a struggle, it's a joyful meditation, a process of listening and response. 

so some mornings,

lately,

I spend more time listening, my response is patience and I sit for a longer period of time...some mornings, it seems, I'm meant to trust the silence more than the arrival of words. 

it's about honoring what's present. 

not the expectations.

some mornings the ritual is silence and mindful sips of coffee.

and that's part of writing too.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: All Things 

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Thank you.

All Things

All things: 

I love the absoluteness of these lessons, if the very beginning of A Course in Miracles is a discourse in negation, dismantling our false belief system - then the middle point of lessons 180 to 200 are where are filled with the truth of who we actually are and why we're here. 

today's lesson:

  All things are lessons God would have me learn. (ACIM, W-193)

there's no wavering here, it's a declaration of purpose, and doesn't broker any deals. The Course tells us that if we understand any one lesson completely than we can get the whole. This could certainly be the one to bring us home. Whatever occurs in our lives, with no exception, is a lesson that God would have us learn - and remarkably there's only one thing that God would have us know.

⁷Forgive, and you will see this differently. (ACIM, W-193.3:7)

that's it.

forgiveness. 

so of all our suffering, our every sorrow and the trials that we believe we're asked to endure - their only purpose is to be forgiven all the way to the point of our awakening from this dream of separation. We're meant to return home each moment, now, always now...

and forgiveness takes us there.

that's the only thing we're ever asked to learn.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Beginner's Mind

Also, please visit to buy: A Course in Miracles

Thank you.