He Waited

He waited:

I left Jesus behind at the end of 9th grade, my last year at Catholic school, believing there was littler need to think of him from then on. My spiritual life shaped up from teenage years reading Carlos Castaneda, Allan Watts, Chogyam Trunpa, and exploring various mystical traditions. There was little room for the traditional figure of Jesus. In my mid 20s I began hearing references to a transformation book called A Course in Miracles and thought I should consider it with a browse. Within the book, Jesus found me again, not right away, but through the course of continuous returns to the pages. This was a different Jesus than experienced before, infinitely compassionate, patient, and with the single greatest promise that was ever made to me...

³If you want to be like me I will help you, knowing that we are alike. ⁴If you want to be different, I will wait until you change your mind. (ACIM, T-8.IV.6:3-4)

so Jesus had waited for me. 

and now he offered to help me be like him. Which was something beyond my understanding at the time, intriguing, and so sweetly offered that my heart immediately accepted. Yes, I wanted to be like this Jesus, filled with a loving-kindness that only a forgiving mind could afford to extend. What I quickly discovered was that this was a means of awakening, every bit as demanding as any Zen discipline, a mindfulness practice of continuous forgiveness, a yogic path of pure devotion. 

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?

 All this forgiveness offers you, and more.

(ACIM, W-122.1:1–2:1)

this was my path, Jesus had waited for me and I was now ready. My commitment has never waivered, although my practice has often been unsteady. Through the years, and no matter what's happened, Jesus has extended his love to me, never once causing my faith to falter. He believes in me. He is infinitely patient. He loves me. 

he tells me that we are alike.

and finally,

I believe him 

~

I love you, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: To Trust This Silence

Also, please visit: The Wisdom Jesus

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To Trust This Silence

To trust this silence: 

a stormy November morning, 4:00 am, and the usual writing themes play through my mind. As lightning flashes outside, I wait for my own sudden strike of inspiration to reach the page. Some mornings are just quiet in their giving though, subtle insights are more forthcoming than a great flash of words. What I love is the holiness experienced here, a whisper, and then a length of silence before I hear anything more. I've learned to trust this silence, coming to know the importance of not rushing through the sacred space between each word.

this where the Holy Spirit speaks to me.

the space between thoughts.

and listening now,

I write these few words.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Sincerely So

Also, please visit: The Power of Eight

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Sincerely So

Sincerely so, 

and without compromise, no longer content with a better version of the same dreamed up world - I truly only want the peace of God. In A Course in Miracles, Lesson 185, I'm reminded that to say these words means absolutely nothing. Without a pure conviction they're just another hollow prayer asking for an upgrade within the dream. But to mean them, sincerely so, and even for an instant....that's my salvation.

yes, I truly want the peace of God.

with my memory of God completely restored.

 and that's my only prayer.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: An Opportunity

Also, please visit: The Tears of Things

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An Opportunity

An opportunity:

post election morning, coffee at hand, and a brand new page before me. I love that life offers me it's pure potentiality each morning, an opportunity to write something from a fresh point of view. This is as true with elections as it is with writing, there's a possibility present that's never been offered before - at least not in this particular form. What we have no is the opportunity for cooperation, balanced restored and a real chance to forgive our way into something truly stunning in it's depth of understanding each other. It's not wishful thinking, it's here within our grasp, erasing sides and seeing the wholeness of reality. But what we need is vision, we need compassion, and again we need forgiveness. 

it's the only way forward.

Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. ²It does not pardon sins and make them real. ³It sees there was no sin. ⁴And in that view are all your sins forgiven. ⁵What is sin, except a false idea about God’s Son? ⁶Forgiveness merely sees its falsity, and therefore lets it go. ⁷What then is free to take its place is now the Will of God. (ACIM, W-pII.1.1:1-7)

we have trapped ourselves in a story repeated told about ourselves. There's no possibility of moving forward when we hold these views so tightly. Forgiveness, true forgiveness, is the vision of reality that doesn't cling to stories formerly told about ourselves or others - it's the fresh potentiality of each moment, an allowing of the resurrection through the refusal to continue to crucify each other. There's no exceptions to this opportunity of vision, we see everyone as equally whole, and more so, we continuously bare witness to our original innocence before a single story was ever told. Again, with no exceptions made. I love that we can do this, that our worst thought about another can be forgiven and in that very same moment they offer us our salvation. 

of course we can do this.

it's the only reason we're here.

yes, it's easy for me to say this right now, my "side" won and I see a brighter future. But it's always been a possibility and I've held this same hope through every election. It's not about sides. It's about forgiveness and an opportunity to be truly helpful.

and it starts right now.

this morning...a brand new page.

let's write something beautiful, something true. 

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: It's Who We Are

Also, please visit: Politics of Love

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It's Who We Are

It's who we are:

kindness is the way, and also, it's the natural outflow of my practice. Early in life I was told to be kind, in Catholic grade school it was stressed as a means of reaching heaven, and my parents were kind by example. So it was easy path to follow along. 

later, life growing harsh, kindness seemed to matter less. Or at least it seemed too. The truth is that life just grew busy, hurried, and kindness often fell to the wayside of my rush. Fortunately I was saved from the curse of an overly busy life, meditation and A Course in Miracles slowed me down and brought me the gift of patience. Not that I was, or am, always faithful to this gift. But I am, however, sincere in my commitment and practice. 

more so,

kindness is my natural state of mind. 

yours too.

 

we only have to choose the right internal teacher. 

love, 

or fear.

the first is our natural state of mind, our God-source, kind by it's very nature. The second choice is the ego and it's always wrong, loud, and in a hurry. So we retrain ourselves to notice the results of our choice, and then begin to keep our focus on the one that truly brings us joy. A simple practice, but not always so easy at first. Yet kindness is our practice, being true to ourselves is our only concern - so patiently, infinitely kind, we choose again, and then again. 

until we remember:

³Holiness created me holy.
⁴Kindness created me kind.
⁵Helpfulness created me helpful.
⁶Perfection created me perfect. (ACIM, W-67.2:3-6)

it's already what we are.

always.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Initiated

Also, please visit: The Wisdom Teacher

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Initiated

Initiated: 

I love when a guest appears on my YouTube channel and shares a lesson from A Course in Miracles that is particularly meaningful to them - it feels like an initiation into their deepest practice, a heart-felt act of extending their most sacred gift. Yesterday's guest, John Crotty, brought me lesson 78, a focus on letting miracles replace all grievances. It's been a vital lesson in my practice and now brought back to me in a quiet initiation from a new friend. 

so today, this is my practice, my entire curriculum: 

³Let me behold my savior in this one You have appointed as the one for me to ask to lead me to the holy light in which he stands, that I may join with him. (ACIM, W-78.7:3)

and with this may you, whoever might read these words, be initiated into this chain of forgiveness. Today we work miracles together, seeing the light of Christ wherever we go. 

and so it is,

amen. 

~ 

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Beautiful Consistency

Also, please visit to buy: Theo of Golden

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Beautiful Consistency

Beautiful consistency: 

being a teacher has been on my mind lately, specifically, teaching A Course in Miracles. I'm very fortunate to have so many great Course teachers come to my YouTube channel and sit down and have a conversation with me. Each guest leaves me changed for the better, opening me up to a new presentation and fresh look at how the Course is offered. There's also a beautiful consistency here, with metaphysical concepts being clearly explained, and most importantly, they've all been living example of the Course's teaching. I absolutely love these conversations. 

 I'm learning how to be a teacher.

but what I'm really learning from my guests, as well as my internal teacher, is how to more fully open up to my own divine expression - to truly teach love by accepting it as my only reality. Each guest has given me a glimpse of their individual curriculum and then gently guided me to see mine more clearly. The Course, even after years of continuous study, is still making itself itself known to me. Yet I've been given a clear objective: 

⁹Teach only love, and learn that love is yours and you are love. (ACIM, T-6.III.4:9)

so now my wish is to step into my own beautiful consistency, fully accepting my role as a teacher of God, wherever that leads me, and however it might unfold. My only agenda is to teach love, fully from my heart to yours, and I have no idea what this might look like. But I have so many beautiful examples to follow. Thank you guests. Thank you teachers. I love you. 

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit:Teacher

Also, please visit: The Wisdom Teacher

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Teacher

Teacher:

that I'm a teacher of God, my directive clearly given, and that everything else is simply details. To be honest it has taken me awhile to arrive here, accepting this position, as if my own self-worth was questioning it's very consideration. My mistake was in the details, believing that a scholarly knowledge of A Course in Miracles is somehow more important than the subject of the heart. Yet recently my heart has heard the call, bursting open in understanding and a willingness to extend more and more love. I am a teacher of God because there is nothing else to possibly be. 

and I accept this fully now,

joyfully,

stepping into my role...and teaching only love.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Truly Helpful

Also, please visit:Original Goodness

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Truly Helpful

Truly Helpful:

the first meaningful and committed meditation practice, the one that helped deliver me from addiction and a reckless life was Passage Meditation as taught by Eknath Easwaran. It's based on a profound, yet simple premise - we become what we meditate upon. With this in mind Easwaran would urge those beginning the practice to memorize the Prayer of Saint Francis, believing it to be a powerful formula for self-transformation. 

it worked for me.

over the years I went on to learn, and eventually become a teacher, of vedic mantra meditation. But for long stretches of time I have returned to the beautiful passage of Saint Francis, especially during times when I feel for a deeper, more intimate connection with both God, and others. Political seasons almost always draws my return. For several months now I have been meditating on the passage, 3:00 am, perfectly solitary, silently absorbed in the words. And a wonderful thing has begun to happen, spontaneously, unbidden, the Truly Helpful prayer has entered my mind right after the finish of the Saint Francis prayer. Eknath Easwaran would instruct meditators to expand their repertoire of passages from a wide range of spiritual traditions and I believe he would have loved the Truly Helpful prayer for meditation. So both these prayers are have entered my early morning practice,

we become what we meditate upon, and most days we endlessly ruminate on grievances, judgements and our troubles. Passage meditation is a wonderful tool antidote. The Prayer of Saint Francis is a blueprint of transformation filled with the highest spiritual ideals. It's a prayer of surrendering ourselves to God's highest values and the Truly Helpful prayer given from A Course in Miracles continues on that theme. I feel that my life is now becoming one of greater service in a very quiet way. I'm called to be a teacher of God through demonstrating these values, being truly helpful in subtle, yet meaningful way. Like offering a heart-smile to a seemingly harsh world. My life feels more guided now than ever, Holy Spirit inspired and filled with a greater love to extend. 

I am here to be truly helpful...an instrument of peace.

~

I love you, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Family

Also, please visit to buy: Passage Meditation

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Family

                                                                  

Family:

there's just one name shared between us, our natural identity is an expression of love, and is whispering through us right now. God's name is our inheritance. This is a beautiful reminder as we look about the world and see everything, all of us, divided by labels. We're confused about who we are, lost, and wandering about in circles, searching for our true home. 

we're lonely.

and yet God's name is our inheritance, shared between us, making us family in the deepest sense of the word. This is the most healing that that we can offer - that we share a single name, united, and that God is present within us all. I don't need to search for home, or family, nor ever feel alone in the world. I have you, a joined soul that recognizes me beneath the armor of my body. 

we recognize each other.

if only for a moment, a glimpse...still, we see.

family.

in the deepest sense of the word.

Father, our Name is Yours. ²In It we are united with all living things, and You Who are their one Creator. (ACIM, W-184.15:1-2)

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Echoing

Also, please visit to buy: Forgiveness and Jesus

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Echoing

Echoing: 

and here's the only true mantra needed, a silent repetition of the holiest name I share with God - drawing us to remember that we are already and always home. A Course in Miracles is really a meditation text, proving clear instructions on awakening right now. It's often said that the Course is holographic by nature, that any lesson or line contains the entire message. This proves true to me with lesson183: 

God’s Name is holy, but no holier than yours. ²To call upon His Name is but to call upon your own. (ACIM, W-183.1:1-2)

that's the meditation, calling upon God's name in silence and listening to His return reply. The voice for God resides within me, a continuous whisper of love echoes through us all. I call upon God's name and hear my own true name in that echoing whisper. I can follow that voice home, right now, and the Holy Spirit reminds me that it is always right now. 

and with this meditation, I remember your name as well.

it's the same as mine, 

ancient,

holy,

being the silent name of God.

echoing through us all.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Devotion

Also, please visit: Forgiveness and Jesus

Devotion

Devotion:

and so we are an idea in devotion to the mind that has thought us...bhakti yoga brought to its conclusion, with no separation found between ourselves and our origin. That's the metaphysics of A Course in Miracles to my understanding, that we are ideas in the mind of God, a divine thought that has never left it's source. I love this as a practice, that the Course is truly a heart-journey of devotion, a bhakti path that leads us to the revelation that we are already and always home. 

God wills you learn what always has been true: that He created you as part of Him, and this must still be true because ideas leave not their source (ACIM, T-26.VII.13:2)

it's such a joyful discovery.

and truly then our devotion is towards each other, not as separate minds, but as beautiful ideas within the infinite framework of God. Forgiveness is the means of this expression, stripping away the false thoughts of identity and seeing each other we really are - it's a holy instant of recognition and the most loving thought that we can offer another.

forgiveness is the bhakti path...as well as the very end of our journey.

we're already at home in the Mind of God.

such a joyful discovery.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Humble

Also, please visit: The Yoga of Jesus

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Humble

Humble:

and if even a few words greet the page it's a gift, emptiness fulfilled, and maybe just a little bit of grace expressed. I love my early morning writing, 4:00 am, my first real moment of turning the day over to my holy guidance. It used to be that I was an author, disciplined, demanding that inspiration meet my immediate need of self-importance. I needed to be a writer, believing that I owned the words given and that it was a reflection of my talent. 

I'm a more humble now. 

and I don't mean that life has humbled me as a means of punishment in any way. This is somewhere that I've come to softly, a gentle awareness brought on through the practice of forgiveness. I'm not the author of my life, let alone a few words given to a page. What I am is an instrument of grace, at times gifted with the patience to wait in silence, trusting in the openness of a heart and mind made ready through forgiveness. Words always seem to appear on their own, arriving through the softest whisper of inspiration and guiding my fingers along the keyboard. 

how can I claim any ownership of this? 

and so, yes, I'm humble, in the most gracious way. 

The truly humble have no goal but God because they need no idols, and defense no longer serves a purpose. (ACIM, S-1.V.2:3)

what I am is inspired...

a willing instrument of God's grace.

and ready for whatever follows.  

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Forgiveness is the Mantra

Also, please visit: Forgiveness and Jesus

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Forgiveness is the Mantra

Forgiveness is the mantra:

for over 30 years I've practiced mantra meditation, being a certified teacher as well, and it has profoundly altered my life in so many meaningful ways. Mantra is a Sanskrit word made of two syllables, manas (mind) and tra (tool or vehicle) which literally means that we are shifting towards another mind state with there repetition  - carried there upon a vibrational quality that calms and heals. My own practice begins and ends with a sankalpa, another Sanskrit word that means sacred intention. These days my intentions are forgiveness, living a life of surrender, and following only the voice of Holy Spirit. 

a sacred intention indeed.

and so A Course in Miracles has worked into every aspect of my life, seamlessly, as if it's always belonged there. After decades of practice, countless journeys through the workbook, and continuous reading of the text, the Course is truly my life-blood now. Forgiveness is my better nature, a mantra that shifts my mindset from a false identity of isolation to the reality of knowing myself as love. It's my awakening. And what's truly amazing is how it carries me off the meditation cushion into the everyday grind of life, yes, a vehicle that shifts my perception almost instantly in its passage. 

Forgiveness is the only gift I give, because it is the only gift I want. (ACIM, W-297.1:1)

what I've found, at the point in my life, is that the Holy Spirit will use everything at his disposal to heal my mind. My day is filed with the mantra of forgiveness, a loving vibration that carries the sacred voice of the Holy Spirit to be heard throughout my life - and that my only true purpose here is to continuously extend it. Meditation is now a stepping away from my cushion and into life, whatever it holds within any given moment. 

forgiveness is the mantra,

it's the vibrational quality of my life. 

and my only true practice.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Love's Presence

Also, please visit: True Forgiveness: The Heart of A Course in Miracles

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Love's Presence

Love's presence:

I was told that my task wasn't to seek love, words that immediately found my heart, forever ending an endless chase after something that always seemed so elusive. There is such relief in surrendering the role of seeker. A Course in Miracles gave me an extraordinary promise and then offered my life as living proof - I am already love, ever present, unavoidable, and that my only purpose here is to find every barrier within me that blocks its appearance. 

my job is to simply be aware.

and fortunately those blocks show themselves so conveniently. Every grievance, resentment and judgment is a revelation of a barrier that prevents reality from being known. They are still frequent guest, often harsh in appearance, but sometimes subtle too in their soft whisper of believability. Yet their presence is followed by a willingness to surrender their hold - not immediately, but following shortly after their appearance. It's now a matter of blessings, recognizing that a barrier is gaining entrance and that a blessing dissolves any further progress. My seeking days are truly over. 

I'm simply aware.

willing.

and ready to surrender to love's presence.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Relationships

Also please visit: A Manual for Holy Relationships

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Relationships

Relationships:

I've been thinking of relationships lately, considering their scope and the extent of their reach—and it's been lovely to find that no one is absent from my care, not even slightly. We are kin, connected by a dreamed-up world that waits for our awakening. My own suffering is the cause for yours, believing that I've somehow stepped past the reach of God, and now stranded, endlessly searching for home. I've kept you trapped with me, enclosing you in a belief system of desperation and isolation, denying our true and most intimate relationship—that we both share a single Christ between us.

and that thought is our awakening.

so you are my dearest relationship, my salvation, truly. And I find you everywhere now, not even a search is needed. You're never absent from my thoughts or reach. Remarkably, and so often, you appear in the least likely place that I would have previously looked for—you are present within everyone that I used to keep distant, refusing to acknowledge you there, as I believed you were once the cause of all my suffering. But I'm aware now, available to receive you in whatever guise you offer.

I'm ready to awaken.

and you are my salvation.

thank you.

I finally see you, never truly hidden at all.

you were merely waiting for my truest eyes to open.

~

I love you, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: To Be Truly Helpful

Also, please visit:A Manual for Holy Relationships

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