Hurt

Hurt: 

so perhaps the most tenderly expressed lessons of A Course in Miracles, beautiful and loving words we gently say to ourselves with such deep conviction - that I will not hurt myself again today. Finally, nearing the end of the lessons we come to the crux of the matter. We've been hurting ourselves, holding a false claim against the world, believing that anything exists outside us that could ever bring us harm. This is a story told by the ego, a belief in blame and judgement projected upon others, but only really festering deeply within ourselves. 

our salvation from this harm is forgiveness.

this is where we turn to the Holy Spirit for help, that part of our mind that only sees the loved shared between us, indeed, that's all it ever recognizes. It's here ask for our story to be reinterpreted in a truthful way, our perceptions healed. We harm only ourselves with our judgments, all of our blame is returned to us, and our every resentment is a self-inflicted wound. 

I will not hurt myself again today.

and that's the entity of A Course in Miracles, it's the lesson a Buddha, and every great master. Our story of the world, our false perceptions of others - traps us in self created misery. 

so with deep conviction, and ever so tenderly,

we say together,

I will not hurt myself again today.

~

I love you, Eric

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Aware

Aware: 

there's no battle here, only mindfulness, a gentle noting of where the ego leads me, and then an even gentler return to the Holy Spirit's choice of love. This is a lifelong meditation, an easy vigilance that allows awareness to play it's natural role. My choices don't have to be perfect, but I'm more apt  now to notice just before the ego becomes involved, providing a course correction that offers me a more peaceful resolution. So awareness removes me from the battlefield of the mind, reduces conflict to an easier point of smiling at my own folly. 

I know what each choice provides.

 aware of my options.

I'm mindful.

and ultimately...simply I'm more forgiving. 

~

I love you, Eric 

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Present State of Mind

Present state of mind:

one of my most favorite lines from A Course in Miracles is that the holiest spot on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love. In my earliest Course studies I viewed this as a possibility for the world, a state of achievement that we could all strive for, and even if it seemed a bit naive it was at least hopeful in it's promise. These days, now decades through Course study and practice - perhaps I'm even more naive, as every ancient hatred is seen as existing through me, being found nowhere else but my own present state of mind. 

and it's this, I seek to make holy.

so as my forgiveness seems personal, attentive towards small encounters and everyday situations, it more truly is a healing force, a means of transforming these lingering ancient hatreds. The holiest spot on earth is right here, exactly where we are...

this very moment of forgiveness. 

~

I love you, Eric 

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Undoing

Undoing:

practicing forgiveness has been the undoing of my personal world, it's letting go of the fortress of self that has kept me isolated within a realm of grievance and resentment. Most of this bitterness has been buried so deeply that I was no longer even aware of their existence, being too much a part of my everyday reality to notice. But they were acted upon through my filters of perception, projected outward, and they caused me to view the world a certain way. 

I lived my life based upon resentments.

judging everything.

yet thinking I was free.

of course even now I'm not completely free, but it's enough to see this is so, to keep practicing forgiveness within each moment that a trigger should arrive. Life is gracious that way, full of little gifts that act as opportunities to release all my most cherished resentments, letting them go, and with each moment I'm a little freer than before. 

lighter.

and so my undoing continues...

until my personal world's forgiven.

completely so. 

~

Peace, Eric

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A Terrible World

A terrible world: 

sometime times it feels like a terrible world, a hurtful place in desperate need of healing yet with too few people who actually seem to care. So very often I simple wish to give up, surrendering my remaining years to whatever peace I can gather on my own, away from people, a renouncing the entire world. Of course it's full of beauty too, with caring people who do their best to serve others. 

I guess we could say it's a paradoxical world.

or maybe that's just my point of view.

recently though, I've decided to give up on changing the world, it's no longer my issue to fix and beyond my pay grade anyway. I'm renouncing it all, happily so, and yet at the very same time I'm more committed than ever to a collective healing.

a paradox for sure.

or so it seems. 

I love the message from A Course in Miracles that urges me to not seek to change the world, but to go within and seek to change how I perceive it, examining my every projection and healing them all through the means of practical forgiveness. It's my role, my only role, to heal myself, forgiving one projection at a time until they cease to show me such a terrible world. That's it, a simple pattern of forgiving myself the illusions my mind has created, revealing the innocence that lies just beneath the surface of appearance and setting myself free from the grievances and resentments that I might hold. 

and with that...

I truly change the world.

~

Peace, Eric 

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A Peaceful Occupation

A peaceful occupation:

as it turns out, for me at least, it wasn't about awakening, not just clear seeing but the ability to live my life from this innocent point of reference. Something had been nagging at me, an urge to return to a path that didn't quite seem finished - and with that I opened A Course in Miracles again, over a decade past my last encounter and after a year of attending to both the text and daily lessons. 

what I wish to do is live my life from here.

I love the simplicity of forgiveness, that it falls solely on me to recognize my projections and to then heal my inner world. Nothing else is asked of me, just continuously forgiving until I'm completely out of grievances, however long this should be, and now I find myself doing so joyfully.

it's a peaceful occupation.

and I'm so happy I've returned.

~

Peace, Eric 

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Where Life Takes Me

Where life takes me: 

it seems now - I'm much less involved in the world, and yet at once somehow more intimate with life itself, perhaps a paradox, but it feels perfectly right to me. This doesn't mean that my usual interests and the things I care for no longer meaning, they do, there's just less concerned for my personal involvement, that I don't need to add my opinion to every matter, there's no wish to make other wrong through my own demands of how I wish the world to be.

there's just no longer a need to believe I'm always right.

so I hold my views lighter now,

more gently,

 surrendering, forgiving, wishing love to others.

and seeing where life takes me.

~

Peace, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: To Let Go Of

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No Bypassing

No bypassing: 

there's no bypassing here, forgiveness isn't a path of shying away from what's present, but it's a deeper look as to what truly is right now, realizing the original innocence of the moment - and asks us only to rest in what is found. That's how we forgive, continuously so, a healing that takes place instantaneously and is repeated as often as it's needed. 

eventually, 

our world is completely healed.

forgiven.

and only peace is found.

~

Peace, Eric 

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