Where did A Course in
Miracles come from? Helen Schucman dreamed it up, just as composers dream
up music, inventors dream up inventions, teachers dream up lesson plans, journalists
dream up what we need to know, all of us dream up shopping lists. We think of
some people as having creative personalities and others not, but this is just
another example of how the world sees differences and inequality everywhere.
Every one of us is creating all the time. We dream up who we are; we dream up
who we think other people are; we concoct our days' activities and our
emotional responses to them. And at night, we go on dreaming up scenarios and talking
to ourselves in our sleep.
Look around you; there is nothing your eyes can rest on, or
your ears hear, or your body feel, that did not begin as a thought in someone's
mind. Even to perceive the grass and the sky sets off a explosion of associated
ideas, words, impressions; while the mind picks and chooses among them, which
to pay attention to and which to let pass.
The mind is very
powerful, and never loses its creative force. It never sleeps. Every instant it
is creating. It is hard to recognize that thought and belief combine into a
power surge that can literally move mountains. There are no idle thoughts. All thinking produces form
at some level (T2 VI 9)
Where our thoughts come from,
however, depends on whether the mind chooses to be a channel for truth or to
make up its own version of reality. It is like a radio that is either tuned so
that it can clearly transmit, or not tuned, so that all you get is static,
discordant noise, confusing messages.
Thoughts can represent
the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of
experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual (T1 I 12)
The mind that is enthralled with the idea of living in a
little autonomous world of its own making has tuned out the clear resonance of
what is true. It hears what it tells itself, believes what its body's senses
tell it. It no longer knows it is a mind, because the body's senses only talk
about the body. Its power to choose between reality and illusions is now taken
up with choosing between a million illusions - what to eat, what to do, where
to go, how to compete with a million other separate bodies. Its creativity finds
expression in a million degrees and forms of cleverness, talent, skill,
productivity and resourcefulness; but as long as these are directed toward
glorifying the ego and its world, the mind is still only dreaming up
possibilities, instead of reflecting truth.
Your mind may have
become very ingenious, but ...Ingenious thinking is not the truth that shall set you free (T3 V 5)
We are making up and making believe all the time, but for
most of us life is sadly lacking in inspiration. The very word conveys
vitality, joy, interest - literally, a breathing in, a filling up, a breath of
life.
To be egocentric is to
be dis-spirited, but to be Self-centered in the right sense is to be inspired
or in spirit. The truly inspired are enlightened and cannot abide in darkness (T4
in 1.7)
In the Course's sense of the word, to be inspired is to attune
yourself to a reality beyond the limited awareness and anxious concerns of the
body. Helen Schucman seems to have had the scrupulous integrity to scribe the
Course without interfering or letting her ego's fears and opinions get in the
way of the process. Any invention or revelation may be inspired, when we do not
block that flow of calm, joy and certainty that is always on tap.
Let us today be
neither arrogant nor falsely humble. We have gone beyond such foolishness. We
cannot judge ourselves, nor need we do so. These are but attempts to hold
decision off, and to delay commitment to our function. It is not our part to
judge our worth, nor can we know what role is best for us; what we can do
within a larger plan we cannot see in its entirety...And what we think is
weakness can be strength; what we believe to be our strength is often arrogance
(W154)
Inspiration means being true to the spirit in yourself and recognizing
it in others. It is not a gift that some are blessed with and others not: it is
a choice for each one of us to make in our own time. "Many are called but few are chosen" should be, "All are
called but few choose to listen" (T3 IV 7). Inspiration in this sense is
not scarce, or to be forced, like trying to squeeze blood from a stone, or a
means to an end, like trying to think of a quick way to make another million.
It is what happens when you align yourself with something greater than the ego,
and more constant than the world. Even when all you are letting come through
you is today's shopping list. Truth and
order will leak into the world, despite our attempts to keep it out.
This is the last of this series of Start the Day reminders. Thank
you for joining me, and until the next series, have a good day again whenever
you remember.
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