YOU ARE MORE THAN WHAT YOU DO

Thoughts on Justification upon reading The Letter of James. 

What is required of you for Salvation (i.e. Enlightenment): Faith or Works?  Which is more important?  

Martin Luther was not wrong and neither was St. Paul.  They were each merely speaking to their intended audience.  Paul was arguing against the worship of Mosaic Law that was rampant in the Jewish community.  He stated that we cannot “earn the favor of God” by certain acts, a behavior that was commonplace at the time just as future wealthy Medieval Christians would eventually pay for ablutions.  The statement in the Letter of James that “Faith without Works is Dead” has been debated over the years and Martin Luther was opposed to this idea to the point where he referred to The Letter of James as “an epistle of Straw.” 

Know this:  There is no favor to be earned of God.  You are the master of your body on this earth.  What you do with it is of no consequence to God.  Your body is nothing.  It is not real.   Pain is an attribute of the body and suffering is an attribute of the ego – the level of that suffering depends on the level of faith in and association with the body.  The same is true of the physical world.  God has no agenda for you in the world.  This is something of your own creation.  God is not fearful for you anymore than you should be fearful for you.  God misses you and wishes for you to bridge the gap you have created – to reject the separation you embrace.  You are His prodigal son.  He cheerfully awaits your return and is intent on lavishing His Kingdom upon you. 

Jesus Christ sought to teach you compassion.  This is the lesson of Christ’s death and resurrection.  Being alive as you are alive Jesus saw needless suffering in the world resulting from separation from His Father, who is Your Father, who art in heaven, the kingdom which is within you.  Christ healed others because he felt compassion for their suffering.  But he only healed those who came to Him and asked to be healed (except for Lazarus and the child of the Centurion who could not ask for themselves).  It was Faith that healed them, through the Holy Spirit, which is within you, who bridges the gap between God and his children, the Sons of God.  This state of Oneness, this connection to God via the Holy Spirit, also known as The Atonement, is the realm of miracles.

Faith without works is not dead – but works are the visible manifestation of faith in the world.  Your works reveal God to all those blinded by attachment to the ego – including yourself.  So do as Jesus told Simon Peter to do and “Feed my lambs.”

Tap Into The Flow - Listening to the Voice of God

Who Do You Think You Are?

This is not a question to ask since you did not create you.  In lending belief to such thoughts you accept the definition prepared by the ego, the alternate self that is in constant rebellion against THE TRUTH, which is: you know who you are.  You do not need to go off in search of yourself.  You are right here.   You are everything that is; the present, the only reality, is all around you, within you; the part you see and identify with is merely a sensory interface – a static layer your ego interposes between the outer and inner (another false division) when there is neither outer nor inner – there is only all that there is.  It extends in all directions at once, up down, in, out, and is as much part of you as you are of it.

 Reality Is Now

If you want to see the past – look around you.  If you want to see the future – look ahead.  It’s not as hard as it sounds, but in order to do it, you have to let go of the past.  Live in the now; it is all there is.

The past is gone.  It only exists in your memory.  Fear, one of the great tools of the ego, would have you cling to the past, lest you be guilty of abandoning it, as if that were an option.  You can neither create nor destroy anything that is real.  You can believe in things, hold them tightly, often to your detriment, and therefore feel guilty for whatever you did or did not do – though much of it may not have happened; still you feared it so much it became reality for you – and now it lingers near you, as real as everything else that surrounds you – which is exactly how you perceive it.  

What Is All of This?

Much of what you see is NOT REAL.  Just as much of what you feel is NOT REAL.  Because you have many negative feelings.  By definition anything that is negative cannot exist – since it is the opposite of reality.  The universe is not a duality – there is only one reality: every thought emanating from the Mind of God.  But the world you perceive and align yourself with is one of duality.  In this “unreal” world of duality there can be God and there can be “not God.”  Yet nothing exists that is not God.  So by definition the world you see does not exist.  However, just as your feelings (which are not facts, have no objective existence and are mental interpretations of sensory information that is constantly changing) can affect you, so too this non-real world of duality can have a very real impact upon you if you allow it to run rampant within your mind.  

First things First

JFK once said “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” clearly a moment of great insight on his part.  He also paced the oval office debating nuclear war with the Soviets in Cuba while the world teetered on the brink of annihilation.  Did we, the citizens of the world, have nothing to fear but fear itself?  Yes, this was and is still true. Because the source of all safety, the root of all understanding, the wellspring of immortality is within you.  The way out is not out – the way out is in.   You cannot guarantee the safety of persons any more than you can guarantee the happiness of another person, because safety, happiness, acceptance, freedom, are all personal accomplishments.  You can support others, you can facilitate learning, foster growth, convey understanding, but ultimately you must step up to the altar of self-realization, you cannot be carried there. 

 You Are Not Alone

A Course in Miracles tells us that most of what we consider to be our thoughts are not thoughts at all.  There is only one real mind at work in the universe – the Mind of God.  The chatter you have come to associate with mental activity and confuse with thinking is really the ego struggling to distract you from God by promoting everything that separates you from your Creator – a Mind, Voice and Loving Presence which is right there inside you.  God is not only with you – God is You.  You are part of God as is every atom and molecule in existence.   It a highly personal relationship.  So personal that once you come to accept it and align your thinking with the Mind of God - and your thoughts become real thoughts not just ego generated static – you will recognize yourself immediately and be stunned by the realization of exactly who you are, always have been, and always will be.

“I am with you always. Even unto the end of the world.”  -  Matt 28:20