RESPONSIBILITY 2

P. 66-69

Awareness and acceptance (claiming) precede free choice. We are always choosing. However, quite often, we are choosing from a level of unconsciousness. We are choosing from patterns of behavior, reflexive or instinctual reactions we might have incorporated very early in life.

Rather than looking at this work as getting rid of something or even unlearning old stuff, the emphasis is more on acknowledging, rejoicing in, and participating with the creative energy that is already here within our higher consciousness. 

ACIM suggests it is not our weakness or our sense of lack that is frightening to us (we usually take those things for granted)—it is our light, our strength, our goodness that we are afraid of claiming. Perhaps we think that if we claim our power/our Truth, we will find out we really don’t deserve it or it will be taken away from us by some cosmic whim.

If it was not scary to claim our power then we would have done so long ago, but little do we realize, we are the ones who created the fear in the first place.

So, perhaps, this is also an ongoing lesson here for us—to see beyond our fears, to know there is more to us and more to life that what our limited fearful viewpoint shows us. 

ACIM also reminds us, “You do not ask for too much you ask for too little.”

“Now, authority and control are two different things. When you have authority, you know who you are in relationship to something. When you are in control, you are the decider of it. You are not always the decider, you know, but you are always in choice about how you attend to your creations.”

Other people are involved in making decisions that might affect us one way or another and certainly we are not in control of their choices. The emphasis here, in focusing on the energy of authority, is that no matter what the situation seemingly created by us or by another, that we have a choice of how we are to relate to it or how we are to hold it. In other words, I always have a choice of how I respond.

This is somewhat of an aside but it came up in our session Sunday morning. I rediscovered that I frequently focus on attempting to fix or correct or change all that I see that might be negative before I give myself to chance or the opportunity to appreciate the positive. The example that we found so humorous in class was, I was describing all of the things we might have to go through if someone decided to end a relationship with us—the sadness, the grieving, the anger the pain etc. And then someone mentioned it's very possible that we could feel a sense of joy and relief that the other person has decided to end this relationship. “Thank God that's over!”

There was also the discovery in the realization that each one of us chooses to deal with life and life's events in the best ways that we possibly can. Your way of transforming or healing the world might be to focus on transforming and healing yourself, and, in fact, that might be much more beneficial then organizing a march or a rally. With this and with all other aspects spiritual path, we are encouraged to trust your heart and the direction that we go in which is most loving, first of all, towards the self.

“Now understand this, please: When you know who you are, what you are, how you serve, your life must move into accord with this. This is a statement of truth. It does not preclude people doing things that you say you do not want. It does not change things that have been manifested by you in lower consciousness. It allows you to transform these things in awareness of your new frequency. “I know who I am” always, always, always is a claim of truth.”

We closed with a mediation relating to this last reading. I would encourage all of us to be continually open to this process of transformation.

“Now as your life is transformed in choice, as what you have gone into agreement with changes, what you are responsible to is transformed. Now we will ask you this: What is one thing in your life that you would change if you could? What is one thing you would claim if you were allowed, if you believed it could be? What is one choice you would make anew if you believed there was a possibility that it could be in manifestation? As you choose this thing now, as you decide the new possibility and claim your worth, “I know who I am, I know what I am, I know how I serve,” you align to the new possibility that may be created in your authority. If you decide right now that this one thing that you ask for that may be transformed is allowed to be transformed, you can look at a new choice”

It has been pointed out previously, but I am continually called to remind myself of this—POSSIBILITY. We open ourselves to the possibility of all this. That is as far as our conscious human mind can take us. The rest, the realization of all possibility, is manifested and taken over by our Higher Nature. 

It is so easy to get caught up in the thinking that “I” have to make all of this happen. None of these transformations happens through will power, force or any other mandate of the limited self. 

You open yourself to the possibility and then let the Divine within you led you to the Truth.

Thank you all. Have a wonderful week.

May all beings be at peace; may all beings be free of suffering; may all beings remember who they are.