Miracles Are Simple But Resistance is Strong
“The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brother and remember God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God.” (C-5.2)
This quote from A Course in Miracles used to piss me off. I wanted to attain Christ Consciousness, too, but I just wanted to be Christ, I didn’t want to have to see Christ everywhere. This was so contrary to the way that I understood things worked! If I was Christ, why would I see Christ everywhere? It didn’t make sense. Wasn’t I supposed to find God within? Why did I have to change what I was seeing in the world? I couldn’t make the connection between myself and what I was seeing in the world.
And yet this was the central teaching of the Course! Everything is Mind; we only see our own minds, we are always teaching ourselves what we are by what we choose to perceive. I was so resistant I made the simplest thing – a miracle – so difficult. Let me give you an example of how easy a miracle is:
You’re sitting in a waiting room waiting for your car to get a lube job. There’s an obese, sloppy man sitting across from you picking his nose. The ego always speaks first so the moment you see him the ego goes off in your mind: “Look at this pig. He’s so fat! His ugly, hairy stomach is sticking out of his shirt and it’s so disgusting. And look at those clothes! Just because he’s fat that’s no reason to wear dirty clothes with holes in them. Geesh. Gag, look, he’s picking his nose…” etc, etc. These thoughts don’t make you feel so good so you stop and you decide you are going to extend God’s Love – a miracle – instead. You can do this with your eyes opened or closed. So you turn your mind inward and you remember that only God is really present and you allow yourself to feel this. You extend this awareness out from your mind to fill the room and encompass all you see. Suddenly you are taking a deep breath and relaxing. You are filled with peace and joy. You look over at the man and catch his eye and you smile because you are so filled with joy that you just want to give and give and give. He smiles back. You want to laugh because he has no teeth and just a few seconds ago that would have driven you crazy and now you see how it is nothing. All of it is nothing. Only God is Real and God is Everywhere. A miracle has occurred: You have changed your mind.
For the heavy, sloppy man you can substitute anything: Pictures of starving children; a car accident you are driving past; your teenager screaming in your face; your boss firing you, etc. Remember, there is no order of difficulty in miracles. Every illusion of separation is the same and every miracle that undoes it is the same.
Changing your mind so simply does not seem so difficult, does it? And yet students tell me all the time how hard it is to do this. And I remember how hard it was for me. What is difficult is not the mechanics of the miracle but finding the motivation to do it. The ego knows that something is going on that does not involve it in any way. If you happen to slip a miracle by it, it will attack viciously. It will tell you nothing real happened just because you thought lovey-dovey thoughts and felt good. It will downplay it and try and push it out of your mind. Though you remember how good you felt if you listen to the ego you will resist doing it again and wonder why you feel so far from God.
In time, miracles motivate more miracles because you want to be at peace and you become willing to do what you have to do to be at peace. But in the beginning the ego’s resistance is strong. Make no mistake: As simple as it is, a miracle is a profound moment that undoes the ego and the ego knows it. You are never the same after a miracle and the world is never the same for you after a miracle. Through a miracle you learn that you don’t live in the world; you live in your thoughts about the world. You decide what the world is for you based on what you want for yourself: Separation from God or Oneness with God. The world as the ego sees it is a great deception and extending a miracle is how you undeceive yourself. You are Christ, you are One with God and the only way to know it is to extend this awareness to the part of your mind that seems to be the world. It’s that simple.
This quote from A Course in Miracles used to piss me off. I wanted to attain Christ Consciousness, too, but I just wanted to be Christ, I didn’t want to have to see Christ everywhere. This was so contrary to the way that I understood things worked! If I was Christ, why would I see Christ everywhere? It didn’t make sense. Wasn’t I supposed to find God within? Why did I have to change what I was seeing in the world? I couldn’t make the connection between myself and what I was seeing in the world.
And yet this was the central teaching of the Course! Everything is Mind; we only see our own minds, we are always teaching ourselves what we are by what we choose to perceive. I was so resistant I made the simplest thing – a miracle – so difficult. Let me give you an example of how easy a miracle is:
You’re sitting in a waiting room waiting for your car to get a lube job. There’s an obese, sloppy man sitting across from you picking his nose. The ego always speaks first so the moment you see him the ego goes off in your mind: “Look at this pig. He’s so fat! His ugly, hairy stomach is sticking out of his shirt and it’s so disgusting. And look at those clothes! Just because he’s fat that’s no reason to wear dirty clothes with holes in them. Geesh. Gag, look, he’s picking his nose…” etc, etc. These thoughts don’t make you feel so good so you stop and you decide you are going to extend God’s Love – a miracle – instead. You can do this with your eyes opened or closed. So you turn your mind inward and you remember that only God is really present and you allow yourself to feel this. You extend this awareness out from your mind to fill the room and encompass all you see. Suddenly you are taking a deep breath and relaxing. You are filled with peace and joy. You look over at the man and catch his eye and you smile because you are so filled with joy that you just want to give and give and give. He smiles back. You want to laugh because he has no teeth and just a few seconds ago that would have driven you crazy and now you see how it is nothing. All of it is nothing. Only God is Real and God is Everywhere. A miracle has occurred: You have changed your mind.
For the heavy, sloppy man you can substitute anything: Pictures of starving children; a car accident you are driving past; your teenager screaming in your face; your boss firing you, etc. Remember, there is no order of difficulty in miracles. Every illusion of separation is the same and every miracle that undoes it is the same.
Changing your mind so simply does not seem so difficult, does it? And yet students tell me all the time how hard it is to do this. And I remember how hard it was for me. What is difficult is not the mechanics of the miracle but finding the motivation to do it. The ego knows that something is going on that does not involve it in any way. If you happen to slip a miracle by it, it will attack viciously. It will tell you nothing real happened just because you thought lovey-dovey thoughts and felt good. It will downplay it and try and push it out of your mind. Though you remember how good you felt if you listen to the ego you will resist doing it again and wonder why you feel so far from God.
In time, miracles motivate more miracles because you want to be at peace and you become willing to do what you have to do to be at peace. But in the beginning the ego’s resistance is strong. Make no mistake: As simple as it is, a miracle is a profound moment that undoes the ego and the ego knows it. You are never the same after a miracle and the world is never the same for you after a miracle. Through a miracle you learn that you don’t live in the world; you live in your thoughts about the world. You decide what the world is for you based on what you want for yourself: Separation from God or Oneness with God. The world as the ego sees it is a great deception and extending a miracle is how you undeceive yourself. You are Christ, you are One with God and the only way to know it is to extend this awareness to the part of your mind that seems to be the world. It’s that simple.
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Laura
Joy