The Impractical Life
This view of payment may well seem impractical and in the eyes of the world it would be so. Yet not one worldly thought is really practical. How much is gained by striving for illusion? How much is lost by throwing God away? (P-3.7)
The quote above from the supplement to A Course in Miracles on psychotherapy refers to money, but really you can use the ideas in it for any aspect of life in the world once you decide to follow only the Holy Spirit.
People tell me all the time how I should do things, especially with my mentoring practice or my writing. If they are students of the Course then I remind them that I follow the Holy Spirit. If they are not then I tell them I’m not interested, or I smile and thank them for their suggestions. This used to bother me and I wondered why until I figured out that others were simply reflecting what the ego was telling me. I have the intelligence and discipline to do anything with my life that I want to do and the ego wants me to do anything but stay centered in the Holy Spirit! The ego is always full of ideas, and especially when I start something new it floods me with them. But I’ve learned from past experience that following the ego is a certain way to lose Peace. The ego’s goal is always separation from Peace.
The only time I feel I am fulfilling my purpose is when I commune with God. When I commune daily with God and maintain my awareness of God’s Presence throughout the day then my life in the world flows out of that. It becomes an expression of that connection, and I don’t have to be concerned with anything because the Holy Spirit’s Guidance is always here.
If your goal is to make a lot of money or to gain recognition or to have power then you have a lot of models to follow in the world. But when your goal is God there is no model to follow. For one thing the Goal of God is not something you attain in the future – the Goal is here now. You have to live wholly in the present with God when your Goal is God. This means that what you do in the world is not an end in itself but an expression of your relationship with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes you will do things in the conventional way; often you will not. Your attention is focused within on maintaining your Peace, your sense of connection to the Holy Spirit. When your goal is the world then your goal is separation from Peace and your attention is focused on “getting” from the world what you think you need to fill the emptiness caused by your decision to be separate from Peace.
It is certainly impractical from the world’s point of view to live in the present and follow only the Holy Spirit’s guidance. But it is also totally liberating. There is no freedom like the freedom that comes from living now and being wholly present to the Peace within you.
The quote above from the supplement to A Course in Miracles on psychotherapy refers to money, but really you can use the ideas in it for any aspect of life in the world once you decide to follow only the Holy Spirit.
People tell me all the time how I should do things, especially with my mentoring practice or my writing. If they are students of the Course then I remind them that I follow the Holy Spirit. If they are not then I tell them I’m not interested, or I smile and thank them for their suggestions. This used to bother me and I wondered why until I figured out that others were simply reflecting what the ego was telling me. I have the intelligence and discipline to do anything with my life that I want to do and the ego wants me to do anything but stay centered in the Holy Spirit! The ego is always full of ideas, and especially when I start something new it floods me with them. But I’ve learned from past experience that following the ego is a certain way to lose Peace. The ego’s goal is always separation from Peace.
The only time I feel I am fulfilling my purpose is when I commune with God. When I commune daily with God and maintain my awareness of God’s Presence throughout the day then my life in the world flows out of that. It becomes an expression of that connection, and I don’t have to be concerned with anything because the Holy Spirit’s Guidance is always here.
If your goal is to make a lot of money or to gain recognition or to have power then you have a lot of models to follow in the world. But when your goal is God there is no model to follow. For one thing the Goal of God is not something you attain in the future – the Goal is here now. You have to live wholly in the present with God when your Goal is God. This means that what you do in the world is not an end in itself but an expression of your relationship with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes you will do things in the conventional way; often you will not. Your attention is focused within on maintaining your Peace, your sense of connection to the Holy Spirit. When your goal is the world then your goal is separation from Peace and your attention is focused on “getting” from the world what you think you need to fill the emptiness caused by your decision to be separate from Peace.
It is certainly impractical from the world’s point of view to live in the present and follow only the Holy Spirit’s guidance. But it is also totally liberating. There is no freedom like the freedom that comes from living now and being wholly present to the Peace within you.
Comments
Having had many jobs in the world and having perfected all of them too it has finally occurred to me that they are all one and the same.
My Goal is God and it makes sense to me now as to why Holy Spirit has been reminding me to 'Just Be With Him.' I needn't worry now as to how that shows up in the world of separation in relation to a job. The idea of Jobs just might fall away altogether. We'll see. :-)