RE-MEMBER 3

P. 282-85 
An image that is often presented in this book is that of taking things to the altar. I would like to explore that for a moment. As I sat with that image, I had some old ideas and some new ones. The old ones, or let us say the older way of looking at this, would be that I take my cares and my concerns my needs for healing. etc. I take them and I put them on the altar; I let them go; I release them to God, and then sort of turn around walk away and God takes care of them or not. Sort of like saying, “Well it’s in God’s hands now.”

I consider now that the altar is not a platform for passivity, and it can be looked upon in a different way. I believe the altar is a bridge between my human self and my divine self; it is a reflection, in some ways, of that wonderful prayer of Emily Catie, “God I don't know the answer you do show me.” When I place things on the altar, whether that be a health concern or monetary issue or something I wish to manifest, or healing for another, grace for another, or for the world in general, I am not just placing it there and leaving it and walking away. I am allowing that stuff of my mind that I've been holding onto to be released to my divine self to be healed, to be transformed, and whatever else might be involved. But there is another step to the process here, because I do not simply let my human self walk away, I also open myself to listening to my divine self and taking in whatever information it might give me that will lead me to whatever activities or directives I might need to act out in my physical, material world in order to make these healings and transformations to take place. So even though I am releasing from my human self, I am still actively involved in the process of healing, if, and only if, I allow myself to be open to the information coming from my divine self.

A classmate asked, “How come we don't listen to our divine self as much as we could or should? Good question. I think for one is that we have been trained almost not to listen to our divine self. Nobody said “don't listen to your divine self”, bur we never realized we had one! Secondly our idea of prayer and most of our older beliefs around this were that we would pray to God for something and then let it go and on our way hoping, awaiting and then expecting some results that we would like to have. There was very little interaction or involvement with the divine. In some ways it was too big or too far away. Now we are suggesting that in our process of growth that we have a positive and powerful interaction with the divine self, the divine sense of who we are. In some ways we are living in both worlds and we neither deny one or the other.

Someone also asked “How would I define my divine self?” and I presume the simplest answer to that would be “My divine self is the personification of love. God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him that is my divine self.” Of course, what is very helpful with that definition or with that understanding is that I can know the difference between my divine self and my ego almost immediately. If it what I am thinking or doing is not loving then it is not coming from my divine self it is simple as that.

The book then began to speak of alignment and realignment with divine energies and how that has an essential transformational effect on each one of us and the people and places and things around us. Just a little caution here, you might not feel that alignment in an emotional sense, but you can know it as an internal reality. There have been many times when you have discovered yourself responding differently to a particular person or situation than you might have before, and this is a wonderful indication of the changes and growth that are occurring within you. It is also a reminder that you are not the same as you were and your perception of yourself is not the same as it was and your perception of the other is not the same as it was. All of that is in transition, and all of that is a reflection of perceiving, looking at the world, looking at yourself, looking at others, from a higher vibration of thought. In many ways you are releasing or letting go old ideas of the self and by doing so you raise your vibration. It's almost like there's less weight holding you down, like a balloon trying get off the ground and you are cutting off the sandbags, these old pieces of identity which you discovered today. They no longer serve you. 

There is a passage that comes up next which I found rather fascinating

If everything in your world is a creation and your consciousness it expresses itself in its safety there is nothing to fear.

So what would it be like to live in a state of consciousness where there is nothing to fear? We've heard this expressed any number of times and any number of different ways. I believe ACIM expresses something to the effect of “nothing of importance can be taken away from you.” I remember reading another metaphysical book years ago where a teacher was saying “If you could only know one thing that would absolutely change your life, change your existence, change your response to the world, it is I am perfectly safe; I am perfectly safe.

The book continues:

 The challenges that you have known up until today have all been about mirrors. They've all been about reflections of lower frequency as out pictured by you, singularly you and collectively you. And the choice the individual makes to rise above that mirror, so that it can no longer reflect fear, permits others to do the same. Understand this now, then as you are rising in frequency you can imagine your frequency as lifting you past those reflections. And we will say those reflections have been obstacles to awareness of truth. As you have risen you will recognize others who are also in this passage and releasing the tethers:

And I am knowing them as Word. I am knowing them as the light. And I am knowing them as my compatriots in the journey of ascension as we gather together in one light we herald the changes that are to come and we draw to us the resolve in our knowing to call to us many many many who are ready to lift in there knowing as well. The collective frequency will change and I am now choosing to benefit myself through this conscious knowing that I am willing to become a knowing soul, for the work to come will be wonderful. I am Word through this knowing. I am worth this intention. Word I am Word.

I was struck by that word “wonderful,” “for the work to come will be wonderful,” and I'm not sure about you but my mind say it is not quite sure about that, but see what the human self looks upon as being a burden, the soul looks upon his being its joyful growth.

Lastly today, without delving too much into the idea of reincarnation, we did look at the idea that the soul, my spiritual nature actually plans this journey before coming to earth, choosing a body, choosing parents, choosing lessons, to learn. And I would suggest this is not a haphazard or meaningless kind of thing where we come back to planet earth, and we forget who we are. Then we spend all this time and effort remembering again, and then we remember and then we let go of our body, and then we try this journey again and again and again and again and again. I truly believe that all is in evolution, all is in movement, and that as we discover our divine nature again, we continue to discover it in a deeper way and we participate in the divine in a deeper way. I know these are just words, but its the best I can come up with right now: as we expand in love, we actually add to the substance of God. We stretch our capacity to both hold and experience love. This capacity, this experience, this deep knowing, continues to expand and evolve. It's not the same as it was the last time we discovered our divine nature, it has grown, it has expanded, it has evolved, and will continue to do so.

Thank you God. Amen