The miracle comes quietly into the mind that stops an instant and is still.

Quietness. Stillness. Peace.

Who doesn’t desire quietness, stillness and peace? Who doesn’t desire a tranquil mind? A quiet, deep and still mind that is unaffected by thought. Protected from everything around it, the mind stays perfectly calm and centered. Empty of fear and doubt. Empty of guilt and anxiety. Empty of sadness and loneliness. Empty of everything that threatens peace, but full of the abundance of God’s beautiful light, love and peace.

The miracle comes quietly into our mind and gently lays a simple truth upon the alter to God. This new perception is a soft, gentle reminder of who we are and where we are. To receive this holy offering of truth, we must stop and instant and be still.

We are the only ones that can choose the miracle. We are the only ones that can say “I will be still and instant and let the miracle quietly come in.” My salvation comes from me. My happiness, peace and a quiet mind (salvation) comes from me. It cannot come from anywhere else. I choose the thoughts I want to listen to. Nothing outside me can upset me or bring me peace, except the thoughts that I choose to listen to. All these teachings, point us to using the miracle as a way to undo the blocks that interfere with the Peace of mind we seek. They point us to full responsibility for choosing the thoughts that harm or heal. They show us that we can choose the miracle rather than stay stuck in a grievance. This is the choice that leads us to freedom.

On my journey with A Course in Miracles teachings, remembering to stop an instant and ask the Holy Spirit for help, was the only way to have my perception changed. I came to see that having a busy mind that was full of judgment and trying to plan for everything itself, kept the miracle away. I knew I had to dedicate more “time” to sit in stillness and invite the Holy Spirit in.

The first few periods we go through to developing trust in the Holy Spirit and Jesus, we find that it is not always easy to remember to allocate time to stop and sit still and ask. We find we have made a busy life and the ego thoughts say we don’t have time for lots of meditation and quiet time. The ego will always oppose quiet time so be aware of these thoughts when they arrive and choose to make this time for stillness a priority.

As we start to develop the habit of stopping, getting still and asking for his gentle help and guidance, we become more motivated and attracted to this practice, as we validate that the miracle helped changed our perception and bought about changes of how we perceive the world, other brothers and God. I found it helpful to look back over the previous six months period and validate to myself that I was progressing in being more mindful, in remembering to have these quiet times and also that my mind was starting to become more and more peaceful. The ego thoughts will always say we are failing so I would constantly validate that I was feeling happier that I did six months ago. This helped motivate me to keep going with my dedication to asking for Holy Spirit to help me.

As I went through my period of undoing the ego, I started to become very good at finding places and times to activate the stillness that I needed. I was working in a busy Real Estate business and I used my lunch break for this stillness period devotion. I would sit on a quiet park bench and meditate repeating my lesson and asking Him to bring another perception to anything that was upsetting me at that moment. Sometimes I would walk slowly and quietly asking Him to be with me. During these periods, I started to feel some inner wisdom opening up within my mind.

All my time outside of work, was given over to the dedication of A Course in Miracles practice.

If we remember that the goal of A Course in Miracles is “The peace of God”, we can understand why allocating time to stop and be still, is so important for us. How can the Holy Spirit bring a change of perception into our minds if we never make room for the quiet mind that a changed perception needs for it to come into?

If you don’t know how to get still and ask or join the Holy Spirit, simply develop a practice by giving half an hour in the morning and at night to sitting quietly and letting go of thoughts in your mind and then asking Him to speak to you. It helped me to think that if others could hear the Holy Spirit, then it must be possible for me. Jesus says he is available to everyone all the time. It definitely felt like I needed to practice this before it felt like I could atune to the help that became available. After many years of this practice, I now hear Him directing me all the time. Its very beautiful to have peace of mind and a lovely voice that directs me gently.

I guess hearing the Holy Spirit is similar to listening to a radio. There are radio waves all around us, but unless we have a radio wave receiver, we cant hear what is being broadcast. Now we need to develop tuning into Holy Spirit answers with our inner receiver. This can feel awkward and abstract at the start. Don’t concern yourself with this feeling of awkwardness because I think everyone feels this. Just start a habit of doing this practice daily and give time and commitment to it and keep asking for help. In the early days, I would write my questions in a paper journal and sit quietly and receive an answer. I would surprise myself with what I heard. I thought the voice would be a different sounding voice but it was mine. It was in my mind and these thoughts were the Holy Spirits answer which are the “right minded thoughts” waiting to come help me. These right minded thoughts are the different perception to the egos perception and thus, once I received this other answer, it changed my experience from projecting guilt to feelings of love.

What is really important in asking for help from the Holy Spirit or Jesus, is really, really wanting their answer. This is the most important aspect. This comes from a place deep within us that feels fed up with our life as we currently experience it and a deep calling of the heart for “another way” or “another answer” or “another way to see it”.

As we get into the habit of allocating time to be still so we can ask and listen, we do become more committed to this habit over time, because we start to see how answers do appear and do help us. The Holy Spirit can use music, movies, advertisements, road signs, something someone else says, to give you the answer. All we need do is open up our minds and wait. We cannot know how His answer will come in. I have had thousands of different ways he has answered me. All we need do, is allocate time for quietness and ask with a heart that really wants this answer.

At the start of my journey when I was developing this habit, when I first started asking for help to change my perception, it would sometimes took a week for something to come in and change it. The course says that the answer is available the instant that we ask, but I decided not to give the “week” a meaning and to just keep on making time for stillness and asking. This may help you, if you think you didn’t get an answer straight away. Keep trusting that the answer will come in. We are like babies that are learning new way of being. We need to give ourselves time to learn and be really kind to ourselves. I decided to be really kind to myself as I went through this undoing period and to ignore egoic thoughts that continued to tell me I was failing. I would say to myself “I am devoted to this course and I will just keep trusting that I am advancing even if I can’t see it”.

So, basically, my life became a series of “doing stuff in the world” and “taking time for stillness, asking and waiting for answers”. I kept working at my job as an Accountant whilst I did my mind training but what really changed was the amount of time outside my job that was devoted to stillness, doing my lessons exactly as he asked me to do them, listening to course teachers, reading ACIM text and other course books. I was “all-in” with the course. I was not interested in trying to find happiness in the world anymore. I was happy to be “normal” as Ken Wapnick taught me and do my forgiveness work. I looked upon the world as my classroom to take me Home.

Below is a really beautiful forgiveness practice that I would like to share. Let us be quiet an instant and read these lines as our instructions from the master teacher Jesus. Then let us do it. Let us follow His instructions so we can be free.

The Holy Spirit asks you but (only) this;

Bring to Him every secret you have locked away from Him.

Open every door to Him

And bid Him enter the darkness and lighten it away.

At your request He enters gladly. He brings the light to darkness if you make the darkness open to Him.

But what you hide, He cannot look upon. He sees for you, and unless you Look with Him He cannot see.

The vision of Christ is not for Him alone, but for Him WITH you.

BRING, THEREFORE ALL YOUR DARK AND SECRET THOUGHTS TO HIM AND LOOK UPON THEM WITH HIM.

HE HOLDS THE LIGHT and you the darkness.

They CANNOT co-exist when BOTH of You together look on them.

T14,VII,6 FIP

Many blessings of love dear friends

Cate xxx