In continuation of this year’s theme of Love, today we will direct our attention to the Love of Source that is always with us, embedded within us. Lesson 124 from A Course in Miracles, says, “Let me remember I am one with God.”
The first paragraph of lesson 124 reads, “Today we will again give thanks for our identity in God. Our home is safe, protection guaranteed in all we do, power and strength available to us in all our undertakings. We can fail in nothing. Everything we touch takes on a shining light that blesses and that heals at one with God and with the universe. We go our way rejoicing with the thought that God goes everywhere with us. So this is a very powerful intro and warrant or justification or explanation for why we want to remember that we are one with God.”
Just as the headline of the lesson teaches, we want to be intentional about plugging into God (or Source) and God’s love. We want to rest in God. We want to think about God. We want to delight in God. We want to continually remember that we can enjoy a conscious state of oneness with God. This paragraph tells us what all the benefits of being in this state are: safety, protection, guarantee that everything that we do will be successful. It's pretty amazing.
It is extremely important for us to remember that we are one with God because maybe someone who's new to miracle mindsets might be wondering, “How can I create miracles?” By definition, you can't. That's what makes them miracles. So it's the awareness that you're tapping into an additional Source of power that is not just you, the human in the human form here on Earth, but it's this unlimited spiritual potential that exists everywhere and also within us. And through that, we can essentially create miracles, but not us alone.
We often discuss the act of tapping in and becoming attuned with God and Source power.
We use God and Source interchangeably along with other names that people may feel comfortable with: The Divine, The Universe, etc. The word “God” can be alienating to some people so we are always trying to be sensitive to a wider audience that may not be familiar with the Christian language, the Christian tradition even, or the Muslim Christian Judaic tradition. We want all seekers of spiritual truth to be able to hear something of value in what we do without being alienated by the language.
To continue with our highlights of some of these passages here, the first four verses of lesson 124 are talking about all of these amazing benefits that will come to us as we see ourselves and enjoy ourselves as being one with God, intentionally and deliberately. Then in paragraph five, I see a pivot towards the application of this enormous sense of well being and power and strength and inner perfection that we get from the divine.
It says in paragraph five, “We see, in other words, this power at work in appearances of pain and pain, gives way to peace. We see it in the frantic, in the sad and the distressed, the lonely and afraid who are restored to the tranquility and peace of mind in which they were created. And we see it in the dying and the dead as well, restoring them to life. All this we see because we saw it first within ourselves.” Moreover in paragraph six and a little bit of seven it says, “No miracle can ever be denied to those who know that they are one with God. No thought of theirs, but has the power to heal all forms of suffering in anyone in times gone by and times has yet to come as easily as in the ones who walk beside them now. Their thoughts are timeless and apart from distance and as apart from time. We join in this awareness, as we say, that we are one with God. For in these words, we say as well that we are saved and healed and that we can save and heal accordingly.”
When we receive the benefits of oneness with God, we are able then, as miracle workers with a miracle mindset, become able to impart those benefits to others. We are given authority to heal others through our connection with God. Because we can only truly take responsibility for ourselves, as a leader, a CEO, an entrepreneur, you are the one responsible for taking action and doing the work required within your organization or community. So the thought that you can actually take action to heal others is really powerful and not to be taken for granted. So as you are reading this article now, know that this is your calling to take this information and use it, not only your advantage, but to the advantage of the people around you, which of course, has direct benefits to you and your organization, your community, and your world.
Ultimately the power to create miracles resides inside of us, but not because it originates with us. This point is just at the core of what I think really empowers us with the miracle mindset. It's a gift to us, and it's given to us lavishly and freely, but it doesn't originate with us, and it's also given to everybody equally. There are no favorites involved, in spite of how appearances in the world can look sometimes. These principles help to anchor the miracle mindset in a very powerful understanding of Source. In this way, there can't really be ultimately there can't be a sense of ego. It didn't start with me. I commonly clarify that I'm not that smart, talented, or powerful on my own. It didn't start with me; I'm merely learning this practice. Furthermore, before I learned this practice I was even less smart back then then I am today!
Without this Source inside of us illuminating for us and encouraging us to be one with us, we really are lost. We wouldn’t be able to figure it out ultimately. If we pretend or boast that we can, it actually leads to more problems for us.
As for a practice of exercise on this topic, paragraph eight of this lesson 124 says here, “Peace be to you today. I love this next sentence. And what follows as well. Secure your peace by practicing awareness you are one with your creator as he is with you.”
The Source of peace belongs to us, but we have to secure it by practicing the awareness that we are one with our source. “Sometime today, whenever it seems best, devote a half an hour to the thought that you are one with God. This is our first attempt at an extended period for which we give no rules nor special words to guide your meditation. We will trust God's voice to speak as he sees fit today, certain he will not fail abide with him this half an hour. He or she or they will do the rest. Your benefit will not be less if you believe that nothing happens.”
Sometimes we can practice exercises and feels like nothing is actually happening. We feel hesitant if we are not hearing thunderclaps and seeing lightning bolts and flashing colors and miracles aren't happening right before our eyes. This section is meant in a form of reassurance in that we must be confident that what we have practiced has enormous effects. “Somewhere, it will come to you, nor will you fail to recognize it when it dawns with certainty upon your mind.” Eventually you will be able to see the fruits of your seeds planted for mindset shifting.
So to summarize this assignment, there is no specific mantra or words to say nor specific action to do other than basking in meditation and feeling God's presence. In my own personal preference, I always use a set of words from another lesson, paraphrasing and repeating something that goes like this, “God, I am resting in you. God, I am resting in you. God, I am resting in you.” Then I'll say, “God, I am resting in you and in your love and your light. God, I am resting in you. God, I am resting in you and in your love and your light.” This helps to guide me into the fact that I'm actually just resting in the arms or in the heart or in the mind or in the love of God. The instructions here are pretty clear that you don't have to be too programmatic about it but you can embrace God’ presence in any manner of your choosing. Whether one does that through mindfulness or meditation or guided imagery, tapes or audios or, there are a million different ways to do it. The main thing here is that 30 minute time frame and then being mindful that we are consciously one with God.
One of the areas of application for me is that I am working with a leader who's an influencer and whether they influence 10 other people or 1000 other people, the challenge in our executive coaching work together is about how to influence as quickly as possible in as positive a way as possible. One of the many methods and techniques that I use is the Hawaiian Healing technique of ho’oponopono which I use with a lot with my clients. It's very similar to methods described in a course in Miracles, it just has a few steps to it that are easier to teach. During this process it becomes routine for executive, someone with influence in an organization, can put out this healing power to transform bottlenecks and conflicts and issues that aren't working. This is very powerful and in my coaching profession I see miracles weekly. Things that seemed like they would never change dissolving completely! Or roadblocks with no way out paving a new and miraculous pathway! Little by little, through applying these teachings, changes that could never expected occur which is extremely gratifying.
Leaders can also use the practice of ho’oponopono in order to cleanse other people and their negative programming. This may actually sound like a lot of work. The way that I think of this “return-on-time investment” doing this practice, or really any mindset practice to create miraculous shifts is this: in the course of my work, I'm constantly listening to clients - and I love and respect my clients and an not judging anyone - but a legitimate part of what we do is that they get to complain about what their pain points are with their people, their teams, and their situations. In the course of, say, an hour long session, I could easily spend 30, 40, or 50 minutes of that time listening to a variety of complaints, and I can easily guess that this is not the first time, nor will be the last time they are complaining about this. So overall, there's a lot of time spent already ruminating and thinking about the issue at hand, obsessing about it in some ways having anxiety and anger and resentment about it. If it takes 30 minutes to hear the complaints, for example, we could do the process I just mentioned in probably about 10 minutes, taking all of that energy and bundle it into the healing process. And then hopefully clients buy into this idea that the more you practice it, the easier your life gets. And you see the return on investment when long standing and tractable problems that you've talked about. So in summary, why would you essentially waste time or spend time ruminating about a problem just for the sake of ruminating when you could be spending that same time, if not less, in taking steps towards shifting the problem by tapping into the source power? When you're ruminating, it often can make the problem worse because you just get resentful and you get angry and you accumulate more grievances. As ACIM lesson 78 teaches, having the grievances can actually block those miracles from happening.
It's about the process of cleaning through this connection to Divine Source and release that we saw described in this lesson today. It's a very powerful formula for leadership. Anyone can use this in their life to dissolve any sort of intractable problem. With that, it is necessarily required to go over and over and over again and doing it multiple times. Because part of remembering that you are one with God is the act of surrendering and allowing God to do its thing. So if you have the power of surrender within you, you could do a “one and done” and just let it be and as long as that grievance isn't bubbling up in you, then the work is already started to shifting it away.
An example from my personal life on this subject is that I used to smoke probably until about 12 years ago, and I was very aware that I was using it to self medicate as I was doing psychotherapy work. I started doing ho’oponopono a lot back then and I found other ways to discharge or release or work on that negativity that I was getting from clients or the pain that I was picking up from clients. The cleaning helped me to stop smoking abruptly. I just dropped it. I didn't need it anymore. I haven't had a single cigarette since whatever the day was 12 years ago that I stopped. Not a single one! Same applies to me for alcohol too. The point I'm making here is that I remind myself periodically that I used to be a smoker, and though I tried so many different ways to get rid of it, once I started doing ho’oponopono, it just left my life never to return! I never ruminated on it, but I definitely have it there as a reminder of what used to be and then the miracle that happened. You can have hundreds of things like that in your life that you just remind yourself periodically. You should think to yourself, “I'm so grateful that I don't do this anymore and I'm willing to help anybody in any way I can to get free from whatever they want to get free from.
If you’d like to learn more about this cleansing practice, I suggest reading on it from Joe Vitale’s book, Zero Limits or you can go to YouTube and just type it in for guided videos. Additionally, you’ll find information about it in chapter five of my book, Nightmares to Miracles, which gives a treatment of this cleaning process. No matter what method you decide to use, make it a point to spend 30 minutes today basking in your oneness with God or Source which is always around you and within you.
