Lesson 129: Beyond this world is the world I want.
The ego’s gravitational pull on us is strong. This is why A Course in Miracles is so long … and so repetitive. It says the same thing over and over again, using different words and examples. It has to, because we are so tethered and dedicated to this ego world that it seems strange – crazy, even – to consider wanting something else, especially something as seemingly nebulous as God’s realm.
The Course speaks the truth, however – there really is nothing in the world that will truly satisfy us. The ego keeps offering up alternatives – wealth, power, possessions, relationships, jobs, homes, exotic vacations. It’s all a fantasy. We truly could have everything we want in this world – everything the ego tells us we should want, at least – and we would still find it all fleeting and impermanent.
We store up our earthly goods in bank accounts and investments these days and not in barns like the old days, but they still rot away and disappear at some point.
We are in this physical world, not to store up its riches and accumulate its toys, but to use its resources to remember who we are – spirits that have never left the mind of its Creator. We remain in unity with God at all times, but we get confused when we see all these seemingly separate bodies walking around.
We always have this nagging feeling that this is not how things should be – that there truly is some other world beyond this one that we long to return to. The Course offers us tools to follow that nagging feeling to its logical conclusion: Yes, another world exists, and we’re all still there – made one in God’s mind.
Today’s lesson asks us to give in to the nag that says this ain’t the place we belong. Allow that nag to have a louder voice today than the ego that assures you everything is as it should be. It’s not. Beyond this world is a world of divine silence that invites us to rest from the ego’s constant demand that be more, do more and achieve more than those we perceive as “others.” This is not the true world – but the false one we made when we forgot our true identity as God’s children.
Hafiz reminds us that our true reality is that of the Holy Spirit’s twin and we will not truly rest until we are reunited.
How many times a paw touched the earth today
I know. I watched and counted them
and almost lost my mind in ecstasy.
The body of everything I became
and now am when God and I
kissed so deeply one night.
Anything’s hunt for food I know, I share.
Your breathing draws me in and out.
All beings’ joys and fears I comprehend.
Something we call God I move with.
Without me all shape would collapse.
It is true I hold you up.
Existence’s cane is my love.
If I were summoned to a court
and accused of being deluded,
I could supply all the evidence needed
to show all I say is not false.
and so could you, inside your soul.
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