by Marianne Williamson: Based on “A Course in Miracles,” bestselling author, Marianne Williamson gives a live talk every Monday in Los Angeles..
(also available via Livestream anywhere in the world) to teach the principles of “miracle mindedness.” During a talk in late July, she focused on trusting others.
“To the extent to which our thought system is based on fear, or non-miraculous thinking, we bind ourselves to the experience of the world of scarcity and death,” she said. “As we shift our thinking from fear to love, we literally shift into a place where a process of divine intercession — a thought system beyond our own, an actual celestial order of love and harmony — then enters into our experience of this world. Because we transform our thinking, we can transform the effect that thinking has caused.”
“A Course in Miracles” tells us we are perfect, and the core belief and thought within that miracle-minded thought system is the recognition of that perfections, Williamson shared with the audience. However, because the Course tells us we are all connected, meaning there is really only one of us existing in this world, we cannot recognize the perfection of our spiritual being unless we are willing to recognize it in another.
Quoting Lesson 181 from “A Course in Miracles,” Williamson read: “Trusting your brothers is essential to establishing and holding up your faith in your ability to transcend doubt and lack of sure conviction in yourself.”
Trust is a big issue for many people, but only if we trust others can we actually trust ourselves, because any thought we have about another is a thought about ourselves, she said.
“If I think lovingly about you, that is an act of self-care, because I myself will feel ultimately more nourished as I am willing to think more lovingly about you. If I think attack thoughts about you, ‘A Course in Miracles’ says, a sword is dropping over their head and in the realm of reality where there is not time and space, a sword is dropping on me as well.”
Additionally, if we hold the thought and belief that people cannot be trusted, the Course teaches we create what we defend against, so our subconscious mind will set things up in such a way that we will create it. People make mistakes, and we make mistakes, but the question is what we choose to focus on.
“A Course in Miracles” states: “Perception has a focus. It is this that gives consistency to what you see. Change but this focus, and what you behold will change accordingly. Your vision will shift, to give support to the intent which has replaced the one you held before.”
While the ego mind intends to focus on the guilt of another, the spirit within wants to focus on their innocence, Williamson said. We can make a choice to shift our perception in any moment.
“The ego will use your mistakes as evidence for why you deserve it and the spirit in me chooses to extend my perception beyond what the bodies eyes reveal to what the spiritual eye revels, which is the truth in you,” she explained. “I can choose what I intend to see, and when we choose to see the innocence in another person, the Course says this is an act of self-interest, and a gentle reinterpretation of the world. And when we gently reinterpret into miracle mindedness, we see all human behavior as either love, which obviously calls for love to be returned, or as a call for love. In the moment we behave like jerks, the spirit is saying ‘I’m trapped in here. Love me. Because if you condemn me in this place, I’m only going to be worse.’”
Faith in Sinlessness – Quoting from Lesson 181, Williamson said: “Remove your focus on your brother’s sins and you experience the peace that comes from faith in sinlessness. This faith in sinlessness receives its own sure support from what you see in others past their sins. For their mistakes if focused on are witnesses to sins in you. And you will not transcend their sight and see the sinlessness that lies beyond.”
The Course views sins as errors or mistakes to be corrected. But if we limit our focus to the errors of others, we are also binding ourselves to our own errors, she said. Since the level of our errors is not truly who we are, we cannot feel comfortable I our own skin. The only way we can escape our own feelings of self-hatred is to be willing to have faith in the sinlessness of another.
“This is why ‘A Course in Miracles’ says heaven — which is an awareness of our oneness, and the inner peace that comes from that, not later but in this moment — is entered two by two,” she shared. “I cannot get into heaven unless I am willing to take you there with me. If I am binding you to your guilt, I cannot escape feeling the hell of feeling guilt myself.”
The course says we achieve so little because we have undisciplined minds. Just as we exercise our bodies and discipline our muscles, we must do the same for our minds, Williamson said. The ego can take over, or we can instruct our mind and say, “These attach thoughts only hurt me. I am willing to be miracle minded here.”
“Miracle mindedness in any moment is our willingness in any moment to align our thinking with the will of God. We have been trained to look at the world as ‘Do I want to serve the will of God, or do I want to be happy and I can get what I really need?’ and this is ego-oriented,” Williamson noted. “In any moment, when our goal is the perception of sinlessness, then our goal is to rest in heave — meaning our awareness of our oneness, meaning the place we can be happy, meaning the palce where people want to get along with us, meaning the celestial order where our highest good is already programmed.”
