“Simplicity and harmony are the ultimate conditions to be attained in all things.” …Horace

I finish a post and publish it, and then I say, that’s the last one for a while; I’m not going to write any more for a quite some time. Then I read someone’s Facebook post, or another’s blog, and all of a sudden I see a quote that grabs my attention so fully that it seems I need to remember it. So I copy and paste it into a file I keep specifically for that purpose. I do so, for my plan is to keep it for possible future reference.

Then there’s some quotes that are so full of wise and simple – for lack of a better term, I’ll say, advice – that I simply can’t leave them there.  Such is the above quote by the Roman poet Horace. I called it advice even though it looks more like a simple statement of his own perception concerning his view of what life aught to be.

I look at his words, and I think to myself, I wonder if he himself ever attained those conditions? I don’t know, but I don’t think he ever did. I say that because he said, they are the ultimate conditions to be attained. I understand he was writing to others, and relaying his own beliefs to those whom he thought may benefit from such musings.

But the foregoing is simply my own take on the subject. He very well may have attained those conditions for himself. If he did then I believe he reached the pinnacle of ways to enjoy this physical experience we erroneously refer to as life. 

“How simple is salvation! All it says is what was never true is not true now and never will be. The impossible has not occurred and can have no effects. And that is all.” …ACIM

It seems to me that nothing could be simpler to grasp than the idea that what was never true is not true now and never will be. And that the impossible has not occurred. But that’s the problem we humans face every day. It’s the one thing that takes away any hope of our lives ever being simple or in harmony with one another. It’s our belief that truth is different for everyone and therefore, can change, and that the impossible has happened.

Those are the beliefs we have built our lives on, whether we’re aware of it, or not. And I ask myself; could anything be more complicated or more problem-causing than beliefs like these? How complicated and out of harmony must a world be where the truth is different for everyone, and everyone believes the impossible has occurred?

What is this impossibility that we all believe has taken place? It’s the belief that we have separated ourselves from our one and only Source of Life. And what is this Truth that can never change? It’s the fact that God created us as part of Him, and we can never be separated from Him, for He is our one and only Source of Life. It’s no more complicated than that. We are all part of the same Source, which is God, and nothing could be more simple and harmonious if we accepted it.

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”   …Confucius

There we have it from a Chinese philosopher who lived around 2,500 years ago. He knew way back then that making life complicated was our own doing, and nothing has changed in this respect. We still insist on making it complicated because we’re confused; and why wouldn’t we be?

The ego has convinced us we have done that which is absolutely impossible to do. And on top of that, it teaches us that we can be separated from our only Source of life, and yet still be alive. Is it any wonder why the Course tells us, “What you have taught yourselves is such a giant learning feat it is indeed incredible?” 

“If you overlook love, you are overlooking yourself.”    …ACIM

Why is it that we humans are so intent on overlooking the simple and the obvious? That’s not really a difficult question to answer when we realize what we have done to ourselves. We have allowed our egos to teach us that we’re not who we are.

We find ourselves in a world where we don’t know who we are, what we are, where we are, how we got here or where we’re going. And on top of that, most of us don’t know for certain whether we’re created beings, or simply some sort of derivative of a chemical reaction in a primordial soup of some type.

We have no clue as to who or what God is, and therefore have turned Him into, as Albert Einstein once said, “A God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own — a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.”

We have ignored and overlooked the simplistic and glorious truth that God is Love, even though that teaching has been the main theme of all the great Spiritual teachers throughout recorded history. Every one of them has taught it in all its simple glory. But we humans have taken their message, and within a few short years turned it into something completely opposite and unrelated. Is it any wonder the Course tells us that our learning feat it is indeed incredible? 

“God is Love, and you do want Him.”   …ACIM

As I often repeat, I have accepted the Course as the ultimate in spiritual teaching. I made this decision after reading it through very carefully more than once. Through much contemplation and meditation, I came to the conclusion to accept Helen Schucman’s claim that Jesus Christ was her Source. In my opinion, there was no way any human could write something like it without other-world help.

That being said, I must add that it was my own perspective as I saw it. Therefore I’m not trying to persuade or convince anyone else of this; each person must decide for him or herself.

Because of that decision I must accept what the Course tells me, for I believe that if anyone would know what, or who, God is, it would be Jesus. Therefore I have accepted the simple statement contained in the above quote, namely God is love. And also the last part that informs me that I do want Him. 

Who amoung us doesn’t want Love? We want it, but many won’t admit it because they’re afraid of it. We’re all – every one of us – searching for it, even though we know not what we’re searching for. And neither are we searching where it will ever be found, for we’re searching in the outer world which doesn’t even exist; it’s an illusion.

We’re like the musk deer the Indian mystic, Ramakrishna, described with the following metaphor: “The fabled musk deer searches the world over for the source of the scent which comes from itself.”

Simplicity and harmony

Those are such wonderful words to think upon, for we could turn our lives into a simple and harmonious experience if we were to gently tell the ego we no longer accept its insane teachings.

For we do know who we are, and we know what we are. Our Creator placed that knowledge in our minds when He created us. Therefore, how could we not know? We believe we have separated ourselves from our Creator, and therefore from this knowledge. But it’s still there awaiting our awakening to awareness of our true Selves.

The simple and harmonious truth is, We are Love, and nothing but Love, for Love is all – and all is Love. There is nothing else.

I’m going to close this post with the following teaching by the American actor and awesome spiritual teacher, Kip Baldwin: 

“So long as humanity remains in the programmed false finite belief that they are things of matter doing, they will never have the true infinite experience of Being all they are as LOVE, all the true self is… just LOVE.”

 

 

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Thank you for visiting this blog – I really and truly appreciate it

YOU NEED NOT SEARCH FOR LOVE – FOR LOVE IS WHAT YOU ARE