A Course In Miracles Lesson 106

A Course In Miracles lesson 106 states: Let me be still and listen to the truth.

There are two voices in our heads at all times.  One voice is loud, quick, and always talking.  The other voice is silent.  How, you may ask, can there be a “silent” voice in the head?  This question helps us clarify the difference between communication (talking verbally) and communion (knowing without words.)  There is a voice that “speaks” to us in the form of knowing.  This is the state of our minds before we have language.  And it is the state of our minds when we leave our bodies.  A Course In Miracles wants us to consider that even when we leave our bodies, we can never leave our minds.  Our mind is all we are, forever.

Communion is a state of listening to our forever self and resting in a state of knowing what is true.  When we are able to follow that truth and live in alignment with it regardless of how seemingly strange or counter to social norms it may be, we are following what Asian philosophy calls the Tao.  The Tao is true reality as it moves through the strange illusions of this world which seem to us so very real and permanent.  A Course In Miracles wants us to begin to recognize that this world is upside down and backward.  This world is impermanent and therefore, by definition, not real.  Only that which is eternal is real.  Things that fade away can not be real and everything in the physical world fades away.  

Finding what is real in this world requires us to go against the social concepts of accepted physics.  This course is asking us to find the courage to believe in ideas that can not make sense to a mind that was specifically designed to believe in the illusions as real.  One reason the movie the Matrix was so influential is because it gave expression to this very concept of someone realizing that the world he lives in is virtual and unreal.  Unlike the movie, however, Reality is not a wasteland.  On the contrary, Reality is exquisite beyond words.

The loud voice in our heads is a set of cultural and family rules we are constantly asked to live up to regardless of how personally helpful those rules may be for us.  The ego voice guides us always towards an experience of painful divisions and hopeless conclusions.  If we find the courage in ourselves to question that loud, well-trained ego voice, we will take a step closer to real truth, and a life without the intense happy/sad cycles.

The ego voice is quick to judge and it always advises harsh punishments as a solution to every problem.  Can you hear the hostility in that guidance advising vengeance, ghosting, and disdain?  The loud voice leads us toward the destruction of relationships while the silent voice holds all relationships in deep and sacred connection.  The ego voice has no idea how to fix a problem.  Nor does it ever have any desire to do so.  It offers the illusion of solutions that never really achieve what they promised. The ego voice is not a problem solver, it is a problem maker.

We can not fix any problem from the ego mind.  A Course In Miracles Lesson 106 is asking us to locate the part of our mind that does know how to resolve a problem because that part of the mind, being always connected with the Knowing Field, never has a problem.  How do we access this part of our minds?

Be still, and listen to the truth.  We are not the ones responsible for fixing problems.  We are the ones responsible for allowing problems to be fixed for us by a greater power.  The ego would have me believe it is my job to fix problems in this world.  But A Course In Miracles would like us to instead believe that is my job to listen and let resolutions be done for me and through me.  When we guide ourselves into becoming still, we are able to hear the whispering truth within.  The pain of guessing, hoping, and groping is instantly exchanged for a residing deep sense of purpose and certainty.

It can be very uncomfortable to learn how to experience a state of complete certainty.  The ego voice has offered that same promise to us so many times and every time we have experienced at best embarrassment and at worst devastation.  So often what we felt so certain about dissolves into baffling disappointment.  But that can only be because our hopes were entwined with some external physical (ie impermanent) thing.  In this way, the ego has effectively taught us to fear certainty and to believe it is impossible to rely upon.  This is how the ego keeps us away from carrying true power.

Being certain is not dangerous when we have connected to the source of Reality.  We need not fear we will become self-absorbed narcissists drunk with power when we invite certainty into our character because such qualities are not the qualities of true Certainty.  The Tao is not arrogant.  The Tao does not seek dominance.  Mistakes are not mistakes in the movements of true Grace and there is no shame when something changes.

But how do we know if we have connected with the Source of truth?  How can we be certain we are not hearing the ego voice yet again?  We need to…

Be still and listen to the truth.

That voice will be quiet.  That voice will feel inevitable and undeniable and safe to follow even when it seems to go against social structures.  It is the soul’s voice that whispers, “this way, this is the way…”  There is no sense of deviance, corruption, vengeance, or trickery when we follow the quiet voice.  So if you find yourself wondering if you are being advised by the ego voice or by the voice of God, ask yourself if there is any quality of desire for revenge involved with what you are contemplating doing.  

An impulse to take revenge on someone, no matter how minute the action may be, is an attempt to set the past straight.  We feel wronged and we want to put right how we were disempowered by taking an action that proves we have the power to harm back.  Focusing on history rather than making peace with the blows we have received is the root cause of suffering.  Do not attempt to set the past straight.  There is no getting it back.  To settle a score from the past is to wander in the dream-like terrain of history.  Turn away from thoughts of score-settling.  Let go of who you think you should be or who you think other people should think you are.  You do not get to decide who you are.  You get to discover what you are.

The voices of the world will keep us circling round and round in illusions.  Today’s lesson reminds us there is a still, quiet voice always available for relief when we calm our bodies down and let our minds grow quiet.  Dear seeker, meditate.  Watch your thoughts. Underneath them all is the watcher, the knower, the forever You.  Observe the ego voice and its insane guidance.  Allow your way of thinking to be corrected.  Life is not a game of dominance.  Vengeance does not restore peace.  You have not been diminished by any person in this world.  And you have not diminished anyone either.  You and everyone around you are unassailable as God created you.  The truth of you can not be harmed.  Whatever gets harmed simply is not you.

Correcting the pain of the past begins and ends with a willingness to receive a gift of correction from a higher source of clarity.  A Course In Miracles calls this process the atonement.  But I prefer the word correction.  Like when I calculate a math problem incorrectly, I need to make a correction.  I do not feel waves of guilt, shame, or remorse if I miscalculated something.  I simply feel motivated to put it right.  And what I discover is that I am not the one who puts it right.  I am the one who allows it to be put right for me by the greater movements beyond my limited awareness.  I let a greater power in to fix what I do not understand.  We do not need to fixate on the fact that we do not understand something.  We can let ourselves be moved.

Each hour today, begin a five-minute sitting session with the thoughts:

Now I will sit quietly and listen to the truth.  What does it mean to give?  What does it mean to receive?

When you ask these questions, know that you have asked God.  Know that God WILL answer, so expect that answer to come to you.  Sit quietly and just listen.  Do not be troubled if you do not hear anything.  Let the answer come in its own way.  Make space for the answer by opening up all the possible ways it might reach you.  Put no constraints on how you might be reached.  Quiet your thoughts and listen to the soft, gentle voice of God within you.  Receive that still knowing as often as you can today.

Every minute you sit to listen for the truth will open up hundreds of other minds to the same light and peace.  That is how powerful your actions are.  Be certain of what you are bringing to yourself today and know that you also bring it to the whole world by bringing it to yourself.

Be still and listen to the truth.  Receive that truth and then give what you receive to others.