Lesson 167
There is one life, and that I share with God.
Life…this beautiful thing we are gifted with to explore, experience, love, taste, and feel. What a treasure we are given to be able to create and then have the means to step into our creations and take part. I was recently reminded of a Zen saying, “One who lives a peaceful life takes fewer breaths than one who lives a hurried life.” That is to say that the one who lives life more calmly, breathes in the moment and savors the experience. Which camp would you put yourself in? The Bee Gee’s would ask, “How deep is your love?” I would ask, “How deep is your breath?”
There is only one life and you are living it. Often we believe we are waiting for life to start. The “once this, then that” syndrome makes us believe we are living a life of actively waiting. We “hurry up and wait,” sound familiar? John Lennon, in his song “Beautiful Boy,” wrote, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” It is a song about his son but it captures meaning for all of us as we come of age to the truth of Who we are.
Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful Soul…there is only one life that stands before you, awaiting your awareness of breath. It is a life beyond roles, masks, to-do lists, graduations, birthdays, jobs, and lovers. Take a moment and ask yourself, what did I really come here to live for? U2 asks a similar question in their song “One,”
“Have you come here for forgiveness
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head”
There is much truth in U2’s lyrics about our purpose here and it correlates perfectly with our Walk in Miracles. Our purpose is to forgive and to raise the dead from a death that was never real. We have discussed the many facets of death that precede the final breath. It is the idea that we live many lifetimes within a lifetime. There was a life in our family of origin, there was a life in university, there was a life post-university, there was a life before kids, there was a life after kids, there was a life with this person, and there was a life with that person. Yet there is just the one life, although it may have an array of colors. But isn’t that the beauty of it all?
Throughout the Course we have uprooted beliefs from the mind that have hindered the vision of the heaven that lies before us. Today is no different as we go to the root level of what the mind created as death. We recognize that anything we experience as “not joy,” we tend to label as a facet of death. Why would one come here to explore versions of death from sorrow to suffering? Isn’t heaven joyous all the time?
“In this world, there appears to be a state that is life’s opposite. You call it death…All sorrow, loss, anxiety and suffering and pain, even a little sigh of weariness, a slight discomfort or the merest frown, acknowledge death. And thus deny you live” (ACIM Lesson 167 2:1-2;6-7).
In the movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Life Magazine’s motto is eloquently threaded throughout as a means to remind the viewer of the purpose of the hero and heroine’s journey, as it is our journey.
“To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.”
U2 echoes this sentiment in “One,” as well,
“One life
But we’re not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One…life”
Out of all the ceremonies we have created, the only one aligned with the true purpose of life is that of celebration. No matter the circumstance, we can always celebrate and honor life, even in death and even in the moments where there appears to be suffering. As we learned yesterday, everything always turns out okay. Of course, honor the array of emotions that arise from your experience and honor the journey of your brothers and sisters. The purpose is to feel, to breath in the moment, and to help carry one another. Yet, know that the ultimate purpose of your being here is to celebrate, always; to learn that only life is real; to learn that there is only one life and you are living it.
“The opposite of life can only be another form of life” (ACIM Lesson 167 7:1).
Life can only offer you life. Should you want something else, you can only dream it up in your mind. Still, all the while that idea will never leave its Source, just as you never have. On a spiritual journey, the common phrase to use for someone more consciously aware is, “awake,” while those who remain enthralled by the veil, the term, “asleep” is used. I believe it to be a fitting comparison. The Truth is the Truth always, one can choose to either keep her eyes open for it or close them. It does not change the fact that It is still there.
As we have roamed and played on earth, we have lived. Before we came here, we lived. After we leave, we live. Does this not help us not take life so seriously? Can we not put down all the insufferable thoughts and celebrate the Oneness that we all share?
“As we were, so are we now and will forever be” (ACIM Lesson 167 12:2).
God Wills our happiness because She knows that is all there is. She knows our Light. She sees our Light. She embraces our Light. It is the One Light that we each share that we reflect back to one another as we say, “hello,” as we smile, as we forgive for that which never happened, and as we say, “goodbye” to the various facets we experience with a sense of celebration.
You are not a plane in a holding pattern. You are not a car out of gas by the side of the road. You are not candle waiting to be lit. It may feel like it on certain days. But once more there is something to live and celebrate in those times, too. From John Lennon, to U2, to Life Magazine’s motto, we are reminded of our purpose here; to live. We are to be the ones who take the deepest, fewest, and most savory breaths so as to enjoy the moment, to feel, and to realize there is only life…life experienced. Namaste.