Lesson 106
Let me be still and listen to the truth.
Today calls for a courageous step, to be still and listen. Asking to listen is one thing, for we can often multitask while lending an ear to something else. Stillness, on the other hand, is different and can seem a bit more overwhelming. In stillness we let go of our distractions, we pause, and abide fully in the moment, meaning that whatever tape maybe running our head, with lead vocals most likely provided by ego, may become extremely loud. It takes fearlessness to sit and be with the voice that may scream horrible things making you feel overpowered and on the brink of death.
“Be not deceived by voices of the dead, which tell you they have found the source of life and offer it to you for your belief. Attend them not, but listen to the truth” (ACIM Lesson 106 2:3-4).
In Lesson 106, I believe the “voices of the dead” can take many forms from a voice from our past, societal voices, and the voice of alluring distractions. No matter the source of the voice, the theme is constant; you are not enough, this void must be filled, so go and runaway to something outside of you like food, sex, alcohol, drugs, fighting, relationships, etc, to fill this space. The theme will also tell you that what lies inside of you is a very dark, scary place that you dare not roam. Yet truly what the “voices of the dead” are doing is using a scare tactic so that you will continue to use them as guides.
If you are on this journey, you have no doubt come across opportunities where you have had to sit and be with this voice, or voices, for example in meditation or in our previous lessons. I bet you can even recall the situation and what transpired, as you practiced not running away from the voice towards another distraction. It is truly a glorious and celebratory moment when we have this sort of realization.
In the first part of our lesson today, it is important that we continue to experience what can arise in stillness. In order to know that our thoughts cannot harm us, we must experience it for ourselves. We must let the thoughts and our fear of them play out, to see that there is nothing to fear at all. With much gratitude, the Course continues to encourage us to face the voice of ego. To look at the scare tactic for what is and to walk straight through to the One Voice.
“If you will lay aside the ego’s voice, however loudly it may seem to call, if you will not accept its petty gifts that give you nothing that you really want; if you will listen with an open mind, that has not told you what salvation is; then you will hear the mighty Voice of truth, quiet in power, strong in stillness, and completely certain in Its messages” (ACIM Lesson 106 1:1-1).
You may have noticed that the workbook lessons in A Course in Miracles is an upward spiral as we learn an aspect of a teaching to then later come back around once more to go just that one step further that makes all the difference. We were given a similar concept in Lesson 44, “There is nothing to fear,” where we simply practiced recognizing the illegitimate nature of our rambling thoughts, realizing that if we are caught up in that story, we were resting on our strength and not that of Source.
“The presence of fear is a sure sign that you are trusting in your own strength. The awareness that there is nothing to fear shows that somewhere in your mind, though not necessary in a place you recognize as yet, you have remembered God, and let His strength take the place of your weakness. The instant you are willing to do this there is indeed nothing to fear” (ACIM Lesson 48 3:1-3).
We have worked with our thoughts passing like clouds, understanding that through allowance and union with Source, there is nothing to fear. We have learned that through our effort only comes more resistance, but with our surrender comes peace. We have practiced with the energy that seems to have an overpowering and suffocating nature, tried to get rid of it through energetic vomiting, doing anything we could do to transmute it by tossing it elsewhere like a game of spiritual hot potato, to in the end, still come out Alive.
In our remembrance, we know that nothing can truly overpower us, only the thought of it can, and that in order for something to be transmuted, it must be embraced, not thrown away. This is a revelation that we could have only come to understand by having the courage to be still and listen for the truth.
Once we rest in a peaceful presence beyond the voice of ego, we begin to open to the Voice that has been whispering to us with a loving melody. This has been the eloquent orchestra playing behind the headbanger’s ball in our heads. If you think of the old radios with the turn dial knob, our being merely just had the knob on the wrong station. All we need do is turn the knob gently to the next station, WLUV, and we are met with heavenly music.
“Hear and be silent. He would speak to you. He comes with miracles a though sand times as happy and as wonderful as those you ever dreamed or wished for in your dreams. His miracles are true. They will not fade when dreaming ends. They end the dream instead; and last forever, for they come from God to His dear Son, whose other name is you” (ACIM Lesson 106 4:2-7).
We have come to know this sweet Voice of Truth and we have already been walking in Its guidance of miracles. This is how we are the living presence of salvation. In our walk, we are birthing Christ, the Daughter/Son of God, with each step. Our eternal energy, which is not static, continuously oscillates between being and becoming; becoming and being. Our “becoming” is the receiving of the Word of God and by living the words of our remembrance we are the full embodiment, the One Being. Thus, by living as Christ, we in turn give what has been given us by our Creator. This is what it means to fully give and receive, without lose or compromise. What one receives from the Eternal Source, one has a bountiful supply to give.
As we said yesterday, this energy is not truncated. This energy of giving and receiving is part of a continuous flow that may vary at times in human form but there is still no greater than or less than anywhere in the chain of movement. This is the truth we come to know more fully today, that there is another dimension where giving and receiving are effortless, plentiful, joyous, and peaceful…for everyone. We come to learn that there is a space where giving and receiving truly become one since both are free to flow into one another.
“Thus does salvation start and thus it ends; when everything is yours and everything is given away, it will remain with you forever” (ACIM Lesson 106 7:1).
“Today the holy Word of God is kept through your receiving it to give away, so you can teach the world what giving means by listening and learning it of Him” (ACIM Lesson 106 10: 1).
A message is being whispered to you, will you not show up and receive it? In our practice periods today we arrive in stillness to learn how the flow of God can be lived through us. And then we show up to the world as the miracle messengers. We learn the art of being the example, not preaching it. How God extends through you is for You, yet it benefits all. We are merely asked to be, not preach. Live, not condemn. Love, and not fear.
“Hear Him today, and listen to the Word which lifts the veil that lies upon the earth, and wakes all those who sleep and cannot see. God calls to them through you. He needs your voice to speak to them, for who could reach God’s Son except his Father, calling through your Self?” (ACIM Lesson 106 5:1-3).
You are the living example that you no longer are guided by the “voices of the dead” but the Voice for God, and it is that sweet presence that speaks through you, lives through you, and grows through you. In this are you the Walking Miracle. Walk On Courageous, Holy ONE.
Namaste.