I was
writing an article this morning on a troubling topic. I paused for a moment and opened A Course in
Miracles to a random page instead. As I
read the passage I smiled. Talk about your perfectly timed messages. I will share the passage that I randomly
found in its totality. It is a very
important passage for those who wish to understand a little more about our
construct and basis toward motion and action within this limited framework we
now find ourselves in - that we chose to be in here at this time. And now, the passage titled: The Little Garden
1. It is
only the awareness of the body that makes love seem limited. For the body is a
limit on love. The belief in limited love was it's origin, and it was made to
limit the unlimited. Think not that this is merely allegorical, for it was made
to limit you. Can you who see yourself within a body know yourself as an idea?
Everything you recognize you identify with externals, something outside itself.
You cannot even think of God without a body, or in some form you think you
recognize.
2. The body
cannot know. And while you limit your awareness to its tiny senses, you will
not see the grandeur that surrounds you. God cannot come into a body, nor can
you join Him there. Limits on love will always seem to shut Him out and keep
you apart from Him. The body is a tiny fence around a little part of a glorious
and complete idea. It draws a circle, infinitely small, around a very little
segment of Heaven, splintered from the whole, proclaiming that within it is
your kingdom where God can enter not.
3. Within
this kingdom the ego rules, and cruelly. And to defend this little speck of
dust it bids you to fight against the universe.
This fragment of your mind is such a tiny part of it that, could you but
appreciate the whole, you would see instantly that it is like the smallest
sunbeam to the sun, or like the faintest ripple on the surface of the
ocean. In its amazing arrogance, this
tiny sunbeam has decided it is the sun; this almost imperceptible ripple hails
itself as the ocean. Think how alone and
frightened is this little thought, this infinitesimal illusion, holding itself
apart against the universe. The sun
becomes the sunbeam's "enemy" that would devour it, and the ocean
terrifies the little ripple and wants to swallow it.
4. Yet
neither sun nor ocean is even aware of all this strange and meaningless
activity. They merely continue, unaware
that they are feared and hated by a tiny segment of themselves. Even that segment is not lost to them, for it
could not survive apart from them. And
what it thinks it is in no way changes its total dependence on them for its
being. its whole existence still remains
in them. Without the sun the sunbeam
would be gone; the ripple without the ocean is inconceivable.
5. Such is the strange position in which those
in a world inhabited by bodies seem to be.
Each body seems to house a separate mind, a disconnected thought, living
alone and in no way joined to the Thought by which it was created. Each tiny fragment seems to be
self-contained, needing another for some things, but by no means totally
dependent on its one Creator for everything; needing the whole to give it any
meaning, for by itself it does mean nothing.
Nor has it any life apart and by itself.
6. Like to the sun and ocean your Self
continues, unmindful that this tiny part regards itself as you. It is not missing; it could not exist if it
were separate, nor would the whole be whole without it. It is not a separate kingdom, ruled by an
idea of separation from the rest. Nor
does a fence surround it, preventing it from joining with the rest, and keeping
it apart from its Creator. This little
aspect is no different from the whole, being continuous with it and at one with
it. It leads no separate life, because
its life is the oneness in which its being was created.
7. Do not
accept this little, fenced-off aspect as yourself. The sun and ocean are as nothing beside what
you are. The sunbeam sparkles only in
the sunlight, and the ripple dances as it rests upon the ocean. yet in neither sun nor ocean is the power
that rests in you. Would you remain with
your tiny kingdom, a sorry king, a bitter ruler of all that he surveys, who
looks on nothing yet who would still die to defend it? This little self is not your kingdom. Arched high above it and surrounding it with
love is the glorious whole, which offers all its happiness and love is the
glorious whole, which offers all its happiness and deep content to every
part. The little aspect that you think
you set apart is no exception.
8. Love knows no bodies, and reaches to
everything created like itself. Its
total lack of limit is its meaning. It
is completely impartial in its giving, encompassing only to preserve and keep
complete what it would give. In your
tiny kingdom you have so little! Should
it not, then, be there that you would call on love to enter? Look at the desert--dry and unproductive,
scorched and joyless--that makes up your little kingdom. And realize the life and joy and love would
bring to it from where it comes, and where it would return with you.
9. The
Thought of God surrounds your little kingdom, waiting at the barrier you built
to come inside and shine upon the barren ground. See how life springs up everywhere! The desert becomes a garden, green and deep
and quiet, offering rest to those who lost their way and wander in the
dust. Give them a place of refuge,
prepared by love for them where once a desert was. And everyone you welcome will bring love with
him from Heaven for you. They enter one
by one into this holy place, but they will not depart as they had come,
alone. The love they brought with them
will stay with them, as it will stay with you.
And under its beneficence your little garden will expand, and reach out
to everyone who thirsts for living water, but has grown too weary to go on
alone.
10. Go out
and find them, for they bring your Self with them. And lead them gently to your quiet garden,
and receive their blessing there. So
will it grow and stretch across the desert, leaving no lonely little kingdoms
locked away from love, and leaving you inside.
And you will recognize yourself, and see your little garden gently
transformed into the Kingdom of Heaven, with all the Love of its Creator
shining up it.
11. The holy instant is your invitation to love
to enter into your bleak and joyless kingdom, and to transform it into a garden
of peace and welcome. Love's answer is
inevitable. It will come because you
came without the body, and interposed no barriers to interfere with its glad
coming. In the holy instant, you ask of
love only what it offers everyone, neither less nor more. Asking for everything, you will receive
it. And your shining Self will lift the
tiny aspect that you tried to hide from Heaven straight to Heaven. No art of love calls on the whole in
vain No Son of God remains outside His
Fatherhood.
12. Be sure of this; love has entered your
special relationship, and entered fully at your weak request. You do not recognize that love has come,
because you have not yet let go of all the barriers you hold against your
brother. And you and he will not be able
to give love welcome separately. You
could no more know God alone than He knows you without your brother. But together you could no more be unaware of
love than love could know you not, or fail to recognize itself in you.
13. You have reached the end of an ancient
journey, not realizing yet that it is over.
You are still worn and tired, and the desert's dust still seems to cloud
your eyes and keep you sightless. Yet He
Whom you welcomed has come to you, and would welcome you. He has waited long to give you this. Receive it now of Him, for He would have you
know Him. Only a little wall of dust
still stands between you and your brother.
Blow on it lightly and with happy laughter, and it will fall away. And walk into the garden love has prepared
for both of you.
My observation: The ego holds a strong control over the
reality and totality of who we are but the ego does not hold all the power. The ego holds fear and creates only from a
place of fear and that fear breeds separation and a false sense of identity and
self and seeks to make itself greater or lesser than others all from fear. To realize this tiny piece of ourselves
exists is very important. To know also
that this very tiny piece of us that exists does not have to be given free
reign to continue separating and lonely thoughts and further creating from fear
the very things that keep us separate.
The soul knows it's relation to the whole, fully and with great
love. The soul observes the ego's
machinations and is not controlled by it.
The body's consciousness creates the ego to protect itself. But it does not have to control the mind,
heart and soul and won't the moment you realize the ego's machinations are
small compared to the powerful being that you are as a part of the whole.
It is from this place, the place of the whole that our self-love stems
and it is from this place we can create the most amazing and rewarding
experiences in this life. Do not look at
the ego machinations of the people you see in this world. Do not minimize or belittle them by judging
them from the tiniest aspect of their being as their wholeness. Your brother is you and you are your
brother. The tiny egos within us all
create the separation. The body and soul
can speak in truths but you must learn first to set aside the ego in order to
receive the truth. It takes years of
practice and those of you who say you have no ego - know that this is merely
the ego's defense. All of us incarnate
have an ego - a little self that thinks itself very big and in control. When you can step into the seat of the soul
you can see the difference in your soul's consciousness versus the ego's
consciousness and once you have seen it, then know your wings are growing and
you are about to return to flight.
Blessings of great love, light and understanding dear souls!
(c) 2012
Jaie Hart (photo, random internet find - Passage as is stated, A Course In
Miracles, Foundation for Inner Peace).
