The following article is about a quote from the book A Course in Miracles. It shows us how to make a transformative New Year’s resolution that doesn’t involve our ego, in order to awaken who we are.
(What is “A Course In Miracles” and how does it relate to New Year’s Resolution?)
“Accept the holy instant as this year is born, and take your place, so long left unfulfilled, in the Great Awakening. Make this year different by making it all the same. And let all your relationships be made holy for you. This is our will. Amen.” ACIM T-15.XI.10.10-14
Love
In the above quote, as the year begins, Jesus invites us to make a “New Year’s Resolution” to awaken to what we are. And just what is that reality? It is Love and Love only, it is the absence of an individual will, incapable of seeing differences and comparisons. It is the life force that we see all around us. We are all the One family who share the same One Father. To awaken to who we truly are is to leave behind our separate will in the fullness of trust that we will be sustained in the same way nature expresses itself – without concern and worry for the future.
Ego
To make this transition it is necessary that we undo the one block to the awareness of Love’s presence – the ego. It is the separate will, it is the ‘me’ who wants unceasingly. The ego is the default program and belief system this world operates within. It is the belief in separateness and separation. It is the law of deprivation, always seeing lack wherever it looks. This lack we believe in generates the competition and greed we see everywhere. The ego is a belief in duality – good and bad, more and less, you or me! It is a belief in life and death, mortality and vulnerability, all of which fuel the main characteristic of the ego – fear.
How many of us put on a brave face every day? We try to ‘be and stay positive’. The ego has a mantra, “Seek but do not find” and this has spawned entire industries and empires built on the unsustainable promise of abundance, success, more love, peace and joy! The truth is that anything achieved through the ego’s doings are high maintenance and unsustainable. Ultimately, like everything else here in the material world, it must decay and die.
The alternative is to stop seeking without and to delve within to find the one true friend, brother, sister, mentor, protector we have all sought for. We are one with this internal Source of the One life. This Unified Will judges not and sees no separation, no deservedness, no need to qualify and perform, it simply is.
How Would Love Respond?
In the quote above, Jesus gives us a clue to experiencing awakening, by making this year all the same. We do this by looking upon every situation and circumstance with Him rather than through the eyes of the ego. Look with love and forgiveness on all situations realizing that anything else but love is of the ego and is simply untrue. We are asked to remember that every act is either an act of love or a call for love. If it’s a call for love, ask yourself, how would Love respond? In that one question, we expose the ego for what it is – an internal saboteur, for Love can only respond with Love regardless of the circumstance.
Relationships
Jesus tells us above that He will make all our relationships holy if we will but let Him. All we have to do is let Him. Sounds easy yet so many of us choose not to allow this to happen. We choose instead to be right instead of happy, mistakenly believing that being right is happiness!
The ego uses relationships as its chief weapon to show us that this is an unsafe and untrustworthy world and because so many of us have experienced it as such, we belief this to be a statement of fact. Abandonment, betrayal, divorce, violence are all seen as potential outcomes of relationships and that fate or chance decide your outcomes. The truth is that as we undo our ego, as we surrender the need to be right, as we learn to give that which we so desperately seek, we are transformed and our relationships begin to transform as well.
Our Conditioning Is Not Who We Are
Speaking from experience, I went from a history of dysfunctional and failed relationships to transformed relationships of ever increasing gratitude and abundance. All it takes is letting go, which is easy in truth but is made difficult because we have tied our identity to our personality, our values and expectations. The truth is that our conditioning is not who we are and that most of us do not know who we are. The best we can do is offer our fabricated and constructed personality and physical appearance for the world to see. A sad reflection of the almighty co-creator of the universe that we are.
When we choose to use every situation and relationship for the expression of Love by allowing our false self to fall away, we will feel an irreversible and fundamental shift in our awareness. We will feel lighter, more naturally joyous, without the need for stimulation. We will become less needy and full of gratitude. People will naturally gravitate to us and we will bless all who come into our sphere. In so doing, we will fulfill the prayer Jesus offered us at the beginning of the new year.
Have you set yourself a New Year’s Resolution that doesn’t involve your ego? Let me know and comment below or join me and comment on Facebook
