I'm sure we've all at one time or another asked for a miracle. I always considered miracles to be something extraordinary, something that required divine intervention. Wikipedia defines miracles this way, "A miracle is an event not explicable by natural or scientific laws. Such an event may be attributed to a supernatural being (especially a deity), magic, a miracle worker, a saint or a religious leader."
My view on miracles has shifted as I've been reading and studying the book A Course In Miracles (ACIM). Chapter 1 covers 50 principles of miracles. I want to share one of the principles for you to ponder. It has been thought-provoking for me and created a shift in my thinking. The other principles are equally thought-provoking and intriguing. If you are looking for a challenging and life-changing spiritual book to read and study this is a great one!
Principle 12 - "Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual."
So, what does that mean? According to ACIM teacher Kenneth Wapnick it can be interpreted to mean this, "A miracle is a change from the ego's thought to the Holy Spirit's thought. Miracles are thoughts because everything is thought. Nothing has existence outside our minds. The miracle is the thought that corrects or undoes the ego's thought of separation."
He goes on to explain, "There are two kinds of thoughts: the ego thoughts, and basically it is those ego thoughts that made up this world, and the Holy Spirit's thoughts. The ego's thoughts reinforces separation. Thoughts that are right-minded come from the Holy Spirit, which undo the separation of the ego. It is basically saying that there are two ways of being in this world...one is the ego's and one is the Holy Spirit's."
We are conditioned in our society to think thoughts of the ego. Thoughts of separation, of survival of the fittest. This conditioning may seem like it serves us in the short-term, but it is not in alignment with who we are and how we were created. Ultimately, it creates more challenge by steering us away from love and from the message of God.
The thought system of the ego is a thought system based on fear. And when fear dominates we end up with distress and dis-ease. It's amazing how much work our ego will go through to try to convince us that we need to protect ourselves, to be fearful, justifying its position repeatedly in our minds.
We don't have to be totally free of all thoughts of the ego and separation, but we must be willing to surrender our thoughts and turn them over to the Holy Spirit in order to open our minds to the miracle. Even if we are only able to briefly open our minds, in that moment the miracle can occur. If we then revert to our habitual ego-minded way of thinking and our judgments, the miracle will be retained in our memory, and therefore we do not completely revert to the old identification with the ego’s thought system of separation. Each time we allow a miracle, we loosen the chains of the ego with which we have bound ourselves.
I find this to be an intriguing way to look at miracles. I write and teach a lot about how important our thoughts are and the difference between thoughts based on love and thoughts based on fear. I just never thought of it in terms of being a miracle. Like I wrote in last week's blog post, always do your best, no more and no less. Each time we allow for the shift in our thought and open our minds to the miracle we are taking a step forward toward loosening the grip of the ego.
My view on miracles has shifted as I've been reading and studying the book A Course In Miracles (ACIM). Chapter 1 covers 50 principles of miracles. I want to share one of the principles for you to ponder. It has been thought-provoking for me and created a shift in my thinking. The other principles are equally thought-provoking and intriguing. If you are looking for a challenging and life-changing spiritual book to read and study this is a great one!
Principle 12 - "Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual."
So, what does that mean? According to ACIM teacher Kenneth Wapnick it can be interpreted to mean this, "A miracle is a change from the ego's thought to the Holy Spirit's thought. Miracles are thoughts because everything is thought. Nothing has existence outside our minds. The miracle is the thought that corrects or undoes the ego's thought of separation."
He goes on to explain, "There are two kinds of thoughts: the ego thoughts, and basically it is those ego thoughts that made up this world, and the Holy Spirit's thoughts. The ego's thoughts reinforces separation. Thoughts that are right-minded come from the Holy Spirit, which undo the separation of the ego. It is basically saying that there are two ways of being in this world...one is the ego's and one is the Holy Spirit's."
We are conditioned in our society to think thoughts of the ego. Thoughts of separation, of survival of the fittest. This conditioning may seem like it serves us in the short-term, but it is not in alignment with who we are and how we were created. Ultimately, it creates more challenge by steering us away from love and from the message of God.
The thought system of the ego is a thought system based on fear. And when fear dominates we end up with distress and dis-ease. It's amazing how much work our ego will go through to try to convince us that we need to protect ourselves, to be fearful, justifying its position repeatedly in our minds.
We don't have to be totally free of all thoughts of the ego and separation, but we must be willing to surrender our thoughts and turn them over to the Holy Spirit in order to open our minds to the miracle. Even if we are only able to briefly open our minds, in that moment the miracle can occur. If we then revert to our habitual ego-minded way of thinking and our judgments, the miracle will be retained in our memory, and therefore we do not completely revert to the old identification with the ego’s thought system of separation. Each time we allow a miracle, we loosen the chains of the ego with which we have bound ourselves.
I find this to be an intriguing way to look at miracles. I write and teach a lot about how important our thoughts are and the difference between thoughts based on love and thoughts based on fear. I just never thought of it in terms of being a miracle. Like I wrote in last week's blog post, always do your best, no more and no less. Each time we allow for the shift in our thought and open our minds to the miracle we are taking a step forward toward loosening the grip of the ego.
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