WORKBOOK
 

Blue Nebulae

 

 

Questions -What is creation?

 

Suggested reading – Ch. 16

Dear Heart,
Your answers contribute to the whole truth. Please answer from the very depths of our heart and true knowing. My answers are mine. They may be right for you or not. If not, please, trust yourself and dive deep within for your own right answers. There is only one truth, and we might both be right, or we might both be wrong. When we keep an open mind, we both benefit from eachothers contribution to truth and the whole world benefits. When we are willing to be wrong, willing to question every value and belief we have ever held dear, we allow truth to dawn once again upon our minds.

These questions are intended to elicit your own inner knowing. Trust yourself. Trust that you have the truth within. My answers are intended to be a counter balance to guide you to your own inner knowing, not to set me up as the only one who knows the truth, by any means.

God's peace be with you and thank you for your participation, through which I believe you are contributing to the transformation of the world. By being willing to transform your heart and mind from ego consciousness to God consciousness the whole world benefits.

 
  1. What is the act of creation? What exactly is created in the act of creating? If you were created in God's image are you a God replica, or are you free?
  2.   What is the difference between a creation and its creator? What is ego? How is a mis-creation the same as a creation? How is mis-creation different from creation?
  3.   Did God create you? How do you know? Does He love His creations? Are God's creations gender specific?
  4. Did God create the world? Is the world we see God's creation? What does it mean that God only creates creations of light?
  5. For what purpose were you created? From where does your mind derive its ability to create? If you were created to create, do you create now? How can we be restored to our creative function?
  6. What is meant by to give is to receive? How can this idea be misapplied? What does ego tell you about giving? Should giving be for the purpose of filling a lack? If you see a person shivering or a child hungry and you give a blanket or a bowl of soup are you acting in their best interest?
  7. What is meant by ideas increase through sharing? What can expecting miracles do to save the world?
  8. What is a miracle? What do miracles do? Can we perform miracles? How are miracles elicited? Would bending spoons, walking on coals, getting parking places… constitute miracles? Are miracles real?
  9. What is healing? How does forgiveness heal? How should we respond when our body falls ill? Is healing the body without healing the mind a miracle?
  10. What is sickness of the body? If the body is not real, what does its illness have to do with us? If your body is sick, is it God's will? If your body is sick, is it part of your transformation? Is it a cleansing? Can suppressing symptoms heal you?
  11. Is sickness due to karma from the past? Is karma due to choices made in the past? If we change our minds now, can we alter our destiny? If karma can be altered, is it real? If karma is not real, is sickness real? If not real, can it be healed? If sickness can be healed, can it be God's will? What happens when you deny sickness on the premise that it is not real?
  12. Who is responsible when we fall ill? How can we experience miracles? What if the miracle does not happen?
  13. What are the justifications for sickness? Are any of the justifications valid?
  14. How do we overcome sickness and suffering?  

Answers -   What is creation? Love extending itself

 

  1. What is the act of creation? An act of giving, of extending oneself within oneself. A separation of self from self for the purpose of extending love and enhancing one's joy. What exactly is created in the act of creating? Creations of light, completely one with their creator, always in the mind of their creator, created in the image and likeness of their creator,   yet new, fresh and unique. The creator also is an original and always in the mind of its creations. Each creation has its own identity and its own ability to create. Each creation is whole and complete in and of itself. Creations are equal in all ways with their creator. Both creator and creation contain mind and spirit in equal measure. Both know themselves as eternal existence-consciousness-bliss. Both are ideas contained in each other's minds. Creations are real ideas. You are a real idea. God is also a real idea. Each creation is created as an expression of joy. The created feels eternal gratitude to its creator for the gift of having been created. Creations are sacred, beautiful and holy. Creations were created to know, to create and to love. All creations have this in common with their creator. If you were created in God's image are you a God replica, or are you free? God's kingdom is freedom. We were created free. We would not be able to create without freedom.
  2. What is the difference between a creation and its creator? There is absolutely no difference what so ever, except the creator creates the created and the created creates creations as does its creator though it cannot create its creator. What is ego? An attempt at creating our creator, a mis-creation. How is a mis-creation the same as a creation? Mis-creation is still a genuine creative act in terms of the underlying impulse. How is mis-creation different from creation? It is not a creative act in terms of the content of the creation. The content is false, because the premise is false. We cannot create our creator – that is impossible. This does not deprive the mis-creation of its own creative power. It does, however, guarantee that the power will be misused, or used fearfully.
  3. Did God create you? Yes. How do you know? We do just know when we get quiet enough to drown out ego's voice because God put Himself in our minds and we could not lose what is true and real for all eternity. Does He love His creations? With an eternal, intense and burning love. Are God's creations gender specific? Yes, God created males and females. As soul you are either masculine or feminine for all eternity, though as bodies we may be one gender one life time and another in the next.
  4. Did God create the world? Yes, as a creation of light. Is the world we see God's creation? The world we see cannot have been created by God as God creates only the eternal and everything we see is perishable. What does it mean that God only creates creations of light? God's creations are not created our of matter as such. They are formless, created as light bodies, as is their creator.
  5. For what purpose were you created? To know, to love and to create the good, the beautiful and the holy. From where does your mind derive its ability to create? From our soul. If you were created to create, do you create now? No, for though we were created to create, we cannot create as long as our will, which is a function of mind, is bound to ego, for ego know not of creation. How can we be restored to our creative function? Through willing to be wrong, through love, through giving, for to give is to heal our mis-creations and thereby to be restored to creation, as to give in heaven is to create in heaven.
  6. What is meant by to give is to receive? In giving we come closest to our true nature. Whatever we give in the true spirit will come back to us by way of joy, gratitude and appreciation.   We can only increase what is real by the act of giving it away. How can this idea be misapplied? It can be used for exchange, or to take advantage of, or be taken advantage of. Some churches coerce their followers to give as a way to save their souls. Some teachers urge their students to give in exchange for salvation, politicians use bribes to get votes… What does ego tell you about giving? To give is to lose. The truth is if you give, ego loses and you win. Should giving serve to fill a lack? No, as we were all created whole and complete for all eternity there is no lack, so to give to fill a lack is to perpetuate unreality.   However, when we respond with love to any situation we serve to heal the mind, for lack, which is a misperception of the mind, is a call for love, and is filled in the giving of love. If you see a person shivering or a child hungry and you give a blanket or a bowl of soup are you acting in their best interest? Of course, and at the same time we can remember for them that God's kingdom knows no lack and that it is the mind that needs healing. It is given us to change our brothers and sisters minds by believing in the truth for them, as minds are joined. Shivering and hunger are symptoms of lack consciousness. The cause of the problem is in the mind. When the mind is healed the beggar will spring to his feet and cast away his beggar bowl. We can both fill a lack and pray for the miracle of the healing of the mind that thought lack possible. Let us not use the teachings to intellectualize ourselves out of serving those in need.
  7.   What is meant by ideas increase through sharing? If you share a true idea, it will affect many more than just the one with whom you share, because true ideas are extremely powerful. Using the 100 th monkey idea, one monkey accidentally dropped a gritty sweet potato in a stream and started washing the grit off before eating it because it tasted better to do so. He showed others. By the time he showed 100 others, thousands suddenly started spontaneously washing their sweet potatoes, without having been shown. Minds are joined. True ideas have   power and sharing those ideas gains momentum in miraculous, inexplicable ways. Do unreal ideas also increase by sharing? Yes, but only because ego speaks loudest and first, not through the process of osmosis as do real ideas. What can expecting miracles do to save the world? When enough people expect the world to be saved, it will be our literal experience because restoration of the world to the one God created for us is a real idea and God's will. ACIM says if a sufficient number of people become truly miracle-minded, the shortening process can be almost immeasurable. Sai Baba says He needs but a hand full of good devotees to save the whole world and that it can happen in seconds.
  8. What is a miracle? A translation of denial into truth, a healing of the unreal, a maximal expression of love, a restoration of unreality to reality. Miracles are God's answer to the problem of the experience of unreality. What do miracles do? They undo the unreal, they demonstrate that learning has occurred under the right guidance for learning is invisible and what has been learned can be recognized only by its results, they heal, they restore faith. In the ultimate sense, they do nothing, because the unreal is only an illusion and never existed, however the unreal is very real to us, or we would not find ourselves in the experience of the unreal. Can we perform miracles? Not on our own, but God can perform them through us if we invite Him to do so. How are miracles elicited? Through prayer. Would bending spoons, walking on coals, getting parking places… constitute miracles? No for they do not heal. Are miracles real? No, they are relative truths that restore truth by canceling out interference.
  9. What is healing? Forgiving the past, release from fear, correcting our misperceptions, restoring our minds to God's mind so our experiences line up accordingly. The body is an extension of the mind. When the mind is healed the body's healing follows accordingly. Healing overcomes separation. How does forgiveness heal? Forgiveness recognizes all are innocent as created by God and acknowledges that no one can hurt us without our consent. We forgive the past and in so doing let go of the need to make ourselves ill for any hurts by or against us. Forgiveness says nothing happened to the truth. If nothing happened, there is no need for guilt. Without guilt,   the suffering ends. How should we respond when our body falls ill? We can pray for the miracle of the healing of our minds and ask God to show us what to do to meet our body's needs as well. We can detach from the body by remembering its unreality, be willing to be wrong about our consciousness and remain giving, loving, patient and calm. When the miracle of the body's healing does not happen in a timely fashion we should balance our faith with a willingness to seek professional care to do what is most efficacious. Is healing the body without healing the mind a miracle? No, for the body is a projection of the mind and merely reflects back to us what is in our minds. The body's illness is merely a symptom of a mind that needs healing.
  10. What is sickness of the body? A call for love, an indication that our minds are not healed, a simple lack that can be filled through love and miracle-mindedness. If the body is not real, what does its illness have to do with us? The body reflects what is in the mind. If we do not use our bodies' illnesses to acknowledge that our minds need healing, we dissociate from our bodies and miss opportunities for miracles. If your body is sick, is it God's will? No, God only wills our perfect health. If your body is sick, is it part of your transformation? No, our bodies do not need to get sick in order that our minds be healed. Is it a cleansing? Maybe, but how much cleansing do you want to do? Can suppressing symptoms heal you? No suppressing bodily symptoms through the power of your mind, cannot heal the mind, and it is in the mind that healing need take place.
  11. Is sickness due to karma from the past? Yes. Is karma due to choices made in the past? Yes. If we change our minds now, can we alter our destiny? Yes. If karma can be altered, is it real? No. If karma is not real, is sickness real? No. If not real, can it be healed? Yes. If sickness can be healed, can it be God's will? No, however we can see it as God's grace when difficulties come so that we find the good in them and remain positive and connected with God. What happens when you deny sickness on the premise that it is not real? To deny it is to give it energy of reality. To take responsibility for it and expect miracles of healing is to deny the denial.
  12. Who is responsible when we fall ill? We are. How can we experience miracles? By knowing the illness is not real, by expecting miracles, by praying and leaving the results to God. We should expect miracles without knowing how that will look. We should know that we deserve miracles. We should know that we are worthy because of who we are as God created us. What if the miracle does not happen? Don't worry about it. We have lost nothing in opening the door to miracles. Be patient, persevere, ask God to show you what else you need do. The miracle may not always look the way you want it to. I prayed earnestly for my mother's healing from breast cancer, fully knowing it was possible, fully expecting miracles. She passed away recently, and I realized that there were lots of miracles along the journey she was on, only not the ones I was looking for. All the loving care and support she received,   the comfort and lack of pain, and the transformation from anger toward God to gratitude were incredible miracles.
  13. What are the justifications for sickness? We can learn so much, expose our vulnerability,   slow down, understand that pain cannot affect us, give ourselves a rest, see that pain is a good teacher, that we are not our bodies, cleansing, transformation, evolution… Are any of the justifications valid? No, to justify suffering is to make it real. We do not need to suffer in order to grow, we do not need to learn in order to become who we already are. God created us whole and perfect. All suffering is self-inflicted punishment for crimes that were never committed. Who would want the “benefits” of sickness, when he has received the simple happiness of health?
  14. How do we overcome sickness and suffering? All we need do is become miracle-minded, knowing that with God ALL things are truly possible, and remember who God created us to be. Then we must step aside and trust God without imposing our ideas about what the miracle should look like.

If a sufficient number of people become truly miracle-minded quickly, the shortening process cna be almost immeasurable.   ACIM