More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by being lifted to the realm of consciousness where lower thought forms no longer had power to limit him.
the energy of two or more minds thinking in the same way is not just the sum of those two. It increases exponentially.
We can forget the truth, but the universe never does.
The point is not to hate the shadow, for it is simply our wounded places that need to be healed.
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent
Real religion—whether it occurs within the context of an organized institution or a more universal spirituality—reconnects us to the truth of who we are, to the love at our core, and to the compassion that heals.
The point is not what gets us to the experience, but rather what happens to us and within us once we are there.
Once we’re realigned with our essential nature, we’ll have the power to make shadows disappear.
(“Sin” derives from an archery term meaning you’ve missed the mark; the spiritual meaning of the word “sin” is “error.”)
behavior. But when a trait is an actual pattern within your personality—a shadow face you wear that is truly you at your worst or near worst—then it has become entrenched within your attitudinal matrix. It is not enough to just decide to be different, because the shadow has overridden your normal decision-making powers. Once a shadow persona has developed—you the cynical, you the jealous, you the raging—then healing requires that you atone: that you take responsibility for the damage you might have already done and ask God to change your
We must take the time to reflect on our own dysfunction, our shadows, because unless we look at them, they remain in place. But this can be hard. We heal through a kind of detox process, and sometimes we have to burn through difficult feelings as they come up for review.
psychic pain is the same. Sometimes we need to say, “I need to tend to this pain. Why is it here? What is this situation trying to tell me? What part of myself do I need to address?”
Your character defects are the way you self-sabotage, the way you hurt yourself and others. That’s why you have to look at them.
we atone, we are freed from our dysfunctional patterns and the trajectory of events they produced. This is the miracle of personal transformation. Having delivered our wrong-minded past decisions to God, we can say, with a line from a prayer in A Course in Miracles, “I will not feel guilty, for the Holy Spirit will undo all consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him.” Once you atone with a sincere and humble heart, you are released from the karmic maelstrom of your
shadow drama.
Since all shadow manifestations are rooted in thoughts of separation,
When you are needy, that is not the real you. When you are acting out, that is not the real you. When you are angry, that is not the real you. The
you really want someone to change, the miracle lies in your ability to see how perfect they already are.
The shadow does not leave when it is attacked; it heals when it is forgiven. We do not take off our shadowy mask in the presence of someone who blames us, but rather in the presence of someone who says through words or behavior, “I know this is not who you are.” We miraculously heal in the presence of someone who believes in our light even when we are lost in our darkness. And
Spiritual practice is key to our power as light-bearers, for we cannot extend peace if we do not cultivate it. Our thoughts and attitudes need persistent training in a world so intent on convincing us that we are who we are not and
do your spiritual practice in the morning to get yesterday’s thinking off your mind and heart.
projecting guilt onto yourself is ultimately no less blasphemous than projecting it onto others.
“RESIST YE NOT LOVE”
The only way we can escape the shadow is to outgrow it, to drop it like the set of old and outworn clothing that it is, and become the spiritual giants we are intended to be.
Our emotional habit is to avoid the light. We might say we’re waiting for the light to shine on us, but it can’t shine on us, because it’s not shining from us.
The shadow would actually say yes to those things, with a classic repertoire of the insidious and insane. “Have another drink; it’s no big deal.” “Never forget how much that hurt.”
There is a magic that happens when you simply say no. “No, I don’t wish to be weak anymore. No, I don’t wish to act stupidly anymore.
No, I don’t wish to be known for my defects. No, I don’t wish to waste my talents anymore. No, I don’t wish to play small anymore.” And there is magic as well when we learn to say yes. “Yes, I will make a choice to love, and I will make that choice each and every day. Yes, I devote myself to the light, and I proactively choose to serve it.
“It’s only when we have the courage to face things exactly as they are without any self-deception or illusion, that a light will develop out of events by which the path to success may be recognized.”
More than ten years
B. Once or twice
Occasionally
Frequently
