What the Heck Does Salvation Mean Anyway?

For most of us living in the modern world, we have taken a sharp turn away from a life filled with support. I am certainly one of these people.

With no parents to help me raise my children in any way at all and no family living in or near our house of two working parents to help out, I feel a burden much of the time. Let me re-phrase that. I find myself re-training my thoughts to stay positive, give myself more credit and when I see those dust bunnies piling up I don’t let it define me as a mother. It is a beautiful dance and as I spin to the left then to the right, I am often left dizzy from the fullness of it all.

The Course offers a form of support I wasn’t expecting and man alive am I grateful for it. The teachings create such a shift in perception that I can consistently interpret my life through a lens of gratitude, understanding and love that was foreign to me before. 

Before becoming a student I can honestly say that I had not spent one moment pondering the idea of salvation. Now, this word crosses my mind almost daily. When is the last time you used it? This is a seriously dated term! The idea of salvation as my only function which leads to forgiveness, releases grievances and fosters a more loving existence is all new to me.

When Julie and I worked through Lesson 65 – My only function is the one God gave me, we discussed salvation as acknowledgement.

In Lesson 69 – My grievances hide the light of the world in me,

“Salvation is our only need. There is no other purpose here, and no other function to fulfill. Learning salvation is our only goal”.

Sounds like rather a key concept in understanding the material don’t you think? As I navigate ACIM I feel that defining this word is vital to my progress. Without a solid understanding of how I define the word salvation how can I dive deeply into the material?

Finding myself 116 lessons into the workbook (insert a virtual pat on the back here, woot woot!), I would define salvation as “light of the world”. It substitutes well into the lessons and I correlate it with our connection to source love.

Enlightenment comes from within, so yes, “acknowledging my light of the world” does indeed come from within me.

If I substitute this in the above excerpt from Lesson 69, it reads:

“Acknowledging the light of the world is our only need. There is no other purpose here, and no other function to fulfill. Learning to acknowledge the light of the world is our only goal”.

I hope this is of benefit to my fellow students. I commonly reference the fact that I re-define the religious terminology in my posts. If this is of interest to you please read my other posts, here is a link to one.

I would like to end the post as I started with another note on support. My success in navigating this material is in large part due to my study buddy, Julianne Victoria. Having someone to study with on a weekly basis who is dedicated, intelligent and has many inspired insights into the material has truly been a gift from God.

The Law of Attraction brought us together when I put an ask out on my other blog in January and here we are now with a joint blog and creating a platform to discuss spirituality, love, forgiveness and everything in between. So thank you study buddy for being such a light in my world. PS – Yesterday was Julie’s birthday so please feel free to leave her a birthday message in the comments!

Sending you peace, grace and love – Lisa

Blazing Light of Glory, is a co-created and cooperative writing, studying, and teaching effort of Lisa of BloomLisa and Julianne Victoria of Through the Peacock’s Eyes.

The Pursuit of Happiness

This past week Lisa and I completed the first 100 lessons in A Course in Miracles. The theme of the lessons lately has been very much on the topic of salvation, the freeing of ourselves by our Selves from the illusions of our minds – our thoughts, belief systems, and attachments to the body, material things, and grievances. The word salvation often conjures up the image of being saved by someone, but in The Course it’s meaning is more about freedom from the ego mind. Each of us as extensions of God are the source of our own salvation, which is happiness. The Course is guiding us in the pursuit of happiness, not the pleasure of eating chocolate cake or buying a new outfit, but the pure Joy and Bliss that is the state of being One in union with God and All.

Lesson 101: God’s Will For Me Is Perfect Happiness. 

This lesson discusses how the illusion of sin, the mental constructs that we create, binds us into pain and suffering. L 101: God’s Will for you is perfect happiness because there is no sin, and suffering is causeless. Joy is just, and pain is but a sign you have misunderstood yourself. Now the idea that “sin is not real” does not mean that it is ok to harm others physically, emotionally, or spiritually. What it is saying is that attaching our minds to sins, grievances, or wrong-doings binds us and keeps us from being free, happy, and joyous. It also creates the illusion that someone else must save us and bring salvation to us: that someone else will make us happy.

Suffering, just like happiness, comes from within. Lesson 101 very much reminded me of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths: (Click each below for my posts briefly explaining each)

1. There is Suffering (Dukkha)
2. The Truth to The Origin of Suffering (Samudaya)
3. The Truth to The Cessation of Suffering (Nirodha)
4. The Noble Eightfold Path (to free oneself from suffering)

Buddha, Jesus, A Course in Miracles, and many other religious and spiritual teachings attempt to guide us in freeing ourselves from our egos, our thought patterns, our belief systems, and mental attachments including not forgiving ourselves for our sins. It is through Love and Compassion for ourselves and others that we can free ourselves to enter into Happiness, Bliss, Joy, Samadhi, the Kingdom of Heaven, Enlightenment, Source, Consciousness, Wholeness, and Oneness.

God’s Will for me is perfect happiness. This is the Truth.

Lesson 103: God, Being Love, Is Also Happiness

The ‘kingdom of God’ is not something one waits for; it has no yesterday or tomorrow, it does not come ‘in a thousand years’ – it is an experience within a heart; it is everywhere, it is nowhere…

– Friedrich Nietzsche

Blazing Light of Glory, is a co-created and cooperative writing, studying, and teaching effort of Lisa of BloomLisa and Julianne Victoria of Through the Peacock’s Eyes.