Everyman's Journal 2011, #65 © 2011 Rev. David Seacord October 18 Personal significance is a trap. The path out is always self-less. ______________________________ Papaji often said "If you touch it, it will bite you…". I am sure he was speaking of all our/my holy cows… i.e., the things/events in our world that we continue to make 'special' instead of seeing in them 'more equalness'. In American culture, the most significant personal day is generally our 'birthday'… and it's a day we are supposed to be happy. Yesterday was that day for me, and if it had been 'just another day', it would have been a fine, good day. But all day long, I experienced (like a low-grade fever) a low-grade unhappiness, which egoically, I worked hard to hide from myself and others (basically lying to the few well-wishers who knew…that called or sent messages etc… that I was having a great day). What I was really doing was battling my unhappiness on my supposed to be especially happy day. The grace of all this was the thunderclap of the wakeup moment when I finally remembered myself…. the moment when my memory finally gave me access to the thought that I needed to break the ego-spell. That thought was: "There is only one choice, really, to make in life: do you chose to be happy, or not?" (It's from a book called 'The Untethered Soul' by Micheal A. Singer). The wake up was instant. Euphorically, with a big "Yes!" (and slapping my knee) I choose again to be happy. Period. With everything exactly as it was. And suddenly, like a rainbow appearing, I was very happy. Such is the power of our thought… our correct perspective. It is the gift of 'the trained mind' (as contrasted with the ACIM teaching that "the untrained mind can accomplish nothing"…). As we are led through this life, and the curriculum provides us our testing moments, it is our training that breaks the spell. I am trained to be grateful for it all… otherwise the equalness will never be seen, and blindness would be unbroken. What great good luck to have been led once again into suffering, and to once again re-discover that correct and true thoughts can and do instantly free me. I write these words simply to more completely embody this knowledge in myself. I pray the same for you. Namaste, David