Recently, there was a thought posed on a drug company advertisement, their drug offered the “promise of a pain free life”. And I sat with that one with the principles of a Course in Miracles. Promises are of ego… and I am Spirit… so what is Pain?

The entire horizontal story line of pain (and everything else) is different for everybody. Some see ‘their’ pain as sprained joints, unrequited love, unfulfilled expectations, or cancer. It will never be the same in ‘my mind’ vs ‘your mind’, and yet all pain is sourced from the same cause. ‘me’ separating from the innocence and Love that ‘I Am’. Then I spend a lifetime seeking ‘promises’ from ‘out there’ to return me to a ‘pain free state’.

Either a drug to ease a headache, a person to fill a void, or a ‘new toy’ in the form of a better job, better house, or a great vacation.

“Pain is a wrong perspective. When it is experienced in any form, it is a proof of self-deception.” – acim lesson 190

 So to see a pain free existence, I must go vertical with God, with Love. ‘Pain’ can only live in the horizontal, as it is ‘ego based and driven’ and all ego plot lines end in death. The only access to a ‘pain free’ existence is to accept the atonement… accept the responsibility for how I hold everything. Where am I judging something or someone?

“For pain proclaims God cruel. It witnesses to God the Father’s hatred of His Son; the sinfulness He sees in him, and His insane desire for revenge and death. Can such projections be attested to? Can they be anything but wholly false?”

Am I holding the vertical or the horizontal? Here are some questions I flip through when I experience ‘pain’… And with my honest answers, I Know whether I am horizontal or vertical… Am I making you wrong? Am I blaming my body for being vulnerable? Am I seeing the world as an unsafe or unfair place? Am I seeing ‘fault’… Am I unwilling to see something differently… (fear prevents Willingness)… and once I have done this inventory, am I willing to question the ‘story line’ With Holy Spirit?…am I willing to See it through Love? Am I asking Holy Spirit for help?

“Pain is a sign illusions reign in place of truth. If God is real there is no pain. If pain is real there is no God.”

This is the major skill accessed by following the guidance offered in a Course in Miracles. I hold the present moment and am willing to See it differently… only through Love. I accept responsibility for all… Pain of whatever source is asking me to go ‘deeper with God’… To allow myself to see the error in my thinking. To see where I am making another wrong in my thoughts! Accept the atonement on ‘those thoughts’, is a ‘Pain Free’ life!!!!

“It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way.”

 And before you just laugh this one off, this lesson will continue to come back, again and again, until I forgive my self. This is where the rubber meets the road in living the principles of A Course in Miracles!

I release all my projections from ‘causing conflict’ in my life. I Own All of it… I can See all of it differently. I am willing to See all as sinless or I solidify the ‘death desire’. It really is Love or a call for Love. No Exceptions. And pain is a cry for Love. And the only one that can answer this cry is ‘me’… With God!

“The time has come to laugh at such insane ideas.”

I laugh at my self… Holy Moley… I must have been absent in kindergarten the day this lesson was presented!