Guiding Thought

Prepare your mind for Peace. Prepare your mind to recognize that above all else, you want the Peace that passeth understanding. Today, offer only this, in humility and gratitude to your Divine Self: be willing to let the Peace of God be what it is, and accept yourself as you are meant to be.

Reflection

The good news is that it took 2/3 of my contemplation time before my brain asked my favorite question, “How?”

The bad news is, I asked not only, “How?”, but also, “Why?”.

I guess that is not really bad news. It’s just that my brain seems to get stumped by the question “how” so often, and I feel like so often I don’t have clear answers to that question.

How do I prepare my mind for Peace? Why do I need to do this, anyway?

After my contemplation, I decided to turn to a resource, A Course in Miracles, to see what answers I can come up with.

Here is what the Course says about preparing your mind:

• Open your mind and clear it of all thoughts that would deceive, and let this thought alone engage it fully, and remove the rest.
• Think of your “enemies” a little while, and tell each one as he occurs to you, “My brother, peace and joy I offer you, that I may have God’s peace and joy as mine”. Thus you prepare yourself for God’s gifts to you and let your mind be free of all that would prevent success today. Now you are ready to accept the the gift of peace and joy which God has given to you.
• The desire and willingness to let it come precedes its coming. You prepare your minds for it only to the extent of recognizing that you want it above all else.
• Watch carefully and see what it is you are really asking for. Be honest with yourself about this…If you will really try to do this, you have taken the first step toward preparing your mind for the Holy One to enter.

This is very informative! Let me rearrange this and put it into my own words:

1. Open your mind. Stop the prattle. Be still. Be willing to hear truth.
2. Be honest. Listen to yourself.
3. Open yourself your interconnection with others. Forgive.
4. Decide that you want “it” (whatever “it” is, in this case: Peace, but it could be holiness, forgiveness, love, healing, etc.) above all else.

Number four reminds of single-point focus. Think on “it” as though nothing else exists, and nothing else will exist.

The reason we do not “have” peace in our consciousness now is that we think about other things. There are multiple focus points, not a single focus point. This is why calming the mind, stopping the prattle, helps–it reduces the clutter, reduces the number of focus points, so that you can hone in on Peace (or whatever “it” is).

The answer to the question why comes fairly straightforwardly after this, for me. Why do I prepare my mind?

Because above all else, I want the peace that passeth understanding.

Thank you for being here. I wish you Peace.