Jo’s Comments (group member since Apr 17, 2013)

Jo’s comments from the Ask Jo Williams group.

Hi back, Vic,

Because, as human beings, we need words to communicate--Jesus needed to use our words to communicate A Course in Miracles to Helen Schuchman--we can get lost or confused by our individual interpretations of a word, such as "love." I think Sosan was saying the same thing as Course. When we judge something as good or bad (love or hate) we go immediately into dualism. The key is in simply experiencing the now moment, which is the experience of Oneness/Love. I think we can learn a lot about love from our canine friends--just wag your tail and smile. ;--D

Namaste,
Jo

Hi back, Vic,

I enjoyed your comments and your approach to finding greater understanding, for you, in the meaning of love. I think, oftentimes, what we think of as love, on the physical plane, is that heart pounding initial/gonadal attraction between a male and a female, which is destined to cool with familiarity and disappoint.

ACIM tells us there is only one love and that is the love of God, which never dims or cools. God IS love and continually pours out that beneficence to all who are open to receive it. Course says our only function is happiness, which is achieved by fulfilling our natural function: receiving and extending God's love.

So our "work" is to learn to remove the blocks to the love that we are as an integral part of our Creator. Those blocks, regardless of their seeming differences, all boil back to judgment, which is the expression of separation. In order to experience the illusion of separation, there must be comparison, judgment. Observe a very young child, and you can quickly and easily see love in expression. As I said in my book, we all enter the world just a hunk of burning love. That very young child has not yet learned the concept of separation. He reaches out to everything in awe and trust and appreciation of the beauty that he experiences as part of himself in the now moment.

If we can condition ourselves to release each judgment to Spirit for healing, what we will begin to experience is God's Truth/Love rather than the distorted and depressing perceptions we call human existence. What we will experience is love so filling and inexplicable we will be astounded how we could have ever forgotten that LOVE IS WHAT WE ARE.

Thanks for the great comment on my book. As you know, a writer's greatest joy is knowing that his attempts at expression have been well received.

Love,
Jo

Hi, Vic,

Thanks for your question: What is love? ACIM says love cannot be defined. It's like trying to define a kiss or an orgasm. I can give you descriptive words, but until you have the experience of a kiss or an orgasm, those words won't have much meaning.

ACIM defines love primarily by saying what it is not. Love is the absence of judgment. If I don't judge you, I allow you to be free and freedom is the gift of love. Remember the quote from Jonathan Livingston Seagull? "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you it's yours (figuratively speaking). If not, it was never meant to be."

As I mention in Miracles: Take the FreeWay, most people find love extremely elusive because they are so busy looking for it they forget the basic axiom of universal law: All that I give is given unto myself! So if I want to experience love, I must first give love. But how can I give something if I don't know what it is?

Many of us confuse the feeling of butterflies in our stomach or heart palpitations when in the presence of certain others with love. As pleasant as these feelings are, they have nothing to do with love. They have to do with 1) gonads and/or 2) the anticipation of connecting with someone we feel "completes" us. True love can only be exchanged by two people who come together not as halves to make one whole, but rather as wholes, complementing each others' wholeness.

In ACIM, Jesus says we think there are many different kinds of love --romantic, parental, brotherly, etc. In reality, however, there is only one love--God's love--and, unless we block it, that love extends naturally through us to others. In our state of imagined separation from God, we have forgotten our function and how deep our love for our Father/Mother God is. In fact, the Course tells us our love for Him is so all-consuming that His love is all we have ever really sought for though we've called it by many other names. For example, our human sexual impulses are, in actuality, the symbolic expression of our driving desire to remember the Oneness.

Our urge to extend God's love is natural and compelling because expressing God's love and joy is the only function He gave us. It's why we were created. Perhaps you can identify with the feeling of fullness and pleasure you experience when you help someone in need or give an unexpected gift of your time. This feeling of fullness is the perfect barometer of how well we are fulfilling our function. The feeling of emptiness that so many experience, on the other hand, is an indication we're blocking that natural flow. Resisting the urge to extend love is like stepping on a water hose-- then wondering why the water's stopped flowing.

I'll speak here from my own experience. What I've learned through Course is to ask Spirit to show me how and when to love. As I go through my day, I then look for opportunities to give to others what I would like to have given to me--a friendly ear, a hug, a word of encouragement. But it's important to constantly check in with Spirit because what I think may be a gift may not be so perceived by the recipient. For example, if my husband gave me a trip to ski the glaciers, I would definitely not see that as something wonderful.

I like this quote from ACIM:

"I am here only to be truly helpful (loving).
I am here to represent Him Who sent me.
I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do,
Because He Who sent me will direct me.
I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing
He goes there with me.
I will be healed (experience love) as I let Him teach me to heal."

So, dear Vic, what is love? Love is an indefinable experience which results from fulfilling our God-given function. It's giving what we would like to receive. And the bottom line of what everyone wants to receive is unconditional acceptance and appreciation.

I hope this helps. If you have additional questions, please let me know.

Namaste,
Jo

Hi Paula!

Thanks so much for your question. The statement "all death is suicide" is based on ACIM Lesson 152, paragraph one: "No one can suffer loss unless it be his own decision. No one suffers pain except his choice elects this state for him. No one can grieve nor fear nor think him sick unless these are the outcomes that he wants. And no one dies without his own consent."

This position seems extreme and too inclusive to be true. Everything in us resists the idea that our deceased loved ones chose to die--especially when that loved one was a young child. Yet the acceptance of this liberating truth is the beginning of the end of all sorrow and pain and of all illness and death.

Specifically, you asked if suicide is okay if someone "has done all they can do here and they want to go back to the Oneness." First, remember that death is not real. What God made eternal cannot and does not die--except in dreams. So the decision to take one's physical life would never put one at jeopardy of judgment or rejection by God because: 1) God is Love and Love does not judge; and 2) God knows death is not real because He did not create it.

It's important to remember, however, that death does not automatically usher one into the presence of God or Oneness. Only consciousness does that.

My ACIM mentor, Rev. Randolph, used to say, "If Uncle Jack was a one-way jerk on this side, he'll be a one-way jerk on the other side." Again, although passing from the physical plane may give us otherworldly insights--such as recognition of how we have wasted our lives or the realization that we are not our physical bodies--it does not awaken us to the remembrance of our Oneness with God. The only thing that does that is living the one simple law God ordained: Love. This is because when we live in the state of unconditional love, we automatically recognize that this is Who and What we are: Love extending.

The second part of your question is about abortion. I'll take a lot of flack on this response, I'm sure, but once again, I remind you that there is no death. Thou shalt not kill because you cannot kill. I can destroy an embryo, yes, but I cannot destroy the essence of that being because God created that life indestructible. Its form, in the dream we call physical life, can change, can wither and die, but its spiritual substance continues, uninterrupted, for all eternity.

At this point, people often want to remind me that I'd feel differently if it was my own life or the life of a loved one rather than principles I was so seemingly glibly discussing. But here's where faith comes in. Yes, I will be devastated by the loss of a family member. I will miss seeing that person's physical form terribly. At the same time, I know that the spiritual being that inhabited that physical form is alive and well, eternally.

I lost an infant son in 1975. I thought the loss would destroy me. It wasn't until many years later--years steeped in the study of ACIM--that I realized the being I called Kema, my infant son, had voluntarily come into my life and made his exit in order to assist me in my awakening. And since we are all One, I now know that Kema was a part of my One Self, my Higher Self, urging me back to my Reality in God.

Finally, I'd like to comment on your last question "since it's all a dream it doesn't really matter, does it?" Ultimately--on the highest level-- no, nothing in the dream matters because it never really happened. However--and this is a big HOWEVER--Jesus says in ACIM that we are ill-advised to act as though what's happening in the dream doesn't matter. The reason is its in and through the dream that we discover the Atonement--Who and What we are--through love and forgiveness. So it's always advisable to consult Spirit regarding our every decision. When we do that, we can rest assured we have taken the action ordained by Love and moved ourselves closer to remembering the Truth of us. It only takes a second to do this, and it takes the burden off you and places it on the One Who always knows the highest and best for all concerned.

If I sincerely place the decision of whether or not to abort in Spirit's hands and follow His direction, I can rest in faith that both my life and the life within me is blessed and protected and that Spirit will provide whatever is needed to assure that protection. What? Am I saying Spirit might ever possibly direct someone to abort? What blasphemy! But is it? God ordained that the Holy Spirit be able to see both our feverish dreams and our eternal reality. So Spirit both understands our human frailties and our unchangeable Truth. Spirit sees that we are like small children acting out a cops and robbers game. Bang! Bang! You're dead. But when Mom calls us for supper, we get up and brush ourselves off and go home.

The bottom line to remember, Paula, is that God is Love and Love never judges, never condemns. It's also helpful to remember that Jesus tells us in ACIM that we cannot get it wrong. We can delay recalling the Truth indefinitely but not eternally. Because it's God will that we share everything that He is forever. There's no place for us to go and nothing for us to do because, in Reality, we have never left our Home in God.

I hope you have found this answer helpful. If you have further questions, please feel free to post them.

Namaste,
Jo