by Jack Armstrong…

The following passages are from a remarkable new book, Lessons from the Source: A Spiritual Guidebook for Navigating Life’s Journey. The book is made up almost entirely of written teachings received by Jack Armstrong through Inner Dictation – the same process though which A Course in Miracles and Conversations with God were conveyed.

The lessons in the book transcend belief systems and are presented in concise, user friendly, easy-to-understand language. The passages below are from Chapter Two of the book, entitled “The Challenges of Earth Life,” and address our dual identity as eternal spiritual beings having a simultaneous, yet temporary, experience in the physical world, as well as the illusions we confront during our earthly adventure.

ezine20090729_armstrongPhysical and Spiritual
The physical and the spiritual are one. They are not distinct entities, even though at times the physical aspect of your reality seems to be the entire reality. This is the challenge of this adventure: you must exist on the physical level until your time is up, yet living exclusively on the physical level misses the point. You are a spiritual being. You must remember and realize and accept that this is true, and then enjoy your adventure on the physical plane from the perspective of the spiritual, which is the true source of all of your good. Do not allow yourself to be deceived by the illusions.

The Truth of Your Being
Enjoy this adventure in the physical world. It is a gift to enjoy—not a struggle to endure. If you can center your consciousness in the truth of your being—in your true reality/identity—you can then see your earth life for what it is. It is an enjoyable diversion, a lesson in truth, a challenge for future growth. See it as such in the context of your true identity and it will be much easier for you to reject the temptation to latch onto the illusions of the world and give them power over you.

The Ultimate Magic Show
Your view of a magician’s tricks is an appropriate analogy. If you compare your existence in the physical world and your understanding of it in your conscious mind to your true identity in the universe and your new acceptance and understanding of it, then think of a magician’s stage performance as your earth life as seen from your elevated consciousness.

Persons who are grounded only in human consciousness see a magician perform and are very impressed by what seems to be the astonishing reality of what he is doing. Yet, they know and understand all during the performance that they are witnessing illusions—that, even though what they are seeing seems absolutely real, they are close to allowing the magician to convince them that his illusions are reality. Yet, through it all, there is an overriding understanding that these are simply illusions, and the audience has fun enjoying them. Being there and experiencing them is a diversion. They laugh and applaud and shake their heads in wonder and gladly pay money to enjoy the spectacle.

This is an appropriate way to view your time on earth. You are attending a fantastic magic show—a demonstration of illusions that seem so real you can’t explain them—yet you know and understand and fully accept that they are illusions, and you enjoy them and then return to your true “reality.”

I hope this will be a helpful perspective. As you shake off the illusions of the world, smile to yourself that they have seemed so real that you have allowed yourself almost to believe them, and then return comfortably to your true identity as a child of God.

© Jack Armstrong, 2009

Additional excerpts from the book and information about how it was received are available at http://www.lessonsfromthesource.com, and the Introduction and first two chapters can be read in their entirety at http://bit.ly/dYcZ0


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