Moments of Grace
Not long ago, after what seemed like a never-ending string of difficult days, I had a moment of pure joy that came out of nowhere. It had been cloudy the previous few days, but on this day, the sun was shining and it was warm outside. I came home from an errand, opened the front door, and greeted my sweet Golden Retriever, Wall-E. We both went directly out into the yard together, right into a sunny spot. There was nothing particularly different about those first few moments with Wall-E. I leave him at home a few times a week and coming home is invariably a warm and loving reunion. On this day, though, something different happened. I felt elevated beyond the normal wonderfulness of being with Wall-E into a state of complete joy. It was a moment of grace, and as with all such moments, it came without any effort on my part. Moments of grace are experiences of peace, joy, and connection with others or with nature that simply happen spontaneously. For me, peaceful moments are the most common, followed by love, and last of all comes joy. Although not everyone (including me!) has ever had a truly transcendent, mystical experience, most people experience moments of grace at different points in their lives.
Another moment of grace happened a year ago on my birthday. Matthias, Wall-E, and I went camping near Carmel by the Sea. It was a lovely trip, made special because of being with my dear ones, and also because we slept in the woods near Carmel, hiked up to some lovely views, and then spent some time by the ocean. As wonderful as the day was, I was surprised by what happened late in the afternoon. We went for a walk along the beach at Carmel, which is very pretty. There were quite a number of people out enjoying the last of the sunshine and we had to be mindful not to get too close to others because of the pandemic. We wove our way between different groups of people as sun sank lower and lower towards the ocean. Matthias and I decided that we would watch the sun set and so we found a vantage point to wait. Although there were hundreds of people on the beach, very many of them stopped what they were doing and waited and watched as well. As the sun reached the horizon and began to disappear behind it, time seemed to stand still. I felt a sense of deep peace and connection with everyone around me. This moment of grace lingered a while and encompassed the entire crowd of people. Finally, as the last of the sun disappeared and the light started to fade, the spell broke. The sense of connection with others and deep peace dimmed to their everyday levels.
Moments of grace stand out because they are out of the ordinary. And yet, A Course in Miracles teaches that “Grace is the natural state of every Son of God” (which is all of us, T-7.XI.2:1). The reason we don’t experience moments of grace as the norm is that we are not aware of being in our natural environment, which is at home in God, our Source. Despite this, we can experience these moments more often, and even regularly. The Course Psychotherapy pamphlet says, “If any two are joined, He must be there” (P-2.II.6:5). This echoes the sentiment of Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (King James Version). Being with another intentionally, whether it’s another human being or an animal, sets the stage for an experience of union. Peace, love, and joy are all aspects of union. This is so whether or not you believe in anything greater, like God or your Higher Self. Many people who sit meditation remark that the meditative experience is often deeper with others than when meditating alone. If a biological explanation makes most sense to you, the heightened experience of union like this can be understood in terms of attunement of our nervous systems with one another and the firing of mirror neurons in our brains. Moments of grace also happen in nature, perhaps looking out at the ocean, over a lake, from a vista point on a drive, or simply at the moon rise or at the stars.
Although moments of grace show up spontaneously and often unexpectedly, we can help set the stage for them through training our minds. The staples of mind training practices referred to over and again in this blog series are cultivating a relationship with our inner (or outer) Guide and practicing Course-style forgiveness (for an explanation of this type of forgiveness, see the posts, “On Needing a Lover who Won’t Drive you Crazy” and “The Miracle in A Course in Miracles”). Another way to set the stage for moments of grace is to consume a steady diet of “grace-adjacent” content. This is content with a right-minded focus, that is, one that is peaceful, loving, accepting, and inclusive. I recently discovered a podcast series called, “Miracle Voices,” which has all of these qualities and which goes even further and evokes joy. Until earlier this month, “Miracle Voices” was co-hosted by Judith Skutch Whitson and Matthew McCabe. They began the podcast at the end of 2020 to share stories of forgiveness as taught in A Course in Miracles. I find many of the stories both moving and uplifting. Judith Skutch Whitson was one of the first people to read A Course in Miracles. In Episode 5 of “Miracle Voices,” she tells her story of transcending utter despair through being introduced simultaneously to the co-scribes of the Course, Helen Schucman and William Thetford, and to the Course itself. She co-founded the Foundation for Inner Peace, which publishes, A Course in Miracles. On October 19th, 2021, Judith Skutch Whitson passed away at the age of 90. Two days later, a new episode of Miracle Voices became available, called, “Goodbye Judy and Thank you.” The episode includes an earlier webinar with Judy, called, “Thank God there is no death.”
What speaks to each person of peace, love, and joy is going to differ, and it may also change over time. Over the years, I have regularly listened to many teachers and I still invariably enjoy the Dharma talks of Jack Kornfield and the teachings of Ram Dass. Insighttimer.com is an incredible source of “grace-adjacent” material, and searches on YouTube will also lead to countless talks, interviews, guided meditations, etc. Another wonderful source is “Super Soul Sunday,” produced by The Oprah Winfrey Network. The show description says that it “…delivers insight and inspiration from renowned thought leaders to awaken viewers to their best selves and discover a deeper connection to the world around them. Each week, enjoy mind-nourishing conversations between Oprah and top thinkers, authors and spiritual luminaries” (see the footnotes at the bottom of this post for a link to the show description and the show itself).
When we experience a moment of grace, we feel as if we have experienced something both new and extraordinary. By contrast, A Course in Miracles guides us to the understanding that what we are actually doing is remembering an experience we already had. Because this experience is timeless, it is also an experience we are having right now. Our awareness of what is real is clouded by our fear of it and what it means. Yet, as defended as we are against the truth, its beauty sometimes slips past our defenses and into our awareness. A section of Chapter 21 of the Course, called “The Forgotten Song,” provides an aid to us in remembering our true reality:
6. Listen,—perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose name is long forgotten, and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered. ²Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place or anything particular. ³But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it, and how you loved those who were there and listened with you.
7. The notes are nothing. ²Yet you have kept them with you, not for themselves, but as a soft reminder of what would make you weep if you remembered how dear it was to you. ³You could remember, yet you are afraid, believing you would lose the world you learned since then. ⁴And yet you know that nothing in the world you learned is half so dear as this. ⁵Listen, and see if you remember an ancient song you knew so long ago and held more dear than any melody you taught yourself to cherish since. (T-21.I.6:1-7:5)
A Course in Miracles is published by The Foundation for Inner Peace. All the books comprising the Course, along with the supplemental pamphlets, are now found online:
https://acim.org/acim/en
All quotations of A Course in Miracles in this blog post are drawn from this version of the Course.
To visit the Memorial page for Judith Skutch Whitson, got to https://acim.org/memorials/
To learn about “Miracle Voices” and listen to some episodes, visit https://www.MiracleVoices.org.
The “Super Soul Sunday” description is quoted from the show website, which also has the episodes, https://www.oprah.com/app/super-soul-sunday.html. Episodes are also found on YouTube.