No More Hungry Ghosts
by Nancy R. Bowers, RScP
God is. In that recognition, I breathe into the awareness of the perfection of NOW. I return to the realization that any experience of lack is born in forgetting that. It is birthed not because there isn’t enough, but because I have once again been fooled by the hungry ghost of ego. Spirit revels in the perfection of this moment. God is always complete, whole and unflawed. It was only my own ignorance that overlooked the obvious abundance of life.
Ego is never satisfied. It is so busy focusing on apparent lack that it fails to notice the bounty of the moment. I am NOT that. I am as God is. I am the Divine expressing. Not some cliched fallback position that I mutter to myself because I think that’s what I am supposed to do, but the authenticity of Stillness. Past the noise of mind-chatter, in the quiet of no resistance, I find relief. I encounter God. I encounter the Oneness that recognizes Its connection to All That Is. I return to the peace that emerges when acceptance grabs me by the hand and I finally allow it to reveal the beauty before me.
The hungry ghost encounter felt like a battle: me vs them, good against evil; panic; anxiety; doubt against faith. How sweet it is to return to the knowing that there was never anything wrong; that my expeditions into suffering were always just a fabrication of mind. I told myself a story, ignored all the work that I’ve done all these years and descended into fear.
Oh well.
Sometimes it takes an excursion into madness to remind me how very much I appreciate sanity. A Course in Miracles echoes reminders in my brain: “You will never lose your way, for God leads you. ⁴When you wander, you but undertake a journey that is not real. ⁵The dark companions, the dark way, are all illusions. ⁶Turn toward the light, for the little spark in you is part of a light so great that it can sweep you out of all darkness forever. ⁷For your Father is your Creator, and you are like Him. (ACIM, T-11.III.5:3-7)”
Yes.
How grateful I am to remember who I am. How grateful I am to know that it was only ever my fear that fed those hungry ghosts. They were always just wild stories, with no substance to sustain them. I’ve come too far to allow such imagings to rob me of my peace. How grateful I am that they are easy to starve to death once I stop making up hurtful stories.
In gratitude, I simply allow what is to be. I release all the fabrications. I rest in God’s peace.
And so it is. Amen.