Village Square II
In our AcimVillage, we have the plane tree that stands in the central village square. Its enormous branches spread out to cover an area wide enough to provide shade on a warm day for many a traveller or tradesman. Water bubbles and trickles from a stone fountain on the eastern side. It is under the plane tree and by the fountain that wandering sages have traditionally lead conversation with the local people, before setting off again on their way; it is here that the townspeople come to exchange views and thoughts on their beloved spiritual philosophy, learning from each other in kindness and wisdom.
Rules to ponder…
Study of A Course In Miracles benefits greatly from sharing our experiences in its practice. Here you can talk about what works, or doesn’t, for you, taking obvious care not to be ‘preachy’, please. We all learn best when someone talks from their own experience, rather than tries to tell us what we should be doing differently. Let’s take the position that none of us are teachers, we are all at the same point returning on the path Homeward. All of us will still be making mistakes for a while yet, so let’s be particularly humble and caring in how we deal with each other. Please keep in mind that this is a site dedicated to the approach Kenneth Wapnick takes to teaching ACIM. I shall certainly do my best to bring everyone back to the core principles as taught by him.
I would also like to point out that AcimVillage is the place to come to explore our judgments, but not to express them as judgments. If you feel you need to gripe, criticize and vent, even subtly, then contact me privately (at bernard@pauloandthemagician.com) where I will receive you with kindness and understanding. Please do not do so in the forums where I will inevitably moderate out this kind of post. Remember, you will feel better only when you are able to move past the investment in your judgments, not simply by unloading them for everyone to see. This means taking responsibility for your perceptions and acknowledging that ultimately no one has prevented you from feeling completely peaceful and safe, despite what might appear to be the unfortunate conditions of your life at this time. (I know, this is hard. Contact me if you’re struggling.)
So, two basic rules here. One, we avoid mention of other approaches to the study of ACIM (non-Wapnickian) as well as to other philosophies we might be studying. This is purely to achieve a stable, comfortable learning forum where we are all aiming at the same goal, using the same symbols and language to get there. This is not to cast any judgment on any other approaches or philosophies. ACIM is a sufficiently difficult path to undertake without bringing more confusion into our study than our minds already contain! If you have benefited from other paths and would like to share your thoughts, by all means do so. Just please do this in the privacy of your personal emails. It’s also my personal opinion (take it or leave it) that at some point a student of ACIM is much better off sticking with one set of symbols and one teacher, and working with these thoroughly, instead of getting too dispersed. Rule two, we try not to play ‘teacher’ with each other here, reminding ourselves to be humble and always equal with our brother.
Enjoy the discussion!
New Horizons
As of September, 2010, I’m proposing a direction for our study of the Course, which is to work together through Ken’s workshop The Meaning of Judgment. We’ll be using his transcript notes for this taken from the Foundation’s website (see link in the tool bar at the top of the page). Below you’ll find the notes for the section we’re currently working on. For previous sections, click on the ‘ACIM’ tab on the navigation bar, and then hover your mouse over the ‘Meaning of Judgment’ tab to choose the relevant section. I chose this particular workshop because it gets immediately into the real heart and practice of the Course while taking us through its basic principles at the same time. So, for those interested in finding out where the ‘rubber hits the road’, even though it might get a little confronting at times, then join us on this little adventure Homewards!
The Meaning of Judgment
Excerpts from the Workshop held at the
Academy & Retreat Center of the Foundation for A Course in Miracles
PART III
“THE FORGIVING DREAM” (T-29.IX), cont.
(3:1) All figures in the dream are idols, made to save you from the dream.
1. Everything we perceive and believe is outside us is part of the dream. These are the idols, and their purpose is to make the outside dream real to protect us from the dream within our minds, which we do not want to look at. Course students compromise this over and over again by trying in whatever way they can to make some aspect of the external dream reality. That is why many students place such great emphasis on seeing Jesus or the Holy Spirit as doing things for them in the world. That is a subtle way of making Them part of the illusion, whereas in the Course Jesus asks us to take the illusion to the truth, not to bring the truth to the illusion. We have a strong investment in making the outside dream real, because if it is real outside, we do not have to look at the dream within our minds. What better way to make it seem real than to have God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit operate in it?
2. That is why it is a mistake to confuse A Course in Miracles with New Age thought systems. The Course in no way compromises the truth that the entire physical universe is an illusion. But we want to make the figures in the dream reality, including the Holy Spirit and Jesus so we are protected from the underlying dream inside our minds.
(3:2) Yet they [all of these idols] are part of what they have been made to save you from.
3. These idols were made to save us from the idol we made within our own minds (the ego thought system) that says, “I have stolen from God and I now exist. I have what I have stolen. I no longer have to give it back, and I exist on my own. And now God exists outside me.” The ego begins with that initial thought of judgment, which is the beginning of the dream. It then becomes a full-blown dream within our minds that we are different from God, that we have stolen from God and sinned against Him. And our guilt over this now tells us God will punish us. This is the terrifying dream within our own minds. It is so terrifying that we do not look at it, but project it so that it now seems to be outside us. And anything that roots us further in the dream outside will nicely serve the ego’s purpose, even if it goes under the name of God, which is what religions have done for centuries. It is extremely tempting for people to do the same thing with A Course in Miracles — to bring part of the truth into the illusion, making the illusion real. If you do that, you will never get out of the dream, because you will not know it is only a dream.
(3:3) Thus does an idol keep the dream alive and terrible, for who could wish for one unless he were in terror and despair?
4. The “you” Jesus is referring to in these passages is the mind, the part of the mind that chooses — what I refer to as the decision maker. It is the part of our minds that has first identified with the ego thought system. It is a thought system of terror and despair that tells us we need to protect ourselves from the terror and despair by denying it, which means we would never look at it again. And then we project it and see it outside ourselves. That is why we need a world of specific people and specific objects. We project all of these thoughts of sin, guilt, and judgment so they are no longer seen within, but outside. As long as we believe in the reality of the idol, we will never know that the idol really rests within our own minds.
(3:4) And this the idol [anything in the world outside of us] represents, and so its worship is the worship of despair and terror, and the dream from which they come.
5. This is true for the idols of specialness we think are wonderful and make us happy as well as the idols of specialness we hate. Earlier in the text, in “The Obstacles To Peace” (T-19.IV), Jesus speaks about this in another form: “While you believe that it [the body] can give you pleasure, you will also believe that it can bring you pain” (T-19.IV-A.17:11). Pleasure and pain are opposite sides of the same illusion. Both of them make the body real because both say there is something outside us that can make us either happy or unhappy and bring us pain. The truth is that the only thing that can bring us happiness is choosing the Love of the Holy Spirit. The only thing that can bring us pain is choosing the ego. That is all. There is nothing else.
6. The lines here represent the same idea. That is why we become so invested in the world. It is easy to fall into this trap, even as a student of a course that teaches that there is no world, for we still believe that external behaviors somehow mean something. They mean nothing in and of themselves. Their meaning lies only in what meaning we give them. What is important is never anything external — not what bodies do or do not do — but our internal decision to choose either the ego and separation, or Jesus and joining. Once we focus our attention outside and believe what we do is important, helpful, healing, or loving, we are getting caught in specialness, worshipping the idol of specialness. We will think that we are serving a function of healing or love, but it really is an idol of despair and terror.
7. In worshipping the idols of specialness outside, we are worshipping not only terror, despair, and guilt, but the whole dream, of which terror, despair, and guilt are only components. We are worshipping the dream that we have what we have stolen from God and will never give it back, for now we exist as individuals on our own. We love terror, despair, and guilt, or we would not feel them all the time. We love them because they make real the thought of separation — the thought of the original judgment against God — which makes real our separate existence from God. That is why we have such a tremendous investment in our self-importance, in being a unique individual — it establishes that the dream is real. The state of terror or despair in our minds says the dream is real; the guilt and the sin are both real.
(3:5) Judgment is an injustice to God’s Son, and it is justice that who judges him will not escape the penalty he laid upon himself within the dream he made.
8. It is important to realize that the entire thought system of the ego is real within itself. It is not reality, but within the dream itself it is all very real. When we sleep at night and dream, we will experience the dream as very real. This entire world is a dream. As Jesus explains elsewhere (e.g., T-18.II.7-14), there is no difference between what we call our sleeping dreams and what he refers to as our waking dreams, such as we are experiencing right now. They are all the same — just different expressions of the thoughts within our minds. Within the ego dream, the fear of punishment is very real. Within that dream, our fear of experiencing harm — physical or emotional — is very real. We are not asked, as students of A Course in Miracles, to deny what our experiences are. We are asked, however, not to make these experiences reality. There is a crucial difference between those two approaches.
9. In other words, we all experience fear, and we believe our fear is due to something external to us that can impinge upon us. The ego interprets this as the wrath of God visited upon us — that is our experience. We may not consciously experience it as God’s wrath, but we certainly do experience fear as caused by something external to us. Remember, our own bodies are just as external to our minds as everyone else’s body is. But that does not make it reality. That is where the Christian Churches were mistaken; they took their experience of fear and wrote a theology about it. They said this is the reality of God: God sees our sin as real and has a plan to help us atone for it, basically a plan of murder. The plan then becomes one of suffering and sacrifice. If we believe we are sacrificing so God won’t be angry at us, then we will feel good about sacrificing. But that does not make it reality. Our experience is that the sun rises and sets but that does not make it reality. In reality, it is the earth rotating on its own axis that makes it appear as if the sun moves around the earth. And in fact, it is the earth that moves around the sun. Similarly, people may experience the Holy Spirit or Jesus doing things for them in the world, but that does not mean that they really are. Don’t confuse your experience with reality. The ego always interprets our experiences in order to construct a theology that serves its purposes, which of course is why we have the experience in the first place. Within our dream, whenever we make a judgment we are asserting that we are different from God; we have separated from Him, sinned against Him, and have stolen from Him. Our guilt over that will then demand that we not escape the penalty of God’s anger. This whole world, which is a world of change and death, then stands as the witness to the fact that what the ego has taught us is true. If our existence, which we call life, was ultimately stolen from God, then when God steals back the life we stole from Him we will be without life, which means we will be dead. That is the ego’s interpretation of our death.
(3:6) God knows of justice, not of penalty.
10. God’s justice of course has nothing to do with justice as we think of it. God’s justice states that nothing happened. If nothing happened, there is no guilt and no punishment. (3:7) But in the dream of judgment you attack and are condemned; and wish to be the slave of idols, which are interposed between your judgment and the penalty it brings. But we are not condemned by God. We are condemned by the projection of our own guilt, which makes up a God Who is angry. We then deny the whole dynamic and make up a world in which we are continually condemning and judging others, while believing they condemned and judged us first. But our judgment is within our minds; that is our guilt. We project it out and make up a world of idols that will punish us; and we actually think there is a world out there that affects us. This is all part of the dream, which seems very real from within the dream.
Happy New Year from the Canadian part of the globe. (:
Happy New Year Blessings to the Village. I am letting my secret out that I am traveling to Temecula very soon now and will stay for several months and take the courses at the Foundation. I would love to meet anyone who will be there from the Village or friends of Villagers or friends of friends. This is more than a dream come true as I haven’t traveled in forever. If you are there just leave a note with the Foundation or let Bernard know and he can email me. I would love to take wonderful notes and pass them on but can’t promise, we will see. Love to all. Jean
Jacalyn, nice to meet you too. We study daily in the Village just sharing our lives and our awakening ( or lack of thereof)
Nina♥
Hello Jacalyn, Good to see you again.
Big hugs {{{{ninjanun}}}} So good to see you again and wow several months in Temecula sounds grand.
{{{{Pam}}}}, yes FACIM/Ken is the only item on my bucket list so I decided to do it no matter what, illness, money, etc. So I fly on Wednesday and may be glued to the ceiling but what an adventure! Come and join me!!!
Oh yes this is good news for all ninja nun / Jean 🙂
Will look up the topics that Ken will be speaking on and synchronize myself.
So glad you’re attending to your bucket list…it’s a win win!
p.s. Since its been a while since I’ve been to the site I see mathematics have been added as a precautionary measure. So my posts kept being denied because I didn’t take the math seriously…I thought it was the 2+2=5 philosophy and threw in crazy numbers. It will take some time for me to review previous posts…something must have happened!? Will need to ring up the Mayor and be brought up to speed.
Dearest Annie, it’s great to see your little heart blessing our gravatars again!
The math quiz is purely to help me manage spam. Since I’ve installed it, my need to trash the thosuands of spam comments on the site per month has dropped to zero. I’m eternally grateful to this marvelous little program. Ultimately I wanted a math program that could take the answer of “1” for each calculation. But it seems that the world doesn’t yet function according to Jesus’ law of math. ‘One’ is the only answer to every question – I’ll have to get a program tailor made.
Jean, I’ll sure pass on your info to anyone who is passing through Kenville. Good luck, dear! Hang on, and hang in there!
Blessings everyone, B.
I have posted to crazy-wise stories at my blog. They showed me guilt being aborted. I feel calm and relieved.
Taking the chance and posting the link to the blog here – since it has been done before.You have to go back 2 spaces before and after wordpress
http://ninotchka44. wordpress. com/2012/01/03/1456/
{{{{{Village}}}}}
Happy Three Days into our New Year!!!
Loved everyone’s New Years Greetings
Haven’t been to the village pages since Christmas
{{Bev}}} I’m sorry for you loss and wanting to comment first about your brother passing at such an early age unexpectedly and by your Mom some what expectedly as has happened in your family history. Reading you jogged to help your mindset with it all so you could be more helpful to your Mom…very kind and I was glad to read that you all did have a connected and meaningful gathering. Zafu you had such comforting and true sentiments to share about these experiences.
Kendall, since I share very similar experiences with a few of my family members( that I don’t even have the courage or inclination to name right now, I loved reading about how it used to be with your Mom and sister and how you’ve made peace with it and express and share what you can. I do the same and have those who I can be with more in form. It used to be so important to me to be close, but these last 6 or so years has brought a healthy detachment, while still expressing love and support to them.
Welcome to Jacalyn and Helen!
When I got on the Skype call 1/2 hr into it I thought for sure you were on the call Annie as Helen sounds soooo much like you to my ear and Bernard agreed.
Love to all all all Thank you for being my family
Toots ( – :
Michele
Nina,
Brother Bob, is not a secret. He is an old soul, and like me he is crazy as a loon. I love him very much, but we are as different as night and day. We have shared much, yet lived separate lives most of our 60 plus years. Our passion for the spiritual has always brought us together.
I turned him on to Paramahansa Yogananda years back and he turned me on to the Course. We both read Carlos Castaneda, the Seth books etc..
Love & Hugs to all & God bless us every one
Annie, I just messed up the math too!
lawrence
ninjanun-jean, would love to meet you and anyone else in Temecula but alas the where-with-all to do it doesn’t seem to have been written into my “script” yet. lol Have a wonderful time. (:
DANG IT! I had wanted to meet you there too!
I won’t be back for a few years… so…. just dang.
🙁
614 Ditto for me Pam, ninjanun-jean just enjoy yourself. I couldn’t see me trying to take notes and listen to Ken at the same time. I think body language and facial expressions etc. would have to add to the obvious love Ken has for the course and us. I would love to see him weave his spell by sharing a presence and a knowledge we all posses but few can put on display naturally.
Of course there is the fact that I can’t spell, or punctuate and just so much more that might hamper my taking notes.. (: So, Jean, please feel free to take good notes and share your experiences, notes are always appreciated. I hope you get all you visit all it has to offer, and peace is the order of the day.
God bless us every one
lawrence
Jean, I hope you get out of your visit, all it has to offer!
Please feel free to plug above sentence into above post wherever you think it best fits.
The Course Be With You
lawrence
A little math to keep spam away so happy that you found the program Bernard; as long as it sticks to addition I should be ok (:
Today’s math question is six + 5= 11 (two ones) close, but no cigar.
Not ready for that Oneness just yet.
This Saturdays topic at the Foundation is ” Non-Interference with Form”.
I suspect the message will be all about doing nothing.
Sounds good, my ego knows how to spin that information. I shall leave all my Christmas decor as it is and take a nice drive to Temecula instead to do a whole lot of nothing. No notes, no interviews just observing my need to go and ‘interfere with the form’ of my stealthy internet friend ninjanun.
Ok, I will write and tell you all about it.
Did I tell you how nice it is to hear you again, Annie ? (:
Happy Temeculing Ninjanun Jean!
Michele !! just 3 minutes apart our posts. Wonder if they crossed in cyber-land ! (:
Bernard bro –
That math program is perfect. Going through emails and deleting spam is no fun at all, so I can fully feel your relief in doing away with that sweeping/cleaning chore
(I had an ex-colleague who’s no longer at the firm, and to make sure that we don’t lose any ‘valuable” business contacts (what’s that – you say business has no value ?? (:…what ?? nothing in this world has any value ??? (:), what was I saying, yes, we re-set her email on her departure to forward to me, so that I can respond on behalf of the firm in case anyone tries to get in touch with her on work-related matters.
Turns out she signed up for this, that and every conceivable kind of newsletter/email distribution list, so I have a lot of email to clean up each day too. (side note – this is why I am tardy on many email responses to many of my dear Village buddies (:
Why am I telling you all this ? don’t know (: – just whiling away the time, I guess, and hopefully not wasting yours, or anyone else that has to suffer through these irrelevant lines (;
Things are a-shifting, I say…. not sure what’s going on, but I feel something’s afoot. I’ll take my leave now, and read myself to sleep.
G’night.
And I will add a tardy, So good to see you Annie, also.
Thanks a, b(ernard) and p(am),
Feels good to be back.
Still haven’t read old posts but I did get the geist from the last few
that we have a few new Villagers so a Big Welcome to you.
{{{Group Hug}}}
Hi EveryOne, not much to say lately, just taking a step back, and trying not to land on the rake turned upwards!
I’ve needed to feel that it’s okay to be happy lately, in order to counter a level of hidden dread that I came across lately. I wasn’t even aware it was there until I saw that I had started to be concerned and even worried about the future, now that the scarves activity is over for the moment. I frantically started to look around for the next step as if it were critical to have all the answers immediately. So I’ve been working with:
Lesson 101: God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.
Lesson 102: I share God’s Will for happiness for me.
Lesson 103: God, being Love, is also happiness.
Lesson 104: I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
Lesson 156: I walk with God in perfect holiness.
Lesson 194: I place the future in the Hands of God.
This has been like my super dose of discovering how much I don’t really, fundamentally believe any of the above words. That was a surprise. I had read them many times before but in actual fact I was just appreciating them as pretty thoughts with a nice, kind sentiment. But certainly not any kind of truth that applied to my life. There was like ‘no way’ my life could ever really look like that.
Now I’m getting that I’m going to have to take a step into a whole other dimension in order to see how this might be true at all. It’s worth it. I’ve felt some absolutely wonderful moments of something releasing, a kind of inner condemnation passing, one that said, ‘It is normal for you to be afraid of a certain future penury.’ It’s not that there’s a voice that says the contrary, ‘You’re really worthy.’ It’s that there’s an extraordinary instant of happiness in just being here and now. There’s a feeling of joy, now that this expectation of a future punishing circumstance is gone, it’s like the future just doesn’t matter. It’s quite strange.
Happy times ahead? Nah. Happy times… now. Who cares what happens later…?
Thanks for the warm welcomes, kind villagers! Bernard, I assume you were selling scarves to make some money? Yes, many of us are facing similar fears. Your engagements are yeilding the sense of truth that is always present beyond the fears. Thank you for sharing the results of your working with those lessons. I also need to do the same, so your message gave me some hope to know that it DOES work! I am weary of the anxiety.
Bernard, when you write about something releasing – a friend from D.U shared last day something she did that has made my life easier. Big time.
When i have seen something that i wanted to forgive and release, often I have experienced that the energy does not move – and as the energies stay, the thoughts belonging to them come again.
She told us that she had asked for guidance, and heard: “tell the energy to release.”
It works SO well for me.
I did it this night, again and again, with the dark dark stuff that so often visits me. Now i said” i forgive these thoughts A N D I release this energies” – AND THEY DISAPPEARED! Something very hard in my chest area started to melt, and then I was in Heaven for a LONG time.
welcome back annie!!
and welcome jacalyn!!
and happy new year everybody!!
am loving the first lessons again … we all likely have fun memories of the first time we did the first lessons
bernard, love the lessons on happiness you selected … very helpful
mom has graduated from hospice, signed and released, so no longer on the endangered species list!!
we celebrated by going on a whale watch catamaran cruise at sunset … it was a beautifully calm evening … warm and gentle
we got to see several whales and one actually jumped completely out of the water and came down with the hugest splash … and had so much fun doing that that he did it a second time before diving deep and away
there were some baby whales and some big ones
the black shapes so big and moving so easily through the blue ocean
the sunset was glorious … everything so clear that we could see forever
the almost full moon was shining brightly as we returned to shore
it was a magically enchanting experience
wishing everyone happy experiences of deep peace and brilliant joy
love to all
Nina, thanks so much for the new “tool” of the forgiveness process!! I will definitely try that, because I have not been very successful with forgiving; shocked to see the stubborness. My former ACIM teacher (now deceased) used to comb thru all of the DU postings every day, and send me the best ones-my favs were Ossie and Lucia.
Jacalyn, I am remiss in not welcoming you before this. I posted on the DU board years ago. I think I was member 2900 and something. It was right before it turned to 3000 members. I love Ossie and Lucia, they have been doing a lot of good for a long time now.
So, Welcome, you are among friends here. Friends come and go in the Village, but once you have visited, I don’t think you ever really leave, not if you have spent some time here. So be forewarned. (:
Peace & Posters
God bless us every one
Lawrence, I had a suspicion that you may have been the same Lawrence that posted on the DU site. I joined, but never had the time or patience to read through all of the many postes each day. So I was grateful that my friend/teacher Roger culled through them all and sent me the ones that he knew I would like. I met Lucia once when Gary Renard came to GA for a talk. She is a beautiful soul! And I love Ossie because she REALLY understands the application of the Course. That is what attracted me to this site-folks are serious about the application process (what Roger used to call ENGAGEMENT of the truths in the Course). So thanks for welcoming me. I need to step up to the plate also and live what I know to be the truth.
Zafu, love the line Mom graduated from Hospice-How often does that happen?
The whale splashing had me envisioning a type of baptism …ahhh to be born again.
Jonah the Whale -John the Baptist its all the same.
I have to believe your contract as Mother and Daughter is still working thru some finer details. Do you feel like you have graduated in some sense too?
I guess I’m asking that because I myself feel there is something going on with my own relationship with my folks. To the outside world it looks like I’m caring for my ailing parents but now I’m starting to have the sneaking suspicion that they are helping their daughter with some final adjustments…ok major road blocks. Their world moves so slowly and I have had to slow down to such a pace that not a single idea, thought or resentment goes unnoticed. I have never been this challenged before.
Ken did make a plea during his lecture on Saturday – I’ve heard him say it before and it was true again this time… “It’s time to grow up.”
For myself the line hit home-both in my physical/emotional development with my parents and with my spirtual development with my Father in Heaven.
I have always found great resistance in accepting things to be perfect just the way they are.
I’m hopeful this sweet surrender continues, mind you its almost inperceivable but I do believe something has shifted.
Peace,
Annie
yes … in so many ways
peace to you annie and to all
peace
may all the world be blessed with peace through us
and once again, it’s soooo good to have you here annie
a morning poem after walking on the beach:
one wave
just like that
no traces remain
in so many ways it’s like that
all that was there before is gone
the past is over it can touch me not
the poem simply refers to my footprints after a big wave wipes them away
it could refer as easily to a tsunami
mom is saving my life in as many ways as my presence resurrected hers
she now requires assisted living … but don’t we all
with a little help she can do anything and everything
she’s doing amazingly incredibly fabulously well
yes, she moves so slowly … slower than one can imagine
everything takes forever
the simplest thing is a project
very advanced practice
every day some form of chop wood carry water
yet the insights and deep joy and tenderest things are precious
am thoroughly thankful and transformed by this time here
had no idea when I left california that I was leaving it all behind
am in this most beautiful place and loving it
annie my love and blessings are with you on this exotic adventure of parental care
the love seems to grow as the care requires more
came up with this for grace:
Gentleness
Reverence
Acceptance
Care
Encouragement
there is always that moment when everything shifts … satori
the miracle shift in perception
tend who and what needs tending tenderly
care for who and what needs care carefully
love who and what needs love lovingly
when love blooms and fills your heart you suddenly love everything and everyone … loving it all … nature, people, family, breathing, this whole world gets glowing … everyone and everything
these are some wednesday early morning musings (got up before 4 this morning!)
Zafu – when I read your beautiful lines…
It reminds me of the beauty of the Course itself…
The part about the waves and the gap and closing of the gap…
I am soooo glad that you get to have that beautiful visual every day.
That’s what’s nice about California, too.
That, and eating crab legs, of course.
Chop Food, Drink Water!
Annie, in answer to your question-I have been a student of the Course since it came out in book form. I worked at ARE (Edgar Cayce Foundation) when it came out in their book store. I knew immediately that my search was over, and that the Course was my way home. I was also blessed to have meetings with a friend/teacher about the Course for over 30 years. He was what a psychic in Virginia Beach termed a “recluse mystic”. He shared many high level impartations, many of which I have on tape. But…that does not mean that I have applied what I have learned. I did finally learn to discern, which is such a blessing. But forgiveness has been an ongoing challenge. I was attracted to folks on this site because they “feel” to me to be spiritually “mature”- “grown up”, again as Ken would say.
Zafu, you write so beautifully, touches my heart. Oh, and thanks for the GRACE- love it!
Tex, it has happened, you have morphed into a salmon. You are what you eat, at least in the realm of form.
Sorry, Katrina, what was that? I’m sorry….. I was Spawning!
Hey! Everyone! Cod Liver Oil shots over at the Tavern!
Last one there is a plate of rotten Caviar!
Jacalyn… welcome!
We really are a very “grown-up” group!
*winking* my little salmon eyes….
Fish don’t actually have eye lids… by the way!
Once I was given a little ornamental Wooden Fish
by a Taoist Monk (Nun, actually) at a Hospice Case!
Their liddle eyes are always open!
Jacalyn, I remember a Roger that posted at DU, I liked him very much; is it the same fellow you think? Sorry for your loss. I was so into Edgar Cayce for so many years. I had a chance to met his son Hugh, in Pittsburgh one evening at a private home (rather big one) but had just started a job and worked nights. You have a nice spiritual background, I look forward to your sharing.
Annie, what Ken said about it being time to grow up, I undertand where he is coming from. He also said, it’s not ok to think this way anymore; and he was talking about having hurtful thoughts. When I catch myself thinking that way, I remember what he said, and that leads to the realization that I am loved beyond my capacity to understand, at least at the moment. I am proud of you Annie for what your doing, and enjoy the light heartedness you bring.
Zafu, I sit at your feet and take in the love you share with us all. May you always be able to do this in such a pleasent way. Your Mom and you are both blessed and have been given a very special gift.
Katrina, I don’t like salmon, but I love Tex.
Tex, really, a wooden fish from a Taoist Monk at a Hospice Case! And it was looking at you. You crack me up girl. You can’t make the stuff up that we all have lived and shared. I am throwing back a Cod Liver Oil shot in your honor!
Well, I am starting to get sleepy, so good night and good news tomorrow.
God bless us everyone
lawrence
Nothing like a Blessing to get the Spirit moving and move it must!
Zafu you truly are in a beautiful space physically and Spiritually.
Although Tex, Jacalyn and Papa Lawrence said it well, I too must add a word of gratitude for your morning musings and poetry.
Tell me again what Island are you on?
Jacalyn, I am always fascinated with details of location and geography. So you live or have lived in Virginia? Our ninjanun friend Jean lives in Virginia although she is originally from North Carolina. If I recall correctly she too has been to the Edgar Cayce Foundation. I suppose most of us must have been influenced to a certain degree with Edgar Cayce’s work. And Lawrence, you must take the time to elaborate more on your encounter with Hugh. Like how does one get invited to a swanky party in a private home? Sounds like you you didn’t get the full experience of a relaxed evening with the responsibility of a new job waiting. Boy Spirit always keeps you moving. Speaking of moving…before I forget Lawrence, can you update us on your daughters fundraising and was she able to get to study abroad?
Getting back to a word you bought up Jacalyn; discernment. That is one powerful word. It’s a skill and I can’t imagine it could be fully operational without a certain level of forgiveness. Like a double helix, those two words symbolize for me the rungs of a ladder circling upward…”growing up” to expand on Ken’s talk the other day, he followed up that statement with another quote from the Course, that Jesus said, “we are much to lenient with out mind wanderings”. So yes discernment and forgiveness-a blessing that blesses.
Gotta run now…this was good connecting with you all and I’ll be back to catch up with the rest of you unless you all want to jump in and give me an update on your geographical locations and happenings. So I don’t have to prod.
Hugs,
Annie
My internet was down all day yesterday so I am just getting to read everything today and I must say the love and laughter are a great way to start the day.
I just discerned something 🙂
I think i wrote a post here about releasing energy.
I saw:is the energy seen as something we attack – or is it just a decision to release it? big difference.
So glad I checked in this morning and read all these recent postings. Thank you Everyone…
Zafu ….am so loving your Grace definition…want to write it and post it by my desk in the clinic at work and connect to my grown up family when I see it.
Love you all, Michele
Hello Village, and thanks for the greetings. Still in Temecula and running over and drained simultaneously. I cannot express the kindness and Love coming from meeting with Ken and monkettes/villagers and the FACIM program. The Foundation staff is doing a class on Ken’s From Futility to Happiness, Sisyphus as Everyman, and looking squarely at our life here of pushing the boulder up the hill every moment, hour, day only for it to roll back down to the bottom. I am asked to see what is my special boulder/s and my investment in them. I am attempting to put some notes together and will post some here and some on my facebook page as they come together. Peace cover us. jean
Joyful readings, I can just say I’m swept away by a number of really lovely posts. I’m with all those who are feeling embraced by Zafu’s gentle blanket of prose. And Lawrence seems to say exactly want I always want to say, and just can’t find the words. Thank you, brother, for articulating all that kindness in your messages to us all.
On-line Skype Workshop: I think it would be nice if we restarted our group work on Skype. I was initially thinking that we would pick up where we left off with Meaning of Judgment. But I’m really interested in the work that Ninjanun-Jean is doing at the Foundation with Sisyphus. I read the booklet and listened to the CD, and have to say it’s particularly powerful, almost overwhelming. Deeply confronting work, deeply disturbing since it insists that we look very squarely at the true nature of this world, which is truly not a pretty picture.
This would require us to be willing to take a serious step forward in our work. It will oblige us to take refuge in the Atonement, in Jesus’ uncompromising Love for us time and time again. The only way to get through this kind of penetrating, honest observation of our lives and this world is by taking a step away from it and into Love. We need to deeply search for that connection with Love, to make it real and true for ourselves, otherwise we will just wallow in depression and sweat with panic. This would be journey into the insanity, the purposelessness and hopelessness of this world, which ultimately is a reflection of our lives. It is also a look into the condemnation that underlies all things here, which is going to lead us directly to the real condemnation that haunts all of us – that of ourselves.
In order to get through this (alive!) will will have to take very decisive steps towards Love on one hand, and towards Laughter on the other. Love and Laughter will be our two companions on this journey. “Into Eternity where all is one slipped a tiny, mad idea at which the Son of God remembered NOT TO LAUGH.” Ultimately, we must always come back to the point of view that Love would not make such an insane world, and therefore it cannot be not true. But this obviously then implies looking at my very own corporal and mental existence and saying likewise, God would not make such insanity, and thus thankfully it is not true. It must be some kind of a joke. We can learn to be grateful that the craziness of this world and these bodies is not true. But the only way to attain this deeply peaceful perspective is by looking at the insanity, of which we (believe we) are part.
Or we can run an on-line workshop on my favorite recipe for crab-cakes and apple strudel. Or perhaps we can do both on alternate days!
Who’s in? Who would prefer something a little more mellow, like working through forgiveness (which comes into everything anyway)?
Another suggestion might be “Hateful thoughts: Cutting out the baby business – stepping up the work.”
Have I blown anyone’s day with this post?
I’m in. My only question is can I find an online version of the booklet or do I need to get a copy of that or the cd?
Lawrence, no that is not the same Roger. This Roger (Roger Moineau) never posted on the DU site, despite my encouraging him to do so, for he had SO much wisdom to share. He was reclusive, and hardly ever met with anyone except me. I know the Roger you mentioned- Roger Van something. Yes, his posts were very good.
Annie, Sorry, I forgot to answer your question about geographic location. I live in western NC- foothills. I love it here, but it is still very much in the bible belt. The particular area where I live (Murphy), used to be islands off of the coast of Atlantis. The energy here is very good. It is condusive to healing works, since the Atlantean healing temples used to be here.
A propos my propos about Sisyphus, I need to add that there is certainly real meaning in this world, and it is beautiful. It is just not the meaning we have always given it. And in case anyone was feeling the beginnings of any kind of hopelessness, we all need to remember that the real reason for Hope is surrounding us at all moments, keeping us warm and protected, always. I think Ninjanun-Jean found the best quote on this:
“Ask nothing of the world but that it be the Great Teacher to return
you to the Love that you are. Be thankful to the world for it is the
bridge that will take you back to the Light. Ask nothing of anyone
except that they be teachers of your forgiveness lessons. And give
them all your gratitude for taking on this holiest of roles.”
There is a way of looking at the world such that it becomes a place of love, but it begins with learning to look at it honestly. It is only when we strip away our illusions and fantasies that we can turn this hell into heaven, that we can truly invite this Love into our experience. We can learn then to walk through the illusion of this world serenely, taking refuge every day under the arch of forgiveness, that golden place we come to in our minds, the meeting place of our wish to join back with Jesus. It is a real place, and not just a pretty wish. There is a golden space of safety and caring, rich with the meaning of Reality, not just fantasy. We can learn together to develop that willingness to look honestly at this world and the lives we have tried desperately to live within it. It is okay to have been wrong, about everything. It is joyful to be wrong about what cannot work! We then set ourselves finally on the right track, deeply satisfied every morning we waken that we will not be wasting our time wishing for the impossible, but working towards the truly satisfying. Our lives cannot work in this world, but they do work perfectly in the space of perfect forgiving, the new activity that underlies and shadows all our busy daily occupation.
Lovely Jacalyn, current day geography with historic geography all wrapped up into ‘One’ (:
Love your follow up post #648 Bernard…it did feel like I was standing under the arch of forgiveness.
Bernard, I study best in writing – like when we all sat on the Course bus driving around the Monastery and read the text, and shared loves and confusions. I can’t take talking in the Skype-format when we are more than 2 persons 🙂 – it is too confusing for me, to little peace around it for me.