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.
Nina, great thoughts from that very awakened fella; loved all this: “These things were not the illusion; the illusion was the way we related to them when we believed that the “I”-thought is who we are. After awakening to our true nature the same things are presented to us, but we relate to them within an entirely different context.” So true, that’s it, exactly the same things but seen entirely differently, in a way that leads completely away from pain, fear and judgment, towards happiness, laughter and freedom – even when faced with our in-laws or dangerous drivers or our partner who consistently annoys us (on purpose)!!
Nice hook up between Michele and Mr A in SF!! Have a latte for us!!
News: Ninjanun is moving to Temecula!!
Forgiveness-hugs all round…
Lawrence…how you’re doing? how did the auction go?
a little report from the last day of the the cleanest trial ever ( it seems to me). I am in awe. One one person – a psychiatrist whose report about Breivik being psychotic has been slaughtered by80% of lay Norwegians ( and other psychs) – has reprimanded the ones who critiqued his report. No-one else has been disrespectful at the others in court.No-one has spoken or acted with anything else than respect and willingness to listen to each other. And when the defense today presented his procedure ( I have no idea what that is called in English), it was like a huge blanket of Love and clarity swept through the Norwegian mind. I am amazed at the goodwill all have shown – and the role our perception is playing has been taught to our nation – everybody who has followed this trial the last 2 months. Blame has been non-existent – no derogatory ways of speaking.
The most wonderful moment for me were where the defense attorney said was that if Breivik was judged to be insane, we would rob him for the opportunity of taking responsibility for his acts. That got Breivik to wipe his eyes hard, and looking at his attorney with what I saw as great relief.
And he got a whole hour at the end of the day to say what he wanted to say.
Bernard bro – still not in SF. Currently in NYC, where it all came together in 1965. (part of me wants to go check out the apartment building where the original gang of HS, BT, KW and JS started the first study group in ACIM history) Aren’t we all lucky to have a way out (thanks to their combined efforts ?) (:
(but do hope to see M with S and L sometime next month in SF before we head out of the US)
Nina – today I finally went into the next step of the gift you sent me in 2010 (I wrote you a (long)-ish email on that several months ago ?). Let me not leave you in mystery (: —
I finally got delivery of Carrie Triffet’s book (the first one). Something I’ve been procrastinating on for 2+yrs !
I’m a third of the way through – it’s a lovely book !
G’night, dear ones !
I just found this article on internet about the Queen of England’s upcoming visit to Northern Ireland and a gesture of reconciliation between England and the Irish Republican Army. These last lines of the article struck me as being particularly evocative of the idea that we can have differences, but we don’t need to make those differences a matter for judgment, exclusion or hatred. The article seemed to convey that there was a sincere will to move past the former hatred to a place of sharing and peace.
“It does not mean Sinn Fein have departed one inch from their commitment to an independent Ireland. Nor does it mean the queen will forget the assassination of her uncle, Lord Mountbatten,” Hain said.
“But it does show in shining terms how everybody is turning their backs on the past of horror and violence and moving towards peace between previously bitter enemies,” he added.
****************************
Full article:
LONDON (AP) — The Irish Republican Army-linked Sinn Fein party says one of its leaders, Martin McGuinness, will meet Queen Elizabeth II next week — a once-unthinkable symbol of progress toward peace in Northern Ireland.
McGuinness, a former IRA commander, has been invited to attend an event with the queen in his role as deputy first minister of Northern Ireland’s Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government.
Neither Sinn Fein nor Buckingham Palace revealed detailed plans for the meeting. Britain’s Press Association news agency said McGuiness and the queen would meet and shake hands in a private room at the beginning of the engagement. But even if it amounts to little more than a quick handshake, the meeting will have great symbolic value.
The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, will visit Northern Ireland on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of her United Kingdom-wide tour celebrating 60 years on the throne.
Sinn Fein leaders declined to meet the queen last year during her first state visit to the neighboring Republic of Ireland, arguing it was still too soon after the end of decades of conflict and bloodshed.
But party President Gerry Adams said Friday the party has decided McGuinness should meet the monarch, a decision that is sure to meet opposition from some Irish republicans, who want to end British rule in Northern Ireland.
“We don’t have to do it. We’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do, despite the fact that it will cause difficulties for our own folk,” Adams said.
[Slideshow: Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations]
“But it’s good for Ireland. It’s good for this process we’re trying to develop. It’s the right time and the right reason,” he added.
Buckingham Palace said it understood McGuinness had been invited to Wednesday’s event in Belfast for the Co-operation Ireland charity, which works to bring Catholic and Protestant communities together.
It was a sign of progress toward peace that the royal visit was announced several weeks in advance.
The queen has regularly visited Northern Ireland over the past four decades of bloodshed, but none of her previous visits had been announced even a minute ahead of time to minimize the risk of attack.
Threats against the royal family have been real, as evidenced by the Provisional IRA’s 1979 assassination of Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s 79-year-old uncle. Several small IRA splinter groups still launch gun and bomb attacks in Northern Ireland.
But the situation has been transformed since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 brought a virtual end to a conflict, known as “the Troubles,” that saw about 3,000 deaths over three decades.
Political reconciliation has advanced rapidly since 2005, when the Provisional IRA renounced violence and disarmed, and 2007, when Sinn Fein entered a power-sharing government alongside Northern Ireland’s British Protestant majority. Their unlikely coalition has proved remarkably stable.
The meeting with McGuinness follows the queen’s historic visit to the Ireland in May 2011, the first by a British monarch since the republic gained its independence from Britain almost a century ago.
During the trip she laid a wreath at a monument to Irish rebels who fought against British rule, spoke a few words in Irish during a speech, and expressed sympathy “to all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past.”
McGuinness has since said he was struck by these gestures of reconciliation.
Peter Hain, a former Northern Ireland secretary in the British government, said the meeting is “of huge historic importance.”
“It does not mean Sinn Fein have departed one inch from their commitment to an independent Ireland. Nor does it mean the queen will forget the assassination of her uncle, Lord Mountbatten,” Hain said.
“But it does show in shining terms how everybody is turning their backs on the past of horror and violence and moving towards peace between previously bitter enemies,” he added.
Yeah, Lawrence, how was the auction?
Nina, what did Breivik say at the end?
Bernard, I am thinking this is all a sign of things to come, more forgiveness and less judgement because folks are beginning to see that it doesn’t work-just defense breeding defense. Love to all.
Nina and to All, “a” refers to us as “Dear Ones”. I like that phrase very much, it so fits how I feel about you all. Over the years, drops of water have splashed from time to to time from the ocean we are, and have surfaced in the Village or The Fire Side and we have drunk hungrily of this sharing. It is not like it used to be but what is. All is an illusion but God and our true selves. This is the point the Course makes time and time again, and for me that is very important. I in no way use this as an excuse or an escape from what this world seems to be and has to offer on any given day.
As usual I digress. Nina, I don’t know how the Auction went as we haven’t received word. It is a long story, but in the end the man responsible will be very sorry he has acted this way. We have contacted and supplied the Pennsylvania commission or agency responsible for licensing Auctioneers. We sent copies of contracts, a timeline of events and all the information they will need to take action against this man and hopefully get us some money back, and keep him from doing this to other people. Sharon has been beside herself with worry most of the time. The auction was June 2nd and the contract called for sending us the money and sales receipts no later than 14 days.
We haven’t received an eviction notice yet, and may not receive one, who knows. But, we closed our online store where we had a steady income, so we could take a good portion of our stock to sell at the auction. It is insult to injury so to speak. In the last week or so Sharon and I have been really looking at our lives. We reviewed what we have overcome, what we have been able to do, and what it is we want to do with our future. Sharon and I are both fine and in good spirits, fighting the good fight. We have always talked things out and manged to smooth out the bumps in the road as best we could. We are still planning on moving and looking at rentals. I haven’t used my VA loan for buying homes yet, so we can use that if given a chance. We have a gentleman from AMVETS American Veterans helping us with stuff.
I haven’t had a moment to myself it seems as of late. I found out that the heart troubles I have had in the past and the rare Cancer and the 20 years of Neuropathy that caused my not being able to drive were caused by being exposed to Agent Orange, a herbicide used during the Vietnam war. It was also used in Korea near the DMZ the line between North and South. I was there in 1970-71. They used 365,000 gallons of the stuff. I have filed for compensation but it is a long road to hoe.
There is so much more but you know me, I have a tendency to babble so I will cut this short for now. Please don’t worry about us we are fine. Every One has problems it is how you deal with them that counts. To all of you who unlike me keep their problems to themselves, know of a certainty Love is present, we just have to open our hearts to a different kind of beat. The celestial drum doesn’t miss a beat we need only still our hearts and minds enough to here it. I will keep you posted or answer any questions you might have if you wish.
God Bless Us Every One
lawrence
I just opened “Spoken Miracles” by Our Lucia, Martha Lucia Espinosa and this is what I found.
It can indeed be said the ego made its world on sin. Only in such a world could everything be upside down. This is the strange illusion that makes the clouds of guilt seem heavy and impenetrable. The solidness that this world’s foundation seems to have is found in this. For sin has changed creation from an Idea of God to an ideal the ego wants; a world it rules, made up of bodies, mindless and capable of complete corruption and decay. If this is a mistake, it can be undone easily by truth. Any mistake can be corrected, if truth be left to judge it. But if the mistake is given the status of truth, to what can it be brought?
To all that may see this, I urge you to by this book. I have had it for some time. As with Big Blue I open it from time to time and read the page I was meant to read. I open Spoken Miracles just after posting 806.
My Love to All
lawrence
Lawrence, dear one ~
Lovely to read your substantial post. like a sunday morning treat for me who has been starved for the love that shows through your writing ! (fear tho – I am getting ample doses of love from all around me, there is an amazing world of acim teachers and students in the world, and to be in their physical presence has been a source of great nourishment for me)
here in nyc, i have been attending the monday evening meditation clases, acim-based that are taught by a truly loving compassionate woman, Yasuko-san. More than once i have delayed my departure from nyc just to attend her monday evening sessions.
i’ve been to two so far, and tomorrow is the third and final one. (we must move on to boston – we have stretched our nyc stay to almost 4 weeks, it feels right to move onto the the next stop of our visit to america).
i also just finished (last night) Carrie Triffet’s book – long time no see – which was a wonderful gift from our Nina to me back in 2010 when the world (and my mind) seemed much darker and heavier indeed.
and i heard another truly loving voice in Tama Keives who was being interviewed by Jennifer Hadley last week. Tama is a harvard-educated lawyer, who left it all to pursue her passion for writing. she has been studying and practicing the course for 20 years, you can hear it in every word of her voice. it is lovely !
there is a whole world of love waiting for us to tune in – it is breathtaking. every moment can be a moment of love, even the moments of extreme pain and disturbance – i can’t fathom intellectually how that can be. but there it is ! (:
i saw a glimmer this morning of a residual belief in my mind – that if i give my every moment to the holy spirit, and allow it to lead me in my life, somehow the ego would retaliate and make my life even more hellish than it is (on the rare occasions when i have to experience hell). i see now that it is a false belief – the ego’s unconcious threat, as it continues to lose hold on me…
there is only spirit and nothing else. the holy spirit operates in plain light of day, the ego burrows itself insidiously to work its sleight of hand, it cannot stand to be exposed to the light of love.
there is nothing the ego can do, that i cannot pass through easily and lightly, with the holy spirit in my mind…
i love you all,
a
Dearest Lawrence. I am glad you shared. What a huge forgiveness-opportunity – and what a treat to read your post about it, and sense the peace emanating from it. “All problems are the same” says Jesus – and this quote from the book by Lucia, “If this is a mistake, it can be undone easily by truth. Any mistake can be corrected, if truth be left to judge it. But if the mistake is given the status of truth, to what can it be brought? ” struck me as particularly fit for your predicament.
The way you write about it shows me that it is not given the status of truth.
I friend of mine on another Course group woke up recently – and through her daily mails through 2 months it was clear that this happened. One day, there she was – as the I AM – and oh, the difference from before! Now, she had a husband who’s heart was ill. That is something that seems very real, isn’t it? it was weird from us “sleepers'” view to see how she reacted with no resistance at all. The doctors told her that her husband would die if he was not put in the hospital – but Barb felt that all was well, and her husband followed her. After two months, from one day to the other, the doctor told them that her husband’s heart had healed in an impossible way. The one thing that Barb had done, was seeing him as true Spirit – and that whatever happened, they would be united, and that all was well.
When I read your post, Lawrence, I pick up some of the same calm and inner knowing that all IS well. And knowing that, agent Orange is just as serious as a cold-virus: they are both illusions.
Reaching long loving arms out from Norway, thinking lovingly about you and the situation.
***
Jaclyn – what did Breivik say at the end?
Well – the broadcasting has decided NOT to send what he is saying. But some journalists told us that he talked about what he always does: he has wanted to save our country from the dangers of multi-culturalism, which would kill what is the Norwegian spirit -and that the massacre was only the necessary firework to bring attention to his political manifest. And he sure has managed to do that to a big degree.
He is a wrongminded fearful thought in the mind – and gives us all the opportunity to ask for correction of the thought that what is essential and true in us can be corrupted.
We become our choices – yet another way of saying the same
Love to all
Nina
Rebus
You work with what you are given,
the red clay of grief,
the black clay of stubbornness going on after.
Clay that tastes of care or carelessness,
clay that smells of the bottoms of rivers or dust.
Each thought is a life you have lived or failed to live,
each word is a dish you have eaten or left on the table.
There are honeys so bitter
no one would willingly choose to take them.
The clay takes them: honey of weariness, honey of vanity,
honey of cruelty, fear.
This rebus – slip and stubbornness,
bottom of river, my own consumed life –
when will I learn to read it
plainly, slowly, uncolored by hope or desire?
Not to understand it, only to see.
As water given sugar sweetens, given salt grows salty,
we become our choices.
Each yes, each no continues,
this one a ladder, that one an anvil or cup.
The ladder leans into its darkness.
The anvil leans into its silence.
The cup sits empty.
How can I enter this question the clay has asked?
~ Jane Hirshfield ~
(Given Sugar, Given Salt)
(Rebus — “A representation of words in the form of pictures or symbols, often presented as a puzzle.”)
For all of us ACIMers who are the intellectuall-variety (and really which of us is not ?? (: ~~~ i have this to share….
Jesus is brilliant, more brilliant than any one of us can imagine. His intellectual capability is beyond the wildest capability of the most intelligent person you know.
And….
he is infinitely kind. Which is infinitely more important to the world than the most brilliant scientist, artist, businessman, politician, home-maker, human being the world has ever produced, or will ever produce.
Ken is right – kindness is all the matters. the diligent (self-and) all(ways)-forgiving practice of kindness.
love,
a
ps. Nina – a particularly special, warm and loving hug for you, dear one – would that I were capable of giving you the best hug that you have ever experienced – and I send you that hug now ! (:
love you all…
from cambridge now.. (where I first met the Course(in passing, at first) in 98,99,00 or 01 (need to dig through the memory banks some more (;
Jamie has a wonderful report on his site from a Ken-workshop recently. A few gems:
Forgiveness is forgiving what never happened. Practically this means, “You did not take the love and peace of God away from me.”
See these three things and eventually you will just stop: 1. It’s your dirge. 2. You think it’s justified. 3. You love it.Just look at your special relationships and say, “This is keeping me from Heaven.”
• Ken was asked to give a personal example of a struggle he had, a healing experience of his own. Talked about his divorce in his late 20s and the legal proceedings, how it was not a nice divorce, and how he laid awake in bed at night thinking “It will go this way or that way,” and then one night said to himself, “This is silly. Nothing that happens is going to hurt me.” .Said, “At that point everything changed.” It’s realizing that nothing can take the love and peace of God away from me. It IS within you and no one can take it away.
I am reading from another workshop by Ken. Can somebody explain this?
“The experience of pain comes from the purpose of attack.
You can learn to be in pain, and be peaceful.”
How can I be peaceful when I understand that I just attacked? is it OK to attack then?
It is not OK to attack, but if you “feel” you have attacked someone after the fact, you have to “forgive” yourself and the situation. (because what’s passed didn’t happen anyway – the entire world is already over and we are re-living the Separation “here” “daily”…
anyway, nina – not sure if that helps ! (:
but…
on a different (related?) note, want to say that we are both deep in Ken-ville now. I just bought 10 hours ago from a lovely little store in Central Square, Cambridge one of Ken’s magnum opus(es) — (yes, terrible English that ! (:
The book I refer to is…
“Absence from Felicity” !!! (: originally written/published in 1991 (the copy I bought was.is already in its 5th printing 2008)
Currently, am on Chapter 3, and its taking me deeper and deeper into my mind..(which can be a “good” or “bad” thing ! (:
love,
a
Oh, fun discussion in the Village Square by the fountain! Nina, I loved your 809: there was a kindness and wisdom in there that touched me. It’s very challenging to talk about these things and you do it so well, brava. “If the mistake is given the status of truth,, to what can it be brought.” Perfect. And the poem was a delight, very moving and moody. Ken does not give a lot of personal anecdotes, and the only other time I heard him give one was about the same issue, his divorce. He said he was walking along the beach on the east coast (probably around New York, I’d guess, but I seem to recall it was further north toward Connecticut)and felt just terrible about the impending divorce, so many horrible things would be said about him etc. And then suddenly, in an instant, he felt it would be all okay, he just knew there was something else, another, kind presence. And that was it. Sometimes it’s so simple…
Mr A, I felt that hug you gave to Nina, but I don’t think I diminished it. I made it bigger and sent it along to Pam, Jacalyn, Lawrence and lots of others. So thanks! BTW Give my love to everyone in Harvard Square. I don’t imagine you’ll be popping by Medford or Somerville, my home for four years, but just in case, leave one of your hugs along the way there, too.
Nina, on the Ken quote about peace and attack, and perhaps this is what Mr A is saying, too: I believe Ken is saying that what brings the experience of pain to a difficult situation or even to a physical condition is the intention of attack. Somewhere in the mind there is the thought of attack, toward someone else perhaps, but always ultimately toward the self. Pain is the belief that I deserve to suffer, that I am a miserable, guilty creature, and this pain is completely normal, given who and what I am. (All very strange lies, naturally.) Ultimately it is the way I defend myself against the calm, kind and quiet loving Presence all around me, and so in my mind I believe I am attacking Love. This is impossible, of course, but I can believe this, and I can want to continue believing this. I just need to call into question my desire to continue believing that I can attack Love and that I would even want to if I could. “You can learn to be in pain and peaceful” I believe means that we can remain in the difficult situation or the physical condition and diminish the reaction to our pain by diminishing and ultimately releasing our deep-seated thoughts of attack and unconscious desire for the pain. Love holds no grievances, which means that the Love of God/Jesus holds no grudges against us whatsoever. We are free of the thought that we would or could be judged by Those who only love us. Hope that helps.
I drop into the village on a regular basis. Doing the lessons again this year. The difference for me this year is that I’m aware of my feeling and then pretty quickly I’m aware that I made a decision at the level of the mind for separation so I’m really starting to get that I’m never really upset at what’s happening on the screen. These words from lesson 186 yesterday describe my experience in feelings:
“Our self-made roles are shifting, and they seem to change from mourner to ecstatic bliss of love and loving. We can laugh or weep, and greet the day with welcome or with tears. Our very being seems to change as we experience a thousand shifts in mood, and our emotions raise us high indeed, or dash us to the ground in hopelessness.”
Yesterday morning I woke up happy, this morning I woke up crabby and I’m awake enough to realize that I’m making that choice at the level of the mind. I observe myself and the others around me and just try to stay away from judgement. I’d say I’m becoming more patient but then something will probably happen today which will show me how impatient I really am.
Have a good day everyone.
I am so happy to hear from you guys!
Thanks, Bernard, for sharing your thoughts in 825 about Ken’s quote. I appreciate your in-depth level of understanding! The more I read your post, the more I get out of it. You certainly have a gift for writing about these concepts.
Update. I was still feeling crabby as I wrote my previous post so that got me thinking about what the difference in my 2 mornings. The night before last I had what I would call a good sleep. Last night I had difficulty falling asleep (awake for 2 hours) amd subsequently a shorter night. I realized that I had a story about what a good night’s sleep for me was. I did the 4 questions from THE WORK and my mood changed. So I had to identify the point where I attached to my story before I could release it. I don’t know if it always is this way but today it sure was. (:
Hiya Bev – Good to see you here. It’s been a while since I heard your voice on one of those con-calls the good Mayor had organized sometime back.
If I’m not being impertinent – how “regular” is “regular” ? (:
thanks for the sharing of your experience. I think J is right when he says that everything shared has a benefit for all of us, no matter in what way it is perceived.
I’ve been reading Absence from Felicity since I bought it in Cambridge, MA on June 30th. 262 pages into it, and I think today I’m coming to the conclusion that this will go into my top three books of all time. Being the ego that I am, I’m still trying to organize them into rankings of 1, 2, 3.
But fair to say – that the top three are (in no particular order),
* Disappearance of the Universe
* A Course in Miracles
* Absence from Felicity
Let’s see if I ever get around to ranking them (:…..
and if I ever get to mail out an entry out of my blog to Nina in written, snail-mail form ! (:
Greetings to all from Kansas City,
love,
a
a – you guilty guilty you :::::giggles:::::
Waves to a from nebraska (:
You,re funny a. Regular is daily to every 2-3 days. I haven’t read Absence from Felicity yet but after viewing one of Ken’s you tube vidoes “Accepting People where they are” I want to. He describes an experience with Helen and how it backfired on him and lead to his acceptance of her.
781 Bernard,
Just got a note from Nina (boy, she’s really a live wire here!), telling me I’m missed here in the Village. That feels good.
I had mentioned to you that I’m going to France next year. It’ll be to Moncontour, SW of Paris from 3 Aug to 10 Aug next year, for the World Free Flight Aeromodeling Championships. It would be great to visit after it’s over.
All the best,
Dick in Guatemala
Hi everyone, just popping by like Tex-Anne to say hi. I’ve been buzzing around, out of town again working. So nice to know some of you are still here keeping the fire going and the waters clean bubbling in the fountain.
I don’t know why, but this message from Dick in Guatemala got stuck in the ‘unapproved’ folder some time back. There’s no reason it needed moderation that I can see, can’t figure it out. Anyway, apologies to Dick. I updated the date on the message so it would appear on top of the list.
My answer to Dick: it would be great to be able to get together! Let’s keep in touch as the date approaches. Unfortunately France is a big country and I’m down south just east of Bordeaux and north of Toulouse, about 6 hours train/car from Paris. It’s a lovely area, but a bit of a hike from Paris. Let’s see what we can work out. I’m hoping to have the live ACIM Village worked out by then with accommodation.
Jacalyn, thanks for your thoughts (818). Always a pleasure to hear that something I said was useful.
re 824 and 825 ….I had wondered why you suddenly stopped showing up.
re 823 I highly recommend reading “Absence From Felicity”. It helped me to know that Helen and Bill struggled with the material just like we all do. Having some detailed examples instead of just general ones helped me see the similar situations in my own life and get rid of the *Must be perfect in my practice* silliness I found myself doing.
Pam you are so right in 826 and I feel the same way. I think too that it is easy for students, which is what we are, as well as teachers, which is also what we are, to put the author or the main exponent of a teaching one is studying above ourselves. They of course don’t want that, they are just trying to help us help ourselves
Though it was DU that brought me to the Course. It was Absence From Felicity that cemented my Love for it. The text and the lessons are I believe made easier or rather more palatable, and very much so. I have mentioned it before, but my favorite book, and the one that started my spiritual journey was Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. I still have a card that shows me as being a member back in 1974. It was signed by Daya Matta the head of “The Self Realization Fellowship” after Yogananda.
Absence From Felicity is a close second in my all time list of favorite books, but I do some shuffling too a. And Bev I hope you read it, Ken, no doubt penned what had to be a labor of Love and I would be surprised if from the large body of work that he continues to share if Absence From Felicity isn’t the Crown Jewel. It is one of the books I keep handy to just open up and read when I need some inspiration. I read it early on, and pretty much read it again piecemeal!
By the by, The Auction for those that remember turned out not so good. The Auctioneer was a thief and a charlatan. It’s too long a story to tell. We are working with the appropriate state agency that can put him out of business, so he can’t do this to other people. The sad part is many people find that there comes a time in their lives that they must sell off what was once a large part of their lives, this is so they can survive, keep a roof over their heads etc.
Sharon and I are still in the farm house, no eviction notice yet. We are looking at rentals and at the same time trying to get a VA (Veterans Administration) or GI Bill house loan. As usual, I am supposed to be doing something else. I miss not posting as much and I miss not seeing more posts, and “people in hell want ice water” and so it goes. My sainted first generation, Irish Mother used to say that to us kids if we were pestering her. In her defense she did have seven children, never mind the fact that it made hell seem more real when you were little and Irish Catholic and German Catholic
I will end on that note, as thinking of her always brings a smile to my face!
Love to all, and of course
God bless us every one
lawrence
aloha
lots of this and that as sharings and ponderings
loved absence from felicity too … really deepens and enhances the acim experience … excellent reading … agree it must be ken’s favorite!
early on, was helping usher at an acim event and got to have lunch seated next to bill thetford, and he signed my acim … what a miracle!!
he just sat down next to me and all that they say is so true … he’s pure light … ease … very light and kind … soft in a strong way … gentle … lots to laugh about in a light hearted way
over a decade ago, when my parents closed out their home of 40 years, our family auction went the same way as lawrence’s …
everything gone, and zero money back
we had so many valuable treasures, we were expecting something around a hundred thousand … it was a really big deal … paintings and collectables
carved furniture … huge antiques … lots and lots of things … and it was all all all gone and they never received a dime … not any
the lady in charge of it all has since died … and there was never any money … she just said she broke even … that her costs to do it all and the money she made balanced … and that was that
my daddy has since died too … it was just the most unpleasant of impossible situations
yet … here we are … somehow made it through even though it all went wrong
so, along with lawrence, some of these experiences being shared might help be a word to help keep it from happening to others
also, am sooo happy a and michele got together … what fun
it was in march of 2011 when I had my first encounter with the acim villagers in temecula … had the incredible thrill of meeting anne and annie and winnie and katrina … it was all love at first sight and I enjoyed every moment
it was like meeting rock stars or something … people you have never met but kind of hear and read about … then get to actually meet!!
also got to meet bernard and pat in may 2011 … that was like meeting royalty too … what fun we had
so … if any of you are anywhere near the north shore of oahu, come on out and join us for a sunset … we’re on the beach every evening
things are all going very well these days …
two weeks ago my newest grandson (14 month old jaxon) visited with my son and his wife and her brother and my other son too … had not seen any of them in a year … it was total proof that time does not exist because it was just the most natural and normal happy visit … no weirdness about the time at all
also, my son that had had the cliff diving survival experience last year was here and he was doing so well he dove off another cliff and this time he was fine … shows how his body was completely healed and strong
then last week my oldest son visited … hadn’t seen him in a year either … and we had the best time too … he got my mom into the ocean and we all snorkeled … now that’s a miracle too … as you may recall, hospice estimated she had about 10 days to 2 weeks of life left in her when I showed up a year ago
I’ve been with her every single day for over a year now and have her getting healthier and stronger a little better every day
she’s off all medications and is actually healthy and doing fine
we walk a little almost every day and she even is practicing driving again and helping to do some stuff … it’s a very long path and lots of work, but it’s very rewarding to see life growing and light glowing
when we snorkel, it’s right out in our own front yard … our ocean front is some of the most beautiful anywhere … I’ve snorkeled the great barrier reef and loved it … and this is just spectacular as well
turtles and colorful fish and eels and all kinds of things in the reef
am loving it here and so thankful for acim and all the inspiration I get from the village and all that helps assure and encourage us on paths
am thankful to each of you that are posting and sharing … it all helps and is much appreciated
aloha
peggy
Lawrence and Peggy, so good to hear from you in detail. It is amazing what you are teaching us – that what seemingly is a disaster may just be a classroom, and something better than all those valuables come forth when we step out of the habit of being “owners” of them.
I am calling softly to Winnie and sending my special little tree-fairy over to gently coach her to give the Villagers a report on how the forgiveness-life is going. That goes for Laura and Donna too… and how wonderful it would be to hear from Lisi, Pam and Leni!
Any sharing is much appreciated, as Peggy says –
love to all
Nina
WOW Zafu!
I wish I could see that!
I would snorkel all day.
Miss you all!
I wanted to share the last processes: this is my blog today
*
Dream:
I am in a Mall. (It strikes me that it is a symbol of the place where ego shops for believes and ideas that are fitting -) I meet Tom Cruise – he tells me that he works with people who are go-betweens – who carry important messages, and who must do this in secret because there are people who are afraid of the messages and will see them as a threat. – Would I like to be a messenger? I would – and he takes me into a locked room in the center. He gives me the message on a bit of paper, I fold it in 4 and leave the room. Near the exit I see the person I shall give it to – a very tall female security guard in uniform. 7 feet I think.
I did it! It was simple! Mission possible! She accompanies me out of the center.
I have been the instrument of liberation, and it feels great.
Then I fall asleep again – and in the state of half-slumber my body does a jolt: there is a feeling of shock, terror – and then peace. Something left my mind/body and I felt it on its way of passing out of my energy-field.
A deep relaxation spreads – and I hear that my willingness to be a “messenger” – set this inner liberation off.
I have felt this exact shock and fear before: a metaphysician removed some dark stuff from my aura.
Later, with eyes closed, another sensation occurs; one second of utter complete dense darkness – then it is gone.
I am relieved at knowing that I have given my process of healing to Blue – so what I feel now is leaving, and not entering. It seems that I still believe darkness is lodged in my aura and mind, and for the first time I do not fear that thought – my willingness to bring all to the Holy Spirit is liberating me.
*
After my shower, the phone rings. It is my doctor!
“Hi, it’s doctor S, I just want to tell you that after you held your hand at my back, the pain has gone! I think its so funny! I am at my cottage now with my family -I tell everybody about it – that my patient held her hand for some seconds on my back, and that healed what I haven’t been able to – and I have tried everything – and I have told everybody about it, and so I thought I would tell you too!”
And we laugh and laugh
_ __
P.S:
On my way down to the (real) Mall later today, I realized for the very first time that if somebody looked angry, it had to do with them. I was not in danger! If somebody looked lost, I did not have to feel responsible for comforting them. Some huge hooks, that before were invisible to me ( or impossible to do something with) were gone.
I found this on Mike’s Life Attract blog today and thought it was quite good:
M: There is nothing new here. You give me the same answers over and over again.
C: My answers must always conform to your questions. It is the questions that remain the same.
M: Okay. So how do I manipulate the dream?
C: First you must SEE it. Until then, the dream must “manipulate” you, as this is what blindness requires. When you SEE, you will SEE no need for “manipulation.”
M: Well, as hard as I try I still can’t see it as a “dream.”
C: As in the dreams that arise in sleep, there is nothing outside to find. I would suggest you cease looking. “Eyes” made for dreaming see only dreams.
M: So the world is in my mind?
C: Where else COULD you experience it?
M: But the experience tells me it’s outside my mind. So how do I correct that?
C: Only your fear keeps it “outside” you, demanding you see it “there.” Your fear has many disguises, but always seeks to control for an outcome of your desire.
Fear NOTHING by requiring nothing from what you “see.” Allow the dream to be as it is, because it is your resistance that keeps it “real.” When I resisted nothing, I understood everything and NO further learning was necessary.
M: So I just have to totally accept everything. The good and the bad?
C: What can be “good” or “bad” in a dream?
M: So, essentially, you’re asking me to surrender to the dream?
C: You believe it will crush you and this is why it must be kept “outside” and why you continue dreaming.
But a dream cannot destroy its maker, although its maker can fear what he has made and, in an attempt to escape, seek to destroy the imposter he constructed to represent him. Such is the ONLY purpose of “death” in a dream.
Watch closely your “emotions” for they are the building blocks of a dream. There is no neutrality in dreaming, else it simply could not be experienced at all. Although nothing is there, you “feel” its reality and that gives it all the existence required. Feel nothing and nothing will affect you. Look closely at the patterns of your “life” and note the repetition of feelings and how they bring back to you what you thought you had left behind. Make no mistake, they came before any appearance, because they gave it life.
M: Why do I get the experiences I have? You keep telling me that I make my world? Why do I have experiences I do not choose? Why don’t I have the experiences I wish to have?
C: What you must come to understand is that a “wish” to alter the dream MUST automatically make you a part of it and, as part of a dream, you will ask only the questions a dreamer could ask. This is how you MAKE your “world” real. All parts of the dream must conform to the parameters set forth by the very act of dreaming and ‘choice” is the grandest illusion all dreamers share.
That which believes it is part of the dream cannot be the dreamer. Know the dreamer. Nothing can make sense until this occurs and so, you will continue to repeat senseless questions.
M: So there’s another part of me that is dreaming this up?
C: There can be only ONE part of Creation and IT is everything. All else is a dream and dreams end upon awakening.
M: So I am not real?
C: This is what you have asked me to show you. The nature of a dream is to question its “reality,” because in a dream you simply cannot KNOW anything. You know only a distorted mirage, shadows in darkness, a fog that never lifts and this makes you very afraid. The idea that it could all be gone in the blink of an eye, and I assure it could, horrifies you because you still believe “something” is there. But fear not, because nothing will ever leave you but the “thought” that anything COULD ever leave you.
M: But you’re in my dream too!
C: Lose interest in what you demand from the dream and it will show you that it is ONLY a dream.
This is what you have called on me to teach and you will one day lose interest in me, because we will share KNOWLEDGE as one. Yet, as are you, so must I be only a dream. Soon you will realize that you are teaching your “self” to awake from a dream in which help is required.
M: So if every freakin’ thing is part of a dream, how can you be real?
C: Not the world, the body, the mind and its thoughts, not any experience the mind holds, has any reality in Creation. Therefore, nothing I teach is of any value, except in a dream. Such is the nature of dreaming. I can take you only so far, after which, in our parting, we will eternally join.
M: Why is this taking so long?
C: Questions that rely on time demand impatience. Yet, trust that what is required will not be withheld, because nothing up to this point is without purpose. Everything has, and is, occurring exactly as it must. You need DO NOTHING because God could NOT forsake you. This is all that need be fully understood for peace to envelope you completely and forever right this very MOMENT.
I have asked repeatedly that you NOT rely on your “self” and that you look to me to direct you. However, you believe in continued self-reliance and this is what disturbs you, not my answers to your questions
Make no mistake, every choice you have made, every decision you have acted on was directed toward awakening. Hence, every choice made was made by God, because you are not separate from that WILL and God WILLS you awake. Although this is the hardest concept for you to understand, believe this fully and realize a peace well beyond your present understanding.
M: Ha! Well then, God has done some pretty rotten things if that’s so.
C: God does not WILL that right should combat wrong or that good shall overcome evil. God simply does not participate in the moral duality concocted by a dreamer. But God does participate in the awakening from that delusional experience, because it is God’s WILL. Even in a dream of being lost in your dark forest of conceptual dread, the WILL of God must prevail in showing the way HOME. This is why nothing need be DONE and why nothing has ever been DONE that was not God’s WILL.
Release all guilt that anything other than this could ever occur. Allow your moral virtues to dissolve into dust, for they were taught by a dream and can have no value except to one lost in a dream.
M: So God wills for death and destruction?
C: It is “you” that seems to traverse a nightmare, but it cannot be the YOU God Created. Yet, it matters not the least, for what God does not WILL cannot exist, even if you dream that it does. A dreamer does not THINK… but only dreams that his “thoughts” are real. Dreams are not worthy the Son of God whose WILL is no different from his Creator.
Think only with God and you must think AS God. Not one thought you have experienced yet comes close to the magnificence that is your Creation. Yet, each thought realized for what it is, brings you that much closer.
M: If my “will” is God’s will, why am I still dreaming.
C: (laughter) this is the most outrageous idea for you to comprehend, my brother. For if your WILL is God’s, then clearly you must be awake NOW. How could it be otherwise? What thought in your troubled mind could trump this idea or overwhelm it with paranoid delusions?
Yet, you continue to persevere in your attempts to overcome the WILL that is infinite and it is this tiny lingering belief that you are “still dreaming” that makes TRUTH seem inaccessible.
Surrender the “you” that believes this could be true. Like a dream, it too is not REAL.
Posted by mike at 12:14 PM No comments: Links to this post
Pam, thank you so much for posting #836. I hope all is well with you and Cory. I am sure he is growing by leaps and bounds.
God is, and that’s enough for me
lawrence
Your welcome Lawerence. Yes Cory is now an inch or so taller than me and his hair is almost as long as mine(waist long) LOL
Hope all is going better for you also.
Pam, how cool, Cory is growing up and not only your son, but your best friend no doubt. In this dream our children are a respite and a means of growing spiritually stronger. Our eldest daughter Terra is Sharon’s best friend and Sharon hers.
Our world traveler a, and his wife, has all these good things to look forward to. As far as my health it is nothing to brag about but it is what it is and I am letting J and HS handle most of it when I can remember. Oh Yeah, I wore long hair for a good many years in my twenties. I am probably going to try it again as I don’t want someone to have to cut it while I am fighting MRSA.
In the olden days we called it letting our freak flag fly. I kind of like that.
God bless us every One
lawrence
Gimme a head of hair, long beutiful hair ….la la da da…Oh say can you see my eyes—-if you can then my hairs to short (:
Just read a thread on the Forum of Liberation Unleashed where somebody talked about when the baby starts to say “me”. I remember from my own child, and every other small child I have met -there is an inner knowing in us as adults when we can start to use “you” and “me” to them – otherwise we would not say “come to mummy” but “come to “me” or “him.”
The baby SO does not know what a “me” is until we teach it to it.
The next thought that came was that I have believed all these thoughts from the inner suffering-identity to be “me.”
And that I don’t have to: I can just notice them and smile.
And also smile when I catch myself going there again.
But right now this feels indescribably beautiful to see: any me-thought in the mind is false.
It was as if I could remember so hard to try to understand what they meant with “me” – and at some time just accepting that because they said so, it had to be true –
but the me-thought is just a convenience for communication, and does not point to reality
Love to all
Bernard, your article was crystal clear and very helpful indeed. I always felt a lot of guilt when told that I wanted this small self. Not this time. I give you LOTS of credit for that.
You go brother
big grateful hugs
Nina
Your comment means a lot to me, Nina. Many thanks. I do hope that we all learn to feel less guilt during those times when we have chosen our silly small self. We just need to learn to giggle and tickle ourselves, and it will all eventually go away. What can be painful about that?? Hugs, B.
Hi family,
I’m in the village square since I’ve been working on a series of workshops on forgiveness that we’ve started giving in the town of Figeac about an hour’s drive away. Since people over here don’t seem to relate to the theoretical lectures very much and wanted to get involved in something more practical, we put together these sessions based on Ken’s three steps of forgiveness. We added more Ken material and so now it has become the six steps of forgiveness: What; Why; Cost; Sameness; Choice; and Holy Spirit.
Our focus is on real life situations, and we give each participant a work sheet with three or four questions to answer on a specific upset or problem in their lives. Tomorrow we’re doing “Why”, exploring the surface level motivations of our upsetting situation, and then working at really uncovering the deeper, unconscious reasons for our irritations, sadnesses, frustrations, angers and fears.
As an adjunct, I’m going to read Lesson 136 Sickness is a defense against the truth. However, I’m replacing the word ‘sickness’ with ‘upset’ since an upset is to the psychological body what a sickness is to the physical body. The lesson becomes much, much more meaningful I find when read this way, and brings us full circle right back to the heart of forgiveness. So that’s my suggestion, give it a try if you feel like it, and I think you’ll see meanings that hadn’t been so apparent before. Remember, a slight twinge of annoyance carries the same meaning and effect as pancreatic cancer or lower back pain : both are put their by our unconscious choice to try to remove the presence of Love from our minds.
If I find the time (oh too short these days) I’d love to translate these worksheets and put them up here for us all to work through. That would be fun. Some really juicy questions to get you thinking.
My love to you all.
I’d love to see those worksheets, Bernard. ANYTHING that makes the Work come alive – like new ways to say the same things. So helpful – my ego is a true master is blocking Course-sayings – and then, like these days, I read The Presence Process by Michael Brown and it feels like I know what Jesus meant.
It has been really helpful forgiveness-wise for me to realize that all pain from childhood is NOT personal: there is an original imprint of emotional hurt – AND then the stories about it and what it mean about ME is thrown on it – but the hurt itself is just an emotional imprint which my father/mother has inherited form their father mother – never never personal at all.
This has become very clear the last 2 weeks – so forgiveness comes instantly when somebody pushes “my” buttons.
Yes, I’d like to see the worksheets too, Bernard!
Here is a 3 step process that Nouk Sanchez uses often, perhaps it will give you some ideas:
1. Make a list of resentments about people, situations
2. With the Holy Spirit, ask: What do I get from holding on to this? Who would I be and what would change for me in my life if I handed this over to Spirit completely?
3. Engage this forgiveness prayer: Holy Spirit, help me to forgive myself for using _____________ to attack myself and separate from your Love (although this is not really possible, it seems to be our belief). I’ve found this process very helpful.
I am still working on the website. If anyone has any ideas about what to do about uploading LOTS of audio, please let me know. I purchased the Audacity program, but there is a big learning curve!
Love to all Villagers!
Hi Jacalyn:
Is your web-site up for people to visit ? or an early sneak preview for us Villagers ? Would love to take a look if so. There’s hardly any activity at our Village these days, and I”m running out of things to do with excess time on my hands ! (:
Cheers, and best wishes, always,
Anil
ps. I’m very proud of myself for making it past 7 days without posting anything here !! (: I want to join the silent club, methinks (;
Anil, the website is still a work in progress, but I have uploaded some short quotes, poems, essays and articles. The home page is not designed yet, and I need to add a photo of Roger any myself. But I would appreciate your honest input about the graphic on the header (vector image of light), and also on Roger’s writings. The website is: http://www.newbeginningresearch.org.
My main concern is finding an audio program that will accommodate LOTS of audio (of some of our meetings). So if anyone knows anyone with expertise in this area, please do let me know. Thanks, dear villagers!
Hi Jacalyn,
For the French ACIM website I can put up lots of audio on the WordPress platform simply by paying a supplement of $99 per year for the upgraded version. I so far have 30 hours of talks and that’s only 10 percent of what I can put up. I had a look at the site and like very much some of the things that Roger said. I don’t think the look of the site has to be complicated. Simple and light, as you have it, is very nice. Nice banner, and it’s easy to navigate. You’ve done a good job, and I know how much time it takes! Good luck with your project.
The six steps I’ve put together follow more or less Ken Wapnick’s teaching (no surprise, really). They are, very briefly:
1. “What” What is really going on in this situation of hurt or upset on a deeper level? (We look at how we were not perfectly at peace before the situation occurred, at our condition of pre-existing hurt that we are placing the responsibility for on others. We look at how all our attention is focused on the specifics of the situation: who said/did what to whom, who was the most unfair, etc; rather than look at our own general frame of mind. We look at what our goal was while the event was occurring: peace, kindness and understanding, or justice and recognition)
2. “Why” What are the secret motivations going on behind the observable actions? This is a complicated and very sensitive step since it requires us to look at our deeper motivation for wanting this upset to take place in order to have someone to blame for our pain. We look at the secret delight we take in being hurt since it allows us to feel justified in getting angry or blaming someone else, thus putting all the attention on their choices, and taking off all the attention from our own choice for separation.
3. “Cost” What price am I paying for holding on to my perception and interpretation of the situation? What do I gain? During this phase we realize our willingness to trade all of the peace and love of Heaven in order to be right and justified so we can still feel like ‘us’ (separate from Heaven) but not be responsible for the outrageous pain this causes.
4. “Sameness” What qualities do I share with the person I am blaming for my hurt, pain and upset? This takes some work in order to identify how I embody the exact same qualities of the person I blame, and so we are absolutely identical. It is very important to get to the bottom of this phase, otherwise we will still retain some thought of difference which allows for blame. We cannot blame someone who is doing the same thing we are doing, but we must be willing to see how we do the same thing, just in a different way.
5. “Choice” We must start to look at the whole of this process now, and see how we are naturally led within our minds to choose against the insanity we have accepted there.
6. “Jesus/Holy Spirit” We must determine that we want to be wrong and let go of our positions and justifications in favor of true happiness and peace, and then turn toward the source of Love within us, turn toward a symbol of that Love that is within us but not us. We must actively search for contact with that great presence of kindness and understanding, and allow ourselves to feel the release of our anger and judgment against ourselves for all our silliness. This is when all the seriousness falls completely away and is replaced by lightness and happiness in the memory that nothing really dangerous or dramatic really ever happened, since that wonderful presence of Love was always there, and will always be.
Thanks so much, Bernard, for your loving support! Did you use a WordPress plugin to upload the audio? If so, which one did you use? I’ve had to enlist help because changing the HTML in the stylesheets makes me soooo stressed (or should I say I CHOOSE to become stressed).
Thanks also for sending out the 6 steps of forgiveness!! These are very clear, direct, and understandable. You have a wonderful, engaging way of presenting these and other concepts! I am going to use the steps and write out my answers, because I think that will be very helpful. What a great tool for the forgiveness process!
Jacalyn – did you get to attend the ACIM retreat in Germany?
Nina, I live in the states, so I applied for a scholarship for the retreat in Santa Fe in May, and was granted the scholarship! Also, Sparo kindly found a couple who live in Santa Fe who are going to the retreat, and they are going to let me stay with them for the duration of the retreat for no fee! I am so blessed! Now, to use this opportunity to face my beliefs and bring them to truth, instead of running away in fear would be the best way to honor these blessings.
Hi everybody, yesterday I found the AttractLife blog thanks to Pam’s letter from July ! Thank You Pam, just what I needed ! Yesterday I read the blog notes from February 23rd . Among many other things he wrote: ” SURRENDER TO THE INESCAPABLE FACT OF DREAMING AND LOCATE THE DREAMER “. We have heard this many times before but it helps hearing it with different words.
Does anybody know who Mike the writer is ?
Hi Hedda, good to see you again. I got the link to Mike’s “LifeAttract” blog from a post LA Annie posted. I found it very helpful to go back to his first post and read them all in order. I could see the progression of the work he is doing very well that way and it seemed to “tie up” some lose ends for me.
For those not familiar with this the LifeAttract blog is Mike’s conversations with Christ and is very Course sounding( his being an ACIM student might have something to do with that) but with modern everyday working persons English and not the Shakespearean/King James bible sounding stuff Helen was fond of.
The address is http://www.lifeattract.com/
He also has a second blog called “The Peaceful Self.com subtitled: Playing Infinitely In A Finite Dream”.
Warning this site is not for the faint of heart. In it he uses rather disturbing artwork he finds on the Internet (and it is very high quality art work) But he doesn’t use it merely for the shock value. The art work he picks to use very well shows the the ego duality thinking of viciousness and the ignoring/covering up of the viciousness.
I found that just “looking” at my resistance to the artwork uncovered a lot of my stuff for forgiving.
The text in this blog is more a stream of consciousness style on his part and he uses more “base” type language in it. More of a “I’m writing this junk out so I can see it better and have decided to let anyone else that wants to look at it too can do so.” kind of thing.
Anyway the address for this site is http://.peacefulself.com
Big Warm Hugs to all, Pam