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.
Thank you Pam, I will go and check out the other blog as well !
Dear all, this just happened. I am going to include as the Last Chapter in “When fear comes home to Love.” Maybe it will be a Horizen-book – we will see –
love and hugs to all
and say hello to Paulo and Zeph for me, Bernard – or was it Zeth?
here is the latest blogpost then – written by a happy Nina:
Lying in bed just some minutes ago, sensing all the usual blocks and pains, and giving them all to Holy Spirit – and feeling absolutely no relief. Let’s say this is the most common of all of Nina’s complaints – “This is no good, I am not heard. Therefore this is a PROOF that there is something in my mind resisting God that I have placed there subconsciously. (Of course – that is true.)”And since I feel no relief now, that is a P R O O F that this is stronger than God” Having heard this thought, the mind goes on, in its square logic: “And therefore this is hopeless. I am lost. Ego is stronger that God in me. Nothing I do helps. Oh vey is mir.” (I am not Jewish, but my mind finds those words so very expressive of lament.)
Then the thoughts start coming. They come in a rush, and I find myself noticing after each one: This is a thought from truth and God. The thoughts are loving, sparkling with humor and joy. Their truth is evident. After some minutes of this, I realize: “Hm – these thoughts from God come to me even though there is a part in my mind that is stronger than God – hm that simply does not compute – well then – I simply MUST be wrong that there is something that can block out God in my mind.
And now the relief that I wanted as proof is HERE 🙂
Tears are cascading, but no crying
Just a tremendous joy and relief of seeing through it:
I have felt a disconnection to God many times because I believed in this thought:
“This physical pain/ this depression/ this sickness /fill in the blanks/ is proof that my ego is stronger than God. That hostile forces are stronger than God. That “evil” is stronger than God. And since other people can be free and happy, and I am not, there is something wrong with ME, special ME!”
And God – having created us as Himself, has given us this power: that what we believe in and say is true, becomes our reality.
Giving my God-given power to the thought “There is something that is stronger than God” makes it so for me.
Believing in the thought of separation makes this illusionary world.
Oh! The beauty of seeing the power that God has given me! And He has certainly not given it to a Leelah: it belongs to me as Self, The Son of God.
Oh what a chaos it would be if He gave it to humans. And – laughing out loud – the world we think we see is made by our delusional thoughts that we ARE humans- separate – and that it is possible to create outside God.
That insane thought, believed in, has seemingly made this insane world
Thank God it is not real
Thank God it is just a dream
And the joy of realizing: as convincingly terrible and serious and painful the illusion – our world – looks – only our belief in it as “real” upholds this image.
We all as one uphold this image of the world each and every second when we look at “sin, guilt and fear” and believe that what we see can be real and true.
From this moment I can with a full heart mean it when I forgive: all I forgive is illusions that never happened in reality – just in my dream that separation CAN be real
*
oh beauty
*
I may forget this too
and then I can take this paper that I wrote this down on and remind myself and giggle
I am going to copy it and put it in lots of pockets and purses
And I don’t mind that I will forget it- that is the very nature of the human
For the first time can I fully appreciate what Barbara has told me a thousand times – Pain is not real. Sickness is not real. ANYTHING that God did not create is not real – so just let it be, don’t take it seriously.
Now that thought is experienced as just a thought – and seen through.
Oh the beauty and joy of seeing through illusions.
And because I have seen through its unreality, the release I always have searched for and not found, is here now.
Hi Y’all!
I am sending out a Call For Help – in the form of a picture request. Does anyone remember the pictures that we took of Ken and Winnie – and he was going all “Hamlet” on her…. acting as if he were standing on her head? It was a couple of years ago in Temecula.
PLEASE – anyone with that picture – can you send me a jpeg?
I would sure love it!
Thanks!
Tex and all – remember those so very well – it was well after the Monastery closed, right? I was just looking for those photos here, but there are only photos from Casals – I just looked through all my pictures from villagers and did not find the Winnie-ones – but maybe Winnie would have them – don’t you think, Anne?
It was from the Spring Academy Class in 2011. We all sat in the parking lot and had a tail-gate picnic.
*sigh*
I’ll mail Winnie right now
Well, I got the pics – thanks to Nina and Winnie!
New Topic –
Isn’t it “funny” how things can change so very fast in the world? That still gets me every time. There I was, walking “gayly” down a path – and bam! It never fails to amaze me how this how things holds together – or doesn’t!
Who keeps hitting the snooze button? lol
tell us more,Anne ):
Hi Village,
I attended the Foundations’s July academy here in Temecula and have lots of notes for anyone interested. Way too long to post here so send request to my email and I will gladly send.
The title was the Wealth of the Indies and the theme was if you want to share the Course you first give it to yourself and live it. As Charlie Parker said, “if you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.” It was the most lovely workshop I have ever heard. My best to all.
Jean,”If you want to share the Course you first give it to yourself and live it” that kind of speaks to me at this moment. I would be interested in having those notes if you don’t mind. Hope all is well with you and yours. Email is lmwittig@gmail.com. I do so miss all those who posted here over the years.
But, I shouldn’t talk I have been rather inconsistent, letting life troubles stop such a beautiful process. Who knows maybe the Village can have a Renaissance of sorts here in the near future, if not I am a better person for having met and mutually shared with so many truly beautiful people. I can thank our mayor for that, so I will, Thank You Bernard you have given much to many and thanks again Jean.
God bless us every one
lawrence
Jean, I would love to have it. But there has been VERY long reports here before, so i don’t see why you should not post it here – right, Mr mayor?
Nina, if you send your email I will be happy to send directly to you until we get the mayor’s ok
I’ll wait for the Mayor. It feels so good that we read it together – like them olden times
Yay, Nina ! It feels like you are preferring our Village chat “square” ( can’t really call it a chat room, right ? (:
Email is too cumbersome for me too, I much prefer joining with you all in the party at the Village locations.
Of course, I could be reading too much into our comment above (:
Jean/Ninjanun, so glad you are posting too. I agree with Lawrence, the Village has been so quiet for so long, I guess each of our “lives” has its own rhythms, and so our collective life here at this village must also be some sort of summation of our individual life threads.
Kind Peggy said it best, I do appreciate those that post, and those that visit to read, and the kind Mayor (and Jamie) who made this foundation for us all.
Gratitude.
Is a good feeling
Love,
Anil
In Post #860 it sounds like the Village is dead in the water, I mean stick a fork in it, it’s dead. I think you all of course know that, with the exception of Nina, who can be excused because I said so, and the because the phrasing is so crazy.
The bottom line my Beautiful Family is I am calling the shots, this is my world, I give it life. Is that not so for each and every one of us? That we meet at all is so very special and powerful, and I for One love that. Past posts, present posts and future posts, they are one as we all one. We color them and shape them and sometimes hang them out to dry.
We know what we know, and like clay in a blind mans hands, it takes the shape of his thoughts, and or non-thoughts. The result is some kind of representative thought, emotion, and or connection, It results in a piece of stone or plaster, or is is flesh and bones.
It isn’t what we know it is what we experience. Helen experienced such a profound experience and she shared it with us. I think knowing that “God Is” is enough for me. I trust God knows what a Happy ending is!
Sorry for the Preaching
Papa Lawrence
Preach any time, Father Lawrence. Your admiring flock love it (:
Ps. 18 minutes the distance from Pittsburgh to Singapore. And….
Quite likely we were writing at the same time ! (:
Hugs,
anil
Hi folks,
I take full responsibility for the quietness of the Village. On the other hand, But if you want to visit a lively and active site, then the Village’s sister site in French site is for you, which I encourage you to visit at uncoursenmiraclesenfrance.com. Of course I realize the specific language difficulty involved. But even with that site I have become way behind and have no time for maintenance, updating and refreshing. If any of you have been involved in managing and building this kind of site then perhaps you know the time requirements. I’m not giving up on our Village but I do need to find a way to create space for it. In fact, I have returned to my building work and for the past three months have had to put the French teaching to the side as well. There is certainly still hope, so don’t give up.
I have an article I would like to find the time put up, and I’ll make space to put up Jean’s wonderful notes as well.
Bless you all, and all those you have forgotten to bless in your lives,
Mayor B.
Mayor B –
this is wonderful news. Congratulations !
Now you have two award-winning Villages. We welcome our French brothers and sisters here too, and until I can learn French, my best wishes to all of them.
Love,
Anil
Hi Dear Villagers, I’m still here in my corner of the world trying to live the Course day in and day out or maybe it’s more right to say I try to have a little willingness.
Dear jean/ninjanun, I would be grateful if you could send me your classnotes. my e-mail is : mattsson.hedda(at)gmail.com
Much love and hugs ,
Hedda
dear Lawrence – you wrote:
“In Post #860 it sounds like the Village is dead in the water, I mean stick a fork in it, it’s dead. I think you all of course know that, with the exception of Nina, who can be excused because I said so, and the because the phrasing is so crazy.”
please explain what that means. This brain is very literal. Are you saying that all of you knows that Village is dead except me, and I can be excused ? Why would I need to be excused? because i still share what happens to me now and then?:) I don’t know what you mean, Lawrence, and would really love to do that – please explain 🙂
Nina, no worries luv, it was an attempt at a joke. My ineptness at let’s just say my less than perfect writing skills and you as you as admit yourself being prone to taking things literally. I smiled when I saw this post because I half expected it. A thousand pardons, I would never intentionally hurt you in anyway.
I look up to you dear Nina, you are the color of the whole rainbow and your honor us with your sharing. I will be more careful in the future and you were right in posting #870.
thank you
Dear Village,
I have sent notes to your supplied emails, please check your spam as I have an unusual address. My best and hugs.
Jean did you send a copy to Bernard? I am willing to wait for him to post them here to read.
@ Pam, yes he has them and I will send to you if you like, quite long 🙂
Thank you jean/ninjanun for the notes ! Really kind of you <3
Anil☆❅❤❅☆Woo Hoo☆❅❤❅☆
It’s looking like you have darling Lucas, perhaps at the side of a swimming pool, as your
☆❅❤❅☆☆❅❤❅☆☆❅❤❅☆!!!!!!!!NEW GRAVATAR!!!!!!!☆❅❤❅☆☆❅❤❅☆☆❅❤❅☆☆❅❤❅☆
Hello Lovely Villagers…Yesterday was my first day on vacation from Quest. I picked up my daughter Lasya on Sunday, I have her with me through Aug 11th her birthday, she flies home on the 12th. I had my granddaughter Kailea last weekend. She then flew off with my ex-husbands family to Hawaii where Paul was celebrating his 60th.
Lasya and Kailea consider Paul, Lasya’s former stepdad, and his wife and 10 year old daughter to be second family to them. They live in Santa Cruz and invited Kai to join them for the special Hawaii trip to celebrate Paul’s birthday.
My daughter’s father had surgery recently and the two of them will be able to visit with him before Kailea flies back home next Monday, a week before her mom does. I’m taking Lasya with me to what will be my third Quest retreat vacation in the gold country where a river flows through Rancho Cicada and it will be sunny and hot, but with plenty of shade trees along the river with hammocks. We have a great cook prepare us three meals a day there and we can just relax, read, swim in the river floating along with the dragon flies which both myself and my daughter love.
☆❅❤❅☆Love to everyone☆❅❤❅☆
PS I think you have my email Ninja Jean…if not Nina please forward to me thx
Yikes, Michele ! (: how did that picture sneak through ???? (:
It is iindeed Lucas, and it is from a time that many of you were asking me for a gravitate. I could never figure out how to turn the pic from its sideways orientation. Eventually I gave up. Technology !!!! (:
Maybe I’ll try again some day later.
Your holiday plans sound fun (and hot) (: … Like Singapore these days. Last night was beastly hot as I walked to the mall nearby to buy shobha’s birthday gift. Waiting for her and Lucas to wake up to give it to her. (Hope Lucas wants to go to school today…y’day he didn’t want to go…wanted to play at home instead, and since its play school, does it really matter if he plays at home or at school ? (:
My body is getting really heavy, tight and bothersome these days. It gets really difficult to think that this is a dream when my every sensation from my body screechingly tells me otherwise. Perhaps this is the next phase of the journey. These constant painful reminder signals so I can remember to correct these thoughts more often through the day.
And the lesson for the day is ” I am not a body. I am free.” I used to hate those lessons on prior rounds of the workbook, and a few days ago was happy to note the hatred didn’t seem to be there anymore.
Now I realize that it is still there, just buried much deeper and more subtle in its presence. Horrible none the same ! (:
Perhaps that’s one of the Courses many gifts to me….to let me see my own hatred, and to be comfortable with its presence. I wouldn’t be here, on earth, typing this message if I didn’t hate at some level.
Hmmmm..
Ciao folks.
Anil
Michele,
what is Quest please?
and I don’t have the notes from Ninja – I prefer to read it here with you guys – when bernard is free to take care of posting it –
I just found this piece on the internet. It articulates very nicely the reason that we feel so uncomfortable about really taking the Course seriously.
While filming Ken Wapnick for A Course in Miracles The Movie, filmmaker iKE ALLEN asked him several wonderful questions, including the story that Helen said The Course was only for a few people. Below is the response Ken offered iKE:
One of the things Helen (Schucman) used to say about the Course, is that it’s only for about five or six people. There was a period of time when she actually counted who she thought the five or six people were. I’m not going to give you the names. At some point, I think it was in a weak moment, she expanded it to nine or ten. But the point of that is not to take it as literally true, but as a symbol for the fact that this Course, in its pure form, in what it’s really teaching, is for relatively few, because it’s so frightening. It threatens the very fabric of our existence. It threatens the greatest value of all, which is the value of our personal self. So while I quote Helen’s line rather often, about the five or six people, and sometimes we even say, half jokingly, that I try to dissuade people from the Course, it’s really a way of saying that this is much more serious than you think. This is a much more serious thought system than you think. This has a depth far greater than you believe. And that in a sense, I’m kind of warning them that if you continue with this, you’re going to lose everything, at least everything that you hold dear.
There’s a wonderful line saying that when you cross over to the real world, which is the Course’s symbol for the end of the journey, you will realize “in glad astonishment that for all this, you gave up nothing.” But on this side of the bridge, we’re giving up everything. We’re giving up not only what we cherish and what we love, but we’re giving up our very self. So that’s why the process is really a very gentle one in which we don’t transcend the Ego until the very end, but we transform our self. We transform ourselves from an angry, judgmental, guilty, fearful, anxious person to someone who is now more loving, more gentle, more kind and more peaceful. So there’s a gentle kind of transition, but at the very end, the whole thing dissolves into its own nothingness. So I like to caution people, at least alert people, to take this Course much more seriously than they may otherwise do; and to really have enough humility and enough respect for the Course to see oneself as spending a lifetime growing into it, rather than being tempted to scale it down to our size, but to see our lives as growing into it. Because this is a thought system that literally reaches to Heaven, even though it meets us in this world, in the illusion – but its ultimate goal is to awaken us from the dream and return us home.
Extract from http://www.avaiya.com/
H,mm… I’m wondering if I should write my thoughts on this, Bernard. Have been thinking for a few minutes, on yay or nay…(:
And really, at the end of it all, the irrelevance of all theological-related discussion, because there is in the end only an experience, and that experience by design is very personal.
I guess it all boils down to what you mean by the word “uncomfortable” in the second sentence of your opening paragraph…more specifically, are you speaking of consciously “uncomfortable” or is it unconsciously “uncomfortable” that you are speaking of ? (:
And if all of the above is gobbledygook (: then please to ignore (:
Re: #881 I could hear the gentleness in that explaination of Truth.
The seriousness in the world we created must be released and replaced with a seriousness and loyalty to guarding the right mind. A simple objective but not easy to do.
I couldn’t help but be reminded of that scence from “A few Good Men”.
In contrast to the Course, the ego’s voice does screech…[Jack Nicholson]
I feel my loyalties torn btwn the two camps.
And while observing both I note one mindset can embrace the heart the other must silence it.
A Few Good Men
written by Aaron Sorkin
Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee (Tom Cruise): I think I’m entitled to them.
Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth!
Jessep: You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives…You don’t want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.
We use words like honor, code, loyalty…we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use ’em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I’d rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you’re entitled to!
Kaffee: Did you order the code red?
Jessep: (quietly) I did the job you sent me to do.
Kaffee: Did you order the code red?
Jessep: You’re goddamn right I did!!
Lawrence ~
Is the SteppenWolfbooks@not saying for your privacy but i know the rest still an email address you use? I thought I saw a more recent one for you a you’d posted here.
Love,
Michele
Michele, post 860
Reread the September Lighthouse newsletter this morning.
With my first read thru, I was curious if Ken would addressed his recent cancer diagnosis. Somehow, I knew that he wouldn’t, still I wanted to hear his spin on the situation. And in rereading this article he perfectly addressed the symbol of cancer without ever saying the word. In the style of a University Professor he begins on common ground and then swoops us up and takes us on a ride thru the Course.
He answers my questions-my real questions, not the ones I thought I had. I recognize the word “friendly tumor” from one of the Temecula announcements and I see how he came to call it so from the quote below.
The world, which once had been a traitorous nemesis, has become a gentle companion in our classroom of learning: “No longer is the world our enemy, for we have chosen that we be its friend” (W-pI.194.9:6).
Though the article is to be continued he doesn’t leave us hanging entirely. The last quote below should be enough to send us Home pronto.
Forgiveness vanishes and symbols fade, and nothing that the eyes have ever seen or ears have heard remains to be perceived. A power wholly limitless has come, not to destroy, but to receive its own…. You do not know the peace of power that opposes nothing. Yet no other kind can be at all. Give welcome to the power beyond forgiveness, and beyond the world of symbols and of limitations. He [God] would merely be, and so He merely is (T-27.III.7:1-2,6-9).
I wander through the Village, and I remember that most of my friends are just themselves in whichever corner of the Vllage they find myself. Would that I could be so chilled out, but I seem to have some need of structure, as i retreat mostly from the structure I imposed upon the external world, finding it structureless, I replace that with the structure of the Village, the Garden, the Fireside and the Village Square.
It is a simple and elegant structure that the Mayor has built, and hopefully its elegance will allow it to withstand the storms that shut the Monastery down. (The rooms at the Monastery proliferated beyond most people’s ability to keep track of such a large domain, and eventually the Head zone had to throw up his hands in despair and shut it down. I don’t blame him, I didn’t have to do any work there, and even so, was overwhlemed by the murk-threaded conversations flying around all over.
A great Party place, but makes for a difficult setting for a tranquil monastery.
What does all this have to do with the Village Square, you ask ? Nothing really. Just some pensive muttering to myself as I walk through the Village to find my bearings for another day. I hear there’s a party going on in the Fireside, our customary hangout, with cigars et al.
But I cannot participate, I gave up cigars and smoking on Jan 21, 2007 in the process of wooing my now wife, a foolishly enthusiastic promise such as men in love are apt to make. She never even asked for such a promise, but I gave it up anyway !
Such is the conception of Love and sacrifice. The Course says some beautiful stuff about that, paraphrasing loosely, that no one in the world really has experience Love without Sacrifice.
:: Sacrifice is so essential to your thought system that salvation apart from sacrifice means nothing to you. Your confusion of sacrifice and love is so profound you cannot conceive of love without sacrifice ::
(T-15.X.5:7-8).
On that note, I think I have fulfilled the intention, without even planning to, of the purpose of the Village Square. A place for metaphysical talk, and this little Square, which has been quiet since the beginning of October when Annie was last here, continues to be there, with its bubbling fountains and its huge tree in the centre. Perhaps it’s leaves are shedding as the days get colder in France ? Or perhaps it is an evergreen tree ?
Good night, my friends, Happy Thanskgiving, and good morning and good day as well !
The New Year will bring us back on “Course” and the metaphysical talk shall continue in the Village Square for sure. And without a doubt this next year my confusion about love and sacrifice will reach an all time low. That is a welcomed thought.
Twas good taking a stroll around this grand tree and fountain with you Anil and I love when you share your personal life choices and experiences. I don’t know why but it makes me feel closer to you. The irony of wanting to know details while studying a thought systems that insists those details never happened is a pretty ingenious delay tactic to our goal for Peace. And yet I’m sure that it is in the sharing that we get to our destination faster.
I better end this before I start trip all over my words.
Peace my friends
Words are trippy, are they not, Annie ? (=
So difficult to communicate exactly what one wishes, with all the subtleties in the spaces between the words of our thoughts. And the deeper the Truth one wants to convey, the more slippery the words become.
And the deepest, most Absolute Truth of all.
God Is.
“and then we cease to speak. For there is no part of mind sufficiently separate/distinct to speak of what is One”
I also love this other one, “Words are but symbols of symbols, twice removed from reality”.
A peaceful morning by the Square today, dear Annie. (Although I am tempted to move to the more casual ambience of the FireSide – the Village Square used to terrify me, once upon a Village time, I felt I had nothing metaphysical I wanted to talk about. Just joshing around in the FireSide was enough for me (=
I agree with your observation of feeling closer the more we know the intimate details of each others’ lives. For me, it is an intrinsic part of studying the Course. To reflect on our stories, the arc of the path that brought us here.
In the telling of the story, I learn something about myself and about you. And in the reading of your story, the same. And in the sameness, the equality of all the Children of God.
Dismissing the whole thing as never having happened short-changes the path I think. We don’t believe it never happened. At least I dont. I very much believe that it did happen.
But I am open to the possibility that it didn’t. And in the telling and sharing of our stories, that possibility opens up even further, the mind gets softer, the rigid boundaries we have drawn for ourselves get looser, all on the path to understanding how it is that we see all these bodies, ours and all those around us.
Lawrence said it well in his first long post back. “The Course and Blue are one long explanation of how we are the way we are”
I’ll take your leave now, dear friend, and amble back towards the FireSide. It’s a long walk I’m told (= (not having traversed this journey very often). May take me upto 24 hours to get there (;
Heard you were taking your good ole time to get to the Fireside Lounge…there’s a post Thanksgiving Smorgasbord tailgate style going on thanx to TexAnne. I know you are’t motivated by food so much but I’m telling you there is a world of specialness to be devoured there. I brought a few carb items, my left over bacon wrapped stuffing appetizers that were a hit the other day at our Thanksgiving dinner.
I do love storytelling and heard a true forgiveness story yesterday on NPR. I’ll tell you about it Anil as we make our way to the Fireside. Leaving a Sign by the Big tree for anyone else that wants to join in on the Feast.
*heart*
I am there!
lol – my number gizmo says 2 + __ = 5.
well….. here we go again!
Glad my magic carpet takes me to the most recent post room to find there is some plenty of Bacon wrapped stuffing left over! Yum!!!
Magic carpet ride…how do I get one!
Has anyone watched the show Ancient Aliens on the History Channel?
I find it fascinating as again, my (wrong) mind likes to uncover how this world was set up and what makes it tick. Basically they concluded or should I say put the idea out there for us to consider that we have interacted with Aliens most definitely in our past. Pointing out that many ancient structures and building techniques can’t even be replicated today. The reference about a flying carpet was the closest image our ancestors came up with in describing how their bodies were transported by these ‘gods’. And how could they not be considered ‘gods’ with these kind of toys and magically abilities.
I’ve watched a number of these shows and like I said, I enjoy deconstruction theories. My Father cringes at most of their conclusions and finds it preposterous which of course reinforces my belief in them all the more. (: How far I have strayed from my family core values and what a disappointment I must be to him. And yet in some twisted way I find my entertaining and being open to the possiblilty that these beings we call Aliens are really our future selves just travelling back in time confirms that I have broken thru some invisible limited belief system.
As any story that is so elaborate that it will take multiple prequels and sequels to tell…it seems so obvious now that only the ego could come up with all of these distractions. So in the end I haven’t strayed very far from my Ancestors, they too believed that all “Glory Be to God”. So I am pretty much right back where I started.
I hope I didn’t take us on too far of a carpet ride…that’s what happens around holiday get togethers. Some people can’t stop their yapping. I better stay here in the Lounge maybe catch a quick nap on Freuds couch. I was gonna hop back over and comment on Anils great post there at the Village Square but no need…my two cents wouldn’t add any value to that brillant post.
Happy December (:
Oopsie! I’m at the Village Square not the Fireside Lounge. No wonder I couldn’t find the couch.!! Oh, I’m gonna hear it from the Mayor now…feel free to move my Alien ramblings to the Fireside where they belong.
ANNIE!!! Bad girl!
There, did my job as Mayor. Now can I relax?
Anne – I programmed the math gizmo to accept 2+2=5. Just try it!
Loving all your thoughts. I’m fond of the Village Square and even more so of the Garden where we don’t even need to talk. Just loved that line from Lawrence, “You are all a part of my silence.”
Deep thoughts from some, less deep-end-of-the-pool thoughts from others. It’s all part of the show. Enjoy the ride-that’s-already-over.
We’re all safe at home just typing words we’ve already written, rereading words we’ve already read, blessing each other with kindnesses already given…
A quiet day to you all.
I feel Ken’s newletters are the perfect postings to discuss here at the Village Square.
As always his submissions are such gems. Where to begin?!
I started to highlight items I felt made such strong points worth discussing and I noticed I practically highlighted the entire article. It’s a lengthy article but never a superfluous word.
How funny that I feel like that zealous man he mentioned in the article:
I remember an overly zealous man in the Course’s early years joyously exclaiming to me: “Ken, it’s all red!” He was referring to some of the older versions of the Bible that put in red the “actual” words that Jesus spoke.
Since I can’t say that I have read or listened to even a fraction of Ken’s lectures and writings I am sure he may have addressed this idea of teaching/learning these higher truths before: “The Unwritten Document of a Course in Miracles”. I can’t image there is anything new that he is offerring – but it is I the student who is listening with a new set of ears.
Firstly, I see how he modeled his teaching lectures to be called the Academy.
I shall place all his quotes in italics.
Plato reserved his highest teachings for the lectures at his Academy, which were thought to be more nondualistic in nature
We are travelling past the veil of forgetfulness now. Past the body and all images. This is the realm of the heart. Ken is the dialectician and he is planting seeds.
The dialectician selects a soul of the right type, and in it he plants and sows his words founded on knowledge, words which can defend both themselves and him who planted them, words which instead of remaining barren contain a seed…[that] is vouchsafed immortality, and its posses- sor the fullest measure of blessedness that man can attain unto (Phaedrus, 275c–277a;
This course remains within the ego framework, where it is needed. It is not concerned with what is beyond all error because it is planned only to set the direction towards it. Therefore it uses words, which are symbolic, and cannot express what lies beyond sym- bols (C-in.3:1-3
I love where he has taken us. I love that I am strenghtening this perception.
This content is the experience of love and oneness that is beyond the scope of the Course’s formal teachings, yet is its ultimate goal, not to mention its true source.
This course remains within the ego framework, where it is needed. It is not concerned with what is beyond all error because it is planned only to set the direction towards it. Therefore it uses words, which are symbolic, and cannot express what lies beyond sym- bols (C-in.3:1-3).
There is a quickening in his teachings. A call to get past the symbol of Big Blue and live from the heart of its message.
In the lovely workbook lesson, “Into His Presence would I enter now,” Jesus also speaks of the experience beyond our vision and learning, the memory of our true Self:
Into Christ’s Presence will we enter now, serenely unaware of everything except His shining face and per- fect Love. The vision of His face will stay with you, but there will be an instant which transcends all vision, even this, the holiest. This you will never teach, for you attained it not through learning. Yet the vision speaks of your rememberance3 of what you knew that instant, and will surely know again (W-pI.157.9; italics mine).
3. The additional “e” is not a typo, but Helen’s use of poetic license to add a syllable to preserve the meter of iambic pentameter.
And I shall stop here because-I must. But before I go the kindest line to me was when Ken took the time to explained about the letter “e” not being a typo.
It’s the melody that is important – the music beyond the words…
…the music reigns supreme, and when one listens to it all else is forgotten.
**Sigh**
To Continue with the recent Lighthouse Newsletter and Ken’s steadfast pointing to beyond all symbols he pulls in a quote from the The Little Prince:
One should always think of the wise words of the fox in Saint-Exupery’s wonderful twentieth- century parable, The Little Prince:
Here is my secret. It is very simple. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invis- ible to the eye.
We are speaking here of the mistake of confusing the body with the heart (read: mind), trying to use the ego and its body—“the only thing in all the universe that does not know” (T-20.III.7:6)—to explain what the right mind instinctively recognizes as the truth. In The Everlasting Gospel, the 19th-century poet/visionary William Blake presaged the Course’s distinction between judgment (the ego’s thought system mediated through sensory perception) and vision:
This life’s five windows of the soul Distorts the Heavens from pole to pole, And leads you to believe a lie When you see with, not thro’, the eye….
We give Jesus the final word here, from the text:
Ask not the sparrow how the eagle soars, for those with little wings have not accepted for themselves the power to share with you (T-20.IV.4:7).
The “secrets” of the soaring eagle, known to history’s most creative persons, are the ego-free thoughts of the right mind. While these are nonspecific in nature, being outside the world of time and space, they find their inspi- rational reflections in the creative and artistic forms the world has long admired and learned from. They have pointed beyond themselves to the truths of what has been known as the perennial philosophy, restated in the famous Hindu statement: “Truth is one; the sages know it by many names.” To state this important point one more time, truth can never be known by one’s brain, or through the sensory data brought to it for analysis and understanding. Jesus cautions us against such an analytic approach to his course when he addresses the ego need to understand what can never be understood, what the workbook refers to as “senseless musings” (W-pI.139.8:5). In fact, Jesus sum- marily dismisses all the would-be intellectuals of the world in this trenchant comment:
You are still convinced that your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing (T-18.IV.7:5-6).
Again, it was difficult to stop with my quoting every word of this newsletter as one idea flows and supports the next. It was important or should I say I found it useful that Ken placed in parentheses (mind) meaning [ right mind = heart ].
Tweaking the name and identifying this knowing as my right mind instead of my heart continues to be an on going practice for me in distancing myself from my body identification.
I will rest with this thought today.
Namaste
This morning I decided to read, The Everlasting Gospel By William Blake in its entirety.
It’s a pretty fricken long poem …probably why he used ‘Everlasting’ in the title (:
I quickly I noticed my mind tired of his wordiness (blasphemy I know)
I wished to see Ken’s quote within the context of the poem…it’s somewhere in the middle if you care to google it yourself.
It hooks you in from the start, I’ve included the first paragraph.
The Everlasting Gospel
The vision of Christ that thou dost see
Is my vision’s greatest enemy.
Thine has a great hook nose like thine;
Mine has a snub nose like to mine.
Thine is the Friend of all Mankind;
Mine speaks in parables to the blind.
Thine loves the same world that mine hates;
Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.
Socrates taught what Meletus
Loath’d as a nation’s bitterest curse,
And Caiaphas was in his own mind
A benefactor to mankind.
Both read the Bible day and night,
But thou read’st black where I read white.
Oh, to just click my heels three times while I reply, “There is no place like Home”
and awaken from this dream….
p.s. Each day I hope my math problem below will be 2+2 so I can write 5 as Bernard programmed and that will be my lottery ticket straight to Heaven …Right?
Right [=
ps. love you, Annie
Hi family
“When fear comes home to Love” is free on Amazon for those who has Kindle or tablets –
I am adding some spaces for the link – please close them if you want to go to the book’s site:
http:// http://www.amazon.com/dp/ B00DMHYF7M
hugs to all
Nina