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.
I am posting this great contribution by Alan Dolit:
No mountain I climb means anything
A Peak (Peek) Experience
by alan dolit
I had a dream in which I am involved in a mountain climbing expedition. There is a skilled mountaineer and a group of climbers bound together by ropes. Everyone is at a different level. The leader who has climbed the mountain many times is showing us novices how to best climb. He knows all the proper footholds which will allow us to get to the top. He has learned by trial and error and insight. He is so skilled and has done it so often, he could literally climb the mountain blind folded. He really“knows the ropes”. It seems his main purpose is to help everyone get to the top. He knows what is on top. As we climb, we follow in his footsteps and we then can instruct those who follow us.
From what he tells us, the view from the top is magnificent and unlike anything we have ever experienced before and that his function is to see that we all make it to the top (which he calls the WAKE UP level). He says that our fundamental function is to put the “fun” back into function and fundamental, while we are climbing to the top and that we would find it is easier and more fun to help our fellow climbers because we cannot stay at the top until everyone reaches it. He says: “some of the climbers get frightened or bored and unhitch and return to the bottom. Others really enjoy the climb and are reluctant to reach the top as that will end the journey, so they repel back down to start over. They take great delight in doing this and find new footholds and argue over which is the correct way to do it.”
Other climbers, are under direction of the mountaineer to go back down and encourage the ones who gave up, or who haven’t tried or who don’t even know of the mountain, to start the climb. The ones who get to the top however realize that the mountaineer is correct about the view. It is so magnificent that nothing we have ever previously experienced could even touch it. It is a total shift in perception. A total paradigm shift from perception to vision. He tells us there is no need to repeat the journey; that there are no errors to correct, no sins to atone for; that it doesn’t make any difference if we don’t complete every step correctly; that we are here to be a way shower and not here to make our brother wrong by correcting him. And everyone and everything along the journey who we thought was holding us back, or interfering with our journey is really a master teacher teaching us the quickest way to get to the top; and best of all, that in truth, we have been on top all the time and the journey is without time or distance and has only occurred in our mind. Our one mind. He then points out a sign I haven’t
noticed. It says: “No mountain I climb means anything”. At this point everyone remembers to laugh and we are HOME.
we each and all and everyone have been given a new year
a new beginning
this new day
a new moment to begin again
a guidance to choose again
being reminded that we see only the past
let us choose again and place our future with the love of God
every time I get another set back with my mom and she gets super frail, I do all I can to love WAY MORE … and be way more assuring and encouraging and hopeful for her return to health and happiness
life is soooo precious
kindness and gentleness and tenderness are sooooo powerful
this thing about the white stone that was in the daily word today is very helpful to me:
“Abiding in the presence of God, I am clearly guided.
A freed prisoner in ancient Rome received a white stone as proof of his right to a new beginning. The white stone symbolized a clean slate. Every new moment is an opportunity for me to begin again with a clean slate. Turning within for guidance, I initiate change in my life right now and become the person I want to be.
In my sacred time of prayer, I put aside any hesitation or uncertainty. Abiding in the presence of God, I ask for clear and unmistakable guidance. I listen in the Silence and trust the answers I receive.
I am grateful for the beginning of each new year and the opportunity for a clean slate upon which to design my life.
I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.—Revelation 2:17”
tex, I simply love your songs and playfulness … you’re the best
may all manner of things be well
may we be happy and safe
may we be loving and know we are loved
I love you
♡ Beautiful Peggy ♡
and you are Beautiful too
This is my first attempt to write since my computer returned from an authorized Apple Repair Center.The invoice noted that the repair was done in Memphis, TN …I couldn’t help but think how close it must have been to Anne in TN ♡
Talk about clean slate…my hard drive had to be replaced and so I said goodbye to all my unbacked up info. One must always live in a state of preparedness and I was reminded that I never have and maybe its time to pick up the pace in my life. Seems like Ken’s advice to stop with the baby business works for the physical as well as the metaphysical world.
I know I have lost things that I valued and so the reminder to choose again what is valuable. Which interestingly enough did take the sting out a little bit.
Lesson 5 came in handy the other night-“I am never upset for the reason I think”, as I was gearing up to challenge Mark, insisting on my being correct. Luckily for the both of us it was so late at night and I was tired. I plopped my head on his chest in complete surrender as I stated the lesson out loud-he couldn’t tell you what lesson that was but he recognizes a Course Line when he hears it. He just smiled as he patted my head (he’s so much quicker in forgiving) and in my exasperation I whimper, “I’m never going to get to Heaven”. Which intellectually I know is not true but I caught that glimpse of relishing in my righteousness.
I’ve been keeping up with the Lessons. Yesterdays; “I see only the past” was a reminder to take down my Christmas decor. But when I would glance over at my loyal doggie Max, a tug on the heart strings. The reminder that we “literally see nothing, because we are seeing the past”, I must confess hit home (but only for a second) Nevertheless, I allowed the possibility.
Today’s Lesson-My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts
Is ready to blow us out of the water. In The Journey Through the Workbook,
(2:1)The one wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is not here
Ken states; “that if you pay careful attention to it, should have you jumping out the window.”
Luckily, the window is an illusion …and so I shall watch today my minds preoccupation with past thoughts…
I will finish my reading lesson 8 later…that line should keep me busy for a bit.
However it did remind me about Bev’s note somewhere back there about her UPSET back when. I had meant to acknowledge that. How are you doing with that today?
p.s. My sweet heart gravatar is lost for now. Until I have the energy to recreate it …the assigned gravatar will have to do.
oopsie…meant to only bold UPSET
forgiveness my ACIM Family…
trying to compete with Anil’s three posts in a row (:
Just a quick question – does this mean no more California? Cuz I love me some Cali…if I were 20 years younger I would rent a room on Craigslist and move out there… my god – this possibilities…..but i digress…..
Tex:What does no more California mean?
That everything already happened? Meaning its all in the past?
Or that your only thoughts…moving to California have already past?
Or is it in reference to The Foundation not holding a memorial service?
We of Course have our little place on the Web to gather – and we will try to Honor
Ken’s wishes to keep on keeping on with the task at hand and gathering all our thoughts
to the One place we belong.
I say we all move in with Peggy and go swimming with the turtles on a daily basis 🙂
aloha
yes, everyone is welcome to come to hawaii
the north shore is the most beautiful place
mom and I had a funny/healing experience in the wahiawa emergency room last night
we were there for about 5 hours … at the end of all the tests and exams and every kind of question and exploration, they simply said she was fine and we got her dressed and came home
the funny part is … the first attendant was named Hope, then a man named Ken, then a woman named Barbie, then another man named Angel … then another woman named Joy …
there were many others, … we certainly enjoyed the cast of characters … the name thing was a sure sign not to take this all too seriously and to lighten up …
am very thankful we will begin again to get our life working in a happy safe healthy way
mom’s up now … gotta go
aloha
See? I miss Temecula and my mind is pre-occupied with past thoughts!
So if my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts, making me see only the past, I can begin to see what kinds of things I’m making up. And no wonder I am upset.
I liked the JTW extrapolation that I spin all this past into this dance challenge, all to cover up looking at my separation from Home, and actually — I made that up, too.
I think Temecula will make some changes and still be a fun place to take a class, and visit Ninja Jean. It won’t be exactly the same, but we were there when Ken was and as the saying goes, we’ll always have Temecula. After all, we are always preoccupied with the past.
I’m not avoiding posting, not by any means. I’ve just had too little time to get to the Village. We’ve posted our meetings and talks schedule here in France for 2014 and there has been a lot to do. I’ll get back to work tomorrow and share some more thoughts on the Workbook. Love that workbook! Work away, everyone. Tis the season to get to work! In the meantime, if you’re frustrated or disappointed (which I doubt), then just remember that you’re never frustrated or disapointed for the reason you think! And a gentle swipe with the tickle-feather all round… (who’d like to explain what the tickle-feather is, Annie?)
an oddly assorted procession indeed
Working on My thoughts do not mean anything doesn’t surprise me. What knocks my socks off is the concept that all these rambling figurings, worries, concerns, plans, possibilities, plan B’s, are busily COVERING UP my real thoughts. I want to know what my real thoughts are, not these elevator-music ones I am bombarded/ing with! Or that I’m not thinking at all. What a predicament. Okay, I’ll just try to stop and look at me thinking I’m thinking.
Good morning all Village Students, I really appreciate your comments on the lessons ! Now I have one very practical question: Today I started review No: IV, lesson 141 but lessons 141-150 are missing from my JTW ?? I look and I look again but they are not there. Does somebody have the same kind of set of books? It’s in lesson book 121-150. This is definitely not a big deal but I noticed how dependent I have become on Ken’s words in the Journey Through the Workbook. Interesting ! 🙂
Well I’ll be…my set is missing those too!!!
Oh Ken! Is that part of the Lesson?
I bet the Foundation has packets ready to mail to anyone who calls/writes stating their set
is missing those pages.
Oh little feather…I see you!
Thanks Annie ! I already started to think that I have something wrong with my eyes 🙂
I might write to the Foundation to ask if it is possible to get a corrected copy. Now I’m sort of very curious about those missing pages 😀
Hi, Hedda, I think this becomes a pattern for the reviews. You can either take a rest ot go back and read his commentaries for the reviewed 2 lessons each day.
During my second run thru the JTW a few years back, I carried the current volume with me so I’d be able to read whenever I could, like my lunch hour or breaks. And I lost vol 2. My thoughts of lament do not mean anything. Maybe I should give the foundation bookstore a call. Maybe it’s been sitting on a shelf beneath the register since I accidentally left it there?! I coulda. Or a motel. Maybe it is a way to listen up carefully to Bernard’s remarks as we go thru those lessons.
Last night, when I read Ken’s comments on Lesson 10 he answered my question about wondering what my REAL thougts are:
“Our ‘real thoughts’ would be anything in our right minds, anything from the Holy Spirit. In this sense, an ‘unreal’ thought would be, for example, that someone is attacking me. The ‘real’ thought would be that this is a call for love that is shared by me. ‘”
On today’s lesson 11, My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world, my thoughts are telling me — ho, hum, this is a dull one. I notice the lessons says, “Be glad to practice the idea in its initial for , for in this idea is your release made sure. The key to forgiveness lies in it.”
Hah, hah, no wonder my ego is whispering — ahh, nevermind, look the other way.
Anil, did you say you had that Key?
The same are missing in my files
OK Nina and Katrina, maybe they are left out on purpose because we can go back to the long comments ?? Actually Ken’s comments on the reviews are really short , I had forgot about that.
Hugs !
I wonder if it is true that my loving thoughts would show me a loving world? Probably not. Never mind -lol
Ah Ha….do you hear the sound of the cavalry galloping with an Answer from the Foundation bookstore I called several years ago when I thought something was amiss with no KW commentary….
Katrina is right… they are left out on purpose for that set of reviews.
Bernard your post 934 got my complete attention and is a lesson in itself. Thank you!
Thanks Michele for galloping here with that information ! 🙂 I also copy your comment 971 !!
Lesson 12
I think I see a fearful world, a dangerous world, a hostile world,
a sad world, a wicked world, a crazy world,
indeed…
I took a new job working nights and on my nights off, I try to stay awake…. to keep on track with my schedule. I was watching some Ken vids on YouTube, and of course, some “new age” and “conspiracy theory” vids snuck in to the mix —
So it gave me ample opportunity to watch the oddly assorted parade go by! By Golly – I love to scare myself – to death!
Here it is, day 13, and I am still on Lesson 12. Yesterday was hectic and while I read the lesson, I could not get thru Ken’s comments. Today I will but I do need to run 1 errand first.
I can’t slide thru this one because it just grabs me so. As we have looked at meaningless thoughts, i have been judging them. I’ve been thinking that meaningless means bad. I hadn’t considered that it meant blank, a bunch of blank mental structures. When I turned the page there was one of those glowing joyous beloved phrases that I had even pulled out and emblazened onto the empty space on the page, introduced by — Why, then, should a meaningless world upset you?
If you could accept the world as meaningless and let the truth be written upon it for you,
It would make you indescribably happy.
That’s my goal with the whole course, to reach the indescribably happy place in my outlook and mind, a warm nook in my Father’s house, a place with a view. I may have to pause and roll around in my covers for a bit.
Thank God these things happen on this journey!
On a day like the one I’m beginning to embark on, Katrina, your comments and thoughts show me the glimmer of hope that I might one day also be in this indescribably happy state..
“If I could accept the world as meaningless and let the truth be written upon it for me, It would make me indescribably happy.”
Yes, yes….
Ok, i was able to relish that one and then tonite move on to
Lesson 13. A meaningless world engenders fear. Riiight. That was my first reaction to meaningless. But the kicker in this one, for me, is the — because I think I am in competition with God. I am glad I am doing this lesson on just a bitty part of the day. That terrifies me. I want to sink into some invisi le oblivion rather than compete with God. Let’s make a gigantic universe so I can be camouflaged (behind you) and be safe from Him. I need to go back to being indescribably happy. I don’t want to be right or in competition of any sort.
And where I am at now is, in this dialogue we are having (or not), is that I am more than happy for God to strike me down.
I am more than happy to compete with him, although I am relatively sure I am not competing with him, rather than some illusion that claims to be him, although the technical term for God would be It. and not Him or Her.
So go ahead, It, make my day, am more than happy for bolts of lightning to strike me down right now. Make my day ! (:
The whole thing is a joke anyway ! (:
You are tight, Anil, i was forgetting to laugh at the absurdity that i was in trouble with my father!
I meant to say you are Right, Anil. Maybe you are tight too? But I dob’t know.
I am on the brink of 3 in a row. But this is a correction so it may not count.
You are all light
there is no darkness in you
I read this today
New article on the home page, Timeless Life. It has been a bit hectic over here, still trying to catch up and juggle many balls at once. I’m afraid I’m a bit behind on commenting on the lessons, but I see that some of you are still following along. I do hope to make it back. Still a few urgent things to do. Upwards of 12 hours a day on the computer at the moment, programming, planning, researching, writing…
Dear Anne, you’re loving thoughts definitely WILL show you a loving world, a very kind, beautiful world. Although they will not be entirely your loving thoughts as such, but the ones you feel are there in your mind when you turn to a certain inner Friend.
Of course, the love is not in what goes on here, but behind it all. If we can just manage to glance behind the appearances, behind all those scowling, demanding, critical faces, we’ll see something else quite surprising. We’ll first see the fear, frightened, terrified people. And then the hope, desperate people hoping they’re wrong. Hoping that somewhere out there there’s a God that will love them once more. That’s the child of God who longs to return Home. And then the remarkable realization, he doesn’t need to hope anymore. The Love is there, and he is Home. Every single person we cross on our path today is this child. Everyone is desperately hoping he is wrong, about his departure from Home, about the reality of this world. He hopes this world is not true, because it is a place of pain and loneliness, and the blessing is that it is not.
(=
Katrina (=
You are right, I certainly am tight, (and that’s not the kind of tight that comes from one drink too many)(=
The tightness of my lower back pain is incredible these last few days. And generally speaking all my muscles have been taut, tense for weeks now. Anyway, that aside (=…..
Would be great to have you join the three in a row club. Annie and I are the only members right now, and its getting lonely. We are both waiting for more members to join us (= All prior rules are being dispensed with in order to increase membership, and so corrections also count (=
Oops, this is the Village Square, I forgot that Lessons are ongoing here. But I suppose there’s always the occasional coffee and bio break in any seminar. Right ? (=
whenever someone asks me about acim – this lesson (14) God did not create a meaningless world — so it can not be real… that thought always enters into the mix. Most people (me) get that and it is reassuring… somehow…oh shoot who am I fooling ….I MUST be doing the lessons right because I am a nervous wreck… thinking my world is about to be undone….
lol…just lol…
I am plodding along with the lessons until someone decides to add some structure or make us all wear little suits or hats or something…. (lol)
Did you notice there is an Angel on Ken’s shoulder in that “I live in you” picture?
Gosh, I hadn’t seen the angel till you mentioned, and I didn’t know that was the I live in you picture, either. It is such a common everyday picture of Ken, just the smile he walked around the room with. It always felt like there was an angel with him. I was – everytime – blessed and holy as he stopped and smiled and hugged me. Whata guy.
I’ve been going around all day imaging that i don’t exist. This is a dream that was over long ago and i am just watching the replay. Looking at the dream that I use to exist, hiding out from the secret dream, asking for help to look at that, and disappear like Ken.
Yes, Tex, I believe this is the structure till Annie and Nina and Bernard have a minute to jump in. I’m trying to keep the pace. Most days I’m ready only at night. But who knows, sometimes days works too.
“We can feel our pain and ask the opening question, ‘What is this pain and sense of loss, what is it really? Where is it coming from?’ We ask it with kindness, in a sincere wish to help ourselves move past it and heal it. And if we do so, we can then recognize that the ‘us’ that is asking the question cannot be the same ‘us’ that is feeling the pain. At that point, we have moved back towards Kenneth. ”
Bernard and all, I am currently following a process by a Course teacher called Lisa Natoli, “Teachers of God-foundation” – “40 days.” Very strong and effective , bringing blocks up i n the day as almost nothing else has done. Lisa writes today, at 5.day, this true story about Myrtle Fillmore – co-founder of the Unity movement.
She was sick with tuberculous and malaria her entire life. When she was in her late 40s, she was given the idea that sickness is an illusion, just an outward condition of a state of mind and that you can heal anything by standing firmly in the truth, and not wavering. She began affirming “I AM A CHILD OF GOD, THEREFORE I CANNOT INHERIT SICKNESS.”
Every day she lived in gratitude and appreciation as Spirit, not paying any attention whatsoever to her sickness, which she knew wasn’t real.
She denied all and every appearance, even though the doctors told her she had only a few months to live. The appearances did not change for TWO WHOLE YEARS! For two years, it looked like it wasn’t working. She still appeared to have malaria and tuberculous, but it didn’t matter to her!! She KNEW she was healed. She KNEW she was Spirit.
And then Lisa asks us which true story we want to affirm and stick with. i think mine is”I am God-directed in all i do,think and feel”
How about you?
She kept living and affirming I AM A CHILD OF GOD THEREFORE I CANNOT INHERIT SICKNESS.” She kept on being alive and vibrant and grateful. She prayed daily making conscious contact with God remembering the truth of her Christ Identity.
And two years later, the appearances of sickness were gone. It had been healed two years previously on the mind level but for her it took two years to show changes on the physical level – and she went on to live 45 more years, being a huge inspiration in this world to millions of people.
Lesson 15 – My thoughts are images I have made.
As we go along, you may have many “light episodes.”
Little edges of Light around familiar things I see….
…hmmm…Light Episodes – always reminds me of Jamie….
And his experience in the hammock – one side was dark –
When he looked another way it was light and bright!
I am glad to know these things in advance or I would be apt to think something was going on…that ought not be going on!
Nina – I don’t “like” affirmations – rather – I don’t WANT to like them…yet, when I use them -even to gently remind myself of something good, everything goes well for me! Maybe it’s like taking a vitamin… I tell myself I *should* not need them if I only eat right… but I know I need them… and do much better when i get it right – if only in *form*… They work!
I personally have gone back to that kinder, gentler self-talk and affirmations.. and going over the lessons throughout the day…Which – I have noticed – they are starting to show up in loving Iambic Pentameter here now!
I have created every story I hear.
Sure wish Ken had heard about affirmations.
A word about Lesson 15 – yesterday I was noticing something about Light around these images I make. Among those images is the bright sun and the sky. They are reflected off each bare limb of winter trees and off each leaf of the nondisiduous trees, and off of every car and building, even off the skin of each person. It is as though we collectively have made a “scientific” excuse of light reflectivity to explain away the fact that We all see light outlines around every image. This way, if we don’t see explicit auras we can deny that we see Light. Clever scientific ego.
I don’t know who said this – I think my former Course group leader. The word “clever” has a different meaning (especially when it comes to the ego)… it could mean something skillful… or something that is designed to split – like a cleaver! Ah – ’twas ever thus.
Lesson 16. I have no neutral thoughts. You got that right! I guess if my thoughts WERE neutral, HS could use them to help me….so yeah – I don’t really have anything to offer up there!
And a fave gem – You can indeed multiply nothing, but you will not extend it by doing so.
“Proof” that the Course is the most profound document I have ever read. [I think I’ll make a golden calf out of it]
I did not have one neutral thought all day on the 16th. Every thought was purposively tainted or exalted. But i watched them.
About todays lesson – I am “winging it” not looking at Ken’s or the other Ken’s books… BUT it seems like J is starting to introduce a hint of the TRUE cause and effect here… I see THIS because THIS is in my mind…. I see THAT because THAT is in my mind….
I do not see a neutral body, because my thoughts about bodies are not neutral. oh, myyyyy
*beep*beep*beep*ba-beep*ba-beepy – beep*
We interrupt this lesson to bring you this breaking news:
Oh look – a parade! Right through the Village Square!
What an odd assortment of things seem to be passing by!
We now return to regularly scheduled lessons…..lol
I’ve been really enjoying all these comments, so funny, Tex, so perceptive, Katrina, so comforting, Nina.
One little thing on the Ken’s sickness… I don’t think he saw his cancer as a problem. It was just a bodily condition, and he wasn’t particularly attached to his body and had faith in the whole process. I think what happened is really what was ‘supposed’ to happen. There’s a real reason and method behind it that is difficult for us to see. I think if were supposed to rid himself of the cancer, it would have happened. Either way, I believe he was healed, because his mind was perfectly healed. The body’s condition does not always reflect the mind’s condition. There was no more sickness in his mind, and he was very much at peace. The body’s condition was just a small detail. Cancer to him was like a broken nail for us – no big deal.
What I really liked in today’s lesson was the idea that ‘the thought comes first’. It’s rare that I actually catch the ‘thought that comes first’, the thought that precedes. It’s more common for us to just see the thoughts that are a reaction to whatever is going on around us, and then we ‘feel’ things because of our thoughts. What we forget is that there was a thought in our minds BEFORE we looked out and then had thoughts, feeling and judgments about what was going on around us. It’s a really sneaky part of our minds that does, this, very difficult to see. It’s the decision maker we’re not seeing, operating in the background, always flipping the switch one way or the other, wrong mind-right mind, separation-oneness, exile-Love, guilt-peacefulness. Just two thoughts, that’s all we get to choose from. And you think we manage to make the right choice???!
These exercises are so amazing because they get us to become aware of all this secret activities of our minds in such a gentle, progressive way. Jesus doesn’t hit us over the head with our hateful thoughts here. He just wants us to know we have thoughts!! We’ll get to the hate later, he says. “You think you are the home of evil, darkness and sin” comes much later. First we need to see we have thoughts about our ‘home’. So great. Baby steps, but not baby business.
baby steps – not baby business.
love that!
best
line
ever
Hear, Hear! On the baby steps-not baby business!!!
And Tex the; *beep*beep*beep*ba-beep*ba-beepy – beep*
OMG!!
I almost peed my pants!
but now I’m talking like a baby
(legs crossed still laughing)
It’s just that I have a secret/well not so secret now, hate of parades.
That one request to look at the parade of thoughts and not judge was/is a big assignment for me. So the Beepity-Beep, helped bring to focus my resistance in a playful and loving way. I could read the last paragraph of Lesson 17 from The Journey Through the Workbook, where Jesus reminds us not to feel guilty, “Learning to accept this resistance is an essential step toward letting it go.”
Grateful for all the ways Spirit helps bring the Lesson Home (:
Hi all!
Baby steps – not baby business – I love that too! And the simplicity of just observing how often “I” choose the ego thought system – truly does open the door to making another choice. Love Bernards writing “Timeless Love” and “Timeless Life” – so comforting and wonderful reminder to use Ken’s tickle feather. I had lost it in the last few weeks!
This site – and all of you – are very comforting to me!
“Special” shout to Annie and Katrina – lol!!!!
*beep*beep*beep*
your friendly reporter here –
Annie- it reminds me (now) of our dear Winnie in Temecula…
When she did that video – she was all dressed up as a news reporter….
With her hairbrush (microphone) and her glasses and nose… lol
Acting all serious and straight-forward…. then cutting up when the camera was “off”….
Some of those blown-up children’s toys (The Truth Behind Illusions)
ARE like the Macy’s Day Parade…(No doubt Helen had that seen a million times)
The figures in the Dream Parade are so big – bigger than life!
And loom large over us! And are tethered to the ground with many many handlers…
We all know they are fake…. yet we ooh and aah all over them..
Or like the Rose Bowl Parade – they are made all from flowers…
or even lilies ! Go go – the band is here! And you know I am in the Banned!
Lesson 18
I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.
Why?
hmmm- it is interesting that as a nurse I recently went from Hospice back to Pediatrics.
No death, no Group Home communal living (in peace and harmony, I am sure) just baby business! Hmmmm. Wah!
I sure do spend a lot of time in “time out”…lol