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.
hawaii update … things are still lovely and calm and quiet
had a long morning walk on the beach, a big rainbow filling the sky
even the ocean is calm … almost no ripples at all
last night I got this humorous insight why mom hasn’t died yet … we spend almost all day in the ‘living room’!!!
so we’ve changed the name to the ohana room (family room)
and this morning she’s outside on the lanai with the breezes and palm trees and butterflies and birds and ocean
just resting in and out of consciousness
my brother flew over from maui yesterday to attend with us … he’ll go back to his island tomorrow
we all enjoyed the sunset last night and full moon
(last full moon I was driving home from las vegas with my cliff flying son! … who continues to do well … there will be 2 fund raising benefits to help cover enormous hospital costs)
mom’s doing well too in her peaceful and beautiful way
she keeps forgetting that she is ready to and wanting to and presumably soon will be not a body but free
we talk about it and she gets very happy to be reminded that she may not be there yet but she’s one day closer … whenever that may be
who knows … this could take a while …
or this could be her last hour
she’s barely there … barely able to move at all … then suddenly she’s somehow managed to move
mostly, it’s just quiet … being with the sitting … being with the breath
she says she gets these taps on the shoulder and turns to look but no one is there … then she says she just got another tap calling her to come … this time on her right wrist … she feels the gentle calling
some of this is sometimes very sad and weirdly primal … most of this is divinely guided and feels full of light and grace and is all happening out of time and place …
vast open ocean of time …
anyway … that’s a bit of the update
oh i got goosebumps reading that zafu… this is wonderful and by telling us we are all there with you and remembering who your mother really is, with you too…. {goes off to light candle}
Lawrence – I LOVE to be called Tex.
For Tex is my name!
My name away from names….. like this is my home away from home!
Like in the movie “Awakenings,” where the patient “borrows” the will of
the ball…. I think in Hospice Nursing, the patient “borrows” the will,
or the calmness of the people around her. Or we share a common purpose…
Peace!
Like the part of the Course where it talks about symbols….
“The other half of what it (a picture of our brother)
represents remains unknown, but is not cancelled out…”
(:
At my case today, the Chaplin talked about a very sad woman
he once knew… she had no friends…. her name was I.M. Malone!
Wow!
The magic continues….
Thank you so much for sharing Zafu. The gracefulness is wonderful. Like Winnie said we are there with you. Hugs Zafu,Hugs Zafu’s mom. Peace
Joining the family in the Ohana room.
Exchanging deep breaths in stillness and reverence.
“Guilt is inescapable by those who believe they order their own thoughts, and must therefore obey their dictates. This makes them feel responsible for their errors without recognizing that, by accepting this responsibility, they are reacting irresponsibly. If the sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself, and I assure you that it is, then the responsibility for what is atoned for cannot be yours. The dilemma cannot be resolved except by accepting the solution of undoing.” (T-5.V)
I have trouble getting this. Jesus is saying that we are NOT responsible for the TMI – only for its undoing /the Atonement?
What is TMI?
Whatever TMI stands for (or against)
it is saying that if we could do this ourselves – (“fix” our own salvation/Atonement)
we wouldn’t have gotten “lost” in the first place.
Maybe that is what it is saying.
“And yet mistakes, regardless of their form, can be corrected!”
We have one problem – we thought we were separate from God.
We have one solution – my brother, choose again! And again. And once again.
We can’t really “do” it – Atonement – Who could?
I think we just choose to let it be done for us!
Or as Ken says – return to our “decision making” place –
“it is not necessary that you do more; indeed, it is necessary that you realize that you cannot do more. Do not attempt to give the Holy Spirit what He does not ask, or you will add the ego to Him and confuse the two!”
Gosh – I do love the Course…
Gosh, Nina – I hope this was somehow helpful!
I meant well, at any rate….
Blogs and kisses!
Gosh! it helped me Texy.
“Salvation does not ask that you behold the Spirit,
and perceive the body not.”
(Or the ego not… or the Gordian knot – lol)
“It merely asks that this should be your CHOICE.”
Because it would be really silly to deny the body – or the ego!
That’s the kind of unworthy denial the Course talks about!
Off now to find Winnie – in the Tavern with all the sheep-sheering blokes!
…………………………………………
: ~✰~✰~✰~✰~✰~✰~✰~☽ ~~:
: ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺.:
: .♨…..♡…..☼…..♪♫♬…☮…:
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Building a tavern here …. barstools….
tables…… coffee bar……expresso…
Might need a little work, eh?
Come down the path in summer, and look for the tables….
Dear Pam RE: TMI = tiny mad idea. ie the tiny mad idea that we could separate from our source, as if a wave could some how leave the ocean and remain independent, or a sun beam leave the sun live its own life, both the above could achieve independence but only in an illusion, a dream, when they wake up again the wave is still inseparable from the ocean, the sun beam has no life apart from the sun, similar when we awaken we do not contest our reality.. its a little early for me to ramble any longer and i have to go to work, make my lunch, etc. RE:Annie, Tree of life. I could easily imagine people walking out of that film, but what an ending, marvelous.
be good.
You must be a patient man Richard. I shall have to trust all ends well.
Enjoy your day eveyone and I shall try to be good today (:
Thanks Richard.
Such beautiful sharing from Zafu… Feeling it all over. Yes, goosebumps, definitely. I love the idea of the Ohana Room. Could the Fireside Lounge be like that?
Oh, Tex, great stuff! Fun and wisdom, what a great milkshake. Yum.
I realize this is the second time you’re presenting this question, Nina. Hopefully we’ll manage to get some clarity to it this time. I can see where your question comes from, as you say, since we are asked to take responsibility on one hand, but not on the other. My take on this is that we take responsibility for our reactions and experiences to whatever is going on in our lives – no one is ever doing anything to us that is causing our experience: our experience is entirely within our minds, and stems from the choice we are making whether to enter the ego’s world of separated madness, or return to the quiet center where we will find the warmth and comfort of the innocence and safety present in God’s Kingdom of Oneness.
This is why Ken tells us over and over to be aware anytime we think we are being victimized (in the words of the Course, anytime we are tempted to believe we are being unfairly treated. So we become aware of anytime we are tempted to say that this or that has made me feel sad/stressed/anxious/frustrated, etc, and then remind ourselves that our feelings are the result of a choice in our minds, not of an outside circumstance, person or event. So, yes, we are responsible for our choosing the tiny, mad idea of individuality and making it real (choosing to make it real) in our perception.
What Jesus is talking about here, I believe, is not the fact of choosing the separation, but the result of having chosen the separation. Whenever we choose the ego there is a consequence. He is asking us to be responsible for having made the wrong choice, but not for the consequences of that bad choice. At least, we do not accept responsibility in the way that we normally (egoically) think about that. Typically, taking responsibility for a mistake means we are judging something as having real and bad consequences, such that we become bad and sinful in the process. We take that judgment and all the ‘consequences’ of our bad choice to Jesus/HS and they do the undoing. They demonstrate to us that our bad choices have not made us sinful, guilty Sons of God (which the ego would insist ad nauseum is true).
This of course does not mean that we ignore the consequences in this world of our actions. We need to clean up our messes, but we don’t gou about it assailed by guilt, trauma and sin. We’re free of that, since we have taken that guilt to Jesus whose responsibility it is to undo it, which he does (when we’re willing to return to that innocence). We just clean up our messes, aware of how we goofed, firstly by having chosen the ego’s world of judgment, need and vulnerability, and then by putting that bad decision into action by doing something inconsiderate, harmful, unkind or unpleasant, even if that’s just a harmful thought.
No matter what we have done as a result of our poor decisions, our harmless reality is still intact. No matter what hurt we may have done to another, his/her safety and wholeness are still intact. We must come to Jesus and be willing to remember that extraordinary depth of innocence. It is only when we bring to him our conviction in our guiltiness, all our shameful acts and thoughts, that we can begin to realize that the real error we committed, the thought of separation, has been healed – God was not destroyed by our misthoughts. He remains our loving Father, ready to remind us of our innocence, but He can only do so when we are willing to come to Him.
Our path, through A Course In Miracles, is to work on developing precisely that willingness just a little more each day. As Tex quoted so beautifully, we are asked only that we should wish and choose to behold that Holy Spirit (perfect and holy Oneness) and not the body (our individuality and its grievances and guilts). How much simpler could this be?
So glad we’re still walking this path together… Hugs.
He is asking us to be responsible for having made the wrong choice, but not for the consequences of that bad choice. yep. There it is, B
Nina…that is so on target.
Hugs!
Funny you should mention milkshakes, B.
I just got done watching the part from the movie
“There Will Be Blood”…… “If you have a milkshake –
and I have a milkshake – and I have a straw –
I drink your milkshake!” Sssssssssllllllluuuuuuurrrrp!
Which reminds me… the Cabana on the patio at the Tavern
is just about built (what-ever-that-means!)
Now serving refreshing iced coffee, and Fostah’s Lagah – for Win Win
And anything else you want. Please come by and see me!
I’m thinking we could all use a break from the heat.
oh Tex your writing is a delight ! will meet you in the tavern, but i’m sitting by the fire….. You Northern Hemisphereans can sit by the fan…
Richard i’d like to “be good”, but i am afraid i am way too much of a
vaude-villain……
This is something i need to remind myself of :-
“there may be relationships that we believe we have healed and resolved and something happens a year later and…… all those same feelings just come surging back. Everyone has had that kind of experience.
This does not necessarily mean that we failed when we originally tried to work on it. What it probably means is that we went as far as we could go at that point, and then at some later point we were ready to take another step and heal a deeper layer of guilt………….”
Oh and doesn’t Mr ego like it when we get taken by surprise… well we’re wising up …..and soon that silly ole ego bear’s not gonna have any tricks left in his horrid grab bag, then we’ll see who’s got the last laugh
I was shaking the dust of my boots after a really bad weekend. I didn’t recognise who I was, and how bad I acted in the dream over the long weekend. So, Monday morning I randomly opened big blue looking for comfort, and ended up in chapter 21 The Responsibility for Sight. This stood out:
I am responsible for what I see.
I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide
upon the goal I would achieve.
And everything that seems to happen to me
I ask for, and receive as I have asked.
Deceive yourself no longer that you are helpless in the face of what is done to you. Acknowledge but that you have been mistaken, and all effects of your mistakes will disappear.
It was a one two punch that had its effect, I was dazed and confused at first. And then my head cleared, as these words had there desired effect.
No accident nor chance is possible within the universe as God created it, outside of which is nothing. Suffer, and you decided sin was your goal. Be happy, and you gave the power of decision to Him Who must decide for God for you. This is the little gift you offer to the Holy Spirit, and even this He gives to you to give yourself. For by this gift is given you the power to release your saviour, that he may give salvation unto you.
The Course is a challenge, but there is so much Love present even when we think we are being or acting bad. A thought is as real as the spoken word, dig that!
God Bless us every one
lawrence Zafu you are in my thoughts
Dear all,
i just visited Jamie’s site and read some poems. Here is one:
The prodigal son
I come back to your baton
and quietly sit beside you
and very slowly learn
to my surprise
the Song was written
for me.
About the little coffee klatch – @418
The “heat” I was talking about escaping – if only for a while –
is the heat generated by the body.
If a Spirit stands for Light, then the body might
be analogous to heat- from passion, desire,
and even bodily functions – just “being” alive in one!
Maybe sharing something that is metaphorically refreshing –
for those of us who who walk along our dry and dusty paths –
with feet that bleed a little from the rocky roads we travel!
A place to rest and refresh – listen – did you just hear a bird start to sing?
My cup is dotted with whipping cream – in the form of a smiley face!
Love to all –
Oh Tex you did a splendid job! And you always look so smashing when you wear that tool belt of yours (:
You are such the builder – not just of physical structures and tailgate picnics lunches; but the simple addition of floating smilies on your daily brew reminds me there are no limits to where joy can be found.
Sssslurrppp ~ Delish!!!
a little extra whip cream for Lawrence (:
aloha … lawrence … hope you are back to your true self … really bad weekends where we act bad and go a bit crazy in our dream can be an advanced practice to shake off … sometimes it helps to actually do a hokie pokie kind of shake it all off … loosen up … lighten up … make amends if possible … (a great practice that I learned from one of my boys is, instead of trying to fix anything … just say quietly and with centered intention to restore balance: “Please disregard my previous words/actions … what I meant to say/do is …” and then simply proceed with kindful words & actions … and make nothing more of the whatever it was)
anyway … am wishing everyone would just always get along and enjoy this grand dance in the majestic ballroom we call this place
you said the words of the course already had their desired effect, so I guess you’re over it and back to the peace of God … hope so!!
things are still really sweet over here
on my morning walk along the beach, the moon was still clearly up in the clear blue sky and a gigantic rainbow was arched all the way across the sky in an artistic balance to the moon … quite a sky still life masterpiece (way to go God!! good job!!)
it gets kind of multi-dimensional surrealistic when mom somehow keeps forgetting why I am here or that maybe these are her last days
all she wants to do is laugh and party and have her wine at sunset and she loves all the people coming by to visit and kiss and the parade of visitors and phone calls has been an on going party to her
even though all is calm and peaceful and happy … there’s the poignant recognition that something else is going on too
a life being fully appreciated and released
so it goes
it’s a bit different perhaps than one would anticipate or expect … when they come by to pay their respects, there’s this happy place of light and quiet where everything everything everything in every place time and direction is totally completely ok happy peaceful … no worries and no problems anywhere in any direction as far as anyone can see or feel or imagine
big hugs Lawrence xoxoxoxo
Did someone mention Rocky Road ? – yes please i’ll have the dark choc one
Thanks for the update zafu… She sounds like she’s having a lovely death and good for her. How wonderful that “all she wants to do is laugh and party”.
Zafu – ♡
hugs and everything to everyone!
Everybody, this is amazing!
yesterday, TV showed a YouTube video from Oslo, seconds before the bomb exploded. There was a happy street-singer there, singing “keep smiling, always smile, remember to smile” and people interacted with him and he patted them on the shoulders, “just remember to smile”
and then, the bomb
Could there be any clearer symbol of the TMI?
I am happy to remember seeing this street-singer for years- I think he is English, and visits us every year
thank God – remember to laugh
That is a beautiful and comforting message Nina.
(:
There are root-movements spontaneous growing up everywhere in the country now: people with flowers who originally planned to walk i n procession the the main marketplace came together- and there were far to many people to walk, they just had to stand there – there was said to be more than hundred thousands at the City Council, waving with flowers – and their unguarded faces are wonderful to see – I know this will not last, but there may very well be planted in young peoples minds the memory of true connecting, where everybody sees each other’s interests –
The camera scanned the multitude…all the children/babies with parents who were free of conflict – at least in this moment –
I love that this movement has arisen all over the country – spontaneous singing happens – flowers risen above head as on impulse – and the people coming to the microphones, having an atmosphere of wonder about them –
still – I do not think most people include the bomb-man in their love 🙂
—
I am following the process,and becoming a little dazed – in three days, the main channels are ONLY dealing with this – and noticing the ego-thoughts with as little indignation as I can muster
Love to all
nina
You’re doing a fabulous job, Nina. It’s quite a challenge, practicing what you’re doing.
{{Nina}} To repeat Bernard, you’re doing fabulous at just “looking” with Jesus.
that is wonderful Nina……. the singing and flowers and the swift recovery… and i just love that the happy street singer was recorded only moments before ….
.. love to all xoxox
Anders (the killer) is still calm and thinks he has saved the Norway and Europe. His conscience is clear, and one can see it on his face, being driven to the court yesterday.
I just read in the paper why Hitler the person hated Jews so much: he saw them literally as vermin, pestilence,virus – no wonder he justified killing all. – Anders – the Norwegian version of Hitler – sees Muslims as the same – no wonder he was happy as he was killing.
How wonderful to be reminded that it is our perception of the “Hitlers” we shall forgive – for we are wrong, and they are wrong.
I hate ants under my house and on the terrace. I cheer when I dig up another anthill and throw it in the bushes.
If i could, i would kill – no, not “them all” – but the ones “taking over” MY space.
Hm – it seems I have the same perception as the two” saviors” – just in a much smaller( and publicly accepted) scale.
The part “Forgive them for what they did NOT do in reality” makes it radiantly clear that T H I S is not reality.
{Radiant Nina} – love you.
Ditto! both Radiant and Loving the writing and our “Nina”.
lawrence
God bless us every one
I shall challenge us all on this one, I include myself there. I would like to add the killer, Anders, to that list, as Nina says, Forgive them for what they did NOT do in reality” makes it radiantly clear that THIS is not reality.” We must learn eventually to include this horrific act of insane violence in that list of what did not happen in reality. Easier said than done. For we must imagine how identified we all are with the people involved, the bereaved (imagine if one of those murdered children had been ours) and the deceased.
The only way to be able to conceive of this is to understand that we, too, are part of that ‘it did not happen in reality’. In other words, ‘I’ did not actually happen in reality, and I am not currently happening in any true reality – only in a dreamworld, an unreal dreamworld. We say grace and thank God that He did not allow this dream to become reality, since otherwise there would be true loss. All is still safe and well, but we must learn to see that the reality of all those involved, including ourselves, lies somewhere outside this plane. We are looking back upon something that happened a long, long time ago. All was kept safe and well even while we looked upon devastation unfolding before our eyes. This devastation, and the one that is programmed for next year, have already come and gone. We have safely returned Home, and are now looking back upon the scenes the Son of God chose to perceive upon that road that led him Home.
I am so with you, B. And I am also seeing all the lessons people are having here, to challenge them to choose love instead of fear. How important it is, then, to meet each other where we think we are, and just offer love and hugs – and I do know inside that it IS a dream, but how cruel it would be to hint that to someone who has lost a child.
As I see the ego playing out in the dream of Norway now, I love that all over the country people are putting flowers everywhere – in big oceans on marketplaces – everyone is comforting everyone – people are offering free cinema tickets 🙂 – and the underlying theme maybe “I will be good so God will not be punishing me” but also it would teach us how good it feels to connect and offer comfort.
What is it for, yes?
I love this forgiveness opportunity for Norway and for all the countries who are offering their condolences.
I find my sweetest practice now is just to notice where I believe I am, and love myself at that place – and noticing where I have attachments and asking myself, “and how does that feel?”
simple is good
love to all, and thanks for being my safe earth-place of sharing
I thought i would like to share bits and pieces from my daily journal sometimes :-
It’s very cold this morning. Despite my hands being gloved, they need to frequently dive for warmth under the bedcovers.
I could turn the heater on if I want, but before doing anything, ask me first…..so I decide that I would like to push past a little resistance first thing this morning and stay with the cold…
I made up the cold because it serves very nicely the ego’s purpose of making me think I am a body. I think I hate the cold, but secretly I must love it, must luxuriate in it. I need to feel cold because I need to believe I am a body.
I think forgiving physical things like the cold or pain, is much harder than forgiving “mental”anguish. I find emotional pain invariably dissipates as soon as I forgive, but physical pain just stays the same as if mocking my forgiveness attempts, but in spite of any amount of physical discomfort, I can always go to my tiny sane idea that as real as all this feels, the fact of the matter is, that it is not, and then I cannot help but smile.
-“in spite of any amount of physical discomfort, I can always go to my tiny sane idea that as real as all this feels, the fact of the matter is, that it is not, and then I cannot help but smile.
Oh Winnie, that is beautiful and true – and you have made a new expression: the tiny sane idea.
it is a poem you know:
I can always go to my tiny sane idea
that as real as all this feels
the fact of the matter is,
that it is not,
and then I cannot help but
smile.
Love you
Nina
Nina, about 438, I’ve seen some of those pictures of oceans of flowers on the nightly news, and it looks so beautiful. One giant Garden of Forgiveness, is what it reminds me of, a whole country whispering, There must be another way… And I wouldn’t suggest for even a tiny instant that we even so much as hint to another person that perhaps their sense of loss is not explained in the way they think. We might, however, if we want to take the Course a tiny step further, whisper in our own ears, giving ourselves the tiniest hint, that this is perhaps, maybe the case, that our sense of loss is coming from a deeper place, and that the one who seems responsible for our sense of loss is perhaps not the real cause. But these are certainly only thoughts that we would keep to ourselves. And the flowers are a wonderful, wonderful path toward knowing that Love is true, whatever images come our way in this lifetime.
Richard, I love your new quote!
When you sit in your chair and give the five minutes to remembering that you are Love, feel that Love flow through yourself and through the Sonship. Feel the joy of extending your true Self. Notice that the Love flows freely and unimpeded and leaves no one untouched. Isn’t it a relief not to make decisions about who to touch with your Love, and about who deserves this wonderful gift? When you set aside judgment, there is nothing to stop the flow of Love. Continue today to forgive all judgments as they rise up into your conscious mind, and allow yourself to be aware of the joy this brings to you and to all of your Self.
This quote is from Myron Jones daily blog. I specially love the bit about not judging who deserves it, ands the unimpeded flow that creates.
Bernard, I love that you share the flowerimages with me. And I see the noticing of our real loss as you do, and have an inkling that all Villagers do.
Another great joy: I have thought how much EFT could be of great help to all of those with traumas now – and known that i could not offer it, as I am not a licensed EFT-practitioner. But a friend is, and i mailed and asked if she had had the thought to offer free EFT workshops to those in need. She mailed me 3 minutes ago saying she had had th same idea! and some of her daughter’s friend are touched by this, so that is a great place to start.
My heart fills with tremendous joy at the thought that EFT’s method in itself takes us out of the ego and swoop into the right mind – and in my view, the thoughts that come from the right mind while tapping on the meridian points are the main healers – and the eureka: “wow -this comes form my mind!”
More and more I see how the Norwegian heart has expanded: there are so many more givers to other places of need now, like to the hungering children in Somalia. Another great joy.
Pam, you are quiet these days. Anything on your heart and mind, sister?
Lisi, sweet thoughts of love to you in your silent retreat.
Love to you all who walk the paths in our Village. Rufus and I are sitting in the patio outside Fireside, in the shadows there close to the fountain. Sweet Chai tea (and milk.)
(Ruth-Anne, we are out of pomegranate- wine. Please, new supply!)(ANd news would be GREAT too! (:)
Hi Nina, I come and visit everyday and I ponder what has been said by others and feel myself just looking quietly. It “feels” as though I am holding and open space for healing to enter though I really don’t have any idea what that means or how it works.
I will sit here with you and have a cup of chai, thanks. (dangles a piece of yarn for Rufus to play with)
Pam, Nina –
I would like to have a cup of chai with you both, but the indigestion from eating too heavy a dinner is still with me. I’ll lie back on this little patch of grass, beside the patio, hoping the sounds of your conversation will drift my way, as I stare at the blue sky above.
The Lessons have become heavy again. Sometimes, almost unbearably so. The review is all about “I am not a body. I am free. I am as God created me”.
It bookends the lessons in this review period, every day.
And more than ever, ever before in my life, I feel like I am my body, in direct contrast to what the Lesson says. I feel no resentment on this point. Just the startling and undeniable contrast between what I am reading each morning, trying to practice all day, in the context of my 200-pound “self”, and how alien it all feels.
Perhaps it was always thus. And only my verbal skills had deluded me into talking of myself as Spirit, when at the age of 17(?), I first came across Richard Bach’s “Illusions”. For a good part of my life, I thought I was not a body, never identifying with my illnesses (which were any way few and far between), never having any sympathy, empathy or compassion for those that were bogged down by their bodily concerns, whether in my family or circle of friends.
As recently as last year, I used to get so irritated with my parents, who would run to the doctor at the slightest pain, or discomfort. I couldn’t imagine that these fine people, who had raised me to believe in the power of the mind, were not able to use that to their benefit in their own lives.
Things shifted. My viewpoints changed. I don’t know how and where. Now I can listen to them talk of their various ailments, on the occasions they do happen, with a greater kindness than I ever had before. I can “see” their worry, their concern with mortality, the worlds obessions with bodies – now I feel myself a body too, and my ‘spirit’ identification a delusion of my childhood gone by. When I hold my child in my arms, and walk through an open door, I imagine what would happen if i didn’t walk through the door cleanly, the edge of the door might hurt my baby, and I wince at that imaginary occurence.
There is a sense of loss. But perhaps it is not so. Perhaps it was always my bodily image that I identified with, all through my life – just hidden under the covers, very well, of a “superior” spiritual-talking image I created for myself.
Where is this all going ? (: – I do not know. Just random musings, as I lie back on the green patch of grass, in this little corner of the world, lovingly created by Bernard and my fellow-inhabitants, thoughts that flit through my mind, as I drift towards sleep.
Love,
a
Dear A, thanks for stopping by .
I have also felt the body stronger during the last lessons – but also, the judgments around the body seems to fall away. It’s like there is a tenderness around the relationship to the body – more dream-like, if you will – not taking it so seriously as before, to be sure. It’s a bit like reacting to small scared children waking up in the night – I look under the bed to assure the child/my body that the monster/pain/ailment is not serious, but I don’t preach to the child at all. It feels like growing up. It does.
And it is so very helpful for me that a writes this, and therefore i get to find out what I just did, and realize I have had it like that for a while.
The same with Pam – it was helpful and meaningful that you explained about holding an open space for healing to come through. Of course – but I was not aware of it before you explained. After you did, I took a moment and allowed myself to become aware of that Space, and allowed the healing too.
Gotta let us know, you know 🙂
{{{Pam}}} and {{{A}}}
I want to share with you a few of my personal ponders on Chapter 4 of the Text.
In chapter 3 Jesus says that egocentricity and fear go hand in hand and in chapter 4 he says that to be ego-centric is to be dis-spirited. I love this new interpretation of egocentricity.
In the first couple of chapters in the book he quotes biblical passages and then gives them a new slant and says “ this is what I mean by …….”
In chapter 4 he quotes “Be still and know that I am God”. I didnt pick up til now but a couple of pages later he casually says “ When you are afraid, be still and know that God is real, and you are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased.” He is re-interpreting the quote, without spelling out that that is what he is doing and adding another to boot,and tying them together in such a way that we cannot help but feel loved.
I am loving this chapter.
“the ego tries to exploit all situations into forms of praise for itself in order to overcome its doubts. I like all reminders of the enormity of my belief in the ego.
“Teachers must be patient and repeat their lessons until they are learned” that’s what our Ken does … bless him..
I love this bit :- Everyone makes an ego or a self for himself, which is subject to enormous variation because of its instability. He also makes an ego for everyone else he perceives, which is equally variable. Their interaction is a process that alters both, because they were not made by or with the Unalterable.”
Very helpful sentences and they remind me of Ken’s cd about Shakespeare’s sonnet – > “Love is not love if is alters when it alteration finds”
I have to keep referring to the Errata so that I can keep up with the corrections for the first edition. I just cant give up my beloved first edition with all its stickers and lovely thick pages and memories of aha ! moments….
“Belief that there is another way of perceiving is the loftiest idea of which the ego thinking is capable” ….So guys we are thinking as loftily as possible – that’s nice encouragement for us hey?
And now a definition of “self-esteem” which is not in the first edition :- ““Self-esteem” in ego terms means nothing more than that the ego has deluded itself into accepting its reality, and is therefore temporarily less predatory” – love it.
This is a biggie “ALL ATTITUDES ARE EGO-BASED”
and I love this one…. “Appetites are “getting” mechanisms, representing the ego’s need to confirm itself. This is as true of body appetites as it is of the so-called “higher ego needs”. Body appetites are not physical in origin”….. I am so into eating meals and sucking on lolly-pops and having as much chocolate as I think I can handle. I can feel how desperately I need to do this. I dont want to stop and I dont want to look at it…. wait, i think i am nearly ready ! {winks}
This play on words gives me a chuckle… “Salvation does not apply to spirit, which is not in danger and does not need to be salvaged.”
I love the prayer in the next section. “The kingdom is perfectly united and perfectly protected, and the ego will not prevail against it. Amen.” I find this such a helpful little reminder whenever i am tempted to think someone else is a body.
I love the bit where he tells us that no love in this world is without ambivalence. It is so reassuring to be reminded of the fickle creatures that we are…
{ gets up to boil the billy, and have a stretch….I have already had a pot of tea but need another …..puts on Vivaldi and dances as much as one can in less than a square metre….oh gawd I need some new ugg boots…
I am going to Dalby tomorrow. I am so looking forward to going into a town. I have been in the bush for 11 days straight now. My supplies are just about out, but even so, I am excited about the prospect of just going into town …{beams}
oooh ooooh ooh… there’s two whole sentences I am just now reading for the first time, since they were left out entirely in the first edition and they are so lovely “I will never forsake you any more than God will, but I must wait as long as you choose to forsake yourself. Because I wait in love and not in impatience, you will surely ask me truly”… Boy I feel niggy-wig reading that, and the last word “truly” is another play on words since this passage immediately follows a sentence where the last word is “true”
At the end of that section I have pasted the perfect smiley… too bad no one can see it….{pouts}
Okay now comes a sentence that I cannot fathom at all.._>
“Your ego is trying to convince you that it is real and I am not, because if I am real, I am no more real than you are”
I cannot understand that at all { looks cross-eyed, mouth all hanging out}
BUT I love the very next sentence – “That knowledge, and I assure you that it is knowledge, means that Christ has come into your mind and healed it.”
No wonder I can’t understand the preceding sentence. He’s telling me of course I can’t understand it because my mind is not healed{ sighs happily at being understood}
In the next section I love this bit and have to capitalize it as well{ for my own benefit, like the last one}
“YOU…..MUST REALIZE HOW MUCH OF YOUR THINKING IS EGO-DIRECTED”
[ goes off to make porridge for brekky – yummy}
I love all of your post, Winnie. It’s too hot and I am too sleep-deprived to answer you in an understandable way, though – just happy to read it all, slowly, because you are so very alively present in it, with your parentheses and your wonderful language, which is as music for me.
There is a website where people until now has lighted 945545 candles. They are graphically placed in the sea between mainland and Utøia. It is such a beautiful image of unity, and choosing love.
Another wonderful speech by Jens prime minister today – talking about the election period coming up soon – reminding himself and all politicians to tell each other ” I am wrong” when necessary.
Oh my. This could reshape the whole ugly fighting and dirt-slinging in our politics.
I think Jens may be a closet- student of Acim
Hi All……I’m now up in the Adirondacks at our second home on Schroon Lake! It is beautiful here. Sometimes, though, I feel there is so much ‘busyness’ to my life as a Mom/wife……all the chores and when I come up here I continue those chores (cooking, laundry, sweeping, trimming trees….etc!) But it is always great to have a change of pace, and I DO slow down a lot!
Here is a poem by Longfellow that came up in a discussion with friends and I thought you might all enjoy reading it. Written long ago, but still with the same ‘ideas’ as ACIM! That is why this is a universal theology!
Love,
Jean W.
Psalm of Life by Longfellow
Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, – act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
After the killing at Utøya, a lot of children are asking their parents why he did that. Our child-ombudsman advised the parents to tell them that the killer had “error-thoughts.” He said that every child would know what that means.
And poof, there goes the need for a zillion unnecessary psychological explanations.
Oh yes. Ego thoughts. Error-thoughts. I relate better to really simple words.
Simplicity. Yes, I prefer that also.