Acim Village

It is my great pleasure to open the door to our virtual village to you, a place where students of A Course In Miracles from all over the world come together to share their study of this great philosophy and the work of Kenneth Wapnick.

Basically, the purpose of the Village is to support students of the Course in their study of this challenging spiritual philosophy, using the extraordinary work of Kenneth Wapnick. For those of you unfamiliar with the Course, it is a progressive approach to the study of non-duality based on the practice of forgiveness, a process of identifying and releasing our separating thoughts (judgments, grievances, etc.) in favor of the unifying perception of Love. The Course helps students to clear their minds of the obstacles that prevent them from accessing an awareness of the nature of Reality, seeing through the illusion of differences and fragmentation to the truth of perfect unity in a place entirely outside of time and space.

The Course contains aspects of Buddhism, Advaita Hinduism, Gnosticism and classical Greek philosophy, and draws extensively on Freudian psychology to explain the workings of the ego mind. For this reason it has been called a type of “Freudian Vedanta”. Of course it is impossible to capture the essence of a document of over 1,400 pages in just twenty words. For this reason I have also provided a more detailed explanation which you can access here.

Dr Kenneth Wapnick worked continuously with the Course since its inital scribing in 1972. He was a close friend of the scribe, Helen Schucman, and was instrumental in bringing the finished work into print. He was the founder and director of the Foundation for A Course In Miracles (FACIM), which continues to give the highest quality teaching in the form of seminars and workshops. Kenneth was one of the finest and kindest human beings that I ever had the pleasure of knowing and working with, a relationship that continued for fourteen years until his death in late 2013. For more information on Kenneth Wapnick, click here.

But back to our Village website…

The first line of support this site offers is community and companionship through the discussion forums, an informal sharing of our spiritual path based on our personal experiences and learning. Please click on the Fireside, Village Square and Garden tabs on the navigation bar to access these discussion groups. No signing in is required, though in some cases I might ask participants to refer to the Guidelines for participating included on the Village Square page. The first time you submit a comment you will be told that it will need approval by the moderator. Your subsequent comments will no longer need this approval.

The second line of support is the option of participating in a more structured approach to Ken’s work, a sort of on-going classroom or laboratory, based around his lectures. For this we use the excerpts of Ken’s workshops provided freely on the FACIM website, choosing one workshop and then working through it section by section. We are currently working through The Meaning of Judgment, which is taking us through the heart of the forgiveness process, helping us understand why precisely it is so difficult to simply “look, wait and not judge.” The Village Square is the home of the excerpt study group. Anyone is welcome at any time to participate, to come and go as she/he pleases and feels moved, so don’t hesitate to say hello and share your thoughts.

The third line of support to students is the Fireside Skype Get-Togethers, occasional live meetings between students, facilitated by Bernard. During these informal meetings, we share our experiences and thoughts of working through the excerpt notes and Kenneth’s work in general. These have proven to be a wonderful way to join together and continue to refresh and inform our study by witnessing to the mutual challenges we all face in applying the challenging lessons Ken provides.

You will also find information on my book, Paulo and the Magician: A Guide to Inner Peace based on A Course In Miracles, brief explanations of ACIM and direct links to Ken Wapnick’s teaching foundation (FACIM).

I hope that you feel welcome and inspired to join in our social discussions by the ‘Fireplace’. Perhaps what I most appreciate about this Village is our coming together as friends, people who have learned to appreciate and understand each other over time, to find patience together despite our differences and individual challenges. Above all, I would like to encourage participants to discard the feeling of needing to ‘accomplish’ this work, or a need to prove a certain level of understanding. We come here purely to learn about the peacefulness that comes with learning to release the importance we have placed on our judgments and separating thoughts of difference. Participating here is just another way to learn to observe the contents of our minds and to release ourselves from the prison of self-condemnation in which we have placed ourselves.

The participants of this Village have blessed me with their deep sincerity and their willingness to walk this path together with me, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart.

In peace,
Bernard

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