Village Square III
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!
dear friends, my dear, dear friends,
You have seen me through many a dark night with the light of your love. And thank you for the sweet birthday greetings…
Lovely Michele from beautiful Sausalito, if it weren’t for my son in Sngapore, I think I would skip away and rent a little cottage in her town for the chance to talk to her on her way home from work. And for coffee on the weekends…thank you for the reminder of the day, and zi’m looking forward to speaking to you from Singapore..
And sweet Nina, thank you for all the love, you did get the day right, and I will get into the email soon.
And Hedda, yes indeed it is the 26th in Singapore, just shy of 8 am now, as I am getting ready for the first incantation of Gods Will for me is perfect happiness. ! ( I think I am just repeating the words, not allowing the words to go in deeper, but they are going in deeper each time just the same, and just the tiniest fraction of my resistance seems to melt away with every incantation (=
And Leni, thank you for the song, in the earthly world family I am born into, we have a tradition that we all call thhe birthday person on the day, and sing to them over the phone. I am so happy to share a birthday with your 4yr old grandson, thank you for sharing that piece of information, (like Peggy, I too like reading the details of each of our lives as we walk our way Homeward bound)
And Annie, thank you for the greetings, and its good to see you hear more often now, I am almost scared to say it for fear of jinxing it ! (=
Ad Tex, that’s a cool thing to do…and hugs and love to you..
And Katrina, wow, that’s a lot of typing with one hand, you are one determined person…Wow, is all I can say. All the best for the May surgery, and thank you for working in my birthday greetings into Gods will for me is perfect Happiness.
I think I do need to remember that, because I have started to become aware, as recently as this week, that I am scared of Gods Will, I fear that if I turn over my life to God, that I will lose what little I have, a long time back Annie asked me if I felt that my friendship in this Village is what might have contributed to my marriage being on the rocks, and I answered in the negative.
In the last few weeks, it has become clear to me however, that the Course has contributed to my difficulties in the marriage.
Let me expand on that further to explain what I mean.
The Course has a very clear and simple metaphysics. And there is no compromise in it. Many of the course ideas as they worked their way through my system. I misunderstood. Fr example, in the beginning, I was compelled, I could even say that it was unavoidable, I felt I had to preach it to everyone I met. This was back in 2004.
I felt that anyone who didn’t understand it was an idiot. I shudder with embarassment as I write that now, but that was certainly my attitude then. I mean here was the perfect solution to all our problems, and the absolute Truth, and who could not be happy about that..
But the Course is very clear that this is a self study Course. And that it is *entirely* between the student and their Inner Guide. There is absolutely no need to discuss it with anyone.
Of course, I never heeded that part, intent as I was on demonstrating my superiority, etc, etc.
By the time Shobha came into my life 3 years later, this unfortunate (but perhaps unavoidable) tendency was on the wane. Thankfully.
Bit it was still there. And I remember Shobha telling me back then that she doesn’t care two hoots for my philosophies, and that she doesn’t want me to lecture her, on that subject, or anything for that matter.
I responded in instantaneous anger, that one day she would beg me to speak, and perhaps that day I would speak, but perhaps not even then.
(It is quite embarrassing to reveal all this here on this forum, I cannot imagine the monster that I was back in those days, and retain some traces of it today too…anyway )
So many of these Absolute thoughts and ideas, and we all know the Course is full of them, zi brought into my daily practical life, my marriage, my business, etc.
And there is a cost in doing that. There is the feeling the other person will often develop, and it makes perfect sense that they will do that, of being dismissed, of their ideas being worth nothing when measured against the force and passion behind such grandiose ideas such as “the world is an illusion”.
So this is what I mean when I say the Course has contributed to my current life situation. Am not unhappy about it at one level, it was inevitable, and as is very clear from our studies, I am the Source of my experience. I must ask the Holy Spirit to always be in my awareness, so I can perceive through those lenses, and not the Ego,
But as we all know this is a challenging path. And the truth of the matter as we live out our days here, it that Kindness is important. And Ken always said that. be kind. To yourself, to others, to everyone universally. Everyone is fighting a hard battle here.
And kindness is perhaps the most important thing I can practice.
May that be my 45th birthday gift to myself ! (=
I can hear Pam responding to me as I write ….my apologies for the length of this interminable post, she always invoked the idea…geez, where are the police who monitor the length of our messages to each other ? She liked reading long posts I think, and zi thank Annie for the gift of her friendship in my life…
Love you all,
A
Dear 45 years today Anil ~
It’s still the morning of your birthday. I announced it was impending but didn’t yet have the pleasure of wishing you happy returns of the day and this 45th year ahead. You’ve had another complete trip around the sun with today’s birthday dawning. It’s due to you I know what time it is…I remember how you talked about liking elegance…not in dress, or external form, but in ways that people create something, or formulate whatever..words, choices and at the time you’d said you learned Bernard madd the time stamp of our postings based on New York time. You felt that was elegant.
No matter what Anil, no matter the challenging aspect of the marriage relationship is it to everyone who treads that union…no not dreads, but treads its it….so much emotion and revealing aspects of all sides of us are called into play. My emphasis is on the no matter what… you see about yourself in the past and how you’ve engaged in anger…..
You Are a Kind Soul, you are Gentle, you are so loving in your attentive observations with people who are in your life and those “strangers” who you just cross paths with for a minute or less. You use humor so well in in such a freeing, equalizing, seeing no differences way. I’m just now remembering as I was searching in my mind for an example to provide you with and I’m so glad I didn’t forget this one thing I. Driving with you in my car taking you back to Sausalito that very first day you after you came to my clinic in SF and I met you in person for the first time…we drove through the Presido to get to the GG bridge. I was so excited you were in the car I got discombobulated took the exit by the bridge parking lot and I got distracted and this walking tourist kind of ran into my car…no it was it I backed up and I extremely slightly lightly ran into him. He was so happy with his camera and being by the bridge that he just shrugged it off and you began joking about him maybe being a Pakistani terrorist intent on his mission.
It kind of just goes with the territory of being on the other end of one’s beloved announcing I want to divorce you, that you’re being as hard on yourself as you are, and please know that how you view and remember the things you’d do differently with the insight you have now is also part of the process of the going through this major upheaval.
You are evolving and you are kind and you are loved for all of who you’ve been that brought you to where you are now. Those of us who love you and support you are only going to increase in number and not diminish in number or depth of loving you.
The best really is yet to come and we village people will share it with you and with each other.
Big Hugs and forever gratitude I get to call you my friend and know you as I do,
Michele
hope I’m not the last to arrive at the party!! almost everyone is here already!!
happy birthday Anil!!!
this is me singing and dancing in a lively silly way just for you..
happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday most wonderful awesome Anil
happy birthday to you
and many more
YAY YAY YAY
WE LOVE YOU ANIL!!!
may your heart be happy and full of love
mahalo for sharing about some of the ACIM teachings and goings on you put others through
you share it now with a warm spirit … good humor … wishing it had been otherwise perhaps … however, what comes through is your care and wanting everyone to see the light as you saw it
that is not a bad thing
maybe that’s what people remember the most, that you cared about them and wanted them to love what you loved
hope you can lighten up about it … forgive everybody everything
we’re all just doing the best we know how at any given moment
in addition to ken reminding us to be kind for everyone is fighting a hard battle, he was also reminding us to not take anything seriously
there is so much love … it’s simply absolutely everywhere
available and abundant
it works miracles
truly it does
even if the relationship doesn’t shift, you can have peace and calm and happiness knowing that you are choosing to be happy and calm in the best way you know
that’s all anyone can do
am sending blessings and best wishes and lots of aloha love
and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well
nothing real can be threatened nothing unreal exists
herein lies the peace of God
herein lies pure love true peace
may it be so
Little brother, I could not let this day pass without wishing you peace on your “B” Day. I am sending your Horoscope for the 26th if you were born on the 25th, well sorry about your luck. I of course will correct my mistake if there is one, so don’t jump off any bridges anytime soon. I havent read but a few posts so I will take time to do that hopefully this weekend.
Since we met, kind of because of Gary Renard and “the disappearance of the universe”. I opened the book in my desk at random and it was at page 88. This is what I was drawn to “A sense of seperation from God is the only lack you need to correct”. I have always liked this because even when we think we sin in whatever form we choose to give it at the moment, we tend to think it makes us in some way further from God, and nothing is further from the truth.
We know that’s not true in our heart of hearts, so too the horoscope below. God Is, God is the only truth and we all know God spelled backwards is Dog, “mans best friend”.
Bernard old friend thank you for keeping the Village, it is as real as things get, Love your great big heart my friend. I know you missed my long posts.
God Bless Us Every One
Lawrence
The Year Ahead
Forecast for April 2014 to April 2015
If You Were Born Today, April 26:
You are a very fixed and determined person. These qualities help you to determinedly focus on a goal and patiently see it through to fruition. However, at times you can be one track minded and stubborn! Change and instability tend to bother you more than most. You can also be an exceptionally good worker with excellent work ethic and a strong sense of responsibility. Others know they can depend on you. Famous people born today: Carol Burnett, Charlotte Rae, Michael Damian, Channing Tatum, T-Boz, Jordana Brewster.
Your Birthday Year Forecast:
Neptune transits sextile to your Sun again this year. A higher purpose to your life is what you seek, and you rely more heavily upon your intuition in order to achieve it. You could find that your intuition is subtly enhanced and that you’re often in the right place at the right time, probably because your hunches are more likely to be correct. This aspect softens your disposition somewhat, as you tune into your imaginative and artistic side. This is a good year for self-improvement programs or efforts. The need to “get away from it all” — for some peace and quiet now and again — will be strong. A more sensitive–even mysterious–persona is projected this year, and this can attract pleasantly unusual circumstances (and people) into your life. You will want to reserve time alone–away from the hectic pace of life–for reflection and meditation.
With the Sun and Mercury joining forces in your Solar Return chart, it can be a busy year in which the exchange of information is especially important and prominent. Fresh and new ideas for creative endeavors can surface. Your social life is more active, and you may be running many errands and taking a lot of short trips.
Intuition is strong this year. You are more sensitive artistically, your imagination is stirred, and you have an increased appreciation for subtleties. You are inspired and could even inspire others with your words. Some of your hunches could be prophetic. You are thinking more creatively, and express yourself with more sensitivity, compassion, and warmth.
Even so, your energy levels run high this year, but you should watch for hasty or impetuous behavior. Remember that haste makes waste. You could be rather wilful and impassioned, and it would be best to channel excess energy into healthy physical outlets. Others might find you temperamental. If you suffer from frequent headaches, it is likely that you are not dealing with your own anger or desire to take the lead appropriately. You feel a great need for action, but if you don’t know where you’re headed, you might take the wrong turn. As long as you channel the excess energy constructively, instead of wasting your time arguing or getting yourself into conflicts with others, you can accomplish much.
With energy channelled positively, you could move mountains when it comes to pushing your projects ahead. If mishandled, however, you could be argumentative, stressed, and hell-bent on having your way! The bottom line is a tendency towards obsessive or compulsive behavior. Avoid taking extreme measures to make things happen your way, and avoid people who might be doing same. Deliberately trying to maneuver things in order to get the upper hand will be a lesson in frustration.
However, certain elements of your social life and financial life are stabilized, secured, and more reliable this year. You may solidify a romantic relationship or become involved with a mature partner. Circumstances may be such that you need to handle money more carefully this year, or this may simply come naturally to you now. Support from older people or authority figures may come by way of solid advice or more tangible help. Renewed ties to old friends are possible, or a new sense of responsibility in existing friendships can figure strongly.
Your social life steadies and you appreciate the reliability and comfort of close friends this year. There can be pleasing circumstances surrounding your work, goals, or general life path. Spiritual and creative pursuits are favored. Watch, however, for impulsiveness and rash decision making. Impatience can be costly this year. Your desire nature is strong, but can also trip you up if you don’t find healthy avenues for channeling excess energy.
2014 is a Number One year for you. Ruled by the Sun. This is a year of action. The seeds you plant now, you will reap later. Others might find you less sociable, as you are busier than ever and you focus on your activities and your needs. Still, you are outgoing and your initiative is stronger than ever. Advice – Stand alone, take action, start fresh, express independence.
2015 will be a Number Two year for you. Ruled by the Moon. This is a year of potential companionship. It is a quiet, gentle, and mostly harmonious year that is less active than other years. Instead, you are more responsive to the needs of others. If you are patient and open yourself up in a gentle manner, you will attract both things and people. This is an excellent year in which to build and develop for the future. Advice – be patient, be receptive, enjoy the peace, collect.
Dearest Michele, Peggy and Lawrence,
The party was incomplete without you, I read each of your posts once, before a surprise bonus dinner organized by Shobha and Lucas, and zi was keen to be showered and freshly dressed for them. So the first read was hasty, but still the tears of relief and gratitude and forgiveness trickled down my face.
Dinner now over, and my first handwritten birthday card from my son happily delivered and received, and how did he know the magic of what I needed today, for he gave me, and received from me so many hugs and kisses that he had been resisting all these days, I certainly *planned* my 45th birthday well when I chose this incarnation… (=
Post dinner, I return to the hotel where I lay down now, and for the first time in months, the feeling of “loss” of home is slightly abated, and significantly so,
And reading the beautifully crafted and heartfelt greetings from all of you, re-reading them again, my cup of happy tears runneth over. To be seen for my innermost hearts desire and what I have wanted to extend to my brothers and sisters, no matter the wrapping of my words being harsh in days gone by, and to be forgiven and to forgive, there is no relief greater than that.
Michele, sweet Michele, thank you, dear friend for being in my life. I must have done something right in this life to have found you and to be drenched in the happy rain of your love. I think I must have cried all the way through your greeting.
And Peggy, lovely Peggy, Your happy dance just made the party so much more joyful. In particular, I felt the glimmer of the abundant love you spoke of, and I was seeing images of beaches as I read your wishes. What you reminded me about Ken asking us to not take this too seriously also resonated. It truly has been a birthday I will not forget.
And Lawrence, my brother, a big, big hug to you. I have missed you so, and you are right, Gary did bring us together, and that quote on page 88 had me in tears as well. To be one with God, safe in Gods heart and to experience that each moment, that is a good life indeed.
It is indeed the 26th, so I’m not jumping off any bridges. And today I found yet another reason (among many others prior) to look forward to the future, and to sing my way through the path ahead with each of you with me in my heart, and by my side, now and forever more….
blessings I give to each of you, and blessings I have received from each of you.
I love you,
anil
Dear Anil, I’m managing to get in on the 26th just before it ends here in France, though it’s well into the morning where you are in Singapore. So I add my blessings to all the others you have received on your Birthday, and wish you much peace in this new year to come. You are very much appreciated here in our little community, a small reflection of all the love that waits for you in that very real place within your mind. Big hugs, Bernard
Oo, oo skipped 115.
Lesson 115
For morning and evening review:
(99) Salvation is my only function here.
My function here is to forgive the world for all the errors
I have made. For thus am I released from them
with all the world.
(100) My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation.
I am essential to the plan of God for the salvation of the world.
For He gave me His plan that I might save the world.
On the hour:
Salvation is my only function here.
On the half hour:
My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation.
You all amaze me sometimes. Such a degree of kindness and poetry in these pages. Perhaps you don’t realize how rare it is to be able to maintain this kind of relationship and friendship over the internet. It really is a testament to your willingness to really listen to each other and reach out – to make it not about us but them. Thank you all for being wonderful examples of the principle that we give best to ourselves by giving to others. Learning this philosophy is one thing, but practicing it is another. We can write and read about it all we want, but if we can’t translate that into a kind word for another person, then we’re not going to get very far. All my thanks for your wish to make this a place of happy practice and friendship. All my thanks for your willingness to come here and share some of your most difficult and challenging thoughts and experiences. I’m glad you feel this is a safe place to do so. I’ll certainly do my best to maintain that, but you are the ones who really make it so.
Dearest Mayor, we would be disconnected glimmers without this village you provide for us to combine and amplify the Light! And we will shine on, waiting for Brother Jamie and Sister Bonnie to wander into the glittering firelight they sparked among us.
Lesson 117
For morning and evening review:
(103) God, being Love, is also happiness.
Let me remember love is happiness, and nothing else
brings joy. And so I choose to entertain no substitutes
for love.
(104) I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
Love is my heritage, and with it joy. These are the
gifts my Father gave to me. I would accept all that is
mine in truth.
On the hour:
God, being Love, is also happiness.
On the half hour:
I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
(I think you are all mine in truth.)
Annie, i am always amazed that i cannot remember after so many times during the day either.
Lesson 118
For morning and evening review:
(105) God’s peace and joy are mine.
Today I will accept God’s peace and joy, in glad
exchange for all the substitutes that I have made
for happiness and peace.
(106) Let me be still and listen to the truth.
Let my own feeble voice be still, and let me hear the
mighty Voice for Truth Itself assure me that I am
God’s perfect Son.
On the hour:
God’s peace and joy are mine.
On the half hour:
Let me be still and listen to the truth.
You don’t have to do your lesson. It just follows you around faithfully, jumping up on the bed at 10 o’clock while you’re reading about Craig Ferguson. I read that the Tonight show was his for the taking, and when he didn’t, they tapped Colbert. But I will miss Stephen’s caricature routine on the Reporrrrr.
Lesson 119
For morning and evening review:
(107) Truth will correct all errors in my mind.
I am mistaken when I think I can be hurt in any
way. I am God’s Son, whose Self rests safely in
the Mind of God.
(108) To give and to receive are one in truth.
I will forgive all things today, that I may learn how
to accept the truth in me, and come to recognize my
sinlessness.
On the hour:
Truth will correct all errors in my mind.
On the half hour:
To give and to receive are one in truth.
Thanks for keeping up with the Lessons Katrina’s…Let me record the last review for this section
Lesson 120
[109] I rest in God
I rest in God today and let Him work
In me and through me, while I rest in Him
In quiet and in perfect certainty.
[110] I am as God created me.
I am God’s Son. Today I lay aside
All sick illusions of myself and let
My Father tell me Who I really am.
From JTTWB
“Our review ends with the happy thought that despite “all sick illusions of myself” and the world, I have never ceased to rest in God. His Voice becomes the only voice I hear, and its Love guides me gently through my day I remain at rest, “in quiet and in perfect certainty,” for I remember I am as God created me, and nothing in the world can change the changeless in my mind.”
Lesson 121
Forgiveness is the key to happiness
“Forgiveness is the key to happiness. I will awaken from the dream that I am mortal, fallible and full of sin, and know I am the perfect Son of God”
Lord God – Lamb of God – I had either the BEST or the WORST experience lately…
You all have known me a long time… please don’t judge!
Recently, I was so mad – so enraged – so sad – almost out of my mind.
Suddenly and with no “asking” for help on my part, my mind just stopped the hate and fear
And I was like ” OH MY GOD the Course is true! THIS IS DREAM!
There is no other answer that makes a lick of sense.”
So that beautiful answer was with me for more than a minute – more than a day –
And I feel it in my body and my mind is a peace.
Todays lesson – about forgiveness – is only understood from the perspective that that life here can not be God’s Will…. for it is just a dream.
A dream – a nightmare of hate – where God is hate (I know now that is the ego) and everything really is upside down and backwards…. God would merely never let this be.
It all fell into place! I am happy and full of peace and trust and joy and everything else. I went ahead and asked for this and made my peace with the HS and J and – wow – just wow – there are no words.
So now – just hugs to all the class!
Hugs and joy to you and with you my buddy, Tex!
There can be no other reason for this melee’.
My moment of clarity came like that. Nothing i did to request or earn it,
Just the sudden Gift of recognition and the complete surround of gratitude.
And thank you, Annie, for your loving message. I felt properly prepared.
Just needing to get everything washed and folded and put away.
TEX -wonderful wonderful wonderful
just a dream
and also seeing the wisdom in the choice to allow those outrageous feelings – you so know what you are doing
and truth is, we all do
What Joy!
When one brother/sister rejoices we all rejoice!
Your Peace is my Peace Tex ✌
Lesson 122- Forgiveness offers everything I want
Ken’s words from JTTWB:
“This lesson and the next few are centered on positive themes: forgiveness again, and love.
In A Course In Miracles, achieving what is positive is accomplished through undoing what is negative, with perhaps the clearest example being Lesson 126, where Jesus contrasts forgiveness with its opposite, forgiveness to destroy, even though the term itself is not used. As we go through the next five lessons, therefore, we will be looking at what is positive in terms of what the lesson is undoing. In this lesson, “Forgiveness offers everything I want,” Jesus speaks to us about withdrawing our investments in everything we think we want and that will bring us happiness and peace, exchanging the false goals of specialness for the true one of forgiveness.”
To 314, TEX
thank God the thoughts of us maybe judging you belongs to the dream as well –
I am overjoyed for you
next time hatethoughts come, I will now remember that they MAY mean that awakening is close!
AND I am still happy – and getting it – and actually love the idea that this is a dream! I am happy (overjoyed actually) that none of this is real…. back to watching that odd procession pass by – me and J sitting there watching it all go by –
oh look – a unicorn!
Lesson 123
I thank my Father for His gifts to me
“We are grateful only when we de-invest from our individual identity and specialness.
In other words, we give thanks that God is right and we are wrong.
This is the meaning of humility, the precondition for gratitude brought about by fulfilling
our function of forgiveness”
My greatest joy is the honor of being allowed to watch this Light shine.
Little-me sits over in the peanut gallery doing whatever she thinks she needs to.
No-me stands in awe as the Light rushes on by to its joyous destiny.
Now THAT is a poem – oh Katrina
Yes, Nina, I think you are right. A little art ekes thru my tight ego straps from time to time. And thank you for the reminder that i define the effect of the pain pills myself! You are a loving comforter.
One more time, on the right page —
Lesson 126
All that I give is given to myself.
All that I give is given to myself. The Help I need to learn
that this is true is with me now. And I will trust in Him.
My brain is only working in little spurts still, soi seem to. Needto make multiple tries to do one thing, like when you sit on a staircase and scoot down one step at a time.
Lesson 127
There is no love but God’s.
I bless you, brother, with the Love of God, which I would
share with you. For I would learn the joyous lesson that
there is no love but God’s and yours and mine and everyone’s.
Dear Lawrence – can you say hello and tell us how you are these days,please?
hugs and love
Nina
Today’s lesson is one that is like lying on a sunny beach with a cool breeze sprinkling spray from the surf on you. Some lessons could be the only lesson every day forever.
Love’s meaning is your own, and shared by God Himself. For what you are is what He is. There is no love but His, and what He is, is everything there is.
There is no love but God’s and yours and mine and everyone’s.
Thank you, Tex, for forwarding the audio. I love it. It’s a keeper!
Beyond this world there is a world I want.
“Today the lights of Heaven bend to you, to shine upon your eyelids as you rest beyond the world of darkness, Here is light your eyes can not behold. and yet your mind can see it plainly and can understand. A day of grace is given you today and we give thanks. This day we realize that what you feared to lose was only loss.”
The world I see holds nothing I want.
Beyond this world there is a world I want.
today the lights of heaven shine on me
today a day of grace is given me
choose not to value the valueless, the meaningless, the nothingness
the true love of God, where love endures forever … offers all things I want, really want, and lasts eternally
lovely lesson today!!
aloha from haleiwa
yesterday I swam with 4 turtles
ocean has been calm and still as a pond
the day before I kayaked up a river and saw more beautiful homes and trees and more turtles … they like to swim up the river that gently leads back into the ocean
mom’s passport has expired and I asked her if she wanted to renew it … and she said “of course!”
you simply never know
maybe one day we will travel again
for now … we simply do our happy little life in our tiny darling town
love to everyone
enjoy the grace of today
Lesson 130
It is impossible to see two worlds
“Begin your searching for the other world by asking for a strength beyond your own, and recognizing what it is your seek. You do not want illusions. And you come to these five minutes emptying your hands of all the petty treasures of this world. You wait for God to help you, as you say:
It is impossible to see two worlds. Let me accept the strength God offers me and see no value in this world, that I may find my freedom and deliverance.“
Lesson 131
No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth.
Failure is all about you while you seek for goals that cannot be achieved. You look for permanence in the impermanent, for love where there is none, for safety in the midst of danger; immortality within the darkness of the dream of death.
Goals that are meaningless are not attained.
Yet searching is inevitable here. For this you came, and you will surely do the thing you came for.
Be glad that search you must. Be glad as well to learn you search for Heaven, and must find the goal you really want.
No one remains in hell, for no one can abandon his Creator, nor affect His perfect, timeless and unchanging Love. You will find Heaven.
Why wait for Heaven? It is here today.
..as far removed .. as is a tiny candle from a distant star, or what you chose from what you really want..
Heaven remains your one alternative to this strange world you made and all its ways; its shifting patterns and uncertain goals, its painful pleasures and its tragic joys. God made no contradictions. What denies its own existence and attacks itself is not of Him. He did not make two minds, with Heaven as the glad effect of one, and earth the other’s sorry outcome which is Heaven’s opposite in every way.
There is a door beneath them (your senseless goals) in your mind,
Put out your hand, and see how easily the door swings open with your one intent to go beyond it. Angels light the way, so that all darkness vanishes, and you are standing in a light so bright and clear that you can understand all things you see. A tiny moment of surprise, perhaps, will make you pause before you realize the world you see before you in the light reflects the truth you knew, and did not quite forget in wandering away in dreams.
Wow, what an adventure today’s lesson is. You could make a movie of just this day’s lesson! Oh, we have!
131 is my favorite lesson so far ! (:
I may have had others along the way since I joined the bus on Feb 1st, but I can’t remember right now.so 131 it is. (:
I almost feel like doing it again today, as another day starts in Singapore, and for most people another week, another Monday morning, but I think I’ll stick with the plan of one a day.
There were several lines in 131 that just sparkle with clarity, clearer and more luminous than the day I first understood diamonds, looking for an engagement ring for Shobha 7 yrs ago.
And one of the best is……
“What denies its own existence and attacks itself is not of Him”. How much clearer can it be that J is speaking of my mind, as I perceive it. Clearly the wrong split of the mind, but the mind that I know most intimately, beyond which I never thought to think there might be another mind, in which my memory of Heaven still is, “relinquished yet remembered”.
Strange movie we have made indeed. Mind blogging as Tex might say.
Hope your shoulder is better Katrina.
Thanks for the messages, Nina.
happy Monday morning java, Annie ! (:
And hellos and hugs to all…
Anil
ps. Michele, where are you ??? Should I call you on a weekday r a weekend ? Lets start narrowing down potential time slots for us to speak ? (:
Happy Mother’s Day to all who love like Mothers.
I am 1 week post surgery, with the big awkward sling. DH and son cook for me mostly. Saughter and Granddaughter came over to make dinner and take care of baby Amery since My son worked today. grandpa is getting a chance to learn diaper changing, hee hee. I am plunking along as a left hander, very slow going. May lose weight! 2 more weeks till PT starts.
Today Sydney (13) tripped over the same baby fence I did,
lept up, and skipped down the hall.
Oh! That’s what you are supposed to do!
Lesson 132
I loose the world from all I thought it was.
In some abstract way, i understand this. But mostly, i have to let this ride alng with the instructions for all the lessons. Just say it, do the lesson, understandng or not. Let Big J be tge one who “gets it” — what difference does my understanding make on the truth, eh?
This part makes me deel very connected, and i will rest in that:
What He creates is not apart from Him, and nowhere does the Father end, the Son begin as something separate from Him.
Lesson 133
I will not value what is valueless
The last few lessons have indeed been steeped in kindness.
Like you mentioned Katrina in a recent post;
it is “like lying on a sunny beach with a cool breeze sprinkling spray from the surf on you.”
ahhhh …closing my eyes…I am so there.
and I’m also envisioning the Pacific being as calm as a pond…
wow, even the deep blue meditates once in a while.
Love the line: “Heaven itself is reached with empty hands and open minds, which come
with nothing to find everything and claim it as their own.”
Interesting how my ears perked up when J spoke of how todays lesson will “dwell…on benefits to you (me)”.
“You do not ask too much of life, but far too little”
There is still a frontier to be found, a golden nugget to extracted from an ancient river bed- it dwells within and when I find it- you will be there too!
“I will not value what is valueless, for what is valuable belongs to me (you).”
Lesson 134
Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.
“When you feel that you are tempted to accuse someone of sin in any form, do not allow your mind to dwell on what you think he did, for that is self deception. Ask instead, Would I accuse myself of doing this?”
Let me confess that I have a brother-in-law that is soooooo easy to get upset with. A perfect scapegoat. Last night I sensed his anxiety hit the roof. Basically, I was returning mom home @ 8pm after having her all day just as he was setting down dinner. I’m sure he would have loved to eat dinner before mom came home. He barks at my sister: “Go eat your dinner” she obeys. “I just set my wife’s dinner down!”… he tell me.
All I said was Hello when we walked thru the door.
He’s a sick puppy and I shouldn’t belabor things here. What I wanted to say is that J’s advise to not allow my mind to dwell on what he did jumped off the page this morning! Like a broken record I see myself playing that scene over and over and it’s just kindling for this burning hatred I feel towards him.
Then in my daily email that I receive from Robert Holden’s “Shift Happens”….
this is the quote for the day:
“Whenever you heal any relationship,
your whole life improves –
and that counts for double with family.”
Is the Universe speaking Only to ME this morning?
Gotta Laugh!!!
I ask to be healed and then I don’t like the advice!
I will try to not dwell…
I will try to not dwell…
I will try to not dwell…
I will try to not dwell…
I will try to not dwell…
I will try to not dwell…
I used this lesson on the Nigerian fellow who is in the news for kidnapping the girls, saying he will sell them, and chanting his motto, Kill, kill, kill.
I don’t know, maybe …
Would i accuse myself of these things?
No, i just really accuse him.
I didn’t know i accused him until i saw it on tv.
It’s such a long way from these eyes and ears to sinking down to that door. I was pushing open a few days ago. I am looking forward to the review.
We really are all in this together.
I too see a great distance btwn my chant of I will not dwell- to his kill, kill, kill.
Mind you, It didn’t escape me that I was dwelling on my dwelling… even as I was posting.
Why didn’t I ask if I would accuse myself of this? as J asked me to. Well, I did glance at that statement but I think I was still feeling a bit prideful that he called me out on my deluding myself.
It felt like I was strutting along all full of my goodie too-shoes self with my finger pointed at Louie and J just took my hand and turned it so that it was pointing at me. Uggg…I should know better by now. And yet the lesson for me continues to be that its not a judgement but truly the kindest correction to get me where I wish to go ASAP.
And your example Katrina of not even knowing that an accusation is just waiting to be validated for the right story to come along was a very good observation. How we like to think we are pushing the door open only to change our mind when J wants us to chuck our entire belief system. Sneak previews can be so deflating!
As I was fixing my brew this morning I looked at this resistance and it dawned on me how again things are all backwards on this planet.
To Spiritually grow we need to let go of our resistance.
To Physically grow (as in muscles) we need to pump up our resistance training.
No time to write up todays lesson-clearly still working on yesterdays 🙂
Just catching up on some of your comments. Annie and Katrina, you guys are really on a roll here. I mean, it’s so difficult to catch ourselves having these thoughts. And you two catch the big biggies!
What I understand from your thoughts and your ACIM quotes is that we have indeed already accused ourselves of being Mr KillKillKill and Louie. That is us. And that is why these people are so terribly upsetting. It’s your work with ACIM that has made you sensitive to your thoughts about these violent people, knowing there is something there you can learn from. Normal people wouldn’t have questioned their hateful judgments for a second.
By simple virtue of the fact that we look at ourselves in the mirror in the morning and declare without the slightest compunction or hesitation, ‘This is me’, is itself a mental act of the greatest brutality, as absurd as this sounds. We’re just much better at disguising and hiding from ourselves our hatefulness, violence and selfishness. The sense of ‘me’ always comes at the expense of the ocean of peacefulness that comes when we say, we are one ‘Us’, we live outside of time and space, we live outside this world of clashing shapes and nightmares. We desperately need to shift our perception away from this world to another place whenever we are so confronted by the horror that pervades this place. It is not real, because that other place is real. This is not escapism. The only way to be truly understanding and compassionate with these people is to shift our frame of reference entirely.
These brutal people are terrified that their nightmares of individuality are true. They feel separated, exiled, guilty to the extreme, pursued, abused, judged, misunderstood, disrespected, unheard, and endangered. ‘Kill, kill, kill’ is our collective watchword. We are just much better at disguising and repressing our true feelings. But no one who comes here believing he is here could feel anything else. Believing we are here always involves a belief in murder, a belief that will push us all to kill (mentally), and then justify that impulse claiming we had no choice. We just need to make that tiny shift in perception to relieve ourselves of this heaviest of burdens, thinking we have truly done something to merit this nightmare which then justifies our murderousness.
When I judge violent and selfish people, I pick up my mental machete and cut them to pieces, declaring: “You do not belong to the Sonship! But I do!” This is not a sin, but it is murder, and that is why we feel so bad. We will feel bad not so much because we have judged them (although we know on some level that it is not justified), but even more so because we have judged and attacked ourselves. We know this is murderous, and don’t want to look at it because we have judged it as real, and want to keep that judgment because it locks our sense of self in place. We want our self-judgment because it is the way we confirm our seeming separate reality, but then don’t want to see it.
All we need to do is look at how ridiculous this whole game is, thinking that we can keep, and want to keep, our sense of special individuality in place by judging ourselves as murderers, hiding this belief, then claiming that others have done the dirty work. That’s all we need to do. Just look calmly and kindly at the insanity that we can be tempted to accept into our minds, insanity that we have wanted and thought could do us some good. None of it was ever true or real. We could not create a real world of hatefulness, murder and individuality. But as long as we still want individuality and specialness to be true, I’m afraid that is the world we will still feel very much part of.
We cannot have it both ways. We cannot be real individuals here and be disgusted with the violence and hatefulness of other people. It will always be our own hatefulness we are reacting to and that disgusts us. All we need do now is be honest about our hateful thoughts, not judge them, not justify or explain them, certainly not believe them, and above all not be afraid of them. We simply do not exclude ourselves from Love because of them, which is the way we begin to include everyone in that circle of Love, no matter their errors.
Now, take out your tickle feathers like good students, and let’s go and take a stroll together, okay? We do have it within ourselves to take all this lightly. It never was real. And so how difficult could it be to say ‘Amen’ to all this silliness that was never true? We’re just watching a film that was over long, long ago, and reacting to it as if it were today. Enough is enough. Other hateful images will still come and go before our eyes. But the movie will finish one day. It has already finished, and now we’re getting upset at the reruns. How silly.
God bless you, Bernard, as you bless us everyone. (Sweet nuzzles on Lawrence’s shoulder.)
Yes, this is exactly the purpose of doing our lessons here. I totally overlooked who turned on the tv. The ego nudges its fear and depression in, as is always its way, and the Holy Spirit nudges Bernard to dash in with some real perspective and the tickle feather. And Big J gallops onward and upward with an even better thought, no dwelling on the past — and no using it for defending against tomorrow! Why wait for Heaven?
Lesson 135
If I defend myself I am attacked.
(An aside, it is ok to make reservations, per our mentor, Ken. HS sent this thought into Steinbeck’s mind, “We don’t take a trip, a trip takes us…” Travels With Charlie)
The mind engaged in planning for itself is occupied in setting up control of future happenings. It does not think that it will be provided for, unless it makes its own provisions. Time becomes a future emphasis, to be controlled by learning and experience obtained from past events and previous beliefs. It overlooks the present, for it rests on the idea the past has taught enough to let the mind direct its future course.
The mind that plans is thus refusing to allow for change. What it has learned before becomes the basis for its future goals. Its past experience directs its choice of what will happen. And it does not see that here and now is everything it needs to guarantee a future quite unlike the past, without a continuity of any old ideas and sick beliefs. Anticipation plays no part at all, for present confidence directs the way.
Bernard, your help has restored my confidence. Come on, Annie girl , heidi ho!
Annie, your quote in 337: “……and that counts for double with family ” !! So funny and hopefully true 😉
Thank you for your long sharings Bernard, Katrina and Annie . I look forward to reading them slowly when the weekend comes.
The Foundation for A Course In Miracles now has a Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/drkennethwapnick
Lesson 136
Sickness is a defense against the truth.
…
Defenses are not unintentional, nor are they made without awareness. They are secret, magic wands you wave when truth appears to threaten what you would believe. They seem to be unconscious but because of the rapidity with which you choose to use them. In that second, even less, in which the choice is made, you recognize exactly what you would attempt to do, and then proceed to think that it is done. …
It is this quick forgetting of the part you play in making your “reality” that makes defenses seem to be beyond your own control. But what you have forgot can be remembered, given willingness to reconsider the decision which is doubly shielded by oblivion. Your not remembering is but the sign that this decision still remains in force, as far as your desires are concerned. …
I have forgotten what I really am, for I mistook my body for myself.
Sickness is a defense against the truth. But I am not a body.
And my mind cannot attack. So I can not be sick.
Yet this protection needs to be preserved by careful watching. If you let your mind harbor attack thoughts, …
>>> i want to recognize when i think i am walking into the Light, and then think up a malady to stop it and prove i am a weak ol’ body instead. I guess it is when i feel any attack thought, incoming or outgoing.
Soon we will be on the same lesson , I’m really slow this time around. My lesson today is a big one and goes well with 136:
199 : I AM NOT A BODY. I AM FREE.
JTTW: The body is a limit on love… Jesus merely asks us to recognize the disastrous consequences of such identification.
I had the thought to joke around that I haven’t been posting cause I awakened
did some tripping around at Home…”saw” and joined with all the usual suspects there
There is a cool song I heard recently ” I just got to Heaven and I can’t sit down”
well far from it…but hanging in there and found out here by seeing in Katrina’s latest post that I’m two lessons behind and I do want to catch up.
Even though I do remember J is known to encourage not more than one a day….I say I’m going to use not worrying about the form, or behavior but getting the content is my pass go collect $100.00 card to move on. Man oh Man when one does those JTTW 10 pages of commentary….
Oh Yes!!! The lessons have been so beautiful and you really did capture it poetically for us Katrina with the breeze and sunlight and wanting the lesson to last all year….I did think of you while I’ve been offline and remembered how nicely Annie spoke for us all the night before you had your procedure.
Funny I super loved I loose the Word from all I thought it was lesson a lot. I just loved how many times J says “There is no World!” in it.
Thanks so much Bernard for your at length post it is very helpful and puts all our disowned
Kill Kill Kill …well this is true about your writing in general…it just came to me..You do write from above the battleground and you create a welcoming spaciousness like sky seats we all access as we read it.
Love you All oxoxo
Lesson 137
When I am healed I am not healed alone.
Thank goodness. It’s funny, but i’m more motivated to heal when i think this lesson. Pretty silly when one recalls there’s only one of us hear.
Busy day, just wanted to hold the place. You know, Michele, i have to agree that this time around i am less concerned about rules and more attuned to the determination that Jamie demo’d when we went about reading the text and Q&A’s. Big J handed us 365 lessons, all knowing it was too massive for me to truly digest a new one each day. So i am just smearing the frosting on each cupcake, and leaving the depth to him. I’m happy to get it, but i’m a empty vessel for him to fill as only he can. Just going for togetherness this year. And the calendar day seems the only way to do that. Tex, are you hooting along in the sidecar?! Only a little bit more till Part II, and those are short gorgeous prayers. Some days I just listen to the dictations and read along.
I sure know what you mean with Ken’s JTTW. I think i recall 22 pages on one lesson. That time the 365 lessons took closer to 500 days. So, i guess i’m already planning on a slow walk for next year. What did He just say about plans?
I’m copying this from anil in the Garden.
But not if I were to accept today’s Lesson for the day which alas I will not write about since it is still early Monday morning in Singapore, and you are yet to see the nightfall on the Lesson for that day, which was/is truly lovely anyway….
heaven is a decision I must make.
lesson 138.
One of my favorites, and I think I am starting to gather quite a few favorites!
imagine where I will be in 30 years once I at Peggy’s level of acceptance and love….something nice to look forward to or sure (:
Thank you, Anil! I hope no one thinks i am trying to do this each day alone! I need all the help i can get. In fact, Anil, if you do the next day’s on our night before it will be there for us when we awake and we can just add any thoughts that pop into our heads! That way the lesson won’t get skipped when Annie or I are too busy or some such thing.
I’ve seen alot of lesson blogs where a wise teacher gives interpretation and counsel on each day. I was thinking we would just come with open hands and simply be ourselves trying to work our course in however our daily lives unfold. Joy and bewilderment, stumbling thru the mistaken idea of choice.
Lesson 139
I will accept Atonement for myself.
Just c&p’ing some great lines . . .
“Uncertainty about what you must be is self-deception on a scale so vast, its magnitude can hardly be conceived. To be alive and not to know yourself is to believe that you are really dead. For what is life except to be yourself, and what but you can be alive instead? Who is the doubter? What is it he doubts? Whom does he question? Who can answer him?”
Reminds me of Ramana Maharshi. Who am i?
“Atonement remedies the strange idea that it is possible to doubt yourself, and be unsure of what you really are. This is the depth of madness. …
Nothing the world believes is true. It is a place whose purpose is to be a home where those who claim they do not know themselves can come to question what it is they are. …
Let us not allow our holy minds to occupy themselves with senseless musings such as this.
We have a mission here. We did not come to reinforce the madness that we once believed in. …
let your mind be cleared of all the foolish cobwebs which the world would weave around the holy Son of God.
Ok, those are my favorite lines in this one!