Acim Village

~ Death and Dying Academy, Temecula, March 2011 – Part 13 ~

(Winnie’s notes posted at Acimvillage.com. Many thanks to Winnie from Bernard)

Death is a thought that takes on many forms, often unrecognized. It may appear as sadness, fear, anxiety, or doubt; as anger, faithlessness and lack of trust; concern for bodies, envy, and all forms in which the wish to be as you are not may come to tempt you. All such thoughts are but reflections of the worshipping of death as savior and giver of release.

Death is a central concept in the ego thought system. Death proves everything we thought was true, is true. Death is not what it seems.
Physical death is a symbol. It means loss. We equate death with loss. What is real is that I lost God then I project it out. God lost me – He kicked me out. Death means something is taken from me. Freud talked about introjection, a process by which a person is internalized and made a part of one`s own psyche. I cannibalized you and now that you have died, a part of me has gone.

Death is our saviour. It releases us from the memory of the true God. We worship death. It is not our experience. Feelings lie. Perceptions lie. Our experience lies. What our brains tell us is a lie. The veil of specialness tells us how to feel. Trust the little willingness.

We want to feel the sense of loss because then loss is real. I`m really saying that the loss of the Heaven is real because there is nothing else. You can`t lose an illusion. We lost Heaven and we will never get it back. At funerals we talk about God taking our loved ones. First we make God a tyrant, an ogre…. then we cover it over and say “He needs my little boy”.

Perception is interpretation. I`m not responsible for what I see, but I am responsible for my reaction to it. Lesson 5 – I am never upset for the reason I think. Lesson 34 – I could see peace instead of this.

Tp445 Damnation is your judgment on yourself, and this you will project upon the world. See it as damned and all you see is what you did to hurt the Son of God. If you behold disaster and catastrophe, you tried to crucify him. He is not talking about what you see. He is talking about whether you are affected by something you see…..and if you are, you know there is something rotten in the state of your mind. Either you crucify God`s Son or you liberate him. If you see differentiation and pain, then you know that you have chosen the wrong teacher. WB p 368 How can you tell when you are seeing wrong, or someone else is failing to perceive the lesson he should learn. Does pain seem real in the perception? if it does, be sure the lesson is not learned. And there remains an unforgiveness hiding in the mind that sees the pain through eyes the mind directs.

Almost every page of this Course says the same thing. You see the cause of your pain outside so you don`t see it inside so you can remain mindless.

Everything in this world is thought. What happens when I die? – nothing. Nothing happens before you die. Nothing happens during your life and nothing happens after you die. When you know you are a thought, your death will be nothing. There will be no pain and no guilt. It will be no big deal.

In the Kafka story, Before the Law, a young man comes to a gate but is denied entry by the guard. He sits and waits and waits. Finally he gets old and still he is denied entry. Finally just before he dies, the guard tells him that he is now going to shut the gate.

Now that`s pain.

Sickness is a little form of death. Death reminds me of the ultimate loss that I`ll never get home.

There is a soliloquy by Iago in Verdi`s opera Otello…”And then there is nothing. And Heaven is an ancient lie.”

We cover our pain with pleasure.

Jesus tells us that while we may maintain that we do not believe in the Laws of Chaos, he tells us But, Brother you do.

The ego is the lord of death and the master of life. This world is hopeless. People cling to this Course but they don`t know what it is saying. You have to do the work. Look at this illusory world with the Holy Spirit. He can`t do it for you. Forgiveness it still – because what can it do? It can`t do anything. There`s nothing to do. It`s all about going from the body to the mind.

~ Death and Dying Academy, Temecula, March 2011 – Part 14 ~

(Winnie’s notes posted at Acimvillage.com. Many thanks to Winnie from Bernard)

It seems almost certain that radiation will cross the ocean from Japan. The Course doesn`t tell you what to do. I`m not going to tell you what to do. The only way to keep peaceful is to understand that sickness, bodies and radiation are in the mind. I could see peace instead of this.
Nothing your body does can protect you in this world. In the end death will get you. Monitor your mind. Don`t see events in Japan as anything different because you would be saying that there is a hierarchy of disasters. It`s normal to have reactions, but they are bodily reactions. Don`t deny your body. This is a particularly unworthy form of denial. It is not necessary to protect the mind by denying the unmindful. Don`t get away from the metaphysics. This is a wonderful lesson to learn from. The ego says that there is a hierarchy of illusions.
The second half of the introduction of the WorkBook is wonderful in teaching us about generalization. Watch how you perceive a teacup and notice how much more difficult it is to perceive your boss the same way. It doesn`t matter what`s big or small. What matters is which teacher I choose.
The real immune system you want to strengthen is your mind. Vitamin C is okay, but it doesn`t strengthen your mind.
We have very little control over external events. Look at your reactions. Am I choosing the teacher of catastrophe or peace?
There is no hope in this world. The body cannot be protected. What will make you sick is identification with the body. Be normal. Do what normal people do. This whole Course is to remind you that you are a mind.
Hell is a decision the mind makes. There is a risk in thinking that death is peace.
You can`t make the body live. What the ego made to hurt us, the Holy Spirit can make to heal. Use anything in this world that`s upsetting you.
Are thoughts dangerous? Is radiation dangerous ? Is cancer dangerous? – To bodies – yes !

The happy dream in the Course is looking at the DVD and not giving it power over you. Look with eyes of non-judgement. When Helen asked Jesus what she should say when someone asked her for help, Jesus said “Don`t ask what you should say to your brother.” Ask me instead to help you remember that this is all going on in your mind, to look through the eyes of peace and then all the help of Heaven will flow through you and you will know what to say.
Don`t ask me what to do about radiation. They didn`t have radiation in my time… [everyone laughs]
Hamlet said “There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. There is no right or wrong response to what happened in Japan. There is no right or wrong response to your body dying. But there is a right-minded way of looking at your response and it will be peaceful. The wrong-minded way will be full of judgement. This is a course in cause, not effect. There is nothing in this course about radiation.

Teach not that I died in vain. Teach rather that I did not die, by demonstrating that I live in you. Why didn`t Jesus die? – because he awakened from the dream of death. Demonstrate that my peace is living in you. That`s how you teach my message.

It`s by your peace people will learn. There are two places in the psychotherapy pamphlet where it says that healing occurs when the therapist forgets to judge the patient. People will not see us as egos when we are non-judgemental. Greedy, selfish, self-centred people always make mistakes…. – Who doesn`t that include?

The two words of salvation – WITHOUT EXCEPTION

It`s all or it`s nothing. How did the ego start? – by exclusion. We excluded God. Well nothing has happened since then. Recognize why you are excluding. If I see only one person as guilty, I am protecting the spot of darkness. I don`t have to see six billion. One will do.