Workshop Comments
This page is provided for commenting on the transcribed notes sent in by workshop participants at Ken Wapnick’s teaching institute. It is also the place to post notes that you have made and would like to share with everyone.
For access to the workshop notes, just click on “Workshops” on the purple navigation bar at the top of the page and you will find a list of the different academies and seminars.
New Gallery: The Girls in Temecula!
1. The Holy Spirit says, “Don’t go that way!” so wadda they do??
2. The ego says, “Hey, girls, welcome to my country! (LA)”
3. The wind blows in a fairy from the land of Oz.
4. Katrina!
5. Group photo, Winnie, Katrina, Annie and Anne (as in TexAnneCan)
6. Ninjanun!! (under group photo)
7. Anne and Annie with Hollywood sign in the distance
8. Joe’s Crab Shack, the first essential stop in the Temecula area.
9. Anne looking for some essential company during her stay.
10. Winnie preparing herself for the slog ahead.
11. Caffeine & Co, the only true preparation for an Academy.
12. Filling up on critical supplies for the week: coffee, Red Bull, Nachos, cream cheese, white wine, canned spaghetti, gorgonzola, red wine, Vegemite (vege-what?), more coffee, more Red Bull…
Link to this page temporarily on the navigation bar at the top of the page.
How much fun it is to see everyone!!!!!! Are any villagers besides me going to Temecula in April????
Love and Gratitude to all,
m
Sunday Workshop 13th March
~Peace to Such Foolishness~
The title for this workshop comes from Lesson 190.
This Course is only about the mind. The “you” in the Course is your decision-making mind. To be told your pain and suffering is an illusion does not just make any sense, but is cruel, unless you understand that you are a mind and not a body.
The best purpose of the Course is to lift us above the battlefield. The problem is not our pain and suffering but the belief in our pain and suffering. Whenever we feel anxiety and pain, say “peace to such foolishness”. If pain is real then the world is real and God is not. If there is pain there is no God. Because we feel it, it does not make it true.
Bodies lie. Our brains cannot understand non-duality.
Nothing so blinding as perception of form. We stole life and then became overwhelmed with a sense of sin which led to our guilt. Not only have i done something horrific, I am something horrific.
When we experience pain and suffering, our unconscious mind interprets this as justification for our guilt. We made our bodies to feel pain and suffering. THINK NOT HE HAS FORGOTTEN. Dont think for one minute he has forgotten. An angry father pursues his guilty son.
None of us can live with that amount of terror. That`s why we are glued to the news. God is punishing them and not me. God has graced me. You can never judge, let alone attack someone you really understand. Underlying this is terror, fear and pain. If you really hear this call, you would never get angry with anyone or anything.
The terrible things that people do is just their overwhelming guilt that they are trying to compensate for. Only in our feverish dreams, does the thought system of the ego seem terrible. They are projections of the terrible thoughts in our mind.. They are resistance to Love.
I did not like the Love that created me like itself. But could Perfect Love turn to hate and cruelty? Peace to such foolishness.
The world is terrifying only because we gave it that power. You are never upset for the reason you think. You are upset because of something that is not there. The world is a delusional system of those made mad by guilt. I have erected a substitute for perfect love and worship at its altar. I believe the brilliant and learned brains throughout history that have explained the laws governing this world.
Two plus two does not equal four. Dont believe that. How can a world that doesn`t exist have laws? Euclid said that the whole is equal to the sum of its parts. That is not true. Everything we learned at school is wrong. Peace to such foolishness. This Course will help us navigate through the treacherous waters of the ego thought system.
Ideas leave not their source. The idea of guilt has not left the mind. It is a projection of a non-existent thought.
King Lear said that nothing will come of nothing. The mind is not trapped in the body. The body is in the mind because ideas leave not their source.
Each time you get upset, dont believe the lie. Peace to such foolishness. Of all the many causes of your guilt, never once did you think that your guilt was among them.
I am never upset for the reason I think. I can see peace instead of this. There is nothing out there that upsets me because there is nothing out there.
There is no other thought system that i know of that teaches a motivation for believing that the world of illusion has an effect on me. There`s lots of others that teach the world is an illusion. The Course teaches what it is for. Pain is a big focal point.
We take illusions and elevate them to truth. God will bring me lessons. He will answer my prayers. He has to, to preserve my identity. If there is no pain, there is no me.
The memory of God comes to a quiet mind, and we are always making a lot of noise. Even when we meditate, our heart is pumping away, our stomach is digesting and exchanging gases. Our lungs are working constantly. Our bodies were made not to find God. If I`m not quite there is no room for God. We have devised an incredibly elaborate sensory apparatus that collects information and sends it to the brain but the brain is not a fair witness.
Our memories teach us that there is a past. Memory is a present decision for a non-existent past. Peace to such foolishness. Jesus asks us “what are you upset about?” I will help you understand that you put it there to prove that you are wrong and I am right.
It is no longer okay to have delusional thoughts that plague you. Say to your projection, your mind-wanderings, that it is not okay.
To each and everything that upsets you daily say “peace to such foolishness”. It is not okay. Thoughts do not come unbidden. Projections in the form of our thoughts are not natural. Only Perfect Love is natural.
A world of differentiation proves that there is no God. The Course is difficult because it is absolute.
It is no longer okay to to invest illusions with truth.
It is no longer okay to choose to be a dedicated student of ACIM and not practise it.
This book will give me joy that will never end. This book will give me peace that will last forever.
It is no longer okay to be tolerant of mind-wandering. Peace to such foolishness.
[[[[[[[[WINNIE]]]]]]]]] Just THANKS!!!!!! I already printed your notes to sit down,calmly, and enjoy the workshop. Hope your elbow does not hurt. You made a wonderful job. Thanks again.
Lots of hugs and love for the four musketeers and, of course, for Zafu…and all the Village
Lisi
Well, this is just fantastic. Winnie (and Katrina, too, by your note taking, I’ve been reassured) – you’re doing a fabulous job of keeping us all right there with you. Many, many thanks for this great teaching. Big Village hugs.
{{Winnie}} Thanks.
Thank you for the lovely hugs ! { blows kisses to all in lieu of pixie dust which got somehow or other left behind { sad smiley face}}
~ Sunday workshop – Peace to Such Foolishness… cont.~
It is a big mistake to believe the Course is saying not to get angry. You were born angry. You cant help being angry.
Jesus is authoritative not authoritarian. He is gentle, kind, loving, patient and clear.
He is not saying not to take pain pills, or to deny your pain. Just dont justify it. Dont believe it. Do magic and at same time practise miracles. Be kind, sane and thoughtful. At same time, recognize it is not real. This is the positive sense of having a split mind. Dont force yourself. You can cultivate that level of awareness. It is hard work. You have to apply yourself. Be diligent, dedicated and patient.
Apply it when you are sitting watching a movie. You know you identify with your guilt because you feel emotions. You feel good when good triumphs over evil. You know they are actors but it doesnt stop you from identifying with them.
The peace of God doesnt have searing highs and lows. Ego thoughts separate.
If your heart goes out to some who suffer but not all, this is not ok….Why ? – because it hurts you.
If you make comparisons real and dont recognize universal suffering, you are saying God is not real. Your motivation should be to relieve your pain.
We are aliens trying to make the best of a bad situation, a dry and dusty place where tired and thirsty creatures come to die.
Step back with Jesus and say, peace to such foolishness, enough already.
Ken then shared how his four year-old grandson kept repeating something told to one of his classmates at Pre-school by the teacher… “stop with the baby business, Beckett, Stop with the baby business”.
That`s what Jesus keeps saying to us. He`s trying to convince us that it hurts us to hold onto judgement and hold onto memories either of pain or pleasure.
If there is a memory, there is no God.
You remember the “positive” things of the past because the present is so horrible. Linear time and space is an illusion.
Memory, anger judgement, bodies – these are all defences against the Truth.
Dont give the world power over the peace of God in your mind. No matter what your brother has done, he has not taken the Peace of God from you. This is not okay. I am tired of indulging myself.
Illness is external searching. My body can`t be sick. How can a puppet be sick? Peace to such foolishness.
The Course is not advocating that you dont use magic. Be kind to yourself.
However the Course does call a magical spade a magical spade.
The cause of your suffering is the mind`s decision for guilt. That is why it makes no sense to ask Jesus or God to heal your body or anyone`s body. They dont know what you are talking about. What body?
The body is a delusional system manufactured by those made mad by guilt.
Lesson 106 – “Be not deceived by voices of the dead, which tell you they have found the source of life and offer it to you for your belief. Attend them not, but listen to the truth.”
Stop denying who you are. Stop arguing. Dont listen to the voices of the dead, that say life comes from a sperm and egg. How could life come from two separate things. Life is perfect unity.
We are not asked to accept the truth until we are ready to hear it.
At the middle of the ladder we recognize right-minded thoughts more and more frequently but we are terrified because we know it is only a hop, skip and jump to Heaven. If i go back to my mind, I will see the choice clearly. The memory of God comes to a quiet mind, not brain. So i stay mindless.
Jesus does not drag us up the ladder but He is relentless at asking us to choose again.
We cling to our specialness to keep us rooted firmly on Terror Firma [ Winnie-note – > Do ya like my spelling of Terra Firma [tee hee}?]
Look at every single moment. Spend the rest of your life practising. Practise not giving credence, validity to something outside of you.
I`m too afraid of making my way up the ladder but at least I know I know that. That is very helpful. You will smile more frequently. As you slowly make your way up the ladder you will become more peaceful and you will set the tempo.
Peace to such foolishness.
I love it!!
It joins “Love accepts even this.”
as a way to look as myself.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you !!!!!!!!!! for the Temecula notes !!!!!!!!
You’re my Australian Angel, Winnie. Big mayoral hugs to ya. Thanks so much for taking the time out of your day to do this – I know there must be other things you’d like to be doing, like hanging out at the Crab Shack, or checking out the surf (and surfers). So thanks for thinking of us all – it’s like being there. I still have to post the other photos you guys have sent me. Will try to do that before bedtime.
{{{{{Winnie}}}} great notes…ditto Bev’s sentiments!{{{{Annie}}}} photo’s and accompaning stories!
Fabulous Winnie – thank you so much and hugs from me too!!!!!! Ditto all of the above!!!!
Terror firma makes sense to me. ::smile::
Hello to my Village Family. It’s very interesting to go from being in the so called middle of the action and then out of it. I can only summize that the lesson for me is that “nothing happened”. And if I don’t think that, then I wasn’t paying attention- because that’s all Ken is really saying up there.
Being present wether it be in a lecture hall or the comfort of my own home those words are like Chinese water torture ~ the constant drip drip drip falling onto my third eye.
The ego can only stand so much.
So I must secretly have welcomed my earthly obligations to return home (home to the ego that is) otherwise I would have created a different scenario. Or, it could be I am already so enlightened that I needn’t stay for the entire lecture series. (I’m joking of course, I recognize my ego humor with its slippery interpretation) Nevertheless, trying to judge any of it is useless. Ken did comment on the fact that only the Holy Spirit knows the whole picture. We can and will never know because we are operating in a closed system. Our only hope is to release all judgement of what is or what is not.
When I have more time I can expand on this story but I do wish to share an experience that was very obviously played out during my stay in Temecula. Suffice it to say it had to do with pain. I have been experiencing a very discomforting, to put it mildly, tooth pain (this has been bothering me on and off for quite sometime now) it usually flares up and leaves when I take my magic advil and then I forget all about it. Well not this time. If I didn’t have the lovely distraction of being with Anne, Katrina and Winnie I would have been in tears. Being a weekend and out of town, I figured I would have to wait till Monday to call my Dentist. In the meantime I was partaking in all forms of magic.
Anyhow, Sundays lecture, the Prelude to the Academy, Winnie already shared the story but I feel it worth repeating; the story of Ken sharing his grandsons’ issue at school with the classmate- Beckett giving him grief. The way the problem was handled by administration was to tell the bullying classmate, “To stop with the Baby Business”. That line clearly clicked for Ken and he has used it liberally to deliver Jesus’ message. In fact, I stopped counting how many times he stated it.
I went to bed Sunday night in pain convinced that come Monday I will be leaving Temecula and head straight to my dentist office at 8 am but I woke up completely pain free. I can only summize the decision maker made an adjustment during the night. My “teething baby business pain” decided to shut up and let me stay and truly enjoy Monday and Tuesday’s Academy without any physical distraction.
So here I am, its Thursday morning and after one day back at work I feel the pain returning. Not horrific but nevertheless there. So now I ask myself…how did I do it? how did I access that decision maker and choose differently? It happened during the night in my sleep so I have no recollection. Its a subtle shift for sure and my thinking mind wants so badly to access…I can feel a tantrum coming on but that will put me right back to that victim role of being a baby.
Well, I won’t continue but its clear that I have been given my assignment and example of how I am still being very childlike and need to grown up. I heard somewhere once that it only hurts if we resist…and what we resist persists.
Thanks for listening and onward with the baby steps. Wish Laura the toddler student was here to help me get on my feet.
xoxo Annie
More great photos for all of us sitting at home and wishing we were there…
And a special gift from Ken and the girls – our very own greeting to the Village with the Man himself.
Sunday workshop – Peace to Such Foolishness cont.~
Q……Could you speak more about how the body doesn`t exist in any single instant?
Ken…… Take an aspirin for the pain but don`t believe it
same questioner…… What do you mean?
Ken……..Recognize the body is in pain and take the pill but dont believe that the pill will do anything.
Use the pain to show you that you are still attracted to pain Use it as a stepping-stone.
Q……….I`ve read the Course right through and i don`t remember seeing the term “decision-maker”.
Ken………The term is used only once and that is in the Manual and is used in a slightly
different way. My wife Gloria and I came up with the
term for pedagogical reasons because it is implied throughout the Course. In the old days i used to say Charlie the Chooser but
Gloria thought we needed a more sophisticated term.
Q…………..I`m wondering what the Course says about animal suffering. I get blocked at this point.
Ken………….Let me read you something from Page 60 – “I thank you, Father, knowing You will come to close each little gap that lies between
the broken pieces of Your holy Son. Your holiness, complete and perfect, lies in every one of them. And they are joined because
what is in one is in them all. How holy is the smallest grain of sand, when it is recognized as being part of the completed picture
of God`s Son ! The forms the broken pieces seem to take are nothing. For the whole is in each one. And every aspect of the Son
of God is just the same as every other part.”
……………
Don`t believe the “meaningful” distinctions. Science talks about the “great chain of being”, and guess who is at the top?
{ audience laughs nervously} homo sapiens and “sapiens” means wise. Who gave us that name? It wasn`t God and it wasn`t a turtle.
Ask any member of homo sapiens what two plus two equals. It isn`t four.
The first Law of Chaos is that the truth is different for everyone. Forms mean nothing. Nothing here is alive. When we first believed we separated from God, it`s as if we said to Him “You think you`re some kind of big shot…. well I`ll show you – I`m going to make a new God and make a new world that will be so impressive”.
Differentiation becomes salvation, proof positive that I am right and God is wrong. The ego loves to study itself, but there is nothing so blinding as perception of form.
As William Blake, English poet, says in his poem Everlasting Gospel :-
“This life’s five windows of the soul
Distorts the Heavens from pole to pole,
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not thro’, the eye. ”
Look not with the eyes but through the eyes. If there is a world then ideas leave their source. The still small voice says – peace to such foolishness. We are always trying to prove Jesus wrong. We say – of course there`s a world ! Look at my pain !
It`s not okay to prove Jesus wrong – stop with the baby business.
How can you find joy in a joyless place ? The only way to find joy is to recognize that there is no joy here.
We luxuriate in our bodies as they break down. Then the ego had to invent the telephone and the internet so we can tell everyone about it.
When we choose the ego we choose a 100% logically coherent and entirely consistent thought system and we get the whole package.
When we choose the Holy Instant, we choose no body. People see you as a body, but you are not here. At no single instant does the body exist at all – that`s why you are joyful all the time. The body is not who you are.
A shadow has no substance. Turn to page 409. “Look upon the little wall of shadows. ” {At this point, Annie nudged me to point out Ken`s life-size shadow on the screen behind. There were 2 large speakers between it and us and so we listened to Ken`s animated shadow go on to recite further – “How can a shadow keep you from the sun? No more can you be kept by shadows from the light in which illusions end. Every miracle is but the end of an illusion
A shadow has no substance. A shadow has no power. Sin is substanceless.
Anytime you feel upset it is always because you have pushed the Holy Spirit out. It is a shadowy fragment of the beginning when we told God that His love was not enough.
We asked God for special favour and he would not give it, so we made of him an unloving father.
Perfect oneness cannot see us, cannot hear us. We wanted individual oneness.
The god in the bible is a most unloving father. He recognizes sin as real and is so unloving, read insane, that he banished us from Home.
Whether you believe in the bible or not doesn`t matter. We love it, because if he is angry with me, he notices me. Whether he loves us, or destroys us, at least there`s an us.
The god of ACIM doesn`t even know who you are.
The biblical god is all about specialness as is his son, if you read the New Testament carefully. Where did he learn this from?
We wrote the book and signed God`s name to it forgetting that we wrote it. The one concept the bible rests on is sin. It is magnificent and all-powerful. We live this out every single day when we think we are important. Whether we are the greatest or the least, at least there is an I.
Even comedians, whose job is humour, have to take humour seriously, because it is their livelihood.
The thought of replacing God has no power. It is a shadow.
We are becoming right-minded. All our specialness thoughts are feathers in the wind. Let them all go. Everything involving the body and form lies.”This feather of a wish… is all that remains of what once seemed to be the world”
I must have decided wrongly if I am not at peace. My peace must embrace everyone without exemption.
What decided wrongly? – cant be the body.
I gave reality to this little insane wish. Our experience with the world in the body lasts 30, 40, 50 years and we hold onto this. We choose up sides. We get affected by what goes on in the world and who the bad guys are – Peace to this foolishness.
You want the effects.
What are the effects of believing in the tiny mad idea……………. = Me.
{ last installment coming up tomorrow so stay tuned folks}
oh and big loving hugs to all of you xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxox
{thinking of you beloved Annie and hoping your tooth settles down}
WONDERFUL BERNARD – ALL OF THEM! THANK YOU!
My dear, dearest, dearestttttttt, friends. Thanks so much. Thanks so very much for this beautiful experience I am enjoying now just looking at all of you, and, of course, looking at my beloved and dearest teacher. Ken’s photo with the greeting is just gorgeous. It is a beautiful experience what you are all living together, and it is really beautiful that your are sharing it with us. Thanks Winnie again for the second part of the notes. They are just great. And Annie, well, your story is just delightful. I, like you, also love stories, and also loved the way you recounted it. No doubt, it is a love story.
Lots of hugs and a great day for all of you and for everybody at the Village.
Lisi
P.S. We are waiting to continue hearing from you soon.
I just added a couple of other fun photos. A picture of Michele (in yellow) and her daughter. And just after the picture of Ken saying hello to the Village, we have Zafu (Peggy) with her zafu cushion, and a photo of the five girls together. Wonderful.
Howdy there – having a great time – wish ya’ll were here!
~ Conclusion of Sunday Workshop ~
prelude to Academy class
This Course requires an 180 degree shift. Everything here is the same. The forms of broken pieces of God`s son are equal. Dont justify your misperceptions. Dont justify anything. Tape a note to your bathroom mirror that says “2 + 2 = 5 ”
We are hell-bent on believing that everything we see is real. You want to be upset. You lust for it. You thirst for it. You seize upon it.
You dont want to watch the news with Jesus sitting beside you because if you wanted to, you would.
You want to take the nothingness of the ego and make it into something. This world was made from the thought of nothingness. The tiny mad idea became solidified by guilt, preserved by fear of punishment and manifested into matter/body.
We give Nobel prizes to the “brilliant” minds who we think make the most sense of this. If I can be hurt, grow old and die to prove I am right and God is wrong, it is worth it…..That is how insane we are.
No one takes love/peace away from me… no matter what you do to my body.
There is nothing stopping from you from having absolutely perfect peace and letting that peace embrace everyone including yourself.
Ask yourself the question why is it okay for me to be upset / to be thinking about my body 24/7. It is not okay. i deserve better than that. This Course will give you better than that but you have to choose the right teacher.
page 587 – “It is not easy to perceive the jest when all around you do your eyes perceive their heavy consequences”
If we were a body, it would be cruel to tell us that suffering is a joke.
Every single paragraph in this book is about our becoming mindful. The bible drags Jesus from the mind to a world of bodies. A mindless world of healed bodies is not going to get us anywhere. Jesus wants to get us Home. Every time you react with seriousness, it`s because you believe the tiny mad idea happened. You chose the teacher of seriousness instead of the teacher of gentle laughter.
Jesus takes nothing in this world seriously. Jesus hates serious ACIM students. {laughter}
How could there be anything other than Perfect Love? We say there is and I`m it. Stop with the baby business.
It is absurd to think that part of God could separate from itself. Jesus keeps bringing us back to the cause.
Look at each and every time you think there is something important in this world and choose to look with gentle laughter instead.
The tiny mad idea taken seriously is behind everything in this world.
There is no hope in this world.
All we have to do is to choose the teacher of gentle laughter. Become a light of laughing flowers right now.
It is no longer okay to give the world of bodies power over me. Peace to such foolishness.
We can choose to identify with the joy of God instead of the pain of the ego.
Turn to Lesson 190. “Lay down your arms, and come without defense into the quiet place where Heaven`s peace holds all things still at last. Lay down all thoughts of danger and of fear. Lay down the cruel sword of judgment that you hold against your throat, and put aside the withering assaults with which you seek to hide your holiness.”
You can be a light of laughing flowers. Begin wherever you are. Whenever you are upset, say peace to such foolishness.
I happen to sit next to Winnie during the classes and noticed she would be jotting things down but not in any feverish pace. Very calmly. I never noticed for instance her turning a page yet she must have to have taken such detailed notes. We are still on Sundays class notes here…the five day Academy notes have not even started! If you can imagine Ken reading these words my friends you are right there with us…not that you weren’t but you know what I mean. I swear Winnie does not own a tape recorder and the notes were not some short hand scribbling. As I read all her postings I don’t think she missed a single word.
“Become a light of laughing flowers right now.” ….that has to be Ken talking about our WinWin because that’s exactly what she is, a delightful laughing ~ mostly giggling Wildflower.
“Charlie the Chooser” What a delightful name for the decision maker.
Again it just lightens everything up!
More photos added – Pam & Cory, Nina, Pat ‘n Bernie. Please forgive the page setting problems I’m having. Just another in a long series of bugs that I’m encountering. I still don’t have access to the home page, hence no movement there for a while. It just gives me a blank instead of the wordpress platform page. The programmer, Cody, has just come back from vacation and so it might still take a day or two for him to clear up the backlog. Bear with me, folks. It’s frustrating for me, too.
We just need pics from Bev, Laura, Lisi, Hedda, Melody, Leni, Donna, and a few others now.
Thank you for sharing all of this from Temecula. Lovely and generous and I want you to know I appreciate all this.
ha ha Annie ..no i think Ken would say i was more like a fright of hysterical weeds (rather than a light of laughing flowers)or maybe a sight of farting cows… great to see all the photos, not just the Temecula gals…..
~ Death and Dying – Academy class Monday March 2011 ~
Ken began by recalling a multi-day class that he held twenty years previously in Ohio. A psychiatrist in the audience asked if he could talk about the Course and psychotherapy. So Ken did and when he finished the psychiatrist told him that he hadn`t said anything different from what he had throughout the week. Then Ken related how just after the Course was published, he was excited to learn that Helen was in the process of taking down the pamphlets. After he read them, he told her that they weren`t saying anything different.
Every problem, every issue is exactly the same.
One important way to study the Course is to see it as Jesus preparing us for our physical death.
Bodies are nothing. Death is nothing. Sickness, despite its discomfort, is nothing. The body doesn`t feel anything. The Course prepares us for death by shifting identification with the body to identifying with the mind. Instead of seeing the body as the end of my life, a prison to escape from, I can see it merely as projection of my thought system. This talk will make death more meaningful for you.
Ken then points to his big chart which has Heaven at the top and tells us that there is little he can say about Heaven, other than it being Oneness or undifferentiated unity. Lesson 169 – “Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being He encompasses all things…….We cannot speak, nor write, nor even think of this at all”
However it is helpful in our dualistic world to speak of Heaven in symbols. …
Eternity is a term to denote something beyond our understanding.
When we question how the tiny mad idea crept into eternity where all is one, we are making a statement that we believe it really happened.I have known people who use this conundrum to say “well unless i get a satisfactory answer to this question, I am not going to do this Course.”
In one of his celestial put-downs, Jesus tells us that we still believe “our understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth and makes it what it is.”
Seeking to understand the “tiny mad idea” will delay you. When you are caught in a burning building, you do not stop to ask how this could have happened… you get out of it.
One of my favourite lines in the Course is ” Not one note in Heaven`s song was missed”.
All of this is a myth.
God is.
But if that is all that Jesus had said we wouldn`t have this wonderful way of getting out of the dream.
This course comes in an ego framework. We need a thought system to meet us in the condition in which we think we are in. It uses the language of the Bible even though it contradicts everything in the Bible. It uses idioms and psychological terms. It is as though we are in a movie theatre with Jesus who is waiting for us to choose our right minds. He is right by the popcorn stand { everyone laughs}.
{winnie-note… So many people booked for this Academy class that it was unable to be held at the Foundation. Instead it was held at one of the local cinemas just up the road}
The two ways of looking, both the right mind and the wrong mind, have no existence. They are simply responses to the “tiny mad idea”.
For 2100 years, we have been used to applying the term “son of God” only to Jesus. Now Jesus uses the term to denote all of us.
“Consciousness, the level of perception, was the first split introduced into the mind after the separation, making the mind a perceiver rather than a creator.”
The decision-maker is conscious of two mutually exclusive responses to the tiny mad idea.
The ego says it is a fact and isn`t wonderful and joyous? The ego is us. This is our declaration of independence. We are now free from the despot who wants us to have every thought he has. We are free from this totalitarian regime, this dictator, who will allow us no thought of our own.
The decision-maker houses the two thought systems. He has the role of judge and like a judge, listens to both arguments. The ego speaks first. The Holy Spirit says nothing. Like Cordelia, he simply smiles sweetly. Nothing happened. If He gave a response, He would be giving a defence to something totally inconsequential.
The decision-maker, as judge, is not really being fair. He should have excused himself from the case because he has a vested interest. He likes sitting on the bench and being called Your Honour. He likes the power that goes with his position. He is very biased. He likes being a decision-maker. He likes being something.
The Holy Spirit is the great principle of nothing happened.
The ego is the thought that likes being differentiated, special. I like it ! I like it. The decision-maker chooses the ego, the thought system that says it is real and it now feels free !
When the decision-maker chooses the thought system of the ego, it becomes the ego. The Son of God has stopped being a decision-maker. It is now an ego. The Holy Spirit has virtually disappeared.
To be continued…………..
Dear Winnie-back-in-wet-ol-Oz, so many thanks for your great notes. I’ll print them out to take them into my favorite reading room. You guessed it.
Thanks dear Winnie, just printed these last notes and I am going to begin to enjoy them. Really you made a great work with these notes. They are not just notes, they are a gift of love.
Big, big hug,
Lisi
thanks for the hugs…lots of love to all xoxoxooxoxxo
~ Death and Dying Page 2 ~
Atonement is the great principle of nothing happened
The Holy Spirit is the link to Truth. If I follow the Holy Spirit and return Home there is no I.
The ego is the part of us that likes being separated. It knows that it owes its whole existence to the decision-maker`s belief in it. This self knows that its existence hangs by a thread.
What if the Son of God realizes he made a mistake and changes his mind.
It would disappear into the nothingness from which it came. The ego is struck with mortal terror.
My very existence depends on this.
Salvation lies in keeping the decision-maker`s chair vacant, empty.
How can I change my mind if I don`t know I have a mind?
My mortal enemy is the blue circle, the choice for God.
The son of God goes to the ego for help. The ego has a plan.
The healed mind doesn`t plan.
If you do not understand what I am now going to say you will not understand the Course. This is the hub, the core.
So the ego develops a strategy. Purpose is everything. The ego`s goal is to preserve its identity. The ego`s goal is to make us mindless. Everything follows logically from beginning to end. If we are mindless we can not change our mind – that is the logic.
In order to preserve my identity, I must become mindless.
Here is the heart of the ego`s system.
The issue now is what is going to motivate me to leave my mind.
The ego tells us a story. It is hideous, horrible and vicious. The ego says “remember how I told you it was a time of great rejoicing? Well as your fine friend, it behooves me to be honest with you.” The ego reads the fine print. “You did a couple of things that weren`t very nice. It`s not important. You wanted something more than everything.
This is a conversation with ourselves. “If we exist, and we do, then Perfect Oneness no longer exists. God had to be sacrificed”. It`s either God or me. This is the beginning of all self-centredness, all selfishness. We are still doing it. All we care about is our own neediness. We just relive the original moment when we told God “my needs are greater than yours. Your idea of perfect oneness is a perfect blob that does/says what you want it to. Well I have my own existence.”
God`s loving, living Oneness had to be sacrificed.
It`s one or the other and I won. The ego says ” What you did, wasn`t nice. God was a bit of an authoritarian but you didn`t have to kill him. That`s a sin.”
That`s pretty horrifying to hear. We feel overwhelmed with guilt. We destroyed the Holy Spirit so we could live. It is not just what we did but who we are. We have become sin. Guilt is woven into our DNA.
Sin deserves punishment so now God will rise up from his grave with a maniacal need to take back from us what we took from him.
What is the purpose of the ego`s story-telling? – the sin, guilt and fear myth.
Now we find ourselves in a battleground pitted against the greatest opponent of all – God.
Think not God has forgotten. What I am going to say now will explain why after years of being devout, earnest, sincere students of ACIM you are still not at peace.The decision-making self is now a separated self, a guilt-driven terrified self. The wrong mind is now a battleground in which we don`t stand a chance. We go back to the ego, the only voice we hear. This is the original propaganda.
Whatever it says is true. Just like when we are very young, the only voice we hear is our parents`.
So we go to our trusted friend and say “Help! God wants to kill me. I can hear him coming after me !”
This is the moment the ego has been waiting for.
“We dont have to be a mind anymore. You did leave your source because ideas leave their source. The principle is valid. It works. We are going to leave our source again and leave the battleground” This is projection.
We take the ego`s hand, which is our hand, which gives rise to a separated, sinful, fearful, guilt world. We are now a body because ideas leave their source.
It is not true. Ideas leave not their source. Projection doesn`t work but the ego has convinced us otherwise. What seemed to happen – the separated mind becoming a body in a world is the Course`s equivalent to the Big Bang. We are doing this so God will never find us. We are hiding.
All of this is a myth. It is helpful to see how our lives fit into this pattern.
So we think this is great. “I dont wanna be a mind any more but what if God finds me? Help!” The ego has a plan. “I`m gonna break you up into billions and billions of pieces scattered throughout a vast universe filled with suns and moons and there`s no way God will find you. We`re gonna find a place for each part of you in a body.”
There is a split-second of relief and then we get paranoid. It`s a paranoid system. But what if God becomes so impatient that he just breaks the world apart ? “Yeah what if he gets me ? Help !”
“Ok buddy boy – I got that covered. You`re gonna be born as a little helpless baby with parents so if God finds you, you will be able to say it`s not me – it`s my parents, uncles, teachers, siblings, friends etc. Don`t worry I`ll see to it that you have some heavy hitters. I`ll make sure it`s not your fault”.
And then the ego produces his crowning achievement – the veil of forgetfulness. Now we have no memory of where we came from. We are now mindless. The blue circle is now empty. This is brilliant. We think we are bodies, victims of circumstances, of war, famine, nuclear accidents and earthquakes. T page 494…From the belief in sin, the faith in chaos must follow. It is because it follows that it seems to be a logical conclusion, a valid step in ordered thought. The steps to chaos do follow neatly from their starting point. Each is a different form in the progression of truth`s reversal, leading still deeper into terror and away from truth. Think not one step is smaller than another, nor that return from one is easier. The whole descent from Heaven lies in each one. And where your thinking starts, there must it end.”
We think it makes sense that we start out as a foetus growing for nine months in our mother`s womb. It`s insane to think life comes form sex, from a sperm and an egg.
Once the decision-making self makes a choice for the ego, every other step follows and we land with a thud at the bottom of the ladder. Miserable creatures at the bottom of the ladder, that`s where the ego leaves us, trying to make the most of a bad situation.
Thanks Winnie. Are you on the road for your “ride” about yet?
I repeat myself Winnie but once again: BIG thanks and BIG hug !! This class had something “new” about it. Ken seems to find new ways to make the picture clearer for us and you are an amazing “scribe” to get it all down on a paper ; maybe Helen was right beside you : ) ?
And to you Bernard once again; thank you for keeping up this site and I’ll try to find a picture for the “village family album” . Lots of Love to everybody from Hedda !!!
So much gratitude and love to you Winnie for these wonderful notes, and Bernard for this awesome site as well as for all who come here.
Yes, it is very true that I love being a decision maker!
Good morning Bernie and the beloved Villagers..
Hi ya Pam….no when i got home, the campervanny manny hadn`t done anything to my van { sad smiley face} and so now I have to find someone else who can do the work……xoxo
Thanks for the BIG Hug Hedda { happy smiley face}.. I agree that Ken always adds nuances to the message to freshen it up for us. Sometimes the slightest tweak can cause a big shift. Thank you for your kind words…
Lots of love to you too Melody { blows kisses}
~ DEATH AND DYING ~
Academy class March 2011
[ Ken quietly shooshes us after each break which is so endearing.] Hopefully I will get us out of this situation by lunch, he quips…]
*Review*
The key thing is the blue dot. It is our self-concept. There are no blue dots in Heaven. It behooves the ego, which is all of us, to not remember that we are decision-makers. It is imperative that the blue circle remains empty, that we remain mindless.. That`s why the Third Obstacle is the attraction of death, not the fear of death, because if the body died, the body must have lived. You would think it would be the opposite.
We are a sinful, guilty, fearful self hiding from the wrath of God.
Genes and chromosomes have nothing to do with reality or determining if we are healthy. Everything here is an effect…..of a decision. We are just playing around with effects……just playing around with effects.. The mind`s decision for guilt continually generates more effects.
Everybody tries to make sense of a world of bodies but everybody is wrong because they have forgotten the cause.
The entire Course is designed to help us remember………… Enter the miracle.
Once you define the problem, the answer is easy. We want answers but we don`t want the question.
One purpose of this Course is for Jesus to convince us how miserable we are. Things were already worse. We just didn`t know it.
Because of the dynamics of specialness we think it is nice. Anything that roots us in the body is good – pleasure or pain.
The body is nothing because ideas leave not their source. The thought of separation has never left its home in the mind.
WB page 242 The world is nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning. And what you behold upon it are your wishes, acted out so you can look on them and think them real.
We have a two-fold wish that sustains our existence, a wish that we would die for and always do.
Firstly, We exist. Secondly and this is all important – I exist as a body and it`s not my fault. You`ve got the wrong guy.
You chose your parents and your country. That`s why “No one is entitled to his bitterness”.
It seems unkind, cruel and nasty to tell that to a body. But to tell a mind is salvation.
No one dies without his consent. No one is born without his consent.
The key definition of the miracle is that you dream a dream and its contents are not true. We bet on the wrong horse but the horse dropped dead at the starting gate and we put all our money on it.
We still think it is a wonderful horse, just like we think the emperor`s new clothes are wonderful.
Everybody here lies. We made bodies to lie.
I quoted William Blake- visionary and mystic in his poem Everlasting Gospel on Sunday :-
“This life`s five windows of the soul
Distorts the Heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not thro`, the eye”
Why are we born as innocent victims? Listen to what the baby`s cries are really saying with your third ear. This is the original cry and we have never stopped.
There is no hope for release from pain in this world. Bodies don`t do anything. Pain is a decision. Being born is a decision. I have momentary flights into pleasure but they don`t last.
When we say there must be another way, it is an invitation to the Holy Spirit to follow the pathway of the miracle. This Course can be summarised as taking us from mindlessness to mindfulness.
The body is one big problem. In our mother`s womb there are no problems. Once we get here, problems just grow – one problem after another.
There is no hope here.
All the pathways of the world lead nowhere. The miracle doesn`t mess with the world. The miracle looks on devastation and reminds the mind that what it sees is false.
The miracle does not choose for us. What we chose before was incorrect.
The UNESCO constitution says that “wars begin in the minds of men, and it is in the minds of men” that the cause must be undone.
Being a decision-maker, implies a choice. This world of duality is a choice. We think we are bodies following the laws of nature. My mind made up the laws of development, the belief in the laws of gravity.
You don`t have to take this world seriously. It can be a classroom that leads us back Home.
{{{{{{{Winnie}}}}}}} Just thanks, thanks, and thanks. You really did a beautiful work and so very helpful for all of us. I feel as if am sitting just in front of Ken, listening to this all so important workshop.
Lots of hugs and much love,
Lisi 🙂
Me too Winnie – and thanks some more!
Love, Gratitude and a huge hug for these!
I’ve added separate pages for each of Winnie’s notes. Just hover your mouse over ‘Temecula’ and all the pages will show up. It’ll be a little easier that way. Such wonderful copious notes…
glad you like `em my beloveds xoxoxoxoxooxoxo
~Death and Dying ~
March Academy 2011 Monday Part 4.
If you really understood the First Principle you wouldn`t need the rest of the book.
The purpose of the ego is to preserve its identity as a separate creature, to nullify the blue dot, to keep the Son of God firmly identified as a body.
The ego is just a belief.
We are all narcissists. We are addicted to ourselves. It doesn`t matter if we are alive or dead, in pain or joyous.
The Bible has had incredible power and influence. The God of the Bible notices us – that`s why it is so popular. He notices our sins and punishes us. He notices our good deeds and loves us. We worship a cult of individuality.
The ego made up a body that always needs attention. It is incredibly vulnerable. The body is a vertical need machine, so that our attention is riveted in the world and the blue circle remains vacant.
The only question to ask of anything is -What is it for?
Every single thing in this world keeps us in a perpetual state of mindlessness. There is no hierarchy of illusions, but there is a difference in form – that`s what confuses us.
I see the world I want to see because I want to see it.
The etymology of “radical” is “root”. This Course is radical because it gets to the root of the problem.There is only one problem – the decision-maker choosing the ego.
To seek to understand, predict, control what goes on in the world is fruitless. WB p141The temptation to regard problems as many is the temptation to keep the problem of separation unsolved. The world seems to present you with a vast number of problems, each requiring a different answer. This perception places you in a position in which your problem solving must be inadequate, and failure is inevitable.
I have to be worried, to be anxious. I`m not saying not to be busy. I`m saying not to take it seriously. Then there will be no effort, no anxiety, no expectation and no demand.
Do you think that there is any hope for anyone in this world?
Everything here is polluted. Here`s where you want to live purely [points to blue dot on chart].
Nothing ever changes in the world.
Here`s what you want to focus on [points to blue dot again] and you will be very effective in this world. You will be very effective in the world in a different way. You become an example of the right mind. You stand for the alternative. People will look at you and see Jesus.
The problem is you chose the wrong teacher. Separation is not the problem because the separation never happened. The problem is that we believe in separation. The problem is that our minds believe in it.
Tp666Temptation has one lesson it would teach, in all its forms, wherever it occurs. It would persuade the holy Son of God he is a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its frailty, and bound by what it orders him to feel.
Tp485Do you not see the opposite of frailty and weakness is sinlessness? Innocence is strength and nothing else is strong.
The world you see is an outside picture of an inward condition. This is a breath of fresh air !
There is no hope in the world. Jesus gently lifts the veil so we can see that the world is not what we thought. As Plato taught us, we have chained ourselves to the world never realizing the whole other world in our mind. Everything here is projection.
In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud tells us that “dreams are the royal road to understanding the activities of the unconscious mind”. Jesus never quotes that, but that is his content. That`s why we are told not to deny our experiences. With no classroom, no curriculum and no student, what good is a teacher? But we don`t want to learn from them. We want to be the teacher and tell Jesus what we think is wrong.
The real Jesus won`t participate in insanity and so we have to make up a Jesus who will.
The gospel writers thought he was a chip off the old block, which he was. Woe betide if you were a fig tree. He didn`t like fig trees. He didnt like the jews, the gnostics. Read John`s gospel. The gospel writers didn`t know what to do with him so they made him into a special saviour here in the world…… unless he has a bad day then you can pray to his mother – she`s much nicer.
The world is a pictorial representation of your attack thoughts.
There is no world. It is a projection to push Jesus away. It is a chain reaction. We separated from Love. We feel guilty. We project it out and we achieve our goal -> the twofold wish -> I exist. I exist and it`s not my fault.
There are some crazy drivers out here in Southern California. That`s why people move out here, so they can accuse other drivers of being unkind and reckless. You pushed Jesus out of the car at 70 miles an hour and he splattered on the ground and then you got angry because you wanted to get angry. That`s what we do each and every time we choose the wrong teacher. That is our only problem.
It is insane to think there is a world. To be specific we`re all paranoid schizophrenics because we think that beating up on others is salvation. The world comes from a delusional system. There is no world.
We have a teacher of correction who won`t punish us.
That was a great line to end on Winnie.
The note taking is impeccable.
Thank you Winnie – I agree Annie about the last line and the note taking – impeccable!
With Gratitude and Love
Winnie notes #34 last para. what is UNESCO? I really like the opening line in notes #38: “If you really understood the First Principle you wouldn`t need the rest of the book.” Thanks Winniekins for taking the notes. HUGS
Thank you again, Winnie, ditto Annie and Melody, the last line is great and your note taking impeccable. I am still reading and reading, there is a lot to learn an practice in this workshop that you so kindly shared with us.
I am with Bernard and all the Village clan in HBNS.
Have a great and NON SERIOUS day!
Lots of hugs,
Lisi
Pam – UNESCO is the United Nations Education, S(ocial?) and Cultural Organization – a subsidiary (or affiliate) of the main UN. I forget what the S stands for – I used to know it as a kid, but I’m glad I forgot (: – perhaps I’m ‘loosing the world from my tenacious hold on it’, (: although wrestling with this early AM terror is certainly quite an exercise in mind-training practice (:
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
I googled it – I don’t think we’re supposed to remember it ( ah, that would be a gem for the ego – to have to remember all important abbreviations for important organizations – and – and
nope, going out into the sun alredy
thanks a* and Nina. amazing how I can forget about google.
~Death and Dying ~
March Academy 2011 Part 5
[ After the break, Ken has trouble shooshing us and has to resort to ringing a little bell…” I`m like a shepherd with the sheep” says he. I think it would have been funny if at that point someone had sung out ” yeah and we`re like lambs to the slaughter !” – tee hee]
Tp443 What if you recognized this world is an hallucination? What if you really understood you made it up? What if you realized that those who seem to walk about in it, to sin and die, attack and murder and destroy themselves, are wholly unreal?
Could you have faith in what you see, if you accepted this? And would you see it?
The miracle establishes you dream a dream and its contents are not true. This is all you need. There are so many places where the Course says that. You are the decision-making self.
Purpose is everything. There are only two purposes. When you change your purpose, you will wake with great gusto. It doesn`t mean you deny your experiences.
You are not entitled to your bitterness. As you go through your day, don`t believe the ego`s lies. There should be great joy if you are really doing this right………..but you have to really practise……..and it takes time because of our fear.
Freud isolated the phenomenon of Resistance when he realized his patients didn`t want to get better. A dream showed him.
We are so resistant to this Course. This Course is the end of the ego. What is helpful is just to notice the resistance.
The Course says why don`t you just give a nod to God?…..It`s not because you are so busy. It`s because you are afraid. This Course is not hard to understand if there is no interference. You don`t have to appreciate iambic pentameter.
This Course is practical. To every single thing, apply Lesson 5 I am never upset for the reason I think and Lesson 23 I can see peace instead of this. I`ve spoken with Jesus and he says that you have been absolved from doing the Workbook if you just do those two lessons. Now you can graduate and return home. I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts. Just think how joyful you will be. You will be a totally loving person to all people all the time.
When I was in Graduate school, I had to deal with a 9 or 10 year old boy who had abusive parents. I thought everything was fine. On the last day he slowly walked towards his parents and then he turned and walked back towards me. I did not do my job properly. I did not hear the universal call for help.
One way of fleshing out what this means is to see the body as a vehicle of separation leading to differentiation leading to judgement and then attack. We tend to disassociate the Course. The mother of all zen koans is that the eyes don`t see and the brain doesn`t think. It doesn`t mean that we should deny our bodies. It doesn`t mean that at all, but it does mean that we should deny the interpretation.
We have no right to say “I`m not a body. I`m an illusion” if you look in a bathroom mirror and see a body.
TMp3 A teacher of God is anyone who chooses to be one. His qualifications consist solely in this; somehow somewhere he has made a deliberate choice in which he did not see his interests as apart from someone else`s. Once he has done that, his road is established and his direction is sure. A light has entered the darkness. It may be a single light, but that is enough. He has entered an agreement with God even if he does not yet believe in Him. He has become a bringer of salvation. He has become a teacher of God.
My interests are not the same as a carrot`s. I want to eat that carrot. I`m hungry, but the carrot probably doesn`t have the same idea. Bodies are all different.
A major theme of the Course is that we are all the same. It is impossible not to judge someone or something that is different from me. The ego doesn`t recognize sameness. You will not find that word in the ego`s dictionary. Conflict is tiring. When you change your purpose you will jump out of bed with joy.
This world is a cesspool of guilt. How could you be happy here?
A very simple principle while living here is to be kind. That`s the beginning of undoing. Kindness originates in the mind each and every moment. Kindness created me kind.
Be kind to yourself when you are not being kind.
I`m going to finish with one of Helen`s poems. The “altar” is the mind, the decision-making mind.
THE PLACE OF RESURRECTION
There is an altar that I seek. For there
And only there can certain peace be found.
The light of holiness shines white upon
Its cooling stillness wreathed with lilies round.
Here is the place where those who thought that death
Was lord of life must come, to learn of One
Who seemed to die, that life is lord of death.
Beside the lilies sickly dreams are gone,
And stillness spreads a blanket over all
Who seemed to know no rest and find no peace,
To bring the quiet and the dreamless sleep
In which their dreaming will forever cease.
Here we awake, my brothers and myself,
For all of us come here to find the way
To waken from the dream of sin the world
Was made to represent. We come to lay
Our guilt beside the altar and step back,
Putting illusions and mistakes aside,
And learn before an empty tomb to see,
He is not dead Who here was crucified.
Winnie, just thanks again. I want to repeat that your gift is really a gift of love.
Lots of hugs to all the Village,
Lisi
Yes, Winnie – truly an act of love – thank you so very much!
With Gratitude and Love to all,
melody
~ Death and Dying March Academy 2011 ~ Part 6
(Tuesday)
When we talk about death, we are talking about the body`s death. Some people see death as an ending. This makes the error real. We think death separates us from our loved ones and our body. We think it ends our pain and suffering.
Tp 584…A brother separated from yourself, an ancient enemy, a murderer who stalks you in the night and plots your death, yet plans that it be lingering and slow; of this you dream. Yet underneath this dream is yet another, in which you become the murderer, the secret enemy, the scavenger and the destroyer of your brother and the world alike. Here is the cause of suffering, the space between your little dreams and your reality. The little gap you do not even see, the birthplace of illusions and of fear, the time of terror and of ancient hate, the instant of disaster, all are here. Here is the cause of unreality. And it is here that it will be undone.
There`s not many things I like to boast about, but this is one of them. I was always trying to get Helen to write poems and would use occasions like Christmas and Easter to motivate her. She would get ideas for poems and write down the line. If she wrote down a line, that would mean that she would have to finish it at some stage. So she had all these bits of papers with lines on it which i would grab and encourage her to finish. When she got to the last one – > There is a risk of thinking death is peace…….. she said “This is not a poem. It belongs to the Course. Find where it goes.”
So I did. Helen agreed that it was a perfect fit.
Tp583 What could you choose between but life or death, waking or sleeping, peace or war, your dreams or your reality? There is a risk of thinking death is peace, because the world equates the body with the Self which God created. Yet a thing can never be its opposite. And death is opposite to peace, because it is the opposite of life. And life is peace. Awaken and forget all thoughts of death, and you will find you have the peace of God.
The locus of my suffering is my body. Its abuse, breaking down and aging. We think death means the end of suffering – all based on the idea that death is real. People long for death, see it as a mercy, use euthanasia. I am not trying to minimise people`s suffering. Using magic is not sinful. While Christian Science agrees with the Course that sickness is in the mind, they teach that going to a doctor/ taking medicine is sinful. There have been court cases against parents who have let their child die. Tp24 All material means that you accept as remedies for bodily ills are restatements of magic principles. This is the first step in believing that the body makes its own illness. It is a second misstep to attempt to heal it through non-creative agents. It does not follow, however, that the use of such agents for corrective purposes is evil.
Magic is anything we use to solve a problem where the problem does not exist. We think the problem is in the body so therefore the solution must be in the body. And the mind`s decision for guilt, does not get addressed.
We are terrified of miracles and of the Atonement. We are terrified of the mind. It is alright to use a compromise approach. The same time as you doing magic, practise the miracle. Never stay in pain.
But recognize that your mind has chosen this for reasons that you do not understand.
Doing the Workbook is magic. This Course is an illusion. The only value of this Course is to teach you that there is no Course. The only value of this Course is to teach you that there is no time. We can use this world of duality as a classroom to get us beyond duality. When you help someone alleviate pain, you are telling them that their pain is just the same as yours but in a different form. We have shared interests, not separate interests.
Death is seen as punishment for our sins. Another idea we have of death is that it is an awakening, the beginning of a new life. Life after death presupposes that there was life, that there is another side.
But there is only the mind. Everything exists only in one place – the blue dot.
This is one colossal dream dreamt by one Son of God. Within that dream are just fragments of dreams.
Ideas leave not their source. Dreams leave not their dreamer.
Physical death is nothing. Nothing happens when you die because nothing happens when you live. I like this phrase from Plotinus “the seat of destiny” – That`s the blue circle.
The Holy Spirit is outside of us. The world is outside of us.
In Lesson 167, it says that mind never sleeps. When it chooses to fall asleep, it`s still choosing. It`s all pretend.
Tuesday?!! my gosh, Winnie, you are only coming up on the 27 page Wednesday. Slow and steady, girl. You are loved a thousand times a thousand for each page. I think you will have accepted the Atonement by the time they are done. You may even have finished your drive about. Love you so, katrina