ACIM Discusson Group in Morrisville, NC
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"When I said 'I am with you always', I meant it literally." ACIM Text, page 116. "Jesus is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit..." ACIM Manual for Teachers, page 89 "He (the Holy Spirit) has established Jesus as the leader in carrying out His plan since he was the first to complete his own part perfectly." ACIM Manual for Teachers, page 89. "Equality does not imply homogeneity now." ACIM Text page 12. ("homogeneity" is the word which appears in the original UR Text. It was edited to "equality" in the published version. "Let me repeat that the ego's qualifications as a guide are singularly unfortunate, and that it is a remarkably poor choice as a teacher of salvation." ACIM Text, page 170 "As a man, I did not attempt to counteract error with knowledge, but to correct error from the bottom up. I demonstrated both the powerlessness of the body and the power of the mind. By uniting my will with that of my creator, I naturally remembered spirit and its real purpose. I cannot unite your will with God's for you, but I can erase all misperceptions from your mind if you will bring it under my guidance." (clearly, this is Jesus speaking..) ACIM's Text, page 43 |
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NOTES FROM PREVIOUS DISCUSSIONS
SPRING 2009 |
Class date: 5/28/09 6 in attendance Topic: Vision - what is it, how do we get it, and what does it look like? ...to be continued... |
Class dates: 5/14/09 and 5/21/09 5 in attendance Topic: Idols as special relationships Over the course of two weeks, we read and discussed sections III and IV from Chapter 30. First, we looked at the section entitled "Beyond All Idols", which is a fairly good place to start for folks who are unfamiliar with the concept of idols. J talks about idols in other sections of the Course in more detail. However, for our purposes, this was a helpful section, as J briefly defines idols and then describes for us how we attempt to utilize them for our so-called completion. We discussed how we often tend to think about special relationships as terminology which is restricted to human relationships. However, we soon realized that we have special relationships with quite literally everything in this world. All people, situations, and events which we perceive as outside of us are images which we have decided to believe are not part of us and in so doing have used them to "shelter" our guilt. Hence, we make demands on everything we think we see beyond us. We seek completion from it all, either by decreeing ourselves "better", or needing it to "complete" our "weaker" selves. There is always some sort of give and take perception to the relationship, where we seek to win a so-called personal need. J tells us, however, that we are already perfectly whole and complete. Therefore, what could ever complete what is already whole and complete? What "part" beyond the whole could indeed even exist? We turned to the Introduction to the Workbook Lessons to read what J says about "transfer of training" and how true perception, once attained perfectly for any one thing, will automatically come for everything. However, if there is just ONE exception maintained in our minds, then knowledge transfer cannot occur. Makes perfect sense, if we consider it this way. God's mind is One Whole. God thinks in terms of totality, and being his extensions, thinking that way is natural to us, as well - once healed. So, when we finally perceive just one thing truly, what parts can remain beyond that totality? J tells us in the Course that each part contains the whole, and the whole is within each part. Again, all that is asked of us is willingness to know. J reminds us that our function is forgiveness, and he is teaching us to perceive a different purpose in the world we think we see. He is teaching us to recognize the lack of "reality" (OUR understanding of reality) in this world so that we can understand nothing is really outside of us at all. What can harm us when we realize that the world is a thought? And what can hurt us when we recognize that we are eternal spirits rather than bodies that die? Next, we will look at some places in the Course where J attempts to lead us to the experience of knowing and increases our faith in his words. |
Class date: 5/7/09 6 in attendance Topic: Setting the goal In this world, we think from a very goal-oriented stand-point. We plan for our futures, hoping and wishing for a long list of outcomes that we think will make us happy. However, as Workbook lesson 24 so elegantly demonstrates, regardless of our best attempts at planning, we never, EVER perceive our own best interests. We discussed this lesson and realized quickly by our examples that our lists of wishes and wants inevitably conflict with one another, just as J said they would, and what this implies is a setup for disappointment. J tells us that without one UNIFIED goal, disappointment is always the result. Yet, that is what we do. We keep searching and searching, placing extraordinary demands on the world to fulfill us, and it just hasn't dawned on us yet (although I think we are VERY close to accepting this) that our way simply does not work. Time to surrender... Now.. J does not leave us hanging, telling us our way stinks and there's nothing we can do about it. In our discussion, we juxtaposed what we TEND to do, with our worldly ways and our long lists of conflicting goals, to what J is asking us to do, which is to set a unified goal. We read the section in the Text, on page 365, entitled "Setting the Goal", in which J instructs us to ask ourselves what we want to come of every situation, and what is the situation for. He tells us that, without a clear-cut goal set right at the outset, the situation just seems to happen, leading us to then look backwards at it as if the situation itself had meaning based upon our reaction. J tells us flatly that with this method of analysis, "You will be wrong." We'll be judging it in the past, which itself is illusionary, and we'll be doing so with the ego as we decide whether or not we like that situation which happened in that past. By contrast, when we decide in advance precisely what our goal is for any and all situations and indeed for planning each day, we then have a directional compass for making each event happen according to our goals. With a clear-cut goal in mind, (and with lots of help from J as we do this...), we are practicing making all decisions and viewing our world with miracle mindedness rather than grievance, which is just another way of saying we are sifting out the true from the false on whatever stage we seem to be playing our part that particular day. This leads to a very important point. By planning our day via setting a goal in advance, we are NOT talking about visualizing and attempting to "attract" certain events, people, or circumstances into our lives, as that would be an attempt to author our own reality - a la the authority problem. Rather, we are instead simply asking to see the TRUTH in all of our travels, wherever we are taken and moved about through this dream as we are walked on the path to remembering grace. This is not a case of empty words. J tells us there is a very practical application here. He says, "If the situation is used for truth and sanity, its outcome must be peace. This is quite apart from what the outcome IS." So, regardless of the specifics, if we remember to look for truth, peace can be experienced, no matter what. He does tell us that this goal of truth requires faith. We are exhibiting faith when we have accepted J and the HS's purpose into our lives. This need not be without any waivering. That's why they call it faith rather than Knowledge, for faith itself is still considered a learning goal, per J. However, we can offer J our faith as we accept the goal of truth, because he sees the situation from the whole. By knowing that he is orchestrating this seemingly chaotic world, leading us all on the path to grace together as we all play our parts, we can indeed seek the true in all situations. It's there. Anything which does not result in the effect of peace is fantasy and illusion. |
Class date: 4/30/09 4 in attendance Topic: Sickness The evening's discussion centered around the topic which is monopolizing the news currently - that being the so-called "swine flu" and the resulting ruckus. We talked about the ego's insanity and how we simultaneously are afraid of illness, and yet we love the drama of it all. We are quite literally attracted to it! We read from several sections in the Course which served to remind us that the body and mind cannot both exist. We are either body or mind/spirit, not both. The body is a concept, a mere image, projected BY the mind, OF the mind, and when we accept that the body has NO creative capabilities of its own whatsoever, we can then recognize that the body does not "make" illnesses, even when we give the body the idea to do so. It is ALL mind, yet anything counter to God's will is without cause. When we remember the truth and cease projecting guilt upon a "body", illness becomes impossible. |
Class date: 4/23/09 6 in attendance Topic: Forgiveness is Acquired For our discussion, we began by studying sections of two of the early Workbook lessons, which helped to remind us that HOW we see the world begins with the realization of how we see ourselves. That's because the world is not outside of us. There is NO world outside of us. The world we see is made up of images we make in our minds as we attempt to continue our belief that we are separate from one another, walled off in bodies which themselves are also part of these images we've made which we call "the world". However, as Workbook lessons 35, 36, and 37 remind us, our minds are very holy because they are part of God's, which therefore implies that everything we "see" is enveloped by our holiness. It is this thought which helps us to remember that true forgiveness happens when we are able to look upon the world from the realization of our innocence and holiness, as where there is known holiness, there is no guilt to project as images of separation, grievance, and blame. Where there is known holiness, there is no condemnation. And, where there is no condemnation at all, then ultimately, there is no need for forgiveness, which is why J tells us that God does not forgive because God does not condemn. However, until we fully remember our holiness, we can practice this state by exercising our willingness to remember through the notion of "forgiveness". We read page 540 in the Text, with paragraphs 9 and 10 particularly emphasized, which reiterates for us the notion that our "secret sins" which we hide and keep to ourselves become the cover, the shell - the very perception of the world we see. As J tells us, "The unforgiven have no mercey to bestow on another. That is why your sole responsibility must be to take forgiveness for yourself." We are told in another part of the Course that our only function which is meaning in time is forgiveness. Here on page 540, J is saying this again. Our sole responsibility is to TAKE FORGIVENESS for ourselves. From here, we turned to Workbook Lesson 121, which gave us some specifics on precisely how to "take forgiveness" for ourselves. For example, Lesson 121 tells us that forgiveness is "acquired". (paragraph 6). We don't know how to forgive as a natural, inherent condition to our minds. That's because our minds are split. Since we have taught ourselves that sin is a concept that is real, we are entirely incapable of simultaneously teaching ourselves that complete forgiveness is what we really want. Those two notions are coming from two different thought systems which seem to oppose each other. (They DO oppose each other, logically, but in truth nothing can oppose God's Thought system, so in reality, God has no opposition.) J makes it very clear that we must learn forgivness from the Teacher Who represents the other Self in you. That Teacher is Jesus, as the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Keep in mind, we do not know how to forgive. All we need do is ask, with willingness, to be taught from the right Teacher beyond ourselves. We cannot simply say, "I forgive (fill in the blank)". Instead, it is a matter of ACQUIRING the new mindset by with which our holiness is remembered, the tapes of our grievance-laden pasts are "erased" and seen anew, and from there we are able to go forth quite literally seeing a new world which is perceived truly and in alignment with our inherent holiness. I feel very strongly that spending quiet time with J, each day, is very important for this process. He works with our minds in ways we cannot understand, and yet we must be available to hear his instructions. When we are caught up in our busy "world days", we cannot hear all he is asking us to do to escalate this process. Enjoy the time spent with him, because he truly is here and is so anxious to talk with us. |
Class date: 4/16/09 4 in attendance Topic: A Healed Mind does not Plan For this class, we discussed two lessons from ACIM's Workbook - Lesson 22 and Lesson 135. Both lessons speak of our projected guilt as "defense". Lesson 22 explains in basic terms that the world we see is the result of a cycle we enter into as we project our attack thoughts "outward" and hence then expect the world around us to retaliate. In response, we put up more defenses, which is more projection, and then what we see around us is a world poised to attack us. It is a vicious cycle which propagates itself until we are willing to change the way we see. Being a very early lesson, J does not go into detail here about what that means. However, as we discussed, we know the punch line already. We must allow J to help us forgive our erroneous way of seeing so that we "see" from our true state of innocense. By so doing, we no longer project guilt upon the world because we no longer perceive guilt within ourselves. We will talk more about this in future classes. We also read and discussed Lesson 135. This particular lesson is chock full of ideas, all related to our defenses. J describes the various things we do on a regular basis, which are all nothing but defense, including wearing clothing, putting up walls around our "selves", taking "health inducing" medication, following laws and ethics, etc. He reminds us that the only thing we could possibly be trying to protect is the body and "its little life". However, he tells us that when we cease trying to ask it to do unreasonable and unattainable goals, where the mind is then healed of the need to use the body for what it was never meant to do, then the body will respond with health and will be given all of the strength it needs to carry out the role it is asked to perform quite flawlessly. Lesson 135 also tells us, very directly, that the healed mind does not plan. It merely waits for direction from the One who knows the perfect plan for all. J tells us when there are plans to be made, we will be told of them. So, make careful note here that this lesson does NOT imply a LACK of planning. Instead, it implies the presence of perfect planning from beyond our selves and our restricted, so-called "personal goals" - of which J tells us in another part of the Course that we do not have at all, in spite of our firm belief to the contrary. J asks us to simply "let present confidence guide the way" and to resist the need to plan our day according to our beliefs about what we must do or what we think we want. Whenever I read this lesson, I get tickled thinking about the chiropractor who speaks quite a bit in the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know". His big thing which he advocates is to wake up each morning and plan his day. While I'm sure he is a very kind, gentle, loving person, I have to wonder how well that has worked for him, and I would like to refer him to the title of the movie he appeared in before he starts his own planning.. : ) To paraphrase it another way, straight from J, from Workbook Lesson 25, "I do not know what anything is for", J says this: "Another way of describing the goals you now perceive is to say that they are all concerned with "personal" interests. Since you HAVE no personal interests, your goals are really concerned with nothing. In cherishing them, therefore, you have no goals at all. And thus you do not know what anything is for." So, relax. Realize that we are not moved through time and space at random (lesson 42), and recognize this, from Lesson 135: "What could you not accept, if you but knew that everything that happens, all events, past, present and to come, are gently planned by One Whose only purpose is your good?" It is only our defenses which do not allow us to recognize this. We are NOT the authors of our reality.. |
Class date: 4/9/09 7 in attendance Topic: The Holy Instant We read as directed, from the Text's Chapter 15, Sections I, II, and IV. Given the amount of material in these three sections, we did not read it all. However, we covered some highlights from the first two sections, which aided our understanding of section IV. Most notably, J reminds us we actually have not experienced the holy instant yet. He tells us we will know it when we do, without doubt, as it will "literally blind" us to this world we think we see. He describes the interactions here in the world, which are reflections of the holy instant, as miracles. J tells us we can practice the "mechanics" of the holy instant now by imagining what it is like to have "no cares, no worries, no anxieties, but merely to be perfectly calm and quiet all the time." He suggests that we do this by taking this very moment and feeling it as perfectly free from the past, realizing that the past cannot touch us "here" in the present. Each moment is "clean and untarnished", free of the past, and stretching endlessly, with no shadow from the past upon it. J tells us that we could have this eternally, except for one problem. That problem is that we still have thoughts we wish to keep as private. This is where many people become confused about what the holy instant really is, I do believe. The holy instant is not a time of reflection or sudden insight about the world. It is not a moment of relative peace where the world is momentarily "escaped" by comparison. Rather, the holy instant is a moment of completely open sharing. In other words, it is union - not with another body, but through the mind we ALL share. When we are willing to open our minds COMPLETELY to J, which involves dropping everything we attempt to "do" on our own, on our terms, as communication "aids", then the holy instant can occur as perfect simultaneous giving and receiving. This is not a giving and receiving to one's self. I don't take from my right hand and place the "gift" into my left hand. That is NOT what real openness and sharing are about at all. In union, we open perfectly to another, loving them "as" our self. When we reach this state, as in revelation, we realize what at-one-ment actually entails. What is given is experienced WITH the other through the one mind, as he experiences it, visa versa. In that sense, we do give to ourselves, but not because we want to keep it to ourselves! The perfect open sharing of the holy instant teaches us that giving and receiving are the same thing, and learning this is really the lesson we are here to remember. |
Class date: 3/26/09 8 in attendance Topic: I Need Do Nothing. We read from the Text, Chapter 18, Section VII - which is titled, "I Need Do Nothing". While we talked a bit about this idea the previous week, we continued our talk this week by reading to see what J specifically says about "doing nothing", as this is a concept which is quite often misunderstood. We enjoyed some wonderful sharing and discussion before and after reading. I will do my best to sum up our conclusions. As J tells us, "to do anything involves the body". (para 7) However, carefully note that the first sentence in paragraph three states, "At no single instant does the body exist at all." If we consider these two ideas together, perhaps it becomes clear fairly quickly where J is going with this. Think about it from a purely logical standpoint. If at no point has the body ever existed or ever will, and to DO anything involves the body, then can we ever really do anything? The answer is surely "no". Therefore, what need we do? We need do nothing. When we are "doing" anything, we are only dreaming of "doing", folks. That's because we are experiencing a DREAM of having a body, which again, as J tells us has at no single instant ever existed. Our ideas of a body are extracted solely from thoughts about it based either in the past or the future, both of which are entirely illusionary. J tells us that we must see no past or future, just for an instant, in order to accept the holy instant. We also must entirely forget the body, for an instant as well. He tells us that we have not yet done either of these things. The notion of the body has perhaps faded from our view at times, but if we are still "here" in the world, we have not experienced the holy instant. This is also a source of confusion. J tells us in another section of the Course that we have not yet experienced the holy instant. I believe that when we toss around phrases about experiencing holy instants with folks, we are simply confusing moments of miracle mindedness. Ultimately, however, J is giving us the glorious news that there is nothing we need do. What can we "do", if we aren't "doing" with a body? It is here we can consider the notion of "being". To "do" as our Father created us merely means to "be". A child of God who knows he is spirit has only one function, which is happiness. This is not a "doing". Nevertheless, while we continue our paths toward remembering Grace, still believing in the world of form and ourselves as bodies within it, we will continue to "do". J does not leave us out in the cold with no direction for this interim. He merely asks that we turn within, with willingness, in order to hear his Guidance and to feel his Comfort as we proceed. It is from that quiet place of connection, deep within, where we slowly yet more and more consistently begin to remember our true existence with God and in God. As that truth becomes increasingly understood and known as an experience not of this world, the "doing" of the world loses all appeal. "I need do nothing" is J's mantra for us, to serve as a reminder when we feel that God's love must be sought by our methods, rituals, and mental preparations. "I need do nothing" is also J's gentle guidance speaking which says we need do nothing alone. No need to spend hours at a time, or years of life, spent practicing and perfecting the ego's meditation techniques. J tells us the realization that we need do nothing is the ticket to slip past countless years of effort, to where we recognize we need expend no effort simply to be with God. In order for this realization to truly make its way into our minds, we do need J's help, and in order for us to allow J to help us, we must offer the willingness for him to do so. Please remember that the Holy Spirit's voice is very quiet. He will not speak loudly over the ego's voice. In order to hear J, we must get quiet and listen. Cease the body's doing. Remember what J said about this - that the holy instant is only experienced when we are willing to entirely forget the body but for an instant. In our discussion, we considered that perhaps playing golf or painting a picture were ways to forget the body. While these activities can and do sweep our minds up and away from our perceived limits within a body, we nevertheless are still focused on the outside, interacting with the world with our bodies. This is not what J means. Ask him, and he will guide you to the experience of quiet union with him within. |
Class date: 3/19/09 9 in attendance Topic: The Holy Spirit's One Curriculum by way of the one unconflicted Teacher, and the implications thereof, to our accustomed way of learning.. We picked back up with a discussion which was begun on 3/5. Our reading included Chapter 12, Section V, from ACIM's Text, which is a section entitled "The Sane Curriculum". In this section, J reiterates for us, in no uncertain terms, that our choice to learn from a teacher who himself is conflicted will merely lead to more inner conflict. It is an impossibility for us to learn from ourselves - we who have taught ourselves to think by way of an insane thought system, as our insanity runs so deep that we are unable to discern on our own what is sane from what isn't. J asks us to please resign as our own teacher. Only then do we make way for real learning to begin. When we attempt to teach ourselves and learn from conflicted teachers who are merely teaching ABOUT an illusion, we do nothing but recycle questions about nothing into more questions about nothing. This is akin to trying to find our way out of a haunted house full of mirrors where we don't recognize that we are looking into mirrors, and we'll never find a door out at all even if we did! We aren't asking the right question to locate the door, as finding the door involves a deep surrendering of the our rituals and methods for searching. Lesson 77 in the Workbook, in which J walks us through the letting go which is required to recognize our natural inheritance to the love of God found in miracles, he tells us we are asking a real question at last.. Real questions are not about illusions, as they are meaningless, and that includes questions and so-called answers about what we perceive as the body. We discussed bodies and their newly assigned functions as tools for forgiveness and miracle, once we accept our function in the world and agree to use our bodies for these holy purposes. We recognized that all fear is tied entirely to bodies, in some way or other, and that our real invulnerability as promised by God is so because of our true nature as Spirit. Bodies are highly vulnerable. There is no denying that. Jesus himself showed us that, as his body was beaten, tortured, and eventually killed. And yet, his message to us is that HE never died, for he is not a body, and neither are we! How can he be here teaching us now if he died? How can who we really are suffer any vulnerability if we are eternal, just as J, our brother, is showing us he is? J tells us very clearly in the Course that we must either believe we are a body, or a mind, but not both, as they cannot occur together. From Workbook lesson 96: "A mind and body cannot both exist. Make no attempt to reconcile the two, for one denies the other can be real. If you are physical, your mind is gone from your self concept, for it has no place in which it could be really part of you. If you are spirit, then the body must be meaningless to your reality." I feel strongly that we must be very honest here and not allow ourselves to get caught up in platitudes which merely bolster the ego's belief in the body. It is so easy to let ourselves believe that God will fill our bodies with health-inducing nourishment and infuse our cells with energizing life forces, etc. Very well-meaning ACIM teachers offer these thoughts. However, I feel led to say here that God and J will not do or say anything which will ENHANCE our belief in a physical body. J is trying blessedly hard as he who is in charge of the Atonement to help us DROP our belief in the body and to see it as just one more piece of the one whole illusion that is the world we made. Again, this is just one more example of how we can keep ourselves spinning in confusion when we listen to conflicted teachers. We also talked about our desire, as messengers for God, to most effectively and most gently help bridge any communication gaps between ACIM folks and traditional Christians. The consensus of the discussion led to the reminder that we simply say what we are guided to say, and sometimes we will not need to say anything at all, but simply be. Where there is love, words need not necessarily "teach" the love. We ventured a bit into one of the more well-known, yet easily confused, phrases from ACIM, which is, "I need do nothing". This phrase is often misinterpreted, where the accent is on the word "nothing", rather than on the word "I". Rephrased just a bit, and taken in context of the complete section, I find it to say, "I myself need do nothing on my own in order to reach God." We'll talk more about this section another time, as it is very important. We shared some of our fears, such as job and school performance issues along with economy issues, basic food and shelter concerns, etc. We discussed that we will always be cared for because God loves us. That is true. However, I think we must be a bit cautious to recognize what that really means. God DOES love us, as does J. Nevertheless, our role in this play may indeed involve illness, or homelessness, or a period of hunger, or whatever the DREAM trauma may be. This is no way implies a lack of love from God. Anything that runs counter to absolute perfect peace (which is all things of the world) are of the ego's making, not of God's. We cannot blame God for our troubles. Nor can we say when we DO have adequate housing, food, etc., that it is BECAUSE God loves us. Does that imply God does not love those who are starving and homeless? We must take care not to ask God to bring truth TO the illusion. In other words, God will not bring food to feed us to our illusion, as that reinforces our illusion as real. However, Guidance is always available, as is Comfort. J tells us in the Course to leave our needs to the Holy Spirit. That, however, may very well include the need for the ability to forgive the illusion of illness, starvation, homelessness, whatever dream plight we seem to find ourselves. We do not know what anything is for! We discussed fear in our job situations and recognized that as long as we believe we are "here" in this world, the characters we have been assigned to play will indeed experience human "stuff", as the world itself is a projection of fear. However, as we practice forgiveness with J and learn to know him as the spirit he is, which in turn tells us of OUR true reality as spirits, then we increasingly recognize the illusion for what it is, as well. So, as the character still plows through the world's stuff, "we" simultaneously are able to pull back and gently view the scene with more distance and detachment from the meaning we have tried to give the world. We also know where to return for Comfort whenever we need it - straight to J - rather than thinking we are having to go it alone in a very "real world", like we used to believe. And as we learn to release the meaning we ourselves attempt to ascribe to the world, this frees our mind for J to overwrite the meaningless with HIS meaning - with light and love! So, hang in there. Let our characters play the roles they play, practicing miracle mindedness in each scene where we find ourselves, using the scenes as simply the stage rather than some REAL scary world in which we are destined to die! Talk with J frequently, ask for Guidance, and expect the experiences he promises us in the Course. He's right here - literally. |
Class date: 3/12/09 4 in attendance Topic: We had a very small group tonight, with folks busy and out of town this week. We will pick back up with the topic of the HS's one curriculum next week. Instead, we discussed revelation, miracle impulses, vision, and many true perception experiences we have shared, along with our individual paths to and with ACIM. |
Class date: 3/5/09 9 in attendance Topic: The One True Curriculum as taught by J, who is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit We read and discussed the Text's Chapter 8, Section I, which is entitled, "The Direction of the Curriculum". This is merely an introductory section to the chapter "A Journey Back", which takes a larger look at the directions we have chosen for ourselves with our decisions and desires. In this introductory section, we are asked to look closely at the choices our ego's insane thought system makes and if indeed we want the outcomes of those choices. J points out to us that the ego's directions only bring us pain and suffering, and every response to the ego "is a call to war", which deprives us of peace. He contrasts this, briefly, with a description of the Holy Spirit's curriculum, which is opposite in every way from the ego's, as the HS's curriculum points solidly to peace as the outcome, with no exceptions. The main point J makes in this section is for us to recognize that we cannot learn simultaneously from two teachers, when it comes to learning about ourselves. Yes, two WORLDLY teachers can teach us about a chair. One can teach us that it is wooden, made of maple, and will probably last 150 years. Another worldly teacher may agree that it is maple, but this teacher may say the chair will last 200 years. So, who is right? They contradict, and that is acceptable in the world. NOTHING in the world is in complete agreement. However, when we are learning to remember the truth of who we are, we must learn from the one Teacher who Knows, and NO ONE else. If we attempt to learn this from a worldly teacher who himself does not know who HE is, then the message is yet again a conflicted one. As J tells us, our reality remains unchanged, regardless, but if we continue to listen to conflicted teachers, our minds will remain conflicted, as well. PUT ASIDE the teachings of conflicted teachers while attempting to escape the illusion. If you are asking questions OF the illusion, ABOUT the illusion, then it is perfectly acceptable and in fact makes perfect sense to ask the questions of teachers who are WITHIN that illusion! However, when we make the decision to forgive the illusion and to learn Who we are, far beyond the illusion, it is time to cease listening to conflicted teachers. We asked what it means to "change directions", as J points out that a complete change in direction is necessary for the change in curriculum. The ego's roads are many. We wander ceaselessly, down this road and that, looking and looking for "salvation". Our potential to "hope" is quite great!! We search and search and inevitably end up disappointed by that relationship, that job, that body, those new clothes, that car, whatever! And yet what does the ego tell us to do? Try again!! Search again! The same way! With no change to our methodology at all! Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well, Albert got THAT right! He defined the ego. To change directions is to finally recognize that our way does NOT WORK. Put on the brakes, throw up the white flag, surrender with a heart-felt humility and deep gratitude that J really IS here, and be so very glad that he can show us an entirely new route that doesn't involve the world's "roads" at all. When we ask him for help, genuinely, and we are ready to give up OUR attempts at searching, then THAT is a change in direction. We read a bit from another section - Text, Chapter 12, Section V, but we only made it through paragraph 5. We will start this section again this week and likely continue with more readings related to this topic. We will continue with this discussion next week! : ) |
Class date 2/26/09 7 in attendance Topic: Seeing our brother in the present (we deviated from "The Direction of the Curriculum" as previously posted, but we'll get back to that next week..) We discussed, per a student's suggestion, the Text's Chapter 13, Section VI, which is a section of the Course dealing with viewing the present as a means for healing. All healing is release from the past, for it is our perception of a past and the so-called consequences thereof which, in part, are the thoughts which we allow to keep us prisoners in hell. We also project our perceptions of the past upon our notions of the "future", and therefore we assume that the future will be just like the past, leaving us caught in a rather impossible bind. Escape is achieved by the recognition that the present is all there is. However, we cannot recognize this ourselves. Our part is merely to offer the willingness to let J do the "work" FOR us. J says that to be born again simply means to let the past go and to look without condemnation upon the present. We must remember what he tells us in the early Workbook lessons, however, and that is that we are preoccupied with our past thoughts and are incapable of preceiving the present. We think we know what the "present" is.. right now.... and NOW.. and NOW.. But, guess what.. By the time we even just think the IDEA of "now", we are nowhere near the present, kids. For "now" is a symbolic concept of the illusion's time, a thought we think, and as J tells us in the early lessons, the thoughts we think we think do not resemble REAL THOUGHTS whatsoever!! So, please do not deceive yourselves into believing that you can just sit and be in the so-called "power of now" :-P The real present is outside of time and can be experienced temporarily in the revelation (direct UNION with God), with no perception of the time construct we have overlaid upon eternity, and it gives us a glimpse of the end, to the state of experiencing the power which opposes nothing (as J describes it). (Text, page 574) So, while this is a valuable section for consideration, we ultimately must remember what we cannot remind ourselves of too many times. Our role is to offer the willingness in a state of true surrender. Remembering the present is merely a theoretical consideration for us. It is a reality that J can achieve FOR us, but only with our willingness. Go to him, and ask for his help, with wholly open hands. |
Class date 2/19/09 8 in attendance Topic: Step Back! This discussion was a continuation of our earlier classes centered around what it means to be a Teacher of God. We read the Workbook Lessons 154 and 155. Lesson 154, "I am among the minsters of God", reminds us we need neither feel falsely humble nor arrogant as we fulfill our consciously accepted roles as messengers for God's Word. The reason? We ARE merely messengers, as the Word itself is not our own. There is only one healed Teacher among us. We are asked to listen to His Guidance as we offer Him our bodies to utilize as tools, quite literally, to use to deliver the message to our brothers. We did not write the messages we bear. However, as we share them, so do we learn them ourselves. When we offer the messages to our brothers, it is then we begin to recognize that we do indeed believe that which we teach, and faith in what WE have been taught begins to grow. As we discussed last week, faith remains a learning goal of the Course, (per Chapter 19), for once we have FULL faith, we no longer "need" faith, as we then have Knowledge. However, while we remain in this world with our brothers, helping J to teach, we learn AS we teach. It is here we learn the basic miracle principle that giving and receiving are one and of the same. Lesson 155, which is "I will step back and let Him lead the way", continues this same learning theme. It addresses what is a bit of a classic question of how to be IN the world but not OF the world. J tells us that once we have recognized that the world is indeed an illusion and have accepted that our role here is a holy one as Teachers of God being our one and only profession (with worldly "professions" as merely the stage/backdrop), we will still appear to be "here" in the illusion, and yet we smile more, our faces are more serene, and we now allow Jesus to lead the way for us. Before this truth is recognized, we live our lives as if the world controls US. We live as if the world is an entity outside of us that is doing things TO us. Once this thought process is recognized for the upside down, inside out errors of its ways, we are able to still APPEAR to be "in" the world, and yet we are able to let our one unconflicted Teacher (Jesus) lead the way for us as we fulfill our roles as messengers of peace per His directives. He tells us exactly what to do, where to go, what to say, and to whom, as we let truth of His guidance lead the way while illusion sinks behind. The lesson points out that attempts to renounce the world while still believing in its reality does not result in release. We discussed what this means, and we came up with examples of people who inflict sacrifice upon themselves in the name of so-called holiness, such as celibacy, flogging, isolation, etc. There are less extreme examples every day. I am aware of ACIM-oriented teachers who have attempted to renounce ownership. It is perhaps a little silly to renounce ownership (says me), as that is making the notion of ownership itself real and threatening. J says the HS will tell us exactly what we need, and that includes what to "own". Ownership is only "dangerous", per J, when decisions concerning ownership are left up to our ego rather than His guidance. Regardless, whatever we attempt to renounce in this world, folks, by either decreeing it something we must avoid or by saying we must not look directly at it, is something we have decided is real and scary and threatening and therefore is something we have separated off by itself as "untouchable". Even if we attempt to ask "what if it is not real", that is still an attempt by the ego to sweep it under the rug rather than to look directly at whatever seems to be causing us a lack of peace. J asks us to walk a road between sacrifice and total investment in the world - and from there, all notion of sacrifice will be quickly left behind. J tells us that illusion APPEARS to cling to us for a while, as we walk the world even as we let Him lead the way for us. However, this is only so that we can teach! Do not fret over these seeming limitations, and do not let the ego tell you that healing is not happening, even though worldly "crap" continues for your character. Simply trust that your way is led by J, and trust in His Comfort on the path. Paragraph 6 in this lesson says very much the same thing that page 64 of the Manual for Teachers (para. 4) states regarding how we should not despair about our limitations, because it is our limitations that allow us to be saviors - for it is through our limitations that we are able to relate to our brothers! |
Class date 2/12/09 9 in attendance Topic: It's a Matter of Trust (right, Billy?) ; ) Our discussion started with Ed and me "confessing" how much time we are spending on Facebook. Ed made a Facebook page this past week and now has joined me on the Facebook "cyber waves", joining with people from high school and work, chatting online, and linking in a way that is really a metaphor for the chain of atonement! I talked about how it occurred to me this week that we, as a society, are communicating less and less with symbols, i.e. fewer words. We've moved from face to face to telephone, then telephone to email, then email to brief text messages. There is a tendency for us to look at this as a negative - to assume that this indicates a drifting apart, and yet maybe there is another way to see it (like there is with literally everything).... Perhaps we are in "training", so to speak, via J's plan, to learn to communicate by way of a more realistic communication - a "language" that makes use of less in the way of symbols and more in the way of real communion through the miracle via the Mind we all share (as that communication network!). When we receive a text message, rather than have all of the verbal clutter of many words, we now receive the FEELING - that miracle "surge" of love that accompanies the message from our brother - that is so often disguised and hidden when we attempt to communicate with too many literally meaningless symbols that are nothing more than trips into the past! (We'll talk more about real communication in future discussions.) For now, I feel that this is a good reminder for us to recognize there is always another way of seeing what's in the works. What we perceive as negative, the "J Team" is always utilizing for the optimized good. There IS a plan in place in which we can rest our faith, even when (and perhaps especially when) we are unable to recognize the optimization the same way J can!... We then turned in the Text to page 220 and read the paragraph where J tells us quite explicitly that there is indeed a carefully planned program in place, whether or not we recognize it! : ) Obviously, our progress will be far more swift and easy when we do recognize it and can forgive that which we thought was so very real, cruel, and outside of us. From the Text, page 220: "We are therefore embarking on an organized, well-structured and carefully planned program aimed at learning how to offer to the Holy Spirit everything you do not want."(T.12.II.10.1) We then turned to Chapter 19, Section 1, and read about Faith and Healing. We attempted to define "faith" and realized that, while we can contrast having faith with a state of faithlessness, we really must admit that we don't know (and cannot know) what faith is, in entirety, until we no longer have need for it. J tells us that we are to make faith a learning goal, until it is no longer needed... I take this to mean that he is asking us to merely DESIRE faith and to show that desire through our WILLINGNESS for acquiring it. Yet again, the "little willingness" as all we need offer makes an appearance... J is not asking us to be wholly faithful, because that is impossible. If we were wholly faithful, we would have NO doubts and would therefore have no belief in the unbelievable. So, offer the willingness to learn from him what is not real, versus what IS real, and trust him to do the rest. In that we can have faith! ; ) We discussed sickness and its origin and how the body has NO creative powers at all. We often think that the mind, while being all there is, then TELLS the body to make a disease. But that's not even quite right, because, again, the body doesn't "make" anything separate from the mind. There IS NO BODY separate from the mind. The body is a thought, and so is sickness of any kind. Remember that it is a mistake to assume healing is not happening just because symptoms continue. We must trust that our calls for healing are answered even if the "outcome" doesn't look like what WE think it should look like. A healthy body is no more real or valued than a sick body, as bodies are part of the one illusion! Healing takes place in the mind, which is all there is. We took a quick look at Billy Joel's lyrics to "It's a Matter of Trust". Good stuff!!! |
Class date: 2/5/09 7 in attendance Topic: Our direction for the evening had been to continue our discussion about J's curriculum and teachers of God, by reading Chapter 8 from the Text. However, when one student arrived, she felt directed that we read from a different section. We'll pick up with our topic another time. - We discussed some true perception phenomena, such as orbs, and we shared some photographs with each other that demonstrate these so-called "orbs". We discussed that we don't know what these are (obviously), but we discussed some possibilities, such as how these are from the light spectrum that our eyes are not "told" to see (per our illusion's model for eyes and what we allow as "normal"), and yet our mind can see them perfectly. When we begin to develop vision, we do start to "see" them without cameras! We'll talk more about such things when we discuss vision another time.
- We read the Course's Introduction.
- One student arrived after our true perception discussion and asked the class to read the introductory paragraph to the Text's Chapter 21 and Section II of Chapter 21, "The Responsibility for Sight". This section discusses how what we "see" (with body's eyes) is the simultaneous result/effect of our thoughts projected, because we really do not see anything at all. What we see ARE our thoughts.
- We discussed some basic notions about perception and projection, referring to some of the early Workbook lessons.
- We also discussed how the Course tells us that we did agree to cooperate, whether we remember or not. We talked about "who" this "we" is who agreed to cooperate. It certainly isn't the ego, or the conflicted mind. Our characters in this dream (us right here who we think we are) did not agree to cooperate! The "we" who agreed to cooperate are the "big S Selves" who are one in will with J and God. It's who we really are, but we just don't remember. So, when the Course tells us that we are responsible for everything that happens to us, even here in this world, it really isn't DIRECTLY referring to the character in the dream. Indirectly so, yes, but not directly. Indirectly, the character does have the one choice in each moment to choose miracle mindedness over grievance for HOW to see each image that rolls by, and in so doing, we save ourselves needless lessons. In that way, we are responsible for what rolls down the pipeline to us. But, only in that way. We cannot choose the "whats" of each moment. Those are out of our hands. (see lesson 42 in the Course and also references to the "script"). We can only choose how to see them. When we forgive the pictures and see them with love rather than grievance (with J's help, of course), we rid ourselves of the need to continue cycling through the same lessons in the "future".
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Class date: 1/29/09 9 in attendance Topic: What does it mean to be a Teacher of God? - We introduced ourselves and discussed our backgrounds with, and paths to, ACIM.
- Read the Course's Introduction
- Asked for J's guidance over our discussion as we allowed our willingness to hear...
- Amy shared a story from the week prior involving two of her friends on Facebook - a scenario which sparked the week's topic! We are quite likely going to be called upon increasingly as teachers, in situations that may not feel very comfortable to us. How do we handle this? How do we teach such topics as forgiveness of even the most heinous of "crimes"? There is no order of illusion, and no brother has ever really done anything, but how do we teach these ideas to non-ACIM'ers without pushing them into fear?
- We read the quote from the Text, page 89, where J speaks of urgency: "I am making his plan perfectly explicit to you and will also tell you of your part in it and how urgent it is to fulfill it." The script is absolutely NOT determined, in spite of what Brent Haskell's "Jeshua" says. ACIM is a book which is all about choice - the choice in every moment to rise up and out of the script to save time NOW by choosing to hear J's call for miracle. Please do not fall for Brent's "The Script is Written." (we did not discuss Haskell on the 29th, but I'm taking a liberty here... ) Please note what J says, as just one example of this choice, in Workbook Lesson 292 - "God's promises make no exceptions. And He guarantees that only joy can be the final outcome found for everything. Yet it is up to us when this is reached; how long we let an alien will appear to be opposing His."
- We read from the Manual for Teachers, page 3, "Who are God's Teachers"?
- We read from the Manual for Teachers, page 5, "Who are their pupils?"
- We discussed how accepting quite consciously the role of teacher can lead to feelings of weariness at times as we feel like we give and give and give, constantly trying to overlook/forgive the "errors" of our "students" - the pupils who have been assigned to us. We realized, however, that as long as we are "here" in the world and therefore of a conflicted mind, it is inevitable that we will experience such feelings occasionally while we are in the process of remembering that giving and receiving are literally the same thing, and there is no need to feel guilty about these feelings as we continue to learn. When this happens, simply go to J, tell him how we are feeling, and we WILL be comforted. This led to us discussing, "In our defenselessness, our safety lies", which just happens to be a lesson J had asked us to read prior to the meeting. We also discussed what J has told me - that egos do not wake up happy! It is quite probable that the outcomes we expect to see from these teacher/student interactions do not match what happens, and instead we observe what looks like distress and turmoil. If so, we nevertheless must trust that it is all still unfolding as it should, and it's in J's hands. It's our job to teach in each moment as directed, regardless of how people may seem to react. But we MUST ask for that direction.
- We read Lesson 153, "In my defenselessness, my safety lies." This lesson discusses the roles of God's ministers and how it is our job to merely be the messengers for J's lessons and to allow J to speak through us. We ourselves are NOT the teachers. J is. And of course, as we discussed, in every interaction, we ourselves are pupils, as well, equal to our pupils as learners.
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Class date: 1/22/09 (our first meeting) 7 in attendance Topic: General introduction on how we hope to approach the Course, a look at J's instructions, etc. - Read Course Introduction
- Asked for J's guidance over our discussion.
- Read the Introduction to the Clarification of Terms, found on page 77 of ACIM's Manual for Teachers. We find this to be a very helpful summary of how J is asking us to approach the Course, whereby we are to leave the ego's so-called ingenuity and inventiveness behind to seek the one universal experience. It is here we will find the one answer to the one problem. It is ONLY here we will find that one answer, and nowhere else, no matter how many questions we ask, for each question we ask is merely "answered" with another question - that is, until the experience is reached/remembered.
- We discussed where we each feel the Course "came from"... which led to a discussion regarding who is the Teacher, and who is J.
- We then concluded by reading the section in the Text, which J had also asked us to read, in addition to 77 in the MT. We read pages 56-60 in the Text. This section also examines the ego's need to question. It also takes a look at the ego and asks who is the real "you" behind the ego. Where/who is that immortal, unchanging spirit that does not require any salvaging?
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All photography by Amy Barrington unless noted otherwise. |
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