School for A Course In Miracles

"The universe of learning will open up before you."

School for A Course In Miracles

“The universe of learning will open up before you in all its gracious simplicity.” T-14. II. 6:4
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Musings: An Invitation

Enter Here!

“The power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world.” – A Course in Miracles, T. 12, VII.9:1

Welcome! This is an invitation to make a decision to take part in The Great Awakening that is occurring in all humanity at this time.

I know of no better teaching to facilitate this shift than A Course in Miracles. I have made the journey through the lessons of the Course with thousands of friends who have accepted its invitation to become miracle workers.

Miracles come from love that is not of this world. They are  a way of teaching us that we are both loving and lovable. It is through offering miracles that our minds will be healed of the belief in separation.

A Course in Miracles is very practical. It is for you and no one else. That may at first sound arrogant, but when you understand that when your mind is healed all minds are healed you will see it is both practical and efficient.

“The power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world.”

Musings: The Seeker

There is something about a true spiritual seeker that sets them apart from everyone else, namely they are interested in going beyond what they presently know about themselves.

They are willing to pull up the anchor of history—their name, place, career, roles, and accomplishments up to now, and set sail across unknown waters for the Eternal.

Even the good days lived through the body’s senses are not enough to satisfy the seeker who more than likely has utilized them to the max, finally realizing that they change with the wind. Just a slight shift in the direction and a lovely mood is gone.  He has learned the hard lesson that no lasting happiness is available through the senses.

Another quality of a seeker is a loss of interest in his personhood, that character that the world refers to by some name. There is some tarnish showing around the edges of his self concept, and some patches on his self esteem. No matter how lovely, successful, or happy his image appears to be there is a hollowness in it that he longs to have filled.

A true blue seeker is disillusioned with his plans for happiness for himself. Tired of convincing himself and others that his plans are working there is a weariness that tells the story of the many failed attempts. Perhaps there is another way to lasting happiness?

I set out on that journey almost as soon as I got here. I was very uncomfortable in my “skin suit” and didn’t much like the conditions. Of course, just like everyone else I didn’t know why until much later.

Becoming a learner is nothing more than admitting the following:

“I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself.” ACIM

 “There is no statement the world is more afraid to hear than this.”

Many hands have been extended to help the seeker navigate the journey from here to here. A Course in Miracles, an invitation from the heart to the heart,  is one of those hands.  It takes us on a journey without distance, to a place we never left.

By the way, you already may know if you fit the profile of a seeker. You have a slight gentle smile on your face.

Musings: Three Things

Kenneth WapnickI am not a scholar of A Course in Miracles. For a while I thought I might be but that’s not “the way of Lyn”.  I’m glad to get that out of the way.

The scholar for the Course, in my opinion, is Dr. Kenneth Wapnick. His brilliance and dedication to the principles of the Course are unparalleled.  He is the Founder of the Foundation for A Course in Miracles, along with his wife Gloria. Extensive scholarly material is offered at their website at FACIM.org.

Even though I am not a scholar I do not underestimate the importance of understanding the theoretical foundations presented in the text of the Course. Once you understand the two thought systems the Course presents—the ego’s and the Holy Spirit’s (The Teacher)—and their respective implications, you will be able to open to any page in the often complex material and know exactly what is being said. I owe that understanding to Dr. Wapnick.

Beyond the metaphysics, the more important awareness is on the content of the mind. Is it love? Or is it fear?

If it is love, the intent is to be truly helpful, to join with the other person on common ground, and to look beyond separate interests.

If it is fear, the intent is to attack or to defend (which is an attack), to separate, or to makes oneself special or different in some way.

It is easy to tell what our motivation is by how we feel. If we are basking in peace it was love in action. If we feel anxious and uneasy, then it was fear in action.

Although I have studied, taught and practiced the Course for 35 years all I can say with certainty is that I am a more willing learner now than when I began. That may be my sole qualification for offering our School for A course in Miracles.

Lyn is sort of a combination inviter/pointer with a little bit of cheerleader mixed in. I am not The Teacher. The 365 Lessons make way for The Teacher and I am inviting you to consider doing the lessons.

 

1. It takes humility to be a learner. Humility is for the ego, not spirit. A meaningful message from the Course in that regard is:

“Humility will never ask that you remain content with littleness. But it does require that you be not content with less than greatness that comes not of you.” – T. 381

These are a few things that seem to have disappeared  from my résumé in recent years:

I can’t find personal ambition any more. The possibility of being helpful to those who want to find inner peace is enough reason for doing this.

I don’t waste time and energy making sacrifices. I do what I am inspired to do.

Pessimism. Can’t find it any more. I always think things are going to work out, even when I know they are not. “A happy outcome to all things is sure,” just not according to my plan.

I am not “against” anyone or anything. I find being wholeheartedly “for” something to be much more invigorating.

2. Is the Course for you?

My intention is only to be truly helpful but I can’t guarantee that you won’t be offended by what you read and hear in these pages.

Spiritual paths are often treated like hobbies, pulled out of a drawer when you have some spare time. This just means that the learner hasn’t really decided what he wants to learn yet.

A Course in Miracles offers a real alternative and I hope to make that choice clear so that a would-be-learner can decide if he wants the outcome the Course is leading him toward. It is not for everyone. There are many paths that lead to truth.

No one can give you the desire to turn your back on the conventional wisdom of the world with all of its pains and pleasures. You have to see for yourself that it is the only answer that will save you and the world simultaneously.

How many teachers (learners) does it take to save the world? One. That would be the impersonal you, the one the Course is taking you to.

3. Bad Habits and Cures

Humans have bad habits that are inconsistent with what they say they want. If we knew what our bad habits were, they wouldn’t have us anymore. They are hidden and buried in someone else just so we might keep them. That’s how the fictitious ego preserves itself.

To recognize the illusions in which we believe, we need husbands, wives, parents, children, friends, lovers, authority figures, and enemies to show them to us. Salvation is a collaborative venture. We awaken “together or not at all.” For this reason we should be fully appreciative of everyone, our enemies as well as our friends.

I believe it is in our nature to lean ever so slowly toward love. We are terribly threatened by it for many reasons, one of them being that love is indiscrimate. It is given equally, to all, without exception. The ego only approves of special love.

I feel some urgency to share anything that can help us let go of our self-centered ideas of love and move on to the real thing. I also want to invite others to do the same. It does appear that time has about run out on our learning opportunity as a species.

We have the potential to transcend our self-centered viewpoint but it remains to be seen whether we will just continue squabbling as individuals and as nations.

The perpetuation of our species, another specialness idea, is not the goal here. It is the idea of separate interests in our mind that must be undone in order to save a world that exists only within our minds. I would prefer not to annihilate another thing.

Another bad habit of humans is that they always think it’s about the other guy. If these other folks would just change, the world would be a better place. No. It’s just you. When you leave separate interests behind and awaken to reality you may find that nothing needs to be fixed.

You can’t fix what isn’t real. What’s real doesn’t need fixing.

The behavior that follows a mind that has transcended separate interests is loving and kind to everyone. It doesn’t walk away from the chaos. It shines its loving light for all to see. That certainly can’t hurt the world. Then we will be able to say and mean “a happy outcome to all things is sure.”

School of Reason

“Above all else I want to see.”

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Like any course A Course in Miracles offers an opportunity to learn something that is considered to be of value. The similarities probably begin and end there.

Unlike most educational opportunities it is not aimed at improving who you are or the world you seem to be living in. It may have those residual benefits but that is not the goal.

Changing the way in which you see is the aim of the Course. Most of humanity does not currently believe there is another world to see. Only by transforming the one looking is that shift accomplished. A student first has to decide if he or she wants to become a learner in this particular way—a way that has no particular gains to the personal self. Peace of mind and vision are attained by transcendence of the personal.

 If you feel called to make this kind of change you won’t be able to stop your Self from following it. The “you” who thinks it is living in a world and likes it (sometimes), may resist. On the other hand no teacher can give you this desire. You have it or you don’t.

“The invitation” goes on all the time. You choose when you are ready to hear it. “Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what to take at a given time.”

The curriculum is the miracle. “It is a required course”.
The miracle is the “awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance.”

The Course undoes the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence. “It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to…….”

The Lessons, all three-hundred and sixty-five, do the work in a realm that you are not even aware of. Your contribution to the process is to learn how not to interfere.

Pursuing this calling can feel like turning traitor to the conventional wisdom of the world. It is of a different order in which we acknowledge we are all learners together, leaning toward love while discovering our equality.

The peace any one of us experiences is shared by all since minds are already joined. While it appear that one is turning  his back on the world it is from a selfless and transcendent view that we can bring the inner peace and love to the world that it needs so badly.

In 2009 a small enthusiastic group of student/learners in the way of the Course joined together to start a school for serious students. Collectively, we logged well over 100 years of devotion to the Course’s teachings and the practice of forgiveness. We called it the School of Reason (now School for A Course in Miracles) . I am currently its Director.

A word about the faculty of the SFACIM: Each of the teachers has pursued their calling vigilantly. They have direct experience of the miracle that the required course promises.  Each of them engaged in a two-year process of unlearning so that they could learn to see differently. They know what takes to sincerely practice forgiveness and to receive the benefits of peace. They can help you make the best use of time.

If you are undecided about your spiritual goal and whether our School might help you attain it, you may find it valuable to attend an event sponsored by the SFACIM, or drop in to one of our teacher’s classes. You will find these events and classes posted here on our website.

You may also find a purposeful conversation with any one of faculty helpful in clarifing your interest in attending.

We go together or not at all.

Musings: The True Shape of Being

The shape of our character in the dream is the expression of our intimate inner conversations.

Nothing borrowed will do.

The true shape of our own being must be the result of the laborious excavations of our depths and the treasures we find there.

In our giving ourselves away there is more at stake than just the possibility of the recognition of others. We work for our own sake.

The way in which we raise our family, tend our garden, compose a song, or manage an office is the way we teach ourselves that the God we have met within is not capable of anything but love.