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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The Unrecognized Reason for Sickness & Pain in Our Bodies…

Our Unacknowledged Reason for Sickness & Pain in Our Bodies…

Our Ego Need to Have Enemies

 

 

When working in The Manual for Teachers of A Course in Miracles… we begin to realize two main Manual themes or purposes that are emphasized throughout its seventy-two pages…
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(1) separate interests vs shared interests

“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.”  Man. p.3 par.1

(2) asking help from the Holy Spirit and/or Jesus to let go of judgments & condemnation

“When pupil and teacher come together, a teaching-learning situation begins. For the teacher is not really the one who does the teaching. God’s Teacher [The Holy Spirit] speaks to any two who join together for learning purposes. The relationship is holy because of that purpose, and God has promised to send His Spirit into any holy relationship…Those who would learn the same course share one interest and one goal…  He has seen in another person the same interests as his own.”   Man. p.6 par.5

 No one should attempt to answer these questions alone. Surely no teacher of God has come this far without realizing that. The curriculum is highly individualized, and all aspects are under the Holy Spirit’s particular care and guidance. Ask and He will answer. The responsibility is His, and He alone is fit to assume it. To do so is His function. To refer the questions to Him is yours. Would you want to be responsible for decisions about which you understand so little. Be glad you have a Teacher Who cannot make a mistake. His answers are always right.    M.p.70 par.2


In respect to sickness and pain in the body… the Course is adamant that internally in our minds we choose to believe that we are our  bodies. that could be healthy, or sick. The reason is simply and only to prove that our belief in separate interests from others is justified… meaning: if I’m sick and in pain it’s someone’s or something else’s fault  (eg, ‘you are a pain in my neck’, or ‘I’ve got the flu.’)

Cause could be a person or a germ (doesn’t matter, as long as I believe it’s not me). These causes are now my ‘enemies.’ They are  different and have different interests from me because look at what they are doing… they are the ones causing me pain…. and not me and a decision in my mind. The Course uses the word enemy 166x. 

I make all things my enemies, so that my anger is justified and my attacks (my judgments) are warranted. I have not realized how much I have misused everything I see by assigning this role to it. I have done this to defend a thought system that has hurt me, and that I no longer want. I am willing to let it go. Lesson 51, par.5, p.83

 

So changing the purpose in the mind:
When Jesus tells us we need to return to our minds, we are not going back to make a decision to have healthy bodies. Our bodies are like puppets in a puppet show that can’t really be sick or cause pain because it’s all made-up. So we are not going back to our minds to heal our bodies…
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But we are stepping back in awareness to that inner place the Course calls the mind… to consciously choose Jesus as our teacher to help us not blame our brothers for our bodies seeming to be being sick. When the ego is our inner guide instead of Jesus, there is an external ‘face’ behind every sickness and pain we have, which makes us separate and different from that face. Everything and everybody else are included in that perceived difference because they can and will become ‘the next face,’ the next enemy, the next seeming source of our illness or discomfort. We have to continuously maintain our belief in victimhood in order not to realize we have a mind where we can choose another inner teacher with another purpose.
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In the Course’s forgiveness process, we are not trying to get rid of sickness and pain in our bodies…. but we are learning not to blame our brothers for that pain… it’s the blaming that keeps them separate from us and keeps us in pain… not the body sickness itself.
Separate interests are always based on  judgment and blame…. and we use sickness in our bodies to point the finger at the other guy (or germ or disease). 
The real ‘mileage’ we get out of being sick is it’s somebody else’s fault… That mileage is not because we get attention, or we get off work, or whatever seems a benefit in form or behavior in the puppet show of the world. Those are simply distractions from awareness of our desperate inner need (purpose) to blame others for the pain we already feel internally from choosing separation, and never take the ‘rap’ for that or correct it.  Jesus tells us purpose is everything, and it’s always the honest answer to the one question we always need to ask…. what is this for? Is this thing, situation, drama supporting my recognition of the Holy Spirit’s purpose of forgiveness (letting go of blaming)… or the ego’s need to blame others for the pain of my own inner choice for separation from God??

(For further discussion of purpose: click here)

True healing in the mind has nothing to do with whether the body recovers or not… in fact with Jesus help, if the body seems to stay sick and we stop blaming someone else for it (ie, no more separate interests)…. then that is the real healing of our mind. The sick body then becomes a classroom for us to share in our awareness its not the other guy’s fault, and we then have the shared interest of that realization and awakening. The good news is that not only is the sickness of the body a mistaken decision of the mind to project its own responsibility for choosing to believe in the pain of separation, but the decision to be separate from God in our minds is also a silly mistake that could never ever take place.
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Sickness in the Course always and only refers back to the chosen sickness of the mind to believe we are separated from God, what the Course calls “the tiny mad idea of separation.” Believing we are separated is the sick thought… and that gets projected onto believing we are bodies vulnerable to pain and sickness … but coming from another source and not us.

It doesn’t matter whether the body (our puppet) seems healthy or sick. It really doesn’t matter whether it’s a  seeming sick or healthy puppet. It’s just a puppet in a pretend show. 

‘The real sick’ is we believe we are a body in the first place. 

Can you imagine going to a puppet show where the puppeteer actually believes he is each of his puppets! Yet that is exactly what we are doing when we choose our ego as the puppeteer instead of aligning with the Holy Spirit’s perception of who we truly are.

SFACIM Video Replays on…

“Bodies as Puppets”: 

Part one: click here

Part two: click here

Part three: click here

Part four: click here

 

Introductory Video & Online Classes for Folks New or Fairly New to the Course

 

Here is a list of our SFACIM online programs

suggested for beginners…

and those Course students who desire a “refresher” on the basic insights of A Course in Miracles:

(Current Weekly Class Schedule: click here)

Mondays in the ACIM Workbook @ 6pm Mt.

Saturdays in The ACIM Manual for Teachers  @ 9:30am Mt.

An Ultimate in Course Education & Practice!

 

 

Six Month Course Immersion Program

Next one starts January 6th, 2024…

click here

Suggested Videos For Newcomers:

One Hour Video Introduction to “A Course in Miracles,” by the School for ACIM, with a little history and a brief explanation of the Course’s metaphysics and its unique process of forgiveness … click here

Brand new folks to the Course!

Please watch this video on basic Course metaphysics, and see  ‘The Chart’   (click here) , for simplified diagram of the metaphysics,

to see if the School for ACIM classes and events are something they feel drawn to try and continue.

 

22 Class Introduction to ACIM

For a  list of 22 video replays of classes on a developmental understanding of the basic A Course in Miracles ideas of forgiveness and healing…

and how we made it to the world as bodies, and more importantly how do we get back to awareness of our True Identity in Heaven…

click here

Happy Solstice & Merry Christmas ! The Birth of Our True Identity is Now… and Every Day !!

Thurs. 12/25 @ 10:30am Mt. :

Special Christmas Day

ACIM Celebration on Zoom (with Lyn & Tim)

IF you do not already have our regular class zoom link: click here

 

 

 

Merry Christmas to Jesus & Us!

References and excerpts from A Course in Miracles pertaining  to

Christmas and the rebirth everyday in us… of the ever-expanding awareness of

Our True Identity as Christ

 

Lesson 303

“The holy Christ is born in me today.”

Watch with me, angels, watch with me today. Let all God’s holy Thoughts surround me, and be still with me while Heaven’s Son is born. Let earthly sounds be quiet, and the sights to which I am accustomed disappear. Let Christ be welcomed where He is at home. And let Him hear the sounds He understands, and see but sights that show His Father’s Love. Let Him no longer be a stranger here, for He is born again in me today.

Your Son is welcome, Father. He has come to save me from the evil self I made. He is the Self that You have given me. He is but what I really am in truth. He is the Son You love above all things. He is my Self as You created me. It is not Christ that can be crucified. Safe in Your Arms let me receive Your Son.

 

Text, Chap. 19

(p.419, par. 9-10)

i. The Incorruptible Body

…. The infancy of salvation is carefully guarded by love, preserved from every thought that would attack it, and quietly made ready to fulfill the mighty task for which it was given you. Your newborn purpose is nursed by angels, cherished by the Holy Spirit and protected by God Himself. It needs not your protection; it is yours. For it is deathless, and within it lies the end of death.

What danger can assail the wholly innocent? What can attack the guiltless? What fear can enter and disturb the peace of sinlessness? What has been given you, even in its infancy, is in full communication with God and you. In its tiny hands it holds, in perfect safety, every miracle you will perform, held out to you. The miracle of life is ageless, born in time but nourished in eternity.

Behold this infant, to whom you gave a resting place by your forgiveness of your brother, and see in it the Will of God. Here is the babe of Bethlehem reborn. And everyone who gives him shelter will follow him, not to the cross, but to the resurrection and the life.

Lesson 182

“I will be still an instant and go home.”

This world you seem to live in is not home to you. And somewhere in your mind you know that this is true. A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place that called you to return, although you do not recognize the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds you of. Yet still you feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown. Nothing so definite that you could say with certainty you are an exile here. Just a persistent feeling, sometimes not more than a tiny throb, at other times hardly remembered, actively dismissed, but surely to return to mind again.

No one but knows whereof we speak. Yet some try to put by their suffering in games they play to occupy their time, and keep their sadness from them. Others will deny that they are sad, and do not recognize their tears at all. Still others will maintain that what we speak of is illusion, not to be considered more than but a dream. Yet who, in simple honesty, without defensiveness and self-deception, would deny he understands the words we speak?

We speak today for everyone who walks this world, for he is not at home. He goes uncertainly about in endless search, seeking in darkness what he cannot find; not recognizing what it is he seeks. A thousand homes he makes, yet none contents his restless mind. He does not understand he builds in vain. The home he seeks can not be made by him. There is no substitute for Heaven. All he ever made was hell.

Perhaps you think it is your childhood home that you would find again. The childhood of your body, and its place of shelter, are a memory now so distorted that you merely hold a picture of a past that never happened. Yet there is a Child in you Who seeks His Father’s house, and knows that He is alien here. This childhood is eternal, with an innocence that will endure forever. Where this Child shall go is holy ground. It is His Holiness that lights up Heaven, and that brings to earth the pure reflection of the light above, wherein are earth and Heaven joined as one.

It is this Child in you your Father knows as His Own Son. It is this Child Who knows His Father. He desires to go home so deeply, so unceasingly, His voice cries unto you to let Him rest a while. He does not ask for more than just a few instants of respite; just an interval in which He can return to breathe again the holy air that fills His Father’s house. You are His home as well. He will return. But give Him just a little time to be Himself, within the peace that is His home, resting in silence and in peace and love.

This Child needs your protection. He is far from home. He is so little that He seems so easily shut out, His tiny voice so readily obscured, His call for help almost unheard amid the grating sounds and harsh and rasping noises of the world. Yet does He know that in you still abides His sure protection. You will fail Him not. He will go home, and you along with Him.

This Child is your defenselessness; your strength. He trusts in you. He came because He knew you would not fail. He whispers of His home unceasingly to you. For He would bring you back with Him, that He Himself might stay, and not return again where He does not belong, and where He lives an outcast in a world of alien thoughts. His patience has no limits. He will wait until you hear His gentle Voice within you, calling you to let Him go in peace, along with you, to where He is at home and you with Him.

When you are still an instant, when the world recedes from you, when valueless ideas cease to have value in your restless mind, then will you hear His Voice. So poignantly He calls to you that you will not resist Him longer. In that instant He will take you to His home, and you will stay with Him in perfect stillness, silent and at peace, beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt, sublimely certain that you are at home.

Rest with Him frequently today. For He was willing to become a little Child that you might learn of Him how strong is he who comes without defenses, offering only love’s messages to those who think he is their enemy. He holds the might of Heaven in His hand and calls them friend, and gives His strength to them, that they may see He would be Friend to them. He asks that they protect Him, for His home is far away, and He will not return to it alone.

Christ is reborn as but a little Child each time a wanderer would leave his home. For he must learn that what he would protect is but this Child, Who comes defenseless and Who is protected by defenselessness. Go home with Him from time to time today. You are as much an alien here as He.

Take time today to lay aside your shield which profits nothing, and lay down the spear and sword you raised against an enemy without existence. Christ has called you friend and brother. He has even come to ask your help in letting Him go home today, completed and completely. He has come as does a little child, who must beseech his father for protection and for love. He rules the universe, and yet He asks unceasingly that you return with Him, and take illusions as your gods no more.

You have not lost your innocence. It is for this you yearn. This is your heart’s desire. This is the voice you hear, and this the call which cannot be denied. The holy Child remains with you. His home is yours. Today He gives you His defenselessness, and you accept it in exchange for all the toys of battle you have made. And now the way is open, and the journey has an end in sight at last. Be still an instant and go home with Him, and be at peace a while.

 

Manual: p.36, par. 2

14. How will the world end?

Until forgiveness is complete, the world does have a purpose. It becomes the home in which forgiveness is born, and where it grows and becomes stronger and more all-embracing. Here it is nourished for here it is needed. A gentle Savior, born where sin was made and guilt seemed real. Here is His home, for here there is need of Him indeed. He brings the ending of the world with Him. It is His Call God’s teachers answer, turning to Him in silence to receive His word. The world will end when all things in it have been rightly judged by His judgment. The world will end with the benediction of holiness upon it. When not one thought of sin remains, the world is over. It will not be destroyed nor attacked nor even touched. It will merely cease to be.

Text, Chap. 22

(p. 470, par. 7 to 11)

I. The Message of The Holy Relationship

7 So in each holy relationship is the ability to communicate instead of separate reborn. Yet a holy relationship, so recently reborn itself from an unholy relationship, and yet more ancient than the old illusion it has replaced, is like a baby now in its rebirth. Still in this infant is your vision returned to you, and he will speak the language you can understand. He is not nurtured by the “something else” you thought was you. He was not given there, nor was received by anything except yourself. For no two brothers can unite except through Christ, Whose vision sees them one.

8 Think what is given you, my holy brother. This child will teach you what you do not understand, and make it plain. For his will be no alien tongue. He will need no interpreter to you, for it was you who taught him what he knows because you knew it. He could not come to anyone but you, never to “something else.” Where Christ has entered no one is alone, for never could He find a home in separate ones. Yet must He be reborn into His ancient home, so seeming new and yet as old as He, a tiny newcomer, dependent on the holiness of your relationship to let Him live.

9 Be certain God did not entrust His Son to the unworthy. Nothing but what is part of Him is worthy of being joined. Nor is it possible that anything not part of Him can join. Communication must have been restored to those who join, for this they could not do through bodies. What, then, has joined them? Reason will tell you that they must have seen each other through a vision not of the body, and communicated in a language the body does not speak. Nor could it be a fearful sight or sound that drew them gently into one. Rather, in each the other saw a perfect shelter where his Self could be reborn in safety and in peace. Such did his reason tell him; such he believed because it was the truth.

10 Here is the first direct perception that you can make. You make it through awareness older than perception, and yet reborn in just an instant. For what is time to what was always so? Think what that instant brought; the recognition that the “something else” you thought was you is an illusion. And truth came instantly, to show you where your Self must be. It is denial of illusions that calls on truth, for to deny illusions is to recognize that fear is meaningless. Into the holy home where fear is powerless love enters thankfully, grateful that it is one with you who joined to let it enter.

11 Christ comes to what is like Himself; the same, not different. For He is always drawn unto Himself. What is as like Him as a holy relationship? And what draws you and your brother together draws Him to you. Here are His sweetness and His gentle innocence protected from attack. And here can He return in confidence, for faith in another is always faith in Him. You are indeed correct in looking on your brother as His chosen home, for here you will with Him and with His Father. This is your Father’s Will for you, and yours with His. And who is drawn to Christ is drawn to God as surely as Both are drawn to every holy relationship, the home prepared for Them as earth is turned to Heaven.

Text, Chap. 15:

(p. 308, par. 7-8-9)

III. Littleness vs. Magnitude

7 In this season (Christmas) which celebrates the birth of holiness into this world, join with me who decided for holiness for you. It is our task together to restore the awareness of magnitude to the host whom God appointed for Himself. It is beyond all your littleness to give the gift of God, but not beyond you. For God would give Himself through you. He reaches from you to everyone and beyond everyone to His Son’s creations, but without leaving you. Far beyond your little world but still in you, He extends forever. Yet He brings all His extensions to you, as host to Him.

8 Is it a sacrifice to leave littleness behind, and wander not in vain? It is not sacrifice to wake to glory. But it is sacrifice to accept anything less than glory. Learn that you must be worthy of the Prince of Peace, born in you in honour of Him Whose host you are. You know not what love means because you have sought to purchase it with little gifts, thus valuing it too little to understand its magnitude. Love is not little and love dwells in you, for you are host to Him. Before the greatness that lives in you, your poor appreciation of yourself and all the little offerings you give slip into nothingness.

9 Holy child of God, when will you learn that only holiness can content you and give you peace? Remember that you learn not for yourself alone, no more than I did. It is because I learned for you that you can learn of me. I would but teach you what is yours, so that together we can replace the shabby littleness that binds the host of God to guilt and weakness with the glad awareness of the glory that is in him. My birth in you is your awakening to grandeur. Welcome me not into a manger, but into the altar to holiness, where holiness abides in perfect peace. My Kingdom is not of this world because it is in you. And you are of your Father. Let us join in honouring you, who must remain forever beyond littleness.

Text Chap. 15

(p.324, par. 1 to 4)

X. The Time of Rebirth

1 It is in your power, in time, to delay the perfect union of the Father and the Son. For in this world, the attraction of guilt does stand between them. Neither time nor season means anything in eternity. But here it is the Holy Spirit’s function to use them both, though not as the ego uses them. This is the season when you would celebrate my birth into the world. Yet you know not how to do it. Let the Holy Spirit teach you, and let me celebrate your birth through Him. The only gift I can accept of you is the gift I gave to you. Release me as I choose your own release. The time of Christ we celebrate together, for it has no meaning if we are apart.

2 The holy instant is truly the time of Christ. For in this liberating instant no guilt is laid upon the Son of God, and his unlimited power is thus restored to him. What other gift can you offer me, when only this I choose to offer you? And to see me is to see me in everyone, and offer everyone the gift you offer me. I am as incapable of receiving sacrifice as God is, and every sacrifice you ask of yourself you ask of me. Learn now that sacrifice of any kind is nothing but a limitation imposed on giving. And by this limitation you have limited acceptance of the gift I offer you.

3 We who are one cannot give separately. When you are willing to accept our relationship as real, guilt will hold no attraction for you. For in our union you will accept all of our brothers. The gift of union is the only gift that I was born to give. Give it to me, that you may have it. The time of Christ is the time appointed for the gift of freedom, offered to everyone. And by your acceptance of it, you offer it to everyone.

4 It is in your power to make this season holy, for it is in your power to make the time of Christ be now. It is possible to do this all at once because there is but one shift in perception that is necessary, for you made but one mistake. It seems like many, but it is all the same. For though the ego takes many forms, it is always the same idea. What is not love is always fear, and nothing else.

Text Chap. 15, Sec.XI

(excerpts, p. 327-329)

“Christmas as the End of Sacrifice”

(The End of Our Belief in The Sacrifice of Our True Self)

2 The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come. He comes demanding nothing. No sacrifice of any kind, of anyone, is asked by Him. In His Presence the whole idea of sacrifice loses all meaning. For He is Host to God. And you need but invite Him in Who is there already, by recognizing that His Host is One, and no thought alien to His Oneness can abide with Him there. Love must be total to give Him welcome, for the Presence of Holiness creates the holiness that surrounds it. No fear can touch the Host Who cradles God in the time of Christ, for the Host is as holy as the perfect Innocence which He protects, and Whose power protects Him.

3 This Christmas give the Holy Spirit everything that would hurt you. Let yourself be healed completely that you may join with Him in healing, and let us celebrate our release together by releasing everyone with us. Leave nothing behind, for release is total, and when you have accepted it with me you will give it with me. All pain and sacrifice and littleness will disappear in our relationship, which is as innocent as our relationship with our Father, and as powerful. Pain will be brought to us and disappear in our presence, and without pain there can be no sacrifice. And without sacrifice there love must be.

5As long as you perceive the body as your reality, so long will you perceive yourself as lonely and deprived. And so long will you also perceive yourself as a victim of sacrifice, justified in sacrificing others. For who could thrust Heaven and its Creator aside without a sense of sacrifice and loss? And who could suffer sacrifice and loss without attempting to restore himself? Yet how could you accomplish this yourself, when the basis of your attempts is the belief in the reality of the deprivation? Deprivation breeds attack, being the belief that attack is justified. And as long as you would retain the deprivation, attack becomes salvation and sacrifice becomes love.

7 In the holy instant the condition of love is met, for minds are joined without the body’s interference, and where there is communication there is peace. The Prince of Peace was born to re-establish the condition of love by teaching that communication remains unbroken even if the body is destroyed, provided that you see not the body as the necessary means of communication. And if you understand this lesson, you will realize that to sacrifice the body is to sacrifice nothing, and communication, which must be of the mind, cannot be sacrificed. Where, then, is sacrifice? The lesson I was born to teach, and still would teach to all my brothers, is that sacrifice is nowhere and love is everywhere. For communication embraces everything, and in the peace it re-establishes, love comes of itself.

8 Let no despair darken the joy of Christmas, for the time of Christ is meaningless apart from joy. Let us join in celebrating peace by demanding no sacrifice of anyone, for so you offer me the love I offer you. What can be more joyous than to perceive we are deprived of nothing? Such is the message of the time of Christ, which I give you that you may give it and return it to the Father, Who gave it to me. For in the time of Christ communication is restored, and He joins us in the celebration of His Son’s creation.

10 This is the time in which a new year will soon be born from the time of Christ. I have perfect faith in you to do all that you would accomplish. Nothing will be lacking, and you will make complete and not destroy. Say, then, to your brother:

I give you to the Holy Spirit as part of myself.
I know that you will be released, unless I want to use you to imprison myself.
In the name of my freedom I choose your release, because I recognize that we will be released together.

11 So will the year begin in joy and freedom. There is much to do, and we have been long delayed. Accept the holy instant as this year is born, and take your place, so long left unfulfilled, in The Great Awakening: make this year different by making it all the same. And let all your relationships be made holy for you. This is our will. Amen.

Ken Wapnick Seminars about Christmas

on CDs & MP3 Downloads:

(click here)

The Sign of Christmas Is a Star [CD]

 

From The Foundation for Inner Peace …

 

Powerful Movies on Forgiveness (including Five Christmas Movies **)

Some Powerful Movies 

that we think transcend ‘forgiveness in form’…

For discussion of true forgiveness: click here

{** denotes Christmas Movies}

 

1) “To End All Wars” :  Based on a true story, WWII concentration camp where prisoners use non-dualistic writers like Plato & Shakespeare  to transcend their painful existence in the prison camp (free on Amazon Prime)

To End All Wars 2001 poster.jpg

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2) “The Railway Man”: Also based on a true story about ‘real’ forgiveness ($4 on Amazon Prime)

The Railway Man -- movie poster.jpg

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** 3) “Joyeux Noel”  : based on true stories, WWI battlefield where two opposing sides come together at Christmas time (Paramount +)

 

MerryChristmasfilmPoster3.jpg

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** 4) “Collateral Beauty” : beautifully done story about learning to forgive oneself ($5 on Prime)

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** 5) “It’s A Wonderful Life” : Frank Capra’s timeless story with Jimmy Stewart (on Prime)

Cover art

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6) “Gandhi”  :  nuff said  ($4 on Amazon Prime)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also highly recommended:

“Letters” : dramatic portrayal of Mother Teresa’s early life on Google Play

Cover art

 

Field of Dreams on Prime

 

Enemy Mine on Prime

Enemy Mine (film) - Wikipedia

** A Midnight Clear (YouTube)

Amazon.com: A Midnight Clear : Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, Ethan Hawke, Gary Sinise, Arye Gross, Keith Gordon: Movies & TV

Two Movies about Beethoven:

Immortal Beloved on Google Play

Icon image

 

Copying Beethoven on Google Play

Cover art

 

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Stepping back and playing/joining as one ‘whole’..

A Late Quartet  on Prime

A Late Quartet Review

 

Father/Son ‘Stuff:’

The Judge on Hulu (free), $4 on Prime

The Judge 2014 film poster.jpg

Kodachrome on Netflix

Agatha Kaspar - Kodachrome: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Amazon.com Music

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Mother/Daughter ‘Stuff:’

Ladybird on Netflix

Lady Bird Film Study - SLAP HAPPY LARRY

Steel Magnolias on Prime

Steel Magnolias (1989) - IMDb

 

 

Stuck in… Time-Loop Movies:

Palm Springs (2020) – 7.4  (new & funny)

Palm Springs - Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti

● Available on Hulu

Palm Springs takes the time loop concept into the romantic-comedy category when a bridesmaid, Sarah (Cristin Milioti), finds herself stuck in a time loop on the day of her sister’s wedding, where another guest, Nyles (Andy Samberg) has already been reliving the day for a very long time. While stuck in the loop, they fall in love. However, while Sarah wants to find a way out of the loop, Nyles wants to stay.

Critics praised the film for its performances and for using the time loop concept as a metaphor for relationships and marriage.

  ———————-

Source Code (2011) – 7.5

Source Code - Jake Gyllenhaal

● Available on Showtime

Directed by Duncan Jones, Source Code tells the story of an army pilot (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is sent into the body of a deceased train passenger through whom he must relive the eight minutes leading up to the detonation of a bomb that destroys the train.

The movie is a taut thriller that’s full of twists and turns as it relies on the protagonist not fully understanding how he was dropped into his predicament in the first place. It’s a grippingly stylish take on the time loop idea, with the 8-minute window keeping the story moving along–quite fittingly–like a locomotive.

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Edge Of Tomorrow (2014) – 7.9   (a Tim favorite)

● Available for purchase on Prime Video

Based on the Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill, Edge of Tomorrow revolves around an alien invasion wherein a cowardly public relations officer (Tom Cruise) is killed in battle, only to relive the same day and battle repeatedly. The movie received positive reviews from critics, but the box office was considered lukewarm.

When released on home media, the movie’s tagline “Live. Die. Repeat.” was rebranded as the movie’s title, leading to some confusion. However, the title in the movie itself remains the same. Despite its mediocre box office, home media sales were very good and talk of a sequel has persisted for years.

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** Groundhog Day (1993) – 8.0

Groundhog Day

● Available on Starz

The benchmark by which all time-loop movies are judged, Groundhog Day stars Bill Murray stars as Phil Connors, a weatherman who finds himself reliving Groundhog Day again and again. In living the day over and over, he ultimately becomes a better person.

Over time, audiences have found many philosophical and spiritual aspects to the movie. Notably, its exploration of the five stages of grief, Buddhist teachings, and many Catholics view Phil’s time loop as purgatory and that he can only be freed by embracing selflessness. Whatever the intention, audiences will be viewing Groundhog Day over and over again for years to come.

 

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Sisyphus  (Modern Korean sci-fi series on Netflix): click here

 

12:01   (hard to find… click here)

 

 

Lyn Corona: Thoughts & Writings on ACIM…

 

 

Below are links to earlier posts and insightful compositions

 written by Lyn Corona

on various helpful topics in A Course in Miracles :

on Christmas

click here      “The Way Home”

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Death

click here    “A Decision Not to Decide”

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Dreams

  1. click here    “Field of Dreams”

  2. click here     “A Dream of Time & Space”

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Ego

  1. click here       “Seek, But Do Not Find”

  2.  click here     “Self Sabotaging Behavior”

  3. click here      “False Sense of Self”

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Forgiveness

  1. click here       “What is it?”

  2. click here        “A Little Willingness”

  3. click here       “A Daily Practice”

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Gratitude

  1. click here      “Make no comparisons.”

  2. click here       “Seeing the world forgiveness sees.”

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Happiness

click here      “Perfect Happiness”

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Healing

  1. click here     “Healing, not Fixing”

  2. click here      “What is healing anyway?”

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Holy Spirit

click here      “Teacher of Teachers”

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Identity

  1. click here   “Our One True Self”

  2. click here   “What’s valuable really?”

  3.  click here    “We are Love!”

  4. click here      “Get over yourself.”

  5. click here     “The Myth of Personhood”

  6. click here      “The Seeker”

  7.  click here       “The True Shape of Being”

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Immersion/ SFACIM

  1. click here   “Are changes required?”

  2. click here      “SFACIM… helping change the way we see”

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An Invitation

  1.  click here       “Curriculum Invitation”

  2. click here        “…to Love’s Presence”

  3. click here         “… to make a decision”

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Jesus

  1. click here       “I will wait until you change your mind.”

  2.  click here       “Jesus & Me”

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Lyn (herself)

  1. click here      “Some History”

  2. click here      “Some Stories”

  3. click here       “Marcus Aurelius”

  4. click here         “Ken & Me”

  5.  click here      “Teaching Love”

  6.  click here        “Mrs. Amos”

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Minds/ Bodies

  1. click here        “Only the Mind is real.”

  2.  click here   “The Course is written to my mind, not my body.”

  3. click here       “Who’s Looking?”

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Miracles

  1. click here  “Miracles are natural, the most natural thing of all.”

  2. click here       “Living in Miracles”

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New Year’s Resolutions

    click here     “Make this year different by…”

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Pain & Suffering

click here      “Dealing with the illusion of pain”

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Peace of Mind

click here      “True Peace”

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Relationships

  1. click here      “Beyond The Body”

  2. click here       “True Intimacy”

 

 

Ken Wapnick’s 10 Minute Videos…

(1) “ACIM : A Gentle Non-Dualism”

(2) “What is A Holy Instant”

(3) “Not about fixing the world!”

 

“A Gentle Non-Dualism”

“What is a Holy Instant?”

Musings… What’s my perception of purpose? And what’s my purpose for perception?

 Video Presentation on…

“The Ego’s Purpose of

Belief in Separation & Sin”

(click here)

__________________________

In any given moment there are only two possible purposes for anything we seem to do or don’t do…

A discussion follows:

The Course tells us early on in the text that the only thing we should ever ask of anything is …”What is it for?”  It uses that specific phrase at least five times throughout the book, and infers it in many other places. In any given situation or seeming drama, we should ask ourselves what is the purpose of this person, thing, or event in my life.

The Course reminds us constantly that the source and answer to that question depends on only one of two choices… of one of two teachers within us … the ego (the voice for separation and guilt), or the Holy Spirit (God’s Voice for healing and forgiveness). Accessing either one of those teachers will determine the way we look at and react to all of our lives’ day-to-day activities, whether it’s brushing our teeth or dealing with a tragedy. (See example of what is a phone call really for, in WB Lesson 25 “I do not know what anything is for.” on p. 38)

Is the purpose of any undertaking to see and reinforce guilt and blame in someone else and ultimately in myself, or is the interaction an opportunity for forgiveness (i.e. to see our true identity as God’s one innocent Son, instead of seeming separate entities full of sin and guilt )?

The ways we choose one of two inner teachers work like this…

Choosing the ego:

We seem to slip into ego default mode of judgement and condemnation without even recognizing it . Jesus tell us it is initially an intentional choice that we make out of fear in our minds, and then quickly forget we did that… (see Les. 136, par.3-5).  We make an inner decision to believe in separation from God and each other. That decision is the real and only source of all our torment and suffering. We make up a new identity as a separated ego self and make this new ego identity our ‘guide,’ and don’t have a conscious clue we have done any of that (except we’re not feeling very peaceful)…

The ego’s  purpose is to see separation, feel pain and suffering, but blame/project the source of our pain on someone or something else.

Thus the ego purpose for the way we are seeing anything or anybody in the world is to find fault and judge, without ever admitting to ourselves (1) we are constantly doing that, (2) that the ego is now our chosen teacher, and (3) that the ego’s purpose of  ‘the need to blame’ has fully kicked in.

We are sure we are only reacting to a seemingly real world of victims and victimizers, and we simply have to ‘justifiably judge’ those we believe are causing us pain. We never recognize or take responsibility for our own internal wish to separate and maintain the pain and guilt of our own belief in that separation… by putting that responsibility on others.

Choosing The Holy Spirit:

We consciously ask the Holy Spirit or Jesus for help to see others and ourselves the way they do in any given situation or circumstance. That is… no matter what others or ourselves do or don’t do, if we ask for help, we can and will experience everyone together as one innocent Son of God. We begin to realize our separation from God and each other is totally made-up, no matter what seems to be happening in our world.

It doesn’t mean in time and space we don’t take appropriate actions.  But it does mean we are willing to see our brothers a different way (true perception), and stop blaming them for our own chosen lack of peace and awareness of our One True Self… which was actually impossible in the first place (The Atonement).

Setting this process as our purpose and goal for each day is the Course’s definition of forgiveness.

(click here for further description of The Three Steps of Forgiveness.)

The Course uses the word purpose more than 700 times,

the word goal about 450 times, 

intent/intentions 40 x, and motive/motivation 35 x.

Here are some of our favorite Course references…

on “Purpose:”

Don’t bother me… I’m busy being peaceful!

By becoming involved with tangential issues, it (the ego) hopes to hide the real question and keep it out of mind. The ego’s characteristic busyness with nonessentials (in the world) is for precisely that purpose. Preoccupations with problems set up to be incapable of solution are favorite ego devices for impeding learning progress (even when I fix things in the world it doesn’t bring me lasting peace). In all these diversionary tactics, however, the one question that is never asked by those who pursue them is, “What for?” This is the question that you must learn to ask in connection with everything. What is the purpose (the ego’s purpose of maintaining belief in separation, or the Holy Spirit’s purpose of forgiveness)? Whatever it is, it will direct your efforts automatically. When you make a decision of purpose (in the mind), then, you have made a decision about your future effort; a decision that will remain in effect unless you change your mind.                                                                                                                     

 (Text Ch. 4,  p.66, par. 6)

 

 I have spoken of the ego as if it were a separate thing, acting on its own. This was necessary to persuade you that you cannot dismiss it lightly, and must realize how much of your thinking is ego-directed… The ego is nothing more than a part of your (own) belief about yourself.

(Text Ch. 4, p.67, par. 1)

 

 

The ego cannot oppose the laws of God any more than you can, but it can interpret them according to what it wants, just as you can (as a decision maker in our mind). That is why the question, “What do you want?” must be answered (separation or forgiveness, conflict or peace). You are answering it every minute and every second, and each moment of decision is a judgment that is anything but ineffectual. Its effects will follow automatically until the decision is changed. Remember, though, that the alternatives themselves are unalterable. The Holy Spirit, like the ego, is a decision (in the mind). Together they constitute all the alternatives the mind can accept and obey. The Holy Spirit and the ego are the only (actual) choices open to you…

(Text Ch. 5, p.85, par. 6)

 

2 In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply, is “What do I want to come of this? What is it for?” The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning, for it is this which will determine the outcome… The ego does not know what it wants to come of the situation. It is aware of what it does not want (doesn’t want peace), but only that. It (the ego) has no positive goal at all.

3 Without a clear-cut positive goal  (of peace & forgiveness) set at the outset, the situation just seems to happen, and makes no sense until it has already happened… And now the only judgment left to make is whether or not the ego likes it; is it acceptable, or does it call for vengeance? The absence of a criterion for outcome, set in advance, makes understanding doubtful and evaluation impossible.

4 The value of deciding in advance what you want to happen is simply that you will perceive the situation as a means to make it happen… It is quite noticeable that this approach has brought you closer to the Holy Spirit’s sorting out of truth and falsity. The true becomes what can be used to meet the goal. The false becomes the useless from this point of view. The situation now has meaning, but only because the goal  (of forgiveness) has made it meaningful.

6 The goal of truth requires faith. Faith is implicit in the acceptance of the Holy Spirit’s purpose, and this faith is all-inclusive. ..  This seems to ask for faith beyond you, and beyond what you can give. Yet this is so only from the viewpoint of the ego, for the ego believes in “solving” conflict through fragmentation, and does not perceive the situation as a whole. Therefore, it  (the ego) seeks to split off segments of the situation and deal with them separately, for it has faith in separation and not in wholeness.

(Text Ch. 17, p.366, par.2-6)

 

 

6 The test of everything on earth is simply this; “What is it for?” The answer  (ego’s purpose or HS) makes it what it is for you. It has no meaning of itself (in the world), yet you can give reality to it, according to the purpose that you serve (in your mind)…

11 And thus are two sons made, and both appear to walk this earth without a meeting place and no encounter. One do you perceive outside yourself, your own beloved (ego’s) son. The other rests within, his Father’s Son, within your brother as he is in you. Their difference does not lie in how they look, nor where they go, nor even what they do. They have a different purpose. It is this that joins them to their like, and separates each from all aspects with a different purpose. The Son of God retains His Father’s Will. The son of man (the ego’s son) perceives an alien will and wishes it were so. And thus does his  (the ego’s) perception serve his wish by giving it appearances of truth  (the world and its victimizers seem real). Yet can perception serve another goal. It is not bound to specialness but  (only) by your choice. And it is given you to make a different choice (in our mind), and use perception for a different purpose. And what you see will serve that purpose well, and prove its own reality to you.

(Text Ch. 24, p.515, par.6 & 11)

 

5) Yet mind apart from spirit (Holy Spirit) cannot think. It has denied its Source of strength, and sees itself as helpless, limited and weak. Dissociated from its (true) function now (forgiveness), it (our mind) thinks it is alone and separate, attacked by armies massed against itself and hiding in the body’s frail support. Now must it reconcile unlike with like (hate with love), for this is what it thinks that it (our mind) is for.

6) Waste no more time on this. Who can resolve the senseless conflicts which a dream presents? What could the resolution mean in truth? What purpose could it serve? What is it for? Salvation cannot make illusions real, nor solve a problem that does not exist. Perhaps you hope it can. Yet would you have God’s plan for the release of His dear Son bring pain to him, and fail to set him free?

(WB Lesson 96, p.169)

The Rules for Decision (at the beginning of Chap. 30, p.625) point out the practical value of setting our goal/purpose for the day, every day, by choosing with which inner teacher we wish to go through our day…

 

4  Throughout the day, at any time you think of it and have a quiet moment for reflection, tell yourself again the kind of day you want (guilt or forgiveness); the feelings you would have (conflictual or peaceful), the things you want to happen to you (seen through the eyes of the ego or the Holy Spirit), and the things you would experience (fear or love), and say:

If I make no decisions by myself, this is the day that will be given me.

(Text Ch. 30, p.626)

 

 

14 …The only question really is with what (whom) you choose to make them (decisions). That is really all. The first rule, then, is not coercion, but a simple statement of a simple fact. You will not make decisions by yourself whatever you decide. For they are made with idols (the ego) or with God (the Holy Spirit). And you ask help of anti-Christ or Christ, and which you choose will join with you and tell you what to do.

15 Your day is not at random. It is set by what you choose to live it with, and how the friend whose counsel you have sought perceives your happiness. You always ask advice before you can decide on anything. Let this be understood, and you can see there cannot be coercion here nor grounds for opposition…  that you may be free. 

(Text Ch. 30, p. 628)

 

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In any given moment…

there is only one of two possible purposes …

for anything we seem to do or don’t do.

Two Short Ken Wapnick CD sets, and Mp3 downloads…

that focus on “Purpose” 

(click on pics below):

This section called “Forgiveness and The End of Time”  from the Text (Chap. 29, section VI) is a beautiful rendering of the pivotal theme of purpose recurring throughout the Course. Understanding purpose and how it is applied opens up the seeming secrets of the Course, specifically with regard to forgiveness as a theoretical principle, and more importantly as a principle that can guide us in our daily lives. This workshop thus helps us understand our world, our relationships, and our experiences in terms of the underlying purpose of the ego. Forgiveness begins with our asking Jesus to help us replace our pact with the ego with a vow to him no longer to be afraid of his love.

This 2007 workshop explores the two purposes for the body. The ego uses the body to fulfill its strategy of mindlessness, wherein the mind’s decision for the ego and its thought system of sin and destruction is hidden behind projection. Thus does the body become the engine of destruction that symbolizes the death of God and His Son. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, shifts the body’s purpose from hate to forgiveness, so that it becomes the classroom in which we learn that nothing has occurred to change the sinlessness of God’s Son. As we choose again, the ego’s judgment becomes the Holy Spirit’s vision and we are healed.

 

Musings… The Power Of Your Mind & Your Decision Maker

“My Decision Maker”

What is it? Where is it? What are my options?

 

 

On Ken Wapnick’s Chart of Course Metaphysics, his diagram depicts ‘the how and why’ of believing we are in the world, and more importantly, how we ‘get back’ to our true Identity in Heaven. The primary and most important concept central to the whole chart is the decision maker (DM). Ken describes it as that internal part of us in our mind that chooses whether to take the tiny mad idea of separation seriously (the ego)… or not, and see it as silly (the Holy Spirit).

The reason why the “decision maker” is so pivotal is that is where all our seeming trouble started when we started believing we separated from God (i.e. ego)… so when we get back to the mind and specifically to our decision maker and choose again, our belief in our woes will end and we will experience peace.

So first off…. what is it? How would we describe this decision maker (DM)? Regretfully, after running to Ken Wapnick’s Glossary for ACIM for a quick pat answer… it was not there. He did describe the Course’s view of “decision” however:

Decision: the last remaining freedom as prisoners of this world is our power to decide; while unknown in Heaven, decision is necessary here as it was our decision to be separate from our Source that must be corrected; this is accomplished by choosing the Holy Spirit instead of the ego, right-mindedness instead of wrong-mindedness. (Ken Wapnick’s Glossary)

A couple things implied in the above definition… there seems to be a part of us that can and does decide, and it’s a decision between one of two choices, the ego or Holy Spirit. The inference in the last part above in Ken’s definition is that the choice takes place in our “mind,” where we pick an experience of right-mindedness, the Holy Spirit… or wrong-mindedness, the ego.

The Course itself only uses the phrase decision maker one time (Manual p.17, par.2, L.7)…   although it is a reference to the ego making the body with its brain the decision maker instead of the mind, in order to protect the ego’s own anonymity from our awareness:

 … it is obvious that decisions are of the mind, not of the body. If sickness is but a faulty problem-solving approach, it is a decision. And if it is a decision, it is the mind and not the body that makes it. The resistance to recognizing this is enormous, because the existence of the world as you perceive it depends on the body being “the decision-maker.” (Man. p.17)

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The DM is talked about (without being mentioned per se), in a number of places in the Course, as that part of our mind which chooses between one of two thought systems.

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Jesus does use a phrase twice that is synonymous with the decision maker: he refers to the mind as “the mechanism of decision.”  Once in Chap. 8: 

Your mind is the means by which you determine your own condition, because mind is “the mechanism of decision.” It is the power by which you separate or join, and experience pain or joy accordingly. My decision cannot overcome yours, because yours is as powerful as mine. If it were not so the Sons of God would be unequal. All things are possible through our joint decision, but mine alone cannot help you. Your will is as free as mine, and God Himself would not go against it. (Text p. 145, par.5)

And once in Chap. 12:

This world you made is therefore totally chaotic, governed by arbitrary and senseless “laws,” and without meaning of any kind. For it is made out of what you do not want, projected from your mind because you are afraid of it. Yet this world is only in the mind of its maker, along with his real salvation. Do not believe it is outside of yourself, for only by recognizing where it is will you gain control over it. For you do have control over your mind, since the mind is “the mechanism of decision.”

10 If you will recognize that all the attack you perceive is in your own mind and nowhere else, you will at last have placed its source, and where it begins it must end. For in this same place also lies salvation. The altar of God where Christ is, is there. 

From this place, where God and His Son dwell in peace and where you are welcome, you will look out in peace and behold the world truly. Yet to find the place, you must relinquish your investment in the world as you project it, allowing the Holy Spirit to extend the real world to you from the altar of God. (Text p.222, par.9-10)

 

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In the following two paragraphs from section V of Chap.31, p.658…. Jesus talks about the part of us (the decision maker aligned with the ego) that chooses between the two internal wrong minded images of ourselves that we project onto others and our seeming self as bodies in the world:  a guilty victimizer or a seemingly innocent self  (the victim: the ‘face’ of innocence)…

12 There is an alternate about the thing that you must be (a victimizer or the victimized). You might, for instance, be the thing you (as an ego) chose to have your brother be. This shifts the concept of the self from what is wholly passive (victim), and at least makes way for active choice, and some acknowledgement that interaction must have entered in. There is some understanding that you chose for both of you, and what he represents has meaning that was given it by you. It also shows some glimmering of sight into perception’s law that what you see reflects the state of the perceiver’s (wrong) mind. Yet who was it that did the choosing first? If you are what you chose your brother be, alternatives were there to choose among, and someone (my internal decision maker) must have first decided on the one to choose, and let the other go.

13 Although this step has gains, it does not yet approach a basic question. Something (our decision maker) must have gone before these concepts of the not-self. And something (my DM) must have done the learning which gave rise to them. Nor can this be explained by either view. The main advantage of the shifting to the second (victimizer) from the first (victim) is that you somehow entered in the choice by your decision. But this gain is paid in almost equal loss, for now you stand accused of guilt for what your brother is. And you must share his guilt, because you chose it for him in the image of your own. While only he was treacherous before, now must you be condemned along with him. (Text p.658)

  Lesson 152: “The power of decision is my own.”

Jesus could have alternatively said … The power of the decision maker is my own.

1. No one can suffer loss unless it be his own decision. No one suffers pain except his choice elects this state for him. No one can grieve nor fear nor think him sick unless these are the out­comes that he wants. And no one dies without his own consent. Nothing occurs but represents your wish, and nothing is omitted that you choose. Here is your world, complete in all details. Here is its whole reality for you. And it is only here, salvation is (in the mind at the level of the decision maker’s choice between ego and Holy Spirit). (Les. 152)

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Although the Course only uses the phrase decision maker one time, it does use the term “maker” 35 times. And it is in reference to our DM aligned with the ego and the story of separation we “make up.” Check out the first time ‘maker ‘ is used in the Course in Chap. 4: 

They (the ego and the Holy Spirit) are therefore not in communication and can never be in communication. Nevertheless, the ego can learn, even though its maker (the decision maker in the mind) can be misguided (by itself)…

You dream of (you make-up) a separated ego and believe in a world that rests upon it. This is very real to you. You cannot undo it by not changing your mind about it (we as the decision maker need to choose Jesus or the HS instead). If you are willing to renounce the role of guardian of your thought system and open it to me, I (Jesus) will correct it very gently and lead you back to God. (Text p.53-54, par. 2 & 4)

In other places Jesus call us a ‘dream maker,’ a ‘concept maker,’ and an ‘image maker’ … all synonymous with the decision maker.

7 Concepts (of a made-up separated self) are learned. They are not natural. Apart from learning they do not exist. They are not given, so they must be made (up). Not one of them is true, and many come from feverish imaginations, hot with hatred and distortions born of fear. What is a concept but a thought to which its (decision) maker gives a meaning of his own? Concepts maintain the world. But they can not be used to demonstrate the world is real. For all of them are made within the world, born in its shadow, growing in its ways and finally “maturing” in its thought. They (self-concepts) are ideas of idols (of sin, guilt, fear), painted with the brushes of the world, which cannot make a single picture representing truth. (Text p.657 par.7)

4. You see the world that you have made, but you do not see yourself as the image maker. You cannot be saved from the world, but you can escape from its cause. This is what salvation means, for where is the world you see when its cause is gone? Vision already holds a replacement for everything you think you see now. Loveliness can light your images, and so transform them that you will love them, even though they were made of hate. For you will not be making them alone (our DM then is choosing the HS). (Les. 23, p.34, par.4)

 

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The main point and the most important part of Ken Wapnick’s Chart for us as a Son of God returning home is… our return in our awareness to that inner place in our mind where we make a new choice in teachers.

It is there we can be willing to hear Jesus, instead of the ego, tell us that he loves us. And that nothing happened, the atonement principle. In that experience we know it’s true…  and then we can look out upon our seeming individual self and others in the world without judgement and condemnation.

 

 

Check out this SFACIM video on

“The Decision Maker”

click here

 

 

 

For Ken Wapnick’s further discussion of “The Decision Maker,” see this 2 CD set or MP3 download….

click here

 

Musings: The Five Laws of Chaos of The Ego

“The Five Laws of Chaos”

 

Discussed in Chap. 23 Sec. II of A Course in Miracles, these five chaotic “laws” are basically the laws or rules of the ego’s dismal war-game of separation, The War Against Yourself (your True Self).

They, the “laws,” are put in quotes because as Jesus says they are not real laws but are simply made up descending rungs in an illusionary ladder, where we attempt to become a ‘something else,’ other than God’s One Son.

The problem is, Jesus continues, that we really do believe in them… and don’t realize we do.

He also says that once the first law is set in motion the other four automatically follow, and that you can’t have or believe in any one of them without the rest. It’s like a super slippery sliding board, where once you start you can’t stop till you crash at the bottom, ie. into the world we think we’re in.

Another way to look at these laws (or stages in our process of establishing an alternate ego identity)…  is to review the Chart and see how these are the ego’s five steps that we seem to take away from our awareness and experience of our true Identity in Heaven. That separation and descent into hell is actually impossible to do (even tho part of us wants to believe we did), and the Course calls that fact that nothing really happened… the Atonement Principle.

 

 

 

of The Ego

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Here they are in a nutshell:

The Laws of Chaos

The first three laws take place internally in us in what the Course calls the wrong mind:

1) “The truth is different for everyone.”

It is our belief in sin: Differences are real, and those differences are important! There is a hierarchy of illusions. (in defiance of the first miracle principle: there is no hierarchy of miracles.)

2) “Each one must sin, and therefore deserves attack and death.”

It is our belief in guilt: we did really sin, it was really terrible, and we will be punished.

3) “For if God cannot be mistaken, He must accept His Son’s belief in what he is, and hate him for it.”

It is our belief in fear: we make up a God that is as crazy as we are, and that we should be afraid of Him! For we believe that also He believes we have sinned (separated from Him), and He will  punish us for it.

But: we simply made up a God in our separated “image and likeness,” and then we told Him how He should think and feel, especially about us.

————

The 4th and 5th laws take place in the world (reflecting the first three laws of sin, guilt and fear in the mind… into all our worldly relationships):

4) “This seeming law is the belief you have what you have taken.”

Special hate relationships: In a savage world the kind cannot be kind. They must take or else be taken from, by others who are worse than themselves. The Course calls these our special hate relationships. 

5) “The final principle…holds there is a substitute for love (as crazy as it sounds, the Course calls this substitute: Fear!).”

Special love relationships: That substitute is hidden in my brother’s body and personhood, and he must be destroyed, in sometimes seemingly subtle ways… to get it back. We do this in disguise with the “face of innocence,”  a pretend niceness and disingenuous kindness, and without a real appreciation and awareness of the true innate Innocence of our brothers or ourselves.

I then ‘need’ you to show me your fear… that you ‘need’ me and are afraid that you will one day lose me, either thru abandonment, sickness, or death, and vice versa. (described in Ch. 31, Self-Concept vs. Self, p.656)

Ken Wapnick calls this substitute for love, not our true innocence as one Son of God, but the special innocence, special love or attention, that we as egos desperately need to sustain our individual made-up selves. To get this recognition of special innocence from others, we must cannibalize others to demand and ‘devour’ their time, energy, and regard. This process takes the form of the phony face of innocence … through manipulation, control, threat, and compromise.

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Even in the world of time and space, so called “life” must eat other “life” in order to survive and maintain itself. This is simply a projection of the first law of chaos. My truth, or identity, is different from God’s truth.

And in order to be different and separate from our Father in Heaven, we believe we had to sever (kill) our connection with Him and steal (eat) a piece of His Life and run away with it. Thus the ego’s laws come full circle in the fourth, and especially fifth law of chaos… the special love relationship, the ego’s most boasted weapon. (Text p.341, par. 3).

I take, bargain, compromise with you… whatever it takes to get from you what I think i need… attention, esteem , ‘love,’ etc. in order to maintain and feel better about my chosen belief in this ego self.

Jesus tells us in Chapter 23:

18 “You would maintain, and think it true, that you do not believe these senseless laws, nor act upon them. And when you look at what they say, they cannot be believed.

Brother, you do believe them.

For how else could you perceive the form they take, with content such as this? Can any form of this be tenable? Yet you believe them for the form they take, and do not recognize the content. It never changes. Can you paint rosy lips upon a skeleton, dress it in loveliness, pet it and pamper it, and make it live? And can you be content with an illusion that you are living?

19 There is no life outside of Heaven. Where God created life, there life must be. In any state apart from Heaven life is illusion. At best it seems like life; at worst, like death. Yet both are judgments on what is not life, equal in their inaccuracy and lack of meaning. Life not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere. Outside of Heaven, only the conflict of illusion stands; senseless, impossible and beyond all reason, and yet perceived as an eternal barrier to Heaven. Illusions are but forms. Their content is never true.”

(par. 18-19 p. 493)

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Think about these laws and notice your reaction to them. Do they even seem credible?

Does any one of them particularly stand out?

How would you describe each of them in your own words?

The Laws of Chaos [CD]

For further discussion of the “Laws of Chaos”…  what they mean, how they play out in our special relationships, and most importantly how they can be acknowledged and released… listen to Ken Wapnick’s  CD set or MP3 download @ facim.org,

or read Ken’s comments in his insightful discourse “Journey through the Text,”  Volume Three, p. 213-220…

or see the SFACIM video on the Laws of Chaos: click here

 

 

The Ego Pandemic in Our Mind … and The ‘Vaccine’ : Forgiveness

A Forgiveness Refresher:

The Functional Solution to

The Belief in Virus, Disaster & Death in Our Mind

(click arrow below for replay of podcast)

Forgiveness: The Antidote for All Belief in Sickness 

March 5, 2020

Tim uses Lessons #61-66 to describe how we use forgiveness to save the world from our own judgment & condemnation.

A Course in Miracles points out over and over how all sickness and disease and death in the world is simply a reflection of our own internal belief in separation from God. (It takes about two minutes into the recording to get past the background noise.)

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“The Real Virus:”

In this post we have replaced the word “problem” in Lesson 79 with the specific problem/issue of “sickness,” to present how the Course approaches all sickness in the world (including the coronavirus) as a reflection of the one and only perceived sickness in our mind: our belief in separation from Our Father in Heaven.

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“A Course in Miracles” Workbook Lesson 79 (p.141):

“Let me recognize the sickness (of belief in separation in my mind) so it can be healed.”

A sickness cannot be healed if you do not know what it is. Even if it is really healed already you will still have the (original and only) sickness, because you will not recognize that it has been healed. This is the situation of the world. The sickness of (belief in) separation, which is really the only sickness, has already been healed. Yet the healing is not recognized because the sickness is not recognized.

Everyone in this world seems to have his own special form of illness(es). Yet they are all the same, and must be recognized as one if the one solution that heals them all is to be accepted. Who can see that a sickness has been healed if he thinks the sickness is something else? Even if he is given the answer, he cannot see its relevance.

 

 

That is the position in which you find yourself now. You have the answer, but you are still uncertain about what the (real) sickness is. A long series of different sicknesses seem to confront you, and as one is settled the next one and the next arise. There seems to be no end to them. There is no time in which you feel completely free of some kind of illness and at peace.

The temptation to regard sicknesses as many is the temptation to keep the sickness of separation unsolved. The world seems to present you with a vast number of illnesses, each requiring a different answer. This perception places you in a position in which your healing of sickness must be inadequate, and failure is inevitable. (Just believing we are a body, healthy or not, is sick, projected from the unhealthy but made-up belief in our mind that we are separated from Our Father in Heaven.)

No one could solve all the sickness the world appears to hold. They seem to be on so many levels, in such varying forms and with such varied content, that they confront you with an impossible situation. Dismay and depression are inevitable as you regard them. Some spring up unexpectedly, just as you think you have resolved the previous ones. Others remain unsolved under a cloud of denial, and rise to haunt you from time to time, only to be hidden again but still unsolved.

 

 

All this complexity is but a desperate attempt not to recognize the (real and only) sickness (believing we are separate minds, projected onto separate  bodies, healthy or not), and therefore not to let it be resolved. If you could recognize that your only sickness is separation (in the mind), no matter what form it takes (as healthy bodies or sick bodies), you could accept the answer because you would see its relevance. Perceiving the underlying constancy in all the sicknesses that seem to confront you, you would understand that you have the means to solve them all. And you would use the means, because you recognize the problem.

In our longer practice periods today we will ask what the (real) sickness is, and what is the answer to it. We will not assume that we already know. We will try to free our minds of all the many different kinds of ’sick’ we think we have. We will try to realize that we have only one sickness, which we have failed to recognize. We will ask what it is, and wait for the answer. We will be told. Then we will ask for the solution to it. And we will be told.

The exercises for today will be successful to the extent to which you do not insist on defining the sickness. Perhaps you will not succeed in letting all your preconceived notions go, but that is not necessary. All that is necessary is to entertain some doubt about the reality of your version of what your sicknesses are. You are trying to recognize that you have been given the answer by recognizing the problem (in the mind), so that the problem and the answer (the Holy Spirit tells us the our belief in separation is silly) can be brought together and you can be at peace.

The shorter practice periods for today will not be set by time, but by need. You will see many forms of sickness today, each one calling for an answer. Our efforts will be directed toward recognizing that there is only one sickness (belief in the ego) and one healing (The Holy Spirit). In this recognition are all sicknesses resolved. In this recognition there is peace.

 

 

Be not deceived by the form of sickness today. Whenever any forms of sickness seem to rise, tell yourself quickly:

Let me recognize the only sickness is in my mind so it can be healed.

Then try to suspend all judgment about what sickness is. If possible, close your eyes for a moment and ask what it is. You will be heard and you will be answered.

Video replay on dealing with CORONAVIRUS & OTHER DISASTERS…

For a two disc CD seminar or MP3 download

on sickness & healing,

see Ken Wapnick’s

“The Kindness of Healing”…

The Kindness of Healing [CD]

click here

SFACIM Online Course Meetings

… almost every day!

To help get us thru the “crazies,” in these current times…

click here