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Musings… Holy Spirit: “The Who, What, and Why” in A Course in Miracles

January 1, 2020

 



A Discussion of The Holy Spirit

(by Tim)

The phrase Holy Spirit is used

more than nine hundred times in the book A Course in Miracles.

Then there are countless references to the Holy Spirit, such as Him, Himself, Whom, Whose, etc. Not to mention hundreds of other Course names also describe Him… including Counselor, Appointed Friend, and Voice for God.

So who is this “masked man?” Is He even a person as such?  And why is there so much emphasis on Him in the Course?

Jesus tends to use many Christian terms in the Course; however he redefines them all in terms of how he sees us and the world and our purpose of letting go of our seemingly separated identity. This certainly includes how and how often he refers to the Holy Spirit (HS). In Chapter 5, sec.III titled “The Guide to Salvation,”  Jesus makes these compelling statements:

“The Holy Spirit is the bridge for the transfer of perception to knowledge…”

“The Holy Spirit is the idea of healing. Being thought, the idea gains as it is shared.”

“The Holy Spirit is God’s Answer to the ego.”

“The Holy Spirit is the Mediator between the interpretations of the ego and the knowledge of the spirit.”

“The ego is the symbol of separation, just as the Holy Spirit is the symbol of peace.”

“The Holy Spirit is the perfect Teacher. He uses only what your mind already (seemingly) understands to teach you that you (really) do not understand it.”

“Look as the Holy Spirit looks, and understand as He understands.”

I recall many times Ken Wapnick would call the HS the ‘memory of God and God’s Son that we took with us into the separation.’ These new thoughts surrounding our view of the Holy Spirit extend and expand our traditional Christian experience of the HS as a dove at Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist, or the the tongues of fire that descended upon the Apostles in the upper room at Pentecost.

 

 

As we sit with and consider these Course ideas about the Holy Spirit, we begin to see and become open to an active, aware… experience of “something else,” something different and profound and transcending. The real answer to our own crying out….  “there must be another way,” than what we have been doing on our own, because it hasn’t really worked.

Our willingness and desire to “look as the Holy Spirit looks, and understand as He understands” starts to change the way we see and understand everything, especially ourselves.


 

 

 

Tim Wise Podcast Replay of

“The Cohesiveness of The Holy Spirit’s Thought System”

(click here)

 



 

 

School for A Course in Miracles:

Many Weekly Online Classes 

(you can attend from anywhere in the world using the free Zoom app …)

click here for information

 



 

Ken Wapnick’s  Seminars on “The Holy Spirit”

(click on images below for access to MP3 downloads)

 

Learning from the Holy Spirit: A Commentary on Workbook Lesson 193: “All things are lessons God would have me learn.” [MP3]

 

The Two Thought Systems of "A Course in Miracles" [MP3]

The Quiet Answer: Asking the Holy Spirit [MP3]

 

The Temple of the Holy Spirit [MP3]

Making the Holy Spirit Special: The Arrogance of the Ego [MP3]



 

Filed Under: Home Posts, Musings

GUILT, Part Two: Why Look at It & How to Look…

September 3, 2019

Ken’s 10 minute clip on our”deep” sense of guilt:



On Guilt, Part Two:

(3) Why do I have to look at my guilt?

Ch.11, p.202 par.1-2… Escaping ego guilt by looking at it:

The “Dynamics” of the Ego…

No one can escape from illusions (of sin and guilt in the mind) unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected. There is no need to shrink from illusions (by projecting the blame for our lack of peace on our brothers), for they cannot be dangerous (because illusions are not real). We are ready to look more closely at the ego’s thought system because together we have the lamp that will dispel it, and since you realize you do not want it, you must be ready. Let us be very calm in doing this, for we are merely looking honestly for truth. The “dynamics” of the ego will be our lesson for a while, for we must look first at this (wrong minded choice for the ego) to see beyond it, since you have made it real. We will undo this error quietly together, and then look beyond it to truth.

2 What is healing but the removal of all that stands in the way of knowledge (love and truth)? And how else can one dispel illusions except by looking at them directly, without protecting them? Be not afraid, therefore, for what you will be looking at is the source of fear, and you are beginning to learn that fear is not real. You are also learning that its effects can be dispelled merely by denying their reality. The next step is obviously to recognize that what has no effects does not exist. Laws do not operate in a vacuum, and what leads to nothing has not happened. If reality is recognized by its extension, what leads to nothing could not be real. Do not be afraid, then, to look upon fear (and guilt), for it cannot be seen. Clarity undoes confusion by definition, and to look upon darkness through light must dispel it.

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Ch.12, p.219 par.4-5 … “Little Child, you are hiding your head under the cover:”

4 Remember what was said about the frightening perceptions of little children, which terrify them because they do not understand them. If they ask for enlightenment and accept it, their fears vanish. But if they hide their nightmares they will keep them. It is easy to help an uncertain child, for he recognizes that he does not understand what his perceptions mean. Yet you believe that you do understand yours. Little child, you are hiding your head under the cover of the heavy blankets (of guilt) you have laid upon yourself. You are hiding your nightmares in the darkness of your own false certainty, and refusing to open your eyes and look at them.

5 Let us not save nightmares, for they are not fitting offerings for Christ, and so they are not fit gifts for you. Take off the covers and look at what you are afraid of. Only the anticipation will frighten you, for the reality of nothingness cannot be frightening. Let us not delay this, for your dream of hatred will not leave you without help, and Help is here. Learn to be quiet in the midst of turmoil, for quietness is the end of strife and this is the journey to peace. Look straight at every image that rises to delay you, for the goal is inevitable because it is eternal. The goal of love is but your right, and it belongs to you despite your dreams.

6 You still want what God wills, and no nightmare can defeat a child of God in his purpose. 

———————————-

 

Ch.12, p.220 par.9… Why we keep fear and guilt hidden:

The Lord is with you, but you know it not. Yet your Redeemer liveth, and abideth in you in the peace out of which He was created. Would you not exchange this awareness for the awareness of fear? When we have overcome fear—not by hiding it, not by minimizing it, and not by denying its full import in any way—this is what you will really see. You cannot lay aside the obstacles (sin, guilt and fear in your mind) to real vision  without looking upon them, for to lay aside means to judge against (saying ‘no’ to believing sin, guilt, and fear are real, and very bad). If you will look, the Holy Spirit will judge, and He will judge truly (He will show us we are still sinless). Yet He cannot shine away what you keep hidden, for you have not offered it to Him and He cannot take it from you.

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Ch.13, p. 242 par. 1-2    “…it is so crucial to look:”

III. The Fear of Redemption

1 You may wonder why it is so crucial that you look upon your hatred (and guilt) and realize its full extent. You may also think that it would be easy enough for the Holy Spirit to show it to you, and to dispel it without the need for you to raise it to awareness yourself. Yet there is one more obstacle you have interposed between yourself and the Atonement. We have said that no one will countenance fear if he recognizes it. Yet in your disordered state of mind you are not afraid of fear. You do not like it, but it is not your desire to attack that really frightens you. You are not seriously disturbed by your hostility. You keep it hidden because you are more afraid of what it covers. You could look even upon the ego’s darkest cornerstone without fear if you did not believe that, without the ego, you would find within yourself something you fear even more. You are not really afraid of crucifixion. Your real terror is of redemption.

2 Under the ego’s dark foundation is the memory of God, and it is of this that you are really afraid. For this memory would instantly restore you to your proper place, and it is this place that you have sought to leave. Your fear of attack is nothing compared to your fear of love. You would be willing to look even upon your savage wish to kill God’s Son, if you did not believe that it saves you from love. For this wish caused the separation, and you have protected it because you do not want the separation healed. You realize that, by removing the dark cloud (of guilt) that obscures it, your love for your Father would impel you to answer His call and leap into Heaven. You believe that attack is salvation because it would prevent you from this. For still deeper than the ego’s foundation, and much stronger than it will ever be, is your intense and burning love of God, and His for you. This is what you really want to hide.

————————————

 

Ch.13, p. 243 par.4-6 … We must eventually look at our real fear, not only of guilt, but of Love Itself:

You think you have made a world God would destroy; and by loving Him, which you do, you would throw this world away, which you would. Therefore, you have used the world to cover your love, and the deeper you go into the blackness of the ego’s foundation, the closer you come to the Love that is hidden there. And it is this that frightens you.

…You are more afraid of God than of the ego, and love cannot enter where it is not welcome.

6 You must look upon your illusions (sin, guilt and fear in the mind) and not keep them hidden, because they do not rest on their own foundation (being unreal, they have no foundation). In concealment they appear to do so, and thus they seem to be self-sustained. This is the fundamental illusion (our chosen belief in the ‘tiny, mad idea of separation’… the TMI) on which the others rest. For beneath them, and concealed as long as they are hidden, is the loving mind that thought it made them in anger. And the pain in this mind is so apparent, when it is uncovered, that its need of healing cannot be denied.

… Here is both his pain and his healing, for the Holy Spirit’s vision is merciful and His remedy is quick. Do not hide suffering from His sight, but bring it gladly to Him. Lay before His eternal sanity all your hurt, and let Him heal you. Do not leave any spot of pain hidden from His light, and search your mind carefully for any thoughts you may fear to uncover. For He will heal every little thought (of sin and guilt and fear) you have kept to hurt you and cleanse it of its littleness, restoring it to the magnitude of God.

 

————————————–

Text p.262 par.7-8… “Guilt makes you blind:”

7 Guilt makes you blind, for while you see one spot of guilt within you, you will not see the light. And by projecting it the world seems dark, and shrouded in your guilt. You throw a dark veil over it, and cannot see it because you cannot look within. You are afraid of what you would see there, but it is not there. The thing you fear is gone. If you would look within you would see only the Atonement (guiltlessness is already a done deal), shining in quiet and in peace upon the altar to your Father.

8 Do not be afraid to look within. The ego tells you all is black with guilt within you, and bids you not to look. Instead, it bids you look upon your brothers, and see the guilt in them. Yet this you cannot do without remaining blind. For those who see their brothers in the dark, and guilty in the dark in which they shroud them, are too afraid to look upon the light within. Within you is not what you believe is there, and what you put your faith in. Within you is the holy sign of perfect faith your Father has in you. He does not value you as you do. He knows Himself, and knows the truth in you. He knows there is no difference, for He knows not of differences. Can you see guilt where God knows there is perfect innocence? You can deny His knowledge, but you cannot change it. Look, then, upon the light He placed within you, and learn that what you feared was there has been replaced with love.

—————————————–

Ch.13, p.262 par.1-3… Projecting guilt on others:

X. Release from Guilt

1 You are accustomed to the notion that the mind can see the source of pain where it is not (in my brothers). The doubtful service of such displacement is to hide the real source of guilt, and keep from your awareness the full perception that it is insane. Displacement (projection) always is maintained by the illusion that the source of guilt (in our mind), from which attention is diverted, must be true; and must be fearful, or you would not have displaced the guilt onto what you believed to be less fearful (the other guy). You are therefore willing to look upon all kinds of “sources,” provided they are not the deeper source to which they bear no real relationship at all.

2 Insane ideas (about sin and guilt) have no real relationships, for that is why they are insane. No real relationship can rest on guilt, or even hold one spot of it to mar its purity. For all relationships that guilt has touched are used but to avoid the person and the guilt. What strange relationships you have made for this strange purpose! And you forgot that real relationships are holy, and cannot be used by you at all. They are used only by the Holy Spirit, and it is that which makes them pure. If you displace your guilt upon them, the Holy Spirit cannot use them. For, by pre-empting for your own ends what you should have given Him, He cannot use it for your release.

3 In any union with a brother in which you seek to lay your guilt upon him, or share it with him or perceive his own, you will feel guilty. Nor will you find satisfaction and peace with him, because your union with him is not real. You will see guilt in that relationship because you put it there. It is inevitable that those who suffer guilt will attempt to displace it, because they do believe in it. Yet though they suffer, they will not look within and let it go. They cannot know they love, and cannot understand what loving is. Their main concern is to perceive the source of guilt outside themselves, beyond their own control.

————————————-

Ch.15, p.317 par.3 … “The attraction of guilt”… attractive only because we have not looked:

3 The sick attraction of guilt must be recognized for what it is. For having been made real to you, it is essential to look at it clearly, and by withdrawing your investment in it, to learn to let it go. No one would choose to let go what he believes has value. Yet the attraction of guilt has value to you only because you have not looked at what it is, and have judged it completely in the dark. As we bring it to light, your only question will be why it was you ever wanted it. You have nothing to lose by looking open-eyed, for ugliness such as this belongs not in your holy mind. This host of God can have no real investment here.

 

———————————–

 

Ch.31, p. 660 par.2… The cost of guilt is death:

2 Salvation is undoing. If you choose to see the body (the projection of guilt), you behold a world of separation, unrelated things, and happenings that make no sense at all. This one appears and disappears in death; that one is doomed to suffering and loss. And no one is exactly as he was an instant previous, nor will he be the same as he is now an instant hence. Who could have trust where so much change is seen, for who is worthy if he be but dust? Salvation is undoing of all this. For constancy (of the real world) arises in the sight of those whose eyes salvation has released from looking at the cost of keeping guilt (in the mind), because they chose to let it go instead.



(4) How do I look at guilt?

 

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Ch.5, p.85 par.6 … Only 2 choices in teachers on how to look:

That is why the question, “What do you want?” must be answered. 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. Together they constitute all the alternatives the mind can accept and obey. The Holy Spirit and the ego are the only choices open to you. God created one, and so you cannot eradicate it. You made the other, and so you can.

————————–

Ch.9, p. 168 par.2-3 … Seeing our brothers as guiltless with the Holy Spirit:

2 You have a part to play in the Atonement, but the plan of the Atonement is beyond you. You do not understand how to overlook errors, or you would not make them. It would merely be further error to believe either that you do not make them, or that you can correct them without a Guide to correction. And if you do not follow this Guide, your errors will not be corrected. The plan is not yours because of your limited ideas about what you are. This sense of limitation is where all errors arise. The way to undo them, therefore, is not of you but for you.

3 The Atonement is a lesson in sharing, which is given you because you have forgotten how to do it. The Holy Spirit merely reminds you of the natural use of your abilities. By reinterpreting the ability to attack into the ability to share, He translates what you have made into what God created. If you would accomplish this through Him you cannot look on your abilities through the eyes of the ego, or you will judge them as it does. All their harmfulness lies in the ego’s judgment. All their helpfulness lies in the judgment of the Holy Spirit.

 

———————————

Ch.9, p.169 par 2, 3, 6 … It’s the HS job, not ours:

2 You have a part to play in the Atonement, but the plan of the Atonement is beyond you. You do not understand how to overlook errors (believing in sin and guilt), or you would not make them. It would merely be further error to believe either that you do not make them, or that you can correct them without a Guide to correction. And if you do not follow this Guide, your errors will not be corrected. The plan is not yours because of your limited ideas about what you are. This sense of limitation is where all errors arise. The way to undo them, therefore, is not of you but for you.

… All their harmfulness lies in the ego’s judgment. All their helpfulness lies in the judgment of the Holy Spirit…  Forgiveness through the Holy Spirit lies simply in looking beyond error from the beginning (believing in the tiny mad idea), and thus keeping it unreal for you. Do not let any belief in its realness enter your mind, or you will also believe that you must undo what you have made in order to be forgiven. What has no effect does not exist, and to the Holy Spirit the effects of error are nonexistent. By steadily and consistently canceling out all its effects, everywhere and in all respects, He teaches that the ego does not exist and proves it.

Miracles are merely the sign of your willingness to follow the Holy Spirit’s plan of salvation, recognizing that you do not understand what it is. His work is not your function, and unless you accept this you cannot learn what your function is. (Which is simply to remember to ask Him for help to see our brothers and ourselves in our minds the way He does… guiltless.)

 

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Ch.14, p.280 par. 5-6 … Again! The Holy Spirit does it, not you and me:

 Your function here is only to decide against deciding what you want, in recognition that you do not know. How, then, can you decide what you should do? Leave all decisions to the One Who speaks for God, and for your function as He knows it. So will He teach you to remove the awful burden (of guilt) you have laid upon yourself by loving not the Son of God, and trying to teach him guilt instead of love (by projecting our guilt onto our brother, and then judging him for it). 

6 When you have learned how to decide with God (the HS), all decisions become as easy and as right as breathing. There is no effort, and you will be led as gently as if you were being carried down a quiet path in summer. Only your own volition (I need to do this on my own) seems to make deciding hard. The Holy Spirit will not delay in answering your every question what to do (how to look at guilt in the mind, and let it go). He knows. And He will tell you, and then do it for you. You who are tired will find this is more restful than sleep. For you can bring your guilt into sleeping, but not into this (process of the HS forgiveness… recognizing and letting go of guilt).

 

————————————

 

Ch.14, p.288 par.6-7 … Bring your dark secrets to the HS:

6 The Holy Spirit asks of you but this; bring to Him every secret you have locked away from Him. Open every door to Him, and bid Him enter the darkness and lighten it away. At your request He enters gladly. He brings the light to darkness if you make the darkness open to Him. But what you hide He cannot look upon. He sees for you, and unless you look with Him He cannot see. The vision of Christ is not for Him alone, but for Him with you. Bring, therefore, all your dark and secret thoughts to Him, and look upon them with Him. He holds the light, and you the darkness. They cannot coexist when both of you together look on them. His judgment must prevail, and He will give it to you as you join your perception to His.

Joining with Him in seeing is the way in which you learn to share with Him the interpretation of perception that leads to knowledge (oneness). You cannot see alone… The single vision which the Holy Spirit offers you will bring this oneness to your mind with clarity and brightness so intense you could not wish, for all the world, not to accept what God would have you have.

 

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Ch.14, p.289 par.1 … And bring Him your “dark denial of innocence:”

1 In the darkness (of guilt) you have obscured the glory God gave you… All this lies hidden in every darkened place, shrouded in guilt and in the dark denial of innocence. Behind the dark doors you have closed lies nothing, because nothing can obscure the gift of God (the guilt is simply not real, but made-up). It is the closing of the doors that interferes with recognition of the power of God that shines in you. Banish not power from your mind, but let all that would hide your glory be brought to the judgment of the Holy Spirit, and there undone. 

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Ch.19, p.422 par.12-14 … Seeing past our brother’s guilt is seeing past our own:

 

12 This brother who stands beside you still seems to be a stranger. You do not know him, and your interpretation of him is very fearful. And you attack him still, to keep what seems to be yourself unharmed. Yet in his hands is your salvation. You see his madness (and guilt), which you hate because you share it. And all the pity and forgiveness that would heal it gives way to fear. Brother, you need forgiveness of your brother, for you will share in madness or in Heaven together. And you will raise your eyes in faith together, or not at all.

13 Beside you is one who offers you the chalice of Atonement, for the Holy Spirit is in him. Would you hold his sins against him (making him guilty), or accept his gift to you? Is this giver of salvation your friend or enemy? Choose which he is, remembering that you will receive of him according to your choice. He has in him the power to forgive your sin, as you for him. Neither can give it to himself alone. And yet your savior stands beside each one. Let him be what he is, and seek not to make of love an enemy.

14 Behold your Friend, the Christ Who stands beside you. How holy and how beautiful He is! You thought He sinned because you cast the veil of sin upon Him to hide His loveliness. Yet still He holds forgiveness out to you, to share His holiness. This “enemy,” this “stranger” still offers you salvation (guiltlessness) as His Friend. 

——–

Ch.13,  p.261, par. 6

 

6 See no one, then, as guilty, and you will affirm the truth of guiltlessness unto yourself. In every condemnation (judgement) that you offer the Son of God (your brother and yourself) lies the conviction of your own guilt. If you would have the Holy Spirit make you free of it, accept His offer of Atonement for all your brothers. For so you learn that it is true for you.

 


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“Guilt, Part One: The What & Where of It”

 

 



 

Filed Under: Home Posts

What healing is? What healing isn’t? … in “A Course in Miracles.”

August 5, 2019



 

Ken Wapnick’s Six Minute Discussion of Swine Flu…

back in 2009: click here



What healing is…

What healing isn’t…

And what does the Course mean by the healing of my mind?

The book A Course in Miracles uses the words heal/healer/healing more than 725 times… only about 100 times less than forgive/forgiveness/forgiven (835). How are forgiveness and healing related in the Course? How are they the same? How are they different?

Early on in my beginning exposure to the Course, the list of Course words associated with a transcendent experience of holiness (ie, guiltlessness) began to grow and grow… a miracle, forgiveness, healing, reason, a holy instant, true perception, Atonement, the face of Christ, etc.

It takes most of us a while to realize that in content they all basically mean the same thing. It frees us to not get so bogged down in sometimes subtle differences, depending on how Jesus is using the words. One of the places in the Course where Jesus explicitly points out their sameness is in the Manual p.55 on “How are healing and Atonement related?”

———————–

 Healing and Atonement are not related; they are identical. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because there are no degrees of Atonement. It is the one complete concept possible in this world, because it is the source of a wholly unified (true) perception…

 … To forgive is to heal. The teacher of God has taken accepting the Atonement for himself as his only function. What is there, then, he cannot heal? What miracle can be withheld from him?

… That forgiveness is healing needs to be understood, if the teacher of God is to make progress.

Manual p.85, par. 3:

For true perception is a remedy with many names. Forgiveness, salvation, Atonement, true perception, all are one. They are the one beginning, with the end to lead to Oneness far beyond themselves.

 

 

 

  Healing= forgiveness= Atonement= a miracle= true perception !

 What is their shared meaning, then? That answer lies in a closer look at what and where the “only” problem is, and what and where the one and only solution is. Workbook Lessons 79 & 80 are emphatic and uncompromising that our only problem (in spite of all our seeming issues in the world) is our belief in our mind  in separation from Our Father in Heaven, which never really happened. The healing of that belief is our forgiving (i.e. admitting and letting go) of that belief. Our awakening in true perception that separation is impossible and our real identity as God’s One Son is still intact… that’s the definition of  Atonement in the Course.

Another similar helpful realization is that all the words, associated with an ego-based wrong-minded experience in our mind, are also the same in content, and could be used interchangeably… sin, guilt, fear, anger, wrong perception, sickness, death, separation, grievances and judgement… all mean the same thing, all stem from our belief that sin/ guilt/ fear and separation from Our Father are even possible.

The mistake or common problem we all have is we take this condition of sin and guilt in our mind and project that onto the world of bodies. Now we think sin and guilt are alive and “well,” but it’s not in us (not in our minds)… it’s in the world, in the other guy. He’s the one that’s to blame now; he’s the guilty party. And in time and space he may well be guilty of doing not very nice things… but that’s not our real issue.

Our brother’s seeming guilt is just a projection and distraction from the sickness and guilt we feel in our own mind for having pushed God out of our own awareness. And that’s where, in the internal place the Course calls the mind, the only remedy or healing can take place for us.

(1) We start with our perception of our brother’s guilt, (2) honestly admit to ourselves that is what we think (that he is to blame for our lack of peace), and then (3) be willing to have Jesus show me my brother’s sin in the world is simply an outward picture of my own inner condition, i.e. belief in my own guilt.  Jesus will help me then experience that my brothers’ seeming sins and my own have had no effect on our one true innocent identity. Jesus still loves us… he didn’t go anywhere. We are still God’s One Innocent Son.

 

 

Lesson 325

All things I think I see reflect ideas.

This is salvation’s keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind, which starts with my idea of what I want (the tiny mad idea of sin and separation). From there, the mind makes up an image of the thing the mind desires (to see I am guilty of separation), judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find. These images are then projected outward (the guilt is now in others, not me), looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as one’s own. From insane wishes comes an insane world (the world we see was made as an attack on God and on our Identity as His Son). From judgment (of ourselves as guilty) comes a world condemned (others are now guilty). And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world (the real world) comes forth, with mercy for the holy Son of God (and not condemnation), to offer him a kindly home where he can rest a while before he journeys on, and help his brothers walk ahead with him, and find the way to Heaven and to God.


What healing in the Course isn’t…

In light of what we said above that the only sickness is in the mind is due to our belief in separation from God, then the solution for that ‘sick’ belief is the Holy Spirit helping us to acknowledge and let go our unconscious chosen belief in that separation .

So how do we deal with sickness, disease, broken limbs, or anything in the body. Do we take our vitamins, or exercise, or should we do any of the stuff we do to keep our bodies healthy?

One way of looking at our bodies is to see them as reflections of the choice between the two inner teachers (ego or Holy Spirit) in our mind. In that sense our bodies are simply puppets of which puppeteer (teacher/guide) in our mind we have chosen. When we choose the voice of separation (ego), we identify and see our made up separated selves as bodies (in which the ego puppeteer actually believes he is the puppet). Just believing we are a separate body moving in a world of separation is the “sick” or psychotic belief…  whether the body seems to be healthy or not. Sickness in the Course has nothing to do with the condition of the body. The sickness is that we believe we are a body… period! 

Can you imagine going to a puppet show and you realize the puppeteer believes he actually is his puppets! That would probably make us all pretty nervous.

At the mind level, remember the real healing is simply letting go of believing we separated from God and are now vulnerable bodies at the mercy of others. That was the ego’s purpose for believing it’s a body in the first place. We maintain the seeming separation, but the pain we feel (the horror of separating from Our Father) is now blamed on something or someone else. The real source of pain, of belief in separation in the mind, is forgotten and projected out onto others.

So… that projection could be on a person who harmed me, or a germ that made me sick. Whatever it was, the ego says I didn’t do it…I didn’t choose this pain, but it was done to me.

 

Just below the surface of any physical or psychological pain we are feeling, there is always a ‘face’… some one or some thing we are pointing a finger at… and we are saying to them it’s all your fault. However, it is simply our constant ego need to blame others for the pain from our own internal choice to be separate from God and each other. We still feel the pain of that belief in separation (the pain is a way to prove to ourselves we really separated). But now we blame the pain on something outside our minds… on the world with all its other bodies, and then judge them as the culprit. They are responsible for my pain, not me. That’s the lie we tell ourselves…

 

Back to exercise or vitamins or bodies staying healthy…

Jesus tells us that the question we need to ask of anything is what’s it really for? What’s my body’s purpose?

If our bodies are puppets or reflections of our mind’s chosen inner guide (ego or HS), then the question should not be… do I want an intact healthy puppet or a broken sick puppet to communicate with other puppets. The truly helpful question would be…  what do I want to communicate: what is my body’s purpose? Is it to convey the message of the ego and tell others the pain of my separation is their fault? Or is it the Holy Spirit message (from Les. #201-220): we are not bodies (puppets), we are free, and we are still as God created us.

Either a seemingly healthy puppet, or a seemingly sick puppet, can and will work to communicate either message. The choice is which purpose, which message do I want to share (peace or blame) with my brothers… and not what shape my puppet’s in.

Our bodies are simply communication devices. Do we want them operating properly? Jesus doesn’t care about bodies; it’s our mind he’s concerned about. If we think a healthy puppet helps us carry the HS message in our awareness to others and ourselves, then why not take the vitamins. If our puppets function better with exercise, then exercise if we want to. Respect our bodies/our puppets as classrooms to help others and ourselves wake up. Just try not to take the puppet’s make-believe ‘health,’ or lack of it, too seriously.

Remember… our peace of mind does not depend, and will never depend, on our body’s apparent condition…

but, in any given moment, our peace of mind depends only on our internal choice of the Holy Spirit or Jesus as our teacher instead of the ego.

Excerpts from Lesson 132:

I loose the world (and my body) from all I thought it was.

The world (and the body) is nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning. And what you behold upon it are your wishes (our choice to believe in separation and guilt), acted out so you can look on them (our wishes) and think them real. Perhaps you think you did not make the world (or your body), but came unwillingly to what was made already, hardly waiting for your thoughts to give it meaning. Yet in truth you found exactly what you looked for when you came.

Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world (including the way we see our body) must change accordingly. Ideas leave not their source (in the mind). 

There is no world! (There is no body!)

This is the central thought the course attempts to teach. Not everyone is ready to accept it, and each one must go as far as he can let himself be led along the road to truth.

——————————

In summary then, what is healing in the Course? It’s forgiveness.

What isn’t healing in the Course? Healing is never about healing of the body… but only the healing of our mind through forgiveness… that is, letting go with Jesus help the tiny mad idea that we could be separated from God, that we could be sick.



 

A Course in Miracles - combined volume - hardbound - English

In Chapter 21, Sec. II of the book “A Course in Miracles,”  The Course says to each of us that:

I am responsible for what I see.
I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve.
And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked.

Could that possibly be true? What if ACIM Workbook Lesson 198 describes what’s going on when I feel sick or in pain?

‘Only my condemnation (of others and myself) injures  me.’



 

Healing References in

A Course in Miracles:

 

Healing is mentioned in seven of the first 50 miracle principles at the beginning of the Text, p.3-5   (# 8, 17, 20, 23, 24,29, 37).

Two Chapter titles include “healing” … Chap. 5 (Healing and Wholeness) and Chap. 27 (Healing of The Dream).

——————————-

Twelve Section titles in the Text contain ‘healing”:

Ch. 2. IV. Healing as Release from Fear

Ch. 5. IV. Teaching and Healing

Ch. 7. IV. Healing as Recognition of Truth

Ch. 7. V. Healing and Changelessness

Ch. 8. IX. Healing as Corrected Perception

Ch. 9. V. The Unhealed Healer

Ch. 11. II. Invitation to Healing

Ch. 17 V. The Healed Relationship

Ch. 19 I. Healing and Faith

Ch. 26 VII. The Laws of Healing

Ch. 27 II. The Fear of Healing

Ch. 27. V. The Healing Example

———————

Workbook

Lesson 136. Sickness is a defense against the truth

Lesson 137. When I am healed I am not healed alone

Lesson 140. Only salvation can be said to cure

——————-

Manual 

5. How is healing accomplished?

6. Is healing certain?

7. Should healing be repeated?

22. How are healing and Atonement related?

23. Does Jesus have a special place in healing?

————————

Psychotherapy

The Process of Psychotherapy – III. 3-4; V. 4-8; VII. 4, 7; VIII. 1-3

—————————–

Song of Prayer

S3.in

S3.III.4-6



Here’s a link to Ken Wapnick CD sets and books on “Healing.”   

click here



 

 

Check out this link for the new…

School for A Course in Miracles Podcast Channel : 

Podbean:

(please sign up for free to ‘follow’)



 

Filed Under: Home Posts

Musings: A Little History on the Course by Ken & Gloria Wapnick

May 6, 2019

about-visionA Historical Context…

By Gloria and Kenneth Wapnick:

 

Helen Schucman, scribe of the Course, had a clear awareness that A Course in Miracles as A Course in Miracles would not be understood or welcomed by the world at large. She knew, from the wisdom of Jesus within her, that the purity of its non-dualistic thought system and its radical implications for daily living under the principle of forgiveness would indeed be threatening to all the thought systems prevalent in the world, including those of most spiritualities. It was clear to her that this would lead-as the Course’s brief history has already demonstrated-to the Course’s being considered flagrantly heretical to many, and totally unacceptable to others. In conclusion, Helen accepted as fact that the teachings of A Course in Miracles would not be widely understood in the pure form with which they had been dictated to her, nor would its true message be embraced by millions of people.

However, Helen certainly did not mean by this that the Course should be diluted or changed to suit the presumed needs of others. Indeed, just the opposite was the case. She and William Thetford, her partner in the collaborative venture of taking down the Course, knew that Jesus had given them A Course in Miracles as a sacred trust precisely because they would uphold its purity and preserve the clarity of its teachings. This holy purpose can be seen, incidentally, in the clear instruction Helen received from Jesus that the three books of the Course should not be abridged or separated, nor its curriculum altered in any way.

This sacred trust was extended to the Foundation for Inner Peace by Helen in 1975 as the official organization that would represent A Course in Miracles in the world. When she was instructed by Jesus to assign the copyright of the Course and all publishing rights to the Foundation, there were two explicit components to this assignment, reflecting the dual function the Foundation was to have: 1) publishing and disseminating A Course in Miracles; and 2) teaching the Course through publications and classes held at a future teaching center: a building Helen “saw” near a body of water, which she symbolically conceived to be white with a gold cross atop it that clearly represented Jesus. As was described in Kenneth’s book, Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles, in the years prior to the Course’s publication there was serious discussion among Helen, Bill, and Kenneth (and later Judith Skutch Whitson and Robert Skutch) about establishing this teaching center where they would all live together and teach the Course, which was primarily to be Kenneth’s responsibility. For a variety of reasons, this specific form of a center did not come to pass during those early years, but the content of teaching always remained an integral part of the ongoing responsibility of the Foundation for Inner Peace.

Read more…

 

Filed Under: Home Posts

Helen Schucman & Bill Thetford Speak… hear the recorded voices of the two scribes of “A Course in Miracles!”

May 6, 2019



 

 

Helen Schucman

 


Only known public recording of…

Helen Schucman speaking

(in a 15 min. radio interview)

 

 


Helen Schucman’s Autobiography on ACIM.org:

(click here)

Although the scribing itself was relatively effortless, it did engender tremendous anxiety in Helen, though less in Bill. As Helen wrote:

“It made me very uncomfortable, but it never seriously occurred to me to stop. It seemed to be a special assignment I had somehow, somewhere agreed to complete. It represented a truly collaborative venture between Bill and myself, and much of its significance, I am sure, lies in that. I could neither account for nor reconcile my obviously inconsistent attitudes. On the one hand I still regarded myself as officially an agnostic, resented the material I was taking down, and was strongly impelled to attack it and prove it wrong. On the other hand I spent considerable time in taking it down and later in dictating it to Bill, so it was apparent that I took it quite seriously. I actually came to refer to it as my life’s work. As Bill pointed out, I must believe in it if only because I argued with it so much. While this was true, it did not help me. I was in the impossible position of not believing my own life’s work. The situation was clearly ridiculous as well as painful.”

 



 

Bill Thetford

 

 

 

 

 Bill Thetford Talks About…

His Life & A Course in Miracles:

Part One:

Part Three


Bill Thetford’s Autobiography on ACIM.org:

(click here)

As to the impact of A Course in Miracles on Bill, he said:

“It changed my life totally. I recall typing the first fifty principles on miracles that came through Helen in the Fall of 1965, and realized that if this material was true then absolutely everything I believed would have to be challenged—that I would have to reconstruct my whole belief system. At the time, however, I thought that would be impossible; I didn’t know how I could do it. Yet I felt that was a requirement, since the material that came through Helen in the beginning phase seemed so authentic and genuine. I went into shock for a brief period, wondering how it would be possible to make such an abrupt change in my perception of life and the world. Later I realized that God is merciful, and does not ask us to make changes so abruptly, that there would be adequate time to gradually begin to shift my perception. I think what was important was my willingness to change, not mastery of the material.”

 

 



 



 

Ken Wapnick talks about Helen’s own Course process on Youtube

(click here)

(10 min.)

 



PBS “Visionaries” Documentary:

  (with Sam Waterston) 

Helen and the Course:

(click here)



 

Ken & Gloria Early Days

@ Roscoe, N.Y.

(click here)

 



One Hour Video Introduction to…

“A Course in Miracles”

by the School for A Course in Miracles

with a little history and a brief explanation of the Course’s metaphysics and its unique version of forgiveness …

(click here)

 



Six Month Online Course Immersion Program,

January- June 2022

(click here)


(Please, never let lack of funds be a deterrent in taking any of the SFACIM classes or events listed… give Tim a call @ 720-391-9294, leave a voicemail, and he will get back to you ASAP. We always try to work something out. We want you to be there!)






Filed Under: Home Posts Tagged With: A Course in Miracles, ACIM, Bill Thetford, forgiveness, Helen Schucman, Ken Wapnick, Peace, SFACIM

Autobiographical Book Release From Ken Wapnick’s Writings: “Symphony of Love”

May 6, 2019

The Temecula Foundation has released an autobiographical book from Dr. Kenneth Wapnick’s writings called a “Symphony of Love.”

Excerpt from Intro by Gloria Wapnick: The book begins with two very powerful unpublished autobiographies, My Life with God and My Life with Jesus. The first, My Life with God, Kenneth wrote at the request of Helen Schucman, who urged him to do that project in 1973. The second, My Life with Jesus, was done mostly after we moved to Temecula in 2001, since people kept asking for one…

Click here for more info and how to order

Filed Under: Home Posts Tagged With: A Course in Miracles, A Symphony of Love, ACIM, forgiveness, Ken Wapnick, perception, School for A Course in Miracles, SFACIM

The Gifts of God Prose Poem

March 23, 2019


The Gifts of God Prose Poem was the last of dictated messages to Helen Schucman from Jesus. It is contained at the end of a collection of poetry by Helen, also called by the same title,

The Gifts of God.

(click here to purchase)

The year was 1978. The Course had already been taken down by Helen Schucman and was published. The two Course pamphlets (Psychotherapy & Song of Prayer) were also already scribed, between 1975 and 1977.

It was a cold, snowy February weekend  in New York City… and Ken Wapnick was scheduled to head out of the Big Apple on a train for a couple days, to a Catholic center (about 30 miles north) to do some counseling work. Helen was terrified that Ken would be hurt, or worse, in an impending snowstorm. She had already talked him out of going the previous weekend for the same reason, and Ken dutifully said that this time he had to go, and he did. Helen had herself so worked-up about it, that her conscious fear became over-the-top and out of control. Later, by 3am in the middle of the night, she decided to finally talk to Jesus about it.

What then developed, over a three month period thru April of ’78, were Jesus messages to help her walk thru…  not the distracting conscious fear about Ken’s safety, but the real underlying fear (hers and ours) of simply letting go of separation and being with Jesus. These messages were collectively put together in what today is known as the Gifts of God Prose Poem.

The best description of this process, and a great discussion by Ken Wapnick on the contents of this piece, is Ken’s ten CD set/MP3 download:

“The Gift of the Ego (Fear) vs The Gift of God (Love)”  

Click here for info.

The Gifts of God Prose Poem contains five sections (on 14 pages):

  1. The Dream of Fear
  2. The Two Gifts
  3. The Ending of The Dream
  4. Our Gift to God
  5. The Father’s Love

 

The Prose Poem is a beautifully written synopsis of the entire Course,  with all its verses in Shakespearean iambic pentameter. For best understanding, it is recommended and helpful to have some clear previous study of the Course’s basic metaphysics, prior to reading and applying the poem’s teachings to our lives.

However The Gifts of God Prose Poem is an insightful capstone to the Course itself, and resonates with all Course students as an incredible addendum that wonderfully crowns A Course in Miracles.


 

 

Also, for a complete discussion of the entire Prose Poem by the School for ACIM, visit the SFACIM’s replay series on this amazing literary work of art…

and the expression of Jesus’ love for us in it:

click here



 

Filed Under: Home Posts Tagged With: A Course in Miracles, ACIM, ACIM Beginner Classes, forgiveness, Helen Schucman, Ken Wapnick, Peace, School for A Course in Miracles, SFACIM, The Gifts of God

Brief Overview of Chapters in the ACIM Text…

March 23, 2019

 

Overview of Text Chapters:

The Preface: written after completion of Course, with the “What It Says” section written solely by Jesus

Chapters 1-4: basically a conversation between Helen and Jesus (with personal material deleted)

Chap. 1: Meaning of Miracles…Intro to the main Course themes

Chap. 2: Separation & Atonement… Basic metaphysics of Chart

Chap. 3: Innocent Perception… Basic definitions of Course terms

Chap. 4: Illusions of the Ego… Exploring what ego is

—————

First major shift in writing begins with Ch.5, Sec.V, from Jesus’ dialoguing  with Helen, to his solo lecturing and dictating on such Course topics as:

Chap. 5: Healing & Wholeness… exploring the idea of the Holy Spirit & first discussion of guilt

Chap. 6: Lessons of Love… first discussion of anger, HS lessons

Chap. 7: Gifts of Kingdom… Heaven & healing

Chap. 8: Journey Back… the ‘singing’ Jesus

Chap. 9: Acceptance of Atonement… first disc. of forgiveness

Chap.10: Idols of Sickness… 1st & 2nd commandments (shortest chap.)

Chap.11: God or Ego…  our authority problem

————-

Next major shift in writing with more intense emphasis on the process of looking at the ego’s plot and purpose:

Ch.12: HS Curriculum..ego’s central teaching: love is dangerous

Ch.13: Guiltless World.. full blown expose’ on guilt (longest chap.)

—————–

Ch.14: Teaching for Truth… ‘calm before the storm’ of special relationships & obstacles to peace, with sections on Happy Learner and Call for Love

————-

Ch. 15,16,17… on Special Relationships

Ch. 18… on dreams

Ch.19… Obstacles to Peace

————

Ch.20,21,22:  On Vision, Reason, and Salvation and the HR: Second big calm before the next ‘storm’ of Ch. 23 –

———–

Lake Powell - Purple Sunset

Ch.23: on the “Laws of Chaos” & “The Choice Between Love or Murder”…  Ken Wapnick calls this the toughest chapter in the Text, with very little reprieve in addressing the pain of choosing the ego.

Ch. 24 The Goal of Specialness, description of the “Substitute for Love” in the fifth Law of Chaos.

————

Ch. 25-26 A breather before the last part of the Text, on equal justice for all of God’s one Son, and how to ‘transition’ from the ego’s world of injustice to the real justice of the Holy Spirit…  a great reminder in the dream of our current political upheaval.

———–

Ch. 27-28 on dreams: the dreaming of the world and its underlying horrific secret dream of the wrong mind

Ch. 29-30 Unrelenting discussion of the ego’s idols and how to move past them (Rules for Decision)

Ch. 31 The Icing on the Cake : all the themes of the Course are brought together in a grand symphonic “finale.”


For an insightful, extended look at all the Chapters in the Text,

see Ken Wapnick’s “Journey through the Text”

or listen to his “Classes on the Text”

(available in CD or DVD)

 

Filed Under: Home Posts

Time, Time, Time… What is My Real Purpose for This New Year ?

March 22, 2019

 


 

(by Tim Wise)

Songs & Movies about Time:

Many great songs have been sung about ‘time’…

  • “Time, time, time…see what’s become of me….” Simon & Garfunkel Hazy Shade of Winter
  • “Does anybody really know what time it is, does anybody really care?”… Chicago
  • “If you’re lost you can look, and you will find me… Time after Time“… Cyndi Lauper
  • “There is a season (turn, turn, turn), and a time to every purpose, under heaven”… Byrds

 

Oprah a while back put out the movie A Wrinkle in Time. It joins a list of more than a hundred movies with “Time” in the title, many in which the characters seem to step outside of time, somehow control it, and/or jump around in it.

Some of the more memorable ones are: Somewhere in Time, Out of Time, A Time to Kill, The Time Machine, and my favorite… Time Bandits.  And there are dozens more about time without time in the title, including: Deja Vu, Groundhog Day, and even the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life.

 

 

Time holds an incredible fascination and investment for all of us, and we hear it resound every time we wish each other a “Happy New Year.” It’s a greeting that conveys our hopefulness for a new time, a year that’s soon coming that will preferably be better than previous years.

Ken Wapnick said that of all the many topics that Course students ask him to discuss, the subject of time was inquired about more than all the others.

 

 

The Course says the only question we should ever ask about anything is… “What is it for?” What is its purpose? And there’s only two possible answers. At the level of the mind, is it to help support the ego thought system of separation, to confirm the ego’s identity story of sin-guilt-fear? Or does it become a classroom for the Holy Spirit to teach us forgiveness, i.e. letting go of our own belief in separation and blaming others and God for it?

So we will turn to the issue of ‘time’ with these same questions… what is time for? What is time’s purpose from an ego point of view… or from the Holy Spirit’s true perception of it?

But first let’s look at some of the ways time is talked about in the Course. Time is mentioned right away, early on, in five of the 50 Miracle Principles at the beginning of the ACIM Text (p.4-6):

  • #15 (time’s purpose), 

     Each day should be devoted to miracles (in the Course a miracles is simply an act of true forgiveness and its result). The purpose of time is to enable you to learn how to use time constructively. It is thus a teaching device and a means to an end. Time will cease when it is no longer useful in facilitating learning (forgiveness).

  • #19  (miracles and time),

     Miracles make minds one in God. They depend on cooperation, because the Sonship is the sum of all that God created. Miracles therefore reflect the laws of eternity, not of time.

  • #25 (miracles as holographic in time), 

 Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement. Atonement works all the time and in all the dimensions of time.

  • #47 (miracles as timeless),

 The miracle is a learning device that lessens the need for time. It establishes an out-of-pattern time interval not under the usual laws of time. In this sense it is timeless.

  • #48 (miracles controlling time).

The miracle is the only device at your immediate disposal for controlling time. Only revelation transcends it, having nothing to do with time at all.

 

 

Time does not really exist.

Jesus introduces some amazing ideas about time in the above lines, that will be developed later in the Course. He quickly re-emphasizes however some of these same miracle principles on time… one page later in Chap. 1, Sec II, “Revelation, Time and Miracles.”

4 “No man cometh unto the Father but by me” does not mean that I am in any way separate or different from you, except in time, and time does not really exist…

6 The miracle minimizes the (ego’s) need for time. In the longitudinal or horizontal plane (of time and space), the recognition of the equality of the members of the Sonship appears to involve almost endless time. However, the miracle entails a sudden shift (The Holy Instant), from horizontal (in the world) to vertical perception (in the mind). This introduces an interval from which the giver and receiver both emerge farther along in time than they would otherwise have been. (Jesus later in The Text does call this the Holy Instant.) The miracle thus has the unique property of abolishing time to the extent that it renders the interval of time it spans unnecessary. There is no relationship between the time a miracle takes and the time it covers. The miracle substitutes for learning that might have taken thousands of years. It does so by the underlying recognition of perfect equality of giver and receiver on which the miracle rests (the willingness, to let go of the past and experience this equality as one Son of God… is described later in the Course as forgiveness). The miracle shortens time by collapsing it, thus eliminating certain intervals within it. ( T p.7-8, par. 4 & 6)

 

 

The most hard hitting of the above lines,to our egos anyway, is … “time does not really exist.” He echoes this again and again throughout the Course, saying things like… “Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures seem to come and go as if by magic.” (Les. 158, p.298, par.4)

 

The Ego’s Use of Time: Preserving Our Belief in Sin & Separation

In Heaven, time does not exist at all. Therefore it doesn’t exist, period. Everything outside of heaven is simply illusion, including time (… Course Metaphysics 101). We don’t believe that, but Jesus is very matter of fact that’s just the way it is…

When we seemed to step outside of heaven and play with the idea of separation in our mind, we made up the sin-guilt-fear story to prove to ourselves we actually pulled off a cosmic disconnect from our Father and our true identity in Heaven. We separated (our sin in the past) and it was/is terrible (the guilt we feel now) and we will be punished (fear of the future). We then projected that story onto an entire made-up universe of time and space. Space proves our separation (I’m here and you’re over there)… and time (past, present, future) provides a screen for the projection of our mind’s sin-guilt-fear story, except now it gets projected onto others.  Sin-guilt-fear is alive and well but it’s in you, not me…it’s  your sin in the past (not mine so much), the present guilt that you certainly have, and the fear of threatening punishment and doom about the future that you should feel, as payment for what you did.

 As you look upon yourself and judge what you do honestly, you may be tempted to wonder how you (or your brother) can be guiltless. Yet consider this: You (and your brother) are not guiltless in time, but in eternity. You have “sinned” in the past, but there is no past. Always has no direction. Time seems to go in one direction, but when you reach its end it will roll up like a long carpet spread along the past behind you, and will disappear. As long as you believe the Son of God is guilty you will walk along this carpet, believing that it leads to death. And the journey will seem long and cruel and senseless, for so it is. (Text p.237, par.3)

 

The Carpet of Time

The Course tells us consistently the Son of God is still and forever guiltless (the Atonement principle). In  the moment of seeming separation, time seemed to roll out like a long carpet, and immediately rolled back up with our acceptance of the Atonement. It’s already a done deal. What appears to be happening is that we are just reviewing that carpet of time in a linear way from our individual viewpoint in time and space, and have not quite reached the Atonement part of the story yet. ( “For we but see the journey from the point at which it ended, looking back on it, imagining we make it once again; reviewing mentally what has gone by.”…Les. #158). So in a sense we are all in replay mode, watching something that’s already happened.

But in truth (Heaven), it didn’t happen at all…   

So…  did you get all that? Ken Wapnick and Jesus both caution us to not try to wrap our brains around these ideas about time (as part of the world’s illusion, brains were made not to to ‘get’ them).  However we are promised an internal experience in our minds through forgiveness, where we eventually understand and feel this truth as an experience.

And we can do that now, with Jesus’ help. In fact the only time we can do it is… now. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but now.

 

 

 

Alright then, that’s a general look at the metaphysics of time… but what does that have to do with me, believing I am moving thru linear time? Where do I begin?

Take another look at the first nine Workbook Lessons. The first six entail how there’s something seriously amiss with the way we are seeing, thinking about, or understanding anything. Lessons 7 & 8 explain why: I see only the past because I’m preoccupied with it. What it doesn’t say here in these lessons (but in many other places in the Course) is that what we are preoccupied with (and actually obsessed with) …  is guilt! Lesson 9 more than implies the answer lies in our willingness to admit our preoccupation with the past (based on separation, sin and guilt), and let the past go.

Guilt is promoted, encouraged, and locked in place with our concept of time… We are sure that guilt is very real, whether it’s your guilt or mine. Terrible things happened to us or were done by us in the past. This ‘proves’ that the present is not only on very shaky ground, but that the future is bound to repeat the past… especially when we are not continually on-guard.

I see only the past… Old ideas about time are very difficult to change, because everything you believe is rooted in time, and depends on your not learning these new ideas about it. Yet that is precisely why you need new ideas about time. This first time idea (I see only the past) is not really so strange as it may sound at first. (Les.#7)

My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts. This idea is, of course, the reason why you see only the past. No one really sees anything. He sees only his thoughts (of separation) projected outward. The mind’s preoccupation with the past is the cause of the misconception about time from which your seeing suffers. Your mind cannot grasp the present, which is the only time there is. It therefore cannot understand time, and cannot, in fact, understand anything.

The one wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is not here. To think about it at all is therefore to think about illusions. Very few have realized what is actually entailed in picturing the past or in anticipating the future. The mind is actually blank when it does this, because it is not really thinking about anything. (Les.#8)

 

 

One thing to consider, in looking at these ideas about guilt and time: I might not be aware of my own guilt or even of feeling guilty at all, but most of us can quickly admit to and see the other guy’s guilt. His guilt or my guilt… doesn’t matter… guilt is guilt. The Course constantly reminds us that what I see in my brother is what I really see in myself: one finger pointing at him, three fingers pointing back at me… maybe not the same in behavior or form, but certainly the same in motivation and content.

The longest chapter in the Text, and the longest Course expose’ on guilt is Chapter 13, “The Guiltless World.” Also, one of the longest discussions on time is in the very same chapter, in sections IV “The Function of Time” and VI “Finding The Present,” because our belief in time is the great preserver of guilt.

As long as we are not totally in this moment (a Holy Instant in our minds), and we are invested in making serious decisions about a seeming past and a ‘not-yet’ future, we are back in guilt mode…maintaining separation but blaming it on someone else.

This is not to beat up ourselves, or call ourselves bad Course students for buying into time and preserving guilt. It’s simply to remind us there’s more work to be done, and to remember to ask Jesus for help to look at it the way he does.

The ego has a strange notion of time, and it is with this notion that your questioning might well begin. The ego invests heavily in the past, and in the end believes that the past is the only aspect of time that is meaningful. Remember that its emphasis on guilt enables it to ensure its continuity by making the future like the past, and thus avoiding the present. By the notion of paying for the past in the future, the past becomes the determiner of the future, making them continuous without an intervening present. For the ego regards the present only as a brief transition to the future, in which it brings the past to the future by interpreting the present in past terms. 

 … It dictates your reactions to those you meet in the present from a past reference point, obscuring their present reality. In effect, if you follow the ego’s dictates you will react to your brother as though he were someone else, and this will surely prevent you from recognizing him as he is…  And you will receive messages from him out of your own past because, by making it real in the present, you are forbidding yourself to let it go. You thus deny yourself the message of release that every brother offers you now. The shadowy figures from the past are precisely what you must escape. They are not real, and have no hold over you unless you bring them with you. 

 It is evident that the Holy Spirit’s perception of time is the exact opposite of the ego’s. The reason is equally clear, for they perceive the goal of time as diametrically opposed. The Holy Spirit interprets time’s purpose as rendering the need for time unnecessary… The ego, on the other hand, regards the function of time as one of extending itself in place of eternity, for like the Holy Spirit, the ego interprets the goal of time as its own. The continuity of past and future, under its direction, is the only purpose the ego perceives in time, and it closes over the present so that no gap in its own continuity can occur. (Text p.245, par.4-8)

 

 

 

In summary, Jesus tells us (in Chap. 13):

“You consider it natural  to use your past experience as the reference point from which to judge the present. Yet this is unnatural because it is delusional. When you have learned to look on everyone with no reference at all to the past, either his or yours as you perceive it, you will be able to learn from what you see now. For the past can cast no shadow to darken the present, unless you are afraid of light. And only if you are would you choose to bring darkness (guilt) with you, and by holding it in your mind, see it as a dark cloud that shrouds your brothers and conceals their reality from your sight…

To be born again is to let the past go, and look without condemnation upon the present. The cloud that obscures God’s Son to you is the past, and if you would have it past and gone, you must not see it now. If you see it now in your illusions, it has not gone from you, although it is not there…

You would destroy time’s continuity by breaking it into past, present and future for your own purposes. You would anticipate the future on the basis of your past experience, and plan for it accordingly. Yet by doing so you are aligning past and future, and not allowing the miracle, which could intervene between them, to free you to be born again…

 The miracle (by asking the Holy Spirit’s help to do this…) enables you to see your brother without his past (our own guilt projected onto him), and so perceive him as born again. His errors are all past, and by perceiving him without them you are releasing him (the Course’s definition of forgiveness). And since his past is yours, you share in this release. Let no dark cloud out of your past obscure him from you, for truth lies only in the present, and you will find it if you seek it there. You have looked for it where it is not, and therefore have not found it. Learn, then, to seek it where it is, and it will dawn on eyes that see. Your past was made in anger, and if you use it to attack the present, you will not see the freedom that the present holds.”  (Text p.250, par.2-5)

Make This Year Different by Making It All the Same… guilt-free and holy.

Happy New Year!!

 



 What is a Miracle?

(WB p. 473)

1 A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change (anything) at all. It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness. Thus it stays within time’s limits. Yet it paves the way for the return of timelessness and love’s awakening, for fear must slip away under the gentle remedy it brings.

 

water drip

Other References in the Course on Time:

1) Ch.26, p.550, par. 3-5, 9-10   “The Little Hindrance”

2) Les. #158, p.298,  par.2-4, 9-11   “Today I learn to give as I receive.”

3) Les. 169, p. 323, par. 4-11    “By grace I live. By grace I am released.”

4) Manual #2, p.5, par. 2-4    “Who are their (God’s teachers) pupils?”



Ken Wapnick CD sets (and MP3 downloads ) on Time:

1) The Clear and Shining Instant of Time (9 CDs)

2) The Time Machine (4 CDs) 

3) The Metaphysics of Time (4 CDs) : A Lyn and Tim Favorite, also available as DVD

4) The Meaning of the Holy Instant (2 CDs)

5) How Will The World End? (2 CDs)

6) Forgiveness and The End of Time (4 CDs)

7) From Time to Timelessness (2 CDs)

(click here for descriptions and links to FACIM bookstore)



Ken Wapnick’s Book on

Time, A Vast Illusion



 

Filed Under: Home Posts Tagged With: A Course in Miracles, ACIM, Ego, forgiveness, Ken Wapnick, mind training, Peace, perception, School for A Course in Miracles, SFACIM, Time

Maya Sings The Course…

February 25, 2019

 


WB p. 310

“Our Father, bless our eyes today. We are Your messengers, and we would look upon the glorious reflection of Your Love which shines in everything. We live and move in You alone. We are not separate from Your eternal life. There is no death, for death is not Your Will. And we abide where You have placed us, in the life we share with You and with all living things, to be like You and part of You forever. We accept Your Thoughts as ours, and our will is one with Yours eternally. Amen.”

 

 


 

 

WB p. 328

“Father, we are like You. No cruelty abides in us, for there is none in You. Your peace is ours. And we bless the world with what we have received from You alone. We choose again, and make our choice for all our brothers, knowing they are one with us. We bring them Your salvation as we have received it now. And we give thanks for them who render us complete. In them we see Your glory, and in them we find our peace. Holy are we because Your holiness has set us free. And we give thanks. Amen.”

 


Lesson 209

The Love of God is what created me. The Love of God is everything I am. The Love of God proclaimed me as His Son. The Love of God within me sets me free.

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