School for A Course In Miracles

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

School for A Course In Miracles

“The universe of learning will open up before you in all its gracious simplicity.” T-14. II. 6:4
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Musings: The Difference between Translation and Interpretation

meditation

“A good translator, although he must alter the form of what he translates, never changes the meaning. In fact, his whole purpose is to change the form so that the original meaning is retained.” T-7. II.4:3-4

Once a week I used to have the delightful opportunity to read for a blind man. Robert, a seeker of truth since his early 20’s, was then 86. His most prized possession was a library containing the works of the world’s greatest mystics, theologians, philosophers, and teachers.

At my first meeting with Robert he asked me to find and read from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. It was a well used book with sections underlined and margins marked with comments and questions. (In the months that followed, I found that to be true of most of the books in this library.)

Never having read Marcus Aurelius, I was surprised to learn the great Roman Emperor spoke the language of choice and mind training that had become so familiar to me in A Course in Miracles. I understood him perfectly and soon the three of us—Marcus, Robert, and I—were sharing the same transcendent country in the mind.

Months later, after many reading sessions with Marcus and Robert, I decided I had to have a copy of Meditations to add to my library. Amazon had several translations, and not finding any comments that set one apart from another, I chose one for no particular reason.

When my copy arrived I took the first opportunity I had to settle into my reading chair and began. After a few paragraphs I started to feel something was missing. The words seemed similar but they did not take me to same place of communion with the great mind of the Emperor.

The next time I read for Robert, I took my book and compared the same section in Robert’s translation. Some of the words were the same, many were different, but the meaning was alive in Robert’s translation and not in mine. Having learned the value of a good translation I sent my copy back to Amazon.

When A Course in Miracles came into my life back in 1976 there were no study groups, no interpreters, and no translators (that I knew of), and there were many times when I did not understand what I was reading. On those occasions I would ask Jesus or the Holy Spirit to help me and somewhere during the events of the day the meaning would be made perfectly clear.

As a result of this learning process, I developed an intimate relationship with the course Teachers (Jesus and the Holy Spirit) and understanding that did not involve interpretation. The experience was that of being in their mind or “going to their country”. It is the same experience I shared with Robert while reading Marcus Aurelius.

When a message—it could be music, poetry, art, literature—is coming from out of time, it has the capacity to take us to where that work is coming from. It is a transcendent experience—a gift from Heaven that touches us for a moment takes us home. A Course in Miracles is that for me.

A translation that conveys the original meaning of a precious work of art can only be done by someone who has joined the author in his country and has understood the meaning of the message without interpretation. The form may be changed—different words, different language—but the content remains the same. This is crucial. If that is not the case the translation will miss the mark intended by the original.

I find Ken Wapnick to be a superb translator of A Course in Miracles. He adds his words to help students understand some of the complex material of the Course. But he does not change the meaning. Presently he is the only translator of the Course that I recommend to students.

Accepting A Course in Miracles as a path of awakening means joining Jesus and the Holy Spirit in their country (the mind), not trying to bring them here. What I find in much of the supporting material on the subject of A Course in Miracles is that it often (and very subtly) brings Jesus and the Holy Spirit into this world. When this occurs the ego has gotten involved in interpretation and is twisting the original message of the course to suit its purposes of self preservation. The effect of this effort is to keep us from joining Jesus and the Holy Spirit where they are.

If you want to experience a foreign country the only way to really do that is to go there. Reality—a shared experience of the mind—is a foreign country for those of us who believe we are bodies living in a world. The purpose of  A Course in Miracles is to shift our identity from the body to the mind. That is a miracle.

 

Musings: Self Sabotaging Behavior

Once we heed the call to wake up from the ego thought system we begin to see the world differently.

It becomes a classroom in which everything can be used to learn to make a different choice that will lead us out of the dream of separation instead of deeper into it.

Until we understand what we are choosing between, choice is meaningless. We but choose among illusions, which can hardly be called a choice.

“There is a choice that you have the power to make when you have seen the real alternative. Until that point is reached you have no choice, and you can but decide the better to deceive yourself again.”

Self sabotaging behavior is behavior that we know is not in our best interest, yet we do it anyway.

We eat foods that hurt us. We drive people away with behaviors that cause them difficulty. We spend our time doing things that we don’t even respect. We don’t exercise when we know that we should. We drink too much, spend more than we have, smoke, gamble, and generally overindulge.

Self sabotage is a classroom that most of us share. Fortunately, it provides an excellent opportunity for changing our minds because we are aware of our need for change every time we indulge. And we are convinced it is the behavior that needs to change.

The School for A Course in Miracles offers another alternative to trying to change behavior. All our do’s and dont’s can be see as a reflection of a choice in our minds. Which teacher are we running with, the ego or the Holy Spirit?

 Self sabotaging behavior is always one of the SFACIM subjects, viewed from the perspective of A Course in Miracles.

Musings : What a Friend We Have in Jesus

JesusThe title for this post is taken from a hymn that I remember singing as a little girl when I went to Methodist church with my mother. I remember standing tall and singing out with all my heart as I imagined he and I walking together. Fortunately, Jesus was portrayed as a friend by the Methodists, and this friendship came back to me some 40 years later when the Course entered my life.

The Course is not presenting us with abstract metaphysical truths. It is something we need to live every day and our relationship with Jesus is fundamental to our education. By healing our relationship with him we learn how to forgive the world and remember God. We cannot do it ourselves. Our egos do not understand “both” and “together”. If we are doing Jesus’ Course, he is the one that is going to show us what those words mean. In joining him we take our first step toward oneness.

Loving relationships exist and are only possible in the mind. We don’t believe that. Jesus has to convince us that we would be better off if we did believe it. He believes in us and we don’t. He wants us to have everything and be free and experience that God’s will for us is perfect happiness. We don’t want that for ourselves. He shows us very respectfully why we don’t and then he helps us undo the obstacles to happiness.

Joining with Jesus is establishing a loving a relationship in our minds, beyond time and space (but truly there). He tells us he “will be there”, and he is. But we have to go to him. He knows there is no body so how can he come to it. We have to learn to find our mind and join him there. Do you know you have a mind? Do you know how to use it? Do you know what it is for? Joining with Jesus is a step in learning that everything is in our mind. Peace is there. Love is there. It is God’s Home and our home.

The process of returning to our mind is what A Course in Miracles calls a miracle. It is the only thing that will ever make a difference in our lives. It is a gradual process because it teaches us we are minds, not bodies. There never was a body. Our definition of our personal selves is at stake.

Jesus has the job (at least for those who take A Course in Miracles as their path) of leading us home. How did he land that job you might ask?

When the One Son of God had the “tiny mad idea” of separating from God and running away from home, one tiny corner of our mind did not go along with the idea. It smiled kindly and said “no” to it. It stayed home with Love Itself. That aspect of our mind is symbolized by Jesus. He still remains within our minds, waiting for us to choose him by joining his decision to stay at home.

He is the one who says, “We go together, you and I”.

What a friend we have in Jesus!

 

 

Musings: Perfect Happiness

“God’s will for you is perfect happiness. Why should you choose to go against His Will?

In a world of separate bodies going their separate ways, the self-centered point of view, aka ego, has its own plans for happiness.

Attached to personhood, residing in the body, life seems to be  “the story of me”. Being, our true shared identity, is unrecognized while our time-bound existence consumes all of our attention. From this personal perspective, perfecting our story is what life is all about.

You can shift out of this self-centered perspective by recognizing your shared purpose with everyone you meet. This is the special means the Course is giving you for breaking out of the imprisonment of your specialness.

One purpose unites you with everyone in this world. This is your ticket to get on board the happiness train.

Do you understand that you can not have separate interests and true happiness?  They are mutually exclusive.

Your function is to recognize that you have the same shared interest with everyone, without exception. “The  “me”, “my”, “mine” perspective will be undone in the process, releasing the mind to look beyond the superficial distinctions that seem to separate us to what joins us and makes us the same.

What are your words for that?

For the interest(s) you know that everyone will join you in?

For me it is everybody wants to be happy.

Everyone wants the end of suffering.

Please let me know what yours are?  

What are your words, dear reader, for the interest you know everyone shares with you? 

Now, while we are in this world this is our ticket to happiness. It will take you to the gates of Heaven.  

 Lesson 100 of A Course in Miracles tells us that God’s Will for us is perfect happiness and asks us, why we would choose to go against His Will?

 Here is what I am convinced of:

The very moment I accept God’s will for happiness,  I see that I have asked for and received for everyone because I have recognized our interests are shared. This is the happiness we are talking about. It’s not personal. It’s shared.

 My smile doesn’t belong to me anymore. It is not a smile possessed by anyone. It is the smile of Oneness recognizing Happiness.

The acceptance of Oneness beyond all appearances is my cause for joy…..and yours!  It says that nothing has happened in the dream of separation that has interfered with the reality of Love. This happiness extends to all minds like a rising tide that raises all ships. It gives the unequivocal message that the One Self is guiltless.

Sadness is a sign you have chosen to believe that harm has been done and somebody must be to blame. It says you have chosen the ego’s plan over God’s.

No problem! Just a mistake!

There Is No Peace Except the Peace of God

Inviting path“There is no peace except the peace of God, unless you seek for misery and pain.”

 Lesson 200

The lessons of A Course in Miracles are a song that comes from the heart of Love to the heart of one that sleeps.

They are meant just for you its reader and no one else, as intimate as you will allow them to be. They undo suffering at its cause: your mistake-in-identity.

You are a dreamer and this is your dream of separation. You have dreamed everything in your dream and you can continue to dream and stay asleep. Or you can choose to wake up by inviting the lessons of the Course into your dream to help you look at it and learn to see it from the perspective of wholeness.

Undoing the belief in a separate self with a private will is the inevitable outcome of setting foot on this path of liberation. Along the way false beliefs will be undone, trials and tribulations gone beyond, and glorious things learned as we pass from conflict, through peace to oneness.

Oneness is love.

I love what the Course has taught me and I think I can help others learn from it as well. This is a passage that we make together by sharing what we are learning so that conviction will be strengthened in everyone. It is a way of opening our eyes, ears, and mind to the possibility of living without fear.

Waking is not religious or even spiritual.

Waking to Oneness is truth.

It’s simply what is.

There are many lessons in A Course in Miracles that have altered my point of view so radically that the world never appeared the same after that. It was if something left me that was never there in the first place. I couldn’t tell you what it was because it is gone. Call it illusion, falsity, pretense, effort: whatever it was, its going left space in which something new and surprising could occur, not as a one-time event but as an on-going mystery unfolding.

I thought it might be helpful to others to share parts of those lessons and my perspective on them. This is one of those lessons.

Lesson 200—There is no peace accept the peace of God.

“There is nothing else for you to find except the peace of God, unless you seek for misery and pain.”

That is a pretty unequivocal statement. There is nothing else for you to find except the peace of God. That is, unless you seek for misery and pain. The peace of God or misery and pain, take your pick. Those are the only options.

 It is understandable if you want to argue with that statement given the investment you might have in your dream.  Arrogance is the first and perhaps only real obstacle to becoming a learner of another way, entirely unknown to you. We want to be right about what we think reality is in spite of the fact that it is causing us misery and pain and always ends in death. Wouldn’t you be better off if you were wrong, aside from the fact that you are wrong? (I didn’t say those famous last words. Jesus did.)

Lesson 200 makes perfectly clear what the choice is. A real choice doesn’t have an alternative. It ends choosing altogether, returning the mind to what you really want: peace.

Here is where the ego, that false sense of personal identity, loudly begins to resist. You know its sound and the feelings that arise when defense feels necessary to protect the little that you have and think you know. It says things like,”Peace sounds boring, don’t you think?” “I want a lot of other things AND peace. Let’s make a deal.”

The personal point of view tells us that it would be a sacrifice to let go of “conflicting goals, senseless journeys, frantic vain pursuits, and meaningless endeavors” and to want the only thing that can be found.

There is another voice. It is silent and yet it knows the way back to peace with perfect certainty. The truth is already within us but we are in perpetual conflict because we hear two opposing voices and we have to choose only one.

You are the chooser of which voice to listen to, which calling to obey. You are the one who is humble and willing to trust in a better way than the direction you are currently going. Lesson 200 is written to you. In fact, all the lessons are.

No ego would ever choose the peace of God because it does not contain the “gift” of specialness that the ego seeks. Peace cannot be possessed by anyone so it has little appeal to the individual. No one else will even know if your mind is changed and you have found the peace of God.

(Note: One of the things that most students of the Course overlook is that the lessons do not give the personal “you” anything. To the ego the lessons are either a waste of time or they require  romanticizing so that the ego can delude itself in thinking it is getting somewhere or something with the lessons.

It is actually the seeker (ego) itself that gets undone in the lessons of the Course. The seeker wants  peace as a possession for itself so it approaches the lessons as a way to acquire what it thinks it is missing. Undoing the seeker reveals the peace that has always been.

So let’s be clear that the lessons undo. They may sound poetic to a personal self that can turn anything into a tune to its glory but if you actually open to the lesson you will see it is presenting you with the opportunity to look at the arrogance of the ego so that it can be seen for what it is and forgiven.)

“Forgive yourself for vain imaginings, and seek no longer what you cannot find. For what could be more foolish than to seek, and seek and seek again for hell, when you have but to look with open eyes (not from the self centered point of view*) to find that Heaven lies before you, through a door that opens easily to welcome you?”

All you need do is look upon the you that seeks in all the wrong places and for all the wrong things and see that it has never brought you peace. These are all vain imaginings of a separate self, arrogant in its attempts to make itself better than other men and always failing in the end because no matter how good the dream,  it always ends in death.

Peace belongs to you, the chooser of peace, the non-locatable presence that has been released from misidentification with a body. What chooses the peace of God already has and is the peace of God. (This is so simple and yet it is so difficult to speak about because the words aren’t it. They point; that’s all).

Now here comes the practical application of learning that there is nothing to find here except peace. Give it! Since you can’t get anything, because there is no seeker who lacks anything, you can only give. In giving without exception you teach yourself what you truly are.

 “It is given you to find the means whereby the world no longer seems to be a prison house for anyone.”

“Freedom is given you where you beheld but chains and iron doors. But you must change your mind about the purpose of the world, if you would find escape.”

Here it is: plain and simple. (Nobody wants to hear this).

“You must change your mind about the purpose of the world.”

For most, the world is a prison house and we are its victim. It gives to take away. We lose the things we love. We are born, struggle a while, get old and sick and die.

For others, the world is their playground, filled with the idols to their specialness. Their hope is that these “special deities” will give them more than others so they feel successful.

Neither purpose, prison house or playground, will show you that you are free.

Here’s what will.

“You will be bound till all the world is seen by you as blessed, and everyone made free of your mistakes and honored as he is. You made him not; no more yourself. And as you free the one, the other is accepted as he is.”

Here is the way to peace, the bridge to eternity. This is your purpose and your function while you abide where you are not at home. The key here is “all” and “everyone”. Make no exceptions. It is not the people we love that are the problem. It is the ones we don’t love, the ones we blame for our unhappiness, that hold the key to our freedom. They are innocent in eternity as are you, outside of which we are nowhere.

 “Who could hope for more, while there still appears to be a choice to make between success and failure; love and fear?”

Musings: Who Is Looking?

water dripWhat would you be willing to give to absolutely know, without a shadow of a doubt, that a happy outcome to all things is sure? That there is nothing to fear? That there is no need to feel loss, pain, or suffering? That there is no death? This knowledge is your inheritance. It has already been given you.

All that stands in the way of knowledge are illusions, believed to be true. The problem, as the quote from the great sage Nisargadatta points out, is solely mental—in the mind. There are no real problems.

 

 

“It is all the mind can do—

Discover the unreal as unreal.

The problem is only mental.

Abandon false ideas, that is all.

There is no need of true ideas.

There aren’t any.” –Nisargadatta Maharaj

The miracle shows you that illusions are illusions; that the false is false; that the unreal is unreal. This all you need learn to let all fear fall away.

Seeing the false as false may not sound very glamorous if your idea of awakening is that it happens to “some one”.  I mean, seeing illusions as illusions! Come on! What’s fun about that?

Seeing illusions as illusions cannot be done by a body at all. That’s what’s amazing about that!

The shift from seeing through the body’s eyes to seeing through the impersonal eye of one Self is a miracle. It is a leap from physical identity to mind (not to be confused with intellect)  within Mind.  It requires vision and vision is a gift. A body cannot give it because the body does not possess it. Vision is given. Would you first attempt to give yourself a miracle and then ask for one?

“God is my strength. Vision is His gift.”  Lesson 42

The miracle is a shift out of the body identity and into the one Mind. It is a shift in looking through a different set of eyes: not physical eyes but spiritual eyes. It is a different way of seeing. The who in who is looking is no longer personal. It is not a someone.

While the body’s eyes can only see illusions, spirit can only see what is.  The body’s sensory apparatus was made exclusively to validate the existence of the illusory person.

(Note to you, the reader: I am writing about something here that can only be recognized and known. That must be understood. Perhaps, you can be set up for vision to dawn. I am not sure. So this instrument seems to be doing this, in service to that. The process goes something like this. Thoughts come. There is silence. An image comes. There is emptiness. There is a mind in service to That Mind and then there is Mind Only and Silence presides over everything. There is no lyn. She materializes when there is a story.)

Most of us think we are earnest spiritual seekers until we realize it means letting go of our stories about ourselves right up to this very one we are in right now. The story and the lyn character are the illusion, the dream of separation. That’s what we need to look at in a different way, through different eyes. We need to learn how to look at the dream from an impersonal point of perception.

You can’t have both the dream and waking up.  Most want both. Your problem is that you like some parts of the dream and not other parts. A dream is a dream. Choices within the dream are meaningless because they lead no where. Dreaming or waking? That’s the only choice.  Which will it be? You cannot be forced. It is the one choice you have in this world. All other choices are choices for the unreal.

“Where are dreams but in a mind asleep?”   ACIM

The “undoing of what never was” (personhood, individuality, separation, specialness) is personally insulting to an ego. After all it tells us who we are, what’s important, where to go and what to do. And now it is being called into question. What’s goin on?

If you will look earnestly you will find you are frequently working and reworking the story of yourself:  that self-made (synthetic) individual that you have accepted to be what you are. Over and over you piece together a story of a life in a body in order to convince yourself and others that your personhood is real….that you exist!

“Nothing that can be visualized or imagined is real.”

Prior to the undoing, relationships can’t be anything but self-serving. We use others to maintain the story about ourselves, whatever that may be.  After undoing there is no “other” to love or to hate. Love is inclusive; it is not “two who have become one”. It is “not-two”, period. There never were two.

As you become happier about learning what you really are you  lose interest in the dream figure and all the related stories that feed it and keep it alive.  Personhood starts to dissolve, to recede, and the freedom that becomes apparent following its dissolution bring companions of joy,  peace and impersonal and indiscriminate Love. The belief that it is a sacrifice to let personhood fall away is based upon the assumption that the separated self actually existed in the first place.

What happens to the dream figure, when we cease making it? It is recognized to be the empty vessel that it is. Neutral. There is nothing in it. There is no body home! We never were located in the body in the first place. The separation never occurred.

What remains is genuine stillness.  Nothing is left of “me”; stillness is. Now we understand the meaning to Jesus’s directive to “Be Still and Know.” Be still from the constant assertions of making a self. When that ceases there is “no thing” separating What Is from What Is.

Note: I know this sounds like the ravings on a Dr. Bronner’s label. This is the dilemma of trying to put into words what can’t be spoken of.

“To be your self is to be no self at all.”

What of the character that continues to appear in the dream?  Has it any use at all?

All gifts are  given through the mind that is immersed in Mind,  known as the “Christ Mind”.  It has vision, the alternative to judgement and separation. Christ’s vision is a gift given to all, without exception. It reflects the indiscriminate love of our Creator. Healing, forgiveness, and blessing (they all mean the same thing) extend without any awareness of someone doing something. This is a constant outpouring of love. Meanwhile the body carries on with the details of living in the world without angst or effort.

“Nothing of lasting value can happen to someone who knows exactly what they want.”   Nisargadatta

The most perfect Stradivarius violin needs a player for it to make beautiful sound. Likewise, the body instrument in the hands of  The Maestro functions flawlessly. Used by the ego it will gather information for its stories. Bla, bla, bla, bla, bla.. The instrument itself is empty and filled with Silence. Its potential is fulfilled only when it is played by One Who knows what it is for and how to play it. When The Maestro plays there is a different world to see.  Fear cannot be found. It is no where present.

A  problem arises only when there appears to be a doer: some (separate) one who can take credit or blame. It is this that we attempt to do when we believe we have a life and a will of our own. A Course in Miracles refers to this as the authority problem.

Musings: The Myth of “Personhood”

The  problem with being human is that everything seems to be personal when it is not.

Suffering is the result of the personal self interpreting things in terms of itself: if it benefits “me”, it’s good; if it doesn’t benefit “me” it’s bad.

To the non-locatable Self, nothing is wrong; everything is as it is– no problem. Thoughts are just thoughts. Feelings are just feelings. Sensations are just sensations. They don’t belong to anyone. They are simply present without the interpreting mechanisms of the separate self. Just as the sky would not complain about clouds that appear in it, the Self cannot personalize nor object to what is still part of itself.

Miracles gradually shift our awareness from the body, that locatable, personal sense of a “me”,  to spirit, that impersonal awareness that is Self. It is a gradual process so as not to arouse too much fear in the ego, causing it to turn suspicious and vicious. We are told early on in the text of A Course in Miracles that we will not be “hurled into reality.”

“Miracles transcend the body. They are sudden shifts into invisibility, away from the bodily level. That is why they heal.” – Miracle principle 17.

The belief that it is a sacrifice to give up the personal is based upon the belief that the personal actually exists. In fact, personhood is a mind-constructed fabrication of a separate self in relationship with other separate selves. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing is given up; there is only an illusion of giving up. The personal self never existed.

In writing about this I hope that some of the resistance to engaging in the lessons of the Course will be recognized, understood, and not made a big deal of. Perhaps you might even welcome the shift from the personal reference point to an all-encompassing awareness of what is. Instead of either pathologizing this shift or making it a special experience that belongs to a “someone” you may see this as natural, effortless, and available equally to everyone. This could be very helpful.

Relationships for a non-personal purpose are particularly confounding to the ego to which everything is “useful” for the purpose of validating the existence of personhood. “Me”, “I”, and “mine” make total sense to it. From the point of view of a separate self, love is the fulfillment of a longing to merge with another separate self.

Intimacy is the natural state of all relationships when the sense of a personal self is no longer believed. The non-locatable, impersonal Self recognizes itself everywhere in everything. Every encounter is a meeting with one Self directly, without any of the interference of personal interpretation. This is intimacy. It is devoid of the specialness that a personal point of view gives to everything.

To discover that joy and love are not personal and never did belong to someone is an extraordinarily liberating awareness. There is nothing to be gotten from anyone. Everything we could ever hope to find is already available. Clinging to our self-constructed sense of separateness that perceives through the body’s senses is all that keeps us from freedom. We cling because, in believing what we have made of ourselves, we also believe it would be a huge sacrifice to give it up. Again, nothing is given up. It is all smoke and mirrors.

Usually a question arises about being able to function without having a personal point of reference. The ego tells us that we will run amuck without its “guidance”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Life continues just as before only awareness of life is not through the sense organs of the body including the brain which interprets everything in a personal way.

Awareness is non-locatable and impersonal. It is. Everything gets done, only without the sense of a personal doer. The understanding that there never has been a personal doer does not suddenly interfere with functioning; it liberates functioning. The body proceeds  without personal involvement. It is an enormous relief from the burden of credit and blame that the ego placed upon everything.

For most of us the falling away of the false personal self is a gradual process. Each lesson of A Course in Miracles, applied to situations in our life, will chip away at our belief in a separate self without arousing too much fear in the ego. Of course, sometimes it happens that the ego does become suspicious then vicious, counseling us to abandon the lessons and their skillful undoing entirely. It is my hope that those who come to Becoming Learners Together (now School for A Course in Miracles) will come to understand that there is nothing to fear in awakening from the dream of separateness.

If you only knew the power of the miracle to free you you would want to offer them. You can learn how. Right here. They can be applied to whatever your circumstances are, no matter where you find yourself, no matter what your history is. The only requirement is to want to learn another way of perceiving. Think of it as a science project if that is your interest. “Humans find another means of perceiving that shows there is another world!!!!”

Or think of it as the greatest love story ever told. “Woman finds her beloved and He gives her the universe.”

Is not the end of seeking and the finding of a treasure beyond your most pleasurable and satisfying imaginings a worthwhile endeavor?

Is not finding the never ending supply of love that can be given without measure a worthy function?

This is an invitation to learn how to work miracles. The only qualification is the willingness to see that your interests are not separate from another.

“Miracles are a way of earning release from fear.” Miracle principle # 28

 “Miracles are examples of right thinking, aligning your perceptions with truth as God created it.” Miracle principle #36

Musings: An Invitation

Enter Here!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Musings: The Seeker

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

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

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

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

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

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

Becoming a learner is nothing more than admitting the following:

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

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

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

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

Musings: Three Things

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Is the Course for you?

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

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

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

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

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

3. Bad Habits and Cures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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