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: on Gratitude… and Thanksgiving

“Love makes no comparisons.

And gratitude can only be sincere if it be joined to love.”

(by Lyn Corona)

First, I want to make sure that we know what the ego is and the way that it sees the world.

The ego is the belief in separated, locatable self. The mind mistakenly identifies with the body believing it to be its home. Specialness is the main attribute of the ego, meaning that it sees the world and everything in it from a self-centered point of view. It’s all about ” me”.

From the ego’s point of view the world is one of two things: a prison house or a playground. As long as any perception supports the idea of a separate self, winner or loser, the ego is happy.

This lesson contrasts the ego’s notion of gratitude, which is based on differences and comparison, with the true and only reason to be grateful: love that is not of this world.

The lesson invites us to change our thinking so that our gratitude reflects truth. We can only be grateful for what is real. Love is truth and truth is Oneness. “Love makes no comparisons. And gratitude can only be sincere if it be joined to love.”

Our addiction to specialness (the disease of the ego) is exposed throughout the lessons of A Course in Miracles. This is not to shame us into changing behavior, but to help us see what needs seeing.  What remains hidden from our awareness cannot be gone beyond. It remains as a “block to the awareness of  love’s presence.”

Specialness is sickness. It is insanity and it is necessary to admit that we are insane before we can become happy learners. Separation is simply a wild idea in the mind that is taken seriously.

“Love Is the Way I Walk in Gratitude” also shows us the way we would see if we accepted Atonement which is the Course’s correction for insanity. What Atonement means is that we never separated from Oneness, never made a body, were never born and can never die. It means that the thought of separation in our mind had no effect.

Hear this: the thought of separation had no effect because it was not God’s Thought. God’s is the original thought and we cannot think apart from Him. The thought of separation is a secret, private thought that we believe to be true, therefore, we are the only ones that can change it.

Our only spiritual responsibility is to accept that the thought of separation had no effect, and that we have no power over God.

God is Love and Love has been defined by Him. The ego’s version of love is specialness. It is the belief that we can and did triumph over God.

 

 

Gratitude is to God because we could not/did not succeed in changing ourselves or reality. When this is accepted, as this lesson points out, we will be truly grateful. The ego’s version of gratitude– to be grateful because you are better off than someone else–  is “pitiful and deprecating”.

Note: A Course in Miracles uses metaphor—images and symbols—to help us understand our situation. For example, in this lesson it mentions “escape from prison.” These images and symbols refer to a condition in our mind.

Similarly the story of the Holy Spirit descending from God and blanketing us in love and whispering in our ear until we accept that we are loving and lovable is a story. The purpose is to open our minds and hearts to the possibility that love is all there is and has no opposite.

 

 

SFACIM Videos on

Thanksgiving & Gratitude:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, click here for Jim on Les. 123

“I thank my Father for His gifts to me” :

https://youtu.be/cBT1KxpYyhc

Musings: Gratitude… Part two

We are thankful for one thing alone:

God has given the gift of love to each of us.

The ego is grateful because He has favored us in some special way while others suffer.

Salvation is an equal playing field on which everyone has been given everything. (There is nothing the ego scorns more than indiscriminate love.)

It is our responsibility to see it that way because that is the way it is. The way out of hell is the same for everyone.  We must learn to see the world forgiveness sees.

Let forgiveness extend to everyone without exception. Do not exclude anyone. There is only One Son of God: Christ.

(The words God, Christ and Son of God are symbols of symbols. They stand for Love. Love is Oneness.)

Saying “we are one” is not the same as Oneness. While we identify ourselves as separated selves– separate from our Creator and separate from others– our profession (according to the Course)  is to exclude no one from love. This is the means given us to reach the gates of Oneness: accept God’s Love by being loving.

As the lesson points out, we “earn” (symbolically) the right to love by being loving. God isn’t withholding love from us. We are keeping it  from ourselves. Earning the right is a way of saying we can give love until we accept that we are love. It’s a wonderful plan.

We have been given everything.

First of all, we never changed reality so it remains Love and we are still loveable. Secondly, our first loving action is to bless the world with forgiveness. FOR THIS we should be grateful. How beautiful.  How clean and simple and perfect is that? Who is unwilling to take part?

“You will be bound till all the world is seen by you as blessed, and everyone set 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.”     Lesson 200

We can offer our friends, family, colleagues,  partners, friends and enemies alike,  their freedom by looking at the thoughts we hold against them and deciding we prefer not to keep that point of view. In wanting to see differently we will.

When our forgiveness is complete we will have total gratitude.

Musings: Save Yourself, Bless the World

“Let Him teach you what you need to learn to lay all fear aside, and know your Self as love, which has no opposite in you.”

Please consider this today. There is a Presence that surrounds you, which is your Self. It is constantly informing you of your True Nature which is love without opposite. The environment in which it resides is a state of grace.

When you are absorbed in your body self, consumed with fear, conflict and self interest you cut off the possibility of harmonizing with this Loving Presence which would make your day purposeful and effortless.

Private (what about me?) thoughts of worry, anxiety, lack, inadequacy, and so on, must be brought to the light of this Presence so they can be shined away and you can return to alignment with the Self that you are. This is your responsibility now. This is your salvation and the salvation of the world.

Forgive your personal insanity and the insanity of the world so that this Presence can transform your thoughts and actions in this moment bringing peace to you and to the tired and aching world. This is your part in The Great Awakening that is occurring in all humanity now.

This strength is yours to feel and to give. It is your joy. Your part is essential now.

Musings: What is Healing?

“The Holy Spirit speaks to you.
He does not speak to someone else.”
ACIM Text, page 576

Only you can be healed.
You are a mind, not a body and not a brain.

“At no instant does the body exist at all.”
The body is a dream figure in a mind that has not yet awakened from its sleep.
When the mind is healed, love will extend from it to all minds because minds are joined; bodies are not. A Course in Miracles must be learned entirely or not at all because it is an uncompromising teaching in non-duality. It foretells the end of the ego which becomes suspicious and then vicious when it hears any message of non-specific, indivisible love.

Attempts to heal others are avoidance strategies. By focusing on others  we escape the only healing there can be– our own. “Others” , or better, the idea of otherness, exists only in the unhealed mind. When it is healed there are no “others”. Beingness is all-inclusive. There is no specialness in being, therefore the ego hates it.

We can’t do love. We can only be love.

When we want to be healed our single purpose makes it possible not only for ourselves but for everyone because minds are joined. 
If it is that simple why do we not want to commit to our own healing? Because we are afraid.

And why are we afraid? Because our idea of love is an attack in which we, a separate person, give our own version of love to another or other separate persons. We are not the author of love. We are afraid because we feel guilty for “doing” love on our own terms instead of surrendering to the Love that is our Source. Special love (the ego’s idea of love) brings guilt and guilt demands/expects punishment. The guilt, of course, is denied and buried, but we remain fearful without knowing why.

The answer to love as an attack is in the holy instant where there are no others, because the holy instant is the recognition that you are free of the past, the future, and the body. It is here and only here that you are healed and love is welcomed. In welcoming love you are blessing the world.

Your own healing is all that is required to heal the world of all its suffering.
True healing offers love without attack. You don’t heal or help someone else. You accept it for yourself by coming to this instant and laying aside all questions, longings, wanting, everything you think you know about yourself and others. In the holy instant everything is done for you and you will remember the real world in which there is nothing to fear.

Musings: The Abundance of God

“Whatever suffers is not part of me.”

– ACIM Workbook Lesson 248

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No matter what befalls you in life: sickness, poverty, aloneness, abandonment, betrayal—you cannot suffer because love accompanies you. Love is total. If there is suffering, there is not love. If there is love, there can be no suffering.

Most activity in life is dedicated to avoiding suffering.

We don’t understand that suffering is a choice in the mind. There is only one way to become truly comfortable and that is to look upon our grievances and forgive them.

When things aren’t working, the place to look for the cause is in the mind. What is the grievance; who is to blame?

Let go of all grievances, and you cannot suffer under any circumstances. What suffers is not a part of you, because you are part of God. Forgiveness teaches this.

You could be blind and you would still “see.”

The body could fail and you would feel strong.

You could be betrayed and you would know you are loved.

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!

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.”

Musings: The True Shape of Being

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

Nothing borrowed will do.

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

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

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