Reflections 71 to 84

 

71/ Sacrifice and Loss

9th April 2021

The context of sacrifice can vary. We might offer gifts at an altar in return for a Divine favour. We might sacrifice our career for our family, or vice versa. Or we might give to a charity, or to the poor. Either way, sacrifice is equated with loss. 

A Course in Miracles dismisses sacrifice in the same way as it dismantles the ego. Sacrifice and the ego go hand in hand. One can't exist without the other. It is guilt that glues them together.

We are told that God's only relationship is with His Son. God would never demand a sacrifice. 

No sacrifice of any kind, of anyone, is asked by Him. In His Presence the whole idea of sacrifice loses all meaning. (ACIM, T-15.XI.2:4-5)

A Course in Miracles also tells us that believing in sacrifice only brings pain.

You who believe that sacrifice is love must learn that sacrifice is separation from love. For sacrifice brings guilt as surely as love brings peace. (ACIM, T-15.XI.4:1-2)

The solution is to look within. 

The whole purpose of A Course in Miracles is to get us to look at our dark side. It is to get us to look at that part of us that we think will be punished. It is to get us to look at that part of us that is panicking, and thinks it needs to barter with God. 

Sacrifice and loss obviously means nothing within the context of A Course in Miracles, just as the ego and fear means nothing. As students, it obviously does mean something or else we wouldn't be doing the Course. We just have to trust in the process, as the line below explains.

In you are both the question and the answer; the demand for sacrifice and the peace of God. (ACIM, T-15.X.9:8)

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72/ Sit  Quietly and Be

10th April 2021

A Course in Miracles tells us that there's the ego and the Holy Spirit. Both are within the mind. One relates to being and one does not.

The ego is a doer. It is in a constant state of doing. It jumps backwards and forwards, with no capacity to be in the present moment. All it relates to is the past. This is how it identifies with itself. 

To sit quietly and be means we have to undo the turbulence of the egoic mind. We have to get to the cause of our physical and mental suffering.

We might have tried all sorts of healing. Maybe there was some respite, maybe there wasn't. For the most part, we probably just felt a temporary respite to our pain.

A Course in Miracles talks about the unhealed healer, which roughly translates as one ego trying to heal another ego. Here, it is useful to understand that ACIM is about non-duality. Oneness. There is nothing else.

A therapist does not heal: he lets healing be. (ACIM, T-9.V.8:1)

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false. (ACIM, T-16.IV.6:1-2)

A Course in Miracles is about common sense. We go to a doctor, or therapist, when we feel we need to. No one wants to suffer. But it is also about finding peace. A peaceful mind cannot suffer.

To be able to sit quietly and be, we have to be gentle with ourselves. Kindness is key. We learn to ask the Holy Spirit to solve our problems. We allow the Holy Spirit to show us how to heal.

The ego is taken out of the equation. We learn to let healing be.

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73/ Developing Trust

11th April 2021

"Love cannot live where there is no trust.” Edith Hamilton.

***

We read and study A Course in Miracles because something in it speaks to us. Why else would we do it? It is a big, two-inch book that is difficult to understand. It starts with 50 principles in Miracles. If we think we are going to understand even one of these principles, we wouldn't need ACIM in the first place.

A Course in Miracles tells us that our understanding is not necessary. 

However, A Course in Miracles does say that there is Something within us that does understand. 

That Something is the Holy Spirit. We allow the Holy Spirit to understand for us. But first, we need to develop trust in each and every person that we meet. This is regardless of how they act, and  regardless of what they do.

We learn we can't awaken to reality by ourselves. It is a partnership. We learn to work together with those around us. We see past the body. We see past the ego. We communicate with the right part of the mind.

When two minds join as one and share one idea equally, the first link in the awareness of the Sonship as one has been made. (ACIM, T-16.II.4:3-4)

We train ourselves to see the Holy Spirit in everyone we meet. And we begin to learn that what has been given to us by God, is in everyone. 

Awake and share it, for that is the only reason He has called to you. (ACIM, T-16.II.8:3)

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74/ The Threat Without

12th April 2021

It is likely we think that something outside of ourselves has caused our problems. The cause is external to us, and the result is that we experience the effect.

Blaming our parents, siblings, environment, friends or relations are just examples. It might be one person or one thing in particular. That person, or thing, is the main reason why we feel the way we do.

A Course in Miracles teaches us that the cause is always within us. Its effect is merely how we experience the world.

It seems to be the enemy without that you attack. Yet your defense sets up an enemy within; an alien thought at war with you, depriving you of peace, splitting your mind into two camps which seem wholly irreconcilable. For love now has an “enemy,” an opposite; and fear, the alien, now needs your defense against the threat of what you really are. (ACIM, W-170.3:1-3)

Love's enemy is the ego. A Course in Miracles tells us we can't undo the ego by ourselves.  We have to trust another part of the mind. This part belongs to the Holy Spirit, and it's a quiet voice that can feel like intuition. The threat without is the threat within. Everything happens within us.

You are not two selves in conflict. What is beyond God? If you who hold Him and whom He holds are the universe, all else must be outside, where nothing is. (ACIM, T-16.III.6:1-4)

One book that explains this very clearly is The Disappearance of the Universe by Gary Renard.  

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75/ War and Peace

13th April 2021

Some of us might look to the spiritual teachers of our time to provide the answers. If we knew the  answers, we  wouldn't be searching in the first place. Two of the greatest spiritual teachers of all time had the insight to tell us this.

Jesus said: "The Kingdom of God is within you."

Buddha said: "Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without."

Both taught thousands during their lifetimes. Both had jealousy and hatred pursue them as they preached their message.

When we start on a spiritual path, we have to understand the duality that is within us. There is both war and peace. Everything can seem rosy for a while, but there will always be a time when things might turn nasty.

A Course in Miracles puts it like this: If you seek love outside yourself you can be certain that you perceive hatred within, and are afraid of it. (ACIM, T-16.IV.6:5)

Our goal is to separate illusion from truth. What is real love, and what is the love that just disguises our fear? This is a hard question to answer by ourselves.

A Course in Miracles tells us we are in a dilemma. It tells us that, as long as the illusion of hatred lasts, so will love be just an illusion to us. We are really just fighting a battle with ourselves.

 In many ways, it is as simple as this. 

Love calls, but hate would have you stay. (ACIM, T-16.IV.11:3-4)

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76/ Love Without an Opposite

14th April 2021

“True love has no opposite. If your “love” has an opposite, then it is not love but a strong ego-need for a more complete and deeper sense of self, a need that the other person temporarily meets.” Eckhart Tolle

***

Wanting "the best of both worlds" is a common phrase. We know it well. Within the context of A Course in Miracles, this is impossible. We can only have one or the other.

For this world is the opposite of Heaven, being made to be its opposite, and everything here takes a direction exactly opposite of what is true. In Heaven, where the meaning of love is known, love is the same as union. Here, where the illusion of love is accepted in love's place, love is perceived as separation and exclusion. (ACIM, T-16.V.3:6-8)

We live in a world of duality. Our choice, it seems, is to find "heaven" on earth, or "hell" on earth. It is purely a matter of perception. It all comes from within us.

A Course in Miracles talks about the special relationship and the holy relationship. The former is where our relationship with someone, or something, is simply a device of the ego. The latter is where a relationship is based on truth, and where the Holy Spirit is involved.

The special relationship might cover over a few issues that we prefer not to look at. The ego is content. Our needs are met. When these issues begin to appear, then the relationship can falter.

The holy relationship is based entirely on love. No matter what anyone says or does, only the Christ within is seen. The body simply communicates. The relationship is light.

Whether we make our relationships "special" or "holy" will depend on our attitude. The ego's idea of "heaven" is completely the opposite to the Holy Spirit's. For one, the opposite of love is "hell". For the other, love has no opposite.

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77/ The Tip of the Iceberg

15th April 2021

Everyone has a story. What we see in a person is really only the surface. It is a superficial representation of something much deeper. We don't know their history, what caused them to be the person they are.

The same with this little person we call "me". We are the sum total of our experiences. We wouldn't even recognise at lot of it. So when we have a reaction, an inappropriate response to something that has triggered us, we wonder where it came from. And, of course, it came from deep with us. it came from the part of our self we can't see.

We are two selves. One is this little self created by our experiences. The other is the Self created by God.

A Course in Miracles talks about the bridge that connects these two selves. The little self, or how we see the world, is on one side: On this side, everything you see is grossly distorted and completely out of perspective. What is little and insignificant is magnified, and what is strong and powerful cut down to littleness. (ACIM, T-16.VI.7:2-3)

On the other side of the bridge, things change. We have a new perspective. Everything is seen from the perspective of our true Self: The new perspective you will gain from crossing over will be the understanding of where Heaven is. (ACIM, T-16.VI.11:1)

Both sides of the bridge are within each one of us. If we feel lost or overwhelmed, it might be helpful to remember we always have choice.

The choice is to find that something far greater is within us. It is really a choice two things. Hell or Heaven. Each one is just the tip of the iceberg.

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78/ Joy is a State of Being

16th April 2021

"Happiness is dependent on a set of conditions. Joy, however, is a state of being."

This is one of the realisations that Dr. Mary Neal gained from her near-death experience in 1999. The NDE occurred after being held underwater during a kayaking accident in southern Chile.  She was aware of her body under the water, being hit by the rapids, but she wasn't experiencing pain or fear of any kind. 

A Course in Miracles also teaches us about this state of being. ACIM calls it the holy instant. It tells us that this is where we find joy. We are simply oblivious to it by being bound to the past, with all the regrets and disappointments that the past entails. 

In the holy instant it is understood that the past is gone, and with its passing the drive for vengeance has been uprooted and has disappeared. The stillness and the peace of now enfold you in perfect gentleness. Everything is gone except the truth. (ACIM, T-16.VII.6:4-6)

There are many spiritual paths which bring us to this same experience. A Course in Miracles is just one and uses forgiveness as its practice. It uses forgiveness to establish us in the present moment. It is an inch-by-inch journey until the present moment becomes our reality. ACIM's goal is to show us that joy is a state of being.

Dr. Neal's life was stable and happy before her accident. There was nothing she would have changed. However, she says her near-death experience radically changed her life, including her view of other people, and of herself. She says she now simply lives in the present moment, and is totally unaffected by the past.

This account shows us how a pragmatic surgeon, wife and mother can remain grounded in the world but with the knowledge of something much greater. Dr. Neal has a number of accounts on YouTube. One is: 'Dr. Mary Neal's NDE and Joyful Lessons' which includes the quote found above. The link is below.

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79/ I Am and God Is

17th April 2021

When we say I am, we are looking at the truth of who we are.

When we say God Is, we are looking at the Source of all there is.

A Course in Miracles teaches us about the unreality of our illusory thinking, and tells us that our "sins" are simply our own imaginings. We engage in fantasy and it is this that distorts our reality.

Fantasies change reality. That is their purpose. They cannot do so in reality, but they can do so in the mind that would have reality be different. (ACIM, T-17.I.1:8-10)

Reality never changes. Reality is the Source of who we are.

When you become disturbed and lose your peace of mind because another is attempting to solve his problems through fantasy, you are refusing to forgive yourself for just the same attempt. And you are holding both of you away from truth and from salvation. (ACIM, T-17.I.6:5-6)

A Course in Miracles tells us that truth and salvation go hand in hand.

Salvation does nothing. It simply lets illusions go. This is where truth lies.

To find I am, we simply engage in an undoing process of all the illusory thoughts that are in our minds. Then we just find that we are simply a Thought in the Mind of God. And God simply Is.

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80/ Looking Up at the Sky

18th April 2021

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it truly is... infinite." William Blake.

***

Last night, there was the brightest moon shining in the night-time sky.

This morning, the sky is bright blue with a peppering of whispery cloud.

If we look within, there might be the same type of clarity. Or maybe there is turbulence? Turbulent thoughts pass quickly through the mind like a thick cloud covering the clarity of the sky.

A Course in Miracles teaches us about the false world and the real world. The difference, apparently, is merely a matter of perception.

The real world is attained simply by the complete forgiveness of the old, the world you see without forgiveness. (ACIM, T-17.II.5:1)

A Course in Miracles teaches us the ongoing practice of forgiveness. We change ourselves through this practice and, slowly, our perception changes. One reality replaces another. 

This means that our perception, as it becomes perfected, becomes meaningless. All our guilt is cleansed. Where we once perceived with a guilty mind, we begin just seeing with a mind that is pure.

The real world then replaces the old world. To find it now, we can start by looking up at the sky. However, what we really need to do is to start looking within.

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81/ The Little Step

19th April 2021

If we think about it, when we sit to meditate, it is just a little step into present moment awareness. We wave the clouds away and let ourselves be.

What stops us are our thoughts. These thoughts consistently refer to the past, and shape the future as we see it.

A Course in Miracles teaches us that the only way to take this little step into present moment awareness is through the practice of forgiveness.

To forgive is merely to remember only the loving thoughts you gave in the past, and those that were given you. All the rest must be forgotten. (ACIM, T-17.III.1:1-2)

This is a huge step, absolutely massive. We probably try to do this in so many ways without even knowing it. We go to psychotherapy. We take medication. We distract ourselves with endless lists of things to do. We drink ourselves into oblivion. 

Whatever we do, the nagging voice will always be there, affirming all the things we feel we know about ourselves.

A  Course in Miracles tells us that, if we only remember the loving thoughts and undo the rest, then what remains must be the present. It is eternal and unending. 

To practice forgiveness is a series of little steps into present moment awareness. It is a personal choice, just like it is a personal choice to study A Course in Miracles.

It is still up to you to choose to join with truth or with illusion. But remember that to choose one is to let the other go. Which one you choose you will endow with beauty and reality, because the choice depends on which you value more. (ACIM, T-17.III.9:1-4)

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82/ The Only Certainty

20th April 2021

It was Benjamin Franklin who said: "In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes."

A Course in Miracles would dispute this. 

There is no world! This is the central thought the course attempts to teach. (ACIM, W-132.6:2-3)

There is no death. The Son of God is free. (ACIM, W-163)

Taxes are not mentioned in A Course in Miracles.

The point is not to dismiss the pain of death or dying, or even a heavy tax bill. It is about undoing the suffering that comes with it. When we come to understand the context of our reality, we can gain great insight into the nature of who we really are.

We frame our reality as we see it. This is either through the eyes of the ego, or through the vision of the Holy Spirit. We either see the body, or we see the Christ within. 

Bodies are separate selves. The ego is in charge of each individual self. See past it and we see past death.

Christ is the real Self we share. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through this Self, and it is what connects us to God. This Self makes us One.

Christ's vision has one law. It does not look upon a body, and mistake it for the Son whom God created. It beholds a light beyond the body; an idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful mistakes, and fearful thoughts of guilt from dreams of sin. It sees no separation. And it looks on everyone, on every circumstance, all happenings and all events, without the slightest fading of the light it sees. (ACIM, W-158.7:1-5)

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83/ The Endless Present

21st April 2021

You may wonder how you can be at peace when, while you are in time, there is so much to be done before the way to peace is open. (ACIM, T-20.IV.8:1)

***

A Course in Miracles is a course in forgiveness. It is a course in salvation. Salvation is the term ACIM uses for complete peace of mind. To achieve complete peace of mind through forgiveness is the purpose of practicing the principles of ACIM.

A distinction therefore needs to be made between the forgiveness of the world, and the forgiveness of A Course in Miracles. 

The forgiveness that the world teaches means that we forgive on the assumption that what someone did to us really happened. The forgiveness that A Course in Miracles teaches means that we forgive on the assumption that what someone did to us never ocurred. This is a clarification that is so diametrically opposed that the world could never accept the teachings of ACIM, and ACIM could never accept the teachings of the world.

A Course in Miracles essentially wants us to question every value that we have ever held. It gives us all the help we need. ACIM knows who we are and what we are. We also know who we are and what we are. The problem is, we have temporarily forgotten. 

You are invulnerable because you are guiltless. You can hold on to the past only through guilt (ACIM, T-13.I.8:1-2). 

This is an important distinction. Being guiltless is the essence of who we are. This is spirit. When we in-spirit we are inspired. Time drops away. The present becomes the only moment there is. It essentially becomes the endless present.

Guilt therefore deprives us of the appreciation of eternity. We learn that we are immortal because we are eternal. The endless present is within us, and nowhere else. 

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84/ When Uncertainty Strikes

22nd April 2021

Out of the blue, a situation might occur which makes us feel uneasy. It unsettles us. It could be anything, although we probably wish it was something else.

A Course in Miracles tells us this: In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply, is "What do I want to come of this? What is it for?" The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning for it is this that will determine the outcome. (ACIM, T-17.VI.2:1-3)

This is working with our intuition, the quiet voice in our mind.  This is the Holy Spirit.

The ego reverses this. The ego looks at the situation and determines the outcome. The ego does not know what it wants to come of the situation. The ego is simply aware of what it does not want. Usually this revolves around pain, stress and anxiety.

We all have triggers. Everyone has a unique life experience. What pushes one person's buttons might not affect someone else. No two people will react to any situation in exactly the same way.

So we start from where we are. When something arises that we feel is difficult, we learn to give it over to the Holy Spirit. But we have to listen. We have to learn to quieten ourselves for the answer. When the answer arises, we can visualize the outcome.

It's just a matter of trust and faith. We have to keep at it, and slowly our perceptions change.