Now that I've read the entire text of A Course in Miracles, I've finally begun the accompanying workbook for students. It's divided into 365 lessons which I can do daily, or stay longer with some lessons if I need to. The lessons appear at first to be simplistic, but as I continue to work through them, their meaning is profound. The idea is to re-train our minds to see holiness instead of judgment. The Course begins with:
Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God. ACIM Preface p.x
The point is to embody that idea in our daily lives. It's the way to peace. It's the way to remembrance. It's the way to Oneness. The lessons illustrate that the world we see is a projection or illusion and that we give it all the meaning it has. It's really that simple. We can choose to see it through the prism of the ego, or we can choose to see it as either an expression of love or a call for love. We can see it with judgment, or see it as nothing at all. In the Oneness, this world doesn't exist. The workbook teaches us how to live in the world while remembering we're not of the world.
The world of illusion is filled with drama. We don't want to accept our role, much less our active participation, in that drama. But we must accept that responsibility or we'll never accomplish the task at hand. The first twenty-five lessons focus on understanding that not only do I give meaning to whatever I'm seeing, but also my thoughts have power, that they're not neutral. They have effect and keep the drama going. I can focus on thoughts of attack and judgment, believing that I am responding to what I see. But that's the whole point..I'm responding to what I see. Not someone else..me. No one forces me to process things the way I do. I do that. I can choose something else. Choosing to stay above the fray and not judge, frees me to love unconditionally. I'm only at lesson twenty-five. Still having trouble with the unconditional part at times. We can attempt to control the outcome of situations, but as long as we stay in the drama, that will never happen. It's only when we step away from it, and choose extending love over judgment that we choose to remember who we are as part of the Oneness that is God. That's the only thing that's real. The rest is a projection of our collective guilt over our perceived separation from God. It's not true..we're still part of that Oneness, existing here in our collective dream state. That ends when we all remember. The workbook furthers that goal.
Lesson 22 says that when we typically look upon the world, vengeance is what we project. We blame everyone for our so-called problems and feel justified in responding with attack. The drama is circular in nature and, therefore, self-reinforcing. It never ends unless we choose to step away and end it. In lesson 24, it suggests that nothing I do is in my best interest as long as I'm choosing judgment. It's in my best interest to see holiness and Oneness, not judgment and separation. And yet that's exactly what we all do. Our justification fosters more separation. Judgment gets us nowhere and never will.
Today's lesson, twenty-five, tells me that everything I encounter is for my best interest. It doesn't matter if it is an expression of love or a call for love, it gives me everything I need. These are opportunities to join with others in Oneness. They're a blessing. If I devote my time to expressions of ego, then I don't understand what my life is about. Remember that if only God is real, then this world of projection is meaningless. Focusing on or responding to meaningless projections instead of seeing them as love or a call for love, prevents my awakening. If I extend love in whatever situation I find myself, then my awakening continues.
As the work continues, I'll be posting more.. It's going to be an interesting year..
Note: the above quotation is from A Course in Miracles. Foundation for Inner Peace. 2007
I became a student of A Course in Miracles in the mid-eighties. I heard the name of the book and I knew it was real. Yes..I know..but empaths do that sort of thing. We just know. I have spent around thirty years of my life trying to complete it because it's required. I'd get through most of it, and then I'd become sidetracked by my ego and come back to it, sometimes years later. Once you know about it, you have to do it. No matter how long it takes. I drove my family nuts with all the "things only have the meaning you give them" comments. Although not a religion, it references Christian terms, but it's more than that. The Course redefined my understanding of God and myself in a way that I had never thought of before. Honestly, if everyone knew what the Course says, our view of religion would change completely. And it probably should given how people have used religion for their own nefarious purposes. Religion, in and of itself, is fine. It creates community and teaches people to be loving to each other. But as we all know, this can go awry and all kinds of destructive things can result.
I've always been interested in the "how" of things. How is even more important to me than "why". So when it became clear to me from my study that oneness was more than just a spiritual concept, I was intrigued. And after you know that, just try and get mad at people. Go ahead..try to condemn them completely. Pretty soon, you start thinking about how they became so awful that they deserve your wrath in the first place. That gives way to, say it with me now, understanding. Anger gives way by then to forgiveness and pretty soon, not only can you not be mad at anyone, you actually find yourself becoming concerned about them instead of condemning them. How is that even possible when you felt so justified? Of course those who are immersed in their "me-ness" might have a problem with all of this, but separation, divisiveness, and disunity are at the root of the world's problems, so individuality be damned.
So back to the notion, we are one. What does that actually mean? I attended a lecture last May given by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, where he affirmed this very premise. In my study of A Course in Miracles, I discovered that oneness actually exists on the metaphysical level. We are one, because we are one. We only look separate because we chose to be separate. The Sonship is actually all of us, as one. We are also one with the Holy Spirit, the Voice for the Creator, as well as with the Creator. We can choose to forgive (the Atonement) and return home, or delay that return by choosing the ego (body). We cannot choose both. It's either one or the other. We either choose oneness with the Creator (which is reality) or oneness with our ego (unreality). The Course says:
Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.
What an amazing concept! If true, then this world is an illusion and apparently only necessary so that we can forgive ourselves for separating from the Creator in the first place. We accomplish this by forgiving others. Since we're all one anyway, by forgiving others, we forgive ourselves. This is the miracle the Course speaks of. It brings love to each of us and undoes fear. It acknowledges the worth of all. Miracles are thoughts so loving that they heal involuntarily, apart from our own direction. True healing we leave to the Holy Spirit. All we're asked to do is to remember that we are one and as such cannot judge anyone. If we are indeed one, then any judgment we make of others is judgment upon ourselves.
We blame and attack each other for problems that, more often than not, arise from our own perceptions. We make this stuff up out of whole cloth, creating drama in an effort to dominate others. Instead of understanding this is all a script that was written long ago that we come back here time and again to relive, we view what's happening as real. Except that drama is often threatening. And as we know from the aforementioned quote, if the drama was real, nothing about it can be threatening. In other words, if the drama were from the Creator, then it would be real and all-encompassing. Instead, it's from our minds. We create the mess that doesn't actually exist and if we only turned away from it, we would be fine. We would remember that we're part of something that is so much greater than anything we can conceive of here in this existence. We exist in peace and love. We can exist that way here by viewing everyone and everything as holy and engage in the Holy Instant with everyone, free from judgment, and full of love.
And that's not always easy, and we're always looking to see if forgiveness "took". Unfortunately, that's also judgment, and considered to be an attack upon the very person we're forgiving..as well as ourselves (that whole oneness thing again). And really, is there a choice to be made at all? We tell ourselves that there is, but there isn't if we want to live in truth. Life here in corporeal existence is hard. We dodge minefields everywhere. If we actually believed that we were part of a greater spirit that is complete love and joy, wouldn't we focus on that? Somehow, we've decided the world of the ego is more interesting, so we focus our efforts on building that world, instead of turning back to the only world that really exists..Heaven.
All that happened was misdirected thought. When everyone understands this, this world will no longer exist because it won't need to. Learning will have been accomplished and oneness will again be all that is.
NOTE: Quotations are from A Course in Miracles. Foundation for Inner Peace. 2007.
Contact them at PO Box 598, Mill Valley, CA 94942 or on the web at www.acim.org
To recap a bit, I began this blog last December. Over the past year or so I've experienced so much drama..and not of my own making. Well, I'm sure I participated, I just didn't cause any of it. So there's that. My landlord evicted us from our commercial space, which also ended our business. We couldn't find a place that was within our budget and given the seasonal nature of our business, we simply didn't feel that we could sign a lease with someone else without knowing how we would pay for it. Neither of us is irresponsible like that, so we took the burden that we're still coping with, both financially and emotionally.
In
July, my father died who was also my abuser. Six weeks later, my next door neighbor
apparently thought it was just fine and dandy to send his friend over
wearing a pistol in plain sight to talk about getting irrigation water
on his "crop". I had no idea who that guy was and now we don't speak to
the neighbors anymore. If my neighbor had actually done his irrigation
over the years, he would know that the properties are sloped in such a
way that run off will get on his property. It was why he agreed that we
could put a culvert in our driveway so that the run off could irrigate
the lower part of his field where water didn't reach. Well, water could
get there if they ever re-dug the ditches and actually irrigated that
section, but that's another story. So, now I'm the bad guy who
apparently needs to be confronted with weapons. Needless to say, now
they're allowed only five feet from either side of my ditch and that's
it. They're not allowed to be anywhere else on my property, especially
at my front door...with a gun.
After my abuser died, his wife began sending me the bills associated with his death. I cut off contact with him over twenty years ago because I had to. The pressure became too great and I wasn't functioning at all. So back to the bills. I've never met this woman. At first, she used her own name in the return address section of the envelope she used. Then, she used his. Time out for a panic attack.. okay..breathing better now. It's as if my abuser is reaching out from the grave to abuse me some more using his wife as proxy. I haven't responded to her. They keep coming.
And then I received a bill from a hospital with my abuser's name on it and my address. She has evidently contacted these places and told them to send the bills to me. I called the hospital while in a panic attack - my heart raced so much I could barely breathe. They were really nice to me and they took care of changing the address back. They won't be bothering me again. Then the helicopter service sent me a bill as well. Another call, another panic attack. They understood as well. I told them everything. I don't go to the mailbox anymore.
I've worked with runes for over thirty years, but not consistently. The same is true for A Course in Miracles. Since losing our business, I've felt compelled to return to the study of both to find my center again. I had no idea all these other things would happen as well.
Today, I pulled Nauthiz, Fehu, and Ehwaz in a three rune spread. A three rune spread is useful when needing insight on Issue, Action and Outcome. Anymore, that's a daily event for me...
Nauthiz refers to need or necessity. It's the struggle to discern need from desire and the conflict that results when we choose wrongly. The Course would suggest that it's the difference between the ego and our focus on God or source energy. It's living along the horizontal plane instead of the vertical. The Course says that if something isn't of God, it's not real. So in light of the Course, Nauthiz refers to where my focus should now be..away from events caused by man and on the understand that:
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
Fehu, as the action, represents the collective, or in the case of the Course, the sonship. The sonship refers to mankind. Fehu's energy moves us from the pressure to remain with the expectations of the whole to individuality. Fehu also refers to wealth. But wealth doesn't always mean money. Sometimes, as in my case, it refers to something more metaphorical. Abundance can also mean what we give to others. The Course continually brings us back to extension of love and unity as a means of atonement..of bringing the sonship to wholeness, again, living along the vertical rather than the horizontal plane. Fehu also talks about debt or baggage. What do we owe each other as we remember each of us is holy, and an essential part of the sonship? Removing the veil of perception is required so that the individuality Fehu speaks of doesn't make us forget our responsibility to the sonship. If anything, it reinforces that responsibility by illustrating that true freedom and wealth is found in unity with others.
Ehwaz, the outcome, refers to trust and partnership. It's the ultimate outcome of the struggle represented by Fehu. Mastering our reactionary emotions and behavior, and uniting with others is key to a positive outcome. It's also key to our survival, according to the Course. It's understanding that if it's not of God, it's not real, and we can all move past the hurt and the pain and bring about the atonement. We do this by seeing everyone as holy and without error. It involves not judging others, for to do that is to judge ourselves.
This runecasting is significant particularly when considering what's happening throughout the world today. It essentially follows the three lines above. Nauthiz becomes..nothing real can be threatened..Fehu becomes..nothing unreal exists..and Ehwaz becomes..herein lies the peace of God. We must understand that the reality is we're all one family. As such, we need each other. As we begin to see this truth as fundamental, the need for separation will will end and compassion will be a given.
And as for me.. my struggle is to see that the past doesn't need to control my present. And that the only person who defines me is me. I'm stronger than I ever believed I could be, because I'm still here. I choose how I define myself. No one else. I survived. And that's everything.
Excerpts from A Course In Miracles, Combined Volume. Foundation For Inner Peace. 2007
