Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.
Let me recognize my problems have been solved.
We are saved, according to A Course in Miracles, when we realize that suffering is an illusion we force on ourselves, and that we can simply choose to set it aside and remember our origin and being in love.
For most of us this realization and subsequent shift in thinking occurs over time and with practice. Lessons 79 and 80 outline – in tandem and microcosm – the whole function of the course as it gently guides us from fear to love.
Lesson 79 asks us to get clear on what the problem is. This is important. We have to see the problem in order to see the solution. Nothing happens if we can’t muster the willingness to look at what’s going on. We need that clarity and that certainty. We need to be able to say, okay, this is the problem.
Our real problem – our only problem – is our belief that we are separate from God. Every other apparent problem – be it a cash shortage, a fight with a friend, estrangement from siblings, dying parents, migraines and spotty cable signals – is a grievance, a symptom of our belief that we are separate from God. We only have many apparent problems because we’ve given this one problem credence.
The problem is a grievance; the solution is a miracle. And I invite the solution to come to me through my forgiveness of the grievance, and my welcome of the miracle that takes its place (W-pI.90.1:5-6).
In this way, A Course in Miracles comes along and asks us to give attention to our many problems in order that we might finally see – and give attention to – our belief that we are something that can be separated from God. This means doing the work of psychotherapy. It means we don’t hide our problems under a glossy happy dream. We don’t waltz through our lives singing about how beautiful life is and how happy we are.
When we do the real work of looking within – which is to say, when we practice forgiveness – then we are going to be wading through the psychic muck and that muck’s going to stink and there’s no guarantee it’s going to stop at the level of our knees.
Say that I have a problem: I’m confused about political activism and A Course in Miracles. Should I or should I not be politically active?
Can I see the confusion? That’s what I really want to do. I want to see the confusion. I don’t want to rush into choosing this or that response to the problem. I just want to notice how confusion functions.
One thing I notice is that it doesn’t feel good. It feels like failure. And, because it doesn’t feel good, I don’t want to look at it. I want to deny it or minimize it. Or maybe concede that I’m confused but I’m not as confused as this person is. I displace the fear of failure by judging another as being the bigger failure.
But then one day – maybe practicing the daily lesson – I don’t do that. Instead of judging the confusion, I just let it be. I say yes, I am confused about what it means to be separated. I let it be. I don’t fight it. Then it’s just there. I’m not trying to fix it or hide it. I’m owning it by not projecting it.
Doing this is really just seeing the problem where it is: in my mind. It’s not your problem. It’s not the world’s problem. It’s here in my thoughts. It can’t be solved by a choice in the world because that’s not where it is.
Cool fact: when we no longer judge our confusion, then it is no longer confusion. It just is. Does that make sense? It can only be confusion if we compare it to some standard of clarity. It’s only confusion when we bring some other idea in to compare it to. But if we don’t get into judgment and comparison, then there is no problem. The confusion is no longer good or bad. It’s no longer a state we have to fix in order to ensure a safe and happy and prosperous future.
There is real freedom in seeing this because when we let go of judgment-through-comparison, which is separation, we see that we do not have a problem. There is no problem – the problem was we thought we had a problem. And we thought we had a problem because we were behaving as if separation were real. We thought there really were grounds for comparison. When we realize there aren’t, and when we bring our apparent problem into the light of this realization, then we realize – as per lesson 80 – that our many problems are indeed solved. They just aren’t there.
When we have no problems, we become naturally and seriously happy. In a state of happiness, all we can offer our brothers and sisters – and the world itself – is happiness.
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I’m responding to your (YouTube) video embedded here.
I see the TIME thing in this (parag. 3 and 4) as the key teaching here. If I’m not mistaken, it implies there is no time (or space). The fact that there is no time and space seems to necessitate there being only one essence.
You mentioned here (in the YouTube video) that it’s only our Self gazing back at us. I wonder if you would include God too in this ‘Self’? This means (to me) that God, me and my brothers are all God. (God/me/brothers = God)
This would mean (to me) that ACIM is a Love Letter from/to Myself. It’s like I feel a tap on my shoulder, and then I turn around and find/see Myself looking back at me.
Maybe the metaphysics of lesson 253 allow this? It says: “You are the Self Whom You created Son, creating like Yourself and One with You. ²My Self, which rules the universe, is but Your Will in perfect union with my own, which can but offer glad assent to Yours, that it may be extended to Itself.”(ACIM, W-253.2:1-2)
The COA version (CE) comment on parag.2:1 (of lesson 253) is: “This means ‘You, God, are the Self — the Christ — Whom You created as Your Son, the Son who creates like Yourself and one with You.'”
Hi Lenny,
Thanks for some great questions and musings.
I would include God in the self to the extent it was helpful. If using language to frame concepts like me, my brothers and sisters and God are all one, then great. If it’s a distraction, that’s okay too. There are lots of ways to use language and order our thinking. Right and wrong do not really enter into it.
I would not personally take the language of Lesson 253 literally; I would take it as a pointer to a state of oneness that transcends the limited nature of experience in a body (and thought in a brain). I read that – as I read a lot of the course – as gesturing in a religious way to what cannot actually be articulated or experienced in the body and world.
Even at its most dramatic and poetic, the course is always only teaching us how to recognize and differentiate between the voice of ego and the Voice of the Holy Spirit and listen only to the latter. That is the work of a lifetime, if not more 🙂 At least for slow learners like myself, it is. And the repeated emphasis that God takes the last step helpfully nudges me away from getting too fixated on what God is et cetera. I’ll know when I know.
Like Tara Singh I experience ACIM as a call to application. Study matters but what matters more is the actual practice. The study buttresses the practice. Hence, what helps us discern better between ego and Holy Spirit? And, critically, what helps us obey the Holy Spirit?
Study, while essential, can also become a crutch, a distraction, spiritual porn – all a way of not practicing. I am inspired and enheartened by language that assures me the cosmos and I are joined, but the real question is not the cosmic one, it’s the local one: am I joining with my brothers and sisters here? Am I experiencing the happiness and peace that arises when I do join with them here?
To that end, Lenny, thank you for such a thoughtful informed question, and please forgive me if I misunderstood or went off on some tangent you solved long ago. I’m glad you’re here.
Love,
Sean
Thanks for responding. Your point about practice over spiritual porn/masturbation is well taken. But a little backstory is needed.
Before I was introduced to ACIM (July 1st, 2021 at 4:15pm), I was stuck in ‘that old time religion’ monotheistic dualism (non-monism). Then ACIM came into my life. I assume that if it didn’t have its Judeo-Christian, non-monistic (Creator, creation, Father, Son, parts to the Self/Christ) terminology, I would not have accepted it.
Then, just a few days ago, I had the ‘Monistic’ (what else do I call it?) event I described ‘above’. Maybe the Course was leading me skillfully to it. (who knows?– what do you think?)
All I know is that If there is no time and space (as the Course clearly promotes), separation collapses, and there is nothing other than God. Before, I would have said this view is ‘sterile’, but the Course brought me along (whether that was its intention, or not) far enough to see that the opposite is the case. (see the God ‘tapping’ me on the shoulder analogy I used in my previous comment above)
Now, to respond directly to your main point: My previous dualistic/non-monistic view was slowing me down spiritually. I was stuck in ‘spiritual porn/masturbation’ because of it. ACIM was ‘just’ a cooler version of the ‘old time religion’. Now, I can see that real miracles (Love) are as close (and therefore as frequent) as a ‘tap on the shoulder’. (Me tapping — not ‘jacking’ — Myself)
I think in general if we have an experience of oneness (i.e., there is nothing other than God) but there is still a self to claim the experience (I used to feel X but now I feel Y), then that is still separation. So long as we are perceiving differences as meaningful, so long as comparison remains a viable mental tool, then we remain separated.
It’s not a crisis or an offense against God or nature, but it is good to be clear.
~ Sean
Thanks for keeping us grounded.
Thank you Sean for your reflections, which are always so interesting to listen to.
I was/am practicing this lesson since yesterday…
“Let me recognise my problems have been solved”
l was at work in the dream yesterday, trying so hard not to entertain any grievance of any kind and really trying to remember that the Holy Spirit will teach me that God has placed the answer to any problem, together with the problem. The unconscious pull down into grievances was extremely strong, but l managed to dissolve them from my mind, before they completely unfolded. lt was as if l was laying the dark shield of grievances down. Many occurrences happened, that don’t normally happen. And in fact, almost every single one of these events has never happened before in the dream of being at work. This is what occurred in the dream…
At one point l began wondering how l was going to fit in the ‘time’ to get the photocopies l needed and was contemplating the lengthy walk over to the photocopier, while managing to push aside grievances about it. Shortly afterwards, a colleague approached me giving me her stack of photocopies, as she wasn’t going to use them. This sort of thing is already unusual in a competitive environment. At another point, l began thinking that l should get the certificates l needed, but had been avoiding doing anything about them, due to the ‘time’ schedule and long walk. Not long after that, a different colleague arrived and gave me some of his … (never happened before – twice in one day).
When l opened my emails, l’d received two very polite emails from people l’d earlier assumed may not reply, as they’d been non-responsive to my earlier emails. One of whom wrote three times, words to the effect of “Bless you, blessings, sending you blessings”. l’ve never used this word before in the dream of being at work, as it is a quite formal atmosphere, and l think l can count the number of times people have used it with me on one hand.
Then another colleague offered to give up her time for me, so l could fulfill my ‘professional obligation’, as part of a required process. This has never occurred before, and it turned out to be mutually beneficial.
The icing on the cake was relating to a rather onerous task involving a big job on the computers, l’d not been looking forward to … When l inquired where the computers were, as they were not where they were supposed to be, l was informed that they had been taken by the other department without mentioning it to anyone – yippee. This was turning out to be a fun day.
Then l received another email saying that due to Covid restrictions easing, social gathering restrictions were also easing. This meant that the other online computer job l’d been hoping would never eventuate, was null and void. Double yippee … Null and void – a bit like everything in the dream l guess you could say…
Later, a different colleague helped me out with two situations … another massive job with the computers. She offered to do the job l didn’t want to do, together with me thereby halving the load. l was so relieved. She also offered to do another unrelated job, with me. This additional job, had slipped my attention, as l hadn’t read the corresponding document and so not only did she spare me any awkwardness of not attending to the job, but she also provided support in doing an unpopular job.
As l left the building to go home, another colleague said words to the effect of “ls there anything you’d like me to help with? lf there is anything, don’t hesitate to ask”… Now this is unheard of in an environment in which personalities seem to compete with each other and seem to grasp at any straws, for a momentary chances to boost the ego.
Finally, as l walked out the front gates and headed for my car, the Holy Spirit began playing me music (which is a totally different sensation from when l initiate songs) lt was the song by Olivia Newton John with the lyrics being … “Come take my hand. You should know me. I’ve always been in your mind. You know l will be kind. l’ll be guiding you. Building your dream has to start now. There’s no other road to take. You won’t make a mistake. l’ll be guiding you …”
So, I’m finding that however difficult it is to lay down grievances, it harder still to be dominated by a never ending barrage of grievances in the dream.
Sending you blessings,
Jayney
Thank you Jayney.
It is a gift and a blessing when things work out; I love the feeling of asking and receiving 🙂 I am also aware of the need to understand that even when things DON’T work out, they are still going according to God’s plan, which transcends my understanding. But yes, I am super grateful when the Holy Spirit and Jesus remind me that my brothers and sisters are not my enemies or my competitors but my fellow helpers, my collaborators in grace, my partners in salvation.
Pay it forward!!
Love,
Sean
Yes. You are right Sean, when things don’t seem to work out, and seem to be the complete opposite of what you were hoping for, that is very, very hard to take. Even when you know it is part of the overall plan, it is cold comfort. They are the days when the the book gets flung into the rubbish bin, only to be retrieved a few hours later then set aside for a while.
Blessings,
Jayney.
I have a lot of these types of days 🙂
🙏🙏
Sean
P.S. Thank you for reminding me of that song 🙏🙏
So in practical terms,
lf we have a problem, just say our car broke down, we have no money to fix it and yet we need the car to drive to work. We are to remember there is only ever one problem – separation. lf we can believe and think that we are all one, we feel peace, comfort and connection from being one. The broken car is a grievance and ultimately a version of reality that is unreal.
Then what? ln this scenario, we don’t have any money to have the car fixed, yet we need the car operational in order to drive it to work. How does the problem get solved?
Are we to divert our mind away from the actual details of the situation while trying to derive peace from knowing and feeling connection to oneness, while we try to sort out the details with our employer? Do we try to do this without turning the situation into a grievance and accept the situation as it is?
You would have to be extremely self disciplined not to be tempted to blame, hold a grievance or revert to self pity. lf this scenario were in play, and the person was doing his/her best to remember that there is only one problem and one solution – separation and oneness, it may then only take one small additional event (such as the cat started pooping outside the litter tray 😉 for the diligent and self-disciplined learner to crack and chuck the book in the rubbish bin, cry, go on an ego rampage or a combination of all three.
It is workable to apply the principals when all seems to be going well if one is willing, determined and self disciplined. However, when things seem to be going wrong, when under pressure and stress, how does one continue to maintain an even keel and stay calm and connected. Most of us get triggered into fight/flight and fear when we seem to be under attack from outside influences?
Jayney
I’ve been wondering whether ACIM can handle my ‘severe’ ‘attacks’/triggers. (or even moderate ones) ACIM feels pretty ‘heady’ to me– that is, it, it accompanies me throughout the day as a sort of abstract presence that I delight in, but when s*** happens, it is largely useless to me. So I have felt the need to add another modality (Inner Family/Loving Parent/Reparenting work from ACA(D)) to balance the ‘heady’ abstract nature of ACIM with the ‘heart’ of tending to my inner family. So now, ACIM is like a cool, metaphysical presence in my life that blows above the pipes and sewers of my psyche that are handled by a plumber.
I guess I’ll keep ACIM around.
Thanks for your comment, Lenny. I love this line: “ACIM is like a cool, metaphysical presence in my life that blows above the pipes and sewers of my psyche that are handled by a plumber.”
One of the things the course assures us is that the path of salvation – the form that salvation will take – varies for each student. We reach the end of the material and the Holy Spirit takes it from there.
So some of us will remain devoted ACIM-only types, others will gravitate towards more traditional contemplative and meditative practices, some of us will utilize this or that therapeutic modality and it’s all good. It really is.
There were phases in my practice where I was less open-minded about this, and I regret that. I know that Ken was pretty dogged about this point – not mixing ACIM up with others paths and traditions. But I think the material is clear, and it is certainly reinforced by my experience of living and practicing ACIM, that it can be supplemented and supported in many ways without injuring its helpfulness.
Thank you for reminding me of this, and I am glad that you have found a good plumber 🙂 Sounds like a pretty effective spiritual path to me!
Love,
Sean
Thanks! I found Wapnick refreshing and welcome at one time because at a certain point I needed to hear his one dimensional and simplistic approach. His approach led me (unintentionally) to broaden my spiritual palette with a non-ACIM modality: ACA(D)/Inner Family/Loving Parent/Reparenting work. It is similar in some ways to ACIM. It sanctions and encourages me to release the outcome to a higher power (it comes out of the Step-based AA tradition), which is basically the same message you gave to me above: “We reach the end of the material and the HS takes it from there.”
I still do the Lessons everyday (I’m on 104) to the best of my ability and read from the Text occasionally. I feel I will continue to ponder on the nature of reality and illusion (Intro. 2:2-3). Maybe resolving this will always elude me, but I feel that my attempt, and then asking the HS to ‘solve’ it for me is the way to go, because the faint ‘laughter’ (i.e. seeing through the illusion) is always there, distant, but just at the edge of my vision.
Thank you for sharing this, Lenny. I identify a lot with it.
It’s funny. I too find Ken’s approach one-dimensional and yet at times it remains profoundly helpful. Sometimes I really need to just boil everything down, and keep it super simple. I think he was very devoted to that idea, that method of teaching, and was very effective at it. I’m grateful for him, even though at times I want to throw my hands up in the air.
Pondering the big questions has always been a lot of fun for me. Somebody reminded me in another context today to remember to laugh, i.e., not take things so seriously, and that seems to be very effective for tackling the big stuff – the nature of reality, illusion, love and God.
Keeping it simple and remembering to laugh is not my strong suit, but I keep showing up 🙂
Thanks again.
~ Sean
Hi Jayney,
Thank you for your patience 🙂
It’s true that ACIM will not fix our broken-down car. What it can do is change our mind about our broken-down car. That is, we can learn that our ideas about the value of things (like working cars, say) are in error and learn a better way.
You know the Zen story about the farmer who suddenly has a beautiful horse show up in his field? People say, what a blessing – a free horse! He says, maybe good maybe bad. His son gets on the horse and is thrown and breaks a leg and people say, what a curse – a broken leg! And the farmer says, maybe good maybe bad. The next day the army comes through taking all able-bodied sons off to war and this guy’s son can’t go because of the broken leg . . .
Maybe good, maybe bad 🙂
We do not really understand the cosmos or the divine plan or the mind of God. It sucks when my car breaks down but how do I know that’s not a gift because there’s a big accident on the highway? Or that some mechanic is panicking because he has no work and I show up and he can breathe because he can feed his family another day?
The point is not that those things are true or not true! It’s that we don’t know. And when we accept that, then our ideas about our life soften a little and we are less attached to outcomes and objects.
That is the real gift of ACIM – that softening, that ease with our lives – because in THAT space we begin to learn for real that we are not separate from one another, and that this is not merely an abstract idea but a present reality.
When we are in that space of ease and gentleness, we are less stressed and we can deal with problems as they arise with a little more grace. We know that in the world of form sometimes things go sideways – cars break down, kids get sick, wars start. We are responsive to these things – make soup for my child, take the car to a mechanic and ask my friend for a lift, support leaders who aren’t warmongers. Life does go on!
But we are no longer bound to its laws. Our happiness is not contingent on everything working out. And we have something to offer others – our peace, our kindness, our gentleness.
I do not say this is easy. It is not. It is a practice that takes time and study and sometimes good teachers and fellow students. But – for those of us for whom it is our chosen path, and who give it our full attention – it becomes a deeply effective way of remembering that separation is a story based on errors in perception, and that there is a better one, and we can tell it.
Thanks again for your patience, Jayney. And for what it’s worth, you seem to very much understand both the challenge and promise of ACIM. I appreciate your ideas and sharing very much.
Love,
Sean
l’m glad your going to keep A.C.I.M. around Lenny and that it gives you a presence in your life – one that is now felt as cool.
l’m unsure what your triggers are, but no doubt they stem from the egoic thought system. l’m continually ‘calling out’ it’s random and relentless thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere to hijack my peace. When the external world seems to be on the attack, it is a very hard thing to do, to remain in my right mind. lt’s almost as if after the ego has been on a wild rampage, a switch is turned on and the real me pops back. And l hear myself saying “lt’s not true. l don’t believe it”, from another place place inside me, about all the wild and crazy things the ego would have me believe. This is the ‘sane’ part of me that seems to just switch back on again when the tantrum is waning.
When the ego continues during the time I ‘potter about’ in the kitchen, which it loves to do, I often consciously think “That’s the voice of the ego. l don’t believe it” and in doing so, l withdraw power away from it and return my attention back to my right mind. lt’s as though it has hundreds of different finely tuned and cunning strategies, to draw my attention away from my right mind to it instead.
What l have been doing this year is focusing more intensely on one of its strategies at a time. I become very aware when it’s using that strategy to suck me in. l also ask the Holy Spirit several times, for his help in reigning in and preventing the ego from using that strategy, as l don’t want to hear it. l tell the Holy Spirit that l would rather use my energy to focus on His voice and my lesson of that day. This seems to help a lot. The ego seems to know we are ‘onto it’. It then uses that strategy less and less as it becomes a non effective strategy for it. It then seems to go quieter for a while, until it raises its head with a different strategy and l repeat the process.
All in all, it seems to be working, it gives the power back to my will and improves my relationship with the H. Spirit. lt is almost like playing a game with a child, to see which strategy it is going to try next. As it knows the other strategy did not strengthen it, but instead diminished it and was counter productive to the ego. Instead, it’s ‘old’ strategy strengthened my sense of self empowerment and the use of my will as well as my relationship with the H. Spirit.
Having said all of that, l do find that l definitely need other ‘things’ to balance the Courses lessons and ideas with other things too and switch off from it during more intense periods. For me, watching funny videos helps, listening to fun music and doing non related things helps to balance it out and switch my mind off from it.
Blessings to you,
Jayney.
Thank you for sharing this Jayney 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Thanks, Jayney. What I call ‘triggers’ are those ‘anythings’ (internal or external) that cause sadness, regret, and fear to surface several times a day. ACIM was ‘powerless’ to deal with these feelings, whereas the reparenting work I’m doing is working. Since these feelings are tied to an inner family member (‘child’, ‘teen’, even the ‘critical parent’), I (the Loving Parent) can love [the hell out of] my family and get some peace. Obviously, this is a very heart based approach, as opposed to the much more head based (metaphysical) one of ACIM.
The reparenting work I do has a couple foundational similarities to ACIM. The main one being releasing things (outcomes, etc.) to a higher power. This means I can easily attribute any good thing (eg. peace) that comes from the reparenting work to the Holy Spirit. Also, since the reparenting work says I am the Loving Parent and that my true parent is my higher power, this fits in well with ACIM’s identifying my ‘self’ (the me that is doing in good faith the ACIM and reparenting work) with the Self/Christ/the Son. So ACIM and the reparenting work reinforce each other.
I should add that I came from a very dysfunctional family (if that helps explain why ACIM — even though I resonate with it metaphysically — is largely useless when it comes to the upwelling of those feelings I mentioned above.
👍
Hi Lenny,
Thanks for your reply.
ln my case l found that after meditating for about four years, a lot of healing started happening seemingly of its own accord without my having to do anything extra for it to happen. Four years sounds a lot, but in my case l find it very enjoyable. l think that might be what is referred to in ACIM as ‘the Kingdom’. l was/am experiencing so many benefits in so many ways l never imagined possible.
After about 5 years of meditating, l inadvertently came across ACIM (the Course), while listening to a video of Eckhart Tolle speaking. He made a video specifically about the Course. l then got myself a copy and began the lessons.
after about 6weeks of doing the lessons, everything l’d been experiencing before during meditation really began ramping up and went into over drive. lt was like the Holly Spirit has now been given permission and the means to give me a complete ‘overhaul’, which He has. l’ve been experiencing a phenomenal amount of healing – holistic healing that goes to the root cause and eliminates the cause and the effect of errors in my thinking, that have caused all types of chaos as well as constant ‘nagging’, lower level dissatisfaction.
lt’s been through the Holy Spirit, who has been bringing up my unconscious thoughts that have been causing problems. He brings them to the light for me to see, then dissolves them away removing the cause, the physical symptoms, the psychological and emotional barriers to healing and allowed me to live in alignment, ease, flow and at times feel limitless joy, fun, true humility, grace and more. So it’s holistic and He’s so incredibly patient, gentle and unceasingly devoted and loving. Layer after layer of the blockages in my system are continually being peeled back, leaving me gradually more and more healed, complete and content and utterly grateful. Once l connected consciously to the Holly Spirit during meditation then it was like ‘boom’ a whole new world and way of living was/is being revealed to me.
If you can find a way to connect to the Holly Spirit consciously with awareness and deliberate purpose, then in my experience, He is the greatest gift in the world.
Jayney
Thanks for responding to me. I tried meditating (non-Course ‘Eastern’, and Course meditating) but I just can’t calm down. I can do it for 5 seconds, maybe 10.
It’s interesting that today, someone told me that even 5 seconds of meditating is OK. This triggered an insight. I wrote him back:
“It seems anything I do is error, except to be [even a little] willing to ‘unconditionally’ surrender. I can see myself doing this: sitting still for a moment (5 seconds, even!– I’m doing that now) and trust in the miracle process described in ACIM.”
It seems I needed sanction to ‘rewrite’ (for myself) the Lessons’ time demands. I see that I was discouraged by the long and frequent ‘meditations’ in the Lessons (I’m up to today’s Lesson:118: “Let me be still and listen to the truth.”). I gave it enough time trying to do it by the book, but I’m going to do it this way (5 seconds, not 5 minutes) now. Maybe 5 seconds will lead to 10 seconds, and then…
Let me try it now… Yes. This is right for me now.
Sorry I didn’t respond to your experiences, but I read them and they informed and powered my response to you and the insight I had today.
Hi Lenny,
Just wondering how you are going with trying for 5 seconds?
I was thinking about some other possibilities that may or may not work, or you may have tried these things already in which case they don’t matter anyway…
But here are a few things that you could perhaps try if haven’t already done so before. Some people suggest playing soft background music or certain frequency tones. Others say there are walking meditations, or you could simply sit outside and have a cup of tea while going over the lesson idea. One place l went to had us all eating chocolate as slowly as possible as a ‘mindful’ technique, to prepare us for the meditation to clear out the additional clutter of our minds. Another yoga place l went to had us gaze at a candle flame (you could go over the lesson material while looking at it) and they had us look at a flower, to sense its aliveness while incense burned. There are also noise cancelation head phones, which give a completely different effect.
Gotta go now and make a cup of tea and finish off some of those Easter eggs still here.
Blessings,
Jayney.
Hi Jayney. I’m so glad you got back to me. I just remembered that I have always just blankly (no thoughts) stared/gazed at nature for ‘long’ periods, naturally, throughout my life. (more so, the younger I was)
I’m thinking that I’ll use this natural ability I have with the ACIM lessons.
For instance, today the header is about forgiveness (Lesson 121): “Forgiveness is the key to happiness.” I am staring out the window now to ‘nature’ and letting my natural ability kick in. I am forgetting the header, (I often forget it– something about forgiveness) but that is OK because I think the Holy Spirit knows my intention! Now I am closing my eyes and repeating the header. I hear a crow, an airplane, Burbank Blvd. Now I open my eyes…
Nothing much happens, (my natural ‘meditation’ was never about something happening) but I will ‘try’ this natural meditative ability I have and dovetail it into the ACIM Lessons. (I can also ‘try’ it while walking here in sunny, white picket fence suburbia.) I call it a ‘fugue’ state. I’ll get back to you on this, if you want.
Hi Lenny,
Your plan of gazing into nature and walking, while contemplating/meditating on the lesson ideas sounds perfect. And yes, l’d love you to get back to me some time on how it’s going.
Blessings,
Jayney
Not ‘Holly, but Holy’ 🤣
Sending you blessings,
Jayney
Hi Lenny,
l’m so glad you had this insight! l’m preying for you…
Blessings,
Jayney