The roads this world can offer seem to be quite large in number, but the time must come when everyone begins to see how like they are to one another. People have died on seeing this, because they saw no way except the pathways offered by the world. And learning they led nowhere, lost their hope (T-31.IV.3:3-5).
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (REM)
Few passages in A Course in Miracles speak so bluntly to its potential for nihilism as the one quoted above. Whatever you think matters in this world, whatever you think counts, whatever you think is helpful is . . . not. It leads nowhere. It’s nothing.
Nothing.
And unlike REM, the course does not suggest we’ll feel fine about this.
This is not an intellectual understanding, though it can begin as one. It is more in the nature of psychological trauma, of having some deep-down horror brought into the light. Your reasons for forgetting it are understandable, and you don’t want to be reminded now. You certainly don’t want a sustained relationship with it.
As the course makes clear, actually encountering the nothingness-that-is-the-world can make one long for death (which isn’t, by the way, either an escape or an end). To call this fact bleak is an understatement. Really, even calling it nihilism misses the point.
This juncture is painful, and is therefore experienced as such. And that is why we prefer not to reach it. Talk about it, sure. Speculate and hypothesize? Absolutely. Conflate reading about it in a book with actually living it? You bet.
Actually get there?
No.
This is why the ACIM community prefers to focus on stuff like holy relationships and oneness. And when that doesn’t work, argue about whether so-and-so is right or wrong about holy relationsips and oneness. There’s plenty of chestnuts: Who’s your teacher? Which edition do you read? Do you see special lights?
All of these are are merely distractions from the difficult work of seeing an illusion for an illusion.
Oddly – or perhaps thankfully – all that really has to happen at this juncture is to see it’s all an illusion. It’s all a dream, without exception. Your kids, your lover, the sandwich you ate for lunch, the coffin your father was buried in and your father? All a dream.
And here’s the really hard part – there is nothing you can do in a dream about the dream.
I know, I know – we can “wake up” from the dream. We can avail ourselves of atonement, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, forgiveness . . .
But waking up – and Atonement, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and forgiveness – are part of the dream, too.
Where did you learn about waking up? In the dream.
Where did you hear that God is Love? That your deepest fear is that you’re powerful beyond measure? That Jesus is the way, the truth and the life?
In the dream.
A Course in Miracles, tantric orgasm, holy relationships, enlightenment, nonduality, double fudge brownies, Bob Dylan songs and Emily Dickinson poems . . . dream stuff. Equally utterly illusory.
When we see at last that whatever the world offers cannot save us, despair can feel natural and justified. Yet all that has really occurred is that you’ve seen through the illusion.
When we see that it’s a dream, and that nothing in the dream can save us from the dream, that’s the end. That’s the one thing we have to do. We can’t do anything else.
Stop looking for a way out of the dream. There isn’t one.
Stop pretending that one part of the dream is better or more important or sexier than another.
Stop pretending you’re the dreamer and that if you can only find the right interior switch you’ll magically be in charge of the dream.
Just see the dream in which there’s nothing to do and nobody to do it.
A Course in Miracles refers to this learning experience as the “lowest point” (T-31.IV.4:8). It emphasizes that “no pathway in the world can lead to God, nor any worldly goal be one with His” (T-31.IV.9:3). Indeed, anything you experience as a body in the world has the singular purpose of “confusion and despair” (T-31.IV.9:5).
So what is to be done?
Nothing.
When you reach that juncture of the dream, your role in the dream has ended. At that point, you’re in God’s hands, far beyond the reach of dreams.
The better question is: have you reached that juncture? If not, why not?
Thank you so much Sean,
This is my first journey through acim and I accidentally came across your contributions from the start. I am taking my journey privately and treasure your companionship.
Acim was proposed to me over 20 years ago but I was not ready. Recently it was proposed this spring. I was not ready. Then one day a few weeks ago I began.
Enriched with 2 decades of zen, 32 years of sobriety, a childhood of Catholicism and an ending of a wonderful 8 year marriage, I now embrace the beautiful void.
Thank you for your companionship.
Kaiser
Thanks, Kaiser. I’m glad for the companionship, too!
Our paths are not dissimilar – I got turned on to the course decades before I finally settled into it, and my practice has been deeply informed by Catholicism and Zen. For me, the course was a wonderful & effective synthesis of so many apparently disparate streams. I’m grateful indeed.
Love,
Sean
Hi Sean!
Great piece on what could border on nihilism. I like the way you approach the Course. I do have a minor question, however. I was looking at a video you did on YouTube and you were talking about the things you love like dogs and flowers with which I heartily agree with you about both, but there isn’t one part of me that wants to give those up! Especially a tantric orgasm which I have not had to my knowledge.
So the “beautiful” parts of this dream are something I want to carry with me always just as if I had a lovely sleeping dream in which I had an experience that was lovely. But if it’s all “equally unreal” that hurts. I get that this is a dream but I also hold on to the Course idea of letting go of everything in the past except the beautiful parts.
Am I confusing levels here? Am I not understanding some basic metaphysic construct of the Course? Am I just a sentimental guy unwilling to release sentiment? I’d appreciate your thoughts. Kudos on your great work!
Jay
Dear Jay,
To the body, other bodies and body-related experiences will always be real. Violets, shooting stars, Irish setters. At that level, preference will always exist and appear more or less valuable. It is not helpful to resist this.
It IS helpful to notice when we are projecting beauty, holiness, love and so forth, because this involves confusion of cause with effect. That IS something we can heal, that the Course is given to help us heal.
The other evening I walked to the marsh and listened to red-wing blackbirds while the sun set. It was peaceful and beautiful, and I was very grateful.
But “peaceful” and “beautiful” are attributes of what I am in truth – they are aspects of God’s Creation – and they are inherent IN me. It is an error to think that deep sense of peace is CAUSED by the external world – the marsh at dusk, the singing birds.
Rather, the beauty of the natural world is an EFFECT of accepting my real identity AS God’s Creation.
When that correction occurs, then nothing is lost. But the peace and the calm and the holiness naturally extend beyond just the isolated event (sitting by the marsh) or object (setting sun, singing birds).
The peace and the calm travel with me; everything becomes beautiful; everything is filled with grace.
We see AS Christ, when we accept that we ARE Christ, because in Creation there is ONLY Christ.
I wrote more about this here recently:
https://seanreagan.substack.com/p/notes-on-reversing-cause-and-effect
Thank you, Jay!
Love,
Sean
Have you studied advaita vedanta at all too?
Have you written about this at all?
Thanks
I have not studied Advaita Vedanta to the extent I have studied ACIM and the nexus between it and Christianity (especially its earlier expression integrating Platonism) and – to a lesser extent – constructivism and second-order cybernetics.
My path, so to speak, has tended to hew close to so-called western traditions though I did have a very passionate if half-assed Buddhist phase early in the process 🙂
I don’t think it’s an error to think of the course as a kind of Christian Vedanta, though it is such a quirky little program that it doesn’t neatly fit anywhere.
Some posts that perhaps touch on this confluence:
Listening to Birds with Jesus in the Void
Distinction and the Whole
Looking at I AM
Our Boundless Joyful Self
At least at my first beginnings it does seem to be non-dual in its teaching which is probably why I’m attracted to it.
Thank you for these recommendations. I will check them out!
also, sounds like “dark night of the soul” which once finally “enlightened” can be transcended or so I’ve read, not experienced yet. lol
Wow. Just watched the video. Deep.
I haven’t gone there yet. I’m a way beginner ACIM, like just started, but I have been learning about non-duality now for a few years.
They seem similar this way.
You really hit the nail on the head. I want to understand that my body is illusory, that this world is illusory, and yet I’m not ready to give it up yet. It’s almost like there is that fear that the body will drop if I do.
I’m sure if I could get there – to be self-realized to use advaita language – it would be great, after, of course, the dark night of the soul stuff – (lol. like it’s some kind of carnival ride I just have to take)
I wonder if when we(I) leave the body do we automatically reach to God or since we haven’t gotten to the juncture yet, we go back into the dream – again and again – until we finally give it all up and “come to God empty handed” at which point we will experience or merge into God/Absolute again.
And if this is a dream, that might imply, that you are in my dream. That since there is only God, that you are me are God. That all the teachers and books I learn from are just me sending a message to myself in this grand treasure hunt game back to myself.
It’s fun mental gymnastics!
Until I have to give up the world! lol.
But then it’s only tough up until the moment of full/total relinquishment of the world.
Once you go over that cliff, if all the teaching are accurate, it should be amazing!
We are already over the cliff!
All this is merely what falling feels like when falling briefly pretends it has a mind of its own 🙂
wow. cool.
I have reached that place you describe and am in awful pain and sadness. Mostly because I had big plans but realize the world probably ain’t gonna’ last too much longer. I’ve been through the Course maybe eight or nine times – never made it all the way though. I have violently thrown the book across the room, let the dog chew it, set in on fire once, and of course always came back to it for the peace of mind it afforded me, despite the tantrums.
Yeah just extreme sadness that reality isn’t really real. And I do want to die. I am not sure I can reconcile this in my mind. Confusion is hell.
Dear Timothy,
The darkness is not the end; the confusion is not real either.
If the peace comes and goes, then it’s not the Peace of Christ. Which isn’t a problem! It’s not a crime against God or nature!
But it does suggest that there are “miles to go” – or at least another step or two.
I think one of the things I am not always clear about in my writing is that there are practices that ground me – writing helps, helping others helps a LOT, trying to understand how this or that experience looks/works/feels for others helps even more . . .
It was also important for me not to mistake my longing for peace with a longing to die. The body’s death is not the end of confusion or grief, just the dissolution of a local experience of it.
So it was important to go into that as well, to try and look at the source of the suffering, which was not personal.
I mean obviously I hear you – I hear what you are saying, I have been there, it sucks, and until you’ve been there it’s really really hard to understand how the Course just undoes literally every illusion to which ego clings, but . . .
. . . as you point out – and know through your honest and heartfelt practice – the peace the Course afford is beyond measure. If you need to hear somebody say again, the Peace of Christ is not in you but IS YOU, then hear me say it. And if it’s hard to believe that for you today, then at least believe it for me. I think you know in a deep place, I’m not here writing this way because I have the answer but because I need the help and the love of my brothers and sisters.
Thank you for being here and bringing the light, brother. Keep in touch.
Love,
Sean
Why does Marianne Williamson run for president then? Arguably she is someone who understands ACIM better than anyone. Why bother? Is this not a fool’s errand in your estimation?
After awhile all this talk about living in a dream makes my head spin, it becomes white noise in my head.
I was at a bowling alley last night with a live band and bar and food and kids and adults and grandparents, all races and creeds all in joyous expression of life. The energy in the place was off the charts. Sorry but that’s my idea of heaven, not sitting around on a cloud playing a harp and singing god’s praises through eternity.
I’ve had a near death experience while upside down in my car rolling down an embankment onto a frozen river. I have had that ineffable feeling of love and peace beyond human understanding. Hell you can get it doing ecstasy.
What do I tell my 8 yr. old grandson? This is all illusion son. See that mushroom shaped cloud on the horizon? It’s not real, but let’s go inside and put on our haz mat suits and gas masks just in case.
Maybe running for president is Marianne Williamson’s idea of Heaven. Who knows? Maybe she’s doing it for the same reason you went to a bowling alley last night. I don’t know.
For my money, Tara Singh “knew the Course better than anyone” and he spent the latter years of his life trying to save the world with ACIM-inspired soup kitchens and shelters.
Ken Wapnick was a close second and he ran the publishing arm of the Course and a school. We are all doing stuff; the Course doesn’t indicate this is a crisis. It just wants us to access the Holy Spirit part of our minds rather than ego while we do it.
What do you WANT people to do? If you have a clear idea of Heaven is then why not do what you can to bring THAT vision forward for all your brothers and sisters? Your Friday night sounds like a lot of good old-fashioned fun, the kind that humans can be very good at when they want to be. Maybe the form of your Course practice is working to bring that world forth for all beings.
Yes, there are nontrivial threats in our lives – AI, nuclear weapons, war, climate change. It’s a long list and every item on it is terrifying. And yes, we can tweak the body chemistry – with MDMA, psilocybin, adrenaline, whatever – and have transcendent experiences. But peak experiences are just the opposite of the despondent horrifying valleys. Intense love at the level of the body is awesome but it’s still just the body being a body. It passes.
The Course is an invitation to find out what does not pass. And so long as we insist on identifying with a body – and forcing others to identify as bodies too – then we are going to be frustrated.
You mentioned you’ve been through the Course a bunch of times. Then you remember Lesson 186: “salvation of the world depends on me.” But the emphasis in that lesson is not on the form our part takes – eating peyote, ending nuclear missiles, learning to bake bread,a perfect game, whatever. Rather, we simply focus on discerning between the ego and the Holy Spirit, and then giving attention only to the Holy Spirit.
If that means a joyful night at the bowling alley with family and friends, then so be it. And if that means we have to nurture our kid and grandkids through a nuclear holocaust, then so be it.
I’m not going to argue with you that the world is fucked up, Tim. I’m just going to point out that that’s one interpretation and there are others. Joy is not caused by MDMA or Friday night festivities; MDMA and Friday night festivities are symbols of a mind that remembers it’s oneness with God. That’s my experience; that’s what happens when I practice the Course. I’m not saying it’s easy, but I am saying it can work.
Finally – and I know tone is hard in online writing, I’m not trying to be a jerk here, this conversation would be a lot easier and more fun in person – maybe the Course isn’t the right framework for you at this juncture. There are lots of spiritual, religious and philosophical paths, as you know, and the nondual ones – especially in the gnostic tradition of Christianity – can be pretty bonkers. I don’t think it’s a crisis if someone decide there’s a better way to think about reality, problem-solving, et cetera.
Thanks for sharing, Tim.
~ Sean
Dear Sean,
Your writing is dense in a good way – I had to go back and re-read it more than once to catch what you meant –
so yeah – I’m just super sad right now – I miss my dad – he had Alzheimer’s and we used to play cards and he didn’t know who I was and didn’t remember what an asshole I was as a teenager – he gave me a good life – my mom had Alzheimer’s too and I took care of her the last 3 years of her life – she was 96 when she died – I feel living with her was my penance – my dues are paid in that respect-
I read the book “The Disappearance of the Universe” based on the Course and it made me angry because these two enlightened entities visit this guy over many years and they are clairvoyant and their final visit in 2001 is after 911. My takeaway – these assholes could have prevented 911 and they chose not to! So fuck them and the horses they didn’t ride in on. Then they disappear and just admonish the guy to keep forgiving people, yay!
I’m just sad dude. Super sad. The depression I wear around me is like a warm pale blue cloak. But of course I hate myself for falling into it so readily, so easily. But it is familiar and hence comforting in an ironic and odd way.
I suspect suicide is not an answer. I don’t think my consciousness will end. Probably just pick up where I left off.
I had some goals that were pretty long range so I keep telling myself what is the use if larger more heinous attacks on our soil are imminent. It sounds like a cop-out and probably is. Just the thought of the assholes of the world winning angers me to no end and I know it is fucked up thinking. I am rambling. You don’t need to reply at length. I appreciate the correspondence and quick response. I am not going to hurt myself. I have no stomach for it. And I have an eight year old grandson.
I just re-read this and it is a rambling mess – but u get it.
Thanks, Tim. No worries. I hear where you’re at and if you feel like connecting by phone or Zoom or something I’m always happy to talk ACIM, especially applying it to the fucked-up world. I’m here if it’s helpful.
~ Sean
Thanks again Sean –
Your writing really helped me focus on the magnitude of the psychic pain I was feeling and to not take it lightly. I will probably struggle from time to time with it but I am dedicated to the idea of non-duality wether in this world or the next.
🙏🙏
Hi Sean,
This page popped up on a search for “the long road” sentence in acim manual for teachers, I seem to recall but have not found it.
Anyway, read this page and what comes in is our only function in this world is forgiveness and our only goal is atonement. That’s it…as a teacher of God.
Until we come to that commitment and only that, we still value the valueless.
The happy dream, the rules for decision, lead to purification to become the miracle worker, or more accurately, miracle portal for the Holy Spirit and healing.
We have a choice every moment for the Holy Instant. Until we choose consistently to be there, we are half assing it…20 years here! But Jesus tells quite clearly that our tolerance for pain does have its limits and eventually we will turn to the Light.
Discovered Tara Singh’s book A gift for all mankind while cleaning an old man’s rat infested garage a couple years ago and realized in the later chapters that
I have had a destructive journey so far and the rest of life is best suited for selfless service and prayer for the end of separation. All will be given that is needed. This has been a release of so many worldly values that I cannot list them. It’s challenged the very foundation of past beliefs that I do feel free of the world to the point of the body, which I know is not what I am, but am not able or willing, yes that’s it, unwilling to sit and let it go through it’s full death.
So, also having a Christian and Catholic past, I have chosen the path shared by Paul. Ironically, he warns against the very person I had become as with defiled
characteristics. But acim gives us hope here as this is the split mind and we can
choose again & the past is the past & and I am entitled to miracles.
Something that is hopeless, some attraction or aversion seems to, (with consistent choosing differently, sometimes in unceasing prayer) well, it just vanishes.
This has happened with so many valued people, places and things, that it cannot be denied by my own conscious mind. So, selfless service with unflinching (lol, mostly unflinching!-) devotion to Jesus, Truth and God is a pathway out of unwillingness. Again, tolerance for pain has its limits.
So many testimonies on this are now at our fingertips that we no longer need to spend countless hours in counseling, searching and reading books, etc. Time is literally shrinking. Aka the Celestial speedup.
Holy company and endeavors. Go from the negative to the positive. Become unconditionally Loving…renew the mind, choose differently. Forgive & Atone
It’s never out there. Whatever the grievance or rather seduction, is always something we have invested in and requires the choose to see it differently prayer to the Holy Spirit. With trust and patience. How long will it take for us to come to that point of complete trust is up to the teachers/pupil and willingness
to let it go….the entire world.
BTW….Dr. David Hawkins is probably the most obscure and on point. He was transformed through his dedication to ACIM and later kept it on the fringe while
teaching multiple pathways to God/Truth. http://www.veritaspub.com If you go there, dig in, as the utube videos are to short to capture the full commitment that was given.
LovenLight
Thank you for sharing, Edward.
The only “long road” phrase that comes to mind for me is in the “I Need Do Nothing” section in Chapter 18. I’m sure there are others.
I appreciate the detail about Tara Singh’s influence and how it occurred. Creation is full of gifts. I’m not really family with Hawkins’ work but I knew he was out there. I have not felt called in that direction but I’ll take another look. I assume you studied his work? Or with him?
Thank you again for reaching out. I appreciate your kindness and much of your description of experience resonates.
Love,
Sean
Hi (Holy Instant) Sean,
First and foremost…. i do not know the thing i am and therefore do not know what i am doing where i am or how to look upon the world or myself.
All things work together for good. There are no exceptions except in the ego’s judgment. It takes great learning to accept this.
I want the Peace of God. To say these words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything.
I did study Dr. David R. Hawkins (not Steven) and still practice “letting go, the pathway of surrender”. (Surrendering the “story” of when Doc and ACIM entered this life experience.) lol (Now surrendering the story up to now.)
My journey with doc left out the Holy Spirit and Jesus as he kept ACIM on the fringe, mentioning it but not at all the focus. He did his practice with it that brought him out of hell. He recommended not reading the text as it was a limitation of apposition to ego/self. Major mistake for me as the text is so rich with devotional practices that were necessary to my particular karma. It’s said that Grace trumps karma, however, I discovered, rather tragically, one has to have earned that Grace.
Doc taught his Buddhism experience of prayer and meditation which led him through the map of consciousness to oneness/allness and the Peace of God. Veritas has the map online and can be helpful to open minded seekers.
I mention doc as he explains the void as you do and beyond it in Discovery of the Presence of God, Devotional Nonduality chapter 8.
(Surrendering paragraphs of understanding:)
Oh. Another and maybe more accessible teacher is Dr. Rod Chelberg author of “when God calls, say yes.” He has a handful of utube videos relevant to your writing above. Not everything he talks about maybe, but pearls applicable to your writing above nonetheless.
There is an awareness of Truth that isn’t always there with others. Not that they aren’t in the perfect place at this moment, but am i guided to follow or to watch and learn what they are showing me about my perfect place at this moment. That is where i, edward, pray to the internal guide for guidance. Holy Spirit, choose for God, for me. Doc, Tara, Chelberg don”t always say/think this because its become there pattern for so long its what they have become. Joel Goldsmith of Infinite Way says it like this “your servant is here”.
And so for me it seems that i am working my way up to this level through the pathway of selfless service, devotion, perseverance in the face of hopelessness as love endures all things.
But I’m not yet at the void. I understand it as I look at form. But understanding is not mastery. And that is why acim is a self study course. We are all at different stages or levels of unlearning/learning.
Not that the groups and talks, etc. aren’t part of the spiral up, but are not the means and can turn into a distraction or block to a leap. Doc talks about this at length. And then it can turn into selfless service where one is there to share the awareness of peace. At the Mind level. It’s not what we say or do, its what we become that influences the world around us.
Seems that is what Tara Singh’s intention with the interviews, groups, soup kitchens and shelters was allll about. Be a conduit for Mind to heal Mind. Doc did the same with alllll his lectures and travels.
Joel Goldsmith of the Infinite Way declares to not listen to their story lest you might believe it and become infected. Just be the servant of Divinity. Paul says the same about laying hands to watch yourself to be sure you don’t take anything on and ACIM states that if you see your brother as he is not that you are both in Hell.
Yikes….above all, i want to see. Above all, i want to see. Above all.
One becomes aware of what Jesus is calling for in saviors of the world.
Give up the “self” for the good of all. To give up nothingness for Allness.
Carol Howe wrote a book of Bill Thetford called “never forget to laugh”.
Bill would always say….I know its hopeless, but never forget to laugh. It’s a worthwhile read as it clearly shows the pathway of forgiveness and its obvious results when applied consistently. He rarely lectured or even shared about acim unless he was told/guided to. A practical approach to ACIM. Her utube lesson 185 is very applicable also
Ken Wapnick, the intellectual approach, said the teachings of Jesus were distorted so don’t be surprised that it happens with ACIM. This is VERY apparent already. Pulling different quotes to validate a twisted position to support the unwillingness covertly.
It seems we are all stewing in our own juices of misery at worst or contemplation at best until…….enough. .. …And the doorway opens.. … ….and we exit laughing
Thank you again for sharing, Ed. I appreciate it very much.
Re: Bill Thetford’s “never forget to laugh,” Wapnick often told students that no matter what else, to have fun with their ACIM study and practice. It’s easy advice to overlook.
A lot of what comes through in your writing is the nature of the commitment to peace. “Above all else I want to see.” The suggestion in that lesson is that what we are really learning is how badly we want – or don’t want – peace. Learning about my commitment to chaos was sobering, and I had to really learn that lesson before peace was even a possibility.
In terms of the void, I hear what you are saying – understanding is not mastery. I do think eastern traditions – Buddhism, yes, but even more Advaita (especially in the vein of Abhishiktananda) – are more fluent and fluid. And those traditions are easy to misunderstand, mistake and misapply. The Christian frame is nontrivial.
I found G. Spencer Brown’s little book “The Laws of Form” to be very helpful in thinking about – and being in relationship with – void, as well as mathematician Louis Kauffman (who specializes in knots), and whose writing is more accessible than Brown’s. In general, the constructivists were the body that seemed to be most “fluent and fluid” in ways that transferred to me (as opposed to just being imitatable, which is unfortunately what a lot of non-dual spiritual traditions leave me with).
I love Saint Paul but think of him the way Nisargadatta thought of the “I AM” – very cool but also, the first error 🙂
~ Sean
Hi Sean,
First, i am receiving that the dr rod chelberg videos have relevance to the article above.
Just reviewing them now to point to the one that is coming to mind and came up on this:
“We think the body is alive..it is in this realm..but we are the driver…but when you go into the spiritual realm, the body is left behind… your body runs down, breaks down and they take it to the grave. What do you do…you walk around for awhile..until i think i need another body instead…and you keep going through these cycles, called karma if you will…reincarnation. It’s just a recycling and, and….wouldn’t you like to stop?…and say….i want to remember who i truly am..and i am the driver of this….this is me..a thought of love in the Mind of the Divine….and now I’m going to go home and leave that body behind. I have the choice now. To go home or recycle.” He says, a lot of people, when they truly understand that…they choose Heaven…they choose Peace.
Okiedokie!-) just found the one…the clip in mind starts 28:55
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWRb5cDMcFM
Title is “clinically dead doctor shown the truth about our divine blueprint by Jesus Christ. Dr. Rod Chelberg” on Next Level Soul Podcast
I was sent FIP’s acim study guide this morning and looked at the table of contents. In the chapter “what is the goal of studying this course” this rang out:
“Some commingle the Course’s message with other spiritual teachings, which risks muddying the waters This can be especially confusing…”
Do i need a teacher to study the course? Chapter says:
But groups can also stifle learning when dominated by a leader who insists that they and they alone understand the Course. In all things, we are wise to use discernment and trust our inner guidance in determining whether or not a particular study group or teacher will be helpful
The Course itself says nothing about learning from an outside teacher It does, however, have a great deal to say about learning from our Inner Teacher One of the cornerstones of ACIM is the idea that we each have within us an Inner Teacher, which the Course calls the Holy Spirit, Who is the Voice for God. (Please note that it is the Voice for God, not the Voice of God ) The Holy Spirit is the communication link between our mind and God’s Mind, as long as we believe that we are separate from God. If invited, the Holy Spirit can become our source of guidance in all things, once we have learned how to listen to and trust His Voice The Course instructs us that, “The curriculum is highly individualized, and all aspects are under the Holy Spirit’s particular care and guidance. Ask and He will answer.” (Manual for Teachers, Section 29, paragraph 2, sentences 6 –7) This means that the Holy Spirit knows exactly what you uniquely require in order to shed your mistaken beliefs about yourself and the world and return to your true Self in God We learn to turn to Him and trust His answers over our own.
Discovery of the presence of god/devotional nonduality chapter 8 Allness vs nothingness. It’s probably the shortest chapter of anything he wrote. Lol. 4 pages front & back:)
It’s available on audible or next day delivery at amazon
He was very aware that we are naive and gullible and have no idea when we wander through doorways without asking.
Hello:). So, the books he wrote always covered it this way and that explaining the underpinnings that propped up the screen. Toward the end “his” body was physically tattered/wrecked in a wheelchair and declared Jesus Christ his Lord and Savior. Quite sobering indeed.
Thanks, Ed.
I glanced at Chelberg’s site. While I appreciate and understand the desire to yoke ACIM to healing the body and the healed body to something supernatural, I think doing so misunderstands in a deep and often dangerous way the fundamental message of Jesus, which is about a psychological transformation in the direction of simplicity and service NOW.
ACIM in this regard is a cry for help and we respond to it most helpfully by not indulging its gnostic and supernatural overtones. “Change your heart because the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (MT 3:2) is the light in which I read and find most helpful A Course in Miracles.
I know that whole strain of ACIM (symbolized here by Chelberg) is helpful for some folks and I have no desire to talk them out of it. For me there is a clearer, simpler – albeit orders of magnitude more challenging – way.
We are all bearing witness, and I appreciate yours very much.
~ Sean