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More or less weekly I host an ACIM discussion group. These meetings are in the nature of seminars. My hope is to encourage a deep and gentle dialogue around our shared study and practice of A Course in Miracles. I want to witness to my own practice, and be nurtured (challenged, supported, edified, inspired et cetera) by yours.
The Purpose
In general, the purpose of meeting is collaborative truth-seeking and clarification of thought. How do we learn to love in a loveless place? How do we love ourselves, which is the only way to love our brothers and sisters? If it was easy we wouldn’t need the Course, much less each other.
Collaborative truth-seeking emphasizes the communal nature of healing, the togetherness of it. A Course in Miracles urges us to a rigorous spiritual inquiry and attentiveness. The Holy Spirit is a therapist, ever inviting us to deepen and radicalize our self-acceptance and potential for service. We need support in this work; we need learning partners. Together we validate and verify what together we discern is true.
“Clarification of thought” is a Catholic Worker phrase from Peter Maurin, who I admire a great deal. Maurin’s goal was to be informed but also to “form” the mind so that it was less likely to be tricked or manipulated. He understood ACIM’s “sleep of forgetfulness” from the lens of another tradition, but his response was powerful and instructive. To clarify thought is to give attention both to the contents of thought and the mechanics of thought – i.e., what we think about but also how we think.
Indeed, it is the latter that ultimately reveals the secret to salvation.
The Means
Aims require means. Our means – in dialogue together – are:
- Nobody needs to participate. You can share a little, a lot or not at all. It’s up to you.
- People need to feel safe when they ask questions or share their experience. We can’t entirely avoid judgment, but we can modify the way in which it manifests.
- In general, be charitable in assumptions about the motives and ideas of others.
- In thinking and sharing, seek clarity rather than persuasion. We aren’t arguing; we are identifying blocks to love and bringing them to the light of understanding where they can be undone.
- Remember that we hold everything together. I mean that sentence to be exactly as multi-faceted as it is. We are non-trivially responsible.
- Be rigorously honest with yourself. Be rigorously kind to yourself.
- Hold yourself to a high – not unreasonably high but functionally high – standard of understanding.
We are here to help each other, and also help each other remember that when we help each other we help all our brothers and sisters. Together we are raising the collective holiness waterline. Our happiness is not separate from the happiness of the world. Nor is it an empty dream. We witness to this together.
Technical Stuff
The meetings are free and anyone is welcome. You do not need to share but you can. Sometimes I record the meetings; if you share during the meeting, your screen will appear in the recording. I will always tell you at the beginning of the meeting if I am recording it.
I use Google Meet. You do not need a Google account to participate. You can simply click on the link and then click “Join Now.”
You can enable closed captions in Google Meet by clicking on the closed caption link at the bottom of the screen.
During the meeting, you can also use the buttons at the bottom of the screen to mute yourself, share emojis, and so forth.
Finally . . .
If you have questions or concerns, feel free to ask!