Sean Reagan

In the consideration about whether and how to expand my teaching in the ACIM community, money was always the biggest stumbling block. Is it fair to charge for spiritual-related services? Isn’t money distracting at best and downright evil at worst?

For me, money is that symbol – that illusion – wherein the separation from God is perceived in exquisitely sharp and painful detail. It has been that way as long as I can remember. I have always believed at the deepest level that money is the single biggest impediment to Love that the world has ever known.

Challenging – and undoing – that belief has been my single biggest forgiveness of this lifetime, and I am sure that I am only beginning.

What direction, if any, does A Course in Miracles offer its students with respect to money?

Money is part of our experience in the world of separation. It is as much an illusion as anything else – from the grass that makes up the front lawn to the maple syrup we pour on our pancakes to the children that we call “daughter” or “son.”

As such, money is neither good nor evil. It’s nothing. The metaphysics of the course are very clear on this.

Yet few of us perceive the world with that kind of clarity. Most of us – because it is the condition of being here -believe in degrees of importance and value. We love our kids differently than kids we’ve never met across the globe. We believe that cancer is worse than a headache.

But illusions – like miracle – are not subject to any hierarchy. Any one of them – money, say – is as illusory as the next. No more and no less.

So from a course perspective, money is not a means of communication nor a form of energy but simply an illusion.

At the same time, it rarely does us any good to substitute a working knowledge of course metaphysics for an actual experience of peace and joy. We can walk around and say “money is an illusion” until we’re blue in the face but if in our hearts we hate money – or lust after money – then we’re in the illusion as deep as we can go.

An it is very important to be honest about that. The course doesn’t want to turn us into metaphysicians. It wants to help us look at what blocks our awareness of Love. For me it’s money. For you it may be something else.

An honest appraisal of one’s attitude towards money, then, is very helpful. If we believe that having money reflects alignment with God and Godly Love – if we equate an abundance of cash with an abundance of divine Love – then we are confused about about what God is, what we are and what love is.

And if we believe that denigrating money somehow purifies and bring us closer to God – you know, because saints are poor and always hungry – then we are also confused about God and self and love.

In a sense, the clearest attitude towards money that would be consistent with ACIM is this: on Monday we wake up and discover we’ve got a million dollars in the bank and so we smile and say “life is good.” On Tuesday we wake up and all that money is gone forever and so we smile and say “life is good.”

And we mean it both days.

In other words, the happiness towards which A Course in Miracles guides us is not contingent on what appears or does not appear in the illusory world in which our illusory bodies lead illusory lives. Any belief to the contrary is the separation.

That is true whether we are talking about sex or food or money or art or houses or jobs or anything. As soon as we’ve judged it, we’ve invested in it. We’ve made it real. It doesn’t matter if we think it’s good or bad or some combination thereof. We’ve strayed from the essence of the early course lessons which remind us – I am paraphrasing – that we don’t know a damned thing about reality.

So we have to be attentive to where we are – our beliefs, our opinions, our attitudes, our convictions. That is where the separation is operative and so that is where the Holy Spirit stands ever ready to lead us to atonement.

We get healed when we go straight to the problem with our eyes wide open.

That is what I am doing when I charge for teaching: I am trusting that God’s Love will not be withdrawn or diminished because I am doing this. It is a leap of faith into the mouth of the lion.

It is a chance to learn – yet again – that God’s love is not conditional and is always given, always present, always available. Period.

Really, that is what our lives in the world are in the end: repeated opportunities to learn – in different forms, of course – that God’s love is here now.

Our attention to these learning opportunities facilitates salvation.

I was mulling all of this over for weeks on end – talking to people whose judgment I trust, reading and praying. About two weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night with a clear and sure voice in my mind: “Charge money or don’t charge money, but get on with the  teaching.”

Charge money or don’t charge money but get on with the teaching.

The clarity was lovely and impeccable: Jesus was saying that the money was not the important element. The expanded teaching was. And the teaching mattered not because I have something you don’t, or anything like that, but because I don’t know what I have and can only learn it through teaching.

This is a course in how to know yourself. You have taught what you are, but have not let what you are teach you (T-16.III.4:1-2).

When we place our faith not in ourselves but in the Holy Spirit, we learn. Miracles happen and as we witness them, we learn a little more about what we are in truth.

This experience is different for all of us but the essence is always the same. What do we learn when we step into the very conflict that appears most full of risk and most unlikely to be solved?

We learn that we are not alone.

[t]he Holy Spirit is part of you. Created by God, He left neither God nor His creation. He is both God and you, as you are God and Him together (T-16.III.5:1-3).

That is knowledge to which all our learning in this vale of illusions is directed. Money is not the point, teachers are not the point and belief systems aren’t even the point.

The point is that we have forgotten the only fact of our identity: that we are one with God, outside time and space, beyond form and name and judgment altogether.

This is not the peace of the world which always passes. This is the peace that surpasses understanding – including that of our brains.

So how do we get to it again?

We look at what we fear. For me it is money. For you it will be something else: you know what it is. And when we look clearly at this fear – which means we engage with it – we take it onto the dance floor and give it a spin – it dissolves before us. It fades.

And then – for a moment – like stars perceived though a thinning veil of mist – we perceive the Light and Love that composes us and awaits only our acceptance to shine a little bit brighter, that we might all go home, sooner rather than later.

**

If you’re interested, Liz Cronkhite has written some thoughtful and articulate posts about money and A Course in Miracles here and here).

As many of you know, I am a teacher. I came to this profession eight or nine years ago somewhat by surprise. I was required – as a condition of my Master’s Degree in Fine Arts – to conduct a teaching practicum. It terrified me. I was ready to quit the program rather than face students. I don’t know why. I actually initiated the withdrawal procedure.

But then something – that still, small voice with which I am becoming increasingly familiar – urged me in no uncertain terms to do this thing. The fear didn’t evaporate but the directive was clear. I didn’t feel as if I had a choice. So I corralled a few willing students and for ten weeks taught them about writing. I shook with fear the day I started and with tears the day I stopped because I didn’t want it to end.

I have been actively teaching ever since.

Soon after I got my sea legs with respect to A Course in Miracles I decided that I was going to teach it. Yet oddly, each time I moved in that direction, I faltered. It wasn’t clear that teaching was the right action. So I stepped back. Every now and again I would check in: now should I teach? Now?

A few years ago, I felt like it would be okay to do some writing about the course. I was at a bit of a creative crossroads anyway, and this seemed like a reasonable path. It was a form of teaching. I was pretty sure nobody would read it so why not?

So I wrote. It was okay. Some of it felt rushed. Sometimes it was clear I was just parroting other teachers – usually Ken Wapnick or Tara Singh. Sometimes I would write and think, is that true? Is that really my experience of the course?

Then, about a year and a half ago, the writing shifted. I stopped worrying so much about who read it and what they thought. I began to see it for what it is: an interior movement in the direction of wholeness that belongs not to me (or you, for that matter) but to Jesus.

Last year I came very close to expanding my teaching to include one-on-one mentoring, a newsletter and online classes. But in the end, the clarity wasn’t there. Fear remained prevalent without any mediating factor. So, again, I let it pass.

This summer, I have been given a lot of direction with respect to teaching. Some of it has come from friends and some from other teachers in the broader ACIM community. Some of it I sought out, some of it was simply given. The theme was clear: it is okay – it is perhaps more than okay now – for me to teach.

And so gingerly – softly – and I hope humbly – I am saying yes to teaching. I am taking this next step.

What does this mean practically?

First, I will continue to write as frequently as possible on this blog. There will never be any charge for this content. It is far too important on too many levels.

Second, I now offer one-on-one mentoring and audio classes. You can learn more about them on their respective pages. I am charging money – I hope fairly – for those services. Later this week I will publish a couple of posts about teaching ACIM generally and my decision to accept money in exchange for that teaching. For now, I will just say that the decision was incredibly difficult and the subject of a lot of prayer and reaching out.

If this sort of teaching is not your cup of tea – for any reason whatsoever – I respect that without qualification.

Finally, I am also offering a (free) newsletter that will come out approximately monthly (depending, of course, on how wordy I’m feeling). It will feature one (or two) articles that are a bit longer and better-researched (and better edited!) about A Course in Miracles. You can go ahead and sign up.

The first few times I wrote about A Course in Miracles on this blog, I wanted to die. I wanted to crawl under the chicken shed and not come out for at least a decade.

Eventually I realized that I am a writer and so it is natural and right to use that gift with respect to my evolving practice of A Course in Miracles. There’s no point in hiding our light beneath baskets. I try to be honest and helpful, and I learn a little more with every sentence.

I think that’s what will happen with respect to this new expansion as well. It’ll be awkward and a little bumpy to start but sooner or later it will be just another facet of my own effort to accept atonement over separation from God, Love instead of guilt and fear, and Peace instead of conflict.

I hope it’s helpful. If it’s not, no hard feelings. If you have any questions or concerns, leave a comment or drop me an email.

Finally, thank you so much for being here. I truly wish that I could pour you a cup of tea or coffee and walk quietly beside you in the New England woods that have long functioned as my chapel.

In the interim, I am here – in all the ways I feel I can be – and I am deeply grateful – more than you know – that you are here as well.

Love,
Sean

One of the salient qualities of the ego is its perennial dissatisfaction. No matter what happens, it wants something else.

This is an example of what A Course in Miracles calls “wrong perception” or “misperception.” Healing it is a major focus of miracles (T-1.I.49:2).

A miracle is a correction introduced into false thinking . . . it acts as a catalyst, breaking up erroneous perception and reorganizing it properly. This places you under the Atonement principle, where perception is healed (T-1.I.37:1-3).

We can observe misperception and its effect in our lives. Our goals are always shifting: we want lots of money and when we get it, we want more. Or we decide what we really want is simplicity. We get the dream job and then discover a newer, better job. Or a new sex partner. Maybe vegetarianism would bring us closer to God.

This kind of thinking can be quite subtle and we are often loathe to admit it. We want to be spiritual and sane, not greedy and insane. But faking happiness and peace are not happiness and peace. They are distractions. We don’t have to do anything for joy and peace – they are the natural result of setting the ego aside.

Letting go of the ego is what heals perception. Absent ego’s judgment, we perceive things as they are. They are no longer impeded by the ego’s goals for it. Our lives do not actually require interpreting but that is all the ego knows how to do: interpret things and assign them meaning and value, over and over. And while this keeps the ego going, for a time, it never works in terms of inner peace and happiness.

Wrong perception is the wish that things be as they are not. The reality of everything is totally harmless, because total harmlessness is the condition of its reality. It is also the condition of your awareness of reality. You do not have to seek reality. It will seek you and find you when you meet its conditions (T-8.IX.2:1-5).

This is very clear! The work is to learn how to do no work; or rather, to see that what we are doing is not working, and so to go slowly and quietly and see what happens when we stop insisting that we know what we’re doing, we know how things work, we know what’s best, et cetera.

The present moment is sufficient. The gift of the holy instant is our touchstone and salvation (T-15.I.15:11-11). The ego is happy to accept these concepts as ideals – it will cheerfully consent to putting them on bumper stickers – but it will resist with all its might if we try to make it center of our living.

So the question becomes: can we make contact with our desire that life – right now, right here – be other than it is? Can we see the action of wrong perception as it happens?

That is, can we ask: what do we wish was different about our life and then allow the answers – and the false logic underlying them – to come to the surface? Can we give attention to them?

And then, seeing it, can we also realize that it is only this desire to change things that brings us to grief? That stands in the way of inner peace?

Peace is simply the relinquishment of the impulse to judge the present and find it wanting. This is the essence of all the early lessons. We don’t understand what we perceive (W-pI.3), what it means (W-pI.10), or how to respond to it (W-pI.12). All we actually see – until the miracle heals out minds – is the meaning that we given everything (W-pI.2).

We come back to the beginning then. We start again in this moment simply by recognizing the ego’s desire to change everything – to look at everything, judge everything, and keep us on a path of shifting standards and perennial dissatisfaction.

The ego professes to be able to make our living happier and more peaceful by making it all different.

But there is another way: we can accept what is given precisely as it is given. We can make it all the same (T-15.XI.10:11). The Peace of God waits only on our acceptance of this gift, and to receive it as such is to heal the means by which it is given.

What A Course in Miracles calls the “Holy Spirit” is not separate from us. It is not like a teacher in front of a class, or the author of a book who lives across the country. Nor is the Holy Spirit one part of the larger whole we call the self – like a kidney or blue eyes or our obsession with photographing hummingbirds.

In a way, the Holy Spirit is simply a metaphor for the capacity of our mind to be healed. The healed mind is not split – it is not divided between God and self. It is not partial to the world while simultaneously courting Heaven apart from the world It is not frantically studying or meditating in an effort to improve or save itself.

It is at rest because it knows – beyond question – that it is one with what is. Its peace and sureness are in a literal and experiential sense our own.

We make contact with the Holy Spirit – with the healed mind – simply through attention. For example, as you read, your attention is focused on this text. But if you look up and out the window, it naturally focuses on something else: a cloud, a tree, a robin, a barn.

This capacity to be attentive is not limited to what is external. If we close our eyes, we see that we can be attentive to our anger, our uncertainty, our happiness, our desire.

A student of A Course in Miracles learns by practicing the course that his or her attention does not have to wander aimlessly but can be directed.

You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, and are passively condoning your mind’s miscreations. The particular result does not matter, but the fundamental error does (T-2.VI.4:6-7).

The simplicity of this truth is our liberation. It is the essence of Lesson 34 – we can see peace instead of whatever anguish or sorrow or conflict we perceive. The power of replacement is entirely ours (W-pI.34.6:4).

Nothing has to be given up. Not one single thing in the external world needs to change. As we take responsibility for our attention we begin to experience the sense of peace and happiness that naturally attends those who decline to participate in the false drama of humanity. What is unnecessary will fall away without effort. Our lives will simplify naturally and without sacrifice.

This is not easy. But if you are ready to do it, then the difficulties are brief and surmountable. Give attention to attention. When it wanders from peace and joy, bring it back. You have every right – and even an obligation – to do this.

The Holy Spirit – our healed mind – is ever ready to assume its calm and gentle role as our guide. It attacks nothing because it is threatened by nothing. It knows only its relationship with what is holy and beyond words. Its unalterable peace awaits only our willingness to embrace it. Why not now?