ACIM and New Beginnings

A small group of friends and I have committed to doing the ACIM workbook this year, a lesson a day, and meeting once a week online to talk about how that experience is going, what we are learning, what is being revealed and so forth.

Today I did lesson one, which is a kind of simple yet elegant introduction to the function of A Course in Miracles.

We have these bodies and they bring forth a world. If we are attentive, we see that another way to say this is that the world brings forth these bodies. The two are in a consensual interplay that generates an apparently endless stream of images, sensations and stories.

All the first lesson asks us to do is consider that the various aspects of this streaming world have no meaning. We are not asked to deny their existence or relabel them as illusions or anything. Let them be.

We are simply being asked to consider that the world – which includes the body – has no meaning.

Of course, this is not strictly true. The world and the body mutually bringing one another forth have the meaning we give them. But who is this “we?”

The meaning given by ego – by the self that believes it is contained in a vulnerable body in an often-dangerous world – is wrong in a way that hurts.

It is this error that A Course in Miracles is given to correct.

When we remember what we are in truth – Creations of a Living God for whom only Love is real – then we will be able to envision the world and the body in clearer gentler ways. In essence, we will see past them to the Light of Creation Itself.

Yet for now – as near as we are still to the beginning – it is sufficient to merely be open-minded about meaninglessness.

When we can accept meaninglessness (which is easier to say than to do), then our openness to actual meaning – to God’s meaning, Love’s meaning, Truth’s meaning, One’s meaning – gently expands and peace and joy intensify accordingly.

This is the other way, upon which we have taken the first steps.

One way to know if ACIM is working in our apparent lives is to simply notice how happy or unhappy we are. All the course wants for us is a natural, serious and sustainable happiness. We bring this forth together as students committed to our own learning in communion with our like-minded brothers and sisters.

Together, we are an oasis of happiness and peace – of learning – welcoming all passers-by, because giving welcome is how we are made welcome in the Kingdom of Heaven, which is Love. Together we are not alone. Together we are the Kingdom.

I wish you a quiet, creative and devoted ACIM practice in 2021, one that brings you as much vision and inner peace as you are ready to accept for this hurt and dying world. I am deeply grateful for your presence, and offer my own in return. If I can be helpful in any way, reach out.

Love,
Sean

Rethinking Separation: ACIM Lesson 30

There is a fun exercise in some contemporary nondual circles that basically revolves around the following: instead of seeing space as what separates you from a distant object (a lamp, a bed, a star), try to see it as what connects you.

This can be a powerful way of reframing one’s sense of separation, basically allowing us to see all of perception as a single image, rather than a bunch of separate ones coming together for a distinct observer.

That is not precisely what Lesson Thirty is inviting ACIM students to do, but it does nod in that general direction. Rather than see in the world what we would disown through projection, the lesson suggests we look for that with which we would join.

. . . we are trying to see in the world what is in our minds, and what we want to recognize is there. Thus, we are trying to join with what we see, rather than keeping it apart from us. That is the fundamental difference between vision and the way you see.

W-pI.30.2:3-5

This works because God is in everything we see because God is in our mind.

. . . the world will open up before you, and you will look upon it and see in it what you have never seen before. Nor will what you saw before be even faintly visible to you.

W-pI.30.1:2-3

We are shifting away from our emphasis on the body’s eyes and considering a new way of seeing whose source is mind rather than body. Thus, it is more akin to knowing an idea than to seeing an image.

You will notice that this lesson mentions God only in the title; after that it says nothing about God. It merely directs us to gaze around us (as well as things which are too far away to see with our eyes) and realize that the Lesson’s premise – our intimate proximity to God – infuses everything we see.

Yet, by not mentioning God again after the title, the lesson downplays the divine drama (and the attendant risk of specialness) in favor of keeping us focused on actual practice. The emphasis is not on grandeur, but on what is practical. We are essentially seeing that our habit of projection can be put to a better use.

Later, the course will refer to this as extension – that is, extending love rather than projecting fear (e.g., T-2.I.1:7).

Thus, we learn in this lesson that our minds can join as well as separate.

This is a critical insight! At no one point are we apart from God because God is in our mind (and note that mind here does not denote the brain’s output). Although we can be deeply confused about our union with God, we cannot be separate from God.

But again, this unity is at the level of mind, which the course establishes as other than the level of the body. It is only mind that is capable of creativity and correction (e.g., T-2.IV.2:10).

Only the mind can create because spirit has already been created, and the body is a learning device for the mind. Learning devices are not lessons in themselves.

T-2.IV.3:1-2

Thus, lesson 30 deepens our relationship with mind, by giving attention to how it functions. How it functions is what it is, and what it is is not affected by the body’s limitations.

Real vision is not only unlimited by space and distance, but it does not depend on the body’s eyes at all. The mind is its only source.

W-pI.30.5:1-2

Personally, this has historically a good lesson to linger on, not so much in terms of understanding the ideas but on their application. Nothing can be lost – and a lot gained – by making this a sustainable aspect of our spiritual practice.

Notes in Late December

I sent a newsletter out today which explores the second principle of miracles. Although the early parts of the text can be choppy, the section outlining the fifty principles has always felt clear and helpful to me.

The second principle asks us to look beyond the miracle to its Source, reminding us that what matters is not how the miracles functions in our lives in the world but rather the Source from which that miracle flows, which is always love.

This is an important insight. Healing is not having our problems fixed but rather making contact with our true self which has no problems. This is a simple but powerful way of living that entirely upends our traditional understanding of self, world and other.

It is possible to be deeply and seriously happy, and to know a peace which surpasses understanding.

Feel free to sign up if you like.

Some housekeeping items:

First, it was recently pointed out to me that my contact page was not working and hasn’t for months. If you tried to reach out to me that way and did not receive a reply, please know that it reflects a technical error rather than any deliberate ignorance on my part. I’m really sorry.

Please do feel free to reach out to argue, ask questions and so forth. I am always happy for be in dialogue with fellow students.

Also, lately I’ve been reflecting on a recent dialogue in the comments to this old post, which I keep wanting to rewrite or convert to a post in their own right, but maybe it’s okay to just point to the exchange. I am very grateful for it.

Finally, I scrap a lot of writing when writing here, and recently started a kind of ACIM notebook site where those scraps might find a home. It’s less formal, less polished, less cohesive but perhaps still interesting.

I hope your winter and its various holy days and shifts in light has begun in a quiet and gentle way. I’m so glad you’re here.

Love,
Sean

The First Principle of A Course in Miracles

There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not “harder” or “bigger” than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal T-1.I.1:1-4).

Imagine I set four photographs on a table before you: one is of a 1-pound weight, one of a 10-pound weight, one of a 100-pound weight, and one of a 1,000-pound weight.

Which photograph is harder to lift?

It’s a silly question, right? They are all the same. What they depict is different – what they depict would present serious lifting problems – but since they are just images, they are identical. You can lift each one with the same ease.

This is how the Holy Spirit views our many problems, which is another way of saying, this is how miracles are applied in and to our lives. Our lives – because they are comprised of differences, both inner and outer – make this principle seem counter-intuitive, if not outright insane.

For example, when The Sopranos ended and there were no more new episodes to look forward to, I felt sad. But when my father died, I felt waves of grief and confusion that shook the very foundation of my existence. I’ve long since mostly forgotten about The Sopranos. I think about my father every day.

Very different right? And who among us would suggest otherwise?

And yet . . .

. . . and yet to the Holy Spirit, they are symptoms of the same problem: the belief that I am a body in a world, and that all the apparent differences that bring forth that world and body are real, and their effects are real and not all the same.

The whole program of A Course in Miracles comes down to this one error: we are mistaken about what we are. But when we correct this error, all the error’s effects disappear.

In theory, the correction of this error could happen as quickly and simply as throwing a switch. Just see everything as the same! For most of us, however, it is a learning process which evolves in time, which process the Course refers to as Atonement.

That is, in bodies in the world over time, we learn that we are not bodies and there is neither a world nor time.

A miracle is the translation of fear into love, of hate into love, of confusion into love. Miracles are illusions, because they correct mistakes that never happened, yet to the mind that believes mistakes are real, miracles are powerful healing tools. They are as real as we need them to be in order to learn that they are not real at all.

Since “all expressions of love are maximal” (T-1.I.1:4), what the miracle heals is not what matters. What matters is the love that inspires it; it is that love to which our attention need be given, because it is that love that is our true self and home. Love is what we are in truth.

The power of God, and not of you, engenders miracles. The miracle itself is but the witness that you have the power of God in you. That is the reason why the miracle gives equal blessing to all who share in it, and also why everyone shares in it. The power of God is limitless . . . it offers everything to every call from anyone (T-14.6:9-13).

We aren’t required to believe this. In bodies, we really can’t believe it anyway. We are simply invited to give attention to the presence of – and the function of – miracles in our life and learn from them what they are given to teach.

In love, there are no differences or distinctions. It is not a question of resolving to love all things the same (for that sustains the premise of separation), but of not seeing the differences at all. When the differences disappear, what problem could possibly remain? What conflict could possibly exist?

Lesson 23: ACIM in a Nutshell

We might reframe ACIM Daily Lesson 23 this way: if you want to know peace, then give up projection. Indeed, in a sense, this lesson encapsulates the whole function and thus our whole practice of A Course in Miracles.

There is no point in lamenting the world. There is no point in trying to change the world. It is incapable of change because it is merely an effect. But there is indeed a point in changing your thoughts about the world. Here you are changing the cause. The effect will change automatically.

W-pI.23.2:2-7

This is one of the clearest statements regarding a fundamental course paradigm: give attention to your thinking rather than to the world. Or, to put it another way, the only problem we really have is that we think we have problems (T-26.II.3:3). Change the way you think, and the self and world you perceive will change as well.

Of course, if giving up projection were easy – or even intuitive – then we wouldn’t need A Course in Miracles. Or therapy or Buddhism. Or hugs. The course is given so that we might begin to work with our thoughts in order to change how we see the world and – through that evolving shift in perception – remember our identity in and as love.

Thus, lesson 23 is a firm step in the direction of reforming our understanding of what we are in truth. It is an invitation to shift our sense of identity from “victim of the world we see” to “the image-maker itself” (W-pI.23.4:1).

It is also a promise that as we do learn that we are making the world, and accept responsibility accordingly, that nothing will actually be lost when we let that world go. This addresses a significant fear for many of us – does awakening mean I won’t see my kids? Or listen to Leonard Cohen songs? Or dip french fries in mayo?

Vision already holds a replacement for everything you think you see now. Loveliness can light your images, and so transform them that you will love them, even though they were made of hate. For you will not be making them alone.

W-pI.23.4:4-6

As I have pointed out many times, a point comes in our learning where we realize that we are trapped – the self is an illusion that cannot save itself, and the world offers no path that can save us either. So long as we believe in that self and that world, then the “trap” retains its stranglehold on us.

Lesson 23 – again, encapsulating a fundamental principle of A Course in Miracles – makes the case that this “trap” can be escaped by seeing that it is an illusion. It isn’t real. There is nothing to escape. But how do we see this? How do we, you know . . . actually make it happen?

This change requires, first, that the cause be identified and then let go, so that it can be replaced. The first two steps in this process (identification and letting go) require your cooperation. The final one (replacement) does not. Your images have already been replaced. By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so (parenthetical emphasis mine).

W-pI.23.5:2-6

Thus, we want to see in a clear and sustainable way how we project attack thoughts outward and thus create a world of scarcity and violence, one in which peace is a fleeting sensation and love never welcome.

We want to see that we are the author of our suffering and – because we not want to suffer – let go of the impulse to project.

That’s it – that’s our whole job.

Lesson 23 is basic. All we are doing is noticing our attack thoughts (so-and-so is always judging me, I should eat healthier, why don’t people stop driving fossil-fuel powered cars, my mother never loved me, why can’t the news be positive et cetera). And then – for each one – we remind ourselves that if we will let this thought go, then we will remember the peace that is already given.

Noticing is hard! It takes practice to see in a consistent way how our minds project and how projection is always an attack.

But the truth is, letting go is even harder. Ego is happy to be noticed; it doesn’t object to that. It will lose that battle in order to keep fighting. And where it really resists is letting go.

Giving up attack thoughts feels like losing our self and our world. It feels like a form of sacrifice. We identify with the world that is made of attack; we are familiar with a self driven by vengeance.

So Lesson 23 is like a first step in mind-training. It’s like being taught how to stretch properly before being taught how to run a marathon. We want to run already, want to cross the finish line already. And the course points out that this not realistic; if we will go slowly, pace ourselves, and train up, then we will surely recall the peace and joy that is our inheritance. Forcing and faking it are not helpful.

In other words, if we are noticing attack thoughts (which include “being attacked” thoughts), then that’s sufficient. The letting go comes with time.

We are still at the stage of identifying the cause of the world you see. When you finally learn that thoughts of attack and of being attacked are not different, you will be ready to let the cause go.

W-pI.23.7:4-5

We learn in time that time is not real. We learn in bodies that we are not bodies. And we learn in the world that there is no world. Don’t wait on light shows and spiritual lottery tickets. In a gentle and quiet way, give attention to your living, ever reminding yourself that you are the author of your pain, and that a better way waits on your decision.

On Letting Go and Letting God

We are not really capable of full alignment with the metaphysics of A Course in Miracles. To even recognize ACIM – as a book, a method, a community – is to be separated. So I think that while being clear about the underlying metaphysics is helpful to our practice, it’s not – in and of itself – enough.

Helen Schucman understood this very well, writing (in a non-scribed section of the preface):

The text is largely theoretical, and sets forth the concepts on which the Course’s thought system is based. Its ideas contain the foundation of the Workbook’s lessons. Without the practical application the Workbook provides, the Text would remain largely a series of abstractions which would hardly suffice to bring about the thought reversal at which the Course aims.

In other words, the world is not real and we are not bodies and we learn this in our bodies in the world.

Which is reasonable, right? I mean, where else would those lessons even make sense?

So there’s a kind of two-step dance here. There’s the underlying metaphysics of ACIM (which are complex and theoretical, relatively speaking) and there’s a principled application of those metaphysics (which is embodied and psychological, and simple but not easy).

If you do one without the other, then you have a move, not a dance. And we want to dance.

The pragmatic living the course encourages centers in significant part around carefully watching the function of our mind and patiently correcting its habit of projection and denial (which, together, obscure peace and happiness).

. . . we watch our thoughts, appealing silently to Him Who sees the elements of truth in them. Let Him evaluate each thought that comes to mind, remove the elements of dreams, and give them back again as clean ideas that do not contradict the Will of God.

W-pI.151.13:3-4

This is not a thing we do alone! It’s a thing that we consent to having done for us. It’s like going to the doctor for a broken arm. You don’t set the bone yourself; you consent to let the doctor set it for you. But you do have to get there.

In A Course in Miracles, our job is to show up and give consent to healing which is the function of the Holy Spirit. We don’t have any other job, any more than the doctor setting our bone needs our advice about osteology.

The course lessons are essentially baby steps in showing up and giving consent to be healed. Any one lesson can wake us from the dream, but it’s their cumulative effect that is actually transformative.

If we make a good-faith effort to hold the metaphysics in mind, and then do the lessons with sincerity and integrity, our living will gently shift in the direction of peace and happiness

This works because ACIM is basically about shifting our minds away from what hurts towards what helps, and even tiny shifts are healing. And because it works, we naturally lean into it, which begets even more healing.

The bible says that as we “thinketh in our hearts,” so we are (Proverbs 23:7). A Course in Miracles reframes this to “as a man thinketh, so does he perceive” (T-21.in.1:6).

But both frames make the same underlying point: don’t try to change the world. Rather, change the way you think about the world, and the world will follow.

There is only one thing that you need do for vision, happiness, release from pain, and the complete escape from sin, all to be given to you. Say only this, but mean it with no reservations, for there the power of salvation lies:

I am responsible for what I see.
I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide
upon the goal I would achieve.
And everything that seems to happen to me
I ask for, and receive as I have asked.

Deceive yourself no longer that you are helpless in the face of what is done to you.

T-21.II.2:1-6

In many ways, that’s a big pill to swallow, but our attending physician – God, Jesus, Buddha, Holy Spirit or your guardian angel – is happy to cut the pill into manageable chunks. Ask and it shall be done.

The Healer watching over us wants only to heal us; it has no other function. Our job is notice our need for healing and then relinquish the mad idea that we are (or even could be) in charge of our own healing.

I have always liked the phrase “let go and let God.” It neatly captures the two steps of the ACIM dance I’m talking about here.

“Let go” is the active thing we do – releasing our stranglehold on methods and outcomes. “Let God” is the metaphysics that we can’t really understand in worldly terms. God acts when we do not. Together, these two steps are a cornerstone of joy and peace. They go together in us, as we go together in them.