A Course In Miracles

[Blessed2]

On 3/21/2023 at 5:22 AM, Blessed2 said:

Disappearance of the Universe by Gary R. Renard

 

Here's a good main points collection from Disappearance of the Universe I found from Facebook. Thanks whoever collected it and thanks for the writer, Gary R. Renard & publisher, Hay House.

 

Again, be very mindful of your intuition and the emotional guidance. Just a finger pointing to the moon etc. Such a powerful finger though, it made me literally sick for a couple of days. 😂

 

Arten: Before the beginning, there were no beginnings or endings; there was only the eternal Always, which is still there - and always shall be. There was only an awareness of unflawed oneness, and this oneness was so complete, so awe-striking  and unlimited in its joyous extension that it would be impossible for anything to be aware of something else that was not Itself. There was and is only God in this reality - which we will refer to as Heaven. page 122 DU
Arten - Unlike the concrete, specific world you appear to be in now, this constant and enthralling state of awareness is completely abstract, eternal, unchanging and united. DU p.123
Arten : Then something appears to happen which, as in a dream, doesn't really happen - it just appears to. For just an instant, for just one, inconsequential fraction of a nanosecond, a very small aspect of Christ appears to have an idea that is not shared by God. It's a kind of 'What if?' idea. It's like an innocent wondering in the form of a question - which unfortunately is followed by an apparent answer' DU p.123.
Arten: '...your state of innocence is about to be seemingly replaced by a state of fear and erroneous, vicious defenses that this condition appears to require.' DU p.123
Arten: Because your idea is not of God, He does not respond to it. To respond to it would be to give it reality. If God Himself were to acknowledge anything except the idea of perfect oneness, then there would no longer be perfect oneness. There would no longer be a perfect state of Heaven for you to return to.' DU p.123
Arten: '...you never really left anyway. You're still there, but you have entered a nightmare state of illusion. While you travel only in dreams God and Christ, Who are always One, have continued as they always did and always will - completely unaffected by what J refers to in his Course as the 'tiny, mad idea...' Of separation.' DU p.124
Arten: 'In this cosmic instant of seeming individuality -and no matter how attractive you may think individuality is, it is nothing but separation - there seems to be tiny aspect of Christ that is now aware of something else. That is duality. Now, instead of oneness, you have twoness.' DU p.124
Arten: '....The mind that is reliving the seeming separation has actually fallen asleep and is dreaming an idle, insignificant dream, or nightmare, because anything that seemed to be apart from Heaven would have to be symbolic of an opposite to Heaven. It would thus seem to include opposite characteristics...' DU.p124

Arten: 'We've already talked about the first division in the mind, and along with it has come consciousness. Because of this, for the first time, you have a conscious choice to make. Before that there was nothing to choose between. But now there are two possible responses to this idea of separation. That's what leads to the second division of the mind.' DU p.131
Arten: 'In our story this new, seemingly individual mind is going to make its very first decision. At this point there are only two choices, and there will always be only two choices. There you have the second division of the mind. Now you have a right mind and a wrong mind, each representing a different choice or different response to the tiny, mad idea.' DU p.132
Arten: 'If, at this point where we find ourselves in our story, you had chosen to believe the Holy Spirit's interpretation, or response, to the separation instead of the ego's, then your little dream adventure would have been over. The ego had a selfish yet tantalising response of its own. If you continue to believe in the separation, it offers you your own individual identity - separate from God, very special and uniquely important.' DU p.133
Arten: 'Of course, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into - and you make another numb choice. This is all new to you, and you're more than willing to give curiosity a chance to kill the cat. You choose with the ego so you can see what it's like to be apart and special. This in turn causes the third division in the mind.' DU p.133
Arten: "...Once you choose the ego and cause the third division , it's the Holy Spirit that's just a memory. You are now totally identified with the ego. However, being holographic by the grace of God, even when the mind seems to divide each part still maintains the characteristics of the whole-so you can never really be lost. Both the ego and the Holy Spirit are still to be found in every mind; it's just that the Holy Spirit is being drowned out by the egos voice because that's what you chose to listen to-and what you really are has been pushed out of your awareness. We said before that you may have forgotten the truth, but it's still there-buried in your mind." D.U p.134
Arten: "...Your choice for the ego instead of the Holy Spirit, resulting the third division of the mind, has made the Voice for God almost completely inaudible to you. Meanwhile the ego is giving you it's own version of what's happening - and here's where things really start to get nasty." D.U p.137
Arten: "So - in our story, you've chosen with the ego, and now you're identified with it. The first division of the mind made the awareness of your perfect oneness with God just a memory. The second division brought two parts to the mind. The third division has made the Holy Spirit just a memory, and the ego now has your attention. You look to it to explain to you what's going on, and the ego has a message for you. The message is this: "You'd better get the hell out of here, pal." Then it proceeds to give you some reasons. In your confused state of mind, these reasons sound pretty damn convincing in their logic." D.U p.138
Arten: ""Don't you know what you've done?" - the ego asks in our metaphorical story - "You've separated yourself from God! You've sinned against Him big time. You're in for it now. You've taken paradise - everything he gave you - and thrown it right in His face  and said, 'Who the hell needs you?' You've attacked Him! You're dead. You haven't got a snowballs chance in hell against Him - He's awesome and you're nothing. You've ruined everything; you're so guilty. If you don't haul ass out of here right now, it's gonna be worse than death!"

Oh my God, you think in response to the ego. What have I done? You're right - I've ruined everything and attacked Heaven! But where can I go? I can run, but I can't hide. There's no place I can hide from God Himself.

"Well, that's not exactly true" says the ego, "because I'm here to help you, I'm your friend - and I have an idea. I have somewhere we can go together. You can be your own boss and not have to face God at all. You'll never see Him. He won't even be able to get to this place!"

Really? You ask. That sounds pretty damn good to me. Let's go!

"All right" says the ego. "Do exactly as I say." D.U p.138

Pursah: "Of course everything the ego is saying about God is about as sane as Caligula Caesar. God would never do anything except love you. It's here that you need to know just a little bit more about how the mind works.
Because of the power of the mind, you need to appreciate the power of your belief. It was your belief in the idea you could be separate from God - your taking it seriously - that gave it so much seeming power and realism...
You also have to realise that because you made duality by deciding to be a perceiver, everything you perceive will include characteristics that appear to be the opposite of that which you have apparently separated from. What you have seemingly separated from - Heaven - has one set of characteristics, and what you are perceiving as your reality has an opposite set of characteristics." D.U p.p 138-139
Pursah: "Heaven, although it is beyond all words, has these kind of characteristics: It is perfect, formless, changeless, abstract, eternal, innocent, whole, abundant, complete Love. It is reality; it is Life. God and Christ and Christ's Creations are perfect Oneness. There is nothing else. This is the domain of God's Will - The Knowledge of the Father. To describe the experience of your awareness of this perfect oneness is not really possible, but I assure you that you will know it when you have a temporary experience of it. It's not quite like anything else you are familiar with." D.U p.139
Pursah: "The domain of perception, on the other hand, being Heaven's seeming opposite, includes very different characteristics. Keeping in mind we are still speaking on a metaphysical level here, these attributes include: individuality, form, shapes, specifics, changes, time, separation, division, illusion, wishes, scarcity and death. That's why in the Book of Genesis 2:16-17, which comes right out of the writers unconscious mind, it says, "You may eat freely of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Good and evil are opposites, and once you have a seeming opposite to Heaven, you have death. But, as the Course consistently says in a thousand different ways, beginning right in its introduction, "...what is all encompassing can have no opposite." D.U p.139
Pursah: "Once you've chosen to listen to the ego's temptation to be a separate individual, your belief in the reality of the separation begins to cause some very serious problems for you. God now seems to be outside of you, and everything you experience tells you that you've separated from Him. That's a problem you still have this very second. Practically all of your mind is unconscious to you, just like almost all of an iceberg is underneath the surface of the water. As long as you believe in the reality of the physical universe..., then everything you perceive will be a constant, unconscious reminder to you that you've committed the act of separating yourself from God." D.U p.140
Arten: "...the ego-voice in your mind has told you some things about your condition and also about God that simply aren't true. You've brought into it partly because you like the idea of being an individual with a seemingly separate will - even though that's not really possible. By taking the separation and the egos voice seriously, that translates within your seemingly separate mind as a sin against God, now if you've sinned, that means you're guilty, and on this metaphysical level you feel it - even though on the level of the world you will not always feel it. Being the guilty bastard you think you are, it means you think you're going to be punished, big time. Even on the level of this world, a psychologist would explain to you that guilt unconsciously demands punishment - and if you really think about it, it will explain a lot. On the metaphysical level we're talking about how you sincerely believe that you're about to be attacked and punished by God Himself!" D.U p.140
Arten: "The anticipation of this fate-worse-than-death kind of punishment from God creates fear - a fear so terrible you can't even comprehend it. Yet you've been running away from it for what seems like billions of years. So now we're at a point where we can tell you why your universe, your world, and your body were made by the mind in the first place. They were all made simultaneously even though in a linear dream, things seem to happen separately." D.U p.p. 140-141
Arten: "The ego's voice speaks to you as though it's your friend and is watching out for your best interests. You'll recall we've already said that the ego has convinced you that God is going to get you and you better run for it to a place where you'll be safe. That place is this universe. As far as the ego is concerned, the best defense is a good offense. In fact, defense and offense are two sides of the same coin." D.U p.141
Arten: "So, believing that the separation has actually happened, and given your fear of Gods punishment and retaliation that you desperately think you need to defend yourself against, you've already developed - by listening to the ego - a thought system that says you've sinned, you're guilty, and Gods inevitable punishment requires a defense. You feel completely vulnerable, and the ego has told you that it has an idea - a place where you can go where God will never be able to find you. In your confused state, you are now a follower of the ego instead of Gods Will, and you listen to the egos brilliant but twisted idea to make you safe from that which you no longer remember is actually your own true reality - but which you now live in mortal fear of instead." D.U p.142
Arten: "So now the instant has arrived in our spectacular revue where the ego is about to give you it's grand answer to your nightmarish predicament.
The awesome magnitude of painful shame and acute guilt in your mind, resulting from what you believe you've done, appear to require an immediate and complete escape. So you join with the ego, and then the incomprehensible power of your mind to make illusions as a perceiver - rather than spirit as a creator - causes the method of your escape to become manifest. At this point the ego, which you are now totally identified with, uses the ingenious but illusory method of projection to hurl the thought of separation out of your mind, and you - or at least the part of you that seems to have consciousness - appears to be projected right along with it. This instantly causes what is popularly referred to as the Big Bang, or the creation of the universe. Now you appear to be in the universe, while you do not realize you are literally out of your mind." D.U p.p. 142-143
Arten: "Now the enemy you live in terror of, God, no longer seems to be in the mind with you - where you thought you wouldn't have had a chance against Him. Instead God, and for that matter everything else, is now apparently completely outside of you. The source of your problems, including your guilt, are now someplace else - even though we've already made it clear that there can't possibly be anyplace else. The making of the cosmos is your protection from God, your ingenious hiding place. At the same time, the universe itself becomes the ultimate scapegoat." D.U p.143
Arten: "There is no other spiritual discipline that understands and explains the motivation behind the making of this world, the same motivation that runs it today. That motivation is fear, always ultimately traceable to the fear of God. The trans-temporal, non-spatial, seemingly separate mind is in a paralysing state of fear because of a punishment you believe is coming from God. So the ego convinces you that you need a defense, without bothering to mention that the defense it offers is designed to ensure its own survival through your individuality." D.U p.141
Arten: "Now, both the cause and the blame for your problem of separation, not to mention the blame for all of your new, illusory replacements problems, can be found - if you look hard enough along with the ego - somewhere outside of you. Indeed, a whole new level has been made in which the thought system of sin, guilt, fear, attack, and defense can be acted out in such as way as to protect your seemingly separated mind, which you presently think of as your soul, from your terrible, yet completely unconscious guilt and fear." D.U p.143
Arten: "This universe, the world, and your body give form to a defense structure in which you hide from your imagined sin, guilt, and the resulting fear. The ego has a method firmly in place to deal with this now-unconscious sin, guilt, and fear - by projecting it onto others." D.U p.143-144
Arten: "Now, as the crowning achievement in its grand scheme, the ego makes - drum roll, please - the body. This allows the ego to permit into awareness, almost exclusively, only those things which testify to the reality of its cherished illusion. Yet the body itself is just another part of the illusion, and to ask it to explain the illusion to you is no different than asking the illusion to explain itself - and of course the ego is more than happy to furnish you with its answers." D.U p.143
Arten: "Once we explain to you...how this thought system is acted out on the level of this world, you'll be able to clearly observe it in action everywhere - in all of your personal relationships, the relationships of others, in international relationships, in politics and other professions, and anywhere else you care to look. Then you'll begin to see that the message of the Course is true. In discussing this, we're going to be telling you some things that are not for the squeamish. The ego isn't pretty.
After that, we can start to have some fun." D.U p.144
Arten: " When you're capable of observing the ego's thought system in action - which is certainly interesting enough to begin with - then we'll be able to explain to you how you can help the Holy Spirit turn the tables on the ego, hasten your own salvation at the same time, and eventually break the cycle of birth and death." D.U p.144

[Blessed2]

This is a good quote:

 

²The purpose of the world you see is to obscure your function of forgiveness, and provide you with a justification for forgetting it. (ACIM, W-64.1:2)

 

It might be useful to play with the idea that the world is the exact opposite of Truth. So that the world, in every way, is simply a veiling of Truth.

 

All of it. Even the three-dimensional space is an obscuring of the Truth. And the crown achievement of the veiling is the person, the human. The doer, the thinker. This is why forgiveness is so central. The separate self is synonymous with the doer & the thinker, and the doer & the thinker is synonymous with guilt. Guilt and the separate self are the same. Therefore forgiveness, which is the acknowledgement that there is no doer & everything is entirely innocent & none of us is incarnate, is an undoing of the illusion. It is a turning around of the process of projection.

 

 

I once read a book that said:

 

This is the motto of a seeker: everything, and I mean everything, is entirely the other way around than I think it is.

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by Blessed2

[Blessed2]

It's interesting how the direct path / self-inquiry seems to go directly into yourself to find the true nature, and ACIM kind of goes the other way.

 

ACIM looks at form, "other people" and "outside situations in the world" and "inquires" into what seems to be outside and other. Overlooking the form into what is not affected by form at all. And therein sends the gift back to yourself.

 

[Blessed2]

From lesson 68, "Love holds no grievances."

 

You who were created by love like itself can hold no grievances and know your Self. ²To hold a grievance is to forget who you are. ³To hold a grievance is to see yourself as a body. ⁴To hold a grievance is to let the ego rule your mind and to condemn the body to death. ⁵Perhaps you do not yet fully realize just what holding grievances does to your mind. ⁶It seems to split you off from your Source and make you unlike Him. ⁷It makes you believe that He is like what you think you have become, for no one can conceive of his Creator as unlike himself.

 

Shut off from your Self, which remains aware of Its likeness to Its Creator, your Self seems to sleep, while the part of your mind that weaves illusions in its sleep appears to be awake. ²Can all this arise from holding grievances? ³Oh, yes! ⁴For he who holds grievances denies he was created by love, and his Creator has become fearful to him in his dream of hate. ⁵Who can dream of hatred and not fear God?

 

It is as sure that those who hold grievances will redefine God in their own image, as it is certain that God created them like Himself, and defined them as part of Him. ²It is as sure that those who hold grievances will suffer guilt, as it is certain that those who forgive will find peace. ³It is as sure that those who hold grievances will forget who they are, as it is certain that those who forgive will remember.

(ACIM, W-68.1:1-7;2:1-5;3:1-3)

 

OMG the simplicity of this.

 

Begin today’s extended practice period by searching your mind for those against whom you hold what you regard as major grievances. ²Some of these will be quite easy to find. ³Then think of the seemingly minor grievances you hold against those you like and even think you love. ⁴It will quickly become apparent that there is no one against whom you do not cherish grievances of some sort. (ACIM, W-68.5:1-4)

 

🤯

 

Honestly, I notice grievance literally in every relationship I have.

 

And I hold more or less grievance even for EVERY USER ON THIS FORUM. 😂 However subtle or nonsensical, it's there. Makes me wonder what it would be like, to have even one relationship with no grievance whatsoever. Would that even be a "relationship" anymore?

 

Edited August 18, 2023 by Blessed2

[Blessed2]

Today I found it very uplifting and insightful how ACIM uses the word "salvation" where someone else would maybe use the word "enlightenment".

 

Today let us make another real attempt to reach the light in you. ²Before we undertake this in our more extended practice period, let us devote several minutes to thinking about what we are trying to do. ³We are literally attempting to get in touch with the salvation of the world. ⁴We are trying to see past the veil of darkness that keeps it concealed. ⁵We are trying to let the veil be lifted, and to see the tears of God’s Son disappear in the sunlight. (ACIM, W-69.2:1-5)

 

"Salvation". No-one ever died. No time was ever wasted. There was no mistakes. Nothing was lost.

 

Nothing could ever be done "wrong", even if we tried to do "wrong"! Nothing could ever be lost.

 

Salvation. "Saving". 

 

@Phil @Mandy Make sense to you? 🤔

 

Kind of: God could never be damaged. Not one bit.

[Mandy]

@Blessed2 I haven't read through it, but the language is very Christian, so thats what I'd expect.  Religion is essentially a language. 

[Phil]

1 hour ago, Blessed2 said:

Make sense to you? 🤔

Well… it makes sense. 

 

This was the prior video:

 

A Youtube comment on the The Light video started with “why would I want to listen to a guy talking in his car?”, and proceeded to explain everything I was doing wrong, how it’s unprofessional unfocused ramble & I need to put more effort in. 

 

So again, yes, makes sense. Nothing is more blissful than reality as it is. 🤍

[Mandy]

1 hour ago, Phil said:

 

A Youtube comment on the The Light video started with “why would I want to listen to a guy talking in his car?”, and proceeded to explain everything I was doing wrong, how it’s unprofessional unfocused ramble & I need to put more effort in. 

 

Reminds me of how fundamentalist Christians believe that attending church must involved a suit and tie and anything less isn't giving God his best. 🙄

[Blessed2]

Ommggg the clarity. No wonder I got sick after hearing this message.

 

From lesson 72, Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation:

 

"While we have recognized that the ego’s plan for salvation is the opposite of God’s, we have not yet emphasized that it is an active attack on His plan, and a deliberate attempt to destroy it. ²In the attack, God is assigned the attributes which are actually associated with the ego, while the ego appears to take on the attributes of God.

 

The ego’s fundamental wish is to replace God. ²In fact, the ego is the physical embodiment of that wish. ³For it is that wish that seems to surround the mind with a body, keeping it separate and alone, and unable to reach other minds except through the body that was made to imprison it. ⁴The limit on communication cannot be the best means to expand communication. ⁵Yet the ego would have you believe that it is.

 

Although the attempt to keep the limitations that a body would impose is obvious here, it is perhaps not so apparent why holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation. ²But let us consider the kinds of things you are apt to hold grievances for. ³Are they not always associated with something a body does? ⁴A person says something you do not like. ⁵He does something that displeases you. ⁶He “betrays” his hostile thoughts in his behavior.

 

You are not dealing here with what the person is. ²On the contrary, you are exclusively concerned with what he does in a body. ³You are doing more than failing to help in freeing him from the body’s limitations. ⁴You are actively trying to hold him to it by confusing it with him, and judging them as one. ⁵Herein is God attacked, for if His Son is only a body, so must He be as well. ⁶A creator wholly unlike his creation is inconceivable.

 

If God is a body, what must His plan for salvation be? ²What could it be but death? ³In trying to present Himself as the Author of life and not of death, He is a liar and a deceiver, full of false promises and offering illusions in place of truth. ⁴The body’s apparent reality makes this view of God quite convincing. ⁵In fact, if the body were real, it would be difficult indeed to escape this conclusion. ⁶And every grievance that you hold insists that the body is real. ⁷It overlooks entirely what your brother is. ⁸It reinforces your belief that he is a body, and condemns him for it. ⁹And it asserts that his salvation must be death, projecting this attack onto God, and holding Him responsible for it.

 

To this carefully prepared arena, where angry animals seek for prey and mercy cannot enter, the ego comes to save you. ²God made you a body. ³Very well. ⁴Let us accept this and be glad. ⁵As a body, do not let yourself be deprived of what the body offers. ⁶Take the little you can get. ⁷God gave you nothing. ⁸The body is your only savior. ⁹It is the death of God and your salvation.

 

🫣

 

This is the universal belief of the world you see. ²Some hate the body, and try to hurt and humiliate it. ³Others love the body, and try to glorify and exalt it. ⁴But while the body stands at the center of your concept of yourself, you are attacking God’s plan for salvation, and holding your grievances against Him and His creation, that you may not hear the Voice of truth and welcome It as Friend. ⁵Your chosen savior takes His place instead. ⁶It is your friend; He is your enemy.

 

We will try today to stop these senseless attacks on salvation. ²We will try to welcome it instead. ³Your upside-down perception has been ruinous to your peace of mind. ⁴You have seen yourself in a body and the truth outside you, locked away from your awareness by the body’s limitations. ⁵Now we are going to try to see this differently.

 

The light of truth is in us, where it was placed by God. ²It is the body that is outside us, and is not our concern. ³To be without a body is to be in our natural state. ⁴To recognize the light of truth in us is to recognize ourselves as we are. ⁵To see our Self as separate from the body is to end the attack on God’s plan for salvation, and to accept it instead. ⁶And wherever His plan is accepted, it is accomplished already.

 

Our goal in the longer practice periods today is to become aware that God’s plan for salvation has already been accomplished in us. ²To achieve this goal, we must replace attack with acceptance. ³As long as we attack it, we cannot understand what God’s plan for us is. ⁴We are therefore attacking what we do not recognize. ⁵Now we are going to try to lay judgment aside, and ask what God’s plan for us is:

 

⁶What is salvation, Father? ⁷I do not know. ⁸Tell me, that I may understand."

 

(ACIM, W-72.1:1-2;2:1-5;3:1-6;4:1-6;5:1-9;6:1-9;7:1-6;8:1-5;9:1-6;10:1-8)

 

[Blessed2]

 

This is essential for the path. This is what's meant my "forgiveness-for-salvation".

 

You can keep the judgements, grievances, evaluations and projections and therein also keep the suffering and samsara. It is not the lack psychedelics, spiritual knowledge or even meditation per se that keeps you asleep and suffering. It's projection and grievances.

 

Or, you can forgive for salvation. This undoes the dream of suffering that never was.

 

 

This is it. This is the only function in any relationship whatsoever. Forgiveness.

 

It's very, very simple. Do not be decieved by the body-personality-doer. It does not matter whether it is a drunken hobo, an ant or Ramana Maharshi. All are Christ. It is up to you to see. Look past the separate self to Him who is not touched by the world.

 

"When will the resurrection of the dead take place?

 

The resurrection you seek has already come, but you do not see it."

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by Blessed2

[Blessed2]

I have been doing the Workbook for quite some time now, in a relaxed manner. Listening to feeling, not rushing it. If I feel like taking a day or two or an entire week pause, I do.

 

I really recommend it. Though be sure to first read the Gary's book and then the Workbook & Text at the same time.

 

Be very very mindful of the guidance of feeling and intuition. The Workbook lessons can seem weird and kind of hard, even disappointing at first but keep on it and listen to intuition. Do them mindfully. You will be shocked by the specifity with which you are being guided. Ask for J / The Holy Spirit to aid you in the lessons.

 

Be sure to practice this too:

 

[Blessed2]

When you close your physical eyes, you see darkness.

 

When you close your symbolic eyes from love-truth, you see the world.

 

The world is darkness.

 

 

Though you never really see darkness.

Darkness is the lack of seeing.

 

In the same way, there is no world. The world is the lack of seeing.

 

 

Relationships between people (intimate, romantic and friendships) are not an expression of God's love. Relationships between people are what you see when you close your eyes from God's infinite love.

 

Material abundance such as money in a bank is not an expression of God's abundance. Money is what you see when you close your eyes from God's infinite abundance.

 

The body is not an image of God. The body is not a creation of God. The body is what you see when you close your eyes from God.

 

 

The world is not God's creation. The world is the darkness you see when you close your eyes from God.

[Blessed2]

The lesson I did yesterday is really hitting hard.

 

From Lesson 79:

 

"A problem cannot be solved if you do not know what it is. ²Even if it is really solved already you will still have the problem, because you will not recognize that it has been solved. ³This is the situation of the world. ⁴The problem of separation, which is really the only problem, has already been solved. ⁵Yet the solution is not recognized because the problem is not recognized.

 

Everyone in this world seems to have his own special problems. ²Yet they are all the same, and must be recognized as one if the one solution that solves them all is to be accepted. ³Who can see that a problem has been solved if he thinks the problem is something else? ⁴Even if he is given the answer, he cannot see its relevance.

 

That is the position in which you find yourself now. ²You have the answer, but you are still uncertain about what the problem is. ³A long series of different problems seems to confront you, and as one is settled the next one and the next arise. ⁴There seems to be no end to them. ⁵There is no time in which you feel completely free of problems and at peace.

 

The temptation to regard problems as many is the temptation to keep the problem of separation unsolved. ²The world seems to present you with a vast number of problems, each requiring a different answer. ³This perception places you in a position in which your problem solving must be inadequate, and failure is inevitable.

 

No one could solve all the problems the world appears to hold. ²They seem to be on so many levels, in such varying forms and with such varied content, that they confront you with an impossible situation. ³Dismay and depression are inevitable as you regard them. ⁴Some spring up unexpectedly, just as you think you have resolved the previous ones. ⁵Others remain unsolved under a cloud of denial, and rise to haunt you from time to time, only to be hidden again but still unsolved.

 

All this complexity is but a desperate attempt not to recognize the problem, and therefore not to let it be resolved. ²If you could recognize that your only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could accept the answer because you would see its relevance. ³Perceiving the underlying constancy in all the problems that seem to confront you, you would understand that you have the means to solve them all. ⁴And you would use the means, because you recognize the problem.

 

In our longer practice periods today we will ask what the problem is, and what is the answer to it. ²We will not assume that we already know. ³We will try to free our minds of all the many different kinds of problems we think we have. ⁴We will try to realize that we have only one problem, which we have failed to recognize. ⁵We will ask what it is, and wait for the answer. ⁶We will be told. ⁷Then we will ask for the solution to it. ⁸And we will be told.

 

The exercises for today will be successful to the extent to which you do not insist on defining the problem. ²Perhaps you will not succeed in letting all your preconceived notions go, but that is not necessary. ³All that is necessary is to entertain some doubt about the reality of your version of what your problems are. ⁴You are trying to recognize that you have been given the answer by recognizing the problem, so that the problem and the answer can be brought together and you can be at peace." (ACIM, W-79.1:1-5;2:1-4;3:1-5;4:1-3;5:1-5;6:1-4;7:1-8;8:1-4)

 

 

Especially the part which I put in bolds is really good. That started to make it sink in.

 

Could it be that all these different problems is but an illusion? What if it's just my crooked, mistaken version about what my problems are? Like literally just unreal.

 

What if I am already saved? What if all my problems are already solved?

 

 

"Salvation". What a great pointer and use of language. In contrast to words like "enlightenment", "awakening" or "transcendence". It really hammers down what letting go a belief / recognizing illusion as illusion really is.

 

 

There is also a bit of unease and fear in regard to this lesson, but it's probably a good sign. Eyes are being opened to the madness of this illusory world of the ego.

 

Edited September 10, 2023 by Blessed2

[Blessed2]

[Blessed2]

An awesome interview of Gary:

 

 

Much love and appreciation. His books and ACIM talks to me like no other tradition or language or pointer has so far. Whereas what Rupert Spira, Phil, Ramana Maharshi or Zen etc. talks about always seem to bring some sort of feeling of despair, discouragement, doubt and pessimism, ACIM just feels so light and easy. Like I've been learning it for many lifetimes. Feels familiar, it just "clicks". Like a shoe that just fits perfectly.

 

[Blessed2]

Why does the Course use the term "salvation"?

 

Maybe this is one way to say it:

 

At least I have come across the idea that when you believe something, that thing will be true for you.

 

Like if you believe that the world is real, it means the world is real.

 

Or that you simultaneously state that the world is an illusion, yet state that it's nonetheless "here", very real, and you need to just push through it and that non-duality is "neo-advaitan bullshit" or something.

 

The term "salvation" points out that no, even if you believed the fuck out of a belief it would still be just a belief, an illusion, unreal.

 

Only the truth is true. Always.

 

Therefore the world is saved, you are saved. No-one literally never made any mistakes nor did anyone die nor has any illusion ever affected the truth. Nothing can not be wasted. The Kingdom cannot be damaged. God cannot be killed.

 

Nothing real can be threatened.

Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God.

[Blessed2]

There's a significant benefit in meditating before the day's Workbook lesson. I've done it with a singing bowl.