"One might ask how it is that we can agree upon what we perceive in the world at large. If I am projecting the world I see, why is it that this world seems to be the same as that seen by others? The answer to this question is that first, we all do not see the same world in the sense that we all do not share the same interpretation of what is perceived. One person may think George is a nice guy and another may hate him. However, the fact that we can agree that there's a George out there comes from the fact that we share one mind, and it is that mind which has projected the world at large, making consensual validation possible. But because the mind seems to be fragmented, we seem to have private worlds with private meanings projected from an individual mind. For this reason, Jesus meets us where we believe we are in our dream of separation. It is practical to think in terms of our individual projections, because that is where we must start with the process of forgiveness. This amounts to starting at the bottom of the ladder separation led us down. As we proceed back up the ladder, undoing one projection of guilt at a time, eventually it becomes apparent that what we are perceiving is a huge drama in which we are actors playing out a script mutually written and mutually agreed upon wherein we could have the illusion that we are special individual persons, separate from one another. It has been pointed out already that our individual lives and special relationsips represent a few of the myriad permutations and combinations of the thought of separation - subplots of the massive script of specialness that was spun out and corrected only to disappear before it began: "Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures come and go as if by magic ...The script is written... we but see the journey from the point at which it ended, looking back on it, imagining we make it once again; reviewing mentally what has gone by" (W-pI.158.4:1,3,5)."
From: p 132, A Primer of Psychology according to A Course in Miracles, by Joe R Jesseph, PhD, Outskirts Press, Inc. Denver, 2008.
"The movement of descent and discovery begins at the moment you consciously become dissatisfied with life. Contrary to most professional opinion, this gnawing dissatisfaction with life is not a sign of "mental illness," nor an indication of poor social adjustment, nor a character disorder. For concealed within this basic unhappiness with life and existence is the embryo of a growing intelligence, a special intelligence usally buried under the immense weight of social shams. A person who is beginning to sense the suffering of life is, at the same time, beginning to awaken to deeper realities, truer realities. For suffering smashes to pieces the complacency of our normal fictions about reality, and forces us to become alive in a special sense - to see crefully, to feel deeply, to touch ourselves and our worlds in ways we have heretofore avoided. It has been said, and truly I think, that suffering is the first grace. In a special sense, suffering is almost a time of rejoicing, for it marks the birth of creative insight. But only in a special sense. Some people cling to their suffering as a mother to its child, carrying it as a burden they dare not set down. They do not face suffering with awareness, but rather clutch at their suffering, secretly transfixed with the spasms of martyrdom. Suffering should neither be denied awareness, avoided, despised, nor glorified, clung to, dramatized. The emergence of suffering is not so much good as it is a good sign, an indication that one is starting to realize that life lived outside unity consciousness is ultimately painful, distressing, and sorrowful. The life of boundaries is a life of battles - of fear, anxiety, pain and finally death. It is only through all manner of numbing compensations, distractions and enchantments that we agree not to question our illusory boundaries, the root cause of the endless wheel of agony. But sooner or later, if we are not rendered totally insentitive, our defensive compensations begin to fail their soothing and concealing purpose. As a consequence, we begin to suffer in one way or another, because our awareness is finally directed toward the conflict-ridden nature of our false boundaries and the fragmented life supported by them. Suffering, then, is the initial movement of the recognition of false boundaries. Correctly understood, it is therefore liberating, for it points beyond boundaries altogether. We suffer, then, not because we are sick, but because intelligent insight is emerging. The correct understanding of suffering, however, is necessary in order that the birth of insight is not aborted. We must correctly interpret suffering in order to enter into it, live it, and finally live beyond it. If we do not correctly understand suffering, we simply get stuck in the middele of it - we wallow in it, not knowing what else to do."
p 73-74 The Simple Feeling of Being, by Ken Wilber, Shambhala, Boston, 2004.
"..... and help us to accept our true relationship with You" (ACIM T16.VII.12:1)
Again, we come back to Peace to my mind. The word peace is essential. We have never given our mind to peace because we have never dropped all the thoughts. The flowering of A Course in Miracles is peace. We are attempting, in these sessions, to bring you to that peace. They have no other function but that. And if things of the world and of thought - which are of your own making - are still important to you, then know that you love your insanity and not your holiness and peace.
Once having seen this, what would you call change? "I want to change my life"? "I want to change my values"? Every ideal we hold merely promotes a change from what we are to what we should be. We think we have to "become," to "do" in order to make a change. And we have used time to do so. I said, the doing is what continues to prevent us from changing.
So the question still remains: "What is change?" Or, "How do I change?" Change comes when we end deception and insanity. Then we are changed. We are changed because neither time nor thought can affect us. We are with the peace of God. And therefore, we drop all our thoughts.
Let all my thoughts be still.
We no longer use thought to become something else. Change that comes from thought is no change at all. "I am a carpenter. I want to be a mechanic." There is no change; self-centeredness is still there. That deception has been seen. When we no longer deceive ourselves by using thought to "become," then there is no thought by which we are regulated.
Change takes place, not by "becoming," but by ending insanity. This is very revolutionary. By not supporting illusions, we end insanity. That is the only thing we can do. Everything else is an illusion that we pursue. Instead of "pursuing" the undoing, Let all my thoughts be still. There is nothing else for us to do but to undo that which is of time, that which is of thought. Once that is done, a change has taken place. Change occurs in the undoing and that is the only change.
Student: "I am happy that things are made clear and that I can be responsible. My responsibility is not to accept lack and unfulfillment as real. And if I do, knowing that it is insane, I'll undo it."
There is great joy in that. It is not going towards anything. It is stillness that brings about the change. And therefore, your life is no longer a struggle. Who knows what would be born of that stillness! That state could say:
God is my life. I have no life but HIs. I was mistaken when I thought I lived apart from God, a separate entity that moved in isolation, unattached, and housed within a body. Now I know my life is God's, I have no other home, and I do not exist apart from Him. He has no Thoughts that are not part of me, and I have none but those which are of Him.
From: Dialogues - A Course in Miracles, by Tara Singh, Life Action Press, Los Angeles, 1987, p 122-123
Thanks for invitation and good luck with undertaking.
ReplyDeleteACIM friend
"One might ask how it is that we can agree upon what we perceive in the world at large. If I am projecting the world I see, why is it that this world seems to be the same as that seen by others? The answer to this question is that first, we all do not see the same world in the sense that we all do not share the same interpretation of what is perceived. One person may think George is a nice guy and another may hate him. However, the fact that we can agree that there's a George out there comes from the fact that we share one mind, and it is that mind which has projected the world at large, making consensual validation possible. But because the mind seems to be fragmented, we seem to have private worlds with private meanings projected from an individual mind. For this reason, Jesus meets us where we believe we are in our dream of separation. It is practical to think in terms of our individual projections, because that is where we must start with the process of forgiveness. This amounts to starting at the bottom of the ladder separation led us down. As we proceed back up the ladder, undoing one projection of guilt at a time, eventually it becomes apparent that what we are perceiving is a huge drama in which we are actors playing out a script mutually written and mutually agreed upon wherein we could have the illusion that we are special individual persons, separate from one another. It has been pointed out already that our individual lives and special relationsips represent a few of the myriad permutations and combinations of the thought of separation - subplots of the massive script of specialness that was spun out and corrected only to disappear before it began: "Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures come and go as if by magic ...The script is written... we but see the journey from the point at which it ended, looking back on it, imagining we make it once again; reviewing mentally what has gone by" (W-pI.158.4:1,3,5)."
ReplyDeleteFrom: p 132, A Primer of Psychology according to A Course in Miracles, by Joe R Jesseph, PhD, Outskirts Press, Inc. Denver, 2008.
"The movement of descent and discovery begins at the moment you consciously become dissatisfied with life. Contrary to most professional opinion, this gnawing dissatisfaction with life is not a sign of "mental illness," nor an indication of poor social adjustment, nor a character disorder. For concealed within this basic unhappiness with life and existence is the embryo of a growing intelligence, a special intelligence usally buried under the immense weight of social shams. A person who is beginning to sense the suffering of life is, at the same time, beginning to awaken to deeper realities, truer realities. For suffering smashes to pieces the complacency of our normal fictions about reality, and forces us to become alive in a special sense - to see crefully, to feel deeply, to touch ourselves and our worlds in ways we have heretofore avoided. It has been said, and truly I think, that suffering is the first grace. In a special sense, suffering is almost a time of rejoicing, for it marks the birth of creative insight.
ReplyDeleteBut only in a special sense. Some people cling to their suffering as a mother to its child, carrying it as a burden they dare not set down. They do not face suffering with awareness, but rather clutch at their suffering, secretly transfixed with the spasms of martyrdom. Suffering should neither be denied awareness, avoided, despised, nor glorified, clung to, dramatized. The emergence of suffering is not so much good as it is a good sign, an indication that one is starting to realize that life lived outside unity consciousness is ultimately painful, distressing, and sorrowful. The life of boundaries is a life of battles - of fear, anxiety, pain and finally death. It is only through all manner of numbing compensations, distractions and enchantments that we agree not to question our illusory boundaries, the root cause of the endless wheel of agony. But sooner or later, if we are not rendered totally insentitive, our defensive compensations begin to fail their soothing and concealing purpose. As a consequence, we begin to suffer in one way or another, because our awareness is finally directed toward the conflict-ridden nature of our false boundaries and the fragmented life supported by them.
Suffering, then, is the initial movement of the recognition of false boundaries. Correctly understood, it is therefore liberating, for it points beyond boundaries altogether. We suffer, then, not because we are sick, but because intelligent insight is emerging. The correct understanding of suffering, however, is necessary in order that the birth of insight is not aborted. We must correctly interpret suffering in order to enter into it, live it, and finally live beyond it. If we do not correctly understand suffering, we simply get stuck in the middele of it - we wallow in it, not knowing what else to do."
p 73-74 The Simple Feeling of Being, by Ken Wilber, Shambhala, Boston, 2004.
"..... and help us to accept our true relationship with You" (ACIM T16.VII.12:1)
ReplyDeleteAgain, we come back to Peace to my mind. The word peace is essential. We have never given our mind to peace because we have never dropped all the thoughts. The flowering of A Course in Miracles is peace. We are attempting, in these sessions, to bring you to that peace. They have no other function but that. And if things of the world and of thought - which are of your own making - are still important to you, then know that you love your insanity and not your holiness and peace.
Once having seen this, what would you call change? "I want to change my life"? "I want to change my values"? Every ideal we hold merely promotes a change from what we are to what we should be. We think we have to "become," to "do" in order to make a change. And we have used time to do so. I said, the doing is what continues to prevent us from changing.
So the question still remains: "What is change?" Or, "How do I change?" Change comes when we end deception and insanity. Then we are changed. We are changed because neither time nor thought can affect us. We are with the peace of God. And therefore, we drop all our thoughts.
Let all my thoughts be still.
We no longer use thought to become something else. Change that comes from thought is no change at all. "I am a carpenter. I want to be a mechanic." There is no change; self-centeredness is still there. That deception has been seen. When we no longer deceive ourselves by using thought to "become," then there is no thought by which we are regulated.
Change takes place, not by "becoming," but by ending insanity. This is very revolutionary. By not supporting illusions, we end insanity. That is the only thing we can do. Everything else is an illusion that we pursue. Instead of "pursuing" the undoing, Let all my thoughts be still. There is nothing else for us to do but to undo that which is of time, that which is of thought. Once that is done, a change has taken place. Change occurs in the undoing and that is the only change.
Student: "I am happy that things are made clear and that I can be responsible. My responsibility is not to accept lack and unfulfillment as real. And if I do, knowing that it is insane, I'll undo it."
There is great joy in that. It is not going towards anything. It is stillness that brings about the change. And therefore, your life is no longer a struggle. Who knows what would be born of that stillness! That state could say:
God is my life. I have no life but HIs. I was mistaken when I thought I lived apart from God, a separate entity that moved in isolation, unattached, and housed within a body. Now I know my life is God's, I have no other home, and I do not exist apart from Him. He has no Thoughts that are not part of me, and I have none but those which are of Him.
From: Dialogues - A Course in Miracles, by Tara Singh, Life Action Press, Los Angeles, 1987, p 122-123