ACIM Mentor

In my blog on 10/21 I wrote about how often students become paralyzed when they first turn their life over to their Holy Spirit because they are uncertain which way to go. Related to this paralysis of indecision is the fear of making a mistake. First, you have to understand that making a mistake is not a sin. It calls for correction, not punishment. So any fear you have here is unjustified. Second, if you have turned your life over to your Holy Spirit, then you have the Correction with you at all times. Remember, there is only one mistake: The perception that you have separated yourself from God. If you are connecting with your Holy Spirit, Who speaks for God, then your one mistake is corrected. And this is manifested in the correction of any other mistake you may seem to make in the world. Remember the story I told you on 10/21 about the couple who were planning to move but bumped up against too many obstacles. Their plan to move was out of accord with where the Holy Spirit needs them...

When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself. (T-8.III.4) The Holy Spirit teaches you that if you look only at yourself you cannot find yourself, because that is not what you are. Whenever you are with a brother, you are learning what you are because you are teaching what you are. (T-8.III.5) When I was first a student of the Course I was very resistant to the idea of seeing Christ in others. First of all, I didn’t think that most people were Christ-like at all. I misunderstood and thought I was supposed to see Christ in their egos, or individual identities, instead of seeing Christ instead of their egos. Second of all, I thought that the point of seeing Christ in others was to be “good” and I knew many attempts to be “good” only lead to hypocrisy. Any image-related concern (li...

Many students become paralyzed once they decide to turn their life over to their Holy Spirit. They think they have to ask for guidance for every little decision as well as for all the larger decisions. If you have truly turned over your life to your Holy Spirit then you can be sure that guidance is there. If you are uncertain which way your Holy Spirit wants you to go, go in the direction you want to go. Your Holy Spirit will guide you from there, either through your intuition, directly through thought or words, or indirectly through means “outside” of you. For example, I know a couple who were planning on moving their home and business to another state. They put their home up for sale and were putting their plans into action. “You know when you have so many obstacles you finally get the idea this is not the way you are supposed to go?” the woman asked me when I found out they had decided to stay in town. Of course, if this was the way they were supposed to go the obstacles would hav...

Students ask me what is the point to life and the world if you no longer seek in the world for happiness, fulfillment and peace. They envision emptiness because they have not yet experienced Wholeness. When you accept the experience of happiness, fulfillment and peace within yourself then the world becomes a place in which giving becomes natural. And that becomes the point of your life and the world. This is not the kind of giving that the world is used to. This is not the kind of giving where you lose what you give. Love and peace are ideas and ideas are strengthened in your awareness as you give them to others. In this way, giving and receiving are the same. Because there is no sense of loss there is no sense of sacrifice. True giving does not come from a desire to be “good” or to be praised by others. That’s “giving to get”. And any sense of sacrifice results in resentment in the giver. If you are coming from either of these places when you give your time, attention and energy to ot...

The third stage through which the teacher of God must go can be called "a period of relinquishment." If this is interpreted as giving up the desirable, it will engender enormous conflict. Few teachers of God escape this distress entirely. There is, however, no point in sorting out the valuable from the valueless unless the next obvious step is taken. Therefore, the period of overlap is apt to be one in which the teacher of God feels called upon to sacrifice his own best interests on behalf of truth. He has not realized as yet how wholly impossible such a demand would be. He can learn this only as he actually does give up the valueless. Through this, he learns that where he anticipated grief, he finds a happy lightheartedness instead; where he thought something was asked of him, he finds a gift bestowed on him. (M-4.I.A.5) Students share with me that they find themselves hurt or angry or depressed as they study the Course and their old belief system falls away. I tell them t...

Then learn that God has given you the means by which you can return to Him in peace. Do not see error. Do not make it real. Select the loving and forgive the sin by choosing in its place the face of Christ. (S-2.I.3) Whenever I write something about morality students become full of questions. My last blog was about conscience being another word for ego. “Does that mean I can do anything, even if it hurts others?” students have asked. Nothing you do in this world changes God. You cannot change the Truth in you, you cannot change God’s Eternal, Perfect Love for you. So the question really is, why would you do something that hurts others? You would do it because you feel separated from God and you think that by attacking another you would somehow bring yourself relief from your feelings of lack, fear, emptiness and unhappiness. And, of course, you would actually end up perpetuating them. What is the role of conscience here? Does it heal your sense of lack and unhappiness? Does it elimi...

Some believe that the Holy Spirit guides us through our conscience. Your conscience is your internal sense of right and wrong, leading you to feel either that you are good or guilty. The Holy Spirit will never teach you that you are guilty. That is in direct opposition to what the Holy Spirit wants you to learn. This alone should tell you the Holy Spirit cannot be the source of your conscience. Your conscience is based on judgment. What does the Course tell us about judgment? The world trains for reliance on one's judgment as the criterion for maturity and strength. Our curriculum trains for the relinquishment of judgment as the necessary condition of salvation. (M-9.2) In God, Everything is One and the Same and you are Part of God, forever sinless. That is the only judgment to make. Ego’s judgments of “good” or “bad” are meant to keep you focused on the illusion of bodies and egos and the world. Judgment focuses on differences, which are never real, and to keep you apart from ot...

Doubt is the result of conflicting wishes. Be sure of what you want, and doubt becomes impossible. (M-7.6) It seems silly, doesn’t it, to turn everything over to the Holy Spirit and then worry about the future. Who, after all, knows better what I need to reach my goal of awakening? Not just spiritually, but in the world as well. The world is the classroom where I learn and teach, so of course what I need in the world will show up. I have come to realize that my degree of trust in the Holy Spirit is in direct proportion to my commitment to my goal. What seem to be my doubts about the Holy Spirit really reflect my uncertainty about the value of the goal I seek. The Course emphasizes that means and end are one and the same. This is most obvious on a spiritual path. The Holy Spirit is the means, God is the end, and they are One and the Same. When I’m not sure I want God, I’m not sure I want to listen to the Holy Spirit. And so it seems my trust wavers, when it is really my commitment that...

But learn and do not let your mind forget this law of seeing: You will look upon that which you feel within. If hatred finds a place within your heart, you will perceive a fearful world, held cruelly in death's sharp-pointed, bony fingers. If you feel the Love of God within you, you will look out on a world of mercy and of love. (W-189.5) No one really sees anything. He sees only his thoughts projected outward . (W-8.1) There’s a curious thing I’ve noticed about projecting ego and extending God. When I project ego it does seem as though what I am seeing is only “out there” and not related to me. Yet when I am centered in God and seeing peace I am clearly aware that I am seeing what I am first feeling. The Course uses the word “project” to refer to ego and “extend” to refer to God – even though they refer to the same “law of seeing” – precisely because of the experience I just shared. When you “project” something you throw it away from you (think “projectile”). In the case of ego,...