ACIM Mentor

Everyone makes an ego or a self for himself, which is subject to enormous variation because of its instability. He also makes an ego for everyone else he perceives, which is equally variable. (T-4.II.2) When you accept the above quote it makes forgiveness easier because you realize that what you are seeing in another is merely an idea in your own mind. This is why it is always your own illusions you have to forgive. We talk about different egos but really there is just the one idea of ego, or a self separate from God. This idea takes many forms to confuse us and hide from us the fact that it is just an idea. We pick among egos, liking some and disliking others, as though one illusion of separation is better than another. They are all illusions so they are all the same. The details are not important. It is easy to release judgment when you recognize there is nothing from which to choose. And without judgment as a veil across your mind you can easily let go of what you are seeing and ch...

Separating Truth from illusion is how spiritual awakening is accomplished. Unless you experience Truth, or your Oneness with God, you cannot really understand the Course when it tells you that the world and bodies/egos are illusion. They are all you think you know. The experience of Oneness with others or directly with God shows you how radically different is God from what you think is real. So how do you invite these experiences? By retraining your mind with conscious and consistent effort. Here is what you need to do: See Christ in others even when you do not really yet see Christ in them. You can do this by deliberately seeing light around them or in them to represent the idea of Christ to you. You consciously decide to focus on this instead of what is appearing. Then one day instead of seeing what you put there you will see Christ. I cannot describe this to you, but you will know it when you see it. In fact, it will be more familiar to you than what you are used to experiencing. W...

The Course tells us that you always attack yourself before you attack others. That is because you attack others to fill a perceived lack in yourself: A lack of love, fulfillment, safety, peace. So the first attack is the perception of yourself lacking and the attack on another simply perpetuates your sense of lack and guilt. You will keep attacking until you realize that attacking is not making you feel whole and safe. How do you stop attacking? Realize that others cannot supply what you perceive yourself as lacking. Only God can supply what you need because all needs arose from a perception of separation from God. Commune with God and let God fill you up with love and peace and safety and wholeness. When others attack you, you can understand that they are feeling a lack and are really attacking themselves. They are coming from fear. Their attack on you has nothing to do with you but with their perception that you can give them what they are missing. Of course you cannot, but you can ...

Most of my students first heard of A Course in Miracles through popular books they read where it was mentioned. Most of them are pretty shocked when they read the Course and find out how different the Course is from the books that led them to it. If you’ve been to my website or read through my past blogs you may have seen a topic called “Three Types of Course Students”. In there I discuss what I call “practical students”. These students take from the Course what they think they can use to dream a better dream and disregard the rest. Mostly, they take what they learn about projection and relationships. Many popular writers who reference the Course fall into this category. Of course there are other writers who write directly about the Course , but they are not likely to be so popular at this time. Most people are not looking to wake up, but rather to dream a less painful dream. They have not yet realized that the source of their pain is that they are dreaming and that the only way ...

When I was first a student of the Course I made the mistake of thinking I had to convince my ego to accept what the Course said and to accept my experiences of Oneness. I felt a deep sense of recognition when I read the Course , much like the experience of Oneness I would soon experience with another in the holy relationship. But I was also deeply identified with my ego and it resisted what I read and what I experienced. It told me what I read didn’t make sense, that it contradicted “reality” and that my experiences were insane even though they were more familiar and real to me than this world. I couldn’t see how I could ever wholly accept what I was experiencing because the ego would never let me. And I was right. After more than twenty years my ego still says the same thing. Particularly when I have a profound experience that shifts me out of the world and shows me what is real, my ego follows up with a vicious attack. It knows that, even if it was only for an instant, I went somep...

In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply, is "What do I want to come of this? What is it for ?" The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning, for it is this which will determine the outcome. (T.17.VI.2) You are always teaching yourself what you believe you are. You can only teach yourself you are ego or God. So in any situation the question becomes, what do you want to learn? When you enter into an encounter that you anticipate will be uncomfortable, step back and set the goal. It’s always easier if this is done before or at the very beginning of the encounter. Ask yourself what you want to learn – that you are ego, separate from God; or that you are Part of God? If you decide you want to learn you are Part of God, let go. Now the Holy Spirit can be your Teacher. Realize that you do not know what the relationship is about and what this particular encounter is about. Keep your mind open. You will be amazed at the results...

The other day I was in a home where someone had left their church’s magazine open on a table. The magazine was open to an article that said you could always trust in God. The blurb about the article stated that if you lived a worthy life you would be given guidance by the Holy Spirit. (I didn’t read the article so I don’t know what a “worthy life” looks like to them). How different is this idea from what we learn in the Course! The Course tells us that anyone, anywhere at any time can be guided by the Holy Spirit if they are only willing to hear and follow. It does not matter who you are or who you have been. Your worth is established as Part of God and the Holy Spirit is your True Voice. The idea that you have to do something to become worthy of God reinforces the idea that the separation from God is real and that your guilt for taking power from God is justified. Whenever you find yourself feeling that you are unworthy ask yourself if it is really possible that you are more powerful...

A student of the Course posted to my blog asking me where he could find my blog of 6/21. When someone posts to my blog all I get in my email is the content of their post. I don’t know to which particular blog they posted unless I click on a link that comes with their comments. I rarely bother to do this because most comments are generic or about the poster’s own experience. In this case, I assumed he had been reading through the archive of my blogs in June and looked in my own files where I found I did not have a blog for 6/21 and emailed this to him. But something (guess Who?) made me click on the link before I deleted his email. I found that he had actually been referring to my blog of 10/28 and that in it I had incorrectly referenced a previous blog as 6/21 instead of 10/21. What was ironic was that the blog in which I had made the mistake was the one called “Your Mistakes Are Corrected For You”, in which I explain how the Holy Spirit always finds a way to correct your mistakes! I ...

All real pleasure comes from doing God's Will. (T-1.VII.1) When I talk about giving from abundance and not from sacrifice or about giving to increase the value of an idea in your mind not “giving to get” students sometimes ask, “But don’t you feel good anyway? And doesn’t other people’s gratitude feel good, too?” Actually, no. When I am connected to the Holy Spirit the pleasure comes from the connection itself. I feel whole and good and at peace regardless of whether this results in action taken in the world. Whether I am guided to do something for someone else or not is not important. How an ego responds to my action (or lack of action) is totally irrelevant. Do not deceive yourself into believing that you can relate in peace to God or to your brothers with anything external. (T-1.VII.1) Our journey is inward. There came a time on my path when I thought the Holy Spirit was teaching me how to “be there” for others. But what I really learned was how not to be there, how to step a...