ACIM Mentor

The Course offers us a resolution to make for the New Year: This is the time in which a new year will soon be born from the time of Christ. I have perfect faith in you to do all that you would accomplish. Nothing will be lacking, and you will make complete and not destroy. Say, then, to your brother: I give you to the Holy Spirit as part of myself. I know that you will be released, unless I want to use you to imprison myself. In the name of my freedom I choose your release, because I recognize that we will be released together. So will the year begin in joy and freedom. There is much to do, and we have been long delayed. Accept the holy instant as this year is born, and take your place, so long left unfulfilled, in the Great Awakening. Make this year different by making it all the same. And let all your relationships be made holy for you. This is our will. Amen. (T-15.XI.10) www.acimmentor.com Look for my booklet, Understanding A Course in Miracles: A Quick Reference for Students on ...

Prepare you now for the undoing of what never was. If you already understood the difference between truth and illusion, the Atonement would have no meaning. The holy instant, the holy relationship, the Holy Spirit's teaching, and all the means by which salvation is accomplished, would have no purpose. For they are all but aspects of the plan to change your dreams of fear to happy dreams, from which you waken easily to knowledge. Put yourself not in charge of this, for you cannot distinguish between advance and retreat. (T-18.V.1) The Course tells us that a happy dream precedes awakening. It is a dream of Oneness that reflects the peace and joy of Heaven. It is necessary because it would be too shocking to go from the dream of separation and fragmentation back to the Oneness of God. It is the means of gentle awakening. The dream of separation becomes a happy dream when you recognize you are dreaming. You recognize the world and the ego aren’t real and therefore they become a trans...

The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come. He comes demanding nothing. No sacrifice of any kind, of anyone, is asked by Him. In His Presence the whole idea of sacrifice loses all meaning. For He is Host to God. And you need but invite Him in Who is there already, by recognizing that His Host is One, and no thought alien to His Oneness can abide with Him there. (T-15.XI.2) Let no despair darken the joy of Christmas, for the time of Christ is meaningless apart from joy. Let us join in celebrating peace by demanding no sacrifice of anyone, for so you offer me the love I offer you. What can be more joyous than to perceive we are deprived of nothing? Such is the message of the time of Christ, which I give you that you may give it and return it to the Father, Who gave it to me. For in the time of Christ communication is restored, and He joins us in the celebration...

If you point out the errors of your brother's ego you must be seeing through yours, because the Holy Spirit does not perceive his errors. This must be true, since there is no communication between the ego and the Holy Spirit. (T-9.III.3) When we are first students of the Course many, if not all of us, want to “spread the word”. There are two motivations for this. One is seeing that others are in pain and wanting to offer them relief. The other is not wanting to accept that we are responsible for our own perceptions. The first error is one of looking out from ego and not seeing others as they really are; the second error is obviously responsible for the first. It is uncomfortable to accept we are responsible for our perceptions when we have invested so much in being a victim of a cruel world. Once I read where a woman suggested taking the Course door-to-door. She apparently did not accept what the Course tells us is our only responsibility: To accept our Oneness with God for o...

…healing rests on charity, and charity is a way of perceiving the perfection of another even if you cannot perceive it in yourself. (T-2.V.9) Charity is a way of looking at another as if he had already gone far beyond his actual accomplishments in time. Since his own thinking is faulty he cannot see the Atonement for himself, or he would have no need of charity. The charity that is accorded him is both an acknowledgment that he needs help, and a recognition that he will accept it. (T-2.V.10) In the world, charity is usually a material gift given by one perceived to have more to one perceived to have less. The Course teaches us that charity is seeing Christ in another even when we cannot yet see Christ in ourselves or the other cannot yet see Christ in their self. Charity strengthens the awareness of Christ in both minds. Charity gives to both the giver and the receiver. During this holiday season students want to know if they are supposed to give money or do charity work. There is n...

I used to feel guilty setting boundaries. Boundaries are the lines we put around ourselves for our own comfort. When others do not respect these boundaries, we boot them from our lives. For example, “You must treat me with respect to be in my life”; “You are an adult and you must act like one to be in my life”; “I’ve asked you to stay out of my business and if you can’t you must get out of my life”; “You must take responsibility for your own actions or you cannot be in my life”, “You must follow the company’s rules or be fired”, etc. When I was growing up, what I learned from my mother (what I was teaching myself) was how to be an emotional rescuer. When I embarked on a spiritual path my lack of boundaries became even worse. For some reason I equated being spiritual with being a doormat. Naturally I attracted other adults who were looking to be rescued. I found their neediness to be such a drag on my energy that I didn’t care to be around most people. I was angry and irritated much of ...

I’ve written about not needing to sacrifice before (09/27/2006 and 10/17/2006) but it is such a common obstacle that I encounter with students I must write about it again. Many students – and I was certainly one of them – make the mistake at the beginning of their path of deciding to put up with an uncomfortable, unhappy or downright painful situation because they think they’re supposed to use it to learn forgiveness. They become martyrs and practice one of the ego’s versions of forgiveness -- what the Course calls forgiveness-to-destroy because it reinforces the illusion that you are separate from God rather than lets it go. Martyrdom can take a couple of forms. One is “I don’t like this situation but I’m supposed to use this as an opportunity to learn forgiveness.” Another is, “I really want this but I shouldn’t want anything in the world because it’s all an illusion. So I’m going to try to not want it.” Sacrifice is the ego’s highest value because it was made from the sacrifice of y...

Some students fear detachment because they fear they will be perceived as cold and unfeeling and will lose the people in their lives. They fear they will be lonely. When I talk about detachment I am talking about detaching from the ego and its perceptions. This shows up as detaching from the ego in others as well. This does not happen until you feel a conscious, ongoing connection to God. You don’t feel alone. The Holy Spirit is your constant Companion and loneliness is not possible. You are filled up, you are whole. You naturally detach because you don’t need anything from other egos. Your relationships are no longer based on “need”. You have only to give. Believe me, the people around you will not find this cold and unfeeling! What will happen is you will no longer be interested in the drama of others and the world. You won’t be annoyed, frustrated or impatient with it – those are ego responses – you will be indifferent to it. You will be at peace within and untouched by the chaos sw...

"The plan is not of you, nor need you be concerned with anything except the part that has been given you to learn. For He Who knows the rest will see to it without your help. But think not that He does not need your part to help Him with the rest. For in your part lies all of it, without which is no part complete, nor is the whole completed without your part." (T-20.IV.6) "Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter. For your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God." (W-169.11) Some students want to know what will happen to them if they are not fully awakened, or have attained enlightenment, by the time they leave the world. Will they have failed? Will they still go to Heaven? Heaven is an awareness of Oneness. You accepted Heaven w...