ACIM Mentor

The other day I was reading a passage in the Course about living in the present and recalled how for many years it was hard for me to read many of the ideas in the Course . I thought it was impossible to accept them and to live by them. It seemed hard, hard, hard. Now my life gets easier and simpler every day. My “work” is communing with God. I have no problems because I always have the Solution with me. I have a Guide Who leads me through the day. I don’t have to worry about anything because I make no decisions by myself. So what changed? Over the years I let go of more and more. I let go of values I thought were important; the need to have things my way; the need to be right; “laws” that were supposed to rule the way the world works; people and money and my business and my “life”. I opened my mind. I cultivated a relationship with the Holy Spirit, Who is now my constant Companion. I put my relationship to God front and center in my life. Each time I let go and let the Holy Spirit in...

God's teachers appear to be many, for that is what is the world's need. Yet being joined in one purpose, and one they share with God, how could they be separate from each other? What does it matter if they then appear in many forms? Their minds are one; their joining is complete. And God works through them now as one, for that is what they are. (M-12.2) Everyone has a role to fill in the Great Awakening. The Course is a specific path for those who are to consciously be teachers of God. Our purpose is the same, but what our role looks like is different for each of us. Some students fear they have to become teachers or mentors or write books or go on speaking tours. Not at all. Generally, the Holy Spirit uses what already comes naturally to you or what interests you. Sometimes you may be given special gifts or be guided to develop in certain ways. In any case, you probably already sense what your role is. It might even be unfolding in your life right now. Whatever it is, it is ...

Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within. (T-18.VI.1) The other day I was speaking with a relative and she mentioned that she believed that as long as you lived a good life and were a good person you would get into Heaven. She didn’t ask me if I agreed and I didn’t say anything about my experiences of Oneness. In fact, I didn’t think about any of this until I recalled the conversation later. What would she have thought, I wondered, if I had told her that Heaven can be experienced here and now? What if I had said that it doesn’t matter who you are or how you live your life, that Heaven isn’t a reward from God but a choice that you make? Heaven is here. There is nowhere else. Heaven is now. There is no other time. No teaching that does not lead to this is of concern to God's teachers. (M-24.6) When I led a study group the idea that you don’...

Over the years when I sat down to meditate I found myself mind doing one of three things: Processing, contemplating or communing. It took me a while to sort them out. Each of them plays an important part in spiritual development. It is important to make time for each of these. You may find you have no need for the first two on a daily basis, but the third one you should definitely do each day. Processing : Processing is where you just can’t stop thinking about something. It is necessary when you have been particularly busy, when you have had a shock or are under stress, or even after watching a movie or reading a book. Processing is a way of clearing your mind. This is probably more necessary at the end of the day than at the beginning, though you may need to process a dream in the morning. It is almost impossible to stop a mind that needs to process. The best thing to do is to let it happen. Let the thoughts come up and then go by. Eventually your mind winds down to the point where yo...

The Holy Spirit always answers us, but not always in the way that we expect. Miracles happen to us all the time and we often do not see them until we have had some distance from them. A student of mine, who I will call T, has given me permission to share a miracle that happened for her. It is a typical, everyday miracle – if this can be said about miracles -- and I want to share it because of this. T had a man in her life – who I will call Q -- who treated her poorly over several years. For reasons even she could not fathom she continued to be drawn to him. He was once again back in her life and she decided this time to practice what the Course teaches and try to see Christ in him. She would report to me that nothing was changing. Then one day she went to his home and found that he had gone away – for four months! He had not said a word to her yet apparently several other people knew he was leaving. And the friend of Q’s who told her Q was gone was surprised when he met T – she was no...

The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. (T-2.V.5) The above statement lays out your purpose in the world. Yet how do you go about “accepting the Atonement”? Atonement in the Course means correction of the perception that you are separate from God. This perception is manifested in your identification with the ego. You correct this perception by identifying with God in your mind – Christ/Holy Spirit. You do this by learning to hear and follow the Holy Spirit and so learn that the Holy Spirit is you. The more you do this the quicker you learn the ego is the foreigner in your mind and is not you. You accept the atonement by learning to transform each experience of seeming separation into one of healing your sense of separation from God. For example, you consciously remember that since everything you see is in your mind, and God is in your mind, then God is in everything you see. You accept the Atonement by choosing to see Christ instead of a ...

Some students ask me about different interpretations of the Course . Sometimes what they see as differing interpretations are really differences in emphasis – each teacher, writer, speaker emphasizes what is important to them in the Course . They may focus only on parts of the Course , but they can still be consistent with the Course’s whole message. We all teach what we want to learn. Being so simple and direct, this course has nothing in it that is not consistent. (T-20.VII.1) The Course has only one message: Only God is real and you are Part of God. It gives you tools to remember this: The Holy Spirit’s guidance, the holy instant, the holy encounter and the holy relationship (these are all miracles). It teaches you how your mind works so that you can use these tools. That is all there is to it. There are no parables or metaphors or symbols to interpret. The meaning of the Course is in its central message and every part fits consistently into this message. The Course is what it t...

In the world money is the oil that lubricates the wheel of life. The wheel stutters and strains without enough of it and so the pursuit of enough -- or more than enough -- money to keep the wheel turning smoothly becomes a chief object of life for those for whom the world is real. Money is one of ego's replacements for the Holy Spirit. All that we think money can bring – peace, security, happiness, empowerment -- can only come from remembering you are Part of God. If money could bring these things then wealthy people would be the most serene people -- and we all know this isn't so! The pursuit of money is the pursuit of an idol. Having enough money is never the real issue. Certainly you must believe that the Holy Spirit would supply all you need to fulfill your purpose in the world. If you don't trust this it is because you still want the world for something other than fulfilling your purpose here as a teacher of God. The real issue is you want money for your own goals apar...

One of the most common complaints I hear from students of the Course is some version of: “I can maintain my peace when I’m alone but as soon as I walk out into the world I lose it.” Why does this happen? When you are alone you can deceive yourself that that is all you are – this individual mind, this body/ego. But remember everything you perceive is a part of your mind. The world and others represent the rest of your mind that you deny when you are alone and so you cannot help but see what you really believe you are when you go out into the world. If you lose your peace it is because you really believe in separation from God rather than the Oneness of God. This is an attack on yourself and you project this outward so that it seems like the world is taking your peace away from you. You have split yourself into two illusions – the one that perceives itself as attacked and the person or thing or situation that is attacking you. There is nothing you could attack that is not part of you. An...