ACIM Mentor

When I posted my blogs about money ( Money and the Course, Part I ; Money and the Course, Part II ), one of the responses that surprised me most were those that conveyed surprise that the Holy Spirit would be so involved in my life as to make financial decisions for me. What do they think is meant by turning your life over to the Holy Spirit, I wondered, if you don’t turn over everything? The whole illusion of separation from God rests on the perception that your life is for you alone – meaning you without the God in you (the Holy Spirit) – you in ego. In order to be whole again you must correct this misperception by giving back your whole life – your whole mind – to the Holy Spirit in you. Any part you hold on to for you alone is the bit of separateness you want to keep. You cannot be wholly at peace until you wholly give up not-peace – ego-identity. He (the teacher of God) must learn to lay all judgment aside, and ask only what he really wants in every circumstance. (M-1.4.A.7) What...

There are several changes that students of A Course in Miracles go through and they sometimes wonder if it is natural. When you become a student of the Course , you are accepting a whole new purpose for your life. You are now on a path of becoming a teacher of God and your life is no longer driven by ego’s perceived needs. At first (the period of undoing) this is almost unconscious, but it causes shifts within you and in your life. Some of these changes occur because your values change and you simply don’t want or need what you were used to thinking you wanted or needed when your goal was separation from God. Some of these changes occur because the Holy Spirit requires them to fulfill Its role through you. Here are some changes that students report: A sense of isolation because you cannot share what you are studying and going through with those closest to you. Friends falling away because you are no longer interested in the same things. Cherished goals no longer seeming important or d...

The ego is the part of the mind that believes in division. How could part of God detach itself without believing it is attacking Him? We spoke before of the authority problem as based on the concept of usurping God's power. The ego believes that this is what you did because it believes that it is you. If you identify with the ego, you must perceive yourself as guilty. Whenever you respond to your ego you will experience guilt, and you will fear punishment. (T-5.V.3) Your identification with ego is your belief you have overcome God. This belief makes you feel guilty. As long as you identify with ego, you will feel guilt and fear punishment. Guilt will manifest in lack of peace and in your life as any form of physical or emotional disharmony (dis-ease). You may accept the relief of certain forms of disharmony, but you will continue to manifest disharmony in some way as long as you identify with ego. Real healing is your complete identification with the Holy Spirit. This is the only...

I’ve been asked to go a little deeper into the distinction between true forgiveness and what A Course in Miracles calls the ego’s version of forgiveness: Forgiveness-to-destroy. Students point out to me that many teachers of the Course still seem to teach the ego’s version of forgiveness. I have observed this also. True forgiveness is radically different from what the world thinks of as “forgiveness”. You have to let go of what you think it means – like so many words and concepts in the Course – and accept a new definition. True forgiveness is especially difficult to accept for the ego-identified because it undoes the ego. Resistance to the new meaning is strong in new students and even more experienced students fall back on the ego-appeasing practice of “forgiveness” until their identity begins to shift toward the Holy Spirit. However, true forgiveness is the foundation of the Course’s whole message and you must learn and then accept what it means if you want the Course to make a...

A student has asked me to write about how I let go of anger and resentment in relation to the holy relationship I experienced when I first became a student. She wants to know the process I went through to get over the anger and resentment I felt over E leaving my life and over my losing the special relationship as it was replaced by the holy relationship. The ego's plan is to have you see error clearly first, and then overlook it. Yet how can you overlook what you have made real? By seeing it clearly, you have made it real and cannot overlook it. (T-9.IV.4) When you focus on a grievance it is very real to you. Your looking at it at all indicates you think it is significant. If you try to pretend you do not think so just because a book tells you it is an illusion, you are practicing denial, not forgiveness. The only choice of “forgiveness” you are left with is the ego’s “forgiveness”, what A Course in Miracles calls “forgiveness-to-destroy”: Condescension (I’m better than you), ma...

A wise teacher teaches through approach, not avoidance. He does not emphasize what you must avoid to escape from harm, but what you need to learn to have joy. Consider the fear and confusion a child would experience if he were told, "Do not do this because it will hurt you and make you unsafe; but if you do that instead, you will escape from harm and be safe, and then you will not be afraid." It is surely better to use only three words: "Do only that!" This simple statement is perfectly clear, easily understood and very easily remembered. (T-6.V.3) Lately some students have asked for a simplification of what they must do to “accept the atonement” for themselves and to be at peace. A Course in Miracles teaches you certain habits in the Workbook, and emphasizes certain behaviors throughout, and I have distilled these into what I call the “Four Habits for Inner Peace”. These habits are what I developed for myself first by falling back on them during “trying” times, a...

We said before that the Holy Spirit must teach through comparisons, and uses opposites to point to truth. (T-16.VII.6) When the message of A Course in Miracles began to gel for me, when I began to see how every part fit into the whole, the Truth began to stand out for me in comparison to what the world taught or valued. This has continued to be the way I learn from the world. The way it happened is I would sense that what was being conveyed, either a value or a concept, didn’t quite line up with Truth. As I compared it with what I was learning through the Course and the Holy Spirit, Truth became clearer to me and the value or concept would fall away. I loved the clarity but I also found myself angry at the person who brought the experience to me. Initially I thought I must be projecting, that I must really believe or value what they were teaching and that I was angry because I didn’t want to see this. But this never seemed to quite fit. In time I learned that what made me angry was ...

There is a way of living in the world that is not here, although it seems to be. You do not change appearance, though you smile more frequently. Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet. And the ones who walk the world as you do recognize their own. Yet those who have not yet perceived the way will recognize you also, and believe that you are like them, as you were before. (W-155) Sometimes students say they wonder if there are any enlightened ones walking among us. Of course there are. But they don’t stand out. Their presence is peaceful but they look like you and me and their lives look like ordinary lives. They do not say, “Hey, look at me, I’m enlightened!” They do not brag about not having an ego. They do not seek to go on Larry King or Oprah. They are not looking for fame or recognition or fortune or the world’s versions of success. They do not start movements or go into politics. They are not interested in saving the world. They do not walk on water or go around healing the ...

Healing is accomplished the instant the sufferer no longer sees any value in pain. (M-5.I.1) Some students of A Course in Miracles who work in the healing professions, be they “traditional” or “alternative”, experience conflict as they get deeper into the Course and learn that all healing comes from the patient’s own mind and not from anything or anyone outside of them. They wonder what their purpose is and if they should go into another line of work. Often, they feel they are right where they are supposed to be and are uncertain how to view their role in healing. It is not the water at Lourdes, or the powers of the faith healer, or the medicine, herb or treatment that heals. A person decides they no longer want the illness and it is gone. But most people do no accept this. They need “agents” who seem to administer the healing. Your part, if you are in a healing profession, is to provide them a loving space in which to accept healing. Your part is to love the patient, even as you kn...