Ask: What comfort is there in the Course?
People are probably aghast at the idea of two Danish teenaged girls being held hostages by Somalian pirates. What is going to happen to this family? What would Jesus do if he were the father, unable to keep his daughters from being ravished in front of his eyes?... Does ACIM's teachings have anything that would be of comfort to the father of this Danish hostage family?
Also, the quake in Japan where hundreds died -- if a student of ACIM were in that situation where all the familiar landmarks around him where being swept away how would he cope with it? And how do we onlookers safe... miles away look upon this tragedy? Surely, with pity, but what comfort is there in ACIM's assurance that all this is illusory and we are all safe (even the ones who drowned) in God's bosom? – DH
I cannot answer for what Jesus would do in any situation, but as a student and teacher of A Course in Miracles, I can answer both of these questions from my own experience.
Until you experience God as Reality, the words in the Course are nice, but not truly comforting. You have to go beyond merely trying to intellectually grasp what the Course says to sincerely inviting God into your awareness, and practicing what the Course suggests in your daily life, for it to bring you comfort. This is what the Workbook is for.
After you have completed the year of lessons in the Workbook, if you want peace, you must still apply the daily practice to which it introduces you: Formally communing with God daily, turning within to God several times a day, calling on the Holy Spirit for guidance, and extending Love in your awareness to remember that you are Love. If you make these habits the focus of your life, then, in time, God will become a real experience for you, not just a nice idea that you’ve read in a book. You will then be able to turn away from the universe of form and inward to God and remember that only God is Real. This awareness does lead you to see that the universe of form is an illusion, so it does comfort.
Unless the father of those hostages or a person in the midst of the destruction caused by the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan has had an experience of God on which to call, it is unlikely that they will find real comfort in anything. The only reality that they will think that they know is the one appearing before the body’s eyes. Certainly, you cannot tell someone who thinks that they are in the midst of horror that the horror is not real, unless they know God within themselves. Then, you can remind them to turn within and bring their mind back into the present with God as much as possible, to allow things in the world to unfold in the recognition that it is not their reality, and to trust that if they need to take action, they will know what to do when the time comes.
Whether you seem to be personally in the midst of a crisis or are merely affected by observing one, it is the same: Your peace is disturbed; you are in conflict. So, if you want inner peace, the response is the same in either case: Turn inward and invite Truth (God) into your awareness so that you can know that only the Truth is True.
>>>>>
Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.
You can get answers by topic at www.acimmentor.com/answersbytopic.html.
If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog, email it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.
Also, the quake in Japan where hundreds died -- if a student of ACIM were in that situation where all the familiar landmarks around him where being swept away how would he cope with it? And how do we onlookers safe... miles away look upon this tragedy? Surely, with pity, but what comfort is there in ACIM's assurance that all this is illusory and we are all safe (even the ones who drowned) in God's bosom? – DH
I cannot answer for what Jesus would do in any situation, but as a student and teacher of A Course in Miracles, I can answer both of these questions from my own experience.
Until you experience God as Reality, the words in the Course are nice, but not truly comforting. You have to go beyond merely trying to intellectually grasp what the Course says to sincerely inviting God into your awareness, and practicing what the Course suggests in your daily life, for it to bring you comfort. This is what the Workbook is for.
After you have completed the year of lessons in the Workbook, if you want peace, you must still apply the daily practice to which it introduces you: Formally communing with God daily, turning within to God several times a day, calling on the Holy Spirit for guidance, and extending Love in your awareness to remember that you are Love. If you make these habits the focus of your life, then, in time, God will become a real experience for you, not just a nice idea that you’ve read in a book. You will then be able to turn away from the universe of form and inward to God and remember that only God is Real. This awareness does lead you to see that the universe of form is an illusion, so it does comfort.
Unless the father of those hostages or a person in the midst of the destruction caused by the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan has had an experience of God on which to call, it is unlikely that they will find real comfort in anything. The only reality that they will think that they know is the one appearing before the body’s eyes. Certainly, you cannot tell someone who thinks that they are in the midst of horror that the horror is not real, unless they know God within themselves. Then, you can remind them to turn within and bring their mind back into the present with God as much as possible, to allow things in the world to unfold in the recognition that it is not their reality, and to trust that if they need to take action, they will know what to do when the time comes.
Whether you seem to be personally in the midst of a crisis or are merely affected by observing one, it is the same: Your peace is disturbed; you are in conflict. So, if you want inner peace, the response is the same in either case: Turn inward and invite Truth (God) into your awareness so that you can know that only the Truth is True.
>>>>>
Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.
You can get answers by topic at www.acimmentor.com/answersbytopic.html.
If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog, email it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.
Comments
I, too, love your response. One other thought that comes to me is that when bad things happen to people, we can hold them in compassion, knowing they will transcend. And by turning to God ourselves and knowing the truth of who we are, we can extend this knowledge to our brothers and thereby change the world.
Jo
AMR