4HIP: Eternal Life instead of Life After Death

From the book 4 Habits for Inner Peace (available at www.lulu.com or www.amazon.com), Part IV, 3b:


Eternal Life instead of Life After Death
            Truth has no beginning and no ending. It is infinite. So questions about beginnings and endings always originate in not-Truth, are always about not-Truth, and are meant to reinforce the mistaken belief that not-Truth is True.
            The personal thought system often asks questions that are not really questions but are statements in the form of questions. This is most evident with the question, “What happens when I die?” This question is based on the faulty premise that that which is asking the question exists. So there is no way to answer it directly without validating the faulty premise. This is why the question is really the personal thought system’s way of stating that it exists.
            When a question arises in your mind you must ask yourself, “What is asking?” All questions come either from the personal thought system or the seemingly-individual mind in which the personal thought system seems to be. The personal thought system’s questions are never open to real answers. Its questions are only meant to validate itself. But your seemingly-individual mind is open to real answers from your True thought system when you are willing to put aside the personal thought system.
While your seemingly-individual mind is also not-True it is the means through which you learn while you still seem to have to learn. Truth is whole and complete, so in Truth you have nothing to learn. But while not-Truth is in your awareness you seem to have to learn that only the Truth is True.
When you choose peace you return to an awareness of Truth through the individual mind. But eventually the individual mind will fall away from your awareness and only Truth will remain. So first you learn that the personal thought system is not you but is an idea in your mind. You also learn about Truth, Which is your mind’s reality. It is represented in your seemingly-individual mind by your True thought system. As you sort out the two thought systems in your mind you practice making the choice between them. This lesson eventually generalizes. You recognize that you are not one split-mind among many split-minds but that there is only one seemingly-split mind which seems to have taken many forms. You no longer experience mind as “my mind”, “your mind”, and “their mind”, though the personal self still necessarily communicates in these terms with seeming-others.
Individuality, then, falls away from your mind. You realize that there is no individual soul or spirit or mind that “continues on” or “reincarnates” after the “death” of the personal self. The individual and personal are only erroneous ideas that take many forms. So you must release your attachment to them to be at peace. When you do release them it is not “you” as a personal self or as an individual mind that does so. It is “you” the one mind that made the mistake of thinking that it is split. This mind transcends the personal and individual in the recognition that Truth is Universal. There is only one Mind. Being aware of this is not “death” but Life in Its truest sense.
So when a personal self seems to “die” nothing happens in Truth just as nothing happened when it seemed to be “born”. It was the erroneous idea that not-Truth-is-true given the form of a body. Every seemingly-individual mind that perceived that body projected onto it a personality and story that was meaningful to itself. The body is no longer perceived to receive the projections, so other personal selves are left only with “memories” of the personality and story that they had projected. These, too, are just further projections from their own minds. Neither the body, the personality, the story, or the minds that projected all of these are real. Only the Truth is True, eternally. And it is in this realization that you find peace and release from all concerns with “death”.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.
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Comments

Will said…
In my current state of frustration with the course I keep thinking about how the course read in the first few years. It promised an experiential spiritual life. Eight or nine years later nothing has changed. With my limited abilities I have done the best that I can to follow the course. But clearly Jesus has mis-spoken. He is not there in any kind of experiential sense that I can recognize. Apparently this has become w lie every other spiritual program I have been involved in, a dead end. I stayed away from spiritual stuff for years because of this and now here I am again. I had high hopes and believed strongly in what I was practicing but am tired of the Truth just being a bunch of words. I know people are having results from the course. At least I suspect there are some, but for me this has become a very depressing exercise. Jesus, if your even out there I can't understand they enjoyment you get out of this.
5:16 PM
ACIM Mentor said…
Will, be sure you aren't making the mistake of trying to change the ego. It will not change. It is what it is: the opposite of peace. The peace I experience is not personal peace. It is apart from the personal self. The ego continues to natter on about lack and conflict. I simply choose the peace over it.
7:20 PM
Will said…
OK
8:38 PM
Will said…
Right now I just can't buy it. I guess I've lost faith in the process. I haven't the faintest idea what choosing peace over the ego means. No idea. That's where nine years of this has gotten me.
1:40 AM
Will said…
It's just my feelings on things but I think Jesus needs to step back and re-evaluate how he is running his course.
2:34 AM
ACIM Mentor said…
Will, I can't tell you how many times over the years I was right where you are right now. You are just locked down in the ego and can't see your way out. But it passes.
12:29 PM
Will said…
Yes it's better today. What a dog fight with my ego.
9:38 PM
ACIM Mentor said…
Remember the "third way" that ACIM and Buddhism teach: do not embrace or fight against the ego. Both make it real to you. Let it go instead. In practice this means let it be without judgment. Just observe it.
8:16 AM
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