Ask: Your recent articles about death have not been very comforting...


Some of your answers about death lately have not been particularly comforting…would you tell someone who just lost a loved one that they will never see them again?

            I can see where the personal thought system (ego) in your mind would not find what I wrote about death to be comforting. It would like to be real and eternal and I stripped that idea away. Stripping away the personal thought system’s cherished wishes is what I do! I am a teacher of Truth, not a minister or therapist, so I do not teach to comfort personal selves. Instead, I teach minds the way to release themselves from guilt and fear so that they can be aware of Truth and be at peace. This indeed will make the personal thought system in your mind uncomfortable, but if you understand the forgiveness that I teach it will set you free.

“Undermining the ego's thought system must be perceived as painful, even though this is anything but true. Babies scream in rage if you take away a knife or scissors, although they may well harm themselves if you do not. In this sense you are still a baby. You have no sense of real self-preservation, and are likely to decide that you need precisely what would hurt you most. Yet whether or not you recognize it now, you have agreed to cooperate in the effort to become both harmless and helpful, attributes that must go together. Your attitudes even toward this are necessarily conflicted, because all attitudes are ego-based. This will not last. Be patient a while and remember that the outcome is as certain as God.” (T-4.II.5)

The only way to inner peace is through an awareness of the Truth within you. Truth and the personal thought system (not-Truth) are diametrically opposed. If you choose inner peace you have to be willing to let go of the cherished wishes and beliefs of the personal thought system that you have taken on for yourself. They are your obstacles to peace. Within them lurk guilt and fear. Your level of discomfort in this process is in direct proportion to your identification as a personal self. But as your awareness of Truth grows you will detach from the personal thought system and its discomfort. You will recognize that it is not your own. This does take time and it is very hard in the beginning.
I teach from experience, not from theory. I do not teach to be popular, but to reinforce the Truth as I have experienced it in my own mind. I am certainly not the teacher for everyone. Whether or not I am the teacher for you depends on your goal for yourself. You have to decide whether you want to be set free from guilt and fear or if you want to be comfortable in your identification with a personal self. You cannot have it both ways. The former leads to lasting peace and happiness; the latter is never wholly possible. Whichever choice you make the Truth in you is unchanged.
No, I would not tell someone who just lost a loved one that they will never see them again. Even if they asked me a direct question about this how I answered them would depend on what I knew about their beliefs, how recent the loss was, etc. I am not cruel. And I also feel no need to force what I know onto others. Obviously, how I respond to paying clients and email questioners is very different from how I respond to others. I only share directly what I have learned with those who come to me asking.
 I try to meet someone at their level of understanding, but this is difficult to know when answering emails. So I answer questions with what I know to be the truth. My answers are meant to strip away beliefs that are obstacles to peace. I expect that if someone asks me a question and/or reads my newsletter/blog that they want an honest answer. I expect that they want their false beliefs revealed so that they can undo them and be at peace. Why else would they write to me or read what I write? If my answer is beyond what the writer/reader can understand at the time I leave it to them to ask another question for clarification.

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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.
If you have a question the answer to which you think may help others send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog.

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