Ask: Do words have power?

Do words have power? Some teachers say we shouldn’t swear, be careful what we say about what we want or wish, etc. because words are powerful…
           
            No, words do not have power. They are empty symbols that have no meaning in themselves. They only have the meaning for you that you give to them. Your unconscious and conscious beliefs are powerful. Only they affect you and your words can symbolize them or they can contradict them. Words can lie. Feelings do not lie. Your feelings reveal to you what you truly believe, no matter what you say to yourself and/or to others.
            (For example, it’s very common for students of A Course in Miracles to say, “I know the world isn’t real, but…” because they’ve read in ACIM that the world is not real. But they clearly still believe that the world is real or there would be no “but” after they said it wasn’t real to them! Their words contradict what they truly believe and if they looked at their feelings they would have to acknowledge this).
If you believe that a word or phrase is “wrong” or “bad” you may feel guilty for using it. But the source of your guilt would not be the words. The source of your guilt would be your belief that there is an ultimate morality decreed by a god outside of you that you violated by using that word or phrase. You may also feel guilty for the feelings that the words express when the words are in line with your feelings. But, again, the source of your guilt would not be the words but your belief that your feelings, and the beliefs that they represent, violate an ultimate morality.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, 4 Habits for Inner Peace and Releasing Guilt for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.
If you have a question the answer to which you think will help others send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered in the ACIM Mentor Newlsetter/Blog.

Comments

will said…
If the imaginary student had said "I know the Course says the world isn't real, but..." they would probably be on solid ground. But in any case words in themselves may be empty symbols but you put a few together like the above statement and real or not they are going to have an impact. Poor Course in Miracles. Loaded with statements like the example, waiting to be misunderstood or attacked. Poor students doing their best with the Course and don't realize it is not possible for them to believe statements like the 'world is not real.' Poor prospective students turned off by Course statements that clearly cannot be believed by the mind. The Course talks about when you look at people you should be seeing Christ! Whaaat?? You've got to be kidding me. Christ?? The entire written Course is just loaded with these types of gems. Trying to be a good student as I was taught in school, this stuff will drive you crazy (as the text flies across the room). Maybe the Surgeon General or some government agency should intervene with a warning label on the cover.
Well the truth is God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus himself knows you can't believe 99% of the Course when you start. No use pretending, it ain't going to happen. It's a Course explaining the inner workings of the mind of
Christ or the Holy Spirit and you can be pretty sure that's not you as you sit in front of the computer. But stick around, there's a pretty good chance it will be.
5:28 PM
Unknown said…
Feelings as such do not exist. They are the body's reaction to thoughts (including images and symbols). The strange collage thoughts is lik a conglomeration of stiucks glue glass and paper all stuck together. This mess is "indiciduality" Always fake, always fabricated.
5:15 AM
Unknown said…
Feelings as such do not exist. They are the body's reaction to thoughts (including images and symbols). The strange collage thoughts is lik a conglomeration of stiucks glue glass and paper all stuck together. This mess is "indiciduality" Always fake, always fabricated.
5:15 AM
Frank Dobner said…
Regarding words and feelings, there is both a lot of power in these concepts when they are owned. But when there is an ownership of thinking or feeling, there is no way out. It has been "my" experience that there has never been and probably never will be an end to the succession of thoughts or feelings. But when realize that I am not only the river but the bank of the river, then I just let it go. It's ok to get carried away by the current of mind, but it's also ok to catch it when you can.

As far as words go, they crystallized thoughts on paper or in the air that are representations or some finger pointing at some truth.
5:49 AM
Sage Starfield said…
Will,
Ever heard the greeting "Namaste"? It means "I see through the human conditions and honor the divine within you - that you are".
Same with the Christ thing. Of course you're not seeing the man Jesus who lived and died 2000 years ago. But he was connected to and identified with Spirit which is also know by christians and others as christ or buddha, etc. conciousness. That's all you're looking for...the ultimate and absolute divine intelligence (God, etc...) that creates the universe. Does this help?
9:25 AM
will said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
1:08 PM
will said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
1:15 PM
will said…
Sage,

The last two efforts I had to delete, they were just not clear enough. We are pretty much on the same page when I talk about seeing Christ. My concern is to try to help the newer student not make the time consuming and frustrating errors I had to go through. Most of us are studying alone. The Course is full of statements that left me with the impression if I was not experiencing or believing certain things well then I was out of luck. No ACIM results for me. So I tried to 'make' myself believe. I'd act like I believed the world was an illusion or that I was seeing the holiness in others and argue the point with others (to try and convince myself), or say mantra's or whatever. All these things the Course talks about are given by the Holy Spirit. You can be the smartest guy on the block, study till you drop and nothing is going to happen except frustration and anger. The key to the Course is understanding you are powerless to effect change using the personal mind. EVERYTHING IS GIVEN BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. So, you go where the Holy
Spirit wants you to be to bring about this healing, The Holy Instant. In that quiet space and time where you simply rest in the thought of God, with as little thought as possible, you are healed a little at a time. Or at least that's the way it feels.

Here's the way I look at it. Want to know where Jesus was all those missing years? He was doing a spiritual journey that we call ACIM. No free rides for Jesus, he was just like the rest of us.
2:14 PM
Sage Starfield said…
Sounds good to me! Good to have the discussion.
8:42 AM
will said…
Yes it is good to have a discussion. I write stuff down to get it out in front of me where I can look at it, see if it really makes sense. After an hour or a day sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't. Writing things down helps me.
11:27 AM
Sage Starfield said…
Agreed. Writing is a great practise. So is rewriting, refining and editing. Have you heard of textual hermeneutics?
5:02 AM
will said…
No I haven't. I'll Goggle it.
6:56 AM
will said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
7:02 AM
Sage Starfield said…
Hermeneutics is the practise of realizing that there are many subjective interpretations of words, phrases etc... In fact, we all have our own slightly different perspectives on things even when we feel we're "on the same" page as someone else. For this reason, hermeneutics proposes that we work at trying to realize ALL the possible variations which can be understood cross-culturally as well as transpersonally. Obviously an impossible task and that is precisely the point! As they say in Zen: verbal descriptions are like a finger pointing at the moon. We often confuse our descriptions (the finger pointing) for the thing itself). You must go beyond any description of the moon and meditate (non-verbally) on the moon itself if you ever want to get close to "knowing the moon".
6:10 AM
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