Ask: My rationale for my form of study is that ACIM is a hologram. What do you think?
“…I recently
read that the Course is like a hologram (whatever that might be)
in the sense that any part of it contains the whole. I've had an unconscious
intuition about that and used it as a rationale for studying the Course the way I do - reading books that clarify
its essence, not doing the daily lessons, not buying the Jesus connection etc.
What do you think?” – ES
The kind of hologram to which you
refer is one where a picture is made up of many pictures of the picture itself.
For example, if you looked at each individual pixel in the picture you’d see
that it is a miniature picture of the picture itself, shaded for its particular
part in the macro picture.
It is true that as you become
familiar with the themes of A Course in
Miracles you will come across phrases, paragraphs, and sections that will
make you declare, “Why, that sums up the whole Course!” Perhaps this is what is
meant by some that the Course is like
a hologram. If you meditated with the Holy Spirit on one of those
holographic-like phrases, paragraphs, or sections it could ultimately be the
same as meditating on the whole book.
But I’m not sure if that relates to the
way that you say that you have been studying the Course. The question is, what is your goal as you study the Course? Is understanding it an end in
itself for you? Or do you see studying the Course
as a means to an end, such as a better life in the world or inner peace?
Integrating the ideas in the Course
and practicing its principles in your life are what will bring a transformation
in your experience. Merely understanding the Course will only bring you understanding of the Course!
>>>>
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 Newsletter/Blog.
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Interconnected! All One! (Only sometimes the ego pretends that we're separate which is an impossible lie - yet we believe!)
Rules for Decision
(Text • Chapter 30 • Section I)
Excerpts from the Workshop held at the
Foundation for A Course in Miracles
Temecula CA
Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.
Part XII
Excerpts from Rules 4 through 7
Let's now turn to the last paragraph of Chapter 5, which is a wonderful elaboration of this fourth rule for decision: "at least I can decide I do not like what I feel now." I can't emphasize enough how important it is that you allow yourself to feel your pain, to feel your ego's thought system in whatever way it comes to you. If you do not allow yourself to feel it, which again is what the blissninnies attempt to do (in other words, cover it over and everything is wonderful), then there will be no motivation to learn and practice this course. If you really believe you are happy and at peace, then what do you need a course for? The purpose of this course is to give you a way of undoing your pain. If you don't believe you have any pain, then you don't need this. So again, one of the first ideas in working with this course is to understand that one of Jesus' central purposes is to have you recognize that you do not recognize how much in pain you are.
Decision cannot be difficult. This is obvious, if you realize that you must already have decided not to be wholly joyous if that is how you feel.
This whole thing rests on the idea that you are allowing yourself to be aware that you are not feeling joyous or happy—that you are feeling anxious, guilty, lonely, sad, depressed, fearful, etc. If you don't let yourself feel that, then nothing else is possible. Another premise is the idea that if you are not feeling joyous, you are the one who has chosen that, as we had discussed before. If there is no world outside you mind, then there is nothing that can have any effect on you. If you are unhappy, you are the only one who has made you unhappy.