Ask: Accepting What Is and Accepting what is

This week’s article follows up on an earlier article about living in the flow of the universe (http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2015/03/in-flow-of-universe.html) as well as last week’s “Ask ACIM Mentor” article (http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2015/08/ask-any-insights-on-accepting-not.html). When you accept What is – that only the Truth is true – it follows that you also accept what is at the level of form without resistance or judging the self’s role in the unfolding story of the universe of form. When you find your wholeness in Truth you stop living through the self so you accept it as it is and just watch it unfold.

The play/movie “Amadeus” always comes to my mind when I think of an example of how miserable a life is when one does not accept it as it is.  The story is a fictionalization of the relationship between the genius composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the composer Antonio Salieri. In the story Salieri as a young boy is so moved by beautiful music in church that he makes a deal with his god: He will devote his life and his chastity to his god if his god will give him the ability to make beautiful music. Salieri indeed goes on to become a composer and is talented enough to rise to be the composer to the Austrian emperor’s court.

Then one day Salieri hears the beautiful music of Mozart and knows that only someone touched by his god could make such “forgiving” music. He is eager to meet the man whom his god has blessed. But in the story Mozart is depicted as vulgar, uncouth, and undisciplined. This man is blessed by god? Salieri is appalled and feels mocked and abandoned by his god. He vows to take revenge on his god by destroying Mozart, whom he sees as his god’s favorite. He does everything in his power to obstruct Mozart and he terrorizes Mozart with visions of his late disapproving father. When Mozart is dying (kidney failure) Salieri can’t resist taking an opportunity to be touched by his genius and helps him finish his final composition (Requiem). Mozart dies in poverty and is buried in a pauper’s grave. Salieri’s obsession with Mozart lands him in an institution and he ends his life lamenting his own “mediocrity”.

Salieri made a deal with a god that existed only in his own mind. Even if there was such a god the deal was all one sided – Salieri alone decided the terms of the deal. For this deal with an imaginary god he made sacrifices no one asked him to make. When things didn’t turn out the way he demanded he destroyed his own life as he tried to destroy another. He never saw that it was his own arrogance and resistance to what is at the level of form that led to his sense of persecution.


Now imagine if instead Salieri knew What is - that only the Truth is true. He would have found wholeness in Truth. So he would not have needed to seek through the self’s life in the world for wholeness. He would’ve accepted the self’s talents and limitations, without judging either. When Mozart came along he would’ve felt blessed to be around to hear such music rather than feeling deprived because the music didn’t come through him. Instead of judging Mozart he could’ve used his power to assist Mozart in getting his music out to the world. Salieri would’ve understood that his love of music was for playing out the role, not of a composer genius himself, but of facilitating the genius of another (Mozart). How much more harmonious and peaceful would Salieri’s mind have been if he had accepted the self’s role rather than insisting that it play out the way that he decided it should?

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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.

Comments

Sage Starfield said…
Great movie! Even though Amadeus was considered crude and crass by the stuck-up gentry class of his day, he was less judgmental, more playful and full of joy than the religious pious types with their dark greedy judgmental sides so well portrayed by Salieri. Amadeus was closer to God and despised for it!

There's a lesson here! Thanks Liz.
will said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Christine said…
This is a helpful analogy! I like the way you worked it out in the end with what Salieri "could" have done/been in a peaceful role to Mozart, rather than in a competitive, or not-peaceful role. In the arts, as well as like every occupation in life, there are jealousies and competition. It's awful to be jealous of another artist or musician, etc., and it's also not great to be the focus of jealousy. I have worked it out to knowing (when an artist is much better than I am, or a bagpiper, etc.) that That is his or her understanding of God/Christ Consciousness, the Flow, or whatever. I then start quite enjoying another's artwork/music, and am even glad that "I didn't have to do it"! As if "I" were doing it, in the first place all alone...
ACIM Mentor said…
Sage, was the character of Mozart truly closer to God? He seemed to have no more awareness of Truth than the character of Salieri. He struck me as terrified and desperate. He was immature, selfish, self-centered, and thoughtless. He hid out from the world and his responsibilities in alcohol and music. I never saw true joy in the character. (Not all joy is inspired by an awareness of Truth anyway. Some personalities are just happier than others. Some joy is inspired by a satisfied ego).
will said…
I did some looking at "Joy" this morning. Joy as defined by every source I looked at was, 'feeling good all the time, peppy, happy feelings' etc. The Course says we will experience Joy. In my morning meditation I saw that I look at Joy as either a measure of my spiritual progress and/or as the definitions above. There is a lot of this going on. In my meditation I could see my personal mind over reacts to people who are feeling good all the time or who are peppy as a sign of the validity of whatever spiritual journey they are on. All this personal mind stuff that is so quick to pop up is garbage. Garbage that is on its way out, but it is a process not an event.
will said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sage Starfield said…
Liz, I last saw the movie quite a few years back. Perhaps remembering with selective memory. I remember an innocent and childlike joy around the man. I remember him being a light in the midst of a lot of darkness. Guess I should see it again and see if I view it differently. I do believe that God and the HS do revel in our joy, though, as opposed to our misery. I get that there's also an impersonal aspect which allows free will to be miserable if we so choose, and that has no effect on the Higher...or does it? I guess I do believe we're little beacons who also send signals back to the Source to let It know how we're doing. But that's just me! (Still learning : )
Unknown said…
I appreciate all of your articles, and especially enjoy this use of the movie Amadeus to make the point. Metaphors and parables seem to be great/useful tools for driving a point home. Thanks for finding such clear ways to help us "get it"!
Unknown said…
I can appreciate your insight in presenting this topic. May I present what comes up for me when this view of accepting what is happening is put forth?
Here is what you wrote:
"When you accept What is - that only the Truth is true - it follows that you also accept what is at the level of form without resistance or judging the self's role in the unfolding story of the universe of form. When you find your wholeness in Truth you stop living through the self so you accept it as it is and just watch it unfold."
On reading this, then the image that forms in my mind is that I am an inmate in a Nazi concentration camp. I am watching as they push the still alive persons into the ovens. To simply "be present and accept it as it is" seems then the greatest error possible. I think we are to correct error as much as possible, not just be an observer.
Any words of wisdom to correct my misunderstanding?
— Richard
ACIM Mentor said…
The error, Richard, is perceiving a self in a body in a world as reality. So the whole experience is an error, not just some of it. What you are doing is making a hierarchy of error - some errors are more error than others.

Acceptance, by the way, is not the same as passivity of the self. This article was about what goes on in the mind. It was not about the actions of the self. The self may or may not act to stop something in the world. In either case the mind can just observe without judgment.
Anonymous said…

Sing it out folks! Bring me a Love High!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwuHtbcvTh8
Anonymous said…
Oops - Bring me a Higher Love!

Bring It!
Anonymous said…
Lesson 248 - Whatever suffers is not part of me.

I have disowned the truth. Now let me be as faithful in disowning falsity. Whatever suffers is not part of me. What grieves is not myself. What is in pain is but illusion in my mind. What dies was never living in reality, and did but mock the truth about myself. Now I disown self-concepts and deceits and lies about the holy Son of God. Now am I ready to accept him back as God created him, and as he is.
Unknown said…
Salieri's version of god is similar to those of most organized religions. A god that is a made up, a projection.

The course describes this ego fabricated maker, most eloquently in lesson 95,

You see yourself as a ridiculous parody on God's creation; weak, vicious, ugly and sinful, miserable and beset with pain. Such is your version of yourself; a self divided into many warring parts, separate from God, and tenuously held together by its erratic and capricious maker, to which you pray. It does not hear your prayers, for it is deaf. It does not see the oneness in you, for it is blind. It does not understand you are the Son of God, for it is senseless and understands nothing.
will said…
Liz,

On pages 26-28 in 'The Message' it is talking about healing the mind not the body. Is body the same as personal mind?
ACIM Mentor said…
Actually, Will, if you read the first paragraph of that section you will see it is talking about how the body is healed by the mind. (Again, I've been led to a different path, but this is what ACIM teaches).

No, "body" and "personal mind" are not the same. "Personal mind" in my translation is the same as "ego" in the original. It is a thought system in the mind about the body as reality.
will said…
I had been thinking that personal mind was the same as 'this mind.'
will said…
I'm not asking these questions out of intellectual curiosity. You know how it is talked about if you watch your mind thinking that part that is watching is the Christ mind. So I watch the mind (that I was thinking was the personal mind), from what I thought was the Christ mind. Watch everything from what I thought was the Christ mind until I begin to see that I am the Christ mind. That this was the process the course was asking us to do.
will said…
Over the past few weeks I began to believe that when I'm doing this the decision maker was watching the Christ mind as opposed to it's normal projection of the ego.
will said…
On page 27 it says "Your one responsibility is to accept for yourself correction of your perception that you are separate from God" and that when I was 'watching' that is what I was doing.
ACIM Mentor said…
When I write "this mind" it is not referring to the personal mind. It's the learning mind/the decision maker/the observer.

Observing the personal mind is the way to detach from it. The fact that you can observe it shows you that it is not you.The observer cannot observe the Christ Mind because the Christ Mind is What it is. This is what it learns as it drops the ego.

Accepting correction of your perception that you are separate from God (the Atonement) takes many forms. Observing in itself is not the correction. The realization of where you are observing from is the correction.
will said…
Thank You
will said…
Observing with the Holy Spirit leads to the awareness of Truth. Right?
ACIM Mentor said…
No, an awareness of the Holy Spirit allows you to observe with the Holy Spirit. The awareness of the that part of your mind (HS) must come before you can observe from It. But then once you are aware of the HS part of your mind the more you choose to observe from It the more It grows in your awareness.
will said…
This is important so...

I had thought the very first thing the course wants you to do is this observing. This is prior to awareness of the Holy Spirit. You observe asking the Holy Spirit to help you or be there as you observe. This is the first step in ACIM in moving towards awareness.
ACIM Mentor said…
The first lessons in the Workbook have you observe how your mind works. Then they get you in touch with your Holiness. Then around Lesson 40 the Workbook begins to introduce the type of meditation where you observe your thoughts and you try to detach.
will said…
In its sometimes convoluted way after reading your last post the Holy Spirit led me to Lesson 65 where it tells you how to practice observation in a structured way that will give more results than the hit or miss I have been doing.
ACIM Mentor said…
Well, there you go, Will.
will said…
My mind runs like a finely tuned machine. It told me so.

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