Deal at Your Level of Awareness
Often when I answer in my newsletter/blog a question from
someone experiencing an upset in their life they explain that they have tried
and failed over and over again to forgive the situation as just a projected
image in their mind. This effort would seem to be in line with A Course in Miracles but in practice it
is not helpful. If your awareness has not grown to the point where you see
something as just a projected image trying to forgive it leads to repression
rather than to release (forgiveness).
What shows up at the level of form is the result of cause
and effect at the level of form. The mind in which this occurs is the one split
mind, which ACIM calls the “Son of God” or the “dreamer of the dream”. What you
experience as “you” having the upset is a figure in the dream. Your mind is
ultimately the one split mind (dreamer), but that is not how you experience it.
You experience it as though it is the figure in the dream. And you have to deal
with the thoughts in your mind at the level at which you experience them. It is
not helpful to pretend you have an awareness that you have not yet attained. So
my answers address how the writer experiences their problem at the level of
form. I deal with their projected interpretation of what they see rather than
with the image itself because their upset is in response to their
interpretation, not to the actual image.
For example, sometimes I get emails where someone writes
something like: “I just learned that my sister has stage 3 cancer. Since she is
an image that I project I have tried and tried to forgive this but her cancer
persists. I want to know what I’m doing wrong. How did I cause this? What
thoughts do I have to forgive to heal her?”
At the level of form the writer is not responsible for all
of the forms that she sees. She did not think her sister into cancer.
Logically, how could that be? She does not live in a vacuum with her sister. What
about everyone else in her sister’s life? Did they contribute to her having
cancer also? If this were the case then everyone who ever saw the image of her
sister would have to heal whatever it was in their mind that caused her cancer
so that she could heal! And what about her sister’s own mind? Didn’t that
contribute also? The writer is not responsible for the cancer but for what she
tells herself about the cancer and its effect on her sister and her own life.
These stories are what determine her experience of peace or conflict.
When you do rise in awareness and become aware that you do
project what you see you are no longer identifying with the figure in the
dream. You are the “dreamer of the dream”. You realize you are the one split
mind and that you project the whole dream
not just individual parts. And you also see
that it is nothing. In other words, forgiveness
and the awareness that you are the dreamer occur simultaneously. The “dreamer
of the dream” is the level of awareness that is forgiveness. Until you have that awareness, concerning yourself
with what shows up rather than just with the meaning (interpretation) that you
project onto it only increases guilt. Form is still real to you and you think that
it has meaning. So deal with undoing the meaning that you project onto the
images that you see and eventually you will realize that what you see has no
meaning in itself. It is nothing. All the meaning that you see you give to it.
This will help you to see that there is no justification for guilt. And as
guilt falls away your awareness will transcend the dream and forgive it.
>>>>>
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.
Comments
It seems that the level of my awareness is in flux. And that must be because I what I want is in flux. Sometimes I want the dream to be real; sometimes I want to see the dream as but a dream. I have not sorted out what it is that I truly want. It seems that I am 'sitting on the fence'. But I suppose that even sitting on the fence is also more than that. I am comparing, so that I will eventually know clearly what I want.
Jeremy
But, it is when I attempt to see myself as the 'dreamer of the dream' and that this world is a pure projection and that I give it the only meaning it has....that's when all hell breaks lose in my mind. I start to eat obsessively (which is always my sign that something is not fitting right).
I think I'm rebelling!! I am totally in LOVE with my illusion of this reality!! Even when I say to myself... Dude, how can you resist this offer from Truth? "There is no sin, you are innocent and have never sinned, and you will live forever; BUT all you have to do is see your brother as sinless, and the world as a dream, sickness is a defense against the truth and that you give the meaning to everything in this world and to everything that happens! LOL
Any suggestions?
Thanks again for your response. It's also similar to one given recently to someone who was asking how to want to make changes in the world if everything has already happened and what we see is an illusory dream. The person responding said, you don't give up what you're doing in the world (teacher, social worker, fireman, retired...) you just do it with a different perspective. You do it with love and gratitude. And whenever you lose your peace, you find the lesson there. You don't so much look for specific outcomes and become attached to them. You live each day with Love and Forgiveness and take responsibility for all the meaning that comes and know it comes from our minds.
I love that!
Thanks again
There needs to be a way not to feel anything.
so its like.. if im moving away from an awareness of only the truth being true, the world feels like it is in conflict, its like puzzle pieces that dont fit together, or the picture doesnt make sense. but if im moving towards an awareness that only the truth is true, then all the pieces fit perfectly, no piece is missing, even though the puzzle still has no meaning?
im really unsure if im seeing gods reality present now, or trying to spiritualise not truth when i see perfection in everything that has happened to me, all the shit and all the joy, in every experience of love and in every detour leading to illumination and teaching me to choose again. i See sometimes that this world ahs no meaning (though i still try and give it meaning on a regular basis ;) ) and yet i see perfection weaving its way through all that meaninglessness, present in every situation no matter what meaning the ego may attribute it with, because i can use it to waken.
Maybe our fears take on different forms but like the illusory monster under the bed, they too shall pass, the fear lessens. Gentleness is a characteristic of God's teachers and I further offer from the Manual For Teachers . . . "Therefore, God's teachers are wholly gentle" . . . The might of God's teachers lies in their gentleness" . . . "Thus did they join their thoughts with Him Who is their Source".
Peace to the mind that fears.
oo, deja vu! i hear you sage, inclusivity is the liberating factor!
i just woke from a dream where i was worrying about someone, and i heard liz' voice telling me that this form of 'care' for the person was simply a reflection of self absorption, and then i felt myself detach from, or step back from, the story. my first response was.. it felt less involved and vibrant on one level, less.. involved, connected and specific, 'cold and detached', but then i felt it again as inclusive, peaceful and loving and connecting to reality rather than detaching from reality. . um. like less me, but more everything. and then i was laughing with joy. then i heard liz' voice again telling me that it wasnt liz showing me this, but that her awareness was a factor in the experience!
my question after that experience is, there seemed to be two different experiences of joy in that, one was quiet and calmer, and the second involved laughter, more emotion, but more of a feeling of self had returned. liz, as you detached from self attachment, did you detach from more than sorrow fear etc? did the heights of happiness .. flatten out? or is this simply an ego backlash question!?
i just like to say thanks when you folks reach to others.
i recall acim mentioned ' bring our illusions to truth ' ,
well that sounds good but how does it actually work ?
i have a study going on and its interesting to discover that
its our 'feelings' that bring truth to the illusion.
Gotta look at both sides .Psychology books help out along these lines.
Ego or whatever its labeled likes to present things to me inverted apparently.
Its a feelings first dynamic in my world.
So that being seen I'm back to normal , the beliefs from beneath have lesser
pull as time goes on
..... Shadows turn out to be angels of light.
thanks again
and am unwanted by God.
So then the 'belief' swimming in the depths is the belief and associated
feelings from childhood of believing simply ' I am rejected '.
Its childish , but it is what it is. Once the mind detects lack and scarcity
as a small person it sticks in the back of the mind forever.
Thats the best i can do with psychology Liz
Im on top of the situation , i think seeing what i have seen
the beliefs are exposed ,
and the feelings undone for the most part.
i just read this this evening in one of liz' earlier blogs, thought id share here as it feel relevant.
"The inappropriate use of extension, or projection, occurs when you believe that some emptiness or lack exists in you, and that you can fill it with your own ideas instead of truth. (T-2.I.1)
The physical universe is not our creation either. It is a projection we made to fill the void left by our rejecting God. When we rejected God, we rejected out true creation, too. Our creation is to us what we are to God – an extension of our True Mind. So, in essence, as an extension of God our Mind extends Itself – God. Can you see how the Course uses a concept we made – creation - to bring us back again and again to God as the only Truth? God extends God extends God extends God extends God…into infinity. That is creation."
the top quote answered my question re highs filling a lack.. (at least, i think it answers it!) i see how highs and lows are both aspects of lack projection. lows are when we perceive lack unfulfilled, highs are when we perceive lack fulfilled.
My next article addresses this.
very much looking forward to the next blog! the idea of not believing in rejection.. to really completely accept that. it must feel just about as close to heaven as being on earth can feel. it must reach into most if not every ego belief and loosen it!?
(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.