Why It Is Important to Accept the "Dream" As It Is
A Course in Miracles
teaches us that Reality is formless, eternal Being extending without limit. It
likens our experience of Reality’s opposite - a universe of time-bound, limited
form - to a “dream”. It isn’t real but it sure seems real when you think you
are in it.
Sometimes students ask, “If it’s a dream, why can’t anything
be true? Why can’t reincarnation or unicorns or a ten-thousand year old earth
or humans with wings or human civilization as the result of beings from other
planets, etc. be true in the dream?” What they imply is that since it is a dream
it can be anything one wants to dream it is
Very simply, the dream cannot be anything but what it is
because it is over. The “dream” is
what the “dream” was. When ACIM says
you are always looking at the past it means this on two levels: As a self you
look at the present through the filter of your personal past. But on another
level the entire experience of the universe of form is over or “past”. The idea
of the opposite of Reality was over as soon as it was thought because Reality’s
all-encompassing nature makes an opposite of It impossible. Only within the
idea, the “dream”, does the idea seem real and present. And when you think in
terms of an “I” and of changing the universe of form you think you are a figure
in the dream, that it is reality, and that it is happening now. You are not aware
that you are the dreamer of the dream, that it is a dream, and that it is over.
And when you do eventually realize that you are the dreamer of the dream you no
longer care to change it because, not only is it over, it was a dream. It was nothing.
Think about the last time you had a dream while sleeping.
When you woke up I bet you thought it was funny or sad or frightening or weird,
etc. But I bet you didn’t spend any time at all on changing it because not only
was it over but it wasn’t real. You will eventually realize this about the
universe of form. Until then it is important to accept the dream as the
evidence within it reveals it to be because otherwise you are fantasizing about
the dream within the dream and you are twice removed from Reality.
>>>>>
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
the last week i have been studying ken wapnicks 'healing - hearing the melody' which is on the theme of accepting rather than trying to change. i really recommend it to anyone who wants to spend time with the ideas in this blog post, and finds many ways of hearing the same idea described helpful ;)
just an observer.
Don't know the hows and whys of it
but thats the way the psyche works.
“I live in my dreams — that's what you sense.
Other people live in dreams, but not in their own.
That's the difference.”
― Hermann Hesse
For instance I understand when I wake from a (nocturnal) dream that is was a dream and I was in it and it was real for me at the time and I can reflect on it in those moments after waking. Yet to really feel that what I think is real when I am apparently awake, is also a dream and that I am the dreamer is harder to grasp. Logical, yes, but hard to really grasp. Trevor
endless Love.
It's interesting that there are lucid dreamers who can "live" within their dreams and it makes ordinary waking reality less real for them as they see the similarity. My personal take is that even dreams are real, albeit only partial fragments of Infinite Reality like our lives. Still inseparable parts though and deserving of some credit in Reality, since Reality is creating it.
Will, we miss your comments. I read Lesson 65 and didn't see where it says to "delete your comments"... (kidding). Second mantra says: "On this clean slate let my true function be written for me." This comment box can be considered your "clean slate" so you're invited to post your true function here! :) -- Sagey
That sounds a whole lot like going on a diet or starting to exercise every day.
“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 in the Workbook it begins to introduce the type of meditation where you observe your thoughts and you try to detach.”
In doing this the lessons are broken down into sections, almost like chapters in a book. There are so many lessons covering such a large area it is very difficult for the mind to retain (remember and catalogue) the information. If information is broken down into sections the mind can work with it. This led me to go back and look at the early lessons.
It’s just my opinion but by the time Ken Wilbur wrote the Atman Project he had come full circle to almost pure ego.
The mental gymnastics are exhausting and really don't feel good. I had understood they were a necessary evil in re-training the mind so that the Holy Spirit could clear away the blockage. I saw them as a period you go though to attain peace not as a permanent state. Perhaps I am wrong and can quit all this practicing. Thank God if that is true.
4HIP are about the Holy Instant. Opening to It in meditation and then remembering It throughout the day. There should be nothing forced in the practice. If it's hard work it's either not for you or not for you now.
Will, our paths are all uniquely our own, so follow your heart like you're doing. I'm leary of "destination thinking" though, as I don't believe in any future arriving. It's all Here and Now and I just work with that in the Faith that it does some good and serves some purpose Here and Now. Future achievements are an ego trick in my humble opinion, but we have the free will to play that game if there's meaning in it for us. We're all spirit warriors here. Our imaginations are powerful learning tools. You will reach that summit (or realize you're There already - (same thing within semantic margin of error), slay the dragon and return triumphantly back to the village to celebrate your hero's welcome. Enjoy Every Moment! :)
Christine, sounds like to got to the crux of it!
i have never 'drawn a card' from my acim quotes for anyone in this way, but i asked holy spirit if it would be helpful, and got a yes. maybe its only helpful for me.. but im sharing it here just in case it eases something for you also xx
here 'tis..
'it takes great learning to understand that all things, events, encounters and circumstances are helpful'. M-p.10
so what your comments led to for me was helping me accept that its ok to let all things be as they are. so thank you.