Ask: Any comments on you being an iconoclast?

“The more I read the July 27 blog (http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2016/07/learning-beyond-whats-in-acim.html) along with the comments and your responses, the muddier the waters seemed to get (for me) until I read your statement:

 ‘ACIM led me to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit led me past my obstacles to being aware of Truth, many of which were not specifically mentioned in ACIM.’

You have always made the point that studying the Course was simply a means to an end; that it was even possible to reach an understanding of the Course and still not have inner peace. After getting almost nothing from the Course per se, the various teachers, authors, books, speakers, and students - I came across 4HIP, Releasing Guilt, the Mentor Articles and your personal mentoring. Now that I have established a relationship with my inner Teacher of Truth - which I find to be fairly accessible, simple, quiet and tailor-made, I feel like a phony to consider myself a student of ACIM. Why bother with what seems like a lot of extra baggage. I have enough of my own to sort through, why wrangle with more - especially if the original "brand" comes up short - like the issue of boundaries which other Course teachers and students seem to reject outright. Not to mention my own incredulity with the Course's origins; the inscrutable, grandiose language; distracting issues with the Jesus connection, and Course teachers and students who reject my approach to the Course because I'm not loyal to the "brand".
You Liz, are an iconoclast in the best sense – it’s not a role you affect, it’s just the place where you come from.
Any comments?” – ES

Hmmm. I don’t think “iconoclast” would be the word I’d use for myself since my dictionaries all seem to indicate that an iconoclast “seeks to destroy” or at least to “challenge” conventional ideas, icons, etc. Although the result is often that I do take apart conventional ideas my goal is to undo guilt and reveal Truth. I chose to be led by my experiences of Truth rather than by my intellect because intellectual understanding is not transformational but the experience of Truth is. And I (eventually) wanted real shifts to know Truth, not just to understand some spiritual teaching.

A client once said to me, “You don’t teach ACIM so much as you teach Truth.” Truth draws me like nothing else because It is the truth. What else could be worthy of my time and effort but the Truth because It is the truth? This does mean that, yes, I walk apart from almost all of the rest of the world. I’m not sure what this is called.


I can see why you may not consider yourself a student of A Course in Miracles since it has not worked for you. I still think of myself that way, or at least as a former student of ACIM, because it was almost exclusively the tool the Teacher of Truth (Holy Spirit) used to reach me for a very long time. I have left it behind but it is still the common language and a useful tool that I use with my clients.

>>>>>
Want support on the path to peace? read "You Don't Have to Go It Alone".

Learn about one-on-one mentoring, how to send a donation for this blog, and 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

Anonymous said…
My inner guidance gifted me with a multitude of teachings and teachers that were meant to reach me with variety of "ways", "styles", "attitudes" and with the same content of Truth. The form of ACIM spoke to what I resonated with, written with a high degree of intelligence and artistic poetic style. Then the Course's teachers that had that straight forward attitude . . . "saying it like it is" that I joined with, Ken and Liz; the quiet stillness and humor of Eckhart and the simplicity and joyous way told using the art of metaphors of Sri Mooji. A plan tailor made it seemed, just for me and in all these teachers, there I am.

Much gratitude to all who came for me to point the way. Carinos, Deb
9:40 AM
Walter Dutchak said…
My road has been somewhat similar to the events outlined by Anonymous.
6:18 AM
Anonymous said…
yes. nicci
7:56 AM
EC said…
The Course does say somewhere (maybe you know where?) that at some point we must let all theologies go, even ACIM, and allow our connection to God take over directly; also that the Course is not an end but a beginning (don't know where it says that either :) and that we will eventually communicate directly with God.
I too work with multiple pointers to Truth, including ACIM, yet the Teacher of Truth is my Direct Guide and beyond that my communion with God is direct. There are, however, at times where I find myself reaching for those references to stay aligned with Truth, so they always prove to be useful no matter how far along I 'appear' to be.
So very grateful for your articles and sharing! :) ~EC
12:15 PM
Anonymous said…
Opinions and beliefs are what they are. They are part of the personal mind and are subject to change at any time. So I am cautious. They’re interesting but I’m cautious no matter the source. Whatever a person’s belief about the course is a personal determination they have made. I try not to pick them up and run with it. If a person has a strong belief I am interested in hearing it as long as we both know that it isn’t a part of teaching truth.
10:56 PM
Christine said…
EC - thanks! (Thanks all!)
2:54 PM
Anonymous said…
Reading this morning in the Manual For Teachers . . . "As the course emphasizes, you are not free to choose the curriculum, or even the form in which you will learn it. You are free, however, to decide when you want to learn it. And so you accept it, it is already learned."
7:49 AM
Anonymous said…
An opinion:

For many years, around 10 years, I have had an interest in what happens when the body dies. Sometimes it feels like I have seen all the video and audio evidence out there. For me, books can’t be used as evidence. In the last three to four years the technology and credible evidence has increased rapidly to a point where it’s hard to turn away from it. As a believer in ACIM it’s interesting. I personally don’t see a conflict between the course and life after death. We are living in a dream that includes the entire universe and the dream time it took to create it. I don’t see why the dream ends at the body’s death. The dream can be whatever the mind wants it to be. The mind that ‘created’ it if I can use that word, can make it anything it desires. I don’t see this as a conflict with what the course teaches. I am not speaking from the spiritual view or Truth, just the dream. It’s interesting stuff.
3:39 PM
Anonymous said…
I better call it 'dream after death' rather than life after death.
4:07 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Committed to the Spiritual Process

If you’ve been reading my blog/newsletter for the past few weeks then you know significant things have occurred in the life of this mind. Four years ago the ego (personal thought system) fell away. I didn’t realize it fully and I spent three and a half years personally in a rather barren place in this mind, though there was peace in the rest of my mind. I did feel done with the world, but I didn’t know what that meant. I just stayed with the feeling, wondering what would come next. The next thing arrived in this mind last summer with a subtle shift from emptiness to a delicious Spaciousness. This was followed by beautiful Golden Light, Love, and Joy filling the Space. Bewilderingly, an effect of this was a romance novel! From there, the Light and the shifts continued. During this time a client in Australia whom I have called Zelda in these articles, but whose real name is Hannah, became a friend as well. We grew closer over several months and began to experience a lot of sync...
Read more

Ask: What is meant by "extend Love"?

I wonder exactly what is meant by "extend love" or how one extends love. Is it a loving intention toward the person, or a wish for them, or what? Can you give an example? – JO “Extending love” means replacing unloving thoughts in your mind with the awareness of Love in your mind. For example, your peace of mind is disturbed while watching something on television. Your peace is gone because you believe that what you see is reality. You extend Love in this situation by turning inward to Truth (God), feeling Love’s Presence within you, and remembering that It, not the images appearing, is What is Real. It may take you a while to accept that only your own thoughts cause you pain. So at first you may feel that you need to extend Love “out there” to the images that seem to be causing you pain. Or you may extend Love to another who is sharing their painful story with you. You can do this by imagining the situation or the person in a Loving Light. Or you may use some other image to ...
Read more

Evolving Practice with ACIM

           The Course was dictated to two who had a sense of Spirit working in their lives. After all, they were taking down the Course itself! The Universal Christ Mind sought to develop and grow their awareness of Spirit through the lessons in the Workbook as well as simply in discussion with them, privately and through the Course . And for those who find the Course and already have an awareness of Spirit, even if only dimly, the Course functions in the same way. Through the practice suggested, they develop their trust in Spirit. But for many who come to the Course , the discernment of Spirit within has not yet occurred. For them, practice is the means of opening to the awareness and experience of Spirit. Those who do not understand this often feel frustrated and even angry with the Course for suggesting that they should be having experiences that they do not yet have. They feel that they fall short when they read the instructions and descriptions ...
Read more