ACIM Mentor

“I just read in ACIM that the ego teaches that ‘Heaven is here and now because the future is hell.’ Then in the next chapter it says ‘the Holy Spirit teaches thus: There is no hell. Hell is only what the ego has made of the present.’ It seems to contradict; maybe you could talk about this in one of your future posts… ” – AS Actually, those quotes are in the same chapter and subsection ( The Two Uses of Time ) of the Text of A Course in Miracles , just a couple of paragraphs apart. Here is the first quote in context (my underlining): “ The ego teaches that Heaven is here and now because the future is hell. Even when it attacks so savagely that it tries to take the life of someone who thinks its is the only voice, it speaks of hell even to him. For it tells him hell is here as well , and bids him leap from hell into oblivion. The only time the ego allows anyone to look upon with equanimity is the past. And even there, its only value is that it is no more.” (T-15.I.5) Notic...

(This refers to the last article: ( http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2017/03/why-dont-i-just-kill-myself-and-go-to.html ) “I had to draw a picture of this to begin to understand. It helped! The last paragraph I do not understand though. Could you start with that on your next newsletter and explain it a little more…” - HW Here is the last paragraph from the last article: “Perception (awareness, consciousness), desire, lack - these are all temporary (time-bound) experiences. They can be satisfied in time through an awareness (perception, consciousness) of Truth. But they, and the awareness of Truth, end in time. Only Truth Itself has nothing to do with time.” Using the language of A Course in Miracles , “Knowledge” refers to God or Truth. In God there is only God and what God knows is God.  “Perception” (also “consciousness” or “awareness”) refers to our split-mind’s experience apart from Knowledge/God. Unlike Knowledge, where all is One, or the same throughout, perce...

The usual way of thinking about getting into Heaven is to wait until the self dies. And often Heaven is something to be won through righteous living in the world. In this view there is a direct correlation between the self’s life in the world and Truth (Heaven). Even if one does not have to earn Heaven it is implied that It can only be experienced when the body falls away. The body is one’s obstacle to being aware of Truth and experiencing Heaven. A Course in Miracles , however, teaches that Heaven is here within you now and all you have to do is choose to be aware of It. There is no intersection of the self’s life in the world and Truth. You can experience both, but never at the same time, because they are diametrically opposed. Each cancels out the other. So the body is not an obstacle to Truth. But your belief in the body as your reality is. Heaven, then, is what is left when you let go of the belief in the body as your reality. This is an action of the mind and it has nothing...

To Deny the Body is “Unworthy” of Your Mind (March 10, 2017) All students come to A Course in Miracles identified with the ego (personal thought system), which is another way of saying that they come with their mind steeped in guilt. So when they read that the body is not real they think that they are guilty for identifying with it. Actually, they do feel , unconsciously or consciously, guilty for identifying with it, but that does not mean that they are guilty for identifying with it. However, reading that the body is not real only increases their guilt at first and they attempt to deal with this guilt by pretending that they do not identify with it (“I know I’m not a body, but…”) or by denying or repressing their body’s feelings or desires. Denial is never the way to deal with guilt. It suppresses the source of guilt (the belief that the body is real) instead of undoing it. And denying your experience also denigrates the power of your mind, which leads to feeling powerles...

“ In my ACIM study group, I notice that when we get to a passage with convoluted syntax or a concept that pushes us out of our comfort zone, we’ll quickly engage in an off-topic discussion, for example, about “the media,” “religion” or “churches.” This is usually prompted by a participant’s remark about how the world of illusions doesn’t understand or live by the Course we so much appreciate. Like the rest of the group, I want to think there is something outside of me that can make me feel “good" about the Course . I’m curious how I can find a way to let go of feeling either “good” or “bad” and help the group locate the source of peace within the Course text.” – GB What you describe is very typical for new students. The ego’s (personal thought system’s) thinking is always evaluative: right/wrong, good/bad, better/worse, etc. It’s simply the way it works. But although this thinking is from the ego I suspect its source is actually the speaker’s way of expressing gratitude ...