Purpose as Expression Rather Than Cause


Last week I wrote how the mystical Holy relationship corrects cause and effect. Instead of seeing another as the source (cause) of Love (effect) for you, you recognize Love is the Source (cause) of your relationship (effect).  Another way to say this is that the mystical Holy relationship’s purpose is not to cause Love, but to express Love.

Part of correcting cause and effect is redefining the purpose of everything from cause to expression. What happens in time is not to bring a certain end into existence (salvation, atonement, undoing, etc). That end has already occurred. The moment the idea of not-Truth arose, it was undone by Truth’s all-encompassing nature. So time does not bring about the Undoing (Atonement). It expresses it. In time, it seems like the idea of not-Truth arose long ago and its undoing is in some indefinite future. Time takes an idea that was over in a moment and tells it as an unfolding story. So the Undoing is always happening, only in slooooooow motion. The Undoing is what everything in time is for. The Undoing is what the story of time is.

Using the mystical Holy relationship as an example, as an expression of Love’s Eternal Presence, it is a manifest expression of the Undoing. Really, it is the Undoing itself. Where there was not-Truth, Truth becomes manifestly apparent to two minds that once seemed separate. And to any minds that tune into them.

If you see your life as having a purpose to cause something, to bring it into being, then you feel a tremendous pressure to “make it happen” and “get it right”. But when you recognize your life is an expression, an effect, then the pressure is off. You do not have to make anything happen, but rather let your life unfold as the expression of the Undoing that it is. You can rest in the unfolding Undoing, seeking not for what to do, but open to what is being done through you.

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Do you need help correcting your perception of cause and effect?  If you want to benefit from my experience and perhaps lighten your process, email me at Liz@acimmentor.com to set up an appointment. Learn more at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question the answer to which you think will help others email it to me at Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered in the newsletter/blog.

As requested by a few readers, Releasing Guilt for Inner Peace, is now available in paperback as well as in digital formats. You can order a paperback book here . To learn more about this book, click here.

Some of you may be interested in the book that came through me when the Golden Light came into my mind last summer (learn more here). It is not a spiritual book at all, just an ordinary lesbian love story, so it's not to everyone's taste! It is called 
A Good Woman and it is now available on Kindle. Paperback coming soon. Learn more at www.lizcronkhite.net.

Comments

nicci said…
there are no adequate words . . . accept the best i can do. thank you. deeply. n
will said…
Paradigm: A way of viewing reality that serves as a model or pattern; A way of doing something, especially as a pattern of thought; A system of beliefs that determine how you see the world.

Paradigm Shift: A radical change in thinking from an accepted point of view to a new one, necessitated when new information produces anomalies in the current paradigm.

Anomalies: A deviation from a rule or from what is regarded as normal; something that is new or strange or unusual; deviance, exception, inconsistency, irregularity.

Paradigm is commonly used as word that means how our history effects our point of view, how our upbringing has taught us to see things. It is unique to the individual but also is a common denominator in a culture. ACIM is a paradigm shift. As a student studies ACIM he develops a paradigm on what it is saying that is a mixture of his pre ACIM life and the new one he is studying. As he progresses he fits the pieces together to have an understanding of ACIM. But we all know ACIM can’t be fit into a mold. It’s slippery and as we continue to study, it changes radically. Whether we are ready to accept the changes determines our progress.

This Holy Relationship thing, as it is being described in the blog is a shift. It rubs up against our normal paradigm for how we live. It rubs against our established patterns of behavior for our culture. How we love, what love means, a code of conduct based on our understanding of love. It’s all very confusing and uncomfortable. It’s an Anomaly. We should remember this is not unique to ACIM. It goes on in our lives all the time. It is a natural part of mental health to accept change.
The Pamphlet “Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice” can be a help with these changes.
will said…
My memory of when I first understood a special relationship was shock. I was deeply in love in a special relationship and upon reading it was the ego’s most devastating weapon, that left me shaken. I was very committed to ACIM and this seemed and either/or proposition, one that I knew was not possible for me. Special love as I was experiencing it was so deep and all encompassing how would I ever come to terms with giving it up? Why would I want to? I tried to put it on the back burner.

A few years passed. My love remained strong, but I was beginning to see the cracks in my spiritual life. I had been committed to meditation nightly and looked forward to it. But it had fallen to the wayside. My mind was consumed by the ups and downs of this extremely strong attraction. A groove was worn deep in my mind so that I was obsessed with this love. My commitment to ACIM remained strong buy my practice was luke warm. Trying to understand the course takes considerable effort and it was more pleasant (and addictive) to think of my love.

Over time there were terrible highs and lows in my love life. This cemented my obsession. Trying to recapture the rapture of those earlier times. But it was not to be. The conflicted love remained for years and is still fighting for its place in my mind.
If you are trying to live a committed spiritual life in ACIM you need focus and an ability to follow through. Practicing the tenants of the course requires concentration. If you are on the rollercoaster of love, of trying to regain earlier times things will begin to be put off, a day at a time. For me this special relationship had dug deep roots into my mind. They have maintained a serious grip.
I now understand clearly the Course’s warnings. I understand the effect special love has on the mind. But it is called the deadliest weapon in the ego arsenal for a reason.
will said…
This week’s blog has kind of thrown a wrench in things. If I stay on an intellectual plane where I don’t have to dive beneath the surface it’s OK. But diving down into the ego arena, not so much. The blog says the Holy Relationship corrects cause and effect. Instead of “seeing another as the source (cause) of Love (effect) for you, you recognize Love is the Source (cause) of your relationship.”
You like falling in love with someone? Sure, it’s the spice of life. Giving that up seems like a pretty tough nut to swallow. Of course, the flavor of the spice seems to invariably wane over time. I guess that is what I need to look at. I have been in several “love” relationships like everyone else. All of them came to an end. Some very painful, some not so much.
The blog is asking us to look at life, the dream if you will. It says, “If you see life as having a purpose to cause something (fall in love, make more money), to bring it into being…” you are caught up in making something happen. Caught up in the ups and downs of life.
The Holy Relationship if I understand it correctly, is our moving from cause and effect to cause and expression. What does this mean to us? If I can use the term enlightened since we all know what that is referring to, cause and expression is enlightenment. We are moving away from the dream and how we explain the dream, into conscious contact with the Holy Spirit. This conscious contact with the Holy Spirit does mean letting go of falling in love among other things. But we know, at least on an intellectual level, that contact with the Holy Spirit will be considerably better than arguing before bedtime.
To be more serious, the ego will use the falling in love scenario as well as others to create doubt. It will paint things with a brightly colored brush. But we came into this Course because at some level we had already concluded that there must be a better way. We have been there, done that. Staying here, fighting the good fight of life is always here if we feel we need another round to once again clarify things.

Corrections are welcome.
will said…
To correct myself. We don't let go of falling in love. We experience LOVE for the first time.
will said…
It's getting late and time for sleep. I wanted to say when I first read this week's blog I thought to myself, "Holy crap, I'll never make sense of this." It felt like I had hit the wall. The only way I can fight my way through this, is to get my thoughts out in front of me where I can see them. Good nite all.
will said…
In the past month or so relationships came to the fore. Liz’s relationship seemed to come out of the blue. A lot of us fell back to our default thinking and got lost there for a while. The changes felt personal as we used the ego to make sense of what was going on. Good girl, bad girl… You could tell there was an undercurrent that wasn’t being expressed. Whatever it was that was going on it wasn’t ACIM!
It took some time to sort things out. There was so much cultural appropriateness that was being thrown by the wayside. The Mentor had lost her bearings.
Eventually I ended up with the Psychotherapy pamphlet and started reading. For the first time I realized the Psychotherapist could be a counselor, the Holy Spirit or an advanced teacher. Jesus wasn’t laying it out, I had to plug in the appropriate meaning. It said right at the get go,

“Hopefully, both will learn to give up their original goals, for it is only in relationships that salvation can be found.”

Then a page later in talking about the limits on Psychotherapy it went into this paragraph:

“Yet the ideal outcome is rarely achieved. Therapy begins with the realization that healing is of the mind, and in psychotherapy those have come together who already believe this. It may be they will not get much further, for no one learns beyond his own readiness. Yet levels of readiness change and when therapist or patient has reached the next one (the next level) there will be a relationship held out to them that meets the changing need. Perhaps they will come together again and advance in the same relationship, making it holier. Or perhaps each of them will enter into another commitment. Be assured of this; each will progress. Retrogression is temporary. The overall direction is one of progress toward the truth.”

These are on pages four and five of the Pamphlet. In any case, relationships, spiritual growth through others, is front and center.
Maryanne Cosmo said…
Loved the blog. Appreciated the cause and effect explanation.
will said…
More on Relationships as the path to the Holy Spirit.

I have never really looked deeply at relationships as a part of the Course. The blogs of late have led me in that direction. I must admit I have some real confusion going on. I guess that is to be expected.

Moving on in the Psychotherapy pamphlet to page 21 in the chapter ‘Is Psychotherapy a Profession?’ I ran into this:

“God is said to have looked on all He created and pronounced it good. No, He declared it perfect, and so it was. And since His creations do not change and (they) last forever, so it is now. Yet neither a perfect therapist nor a perfect patient can possibly exist. Both must have denied their perfection, for their very need for each other implies a sense of lack. A one-to-one relationship is not ‘One Relationship.’ Yet it is the means of return; the way God chose for the return of His Son…"

There is a danger in ‘cherry picking’ quotes. The temptation to say it means one thing when in fact, when the whole content is included, it reads differently. In any case, the overall theme has remained consistent, that the ‘relationship’ is crucial. I haven’t really given all this enough time to gel in my mind. I still have some confusion over relationships.

From the initial reaction to Liz coming out with the Holy Relationship she and Hannah are experiencing, it was pretty obvious that there was a general misunderstanding on the role relationships play. The ego quickly jumped in to steer things away from ACIM to special relationships, elevating them to a level of extreme importance.
ACIM Mentor said…
Will, don't forget the whole context of ACIM: The relationship between Helen and Bill. Their unique Holy relationship was about bringing ACIM into the world. That is THE Holy relationship of ACIM. This, and that they were psychotherapists in relationships with patients, is why ACIM uses relationships as its primary tool.

Remember under "I Need Do Nothing" (the recognition of the Holy Instant) they are told their way will be different from other paths of contemplation and denial. It will be a relationship. And so it was.
will said…
My take on it has been, person to person is the only avenue open to the Holy Spirit. Bill and Helen we're chosen (among other reasons) because Jesus knew they would scribe the course. The fact they we're psychotherapists was incidental.
ACIM Mentor said…
Will, others are our mirrors, that's why relationships are a shortcut. If you know that, you face your own sh*t head-on.

The reason ACIM has a psychological spin is because they were therapists. It was written to them in their language. And Helen's own psychology is all over ACIM (grievances anyone?). It was first for them in their Holy relationship. And then for the rest of us. If you understand the context of ACIM it's much easier to understand. And you'll be less hard on yourself!
will said…
I agree.

I could never work up much interest in reading Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice because the title seemed to indicate that the pamphlet was written for professional people. The idea of using the Course in a professional setting didn't ring true. No one I know will even talk to me about it. Reading it this time around, examples are used for professional situations but it is made clear that in the context of this pamphlet a psychotherapist could be the Holy Spirit or an Advanced Teacher or anyone of us in the right situation.
ACIM Mentor said…
Exactly, Will.
will said…
Slipstream revisited

In the slipstream the Text reads different. It has more depth. Reading it you feel the Holy Spirit guiding your understanding. In the slipstream, behavior changes. For me, I feel the Holy Spirit is guiding me.
It would be easy to discount the slipstream. The ego can make a joke of it. The ego can give a sense of superiority that the slipstream is for those who need it, but you don’t. You’re past needing something like that. The ego can use disdain, confusion, anger to block you. It is the same stuff it always uses.
The Holy Spirit uses people to spread the atonement. The slipstream seems to be a fast track, but I don't know much more than that. To get in the slipstream is, in my opinion, very important for the regulars of this blog. You know Liz, you know the blog. If you can believe that what is happening to Liz is the proof you have been looking for, that the Course is for real, you are in the slipstream. But you must fight off thoughts like, “I already know the Course works.” If you have an ego, you have doubt rolling around somewhere.
Something that may be hard for you to see, but very easy for me, is all this writing I am doing is a result of the slipstream. I believe anyone in the slipstream will experience some accelerated growth that likely will show itself through your personal actions; although it will be different for everyone.
will said…

The biggest weapon I see the ego using to keep people from the slipstream, is that it focuses on persons. If it can keep your focus on Liz or on me since I am writing this, the ego will block your connection with Jesus. Block it in relation to the slipstream.
will said…

“I assure you that I will witness for anyone who lets me, and to whatever extent he permits it. Your witnessing demonstrates your belief, and thus strengthens it. Those who witness for me are expressing, through their miracles, that they have abandoned the belief in deprivation in favor of the abundance they have learned belongs to them.”
Chapter I, Text
Christine said…
Lesson 65! I opened to it last night...it seemed to say the same thing as your blog, Liz!
will said…
All the writing this week and here I am at 1:30am Wednesday morning reading the blog again and seeing I missed seeing some of it. At least I can recognize that I guess...
ACIM Mentor said…
Christine, yes, you could read it from that angle.

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