ACIM Mentor

             Some say that the purpose of the material life for everyone is to realize their Divinity (Christ/Spirit/Truth). I would say that they are sensing what I call the Atonement, the term I get from A Course in Miracles which means correction of the perception of separation from God , which is what time and consciousness are. And they are an illusion. Often, the same teacher will say that your Divine Self is already whole and perfect and that you do not attain It. This is correct, but there’s a contradiction here. Either you are whole and perfect Divinity, or you are that which seeks to attain It. You cannot be both, which is why one must be an illusion. The Atonement is an expression of an idea that is already over . The idea of not-God arose and was undone simultaneously by God’s All-encompassing nature. Only within the idea does it seem like that instant unfolds over time like a story. Your Divinity is your Reality. That in your mind ...

           As a child, I thought Christ was Jesus’ last name until someone cleared this up for me. Somehow it was conveyed to me that Christ was a descriptive designation referring to what set Jesus apart from us ordinary folk. Just before A Course in Miracles came to my awareness, I was introduced to the idea that Christ was a state of consciousness , not the divinity of one man. This made immediate sense to me. I didn’t even question it and understood right away how Christianity had it wrong applying this consciousness to just one man. I also understood that Christ and Buddha were the same consciousness. But just this point is what has made it difficult throughout my life to discuss my path with others not on a like path. To Christians certainly, but even to many non-Christians, Christ refers to Jesus’ divinity and that’s the end of it and any other idea is offensive or delusional. Most people, particularly in the West, have no idea that Divinity...

           It seems to me that in the past decade or so, due to the further proliferation of information on the internet through social media, many A Course in Miracles students have become what I call nonduality generalists . They may or may not consider the Course their primary path but having come to see the similarities in all nondual teachings, they pursue nondual ideas wherever they find them. It can be helpful to read the same thing in different ways, especially when ideas are new to you. Sometimes what you cannot understand from one turn of phrase you understand from another. Many don’t realize that the Course itself says the same thing over and over until they have studied it for a while. What seemed a complicated teaching at first turns out to be very simple. But the Course is dense and difficult for many to understand. For new students, it can be helpful to read the same thing in different words and symbols and come back to the Course wi...

          " It is impossible to accept the holy instant without reservation unless, just for an instant, you are willing to see no past or future. You cannot prepare for it without placing it in the future. Release is given you the instant you desire it…You may be attempting to follow a very long road to the goal you have accepted. It is extremely difficult to reach Atonement by fighting against sin. Enormous effort is expended in the attempt to make holy what is hated and despised. Nor is a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body necessary. All such attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose. Yet the means are tedious and very time consuming, for all of them look to the future for release from a state of present unworthiness and inadequacy...” (T-18.VII.4)   Recently I read The Complete Book of Yoga by Swami Vivekananda. He brought Hindu teachings to the western world in the late ninetee...

            Every now and then I have a client who says it seems lonely that in God there is only God. Ah! But loneliness is only possible when you are one among others, I explain. If all you’ve ever known is Onlyness, there is no sense of absence to make you feel lonely. Or I point out that loneliness is an experience of lack and God is Abundant Wholeness. There is no lack in God, not even as an idea. To be the One and Only is to be Whole beyond what can be conceived of in consciousness, in which wholeness is always relative to lack. Sometimes, though, I used to wonder myself what it was to be the Only. I have had many Oneness experiences of expansion, where Subject and Object are both my Self. But I know from direct Revelation of God that in God there is no Subject and Object the way there always is in consciousness. Yet, I can remember what I experience in Revelation, but not recall it to my experience. As Onlyness-without-object was beyond my imagin...