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 in the lessons, when the appropriate approach
to the lessons for them would be as an invitation to Spirit to come into
their awareness, to bring the described experiences. This requires humility and
an open mind.
In fact, even
those who do discern Spirit do not have the experiences described in the
lessons, because those specifics were not meant for them. For everyone but
Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford, the Workbook is a guide, a suggestion, not a
description of your specific experiences, and some of the instructions are not
even applicable to everyone. The Workbook is meant to kickstart your mind
training, but not to replace Spirit as your Teacher and Guide. The ideas in it are
important, yes, but the Workbook means to instill habits of meditation and
turning inward to Spirit throughout the day. As it points out in the
introduction to the Workbook, the formal, structured training program is only one
year, and in the end—over five days—it leaves you with an appeal to Spirit:
This holy
instant would I give to You.
Be You in
charge. For I would follow You,
Certain that
Your direction gives me peace.
That posture of
following Spirit, not the Course itself, is what the Course means
to foster. The Course is a means, not an end. So, it is a different book
at different stages of your awareness of Spirit. For some, it brings them to
the awareness of Spirit. If you come to the Course with that awareness
or have developed that awareness with the Course, it becomes the means
for Spirit to reach you and teach you. When you are firm in your awareness of
Spirit and It is teaching you directly, the Course may just be a
familiar and comforting read. Or, at that point, you may just put it aside.
There is a time
for study and practice. But they are the means to develop and enhance your
relationship with Spirit, not replace it.
>>>>
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Comments
I have read her poetry which seems to indicate that some of it rubbed off.
I would be cautious if you decide to read this book.There is an agenda.
I did find that Bill Thetford wrote (along with Julius Finegold) a book called Choose Once Again. It is formatted like a daily reflection book having his favorite passages from ACIM.
As an aside, I have been going through a period of learning about the Holy Instant the past few months. On receiving Bills book in the mail the second entry perfectly encapsulated all I had been learning and practicing! I was God smacked and had to share it with you in last weeks comment section.
Like the highly individualized curriculum that inspires it, the Course is multidimensional in its lived experience. Many read the Course and do the Workbook more than once, often revisiting it over a period of years. Who among its readership has not re-read its passages and found new recognition brought to awareness, or, been frustrated with it at other times (including Helen)? It's part of the learning process.
The more one is able to open to the multidimensional nature of Spirit guided practice, and the unlearning part of the process that deconstructs our personal identifies, the more expanded one's awareness of unity consciousness becomes.
The Course's Introduction describes the universal experience of necessity toward which its learning is geared.
Spirit is everything; there is nothing that is not Spirit. This is the non dual statement of reality that expresses "nothing unreal exists". Spiritual practice as a replacement for Spirit is a statement in duality that perceives practice as separate from all-encompassing Spirit, a perception of degrees of separation that somehow installs a threat to what's real.
For transfer of Text training toward universal experience, the Workbook would have us consistently generalize its lessons. Detailed in its Introduction, only through consistent application without exception can true perception (Christ Vision) be realized and our Inheritance received:
Nothing real can be threatened
Nothing unreal exists
Herein lies the peace of God.
We must be talking about two different things.
Oh dear... You can only enter spiritual practice joined with spirit. That's what it is all about. Spirit teaches.