ACIM Mentor

Ask: How does one turn their thoughts over to the Holy Spirit?

2012-02-01T08:48:00.000-08:00

Throughoutthe Course Text and lessons there isthe directive to turn our ego thoughts over to the Holy Spirit. I have a verydifficult situation which is making me very unhappy. I know it is the result ofmy need for a special relationship. I know on some level I am resistingchanging my thoughts and the root of this is probably feeling the need tobe loved and this most likely goes back to feeling I lost God's love. Thedifficulty I am having is "turning it to the Holy Spirit" How does onedo that? I am practically begging and I am still feeling like this person owesme more demonstrations of love. This is not the first time I have asked theHoly Spirit to take some ego thought away but I rarely feel peace. I feel likethe ego has a strangle hold on me and I cannot just think these things away…– MM

TheHoly Spirit (Teacher of Truth) is the thought system that represents Truth inyour mind. When you “turn” a situation “over” to It you are saying that youwant to come at the situation from that thought system instead of the personalthought system (ego). You have to be willing to let go of the way that you lookat the situation now. You have to be willing to look at it in a new way.

Itsounds like you have done this. You have become aware that your need for lovefrom this person represents your deeper feeling that you do not have True Love (God’sLove) within you. Sometimes when we ask the Holy Spirit for help we are given athought that brings immediate relief. Sometimes we become aware of a falsebelief that is going to take some time to work out.

Inyour case you continue to look for demonstrations of love from this person eventhough you know that they cannot supply the True Love that you feel you lackwithin yourself. Even if they behaved as you wanted it would not be enough andyou would continue to feel that they or someone else was not supplying what youneed. You understand this intellectually but your experience has not yetshifted for you to be truly aware of this. So your focus now needs to be onbuilding your awareness of Love within you. You can do this by inviting Loveinto your awareness through formal meditation daily and by turning inward toLove throughout the day and reminding yourself that you have all that you needwithin yourself. And when you find yourself feeling needy or empty or demandingof others remind yourself that they cannot supply the Love that you seek. Thenturn inward to find True Love where It really is.

Growingyour awareness of Love within is a process, so be patient and gentle withyourself. In time you will feel whole within yourself and no longer feel a needto demand anything from others. You will simply enjoy them as they are.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: How do I use ACIM when others won't forgive me?

2012-01-25T09:40:00.000-08:00

Myadult children have refused to speak to me for years. I have explained my pastactions and I have apologized but this has not brought about a change in myrelationship with them. How can I use what ACIM teaches to change my thinking about this? – Anonymous

Bytaking responsibility and apologizing you have taken steps to undo the guilt inyour mind that the personal thought system (ego) may have been using as anobstacle to peace. This clears the way to peace for you. But whether or notyour children want peace is up to them. Every mind has peace in it, but mostare not willing to work through their obstacles to peace. Most continue to seekpeace through grudges and victimhood rather than through an awareness of Truthand the releasing of the personal story.

Frankly,even if your children came around and forgave you the personal thought systemin your mind would find something else lacking in the personal life about whichto gripe. It can never be lastingly happy, because it is a thought system oflack. This is why personal peace is not true inner peace. And this is why theonly way to peace is to release the personal thought system, not to try to fixit or to make it happy. If you want inner peace, no matter what is happening inthe personal self’s life, you must grow your awareness of the Truth within you.

Ifyou find that you cannot let your children go and this continues to be anobstacle to peace for you, then you need to look into your own mind for thethoughts, beliefs, and attachments that are obstacles to peace. You will wantto invite the Holy Spirit into this process.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: What does "I am under no laws but God's" mean?

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

I don't understand what the workbook says about "I amunder no laws but God's", particularly when it comes to economiclaws. A part of me wants not to worry about money but another part says Ihave to. This quote from the Course makes me feel free, but I wonder if it willmake me irresponsible as well. – SD

Thepersonal thought system (ego) teaches that if you follow certain rules in theworld you will be happy, peaceful, complete, etc. What A Course in Miracles is saying is that your peace and happiness arenot determined by anything in the universe of form but by your awareness of God.God is the eternal Truth in you.

Whatyou are seeing here is that the personal thought system (ego) equates worryingwith responsibility. But in what way is worrying responsible? It is a waste oftime and energy and it certainly does not lead to inner peace. The personalthought system values worrying because it distracts you from Truth (God).That’s its only use for anything in the universe of form.

Whenyou are centered in Truth you will know what you have to do to take care of thepersonal self. If you are not yet able to center yourself in Truth use thepersonal self’s concerns to become aware of the Teacher of Truth (Holy Spirit)within you by bringing personal concerns (like money issues) to It. It willalways answer you. This is how you will learn that It is always here with you.And it is this awareness that will bring you peace.

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Learn about The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: How do I use guidance to awaken rather than to dream a better dream?

2012-01-11T08:10:00.000-08:00

...WhenI hear people talk about guidance it seems to be involved in a lot of differentaspects and areas - I'm not sure if that makes sense - but I guess thequestion is about how to get in touch with guidance and what real guidance isbeing used for - how to use it to awaken rather than in a way that the personalmind might use it to keep you in the dream and "fixing" up thedream? I'm not really clear how to ask about this because I thinkit's probably quite an in-depth topic in the sense of really receiving guidanceand how guidance can be distorted and misused and also guidance for morepersonal activities or how the body is utilized and more deeper clearing of themind and really joining with the presence of God and releasing identity withthe personal. – AL

Innerpeace results when you are aware of Truth. So when you decide that you wantinner peace you are ready to grow your awareness of Truth. This is where the Teacherof Truth (Holy Spirit) comes in. The Teacher of Truth is the thought system inyour mind that represents the Truth in you. It is your guide to growing your awarenessof Truth. It is the bridge in your mind between Truth and your belief that youare in a universe of form. It will be in your mind until you completely releasethe personal thought system. Then you will no longer need another thoughtsystem to counteract it because you will no longer believe in form. You will be Truth.

Whenyou choose inner peace you decide to shift your relationship to the universe ofform. With the personal thought system the universe of form is seen as thesource of peace and happiness. But the Teacher of Truth uses your awareness ofa universe of form as a means to make you aware that lasting peace andhappiness are already within you. Every personal goal and relationship andsituation becomes a classroom where you learn to observe your own mind andrelease the personal thought system’s judgments and attachments, which areobstacles to peace.

Youare not going to trust the Teacher of Truth right off. Until you experience Ityou won’t have an honest basis to even believe that It is real. But if you takea chance and open yourself to the Teacher of Truth, It will meet you where youare. This means that while the world is so real to you It will help you with goalsand decisions and problems in the world. In time, as you experience It more andmore, your trust will grow. You will experience (words, formless ideas,intuitions) the Teacher of Truth more clearly and if you truly want peace, youwill allow It to redirect you to observing your thoughts and how they causeyour sense of conflict or peace. Even when you are fully aware that the worldis an idea in your mind there will still be practical decisions to make and youwill always be able to give these to the Teacher of Truth so that you do nothave to be burdened with them.

TheTeacher of Truth is always with you, and has always been with you, even whenyou weren’t aware of It. You are in charge of your relationship with It. Youwill accept as much peace as you want, so you decide how much guidance youwant. You can decide to simply make a better life for the personal self andcall on the Teacher of Truth only in relation to that goal. But if you wanttotal peace then you will pass through that stage and naturally reach the stagewhere you allow the Teacher of Truth to lead the way instead. Then It will leadyou to releasing the personal identity, so It will lead you to total peace.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: How do you help someone change a hurtful interpretation?

2012-01-04T09:40:00.001-08:00

Ihave been trying to help someone and have been trying to have them, when theysee something disturbing, to tell the Holy Spirit that you are willing to seethis differently. Last week she saw a beggar yelling at his dog. She has aparticular problem with suffering dogs of the world. I tried to explain how weperceive and then interpret what we perceive. She wrote back “what about whenyou see something hurtful or sad when it is obvious and not an interpretation.”She got me there. The problem is it all results in her giving large amounts ofmoney and it completely ruins her day and results in a deep depression that canlast a week or most likely longer. During this time she can do nothing. I thinkyou get the picture. How can I answer her comments?... – DH

Ifyou want inner peace then you want to sort out fact from interpretation(projection of meaning). You never respond to facts, but to yourinterpretations. Your interpretations always tie in some way to your own storyfor the personal self with which you indentify. Usually, it is some form of“victim” story. Or it may tie into a role that you play and that you value. Thevalue in your seeing this is in seeing how your thoughts make up the world inwhich you seem to find yourself. You don’t really live in the world of form;you live in your thoughts about it. When you accept this then you are empoweredto change your mind and therefore your experience from conflict to peace.

Inthis situation a person yelled at their dog. “Hurtful” and “sad” are yourfriend’s interpretations (if she used those words to refer to this particularsituation). These thoughts are to what she is responding and they lead to herdepression. She thinks her thoughts are facts. No doubt she identifies with thevulnerability of dogs, which are at the mercy of humans, just as she feels sheis at the mercy of the world at large.

Thereare many ways in which to interpret anything in the universe of form because itis neutral. But A Course in Miraclessimplifies things greatly by teaching that what isn’t love is a call for love.The experience of love or the call for love is always in the mind of the perceiver.But in the beginning most see these calls “out there” in the images that theyperceive because they believe that their experience comes from the images and notfrom their own mind. This is a beginning, however, in that choosing to see acall for love at least replaces their initial interpretation and teaches themthat they can choose to see things differently. This opens the process for themto eventually accept that their experience of love or a call for love can comeonly from their own mind.

Generallyin a situation where another feels attacked I help them to understand thattheir perceived attacker was coming from their own pain. They were calling forlove. Their attack was not personal. But what makes your friend’s situation sodifficult is that she takes personally situations that do not even involve her.Someone yells at a dog and now she is hurt and saddened, not just in passing,but for many days. She has made herself a victim of the beggar when the beggarwas not even addressing her.

Oneobsesses on the perceived pain of others to avoid dealing with their own pain.Your friend is not yet ready to ask the Holy Spirit for another way to look atthings. She would have to be willing to look inward to become aware of the HolySpirit. And she is not going to be willing to do that until she is willing tolook at her own perceived problems. At this stage traditional psychotherapy isprobably called for. You can encourage her to get help, which is her choice tomake. And in the meantime you can be her friend simply by listening andunderstanding. Sometimes, “That sounds very painful; I’m sorry you’re hurting”is all the love that someone is ready to hear.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog email it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: When is personal love an obstacle to True Love?

2011-12-28T12:08:00.000-08:00

I had written and received the most wonderful response fromyou in regard to feeling deep love and joy when interacting with my familywhich consists of my husband of almost 20 years and our two pugs. We are at ourhappiest when we are all together. I felt guilty because I felt I was"loving" myself deeper into the dream and your advice was that myfamily is a manifestation of the love I feel within and that I shouldgratefully continue appreciating and loving them. I felt complete release fromguilt but it has returned. There are moments of joy we share that just seem sofull and wonderful and I can't help but think I'm ignoring the text andstrengthening the illusion.

Thispassage, from The Message of ACIM, specifically illustrates my fear:

"Do not make any illusion your friend, becauseif you do, it will take the place of the Holy Spirit, Which God has made youronly Friend in Truth."

How do Iprocess the love I feel without going in the opposite direction of the one Ispend most of my day striving for? Are they my illusions? Am I theirs? Is my"love" for them shutting the Holy Spirit out? – SB

Innerpeace is the result of being aware of the Truth (God) within you and ofnothing else. What that quote means is that you do not want to make anything inthe universe of form rise to the level of Truth for you or it will become anobstacle to peace for you. Something rises to the level of Truth for you whenyou think that it is the source of your peace and happiness. If you have givenyour husband and dogs the role of being the source of your happiness and youfind that you cannot be aware of Truth because of your feelings for them, thenyour feelings for them are obstacles to peace for you. But if you find that youcan enjoy them and you can still be aware of Truth, then the love in yourrelationships with them manifests the Love within you.

Yourline “There aremoments of joy we share that just seem so full and wonderful and I can't helpbut think I'm ignoring the text and strengthening the illusion” is very telling. It shows that you expect that being awareof Truth will lead to personal lack and unhappiness, and since you areexperiencing fullness and joy you figure you must be doing something wrong.This is what the personal thought system (ego) teaches to scare you away fromTruth! It teaches that Truth will lead you to an empty personal life. But infact when you are aware of Truth this awareness manifests as a healthy,bountiful, loving personal life.

Remember,you are mind. The personal life is an effect of, or an idea in, your mind. Thepersonal self’s unfolding story reflects your choice of thought system(Truth/Holy Spirit or not-Truth/ego). When you seek through the personal life forlasting love and peace and happiness you never find them because the universeof form is only an empty effect. But when you are aware of Truth you are awareof eternal Happiness and Love. Your mind now causes the effect of a personalself whose needs are met, who has meaningful employment, and is inrelationships that are happy and loving.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: What is your advice for handling distractions during meditation?

2011-12-21T12:13:00.001-08:00

I've been a student of ACIM for nine years. I very recently was led to your plain language versions and feel my progress had been sped up immeasurably. However my meditation honeymoon period seems to be over. The first 2 weeks after reading "The Four Habits for Inner Peace" I easily fell into a wonderful mindless state and barely noticed the hour that seemed to just fly by. Now, most mornings…all manner of things begin to happen…barking…, the phone rings, a leaf blower...a car alarm suddenly ignites…I get a coughing or yawning fit, short unexplainable stabs of pain manifest in parts of my body etc. It's comical!
Sometimes I get frustrated and give up and feel guilty, thinking my progress has been arrested. Sometimes I just smile and wait a bit till everything calms down and continue, able to ignore the illusory external chaos. My questions concerning this are...
What is your advice when all of these distractions manifest. Should I stop and wait until later? If I don't meditate that day is my progress hampered? Do you meditate every single day without fail? – SB

The goal of meditation is not to be perfect about it but to grow your awareness of Truth so that you will be at peace. There is no reason for guilt if you do not meditate or you do not meditate perfectly. Who are you meditating for? You can only be doing it for you. There is no authoritative god to disappoint because you are not meditating perfectly. And you can be aware of Truth anytime. This is a matter of willingness, not of effort. So your progress is not impeded if occasionally you do not meditate or do not meditate well.
The Teacher of Truth in you (Holy Spirit) never inspires guilt, so when guilt shows up like this know that it comes from the personal thought system (ego). Don’t let this guilt pass without finding the thoughts behind it. You believe those thoughts; that’s why you accept the guilt. And they are obstacles to peace so you want to bring them to the light and release them.
The vast majority of days I meditate at least once out of a strong desire to do so. Communing with Truth (God) is the purpose of my life, so it is the purpose of every day for me. I turn inward to Truth several times a day. On those rare days that I do skip a formal meditation it is either because my day has been so meditative that it is simply not necessary or I am so strongly in the personal thought system that I know to not bother. The latter case is extremely rare because I’ve found that I like to make the attempt even if I think I’m not going to successfully quiet my mind and experience Truth.
Meditation can be used to process, to bring something to the Teacher of Truth in your mind, and/or to commune with Truth. The latter is the ultimate goal and you can really do it any time. Throughout the day take moments to remember Truth and sometimes it will be in one of those moments that you feel the connection, rather than during a formal meditation.
What you described is pretty typical: sometimes you will let distractions pass; other times you will allow yourself to be distracted. But the latter does not matter. Truth is not changed because you are distracted. This is of what you can remind yourself at the time. Later, when you feel more open to Truth, try meditating again.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: How do I approach "private thoughts"?

2011-12-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

…I haven't been doing "the Course" for very long, but I do seem to get caught up in "my thoughts". At the beginning of doing the Course, are we just to be concentrating on releasing fearful, anxious, jealous, so called "lower" states of mind? Sometimes, when I am daydreaming about my new bedroom furniture (for example), I become aware that I am thinking "private thoughts" and not thinking with the Holy Spirit. This is causing me a good bit of hyper vigilance, which does not make for a peaceful day!!
…practically, when the Course says we want neither the "good nor the bad" thoughts, that confuses me. How do you suggest approaching these so-called "good thoughts'? Or, am I jumping way ahead of myself to a goal that is not within reach for me at this time? – SL

You do not have to force your mind to stay focused on Truth (God) all day long. This is not realistic, and frankly there are times when you need to be focused on what the body is doing (when it is running a chain-saw, for example). If you want inner peace, you simply want to return your mind to Truth again and again throughout the day.
For example, when you find your mind running off with a meaningless distraction, like fantasizing about your new bedroom furniture, just let those thoughts go, come into the present, turn your mind inward, and take a moment to commune with Truth. Remind yourself that the Truth is What is True. Feel yourself relax. Then go about your day, taking these moments when you remember to.
The thoughts in the Workbook are important for new students, but what you are going to take away from the Workbook is the practice that it instills in you after a year. These are the habits of communing with Truth daily, watching how your thoughts contribute to your experience of peace or conflict, and taking moments throughout the day to remember Truth.
The more you open yourself to and experience Truth the quieter your mind will become. This quiet is the peace that you crave. You will then recognize that all of the personal thought system’s (ego’s) thoughts, whether it judges them as “good” or “bad”, are obstacles to peace. They are just meaningless babble that obscures the peace that is in your mind now.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: Do two people have to consciously decide to have a Holy relationship?

2011-12-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

I have a close female friend my ego brings to mind a hundred times a day (thoughts of intimacy between us). The ego wishes to be closer to her but, even though we have not talked about it, it seems to me that we have both turned off the possibility of the experience of sexual intimacy. Me because I have made the decision to be faithful to my wife and her because she simply would not be an adulteress.
We are both dedicated ACIM students who share a mutual goal of diminishing the ego and being more of what we truly are. While picking up a book for her one day I found Robert Perry's pamphlet on Holy Relationships. This is the first time I remember that subject coming into my awareness. I felt after reading it that at some level beyond conscious thought we have already made the decision to be in a Holy Relationship and it is just now coming to mind. Do two people have to consciously decide to have a Holy Relationship? Is there any value (to the degree that it would help us awaken) in speak to her of my ego thoughts in an effort to go beyond the ego together? I already do my best to see her as sinless no matter what and as what I think of as the “One Mind working together” creating experience for spiritual growth... – MW

It is fascinating what the personal thought system (ego) will block out. You say you are a dedicated A Course in Miracles student yet you were unaware of the Holy relationship until you read another pamphlet about it. The entire Course is about a Holy relationship! It was written directly to two people (Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford) in one and once it formally introduces the Holy relationship in Chapter 17 it never lets up on the subject. The Holy relationship is the Course’s primary teaching tool.
I have experienced the Holy relationship in two ways. The first was what I call a mystical Holy relationship where I experienced another literally as my Self. I was not consciously aware of making the choice for this, but I must’ve been open to it on some level for it to come into my awareness. The first lesson in it for me was that everything that the Course teaches about what is real and what is not real is true. Then, when the other moved away and my experience of Oneness did not diminish when I thought of her, I learned that the Holy relationship is really with the Truth (God) within me. My relationship with this other was only the “doorway” to my awareness of Truth. So I learned to make my relationship with the Teacher of Truth (Holy Spirit) my primary relationship and all of my personal relationships then became manifestations of this.
My other experience of the Holy relationship is what I call the practical Holy relationship. This is what I experience today with my wife, Courtney. She is not a student of the Course, but she is on her own spiritual path (12-step/Christian). The decision for a Holy relationship was conscious on our part, though she did not label it as such in the beginning. This type of Holy relationship is where the real day-to-day lessons lie and where I wanted my first Holy relationship to go. It occurs when you practice what I just mentioned: putting your awareness of Truth first. You can experience Holiness without another being aware of It, but for a relationship to be Holy in the sense that the Course teaches you both need to be aware of Truth. Then you can each and together choose to put aside the personal thought system’s (ego’s) projections and choose to come from Truth in the relationship instead. This is what makes the relationship Holy.
For a relationship to be Holy it requires that you be completely open and honest first with yourself, then with the Teacher of Truth, and then, if you are guided, with the other. So how much you share with this other woman about your feelings for her is something that you want to discuss with the Teacher of Truth within you. Your relationship is under Its guidance now.
I recommend you re-read Chapter 17, perhaps with this woman. Also, be aware that a Holy relationship is a very intense classroom and that the personal thought system will be very, very threatened. In the beginning its attacks will be relentless, as you are experiencing with these fantasies. If you understand that this is what is occurring then you can support each other through this. (You can read about this phase in The Healed Relationship in Chapter 17). This can be an opportunity for you to learn to hear the personal thought system without actually listening to it. You can let its fantasies run in the background as you go about your day. Eventually, without your attention, they will fade away. Then the personal thought system will find a new way to distract you! But everything that comes up will be a useful lesson, if you give it to the Teacher of Truth.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: How can I find my life-partner?

2011-11-30T09:46:00.000-08:00

…How can a single person connect to their life partner? I have been single for several years and... I have learned I want a life partner more than a soul mate, I think I am looking for someone who can stand to be with me and I with them for more than 10 minutes at a time; someone to share the dream together while in the dream world. –JP

It is good for your peace of mind that you are being honest with yourself about what you want. So many A Course in Miracles students make the mistake of repressing personal desires in the guilty belief that they are “wrong”. In Truth (God) personal desires are not “wrong” or “right”; they are nothing. But while you are aware of a world they can be either obstacles to or means for peace. The personal thought system (ego) uses them as ends in themselves, so they become obstacles to peace for you. But the Teacher of Truth (Holy Spirit) within you uses personal desires as means for peace if you share them with It. So the first step is for you to be honest with yourself so you can be honest with the Teacher of Truth: “I want someone to share my life with. I’m open and willing to follow Your guidance so this can be used for peace.”
Of course, you have to do more than say this. You have to be truly open and willing. Remember, if you want peace the Teacher of Truth must be your primary relationship. All personal relationships will then be a loving manifestation of your one relationship with Love.
After sharing this goal with the Teacher of Truth go about your life and pursue your natural goals and interests. This is how you meet people with whom you share common values. Let your friends and family know that you are looking for someone with whom to share your life so they can look for you as well. And you can also try dating websites. If you are interested in a serious relationship then try one of those sites that are geared toward matching you with someone with the same values and relationship goals. In other words, take the same actions anyone would when looking for a life-partner while staying honest with yourself and being open to the Teacher of Truth.
Keep in mind that just because you want a life-partner it does not mean that you are ready for a life-partner right now. Given to the Teacher of Truth a life-partnership is an intense, accelerated class for attaining inner peace. (Just as, given to the personal thought system, it is an intense class for maintaining conflict in your mind!).You may have lessons to learn before you are ready for that level of commitment to peace. So you may date for a while before you find the one who is also ready to join you in that intense classroom. All relationships, though, will be useful lessons if you share them with the Teacher of Truth.
You can be certain that if there is something that you really want the Teacher of Truth will guide you through the lessons and growth that you need until you are ready to accept that for which you asked.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: Are we told what our task is?

2011-11-23T08:20:00.000-08:00

I am a beginner; still, things have changed so radically for me, and so quickly. I am now at odds about how to earn my living. Are we told what our task is? It must be a manifestation of His Will, but how do we find out? Is it one with “the light of the world”? Will it be unveiled to us? – L

A Course in Miracles states that, if you want inner peace, your one responsibility is to “accept the Atonement for yourself”. The “Atonement” in the Course means correction of your perception that you are separate from God (Truth). This is accomplished through your becoming aware of God within you and your forgiving, or releasing, the thoughts that are obstacles to your staying aware of God within you.
So your “task” does not involve what the personal self does in the universe of form but what you do with your mind. And you become aware of God again in the course of an ordinary, everyday life because it is there that you run into the obstacles (guilt, fear, attachment) to being aware of God that you need to release.
Your growing awareness of God and forgiving is a process. It begins by you inviting the Holy Spirit (the Teacher of Truth in your mind) into your life where you are now. You do not have to change or to give up anything that you do not want to. The Holy Spirit meets you where you are, becoming your Constant Companion if you are willing. If you want inner peace you want to open up every aspect of your life to the Holy Spirit. In time, as your awareness of and trust in the Holy Spirit grows, you will find it natural to step back and let It lead the way. This practice will eventually lead you to experiencing the line between you and the Holy Spirit blurring. You will no longer experience the Holy Spirit as Other, but simply as the Truth in you. You will be living in “the Atonement”.
Your values will change along the way and so you will find yourself motivated to make changes in the personal self’s life that support your new values. This will happen more than once, and will reflect in the universe of form your change of mind. This might be what you are experiencing now. There can be long periods of feeling disoriented about the personal self’s life and this is exactly the type of thing that you want to share with the Holy Spirit. You want to share both your disorientation and your practical questions. The Holy Spirit will use everything that you give to It to make you aware that It is always with you and undo your sense of separation from God.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

The "Separation" Is Over, revisited

2011-11-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

There is no question this week for "Ask ACIM Mentor" so here is an article from June 23, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/06/separation-is-over.html

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: How do I find peace in a relationship where I fear to be myself?

2011-11-09T09:46:00.001-08:00

I have a relationship with someone that seems to trigger a fear to be myself. I haven't felt this way with anyone in a long time. I have been asking to see only the face of Christ in her and have had many experiences of just that. I love her unconditionally and am not threatened by anything she seems to do. Yet, I still withhold my true thoughts from her because I am still afraid of what I have perceived about her, which is that she is degrading and not connected to humility in a way that I can relate to. I just feel so separated from her and can't seem to find a way to connect and disarm myself and her. I want to very deeply, but every time I seem to be making headway, I realize that she and I are talking different languages and we both haven't got a clue what the other is going through or saying.
I do not leave the relationship because it seems to me that since I feel such conflict in the relationship that I have not learned what I need to learn. I am willing to stay and walk through the circle of fear to get to the other side. I do see the Holy Spirit in her and am not fooled by our ego's dance together. I just wonder if there is more. The conflict and miscommunication that is always between us seems so unneeded and a waste of my attention.
I know that she is just an outside picture of my inward condition, but what now? OK so I'm in conflict. My ego and the Holy Spirit can not communicate with each other. So What? I know that. – EP

If you want inner peace, then the first thing you want to determine when you experience conflict is what is fact and what is projection of meaning coming from the personal thought system’s (ego’s) story for you. For example, you say that this woman with whom you are involved is “degrading”. Is it a fact that she says things meaning to degrade you or others or are you interpreting her words through your personal expectations based on past experience? You can usually determine fact from projection by your own emotional response. When it is fact you observe it without strong emotional charge and without taking it personally (“Wow, that was not a very nice thing to say. I wonder why she feels she has to put me down?”). You are able to deal with the person in a charge-neutral way. (“I was expressing my feelings and not attacking you.”). When it is projection there is a strong emotional charge and you take it personally (“She’s attacking me! Here I go again with another person treating me bad…”). You are defensive and you attack back. You and the other end up in a vicious cycle of fear and attack.
If you find that you are observing fact then it seems clear that you are with someone who feels a need to put others down to feel good about herself. Your options are to accept her as she is and learn to not take her lack of self-respect personally or to leave and find healthier friends. If you find that you are projecting, then you do indeed have something through which to work. You can observe, with the Teacher of Truth (Holy Spirit) in your mind, the “story” that you tell yourself about this woman and how it ties into your personal victim-story. Then you can choose to let it go in the recognition that this story is not Truth.
It may turn out that it is a fact that she means to put you down and that you are also projecting. When you notice a negative pattern in your relationships one or both of these are happening: You are interpreting others’ actions through the lens of your victim-story or you are attracted to people who will help you to perpetuate your victim-story.
There are a couple of contradictions in what you wrote. You say that you are not threatened by anything this woman does, but you are afraid to be honest with her because you feel that she degrades you. So you do feel threatened by her. You also say that you are not fooled by the ego’s dance between you, but you are distracted by the conflict, which means you must believe in it. Being aware of Truth does not mean that you have to force yourself to stay in a conflicted relationship. Sometimes the lesson is, “This is not the relationship for me.” If you stay because you think you “should” then you are using the relationship to martyr yourself.
When you are aware of the Truth (God) within you, you feel whole and complete. This sets you free in your relationships because you don’t need anything from others. You can be yourself and you are comfortable allowing others to be themselves. But this does not mean that you want to be around everyone. There are only three motivations for staying around disrespectful personalities. One is practical, like a co-worker or relative you cannot avoid all of the time. You make the conscious choice to put up with them because the benefits of doing so (like having a job or maintaining peace in the family during the holidays) offset the temporary discomfort their behavior causes you. You set appropriate boundaries to limit their disrespectful behavior toward you and/or your contact with them. Another is because you feel you need something from them that you think you lack, like love. So in essence, you are disrespecting yourself through your relationship with them. And the only other reason to stay around others who do not treat you with respect is because you want to play the martyr.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: Where does the spirit world come into the teachings of ACIM?

2011-11-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

I am working through ACIM and have not found any other teaching that has felt so right as ACIM… Where does the spirit world come into the teachings of ACIM? Is there a spirit world or is this also created by ourselves within the dream? Is it really past relatives that people try to connect to?...The spirit world seems to be the only thing created that we believe is beyond our world and seems to be the place we all end up after this dream has what we see as ended…-AR

You are correct that A Course in Miracles never refers to a “spirit world”. It is indeed just a concept of the personal thought system (ego). Like the idea of “reincarnation” it is meant to give to the personal self an aspect of Truth (God): eternality. It is the personal thought system’s attempt to have you believe that the personal self, or at least some aspect of it called a “spirit”, is real. Actually, all sense of individuality falls away in the awareness of Truth. There is only one Spirit (God, Truth).
Yes, some people try to connect to relatives who have passed away. Remember, all personal selves are only ideas. This is why when the body onto which you projected a personal self is no longer around it still remains in your mind. So sometimes when one feels they have something unfinished with one who is no longer around they do have an experience of a visitation from a “spirit” of the late loved one, often in a dream. This is really just their mind’s way of manifesting the choice to heal the relationship.
Also, the Teacher of Truth (Holy Spirit) in your mind will use whatever symbols are meaningful for you to reach you when you have asked for help. Some minds have a hard time with the idea that the Truth is in them. This can be resistance to this idea out of a sense of unworthiness or simply because they find the idea too abstract. They need an image onto which to focus, like an “ascended master” or even a loved one who brings a “message” from “beyond”. These are just temporary means that the Truth in you may use to reach you until you are ready to accept the Truth directly.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: What is the difference between God's Love and personal love?

2011-10-26T10:49:00.000-07:00

What are the differences in the love for God and the love for another 'special relationship' man / woman / child. I know one difference would be conditional love for another body and unconditional love between God and myself. But is it the same kind of love? My ACIM group says they are different and it is too bad they use the same word. I think the love between myself and my spouse is the same as, albeit, a small representation of God's love for me. – RQ

The most obvious difference between the Love of God and personal love is that God’s Love simply is and personal love is always directed toward an object (person, animal, or thing).
God’s Love is God’s Being, which means It is your True Being. The experience of It is radiating joy and peace, without beginning or ending. It is an experience of wholeness that has no correlation in the personal experience.
God’s Love is introduced to you as “God loves you” when you are identifying with a personal self not because God’s Love is really directed toward the personal self that you think of as you but because you still think in terms of God as a separate being rather than as your Being. It is stated this way to reassure you that your perception of yourself as guilty and unworthy of God’s Love is a fallacy. This motivates you to open yourself to the experience of God, which is the experience of Love, or joyous wholeness and peace. The more you experience God the more the boundary of a separate self falls away and you realize that God is the One Being that is. God is your Being, so you are Love.
My dictionaries refer to (personal) “love” as deep devotion or affection or regard for another or others; a fond attachment or kind feeling toward another or others. While God’s Love is unconditional because It simply is, you can see by these definitions that personal love is always conditional. Personal love forms only under certain conditions, like an unconscious resemblance to another “loved” one, familiarity, similarity, needs being met, etc. Even a “kind feeling” is only present in the personal self when the personal self is in a good mood!
When you are in touch with God’s Love within you, you exist in a state of Love, or wholeness. This Love is not inspired by anyone outside of you, nor do you direct It toward an object. It simply is. It manifests as a radiating “kind feeling” everywhere, without boundaries or conditions, but from you, not from the personal self, which always has boundaries and conditions. Your awareness of God’s Love within you also manifests as loving personal relationships showing up for the personal self in the forms that it needs them.
You know that you are in touch with God’s Love within you when your attachments to others are light and joyous. You see your relationships with others as the manifestation of God’s Love within you, rather than as the source of love for you. So you are free to allow others to be themselves, without needing to manipulate or to change them so that you can be happy and whole. If others must move on you let them go with perhaps temporary regret but not with crushing loss. You may miss them, but you know that you will not be lost without them, because Love is always with you.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: About "teachers of God"...

2011-10-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

From the point of view of A Course in Miracles, only one teacher of God is needed to save the world. According to the Course, all the rest would be the ego's arrogant specialness. ACIM also talks about The Hundredth Monkey Theory of Salvation which states that a certain number of people are needed to tip the scales to favor of salvation, and as a corollary, that there is some sort of divine plan to have this done by certain special people… Speaking for myself, nothing wrong with this The Hundredth Monkey Theory, except that I happen to believe in the concept of the critical-masses of people needed to tip the scale of salvation of the world.Perhaps, that is why, I believe that part three of A Course in Miracles is devoted to these God's teachers who are destined to tip the scale in favor of salvation of the world. I read somewhere that Helen, the scribe of the Course, mentioned about the "Celestial Speed Up" process. The manual for Teachers was written for these God's Teachers. Can you please explain your views on this subject? – JJ

There is only one split mind thinking about a world so there is only one mind that needs to let go of this thought. This one split mind takes many forms, but they are all the same in content, so they are all the same. This is why it takes only one mind to “save the world”. When any seemingly-individual mind remembers Truth it is the one split mind remembering Truth. This is why your “sole responsibility is to accept the Atonement for yourself.” (Remember, “atonement” in the A Course in Miracles means “correction”).
It is important to clarify what the Course means by the word “world”. Just as with so many other words, the Course does not use the word “world” in the conventional sense. It is not speaking of the universe of form, but of your thoughts about (perception of) a universe of form. This is what makes up the “world” for each seemingly-individual mind and why each personal self really does live in their own world. So by “saving the world” the Course is not speaking of changing the universe of form to somehow reflect Truth but “saving” your mind by correcting how it thinks about a universe of form.
The “Hundredth Monkey Theory” is never mentioned in the Course. With a little cursory googling I found that this theory is an observed phenomenon among monkeys where when a certain behavior is accepted by a certain number (critical mass) of monkeys in a group the behavior spreads spontaneously to other related groups of monkeys. This is not at all what the Course teaches. The Course is concerned with mind, not behavior. This circles back to what was stated in the first paragraph.
The “teachers of God” that the Course refers to are not special people but anyone whose mind is open to God. And you choose to open your mind to God because God is Truth and you can only be at peace being aware of Truth. If you have any other motivation, like “you have to do your part to save the world”, be aware of the guilt lurking behind this thought. This implies that the universe of form is real and has an effect on God, so it implies that guilt and “sin” are real. Or it is the personal self seeking to glorify itself, so again implying that it is real and reinforcing guilt in your mind.
If you truly want Truth and peace, rather than just a better personal life, then do not be too attached to the story of “salvation” laid out in the Course. Like any spiritual teaching the Course can be read superficially as only a means to a better personal experience. But if you want something more then you must be willing to put aside the personal story and allow the Teacher of Truth (Holy Spirit) in your mind to reveal to you the deeper message of the Course. Then the story of salvation in the Course will be a temporary bridge that meets you where you are when you first read the Course: almost wholly identifying with a personal self that longs for a purpose and a context for its “life”. But you will eventually cross this bridge and leave it behind.

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Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: If I am the dream figure then who is the dreamer of the dream?

2011-10-12T08:38:00.001-07:00

If I am the dream figure, then who is the dreamer of this dream? And how do I as the dream figure get in contact with the dreamer? Is Jesus in ACIM addressing the dreamer of the dream? How do I change this dream into the "happy dream" ACIM speaks of? - G.P.

You are the dreamer of the dream dreaming that you are a figure in your dream. A Course in Miracles addresses you as the dreamer.
The “dreamer of the dream” in the Course refers to the split mind, which it calls the “son of God” (lower case “s” on son). It is split between God (What it is) and not-God (the idea of the opposite-of-God). This split mind makes the universe of form and projects its mind into many seemingly-individual minds. So each seemingly-individual mind seems to be a dream figure but is really one form of the one split mind.
You begin your study of the Course almost wholly identified with a figure in the dream, or a personal self (ego). You think that the personal “life” and its world are happening to you and that you are largely powerless. You are not aware that you are mind and these are only ideas in your mind. But the universe of form that the split mind projects, and in which you seem to find yourself, has no meaning in itself. All of the meaning that you see you project from a personal thought system. This is true for every personal self. In this way each personal self makes up the world in which they seem to live. In other words, you don’t really live in a universe of form but in your thoughts about a universe of form. This is your “world”.
There is a process to realizing that you are the dreamer of the dream. You will not recognize that you are the dreamer of the dream while still thinking of yourself as a figure in the dream. So the first part of the process is getting in touch with the Truth, or God, within you (Christ, Holy Spirit). Only from this awareness can you detach from the personal identity. When you have a sufficient awareness of Truth you can observe the personal thought system. Because you can observe it you realize that it is not you. It is just an idea in your mind.
Once you are aware of Truth you also begin the process of letting go of guilt. The personal thought system’s justification for guilt is the idea that you have undone Truth. Obviously, if you are in touch with Truth you have not undone it, so the justification for guilt starts to crumble. Eventually your awareness of Truth chips away enough guilt for you to observe without judgment how with the personal thought system you make a world for the personal self by projecting meaning onto the universe of form. These projections of meaning always somehow tie into the personal story that you have for the personal self with which you identify. The more you observe your mind and detach from the personal thought system the more you become aware that all minds work the same. The Truth in every mind is identical and not-Truth in every mind is the same in content, though different in form. Boundaries between minds collapse for you. You realize that there is only one “dreamer of the dream” that just takes many forms. You stop thinking in terms of “my” mind, “their” mind, and “your” mind and you think simply in terms of “mind”. You accept, without guilt or judgment, that if it is in your awareness it is in your mind. You are the dreamer of the dream.
You do not have to make any of this happen. It is the natural result of inviting Truth into your awareness and choosing to undo your obstacles (guilt, fear) to being aware of Truth. You only have to be willing; Truth does the rest. In time you accept that only the Truth is True. You recognize that the dream is meaningless and you let it unfold without judgment or attachment. The dream does not really change but you become a happy dreamer because you recognize that it is a dream and not reality.

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Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: Can sex be a means of holy communication?

2011-10-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have been attempting to understand how sex might connect us to divinity. I've read the ACIM urtext. I've read your piece, "Sex and the Course Student."

Remember that the Holy Spirit interprets the body only as a means of communication. (T-8.VII.2)

If this is the case, then can sex not be a means of …holy communication? A man I know, who says he is a teacher of the Course, has decided that his assignment from God is to meet as many souls as possible for holy encounters involving "transcendent sex." He says his encounters have nothing to do with sex and the body but, rather, love and spirit. Is this really possible? Or is it a misunderstanding of the message of the Course? Is there such a thing as a misuse of the Course?I've had a few beautiful sexual experiences, and it seems the pleasure that spreads across my body brings me "higher," but I wonder if that's just my ego tricking me?...this man says that he believes Jesus was being cautious with His statements about sex. Also, he says the HS is doing Its miracle work through him. – Anonymous

First, let me address your question about the possibility of A Course in Miracles being misused. Like all form, the Course is itself neutral. It is simply a collection of words, and words are symbols of whatever you want them to represent. If you want to stay in conflict they will represent the ideas in your mind promoted by the personal thought system (ego). If you want peace you will open your mind to the Teacher of Truth (Holy Spirit) in you as you read it. They will then be used to lead you back to peace. I have yet to meet a student of the Course who did not initially misuse the Course at least to some extent, often for many, many years. This is because we all bring with us the guilty, fearful filter of the personal thought system and we have to learn to put it aside and open our minds only to the Teacher of Truth. You can be sure that if you read it and you feel an increase in guilt and/or fear you are reading it with the personal thought system. When you read it with the Teacher of Truth you will feel liberated and at peace, even though the personal thought system might not like what you read.
Be aware that when you read the urtext of the Course that some of what was in it that was taken out before the book was published (including passages about sex) was intended specifically for Helen Schucman and/or Bill Thetford. Reading what is specifically intended for someone at a specific time in their understanding of Truth can be confusing when it is read by others. This was why Helen and Ken Wapnick were guided to take out those passages when they were organizing it for publication. As it is, the Course is still pretty specific to Helen and Bill’s relationship, but what was left in can be easily generalized by the rest of us.
With regard to sex the Course states specifically in the first paragraph of part II of Chapter 1 that physical relationships cannot achieve the experience of Oneness that you really want and can find only in God. The Course also teaches that only minds can truly commune. When speaking of the body as a communication device it makes it clear that the communication is the point, not the device. The point of all physical pleasure, as well as pain, is to distract your mind with a body, not to transcend an awareness of a body. This is why pain and pleasure are really the same.
You do not need any device to communicate with God. You only need to turn your mind inward, away from the universe of form, including bodies. The same goes for truly communing with others. True communion can never happen between bodies or personal, or separate, minds. But when I turn inward to God and you turn inward to God we go to the exact same Place. So only by turning inward to God can you truly commune with anyone. The only value the body has in this process is what is occurring now – this mind is communicating through this body via a computer (another communication device) to your mind, reminding you to turn inward to Truth if you want peace.
The “high” that you may feel from sex is caused by endorphins and is not the joy you feel when you are aware of Truth (God). It is no different than taking drugs to feel euphoric. Both induce a temporary state. True joy is not euphoria and, though it may pass in your awareness, when you experience it you know that it is true and eternal.
A miracle is a shift in your awareness toward Truth. This occurs in your mind. It may or may not result in action taken in the world. You cannot work a miracle on another. Another can only experience a miracle if they accept the experience of it within their own minds.
Do not take from any of this the idea that sex is “wrong” or “bad”. As I said in the article you mentioned (http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/04/sex-and-course-student.html) in Truth sex is nothing.

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Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: How as a child was I responsible for the outer picture of an inner condition?

2011-09-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

I am studying a course that asks me to look back at my life. I suffered a lot of child abuse which resulted in no self esteem and a complete inability to function in the world. I am now 65 years old. How do I use ACIM when it says that what you experience is a picture of an inner condition? I was just a child. How could I project this into the world or the people that were responsible for me growing up? I just can’t see that I was responsible but I am willing to accept it if that is the way ACIM explains it… – DH (September 30, 2011)

Here is the quote from A Course in Miracles to which you refer:

“Perception seems to teach you what you see. Yet it but witnesses to what you taught. It is the outward picture of a wish; an image that you wanted to be true.” (T-24.VII.8)

If you read the quote above in context (read the paragraphs around it) you will find that it is not referring to the specifics of an individual life but to the “son of God’s” choice to make a universe of form that is the opposite of God in every way. When the Course speaks to you about the making of the universe of form it is speaking to “you” as the mind that is split between Truth (God) and not-Truth (ego), not to “you” as a personal self.
Personal selves are projections of the split mind. The circumstance into which each seems to be “born” is a random expression of the wish mentioned in the quote above. So the story of a young boy in your “memory” is an “outward picture” of the split mind’s wish for not-Truth, not of the young boy’s personal wishes.
When you choose peace you choose to remember that you are the split mind rather than a projection (personal self) of that mind. You choose to take responsibility for how your thoughts about a neutral universe of form determine your experience of conflict or peace. You are doing this now by looking at the personal thought system’s story for you. Remember, if you are in pain now the source of pain is in your mind now. In other words, the source of your pain is not in an actual past but in your thoughts about a personal past that are in your mind now.

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Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: What is the experience of the "period of disorientation"?

2011-09-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

On page 368 of The Message of A Course in Miracles (Chapter 16; VI The Bridge to the Real World) it says "In your transition there will be a period of confusion and disorientation but do not fear this because it only means that you have been willing to let go of your hold on the distorted frame of reference which seemed to hold your 'reality' together." What is the experience of this "period of confusion and disorientation”? How do you recognize it? – WW (September 23, 2011)

The transition mentioned here is how your whole awareness of Truth (God) unfolds. You feel discomfort the moment that you have an experience (miracle) that shows you that the universe of form, which you thought was reality, is not Reality. A single or even a few experiences are not enough to shift your mind entirely to an awareness that formless being is Reality. You must experience this awareness again and again to undo your fixed sense that the universe of form reality. Each time you feel disoriented and confused because you become uncertain of what is real and what is not real. As uncomfortable as this is it is a good sign because it means that you are on your way to accepting Reality.
You recognize the experience because you feel exactly as it says: disoriented and confused. You don’t know what anything means or how to look at anything. You feel like you don’t know who you are. You feel unmoored. In a sense, this is the whole overarching experience of being a student of the Course! But what I have experienced and what I have observed as a mentor is that this experience of disorientation is not constant. It happens each time that one has an experience of Truth that shifts them to an awareness that the experience they have of a universe of form is not real. Each time there is a brief, uncomfortable period of confusion and disorientation, which is then followed by a longer, quieter period of integrating what was learned. Then another experience comes and it all begins again!
Of course, after a while you recognize the process and you know what to expect, so it is not so uncomfortable. You ride out the disorientation because you know it will pass. In fact, you experience less disorientation as the Truth becomes True for you and your belief that the universe of form is reality gives way.

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Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog email it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: Who in their right mind would believe pain isn't real?

2011-09-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

I have been a student of ACIM (off & on) for 5 yrs +…but still encounter basic problems that are becoming increasingly insurmountable:
1. The assertion that our physical existence is "a fantasy" or "an illusion"…Who in their right mind would believe this…?What about the physical pain we experience through the course of our lives?... I'm talking about e.g., Suddam Hussein's "go thru the wood chopper" pain, or anything remotely equivalent. Is this pain not transparently REAL to its recipients?... Without a reconciliation to what we intuitively experience and thus accept as truthful ACIM's assertions become sheer sophistry.
2. It is even more troubling that we are told by ACIM that GOD is in essence oblivious to our physical pain…but then HE…has thus dispatched the Holy Spirit to sort it all out, and lead us to the ATONEMENT. What could be more convoluted than this?
3. Additionally, the fact remains even if we have the power deep within us to become (in effect) immune to physical pain, given attainment of proper Right Mindedness, it is axiomatic that the reality or experience of this pain is very much with us prior to our attaining this state, and that GOD despite his omniscience accommodates this. I would appreciate your help with this because I am otherwise “blown away” by the truth and potential offered by ACIM.– RM

1. Your questions indicate that so far your experience with A Course in Miracles has been largely intellectual. You cannot see from within the personal thought system (ego) that the universe of form, including physical pain in any degree, is not real. This is because the personal thought system is itself part of the universe of form. When you are aware of Truth and coming from the thought system of Truth in your mind (Holy Spirit) the unreality of the personal thought system and its universe of form is manifestly apparent.
The Course does not ask you to accept what it says in blind faith. It asks you to invite Truth (God) into your awareness so that you can see that It is the Truth. It sounds like you are at the point in your path to peace where you need to put aside intellectual reasoning and open yourself to actually experiencing miracles. These are shifts in your mind toward an awareness of Truth (they may or may not manifest in the universe of form). These experiences will give you a deeper reading of the Course and a whole new way of looking at the universe of form.
It is also important to note that the Course states that the universe of form is an illusion because this is a fact, not to condemn you for not yet being aware of this. Its whole lesson plan meets you where you are in your experience that the world is real. It is not asking you to deny your experiences but to invite Truth (Holy Spirit) into them so that they can be used to lead you back to peace. It is the personal thought system that takes the fact that the universe of form is an illusion to increase guilt and fear in your mind. It does this by telling you that you “should” deny what you are experiencing or that you are “wrong” or “bad” or “failing” for having these experiences. These thoughts are obstacles to you seeing the gentle process of re-awakening to Truth that the Course offers.
2. What the Course says it that God does not know of pain but sees that you believe in pain so has sent the Holy Spirit to you to help you undo this belief. (“The Atonement” in the Course means “correction”). There is no contradiction or convolution in this. It is, however, insulting to the personal thought system (ego) that God is completely unaware of it and its effects.
The Course does not teach that you have the power to make yourself immune to pain. It tells you that in Truth within you there is no such thing as pain. To be aware of this it to be in your “right mind”. In other words, it is not asking you to perfect the personal experience and make it Truth-like. That is the personal thought system’s attempt to “spiritualize” the personal experience. If you want peace the goal is not to fix the personal experience but to let it go. This is an important distinction because otherwise you may feel that you fail if the personal experience does not change. It will never change. It is what it is, and that is the opposite of Truth in every way. But you have the Truth within you and It is an experience of unchanging wholeness, love, peace, and joy. If you want to be at peace all that you need to do is be willing to let go of the personal experience and open yourself to experience Truth instead.

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Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Healing Others, Revisited

2011-09-07T10:42:00.001-07:00

There was no question for "Ask ACIM Mentor" this week, so here is an article from June 19, 2007 about healing others:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/06/healing-others.html

This article and others like it are available in the book, The ACIM Mentor Articles.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: What are others?

2011-08-31T08:32:00.000-07:00

…I am a married man with a very good female friend who I feel very close to. She is also a student of ACIM and we frequently discuss it. I find myself wondering...what is she really? Is she really just a vain imagining of my real self? Perhaps a reflection or projection of what my ego self believes itself to be? – MW

Who anyone is to you depends on whether you choose to identify with a personal self or with Truth.
Truth (God) is formless being. The experience of Truth is boundless love and peace and joy. It is an experience of wholeness. When you are identified with a personal self you are out of touch with your natural state of being. So you feel conflict and lack. You seek to supply this lack through the personal self and you see relationships as the way to do this. The personal thought system (ego) teaches you that others are your source. It projects the cause of your unhappiness onto them. It also tells you that in others you will find the peace and happiness that you seek. This causes the stress that you see in abundance in personal relationships. Others are not the cause of your unhappiness. Your lack of awareness of Truth is. And you will never find in others the love and peace and happiness that you already have but are denying in yourself.
But when your mind is centered in Truth you are in touch with the love and peace and happiness that are your natural state of being. You live in this awareness of wholeness rather than through the personal self. You recognize that the universe of form is only a story unfolding from your mind. Others are then to you manifestations of your wholeness. They come into the personal self’s story to supply whatever the personal self needs, spiritually, emotionally, and/or practically. You feel gratitude for them.
In either case you may be attached to those to whom the personal self is close. When you are coming from the personal thought system (ego) your attachment is heavy. You are dependent on others to make you feel whole and happy. You are desperate to hold onto them and you may become manipulative to do so. If they must fall away from your life you are devastated.
But when you are relating to others from an awareness of Truth your attachment is light. You feel no need to change others to be something to make you happy and whole. You are happy to have them in your awareness, and if they must fall away you feel momentary regret and sadness, but not devastation. Your sense of wholeness and peace is unchanged by anything that happens in the personal story.
If you find yourself relating to others through the personal thought system and experiencing conflict, lack, and desperation you can always make the other choice. Instead of looking to them for wholeness and happiness, you can turn inward and get in touch with the Wholeness and Happiness that are your natural state of being. This will transform the personal self’s relationships from manifestations of a conflicted mind to manifestations of a mind at peace.

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Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Blog/Newsletter send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: What about making plans for uncertainties?

2011-08-24T08:37:00.000-07:00

I wonder about insurances. Oddly, I have homeowner's and car insurance because they are required and they don't seem to concern me. I recently changed professions and now am without health insurance. I want to be open to guidance but find I am unsure. I know ACIM talks about not making plans for uncertainties. What are your thoughts regarding this? – PB

You are unsure what to do because you are concerned with acting in a way that is “right” or “good” or in line with Truth. This is a common mistake for new students of A Course in Miracles because you are used to thinking that the personal self is you and that the goal is for you to “fix” the personal self to be “right” in the eyes of a separate, authoritarian god.
But that god does not exist. It is only a projection of guilt. As the Course uses the word, God is the one Being that is, not something separate with authority over you. And the goal for you is not to be “right” but to return to your natural state of peace. The reason that you experience conflict is not because of “wrong” behavior, but because you are not aware that you are the one Being that is. You can only be at peace by being aware of God within your mind.
Your belief in the personal self and its story are obstacles to your awareness of God. So you do no have to make the personal self “right” or “good”, but you do want to let it go. In practice this means coming into the present and turning your mind inward to God again and again throughout the day as you let the body’s story unfold without judgment.
The body is only an idea in your mind. Its behavior follows from your thoughts. When your mind is centered in Truth (God) you are at peace. This shows up as you knowing how to direct the body for its well-being. This is what the Course means when it says that you don’t need to occupy your mind with plans for the body’s uncertain future.
If you do have a question about taking care of the body simply take it to the Holy Spirit. It is the Teacher of Truth in your mind and you can lay any question, spiritual or practical, at Its feet. You will always receive an answer. You may not hear the answer immediately, but you will when you are ready for it. If you feel that you have not received an answer and that you must take action, then do so and you will be guided.

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Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Blog/Newsletter send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: Is prayer for physical things based on fear?

2011-08-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

Is prayer for physical things based on fear? I’m a fifty year old man with a very struggling business. I have been studying the Course for about nineteen months now with regular meditations. I’m in debt that I accumulated over the years and they have gone to such an extent that I am now receiving threats. I normally pray for love and peace but deep down there is strong yearnings to pray for money and good fortune for my business so that I can pay these people, get my business in shape and focus on my spiritual path. Is prayer for money intervention in order to pay my debts based on fear?-HPWS

Fear certainly leads you to feel that you need to pray for anything. And your strong desire to pray for money and good fortune reveals that you still believe that your fear is caused by the personal self’s lack of money. The flip-side of this is that you feel that the personal self having enough money will release you from fear. It’s true that if the personal self had enough money to pay its debts you would no longer be able to project the source of your fear onto a lack of money. But this would only undo your fear in this very specific context. Fear would still manifest for you in other ways.
A Course in Miracles teaches that true prayer is not petitioning a separate power for what you think you need but opening your mind to God to become aware that you have no needs. In Truth you are whole and complete. The story of lack that you see before you is only a false idea in your mind. So you also do not have to pray for love and peace. You only have to become aware that you already have love and peace and your sense of lack will dissolve.
Since what shows up for you in the universe of form is an effect of your mind, as you center your mind in Truth (God) and you grow in the awareness that you have everything in Truth this will be reflected in the universe of form. The answers that you need for the personal self’s seeming-problems will come to you, either directly in your mind or through others. The irony is that this will happen when it no longer matters to you what is or is not showing up in the universe of form. When you are aware that you have everything within you, you recognize that the universe of form is only a meaningless effect.
So if you want inner peace you only have to invite Truth into your awareness. Use this situation to do just that. When fear comes over you, turn inward and remember your experiences of Truth. Remind yourself that only they are true, not what is showing up in the universe of form. Rest in this awareness. Ask the Teacher of Truth (Holy Spirit) for a new way of looking at the debt situation. Keep your mind open because sometimes the answer can surprise you. If your mind wanders back to worrying remind yourself that you have already asked for help. It is always given. You will hear the answer when you are ready to hear it.

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Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question for the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: What is God's Name?

2011-08-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

Lesson # 183 of the workbook for students for ACIM call upon God's Name, and to repeat HIS Name while sitting silently. My question to you is this: DO I NEED TO HAVE A NAME OF GOD TO DO THIS LESSON? Being raised in the Eastern culture, I know that Muslims call God's Name by Allah, Hindus call God's Name by Bagwan and in the West, I've heard some Christians call God's Name by Jehovah…I often call God's Name by Love because it has all the attributes of what God Is…Can you please share your thoughts about calling upon God's Name? – JJ

No, you do not have to have a name for God to do Lesson 183 because God does not have a name. The word God is the label given in A Course in Miracles to the experience of formless being. This experience is boundless love and peace and joy. What this lesson means to bring into focus for you is that God’s being is your being. So you can use the word God for this lesson or you can use any other word that evokes the experience of God, as the word love does for you. Just be sure that you understand that what you are calling upon is the Truth in you, not some separate being with power over you.

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Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: How do you know when boundaries come from love or fear?

2011-08-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

I have been studying spiritual paths for several years now and there is one question that nags me most often. How do I distinguish between setting healthy boundaries for what I think I need and setting boundaries out of fear instead of love? I understand when it comes to things like not accepting physical abuse. My struggle comes from less obvious situations. For example, my ex, after 2 years of dating, decided she wanted to be able to date other people. I knew that what I wanted was a monogamous commitment from a partner, but I attempted to stay in the relationship because I loved her and I thought not being willing to open the relationship to include others was fear based. Eventually, I decided that, fear based or not, it wasn’t what I wanted and lovingly exited the relationship. I still don’t know, however, if this was loving or fear based boundary setting. Any insights you have would be greatly appreciated.‑VLB

A fear-based decision for the personal self means one that comes from the personal thought system (ego). Fear indicates that you feel guilty. Guilt manifests as anger, defensiveness, and blame. When you come from fear there is a lot of hand-wringing, drama, and finger-pointing. Sometimes the finger is pointing outward (projection) and sometimes it is inward. Either way you believe that guilt is real.
A love-based decision for the personal self is one that comes from your True thought system (Christ/Holy Spirit). So it begins with your recognition that you are whole. You understand that you do not need something or someone outside of you to make you whole. You accept all personal selves without judgment. You are aware that personal values are not “bad” or “wrong” just because they are different. This does not mean, however, that you want to be around others if they are dysfunctional or that you have to change your values to fit theirs. You set healthy boundaries so that others’ dysfunction does not disrupt your life and you let others go with love when your values do not mesh.
In the example that you gave it sounds like you came from love not from fear. You even went so far as to stretch your own boundaries in a relationship to see if they would change. In the process you found that they did not. You truly do value what you thought you valued. So you loved both yourself and the other by letting her go.

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Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: Is getting still and present the answer?

2011-07-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

…I would like to know more about acting/behaving in this world. Even when I am able to become still, to get present, to let spirit show me the truth (and/or the right thing to do or say), I still operate within this dream. I still have physical and emotional struggles, I still have friends and family in crisis, and that's just what's right in front of me ... there's a "world" out there full of suffering. I "know" that this is ego perception, that it’s not real, even if I haven't awakened from the dream. But since I haven't ...I guess I don't get present too often. Is that "the answer"? That all we can do is get still, listen to spirit for guidance, and practice true forgiveness? Is that what's meant by "you need do nothing?"‑NK

Yes, “I need do nothing” is about practicing what A Course in Miracles calls the holy instant. This means bringing your mind into the present, turning it within, and opening it to God. In the holy instant you realize that you are already home in God so you “need do nothing” for salvation. Truth (God) is untouched by anything that seems to happen in the universe of form. The more that you practice the holy instant the more that you experience God as reality and the universe of form fades into the background of your attention.
The personal self, including its body, is just an idea. You are the mind that thinks about it. As mind you are formless being. So when you identify with a personal self you make a mistake in identification. You are in conflict because of this and you search for peace through the personal self’s “life”. You believe that the world around the body causes your feelings of conflict. So you feel that you have to control or manipulate the world because your state of mind goes up and down with whether or not things in the world go the way that the personal thought system in your mind (ego) wants them to go.
But when you are aware that you are mind then you attend only to your state of mind. You maintain your peace by communing with Truth everyday and returning your mind to Truth throughout the day. When you are not at peace you look for your obstacles to peace, which you understand are thoughts in your mind. You bring them to Truth (Holy Spirit) to undo them. You understand that the personal self is not you but is only an effect of your mind. You merely observe it and its world from the peaceful center of your mind. You let its “life” unfold without judgment. And as an expression or your peaceful mind the personal self’s life unfolds harmoniously. When there is a decision to be made about the personal self you rest in Truth knowing that the answer will come when you need it. You simply know how to direct the personal self for its well-being.
Since behavior follows thought the behavior of the personal self in your awareness follows the thought system that you choose. As an effect of your mind, though, behavior is meaningless to inner peace. Inner peace comes only from an awareness of Truth. And behavior can look the same whether you are resting in Truth or identifying with a personal self. This is why if you want inner peace it makes no sense to attend to behavior. If you want inner peace then, yes, you want to attend only to the still, quiet Truth in your mind.

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog email it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: What is one's relationship to a profound spiritual experience?

2011-07-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

…In '84 I had an experience that has become central to my understanding of oneness. …I awoke… to discover that my body was visibly radiant with a golden energy, the heart being the locus. My initial concern was replaced with awe and a feeling of joyful exultation. I moved my attention from my body to discover that everything without exception (animate and inanimate) was radiant with this golden energy. I went outside...all was on fire with this golden light that, far from being a soft ephemeral glow, crackled with the intensity of a million volts. Emotionally I was overtaken with an awesome feeling of love and connectedness.After I came to normal consciousness, basking in the afterglow of this amazing experience, this instructive phrase was "given" to me (by the Holy Spirit?): Rest/abide as That I AM in, as, and through all arising. To this day, for me, this is the epitome of spiritual wisdom and a touchstone for truth.
…Now, for the question: What do you make of this? Is the Golden Fire/Light I witnessed God, The Eternal, Pure Consciousness, Oneness, All That Is, etc.? Or is the Fire/Light a primordial creation of Mind, (son of God?), forming the energetic matrix within which form appears to manifest?I guess, really my heart's question boils down to: What is the right relationship to an experience of this sort? Can, rightfully, anything at all be inferred or "known" by this? Is it merely another pointer, a metaphor, given by Spirit hinting at Truth?‑ES

It sounds like you had an experience that was similar to what Helen Schucman experienced in her holy relationship with Bill Thetford. In A Course in Miracles it refers to her seeing “Great Rays” instead of a body. You continued to see form as well as something that could be called “Great Rays”, but the lesson is the same. There is another way of seeing.
A revelation is a direct experience of God, Which is formless and imageless. What you experienced was a miracle. It was a shift in perception away from separation toward Oneness. The visual image of light touching everything was your mind’s metaphor for the Oneness that you were experiencing. Everything that you perceive is in your mind. God is everywhere because God is in your mind. You were also told this by, yes, the Holy Spirit.
One purpose of miracles is to demonstrate that the way that you perceive something is not fixed. It can be changed. You had a very dramatic experience of seeing the universe of form transformed, not from anything outside of you, but from within your own mind. But far, far more important than anything that you saw was what you experienced. Form and images will eventually fade from your mind, but your joyful experience of Oneness is eternal. So, as well as these other lessons, you learned that God is a real experience, not just a nice idea.

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Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Blog/Newsletter send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: Why am I bothered when I am not liked?

2011-07-13T08:08:00.000-07:00

I've recently joined a community action group and met some new people. To make a long story short, I got the impression that one of the young women really does not like me. I know it shouldn't bother me, but it does. Obviously, there's something in my mind that still believes strongly in the idea of being liked. How can I heal this tendency? – SD

When you want something from others you make them your god. You tell yourself that they are the source of your well-being. If you get from them what you want (in this case, being liked) you are at peace. If you do not get from them what you want you are shattered. A Course in Miracles shows us that this is how the personal thought system thinks. “You are my source…”
This woman may or may not like you. You don’t really know what is going on in her mind. But it does not matter. You see what seems like her dislike of you and that is very real to you because it reinforces thoughts that are already in your mind. If she seemed to like you (as many there probably did) you wouldn’t even notice.
Of course, all personal selves are sometimes likeable and sometimes unlikeable. And the designations “likeable” and “unlikeable” are arbitrary anyway. What one finds likeable another may find unlikeable. And what one finds likeable they sometimes find unlikeable. And so forth. The problem for you is that it matters to you that the personal self with which you identify is sometimes unlikable. There are so many specifics that could be going on here. For example, do you have a reason for not liking yourself that overrides all that you do like about yourself? Did you come from a gregarious family in which it was a “sin” to be unlikeable? Do you equate not being liked with being abandoned? Do you equate not being likeable with not being lovable? Do you feel that if you are not a “good person” and liked by all God will not love you? Is it simply that you want to give others power over you because you are too afraid to claim your own power? Do you prefer to be a victim? There are many possible unconscious thoughts behind your need to be liked.
To find out what is going on in your mind bring this issue to the Holy Spirit. When you are truly willing to look at it simply ask the Holy Spirit to help you to uncover the thoughts that lead you to be bothered when you are not liked. Then let this go and leave your mind open. You will become aware of the answer when you are ready to hear it.

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at http://www.acimmentor.com/.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: Why is the Course so Christian?

2011-07-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

…I've found that the Course's context has been a problem for students who have non-Christian beliefs (Muslims, Hindus etc). Why does a universal message such as A Course in Miracles have to come in a specific religious framework? And, does that not inevitably breed separation and at the same time denying the universally of specific religion?Indeed, the Christian language of A Course in Miracles, not to mention the presence of Jesus throughout the material, can pose a great challenge for students of other cultures. If my personal-self is looking for a way to invalidate the material or throw up obstacles, then Jesus and Christian can be helpful allies in this battle against the Truth (God).On the other hand, asking for the Holy Spirit for help can introduce yet another challenge for non-Christian readers. Speaking for myself, I miss the rituals I used to practice my religious upbringings. The Course seems to be directed more toward a Western audience than other cultures. Its language, cultural expressions, and poetic style speak to a reader comfortable within Western Culture. Can you please explain this in plain language.‑J

“This is a manual for a special curriculum, intended for teachers of a special form of the universal course. There are many thousands of other forms, all with the same outcome.” (M-1.4)

Even though A Course in Miracle’s message is universal it points out in the quote above that it is only one of many thousands of forms that teach this message. When you want inner peace the means for your attaining it will come into your awareness. The Course has come into your awareness. Perhaps it has done so because despite your background and culture it is the way for you. Perhaps it has come into your awareness to show you that it is not the way for you. Sometimes we learn our way through contrast.
The Course is clearly intended for a western Christian audience, or at least for those familiar with western Christian thinking. (I, too, am not and have never been Christian. But I am certainly western and familiar with Christian ideas). However, it is important to note that it undoes traditional western Christian thinking. It does this by redefining familiar everyday and religious terms. For example, Father in the Course means whole and son means part of the whole. Creation does not refer to the universe of form being brought into being but to God’s limitless extension of God. Some see it as the “correction” for the fearful thinking of traditional Christianity. And when you actually strip it down to its essentials the Course’s ontology is actually closer to eastern religious thought. For example, God in the Course is not an authoritarian being but formless, limitless being. God is an experience of bliss. So just as you struggle with the Course because you are not a western Christian I can assure you that many western Christian’s also struggle with it!
Keep in mind that the Course is intended for study not for just a quick read-through. It does what it teaches. It uses what you (or someone used to western Christian thinking) are familiar with to undo (forgive) your belief and attachment to it.
The Course’s form does not “inevitably” breed separation unless you read it with the personal thought system (ego). With the personal thought system everything “inevitably” breeds separation! When you don’t want what the Course teaches the personal thought system will happily supply you with all of the obstacles that it can find. But if you do want it you will be willing to overlook the form of the Course to learn its universal message.
Like all form spiritual teachings are neutral in themselves. Books are just collections of words. Words are symbols and symbols can mean what you want them to mean. This is why there are so many interpretations of every spiritual teaching. Read them with the personal thought system and they reinforce guilt and fear. But read anything with the Holy Spirit (the Truth in your mind) and It will use it to lead you back to peace. There is no one perfect form of teaching, but the Perfect Teacher is always within you. For It to come into your awareness all that you have to do is be willing for It to do so.

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

Learn about other books by Liz Cronkhite at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: Beauty and Ugliness: How did this amazing design come about?

2011-06-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

...Having accepted (maybe as blind faith) that this material world in which we ‘dream’ ourselves is an illusion, I find myself looking with wonder at the natural world around me, here in the peaceful country close to the sea. Everything seems miraculous...I could go on marveling for pages and only touch the edges of the wonder. But then I tell myself this is all illusion. That God ‘doesn’t know about it’. So how did all this amazing design come about?...I had to visit the nearest city. As the bus took me further and further into the busy streets, the grubby buildings, the crowds blind to each other as they rushed in and out of shops‑the illusion idea wasn’t hard to grasp…‑MDT

The universe of form is projected by what A Course in Miracles calls the son of God. This is the part of Mind that contains the idea of not-God (illusion/ego). It is split between God and the idea not-God. Your seemingly-individual mind is made in the image of this split mind. When you see beauty and ugliness in this projection you see the duality of your split mind. Keep in mind that other seemingly-individual minds will see the projection of form differently. For example, a city lover may see the city as beautiful and the countryside as tedious.
You are experiencing the personal thought system’s (ego’s) equating of what it values with “reality”. What it judges as “good” or “beautiful” or “right” it says is real. What it judges as “bad” or “ugly” or “wrong” it says is unreal. This is its attempt to spiritualize not-God.
Reality (God) is formless being extending without limit. It is an experience of wholeness and boundless love, peace, and joy. When you hold onto any of the universe of form as real you hold onto an obstacle to being fully aware of God. This makes it an obstacle to complete peace for you.
The Course does not ask you for “blind faith”. You do not have to pretend to accept what you clearly do not experience as true. That is lying to yourself, which is not conducive to inner peace. The Course teaches you to invite the Holy Spirit into your awareness so that you can learn What is True and what is not true. When you are aware of God as Truth you are not attached to what the personal thought system judges as beautiful and you are not disturbed by what it judges as ugly. You recognize that only God is eternal and all form passes. This is beautiful indeed!

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

Learn about other books by Liz Cronkhite at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: What is meant by "extend Love"?

2011-06-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

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 symbolize Truth. The idea is to replace what you are seeing or hearing with an image or idea that reminds that only the Truth is True. In time this practice will make you aware that the source of your pain is not the image that you are seeing or the story that you are hearing. Only your own thoughts can disturb your peace of mind. So if you want to be at peace you must extend Love in your awareness, which means in your mind.

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com. You can learn about other books by Liz Cronkhite at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog email it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: The personal story, victimhood, and roles...

2011-06-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

Can you please explain further these comments you made?
What do you mean by "victimhood"?
What do mean that I am attached to a role I play?
What is my personal story?
I have to look at the story I have about myself. What does that mean? - JJ

The personal thought system (ego) in your mind has a story for you. A Course in Miracles refers to this as your individual or personal past. This story begins with your birth into the world and includes your childhood, adolescence, etc., all the way up to now. This is your “personal story” and it is not an obstacle to peace in itself but functions as one when you identify with and are attached to it because it is not reality.
In Reality you are One with God, so you are formless being. But you have an idea in your mind of a form (body) in a universe of form. It seems like this idea began at the “birth” of the body, but really it is just an idea in your mind right now. In itself this idea is not an obstacle to peace. You can choose to simply observe it as you rest in peace within. When you do so its story will unfold harmoniously as an effect of your peaceful mind. But when you identify with this idea your mind is in conflict because it is not Truth. Your mis-identification with the personal self then manifests as a discordant story for the personal self.
You know that you identify with and are attached to a personal story when you feel that it defines you and that you have to defend it. When you identify with it you feel under attack by others, the world, and sometimes even your own “nature”. In other words, you are an innocent “victim” surrounded by cruelty and you are powerless. You are hurt easily and you take everything personally. You see everything that happens around you, like neutral events and other people’s actions and words, as being about you.
The personal identity is one of roles: victim, savior, parent, professional, artist, intellectual, etc. Some roles, like “parent”, are facts and are not obstacles to peace unless you so define yourself by them that you cannot let them go. Some roles, like “victim”, are interpretations that always function as obstacles to peace because they are the result of you projecting your own thoughts onto others.
The personal thought system projects from its personal story into the present to perpetuate the roles that it has assigned to you. For example, let’s say that your personal story is that your father left your family when you were a child, leaving your mother to struggle to support you and your siblings. You have grown up thinking of yourself as a victim of abandonment. You view your relationships with others through this filter. You expect abandonment and interpret others’ actions through this expectation. You may also be attracted to others who are likely to abandon you so that you can perpetuate the victim role.
You will also take on other identities and roles from these earlier parts of your story. You were poor as a child, so your story may be that you feel destined to be poor. Or maybe you have risen above poverty through hard work and see yourself as a “survivor”. Perhaps you were the eldest child and because you had to take on more responsibility as a child, as an adult you still see yourself as the one who has to take responsibility for others. Your reaction to your childhood story could also be the other way: Because you took on more responsibility as a child you do not want to take on any now.
Inner peace is the result of being aware of the Truth (God) within you. When you first invite Truth into your awareness you experience a magnificent peace, but you soon find that it is hard for you to maintain an awareness of Truth and to stay at peace. The reason is your belief in and attachment to your personal story for yourself. So when your peace is disturbed you must look at this story and all of your conscious and unconscious beliefs in and attachment to it so that you can recognize how this affects you now. As the Truth becomes more real to you, you will find that you can let go of this story because you have Something with which to replace it. In time you will simply rest in Truth within and let the personal story unfold in front of you, without judgment on it or attachment to it. You will recognize that it is not you, but only an idea in your mind.

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Learn about The ACIM Mentor Articles, the Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

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Ask: Why do you need your learning most in upsetting situations?

2011-06-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

As a student of the Course, I've learned that you'll need your learning the most in situations that appear to be upsetting rather than in those that are already calm and quiet. Why is that? Can you explain for me? - JJ

It’s not that you need your learning only when confronted with discordant appearances, but, perhaps, that you choose to use your learning only when confronted with discordant appearances.
The only way to lasting inner peace is through an awareness of Truth (God), but when one first becomes aware of Truth and experiences peace, they are not likely to accept yet that this is the only way to lasting peace. So, at first, when you are in pain, you are likely to turn to Truth only after you have exhausted all of the other ways that you have sought to relieve yourself. Then, when Truth brings you the relief that you want, you let It slip from your mind until you find yourself in pain again. In other words, at first, you use an awareness of Truth as a band-aid, rather than as the whole way to peace.
But, in time, it will dawn on you that really only an awareness of Truth brings you the peace that you seek, so you will call on It sooner rather than later when you find yourself confronted with an obstacle to peace (guilt, fear, attachment, projection). And, finally, it will one day occur to you that you do not have to wait for discord to bring Truth to mind; you will want to be aware of It as much as possible to stay in peace. Your commitment to inner peace will have deepened, and your whole life will be about maintaining inner peace. You will return your mind to Truth again and again throughout the day, and you will turn to It as soon as possible when an obstacle to peace arises in your mind. At this stage, there will be no distinction for you between appearances that once would have upset you and appearances that are calm and quiet, because you will choose to be always aware of Truth and at peace within.

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Ask: Probing questions about God...

2011-06-01T08:13:00.000-07:00

Lesson 65 of ACIM - Workbook for students says: "God gives only happiness, therefore, my function is happiness." Speaking for myself, after witnessing the March 11th, 2011 Japan's massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake followed by 30 feet high tsunami… I am wondering just how can people be happy and fulfill their goals and function of happiness under these devastating situations? I've been pondering on these probing questions while practicing the daily lessons of the Course:
Does God really love us?
Does God have a different plan of survival for us?
Does God exist?
Does God have a different Will than what we will for us?
Does God have nothing to do with what we will in life?
Does God not want us to make this world a better place to live?
Does God have nothing to do with such disasters?
Can you please explain for me? – JJ

I addressed the specific issue of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in an earlier article, and that answer ties into the answers for your other questions. You may wish to read it after you read these answers at http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2011/03/ask-what-comfort-is-there-in-course.html.

1. God is the One Being that is; God is Reality. God is Love, and in God, there is only God, so God’s Love is never directed toward, but simply is. So, the Truth in you, Which is God, is Love. Love is your natural state of being. The idea of yourself as a personal self in a body in a world is the misidentification in your mind that is an obstacle to your awareness that you are God’s Love; it does not come from God. You only have to be willing to put this idea aside, even for only a moment, for you to become aware of God’s Love within you.
2. God has no plan of survival for you, because God only knows God in you, and, in God, you have no beginning and no ending, so you have no need for “survival”. The personal self, being only an idea, also has no need for a plan for survival, though, when you identify with it, you think that you do. Because the personal “life” that you perceive is an effect of your mind, when you center your mind in Truth (God), what you need to do or know to take care of the personal self will come into your awareness as an effect of your awareness of Truth. So, while God does not take care of the personal self, your awareness of God does.
3. If by the word “God” you mean an experience of wholeness, then, yes, God exists. God is the Truth within you, and it is an experience of boundless love, peace, and joy. But, if by “God” you mean an authoritarian being that made the world and that you have to appease through righteous behavior or be punished, then, no, that god does not exist.
4. Because God is the Truth in you, your will is not separate from God’s Will, but, when you identify as a personal self in a body in a world, you think that you have a will that is separate from God’s Will. This is your source of conflict.
5. If by “life” you mean the personal life, then God does not have anything to do with what you want for that life (it’s not really appropriate to use the word “will” for the personal life, because it is only a faulty desire; you can never make it real). But, again, your awareness of God within you has an effect on the personal life in your awareness, which is itself only an effect of your mind. All that you have to do is attend to your awareness of God, which will result in inner peace, and the personal self’s life in the world will manifest peacefully.
6. God does not know of the world, so it is irrelevant to God whether or not you work at making the world a better place. But doing so will be an obstacle to peace for you, because you will be reinforcing the world as real in your mind, as well as reinforcing in your mind the idea that the world causes your experience of peace or conflict. Inner peace is the result of being aware of God within you, and nothing else. This is why you can be at peace in the midst of a hellish, chaotic world.
7. God is formless being, so God has nothing at all to do with the universe of form, or anything that happens in it, like natural disasters in the world. Natural disasters occur according to the “laws” of the universe of form (in this case, plates moving over the surface of the planet); they are not personal. Even though the universe of form is the idea of the opposite of God, everything in the universe of form has no meaning in itself. So, you choose how you want to look at anything that happens in the world. You can use appearances of discord, like natural disasters, to remain in conflict by giving them meaning, or you can use them as reminders to turn within to God and remember that only God is real.

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

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Ask: How does one get to the point of experiencing God and peace?

2011-05-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

...you advise making God real to oneself. I have been a student of the Course since 1992. I still am not able to "make God real" to me, or for that matter, Jesus. On the other hand, I do realize that I am not truly willing to let go of my personal story and I am experiencing fear and anger much of the time, especially at my husband of 40 years. Periods of peace are now less frequent than before I began the Course. How does one get to the point of experiencing God and Peace? – PM

Actually, I do not advise making God real to you, but allowing God into your awareness. This is done simply by being willing to have God come into your awareness, and shows up either as a direct Revelation of God (very rare among individual minds, and within an individual life) or a miracle (very common, and necessary to become aware of God).
(It is not necessary for Jesus to be real to you for you to have inner peace. The story of Jesus is simply a metaphor for spiritual awakening, and it is no more real than any other personal story. But, some find the idea of “God” or “Christ” or “Holy Spirit” too abstract and need a concrete form to think about, and “Jesus” is a symbol offered for them to use).
A miracle can show up as a sudden shift in your internal experience toward peace or joy, or as an awareness of wholeness, regardless, or in spite of, what is appearing in the world. It can also be guidance from the Holy Spirit; an inspired answer to a question, spiritual or practical; a sudden insight into Truth; an awareness of Oneness with what seems like another; or an unseen experience of comfort in a time of crisis or despair.
Miracles have a cumulative effect. The more you experience miracles, the more God becomes a real Presence in your life, the more you trust God, so the more you have inner peace.
It is not uncommon for students to feel like they experience less peace after they start studying the Course. Inner peace is the result of being aware of God, and when you make the conscious choice to have inner peace, you run into your obstacles to being aware of God, therefore, to being at peace. These obstacles are the guilt and fear inherent in the personal thought system (ego), which comes from the belief that you have attacked God and will be punished; your attachment to a personal identity, which the personal thought system tells you offers you something more than Everything; and your projections of personal traits (anger, inconsistency, untrustworthiness, etc.) onto God.
So, what you need to do to allow God into your awareness is to look at the fearful thoughts that come up when you attempt to commune with God, to call on the Holy Spirit, or to extend Love. These thoughts represent beliefs that block your willingness to allow yourself to experience God. Often, you simply need to bring these beliefs to light for their obvious falsity to become apparent to you and to be released. Some beliefs, however, you will need to address again and again, reminding yourself, for example, that God is not an authoritarian being that you have to appease through righteous behavior, but the One Being that simply is. The belief in guilt takes many insidious, and often subtle, forms, but, as you work through many layers of this false belief, you will become more and more willing to trust God and to allow It into your experience, and peace will naturally follow.

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

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Ask: Why didn't forgiving work?

2011-05-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

I feel angry at "Joe" and I'm attacking him in my mind. Then, I remember to choose again and follow ACIM steps of forgiveness. First, I recognize my anger or attack thoughts. Then I recall that ideas leave not their source e.g. my rage is actually a projection of my belief that I'm separate from God and take responsibility. Third and last step, I ask the Holy Spirit to take it from here by healing a grain of my mind. Twenty minutes later I feel angry at Joe again about the same issue. Did forgiveness fail to work? Could it be that since my anger is really about my own guilt over thinking God is still separate, that it's irrelevant whether I project onto Joe a 1000x or a 100 different people 10x, it's all the same. Each attack thought episode is an opportunity to "bring home" to my mind projected attacks and give them over to the Holy Spirit. Or am I just making excuses for Course forgiveness that really doesn't work and I'm just deluding myself? If I'm not kidding myself and these described decisions are in line with ACIM forgiveness, why can't I forgive "my" whole personal self world by saying "I withdraw all projected guilt and turn it over to the Holy Spirit" at once and experience immediate and lasting peace? Can you comment on this whole scenario please? - J

What you are experiencing is very common for new, practicing students of A Course in Miracles. Let’s look at each of the issues that you bring up:

1. It is good that you stop to recognize that you are experiencing anger and attack thoughts, and that these, not what another says or does, are the source of your rage. But, it takes a long time to learn to generalize and really understand that the real source of your anger comes from deeply-rooted guilt and fear over a belief that you have separated from God. At first, it is best to focus on only what the personal thought system (ego) is telling you right now is the justification for anger. Those thoughts will tie into the story that it has for you as a personal self. In fact, their purpose is really just to reinforce your identification with a personal self. The deeper thoughts about guilt from separating from God will come up later, after you have worked through layers of false beliefs about yourself as a personal self.
2. When you give something to the Holy Spirit, what you are really saying is that you are turning away from the personal thought system, and turning your mind to the thought system in your mind that comes from Truth. For this to really work for you, the Holy Spirit has to be a real experience for you, not just a nice idea. Only from the Holy Spirit within you can you look on the personal thought system’s story for you with detachment.
3. True forgiveness means recognizing that only God is real. Until the Holy Spirit is real to you, you will not be able to let go of (forgive) the personal thought system’s story for you, because you will think that it is your identity. So, if anger returns, this indicates that you have not really let go of (forgiven) an idea that you have about yourself, either because God is not yet a real experience for you, or because you do not want to let go of the personal story that you have for yourself. Before you can truly forgive, you will have to develop enough of an awareness of God to be willing to release your attachment to a personal story. This may mean working through layers of fear of God first. Then, when God is real to you, forgiveness will happen naturally.
4. Yes, all projections of guilt and anger are really the same, whether they are over the same person or situation or over many different people or situations, because at the core they come from your guilt and fear over the belief that you have separated from God. And, yes, each episode of unforgiving is an opportunity to turn your mind to your True thought system, the Holy Spirit.
5. The Course’s method of forgiving does work, and you are not deluding yourself; you probably just do not yet experience God as real, or trust God enough yet, to be willing to let go of the personal story that you have for yourself. You are never really attached to a particular incident of unforgiving thoughts, but to the story about yourself that they support. So, instead of struggling to forgive, work instead on building your awareness of God first.
6. When God is real to you and not just a nice idea, and you are truly willing to let go of the personal identity and its world, then you will indeed let go of it all, all at once, and have lasting peace. You can prepare for that moment by becoming aware of God, working through your guilt toward and fear of God, and rooting out of your mind all of the ways that you are attached to a personal identity. Peace first comes and goes, then comes to stay, then comes to be all that you experience.

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

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Ask: Does it take years to learn the Course?

2011-05-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

… I am 64 years old, have melanoma and have just started ACIM and am on lesson 25…I have read others that say that it takes years to learn the Course and I may not have that. I know that nobody knows how long they will live but my case seems to be different than say a 25 year old. Do you have any comments about that? – DH

A Course in Miracles is a self-study course for inner peace. Inner peace is the result of an awareness of Truth (God) as Truth, which you may have had before you picked up the Course, or which may have begun for you when you picked up the Course. In my own experience, and through my own observations of others, it does seem to take at least 20 years after first becoming aware of Truth for one to reach comprehensive peace, and longer still for one to reach complete peace, if this is their goal. In any case, all students of the Course begin to have a more peaceful experience as soon as they start seriously studying it, and their peace increases as they go along.
I’m going to make an assumption here, which is always a tricky thing, but I think this is what I am reading in your question: You fear that you must attain something that the Course offers – perhaps peace - before the personal self seems to die or there will be unpleasant consequences for you after the personal self seems to die. There is a false belief behind this thought, and it is that you are a personal self, and that the personal self “continues on” after this “life”. This idea is just the personal thought system’s (ego’s) way of making you believe that it is eternal. But it is not; it is only a passing thought.

“The ego is nothing more than a part of your belief about yourself. Your other life has continued without interruption, and has been and always will be totally unaffected by your attempts to dissociate it.” – (T-4.VI.1)

God is all that is real in your mind. God is completely untouched by not-God (the universe of form, including personal selves) in your mind. God has no beginning or ending: It is here in your mind before you thought of the personal self, It is here as you think of the personal self, and It will still be here when the personal self falls away. What is eternal in your mind is not personal or individual; It is Universal.

“Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.” – T-Intro.2

God is unchanged and unchanging; your belief in and attachment to the universe of form is only an obstacle to your awareness of this, that is all. So, you “need do nothing”; you are already whole and perfect in God.
You might ask why you would bother with something like the Course, which helps you to undo your obstacles to being aware of God, so leads to peace, if you don’t have to do it because it does nothing real. There can be only one reason: Because you love yourself, you want inner peace.

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Ask: Isn't the "dream" part of God, too?

2011-05-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

a) I know I'm a part of God. Yet I cannot deny that there is a body which is my vehicle in this life. So there must be a purpose or reason for which this energy from God manifested in this form (my body, mind, spirit in this lifetime). I need to perform a "role" in this life to fulfill that purpose. Why do I need to perform a "role" in this dream/illusion we're living in?
b) Secondly I'm a part of God (drop in the ocean) and God (the ocean) is all there is anyway, so everything including my body, mind (including the idea of separation that leads the mind to create the sense of personal self or ego), spirit - these all are part of God as well. So are all illusions and dreams, part of God - aren't they? Because God is all there is. So why do we need to wake up from the dream or illusion as that is also part of God? – MK

If, as a person, I think, “I am a frog”, that idea is not a part of me; it is just an idea that is over the instant that I think it because it is so manifestly not true.
So it is with God and the idea of not-God: Because God is All, God’s Mind contains the idea of It’s Own opposite (the universe of form and all thoughts about it). Yet, being All, God cannot have an opposite. The opposite-of-God can never be more than an idea, and it is so manifestly not true, that, to God, it is done the instant that it is thought. It is only within the idea of not-God that not-God seems to be real.
There is no intention behind the idea of not-God; just like God, it merely is – or would be if it could be at all! It has no reality, so it has no purpose or meaning, except what the mind thinking about it wants to give to it. This is why A Course in Miracles emphasizes the importance of the Holy Instant. In the Holy Instant, you turn inward, away from the universe of form, and touch God, and you realize that God is What is Real, and the universe of form, and your thoughts about it, are nothing. The more that you practice the Holy Instant, the more that the Reality of God takes hold in your awareness and the unreality of the universe of form becomes obvious.
You are indeed a part of God, but you are not a personal self in a body in a world. Like God, you are mind, and, for now, you think that you are a personal self in a body in a world. Your belief in and attachment to this idea is the source of your conflict. You do not “have to” wake up from this illusion, unless you want inner peace. Becoming aware of the Truth (God) within you, then, is something that you do because you love yourself and want to be at peace, and for no other reason.
So, you do not “have to” give a purpose or role to the personal self with which you identify, unless you want to. The Course gives you the purpose of forgiving, because it recognizes that when you come to it you will be almost wholly identified with a personal self, and will feel a need for one. As always, the Holy Spirit uses ideas in not-God (in this case, a desire for a purpose) to lead you out of conflict and into peace. As you practice your purpose of forgiving, which means getting in touch with God within and letting go of your belief in and attachment to the universe of form, you will find the personal self with which you identify is inspired to play different roles in the world over time until you realize that you are mind, not a personal self. Then, you will stop thinking in terms of purposes and roles, but only in terms of maintaining the peace of your mind. For a while, the personal self will seem to continue on, but you will recognize that it is not you, only a thought in your mind that requires little attention, because, as an effect of your mind, its needs are met as a manifestation of your awareness of peace.

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com

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Ask: Healed in the Presence of a Teacher

2011-04-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

I was recently healed of a persistent resentment while in the presence of a person who has dedicated her life to teaching ACIM. It was like a feeling of warmth and deep healing of that old wound/habit just by being in the presence of her love. What do you think happened? This was not intellectual; it seemed to be some sort of radiant experience. Of course in the Bible, it is mentioned that for example the woman was healed by touching Jesus's robe. What do you think happened? I have heard of folks being healed just by being in the presence of Teachers of Love of different religions. How would this be explained by ACIM? Thank you. – EH

You were healed because you chose healing. All forms of discord – physical, emotional, and/or intellectual - are of the personal self, which is a thought in your mind. So, all healing occurs in the mind of the one who thinks that discord is occurring. You were open to seeing peace and love in this teacher, which reflected the peace and love within you, and you were healed of a particular resentment
The Bible story that you mention is a metaphor for this: In a woman’s desire to be healed, she touched the Christ within (love, peace), embodied by Jesus in the story, and was healed.

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Ask: Does God want to experience not-God?

2011-04-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

…a) I have been reading about "A Course in Miracles" and here is what it says: We are all one with God. Sometime (which never happened, since time is an illusion), there was this tiny mad idea of separation (duality). From that tiny mad idea, we bought into a dream that we were separate from God, and that's basically how the universe as we know it was formed (the Big Bang). None of this is real, however, and when we wake up, we'll have an experience of oneness with God again; an infinite, eternal Oneness.
b) Another thought system, which I believed to understand so far, puts meaning and purpose behind this "illusion". God is said to have desired an experience of him/herself objectively, either as a fun game (hard to play Ludo by yourself), or according to some beliefs, as a means of continued evolution and development. Thus, The One sent out parts of him/her-self into an illusion of duality, so that The One could experience him/her-self as that which is "God yet not-God". We will always have a distinct identity (individuated), yet becoming more and more "Godlike" (removal of the false sense of separation) for the rest of time, and thus, God's completeness and perfection is constantly in a state of expansion, growth, and movement. There is no "endgame", just bigger, better, and more complex Oneness and movement within the Oneness. Are these really the same or different? – MK

These two concepts are different, and they do conflict.
First, for clarity, I want to clarify what A Course in Miracles teaches.
God is All, and being All, God must contain even the idea of Its Own opposite. But, being All, God cannot have an opposite. So, the idea of God’s opposite can never be more than a “tiny, mad idea”. This idea, then, is undone by God’s All-encompassing nature the moment that it is thought. (It’s a lot like if I, as a person, think “I’m a frog.” What happens to that thought? Nothing. It’s so obviously untrue that nothing happens. So it is with God and the idea of not-God: Nothing happens. God doesn’t even have to make the effort to dismiss it, because it is so obviously not true).
However, since God is eternal, the idea of not-God contains the idea of time, and in the idea of time it seems as though not-God began a long ago and will be undone in some indefinite future. Since God is one, formless, and limitless, not-God projects into time a multitude of limited forms, some of which are direct projections of its own mind (personal thought systems, or egos). So, you don’t really “buy into” the idea of not-God; you are really the one mind that wants to think that not-God is real. It seems as though there are many minds to which not-God is happening, but really there is only one mind that has taken many forms of not-God. If you want to be at peace, you must learn that you are the mind making the choice to see not-God as real; it is not being done to you. Otherwise, you will think that you are powerless to undo it.
You may consider the story of the Big Bang as the seeming-beginning of not-God or you may accept or make up any story that you want for time, because it is never anything more than a story. It has no reality. The past and the future are just ideas in your mind right now. You also do not have to wait for some future time to experience your oneness with God, because God is always in your mind. You can undo your belief in time right now by turning inward to God in what the Course calls the Holy Instant. In the Holy Instant, you step out of time and experience God in this moment. In fact, you must do this if you want to be at peace.
There are several fallacies in the second concept that you mention:
The idea that God has made the personal experience because It needs to have “fun”, learn about Itself, evolve, develop, or grow implies that there is lack in God. But God is All, so complete. Moreover, since God is All, God is everywhere, always, so there is nowhere into which God could extend or grow.
The idea of distinct identities in God contradicts the idea of oneness. The term “oneness” means that God is the One Being that is; in God there is only God. Clearly, differentiation is the opposite of Oneness, and obviously so is the idea of a multiplicity. What would a multiplicity of One be but that very One?
There is also nothing to become more God-like. God within you is already whole and perfect. God is all that is real in your mind. Not-God is only an idea, and an idea that is meant to be the opposite of God, so, to be at peace, you do not “fix” this idea; you put it aside. The way to peace is not transforming, but releasing (forgiving) that which is not peace.
These fallacies arise as one tries to grasp God by squeezing God into the limitations that he or she knows through the personal thought system (ego). Of course, they are also trying to make the personal self real by implying that its attributes (lack, individuation, transformation) come from and are a part of God. Those who teach these ideas have either not yet experienced God, or, what is more common, they have experienced God, but then they allowed the personal thought system to decide what the experience meant; they didn’t stay open and allow the experience to teach them. The Truth is very threatening to a mind that is very attached to a personal identity, and a split mind’s first response is to try to integrate Truth into what it thinks that it already knows.
When you do have an experience of God, through direct Revelation, or through a miracle, it is never in or through the personal thought system. In fact, the experience teaches you that you are not a personal self, because it makes you aware of another part of your mind that can observe the personal self. This other part of your mind is so manifestly real that you realize that you are not a personal self, but a mind thinking of a personal self. Only then can you make the choice to put the personal thought system aside, and follow this other part of your mind, Which is Truth.

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Ask: Overcoming Addiction

2011-04-13T10:28:00.001-07:00

Could you please address overcoming addictions from a Course perspective… - Anonymous As not-God, the personal thought system is the opposite of God in every way: It is the ideas of conflict, lack, dis-order, dis-cord, dis-ease, etc. given form. There is no such thing as a perfect personal experience. Some personal selves manifest diseases and disorders of the body; some manifest diseases and disorders of the personal thought system, like addiction, depression, psychosis, or other mental illnesses. All personal thought systems are at least neurotic, because guilt and fear are at their core. No personal thought system can ever be whole, because, as not-God, they are all the opposite of Wholeness. Above all, remember that you have one problem, and that the problem has one solution. It is in this that the simplicity of salvation lies. It is because of this that it is guaranteed to work. – (W-80.5) In Truth, you have no problems. All problems that you perceive, then, are problems of the personal self. But, you are not a personal self; it is only an erroneous idea in your mind. If you want peace, then, you must recognize that your identification with a personal self is your one obstacle to peace. Each seemingly-specific problem is only a symptom of your one problem of identifying with a personal self. So, if you want to be free of a problem, you must be free of its source: Your goal must be to let go of identifying with a personal self altogether. Then, healing of what seems like specific problems will follow. True prayer must avoid the pitfall of asking to entreat. Ask, rather, to receive what is already given; to accept what is already there…The form of the answer, if given by God, will suit your need as you see it. This is merely an echo of the reply of His Voice. The real sound is always a song of thanksgiving and of Love…You cannot, then, ask for the echo. It is the song that is the gift. Along with it come the overtones, the harmonics, the echoes, but these are secondary. In true prayer you hear only the song…God answers only for eternity. But still all little answers are contained in this. (S-1.I.1-4) You are mind; the personal self is a thought of yourself projected from your mind. As an effect of your mind, the content of its story unfolds from the content of your mind: When you identify with it, disorder is the content of your mind, and this manifests as disorder in the personal self and its “life” unfolding before you. But, when you choose to identify with Truth, then wholeness is the content of your mind, and this manifests as whatever the personal self needs in the universe of form - thoughts, books, people, doctors, programs, processes, opportunities, etc. - showing up to bring healing and peace to it and its life. When you center your mind in God, you will find that many disordered and diseased thoughts, traits, habits, etc. fall away naturally from the personal self with no effort on your part. So, you overcome addiction the same way that you overcome any aspect of the personal experience: You return your mind to Truth again and again. As long as the personal thought system is in your mind, it will manifest disorder in the personal self and its story, but, in time, as Truth becomes more True to you, and you become less attached to a personal identity, discord will manifest in your awareness less and less, until, finally, the personal self and its universe of form will be completely gone from your mind, and only peace will be left. >>>> Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com. Get answers by topic at www.acimmentor.com/answersbytopic.html. If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog, send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: Overcoming Resentment

2011-04-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

I'd really like your course related advice on something. My husband and I have been separated for two years but are still living in the same house because we can't afford to live separately. We have a son with learning difficulties who has two years left of high school. I'd like to try to remain in the house for another two years until he is finished school. I really need to forgive my husband though, because I'm finding the situation, my almost constant reflection on our relationship (most of which was awful and abusive), and the circumstances that lead to our separation very difficult to get past. Birthdays and holidays are cruel reminders of the family that I wish we could have been. I am stewing in a pot of resentment and hate, although I have, a few times, been able to get to a place of peace and forgiveness, through following the course. I find it difficult to make those times last though. One of my former course teachers remarked that I'm in the perfect place for learning forgiveness. Everyone else tells me I should get out. I need to finish my schooling before I leave, or else I'll have to forgo that, and for me, that's just not an option. Something inside me tells me that I AM in the right place for a major shift in forgiveness, only my ego seems to be fighting that with everything it has got. I'd really appreciate your wisdom here. – Anonymous First, because others will read this and there is much misunderstood about forgiveness, I want to make it clear that you never have to stay in a situation just to learn forgiveness, nor do you have to go looking for painful situations in which to put yourself just to learn forgiveness. True forgiveness recognizes that only God is Real, so if you hold onto or seek situations to forgive, you make them real to you, which is the opposite of forgiveness! Moreover, as you center your mind in Truth (God), you will find that forgiveness often manifests as you leaving behind unloving and painful situations, and if you insist on staying in or on making those situations, you are missing the lesson of forgiveness entirely. True forgiveness, then, can only really be practiced in the authentic unfolding of the life that is natural to you. In your case, for your own practical reasons, you are choosing to stay, temporarily, in a situation that is uncomfortable. But, you are experiencing much more than just a situation that is not ideal. As you stated, your almost constant reflection on a painful past, and your stewing in resentment and hate, are keeping you in conflict. If you want inner peace, then, you must address what is occurring in your mind. Inner peace is the result of an awareness of Truth, and nothing else. It does not come from an idealized situation in the world. In fact, it works the other way around: First you find peace of mind, then it manifests in your awareness as a peaceful and happy life for the body in the world. Your obstacle to being aware of Truth, therefore to being at peace, is your attachment to the story that you have for yourself as a personal self in a body in a world. Right now, the specific aspects of that story that are disturbing your peace is the story that you have for your marriage, its ending, and your continued relationship with your husband. It is good that you have had some experiences of peace and forgiveness, because that means that you are in touch with the thought system in your mind that knows Truth. Now, you have to be willing to let go of the story that is keeping you from maintaining an awareness of Truth. You can use your situation to stay in hell, or, as the other teacher suggested, as a rich opportunity to become more aware of Truth and find peace. Aside from communing with God daily and touching Truth again and again throughout the day, specifically, when thoughts about your husband, past or present, cause you to lose your peace, recognize that they are what are causing you conflict, and choose to put them aside. They do not represent the Truth in you, so they are not the way to peace. Come into the present and turn within to God, and remember that God within you is all that is true. As you touch God within, the specific thoughts that you need to release (forgive) the painful thoughts that you are having about your husband and your situation will come to you. This is a process that takes time and patience. As you choose peace over conflict again and again you are going to bump into your obstacles to peace. These are thoughts of guilt; fear of God; your desire for, attachment to, or belief in the universe of form as your reality, etc. But, bringing these thoughts forward, looking at them, and releasing them is the only way to peace. >>>>> Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com. Get answers by topic at www.acimmentor.com/answersbytopic.html. If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog, send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: Why does the Course emphasize many brothers?

2011-03-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

…I am in Chapter 27, The Healing of the Dream. In section VII it discusses how to look upon our "brother" in the dream of our creating. If there is only one Son of God, then why is there emphasis on multiples (or dream figures?) of the Son as brothers when in reality there really are no brothers? – RR A Course in Miracles meets you where you are when it first comes into your awareness – experiencing yourself as a personal self in a body in a world with other personal selves in bodies (brothers). Simply reading in a book that there is only One Mind is not going to transform you to an awareness of One Mind. You must have experiences that shift your awareness to Truth. So, the Course teaches you to use your experience as a personal self with many “brothers” to undo this experience and become aware of One Mind. It does this with the Holy relationship. The Holy relationship begins with one other, where you learn to observe your mind and to recognize how, with the personal thought system (ego), you look on this other through projections from a story that you have for a personal past for you. You then consciously choose to overlook these projections, and to come into the present with Truth (God, Christ, the one Son of God, Holy Spirit – all the same) instead. Once you have done this successfully with one other, you extend this practice into your relationships with all seeming-others that you seem to encounter. In time, after practicing this again and again, you become aware that what you thought was “you” and what you thought were your “brothers” are just passing projections of your mind, and that only the Truth is Constant and True. So, the words and symbols in the Course meet you in your identification with a personal self with endless “brothers”, but the practice of the Course takes you beyond the projection of a personal self and brothers to the actual awareness that there is only One Mind. >>>>> Read The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com. Get answers by topic at www.acimmentor.com/answersbytopic.html. If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog, send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: What comfort is there in the Course?

2011-03-23T08:29:00.001-07:00

People are probably aghast at the idea of two Danish teenaged girls being held hostages by Somalian pirates. What is going to happen to this family? What would Jesus do if he were the father, unable to keep his daughters from being ravished in front of his eyes?... Does ACIM's teachings have anything that would be of comfort to the father of this Danish hostage family?
Also, the quake in Japan where hundreds died -- if a student of ACIM were in that situation where all the familiar landmarks around him where being swept away how would he cope with it? And how do we onlookers safe... miles away look upon this tragedy? Surely, with pity, but what comfort is there in ACIM's assurance that all this is illusory and we are all safe (even the ones who drowned) in God's bosom? – DH

I cannot answer for what Jesus would do in any situation, but as a student and teacher of A Course in Miracles, I can answer both of these questions from my own experience.
Until you experience God as Reality, the words in the Course are nice, but not truly comforting. You have to go beyond merely trying to intellectually grasp what the Course says to sincerely inviting God into your awareness, and practicing what the Course suggests in your daily life, for it to bring you comfort. This is what the Workbook is for.
After you have completed the year of lessons in the Workbook, if you want peace, you must still apply the daily practice to which it introduces you: Formally communing with God daily, turning within to God several times a day, calling on the Holy Spirit for guidance, and extending Love in your awareness to remember that you are Love. If you make these habits the focus of your life, then, in time, God will become a real experience for you, not just a nice idea that you’ve read in a book. You will then be able to turn away from the universe of form and inward to God and remember that only God is Real. This awareness does lead you to see that the universe of form is an illusion, so it does comfort.
Unless the father of those hostages or a person in the midst of the destruction caused by the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan has had an experience of God on which to call, it is unlikely that they will find real comfort in anything. The only reality that they will think that they know is the one appearing before the body’s eyes. Certainly, you cannot tell someone who thinks that they are in the midst of horror that the horror is not real, unless they know God within themselves. Then, you can remind them to turn within and bring their mind back into the present with God as much as possible, to allow things in the world to unfold in the recognition that it is not their reality, and to trust that if they need to take action, they will know what to do when the time comes.
Whether you seem to be personally in the midst of a crisis or are merely affected by observing one, it is the same: Your peace is disturbed; you are in conflict. So, if you want inner peace, the response is the same in either case: Turn inward and invite Truth (God) into your awareness so that you can know that only the Truth is True.

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Ask: Do you need codes so you are not left behind?

2011-03-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

What is one to make of those folks who claim to vibrate at a high frequency because they are connected to the light? Some offer to transmit the new "ascension codes" to the rest of us (for a fee), so we can vibrate at the right frequency as earth is making a shift. I've read testimonials on these types of websites of how these services have changed a person's life for the better. Do we all receive these "codes " so we're not left behind ? – Anonymous

What you make of those who teach what you describe is up to you, but let me explain to you your relationship to God:

There is no time, no place, no state where God is absent. (T-29.I.1)

God is Formless Being extending everywhere, always. God is All that is. Being All, God must also contain the idea of Its own opposite, but, since God is All, God cannot have an opposite. The-opposite-of-God, then, can never be more than an idea, and this idea is undone by God’s All-encompassing nature as soon as it is thought.
However, as the opposite of the Eternal, not-God contains the idea of time. In the idea of time, it seems as though not-God began long ago and will be undone in some indefinite future. So, there is a part of Mind that thinks it is in time, and seems to be split between What it is (God) and the idea of not-God. (A Course in Miracles calls this split part of Mind the “son of God”). Since God is Eternal, Formless, and One, not-God manifests as a universe of time-bound, diverse form. The split mind, then, is projected into this universe of form as many minds, or personal selves. So, in every seemingly-separate mind, God still abides beyond the personal thought system.
God, then, is always in your mind, whether you are aware of God or not. You cannot have more or less God, or more or less of a connection to God, than any other mind, because all seemingly-separate minds are really just a projection of one split mind. You may have more or less of an awareness of God than others, but this has no effect on God at all, only on your state of mind. The more aware you are of God, the more you are at peace.
So, you do not need to attain, earn, vibrate, ascend, or have special codes to be aware of God, nor can you be “left behind”, because you have never left God’s Mind, as God has never left your mind. God is the Constant in your mind; everything else will fall away when you release it.
All that you need to do to be aware of God again is to invite God into your awareness, because God is always right here in your mind. To keep God in your awareness, you need to look at your blocks (guilt, feelings of unworthiness, attachments, etc.) to being aware of God so that you can release them. These blocks take the form of thoughts that you believe in. Some are conscious; some are unconscious; none of them are real.
So, you don’t need anyone else to give you anything so that you can be at peace. All that you need is to turn inward to God, and to be willing to release your obstacles to being aware of God. It is that simple.
As for the testimonials: When you have a headache and you decide that you no longer want it, you take a painkiller to give form to your decision to no longer be in pain. In this case, some have decided to change their lives, and they give credit for the changes to the codes. However, codes will not bring lasting transformation to inner peace. That only comes from an awareness of Truth (God).

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Ask: From Lack to Abundance

2011-03-09T07:53:00.000-08:00

I have a problem reconciling ACIM teachings with doing daily tasks making living in Commerce. Say, I am a salesperson. I need to be aggressive, persuasive, not take NO for an answer, follow up on my competition to know what they are doing to counter it to my advantage, maximize my profits by up- and cross-selling, etc, etc, etc. I do it honestly, delivering what’s promised, don’t lie and cheat etc, etc. Say, this is not coming from my greed or wanting to live a decadent life, but because I need to do it to stay in business and earn physical living i.e. pay the mortgage, taxes and the whole slew of other bills you are aware of, and the family/society is expecting/demanding me to deliver. But this feels and sounds like I am coming from LACK, or WORRY (FEAR) of not being able to make my living and fulfill the expectations of my family or society.
ACIM tells us to be/live in the Mind of abundance, but, as I mentioned before, it is hard for me to make that switch, from LACK to ABUNDANCE. – RM

God is formless being, extending infinitely and eternally. God is All, so God is Abundance in the truest sense.
The universe of form, which is not-God, is the idea of the opposite of God in every way: It is time-bound, limited form. It is the idea of lack, limitation, and loss given form. So, in the universe of form, you cannot have it all at once. You have to trade one form for another form: You have to trade the body’s attention, time, energy, education, skills, and experience for money, which you then trade for things that the body needs to live in the world.
So, when you look out at the universe of form and think that it is reality, you are indeed in a mind-set of lack, and you will inevitably worry. But this is not reality; God is Reality. The universe of form is only an erroneous construct of reality in your mind. So, you have the choice to attend to it, or to attend to the Truth (God) in your mind. When you bring your mind back to Truth again and again, you become aware that Abundance is Reality, and that the universe of form is only a bunch of meaningless images passing before your mind.
You cannot have two realities, so you have to decide to which you want to give your attention: The universe of form (seeming reality) outside of you or God (Reality) within you. You do not establish which is actually real, but you do make real to you that to which you give your attention. When you attend to form, lack and fear are real for you, but when you attend to God, you know that you have Everything. You experience within yourself a feeling of abundance, and an awareness that all is perfect, whatever is appearing in the universe of form.
Attending to God within you does not mean that you neglect the body’s life in the world. It simply means that you give your awareness of God priority. You take time to commune with God everyday, you return your mind to God again and again throughout each day, and you use every situation that you encounter in the world to remember that only God within you is real. This takes willingness, discipline, and time to become your way of being while you are still aware of a world, but the reward is inner peace.
Inner peace is an experience of wholeness, so it is an experience of abundance. When you have inner peace, you have no needs. Your awareness of Abundance within then manifests in the universe of form as everything the body needs showing up: loving relationships, meaningful employment, enough money, etc. So, give Abundance (God) priority in your mind, and abundance will show up in your awareness.

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Ask: Overcoming Martyrdom in Relationships

2011-03-02T08:42:00.001-08:00

I have just been dropped by a friend. She’s no longer talking to me. She thinks I “dissed” her – I can understand her interpretation of events but it's an interpretation and not a fact. It’s interesting how she just stopped communicating without even telling me she was angry so I was just left hanging. I could go back and ask her for her side of the story, beg her forgiveness, etc but it's hard work - and I don’t think I've done anything wrong. I'm familiar with this place and have fallen on my sword many times in this kind of situation. Usually, I would rather take the fall than lose the friendship. But I'm sick of doing it and to be honest, my instinct is to just leave it. Still, it's hard to think that a friendship is over. Any advice? Thanks. – SD

What stands out to me in your story is that you think that to maintain a friendship you have to be a martyr. It was never a friendship to begin with if you can only maintain it by “falling on your sword”. It was a power game.
From what you have written, it sounds like you said something that your friend misinterpreted. This is inevitable between personal selves (egos). Every personal thought system sees through the filter of its own story for itself. All personal selves see themselves as victims of a harsh world, each in their own way. You must’ve said something that played into the particular victim-story that she has for herself, which apparently has nothing to do with what you intended when you spoke. You are responsible for what you said, but not for how she heard it.
All that you can do in this situation is to clarify your meaning: “I’m so sorry you heard it that way. But what I meant was….” Now it is up to her to release her interpretation of what you said, or not. If she chooses not to, then you have to wonder if it is such a loss to lose someone from your life who is unwilling to learn and grow. It is very hard to be around others for very long when they are not willing to accept that they made a mistake and to learn from it, Also, her not talking to you and not telling you that her feelings were hurt is another sign of immaturity, and also that perhaps she doesn’t value the relationship enough to want to clear the air between you.
What you have to look at in yourself is this pattern of martyrdom in relationships. It seems clear that the personal thought system in your mind has decided that your “story” is that you have to sacrifice yourself for others in relationships. Some or all of these three things are occurring: The personal thought system in your mind interprets others’ behavior in such a way as to make you feel that they are demanding your sacrifice, it creates situations in relationships so that you have to sacrifice to maintain the relationship, and/or it attracts or is drawn to people who will demand sacrifice from you as the cost of the relationship.
Understand that the personal thought system in your mind is not going to change. As was said above, all personal selves hold some variation on the theme of victimhood for themselves. The most that the personal thought system might do is change in which situations it feels like a victim, but the victim-aspect of its story for you will always be there in some form. But, when you decided that inner peace was your goal, you began the process of letting go of the personal self as your identity, because your misidentification with it is your obstacle to peace. Your True Identity is in God.
Keep in mind that you will only let go of the personal identity when you have some experience of God as Reality.You cannot be without an identity, so you will not let go of the personal thought system until the Truth in your mind is real to you. Once It is, then you will find the willingness to begin to let go of the particular story that the personal thought system has for you. So, you may have to allow this pattern of sacrificial relationships to continue as you put your efforts into building your awareness of God first.
Once God is real to you, you will find that you will be able to step back and observe what you are thinking and feeling when you are with others. When you start to feel that you are going to have to sacrifice, stop and look at those thoughts. Look at what is really happening, as opposed to what the personal thought system is telling you is happening. Is another really asking for sacrifice, or are you just expecting them to? When you are strongly drawn to others, check in to see if they are like others in the past with whom you played a game of sacrifice. If you find that you are repeating the pattern, stop, and either break the thought pattern that will lead to you making a martyr of yourself, or drop the person who is going to demand that you make sacrifices for the relationship. If you have trouble with any of this, ask the Holy Spirit to help you see what is going on in your mind. It takes willingness, time, and patience with yourself, but you can learn to avoid the pattern of sacrifice and have true, mature friends in your life.

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Ask: Discrepencies Between Law of Attraction and the Course

2011-02-23T07:50:00.000-08:00

I am glad some are asking about the discrepancies between the Bible and the Course. I have just finished reading the Law of Attraction channeled by Abraham through Esther Hicks. Here also there is a wide discrepancy between the descriptions of who we are in physical bodies as described by Abraham, being a definite and determined decision to come "here" as the forefront of thought and extend All-That-Is, and the Course which states that we have no choice but to come "here" until we are healed and no longer need to.
Another major discrepancy is the advice on how to live: LOA suggests we focus our thoughts as far as possible on what we want whereas the Course suggests the exact opposite: do NOT formulate and ask for anything.
If you are familiar with the above writings would you please give us your thoughts on these issues…– RC

I, too, like it when students bring up discrepancies between other spiritual teachings and A Course in Miracles. Bringing these discrepancies to the Holy Spirit was how the Course’s teachings were clarified for me, and also helped me to understand what I was experiencing as I practiced the Course. When used with the Teacher of Truth, contrast is a wonderful way to sort out Truth and not-Truth.
I have not read The Law of Attraction, nor have I looked deeply into the teachings of Abraham/Hicks, but I can address your questions. It is not important what a teaching actually says; what is important is how you read it, and that is expressed through your questions.
The Course does not teach that you have no choice but to come into the world until you are healed and no longer need to. The world is an idea in your mind, not a place where your mind goes into a body. If you are implying by “until you no longer need to” that seemingly-individual minds reincarnate, then the Course also does not teach this. As I quoted a few articles ago, the Course states directly that many lives apart from God have no more meaning than one life apart from God. Each personal self is a projection of one mind that seems to be split between God and not-God. Since it is all one mind, some seemingly-individual minds merely tap into other “stories” for personal selves in that one mind and decide that they were their own individual past lives. This is why many claim to be the reincarnation of the same people!
I’m going to use here the metaphor of a dream that the Course uses to clarify this further. The one split mind is what the Course calls the son of God, or the “dreamer of the dream”. Each seemingly-individual mind in the “dream” is only a “figure in the dream” of that one mind - just as when you dream during sleep, each figure in your dream is really just a projection in your mind.
Even though you think that you are a dream figure, in actuality you are the mind behind the dream – you are the dreamer of the dream. Every mind is, which is why every mind is really one and the same. The “illusion” is that there are many minds that are different from each other. You only become aware of this, however, when you choose to “awaken”. The process of awakening makes you more and more aware that you are not a dream figure, but the dreamer of the dream. In other words, you are Limitless Mind, not a mind in a body in a world. You will never grasp this idea with the personal thought system’s intellect, because it cannot understand this. But you will come to understand this as you practice turning to God in your mind and releasing (forgiving) the world.
Which is why, if you are serious about inner peace, you will not be interested in dreaming a better dream (focusing your mind on manifesting what the personal thought system in your mind - ego - wants), but in awakening from the dream (being aware that you already have everything and that the perception of lack is only a dream).
When you focus on what is showing up in the world, you engage in what the Course calls “upside-down” thinking. You teach yourself that the personal self is not just an idea in your mind, but what you are. You think that the world causes your sense of peace or conflict, when in fact peace and conflict are states of mind that you choose. You confuse cause and effect – the world is your cause and you are its effect – when in fact, you are the mind that causes the world that you perceive.
What this means in practice is that when you center your mind in the conflicted, erroneous thought system (ego), you project away the power of your mind and think that you are helpless. You think that you are a dream figure in a nightmare that is the making of a separate, unknown mind (sometimes called “God”). But, when you center your mind in Truth (which you may choose to call “God”), you reclaim your power, and the dream that unfolds in front of you manifests the peace of your mind. You recognize that it is a dream: an effect of your mind; not your cause, nor your reality, so you have no need to try and control it.
So, it is always the case, as The Law of Attraction teaches, that the source of the world that you perceive is you. But LOA (as well as many other similar teachings) then contradicts itself by reinforcing your belief that the world causes you by telling you that, if you want to be happy, you must control what shows up in the world. You cannot be both cause and effect; either the world causes you or you cause it. Attend to what is showing up in the world, and you remain in conflict, confusing yourself with your dream. Attend to maintaining your peace of mind, and you will remember What you are as the dream fades from your mind.

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Ask: Is Oneness a Double-edged Sword?

2011-02-16T07:39:00.000-08:00

I have been feeling so much the sense of oneness with all I see and it is most pleasing when I see good things happen to people, animals, plants, world, environment, etc. because it brings such joy because I know I am them they are me. But what really brings pain is when I have this sense of oneness with people, animals, environment when horrible things happen to them and I truly feel horrible and a sense of helplessness and grief that doesn't leave me, for the same reason I see them as me and me as them. For example, wish everyone was a vegan so billions of animals don't have to be tortured and then horribly be murdered in slaughter houses, when the earth is being poisoned daily with all the chemicals and trash and deforesting done to it, when I see children and animals abused and big pharma, and corporations destroying everything for the almighty dollar, and its endless the victim victimizer scenarios that plague my mind. I truly want all to be well and happy, so in this case isn't this feeling of oneness a double edged sword when on the one hand it brings me such joy and on the other such pain. How do I see all this horror and feel good about it? Even though I totally can intellectualize that this world isn't real and I believe this with all my heart. But while in the world I must have a dream and I would rather all my dreams be in the positive rather than negative realm. I would rather be well than sick, rich than poor, happy than sad, see peace than war, see life rather than death, rather see me and others in comfort than suffering, etc.– JB

A Course in Miracles describes the kind of thinking that you do with a personal thought system (ego) as “upside-down thinking”. What this means is that the personal thought system teaches you that the world is not just an idea in your mind, but that it is in fact reality, and that it is your source – that your experience of peace or conflict is caused by it. This is “upside-down” because it is exactly the opposite of how your mind really works. In fact, you first choose the thought system – personal or True – that you want to experience, and then you either project conflict (personal) or extend Love (True) from your mind to the world.
When you experience God’s Love (Oneness) within yourself, you are detached from the personal thought system, its world, and its thoughts about its world. They are irrelevant to you, because you recognize that they are not about anything real. You experience a joyful, uplifting liberation from the limitations of a personal self, a body, and a world. The world may still be in your awareness, so the experience of Love extends to embrace all that you perceive all at once. This occurs no matter what is appearing and how the personal thought system would judge it. As Love extends from your mind, you recognize that It is coming from within you, so you recognize that form is not real, and what is appearing has nothing to do with your experience of peace or conflict.
You are not being told that to be at peace you must learn to see horror and feel good about it. You are being told that to be at peace you must be willing to recognize that all form, and the personal thought system’s thoughts about form, are not real. This awareness comes as God within you becomes more and more real to you, not as a nice idea, but as an actual experience. This takes time to develop, and if you find that you cannot detach from the world, then first you must focus on developing your awareness of God within you. (If you have completed the Workbook, look at my website, www.acimmentor.com, under 4 Habits for Inner Peace).
You are never in a world; it is only ever an idea in your mind. If you want peace, then your choice is not between a dream of a world that the personal thought system judges as “good” and one that it judges as “bad”, but between continuing to dream of a world and to awaken from all dreaming. The “happy dream” to which the Course refers is happy because you recognize that what the body’s eyes show you, and what the body seems to be experiencing in the world, is not real, so it does not matter what is appearing. It is still a dream only because you still perceive a world. The gentle path of awakening that the Course lays out is one where you will first experience the Peace of God within you while still perceiving a world, then you will put the world aside completely, and only the Peace of God will be left.

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Ask: A Discrepency Between the Bible and Course; also, One Mind

2011-02-09T08:13:00.001-08:00

I 'm submitting a couple questions to Ask ACIM Mentor. Thanks for your time.

a) The Bible says God created man out of the dust from the ground and breathed life into him and made him a living soul. This gives the impression the Bible is speaking of the physical body as well as the soul. ACIM states the body is not a creation of God but an illusion of personal self of our own making. Can you please clarify the discrepancy?

b) If all of us are many expressions of the One and share one Mind and we have no private thoughts and our seeming differences of form and our seeming separateness from one another are really illusions concealing our shared Source and oneness, then why are all thoughts and beliefs not in harmony? – RR

God is the One Being that is, without form, extending infinitely and eternally. Being All-that-is, God also contains the idea of Its own opposite, which can only ever be an idea, because All cannot have an opposite. The nature of All-ness undoes the idea of Its own opposite the instant that the idea seems to occur. But, since the idea of not-God contains the concept of time, within the idea of not-God it seems as though the opposite-of-God began a long time ago, and will be undone in some indefinite future. However, in God, this idea has never occurred.
The part of God’s Mind in which the idea of not-God seems to occur is what A Course in Miracles calls the “son of God”. The son of God is always a part of God, but it projects not-God: limited, time-bound form, or the physical universe, including bodies. Onto these billions of bodies, the son of God projects its split mind, so that each mind seems to be a replica of the son of God, split between God and not-God, the latter taking the form of a unique personal thought system (ego).
So, the physical universe and personal selves, or “souls”, that the Bible attributes to God, the Course explains is really only a projection of an idea that can never have reality – it is an illusion that only seems real within itself.
What you think of as your mind, then, though it seems to be individual, is really just a projection of the son of God’s mind, split between God and not-God. The God part of your mind is real and eternal, and is completely untouched by the not-God part of your mind. The not-God part of your mind is the projection of an idea that can never be, so it really has no beginning or ending. It is just an erroneous thought in your mind that you can release right now to be aware of God in your mind again.
The reason that seemingly-individual minds are not in harmony is that they are not supposed to be; as representatives of not-God, they are meant to be the opposite of Harmony. But, if you observe personal thought systems (egos) long enough, including the one with which you identify, you will begin to see that the content of each is the same: All are insecure, selfish, self-centered, defensive, anxious, etc. The only difference is the degree to which these traits predominate in each personal self. For example, one is more anxious, another more defensive, and so forth. You will begin to realize that, even in its replacement of diversity of form for the Oneness of God, not-God cannot get away from a twisted sort of oneness! When you see this, you will begin to understand that there is only one mind.
Only God in your mind is Universal, which means that God in what seems like “your” mind is the same as God in what seem like “my” mind and is the same as God in what seems like “their” minds. When the Course says we are One Mind, this is to what it is referring, not to the personal self and its thought system. When you are aware of God in your mind, then you are in Harmony Itself, Which is the Universal part of every seemingly-separate mind.
When the Course says that you have no private thoughts, what it is saying is that the thoughts that you seem to think with a personal thought system are not your real thoughts. But, certainly, when you want to believe that you are a personal self in a body in a world, you think that your private thoughts are your real thoughts, and this is what blocks your awareness of God in your mind. This is why, to be at peace, you must learn to forgive (let go of) personal thoughts, so that God can arise in your awareness again.

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Ask: Impatient to Experience the Holy Spirit

2011-02-02T07:51:00.000-08:00

I have just recently found and begun to study the Course (about 6-9 months ago). I find myself so impatient to develop a feeling of connection to the Holy Spirit/God. It seems that the harder I try, the more it eludes me! I am feeling very frustrated. Can you offer any advice to alleviate this sense of pressure that I have imposed upon myself? I also have a dread of having to endure countless future lifetimes if I don’t “get it” during this one...Thanks for your help. – L.D.

You will be relieved to know that it does not take many lifetimes to attain inner peace. In fact, it doesn’t even take one lifetime. It only takes an instant.
You have never left God, so you always have inner peace. What is missing is your awareness of the inner peace that is always within you, and that only takes a moment to choose. Inner peace results when you are aware of Truth (God) within you, and you can invite Truth into your awareness right now. In fact, only right now can you be aware of Truth and be at peace.

There is no past or future, and the idea of birth into a body has no meaning either once or many times. (M-24.1)

The idea that it takes time to be at peace is the personal thought system’s (ego’s) way of putting distance between you and God in the form of time, of discouraging you from even trying to find inner peace, of validating itself by making it seem that you find peace through its story, and by trying to assign to itself an aspect of Truth – eternality – by having you believe that it has a real existence that lasts many lifetimes. The personal thought system is never real; it never really exists. It is only an erroneous idea in your mind right now which makes you unaware that you are always in God, so it is only right now that you can put it aside and be at peace.
You have already invited Truth into your mind; this is why you are studying A Course in Miracles. In time, it seems to take time for peace to unfold in your awareness, but you can circumvent this, and the frustration that this seems to make you feel, any instant that you choose, by turning inward to Truth. Each time that you sincerely open yourself to Truth, you lessen your belief in time, and the hold that this belief has over you.
Practicing coming into the present to be with Truth will bring up your obstacles to peace. These are beliefs and attachments that make you fear God. For peace to grow in your awareness in time, all that you need is the willingness to work through your obstacles to peace with the Holy Spirit.
Simply rest in the present with God, trust, and let the process unfold. Your becoming more and more aware of the Holy Spirit and being at peace (this is the same thing) is inevitable, because you already have peace, and, in your perception that you are in time, you’ve already chosen it.

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Your Teacher is Within You, revisited

2011-01-26T08:10:00.000-08:00

From June 2, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/06/your-teacher-is-within-you.html

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Thinking With the Holy Spirit, revisited

2011-01-19T07:58:00.000-08:00

From May 29, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/05/thinking-with-holy-spirit.html

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Ask: Guilt After a Suicide

2011-01-12T08:10:00.000-08:00

My son, 42, was addicted to heroin. He committed suicide over a year ago using both heroin and carbon monoxide. Some days, guilt overwhelms and haunts me. My “head...brain...right mind" knows better, but somehow the Ego takes over. Help. Thank you. – BA

I am very sorry for your loss. No parent expects to outlive their child. I hope you have around you the support that you need as you go through the grieving process. Both the disease of addiction and suicide tend to leave a lot of guilt in their wake, which only adds to the pain of grief.
All guilt represents THE guilt at the core of the personal thought system (ego): The belief that you have separated from God. This belief takes the form of you believing that the personal self and its world are your reality. This is why the personal experience is so painful. You cannot escape guilt when you identify with a personal self; the only way out of pain and guilt is to release the personal thought system from your mind altogether. Then, only the Truth and Its peace, are left in your mind.
It is when you go through the worst personal experiences that you are closest to the very core of the personal thought system. This is why guilt is pounding you right now as you experience this horrific loss. If you find that you cannot simply observe the personal thought system’s guilt and let it go as you rest in God, then you need to find out exactly what the personal thought system is saying to you. When you cannot let go of the personal thought system’s thoughts it is because you believe them. These thoughts are tied into the story that the personal thought system has for you as a personal self, and they give form to the guilt that you feel. They will be some form of how “bad” or “wrong” you are for things that you did or did not do for your son. Ask the Holy Spirit to join you in looking at the specific thoughts that you have about your relationship with your son. These guilt thoughts can be on many layers. Some with be conscious; others will rise to the surface as you become willing to look on them and let them go.
To overcome guilt, you have to be willing to release the story that the personal thought system has for you. In Truth, you are not a personal self; you are One with God. When you go through an experience like this, it gives you an opportunity to forgive the thoughts that you have for yourself as a personal self. In essence, you do not forgive individual incidences about which you have thoughts that you need to release; you must forgive, or let go of, the whole story that you have for yourself as a personal self.
True forgiveness means recognizing that you are One with God and that nothing else is real. It comes only as God becomes more real to you. You have to develop your awareness of God before you will be able to forgive the thoughts that cause you pain. As you become more aware that God is Real, you will live in a state of forgiveness, which is really the recognition that there is nothing to forgive.
Looking at guilt thoughts can seem like a frightening process, because, before you see that the thoughts that cause the guilt are not real, you believe them. So, remember as you embark on this process, that what you will find is that the guilt that you feel is not justified. Also – very importantly – remember those experiences of God that you have had, whether a direct experience of God through Revelation, or an expression of your awareness of God through a miracle: Guidance from the Holy Spirit, insights and changes in perception that shifted you toward peace, answers to your spiritual and practical questions, etc. Even being a student of A Course in Miracles is a miracle, because you asked for peace, and the Course came into your awareness as the means to help you attain peace. Revelations and miracles are the “proof” that you are not separate from God; God is still right within you. They undo the very premise of the personal thought system’s argument that you are guilty. Guilt is never justified; it is always caused by the mis-belief that you are separate from God.

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The Holy Spirit is the Ultimate Spin Doctor, revisited

2011-01-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

From May 26, 2007:

For a long time, one of my obstacles to accepting what A Course in Miracles was teaching was that I thought it was trying to make us all into goody-two-shoes. I thought what it is saying is that we are supposed to look at “bad” situations and simply choose to see them in a “nice” way. I couldn’t see that in every situation I was interpreting what was occurring. I thought that the way that I saw the world was fact, and that changing how I see the world was repression, when in fact the world itself, and the events in it, are neutral.

I learned that the world is neutral through my absorption in politics, and by watching the talking heads on television. At first, I noticed how an event was interpreted differently by different people, depending on their political point of view, each claiming that the way that they saw things was the truth. Then I saw the “spin doctors” after political events, like debates, deliberately “spinning” the event toward their particular political views. Various news shows, all claiming to be “impartial”, also “spun” the news in a particular direction. I finally understood what the Course teaches: All events have no meaning in themselves, and our experience and thoughts about them are our own internal choice, depending on our goals. This is how we each make our own individual worlds.

“The value of deciding in advance what you want to happen is simply that you will perceive the situation as a means to make it happen. You will therefore make every effort to overlook what interferes with the accomplishment of your objective, and concentrate on everything that helps you meet it. It is quite noticeable that this approach has brought you closer to the Holy Spirit's sorting out of truth and falsity. The true becomes what can be used to meet the goal. The false becomes the useless from this point of view. The situation now has meaning, but only because the goal has made it meaningful.” (T-17.VI.4)

The Holy Spirit is the ultimate “spin doctor”, teaching you to see the world through the lens of your goal of spiritual awakening. My story above is a case in point: The ego’s “spin” on all that I was seeing is that separation from God is real, but my goal is spiritual awakening, so when I was absorbed in the “news” the Holy Spirit used it to teach me about perception. That aspect of what I was seeing helps me toward my goal; the rest has fallen away to such an extent that I don’t bother to watch the “news”, knowing it has no meaning in itself.

“In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply, is "What do I want to come of this? What is it for? The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning, for it is this which will determine the outcome.” (T-17.VI.2)

The world is your classroom; you choose which teacher will “spin” the world toward the goal that you want. You only have two choices: the ego, who will teach you that you are powerless in the face of all that happens to you in a hellish world, or the Holy Spirit, Who will use the world to awaken you to your Oneness with God.

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If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog, contact me at Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want your question answered here.

Ask: Removing Blocks to Love (Guilt/Fear)

2010-12-29T07:43:00.000-08:00

Can you talk about what the Course says about love and removing blocks to love (guilt/projection)? – Anonymous

A Course in Miracles teaches that you do not have to learn Love, earn Love, or attain Love, because Love is always within you. So, if you are not aware of Love always, you must have obstacles to this awareness. To be at peace, then, you must seek for and remove your obstacles to your awareness of Love’s Presence within you.
God is an experience of Formless, Boundless Love, Peace, and Joy. This is your natural State of Being. “Love”, then, is another word for God. Your obstacle to being aware of your natural State of Being is your belief that you are something else, which takes the form of you thinking that a personal self in a body in a world is your reality. Underlying this belief is the belief that you have “attacked” God to make this separate “reality”, so at the heart of your identification with a personal self is guilt, and fear of punishment from God. You cannot identify with a personal self and escape this guilt and fear; they are the very core of the personal identity. This is why you have to release the personal identity to let go of guilt and fear. Guilt and fear also serve to maintain the personal identity in your mind, because they make you fear turning inward, where you would find God and undo the personal thought system.
The personal thought system (ego) does not want you to be aware of the guilt and fear in your mind, because, when you do become aware of them, you want to undo them, which would undo the personal thought system. (This is why it is so resistant to you being a student of the Course!). The way that the personal thought system deals with your guilt and fear, then, is to project them away from your mind. Now, it seems as though there is a world that is guilty and fearful, and you are an innocent within it. This works well for the personal thought system, because projection keeps guilt and fear in your awareness while keeping you from looking at their source within you, so you cannot undo them.
So, in order to become aware of Love-as-Reality again, you must begin by observing how your own mind works. The physical universe that you perceive is neutral -it has no meaning in itself. All of the meaning that you see, you project there. When you are in the personal thought system, rather than see the world as neutral, you take personally what occurs in it and you tie it into the “story” that the personal thought system in your mind has for the personal self with which you identify. This story usually takes some form where you are a victim of cruel others or a harsh world, where you are “innocent” and others are “guilty”, or where you are “right” and others are “wrong”.
As you take responsibility for these thoughts, the world that they make for you, and the sense of conflict within you that results, you are able to forgive them (let them go) in the recognition that they are not about the Truth (God) in you. Forgiveness of the personal thought system’s projections of guilt and fear, then, removes from your mind the obstacles to your awareness that Love is your Reality, and you are able to rest again in Love and Peace.

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Ask: Psychoactive Drugs and Course "Purists"

2010-12-22T08:31:00.000-08:00

Thank you for your recent blog entry (December 10, 2010). It is very helpful and rings true with what I understand the Course to be saying about the mind/body 'split'. I have one question - and others may have the same question as well - does the same thinking also apply to medications that address problems such as ADHD and depression? At the end of the day, if I feel peaceful about my decision to take psychoactive medication isn't that all that matters? Then again, I can see that maybe some Course 'purists' would consider that a cop out and just show that we haven't been going to God often enough. As you can see, I have conflict about this issue… -MP

Of course, psychoactive drugs are no different from other drugs which you take to ease your suffering or discomfort. There is no reason for you to suffer, not just physically, but psychically, or with the chaos of ADHD. Just as with physical illness, you can trust that, as you center your mind in God, you will be guided to the medicine or treatment that is right for the body.

Becoming wholly aware of God is a process, and there may come a day when you feel that you can put drugs aside, and, if it does, it will happen naturally, and you will not do so out of a sense that you “should”, but out of the simple recognition that you no longer need them.

Ah, this question is a fine example of how the personal thought system (ego)tries to insert guilt into the process of spiritual awakening. Your conflict is the result of your sense of guilt that you may be doing something “wrong” by taking psychoactive drugs. Behind this guilt is the belief that God is an authority that you have to appease through righteous behavior or be punished. This guilt, and the false belief about God underlying it, are good things to uncover, because these thoughts are obstacles that must be undone if you want to be at peace. I hope that some day those A Course in Miracles “purists” also realize this for their own peace of mind!

Whenever your thoughts dwell on behavior, you can be sure that you are thinking with the personal thought system, because only a body “behaves”. The personal thought system wants to keep you identified with a body; it wants to keep you feeling guilty. But, since God is Mind, it is only your mind which is One with God, so it is only your mind to which you must attend to be at peace. A true path of spiritual awakening is one of a growing awareness of God, which happens wholly in your mind. What you do or do not do with the body is totally irrelevant to God and to your awareness of God, so to your sense of inner peace.

When you find your mind drifting onto behavior – yours or anyone else’s – remind yourself that God is not an authority that you have to appease, but the One Being That simply is. God is always in your mind, and has never left; it is you who are distracted by something else (the personal thought system), which causes your sense of conflict. All that you need to do to be at peace again is to release this distraction and rest in God.

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If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog, email me at Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want your question answered here.

Ask: Spiritual Partnership

2010-12-15T09:51:00.000-08:00

...I am friends with, and see so many people on this planet now, who are so striving to be in a healthy, committed spiritual partnership. They have drawn to them people who seem perfect for this dance of love and yet the feeling isn't mutual and has all the additions of "I love you, but, not in the way you love me", etc. Then the victim comes out, why am I not good enough? On and on the inner ego screams. And we feel alone and know that we aren't.
Can you comment on how we can keep our inner balance and peace in the days where the person we think is the most wonderful for us as our beloved spiritual partner really isn't the one? – Anonymous

Your real “spiritual partner” is the Holy Spirit (the Truth in your mind). If you want inner peace, which is a state of mind, this is the relationship that you must make your primary relationship. When you do this, relationships in the world then become extensions of your relationship with God, in that they all become the means for you to attain inner peace by your learning in them how to choose peace. In other words, your larger goal of inner peace makes all of your relationships “spiritual partnerships”. This includes relationships that do not go the way that the personal thought system in your mind has decided that they should go. If you single out only certain relationships in the world to be “spiritual partnerships”, then you make them idols, and obstacles to inner peace.
You will find that when you center your mind in God, you have peace, and personal desires, for a certain kind of relationship as well as for anything else, fall into the background. You do not have to deny personal desires, but simply trust that, if they do not naturally fall away in your awareness of your Wholeness in God, they will be fulfilled at the perfect time in a form that is meaningful for you, and that serves your larger goal of attaining inner peace.

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog, contact me at Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want your question answered here.

Ask: The Mind/Body Split

2010-12-08T13:01:00.000-08:00

I have a point on which I would love some clarity. When one’s newborn is sick and needs antibiotics for pneumonia, wouldn't the most recent message from the Course concede that one not identify with the illness as the ill body is not God Consciousness? Therefore, leading one not to treat the sick infant? When a woman bleeds every month she must take care of her body? The mind/body split has me perplexed… I can be in full loving consciousness, living out of the Love Consciousness not the fear consciousness and have a back spasm that necessitates a focus. Is one to deny this? – Anonymous

I’m not sure what you mean by “most recent message from the Course”, but A Course in Miracles is quite clear on your first question about treating an illness or not: You (or anyone that you are caring for) do not need to suffer. Take whatever is necessary to ease your discomfort or pain. The appropriate course of treatment to pursue will come into your mind as a manifestation of your choice to no longer suffer. The answer that you receive to anything that you perceive as a problem in the world is an expression of a miracle (your awareness of God), and to refrain from accepting this guidance is to deny the expression of a miracle.
A healthy body is no more God Consciousness than is an ill body. God Consciousness is an awareness that only God is Real; the body does not enter into this awareness at all. You are never a body, so it is just as erroneous to identify with a healthy body as it is to identify with a sick body. Moreover, a healthy body does not “prove” that you are aware of God anymore than a sick body “proves” that you are unaware of God. The “proof” that you are aware of God is inner peace. You can be just as aware of God when the body in your awareness is sick as when it is healthy. You can have inner peace no matter what is going on in the body or in its world.
The purpose of any spiritual path is inner peace, which is a state of mind, and what happens in the physical universe is quite irrelevant to inner peace. In fact, what causes one to be in conflict instead of peace is that one attends to what is happening in the world that they perceive, rather than to their state of mind. Inner peace is the result of your awareness of the Truth (God) within you; conflict is the result of your choosing to attend to (identify with) what is not-Truth (the personal self, body, world).
The mind/body split is this: You are mind (cause); the physical universe that you perceive, including the body, is an idea in (an effect of) your mind. This is why you only need to attend to (identify with) your mind, and you don’t have to give the world any thought. When you do, you end up back in conflict, because the body is not you, and the physical world that you perceive is not your reality.
Your sense of peace or conflict is always the result or your thoughts. “Attending to your mind” means noticing when you are not at peace and undoing the thoughts that are obstacles to your awareness of God. God is always right here within you, so, if you are not aware of God (at peace), it is because you have thoughts that are obstacles to this awareness.
You can trust that when you center your mind in Truth (God) that what the body in your awareness needs will show up as a manifestation of your mind’s Perfection. By “what the body needs” I mean not just for its health, but enough money, loving relationships, meaningful employment, etc. By “show up” I mean that what you need will come through others, through opportunities presented to you, through inspired thoughts, through the Holy Spirit’s guidance, etc. You will simply know how to direct the body. You don’t have to give this any thought. If you want to be at peace, your only part is to center your mind in Truth, and trust.
When you are in a Loving place in your mind and the body has a back spasm it is the personal thought system trying to get your attention. And it works! Just laugh, and take something for the pain. All that it means is that the personal thought system is still in your mind, and that you still have some attachment to it, or it would not affect you. But this is nothing! It is not real. Only God is Real. You do not have to take anything else seriously. If you do take what is happening to the body seriously, this only indicates that you want the body to be you. And this desire, too, is not real. The Truth (God) in you is not touched by anything that happens in the body or in its world, or by your desire for the body and its world. When you know this, you will be at peace, and nothing else will matter.

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog, contact me at Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want your question answered here.

Ask: Disease and Healing

2010-12-01T12:22:00.000-08:00

Ask ACIM Mentor:

Would you please comment on disease - how our thoughts create it and how we heal again. Thank you. – AM

You are mind. Diseases of the body are no different than any other appearance. The world, the body, diseases of the body – all of these are thoughts in your mind. They are the effect of your mind, which is their cause, but they are not you. They are “illusions”, because they are not your Reality.
God is your Cause and Reality. God is Limitless, Formless Being, or Mind, extending infinitely and eternally. The experience of God is boundless love, peace, and joy. God extends only God, so as God’s Effect, you extend God infinitely and eternally. In God, then, Cause and Effect are One and the Same, but in your belief that not-God is possible, you are cause of effects unlike God. When you identify with (give your attention to) a personal self in a body in a world, then, you believe that you are limited, time-bound form. This is not true, so it is painful. Also, to believe that not-God is possible, you must believe that you attacked God and took part of God away from God. This means that your identification with a personal self is one of inherent guilt and fear of punishment. Your pain and guilt and fear manifest in your awareness as an anxious mind and a dis-eased and dis-ordered body.
As a thought in your mind, the body is healed, then, by your decision to have it heal. This can happen spontaneously, but most often this is done through what A Course in Miracles calls external “agents” (medicines, doctors, treatments, etc.) showing up to give form to your decision to heal the body. But this is not real healing, because the real source of your dis-ease and dis-comfort is your belief that you are a personal self in a body in a world. To focus your mind on healing the body, then, is to do nothing real. It is to keep your mind mis-identified with what-it-is-not, because, healthy or sick, a body is never you. Even when the body is healthy, your mind is still conflicted if it is identifying with the body. Eventually, dis-ease and dis-order will return in your awareness again.
True healing, then, is your learning to identify with your True Cause and not with the erroneous effect (the body) of your belief that not-God is possible. To do this, you must withdraw your attention from the body and the world it seems to inhabit. You must look inward at how your own thoughts contribute to your sense of peace or conflict, and correct those thoughts that lead you to feel conflicted by affirming God as your Reality. As you focus your attention inward, and return your mind to God again and again, God will become more and more real in your experience. You will find that, as an effect of your healed mind, the world that you perceive, including the body, will improve. But, ironically, this will no longer matter to you, because you will realize that they are not your cause, and they are not you; they are meaningless. You will have inner peace, and what more is there to want?

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Blog and Newsletter, email me at Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want your question answered here.

Ask: Forgiveness Can Take Different Forms

2010-11-23T10:30:00.000-08:00

In your October 29th newsletter, there was a question about forgiving and how the person had trouble forgiving an “abusive” person. In your answer, you suggested that “forgiveness” can take different forms, and that choosing not to speak to someone might be “a miracle, not a failure”.
This perspective helped me a lot, after I felt into it for a while. I agree that this might be a way of letting go, and free myself and the other person from grievances and other attachments.
However, there is one thing that is still puzzling me. It seems to me that there are people where choosing not to speak/interact is not an option. Close family members, for instance. What about my 4-year-old-son? What about my mother? It seems to me I can’t just choose to not to speak to them, or stop taking care of my son, although I must admit that I sometimes feel like it. On the other hand it seems that not having all options would contradict the idea of forgiveness and miracles.
What are your thoughts on this? Requested Anonymity.

This is a very good question, and I wanted to address it in the article you mentioned, but it was already so long!
When you choose to forgive, you are asking for a miracle. A miracle is a shift in your mind toward an awareness of God (love, peace, joy); how this shows up is an effect of your change of mind, but is not the miracle itself. So, the miracle (your awareness of God) is the same every time you choose one, but how this manifests in the world of form is always perfectly suited to that specific form. The result in the world can be a change in the attitudes and/or behavior of the personal self with which you identify, a change in another’s attitudes and/or behaviors, a change in the situation, what you need showing up at the perfect time, etc.
The point of that part of the article was not that you always need to walk away from someone who is disruptive, but that you should not pre-judge how your choice for God will show up in the world. In that case, the woman chose to forgive, and what she was inspired to do was to cut off contact with someone with whom she did not have to be around. This may or may not be how another would be inspired in a similar situation, or even the same person would be inspired in another situation like that one. The form that a miracle takes in a mind that perceives itself in a world depends on what is needed at that time in that particular situation. For many, learning to set healthy boundaries with others is how miracles will show up for them for a while. For others who don’t need that lesson, the miracle will show up in another form.
And in a situation where you have to be around someone disruptive – at work, for example – or with someone with whom you do not want to cut off all contact – in your family, for example – the miracle will show up, again, in whatever form you need at that time in that situation.
You do not have to decide or choose how a miracle will show up; in fact, you don’t want to. This will just close your mind to seeing the manifestation of the miracle. Your choice for a miracle will result automatically in it manifesting in your perception of a world, just as your choice for the personal self (ego) manifests automatically in your perception of a world! When you choose to forgive, you can trust that a miracle has come, and you “need do nothing” but simply sit back and watch it unfold perfectly in your mind and/or in the world that it perceives.

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Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Blog and Newsletter, contact me at Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Ask: How Can I Choose to Not Suffer?

2010-11-17T08:53:00.001-08:00

Ask ACIM Mentor:

How can I choose not to suffer? In my head I can, but I still feel the pain of rejection. - AM

In Truth, you cannot suffer, but you need to be in touch with the Truth in you to be able to turn toward It, away from suffering. So, before you can stop suffering, you must cultivate your awareness of God within you.
In your mind, you have two thought systems. One comes from God – what A Course in Miracles calls the “Christ Mind” or “Holy Spirit” in you. This is the Part of your mind that knows that you are One with God (eternal, limitless love, peace, and joy). The other thought system is what the Course calls “ego”, and I have translated as “personal mind” or “personal thought system”. This thought system is the opposite of God in every way. Its foundation is guilt, therefore fear-of-God, which manifests as anxiety, anger, insecurity, irritation, worry, etc. It is your identification with this thought system that leads to your suffering, so the obvious correction for your suffering is to stop identifying with it. But, you cannot be without an identity, so you will only stop identifying with a personal self when you identify with God. This means that God has to be more than just a nice idea that you’ve read about in a book; God has to be a real experience for you.
If you are already conscious of having experiences of God – what the Course calls miracles (indirect experiences) and revelations (direct experiences) – then, when you are caught up in the negative emotions of the personal thought system, you can turn inward, away from them toward those experiences of God. At first, these will just be memories of occasions when you’ve been aware of God through revelations and/or miracles. You remember those experiences and remind yourself that the Source of those experiences is What is real, not what is appearing before you, or what you are thinking about what is appearing before you. For myself, I use the phrase, “Only God is Real.” This turns my mind back toward those experiences. When I use this phrase and feel myself take a deep breath and relax, then I know that I’ve made the connection to Truth. From there, I’m able to just observe the personal thought system’s thoughts without taking them on as my own. I rest in peace, and the thoughts that cause my suffering fall away automatically in the recognition that they are not about anything real.
In time, the Presence of God will be more than just rare occasions that you can remember – It will always be with you, and turning toward It, away from the world and the personal thought system’s stories for you in the world, will become much easier.
If you are not conscious of having had experiences of God, then you need to invite them into your awareness. Simply open your mind to God: “I’m willing to experience You.” These words are for you, not for God, Which is always right here within you. If God is not in your conscious awareness it is because of your obstacles to being aware of God, not because God isn’t here. Your willingness has to be a feeling of truly being open. It does not have to be perfect; you don’t have to be without fear or doubt. Simply open yourself, then let go and trust. Miracles will come into your awareness and show you that God is with you.
Miracles can take many forms: A sudden awareness of the Presence of God with you; an insight that shifts you toward peace; a change in perception about a situation that shifts you toward peace; a spontaneous feeling of peace or joy that is unconnected to anything happening “out there”; guidance from the Holy Spirit; an awareness of Oneness with God or another. It always happens in your mind, and changes you; it may or may not show up “out there” as something in the world of form changing. Miracles are the experiences that “prove” to you that God is Real and within you; this is why they are necessary. (This is why it is called A Course in Miracles!).
The more that you center your mind in God, the more miracles you will experience, the more real God will become to you, and the less effect the personal thought system will have on you. Return your mind to God again and again throughout the day; don’t wait to suffer to do this. Any time that you have a quiet moment, turn your mind inward and remember that only God is Real. As God becomes a real experience for you, painful thoughts will be something that you release easily, and you will no longer suffer.

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If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Blog/Newsletter, send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

The Limited Value of Theology, revisited

2010-11-10T08:20:00.000-08:00

From May 19, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/05/limited-value-of-theology.html

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You can read all of The ACIM Mentor Articles at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic" or buy them in a bound book here.

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Blog/Newsletter, then email me at Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want your question answered here.

How Do I Forgive What I Am Not?

2010-11-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

Ask ACIM Mentor:

This week's story on forgiveness was very enlightening. You said that most people who find another troubling is because the “other” has somehow said something that connected (not well) with our ''story of me'' (ego) and has made us feel like a victim. What if the people you don’t want to be around have what you think are qualities you don’t have? Not because there is anything wrong with the person (being abusive, etc.) but their personalities just seem to drive home the ''story of me'' that you think is ''wrong'', such as, not being outgoing enough, not being family oriented, ....these are the people I don’t want to be around, not the obviously nasty ones.
This always is my problem...comparisons which make me feel like I’m lacking, no one is ever “bad”, really, they are “good”, it's just that I feel bad because I’m not like them...self-assured and outgoing etc.
I’ve never seen this problem written about and I wonder if others have it. Thank you for listening. Requested Anonymity.

Yes, others have this problem! I had it myself. But, before I get to the heart of the question you are asking, I want to address a couple of other points in your email, just for clarity.
First, addressing what you say in the first paragraph, what bothers you is never what someone says or does, but what you think about what they say or do. You are the one who takes their words and/or behavior “personally” and makes it a part of the story that you have for the personal self with which you identify; it is therefore you who choose to make yourself feel like a victim.
Also, in the second to the last paragraph you say that no one is ever “bad”, they are really “good”. Actually, all personal selves are a mixture of “good” and “bad” (these designations are, of course, subjective judgments). When A Course in Miracles says that you are Perfect, it is not speaking of you as a personal self, but in Truth. If you want inner peace, the goal is not to “perfect” the personal self or to make it “good” or more God-like, nor is it to learn to deny what other personal selves are really like. The way to inner peace is to let go of personal selves altogether in the recognition that they are not reality.
This segways neatly into the answer to your question…All personal selves are insecure; it just shows up in different ways in different personal selves. This insecurity is the result of the inherent guilt that is part of the personal identity. You cannot identify with a personal self and not feel guilty, because the personal identity is meant to be the negation of God. When you believe that you are a personal self, you believe that you have attacked God by making a part of God not-God. You feel that you are “bad”, which leads to feelings of unworthiness, which manifest as some form of insecurity. Most often, this shows up as one feeling that they are “less than” in at least some aspects of their personality; in some personal selves, this shows up as an overblown sense of worth, which is meant to compensate for their insecurities.
For me, this problem of feeling less-than did not fall away all at once, but over time, as I learned to step back and simply observe the personal mind’s thoughts, then turn away from them to re-center my mind in God. The more I opened my mind to God, the more I experienced God, and the more God became real to me. I realized that God in my mind is completely untouched by what the personal mind does, and that God is What is permanent and unchanging within me, so God is What is Real within me. I became more and more aware that who I thought I was as a “person” was completely irrelevant, because it is made up of passing, shifting thoughts - it’s not me! All personal selves, either “mine” or “others”, have become less relevant to me, because they are not the Truth. I can just observe them, let them be, and let them go.
The confidence I have, then, has not arisen from a “fixed” personal mind that has overcome its insecurities, but from the awareness that only God is Real. I’ve found that a lot of what I thought I needed to fix in my mind has simply fallen away by my centering my mind in God, rather than in my trying to “work on” what I saw as “problems”. In fact, “working on” something only holds it in my awareness! When I attend to turning my mind to God, what causes me pain falls away naturally and effortlessly. So, when the personal mind prods you with insecurities – or, anything else, for that matter - simply recognize what is speaking, that it does not speak the truth about you, and turn within to God, Which is the Truth about you. Your insecurities, and anything else that is an obstacle to peace in your mind, will fall away naturally in time.
(If you have completed the Workbook and you want to know how to keep your mind centered in God, go to my website, www.acimmentor.com and click on “The 4 Habits for Inner Peace).

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If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Blog/Newsletter, email it to Liz@acimmentor.com and be sure to indicate that you want it answered here.

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

Ask: Trouble Forgiving

2010-10-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

From Ask ACIM Mentor:

I have a person in my life that I am having a lot of trouble forgiving. Usually, when I have a problem with a person, I usually find something good to concentrate on. By doing this, I have something to hold on to when there is a conflict.
But with this new person, I can't find any good in them. Sorry if that sounds harsh but that is the total truth. This person has done a lot of harm to people. It's hard to ignore that - I know I'm supposed to believe that the world is an illusion and there is no loss, but it's very difficult to see people being victimized.
Is the Course saying I literally made this person up?
I am torn between the two concepts of cowardice and forgiving. Sometimes I feel like the Course is asking us to "back down" which, in my mind, could easily be seen as an excuse for cowardice. I think about this in terms of dealing with this person in the world. In other words, sometimes I feel like I should confront her, which brings up feelings of fear. Then I use the Course by thinking I don't need to confront her after all and that Jesus will some how take care of it on a different level. Is this just an excuse for not doing anything?
I hope this is clear. I no longer talk to this person, by the way. I know this isn't the best way toward peace but it's the best I can do for now.
Many thanks. Requested anonymity.

This is a great question, because you bring up a type of circumstance that is so typical for A Course in Miracles students, and because so much is misunderstood about true forgiveness. You also missed a miracle, which is also very common for early Course students, and I will get to that in a few paragraphs!
True forgiveness means recognizing that only God is Real. This is not something that you can grasp intellectually. This comes from allowing God into your awareness over and over until God is a real experience for you. So, the first thing that you must cultivate is your awareness of God. Then, for a while, you will seem to have two realities: God and the world. This is when you can really start to forgive, because you will be able to let go of what seems to be happening as you turn within to God and remember that This is What is Real. Then, what seems to need forgiveness will fall away from your mind.
True forgiveness, then, is not about seeing the “good” and overlooking the “bad” in a personal self; it is letting go of personal-selves-as-reality altogether. This is why the personal thought system (ego) considers the Course so radical!
On some level you do project the forms that you seem to experience with a body (itself a projection of your mind), but form is never the issue, because all form is neutral (has no meaning in itself). For your peace of mind, the projections with which you need to be concerned are your projections of meaning onto the forms that you see. These projections are the source of your conflict. So, it is never the form that you have to forgive, but the story that you have for the form. The stories that you have for others are there to reinforce your identification with a personal self, both by making the personal self seem real, and then by reinforcing the particular story that you have for it. These stories all, in some way, tell how you are a victim of others. (You feel attacked, abandoned, betrayed, misunderstood, etc.). This is simply the way that the personal thought system thinks, and you cannot change it. That’s why you have to release the personal thought system altogether, and you do that by forgiving its projections of meaning over and over and over again.
For example, this woman of whom you speak behaves in a certain way. Since you were not specific, I am simply going to call her behavior “abusive”. When you are centered in God, you will find that you can simply observe that her behavior is abusive and recognize that she behaves that way because of something going on in her mind; it has nothing to do with you. You can then decide to be around this behavior or not. But, when you are centered in the personal thought system, you will “take it personally” and make her behavior about you (“she’s attacking me”). If you do the latter, it will play into whatever story the personal thought system in your mind has for your personal story (“People are always so mean to me”, for example).
Remaining in uncomfortable situations is self-torture, not forgiveness. The same can be said for seeking out uncomfortable situations just to forgive them, which some Course students feel they need to do. (Sometimes you are obligated to stay in uncomfortable situations for a limited time, and these you can use to remind you of God.) Forgiveness is commonly misunderstood, because the personal mind teaches that love means sacrifice (which makes the forgiver a victim again). Your choice to no longer speak with this woman is a miracle, not a failure! A miracle shifts your mind toward Oneness with God (peace), away from separation from God (conflict). You chose forgiveness and peace, and it showed up as your choice to take care of yourself by avoiding an abusive person. I’m going to guess that you missed this miracle because you probably expected forgiveness to show up either as the abusive woman changing her ways, or you somehow finding her lovable.
A miracle always occurs in your mind, and it always brings you peace of mind. If a change of mind is all that is needed to bring you peace, then the miracle will not necessarily result in a change in the world that you perceive. But, your change of mind (choosing forgiveness) happened to result in you changing your behavior (choosing to no longer speak with this woman) to bring you peace.
If you find that you still cannot let go of this woman, then you need to further forgive your thoughts about her. You will need to look at how your story for her ties into your story for the personal self with which you identify, and release it in the recognition that the personal self is not you. It’s just a story in your mind with which you choose to identify.
Always be on the lookout for the ways that the personal thought system tries to “spiritualize” the personal self. Inner peace is the result of your awareness that you are One with God (Eternal Love, Peace, Joy), not of you being a certain type of person (“good”, “kind”, “righteous”) to please God. The personal is totally irrelevant to God, because it is not of God; it is only a story in your mind. This is what you recognize when you truly forgive.

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If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Blog/Newsletter, email me at Liz@acimmentor.com and be sure to let me know you want it answered in Ask ACIM Mentor.

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com. The first volume (Text), The Message of A Course in Miracles, is now available at www.amazon.com.

"Master" Teachers, revisited

2010-10-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

From May 15, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/05/master-teachers.html

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Read The ACIM Mentor Articles online at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic" or order in a bound book here.

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Blog/Newsletter, email it to me at Liz@acimmentor.com, and be sure to let me know that you want it answered here.

Ask: Advice on Sticking with the Path

2010-10-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

From Ask ACIM Mentor:

…my question for you has to do with the effectiveness of the Course in waking up from this dream. Now, I've read of your own mind blowing experiences of God, which seem to have started early in your study. I've met a lot of people who have been working with the material for years (myself included) who have not had direct revelation. I've been studying other teachings that promise quicker results, but I still don't have anything earth shattering to report. Feeling a bit discouraged, but no matter how much I try to turn away from ACIM, I just seem to always be pulled back to it. Any advice you have on sticking with the path and releasing doubt would be greatly appreciated. Much love and thanks, Bryan in L.A.

Despite my early experiences of revelation, Bryan, I didn’t experience any comprehensive shift toward peace until I had been a student for over 20 years. A revelation is simply a glimpse of the Ultimate Goal of God. If I could stay There, I would not have returned to a perception of a world. Early on, I experienced Revelations as much as a curse as a blessing. On one hand, yes, they did reveal to me Truth and make it more difficult for me to deny Truth, but on the other hand, I sure did my best to deny Truth! Despite direct Revelations of God, I still had my doubts, maybe not about What was True, but about my wanting It. I was no less conflicted for having seen Truth; I was just less able to fool myself that the Truth wasn’t True. And, as well, I still seemed to have two realities, Truth, Which I had seen, and the world, which was still very real to me because I had not released all of the layers of deep-seated belief in, and attachment to, it. I am still bumping into those false beliefs and undoing them, on deeper and deeper levels.
I’m telling you this so that you know that it is a process, and that your doubt is not because you have not had a Revelation, but because, on some level, you do not yet wholly want God.
You answered yourself with regard to sticking with the path – you keep being drawn back to it. This is because you know, on some level, that it is your way to peace. You asked for it, and you received it. God is always in your mind, and you know God. This is what you have to trust. The doubt that you experience is the resistance of the ego, which will never accept Truth, and will always tell you to doubt. You may be listening to it now, but, as you learn to not identify with it, you will reach a point where you hear it, but you no longer listen to it, and, finally, when you completely release the personal thought system from your mind, you will not hear it at all!
Peace came for me after years of earnestly opening my mind to God each day and returning my mind to God throughout the day – just as the lessons in the Workbook teach us that first year. In other words, peace came when I made a commitment to peace by choosing it again and again throughout each day. Returning my mind to Truth became the focus and purpose of my mind (therefore, my life). This shifted my attention (identification) away from the ego, and the shifts toward peace that came were not earth-shattering, but subtle and profound, until one day I looked up and realized that peace had come to stay in my awareness. It was not time, nor was it direct Revelation, but willingness to keep Truth in my awareness, and to work through my obstacles to peace, that resulted in the comprehensive peace that I experience now.

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If you have a question that you would like answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter and Blog, contact me at Liz@acimmentor.com and be sure to note that you want it answered here.

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com. The first volume (Text), The Message of A Course in Miracles is now for sale at www.amazon.com.

Evolving Toward the Holy Spirit, revisited

2010-10-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

From May 12, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/05/evolving-toward-holy-spirit.html

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Read The ACIM Mentor Articles for free at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic", or buy them in a bound book here.

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.acimmentor.com.

Want peace faster and easier? That's what having mentor is for! Learn more at www.acimmentor.com.

What is the Experience of the Holy Spirit?, revisited

2010-09-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

From May 8, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/05/what-is-experience-of-holy-spirit.html

>>>>>

Read The ACIM Mentor Articles for free online at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic", or buy them in a bound book here.

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com. The first volume (Text), The Message of A Course in Miracles, is now available at www.amazon.com.

How Holiness "Shows Up", revisited

2010-09-22T09:44:00.000-07:00

From May 5, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-holiness-shows-up.html

>>>

Read The ACIM Mentor Articles for free at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic", or buy them in a bound book here.

Find out about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com. The first volume (Text) is now available for purchase at www.acimmentor.com.

Overcoming Jesus' Crucifixion, revisited

2010-09-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

From April 17, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/04/overcoming-jesus-crucifixion.html

>>>>

You can read The ACIM Mentor Articles online at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic", or you can order them in a bound book here.

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

Sex and the Course Student, revisited

2010-09-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

From April 14, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/04/sex-and-course-student.html

>>>>

Read The ACIM Mentor Articles for free online at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic", or order them in a bound book here. Use coupon code REMARKABLE305 until 9/30/2010 for 15% off!

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

Error and Sin, revisited

2010-09-01T08:58:00.001-07:00

From April 10, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/04/error-and-sin.html

>>>>

Read The ACIM Mentor Articles for free at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic", or buy them in a bound book here.

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

But I'm Not Feeling God!, revisited

2010-08-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

From March 27, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/03/but-im-not-feeling-god.html

>>>>
Read The ACIM Mentor Articles for free online at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic", or order them in a bound book here.

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

You Won't Lose the Special Relationship, revisited

2010-08-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

From March 24, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/03/you-wont-lose-special-relationship.html

>>>>

These ACIM Mentor Articles are available for free at www.acimmentor.com or you can buy them in a bound book here. Take advantage of free shipping until August 23!

The release of The Message of A Course in Miracles: A translation of the Text in plain language has been pushed back to September due to the publisher over-booking with their printer. You can pre-order it at www.amazon.com, or read it online or request a free download at www.placim.com.

Revelations, revisited

2010-08-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

From March 20, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/03/revelations.html

>>>>

All of these ACIM Mentor Articles are available for free online at www.acimmentor.com under 'Answers by Topic', as well as in a bound book that you can order here at Lulu.com. Take advantage of free shipping this summer, as well as a 15% discount until August 15 by using discount code BEACHREAD305.

Evolving Concepts of God, revisited

2010-08-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

From March 17, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/03/evolving-concepts-of-god.html

>>>>>

Read these ACIM Mentor Articles online at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic", or buy them in a bound book here. Take advantage of free shipping for the summer!

You Don't Have to Analyze Your Projections, revisited

2010-07-28T07:56:00.001-07:00

From March 14, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/03/you-dont-have-to-analyze-your.html

>>>>>

These ACIM Mentor Articles are available for free at www.acimmentor.com under 'Answers by Topic', or you can order them in a bound book here. Take advantage of free shipping this summer, and of a 15% discount until August 15 with the discount code BEACHREAD305.

Accepting the Pain of this Existence, revisited

2010-07-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

From March 3, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/03/accepting-pain-of-this-existence.html

>>>>>

You can read all of these ACIM Mentor Articles under "Answers by Topic" at www.acimmentor.com, or order them in a bound book here. Take advantage of free shipping this summer! Until August 15, get 15% off with coupon code BEACHREAD305.

You're in Ego? So What?, revisited

2010-07-14T08:54:00.000-07:00

From February 27, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/02/youre-in-ego-so-what.html

>>>>>

Read all of these ACIM Mentor Articles for free at www.acimmentor.com under 'Answers by Topic', or by them all in a bound book here.

But It's Not Real, Right?, revisited

2010-07-07T08:25:00.001-07:00

From February 24, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/02/but-its-not-real-right.html

>>>>>

These ACIM Mentor Articles are now available in a bound book. You can purchase it here. As always, you can read them all for free at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic."

Read, request a download, or pre-order the first volume (Text) of The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

From Intending to Willing, revisited

2010-06-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

From February 20, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/02/from-intending-to-willing.html

>>>>>

These ACIM Mentor articles are now available in a bound book! You can purchase it here. As always, they are available for free at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic".

I will be introducing the Plain Language A Course in Miracles online at www.acimgather.org on July 18 at 5pm PST. Join us, and bring your questions!

From Seeking to Having, revisited

2010-06-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

From February 13, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/02/from-seeking-to-having.html

>>>>>

These ACIM Mentor blogs are now available in a book! Click here to order. As always, they are also available for free online at www.acimmentor.com under 'Answers by Topic'.

Reincarnation

2010-06-16T07:56:00.000-07:00

First published on February 6, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/02/reincarnation.html

>>>>>>

These ACIM Mentor Blog Articles are now available in a book! Click here to buy, or read them all for free online at www.acimmentor.com.

The Bliss of Letting Go, revisited

2010-06-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

From January 30, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/01/bliss-of-letting-go.html\

>>>>

These ACIM Mentor Blog articles are now available in a bound book! Click here to order.

As always, you can read all of these articles at www.acimmentor.com under "Answers by Topic."

ACIM Mentor Articles Book Now Available!

2010-06-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

The ACIM Mentor Articles: Answers for Students of A Course in Miracles is now out! This is a collection of the articles that you all have been reading on this blog for the past 4 years. You can read all of the articles at my website, www.acimmentor.com, under "Answers by Topic", or buy the book here.

"Getting Into" Heaven

2010-06-02T07:40:00.000-07:00

From January 20, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/01/getting-into-heaven.html

>>>>

Learn about the Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

A Miracle to Share, revisited

2010-05-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

From January 16, 2007, a miracle involving an abusive relationship:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/01/miracle-to-share.html

>>>>>

Learn about The Plain Language A Course in Miracles at www.placim.com.

How Do I 'Accept the Atonement' For Myself?, revisited

2010-05-19T07:48:00.000-07:00

First published on January 13, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/01/how-do-i-accept-atonement-for-myself.html

>>>>>

The Plain Language A Course in Miracles is now available at www.placim.com.

Maintaining Your Peace Outside Your Home, revisited

2010-05-12T07:49:00.001-07:00

First published on January 3, 2007:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/01/maintaining-your-peace-outside-your.html

>>>>

The Plain Language A Course in Miracles is now available at www.placim.com.

The 'Happy Dream' Error, revisited

2010-05-05T04:59:00.000-07:00

From December 27, 2006:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2006/12/happy-dream-error.html

>>>>>
The Plain Language A Course in Miracles is now available at www.placim.com. Read, request a download of, or pre-order the first volume (Text). You can also request a download of the combined second and third volumes (Workbook/MFT), or find a PLACIM study group, teacher, or event.

Martyrdom: The Common Mistake, revisited

2010-04-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

From December 9, 2006:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2006/12/martyrdom-common-mistake.html

>>>>

The Plain Language A Course in Miracles is now available at www.placim.com. There, you can read, request a download, or pre-order the first volume (Text), request a download of the second and third volumes (Workbook/MFT), or find a PLACIM teacher, study group, or event.

What Happens to My Relationships When I Detach, revisited

2010-04-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

First posted on December 6, 2006:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2006/12/what-happens-to-my-relationships-when-i.html

>>>>>

Read, request a download, or pre-order The Message of A Course in Miracles: A Translation of the Text in Plain Language at www.placim.com. There, you can also download the entire Plain Language A Course in Miracles, find teachers, study groups, and events related to PLACIM.

Resting in Forgiveness

2010-04-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

I have been asked why I have been recycling my articles for my blog and newsletters this year instead of writing new ones. In thinking about this, I’ve realized that teaching for me comes in two forms: active and passive.
“Active” teaching occurs for me when I feel spontaneously motivated, even compelled, to teach. I have been surprised to discover that what motivates me to “go out” and teach (write, speak) is a perception of lack. I used to perceive a lack of understanding of A Course in Miracles in others, or a need for correction in how they read or practiced the Course, and this motivated me to actively teach. Of course, this perception was my projection of my own need to learn the ideas in the Course, and to be corrected, but this only became obvious to me as my need to teach “others” fell away as I became more and more aware that there is nothing to teach or to correct! The Truth is unchanged and Perfect, so there is nothing to fix There, and, as I recognize that illusion is illusion, it is obvious that what is not real does not need to be corrected, because there is nothing there to fix! In other words, I’ve come to a realization of what the Course puts so succinctly in its introduction:

“Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the Peace of God.”

When I try to come up with something to write or to talk about, my attempts gently drift to the ground in the awareness that nothing needs to change, so “I need do nothing”.
I do find, however, that I am happily willing to teach when someone comes to me with their questions, either through email, or through a formal mentoring relationship, though I no longer perceive their need as real, because it is no longer real in me. In fact, that has become the point of these encounters. They are no longer about me needing to ‘fix’ the lack that I had been projecting out there, but rather about resting in the awareness that all is well, despite the ‘story’ that is being presented to me. This is “passive” teaching for me, in that I no longer have a burning need to “go out” and teach, but I teach when an opportunity is presented. For me, “passive” teaching means resting in forgiveness; it means simply knowing that only the Truth is True, and overlooking illusion. I have not perfected this, so this is what I am learning now as I continue to offer myself as a mentor to “other” students of the Course.
As for my articles…I wrote 332 articles over four years, so somewhere in them I have addressed all of the questions that I have ever been asked by Course students. I am recycling some of them each week, because these questions come up again and again with students, some of whom are new to my blog or newsletter. My articles are new to them, and reminders to others who have been receiving them for a while. You can read them all at my website, www.acimmentor.com, under ‘Answers by Topic’, and I have also collected them all into a book, which I am editing now, and hope to have out later this year.

>>>>>
Read, request a download, or pre-order The Message of A Course in Miracles: A translation of the Text in Plain Language at www.placim. com. There, you can also request a download of the combined second and third volumes (Workbook/Manual for Teachers) of the Plain Language A Course in Miracles.

Detaching From Attack, revisited

2010-04-07T08:53:00.001-07:00

First published on November 22, 2006:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2006/11/detaching-from-attack.html

******
The entire Plain Language A Course in Miracles is now available for download at www.placim.com. There, you can also read or pre-order the first volume, The Message of A Course in Miracles: A Translation of the Text in Plain Language.

You Will Never Convince the Ego, revisited

2010-03-31T08:37:00.000-07:00

First published on November 15, 2006:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2006/11/you-will-never-convince-ego.html

>>>>>

Visit www.placim.com to download the entire Plain Language A Course in Miracles, to read online or pre-order the first volume, or to find a PLACIM-related study group, teacher or event.

Revisiting the Idea of 'Conscience'

2010-03-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

First posted October 7, 2006:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2006/10/conscience.html

First posted October 11, 2006:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2006/10/conscience-revisited.html

********

The entire Plain Language A Course in Miracles is now available for download at www.placim.com. There you can also read or pre-order the first volume, The Message of A Course in Miracles: A Translation of the Text in Plain Language

Do I Have to Give Up....?, revisitged

2010-03-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

First published on September 27, 2006:

http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2006/09/do-i-have-to-give-up.html

*******
Check out the new website for the Plain Language A Course in Miracles, www.placim.com. There you can read or pre-order the first volume, or you can download all three volumes. Also, you can find a PLACIM study group, teacher/mentor/coach, or PLACIM-related event.