ACIM Mentor

When I was first a student of A Course in Miracles I was very ambitious. I half-jokingly talked about “ascending” one day. I imagined myself in a white-robe and Birkenstocks, transparent, rising into a pure white cloud, down from which beautiful rays of light poured. I had no idea what I was talking about, of course, and deep down I didn’t think I ever could ascend. It seemed like something magical or something that required an unimaginable – and unobtainable -- power. It was far beyond me to overcome the world and rise up to God. So I was amused the other day when one of my students, having read my blog about entering “stage five” of the development of trust, said that he was afraid I would “ascend” soon. I hadn’t thought of “ascending” in decades! When I was a twenty-year-old kid, “ascending” was very appealing to the ego. The ego will always use whatever we are doing on our spiritual path to glorify itself. Ascending was a lofty and unobtainable goal, the ego’s favorite kind. It co...

Since I posted on my website my recognition of my own “Development of Trust” (M-4.I.A) (see Relationship With God at www.acimmentor.com ), I’ve received a lot of questions about the six stages of building trust with the Holy Spirit. For example, what does “sorting out” and “valuable and valueless” mean in practical, everyday terms? How do you recognize which stage you are in? Do you need to know which stage you are in? And what is required of you in each stage? What you are “sorting out” is Truth from illusion, which in everyday terms means: What is the Holy Spirit and what is the ego in your mind? The experiences of Truth (the Holy Spirit) is what is “valuable” and the experience of illusion (ego) is what is “valueless”. It is natural for you to keep what is valuable and to let go of what is valueless, but you can’t do this when you can’t tell them apart, so you have to learn to distinguish them from each other first. The sorting out process begins with you learning to hear and then ...

What seems to be the fear of God is really the fear of your own reality. (T-9.I.2) When I wrote about the terror of losing my individuality I felt returning from my last revelation (see Unsettled ) I was writing about the terror of ego, which isn’t me. It was the exact same feeling as the fear of death at its most extreme, yet I saw that there is Something in me that doesn’t die. The fear of death, then, is really the fear of loss of ego, and what but ego could fear that? I only experience the ego’s fear in direct proportion to how identified I still am with the ego. Even as I felt that terror my feet were firmly planted in the peace I have acquired. I could not have looked at it otherwise, because before this peace I would have thought that losing the ego was losing me and would not have been able to cope. To look upon the fear of God does need some preparation. Only the sane can look on stark insanity and raving madness with pity and compassion, but not with fear. For only if they s...

It takes me a while to fully absorb the lessons I learn when I have a revelation like the one I shared a few blogs ago (see Unsettled ). The revelation itself – the direct experience of God – cannot be shared. It’s when I am “coming back”, as it were, that I learn something different each time. Spirit in its knowledge is unaware of the ego. It does not attack it; it merely cannot conceive of it at all. While the ego is equally unaware of spirit, it does perceive itself as being rejected by something greater than itself. (T-4.II.8) I’ve understood all along that God cannot know ego and that ego cannot know God. God only knows that a Part of It is unhappy and has sent Help (the Holy Spirit) to undo the unhappiness. The ego only knows that there is Something Else that gets your attention. They are diametrically opposed and so have nothing in common over which to meet. But this was the first time I experienced in all its starkness this complete disconnection between these two parts of my ...

A Course in Miracles teaches us that we have to sort out Truth from illusion but for many of us the first thing we have to sort out is the Course itself! It is very confusing because the language of the Course is Christian but it doesn’t take long to realize that its message is nothing like traditional Christianity. The philosophy of A Course in Miracles is much closer to eastern religious philosophy with its emphasis of “salvation” as awakening to Truth rather than salvation as deliverance from sin through the death of Jesus Christ. Traditional Christianity is very much like the pagan religions it has sought to replace. Pagan religions developed to give people a sense that they had some control over their lives in the world. They believed that unseen forces controlled the physical world and they made rituals that would help them to appease these forces. Later these forces were called gods and people petitioned and sought to appease these gods, through prayers, rituals, behaviors ...

God can be experienced but cannot be conveyed in words. How do you explain Being and Oneness and Wholeness to the ego-identified who think that they are defined by what they do, that fragmentation is reality and who are so used to lack that they cannot distinguish it from wholeness? You cannot. The most you can do is help others to become motivated to open to experiencing God directly themselves. Sometimes students want to know how to support others who have a different theology, especially those close to them. The important thing to understand is there is no right or wrong theology or belief system. The only value any belief system has – even A Course in Miracles -- is related to the degree to which it helps one feel willing to open directly to God. The question to ask yourself is, what part of their belief system can you share with them or reinforce in them to help them remember God is love? For example, many Christians believe they can be directly guided by the Holy Spirit and you ...

In the decision to be separate from God, the part of your mind that chose to be not-God, ego, needed a means to make separation from God real to you. This is what the body is for. It is the “proof” that separation from God is real and the means the ego uses to make you feel whole again. The ego teaches you to use the body to get what you want in the world, be they situations, things or other bodies. Though made to make separation from God real to you, the body is actually neutral. It has no feelings or impulses of its own. All of its feelings and impulses come from your mind. When you identify with the Holy Spirit you have no personal goal for the body. The Holy Spirit uses the body as a means to reach minds that perceive themselves as separate from God to teach them of their Oneness with God. When the Holy Spirit is done with the body, It will not destroy it, but lay it aside. Yet sickness is not of the body, but of the mind. All forms of sickness are signs that the mind is split, and...

The next stage is indeed "a period of unsettling." Now must the teacher of God understand that he did not really know what was valuable and what was valueless. All that he really learned so far was that he did not want the valueless, and that he did want the valuable. Yet his own sorting out was meaningless in teaching him the difference. The idea of sacrifice, so central to his own thought system, had made it impossible for him to judge. He thought he learned willingness, but now he sees that he does not know what the willingness is for. And now he must attain a state that may remain impossible to reach for a long, long time. He must learn to lay all judgment aside, and ask only what he really wants in every circumstance. Were not each step in this direction so heavily reinforced, it would be hard indeed! (M-4-1A-7) The other day as soon as I woke up it came into my mind that I have entered the “period of unsettling” described in the Manual for Teachers under (M-4) What are...

Wow, I’ve never received a response to any blog like I did to the last two (especially the first one) about money and A Course in Miracles . “Money” evokes a very powerful emotional response. I know that students always read their own thing into my blogs, but I’ve never before had a wide enough response to observe how varied the response can be. This reaction was a clear demonstration of how the mind always sees itself! My blogs are often written well in advance of my posting them. What follows below was written before I posted the blogs about money and it seems appropriate to post it after them. >>>>>> Sometimes students of A Course in Miracles write to tell me that what I write in my blogs is wrong or misleading. But can I mislead you? Like everything else in the world, my blogs are neutral. They contain words, which are symbols of symbolic ideas, which will be interpreted by the reader according to their goal for the world. I have made every effort to use words ...

(For Part I , which discusses money and the Holy Spirit’s guidance, click here .) What isn’t love is fear. Love asks the question, “What part of this is helpful in awakening the Part of God that dreams it is not-God?” It is grateful for what is helpful and it disregards what is not helpful. Fear, however, separates out by making judgments of good/bad, right/wrong, valuable/invaluable. Those who fear must see themselves as on the side of good/right/valuable and others as bad/wrong/invaluable to define their separate selves. Certainly the people who write to tell me I am wrong to make my living mentoring students of A Course in Miracles are coming from fear. Their fear is not about my teaching and guiding students who want to learn faster and easier. Their fear has to do with my asking for money. They have decided that money is bad and that it is therefore wrong to use the Course in any way to make money. Money is not evil. It is nothing. But no one here can live with no illusions, for...

Every now and then someone drops me an email to tell by that I am wrong to charge money for mentoring students of A Course in Miracles . Often they do this anonymously so I cannot respond to them. But if I can, I always let them know that I do not turn anyone away; that I work with many pro bono or at a reduced rate; that several people get informal mentoring by me through email free of charge; that if they want my booklets I will send it to them for free; and that many of their questions can be answered at the extensive blog archive-by-topic at my free website. They are never interested in my services or booklets or blogs. So why, I wondered, do they care that I charge for services they don’t even want? Why would they go out of their way to contact a stranger to voice their disapproval? Their concern is genuine and I have given it a lot of thought. There are three issues here: Preconceptions of how the Holy Spirit works in the world; fear of money; and ultimately, a lack of faith. Man...

A few years ago I led a study group which many brand-new students of A Course in Miracles attended. When they began to grasp the idea in the Course that a Part of God has decided to be not-God and that this world and our seeming selves in it are the not-God, many of them would say, “But that doesn’t make sense! How could Part of God be not-God?” And I would reply, “ Exactly . Now you understand what the Course is saying. It doesn’t make sense .” Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh. In his forgetting did the thought become a serious idea, and possible of both accomplishment and real effects. (T-27.VIII.6) God, being Everything, must contain even Its own opposite. But what is the opposite of everything? Nothing! God cannot have an opposite. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite. This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way: Nothing real can be threate...

When everyone recognizes that he has everything, individual contributions to the Sonship will no longer be necessary. (T-1.V.2) I’ve been asked to respond to the question, “If individuality is an illusion and we do not have individual souls or spirits, why should we bother to awaken individually?” In other words, what is an individual’s motivation for going through the discomfort of giving up individuality -- the ego? And how does a seeming individual’s awakening contribute to anyone else? The individual motivation is always the desire for complete peace. But your individual desire for complete peace is actually our collective desire to be whole again. You cannot be at peace as an individual because being at peace means you recognize that you are not an individual. Making the decision for peace is really all that you have to contribute individually and once you do so, your individuality, though not of God, serves to awaken everyone to God. All that you made can serve salvation easily ...

Your identification is with the Father and with the Son. It cannot be with One and not the Other. If you are part of One you must be part of the Other, because They are One. The Holy Trinity is holy because It is One. (T-8.IV.8) Some students, especially those that do not come from a Christian background, are confused by the dividing up of God into three parts -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit – in A Course in Miracles . Why not just say God ? The Course uses the Trinity of God just as it uses Knowledge and perception -- to distinguish the levels of the mind (see http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/08/essential-distinction-knowledge-vs.html ). Without the perception of separation from God it would not be necessary to speak of God in three parts. In God there is only God, Whole and Complete, not in parts but One. But in the perception of separation from God this awareness of Oneness is lost in a mind that thinks it is split between God and not-God (ego). The part of the mind that is sti...

The very real difference between perception and knowledge becomes quite apparent if you consider this: There is nothing partial about knowledge. Every aspect is whole, and therefore no aspect is separate. You are an aspect of knowledge, being in the Mind of God, Who knows you. All knowledge must be yours, for in you is all knowledge. Perception, at its loftiest, is never complete. Even the perception of the Holy Spirit, as perfect as perception can be, is without meaning in Heaven. Perception can reach everywhere under His guidance, for the vision of Christ beholds everything in light. Yet no perception, however holy, will last forever. (T-13.VIII.2) A Course in Miracles uses a distinction between Knowledge and perception as a means to discuss the seeming levels of the mind -- the level of God and the level of ego. God is. God is pure Being. In God there is only God and what God knows is God. You can experience that level only through revelation, which is a direct experience of God (...

Everyone comes into the world to be separate from God. But you _____ (fill in your name), did not make this choice personally . A part of God seemed to decide to be not-God (ego) and seemed to fragment into many distinct identities (egos) to make it seem that God’s Oneness was overcome. Your seeming individuality is a part of that part that seemed to make the decision to be not-God. But seeming isn’t reality. You are still One and you are still Part of God. The perception of personal or individual is what you are awakening from . In this world, because the mind is split, the Sons of God appear to be separate. Nor do their minds seem to be joined. In this illusory state, the concept of an "individual mind" seems to be meaningful. It is therefore described in the course as if it has two parts; spirit and ego. (C-1.2) There is no “my” ego or “your” ego because all that is not-God is equally unreal. If a blue cup was filled with orange juice and a red cup was filled with ora...

One of the ideas in A Course in Miracles that students seem to latch onto right away is “I need do nothing”. It’s a line that sticks in every student’s mind completely out of the context in which it was written! The ego seems to universally play havoc with it. Some student’s panic (“But I have to work! I have a family to raise! I can’t do nothing !”); others are merely confused (“But if ‘I need do nothing’ am I just supposed to let this situation that is bothering me continue?”) or even facetious (“If ‘I need do nothing’ why are there lessons in the Course to do ? Why am I awakening? Isn’t that ‘doing’ something?”). The ego is obviously very threatened by those four words! If you read the section in the Text called “I Need Do Nothing” (T-18.VII) in context , it is about the holy instant: There is one thing that you have never done; you have not utterly forgotten the body. It has perhaps faded at times from your sight, but it has not yet completely disappeared. You are not asked to let...

There is some confusion about the difference between true perception, denial and being a “Pollyanna”. Denial and Pollyannishness both start from the premise that how you perceive what the body’s eyes show you is fact, and that your experience (your feelings about it) comes from the person, thing, situation or event you are looking upon. In denial, you pretend you are not seeing and experiencing what you really do believe is fact. If you are a Pollyanna, you believe the situation is “bad” but that you are going to make the best of it. You are going to make lemonade from lemons. True perception, however, first recognizes that what the body’s eyes show you is neutral and that how you experience it is determined by your own learning goal, not the person, thing, situation or event itself. True perception recognizes that the world’s only value is as a classroom and that you get to choose what you want to learn in it. True perception interprets the world as a means for remembering that you ar...

Knowledge is not the remedy for false perception since, being another level, they can never meet. The one correction possible for false perception must be true perception . (C-4.3) In God, you Know and what you know is God. In God your Knowledge is complete and you have nothing to learn. In the decision to be not-God, however, you gave up Knowledge and learning was made to fill this lack. Perception was made as the means to learn who you are and the world, which is the opposite of God in every way (material form, finite, time-bound, diverse) was made to teach you that you are not-God. There has been much confusion about what perception means, because the word is used both for awareness and for the interpretation of awareness. Yet you cannot be aware without interpretation, for what you perceive is your interpretation. (T-11.VI.2) But like any classroom, the world itself is neutral and perception, being interpretation, is a choice. What you learn in the world depends on the teacher y...

The knowledge that illuminates not only sets you free, but also shows you clearly that you are free. (T-2.I.4) Somewhere in the beginning of my spiritual searching, in a book about Buddhism or Hinduism, I read that the world is an illusion that is the source of all pain and that the only way to peace was to let go of all attachment to this illusion. I realized the Truth of this idea and it set me free. I felt the uplifting peace and joy that always attends true freedom. This freedom and peace and joy became the experience that helped me recognize the Truth when I embarked on my study of A Course in Miracles and other spiritual teachings. I knew a concept pointed to Truth when I felt this freedom. I knew I finally grasped an idea when I felt this freedom. Should I wait in chains which have been severed for release, when God is offering me freedom now? (W-279.1) This is not to say that I personally liked an idea that set me free. In fact, I was always personally threatened by it. I ...