ACIM Mentor

          There used to be something here that learned and grew. It made choices. It could be right-minded or wrong-minded. It could be honest about its dark side or it could wear a mask and pretend it was only “good”. It could remain stuck in painful thoughts and feelings, or it could call on the Holy Spirit, its “true self”, for help. It is probably what Ken Wapnick referred to as the “decision maker”. It was thought to be the true “I” that would discover, if ego, the deceiver, fell away, that it really was “God”. But at The Break here eight years ago, it fell away. And this is why the whole “I” experience, not just negative thoughts, attitudes, and traits, have come to be referred to as ego in these articles. (Ego is Latin for “I”, after all.) It was thought here in this mind from the beginning of being a student of A Course in Miracles that what was referred to in the Course as ego was the entire personal experience. This is not what the Course teach...

             Often when something uncomfortable is occurring in their lives clients will ask if, on some level, they want it. They’ve heard from teachers that nothing happens against their will and even if they are not conscious of it, on some level they want everything that occurs. They are sometimes told that they have in fact asked for it because of what they could learn from it. A Course in Miracles says you ask for your experience, either fear or love, but not the events in which they seem to occur. There is the appearance of free will and you can choose to see things either through fear or love. You can use uncomfortable situations to remind you to turn your mind to love. Or at least, if you are stuck in fear, you can ask love for another way to look at the situation. But lets examine the idea that you want what happens. Truth does not lack so it does not learn. Only ego learns. Putting aside ego choosing or asking for experiences to learn,...

              It happens more now that a thought will pass through this mind and then show up in the world in some way. For example, this mind will make a connection or see a pattern or simply receive information about what is going on in the world and in a day or two come across an article about it. This was just a passing thought not shared with anyone, not researched, so no algorithm picked it up. This is not new, just occurring more because this mind is quieter and clearer and so is more aware of passing information. Coincidences and synchronicity have always been a part of this mind’s awareness, but what was occurring was not fully understood. Liz would take up an interest, say a hobby or a certain type of fiction she had not tried before, and suddenly it would explode in popular culture. This was long before social media and algorithms, so Liz was not joining a trend she was aware of, she was unconsciously moved to be on the leading edge of it....

            In the 1980s, when Liz here was first a student of A Course in Miracles , there was a famine in Africa and a bunch of musical artists got together and gave huge concerts to raise money for food for the people of Africa. At the time, Liz was in a Course study group with mostly much older people (Liz was only 20), many of them a group of friends from a nearby church. One of the women from this group was very involved with famine relief. But one day the leader of our group talked about how for famine to be wiped out, there would have to be a paradigm shift in consciousness away from lack toward abundance. This made the woman feel her involvement with famine relief was pointless, it was indeed only, as the first concert was called, a Band Aid . (For those not in the US, Band-Aid is a common brand of bandaging for everyday cuts.) Why was she bothering if it was only a temporary fix and wasn’t bringing real change? Certainly, there was a very urgent...

            So, if one’s person’s life is an expression and is not for ego or a “soul” (disembodied ego) to “get somewhere”, as was explained in last week’s article, then how is one to approach their life? You live in the day, moving with however you are moved that day. To do this comfortably, here’s the trick: Without judgment. Your person’s life is part of a greater whole. It is not unfolding independent of everyone and everything else around it. The greater whole, which is the story unfolding in time, is what most consider “God”. Ego, however, has its own ideas about what “should” happen based on the identity it has devised for your person and the goals it has set for itself through the person. This is the sense of separation it fosters. This is how it makes itself a god unto itself. The thing is, what’s going to happen is going to happen, without regard to what ego wants. So, ego can go along with what happens and work on how it sees it and therefor...

           Lately in these articles it has been explained that the spiritual journey isn’t from truth or to truth but is the effect on ego (I, me) and the person of truth rising to conscious awareness. It is an expression rather than an aspirational journey for a soul (disembodied ego). Truth rises to conscious awareness and one finds themselves on a journey of personal and spiritual growth. In most cases, one seeks validation of their experiences in spiritual teachings that are already around. In rare cases, one is moved to bring forth a new spiritual teaching or practice or religion. Some have expressed confusion about this, so an analogy arose in this mind, and clients have found it helpful. Imagine the ocean, vast and deep and powerful and seeming never-ending. On the surface of the ocean is the usual debris, plant material from shores, like palm fronds and coconuts; items that have fallen off boats, like rope and seat cushions; plastics and other hu...