ACIM Mentor

            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...

           Sometimes I’m asked by clients, considering what I now see and know since the shift in consciousness, looking back to before the shift, are there practices that I had then that prepared me or that I would now encourage in others given what I know now? Even before the shift, the practice that I had was not a recognized practice for me, but behavior that arose spontaneously. It was so natural I did not think of it as having a practice . The 4 Habits for Inner Peace that became a book and suggested practice for readers and clients came about when clients asked what I did to stay at peace. I had to think about it because they were natural habits for me, not something I set out to do. I now understand that they were the effect of truth rising to conscious awareness in this mind. (They were also a consolidation of suggested practices from A Course in Miracles .) In fact, I’m often surprised looking back how much truth was here and how this mind’s p...

            This is an attempt to explain something that perhaps can’t be explained. It is in response to those who are disappointed in teachers they expect to be enlightened and discover them to be just people, moreover, people who sometimes do the crappy things that people do. Expecting an enlightened teacher indicates the person with the expectation does not understand what enlightenment is. It means they would be surprised to find out for themselves what it is if it happened to them. In fact, it often does and they miss it! Often in these pages it is stated that “When truth (peace, love, oneness, etc.) comes to conscious awareness it does not come to the person or ego.” Also, “There is no such thing as an enlightened person.” This is saying the same thing. This is what is hard to describe: When truth (pure consciousness) comes to conscious awareness it comes to, well, conscious awareness, not to the person or ego. The person and ego are only appeara...

           Once upon a time it was mistakenly thought here that the longing one has for fulfillment or love or perpetual happiness or to find oneself is truth longing for truth. But, this cannot be so because truth is whole and it is never not truth, meaning, it is always whole. All lack (need or want) is a false idea, ego, appearing. Ego is a condition of perpetual lack and fear. It is never fulfilled. It is meant to be this because it is the idea of not-truth, or not-wholeness. Some clients and readers will say, “I have this peace with me, I feel I will always be okay, that all is always good, but…I still sometimes doubt, I still get angry, I still get afraid, I sometimes feel lack, etc.” These are two different things in conscious awareness, not one thing slipping from wholeness to lack. The wholeness is real. It is what consciousness is. The doubt and fear and lack are ego; they are the illusion. Wholeness and lack never join, so ego’s sense of lack ...