ACIM Mentor

          “I would like to see a discussion on what Christianity calls Holy Spirit.  As I see it, Christianity does not have exclusive ownership of it, it's just called something else in other spiritual teachings such as, spirit, consciousness, or presence. As I see it, it's the awareness that we all are…” – HC   You are correct that there are universal experiences, some of which some call the Holy Spirit . I doubt there will ever be agreement on what any term means or to what experience they should be applied. It is up to the beholder to label their experiences. Most of us try to find labels that come close to how the experience is experienced or, if we are part of a tradition, to apply the label to what we think the label is supposed to mean in that context. A Course in Miracles uses the term Holy Spirit for one’s inner teacher. It is the Voice for God in each of us that can reveal to us our part in the plan of the Atonement (correction of th...

              In 2008 when Liz here was translating A Course in Miracles into plain language , a message it held stood out the whole time. In fact, it felt like it was slamming into this mind over and over again. It was this: “My conflict is not with a world outside of me or a god outside of me. My conflict is between me and me.” It was refreshing to see this, even though it didn’t end the conflict. As a student of the Course , this mind thought it was being shown that conflict is within and that it must be the false self’s (ego’s) conflict with the true self (spirit). But something about this didn’t seem complete to this mind. It either wasn’t seeing it correctly or there was something more to see. This experience lasted beyond translating the Course , but it eventually faded away as other lessons came forward and it was mostly forgotten. Eventually, the core of ego, the “I”, fell away, leaving only its thought system to “wind down” and when that e...

             In show biz, there’s a thing called “typecasting” where an actor is cast to play the same type of character often if not always. This is most common with character actors, the supporting actors you see in many TV shows and movies. For example, the actor who always plays the supportive best friend, or the conceited sister, or the critical mother. Originally, it’s based on how they look, and if they play the character well, they can get stuck being typecast. Once, Liz here saw an actor who usually played tough characters, often bad guys, in an interview and she was floored. He was well groomed, artsy, sensitive, and soft-spoken in contrast to his rugged face and how he was usually cast. When Liz was a child, she learned early in primary school that the best-looking kids were not necessarily the best people. They were nice to look at but not necessarily nice to be around. She also quickly learned that someone she liked to be around grew bet...

            Back in January there was an article here, Being Conscious , about the experience in this mind of pure consciousness in conscious awareness. This has continued to advance, and it is refreshing. And I see now clearly what ego did with those experiences before. Before ego fell away in this mind, when pure consciousness (truth) rose to conscious awareness (rare), leading to an experience of feeling very conscious (very present, very clear), ego did one of two things with it: If it felt it was going to be judged by this “presence” (which was how ego experienced it), it feared it, so when it passed, ego quickly “forgot” it (denied it) with one distraction or another. But other times, it used it for itself, it became part of its own story. This presence, which was benevolent and strong, had arrived, to ego’s way of thinking, for the sake of ego, like for comfort, or it meant something about ego, for example, that it was ego’s “true self”. Because i...

            When Liz here has occasion to read A Course in Miracles , say, with a client or to look something up for these articles, what comes across now is a feeling of benevolence . It was always the case that she felt something lovely when she read the Course . In hindsight, this mind now understands why as an early student she carried all three hardcover books in a backpack with her everywhere, not because of all the mind blowing things it said, but because of how she felt when she read it. For a long time, the only time she felt the Holy Spirit was when she was reading the Course . When the Holy Spirit became her constant companion, her reading tapered off. This is, of course, the experience for probably everyone who has a distinct “holy book”. The experiences felt while reading whatever teaching it is comes from the reader, not from the book. Liz read the Bible and felt none of what she felt reading the Course . Yet, multitudes feel something love...

              After The Break here, when the “I”, ego, fell away, the gamut of darker personal experiences rose to conscious awareness, without covers. One of the aspects to emerge was a weak, whiny, self-pitying aspect that felt childish. In fact, for a while, it was thought here that perhaps something from the inner child was trying to be seen, but in time it was realized this was just fear appearing as insecure and whiny. What we think of as ego can be childish and often seems undeveloped and unevolved. The thing is, if those traits are ego, what is rationality, responsibility, empathy, compassion, strength of character—in other words, maturity? Certainly, these personal traits aren’t the Son of God or the Holy Spirit as those are not persons . So, if they aren’t ego, what are they? This mind did not know how to label them until ego fell away at The Break. It’s become clear here now that ego used A Course in Miracles to dissociate its negative ...