Posts

Ego Thinning and Cracking

             A discomfort often reported to me by clients and readers is their confusion over why certain spiritual experiences, like shifts in perception and mystical experiences, are not consistent or why these experiences don’t seem to make discernable progress. They may grow through these experiences and in that sense they progress, but the experiences themselves do not seem to grow or develop. For example, someone may have a mystical experience revealing truth beyond ego and the world and never have another. Others feel the nearness of truth often, but it doesn’t break fully into their conscious awareness. Some have reported living in a lovely awareness of truth for months or even years only to have it fade. The problem isn’t truth (pure consciousness), of course, but the nature of ego. Ego thinks everything that happens in consciousness is for it and its person. That is its reality and it knows no other. It makes stories, and in doing so, deve...
Post a Comment
Read more

Met at the Level of the Need

              It’s always worth revisiting this modern-day parable now and then. Comments afterward.   ** The Old Man and the Flood   An old man lives in a town where a flood comes through. The water rises to his porch, and a fire truck comes by.   “Get in,” the firemen call to him. “We’ll get you to higher ground.”   “No, thanks,” says the old man. “God will take care of me.”   The next morning the water had risen to his second story. He’s hanging out a window when a rescue boat comes by.   “Get in,” the would-be rescuers call to him. “We’ll take you to higher ground.”   “No, thanks,” says the old man. “God will take care of me.”   The next morning finds the old man on his roof as the water has all but covered his house. A helicopter flies over and drops down a ladder.   “Climb up,” his would-be rescuers call to him. “We’ll take you to higher ground.”   “No, th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ask: How can I be happy when others are unhappy?

             A  common question clients and readers ask when they begin to see the way to peace is, “How can I be happy when others are unhappy?” Sometimes, the “others” are distant people, in war torn countries, for example. Other times, the “others” are people close to them. They feel it is selfish to choose peace. A Course in Miracles states at least three times that your only responsibility is to “accept the Atonement” for yourself . In the Course , Atonement means “correction of the perception that you are separate from God.” That correction means to lead to your happiness. But in many ways, the Course tells you that your shift in perception away from separation toward unity also helps others. It is not difficult to see how this works if you think in terms of energy. Your joining others in their unhappiness only increases the amount of misery in the room—or in the world. And certainly, if someone cares about you, they don’t want you to ...
3 comments
Read more

Ask: Does ACIM say the world is an illusion or my thoughts about it are?

              A confusion this mind had as a new student and that Liz here sometimes hears from clients and readers is, “Is A Course in Miracles saying the world is an illusion or how I’m seeing it is an illusion?” This mind loved the idea that the world isn’t real. This was radical, yes, but also completely liberating. However, this made ego uncomfortable, so there were times it asserted that, no, the Course is saying only your perceptions are illusions. This was not as liberating, but ego was a bit more comfortable. Actually, the Course says both are illusions and it all comes together in Lesson 132 in the Workbook, “I loose the world from all I thought it was.” (For those confused by the word loose here, change it to release .) Paragraph 4 begins, “The world is nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning.” This is the awareness that the Workbook of the Course fosters from the start. The world is a neutral appearance, so any meaning ...
3 comments
Read more

Ask: Do words matter to God?

            “I would like to see a discussion on: Does God understand our words? Since words have been invented as a communication device in the illusion, does God even know they exist? I have seen people agonize over what words to use in prayer. Does it matter?” – HC   “Strictly speaking, words play no part at all in healing. The motivating factor is prayer, or asking. What you ask for you receive. But this refers to the prayer of the heart, not to the words you use in praying. Sometimes the words and the prayer are contradictory; sometimes they agree. It does not matter. God does not understand words, for they were made by separated minds to keep them in the illusion of separation. Words can be helpful, particularly for the beginner, in helping concentration and facilitating the exclusion, or at least the control, of extraneous thoughts. Let us not forget, however, that words are but symbols of symbols. They are thus twice removed from reality.”...
5 comments
Read more

Ask: Have you experienced a sort of "energetic indwelling"?

           “I have noticed a kind of embodiment of something…Holy Spirit, the Heart…not sure how to articulate, but an energetic indwelling…have not seen any reference to this in ACIM…another egoic experience or something aligning with HS, Source, etc.? Have you experienced anything similar?” – MG   “Energetic indwelling” is rather vague, but I know these experiences are hard to describe. I assume you mean that you are experiencing something within that is out of the ordinary. The fact that you initially want to describe it as the embodiment of the Holy Spirit or the Heart, by which I think you mean it feels loving, means that you are pretty sure it is something aligned with truth, but you have your doubts. Here’s how you can tell the difference between an experience of truth or of something new from ego that you think might be truth: Truth is quiet and unmoving. It just is . You use the word “energy”, but many use that word when they want to expr...
Post a Comment
Read more

God

             This is about what is labeled God and how sometimes in spiritual teachings contradictory things are labeled God , which leads to confusion. So, here’s some sorting out. There is what is going to happen in your person’s life and there is ego thinking it is autonomous and has free will and that it determines what happens in the person’s life. Even if you cannot accept that everything is predetermined, objectively you can see that your person does not exist in a vacuum. Their life is influenced by others and circumstances, often people and circumstances that are far away. Your person’s life is part of a greater unfolding. Adjusting to this fact is what is called maturing . Spirituality accelerates maturity by fostering acceptance of what is unfolding, often through the idea that what happens is the “will” of a supreme being, often called God . Ego senses things beyond itself and these it tends to label God or a like term. The supreme be...
Post a Comment
Read more