ACIM Mentor

             Clients and readers who have not had mystical or nonduality experiences want to know if they can still practice forgiveness as A Course in Miracles teaches it since in the Course ultimately forgiveness is coming to recognize that nothing real is occurring. Yes, you can. You can come to see and release (forgive) ego’s illusions, which are projections of meaning and expectations. The Course teaches the source of your pain is your own thoughts, so you don’t need to forgive others or situations but rather your unmet expectations and false projections of meaning. So, if in situations where you are in pain you look for how you contribute to your pain by looking at your expectations and projections of meaning you are practicing forgiveness. Simply acknowledging that you are the source of your upset is stepping into forgiveness.   Zia had an abusive mother. Sometimes the abuse was physical, but the verbal and psychological abuse was ...

             A traveler who has never been in a desert is crossing one. In the distance, they see an oasis of water. They move persistently toward it but never reach it. It is always ahead of them. This is because they do not see water but rather heat shimmering off the sand. They were sure they saw water, but it was a mirage—an illusion. An illusion is something that is taken to be real that is not. For illusions to be illusions, they must be convincing. This is their seeming power and why they can seem hard to overcome. To pure consciousness (truth), ego, the material world, thoughts, and feelings are merely appearances. They are not real. They have no meaning. They have no effect on pure consciousness. But for ego, ego, the material world, thoughts, and feelings are reality. Since they are not true but ego believes they are, for ego they are illusions. Ego is delusional. After The Break, this mind (this conscious awareness) went through a long...

            Every now and then someone asks me why these articles are not about forgiveness. All these articles are about forgiveness! Oh, this may not be spelled out and that word may not be used but every article deliberately contains something to bring relief to at least some readers. In A Course in Miracles , forgiveness is recognizing that a sense of separation from God (the whole) is an illusion. So, anything that appears to cause you to feel autonomous and isolated is an illusion. These feelings are caused by mistaken perceptions that can be changed; therefore, they are not true. Since they are not true, they are not sin. Since there is no sin, there is no justification for guilt. Since there is no sin or guilt, you do not need forgiveness from God, but you need to forgive (release) your own false perceptions that make you feel you have sinned, that you have made yourself separate from God. Only false perceptions lead you to feel you are separate ...

             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...

              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...

             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 ...