ACIM Mentor

             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 ...

          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,...