ACIM Mentor

When I posted my blogs about money ( Money and the Course, Part I ; Money and the Course, Part II ), one of the responses that surprised me most were those that conveyed surprise that the Holy Spirit would be so involved in my life as to make financial decisions for me. What do they think is meant by turning your life over to the Holy Spirit, I wondered, if you don’t turn over everything? The whole illusion of separation from God rests on the perception that your life is for you alone – meaning you without the God in you (the Holy Spirit) – you in ego. In order to be whole again you must correct this misperception by giving back your whole life – your whole mind – to the Holy Spirit in you. Any part you hold on to for you alone is the bit of separateness you want to keep. You cannot be wholly at peace until you wholly give up not-peace – ego-identity. He (the teacher of God) must learn to lay all judgment aside, and ask only what he really wants in every circumstance. (M-1.4.A.7) What...

There are several changes that students of A Course in Miracles go through and they sometimes wonder if it is natural. When you become a student of the Course , you are accepting a whole new purpose for your life. You are now on a path of becoming a teacher of God and your life is no longer driven by ego’s perceived needs. At first (the period of undoing) this is almost unconscious, but it causes shifts within you and in your life. Some of these changes occur because your values change and you simply don’t want or need what you were used to thinking you wanted or needed when your goal was separation from God. Some of these changes occur because the Holy Spirit requires them to fulfill Its role through you. Here are some changes that students report: A sense of isolation because you cannot share what you are studying and going through with those closest to you. Friends falling away because you are no longer interested in the same things. Cherished goals no longer seeming important or d...

The ego is the part of the mind that believes in division. How could part of God detach itself without believing it is attacking Him? We spoke before of the authority problem as based on the concept of usurping God's power. The ego believes that this is what you did because it believes that it is you. If you identify with the ego, you must perceive yourself as guilty. Whenever you respond to your ego you will experience guilt, and you will fear punishment. (T-5.V.3) Your identification with ego is your belief you have overcome God. This belief makes you feel guilty. As long as you identify with ego, you will feel guilt and fear punishment. Guilt will manifest in lack of peace and in your life as any form of physical or emotional disharmony (dis-ease). You may accept the relief of certain forms of disharmony, but you will continue to manifest disharmony in some way as long as you identify with ego. Real healing is your complete identification with the Holy Spirit. This is the only...

I’ve been asked to go a little deeper into the distinction between true forgiveness and what A Course in Miracles calls the ego’s version of forgiveness: Forgiveness-to-destroy. Students point out to me that many teachers of the Course still seem to teach the ego’s version of forgiveness. I have observed this also. True forgiveness is radically different from what the world thinks of as “forgiveness”. You have to let go of what you think it means – like so many words and concepts in the Course – and accept a new definition. True forgiveness is especially difficult to accept for the ego-identified because it undoes the ego. Resistance to the new meaning is strong in new students and even more experienced students fall back on the ego-appeasing practice of “forgiveness” until their identity begins to shift toward the Holy Spirit. However, true forgiveness is the foundation of the Course’s whole message and you must learn and then accept what it means if you want the Course to make a...

A student has asked me to write about how I let go of anger and resentment in relation to the holy relationship I experienced when I first became a student. She wants to know the process I went through to get over the anger and resentment I felt over E leaving my life and over my losing the special relationship as it was replaced by the holy relationship. The ego's plan is to have you see error clearly first, and then overlook it. Yet how can you overlook what you have made real? By seeing it clearly, you have made it real and cannot overlook it. (T-9.IV.4) When you focus on a grievance it is very real to you. Your looking at it at all indicates you think it is significant. If you try to pretend you do not think so just because a book tells you it is an illusion, you are practicing denial, not forgiveness. The only choice of “forgiveness” you are left with is the ego’s “forgiveness”, what A Course in Miracles calls “forgiveness-to-destroy”: Condescension (I’m better than you), ma...

A wise teacher teaches through approach, not avoidance. He does not emphasize what you must avoid to escape from harm, but what you need to learn to have joy. Consider the fear and confusion a child would experience if he were told, "Do not do this because it will hurt you and make you unsafe; but if you do that instead, you will escape from harm and be safe, and then you will not be afraid." It is surely better to use only three words: "Do only that!" This simple statement is perfectly clear, easily understood and very easily remembered. (T-6.V.3) Lately some students have asked for a simplification of what they must do to “accept the atonement” for themselves and to be at peace. A Course in Miracles teaches you certain habits in the Workbook, and emphasizes certain behaviors throughout, and I have distilled these into what I call the “Four Habits for Inner Peace”. These habits are what I developed for myself first by falling back on them during “trying” times, a...

We said before that the Holy Spirit must teach through comparisons, and uses opposites to point to truth. (T-16.VII.6) When the message of A Course in Miracles began to gel for me, when I began to see how every part fit into the whole, the Truth began to stand out for me in comparison to what the world taught or valued. This has continued to be the way I learn from the world. The way it happened is I would sense that what was being conveyed, either a value or a concept, didn’t quite line up with Truth. As I compared it with what I was learning through the Course and the Holy Spirit, Truth became clearer to me and the value or concept would fall away. I loved the clarity but I also found myself angry at the person who brought the experience to me. Initially I thought I must be projecting, that I must really believe or value what they were teaching and that I was angry because I didn’t want to see this. But this never seemed to quite fit. In time I learned that what made me angry was ...

There is a way of living in the world that is not here, although it seems to be. You do not change appearance, though you smile more frequently. Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet. And the ones who walk the world as you do recognize their own. Yet those who have not yet perceived the way will recognize you also, and believe that you are like them, as you were before. (W-155) Sometimes students say they wonder if there are any enlightened ones walking among us. Of course there are. But they don’t stand out. Their presence is peaceful but they look like you and me and their lives look like ordinary lives. They do not say, “Hey, look at me, I’m enlightened!” They do not brag about not having an ego. They do not seek to go on Larry King or Oprah. They are not looking for fame or recognition or fortune or the world’s versions of success. They do not start movements or go into politics. They are not interested in saving the world. They do not walk on water or go around healing the ...

Healing is accomplished the instant the sufferer no longer sees any value in pain. (M-5.I.1) Some students of A Course in Miracles who work in the healing professions, be they “traditional” or “alternative”, experience conflict as they get deeper into the Course and learn that all healing comes from the patient’s own mind and not from anything or anyone outside of them. They wonder what their purpose is and if they should go into another line of work. Often, they feel they are right where they are supposed to be and are uncertain how to view their role in healing. It is not the water at Lourdes, or the powers of the faith healer, or the medicine, herb or treatment that heals. A person decides they no longer want the illness and it is gone. But most people do no accept this. They need “agents” who seem to administer the healing. Your part, if you are in a healing profession, is to provide them a loving space in which to accept healing. Your part is to love the patient, even as you kn...

When I was first a student of A Course in Miracles I was very ambitious. I half-jokingly talked about “ascending” one day. I imagined myself in a white-robe and Birkenstocks, transparent, rising into a pure white cloud, down from which beautiful rays of light poured. I had no idea what I was talking about, of course, and deep down I didn’t think I ever could ascend. It seemed like something magical or something that required an unimaginable – and unobtainable -- power. It was far beyond me to overcome the world and rise up to God. So I was amused the other day when one of my students, having read my blog about entering “stage five” of the development of trust, said that he was afraid I would “ascend” soon. I hadn’t thought of “ascending” in decades! When I was a twenty-year-old kid, “ascending” was very appealing to the ego. The ego will always use whatever we are doing on our spiritual path to glorify itself. Ascending was a lofty and unobtainable goal, the ego’s favorite kind. It co...

Since I posted on my website my recognition of my own “Development of Trust” (M-4.I.A) (see Relationship With God at www.acimmentor.com ), I’ve received a lot of questions about the six stages of building trust with the Holy Spirit. For example, what does “sorting out” and “valuable and valueless” mean in practical, everyday terms? How do you recognize which stage you are in? Do you need to know which stage you are in? And what is required of you in each stage? What you are “sorting out” is Truth from illusion, which in everyday terms means: What is the Holy Spirit and what is the ego in your mind? The experiences of Truth (the Holy Spirit) is what is “valuable” and the experience of illusion (ego) is what is “valueless”. It is natural for you to keep what is valuable and to let go of what is valueless, but you can’t do this when you can’t tell them apart, so you have to learn to distinguish them from each other first. The sorting out process begins with you learning to hear and then ...

What seems to be the fear of God is really the fear of your own reality. (T-9.I.2) When I wrote about the terror of losing my individuality I felt returning from my last revelation (see Unsettled ) I was writing about the terror of ego, which isn’t me. It was the exact same feeling as the fear of death at its most extreme, yet I saw that there is Something in me that doesn’t die. The fear of death, then, is really the fear of loss of ego, and what but ego could fear that? I only experience the ego’s fear in direct proportion to how identified I still am with the ego. Even as I felt that terror my feet were firmly planted in the peace I have acquired. I could not have looked at it otherwise, because before this peace I would have thought that losing the ego was losing me and would not have been able to cope. To look upon the fear of God does need some preparation. Only the sane can look on stark insanity and raving madness with pity and compassion, but not with fear. For only if they s...

It takes me a while to fully absorb the lessons I learn when I have a revelation like the one I shared a few blogs ago (see Unsettled ). The revelation itself – the direct experience of God – cannot be shared. It’s when I am “coming back”, as it were, that I learn something different each time. Spirit in its knowledge is unaware of the ego. It does not attack it; it merely cannot conceive of it at all. While the ego is equally unaware of spirit, it does perceive itself as being rejected by something greater than itself. (T-4.II.8) I’ve understood all along that God cannot know ego and that ego cannot know God. God only knows that a Part of It is unhappy and has sent Help (the Holy Spirit) to undo the unhappiness. The ego only knows that there is Something Else that gets your attention. They are diametrically opposed and so have nothing in common over which to meet. But this was the first time I experienced in all its starkness this complete disconnection between these two parts of my ...

A Course in Miracles teaches us that we have to sort out Truth from illusion but for many of us the first thing we have to sort out is the Course itself! It is very confusing because the language of the Course is Christian but it doesn’t take long to realize that its message is nothing like traditional Christianity. The philosophy of A Course in Miracles is much closer to eastern religious philosophy with its emphasis of “salvation” as awakening to Truth rather than salvation as deliverance from sin through the death of Jesus Christ. Traditional Christianity is very much like the pagan religions it has sought to replace. Pagan religions developed to give people a sense that they had some control over their lives in the world. They believed that unseen forces controlled the physical world and they made rituals that would help them to appease these forces. Later these forces were called gods and people petitioned and sought to appease these gods, through prayers, rituals, behaviors ...

God can be experienced but cannot be conveyed in words. How do you explain Being and Oneness and Wholeness to the ego-identified who think that they are defined by what they do, that fragmentation is reality and who are so used to lack that they cannot distinguish it from wholeness? You cannot. The most you can do is help others to become motivated to open to experiencing God directly themselves. Sometimes students want to know how to support others who have a different theology, especially those close to them. The important thing to understand is there is no right or wrong theology or belief system. The only value any belief system has – even A Course in Miracles -- is related to the degree to which it helps one feel willing to open directly to God. The question to ask yourself is, what part of their belief system can you share with them or reinforce in them to help them remember God is love? For example, many Christians believe they can be directly guided by the Holy Spirit and you ...

In the decision to be separate from God, the part of your mind that chose to be not-God, ego, needed a means to make separation from God real to you. This is what the body is for. It is the “proof” that separation from God is real and the means the ego uses to make you feel whole again. The ego teaches you to use the body to get what you want in the world, be they situations, things or other bodies. Though made to make separation from God real to you, the body is actually neutral. It has no feelings or impulses of its own. All of its feelings and impulses come from your mind. When you identify with the Holy Spirit you have no personal goal for the body. The Holy Spirit uses the body as a means to reach minds that perceive themselves as separate from God to teach them of their Oneness with God. When the Holy Spirit is done with the body, It will not destroy it, but lay it aside. Yet sickness is not of the body, but of the mind. All forms of sickness are signs that the mind is split, and...

The next stage is indeed "a period of unsettling." Now must the teacher of God understand that he did not really know what was valuable and what was valueless. All that he really learned so far was that he did not want the valueless, and that he did want the valuable. Yet his own sorting out was meaningless in teaching him the difference. The idea of sacrifice, so central to his own thought system, had made it impossible for him to judge. He thought he learned willingness, but now he sees that he does not know what the willingness is for. And now he must attain a state that may remain impossible to reach for a long, long time. He must learn to lay all judgment aside, and ask only what he really wants in every circumstance. Were not each step in this direction so heavily reinforced, it would be hard indeed! (M-4-1A-7) The other day as soon as I woke up it came into my mind that I have entered the “period of unsettling” described in the Manual for Teachers under (M-4) What are...

Wow, I’ve never received a response to any blog like I did to the last two (especially the first one) about money and A Course in Miracles . “Money” evokes a very powerful emotional response. I know that students always read their own thing into my blogs, but I’ve never before had a wide enough response to observe how varied the response can be. This reaction was a clear demonstration of how the mind always sees itself! My blogs are often written well in advance of my posting them. What follows below was written before I posted the blogs about money and it seems appropriate to post it after them. >>>>>> Sometimes students of A Course in Miracles write to tell me that what I write in my blogs is wrong or misleading. But can I mislead you? Like everything else in the world, my blogs are neutral. They contain words, which are symbols of symbolic ideas, which will be interpreted by the reader according to their goal for the world. I have made every effort to use words ...

(For Part I , which discusses money and the Holy Spirit’s guidance, click here .) What isn’t love is fear. Love asks the question, “What part of this is helpful in awakening the Part of God that dreams it is not-God?” It is grateful for what is helpful and it disregards what is not helpful. Fear, however, separates out by making judgments of good/bad, right/wrong, valuable/invaluable. Those who fear must see themselves as on the side of good/right/valuable and others as bad/wrong/invaluable to define their separate selves. Certainly the people who write to tell me I am wrong to make my living mentoring students of A Course in Miracles are coming from fear. Their fear is not about my teaching and guiding students who want to learn faster and easier. Their fear has to do with my asking for money. They have decided that money is bad and that it is therefore wrong to use the Course in any way to make money. Money is not evil. It is nothing. But no one here can live with no illusions, for...

Every now and then someone drops me an email to tell by that I am wrong to charge money for mentoring students of A Course in Miracles . Often they do this anonymously so I cannot respond to them. But if I can, I always let them know that I do not turn anyone away; that I work with many pro bono or at a reduced rate; that several people get informal mentoring by me through email free of charge; that if they want my booklets I will send it to them for free; and that many of their questions can be answered at the extensive blog archive-by-topic at my free website. They are never interested in my services or booklets or blogs. So why, I wondered, do they care that I charge for services they don’t even want? Why would they go out of their way to contact a stranger to voice their disapproval? Their concern is genuine and I have given it a lot of thought. There are three issues here: Preconceptions of how the Holy Spirit works in the world; fear of money; and ultimately, a lack of faith. Man...