“You have accepted now, because of whatever experiences of unity you have had, that the knowing of unity is available to you. You may not have given great consideration to the access through which that availability arose, but since for most of you it has arisen as thoughts you did not think, if you were to make an association in regards to entry, you would likely say the entry point was the mind. This is, in a sense, true, as wholeheartedness is comprised of the mind and heart joined in unity. (A Course in Love: Dialogues, p. 103)”
Affirmation: “May I experience today ‘thoughts that I did not think’.”
Reflections:
The passage chosen here is tangential to the argument put forth in Day Three. It does, however, say some very important things about the A Course of Love as a whole. In unity is abundance accepted, and this abundance is the very practical matter of money–having enough, feeling secure, knowing that we will be taken care of in the future.
Jesus notes that in coming to a new understanding of abundance we will move through stages of denial, anger, bargaining, and depression. Only then we will be ready to accept abundance as our natural inheritance from God. We will be ready to discover, rather than to learn through the mind. This includes the “thoughts that we do not think,” which is the infusion of knowledge into our wholeheartedness rather than the learning through our mind that the ego so enjoyed. We have now moved beyond the ego.
Jesus talks quite a bit about money here, and he is very, very commonsensical. He knows that may of us have issues about money (he calls it “abundance”) that might preclude our acceptance of all that he holds out to us in the new wholeheartedness that he extols. Day Three is among the most practical chapters in the entire three-volume ACOL. Surely we can follow his reasoning, and reach for the unity of all brothers and sisters without reference to relative abundance. He concludes, “The active acceptance of abundance is the way to abundance.”
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
May I know the security that only resides in You, in the abundance that You promise to me. May I not be tempted to fret about my future needs, or even my present ones. May I do what I can, when I can, and may I rest secure in the knowledge that my real needs are always met.
Abundance is a relative term, but I do not long for the abundance of material goods so much as spiritual. Jesus promises that I can have both, and I rest in peace in that assurance.
Amen.
ACIM Workbook Lesson for Day 96:
Salvation comes from my one Self.
Mari Perron
/ April 7, 2010I love here your description of “thoughts that we do not think” as the infusion of knowledge into our wholeheartedness.
After almost ten years and about thirty readings of this Course, I began to see all the talk of the “givens” (and it led me to title my new book “The Given Self”). What struck me in this re-reading of Day Three is how central is the idea of our “givens.” As you say, this Day says some very important things about this Course as a whole:
“Remember, you have learned that nothing is “given,” for what use would you have of learning if such were the case. In our dialogue, we have begun to use examples of what you did not learn in order to demonstrate that what you learned is not true. What you learned is insane. But to realize the truth you must now fully reject the untruths that you learned. You must fully reject the ideas that taught you that you do not have enough, that you will only have what you can earn or learn, that only through effort will you gain, and that with your gain will come another’s loss. In other words, here is where you must accept the teachings of the Course.”
Joe
/ April 7, 2010“Jesus notes that in coming to a new understanding of abundance we will move through stages of denial, anger, bargaining, and depression.”
I love that sentence. It gives me a new perspective from which to reflect about how this Day’s message figures into my experience with life and its issues regarding money, finances, abundance, etc.
I also have always connected with what ACOL says here and elsewhere about “thoughts we did not think.”
I can think of at least 3 specific times when a “thought I did not think” came to me and revolutionized my experience of life.
Actually, as I write this I’m remembering a 4th time that specifically relates to money. I was feeling somewhat insecure about the income I was receiving at a particular job (whether the job itself was stable, etc.) when the “thought I did not think” came to me: “Your income doesn’t come from this job. It comes from God.” (To me, God, Unity, and Oneness are different words referring to the same Presence–although these days I tend to think more in terms of Oneness than of God.)
I wish I could say that stopped me from worrying about money and income but that wouldn’t be true. What is true however, is that it revolutionized my thoughts about “source” to a point that I look beyond whatever my current job is when thinking about money. And that helps me come to some peace in times of worry about these things.
Mari Perron
/ April 8, 2010Joe~ I know just what you mean when you say you haven’t quit worrying about money or income and yet have a knowing that lets you feel more peace even amidst the worry.
I wish I could say I’ve moved beyond all those examples that Jesus gives about how, in the area of money, you have the least trust. When I re-read them, I felt like most everything I could say about my acceptance of where I’m at “with money” would sound a lot like Jesus described: more accepting of a simpler life style, or sure that doing what I love is the way to go.
I’m really replying because I appreciated your admission of worry. I feel as if so many people share money worries right now. This is one of those chapters where, if you get bogged down in the details you can end up feeling as if you’re not measuring up. “Oh, this is the way I ought to feel but I don’t. What’s wrong with me?”
I’m not sure if it’s in this chapter or elsewhere where Jesus says you keep wanting the details and when you get them, they don’t satisfy you (or even screw you up). That’s kind of how I feel about this Day. If I look at the details I feel as if I’m not measuring up — but when I take it in as a whole — I’m okay with it and me. I even get a little excited about it. I was really excited by it when I received it. I called a special meeting of what I called the “core” Course group at the time, so we could read it together. It made perfect sense to me just then.
There are a couple of parts that I like a lot. They’re right together.
The first is when Jesus says that to live in abundance we have to get rid of our “If this/then that” thinking (which I can totally feel is the truth by the way). He says, “The functions of denial, anger, bargaining, and depression are to lead you to this belief and, finally, to this acceptance. Acceptance first that you do not believe. And then acceptance itself.”
(I like the “acceptance first that you do not believe” part.)
Then, still talking of acceptance, Jesus says, “You think it is difficult, but it is only difficult until it becomes easy.” (That’s one of my favorite lines of this whole Course!)
Gotta love that…even when ease hasn’t yet come!