Entering the Dialogue

1 – Day 15

“When you fully realize that sharing is necessary you will have entered the dialogue. When you have fully surrendered to the fact that you can’t come to know on your own you will have entered the dialogue. . . .When you fully realize that you are in-formed by everything and everyone in creation, you will have entered the dialogue. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 15)”

2 – One

We are One with everyone, but we are also individualized into separate beings, making necessary that we form relationships with others, our brothers and sisters. These relationships mean that we share with one another. And, as A Course of Love says here, we enter the dialogue with each other, the Christ within, and God Himself. There is no compromise in this. We are both the One and the many, and we both need to recognize the unity of the One, and the multiplicity of the relationships that we have with the many. There is no other way. This message of “unity and relationship” is repeated often in A Course of Love. It is the way that God Himself experiences Himself—in us, for we are God, though we lack the union that He enjoys with the All.

3 – God

How can we call ourselves God? That is Jesus’s word, not mine. He says, later on in the Dialogues, that we are God Himself—that He individuated Himself so that He could experience His divine Being. But we decided, having been individuated and at the same time given free will, that we wanted to separate from this Godhead, that we knew better. In this tiny, mad idea (from A Course in Miracles), we fell into pain and suffering, for our will was imprisoned to prevent our entire loss to God (which would have been impossible).

4 – Theology

This is theology, and theology can divide. Do not take unto yourself if you have resistance. Accept only what seems right and good to you.

5 – Christ-consciousness

“As you are more fully able to maintain Christ-consciousness you begin the movement away from being observed to being in-formed by the spirit which animates all things. You begin the movement away from observing to informing. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 15)”

6 – Observation / In – forming

Jesus had earlier told us in A Course of Love that we were moving from the time of learning into observation. Now, in this final section of the concluding book, the Dialogues, he says that we move to “informing.” The spirit is possessing us, and we are being possessed consciously. And in this possession, we are being “in – formed.” Note the dash. Form within, that’s what it means. And in this new form that is being created in us, we are moving ultimately in that new being that we will be in the new world—the elevated Self of form.

7 – Perceptions

In A Course of Love, we are not told to denounce the world, except as we previously perceived it. We are told, in both ACIM and ACOL, that our perceptions need to be cleansed, and when this happens, the world around us will change accordingly. Projection makes perception (from ACIM). We cannot unilaterally change this difficult world when we are unhealed healers; we change our minds, and in the changing, there is a mystical transformation that heals everyone. According to ACIM, it takes one Son who perfectly forgives to heal the world. And we are all that one Son/Daughter. Jesus did in fact pave the way for us by coming first. But he and God need our voice, our hands, our feet, in relationship to others, to transform the world. This hostile, difficult, suffering world. That is our function, once we have accepted forgiveness, happiness, and salvation as offered to us now.

8 – Neutrality

“In practicing observation without judgment, you learned to be neutral observers. Being neutral observers allowed cause and effect to occur naturally rather than having your judgment alter natural cause and effect. . . .

9 – Don’t Judge

We need not to judge. If we don’t judge, we will awaken (from A Course in Miracles). This is a statement that can easily be overlooked, but it is to my mind a most important statement. If we don’t judge our brother and sister, we will awaken. Don’t all of us want to awaken? This is God’s promise to us, relayed by Jesus.

10 – Observation

We do observe (without the struggle of learning) our inner and outer circumstances. And we become neutral in so doing. Neutrality, in observation, prevents judgment from occurring at all. We remain in the natural cause and effect, not disturbing the natural order by judging anything at all.

11 – Peace

Thus we are at peace. Pray to leave off judging your brother/sister, your significant relationship, and see if you don’t have peace indeed. Of course, because we are fallible, we may return to judgment, but as often as we return to it, we can ask that it be removed from us—and God will do so, for it is in His Will. Then, without judgment, we see that everything is sunshine and light, and we live as the light of the world (from the New Testament and from A Course in Miracles).

12 – Creative

“This is the new realm of power that few in physical form have practiced and that has never been practiced by many at one time. It is a major shift because it is not neutral but creative. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 15)”

13 – Co-creators

We want to be co-creators with God. We want to be creative, for this is our inheritance. We observe neutrally, but then we create. When we have made this shift in consciousness, we are not “making” any longer (from ACIM), but we are creating in this new world that we occupy. There is no greater joy than to walk into eternity in joy and inner peace, creating as we go.

14 – Eternity

If we wonder what we will do in eternity, it is this—joyously experiencing, joyously creating, effortlessly. We will not see a Heaven that is boring. Has not this been a problem for us as we heard of angels sitting on clouds and playing harps all day long? This image can easily be dispelled, when we realize that we are here on earth with a glorious new world awaiting our creation of better times, better circumstances. Would our life after death be any different? Would not a joyous creation of new lives and pleasures be an enormously freeing concept to hold?

15 – Drama

And we can hold this concept? Don’t entertain for a moment that without drama your life will be boring, now or in the future. Drama is one of the great seducers of the ego, a state of mind and heart that will totally be disowned when we enjoy the Christ-consciousness to which we are all heading.

16 – Sustaining Christ-consciousness

“Although this power cannot be misused, to have access to this power in one instance and not another as you move in and out of the state of Christ-consciousness will not serve the purpose of creation.

17 – In – forming

“What does it mean to practice informing and being informed? It means to join together with others who have the ability to maintain Christ-consciousness in your company. This creates the joining together of spacious Selves. It is joining without boundaries. You become clear pools flowing into each other. You make your spirits known. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 15)”

18 – Maintaining / Sustaining

Before Christ-consciousness (Awakening) is sustained, we have glimpses of what this great state will be like. We move in and out of it, maintaining for a while but not sustaining. This maintaining for a while is not what Jesus calls us to. He encourages us here to join with others who can help us to sustain (rather than just see glimpses) of Christ-consciousness.

19 – Jesus

Jesus needs our sustaining of Christ-consciousness for the effortless work that we will do in this world. He needs healed healers. He needs for us to awaken, sooner rather than later. To ask for Awakening is thus to ask for what is God’s best Will for us, for what is totally in line with His Will. Revelation may occasionally reveal the end to us, and these are glimpses of Awakening that I have mentioned. But to get there, the means are needed. And the means are carefully explained to us by Jesus in A Course in Miracles (supported now also by A Course of Love). (These last sentences are paraphrases from ACIM.)

20 – Fears

“Examine what you fear. Is it really the stones within your pool, or is it the challenge of moving with the current that you know will be generated by the joining of spacious Selves? . . . .

“If so, enter the dialogue with the purpose of your final preparations in mind. Bring your fears into the light of oneness and see how the light dispels the darkness. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 15)”

21 – Discard Fears

We need to discard fears. This is something that all of us would want, however ambivalent we still are about the whole concepts that Jesus discusses. Imagine light encompassing our whole Being; imagine that we are light. For that we are. We are the light of the world, and for this we have to be, first of all, simply light.

22 – Light

There is a lightness of being that arrives when you call light to yourself. We know an end to fears in such moments. Later on, if the fears return, we simply repeat calling light to ourselves. (This exercise is explained by Sanaya Roman in the book, Spiritual Growth. It is a channeled work from an entity known as Orin.)

23 – Spacious Selves

We will be our spacious Selves in the future. We will enfold darkness, thereby lighting it away. Perhaps this idea scares us, for Jesus sees into our minds, knowing what we can’t quite accept yet.

24 – Healing

But the spacious Self is fully capable of dispelling darkness through light, with no loss of power on our part. We do not suffer in this technique. We are healing ourselves and others at the same time.

25 – Neutrality / Acceptance

“This is not a time of being judged or of adopting the beliefs of others but one of finally conquering judgment with neutrality or acceptance. Allowing others to accept you as you are is a gift that releases them from judgment and any notion that may have remained within them that Christ-consciousness is a form of ‘group think.’ Never will you feel more like an individual than when you are made known through the informing of spirit! (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 15)”

26 – Individuality

If we join with others, we may wonder if we are taking on their thoughts as our own, thereby losing some of our individuality. Our individuality is very, very important to us. We got used to being individuals under the grip of the ego, and in the new world, we still will be individuals—even though we are joined as One with others.

27 – No Fear

Have no fear. We don’t lose our individuality when we share with others. When we reach out to others to heal them. When we heal ourselves by reaching out to others.

28 – Judgment

We are moving, finally, away from judgment. We are being neutral observers. And God will bless us for this advance.

29 – Dialogue

“You will be shown that you can enter the dialogue with all and still focus, or place your attention, on areas that might not interest others in the slightest. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 15)”

30 – Jerry Jampolsky

We do still have our own areas of interest. We are still individuals. Not everybody is drawn to A Course in Miracles or A Course of Love, but they can still be transformed. These two books are my way, something that I recognized (with ACIM) some 33 years ago. Many others have had the same experience of recognizing this. Jerry Jampolsky, for example, a well-known teacher of ACIM, heard the inner words, “Physician, heal thyself,” when he first picked up the manuscript of ACIM. And he has gone on to bring thousands of others to greater understanding through his work in this world.

31 – ACIM and ACOL

But not everyone who awakes has used our course of study, our curriculum. A Course in Miracles says that it is a required course. Not everybody feels the same about what this means. Does that mean that everyone must eventually study ACIM? I think not. It is required for those who are drawn to it, as we are. There are other teachers with different curricula in this world (from the Manual of ACIM).

32 – Assimilate

But our course is what we are called to assimilate. Why use what was intended for others? And we will know if A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love are our way. Ask within. You will hear the Answer.

33 – Sustenance

“While there is division remaining between the self and the spacious Self, the self and the creative force, you remain in the state of maintenance rather than sustenance of Christ-consciousness. This is an acceptable state for this time of limited practice with those with whom you are engaged in this specific mountain top dialogue. It is not an acceptable state for full-scale interaction with the world. (A Course of Love: Dialogues, p. 164)”

34 – Sharing

The chapter for Day Fifteen is lengthy and complex, bringing together in one place the disparate threads of meaning that we have earlier explored in separate chapters, and, at the same time, moving the discussion forward by a further explanation of what “entering the dialogue” really means. Basically, “entering the dialogue” is recognized as a necessary sharing of self with others. These others do not negate the fundamental nature of individuality, though, and we will remain clear about our individuality as we progress. We will also not limit our interactions to those who believe as we do, who travel to the mountain top as we do in these Forty Days and Forty Nights. We will reach out to all others in our world, and we will do so non-judgmentally.

35 – Neutrality / No Judging

We learn to be neutral in our observation of our world and the brothers and sisters in it. It is important, very important, that we not judge. We let what we observe pass through us in invisibility. We do not hold to these observations, to come back to them and to judge them. This action of observation without judgment, in invisibility, is a very creative act.

36 – Without Boundaries

We join with others in Christ consciousness, and we do so without boundaries. If we see that there are others in our company who are not ready to let go of their boundaries, that are too fearful to loose their boundaries, we accept these brothers and sisters as they are.

37 – Dialogue

There is much that is as yet unknown to us, and it is in dialogue with others that we may come to know more fully. This does not negate a personal understanding, but it does open us up to dialogue with the spacious Self, the Self we share with all others. Our own pathway may be different from that of others, and our path may not even interest others in the slightest. This is alright. We will realize our true identity as we walk alone or with others.

38 – Encompass All in the Self

But we never want to disregard the brothers and sisters who have not made the mountain top trek with us. We need to encompass all in the Self that we share with all brothers and sisters, those who believe as we do and those who do not..

39 – Debunked

“We have now debunked your myths about your true identity being an idealized form of the self. Now are you ready, through your ability to view your own self as well as that which you observe with a neutrality that embraces the unknown as well as the known, to reclaim your Self and your purpose here. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 15)”

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I know all that You hold out to me on this mountain top experience. I do not try to learn, but to know without learning. I would experience the Christ-consciousness that I long for by sharing myself with all of my brothers and sisters in love. I would sustain the elevated Self of form. All of this I cannot do of myself alone. I need Your help, and I rest in certainty that Your promise to me of these things is true.

May I share my understanding with those in my world who are ready. May I not try to share and may I not hold in judgment those of my brothers and sisters who are not ready. You will teach me the difference. Thank You for this assurance that You have given to me on this day that encompasses so much of my pathway to You in maturity and spiritual awareness.

Be with me today, as I seek to follow Your Will, which always is my true will. You know best, and I would follow consistently. Forgive my lapses, though I know that You never condemn me and thus do not need to forgive at all. Thank You for this beginning of a good day. May it end in the same, good spirit.

Amen.

Help from Beyond This World

1 – Teachers of Teachers

“There are those who have reached God directly, retaining no trace of worldly limits and remembering their own Identity perfectly. These might be called the Teachers of teachers because, although they are no longer visible, their image can yet be called upon. (M64)”

2 – Not Long Stay on the Earth

This passage proclaims that when we have reached God directly, we will not long stay on this earth. We will no longer be seen on earth, but our “image” can be called upon. We are then “Teachers of teachers.”

3 – Lay Down the Body?

Elsewhere Jesus says that very few of us willingly lay down the body simply to be of help to others in a greater way. So most of us will not attain this degree of salvation while in this world.

4 – Help

We do have help from beyond the earth. We can call upon this help, and we will receive assistance. No greater bounty can be ours, than to know that we are never alone, that God and His Teachers care for us always.

5 – Appearances

“And they will appear when and where it is helpful for them to do so. To those to whom such appearances would be frightening, they give their ideas. (M64)”

6 – Beyond Your Thinking

Have you ever felt that you got ideas that were actually beyond your scope, your thinking? Of course, and we often saw this as God speaking to us—which it may have been.

7 – From Whom Are We Hearing?

But we must also recognize that we may be hearing from those whom Jesus called “Teachers of teachers” in regard to A Course in Miracles. He seems to indicate that these are noble individuals who have gone over, made the transition to life after death, and then reached backwards to help us. He doesn’t say that these individuals are angels, but human beings, we might believe, who have let all barriers come down.

8 – Frightened?

We might be frightened if we had a visitation. Some in the Course community have claimed visitations, but their assertions were widely disbelieved, and who is to know for sure? Many have been visited by a departed loved one, shortly after death. This has become a common practice.

9 – Whom Do We Know?

Do we know these Teachers of teachers? Sometimes, perhaps, but perhaps more often not.

10 – Hugh Prather

Jerry Jampolsky and Gayle Prather have both been visited by Hugh Prather in the hours and days following his fatal heart attack. The Holy Encounter, a publication by Beverly Hutchinson McNeff, so reported. And the words from Hugh were profoundly comforting. Toward Jerry, Hugh affirmed that we live in an illusion, just like ACIM says. Toward his wife Gayle, he spoke up about the little daily matters of living—glad that he didn’t have to clean the house, encouraging her to hold their cat longer.

11 – Communication from the Other Side

These reports do not have to be believed, but our lives are immeasurably enriched if we can crack the doubt a bit and entertain the possibility that communication from the Other Side is very evident, very possible.

12 – Off the Deep End?

Of course, we don’t want to go off the deep end. Test out these unembodied words that come to you. If they recommend anything harmful, then we are not ready. Don’t get carried away.

13 – Not in Vain

“No one can call on them in vain. Nor is there anyone of whom they are unaware. All needs are known to them, and all mistakes are recognized and overlooked by them. (M64)”

14 – Welcome

This reassurance, that no one can call on Teachers of teachers in vain, is a welcome statement. We have many helpers from the Other Side. We here on earth have long believed ourselves isolated, and that belief has been very damaging to our psyche.

15 – Help

We are not alone. We live in a very peopled universe. And when we open our minds to the possibility of help, that help comes immediately, if we are calm enough to recognize what is happening.

16 – Ask for Help

“The time will come when this is understood. And meanwhile, they give all their gifts to the teachers of God who look to them for help, asking all things in their Name and in no other. (M64)”

17 – Understood

“The time will come when this is understood.” Yes! We are rapidly coming to that time now.

18 – Good

And good it is for our culture.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to understand the concept of “Teachers of teachers.” May I reach for their help often once I comprehend whom I am asking.

Thank you for providing all this help to me in this uncertain world. May I be quick to take advantage of this help as I go about my day today.

Amen.

A Course in Miracles – What It Says, Part 1

1 – The Real vs. the Unreal

“Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God”

This is how A Course in Miracles begins. It makes a fundamental distinction between the real and the unreal; between knowledge and perception. Knowledge is truth, under one law, the law of love or God. . . .The world of perception, on the other hand, is the world of time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is based on interpretation, not on facts.

To read the epigraph is awe-inspiring, a proper approach to God Himself. The epigraph makes a sharp contrast between illusion and reality, between illusion as perceived, and the real world as a result of the coming knowledge. And what we know in this world is illusion.

2 – Jerry Jampolsky and Hugh Prather

Shortly after his death, Hugh Prather spoke to a friend, Jerry Jampolsky, in which he declared that A Course in Miracles is absolutely true. We live in illusion. Hugh said that we need not to worry so much. His message suggested that he himself regretted the worry that he had given some of the events and happenings of his just-lived life.

3 – Worry

We all need to cast worry aside. Worry dissipate when fear has been rejected in favor of love. And A Course in Miracles counsels forgiveness of our brother, and through our relationship to him, we come prepared for Awakening.

4 – Dream

“When you have been caught in the world of perception you are caught in a dream.”

ACIM uses the term “dream” more than “illusion.” There are some very beautiful passages in which we learn that Awakening is as though a light has come on in our dream. But we will not awaken with fear and a scream of mortal terror, because A Course in Miracles has given us the means to awaken without fear (from ACIM).

5 – Perception

We are perceiving with our minds. And perception always partakes of ourselves.

“’Projection makes perception.’ (ACIM Text) We look inside first, decide the kind of world we want to see and then project that world outside, making it the truth as we see it. We make it true by our interpretations of what it is we are seeing.”

This oft-quoted statement, “Projection makes perception,” means further that we not only project the world, but that it is therefore not really there! There is no world, we are told, though we are also told that not everybody is ready to accept this startling statement by Jesus.

6 – Sins vs. Mistakes

“Sin is defined as ‘lack of love’ (from ACIM Text). Since love is all there is, sin in the sight of the Holy Spirit is a mistake to be corrected, rather than an evil to be punished.”

Sin is described in ACIM as an attracting concept, one that will be repeated because of an attraction. Mistakes, a simple change of word, in our language simply denote something that we want to change, to correct. There is no attracting characteristic to mistakes. And sin suggests something that is unforgivable, whereas mistakes are always forgivable. We need to see all that our brothers says to us or does to us as forgivable, though we will not always stay in his vicinity if the situation becomes untenable.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for the calm that these messages of A Course in Miracles induce in me. I have learned much. My only regret is that I sometimes forget when stress is present in my life. And that is when I need to remember most.

Help me to be a non-controversial, congenial writer about ACIM. I would focus on the ways that we are similar, not the ways that we differ in our attitudes and beliefs. Help me to stay true in my interpretations to what ACIM really says. May I interpret what ACIM says in a way that is open to all individuals who study the volumes.

Please be with me.

Amen.

The Law of Love

ACIM Workbook Lesson 344 – for Saturday, December 10, 2011

Affirmation:  “Today I learn the law of love; that what
        I give my brother is my gift to me.”

“Let my forgiven brothers fill my store with Heaven’s treasures, which alone are real.  Thus is the law of love fulfilled.  And thus Your Son arises and returns to You.  (WB75)”

Reflections:

1 – The Law of Love Is Benign

“All that I give is given to myself” is an ACIM fundamental.  Jerry Jampolsky elaborated beautifully on this concept in his early work, Love is Letting Go of Fear.  The law of love is benign, unless we are still letting the ego rule.  We get what we give; that is the law of love.  When we love another, that same love is returned to us (but not always by the same person that we love at the time).

2 – What Are Heaven’s Treasures?

What are Heaven’s treasures?  ACIM does not specifically detail each treasure, but we can interpret that at the head of the list is the peace of mind that God alone can give.  God deals most often in intangibles, but He also knows that we have material needs, and it is not contrary to the spirit of A Course in Miracles to pray for the material as well as the intangible.  But the material is illusory, and the intangibles are eternal.  So where does it seem that we should put our emphasis?  The conclusion is obvious.

3 – Forgiveness

Our forgiven brothers will fill our store with Heaven’s treasures.  This is just how important forgiveness really is.  Until we forgive, we are like beggars at Heaven’s gate.  But when we forgive, we are made ready for the bounty that is our real inheritance.

4 – We Forgive because We Need to Do So

We forgive because it is something that we need to do.  It is much like expressing love for God.  ACIM says that He recognizes that His communication channels are closed, and He thinks that we sleep and need to be awakened.  One means is A Course in Miracles.  Another might be seen in A Course of Love.  And yet others in the Bible, as well as other scriptures of other faiths.  ACIM says that there is a course for every teacher of God.  Our students are waiting for us, have been waiting for us to answer the call.  And they will find us.  Let us be ready and willing to do our part toward bringing salvation to them.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would put into practice the benign law of love today.  Help me to know, as had been said many times, that we receive as we give.  May I give only love today.  And may I have the emotional and physical health not to be so self-centered that I seem to think only of myself.  Help me always to remember my brothers and sisters.

Be with all of us as we close this year of studying the Workbook.  May we glean from the words of the Workbook all that we can at this time.  And may we share as much of what we4 have learned as others are ready to accept.

Amen.

What One Gains Is Given unto All

ACIM Workbook Lesson 319 – for Tuesday, November 15. 2011

Affirmation:  “I came for the salvation of the world.”

“The ego thinks that what one gains, totality must lose.  And yet it is the Will of God I learn that what one gains is given unto all.  (WB460)”

Reflections:

1 – Jerry Jampolsky

This passage is well-examined in a book by Jerry Jampolsky, a book (Love Is Letting God of Fear) which delves deeply in the ACIM truth, “Whatever I give is given to myself.”  Jerry means, basing his discussion on A Course in Miracles, that the joy, love, peace that we give to others comes back to us as these qualities are multiplied.  It is only the material things of life that seem to diminish when given away.  And the material things are never what we want for long; we will find more and more wants that remain unsatisfied, because the material gains are frequently props for the ego.  And the ego is never satiated.

2 – Totality Does Not Lose the Things of God

Totality does not lose when we gain the things that are of God.  And we are told in this passage that it is the Will of God that what one gains is given unto all.  This is a great blessing!

3 – Why Are We Here?

What did we really come for?  The lesson for today says that it is the salvation of the world.  Edgar Cayce, an early psychic, said much the same thing.  In metaphorical language, he indicated that the Sons of God came to rescue the daughters of men on this plane of earth.  And Ruth Montgomery, also an early scribe of “Guides,” indicates that we will none of us find our way home until we have led all to home.  In ACIM, Jesus seems to indicate that we must lead our brothers and sisters home, even though it may take millions of years.  Time has been saved for us when we practice ACIM.  Each one of us save a thousand years and more (a Text tenet).

4 – Let’s Do Our Part Today

So let us do our part today.  We can, after all, only do our part one day at a time.  Let  us not backslide now.  We need to save time, as the world is worn and very weary (paraphrases from the Text).  We know that the ending is sure (an ACIM tenet), and if the way seems long, we have started on that way.  It is enough.  It will always be enough.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

The gifts from You which we receive are never for ourselves alone.  When given from us to others, these gifts but increase.  Help me to realize the truth of this glorious promise.  I know that Your gifts are often intangibles, because material things may seem to diminish if shared (something of note that may be illusion).  Even with material blessings, we are bade to understand that You can bring increase there as well.  Individuals who tithe their income, however small, quickly learn that their material blessings in this world do increase abundantly.  Thank You for the many testimonials that I have heard and read about this puzzling miracle.

May I walk a green earth today.  Your Way is always the best way, and Your way will help not only myself, but my brothers and sisters as well.  May I be generous with my time and my gifts, intangible and material.

Thank You for the gift of A Course in Miracles.  Thank You for leading me to these magnificent volumes so many years ago.  Thank You for the writings that spoke to me before ACIM was published.  May all of those individuals I encounter today find the truths that they need to live a happy life.

Amen.

Everything I Give I Give Myself

ACIM Workbook Lesson 297 – for Monday, October 24, 2011

Affirmation:  “Forgiveness is the only gift I give.”

“Forgiveness is the only gift I give, because it is the only gift I want.  And everything I give I give myself.  This is salvation’s simple formula.  (WB447)”

Reflections:

1 – Jerry Jampolsky’s Emphasis

Today’s passage is a repetition in many places in A Course in Miracles.  The “everything” that we give are the intangibles, because material things do diminish as they are given away.  Jerry Jampolsky made this clear in Love Is Letting Go of Fear, his very first book on ACIM.

2 – Forgiveness = Answer to All Troubles

Forgiveness is the answer to all of our troubles.  We do not actually need our forgiveness, but in this world we need the practice of forgiveness.  God does not forgive us, because He has never condemned us (a Text tenet).  So in a broken and fractured world, we do need to forgive both ourselves and our brothers and sisters.  This done repeatedly will clear our minds and help us to feel justified before God.  So it is that we give a gift to ourselves, one that we need very much.  It is our way home.

3 – Salvation’s Simple Formula

“This is salvation’s simple formula”:  So says the passage quoted above in Workbook Lesson 297.  If we remember this simple formula, all will go well with others, even if things on some level seem to be falling apart.  We will rise above the terror and find peace that comes straight from God.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I recognize that forgiveness is all that I need and want.  May I recognize that as I give forgiveness to others, it is given to myself.  May the blessings of this simple exchange stay with all of my circle today.

May I recognize that salvation is actually simple, even though the ego would have it hidden in a maze of complexity, thus making it seem hard to achieve.  May I know that salvation is Your gift, only Yours.  And that with You backing me, salvation is always immediate–once we ask for it.

Thank You.

Amen.

All that I Give Is Given to Myself

ACIM Workbook Lesson 143 – for Monday, May 23, 2011

Affirmation:  “My mind holds only what I think with God.”

Selected Passage:

“In quiet I receive God’s Word today.
“All that I give is given to myself.  (WB275)”

Reflections:

Jerry Jampolsky, one of the early writers/students of A Course in Miracles, wrote a classic book called Love Is Letting Go of Fear.  In this book, he stressed repeatedly the second part of the refrain in the passage above, “All that I give is given to myself.”  When this giving is an intangible, then we also see that giving multiplied over and over.  But an implicit warning here is that if we foster attack, we will see attack returned to us.  Foster love, on the other hand, and abundant love is returned.

We need to be quiet to receive these blessed words.  We need to be still in our hearts and minds.  There is no other way to receive intuition.  In this sense, we are speaking of intuition as the guidance that we receive from the Holy Spirit.  We walk as channels (a precept put forth by Shakti Gawain in Living in the Light).  Walking as a channel (or living by intuition) puts us “in the flow,” a concept described in some detail by Ruth Montgomery, an early psychic writer of the last century.  Living in the flow is actually the best way to live.  It is also the easiest.  We will find ourselves happier also, much happier.  We take the light touch in regard to our decisions, because we have given over our judgment to the Holy Spirit, Who makes no mistakes.

God’s Word can come to us through abundant ways.  We may learn His Word through intuition or an inner knowing, through conversations with family and friends, through A Course in Miracles, through other Scripture, through inspirational writing based on the great religious treatises.  All of these, and more, are available to us when we turn, in quiet to the peace of God that is within.  When we are in an emotional storm, though, these channels are frequently conflicted, and we don’t know what to say or do next.  This is an example of the ego taking over our life.  A few moments in communing with God can let the storm pass.

Prayer:

Dear Mother/Father,

May I be quiet today.  I realize that from time to time I need a day of quiet, so that I can hear Your Voice more often and with more clarity.  May my circumstances this day help to being me a day of peace.

Be with me as I seek You.  You are always there for me, and I hope today to be aware of it a good deal of the time.

Amen.

All that I Give Is Given to Myself

ACIM Workbook Lesson 126 – for Friday, May 6, 2011

Affirmation:  “All that I give is given to myself.”

Selected Passage:

“Today’s idea, completely alien to the ego and the thinking of the world, is crucial to the thought reversal that this course will bring about.  If you believed this statement, there would be no problem in complete forgiveness, certainty of goal, and sure direction.  You would understand the means by which salvation comes to you, and would not hesitate to use it now.  (WB227)”

Reflections:

This affirmation (lesson for today) was emphasized by Jerry Jampolsky in early writings on ACIM.  Jerry emphasized the heavenly virtues (though he did not call them that):  the peace, the joy, the contentment, the happiness–even in this world.  But there is a darker side.  If we give attack or feel anger toward our brother or sister in this world, these negative emotions will revert back to ourselves.  It is akin to pointing an index finger, only to have the other fingers pointing back at one’s self.

This lesson is repeated a number of times in ACIM.  The passage selected notes that if we believe this passage, we will never have a problem with salvation again.  We will know “complete forgiveness, certainty of goal, and sure direction.”  Who would not want this?  And this is Jesus’s promise.

This lesson capsules the means by which salvation comes to us.  ACIM focuses on our holy relationship to our brother as the means that salvation will come to us–salvation even unto Awakening.  ACIM does not counsel long periods spent in contemplation, for Jesus says that these means are tedious, and they are for others.  Why choose something that is intended for someone else, when we have put our credence in A Course in Miracles?  Jesus goes on to say that contemplation will ultimately get one to Awakening, but that it is simply not our way.  May we find our way today in the special-turned-holy relationships of which we are a part.  Our love for our brother or sister will take us home.

Prayer:

Dear Mother/Father,

May I love deeply today.  May the one that is most significant to me help to lead me home.  That is the way of A Course in Miracles, and I would have this be my way.

Thank You for guiding me through another day, and may my new day be as good.  You have sheltered me today, and I ask the same for tomorrow.  Be with me now and always, and may I feel Your presence.

Amen.

A TRIBUTE TO HUGH PRATHER

by Celia Hales

We of the Course community owe a lot to Hugh and his wife Gayle.  He died on November 15, 2010, from a presumed heart attack, but he had not been ill, and now he is not really gone.  Already he is making his presence known from the Other Side, as reported in The Holy Encounter, a publication of the Miracle Distribution Center (publisher Beverly Hutchinson MeNeff) in the January/February 2011 issue.

Gayle reports:   Hugh “made me pet Binkley [their cat] much longer than I wanted to.  Saturday he informed me that he was glad he didn’t have to clean the house.”   These are the lighthearted moments, which we so need right now, those of us still in this world.  But Gayle also recounts several other anecdotes designed to describe Hugh’s influence from the Other Side toward a gentle and communing spirit in daily life with his immediate family.

Jerry Jampolsky, in the same newsletter, reports hearing Hugh’s voice when Jerry awoke in the middle of the night, saying, “Jerry, Jerry, A Course in Miracles is absolutely correct.  It is all a dream world you are in.  It is all illusions.  It is time for you to not stop laughing at all the stuff we took so seriously.”

This second report underscores a passage from one of Hugh’s (and Gayle’s) early books, There Is a Place Where You Are Not Alone (Doubleday, 1980).  This is the first of the Prathers’ books that was directly inspired by ACIM, their very first attempt to put into words all that ACIM was coming to mean in their lives:

“Today, as every day, you have agreed to sit in a special movie theater and play a game.  The theater is very comfortable and is equipped with the ultimate in ‘sensurround’:  it simulates every sensory experience appropriate to the script.  On the screen is playing a story of your life which you never remember seeing.  Everything has been  made so real that you could easily forget that it is just a movie, but the point of the game is to not forget  Anytime you start to decide what you, the main character, should do next, special equipment will detect this, and a pleasant voice will say, ‘It is only a movie, and you cannot decide what the main character will do next because the script is already written.  So please sit back and enjoy it.’  If you add one more fact to this exercise, it will be true to life:  You wrote the script. (p. 196)”

Hugh wrote his last column for The Holy Encounter a couple of weeks before his death.  In it, he has these intimate revelations:

“There is indeed ‘a still small voice,’ but I need to have more faith in it, because it speaks as clearly to life decisions as to seemingly innocent conversational comments.  The voice is every present, but my faith in it is sporadic, and I am determined to change that. (p. 13)”

The same early book, There is a Place Where You Are Not Alone,  has this telling assertion:

“What I now see, and what anyone can discover for himself, is that this intuition, this quiet sense of direction, is always present and can be consulted directly. (p. 29)”

If Hugh, gentle and advanced teacher of A Course in Miracles that he is, still had trouble at the end in following guidance consistently, how much more can we forgive ourselves when we, too, don’t follow guidance?

On a personal note, I recall an encounter with the kind spirit of the Prathers, in this case, Gayle.

I wrote to the two of them some years back, asking the name of their editor.  I had written a book inspired by A Course in Miracles, and, as I told Hugh and Gayle, I thought that their editor might listen to what I had written with a “friendly ear.”  After a very long time, I arrived at work one morning to hear Gayle’s sparkling voice on my voice mail.  She apologized for the delay, which had happened because my letter had to be forwarded to a new publisher.  And she gave me the name of their editor.  Her voice sounded just like I would imagine an advanced teacher of God would sound–friendly, sweet, and, above all, willing to be helpful.

And her editor responded to my manuscript. She gave me several lengthy paragraphs of critique, much appreciated by me.

It is clear that Hugh has not really left us.  He is very much still interested in this world, though we don’t know everything about the Other Side, and he may go on to other interests.  I can imagine him talking to Bill and Helen (co-scribes of ACIM) right now.

May all of us ultimately leave this world the better place that Hugh made it by his presence and his love.

____

Note: Information about The Holy Encounter can be found at <www.miraclecenter.org>.

The manuscript about which I consulted with the Prathers’ editor is available on the web at <http://elainehill.wordpress.com&gt;.  Its title is Images in a Reflecting Pool.