from a talk
There was a great story I heard years ago from Ken Wapnick. He went to visit these nuns. He went to this church and entered the sanctuary area and the nuns were all studying A Course in Miracles. They had invited him to come and talk to them about metaphysics. Basically they were practicing lesson 1, letting their eyes move across the sanctuary - these pews do not mean anything, this stained glass window does not mean anything - and they got to the point where they came to the Eucharist. They said, of course we'll skip that. We can't say that about the body of Christ. But actually Jesus says that in the Course. Jesus says that I can't share my body with you, I can share my mind. Jesus would actually say that seeing the meaninglessness of the body is a good practical application of His Course. Do it with the Eucharist too. But when you've been raised with a system that sees that body as sacred, it takes undoing of the belief that there is anything sacred in form. Your mind is sacred. Your Being-ness is sacred. Everything in form is part of the forgiveness lesson. You can see it that way.
Gary Renard touched on the mind this morning and I would like to focus on it today. The mind, in the full awareness of the Atonement, knows that the separation never happened. The full awareness of the Atonement is that the separation never happened. I have traveled more miles than you can even imagine. I've been doing it for 16 years and always hear the same questions, "How did the impossible occur?" "To whom did the impossible occur?" I call them the top questions. How did this happen in the first place? How could perfection, how could God, ever make a mistake? Or how could Christ, who is a perfect Being, ever make a mistake? And basically, it is a statement. When you ask the questions, "How did the impossible occur?" or "How did this happen in the first place?" there is an assumption underneath the questions. And what is that assumption? That it happened! Of course the ego likes that assumption. Then it can ask all kind of questions including how this happened.
It is like you are on a wild goose chase to find the right theology, the right teacher, the right technique, the right mantra. Oh my gosh, the guilt at trying to solve that question. But the very assumption is something we have to learn to release. There will be no theology that will come along to get you out of this. There isn't going to be a concept. There will be an experience that will come
that will end your doubting. In the Course that experience is the Atonement. The Atonement is full awareness that the separation never happened. In this respect, A Course in Miracles is a launching pad. You are on a launching pad where you are ready to take off in a rocket and get up in orbit where you have no sense of gravity. You are happy and free. A Course in Miracles is a book that is just designed to help you get up into orbit, into Being-ness, into your perfection.
One of the errors I'll talk about today, one of the metaphysical errors, is spiritualizing matter. When you try to take anything in form and make it special or spiritual, this is the error. For example, you've heard "go to India and bathe in the Ganges, it is a sacred river."
Or you may have heard that the oil that Mary Magdalene put on Jesus' feet is the sacred oil.
How much does it cost now? I want some of that oil that was on Jesus' feet. Or it seems to play out with food and drink. Drink from the sacred water.
We know from Catholicism you get baptized with holy water - it isn't just tap water, it has to be holy water. The water is supposed to be blessed by a priest to make it holy. These would all be spiritualizing matter errors, or trying to make something sacred in form when only your mind is sacred. The ego wants you to believe that there are certain things that are sacred in form so then you won't forget them. You will cling to them, you will ritualize them. You will hang on, hang on, and hang on. That is an example of spiritualizing matter. That is one common mistake.
Another error results if you start to see anything in form or in the script as being causative, since images are really unreal effects of an unreal cause. The images of the world are unreal effects. And the unreal cause is the ego. The Course teaches that God didn't create this world, God creates the eternal. God creates in Spirit. You know we are all familiar with the phrases in the Bible, "Hold no graven images before the Lord thy God." I always thought about golden calves and stuff like that. Jesus is saying the image is of the cosmos, the graven images are like a veil drawn over the face of Christ to cover the Light.
to be continued...
