Transfer of Training

Beloved One,

The experience of joy comes to a willing mind that has given up all
attempts to make exceptions to the miracle. Only exceptions
block the awareness of ever Present miracle mindedness. Today look
at some ideas I shall offer to clarify transfer of training as
described in A Course In Miracles. This clarification will have
tremendous benefits for anyone desiring to experience the State of
Mind I call Enlightenment.

Many have heard of the teaching from the Bible in Corinthians: Love
does not possess. This world of time-space, made by the ego, is a
construct of possession. Everything and everyone that makes up
distorted perception is the result or outcome of the desire to
possess. To be free of limits of any kind, therefore, it is
imperative to expose and release the concept of possession from the
mind entirely. There is no such thing as partial forgiveness or
partial healing, and no such thing as partial possession. Either
the mind believes in possession and experiences the illusion of
imprisonment, or the mind has forgiven or released the concept of
possession and is naturally free and whole. There can be no
compromise or middle ground or balance with the release of
possession. If you believe you can actually possess anything you
have allowed your mind to be possessed by error or illusion.
Freedom is nothing more than the escape from concepts, and all ego
concepts rest on the assumption of possession. Once this error is
abandoned, all errors vanish immediately.

Think awhile on what seems to attract so much attention in the
world: the body. What plans do you make that does not involve the
comforts and conveniences and care of the body. You treat it like
it is your home, a valued treasure in a world of transient images.
Yet the body is nothing more than a temporary learning device that
you can use awhile to expand your perception beyond its current
limits. That is all. The mind can be mind free that no longer sees
itself as in a body, firmly tied to it and sheltered by its
presence. Without the concept of possession you would not believe
that you can even possess a body. Yet you believe far more than
the body as a possession, you have identified yourself with the body
and therefore see yourself as temporary and transitory. How can
there be consistency and stability at all if your identity is in
constant flux and change? And this self-concept "identity" seems to
change and be as instable as the things with which it has surrounded
itself. No stability is possible in an impossible situation, and
this world of time-space is just that ? an impossible situation.
Everyday the deceived and untrained mind concerns itself with
survival of the body, and the state of this mind seems often
stressful and at times angry, fearful, and guilty. Though these
conditions of mind are illusions, they seem very real to a mind that
believes in the error of possession. Possession is a synonym for
the ego, for the ego desires to get and has no awareness of True
Giving, Which is the natural attribute of Spirit. Only the mind can
be freed and it can only be freed through the peace of forgiveness
(the release of illusion). How simple is Salvation.

To experience freedom of mind trust in the Holy Spirit is a basic
requirement. Without this trust in the Holy Spirit the spiritual
journey will seem like an intellectual endeavor or an impossible
undertaking or a sorrowful, intense series of trials and
temptations. What is temptation but the wish to make illusions
real? And who will Awaken to God's eternal Love who still values
the illusions of the ego? As you answer the Call to Awaken and be
glad the Purpose of forgiveness becomes strengthened in awareness
and the need for the concerns and the dramas surrounding the body
will fade away. Thus it can accurately be said that without trust
in the Holy Spirit and devotion to this Purpose the Awakening will
seem to be delayed until there is a willingness to trust. As you
develop trust in the Holy Spirit it can accurately be said that all
perceived problems will disappear from awareness, and with
acceptance of the Atonement it is certain that "problems" will
never "return" again.

Since the topic is transfer of training our brief discussion will
eliminate aspects of this world that seem most problematic for they
are all the same. All of the aspects I will discuss are based on
the concept of possession, and therefore the Answer or Solution will
always be as simple as the release of this erroneous concept. Trust
in the Holy Spirit undoes the concept of possession, and as
possession dissolves away only the Light of Spirit remains in
awareness. The Light of the Spirit simply Is, so when the obstacles
have been removed the Light shines unobstructed in awareness. The
Light of Love is perfect Oneness, and there is nothing lacking or
incomplete in perfect Oneness. This is the Unity and Purity of
Heart that Christ radiates forever Being God's Love.

In the time-space cosmos this Love has been temporarily forgotten
and pushed out of awareness. The sleeping mind has therefore
experienced a kind of amnesia about the Kingdom of Heaven and seems
preoccupied with bodies, environment, food, clothing, shelter,
entertainment, competition, betterment, pleasure, attack, economic
advancement, education, and striving for progress or destruction in
a variety of ways and forms. These pursuits leave the mind mired in
an unnaturally stressful state that is highly busy and exceptionally
unproductive. Productivity and Creativity are synonymous, yet the
makings and the strivings of the ego have nothing to do with true
Creativity. The imaginations and goals of the ego are all of linear
time-space and serve only to perpetuate the illusion of linear time-
space.

The linear time-space cosmos of distortion is a game. The only way
the game becomes consistently happy is when you allow the Holy
Spirit to Interpret the game from the lofty Perspective of non-
judgment. Possession is a belief (the ego) which seemed to set the
game of time-space in motion. The game cannot be won or lost. The
game can only be forgiven or Observed in a beneficent way. The game
is in the mind, though the ego projects a world which seems to be
the game. It is not. The game cannot be forgiven or Observed
Correctly until you realize that the game is in the mind. Economics
are therefore in the mind. Sexuality is in the mind. War is in the
mind. Competition, attack, defense, education, entertainment,
pleasure, suffering, bodies, striving, etc. are all games that the
sleeping mind is toying with. The game of time-space is only a game
in the mind and has no reality whatsoever. It is a game of belief
and has no real Substance or Spirit. The only thing necessary to be
free of the linear time-space game is to stop playing the game and
trust in the Holy Spirit for absolutely everything. Absolutely
everything. If you open to experiencing the Holy Spirit as the
Provider you can open to experiencing our Self as Christ as God as
the Creator. The Way is very simple, and it is only the ego that
obscures the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

I dedicated my "life" to experiencing the peace that passeth the
understanding of the world. It has turned out wonderful. The whole
world is now a miracle to me, and it feels like a happy fairytale.
Drama has been replaced by Certainty, striving has been replaced by
rest, depression and boredom have been replaced by joy and freedom,
loneliness has been replaced by intimacy of shared Purpose, and I am
happily in Love with God and everything and everyOne. So peacefully
Present am I, there is no longer an expectation that people, places,
events, or things be any different than they Are. By Grace I live
in the Heart of God, serenely unaffected by the journey that never
was. "How" did this awareness seem to happen? I trust the Holy
Spirit absolutely. The Holy Spirit is the "How," the means and the
End together as One. There is nothing left to search for, nothing
left to attain. There is no problem to solve and nowhere to go.
There is nothing left to do. Enlightenment is a Present experience.
Here are some lyrics from a song that Madonna sings that I am
listening to right now:

?the spell has been broken, I Loved You so
Freedom comes when you learn to let go (of possession)
Creation comes when you learn to say no (to possession)

You were my Lesson I had to learn (forgiveness)
"i" was a fortress You had to burn (dissolve)
Pain is a warning that something's wrong
I pray to God that it won't be long
I want to go Higher
There's nothing left to try
There's no place left to hide
There's no greater power than the power of good-bye (to possession)
The spell has been broken, I Loved You so
You were my Lesson I had to learn (forgiveness)
"i" was a fortress
There's nothing left to lose
There's no more heart to bruise
There's no greater power than the power of good-bye (to possession)
There's nothing left to try
There's no place left to hide
There's no greater power than the power of good-bye (to possession)
Freedom comes when you learn to say no (to possession)
Creation comes when you learn to let go (of possession)
There's nothing left to try
There's no place left to hide
There's no greater power than the power of good-bye (to possession)
Freedom comes when you learn to say no (to possession)
Creation comes when you learn to let go (of possession)
Learn to say good-bye (to possession)
Yearn to say good-bye (to possession)
There's nothing left to try
There's no more places to hide
There's no greater power than the power of good-bye (to possession)
There's nothing left to lose
There's no more heart to bruise
There's no greater power than the power of good-bye (to possession)

Love Always,

David

Two Types of Ego Errors

There are two main categories of ego errors, and clarification about
these categories makes exposing and releasing them very
straightforward.
Our Purpose is to simplify forgiveness and
Awakening, and this is accomplished as disguises and distractions
are laid aside.
The first category of ego errors I shall call
metaphysical errors and the second category I will call transfer of
training errors.
Metaphysical errors always involve level confusion
or seeing causation in form.
Transfer of training errors always
include the attempt to make exceptions to the miracle.
By this I
mean that any exception to right-mindedness or clarity about
causation being solely of the mind is also an attempt to deny the
Guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The ego, which seems to exist and make
distorted perception, is undone by the miracle.
By making no
exceptions the Atonement, or complete forgiveness, dispels the ego
entirely.

The ego's complexity makes A Course In Miracles a difficult course
for most of its students and teachers, yet Wisdom reveals the
simplicity of ACIM.
If you understand that the ego is death and that a synonym for the ego is reciprocity, then you will grasp that reciprocity is death.
By reciprocity I mean giving in order to get something in return.
True Giving, as God Gives, asks for nothing.
For Wholeness has no needs or desires and therefore simply radiates
and extends.
Human beings cannot understand Wholeness, for the
persona is the mask drawn over the Wholeness of Being.
The personality self thinks it has an autonomous existence and searches
and strives to become a better self with better conditions and
circumstances, not seeing the mask of the cosmos as a mask. Persons
never reach Divine Silence, for the construct can never know what it
was made to hide.
Yet Silence is the natural State of Divine Mind
and can only be accepted exactly as It Is.

There have been many books written about A Course In Miracles that
reflect the personal interpretations of their 'authors.'
Everything you read, hear, or watch presents an opportunity for discernment,
and you will know the Holy Spirit's Peaceful Interpretation by the
experience of peace.
Until the peace of mind is a consistent experience be assured that one of the two ego categories of errors mentioned above is still being valued and chosen.
And this means that something of the world still holds value and attraction to
the sleeping mind.
A Course In Miracles calls this the attraction of guilt, pain, and death.
No one in their right mind chooses guilt, pain, and death, for these are always wrong minded
decisions.
What we shall do together in Purpose is expose these faulty decisions and show that they offer nothing that you want.
A decision is a conclusion based on everything that you believe.
Believe in linear time and all your decisions will be faulty
ones.
Release the belief in linear time and Awakening from the dream is assured and certain.

First there must be a metaphysical context for what I am speaking
about.
Meta means beyond, and our context for understanding and meaning will always be beyond the physical.
Time is a linear construct that has no reality whatsoever, yet before it will
disappear from awareness it must be turned around and viewed from a
healed Perspective.
Let me use an analogy from geometry as an example.
If you look upon a line from anywhere outside the line you
see a line.
Observed from within the line there is no line, there is only a point.
Similarly, observed from ego time appears to be a very long line.
Yet Observed from the Holy Spirit time is only a point and that point was over long ago.
To the Holy Spirit the past is over.
To the ego the past continues on and on and stretches into
billions of years as it judges time.
To the Holy Spirit the cosmos was a singular point of terror, a tiny tick, a mad idea that was
Corrected immediately and therefore is gone.
To the Holy Spirit Present Love remains All that is real and true.

The definition of being asleep and dreaming a distorted cosmos of
time/space is the belief that time is not over and gone.
This is the belief that the separation from God is current and also in some
very strange way valuable.
For if the past was not valued it would no longer be remembered and called forth in awareness. The illusion of linear time is the calling forth of an ancient instant that has
no reality or existence.
There is an analogy that may serve as a helpful example.
When you look at stars at night you are perceiving burning gases that have long since burned out, and yet looking at a perception that still seems to be present.
The same can be said with everything specific you perceive in the cosmos.
Workbook lesson number 7 states: "I see only the past."
This lesson is followed with "My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts."
And this lesson is followed with "I see nothing as it is now."
In fact the first 15 lessons of A Course In Miracles Workbook are an introduction to
the new Perspective of time I am sharing with you now.
These lessons can only have meaning if you are willing to release the ego's linear perspective of time and the things of time:

In the Light of what I have just shared with you, let us review Workbook lessons 51-53, which are review lessons of the first 15 lessons in the ACIM Workbook:

LESSON 51.

The review for today covers the following ideas:

W-pI.51.1. (1) Nothing I see means anything.

2 The reason this is so is that I see nothing, and nothing has no meaning.
3 It is necessary that I recognize this, that I may learn
to see.
4 What I think I see now is taking the place of vision.
5 I must let it go by realizing it has no meaning, so that vision may take its place.

W-pI.51.2. (2) I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me.
2 I have judged everything I look upon, and it is this and only this I see.
3 This is not vision.
4 It is merely an illusion of reality, because my judgments have been made quite apart from reality.
5 I am willing to recognize the lack of validity in my judgments, because I
want to see.
6 My judgments have hurt me, and I do not want to see according to them.

W-pI.51.3. (3) I do not understand anything I see.
2 How could I understand what I see when I have judged it amiss?
3 What I see is the projection of my own errors of thought.
4 I do not understand what I see because it is not understandable.
5 There is no sense in trying to understand it.
6 But there is every reason to let it go, and make room for what can be seen and understood and loved.
7 I can exchange what I see now for this merely by being willing to do so.
8 Is not this a better choice than the one I made before?

W-pI.51.4. (4) These thoughts do not mean anything.
2 The thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything because I am
trying to think without God.
3 What I call "my" thoughts are not my
real thoughts.
4 My real thoughts are the thoughts I think with God.
5 I am not aware of them because I have made my thoughts to take
their place.
6 I am willing to recognize that my thoughts do not
mean anything, and to let them go.
7 I choose to have them be
replaced by what they were intended to replace.
8 My thoughts are meaningless, but all creation lies in the thoughts I think with God.

W-pI.51.5. (5) I am never upset for the reason I think.
2 I am never upset for the reason I think because I am constantly
trying to justify my thoughts.
3 I am constantly trying to make them
true.
4 I make all things my enemies, so that my anger is justified
and my attacks are warranted.
5 I have not realized how much I have
misused everything I see by assigning this role to it.
6 I have done this to defend a thought system that has hurt me, and that I no
longer want.
7 I am willing to let it go.

LESSON 52.

Today's review covers these ideas:

W-pI.52.1. (6) I am upset because I see what is not there.
2 Reality is never frightening. 3 It is impossible that it could
upset me. 4 Reality brings only perfect peace. 5 When I am upset, it
is always because I have replaced reality with illusions I made up.
6 The illusions are upsetting because I have given them reality, and
thus regard reality as an illusion. 7 Nothing in God's creation is
affected in any way by this confusion of mine. 8 I am always upset
by nothing.

W-pI.52.2. (7) I see only the past.

2 As I look about, I condemn the world I look upon. 3 I call this
seeing. 4 I hold the past against everyone and everything, making
them my enemies. 5 When I have forgiven myself and remembered Who I
am, I will bless everyone and everything I see. 6 There will be no
past, and therefore no enemies. 7 And I will look with love on all
that I failed to see before.

W-pI.52.3. (8) My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.

2 I see only my own thoughts, and my mind is preoccupied with the
past. 3 What, then, can I see as it is? 4 Let me remember that I
look on the past to prevent the present from dawning on my mind. 5
Let me understand that I am trying to use time against God. 6 Let me
learn to give the past away, realizing that in so doing I am giving
up nothing.

W-pI.52.4. (9) I see nothing as it is now.

2 If I see nothing as it is now, it can truly be said that I see
nothing. 3 I can see only what is now. 4 The choice is not whether
to see the past or the present; the choice is merely whether to see
or not. 5 What I have chosen to see has cost me vision. 6 Now I
would choose again, that I may see.

W-pI.52.5. (10) My thoughts do not mean anything.

2 I have no private thoughts. 3 Yet it is only private thoughts of
which I am aware. 4 What can these thoughts mean? 5 They do not
exist, and so they mean nothing. 6 Yet my mind is part of creation
and part of its Creator. 7 Would I not rather join the thinking of
the universe than to obscure all that is really mine with my pitiful
and meaningless "private" thoughts?

LESSON 53.

Today we will review the following:

W-pI.53.1. (11) My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless
world.
2 Since the thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything, the
world that pictures them can have no meaning.
3 What is producing
this world is insane, and so is what it produces.
4 Reality is not insane, and I have real thoughts as well as insane ones.
5 I can therefore see a real world, if I look to my real thoughts as my
guide for seeing.

W-pI.53.2. (12) I am upset because I see a meaningless world.
2 Insane thoughts are upsetting.
3 They produce a world in which
there is no order anywhere.
4 Only chaos rules a world that represents chaotic thinking, and chaos has no laws.
5 I cannot live in peace in such a world.
6 I am grateful that this world is not real, and that I need not see it at all unless I choose to value it.
7 And I do not choose to value what is totally insane and has no meaning.

W-pI.53.3. (13) A meaningless world engenders fear.
2 The totally insane engenders fear because it is completely
undependable, and offers no grounds for trust.
3 Nothing in madness is dependable.
4 It holds out no safety and no hope.
5 But such a world is not real.
6 I have given it the illusion of reality, and have suffered from my belief in it.
7 Now I choose to withdraw this belief, and place my trust in reality.
8 In choosing this, I will escape all the effects of the world of fear, because I am
acknowledging that it does not exist.

W-pI.53.4. (14) God did not create a meaningless world.
2 How can a meaningless world exist if God did not create it?
3 He is the Source of all meaning, and everything that is real is in His
Mind.
4 It is in my mind too, because He created it with me.
5 Why should I continue to suffer from the effects of my own insane
thoughts, when the perfection of creation is my home?
6 Let me remember the power of my decision, and recognize where I really
abide.

W-pI.53.5. (15) My thoughts are images that I have made.
2 Whatever I see reflects my thoughts.
3 It is my thoughts that tell me where I am and what I am.
4 The fact that I see a world in which there is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the representation of my insane thoughts, and am not allowing my
real thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see.
5 Yet God's way is sure.
6 The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not my will that they do so.
7 My will is His, and I will place no other gods before Him.



What is being undone in the Great Awakening is the perception of
linear time and the identification with a linear identity that is of
the ego's making.
Guilt, although an illusion, seems real in awareness as long as you perceive yourself as part of linear time.
The Holy Spirit stirs the sleeping mind so that it may first Observe
the cosmos and experience identity from the Perspective of Wholeness
in the Present, and then gently Awaken unto Eternity.
A happy dream of forgiveness precedes the gentle Awakening unto Pure Oneness.

The Holy Spirit returns to awareness the power of the mind and the
all-inclusiveness of the mind.
The awareness of power and inclusiveness go together, since only the ego's insane attempt to
judge and compare and project blocks this vastness and inclusiveness
from awareness.
To reject is to judge against, and this produces the optical delusion of consciousness I call distorted perception.
Inclusiveness is the forgiven world, and everything of the cosmos is perceived from the Present Healed Perspective of the Holy Spirit.

I have offered many words and writings in the seeming trail of the Awakening mind, and they are all made available freely for the benefit of everyOne.
Enlightenment is all-inclusive, and therefore everyone is with Me now!
I give thanks to the Holy Spirit for lighting the way and for the constant reminders of Love & Peace.
The Holy Spirit uses gatherings and posts as opportunities to shine the Light of Awakening and to expose and release the errors of the ego that seemed to be hidden from awareness. I invite all 'seekers' and 'students' and 'teachers' to join Me in our shared Purpose of
complete forgiveness.
Forgive the past and let it go, for it is gone.
Only a Blessing remains, and the Big Picture is readily available to behold right now.

Blessings of Peace.

May you have a Merry Christmas this Holy Instant & Forever.

Love,

David

David's Hoffmeister's New Book

CLick on http://christ-jes.us/.

Ten Step Guide to Enlightenment

Beloved One,
The Holy Spirit offers this 10 step Guide to Enlightenment that can be used as a Guideline for spiritual practice.
Awakening Mind is a symbol that expresses Divine Principle in action:
1. Volunteers- Awakening Mind does not involve the concept of membership and therefore relies entirely upon volunteers for every aspect of the ministry. Volunteers receive no financial compensation and no perks or tangible rewards for their devotion to Awakening. The benefits given & received are entirely Spiritual & always purely and simply a State of Mind.
2. Non-profit- Awakening Mind is completely non-profit. The Purpose for the ministry is experiencing Present Inner Peace through forgiveness and thus there is no incentive to grow larger or attain money or power or possessions or property. Present peace is content with the Present Moment and therefore unconcerned with the past or future.
3. Intuitive- Awakening Mind encourages everyone to develop intuitive listening to their Inner Guide and to trust and depend upon this Guidance for decisions in everyday living. How one feels is a barometer for discerning that which is intuitively helpful, and peace is its own reward.
4. Divine Providence- Awakening Mind nurtures the awareness and experience that trust would settle every problem now. Trust in the Holy Spirit & Christ is the means Given by God to Answer every seeming problem that arises in perception. Participants in the ministry are always referred and directed to the Voice for God within and toward the recognition that God is the Creator & Source & Provider.
5. Non-judgment- All comparisons & opinions & assumptions naturally give way to Intuitive Guidance as a practical Alternative to conflict. Guidance is always respected and following Inner Guidance is always encouraged. The outcome of listening to and following the Holy Spirit & Christ is always peace, love, happiness, freedom, & joy. There need not be any exceptions to trusting Inner Guidance and living a life of integrity and honesty and harmony.
6. Generosity- To give is to receive. Awakening Mind honors the Divine Law of Love. Freely you have received, now freely give. Giving is an attitude that extends Love and continuously receives and experiences Love extending. Love knows no lack or scarcity or deprivation. Love is an Abundant State of Mind that is whole and completely Shared.
7. No private thoughts- Awakening Mind is the experience of Union, a Unified Mind in which there is no secret kept apart from Spirit. Everything is openly revealed in the Light of Truth. Love has nothing to hide and is forever openly revealed exactly As It Is. Only the Thoughts of God can be shared, and there is nothing else to share.
8. No people pleasing- Awakening Mind advocates always following Inner Guidance and accepting complete responsibility for one's state of mind. Conformity to `external authority' or unconscious beliefs is never authentic or helpful on the spiritual journey. The laws of the land need not be broken if one follows the Inner Guidance of the Holy Spirit, and impeccable integrity is the certain outcome of yielding to the Holy Spirit for all decisions. `Holy Spirit decide for God for me' is our constant prayer of gratitude, and it is very practical. This yielding to the Spirit offers immediate results.
9. No control over the world- With total responsibility for one's state of mind also comes the realization that there is nothing to control in this world. The Observer is One with everything and now all things are perfect exactly As Is. Atonement is a state of perfect Acceptance. Such is the happy dream of forgiveness, the forgiven world.
10. Peaceful Experience- Awakening Mind is an experience that transcends all specific concepts.
Divine Silence simply Is.
Simply do this:
Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself.
Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed.
Hold onto nothing.
Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything.
Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.
Love Always,
David
Foundation for the Awakening Mind
335 Random Drive
New London, North Carolina 28127
http://awakening-mind.org
608-268-7746

Two Links

should maybe on the roll
http://acim-search.miraclevision.com/ searchable ACIM
http://www.unitedbeings.com/acim/

Ken Wapnick on the Urtext

The Urtext and the Early Chapters of the Text of A Course in Miracles
By Kenneth Wapnick
(Excerpts from the introduction to the 32-part cassette tape series entitled: "Classes on the Text of A Course in Miracles")
Let me say a few words about the relationship of the early chapters of the text to what Helen had originally taken down.
Briefly -- since most of you know the story -- Helen had written down the dictation from Jesus in notebooks.
She used shorthand -- her own particular version that combined various well-known methods with her own variations.
She then dictated what she had written down to Bill Thetford, who typed it out.
What Bill typed out is what we usually refer to as the urtext.
The word "ur" comes from the biblical story of Abraham, who was born in Ur of the Chaldees. Basically it is used to symbolize the beginning of something.
So when we speak of an urtext, we mean the first version of a manuscript.
Thus there are famous urtexts of Shakespeare's works and many other literary masters.
With regard to A Course in Miracles, we used that term to denote what Bill had typed, the original typed manuscript that was based on Helen's notebooks.
Helen then retyped the manuscript of the text twice.
And then there was the penultimate version, which was the version I saw when I met Helen and Bill.
That is the version Helen and I edited into the finished copy -- the published copy.
What Helen originally heard and wrote down in her notebooks, and was largely recorded in the urtext, contained a lot of personal material.
During the early weeks of the scribing, Helen was quite nervous about what was happening.
I think it was not so much about what she was taking down, although that certainly made her uncomfortable, but rather it was about the very process of all of this coming from Jesus.
And I also think that her discomfort was connected with her experience of her relationship with Jesus -- the closeness of it -- a relationship that was impossible for her to ignore at this point, since she was basically hearing his voice all the time now.
I would also say that her hearing during these early weeks was not very good.
An example that I have always used that I think still best expresses what happened is this: If you are away from your home for quite some time and then come back, when you turn on a water faucet, the water usually runs dirty -- especially if it is an older house.
There is rust and other kinds of minerals that do not belong there.
And as the water runs, it takes a while for all of these impurities to wash out and the water to run clean again.
In one sense, I think this is what happened with Helen.
She had not used her scribal ability for a long, long time.
In one of her visions that antedated the Course, she saw herself come upon a piece of machinery in a rowboat that was beached on shore.
She described the machinery as "an ancient sending and receiving set," which she later understood -- when the Course began -- to be a symbol of this ability to receive the messages from Jesus in her mind and then to send them, in terms of writing them down.
In fact, in a vision the stranger appears, and after a while Helen recognizes him as Jesus.
This "stranger" said to her, "Don't do anything with this yet. You're not ready."
So it was obvious that some preparation had to occur within Helen in order to allow her to hear as clearly and as purely as she later did.
But that was not the case at the beginning.
So she wrote down things that are frankly wrong.
A number of these things Jesus would later correct.
The style was very awkward and clumsy.
Again, as I just mentioned, interspersed with the actual teaching was a great deal of personal material that Jesus was giving to help Helen accept what was happening, to help her relationship with Bill.
There were messages for Bill, and messages that really were an attempt to help them not only with their relationship, but with other relationships in their lives.
There also was material that was an attempt to help them bridge the gap between the very conservative, psychoanalytic psychology that they both believed and the psychology of the Course.
Consequently, there was material on Freud and some on Jung, Rank, and other neo-Freudians. Then there was material on mental illness and mental retardation, which was Helen's field. Moreover, Bill was very much involved with Edgar Cayce, having begun to read him when Helen started to have all of her experiences in the spring of 1965.
Bill was very taken by Cayce and read a great deal of him. He then had Helen read Cayce, and actually took her, in spite of her objections and protests -- almost literally yelling and screaming -- to Virginia Beach to meet Hugh Lynn Cayce, who was Edgar Cayce's son.
So there is a lot of Cayce material in the early pages, as well as the Cayce style.
The Cayce material, for those of you who do not know it, contains some rather brilliant teachings, but written in a very archaic, awkward style.
It is not very pretty writing. Some of that awkwardness in phraseology and terms can be found in these early scribings of Helen.
When Helen dictated this to Bill, she basically dictated everything she had taken down with some very, very personal exceptions -- material that was personal.
Then she and Bill edited out what clearly did not belong.
And Jesus was very clear to them that anything of a specific or personal nature did not belong in these "notes," which was his term for what he was giving Helen.
So what we now have in the published version has all the personal material taken out. The material that was really meant only for Helen and Bill -- about Cayce and Freud, for example -- was taken out, because it did not belong there.
B ut, unfortunately, what is still there has some of the awkwardness of phrasing and style, as well the gaps that were left when the personal material was taken out.
The early scribing was not basically Jesus standing in Helen's ear with a microphone and dictating this.
It was much more of a dialog where Jesus would say something, Helen would ask a question, Jesus would answer it.
They would go off on a tangent.
Sometimes Jesus would reprimand her, gently and lovingly, for going on a tangent as a way of not dealing with this material.
Removing those passages, though, left a gap, so that we had to fill that gap with minor words. But it does not read well because of these factors.
The Introduction as we now have it was not part of the original dictation. The Course began with: "This is a course in miracles. Please take notes."
And then on to: "The first thing to remember about miracles is that there is no order of difficulty among them."
Within a few weeks Helen was complaining to Jesus about this impossible material he was dictating to her, saying to him, "I'm assuming this is an elective course," a clear reference to what happens in universities when there are certain classes that are required of all students. For example, every student has to take a foreign language, math, or science, or history -- whatever.
And then there are other courses that are elective -- that a student can elect to take. So she was being a little cute and said, "I assume this is an elective course."
And his response was just as cute: "No, it is not an elective course, it is a required course."
Then he went on with: "Only the time you take it is voluntary."
That is what those next sentences mean in the Introduction.
It was not meant to suggest that everybody in the entire world had to take A Course in Miracles.
What was meant was that for Helen and for Bill it was a required course, because this is what they asked for.
Remember they asked for another way of relating.
Well one could not ask for a better answer to that question -- to have been given a better way of relating to another person: without judgment, condemnation, criticism, attack, etc.
Again, the text as it is now, was not necessarily dictated word for word.
This pertains largely to the first four to five chapters. I might also mention that at the beginning there were not fifty miracle principles.
In fact there were not fifty right in a row, the way they appear now.
There would be a statement of a miracle principle, and then a discussion.
And, again, the discussion could sometimes go a little far afield.
Not far afield from what was helpful to Helen, but certainly far afield from the teaching.
Some of the material that is now in Chapter 1, in the sections after the first fifty principles, was originally part of the miracle principles themselves -- part of the discussion.
When we finally did the editing, when I saw it, I think there were fifty-three principles. They had gotten them down to fifty-three.
And then Bill had the idea that there should be fifty, because fifty is a nice, round number.
So that is why there are fifty principles.
The three that were taken out were not lost, they were just reabsorbed in the material. They were just restated.
I mention this again because so many people have a kind of sacrosanct view of the Course -- that every word is absolutely holy and sacred and cannot be touched.
That was not the way Helen felt about it. She was very clear about not changing any of the important words. But the "that's" and the "which's," -- the "dese, the dems, the doses," as we used to say in Brooklyn -- were obviously not important to the teaching, and so she did make those kinds of changes.
Most of these changes, again, only happened at the beginning. So what we had at that point we all felt was exactly the way Jesus wanted it -- that the material that did not belong was not left in.
The problem still was that the first four chapters frankly just did not read well. As the text moves on, the writing becomes more and more beautiful, and the last half of the text is filled with passage upon passage in wonderful blank verse.
This is not the case in the first four chapters, however.
And Helen was always very ashamed of them. In fact, when anyone in the early days would want to see the Course -- and she would show the Course to very, very, very few people (and she wouldn't show them the whole Course) -- she would just show the really beautiful, rhapsodic, ecstatic passages.
And she was always rather ashamed of this early part, so much so that when we were going through it and editing it, I said to her, "You know, it would save us both a lot of time if you asked Jesus to just re-dictate the first four chapters."
I did not really think she would do that, and she did not think she could stand it again. So the first four chapters are as they are.
Despite everything I've been saying, they still are remarkable in what they contain.
The ideas don't flow nicely one from the other, as one finds later, but the ideas and statements here are incredible in terms of containing the entirety of the thought system of the Course, even if it is not necessarily expressed nicely, and at times even obtusely.
So there is still a kind of a treasure field here for us to mine, but Helen would just like me to apologize to everyone if the writing is not up to what is found later.
THE EARLY MANUSCRIPT OF "A COURSE IN MIRACLES" GIVEN TO HUGH LYNN CAYCE By Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.
In light of the misinformation circulating about the early manuscript of A Course in Miracles -- referred to as the "Hugh Lynn Version" -- I believe clarification is required.
Let me begin by presenting the facts that relate to the history of that early manuscript.
I am here summarizing what I have already detailed in my book Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles, and in more succinct fashion in the preface to the pamphlet Errata for the Second Edition of A Course in Miracles. Helen took down her internal dictation in stenographic notebooks, using her own version of shorthand, and dictated these notes to Bill.
Helen intentionally omitted some material while dictating to Bill, who typed Helen's dictation. We later termed this the "Urtext," a word usually used to denote the original manuscript of a later published literary work.
At that time, Helen and Bill were in occasional contact with Hugh Lynn Cayce, son of the renowned psychic Edgar Cayce, and President of the Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach.
Helen valued his opinion and he was most interested in her work.
For that reason, Helen shared the material with him to secure his advice and comments.
In 1972, Helen and Bill gave to Hugh Lynn a copy of what was then the completed manuscript. This is what has been called the "Hugh Lynn Version."
It was made clear to Hugh Lynn that Helen and Bill were providing these pages for his personal review and comments, and that the manuscript was not to be shared with others except for his son, Charles Thomas.
Hugh Lynn died in 1983, but Charles Thomas Cayce, current President of the A.R.E., recalls conversations in which this point -- so central to Helen's feelings of privacy -- was understood by all parties involved.
After seeing some of the early and later chapters of the text, Hugh Lynn commented to Helen and Bill that he thought that perhaps more than one source was involved, presumably since the writing styles were so discrepant, especially when one compared the early scribing -- what now roughly constitutes the first four chapters of the text --with what came later.
Hugh Lynn's observation goes to the heart of the matter of the editing, and how and why it proceeded.
Again, Absence from Felicity [chapter 12] goes into this in more detail, so that interested readers may wish to consult it if they so choose.
There are two relevant issues here, and they bear on what Helen and Bill (and later I) came to refer to as Helen's "scribal uncertainty" or "pedagogical caution" in introducing a thought system that was so alien to the world's thinking:
1) The early months of the dictation -- again, we are speaking of what are now roughly the first four chapters of the text -- were experienced by Helen as a dialogue or conversation between her and her inner Voice, which she identified as Jesus, in which the actual Course material itself was only a portion of the dictation.
Personal material -- meant only for Helen and Bill -- was part of what she had written down, and it was her very specific guidance that this was not to be included in the published version. This personal material also included many references to psychologists and various psychological issues and subjects, which were also not meant for the public, but rather were to help Helen and Bill make the bridge between their psychological understanding and that of the Course.
2) In addition to the interspersal of the personal material and discussion of various psychological issues with the Course teaching, there is the issue of Helen's scribal uncertainty and pedagogical caution.
These interferences certainly affected her writing during this period.
I provided one such example in Absence from Felicity, where the story of the so-called "celestial speed-up" message is recounted.
This "explanation," which Helen never said came specifically from Jesus, but rather was "given" her, speaks of people losing more than they were gaining, necessitating a "celestial speed-up" in which certain people were being called back --including Helen and Bill -- to lend their talents on behalf of the "plan."
Helen later insisted upon removing this inconsistent material.
Therefore, what was taken out of the original material was meant to be taken out by Helen, as instructed by her Voice, since it detracted from the actual teaching message of A Course in Miracles, and could have seemed to contradict that message, thus confusing its students.
Helen and Bill had removed most of this material by the time I saw the early manuscript.
However, Helen felt that additional material needed to be removed for the published edition. Helen made these deletions and changes and did not truly consider them to be important, as they were never meant to be part of the published Course. [Emphasis added.]
Further, obvious editorial revisions were also necessary -- punctuation, paragraphing, capitalization, etc. -- all of which are documented in my book.
I might also add that the editing that Helen and I completed was Helen's work.
Any thought that it was I who did the editing could only be held by someone who clearly did not know Helen.
As I have said many, many times, Helen was extraordinarily protective of A Course in Miracles, and would not have allowed anything to be done with the material without her approval.
Indeed, during our long period of editing, I functioned more or less as Helen's secretary, implementing the changes that she wished.
Again, anyone who knew Helen (and Bill), would appreciate the fact that A Course in Miracles, as it is published, reflects the guidance that she followed and then implemented.
Therefore, readers of the published Course (especially now that the second edition includes the earlier inadvertent typing omissions) can rest assured that they have before them in the published edition the expression of what was given to Helen by her inner Voice, the true teachings of A Course in Miracles.
Therefore, even though Helen's guidance was to eliminate both the personal material and confusing language from the final edition, the published Course clearly is intended to be read and studied by all students of A Course in Miracles.
All of us at the Foundation for A Course in Miracles and Foundation for Inner Peace earnestly hope that Helen's fervent wish for privacy will be honored and respected by all Course students. This can only be accomplished if the early manuscript of A Course in Miracles remains unpublished.
In summary:
1) The early manuscript provided to Hugh Lynn Cayce was the incompletely edited combination of the notebooks, Urtext, Helen's first retyping, and the first complete draft (1972).
2) This manuscript was given to Hugh Lynn Cayce by Helen for comment only, with the understanding that it would not be shown to the general public.
3) After 1972, Helen, with my assistance as well as Bill's, personally revised the manuscript to ensure that the final (published) version of A Course in Miracles had eliminated:
a - personal guidance and information meant only for her and Bill
b - contradictory or confusing metaphysical and psychological concepts that she had introduced, especially in the first four chapters of the text
c - various other similar material, including awkward, confusing, or inconsistent language

sent by David Hoffmeister http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AwakeningInChrist/

David on Plato's Cave

Plato once wrote a now famous allegory, the allegory of The Cave.
In the cave, people lived their lives facing the walls, never turning to see what else the cave might hold.
The whole of their experience revolved around their interaction w/shadows that were always cast on the walls of the cave.
Over the course of generations, it came to be believed that the shadows comprised the whole of reality; there was no need to turn around.
But one day, for no apparent reason, a young boy did slightly turn his head.
At first he was disoriented and did not comprehend what he saw.
Gradually, though, it became apparent to him that the cave dwellers were chained in such a way that all they could see were the shadows.
He saw that the cave was much more vast than he had been taught.
He saw a huge fire some distance away, being maintained by a few individuals whose appearance was not unlike his own.
With a start, he realized that the shadows on the wall were actually being cast by the dance of the firelight.
They were not real at all!
He learned how to drop the chains that had unwittingly bound him, made his way quietly past the Guardians of the Fire, and noticed a trace of light seeping in from some point high above him.
With great effort, he climbed up to where the Light was coming through and lifted himself up out of the cave.
The brilliance of the light was dazzling at first.
Everything was crystal clear! Here there were no shadows at all!
Then he remembered his family and friends still living in the cave, still entranced by shadows. Climbing back inside, he returned to his spot along the cave wall, and excitedly began to tell of his experience.
Some acted as though they could not hear him, their faces without a trace of _expression.
Others turned for a moment and then looked away.
Still others warned the young boy that the Light was an old myth, long since explained away by the high priests and governors of the cave dwellers, and that he would do well to forget it.
A few -- a very few -- wanted to hear more.
Is that what this world is?
Am I, are we, living in a cave occupied with mere shadows we cast ourselves?
Am I ready to give up my world?
It is the only one I know, and even this one I know not well.
Or do I simply fear what lies beyond the borders -- the proscriptions of authority -- of consensus "Truth"?

After enjoying watching the movie As Good As It Gets at one of the Movie Gatherings at the hotel I felt fine… until I was up on the stage. Then, with the camera recording the discussion, and an audience watching and listening, I began feeling all stirred up. Later in the evening after the event I talked it through with David and got to the feelings and beliefs that had been triggered.Lesson 12. I am upset because I see a meaningless world.Good morning Holy Spirit, last night on the stage I felt awful, cold, shaky, stirred up emotionally, and blocked – I wanted to get down and sit at the back of the room but I felt paralyzed. I kept asking You for help but it all felt so disjointed and I couldn't hear your voice. What can you tell me? Holy Spirit: You are perceiving through the egos lens. The ego was stirred up and to look back on a scene with regret or fear, wishing it was different is to perceive through it's lens. All things work together for good. Remember there are no exceptions except in the ego's judgment.Questioner: I'm considering the "lessons learnt" from the experience but I realize now that I'm perceiving them as lessons "for next time" "for the future" " so I don't have to go through that again" But this is still the ego. The lessons learnt are already past, over, done. They have nothing to do with an imaginary future. What can you tell me about this?Holy Spirit: You have picked up on this subtle ego trick several times – trying to protect the future, no matter how disguised in "helpfulness" it may appear, is the ego. Right now you can choose to focus on the past, on guilt, remorse, regret and hypotheticals, or the imaginary future, all of which are nowhere but in your imagination and they keep you distracted from the present moment. Or you can give your fears and doubt to me, remember there is only one mind, there is no-one outside of you, judging you. You are doing it all to yourself and you can let it go now.Questioner: Ok. I give it to you, all of the thoughts. I want only peace. And to know myself as perfect.From the text: The search for joy in misery will fail. (Good point Jesus).Always when I apply the experiences of the day to my lesson I am astounded at how perfectly matched they are. I am upset because I see a meaningless world. ------------------------------ Lesson 13. A meaningless world engenders fear (because I think I am in competition with God).Good morning Holy Spirit: I booked the tickets within New Zealand for David and I to fly down to the South Island and immediately after sending a suggested itinerary to the organizers all of the doubts came up with strong resistance. A strong feeling of "No more gatherings". "I don't want to go". Help!!Holy Spirit: When your motivation involves covering costs (plane tickets) you put yourself under pressure to perform. The spiritual journey is about healing your own mind, nothing else. Remember your One Goal. Give your fears and doubts to me. Trust that the plans will be given you – as they were this morning (the Guidance was to book the tickets and email the itinerary and it flowed effortlessly –the doubt came up after the action was taken) and remember that your only responsibility is to accept the healing for yourself. David is joined with you, loving you, supporting you, holding your hand whenever you need help. It is you who withdraws your hand and then feels alone. Keep your hand in his as his hand is Mine. Remember your Promise, to do Gods Will, not your own. Trust that you will receive each perfect step in your awakening plan, one moment as a time. Let the fears and doubts come up for release and remember Who's hand it is that you hold. Questioner: I don't want to do gatherings right now. Why did I set them up in NZ? Am I setting myself up to fail? I feel mixed up.Holy Spirit: You do not have to do any gatherings right now. I have set up the gatherings in NZ. They are part of the plan. Those who want healing will step up and the gatherings will unfold perfectly. You are not responsible. It is only the ego's judgment that makes things seem difficult. Return to Peace now. All is perfect. You are loved.I talked through it all with Carolina, received an email of loving support from David and before long was through the clouds of doubt. Whenever I go through this kind of turmoil I hold strong to one crucial piece of advice I was given early this year. Never make a move when you're not feeling peaceful. -----------------------------------------Lesson 14. God did not create a meaningless world.First thing in the morning after reading through my lesson I was greeted at the bedroom door by Carolina saying "Oh I have terrible period pain." I greeted her with love, went into the bathroom blocking out the message I had heard regarding pain and within seconds I had intense period pains. I applied my lesson immediately. "God did not create period pain, and so it is not real". Gone. Instantly. Within seconds. I went and told Carolina and she applied the lesson. Her pain went instantly. Gotta love those miracles!The post written on Integrity is from this day (see archives: Integrity)

YOU ARE EXISTENCE ITSELF

You are Existence Itself

Question: A Course in Miracles says that I did not affect my own
reality at all by illusions. What would you share regarding this
thought?

Answer: Do not confuse reality with illusions. You are thinking that
you were born, and now you have the opportunity to be saved. [And
you are thinking] that this birth of you and the opportunity for
your salvation would not exist had it not been for illusions. You
are thinking that since you are a product of [the thought of]
separation, you exist because of illusions. This is but a confusion
regarding who you are.

You are existence itself. You existed before illusions seemed to be
and your existence is assured after illusions are forgotten. This is
why I say you are eternal. Your existence is free of pain, fear and
worry, all of which seem to be a part of the consciousness of which
you think you are now. It is the seeming individual consciousness
that is illusion, and this illusion is not you because it is not
existence. It is an illusory consciousness that has been laid on top
of existence through imaginings.

You try to imagine yourself without imagings. This cannot be done,
for illusory consciousness does not remember existence without
consciousness, and so it cannot imagine it. Because you believe that
consciousness is what you are and that all experience must come from
being conscious, it seems that existence without consciousness must
be death. But how can existence be death? And if existence is death,
how could it have made consciousness?

Existence is a peacefulness and wholeness that your consciousness
cannot imagine. This [fact] I ask you to accept in faith and trust.
To try to imagine existence without consciousness is to continue to
exercise consciousness and to retain [consciousness] as your seeming
identity. To know your Self as existence, you must relax and let go
of consciousness.

This is why I ask you to focus on the moment, the now. Existence is
now, whereas consciousness seems to be all over the place and
nowhere at the same time. It strives to control the past and the
future, this imagining and that [imagining] all at once. In its
striving, it spins and spins missing the fact of reality by striving
within its fantasies. To let go of this striving is to be, and to be
is existence.

This is something you can do, even within the dream. And as you be
within the dream, you cease to exercise consciousness so that it
slows down, quiets and dies. But after consciousness dies, you still
are, so you must not have been consciousness . And this that you are
always was, so that it was not affected by the insane consciousness
that seemed to be you for a little while.

Consciousness is like a mask that you wear, and it seems to be
something and to be alive, but when the mask is taken off and laid
aside, it is nothing. You are what is behind the mask. You were
there before the mask was put on. You are there now, under the mask.
And you continue when the mask has been laid aside.

http://www.endeavoracademy.com/journal/baruchdespinoza.htm

God acts merely according to his own laws and is compelled by no one.That infinite things must follow from the mere necessity of divine nature, or what is the same thing, by the mere laws of divine nature, we have just shown and we have shown that nothing can be conceived without God, but that everything exists in God. Therefore, nothing outside God can exist by which he could be determined or compelled in his actions; and, therefore, God acts merely according to the laws of his nature, and is compelled by no one.
--Baruch de Spinoza

Be Hurt No More

Question: Could you speak about relationships? The Course talks about special and holy relationships. Can you briefly describe what they are?

David: Relationships seem to be a difficult undertaking in this world. They seem to be a mixture of love and hate, attraction and repulsion, joy and misery. Jesus refers to special love and special hate relationships as destructive, selfish, possessive, and exclusive. These are ego-based relationships that are songs of praise to their maker. Holy relationship is a metaphor for a special relationship that has been given over to the Holy Spirit for His purpose of forgiveness. Holy relationship is a healed relationship that reflects wholeness and completion.

Beyond all metaphors, one might say that the only real relationship is one of Spirit, of God and Creation, of Father and Son. As the only real relationship is given by God, the holy relationship is learned of the Holy Spirit. As the "scarcity principle" is undone by the Holy Spirit, the sense of lack, inadequacy, weakness, and incompletion that is typical of the special relationship is replaced in the holy relationship by joining, extension, appreciation, and acceptance.

I like to speak of the special relationship in the past tense, for as with everything of the ego, it is history. If we recall the metaphysics we have covered today, the sleeping mind became so terrified of the light that it attempted to hide from God in a world of form. Believing it had torn itself from Heaven, it attempted to set up a body-world self as its "new" identity. It attempted to forget about its Identity as Spirit. As it became identified as a body, it was shaky about this "new" identity because, though it had tried to forget the light, deep down it knew that it was making this world up and that God could and must be remembered. Being uncertain and afraid to go back to the light, it looked for an "external" solution -- other bodies with which it could "join" to find happiness and completion. That was how the so-called "co-dependency" of special relationships began.

As soon as the mind believed it was out on the screen of the world, it sought outside itself to alleviate the guilt and fear and loneliness and emptiness it felt within. It looked for other bodies to be its friends and companions. Associations with the "right people," the sleeping mind's God-substitutes, took on great importance. The whole world became one giant special relationship, because everything that the mind associated with on the screen was set up to be a God-substitute. And the reason why special love and special hate relationships are never completely satisfying and never bring lasting peace and happiness is because there can never be a substitute for the Love of God.

The holy relationship can only be experienced now as a reflection of the Love of God. It is analogous to the real world, complete forgiveness, or healed perception that I spoke of earlier. As one realizes the impossibility of personal judgment, one also realizes the impossibility of special relationships of any kind. Holy relationship, then, is not personal in the sense of bodies relating to one another. It is symbolic of a universal wholeness, a state of mind that can only give of its complete perfection. The concept of "getting" something in return for something else is utterly meaningless in the present moment. Right now, there is only rest, contentment, and fulfillment.

To be continued . . .The body represents the gap between the little bit of mind you call your own and all the rest of what is really yours.
You hate it, yet you think it is your self, and that, without it, would your self be lost.
This is the secret vow that you have made with every brother who would walk apart.
This is the secret oath you take again, whenever you perceive yourself attacked.
No one can suffer if he does not see himself attacked, and losing by attack.
Unstated and unheard in consciousness is every pledge to sickness.
Yet it is a promise to another to be hurt by him, and to attack him in return"
(T.28.VI.4; italics added).

More on A Course in Miracles from Awakening Mind

Questioner: If nothing unreal exists, what is there?

David: God and everything that comes from God has existence. So Christ, Who is His created Son, has existence.

Christ is the Thought of God. God extended His Son from Himself "in His own image and likeness," which translates to alike in thought and of a like quality. In A Course In Miracles(c) Jesus also says that the Son of God has creations and the power to create, since God gave His Son creative ability. So the Son's creations also have existence.

However, we can make a distinction between this world's definition of "creation" and what Jesus calls "creation." The time/space cosmos, world, and the bodies that seem to inhabit the world are projections of temporary and ever-changing thought-forms that God did not create. These, then, are called "miscreations." To induce the mind to give up its miscreations is the only application of creative ability that is truly meaningful.

There was a time when these thought-forms (ego) seemed to begin, and there will seem to be a time when they will end. That time is now if one so chooses. This ending has already happened via the Holy Spirit. The linear time/space illusion has been corrected. Accepting the Atonement or Correction for all misthought only seems to be a matter of time. It is a present choice which brings an end to all choice.

The cosmos and world of bodies are a make-believe dream that is illusory. Spirit, in contrast, is eternal and changeless. Spirit comes from Spirit, in a continuous line of creation. God is Spirit; the Son of God is Spirit; the creations of the Son of God are Spirit. Spirit, however, has nothing at all to do with the world perceived through the five senses of the body, including the body itself. When the Course says nothing unreal exists, it is referring to the unreal projected time/space cosmos/world of bodies, planets, stars, black holes, galaxies, etc. Jesus is contrasting the eternal Spirit, which is of God, with the time/space universe, which is of the ego.

Questioner: Wow! When I look at the stars and I look out at the vastness of this physical universe, I see oceans, I see mountains, I see continents. The material universe seems pretty vast for something that doesn't even exist.

David: All of that is testimony to the power of one's mind, to the power of the mind given to an unreal belief.

In the Bible, the Genesis story says that God created the heaven and the earth. In contrast, Jesus in His Course, as I have noted, reserves the term "creation" for the perfect, the eternal, and the changeless. The "fall of mankind" refers to the world of duality within which mankind now seems to struggle for survival. The world is merely the unreal projection of an unreal belief: the ego. In other words, this puff of an idea, or this belief in separation from God, was an incredible, ridiculous idea. The cosmos/world seemed to arise as a hiding place from God for the mind that believed in the separation, having remembered not to laugh.

Again, the distinction between what has existence and what has no existence is the distinction between the eternal and the temporary. Anything that is temporary, including the tiny, mad idea and all that seemed to spring from it, does not exist. Anything that is eternal or of God does exist and has reality.

Questioner: I don't really want to get stuck on this for too long because there's a lot to cover, but I'm looking for the origin of the ego. What was it originally? Where did the ego come from?

David: If there was an answer to the question, "Where did the ego come from?" it would give reality to that which has no reality. If the ego had a source, then it would be real. And so to ask this question is still to assume that the impossible did happen, and to look to the past for answers.

The experience of the Answer is within this moment! Seek it here and now.

In practical terms, this kind of question is simply an ego delay tactic to avoid the acceptance of the Correction in the present moment, which remains one's only responsibility. An experience is available now in which one sees that the impossible did not happen. Why look to the past? History would not even seem to exist if one wasn't continuing to make the same mistake in the present.

Whenever one is looking for a historical answer or theology to explain the impossible, just be aware that it is a delay maneuver. Remember, right now, this very instant, there is the opportunity to be completely absolved of guilt and fear, completely healed forever. Remind yourself, "I don't want to figure out how the impossible happened, since that cannot be figured out. What I want is healing; I want to accept the Atonement for myself."
Questioner: I'm still puzzled about our creations. What are they? We create from God, of God, that which is real. The Course goes on and on about what we create and there's a question that keeps coming up for me: "What is it exactly that we create?"

David: Jesus refers to the Son's "creations" many times in the text. Yet He never goes into a description of these creations in any specific detail except to imply that one remains unaware of them until one truly remembers one's Self as the Son of God. To try to imagine what they might be is impossible, for the imagination is still within the domain of the ego and these creations are not. Imagination involves images. Creation does not. There are no specific references as to what the "creations" are because they are not concrete or specific, being abstract Spirit.

Questioner: So actually they are created in Spirit, unseen to us at this time. But perhaps in our passing on they will be known to us?

David: Even in using the phrase "in our passing on," one must be clear about what that means. These creations are known when one wakes up from the dream of the world. Yet perception has to be cleared up, so to speak, before one can truly know anything. When one talks about "passing on," there is often an assumption that the "life" that one seems to experience in the body really is Life. For example the statement: "In the course of a lifespan we are born, we grow up, we age, and then we die or pass on" assumes that life is of the body, when in fact, Life is simply a state of mind.

Concepts such as "making one's transition" or "passing on" still involve linear, time/space components. All Life is One as Mind is One. Life is being with God in the Kingdom of Heaven. Life is Being. In terms of the world, some individuals seem to have had glimpses or reflections of Life, moments of joy, for no apparent reason.

When one is lined up with and listening to that still Voice in one's mind, when one is right-minded, that is a reflection of Life. When one is listening to the ego, when one is wrong-minded, that is death.

Life is eternal and has nothing at all to do with time. That's a lot different than worldly definitions of life and death (i.e., of bodies, plants, animals, organisms, etc., which live, grow, fade, and die with time). The Course lifts these definitions from the level of form to the level of mind. At the level of mind, both death and the reflection of Life are purposes.

Questioner: Is it possible to know our creations in form?

David: Again, God's Creation and the Son's creations have nothing to do with form or images. What the Course calls "the real world" is the experience one has when images or perception become true or straightened out via the Holy Spirit. The real world is the Holy Spirit's perception of the world, or the forgiven world. This is the metaphorical stepping-stone in the seeming return to God or Knowledge or Creation. True perception, or the real world, leads to God or truth.

When God's Son seemed to fall asleep and dream of separation, the Answer that God gave was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has a purpose for the dreaming of the world which brings with it the Vision of Christ.

In the Bible it is written: "As you sow, so shall you reap." The way this world is set up, this "law" translates into: whatever the mind thinks and feels and believes about itself, the world will prove or bring witness to.

The ego-invested mind feels guilty, believing it actually separated from God, and therefore calls forth scenarios and scripts and scenes from the world that witness to this guilt. Abuse, neglect, victimization, sickness, pain, and suffering are all, therefore, interpretations of the world that are based on the belief that one has separated from God.

A movie projector/theater analogy may be helpful here. In the projector room, inside the projector, is this glowing, brilliant, radiant light. That's a great metaphor for the Holy Spirit. That brilliant light seems to pass through the film, which is filled with a lot of dark images. We'll call those dark images "attack thoughts" or "ego thoughts." As these thoughts are projected, what seems to be produced on the theater screen are shadows. To the mind watching the movie, these shadows appear to have meaning. However, the only meaning the movie seems to have is given to it by the mind, which has forgotten that what it sees is just a movie. It has identified with figures on the screen and thought of itself as a person among other persons.

The world perceived through the body's eyes and heard through the body's ears is also a screen of images. The world is just the shadowy reflection of the attack thoughts in the deceived mind. If one becomes aware of these attack thoughts and is willing to let them be replaced by clear, real thoughts, one is willing to clean the film up, so to speak, and let more light shine through. When this happens, the screen is going to light up more and more. The world will reflect the light in one's mind.

As the mind begins to let go of the ego belief system of separation, it opens up to the Holy Spirit's thought system, which is the memory of God in the deceived mind. This is a thought system which reflects love and offers a completely different interpretation of the world. As the mind embraces the Holy Spirit's thoughts, the world brings forth witnesses to that love. When one accepts the Holy Spirit, the world that was once seen as a place of kill or be killed, of violence, of competition, and of inequality becomes full of miracles -- witnesses of wholeness and completion. Only then is it possible to experience the peace, joy, and happiness of forgiveness, what Jesus calls "the real world."

Questioner: What about this real or forgiven world? What do I have to do to see the forgiven world the Holy Spirit sees?

David: One has to be willing to give up judgment, or more accurately, see the impossibility of judgment. The reason one seems to experience hot and cold, pain and pleasure, sickness and health, war and peace, death and life and all the variations, degrees, and extremes of the world, is simply because of judgment. Judgment breaks apart and fragments.

Let me use the thought of unity as a contrast. Just think of the word "unity." One. Oneness. Union. An unbroken continuity. The circle is a great symbol of unity; no beginning, no end, no duality, just one. The deceived mind looks about the world, the world perceived through the body's senses, and experiences fragmentation and duality.

How does one reconcile duality with unity? One doesn't for they are not reconcilable. The Holy Spirit's function is to translate duality or misperception into healed or true perception, which is the bridge to Unity or Oneness.

The Holy Spirit, an eternal creation, functioning as the memory of God in the sleeping mind, sees the thought of duality as false. Therefore, it is the Holy Spirit that is the bridge back to truth, reality, or God.

That can seem like a lot of metaphysics, so let's use a concrete example to gain some insight about perception. Have any of you ever had the experience of a friend highly recommending a movie to you, saying "You've got to see this movie, it's the best"? So as soon as you can, you see the movie. And afterwards you think you must not have seen the same movie -- you don't understand how your friend could have rated it "the best." You have a very different perception of the movie.

When we really start to look closely at perception, what we find is that no two people see exactly the same world. Everything seems relative and nothing seems to last forever in this world. Within a world of duality, a world of unreality, there is no universal agreement. It seems as if some perceptions have common elements. People may seem to be able to agree, for example, on the color of the grass or the sky. Yet even these "agreements" are not without exceptions.

When one really explores the topic of perception, it becomes more apparent that every one sees a different world, based on subjective interpretation. That's where all the conflict comes in. Nothing in a world of subjectivity and relative perception can be completely shared. Only true ideas, ideas of God, which are not of this world, can be shared.

The good news is that all is well. You can rest in the idea that what is seen with the body's eyes doesn't make any sense because true meaning and happiness are beyond the body, within the mind. When perception is twisted and distorted, pain, anguish, and a host of fear-based upsets can seem to be experienced. Therefore, the attempt to reconcile what is perceived through the body's senses with peace, happiness, and joy is impossible! Peace, happiness, and joy characterize the Spirit of God which is within, within the Silence.

Everyone seems to see the world differently; opinions and varied perspectives abound. A first step in coming to peace of mind is bringing the many seeming problems of the world back to one's own mind and admitting that one has a perceptual problem. The first step is being open to the idea that all the events that seem to be happening in the world, all the wars and competition and conflicts, are just mirroring one's own conflicted mind . Only if the problem is seen to be in one's mind, can the solution, which is also in one's mind, be accepted.

Therefore, I want our discussion to be a discussion of the mind. As we continue our discussion today, let's take a look at some of the beliefs and perceptions that are held. Doing so is a big step on the road to release. It is a necessary step. Thoroughly questioning all beliefs, and ultimately the one belief in separation on which they are based, is the way to come to a lasting state of peace of mind.

Questioner: I have a sense of what you are saying, yet I don't feel like I have an idea about how to stop criticizing and judging. It seems automatic, like a habit, and I don't know how not to do it. Can you give me any suggestions about how to begin to let go of some of that stuff?

David: Yes. In the Bible Jesus says, "Judge not, lest you be judged." The Course gives a framework for laying aside judgment. The Workbook is a tool designed to undo "personal" judgment and make way for the one Judgment of the Holy Spirit: God's Son is guiltless, sinless, forever whole and pure and innocent. Jesus says it is not that one shouldn't judge, but that judgment is something that one is totally incapable of doing. So in other words, one is like a little child who is trying to run the world. Jesus says that in order to judge anything accurately, one would have to be aware of an inconceivably wide range of variables, past, present, and to come. In order to judge fairly and correctly, one would have to know the consequences or effects of one's judgment on everything and everyone -- in other words, the entire Sonship.

That's not the way one generally thinks of personal judgment. It is usually thought of in terms of the consequences to the personal self, family, friends, etc. "What are the consequences going to be for me and my significant others?" is often the question. "What are the pros? What are the cons?"

What Jesus is saying is that a sleeping mind is incapable of judging accurately because it doesn't see the total picture. It is literally blind, for it hallucinates. The good news, though, is that the Holy Spirit is in one's mind, and the Holy Spirit does see the total picture. His Judgment is accurate. In any conceivable situation the Holy Spirit knows what is most helpful for the entire Sonship. The Holy Spirit is always the Answer, regardless of the question.

The most helpful answer I can offer you is this: use the Workbook as Jesus instructs. Right now we have the opportunity to examine the metaphysics on which the Workbook is based and that can help make the Workbook lessons more meaningful to you.

From the belief in separation from God an entire thought system of separation seemed to arise. The ego is this thought system's first premise. To go all the way to the bottom of this distorted thought system, is to realize that the ego is the false underlying belief that one can actually separate from God. According to logic, any statement is only as true as the premise on which it rests. The ego is the false premise. When the mind seemed to separate and fragment, it seemed to forget abstract reality and identify with a physical time/space world. This was a stark contrast to reality and also very chaotic to a mind that was accustomed to the unity of the Kingdom of Heaven. In Heaven the mind is at home and in its natural state of wholeness and oneness and completion. After the so-called "fall," the mind felt so chaotic that it tried to order the illusion; it was an attempt to bring some sense of stability to the chaos. That's where judgment first came in. To order the illusion, to make a hierarchy of illusions, is to judge. A worldly example which reflects this attempt is the scenario of someone entering an "out-of-control" situation, feeling fearful, and believing that if he could just get the chaotic situation in order, everything would be better. So really, judgment is nothing more than a device, and an ineffectual one at that, designed to bring some type of order to chaos and thus minimize fear. But by thinking that it can order its own thoughts, or think apart from God, the mind blocks awareness of the Christ, which thinks only with God. In reality, God orders one's thoughts.

If you believe your own personal judgments are necessary for your survival in this world, the teaching I am sharing will seem to entail radical trust, for this world teaches that judgment is actually good and beneficial. Educational systems are based on the belief that you can learn "good" judgment and become a "mature, functioning, adult citizen." That's what worldly education is all about. One seems to get really good at judging, which is equated with "knowing" what things are good and what things are bad, so the good can be pursued and the bad avoided. Yet wisdom is not judgment; wisdom is seeing the impossibility of personal judgment and therefore relinquishing any attempt to continue it. Only when one has recognized something as valueless is there a desire to relinquish it. Once the impossibility of judgment is grasped, judgment is relinquished, for it ceases to hold any attraction or value.

The belief that one knows how to take care of one's self is what needs to be undone, since the deceived mind knows nothing. When, as the Course recommends, one starts to let go of thinking one knows what's in one's own best interests, it seems scary to the ego. The ego is being undone and fearfully objects: "If I don't take care of me, who will?" Yet if one does not rely on the ego's voice, but trusts instead in that small, still Voice within, decisions flow from this intuitive listening and everything works out smoothly. All the effort and judging that one does in trying to maintain the tiny personality self and to survive in this world has no value. Yet, one is always, so to speak, in good hands with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is deserving of one's trust.

This seems to be a world where one has to fight tooth and nail at every turn. This seems to be a world where one has to have many defenses and security systems. The world teaches: Make sure you carry your mace and a hand gun; make sure when you leave your house that your alarm is turned on; make sure you lock your car doors; make sure you wear enough clothing when you go out; make sure you take your medicine. It's a web of defenses, all of which involve protection of the body and personal judgment. The world's teaching is that you must do all these things just to keep "alive" in this body. Again, I raise the question as to the meaning of "life" as related to the body. The Course is saying: "My little child, you think that's your Life. But, that's not your Life at all. Your Life is Spirit. Spirit is invulnerable and needs no defense."
Questioner: The other day I was saying, "If we can wake up in the morning and forget that we're male or female, black or white, rich or poor, Republican or Democrat, or whatever we think we are, and go through the day without all that baggage, judgment is a lot less. It's almost forgotten."

David: The end of judgment is indeed forgetting all concepts of duality.

Obviously there aren't any Democrats or Republicans in Heaven. There aren't men and women in Heaven. Whenever one gets defensive about anything and is willing to just be quiet and ask for help from the Holy Spirit, insight into what is being defended comes to mind. One finds that one is always defending a false identity.

For example, if I'm identified as a Democrat and I perceive that someone is knocking the Democrats, a defensive reaction is inevitable. Whatever concept or image one identifies with, one will defend. The only Identity that one can identify with and be totally defenseless is the Christ. The Christ is not a concept or an image, but a reality. Spirit is something that doesn't need to be defended. It just is.

When one is identified with anything of this world, then one has made up a self-concept that is intended to take the place of Spirit, and it must be defended because it is not true. Truth needs no defense. Defense is what the belief in separation leads to. It's the belief that one can make an image of one's self, instead of just accepting one's Self as being created by God. That's very basic when you think about it. It seems like it could take a lot of mind training to become completely disidentified from those concepts that we were just speaking of. But it is unavoidable. The natural direction of the mind is to disidentify from those concepts, to learn true forgiveness, and to finally remember God.

Questoner: I'm really curious to get a picture of how you live your life. I mean what's the difference between judgment and priority? How did you end up here today without any judgment? How does that happen for you?

David: Every time one comes to a branching of the road, in the worldly sense, it seems as if one has to go either one way or the other. It seems as if there's a judgment involved. Which way should I go? From the time/space perspective, at every single junction of the road, the Holy Spirit knows which way one needs to go. One need only listen!

The Holy Spirit appears to be evaluative as long as the mind believes that it is in the maze of time/space. Yet the last judgment one need make is that it is impossible to judge anything. God doesn't make judgments. There is nothing to judge between in Oneness. God knows only what is.

But, as long as the mind believes that it is in a maze of duality, the Holy Spirit seems to guide it out of duality. So, if I apply this to the question you asked about me ending up here today, the answer is simply that I listen. I don't have any goals other than staying tuned in to the Holy Spirit and being at peace. Without worldly goals that spring from false self-concepts, there are no perceived separate interests or any future ambitions or past regrets. One can truly trust and listen and follow.

Let me share another analogy to help clarify some of the ideas about uncovering the ego thought system. I've talked about the deceived mind at times as analogous to a skyscraper. The many floors of the building are like the many layers of the unconscious mind. In this analogy the Holy Spirit, the Answer that God gave to the belief in separation, is in the basement. The ego is in the basement also, for God placed His Answer where the problem of separation seemed to be and it was solved. All the floors, first, second, third, twenty-ninth, thirty-first, thirty-second, and every dark room and closet of beliefs which have sprung from the ego were made as a defense against the light, the Holy Spirit.

In its deceived state, the mind is afraid of the Holy Spirit because it believes what the ego says: "You've left Heaven and God is furious. You walked out on Him and if you go back to the light, God will punish you."

The Holy Spirit, in contrast, is gently reminding the mind: "God loves you. He'll always love you. You can never separate your Self from Him. He's not angry."

With all these floors of unquestioned beliefs, the mind has forgotten that it is Spirit and believes instead that it's a person living in a world of duality. In our analogy, the mind believes it is a person on the roof -- where the flag is blowing. It believes it is stuck in a body and at the mercy of a world external to itself.

Like our earlier movie projector analogy, the roof of this building is comparable to the movie screen of the world. It seems as if one needs to go through all the different floors of beliefs to get down to the basement. Yet there is a master switch in the basement. Seeing the master switch as self-destruction, the ego has heavily guarded against the discovery of it. The ego fears that all at once, the entire building will be lit up, and it will be! This master switch is complete forgiveness, the Atonement, or the reversal of all ego thinking!
Questioner: Here's my situation on the roof of that building. I have to go back to work today and do some computer work and some other things before tomorrow morning. I'd rather stay right here. You talk about intuition and Spirit leading you. Now how do I do that?

David: The Holy Spirit starts from where and what the mind believes it is. Suppose you believe you're a woman who has a particular job, and tonight that looks like having to do work at a computer. Let's suppose that this scenario is all just a motion picture of a belief system that you have, and that this is simply the way that you perceive yourself at this moment. The Holy Spirit doesn't try to yank this web of beliefs apart. The Holy Spirit will use those things that you believe in, to help you realize that you are much more than the self-concepts in which you believe.

This discussion, for example, is bringing witness to your mind's desire to wake up and remember your reality as the Son of God. All one has to have is the willingness, and the Holy Spirit will undo the false self-concepts and replace them with forgiveness. Start with this prayer: "Abide with me, Holy Spirit. Guide me in what to say and do and where to go." If you welcome and trust Him, you will experience immediate results.

Questioner: I'm having some trouble with the description of duality and that it's our perception that's the problem. I work in a business where I have to see things exactly as they are happening, not as I might like them to happen. So, the problem for me is understanding how to get to that place that you're talking about.

David: It certainly seems that when one has identified one's self, for example, as an employee in a business, that there are "external" constraints and restrictions to abide by. For example, let's say one is identified as a manager. As a manager, one seemingly has to hold other people accountable for doing certain things. A manager monitors and evaluates employees, directs them, conducts performance reviews, and so forth. Also, every manager has a "boss" whose job it is to make sure the manager is accountable. What one must do is look closely and go deeper into the belief system that is producing the faulty perception, that is producing the scenario I have just described. One must be willing to examine what one's priorities are, what is most important in one's life. Is peace of mind one's only priority?

I've had to take a good look at everything I believed, turn inward for strength and support, and realize with certainty that the Holy Spirit is my only "Boss" and forgiveness my only function. One may say, "How practical is that? What do you do when you have two bosses, if you have the Holy Spirit and your employer telling you two different things?" Again, the Holy Spirit meets the mind where it believes it is. He works with the mind, helping it to exchange accepted self-concepts for the more expansive self-concepts that approach true forgiveness.

As you lay aside judgment and change your mind about the world, what happens on the screen of the world will be a symbolic representation of that mind shift and of your perception of relationships. So really we're back to just saying, "Okay, Holy Spirit, work with me right now where I believe I am and help me loosen my mind from these false beliefs. Help me let go of the ego and my perception will be healed."

Trust in the Holy Spirit for everything and He will take care of you in ways you can't even envision.

Questioner: I'd like to bring up a particular relationship I'm having trouble with. I realize that this one person keeps reflecting something back to me. I perceive this person as controlling and really manipulative. I buy into it and then feel guilty. I really don't think I can go on with this any longer. It is dangerous for me to hang around this kind of control. It doesn't do me any good and it doesn't help this person either. So, what's going on in my mind?

David: A control issue is always an _expression of what the Course calls "the authority problem." If one takes a sampling of human behavior, there appears to be a variety of control issues that seem to be evident in the world. There seems to be control issues with parents, with children, with spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, control issues with teachers, politicians, employers, and perhaps even with the IRS or the police. This world seems to be full of control issues. Yet it is the sleeping mind that has the one central control issue or the one central authority problem. This authority problem is the basis of all seeming control issues between people or between people and "the system."

The authority problem is really a question of authorship. The central question is: "Was I created by God or can I make myself as I wish to be? "Was I authored by God or am I the author of myself?" The sleeping mind believes that it has separated from God and has made up a self and a world. It thinks it is the author of its own identity, the author of reality. Until the Correction for this basic error is accepted, this problem is believed by the sleeping mind to be a battle with God. But a battle of this magnitude is too terrifying to keep in awareness and is therefore denied from awareness as a defense. As a further defense, the problem seems to be projected onto the screen of the world and thus appears to be where it is not, between persons or between persons and institutions. These are, therefore, make-believe conflicts. There are no control issues in the world, though that's where they seem to be experienced. The ego is the control issue and the ego is a belief in the mind. Again we come back to the main idea: There are no problems apart from one's mind.

Questioner: So when I talk to this person again, what's supposed to happen? Am I not supposed to see any controlling behavior?

David: You will see what you believe. Just be willing to examine the belief in control. When you say that another person reflects something about yourself, you need to go beyond the level of behavior. For example, you may look at someone and seem to judge from their behavior or appearance that they are sloppy. That is not the level at which the mirroring we are speaking of takes place. It does not necessarily follow that you are a sloppy person if you see another person as sloppy. The mirroring is at the mind level. One has to believe in the concept of sloppiness before one can see it in the world or in a person. Everything is an idea. The ideas of God are very different from the ideas of the ego. Sloppiness and control are just ideas or concepts that are made up by the ego. A sure way to retain a concept is to project it out and see it in the world instead of seeing it as a made-up concept in one's mind.

God is not controlling. God is not manipulative. Yet as long as one projects responsibility for making up the idea of control, one will believe that control is possible. One must question the false belief in one's mind, the ego, and allow it to be raised to the light.

Questioner: What would you say about deceit as opposed to control or manipulation? Probably the person that I was the most angry with in my entire life was a very deceitful person. He lied whenever it suited him and I think he hurt many people that way. When I was dealing with him I wasn't just imagining those falsehoods, was I?

David: The same line of reasoning can be applied to deceit. The reason deceit of any kind seems to provoke anger is because all deceit is a reminder of the deceit in one's own mind. To believe in the ego is deception. One who perceives one's self as existing in this world has fabricated a self and that is deceitful. To believe that one could actually separate from God is the most basic and the only deception. But that's too terrifying to keep in awareness, so it's denied from awareness and the deceit is projected onto the world and onto persons.

Anger could not really be because of a relationship with a "deceitful person," but comes from projecting the guilt inherent in believing one has separated from God. You can see that upset of any degree or variety can be traced back to that one error. And only the one Correction, the Atonement, will bring eternal peace and happiness and an end to anger forever!

Question: What about practical advice? I want something to go with right now, something I can take with me as I go forth from here. How can I move more towards tuning into the Spirit and allowing my mind to wake up to reality?

David: Everyone in this room can look at one's self, however one perceives one's self, and say "Hey, I've learned some skills and abilities." Each of us has the capacity to learn and has seemingly developed abilities through "life" experiences, education, or perhaps skills training, workshops, etc. Jesus meets the mind wherever it believes it is. These skills and abilities will be used in the Plan of the Atonement.

Recently someone told me: "I've been learning my whole life and I'm just getting into graduate school. Now I'm reading the Course and it says I have to unlearn everything." She said she felt conflicted about going into graduate school and going through all the study and papers and exams while feeling that she was supposed to unlearn the world. What I am sharing is that the Holy Spirit can use whatever the deceived mind has learned for His purpose.

Let's examine this closely. When we consider learning in the context of this world, we may think of learning mental and motor skills, athletic skills, skills in reading, in writing, in speaking, and so on. The key thing that one needs to get clear about is the purpose that skills and abilities serve. The ego wants to use these abilities to reinforce the separation and maintain the body identity. The ego wants to maintain itself. One needs to get clear on the Holy Spirit's use for these abilities. The practical question is: "Am I willing to be shown the Holy Spirit's use for my body, mental skills, and physical skills?"

Properly perceived, all skills and abilities are channelized into the ability to heal. All skills and abilities that are used to prop up the little self-concept, in the pursuit of fame, fortune, status, or bodily convenience and comforts, etc., are used for ego goals (i.e., bigger, better, more, faster). The ego is counseling one to use one's skills and abilities to become a better person. Instead, use those skills and abilities to let go of the body identity and to extend love to your brothers. Use them to share the ideas of the Holy Spirit. Use your skills and abilities to change your perception of yourself and remember that you are a mind and not a body.

The most practical thing one can ever ask about anything is: "What is this for?" For example, I liked the idea of freedom. I wanted to be free. But I discovered that my definition of freedom was way off the mark. I had defined it as doing what I wanted to do, wherever and whenever I wanted to do it. Freedom of the body was the basis of that definition. Other definitions of freedom might include economic freedom, freedom of choice, political freedom, or the freedom of mobility. They all involve the body. What the Course teaches is that true freedom has nothing to do with any of these definitions. It has nothing to do with the body and everything to do with the mind. It has everything to do with listening to the Holy Spirit and following the Holy Spirit's guidance.

Again, it really all comes down to purpose. We can call purpose the "level of mind" or "causation." Purpose is content. Form, the level of the body, is essentially irrelevant. The ego attempts to raise up form as important (i.e., how the body looks, what the body eats and wears, how old or young the body is, what color the body is, etc.). These images are merely overlays, just concepts that cover over the awareness of Spirit, and their importance naturally diminishes as one starts to follow the Holy Spirit's purpose. It just becomes less and less and less noticed. One ceases judging how people look or what kind of cars they drive or what kind of houses they live in, etc. How does form stack up when it comes to tuning in to Spirit? It doesn't! When one really gets into purpose and intention, all the specific details leave consciousness and fade from awareness.

Questioner: I'm glad you're bringing that up because I feel that following the Spirit can look no particular way. Trying to model my life after anyone else's life or trying to choose appropriate behaviors is not it, because that would be placing an emphasis on form. It's the purpose that's important, and the form just follows and flows automatically from that. I think sometimes it's easy to jump to the conclusion that if the form of my life seems different from the form of the life of someone I regard as a model or an example, then I've got to change my life to be like theirs. That's missing the whole point. It's not about the form, it's about the transformation that takes place in the mind. Then, if the form changes, it changes because of the change that has occurred in the mind, not because I have addressed the form and tried to change the behavior or how things look.

David: Yes. Indeed the only thing one can choose to change is the way one thinks. To try to change the behavior will not solve anything. The only way that one can solve misperception once and for all is to look calmly and directly at all false thoughts, see their unreality, and look beyond them to one's real thoughts.
If one chooses to think with the Holy Spirit, one perceives everything as either love or a call for love. So, for example, if your child is screaming or crying, or your spouse starts yelling at you, the situation is simply perceived as a call for love if you are lined up with the Holy Spirit. It is as if your brother were saying: "Please teach me that this isn't who I really am. I'm asking you to remind me who I really am." The Holy Spirit sees it that way. But through the ego's lens, the situation gets perceived as an attack. Can you see that once you perceive attack, a defensive reaction is unavoidable? So really the key is seeing that attack is impossible. It doesn't do any good to think, "Gosh, I'm being attacked" and then try to control the behavior to appear defenseless. To try to correct the error at the form level never works.

Questioner: I've read most of the Text in A Course in Miracles(c) and the idea of the physical world and the body being just a projection calls to mind a lot of old Christian beliefs. For example, the belief that abusing the body or neglecting the body or punishing the body, brings us back to Spirit. That belief doesn't seem to be of God. I guess I'm confused, because to me it doesn't seem loving to say that we must leave the physical world behind, neglect it, and not take care of it to become Spirit. So I guess I'm confused and I thought that maybe you could help me understand that better.

David: Jesus came nearly 2,000 years ago with a message of unconditional love and it's interesting to observe the ego distortions that have presented themselves. From a metaphysical perspective, whenever one tortures the body, hates the body, or abuses the body, it implies an underlying false belief in the mind that the body or the world is evil. The ego wants the mind to see the body as its home. And yet it hates the body because the body doesn't seem to be a good enough home. It seems to grow old, get sick, and die. Yet to hate anything one must believe it is real. That is the deception, for the world and body have no reality. Reality is Spirit. Can one be open to seeing that by attributing a negative value to the body or world, one is making the projection seem real, as more than neutral or nothing?

The flip side of this error, which is the same trap, is valuing the body/world, glorifying it for what it seems to offer, or raising it up in importance in any way. Indulgence of the senses, status, fame, etc., don't bring lasting peace and happiness because they reinforce the bodily identity and one is not a body. Trying to solve an inner emptiness or feeling of lack by indulging in drugs, sex, entertainment, food, or any pleasures of the world, is to make the error seem real by thinking the body is valuable and desirable. It is certainly esteemed as more than neutral or nothing. Denying the body or indulging the body is not the truth that will set one free.

Miracles are shifts in perception that witness to the mind that it is much more than a body. As I have shared, this is a Course in changing one's mind about the world and not a Course in trying to change the form and hoping that one's mind will follow. This is a Course in learning that there is a higher purpose for the body and the world: the Holy Spirit's purpose of forgiveness. Again, the body itself is neither good nor bad. The Holy Spirit uses the body solely for communication, to speak for God through it. To learn true forgiveness is to give up the ego's uses for the body, which could be summarized as pride, pleasure, and attack. To allow one's body to be used by the Holy Spirit as an instrument of healing is to allow distorted perception to be corrected.

Questioner: I just thought I would share this. I would like you to address the concept that what I see in front of me "is only a projection of my own mind." So essentially there's no one out there? If I still perceive a negative trait in another, that means that I still harbor that thought in my own mind and have not yet released it. I still hold that thought in my mind and that's why I still see it.

David: Yes. Every thought is either projected or extended. Attack thoughts are projected. Real thoughts are extended. The perceived world is just a representation of thoughts. Attack thoughts are kept out of awareness and then "seen" in the world as if they were external or independent of their "maker" -- one's own mind.

Questioner: I don't know, there's something else. I just really want to look deeper into this. I guess there's an aspect of that I'm not understanding or I wouldn't have brought it up. So wherever you want to go with that would be great.

David: Everyone, deep within, wants to be free of attack thoughts or personal judgment. In fact, that is the only freedom. The process of relinquishing judgment may seem to be difficult. It really isn't, once the value of nonjudgment is grasped by the mind. To the ego, the relinquishment of judgment is perceived as personally insulting. Giving up judgment is often interpreted by the ego like this: "Hey, I am a competent, mature person. I have learned lots of very useful judgments about the world. I cannot be completely wrong about all of it." One is told in some of the early Workbook lessons that one's mind is filled with meaningless thoughts. The key is to have faith in the Holy Spirit's undoing of the ego and not to perceive the lessons as humiliating, which would be the ego's interpretation. Start with a sense of true humility and true humbleness and say, "Okay, I want to start with an admission. I want to start with the admission that my mind is filled with a lot of thoughts that don't come from my Father in Heaven." It's starting to see that one really does need a mind overhaul, a complete change of mind about one's self and the world.

The early lessons help loosen the mind from the way one currently thinks and perceives. The later lessons in the Course are wonderful affirmations of the truth. These are reflections of real thoughts. These are the thoughts that one thinks with God. But the real thoughts are buried in the mind underneath all the judgments and attack thoughts. These dark thoughts need to be brought into awareness before they can be released.

To be continued . . .
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Thank you,
Regina, David, Kirsten & Herb
(608) 268-7746
http://www.awakening-mind.org/

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to the Foundation for the Awakening Mind, please Click Here.

Thank you,

Regina, David, Kirsten & Herb

(608) 268-7746

www.awakening-mind.org