Hello my friends!
The MiracleShare virutal Conference is a wonderful gathering of ACIM teachers and students from around the world! I am honored to have a short video presentation as part of the “LIGHTWORKERS” part of the conference. My video will be airing on Sunday October 23 @ 5pm (PST), 8PM(EST). The conference will be archived, so you can still purchase the package. Corinne, Danielle, and Craig have done a wonderful job putting this together! Check it out! Miracleshareconference.org
Hello my friends!
It’s helpful when we’re feeling “down” or in the ego’s grip to remind ourselves that the ego thought system of sin, guilt, scarcity, loss, deprivation & death is represented by the body. The body only exists so we can experience separation in the mind. The ego thought system and all the forms contained in it are merely symbols of that illusory ego thought.
The world is a shadow reality, as is the body. To feel guilty or fear about an illusory self is to feel guilty or fearful about nothing. ACIM states that “nothing unreal exists”. Anything not of God and perfect Oneness is not real and therefore does not exist. However, we are having a dream that “we” exist apart from God.
Our only problem is that we believe the shadows are reality.
To apply this teaching in your everyday life:
Whenever you are upset in any way, it is an opportunity to “choose once again”, as ACIM suggests, and remember that you are the observer of the events seemingly happening to you. Interrupt the thought as it is happening…stop yourself, choose the miracle – the shift in perception to the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of the the dream you made up. True forgiveness, recognizing that no illusory thing can take away your inner peace because you made it up, is the cornerstone of this process.
Having awareness in the moment recalls your projection. You are no longer projecting the ego thought system onto the person, event or situation in your dream. This is how the Course teaches us to undo the ego and eventually awaken to our true identity as Spirit/Oneness with God.
Be well & blessings!
Hello my friends!
You may already be aware of Alexander Marchand’s book The Universe is a Dream. If not, I highly recommend it!
Using the unique form of a graphic novel, Alexander guides the reader through the advanced nondualistic metaphysics of the spiritual teachings of A Course in Miracles. If you are ready to wake up, this book not only gives you a “picture” of the true nature of the universe, according to ACIM, but also reminds the reader of practical ways of thinking with the right-minded teacher and practicing true forgiveness that facilitates this awakening to Spirit/ Oneness.
Here’s a reminder of the Course’s teachings on forgiveness from the book:
“True forgiveness is essentially lucid dreaming; It is nondualistic forgiveness whereby the observer is the observed and thus the forgiver is the forgivee. You don’t forgive people for what they did. You forgive yourself for believing a dream full of characters that only ever did what you asked them to do — albeit on an unconscious level. When you go around truly forgiving, you go around seeing the dream as a dream. You keep in mind that you made up the dream. You keep in mind that the content of the dream is merely symbolic of the content of your mind.” p.93
The illustrations that go along with the words in his book add significantly to the message! Check it out!
Be well & blessings,
Jackie
Hi friends!
A Course in Miracles teaches that the body is part of the projection of the world, which is still in the mind.
“The body is merely part of your experience in the physical world. Its abilities can be and are frequently overevaluated. However, it is almost impossible to deny it’s existence in this world. Those who do so are engaging in a particularly unworthy form of denial. The term ‘unworthy’ here implies only that it is not necessary to protect the mind by denying the unmindful. If one denies this unfortunate aspect of the mind’s power, one is also denying the power itself. “( T.IV.3:8-13)
Knowing the body is an illusion sometimes fosters the error that giving it attention is sinful and wrong. This can lead to asceticism and an unworthy form of denial, keeping the illusion/separation real in the mind. It’s okay to practice discipline behaviorly and do “normal” things bodies do as steps in shifting from a troubled body to the real problem which is a troubled mind. The Course uses the term “magic” to denote when we attempt to solve a problem where it does not exist (in the world). Any issues with the body are the ego’s attempt to shift the guilt from the mind (where it really is) to the body. This keeps us “mindless” so we’ll keeping looking outside the mind (the world and body) for the answer. The Course teaches that behavioral changes alone will not solve the mind’s addiction to guilt, and it’s faulty decision in choosing the ego thought system, which is the choice for guilt, fear, pain, suffering, attack & judgment.
When we choose the Holy Spirit or Jesus’ interpretation of the body, it becomes a communication tool and is used as part of our classroom ere in the world to get us home. We use the body as a communication tool to bring us back to the mind so we can choose Jesus as our teacher. Ken Wapnick, P.hD. says, “Solving the problem on the physical level may be a helpful step in allowing us to return to the real problem, but it cannot undo the decision to be guilty, which follows the wish to be a special and unique individual”. ( We first seemingly chose separation, individuality and specialness over our Oneness with God, which led to our guilt over that choice) “When we are right-minded, we will no longer feed the projection that protected our guilt and kept it safe from undoing the change.” The mind’s projection is the whole world – the time-space dream. The mind ACIM is talking about is outside of time and space.
Here is a helpful reminder: Think of yourself as the “observer”. You are the dreamer of the dream and not the figure in the dream. You are not a body, but having a dream you are a body. Therefore, when something is wrong with “the body” you are having a dream that something is wrong with the body. When you have a headache, you are having a dream you have a headache. You say to yourself, “Interesting, I feel a headache coming on, however, I’m aware that the headache is in my mind (not my head, which is a part of the body, which is a part of the unreal projection) …I’m dreaming that this person called Jackie in the dream is having a headache.” This is an example of being the observer. You may still take aspirin (which I do sometimes), however, you took that action AFTER going within first and looking at your issue with the Holy Spirit/Jesus as your teacher. That choice, to see yourself as the observer, did not make the separation real, rather, it allowed the Holy spirit to undo some of the unconscious guilt in your mind – which is where real healing takes place.
Be well & blessings!
Hey friends!
The Course is teaching that there are two ways to interpret illusions – one breeds them and the other undoes them.
When we choose our right-minded inner teacher/the Holy Spirit/Jesus, we are reminded that the world is our “made-up” projection. We are having a dream of existing apart from perfect Oneness. This interpretation slowly undoes the illusion of separation.
Understanding we’re dreaming is how we can begin to integrate the Course’s thought system experientially. Advancing in our practice, we recognize “seeing the world as an illusion” means it doesn’t have the power to take away our inner peace. It doesn’t mean denying our experiences here in a cavalier or dismissive way. Rather, we have the awareness from our right-minded teacher that what happens to us in the dream is not the true cause of our dis-ease or lack of peace. Our choice for the ego in our mind that projected the world is the cause of all the physical and psychological pain the body feels.
For sure bodies can be hurt and destroyed in the dream, but our mind (outside of time and space) can be at peace allowing us to be more effective relating in the world. While the mind dreams of separation, we can certainly be anxious, fearful, sick and depressed in the dream. However, as we awaken, the dream fades and we have less investment in our illusions. Choosing the miracle, a shift in perception, undoes our illusions. With less conflict in the mind there is less tension interfering with our daily functioning.
What happens in the morning when you slowly awaken from your nocturnal dream? Your investment in the dream is less and less until it fades away and you realize it never really happened.
Another way to know we’re becoming more “miracle-minded” is instead of having the intensity and strife that accompanies trying to solve illusory problems in the illusory world with the ego, thus furthering illusions, we become more peaceful in our approach. If a problem confronts us, checking in first with the right-minded teacher reminds us that “there is another way to look at this”. Then our actions will follow without the intensity of needing to solve everything on our own.
Be well everyone!
Jackie
Hello my friends! This is a reminder that we are dreaming our life here in the illusory world. We can “wake up” by remembering in each moment to “choose once again”, as ACIM suggests. Enjoy!
Miracles are “shifts in perception”. We are shifting from the ego thought system of sin, guilt, and fear to the Holy Spirit’s/Jesus’ thought system of true forgiveness. This is done in the mind, as the mind is all there is.
A Course in Miracles teaches that “there is no world”. God is…and nothing else is. (Level 1) This is the metaphysical level.
However, there is a “belief” in the world. A Course in Miracles is a course in cause (the mind) and not effect ( the whole universe of time & space which includes the body as the central figure in the dream of the world).
The Course teaches us how to “look” at the world (with the mind) while we believe we are here having an experience in the made-up holographic time-space dream. The Course gives us a practical approach to how we live in the world. (Level 2) On this level, the Holy Spirit’s orJesus’ perception/thought system is the truth and the ego’s perception/ thought system is the illusion.
A “gentler dream” where we forgive ourselves, others and our seeming problems precedes our awakening to Spirit. Practicing the Holy Spirit’s/Jesus’ thought system leads to the experience of what the Course calls the “happy dreams of forgiveness”. This is still part of the illusion and still only in the mind. However, choosing the Holy Spirit’s or Jesus’ interpretation of the dream ( happy dreams of forgiveness) leads us away from error ( the choice for the ego’s thought system of separation – sin, guilt, and fear) and towards awakening to who we are and where we never really left – our Oneness w/God.
Forgivenes as taught in A Course in Miracles is forgiving your brother for what he HASN’T actually done because what your seeing with the body’s eyes is not true. The world and all the people that seem to move about and all events that seem to happen are happening in a DREAM. We know events in a dream are not really happening. A Course in Miracles teaches us that “All your time is spent in dreaming. Your sleeping and your waking dreams have different forms, and that is all. Their content is the same.”
We can break free from the ego’s script of sin, guilt and fear. Whenever we “choose once again” we are reversing our projection. We are shifting to the Holy Spirit’s thought system of true forgiveness, instead of recycling the guilt in the mind by continuously choosing the ego’s thought system.