Minnetonka ACIM Blog

I hope everyone has a chance to listen to Ken Wapnick’s discussion of Lesson 136. He does a masterful job of explaining the ego’s strategy and how the ego arose.

Within that description he made a wonderful observation. While he did not use the term, he pointed out the ego’s motive. Although it wasn’t fully in my consciousness, I always was uneasy about why the “reality” the ego made was so temporal. Compared to perfect oneness, this reality is so–kill or be killed. Beyond just guilt, there seemed to be something more to support that guilt. Or perhaps as a defense attorney, when I hear the term guilt I am always looking for a motive.

Well now we have it, the ego’s motive! The ego’s motive is to one up God. God creates through extension. God creates eternal life. The ego comes along and says big deal; I can make life and take it away as well. The murderous ego revels in its supposed power. The problem with the ego’s belief is that no matter what its motive or belief, it only has the Truth of perfect eternity to work with. So the ego is stuck with the delusion it can one up God, but in reality it is just a tiny mad idea that is simply worthy of a good belly laugh.

Peace and love

Today’s lesson 105 is a wonderful opportunity to reverse the thinking of lack and obtaining a glimpse of our creative reality. Nearly everything we do for another here is really a bargain with some express or implied expectation.
As Lesson 105 states:
“True giving is creation. It extends the limitless to the unlimited, eternity to timelessness, and love unto itself. It adds to all that is complete already, not in simple terms of adding more, for that implies that it was less before. It adds by letting what cannot contain itself fulfill its aim of giving everything it has away, securing it forever for itself.”
True forgiveness is just such a gift. It gives peace and joy while securing the same. I would encourage everyone to read today’s lesson carefully. It provides a great opportunity to understand the limits of this world and why “gifts” with strings do not work.

Instead:
My brother, peace and joy I offer you,
That I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.

I was listening to Ken’s class on chapter 21 “Reason & Perception and he said something that hit me like a ton of bricks and really resonated on how I’ve been feeling for quite some time. Ken says it’s when we become partly sane.

Here it is: “We really we don’t want the ego system anymore but are so afraid of letting it go. That’s when the pain seems to be so excruciating because you know what you’re doing now.  You can’t blame anybody anymore. So you’ve come midway, you can’t go back because you know that’s insane, but you really don’t want to go forward all the way.”

I guess I’m not ready to lose my special individual self yet.

Jason

I just stumbled upon a great ACIM website.  http://www.acourseinmiraclesfordummies.com/

The site has great ACIM search capabilities.  It also has a unique version of the text as they describe it:

“We have taken what is commonly referred to as the second edition of the text of A COURSE IN MIRACLES and replaced pronouns and unclear references with their antecedents or meanings. This was done in an effort to clarify the text by making it more readable to the student. These changes are clearly noted and highlighted in bold print.”

Try it, especially when you come across one of those paragraphs where you are not quite sure what it means.

Peace and blessings,

Robert

I’m on.  A little behind on lessons.  Committed to catching up.

I agree that a day where I do not stop and find quiet time is a day that feels as if I am running in circles, no direction, no purpose.  I do not feel as if I can be all that I am for myself or for others.

Taking the quiet time provides direction for my day and purpose.  It allow me to give to others and myself throughout the day.

Lesson 45—God is the mind with which I think.

This was a particularly powerful lesson for me today.  A few things that came to me which I would like to share:

1.  The lesson helped me understand the biblical quote:  “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” 

“Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”  Luke 17:20-21

 After reading Lesson 45 I now get that this means THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS OUR THOUGHTS—which we think with the mind of God. 

 Take another look at today’s lesson while considering the following from the Ur Text: 

 “When Helen reads this to you, Bill, try to listen very carefully. You have never understood what “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you” means. The reason you cannot understand it is because it is NOT understandable to the ego, which interprets it as if something outside is inside, which does not mean anything. The word “within” does not belong. The Kingdom of Heaven IS you.

http://courseinmiracles.com/urtext/chapter_4/section_4.htm    [See T.4.III.1 for the final edited version]

2.  I realized today that as I was looking within while doing the previous lessons, I was still looking for a physical place!  While looking within I missed that it was simply my creative ability to think with the mind of God that I need “see” and to choose who I use as a teacher to remember how to think—ego or Holy Spirit.  I was looking at the effects (my thoughts and at things) and not seeing the source—the ability to think and how I choose the teacher to view what that ability produces.  That is why ACIM is a course in training us to use our access to Heaven properly. “The purpose of these exercises is to train the mind to a different perception of everything in the world.”  [Introduction to Workbook]

 3.  As I was doing the lesson I got a picture of my son’s messy room and my messy office.  I realized that they were symbols of the state of my messy mind.  I think with God’s mind which is the Kingdom of Heaven; yet I treat it with the respect that my son treats his messy room and with the confusion of purpose that I treat my office.   

Here I have use of the Kingdom of Heaven with every moment of my existence and I don’t “see” it any more than my son sees the space that is his messy room.  The ability to think is my access to Heaven, but I do so with the clarity of my messy office.   I see why I need to ask Holy Spirit’s help to clean up my messy mind so that the thoughts I identify with are worthy of the mind that I think them with—God’s. 

I final thought for Valentine’s Day:

“Whenever you are with a brother, you are learning what you are because you are TEACHING what you are. He will respond either with pain or with joy, depending on which teacher YOU are following. HE will be imprisoned or released according to your decision, AND SO WILL YOU. Never forget your responsibility to him because it is your responsibility to YOURSELF. Give him HIS place in the Kingdom, and you will have YOURS. The Kingdom CANNOT be found alone, and you who ARE the Kingdom cannot find YOURSELVES alone.” (T.8.III.5:8-12; 6:1)

Peace and blessings everyone on this Valentine’s day. 

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Peace and Blessings,

Robert