Mastery Through Love — Everything that you perceive is the self-concept. The stars, the body, the trees, the cosmos, it’s all your making. Enlightenment occurs through mastery of love and in order to return to love we must forgive all of these ideas of what we think we are. This talk is a great aid for understanding what the self-concept is and how we can regain the awareness of love’s presence.
Stress and Worry
I See Only the Past – ACIM Meditation
I see only the past and I can relax now, knowing that all I need to do while I seem to be in this world is to listen to the Holy Spirit and follow His guidance. I don’t have to strive for anything or to set any goals, because I see only the past. I don’t have to think about what to do in the future, because I see only the past. I have no control over the world I made, and never did, because I see only the past. “This world was over long ago” (T-28.I.1:6) and I rest in this Holy Instant, now. “I see only the past. This idea will be very important in our awakening, because this idea must be first acknowledged before an experience can come that is beyond it. This idea is so important that the first six Lessons of the Workbook are all based on it. You might say it is a very fundamental step on the seeming ladder of awakening. There will be ideas that will come along that may seem very radical like, “the script is written”, an idea that seems very perplexing to students of this Course, but actually, is just another form of this lesson number 7, “I see only the past.” So, when we say “I see”, it means “I perceive.” I perceive a world of images, a world of sequenced images that seem to come one after another in what seems to be called daily life, in what seems to be a linear cosmos, moving from past to future in that direction, and yet all that, all those perceptions are based on the past. The meanings that are seen, experienced, are based solely on the past. If everything I perceive is the past, it can show at once how delusional are the thoughts and images that pass the mind. I say delusional, because if you think of this in terms of making a series of choices that all seem to be different throughout the day, choosing this over that, choosing to stay or to go, preferring one thing over the next, watching your eyes be drawn to one thing instead of another thing, planning the day, having a schedule, following a calendar, you are presuming that there is something going on other than the past. There seems to be something actively present and actively unfolding in the direction of the future. Presumptions of seemingly different locations in time and space, different increments of time, some much shorter and tinier, some much, much longer, all rest on the belief that this world is somehow dynamic and unfolding.”
ACIM Meditation – I Am Upset Because I See Something That Is Not There
ACIM Meditation – I am upset because I see something that is not there. Nothing of this world resembles reality because the ego made up the world and the ego knows not of God. The ego is a hallucination and is only capable of making more hallucinations. That is why you cannot expect this world to tell you who you are. You can only be supremely happy if you know who you are and the Holy Spirit is the means to do so. The Holy Spirit is the bridge given us to escape from time and enter into eternity. Sink deep and allow this ACIM meditation to strengthen your connection with the Holy Spirit. “Today’s Workbook Lesson is giving us the chance to unpin, to unwind from the belief in being trapped in appearances. When our very identity of love of the living Christ, a perfect idea in the Mind of God, has been forgotten and completely pushed out of awareness, appearances seem to have come to take the place of love and light. This condition could be called hallucination. It is like when a thirsty traveler walking through a desert, feeling scorched, hot, parched and dry may hallucinate an oasis of shade and water. The sleeping Son of God has believed himself to be bereft of his holy Father, his creator. He finds himself lost and wandering in a desert of images, a desert of perception that God did not create: a fantasy world, a fictitious, linear stream of images that have nothing to do with reality, nothing to do with eternity, divine love and happiness. And so, the first step in healing from this apparent condition of separation is to realize that all upsets experienced are coming from a perception which is not there.”
ACIM Meditation – These Thoughts Do Not Mean Anything
These thoughts do not mean anything. Today we begin a practice of meditation. The workbook lessons are guiding us, helping us to train our minds to meditate. And the first three lessons are: “Nothing I see means anything,” “I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me,” and “I do not understand anything I see.” These first three lessons are the very beginning of letting go of all meaning of what is perceived, all meaning of the linear perceived world of time and space. It’s like the first three lessons are opening the lid of a can, and then, as we peel that lid off, we are told these thoughts do not mean anything. So today’s lesson is the first lesson from Jesus that is addressing thoughts. The first three lessons’ addressed perception, and now, lesson number four addresses directly the thoughts of a sleeping mind. So, we now make the attempt to stop, and watch, and sink within toward “Be still and know that I am God”, toward the truth of our being. Move away from the temporary, the ephemeral, the fleeting, and inward towards certainty. Focus on this idea for today, “These thoughts do not mean anything.”
Expressing Private Thoughts
We are fearful, even of our thoughts, and we push our fearful judgmental thoughts out of our conscious awareness. But our thoughts don’t have power over us. In the safe environment of an “expression session” we let any feeling, anything that is hidden, come to light. With this practice we learn to allow all of our thoughts into awareness. None of our thoughts are actually true, and we can learn to overlook anything.
This recording took place at A Gift of Happiness Week-Long Retreat (David Hoffmeister and Frances Xu – Morning Session), Wilbetree House, Mudgee, Australia (November 5, 2016)
Our Divine Life Insurance Policy
Accepting the Atonement for ourselves is the ultimate insurance policy. The Atonement is the perfect solution to the belief in separation. It will always bring us to safety. It will always bless us and lead us towards God’s Will for us, which is perfect happiness. Whenever the ego appears to tempt or threaten us, we don’t need to try to change or fix anything in the world. All we can do is change our mind about the world.
The Pressure to Succeed
Be free from any feeling of pressure to succeed. You were taught that success is acquiring something that you didn’t have, but that has value. Yet the more you question beliefs, the more you see that you are what is valuable. And in order to know what you truly are you need to forget what you have been taught. You do not have to make anything of yourself, as you may have been told to do as a kid. You do not have to be productive, or believe that you are going forward in time. You’ve been tricked to think that you are a body moving forward in time towards death.
What Lies beneath My Upset?
What does it mean to be honest with yourself? If you think you are a person bound by time and space, then you haven’t been honest enough. Therefore, first things first: you need to turn towards getting truly honest, and never look back. Be honest with how you feel. You don’t have to try to avoid the emotions. You can have an attitude in your heart of, “Show me, guide me. Expose what I believe in.” What lies beneath your upset?
Transcending a Personal Sense of Self
What am I identified with, right here, right now in this present moment? Could it be that there is an identification that has its own thoughts and its own feelings that isn’t me, yet I believe it is? Can I be that insane? No. It is only that I am believing in something that is that insane.
If God Is Real, There Is No Pain
Here is a great gem from David’s ACIM videos. Find out how to pin-point where you get tripped-up with perceiving upsets as being outside of your own mind. See that there is no pain in reality; the thought of pain originates in the sleeping mind. “A Course in Miracles” quotes Jesus’s teaching: “All things work together for good. There are no exceptions except in the ego’s judgment.” (T 4.V.1.1) No exceptions! That means that what the ego experiences as a pain is working for good.