There is only one problem with self-help—the Self that we are doesn’t need any help. As we move towards the Atonement, we move increasingly to the awareness that we have been wrong about everything, and towards the realization that, “my mind holds only what I think with God.” Our purpose is not to create a utopia on earth, but only to open our minds to a state of deep love and gratitude for the One, our Creator. Many of us were taught that it’s not wise to become too happy, but Love invites us to be divinely and fully happy now.
Ambition
From CEO to Mystic
David Hoffmeister has a revealing conversation with two former Chief Executive Officers who left their careers to devote their lives to God. CEOs cannot become enlightened. Holding any role as an identity—mother, father, butcher, baker—keeps you in illusion. You can’t spiritualize a business. You can’t bring the truth to the illusion; you must bring the illusion to the truth.
Salvation and Sacrifice
Salvation is always of the mind and is only accomplished through peace. You will not find salvation in time, and letting go of the world is never a sacrifice. How can it be a sacrifice to see the nothing as nothing and to embrace the everything?
The Script Is Written
A clip, from the May/June 2010 retreat at the Living Miracles Monastery, looking at the metaphor of “the script is written” and freeing the mind from the belief in choice in form in order for the mind to relax into stillness. “Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world.” (T-21.in.1:7)
Zero Ambition
We live in an ambition-based culture. In this culture, it might seem to that having ambition is a good thing, and that having zero ambition is a problem. Is that true? In this video, see that having zero ambition is a great way to live! David Hoffmeister laughs, saying that after ten years of attending university, he realized that he had to start unlearning! This is a point of seeing that you must move in reverse! “A Course in Miracles” is not a learning curriculum, rather an unlearning that is aimed at emptying the mind of the concepts which are integrated into this seeming reality.
Be Gentle with Yourself
Be like an “extra” who just walked on a movie set. Let go of ambition, excitement, and “the doer,” the productive personality-self. Just relax, be “done through,” and adore your brothers. Tune in to and align with Spirit.
This World Is but a Mist of Forgetting
This world is but a mist of forgetting. It is here seemingly covering over our true identity. Therefore, is there anything really worth valuing in the thoughts of this world? The sections in ACIM called Attraction to Pain, Attraction to Guilt, and Attraction of Death are subsections that were placed together. Who would put such morbid titles together in a book unless they were important? There is some strange spell that has been cast over the world, as if we are all asleep. This inquiry will lead us deep into our minds and our beliefs. What keeps us from looking in our minds and instead keeps us searching in the world is our mistaken understanding of what pleasure gives us.