To be able to trace everything we say, do, think, feel, and touch back to mind takes a considerable amount of mind training. ACIM daily lessons serve as tools to help the mind reorient itself. It is quite common for years and years of humbling to accompany the mind training, before one can truly see that all perception is an impersonal non-located state of mind. When you start to get the awareness that everything is a thought, it is blatantly simple. This is what Workbook Lesson 23 of “A Course in Miracles” refers to: “I can give up this world by giving up attack thoughts.”
Autonomy
Desire of Your Heart
Why hold on to a little autonomous role, even that of being a spiritual person? Nothing repetitive, no spiritual ritual, will take you to the holy instant. Only the desire of your heart will take you home. You can have a spontaneous Awakening just from following your intuition. What Jesus is saying in A Course in Miracles can be paraphrased as, “You can see this world without any help. But you need help to see another world. You need help to have spiritual vision. You need a lot of help to come back to remember who you are as the Christ. Yet you can see this world without help.”
Thoughts and Actions
What we do follows from what we think. We must become consistent and clear in our thought processes in order for our actions to flow clearly from them. When we think of them as not connected, there is not a sense of harmony. This whole world is the “Pinocchio” syndrome. Human beings believe that they are autonomous people. We have to start to acknowledge the invisible strings and conditions. There is a very direct connection between action and thought. It seems invisible because the ego belief is that we have minds, thoughts, and bodies of our own which all support the belief that we are autonomous individuals.
God Dependency or Autonomy?
What we learn from “A Course in Miracles” is that all beliefs are false. One belief, forgiveness, is the answer that takes us beyond the world. We become God-dependent and everything is given. When we experience difficulty with studying “A Course in Miracles,” it is the ego that experiences the struggle. Jesus teaches that ACIM is easy because it is leading to a natural state of mind. By practicing mind training, in spite of ego resistance, we undo our individuality and autonomy. It is all or nothing.
Under Christ Control
There is a Jesus Christ “central casting” where everything gets handled. You can let go of control and relax. The Holy Spirit will give you what you need. You are safe; you can’t mess it up. Jesus Christ central casting is in charge. You are together with Jesus until the end of time, just looking back at what has already gone by, just imagining that you are making the journey again. You believe that there are still choices open, but this world is all over and done!
Love Does All Things through Us!
When you’re doing the work and fulfilling God’s plan for salvation, there’s never a sense of overload. You can do all things you’re asked to do. “A Course in Miracles” says, “It cannot be that it is hard to do the task that Christ appointed you to do, since it is He Who does it.” (T-25.I.1) That is the easiest thing in the world. You don’t need to do anything. Christ does it through you and for you. There can be no overwhelm in that. Only when you think you are the doer of these works will you feel fatigue. Paying attention to how you feel is crucial. It will show you when you are being self-dependent or Christ-dependent. When you are emotionally dependent on Christ, what more could you need?
Having and Being
The word “having” is used very strangely on this planet, as a synonym for what you believe you possess. To the Spirit however, having is equated with being. What you have is what you are which is the Self as God created you. Therefore, you are in need of nothing. Love does not possess and Love is who we are. It is our identity, not something we possess, and this confusion is the central issue. Possessing involves “thing-ness” and a belief in parts. This belief in parts, and the possession of the parts, blocks the awareness of Love.
Not Knowing and Guidance
In this session, David Hoffmeister shares insight on how to receive guidance. It takes unlearning, not knowing, and openness! True humbleness is needed to see that “I don’t know.” The ego has no contribution to make to the truth. Your preconception of what you know is actually a block to true knowing. Guidance is the Spirit reaching you where you believe you’re at. But you first decide on what to do and then ask. This must be reversed in order to receive guidance. The ego wants you to be a slave to false cause and effect relationships.