Part of the spiritual journey is to heal the beliefs in sickness, pain and death. These beliefs can feel very ingrained to a mind that’s identified with the body. It can seem frightening to take a closer look at these thoughts when we’d rather avoid them. When faced with thoughts of death it can seem intensely fearful, our instant reaction can be to distract away from the fear, but these can be used as mind expanding experiences. In handing all of our thoughts over around sickness and death we can let the Holy Spirit interpret and heal our perception around these beliefs to free our mind from suffering.
Death
Death Is Impossible – An Actual Experience
David Hoffmeister shares an experience he had while practicing A Course in Miracles workbook lesson 163, “There is no death. The Son of God is free.” He had the experience that there truly is no death and that death is the ego. A woman in front of David had collapsed on the ground and stopped breathing in the grocery store he was in while practicing the ACIM lesson. When David had the experience that there truly is no death, the women seemed to be a reflection of mind and simultaneously began breathing again. What does Jesus mean by, “There is no death. The Son of God is free”? He’s really saying, “There is no ego. The Son of God is free.”
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.
The Lie of “The Wages of Sin Is Death”
In traditional Christianity the cost of man’s eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is death. You did something wrong to God and must pay a ransom. Jesus, the innocent one, was crucified and the ransom was paid. Belief in the ego costs you the awareness of God. The wages of error (missing the truth) is the illusion of suffering.
Being with a Dying Person
Spirit can use these situations in which you are uncertain to bring you through to a sense of true forgiveness. You can face your feelings around death and expand your mind. Pray and ask to be used in the most helpful way. “Miracles enable you to heal the sick and raise the dead because you made sickness and death yourself, and can therefore abolish both.” (T-1.I.24:1)
Experience and State of Mind
Spirituality has to be practical. We don’t really need another theology. We’re here to have an experience. A Course in Miracles says an experience will come to end your doubting. In heaven there are no concepts, but one concept that is still helpful while we are here is forgiveness. There is no thought of forgiveness in heaven; God does not forgive for he has never condemned. There must be condemnation first before forgiveness is necessary. The ego is a wish to be separate from God and forgiveness is a healing wish. Everything is mind. The question always comes down to, “What do you want?”
You’ve Exchanged Reality for Dreaming
When you exchange a self-concept as a substitute for the Christ, that substitute becomes the primary ego-identification. Reality is exchanged for a level-based illusion where amnesia is a normal way of functioning. This brings on a tremendous amount of guilt and a whole cosmos in the attempt to decrease that guilt into tolerable segments. Yet there are no levels in truth. Therefore death is any state in which one is not supremely happy. Even a little irritation is death. The Holy Spirit works with your confusion and translates it in a way that lifts this amnesia.
True Empathy and Releasing the Blocks to Love
David Hoffmeister shares a message about staying with what is true and releasing everything else from consciousness. This ACIM gathering was hosted at the Temple of Peace in Maui, Hawaii. Witnessing the state of Enlightenment is most natural.
A Fast Course in Forgiveness
Divine law is that giving and receiving are the same; what you give is what you get. You are love, simultaneously extending and receiving love. But in this world, there appears to be a time delay between giving and receiving. Nonetheless, it is you who are bringing what you think about into awareness, now. If you think an unhappy thought, you are holding that thought now. This is present cause. You manifest your present thoughts. You can release your mind by releasing your thoughts. You have been completely mistaken about everything. So surrender, forgive your false thoughts, and move toward the true meaning of love.