David shares the practical application of the teachings from Enlightened Mind in this session. When you are healed you are not healed alone. Examples and parables are used to convey the central teaching of forgiveness and other A Course in Miracles ideas.
Love
The Depth of ACIM
David is asked about a practical scenario, and he gives the depth and context of what needs to be uncovered, explored, and released to experience healed perception. The Holy Spirit meets the mind where it believes it is, yet God did not create the cosmos of time-space, and ultimately Love must look upon Love to to be itself.
An Uncompromising Path to God (Part 1)
David Hoffmeister has been teaching the principals found in ACIM for many years. He has been uncompromising in his practice of what the Course teaches. Because of his uncompromising approach, he is now a living demonstration of the Awakened Mind. As “A Course in Miracles” states: “You will learn this Course completely or not at all.” This series of videos recorded at the Kalani retreat center in Hawaii helps one to understand some of the steps required to awaken to the clear and beautiful state that the Course describes as the Christ Mind. Enjoy!
The Belief in Separation
The belief in separation is actually the belief in impossibility. The ego created the world. God did not create the world. You can’t connect a God of Love to a distorted perceptual world where there seem to be so many problems. We have a belief in the concept of duality. This is an error. This very error has to be exposed. We have to look at this error together and expose its falsity. This whole world was made as a giant hiding place. Duality is in the mind, not in the world. When the mind decided to take the idea seriously (forgot to laugh) the whole cosmos was created as a giant fig leaf to cover up the belief in shame and guilt. You have to look within and see and expose the shame for the nothingness it is instead of trying to project it into time and space. The problem is not time and space, it is in your mind that made up the belief. We need to release the error and realize that it has no consequence. The instant the error seemed to arise the Answer was given.
Revelation and Spiritual Practice
The direct experience of God, or revelation, is rare within the world of time and space; even Mother Teresa revealed she only experienced 7 or 8 months of consistent, direct experience with God. “A Course in Miracles” states that, “If God were reached directly in sustained awareness, the body would not be long maintained.” (M-26.3:8) You can however attain a state of consistent happiness and peace through practicing to the fullest. Parables of Helen Schucman, Bill Thetford, and David Hoffmeister’s life show that it only takes 1% principle, but 99% practice! Let your pathway to Awakening find you and follow it all the way through!
From Fear to Love
In this “A Course in Miracles” Toowoomba, Australia gathering, David and his friend Rob discuss the journey from a point of fear to love. Overcome the grips of fear and forgiving, and open to the experience of God’s Love. When we discover what it takes to let go of the ego, there is an intense amount of fear. We are completely unaware of this fact in our normal lives because we have endless places to project it onto. Yet just having the willingness to go through the fear and open up to love is enough. We don’t need to be concerned with conquering the ego because we will be given all we need to walk through our fear. We’re even given brothers to walk through the fear with.
Following the Holy Spirit and Relationships
David explains how listening to and following the Holy Spirit brings peace and joy, as old relationships seem to be let go and new relationships that serve the Holy Spirit’s purpose come into awareness. Jesus says in A Course in Miracles that the only right use of judgment is asking yourself, “How do I feel?” If you start to get prompted to call certain people, and after the call you feel a certain vitality, then it shows the prompt came from the Holy Spirit. You listened, followed, and got the experience. If you find yourself being depressed, feeling fatigued or dispirited, and saying, “Wow, I’m glad I got that over with.” Then the prompts are coming in from guilt. All these relationships have guilt in them. Now the Holy Spirit is saying, the way out of the guilt is giving all the relationships to the Holy Spirit.
What Is Ego: Ego Definition
The ego is the denial of love, a fear of real intimacy. Everyone on earth believes they are separate from everyone else. So, along with its belief system, the ego invented romantic love to take the place of divine Love. This is simply a substitute, much like a light bulb gives off light at a very minute level. Everything in this world is a cover, like a shield, against knowing our true light, which we share with everyone and everything.
Know Thyself
To know thyself you have to let all scraps of duality (darkness) come up into awareness, so that they can be given over to the light in the mind. The temptation on the spiritual journey is to try to bring the light to the darkness, which is not possible.