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.”
Mantras
The Intellectual Defense
Often people say about the Course, “Ah, at last, a spiritual approach for intellectuals!” For different reasons, one might think that highly intelligent people, Christians, or even atheists may take to it, but the responses are not predictable. Emotions are sometimes overwhelming, too strong to want to feel. ACIM is not meant to cover over these, but to reveal them. Movies and music can help. In this way, life will seem fresh and like an adventure. Stuffing feelings or using the lessons as affirmations or mantras will only stunt your spiritual understanding.
Ho’oponopono and the Helpfulness of Words
David speaks about the healing/forgiveness technique called ho’oponopono. The words themselves are meaningless unless they come from the core, unless you are in alignment. When the mind is not trained however, words/mantras can help stabilize it.