People are thoughts in the mind, they are not really people. People do not have their own private minds and private thoughts. And they cannot seem to exist outside of the One Mind. A Course in Miracles states that at no single instant does the body exist at all, it is always remembered or anticipated. It is the fiction of identity as a person that has to be forgiven, and that’s it. You can see as many thoughts as you want. You can watch those thoughts come by, come and go in your awareness. The ones that seem to be dead, the ones that seem to be living..there’s no difference. It’s artificial, birth and death. And responsibility, there’s only one that ACIM teaches us, and that’s to accept the Atonement.
Past–Future Thoughts
I Gave It the Meaning It Had for Me
Every situation that we experience in the world is an opportunity to let go of the idea that we know what things mean. When we recognize that we have given everything we see the meaning it has for us, we can choose differently. Becoming still and receptive to the Holy Spirit’s way of seeing, rather than interpretations based on the belief in past learning, opens us to guidance in a very practical way.
How to Know What to Do Next
When you are willing, you can stop being distracted by the ego’s trick of linear time and allow Spirit to show you, very specifically, what to do next. ACIM daily lessons direct the mind out of the maze of linear time. Lesson 32 says, “I have invented the world I see.” To be human is to make images, to imagine hypothetical possibilities for the future. There is a lot of fear in this process. The ego mind keeps generating a future, which is just a construct, to keep the guilt going. Concern for the future is a defense against the present moment.
What Am I Going to Do with My Future
Have you been tricked into believing that the future is different from the past? Let your ideas about time be retranslated! The whole of A Course in Miracles brings home one central teaching. Much like a kaleidoscope or a fractal, this teaching might be said with thousands of different words, and in a thousand different ways, but the core remains the same.
Let Go of the Past
Give yourself over to Spirit and let go of reenactments of the past and of manifesting. The past is gone. The future but imagined.
The World of Beliefs
The world is the domain of beliefs. Everyone has a belief system. Even unbelief is a belief. You have to believe something to perceive something. All beliefs are false. In Heaven there is no perception and no beliefs. A purified belief system, where every trace of the past is taken away, is what we are going for. And we are left with a blessing, which Jesus calls the happy dream.
Addressing “Separation Anxiety” in NYC
David Hoffmeister fields questions from Christine and Evelyn about separation anxiety in this 2004, New York City gathering.
What Are Private Thoughts?
David Hoffmeister shares this teaching about how to free the mind from the thoughts that produce guilt. A participant question and example brings forth clarity on the topic. This is the forgiveness Jesus calls for, and which brings about healing and happiness.
Reflections of Love
David Hoffmeister shares how important it is to let the dark feelings arise in awareness so they can be released. What follows from mind training is the healing experience of inner peace and reflections of love in perception. David shares some of his miracles parables about the man behind the counter at McDonald’s and the holy encounter at the Midas Muffler shop.
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)