The ego has set up many different kinds of self-concepts and roles to keep us trapped, including identification with family relationships and with the body. The only responsibility we have is for our state of mind, we are not responsible for people, animals, debt, etc. If we give ourselves over to the Holy Spirit and following His guidance, the Spirit will handle all of the needs we seem to have in miraculous ways while we unwind our mind back to God. All things will be used in this unwinding, including family relationships. “The whole purpose of life is to wake up from this dream of this world. The ego would have you believe that you exist in this world and you have to attain and achieve certain things in your lifetime. And all of education and learning is based on learning more, but everything in this world is backward and upside down. When you think you advance in this world you are really falling back. And when you think your life is completely falling apart, you are actually opening your heart. So actually, there are always miracles and there are always blessings. The ego invented linear time, and God only knows eternity. So, past and present and future are part of the trick.”
Responsibility
Can You Accept Yourself as Innocent?
Accept yourself! What is your true Identity? When you identify with a body, with a past, with a memory, or untrue thought, it seems impossible to see your complete innocence. But you are not a small limited part of an objective time-space world, you are everywhere. Accept yourself as everywhere. You have to take responsibility for sight before you can use the idea in ACIM daily lesson 61, ‘I am the light of the world.’
What Thoughts Are Running Your Life?
What thoughts and beliefs are running your life? Do you think you need to act a certain way and say the right things in order to be loved? Do you think something bad will happen if you actually follow your heart? These people-pleasing mechanisms can be released when their underlying beliefs and assumptions are held […]
How to Be Free of People-Pleasing
The ego’s identity is very shaky! It is constantly searching for approval from the world. Notice when you are tempted to use people-pleasing in order to feel liked, or feel good about yourself. The only way that you can be free of people-pleasing is to get down to your underlying beliefs and assumptions. These beliefs are underneath the stream of thoughts that happen on the surface of your everyday life. You get a lot of opportunities on a daily basis to let the Spirit help you navigate your mind and the world that is projected from your mind!
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.
You Can’t Leave Heaven
The ego set up this world including the seeming responsibilities. Holy Spirit’s function is to unwind us from guilt of not giving over our peace when we interact with the world. Therefore the main function of teachers of God is to accept the Atonement for themselves. Always keep in mind that you are in Heaven, and you are never not there. The ego would say you have left, but that’s not the truth.
Responsibility for Events in the World
If this is a dream, does that mean I have to take all responsibility for events in the world? Does “I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts” (W-54) mean I am responsible for an earthquake? The answer lies in “My Self is ruler of the universe.” (W-253) What we experience is what we desire. Giving and receiving are the same. The world is projected thought images. The world is not outside of mind. Our ego’s perception is fragmented and shows fragments, but they are all the same. Trust Spirit. With healed perception you see wholeness; you experience peace; you become a miracle worker.
Can Children Do Mind Training?
David shares his experiences of working with young children and teaching them mind training. Young and old are both part of the same construct. Your mind is THE MIND.
Spiritual Community
A spiritual community can be a “celestial speed-up” for Self-realization; an intense mirroring of all your thoughts and behaviors. Projecting or denying your feelings will not release them. We must face our emotions directly; we are 100% responsible for our state of mind. We are not at the mercy of others in this world, nor of the world itself. We cannot do this alone, so we join with our mighty companions to help flush up the negative thoughts and to see they are not real. Let your thoughts and emotions come up, give them full expression, and then ask the Holy Spirit to handle them for you.
Playful Collaborative Mind
We live in community at a Monastery in Utah; it is not like what you may think, however. It is very spontaneous and we follow only two guidelines: No People-Pleasing and No Private Thoughts. In this honesty, we allow our resistances to come up and be released. This stops us from taking things so seriously and we become more creative, playful. The creative impulse born out of this is the “miracle-mind,” and miracles are collaborative.
1 2