Is storytelling good or bad? The ego made up all the stories, and will use storytelling to justify emotions and to reinforce the personality identity. Yet storytelling can also be used by the Spirit to heal and bless. The real question to ask is, “What is the point, the purpose, of the story?” Just as Jesus only told stories that had a clear point and purpose to them, so too should we be equally mindful as to why we are telling a story.
Symbols
The Chakra System and ACIM
The chakra system is not mentioned in “A Course in Miracles,” for it is merely another set of symbols that can be used by the Holy Spirit or by the ego, depending on one’s purpose. Used by the Spirit, the chakra system could be a helpful stepping stone in one’s journey towards getting in touch with one’s mind. Used by the ego, it can be a delay maneuver that keeps the mind believing there is causation in form.
ACIM and Raising Children
Every symbol and image that you see with the body’s eyes is a reflection. When you look at a child, you can see the child as a mirror of your mind. Any grievances and limits you see in the child are within your own mind. If you are practicing ACIM and raising children, you see what is taking place in your thoughts. As children go through grade school and into high school, you can look at your own beliefs about authority, normalcy, education and success.
Why Is Spirituality of Value in My Life?
What do I value in my life? I want a measurement for how to tell if something has value for me on this spiritual journey. If it doesn’t have value, why would I want it? “A Course in Miracles” gives you the measurement, beautifully and clearly spelled out: “If you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you choose is valueless.” (ACIM, W-133.6.) Through “A Course in Miracles” daily lessons, the awakening mind is trained to set aside the ego’s goals, and choose instead with Spirit. The confused mind is trained to think with the Holy Spirit. This is a change in direction towards peace and away from fear.
Duality Is Not Real
Duality is not real. Truth is beyond this world and nothing has ever touched it. It cannot be anything it is not, no matter how hard we try to put our meaning onto it. It remains perfection, free from our prying hands. God is not going to reach a point of giving into the ego, and say, “Alright already! My gosh, you’ve protested enough already for millennia. Have your fantasy world. Have your illusions. We’ll coexist.” Love is all there is, light is all there is. Perfect love casts out fear, so perfect light casts out darkness. It is not a dualistic compilation.
How Can I Know the Christ Mind?
What would it be like to live in a state of grace forever? Someone compliments you, then the next moment curses you, then leaves your life forever. What if none of this had any effect on you? You simply stayed happy no matter what the passing objects did or didn’t do. The Christ Mind does not get offended. It is always content, always peaceful, always still.
Are You Holding on to the Belief in Sacrifice?
Are you holding on to the belief in sacrifice? The ego-mind believes that sacrifice is possible. When you practice having the awareness that everything is mind, this belief in sacrifice comes up into question. How could sacrifice be real, if everything is mind? This questioning is an opportunity for a resurrection in the mind! Holding on to a belief is what gives seeming life to an identity that is separate from the Love of God. Therefore your true identity seems covered over by this belief, much like a cloud covers the sun.
Desire of Your Heart
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.”
Undoing Linear Time (Full Length)
“A Course in Miracles” (ACIM) teaches that time is simultaneous. To show the concept of linear time, David Hoffmeister uses a spaghetti string, a noodle. He says that we are like a fish out of water. Or, “a spirit out of spirit—on a noodle!” A spirit who has forgotten spirit and is on a noodle now; that’s pretty difficult. So, if you have had struggles and difficulties in your life, it’s not even surprising, because of the mind’s belief in time. In ACIM, Jesus says that the world was made as an attack upon God. Why would God send you to a world that was made as an attack upon God? That would be mean! Some people may say, “I didn’t ask to be here.” The answer to that is that everyone who believes they are in time asked to be here.
Undoing Linear Time (Short Clip)
“A Course in Miracles” (ACIM) teaches that time is simultaneous. To show the concept of linear time, David Hoffmeister uses a spaghetti string, a noodle. He says that we are like a fish out of water. Or, “a spirit out of spirit—on a noodle!” A spirit who has forgotten spirit and is on a noodle now; that’s pretty difficult. So, if you have had struggles and difficulties in your life, it’s not even surprising, because of the mind’s belief in time. In ACIM, Jesus says that the world was made as an attack upon God. Why would God send you to a world that was made as an attack upon God? That would be mean! Some people may say, “I didn’t ask to be here.” The answer to that is that everyone who believes they are in time asked to be here.