We had a very fun conversation last week when again I was the guest (podcast #90, June 1, 2023) on Miracle Voices hosted by Matthew McCabe and (this time) with Tamara Morgan, president of the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP). We talked about the “Aha!” insights and realizations that we’ve gleaned after decades of studying and (most importantly) practicing the principles of A Course In Miracles (ACIM).
Here are a few of the “Aha on the journey!” insights we talked about:
- ACIM is like “Olympic-level mind training” – thanks Judy! – aimed at helping all of us slow learners complete the Course’s curriculum of eventual complete forgiveness by remembering to question every value that we hold.
- Sometimes our forgiveness classroom feels like “Spritual Luge”; what great visuals, Matt and Tam! We just need to hang on! … I had Dall-E attempt a few renders of a salmon steak riding the luge, but was underwhelmed. (See image below)
- ACIM asks us to be proactive in bringing all our issues to Holy Spirit’s altar of the mind.
- We can “freeze frame” our grievance thoughts by slowing down and paying attention to how we feel; this allows us to catch ego’s sabotage attempts (in each split second) to get us up-set and ignore the set-up … and choose once again to listen to our Inner Kindness Teacher instead.
- Repetition – practice makes perfect – is essential to make choosing the peaceful innocence of Holy Spirit’s thought system automatic and second nature.
- “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast” – What is the hurry, really, when we’re already assured of complete success?
- “There’s been a lot of tragedy in my life and some of it actually happened.” – Mark Twain … and my proposal for ACIM’s revision: “There seems to have been a lot of tragedy in what seems to be my life but none of it actually happened in Truth.”
- Transistors and earth-movers are helpful metaphors for how Holy Spirit does all the work – the heavy lifting of a hydraulic system or the amplification of electronic circuits – and it works whether we trust it or not; but trust gets us “in sync” with the process.
- Ego is always primed to keep duality going by asking this rhetorical question: “Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?” ― Laurell K. Hamilton, Bullet
- I need to consistently forgive the dreamer of separation to make real progress; although forgiving the dream is helpful, it is just the preliminary step; we can – and must – use the effect in the world to get back to the cause in our mind where real change occurs.
- At the end of each laugh, we release our grip(e) with a sigh; thanks, Tam!
- The release is the second step in the Reveal (or Reframe), Release and Replace process of the “3 R’s” of forgiveness.
- As Ken Wapnick reminds us, we just need to look at our ego without condemnation, not try to shout down our ego.
- I just need to be more observant when I’m picking up the sword metaphorically to avoid the needless suffering of fighting myself; whether or not it seems to be someone else, I can only fight myself, since there isn’t any “other” in my mind. “Do not fight yourself.” (ACIM, T-30.I.1:7)
- It is a joy to become gradually, gently, gracefully more aware of the need to trust Holy Spirit implicitly 24/7/365; the happy habit of turning to our Appointed Friend routinely and bringing any and all disturbing thoughts to the altar of our mind for review and ultimately vaporization.“Learn, then, the happy habit of response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words:
²I am as God created me. ³His Son can suffer nothing. ⁴And I am His Son.”
Here are a few of the ACIM quotes shared in this episode that we’ve found helpful:
“In order to judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivably wide range of things; past, present and to come. ⁴One would have to recognize in advance all the effects of his judgments on everyone and everything involved in them in any way. ⁵And one would have to be certain there is no distortion in his perception, so that his judgment would be wholly fair to everyone on whom it rests now and in the future. ⁶Who is in a position to do this? ⁷Who except in grandiose fantasies would claim this for himself?” (ACIM, M-10.3:3-7)
“To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. ²Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your learning. ³No belief is neutral. ⁴Every one has the power to dictate each decision you make.” (ACIM, T-24.in.2:1-4)
“Now you must learn that only infinite patience produces immediate effects. ²This is the way in which time is exchanged for eternity. ³Infinite patience calls upon infinite love, and by producing results now it renders time unnecessary.” (ACIM, T-5.VI.12:1-3)
“Forgiveness is a selective remembering, based not on your selection.” (ACIM, T-17.III.1:3)
“Time lasted but an instant in your mind, with no effect upon eternity. ⁴And so is all time past, and everything exactly as it was before the way to nothingness was made. ⁵The tiny tick of time in which the first mistake was made, and all of them within that one mistake, held also the Correction for that one, and all of them that came within the first. ⁶And in that tiny instant time was gone, for that was all it ever was. ⁷What God gave answer to is answered and is gone.” (ACIM, T-26.V.3:3-7)
(To listen to the prior Miracle Voices conversation, I was previously the guest of Miracle Voices Podcast with Judith Skutch Whitson and host Matthew McCabe on podcast #20 and wrote about that August 12, 2021 podcast titled “Laughing At The Ego’s Propaganda” here.)
A favorite Bill Murray “It just doesn’t matter” mantra is from this clip in the “Meatballs” movie – and a great reminder to ask if our peace is worth sacrificing for every (truly) little issue that seems to demand that we fight for being “right.”
“Beware of the temptation to perceive yourself unfairly treated.” (ACIM, T-26.X.4:1)
We also talked about the “haggle” scene from Monty Python’s “Life of Brian“; as long as there is a conflict of some sort, our ego alert level stays at “suspicious” but if the cause of the conflict is questioned, the alert gets escalated to “vicious” … It helps to remember this to not get blindsided!
I also mentioned an excellent dream class by David Rivinus, author of Always Dreaming: A Five-Step Technique for Interpreting Our Waking Dream-Like Conflicts.
There are 3 ideas emphasized in his dream class – also intrinsic to ACIM, although worded differently – that I’ve found profoundly helpful, particularly when applied as a whole, paraphrased here:
- Every character in our dreams is a part of ourselves.
- Our daytime experiences are helpful when seen as waking dreams.
- We always have help in our minds to resolve the issues that arise in our dreams.
… and since I was asked the now-standard “comfort food question” here are my 3 responses:
- Chocolate Cake – Dairy & Gluten Free – with Chocolate Frosting (from Nancy’s site)
- Easy, healthy cookies (bananas, oats, applesauce, almond milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and options)
- Veggie Tortilla Soup (from Nancy’s site)
and while we’re talking food, here’s an attempt by Dall-E to generate images of the salmon steak riding the luge that Matt and Tam described in the podcast – not quite what I was picturing!
