In this video recording, CA Brooks and Bruce Rawles talk about how our 24/7 forgiveness classroom consistently provides the means for consistent peace of mind, but not necessarily the semblance of what we might consider a peaceful external world. Slowly but surely we will all arrive at the realization that the world doesn’t make us happy nor does it have the capacity to do this. However, our decision-making mind does have both the capacity and the destiny of choosing the innocent infinitely-shared Identity that does restore happiness to our Mind.
We touched on The Tyranny of Needs (a recent addition to the FACIM store) which points to the understanding that:
“The secret of true prayer is to forget the things you think you need. (ACIM, S-1.I.4:1) (italics and boldface type added for emphasis)
We started off the conversations with two Course quotes cited in Kenneth Wapnick’s book: The Healing Power of Kindness, Vol. 2: Forgiving Our Limitations:
“Do not despair, then, because of limitations. ²It is your function to escape from them, but not to be without them. ³If you would be heard by those who suffer, you must speak their language. ⁴If you would be a savior, you must understand what needs to be escaped. ⁵Salvation is not theoretical. ⁶Behold the problem, ask for the answer, and then accept it when it comes. ⁷Nor will its coming be long delayed. ⁸All the help you can accept will be provided, and not one need you have will not be met. ⁹Let us not, then, be too concerned with goals for which you are not ready. ¹⁰God takes you where you are and welcomes you. ¹¹What more could you desire, when this is all you need?” (ACIM, M-26.4:1-11)
“Trust not your good intentions. ²They are not enough. ³But trust implicitly your willingness, whatever else may enter. ⁴Concentrate only on this, and be not disturbed that shadows surround it. ⁵That is why you came. ⁶If you could come without them you would not need the holy instant. ⁷Come to it not in arrogance, assuming that you must achieve the state its coming brings with it. ⁸The miracle of the holy instant lies in your willingness to let it be what it is. ⁹And in your willingness for this lies also your acceptance of yourself as you were meant to be.” (ACIM, T-18.IV.2:1-9)
Other references include:
- the notion that we’re not the most intelligent species (postulated in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams)
- Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (and related coverage of that topic by Ken Wapnick)
- Witness tampering by our egos 24/7/365; misinterpreting everything to keep guilt alive and minds in bondage to that unwarranted guilt for an impossible crime
- Learning to not deny our physical limitations (and using appropriate “magic” to address the symptoms) but watch how tempted we are to get upset… and forgive ourselves
- The Flammarion woodcut (used in a montage comprising the header of my personal blog)
- Zero times anything = zero.
- No orders of illusions, no orders of outrageous appearances … in Truth
- Duty cycle (waveform) metaphor of our ambivalence between insanity and sanity; moving steadily from conscious incompetence to conscious competence.
- We metaphorically limit ourselves to a water drop identity while our Inner Kindness Teacher reminds us that our shared identity is oceanic!
- “We don’t need to judge ourselves or anyone else harshly.” – CA Brooks
- The importance of sincerely and honestly owning our thoughts, feelings, and emotions as our projections (without condemnation) in order to not identify with the insanity of our silly seemingly separate selves.
- We can “turn off” ego’s incriminating inner pundit drivel with one click of our decision-making mind.
- The symbolism of “walking off the screen” in the Purple Rose of Cairo.
- Kobayashi Maru (exercise in a Star Trek movie designed to test the character of Starfleet Academy cadets in a no-win scenario; analogous to our ego’s lose-lose operating system; Holy Spirit’s win-win option (everyone gets the innocence returned by my decision) is like Captain Kirk reprogramming the computer (or really replacing the entire operating system of sin-guilt-fear with sinlessness)
- No need to rearrange the holodeck chairs on a Titanic dream!
- ego doesn’t play fair (it only knows unfairness) but HS wakens us from that dream of unfairness
- ego is 100% “evil” but 100% nothing!
There must be an easier way! Perhaps we’re already on that accelerated path to awakening when we trust our Inner Kindness Teacher.
“You live by symbols. ²You have made up names for everything you see. ³Each one becomes a separate entity, identified by its own name. ⁴By this you carve it out of unity.” (ACIM, W-184.1:1-4)
(This recording was made on July 5, 2022.)
CA hosts internet radio programs about ACIM (archives), astrology, and other topics on 12Radio.
CA Brooks