In this School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) video conversation, we read and explore the section “Healing and Faith” (ACIM, T-19.I) in Chapter 19, entitled “The Attainment of Peace,” and compare faith and trust. Here are the first three paragraphs from this section:
“We said before that when a situation has been dedicated wholly to truth, peace is inevitable. Its attainment is the criterion by which the wholeness of the dedication can be safely assumed. Yet we also said that peace without faith will never be attained, for what is dedicated to truth as its only goal is brought to truth by faith. This faith encompasses everyone involved, for only thus the situation is perceived as meaningful and as a whole. And everyone must be involved in it, or else your faith is limited and your dedication incomplete.
Every situation, properly perceived, becomes an opportunity to heal the Son of God. And he is healed because you offered faith to him, giving him to the Holy Spirit and releasing him from every demand your ego would make of him. Thus do you see him free, and in this vision does the Holy Spirit share. And since He shares it He has given it, and so He heals through you. It is this joining Him in a united purpose that makes this purpose real, because you make it whole. And this is healing. The body is healed because you came without it, and joined the Mind in which all healing rests.
The body cannot heal, because it cannot make itself sick. It needs no healing. Its health or sickness depends entirely on how the mind perceives it, and the purpose that the mind would use it for. It is obvious that a segment of the mind can see itself as separated from the Universal Purpose. When this occurs the body becomes its weapon, used against this Purpose, to demonstrate the “fact” that separation has occurred. The body thus becomes the instrument of illusion, acting accordingly; seeing what is not there, hearing what truth has never said and behaving insanely, being imprisoned by insanity.”
Also quoted in this session:
“The miracle is useless if you learn but that the body can be healed, for this is not the lesson it was sent to teach.The lesson is the mind was sick that thought the body could be sick; projecting out its guilt caused nothing, and had no effects.” (ACIM, T-28.II.11:6-7)
As Ken Wapnick says, not only is the emperor naked, but there’s no emperor! In other words, we think we placed our faith and trust in the unstable world (the emperor’s clothes), but worse yet, we placed our faith and trust in the thought system (the mad, tyrannical emperor) that feels compelled to make up that entire world to escape from the unfounded, unconscious guilt intrinsic to the belief in the impossible crime of separation. The good news is that the emperor, his clothes, and his entire empire are non-existent; we merely need to withdraw our faith in that empire by questioning every value that we hold!
A few thoughts on Faith …
At any given moment, we have either 100% faith in ego (illusion, victimhood) or 100% faith in Holy Spirit (reality, release from guilt); faith in ego is really faithlessness or faith in nothing because ego is completely fabricated nonsense. When we put our faith in illusion, we will be blindsided by ego’s sabotage of peace, but that becomes our opportunity to realize that peace need not be contingent on what seems to be happening – or not happening – in our dream of space-time existence.
“The way to correct distortions is to withdraw your faith in them and invest it only in what is true.” (ACIM, T-3.II.6:1)
There are 327 instances of “faith” (or variations of that word) in ACIM.
A few thoughts on Trust …
Trusting Holy Spirit reminds us that God’s Love is real and will not abandon us. Trust provides a feeling of support that arises from even momentary recognition of the Truth in our mind motivates us to deepen our trust in what never changes. The ego cannot trust anyone, anything, or itself because it is based on lies. Deep down, ego feels that it deserves retaliation for the self it thinks it stole from God. Since the ego can’t forgive itself (for a crime that it could only commit in dreams) it will ALWAYS feel that it deserves punishment and therefore will never be able to trust. Trusting Holy Spirit is the opposite of fearful thrashing with ego in a mad, fugitive attempt to escape from made-up guilt.
ACIM is not a “weekend workshop” but rather a process that requires lifelong study and practice to develop the complete and unambiguous trust that leads to unassailable peace.
The motto of ego’s currency is “In dust we trust.”
“The children of God are entitled to the perfect comfort that comes from perfect trust. Until they achieve this, they waste themselves and their true creative powers on useless attempts to make themselves more comfortable by inappropriate means. But the real means are already provided, and do not involve any effort at all on their part.” (ACIM, T-2.III.5:1-3)
“You have very little trust in me [Holy Spirit or Jesus] as yet, but it will increase as you turn more and more often to me instead of to your ego for guidance. The results will convince you increasingly that this choice is the only sane one you can make. No one who learns from experience that one choice brings peace and joy while another brings chaos and disaster needs additional convincing.” (ACIM, T-4.VI.3:1-3)
“The Holy Spirit is perfectly trustworthy, as you are. God Himself trusts you, and therefore your trustworthiness is beyond question.” (ACIM, T-7.X.6:1-2)
“Trust not your good intentions. They are not enough. But trust implicitly your willingness, whatever else may enter. Concentrate only on this, and be not disturbed that shadows surround it. That is why you came. If you could come without them you would not need the holy instant.” (ACIM, T-18.IV.2:1-6)
“If you are trusting in your own strength, you have every reason to be apprehensive, anxious and fearful.” (ACIM, W-47.1:1)
There are 136 instances of “trust” (or variations of that word) in ACIM.
(This conversation was facilitated by Bruce Rawles as part of the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise. This YouTube video recording was made on Sunday, March 30, 2025.)
As a departure from my usual commentary about the video, here is an auto-generated transcript (mostly unedited) of the 88 minute conversation; apologies in advance for any and all typos and errors, as well as grammatical and formatting issues, etc. due to this AI shortcoming:
Good morning everyone this is School For A Course In Miracles. this is Bruce Rawles and thanks as always to Tim Wise and Lyn Coronafor this wonderful venue this the schools platform is such
a great way to share what we found helpful with the course and and reinforce it in ourselves because we
know that to give is to receive and whatever we share with each other we we say oh yeah that’s right I could do
this more often so that’s kind of how I look at it anyway um so today’s topic is chapter 19
Section one I guess I should grab my book and get the page number in case anybody wants to know that let’s see
anybody have it already handy section one of chapter 19
there it is yep healing and Faith thank you Marin
FM would you like to read the first paragraph no thank you br I’m still
eating oh okay I’m just fining my dinner all good in in a little while how
about Audrey you got your you are next on my screen anyway so I would love to thank you
okay before you do I was just gonna say a few the introductory thoughts I didn’t write any of this down but but it just
occurred to me that you know looking at the the sections in chapter 19 which is such a heavy-hitting chapter and so much
great stuff in it Ken wapnick wrote an entire book called the journey home
about just section four of chapter 19 although he you know in full disclosure
pulled in a whole bunch of stuff from elsewhere in the course but it’s it’s an outstanding book but this these first
three sections healing and Faith sin versus error and the unreality of sin really set the stage for you know Ling
those obstacles to peace because we have to have faith in something that’s real
and what’s real of course is that part of our mind that we call Holy Spirit that that
says nothing happened not to worry you need you need
to look at it but nothing happened right and and if we can do that then we we’re putting our faith where really belongs
instead of the Blind Faith of the ego which is trust trusting in some horizontal dream scenario to to make us
happy or or to avoid the ones that we think won’t make us happy and um and then the next the next
one after this is sin versus error which to me was like a huge aha when I remember first reading it it was like
well if sin and error are different and our reality is that we are
just making a correctable mistake which is what air represents then that changes
everything I mean we we really could see our real identity as infinitely worthy and see
everyone is having that same infinitely worthy identity despite what ego’s incessant
propaganda machine would would dictate so we just have to question that
question every little shred of ego’s fraudulent
evidence that says that it’s a sin and and holy spirit says Nope
correctable error correctable error correctable error so but in order to do that we need to be able to trust and I
think faith and trust go hand in hand and so healing and faith is a is a great you know primary foundation for that and
and then we need to see the unreality sin after the sin versary and then they get the obstacles to peace so that’s all youknow the coming attractions in chapter 19 but Meanwhile we’re right here at ground ground level you know we’ve we’vecleared the Weeds now we’re ready to lay the foundation which is healing and Faith so Audrey if you wouldthank you Bruce I’m actually going to be leading next week and it is this the second part um it is very
deep rich stuff it’s it’s you know it’s wonderful and I don’t know
what I would have thought when I first looked at it but today I’m I’m just grateful okay so
healing and Faith number one we said before that when a situation has been
dedicated wholly to truth peace is inevitable its attainment is the
Criterion by which the wholeness of the dedication can be safely assumed yet we
also said that peace without faith will never be attained for what is dedicated
to truth as its only goal is brought to Truth by faith this Faith encompasses
everyone involved for only thus the situation is perceived as meaningful and as a whole and everyone must be involved
in it or else your faith is limited and your dedication incomplete which reminds me of my new
favorite quote from E Hari which is about surrender which is what this is
talking about so surrender is whole wholehearted Faith it’s like I don’t
know I give up there’s this conversation about the difference between surrender
and submission submission is well I’m going to trust you now holy spirit but I’m still I’m holding back some concerns
but surrender is take it this is the quote from ER
Hari if I may sure um it says don’t look for peace don’t look for any other state
than the one you are in now otherwise you will set up inner conflict and unconscious resistance forgive yourself
for not being at peace and this is the important line the moment you completely
accept your non peace your nonp peace becomes transmuted into peace anything you accept fully will get
you there this is the miracle of surrender and I feel like that’s what we’re talking about
here yeah thank you yes yeah and and
accepting fully and looking fully with Holy Spirit I think are kind of equivalent and and seeing that you know
what we made has not made us happy um you know that and that it’s our own free
will that is involved in every moment is to for whether or not we’re at peace
that that aha thought it seems like that’s what that’s
what leads to it doesn’t it I mean just like oh wait wait a minute secret of Salvation I’m doing this to myself oh
yeah I think I read that somewhere exactly and forgiving ourselves for CH
make choosing you know bizarrely to to want to not be at peace is that the
the heart of it isn’t it yeah analena um first I love what Audrey
passed on around eart to because I do think radically forgiving and radically accepting our discomfort has a
kind of alchemical effect and shift around the experience of
discomfort but I was thinking about faith as Audrey was reading and um as
human beings we experience ourselves on in this time space continuum and time
right so where does faith come in for me in this process is there’s a kind of
stop Gap that you know God or Jesus wouldn’t recognize but as human beings
we do like we do this process and sometimes there’s a kind of stop Gap like an inter term time where um the
difficulty hasn’t yet shifted and for me that’s the moment my faith steps in like
if I just hang in there with these processes with this degree of faith that by and by you know it’s going to shift
it’ll heal in its own time and that’s out of my hands and that’s my faith and my faith in the holy spirit that the I
did my bit the holy spirit will take care of the rest and if I’m discomforted that much longer that’s just the stop
Gap but Jesus doesn’t perceive that because he’s off the
timeline yep yep yeah that we’re we’re trying to look through the clouds of
guilt on our own and and and typically it’s it’s to see a
result within the dream that we think is going to be better instead of you know we don’t we don’t really know what
waking up from the dream is is like exactly even though we get little glimpses
and it seems like you know we just keep trying trying to well speaking for
myself you know when I try to make the dream work on on the the level of the
dream um and have have what I call Faith in in thinking that the dream is going
to work out somehow well no but what what we really want not
only will work out but it’s it’s already a done deal and we’re just dreaming that it hasn’t
happened yeah I often make the mistake of trying to find evidence in the world or find evidence in my
experience and you know sometimes that up and sometimes it’s isn’t and then then then that’s faith for me yeah yeah
and and the stop Gap I think can can sometimes take the form of when we
um begin to question um you know the things that we think we want as the the
song of prayer suggests you know the true prayers is forgetting the things we think we
need and that it seems like the stop Gap um you know the intermediate correct
corrective steps can take the form of realizing I can be peaceful if I just
lighten up on and loosen my White Knuckle grip on trying to fix the dream
and steer it to where I want it to go kind of thing yeah thanks uh
Chris so um my my somewhat silly
question for the day is um the difference between faith and trust and
and to me I don’t think there is any but unless Faith somehow goes deeper
broader than trust maybe you have trust in a specific thing but you over have
overall faith in in our own salvation or our own believing in our
atonement principle but Bruce do you or anybody else like in faith in the
glossery it says the faith is the expression of we choose to place our trust we are free to have faith or I
would say trust in the ego or the holy spirit in the illusion of sin and others
or in the truth of their Holiness as sons of God so there’s a little bit of
my answer there that faith and truth faith in truth of the Holiness of the
sons of God um sometimes I feel like I’m just nitpicking to delay my own uh
Arrested Development but um maybe not I don’t know Audrey always
helps me out on these things I think we’re all under self self- housee arrest here maybe I Chris you are you are my
spirit animal I absolutely yeah also keep
myself you know in knots so I don’t have to awaken um time but let me tell you
what AI says about it because he knows everything Faith involves a belief in something
without proof while trust is a confidence in someone or something based on experience or evidence and we could
fight that but that’s my experience with me trust usually invol involves some
prior understanding or evidence whereas
faith I you know it’s blind in the best possible
way thank you come on people argue no no no like I like both of what what you said I like what Chris read from the
glossery and I like what you shared Audrey we don’t argue we just expand I think but it it does seem that that you
know in the way that you you shared it that that the idea of faith is really
um which which of the two thought systems do I want to believe in right but when when we start
believing in holy spirit’s correction we realize oh actually that
does give us evidence in terms of how we feel and and the peace that is a result
of that even if it’s just sporadic and intermittent and then that becomes the
the experiential um component that we can then start trusting right how’s that
that sound good okay Susie all my dogs want to answer this
question so biblically speaking hope faith is the evidence of things hoped
for faith is the faith
is believing in something that you can’t
see thanks yeah and I think I think our you the course I think suggests that our
egos are all blind you know and that what we call
light the electromagnetic stuff has nothing to do with the the light of of
the atonement which is that nothing happened in in eternity and in truth um
so yeah so the blind the Blind Faith has obviously got to be an ego thing right
so Le that’s I’m I’m looking at it
Leezah yeah I just want to um draw attention to the first part of what he
says in the glossery the expression of where we choose to place our trust I I
don’t know I just felt like that was important to stress that because y yeah
thank you the expression yeah well as usual the farther we read the more
we get help right so maybe let’s see since you’re next on my my screen
Chris would you we’re so nice here but Bruce was that a way of telling Lisa to shut up no I like what she said
completely did were you were You’ finished Leezah I did did I okay oh good
good good okay I read a Rabel rer this morning had a good breakfast
okay would would you like to read paragraph two
Chris oh yeah that’ll shut me up thank you paragraph two every
situation properly perceived becomes an opportunity to heal the Son of
God and he is healed because because you offered Faith to him giving him to the
Holy Spirit and releasing him from every demand your ego would make of
him thus do you see him free and in this Vision does the Holy Spirit
share and since shares it he has given it and since he shares it he has given
it and so he heals through you it is this joining him in a United
purpose that makes this purpose real because you make it whole and this is
healing the body is healed because you came without
it and join the mind in which all healing rests
wow at first I said okay that’s pretty clear as soon as I start
seeing my brothers as Spirit or as Jesus or Holy Spirit sees everybody
including me that is um what faith is Faith in that that we are all sons of
God and then it seemed like he at least that’s how I was reading that and then
he threw a little healing in here and since is yes it’s really so it’s it’s again
it’s not me healing I kind of kidding to begin with with laying the hands on my own head there but the Holy Spirit
through my right mind does the healing this is
healing I like the last line too the body it threw me a little bit the body
is healed because you came without it we’re not bodies but we came here and
we’re still not bodies what are you talking about I’m right here man no
not quite the body is healed because you came I suppose to Earth without it or be
you know and joined the mind in which all healing rests so that’s where that’s where we need a little faith maybe a
little willingness or then maybe that’s really what he’s saying is faith in the
b in the ability going in the mind in which all healing rests in our right mind go to
that back to the decision maker and choose the right mind and that’s where the healing
rests thank you thank you yeah that that last line caught my attention too and I
was thinking about you know the phrase you know leave your body at the door
or leave your identification with it anyway obviously it’s pretty pretty difficult to in our everyday practice to
to to you do that completely but we can be be begin to think about how we can
look past the form to the content and the content is always you know we’re all
innocent in eternity and we all you know like can’t wnx say over and over again
we all have those three parts to our mind the decision maker which is always choosing between the other two parts of
ego and Holy Spirit and that’s what makes us all the same and in the same
boat and equally and infinitely worthy of compassion and and TR trust and Hope and
Faith and because nothing happened and but we just we just don’t
see that yet you know because we’re still looking with our blind eyes right so to
speak yeah thus do you see him free and in this Vision does the Holy Spirit
share line three so and then before that you know releasing him from every demand
your ego would make of him to me that’s that’s huge I mean every special relationship demands that you know our
EG demand that things be a certain way with all the others in our lives that whether they’re you know people that we
live with or we see on the screens or we just think about
um a lot of Demands if we are watching our minds and we see how how pervasive that
can be yeah anyone else on that paragraph and
Elena I would just say on this paragraph that I find in the moment it gave me a
lot of comfort and relief you know sentences like thus do you see him free
and in this Vision does the Holy Spirit share and um so I’m appreciating it in
the moment because you know recently I learned of a person who used to be
in my life and you know they’re declination you know like what they’re going through and it’s not a person with
whom I choose to associate any longer but it gives me Comfort and it brings on
my faith that by and by in all people’s lives you know they’re going to find their healing too and maybe not even in
the context of this lifetime but um it just gives me confidence that they too
are going to be released the way this paragraph suggests and um and all I can do in
Fellowship within my mind to see that person perfect as he was created and
just told that vision for him and leave it up the Holy Spirit right and and doesn’t it also seem
frequently that in order to see the Perfection we have to be willing to look
at how much we want to project the our ego’s
imperfection onto everyone and everything and and not condemn ourselves
when we catch ourselves doing that yeah thanks
Marissa yeah I I love this paragraph as well and it really tells me that it’s
certainly good for me today because I was thinking about a situation with my son and trying to control it in my
head and I I think faith and trust is the opposite of control
it’s the opposite of conflict um it’s like the giving up temporarily of
conflict and trusting that there’s something else there that we can’t
see but that little by little we start to experience as we let go of control so
thank you thank you and it may not be reflected in the on the level of form
with suddenly saying oh I hands off I’m not going to touch anything around the house or at work or or you know or what
wherever whatever but it’s I think it’s the just watching how ego wants to micromanage and and you know obsessively
compulsively make sure everything in its dream is just so and all the things that it doesn’t want are just just
gone in various ways you know and yeah exactly
thanks Jim would you like to read paragraph three
your
audio paragraph three the body cannot heal because it
because it cannot make itself sick it needs nothing
it needs no healing its health or sickness depends entirely on how the
mind perceives it and the purpose that the mind would use it for it is obvious that a segment of the
mind can see itself as separated from the universal
purpose when this occurs the body becomes its weapon used against this
purpose to demonstrate the fact quotes that separation has
occurred the body thus becomes an instrument of Illusion acting
accordingly seeing what is not there hearing what truth has never said and
behaving insanely being imprisoned by its
Insanity that’s a great description of Life as we know it yeah yeah for the most part with with
a few little glimmers of of Sanity interspersed hyeah I think the course
is trying to saying tell us those little glimmers that that you know eventually we could reverse that and have that be
the predominant thing instead of the the the occasional luminous blips that could
be the occasional lapses Into Darkness that could be fully recovered from eventually
yeah exactly the instrument of Illusion yeah that and and if if the body is neutral
as the course tells us and everything in the world is neutral then how could it be anything but um you
know a dream scenario that’s that’s
independent um on its own but but depends completely on which thought
system we we use to interpret it with right
classroom or prison the body needs no healing yeah
how How Could An Illusion need healing How could a dream need need
healing depends entirely on how the mind perceives it and the purpose the mind would use it
for for grievances or for forgiveness straightforward anyone else
on that paragraph there’s a there’s a phrase
I’ve I’ve heard more and more in the media the last few years
weaponizing you know so in sentence five when this occurs the body becomes it
weaponized basically used against this Purpose with which is the universal purpose of course
is to wake up right to demonstrate the quote fact un quote that separation has
occurred well if if I’m listening to ego’s propaganda I’m basically using my
my mind in a split fashion to weaponize the body which is
intrinsically neutral to reinforce an insane idea that the separation
happened but but the holy spirit says Ah hey I got this swords into the
plowshares thing figured out just hand it over to me I’ll I’ll convert it to a
to a classroom for for peace instead of a a prison of of
warfare okay Leezah you’re next on my screen would you like to read paragraph
four paragraph four thank you do not Overlook our earlier
statement that faithlessness leads straight to Illusions for faithlessness
is the perception of a brother as a body and the body cannot be used for purposes
of Union if then you see your brother as a body you have established a condition in
which uniting with him becomes impossible your faithlessness to him has
separated you from him and kept you both apart from being healed your
faithlessness has thus opposed the holy spirit’s purpose and brought Illusions
centered on the body to stand between you and the body will seem to be sick
for you have made of it a quote unquote enemy me of healing and the opposite of
Truth so if he describes in the glossery
faithless faith as the expression of where we choose to place our trust we
are free to have the faith in the ego or the Holy Spirit but if we put it in the body then we’re putting it in like
nothing so I guess that is faithlessness right so yeah pretty much yeah yeah yeah
exactly yeah so when we when we put our faith in something like that that is in
essence faithlessness so and and and just noticing how often we do that and
forgiving ourselves when we do that just say wow how silly was I to appendage my
peace of mind on what happens or doesn’t happen to this body or someone else’s body and and obviously it doesn’t mean
we don’t do all the normal things and use whatever magic we find helpful and you know encourage everyone else to take
care of their bodies and and their situations and you know in that kindest way possible but at the same time we can
I think metaphorically do the course’s version of chewing gum and walking at the same time by by being normal doing
you know the normal things in the world um while remembering this like well I’m
I’m a dream figure you know I’m I’m a dreamer watching a dream figure but how many times do do that I mean really when
we’re doing our normal thing in the world I mean don’t we look at everybody as a body I mean it takes extra thought
to remember that that’s not the exactly initially I think it takes an enormous
amount to turn that whole locomotive around right yeah but but over time when
we catch ourselves a little bit more frequently and saying oh yeah I’m dreaming and I could see I could see
peace instead of this I’m not I’m not the the dream figure like I just FL and
slipped I’m the dreamer I’m the dreamer I I could I could if I see myself as the
dreamer then that then is changing my faith to the holy spirit because I as
a dream a dreamer instead of a dream figure I could now see the innocence
and and one of the things that this this paragraph reminded me of is the line
that I find really helpful and that is you know the course doesn’t ask I’m paraphrasing as usual the course doesn’t ask us to not see
bodies it it it basically says do you want to see you know your siblings
sinless get a little alliteration in there do you want to see your brother innocent your sister innocent right uh
and if I can remember to do that um then I’ve shifted my faith from the ego to
the Holy Spirit and I I’ll still see body I mean how could we not see bodies and of course says that that’d be a
particularly unworthy form of denial but to see the ego’s interpretation of bodies as absurd and
and therefore forgivable and correctable that’s I think what the course keeps leading us inexorably to and then we can
have more and more frequent you know peaceful episodes where we have these little almost says oh yeah yeah I’m
seeing a bunch of faces on a screen on a computer that seem to be bodies but I’m I’m really you know I’m a mind um
communicating with other parts of what seem to be a split mind but really is one mind thanks Chris and then
Susie I this might have been a quote from some famous evolved person maybe
not but I’ve always liked it and it’s um I’ll give you my explanation for in a
minute but it’s all is in the effort the rest is none of my business and and uh
all is in the effort now I see is the a little willingness we have to see uh
things like Jesus does or the Holy Spirit or the little willingness to see
a peace instead of this all is in the effort the little will the little
willingness is the effort and the rest is none of my business the rest is my
wanting to perceive the so-called others wanting to understand their wrong
mind or or their right mind which do I know I don’t know which one they’re coming from but in my Eagle mind or my
judgmental mind it’s obviously I think they’re in they’re out of their gourd they’re in their wrong mind but
that is none of my business because I have no idea what anybody else is going through what their path is what you know
how they anything really so if I can just let that go that’s between that person and
holy spirit however they look at that so anyway that’s all thanks thanks Chris I
I don’t know where my gourd is either so so in case that’s sful I don’t think anyone any of us
do but but the the whole thing of needing to know whether someone else
with quotes around the else is coming from to me I I try to remember and
sometimes successfully more and more successfully over time that it doesn’t matter whether someone is coming
from their right mind or their wrong mind because if I am listening to Holy
Spirit I’m going to see through the facade I’m going to be using I think what this section is talking about that
the course’s idea of faith in you know holy spirit’s correction which basically
is is to know that behind whatever Behavior or appearance that my ego would
tell me is all there is there’s a reality that is eternally innocent and
regardless of whether it someone is calling for help calling for love and kindness or expressing help or love and
kindness that my appropriate response is always to come from that helpful loving kind kindness place right
so that’s and that the effort seems like it’s
always overcoming the resistance but it’s really only effort from the ego’s
perspective at least that’s been my experience is if if you notice that when when you actually have the little
willingness it’s like there’s an ease and a relaxation and a comfort and a Serenity that that is an
immediate result of you know what sometimes is called surrender it’s not like a it’s not like a giving up in the
sense of of it’s not like a despair of oh no I’m now I’m I’m sa it’s not
really sacrificing anything it’s it’s a surrender that that has no cost it’s
it’s giving up what never worked and in that sense I I guess I
could align with the idea of surrender too it’s it’s like it’s the giving up of what never
worked yeah but but the effort is always doesn’t it seem like the effort is
always looking at it from the ego and thinking oh no I gotta plow through this thing that I don’t want to plow through
and the whole which is like this Granite wall of infinite thickness or steel
what and then from the holy spirit’s perspective it’s like I could drop a feather feather or a button through this
cloud because there’s nothing there yeah uh
Susie thank you I I’m kind of following this as level
confusion um for me um I had a I went to
see another Eye Doctor Who told me that nothing happened to my left eye but my
right eye is a mess and I I so I just didn’t say anything I thought I’m just going to be kind here no I got my total
vision back in one of my eyes but not yet in the other not yet because I will
and she said you may never and I’m like well I will but can
you just give me a pair of glasses that’s going to work right now just I just need some for right now well that’s
a pretty big expense you you might need to what do you go to a Rus
specialist I’m like no like you all were saying this body is so demanding and so
high maintenance and no I just need a pair of glasses okay well can you just
write me a prescription for just go ahead this woman was so worried about my
eyes that are going to be totally healed I you know I just wished I could
have given her some of my faith for my eyes but I couldn’t do it and then I realized I’m on I’m in level confusion
right now well yeah there’s not there’s nothing in the course that says don’t don’t go to the eye doctor and do do
whatever you know might be helpful I mean three years ago I had cataract surgery thought wow that that’s kind of
cool I like modern medicine you know it’s about the most surgery I’ve ever
had done on anything and and so yeah I i’ say good magic I like this stuff but
but um but the course is like you say on a completely different level and and
the op opthalmologist that that is in the course is that Jesus represents is
he says well I I’m prescribing 247 forgiveness for you and that will correct your
vision right let’s see um Myra are are you are you ready to
read sure which one I think on five five
okay so okay five it cannot be difficult
to realize that Faith must be the opposite of faithlessness no it’s not difficult yet the difference in how they
operate is less apparent though it follows directly from the fundamental difference in what they
are okay faithlessness would always limit an attack Faith would remove all
limitations and make whole faithlessness would destroy and
separate Faith would unite and heal well he’s really making it very clear
faithlessness would interpose Illusions between the Son of God and his
creator Faith would remove all obstacles that seem to rise between
them faithlessness is wholly dedicated to Illusions Faith holy I’ll add in the
word dedicated to truth partial dedication is
impossible TR truth is the absence of Illusion illusion the absence of
truth I love Jesus logic both cannot be together nor perceived in the same place
no to dedicate yourself to both is to set up a goal forever impossible to
attain for part of it is sought through the body thought of as a means for
seeking out reality through attack the other part would heal and therefore
calls upon the mind and not the body well the whole first part is very
very obvious nothing to add to that there’s no problems I think everybody
can really understand the difference now between faithlessness and Faith he makes it very very clear and obvious but I
think this last part that’s about what we’re choosing and that we become very Vigilant and very aware and very ious
that to dedicate yourself to both is to set up a goal forever impossible to
attain for part of it is sought through the body thought of as a means for seeking
out reality through attack so that’s when we dedicate ourselves to the faithlessness and we’re still working
through the body seeking through the body still looking outside as if there’s something outside that we can find and
he inside beautifully the other part that’s the right mindedness this is the difference between wrong mind and right
mind the other part the right mind would heal and therefore call upon the mind
and not the body so very evident wrong mind right mind ego Holy Spirit the ego
is always working with the body and the Holy Spirit Works through the
body it’s a big difference yeah very big difference yep Myra can
you say that one more time please that the the ego and the wrong mind is always working with the body
through in the losing the body but the holy spirit will work through the body
never in the body work
through thank
you yeah that that word through is such a helpful word because if I if I think
anything of value is coming from this dream figure this Bruce action
figure that I I’m I’m in for trouble you know and that’s that’s the attack
right if I because the The Little Dream figures that we think we are a lot of the time are are need machines and
they’re going to be blinded by those apparent
shortcomings and the only way that they can really Express is through attack you
know it’s like they’re they’re making demands upon other parts of the dream to
I I want it thus it’s got it’s got to be this way and and you know every ego’s you know
whether it’s subtle or not so subtle in a continuous tantrum mode one sort
or another right it’s just like we keep making demands on on how we want the world to be and and yet the Holy Spirit
can just look at that say yeah that little toddler part of your mind you know you’ll you’ll you’ll weary of that
eventually and want to find stability where it can be found which is in an
identity that doesn’t change that is not subject to space and time and
faithlessness and attack and and limitations you know Faith would remove
all limitations and make Cole we get glimpses of it when we
even if it just momentarily question the incessant propaganda and
neediness of the ego and it’s it’s tendency to always you know attack first
and ask questions L later that holy spirit says well ask the
question of you know what is it for first and then then um you know there
then you can sort of count to 10 for launching into another attack and to say oh wait a minute what what do I really
want to come of this situation where where’s what am I what am I putting my faith in right
yeah truth is the absence of Illusion illusion the absence of Truth a lot of these you know pure non-u statements
here you both cannot be together nor perceive in the same place to dedicate yourself to both is to set up a goal
forever impossible to attain because we’re trying to use two different thought systems both of which have have
diametrically opposed goals right so it’s like two two locomotives
on a track that are that they’re coupled together and but facing the opposite directions and you can Stoke them up
and and a lot of Sparks can fly on the wheels on the on the rails and a lot
of smoke building up they’re not going to get very far compared to if they were
both pushing in the same Direction
anyway anything else on that paragraph the other part would heal and
therefore calls upon the mind and not the body it’s always about the mind hyeah let’s see Betsy would you like to
read the next paragraph yes thanks thank
you um if I can I was just looking back at at paragraph five sentence six that
faithlessness is wholly dedicated to Illusions and Faith holy to truth and I
was thinking about that um and thinking you know there are a lot of things in my
life that I’ve looked at and thought I don’t really know how much I’ve been wholly dedicated to anything but when
you really look at it as um
decision maker wrong mind okay so anything I do with my wrong mind that’s
holy dedicated 100% dedicated to um faithlessness and to
illusion um anyway it it just had me I I just had
to look at that again so um and I guess the decision maker is
still trying to make its choice and say okay I I want to wholly dedicate 100% of the
time towards Faith fa
faithfulness um um towards truth so anyway okay I’ll stop and and do six
well I just to comment on what you just shared and and you know the course doesn’t ask us to have immediate
dedication it just asks us to to gradually notice how dedicated we are to
the ego and how abysmal that has turned out for us and to be you know completely
he says you know we must be completely honest with each other and and then in one of Ken wapnick thing commentaries he
points out yeah and and it’s not like you know Jesus or holy spirit is withholding anything from us guess guess
who’s doing the withholding of the facts right so so we just need to just you know notice how
much we have been dragging and and you
know whether consciously or unconsciously CH chanting the hell no I
won’t go Mantra to the the holy spirit’s correction and just say well you know
that really hasn’t worked out very well for me you know to the degree that I’ve resisted the peace I haven’t been
peaceful what how how amazing is that yeah
thanks okay paragraph six the inevitable
compromise is the belief that the body must be healed and not the
mind for this divided goal has given both an equal reality which could be
possible only if the mind is limited to the body and divided into little parts
of seeming wholeness but without connection
this will not harm the body but it will keep the delusional thought system in
the mind here then is healing
needed and it is here that healing
is for God gave healing not apart from sickness nor established remedy where
sickness cannot be they are together and when they are seen together all attempts
to keep both truth and illusion in the mind where both must be are recognized
as dedication to illusion and given up when brought to
truth and seen as totally unre unreconcilable with truth in any respect
or in any way um
the key part from from that paragraph for me that I think I can actually get is that it’s all to do with
the mind and and that I don’t find Salvation basically in the body
that it it always has to point to the mind and the and making the what what’s
my decision maker choosing exactly that’s it’s always
about the decision maker and and and I think that’s such an important reminder is that and thank you again Ken wapnick
for reminding us that you know that the course is always and only about the mind
and particularly in particular it’s pitched to the decision maker it’s that it’s that little the little blue dot in
my version of Ken’s chart up here that basically is constantly choosing between the Holy Spirit or the ego and 247 and
that’s where it’s all happening because all of the stuff that seems to be happening outside is really going on in
that little blue dot and that’s where I’m switching my my faith either to
insanity or to sanity in every moment and if I if I try to just to have a you
know a hybrid system where I’ve got well I want to run this thing on part insanity and part
sanity um we’re not going to get very far you know it but but we we have to
prove that to ourselves through repeated experiments um and just notice that when
we try to mix the two thought systems we get mixed
results and and usually it’s it’s pretty obvious that that you know it it doesn’t
work very well but even even when we just use the holy spirit’s correction and
and learn to see our brothers innocent our our siblings as sinless um
that even those just those brief moments of Sanity bring peace to us and I
think that’s what we’re learning to put our faith in right we’re learning to to see that we can actually trust holy
spirit’s results and that’s the experience we want that that then you know our faith is
Justified but but you know there’s so many places that’s why you know this per paragraph is a perfect example of why
you know there aren’t 8 billion people you know jumping on the course bandwagon and say yeah this is so great because
it’s it’s a wonderfully radical teaching I mean it it you know it say we have to
question every value that we hold not not you know 3% or or even 97% it’s like
you know ultimately we have to question every value well it’s like wow that’s that’s yeah it’s heavy duty stuff but
it’s it’s only heavy duty from the EG perspective because we’re so convinced that that you know we pulled off this
impossible crime and and and yet lper says nothing
happened you’re fine you’re good just have to have a little little
more faith and and we’re all headed that way so
Marissa yeah it’s um just looking at
sentence six in that paragraph reminds me of what I was thinking about
this week lesson 80 the solution is inherent in the problem yes it’s like a
combo thing for God gave healing not apart from sickness and nor establish
remedy where sickness cannot be so the solution is in the
problem it’s inherent thank you for bringing that up yeah I was just just gonna come in on that too so so yep
thank you for mentioning it because because if if we if we didn’t have the solution in our mind
you know that’d be that’d be a pretty pretty crappy salvation it’s like well okay here’s salvation but you know you
can’t reach it sorry it’s Out Of Reach is you know it’s off limits but no it’s it’s in our mind all the
time and the only person to to blame if we if we wanted to be into blame of
course highly suggests against would be ourselves you it’s just a a silly
thing that you know like uh
character in Andy Mayberry that has the the keys within reach through the
jails he could he put them on the wall there he can just as easily take them off and unlock the jail cell and let
himself out and we’re we’re on that same situation yeah it’s it’s always there in
the mind available 247 every every nanc we have the ability
to see things differently Myra yeah just to add on some ego confusion
that is very common under course students to think that if the body is
not healed I cannot awaken if the body is not healed I’m not
worthy of God’s love if the body is not healed I have to come back and do this
all over again many many thoughts in that Trend and there was just this
morning there was one women in our I have always have Sunday morning coffee time it’s very nice um well there are
two women actually one has the sickness of lime and she had that conviction that
I I’m lost I don’t know who I am anymore because this body is never going to heal she really thought she lost the
truth and that’s not possible because nothing real can be threatened and we
spoke about that a lot and it really it hit home finally that no We’re Dreaming
of this and we are perfectly 100% Spirit
Eternal yeah and there was another woman also
that whose mother now has gone into dementia and she was very worried that
my mother can’t my mother can’t go to heaven now I thought oh my said no nothing real
can be threatened your mother is already in heaven and what We’re Dreaming here it’s so easy to forget that we’re just
dreaming and page one says let’s just clear up the blocks that’s all I give
you forgiveness it’s the most beautiful gift I can ever give you let’s just forgive everything and clear up the
blocks and you realize you’re already home and it doesn’t matter what happens to that body the the ego cannot give you
your worth the ego can’t decide if if you’re going to awaken the ego doesn’t
want you to awaken at all it’s such a great misunder understanding to think that something spiritual is being held
back because the body is not healed so I just wanted to mention that yeah thank you that that’s such an important idea
and the idea that you know a healthy body and a a sick body are different in
terms of Truth kind of ignores the fact that the course says there is no
world meaning there is no body or bodies this is the central thought the
course attempts to teach right so and again that’s part of this wonderfully radical teaching that actually does
offer a complete solution unlike the partial solutions that you know the
mixture approach of a little bit of ego a little bit of Holy Spirit maybe I can make that work you know well sooner or
later we’re going to run out of of experiments trying to mix the two and
and realize the only faith that is going to work is is trusting that part of our
mind that says that nothing happened and that the form has nothing to do with reality the
illusion the fantasy the dream has nothing to do with a real identity and it’s the content of the
mind which is eternal innocence and eternal well interconnection as we think
of it or sameness which is the the Gateway idea back to Oneness yeah thanks
really helpful and there’s so so many different aspects of what you just shared but that’s that’s really helpful you know nothing that has to do with
with the body woman she was very worried whose mother’s going into dementia she
can’t do the lessons she can’t remember the lessons she can’t do the lessons how could she
ever wake up no well we had a good discussion about that but that was that
was worrying her that was one of her fears so we spoke about healing the fear in her mind would automatically heal her
mother yeah that her mother was always the beautiful son of and child of God and that nothing has changed and it was
really very beautiful yeah yeah yeah and that’s we think about
healing the brain that’s we’re back to to level of confusion again aren’t we yeah and
anything anything having to do with the brain and the the apparatus of the
machine if you will yeah thanks uh
Marissa yeah kind of to um follow what
Myra was saying um yeah I think dementia is chosen by a very powerful mind just like a baby is
born with a full-fledged ego and right mind and wrong mind so is dementia which
my my mother has actually and um she’s my mother the experience of her she is
more joyful now although in a little while later she doesn’t remember what we talked about
she just is seems more Freer to me and um she was always someone who was like a
little sergeant had to have everything just right and now she just seems a little Freer to me but um to to you
know Helen and Ken died of cancer and um
when I met Ken I knew he was a healed mind so um there’s a part of the course there’s
a little tiny section if I may read that talks about that and it says the miracle
is useless if you learn but that the body can be healed for this is not the
lesson it was sent to teach the lesson is the mind was sick that thought the
body could be sick projecting out its guilt caused nothing and had no effects
that’s from text chapter 28 section two um yeah I just wanted to I was
thinking about that the other day actually and and pulled up this section for that but yeah thanks Myra for for
that thanks Marissa and Myra both both of those are really helpful because they they really remind us that you know
we’re this infinite all-encompassing mind really spirit that
has never been fragmented but because our minds are so powerful we’ve all participated in this
massive hallucinatory experiment of fragmentation and and further even more
staggeringly un unbelievable we believe that we pulled off this this impossible
crime and fabricated individual bodies and that were attached to them and
somehow identified with them I mean that’s a a bizarre you know un unimaginable idea to Holy Spirit and and
one that it keeps reminding us is is worth questioning yet every turn um but
so of course comes at it from all these different ways and and asks us to you know what are we really putting our
faith in we’re putting our faith in an absurd thought experiment that that
the ego made up that has never made us happy and but we keep trying all these
different variations of it and permutations of it and it’s constantly morphing and shifting and changing around and thinking well maybe maybe if
I you know try you know this this flavor this combination or this juxtaposition of dream dream things maybe I can make
it work this way and and the Holy Spirit says it’s all the
same try all the per permutations you like but but sooner or later you’re gonna want peace more than than not
analina please um I think what was important to me around Ken’s teaching
too which is his emphasis that it’s not just physical body it’s also our
psychological Minds it’s also our psychological mind so in the realm of
the personality the psychological mind there’s not going to necessarily be a
discontinuance of feelings of discomfort feelings of anger feelings of sadness
grief Etc that um those aren’t necessarily going to change so much either and that was a really
important thing that he brought across to
me it’s it’s a it’s a packaged deal hyeah thank you
Myra yeah May mentioned that a very powerful mind has chosen everything and
Ken really goes into that a lot that we have chosen our own classrooms what we
here seem to experience was chosen even before these bodies were born into that we were born into these bodies and he
says that so lovely in that book which I am sharing now on Facebook every day to act your part with honor Act Your Part
With Honor because you chose it not as a person not as a personality not as a a
human being but as as the Mind before we even were born here we we chose our
these classrooms that the script was written and so act your part with
honor and so okay this is what I chose I’ve given myself this yeah lesson so
let me learn this lesson and then what analena was just saying that definitely
when Jesus uses that lesson 22 times I am not a body I am free for I am still
as God created me he’s always talking about the whole package it’s not just Flesh and Bones it’s your personality
your name um your stories your whole history everything everything in the
past whatever and it’s and that doesn’t go away what an know that’s not what’s going away but through right perception
and guidance from the Holy Spirit and living through peace instead of fear
then you can use everything in a totally different way and that’s that happens
that’s I guess what you can call the happy dream thank you
Audrey that just reminded me of a beautiful explanation of forgiveness
that I read this morning it says in order to do forgiveness you must
shift the purpose of the world from persecuting prison to benevolent
classroom which is I think what Myra was just saying you know these are the perfectly curated lessons that we need
to return for the atonement and peace comes from not
fighting anything yeah exactly when we act our part with honor we realize okay
so I’m in this dream script how can I be
the most truly kind and benevolent to everyone which includes myself well the
only way I can do that is by trusting and having faith in the holy spirit’s correction which basically says that
nothing happened in truth I don’t know what that truth is but I I’m connecting
with part of my mind that does and letting that guide me to forgive
everything that I made up so it’s back to the not know curriculum of of just
looking at all the stuff we made up and withdrawing our condemnation from it and
just saying maybe maybe I could you know slow down my auto ship purchases
of of weaponry and Munitions to attack the world and and eventually you know
stop buying those those military supplies in my mind
altogether yeah Audrey again you said forgiveness description is a from pers
from a persecuting prison to a to a what again benevolent classroom thank
you and and I think I I would just add that you know the script is written all
the concepts that we hear before I can get to a place where I have
really internalized that it’s been very helpful and empowering to just believe
like epicus when you know what what this book was based on
um Act Your Part With Honor that quote you know his his he was a slave and
he was being beaten and he said if you continue to do that you’re going to break my leg and they broke his leg and
he just continued in I mean that’s a pretty extreme example but that’s exactly what he’s saying that okay now
my part is got a broken leg and um and
that’s extremely powerful because what I’ve learned since I’ve been studying this idea of resisting nothing is the
fact that I resist everything and even the things I don’t resist I would like to improve upon I would like to
tweak and resisting nothing is actually a a massive relief and the sense that it
is a benevolent classroom that I’m not being punished for for my illness I’m not being punished
for you know a terminal diagnosis um
they’re not punishments they are a benevolent classroom and I may not feel that way in the moment um as an Audrey
but there is the part of me that knows that it’s true and that’s a an inestimable
gift as you’re saying that Audrey it occurs to me if you’ve ever watched a
movie and turn the sound off
it has a very different effect and and the the it’s kind of like the thought system we choose what we have faith in
either ego holy spirit is like two different soundtracks and the ego soundtrack is
this ominous scary big deal stuff that that you know
every footstep is the monster getting closer or whatever you know and and the holy
spirit’s soundtrack is based basically um it’s really it’s really
quiet and it says nothing happen and you’re watching a movie but but but it’s it’s it’s a sweet correction you know
and and and I saw I saw a um a movie in
a school class ages ago where it showed um a little girl wandering through
the woods and a man that was was following her and and would would hide
behind behind several trees behind where she was so that what she happened to turn around that he wouldn’t be seen and
and the first the the first one show you know first clip showed um you know this
this ominous soundtrack you know and you know very scary and then the second
one had had a kind of a sweet little lilting Melody and and then you you you
realized that what they were really doing is playing hideand-seek and and in in one and the other was a stalker so
it’s all all matter of you know wh which soundtrack am I going to listen to what
what what am I gonna have faith in right yeah Audrey or
analina um just two quick responses to um a couple things Audrey brought up um
one was on resistance and fundamentally you know I 100% you
know the valuation of not resisting not resisting how important that is but I’ve
also the little twist on it and I think Ken would caution us often as students
of course of Miracles not to translate it literally because there are instances
level two reality where we have to choose against and to resist and sometimes that’s a little place where I
get it wrong and I have to step back um then secondly I would love the word
benevolence I it’s one of my most favorite words and when I associate with the um aspect of myself I experience as
associated with right mind and holy spirit there’s a sense of a benevolent
indifference to all my experience a benevolent indifference a kind of
kindliness and yet indifference towards everything including my own emotional states and those two Keynotes really
serve me in stuck moments the recollection of that felt sense of
benevolent indifference thank you yeah I think I think I a phrase that I find helpful is
you know noticing when I’m attached to outcomes because I can still be as you know busy as as can be on the level
of form doing things that I think make sense you know in normal fashion
but when I’m invested in the outcome that’s when it becomes a more of a frenetic kind of a thing yeah Audrey
yeah just just to to clarify you know acting your part with honor because I have thought about this so much it
doesn’t mean I never take action in the world but it means I come from a place of accepting as true whatever is showing
up in front of me and then my Holy Spirit can act through me like and then
and this is what Ken says also my buddy eckart says that if I resist
nothing then I will know the kindest way to respond in the world so it doesn’t
mean I never do anything um although I do a lot less and a lot less
damage but it does mean that what comes from that place of Peace will be much
more effective than anything I might you know my ego might come up with for what
it’s worth and what the ego might understand is the the Peaceable action
sometimes isn’t that’s where I’ve been surprised when I really let go alog together when I stuck oh it actually is
the reverse of what I might have been brought up to believe as what it means to be a good person for
instance yeah thank you Emily would you like to read the next
paragraph Yes paragraph seven
uhhtruth and illusion have no connection contion this will remain
forever true however much you seek to connect them but Illusions are always
connected as is truth each is United a complete thought
system but totally disconnected to each other and to perceive this is to recognize where separation is and where
it must be healed the result of an idea is never separate from its
source the idea of separation produce the body and remains connected to it
making it sick because of the mind’s identification with it you think you are protecting the body by hiding this
connection for this concealment seems to keep your identification safe from the attack of
Truth want read that last one again you think you are protecting the body by
hiding this connection for this concealment seems to keep your identification safe from the attack of
Truth
yeah I’ve been reading a book um about an anxiety and moving beyond anxiety and
um there’s a line that I have on a card right here
that that I think can to me fits with this paragraph
anxiety makes us believe or the ego makes us believe that the only way to feel safe is to never feel
safe and when it’s a little bit of irony there hyes and when it’s put like that it sucks
up all the argument when you come up against the statement that feel for me
and it feels so true it’s just like that is what I’m doing that sounds so
dumb well isn’t isn’t it wonderful how the course Lampoons our ego on every page
and and if you really see the humor in it is basically saying you know you believe these crazy contradictory things
that you know if you try to believe them together there’s no way in hell they’re
going to work well except in the hell that we made up they seem to work right yeah but but darned if we don’t try you
know to to to take sanity and insanity and put them in a blender and and pour
it in a glass and think okay there’s my meal for the day right you know it’s like well good luck with that yeah I
like the word lampooning and yeah because I appreciate it and I I’m to it
for that consciously and unconsciously is like someone stop me yeah it’s like don’t stop me but
someone please stop me and those those yeah those statements where
we all know that it brings like a little bit of humor too which I so appreciate because I’ll be very serious and it
helps just lift me out yeah we’re all recovering serious dreamers right and
but I think the course takes us from Gravity to levity by by asking us to forgive what we’ve projected and and see
that nothing happened yeah thank you Abe would you like to read the next paragraph and you’ve got your hand up
too yeah I just wanted to first to follow up what Emily said I think you
know she was very insightful with their observation of you know the the the
ego’s idea of being safe is to always worry about being safe and therefore never feeling safe and in doing so it
thinks that it’s being safe yeah you know and I can relate to that
because I mean I have a different flavor of the same contradiction and we’re is yeah you know the the the way to be
peaceful is to attack when you feel threatened and then and that will
maintain your peace and it just the nuclear stockpile continues yeah right
yeah set up the weapons out you know sh the weapons off and that’s a way to be peaceful and it’s just make any sense
yeah so yeah let see so paragraph eight correct yes please if you understood how much this
strange concealment has hurt your mind and how confused your own identification
has become because of it you do not see how great the devastation wrought by your
faithlessness for faithlessness is an attack that seems to be justified by his
results I think it was just right there talking about our contradiction y we
follow them yeah for by withholding faith faith you see what is Unworthy of
you and cannot look beyond the barrier to what is joined with
you yeah so you know I think the ego is very clever and how he
he sets up all this ideas in our head that basically amount to a a dog chasing
his tail you know the dog thing is going to be happy when he finally catches onto the tail and of course he can never do
that and he just keeps going and going and going and it just keeps hoping that it’ll eventually catch the tail and be
happy and we’re like that too the ego has set it up you know an impossible
situation for us where we think we’re our peace and joy are depending on us
just going with the drama of the world and just chasing it you know chasing for
joy and peace in the world and we never going to find it of course so I think
this paragraph kind of says that in yeah thanks thank you yeah and I’m glad you
said the word impossible I was thinking you know the the outcome that the ego
purports to lead us to is impossible but the thought system that is leading us
attempting to lead us to that impossible solution is also impossible so that’s
the good news we and again you know back to Ken’s
chart you know that the the dream of bodies and the world and SpaceTime you know this this lower quadrant behind me
is you know that’s that’s the reflection of an impossible thought system so you
know like Ken like to likes to say you know the you know the emperor may be naked meaning that there’s nothing to
the the dream of space and time and bodies and you know illusion on the level of form but you know not only is
the Emperor naked but there’s no Emperor you know that the the the tyrannical thought system of the ego is all made up
you know the whole sin guilt fear projection you know perception Domino
thing collapses that game collapses the instant we realize wait a minute if
I if I let Holy Spirit take me all the way back up to that blue dot and look at it through that kindly Vision I see that
nothing happened I just need the faith to keep keep at it keep forgiving going through those three steps of forgiveness
over and over until I begin to generalize see that there really isn’t anything in this world that can make me
sad or happy and that that’s an independent variable what what happens in that that
whole side of of the split mind is you know an independent variable to the
equation of my piece it’s it’s it doesn’t enter into that equation at
all thanks I think Marissa you had your hand up
oh I was just going to add to the safety thing that Emily brought up that um you know it’s the only safety is in our
defenselessness and if we’re not safe we are vulnerable therefore we are not as
God created us therefore I exist there’s always a purpose behind that lack of
safety yeah oh yeah exactly yeah we get to we get to be a separate F self that
needs to be defended and that’s the consolation prize hwhoopy dooo wait a minute how value how
worthwhile was that exactly yeah thanks uh
analina I like what Emily brought up and what I often find helpful in in relation
to Ego mind is equating it with the amygdaloid brain which is basically like a Reptilian Brain a dinosaur brain we
are all equipped as bodies with a Reptilian Brain that’s running a lot of
our lives and The Reptilian Brain is designed to find and seek problems and
be constantly on a kind of defensive to Be watchful the way animals the way
birds are constantly watching we on the ground because the cat might come as they’re trying to eat their worms right
we have that part in our brain and that’s the ego mind and it’s designed
by Nature per se to to be carrying that on all the
time and so yeah making that switched and just simply recognizing it or
calling it out like oh that’s dinosaur mind and when I when I do that with myself I can do it and say oh that’s my
ego mind but it also helps to remember oh yeah this body is equipped with you know a brosaurus or a T-Rex brain it
helps me call it out and step back from it that’s great I I was thinking the
egoo mind is constantly blathering slathering and slithering it’s it’s it’s
that that’s what it does it just it’s just keeps on spewing its its scaly
skepticism of Tru I remember in junior high they made us study jabber
walkie I mean that’s good old poem and that’s my mind lately the jabber Walky
does slideer and gimal in the way you know I still remember that sentence all Mimsy were the boves and the M rats out
grave that’s right that’s the ego mind the jabber Walky exactly it’s ja and if we can just
look with humor thank thank you Emily that the the the the absurdity of that
jabbering mind that’s that’s that’s that’s totally wonky yeah and and silly and absurd and just say wow what an
incredibly strange trip I’ve put myself on listening to this this propaganda
machine that makes no sense and I put my faith in the wrong B system but I I can
the solution is in my mind aah harah and I just have to to trust the part of my
mind that we call Holy Spirit to lead me out of the insanity yeah well we’ve only
gone about halfway through this wonderful section but that’s fine because we’ve had a great discussion and
let’s see um lesie would you like to to read
the next paragraph and we’ll use that as a as a closing meditation how’s that sound
and then and as a class assignment everyone can if so if they so so elect read the rest of the section and report
back in the next class how does that so I’m doing paragraph nine yes please
to have faith is to heal it is the sign that you have accepted the atonement for
yourself and would therefore share it by faith you offer the gift of freedom from
the past which you received you do not use anything your brother has
done before to condemn him now you freely choose to overlook his errors
looking past all barriers between yourself and him and seeing them as one
and in that one you see your faith is fully Justified there is no justification for
faithlessness but faith is always Justified
any comments on that before we meditate on
it well I love it I it feels
awesome and it makes me laugh when I don’t do that actually reading
this yeah if we can laugh non- derisively with not a you know mean spirit in our minds bones so to speak uh
and just just say wow how silly I have been in being being faithless and you
know Bank you know banking on these dead horses that the ego tells me to invest
in of outcomes in the world that are going to make me happy right yeah right
but but it it’s it’s the the um the genuine the the true skepticism of of
the insanity that is I think Holy Spirit asks us to to entertain just to say well
you know what if what if the ego had it all wrong wouldn’t you be better H what if you know what if you did have faith
in everyone you meet or think about not in not their dream figures or or their
bodies or their personalities but but you know their real identity that that I’ll help you see by forgiving what
you’re projecting and if you can keep forgiving what you’re projecting um you know what’s behind the
facade will then be glowing and illuminating your mind and with the same
identity that we all share than okay let’s I’m just going to
read the last last sentence and then we’ll can meditate for few few moments:
“You see the Christ in him and he is healed because you look on what makes Faith forever justified in everyone.”
Thank you all thank you Bruce that was great; thank you everyone yeah
“Jabberwocky”
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.