In this video recording, CA Brooks and Bruce Rawles talk about the challenging topic of death and oblivion from the perspective of the pure non-dual metaphysics of A Course In Miracles (ACIM). As usual, ACIM reverses and corrects so much conventional “wisdom” of the ego propaganda we’ve taught ourselves that promotes the ego’s thought system of sin, guilt, and fear. The correction consists of consistent kindness, forgiveness, and looking at our tendency to exclude others (including ourselves) from that practice without condemning judgment.
After a lively discussion covering lots of related ideas, we read and talked about “What is Death?” (section 27) from the Manual for Teachers from ACIM:
“1. Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem. ²Is it not madness to think of life as being born, aging, losing vitality, and dying in the end? ³We have asked this question before, but now we need to consider it more carefully. ⁴It is the one fixed, unchangeable belief of the world that all things in it are born only to die. ⁵This is regarded as “the way of nature,” not to be raised to question, but to be accepted as the “natural” law of life. ⁶The cyclical, the changing and unsure; the undependable and the unsteady, waxing and waning in a certain way upon a certain path,—all this is taken as the Will of God. ⁷And no one asks if a benign Creator could will this.
2. In this perception of the universe as God created it, it would be impossible to think of Him as loving. ²For who has decreed that all things pass away, ending in dust and disappointment and despair, can but be feared. ³He holds your little life in his hand but by a thread, ready to break it off without regret or care, perhaps today. ⁴Or if he waits, yet is the ending certain. ⁵Who loves such a god knows not of love, because he has denied that life is real. ⁶Death has become life’s symbol. ⁷His world is now a battleground, where contradiction reigns and opposites make endless war. ⁸Where there is death is peace impossible.
3. Death is the symbol of the fear of God. ²His Love is blotted out in the idea, which holds it from awareness like a shield held up to obscure the sun. ³The grimness of the symbol is enough to show it cannot coexist with God. ⁴It holds an image of the Son of God in which he is “laid to rest” in devastation’s arms, where worms wait to greet him and to last a little while by his destruction. ⁵Yet the worms as well are doomed to be destroyed as certainly. ⁶And so do all things live because of death. ⁷Devouring is nature’s “law of life.” ⁸God is insane, and fear alone is real.
4. The curious belief that there is part of dying things that may go on apart from what will die, does not proclaim a loving God nor re-establish any grounds for trust. ²If death is real for anything, there is no life. ³Death denies life. ⁴But if there is reality in life, death is denied. ⁵No compromise in this is possible. ⁶There is either a god of fear or One of Love. ⁷The world attempts a thousand compromises, and will attempt a thousand more. ⁸Not one can be acceptable to God’s teachers, because not one could be acceptable to God. ⁹He did not make death because He did not make fear. ¹⁰Both are equally meaningless to Him.”
Other mentioned references and ideas include:
- The two “sister foundations” of ACIM:
- Foundation for A Course In Miracles (FACIM) which initially had a center in Roscoe, New York, then Temecula, California, and currently in Henderson, Nevada; FACIM continues the legacy of the founders Kenneth Wapnick and Gloria Wapnick, helping students of ACIM deepen their understanding of its thought system, conceptually and experientially.
- Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) publisher of the Course, translated from English into 27 languages and numerous formats,
- The two Workbook Lessons that Ken Wapnick suggests are all we need to memorize, or, if you were stuck on a desert island without your Course book, what to have in mind:
- Lesson 5: I am never upset for the reason I think. (W-5)
- Lesson 34: I could see peace instead of this. (W-34)
- “The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. ³Look carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so. ⁴For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death. ⁵Children are born into it through pain and in pain. ⁶Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. ⁷Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their bodies are hurt. ⁸They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. ⁹They appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. ¹⁰And their bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. ¹¹Not one of them but has thought that God is cruel.” (ACIM, T-13.in.2:2-11)
- “If this were the real world, God would be cruel.” (ACIM, T-13.in.3:1)
- “Accept no compromise in which death (ego’s duality, oblivion, mindlessness, cruelty, and specialness) plays a part.”(ACIM, M-27.7:1)
- “All your time is spent in dreaming.” (ACIM, T-18.II.5:12)
- ACIM is always and only about the mind; particularly the decision-making faculty of the mind that chooses between the ego’s insane belief in separation (in all its myriad forms) and the sanity of the Holy Spirit which corrects this insanity through forgiving thoughts that deny ego’s denial of truth.
- Making idols of any specific, particular form pays homage (often unconsciously) to ego’s deadly dirge of duality which denies the possibility of peace.
- “Some of your greatest advances you have judged as failures, and some of your deepest retreats you have evaluated as success.” (ACIM, T-18.V.1:6)
- ACIM gently (non-derisively) lampoons the absurdity of the ego’s insane thought system; as Ken Wapnick suggests, belief in the ego (our only problem) isn’t evil, sinful, or wicked, it’s just silly!
- “Why wait for Heaven?” (ACIM, W-131.6:1)
- “Why wait for Heaven?” (ACIM, W-188.1:1) This rhetorical question (one of CA’s favorites) is important enough to appear twice in ACIM! These two instances of the same quote were quickly found – within a few seconds – using the Web Edition of ACIM; highly recommended; to support the translation of this superb resource into other languages (Spanish already underway) you can donate to FIP’s projects here.
- “Do not fight yourself.” (ACIM, T-30.I.1:7) … and 2 related quotes:
“Truth does not fight against illusions, nor do illusions fight against the truth. ⁴Illusions battle only with themselves. ⁵Being fragmented, they fragment. ⁶But truth is indivisible, and far beyond their little reach. ⁷You will remember what you know when you have learned you cannot be in conflict. ⁸One illusion about yourself can battle with another, yet the war of two illusions is a state where nothing happens.” (ACIM, T-23.I.7:3-8) … and … “Do you not understand that to oppose the Holy Spirit is to fight yourself?” (ACIM, T-30.II.1:1) - Holy Spirit’s guidance metaphorically lifts us “Above the Battleground” (ACIM, T-23.IV)
- Peace to Such Foolishness! (a Ken Wapnick audio program referenced in the conversation) … Enough with the baby business! (Insisting that ego’s deathly thought system offers anything we want)
- MiracleVoices podcast with Matt McCabe and Tam Morgan of FIP showcasing how people have found ACIM and applied its forgiveness practice in their own lives.
(This recording was made on November 2, 2023.)
(Apologies for the “hollow, tinny” audio quality on my end; I was experimenting with not using my usual USB headset and using the laptop microphones; I’ll resume using the headset in future recordings.)
CA Brooks hosts internet radio programs about ACIM (archives), astrology, and other topics on 12Radio. Here are all the conversations with CA Brooks and Bruce Rawles on this site.
