Meditation
What works for me
Apr 23rd, 2009
Meditation is an essential part of the mind training necessary to hear God's Voice. I have uploaded relevant "how to" selections from the Course as a review: Hearing God's Voice
I am also posting below a summary of the meditiation instructions I received at an excellent program called The Pointing Out Way of Tibetan Buddhist Meditation by Dan Brown.
Assume cross-legged posture on a pillow— body like a mountain, spine like an arrow.
Focus on two-point meditation object: in-breath “now,” out-breath “now”
As they arise, seal thoughts as empty constructs, not real. Keep steering mind back to object.
Switch from event perspective to mind perspective— Become aware of and focus on the mind that is observing the stream of mental events.
Use intelligence to find “edge” between intensifying and easing up.
Search for the self’s ‘staying entity’— nothing is found, self is empty; ‘self’ recedes.
No time: in-breath already here, out-breath stays here. No past or future, only a slight motion.
Cease arbitrary mental activity: conceptualizing, elaborating; following past/anticipating future.
Allow awareness to manifest freshly in each discrete mind-moment and seal it as empty.
Extend your awareness to the vast background, aware of the simultaneity of mind’s relative activity and the Absolute, Ever-present Mind.
Tags: Forgiveness Self
About David Hoffmeister
The Foundation for the Awakening Mind
Apr 20th, 2009
David was inspired to seek spiritual Enlightenment and in 1986 he encountered A Course in Miracles. He recognized the Course as the tool he sought to help him transform his mind. As he read it, David found that the Voice of Jesus in the Course supported him in his deep examination of concepts and assumptions. Jesus became David’s internal teacher, answering his every question, and guiding him in the day-to-day management of his life and relationships.
David studied the Course with passionate intensity for several years and attended many Course study groups. The Voice of Jesus provided David with discernment about writings and teachings. Then the Voice of Jesus began to speak through David with authority. People began to refer their spiritual questions to him. David had several retreat experiences during which he was able to free his mind from ego chatter and enter into deep silence. It was in this manner that he ultimately experienced Enlightenment.
Tags: News
The Unfairness Game
The ego’s use of guilt
Apr 20th, 2009
I believe I separated from God—an attack on God and a huge sin. I felt tremendously guilty and afraid of punishment. So I tried to escape by falling asleep and letting the ego thought system take over my mind. Now I identify with the ego mind and my body. The ego’s purpose is to prove that guilt is real, but that it is my brother who is guilty; I am innocent. To accomplish this purpose the ego has me play the Unfairness Game in my relationships. T-26.X.5
The Unfairness Game works like this:
I project my guilt feelings onto my brother. I want him to be the guilty party. What is he guilty of? The same thing I think I am guilty of—sinful attack. How can I demonstrate this? Projection (unconscious) makes perception (conscious). I have my eyes and ears perceive my brother treating me unfairly. He is blatantly attacking my innocence.
Tags: Ego
Total Commitment
My only function is the one God gave me.
Apr 19th, 2009
Having denied my Identity by attacking creation and its Creator in the unholy instant, my goal is now to find out who I am. I need to learn how to remember the truth. To accomplish this, attack must be replaced by forgiveness, so that thoughts of life may replace thoughts of death. W-62
The purpose of the world I see is to obscure my function of forgiveness, and provide me with a justification for forgetting it. It is the temptation to abandon God and His Son by taking on a physical appearance. Only by fulfilling the function given me by God will I be happy because my function is to be happy. W-64
The full acceptance of forgiveness as my only function entails a total commitment to the recognition of forgiveness as my function and the relinquishment of all other goals I have invented for myself. W-65
So here I am, like Truman, awake in a lucid dream on the set of the world. What do I do? I don’t try to escape. I need do nothing in the world, for to do anything involves the body and thereby gives it reality in my mind. The world is in my mind. I come back to the source of the world in my mind and change my mind about the world.
Instead of changing anything in the world I “let all things be exactly as they are.” W-268 I withdraw my wishes from its unity, and thus let it be as God created it. For thus will I be able, too, to recognize my Self as God created me in love. I see everything in the world as the same. “It is their sameness that the miracle attests.” T-27.VI.6
To change all this, I need only decide I do not know the purpose of the world. T-29.VII.8
I want to see the truth. I abandon judgment and, with total commitment, I ask the Holy Spirit to redirect me.
“As sight was made to lead away from truth, it can be redirected. Sounds become the call for God, and all perception can be given a new purpose by the One Whom God appointed Savior to the world. Follow His light, and see the world as He beholds it. Hear His Voice alone in all that speaks to you. And let Him give you peace and certainty, which you have thrown away, but Heaven has preserved for you in Him.” W-pII.3.4
The real world is the state of mind in which the only purpose of the world is seen to be forgiveness. T-30.V.1
The world will end in joy. The world will end in peace. The world will end in laughter. And only complete forgiveness brings all this to bless the world. M-14.5
Tags: Forgiveness Self
Awakening Is My Only Choice
Apr 18th, 2009
I still (unconsciously) believe I separated from God, and I’m afraid of his wrath.
This fear motivates all my thinking.
I am spirit, but I have taken on a false identity as a person in a body.
My “thoughts” consist of:
- Projections of images for me to judge (to fool myself that I’m being attacked)
- A constant stream of verbalization in which I reorder meaningless past thoughts (to keep my mind busy so I don’t stop to question anything)
- Defenses like special relationships (as a God substitute and to keep the reality of Love out)
My thinking represents a complete break with reality, or a psychotic state.
My perception is hallucination, a nightmarish dream of “me” struggling in a world of constant change, insecurity, suffering and death.
God wills that I awaken to the reality of His Love, peace and joy.
He placed the Holy Spirit in my mind.
I accept the Holy Spirit’s purpose of forgiveness as my only function.
Tags: Awakening Forgiveness
One Simple Choice
The legal basis for forgiveness
Apr 17th, 2009
Yesterday I was taking a walk down the peaceful country road on which I live. I was startled by a loud sound and flashed to anger as my neighbor, Bill, roared by on a muffler-less ATV. I thought: That #%&! Oops, I shouldn’t be angry. No, that’s not it. Don’t ‘should’ on yourself. He is a Son of God and I love him. But I don’t. Why doesn’t he grow up? Well, I guess he has a right to do what he enjoys. But, according to state law, he doesn’t have the right to do what he just did. It was an illusion so forget it. Yeah, right. This should do it: I let go of my attack thought and ask the Holy Spirit to let me see peace instead.” I repeated this, to no avail, till I got home.
Then I picked up the Course and opened it. Wouldn’t you know it? There was Lesson 86 saying:
God's plan for salvation will save me from my perception of this.
I am choosing between misperception and salvation as I look on this.
If I see grounds for grievances in this, I will not see the grounds for my salvation.
This calls for salvation, not attack.
I read on:
Let me perceive this in accordance with the Will of God.
It is God's Will you are His Son, [Bill], and mine as well.
This is part of God's Will for me, however I may see it. W-87
My perception of this shows me I believe in laws that do not exist.
I see only the laws of God at work in this.
Let me allow God's laws to work in this, and not my own. W-88
I would not hold this grievance apart from my salvation.
Let our grievances be replaced by miracles, [Bill].
Beyond this is the miracle by which all my grievances are replaced. W-89
I need not wait for this to be resolved.
The answer to this problem is already given me, if I will accept it.
Time cannot separate this problem from its solution. W-90
Mind apart from spirit cannot think. W-96
The mind that sees illusions thinks them real. They have existence in that they are thoughts. And yet they are not real, because the mind that thinks these thoughts is separate from God . [“I am under no laws but God’s.”] Forgive what you have made and you are saved. W-99
God's Will for you is perfect happiness. Your joy must be complete to let His plan be understood by those to whom He sends you. They will see their function in your shining face, and hear God calling to them in your happy laugh. God's messengers are joyous, and their joy heals sorrow and despair. God asks you to be happy, so the world can see how much He loves His Son. You are God's messenger today. You bring His happiness to all you look upon; His peace to everyone who looks on you and sees His message in your happy face. Then realize your part is to be happy. Only this is asked of you or anyone who wants to take his place among God's messengers. It is your function that you find joy here, and that you find it now. For this you came. Let this one be the day that you succeed! Look deep within you, undismayed by all the little thoughts and foolish goals you pass as you ascend to meet the Christ in you. You can reach Him now. W-100
This morning I was out on the road and heard a big Harley coming. I looked up and smiled. The guy stopped. He was lost and asked me for directions. As he drove off he had to be saying to himself, “What a gracious and kind person that was!”
Tags: Forgiveness
Hearing the Voice for God
Apr 15th, 2009
Having some sort of communication with God is of the utmost importance to me. I meditate two or three times a day using this basic process:
I remind myself I am God’s Son and He loves me. “God takes you where you are and welcomes you.” M-26.4
As I begin my meditation I ask for what I really want, to know God’s Will for me. “Desire is the key.”
Then I let go of all my ego thoughts. “A mind in accord with the Holy Spirit is silent.”
The Holy Spirit communicates to me using symbols I can understand, so I remain open to all possibilities: words and/or feelings. I listen with my intuition.
“The best indicator of connection to God is how one feels. When you allow your mind to be guided by the Holy Spirit it brings you into a sense of relaxation and joy.” Quotes from Awakening through A Course in Miracles by David Hoffmeister
For more detailed information, I have uploaded quotations from the Course Text , Workbook Lessons and Manual about how to listen to the Voice for God .
Tags: Self
Thoughts on Time
The Big Illusions: Time and Duality
Apr 10th, 2009
God is. God is Love. God created His Son, Christ, as an extension of Love.
There is no world. There is no time.
My mind entertained the impossible idea of separation in an instant and fell asleep. In this instant my mind felt fear and chose to hide from God. My mind made an illusory loop of time and chose to get stuck in it, forgetting everything else. Time is a trick to fool the sleeping mind.
Time introduces an apparent gap, a separation, between cause and effect. It provides the mind with a fantasy space in which to dream and attribute false causes to effects. It introduces the possibility of choice where there is none. The illusion of duality provides things to choose between. Duality and the gap between cause and effect allow the mind to judge. It can pick and choose among various illusions, deciding certain ones are good and others bad. It makes its decisions on the basis of its prior decisions, the past. The mind believes it is a person and that there are other people with different motivations. My fearful mind perceives subjectively, my senses reporting data that confirm what my mind wants to perceive. My mind wants to perceive itself as the innocent victim of attack coming from outside itself, so it projects. It sees itself attacked and attacks in self defense.
All my thoughts are about the past, which has no existence. My mind is therefore blank but apparently busy. My mind keeps busy in the dream, confirming its self concept and blocking against the truth.
My solution is to forgive: to stop, to look at my perceptions, and to realize they are the false effects of a false cause. I call to the Holy Spirit to get me out of this illusory loop of time.
These thoughts are my reflections on David Hoffmeister’s Reversing Effect and Cause .
Tags: Ego Forgiveness
Heal Thyself
A Summary of the Psychotherapy Supplement
Apr 06th, 2009
The aim of psychotherapy is to aid you to abandon your fixed delusional system, and to reconsider the false cause and effect relationships on which it rests. A change in your perception of interpersonal relationships enables you to begin to question your reality. You invite the Holy Spirit to enter into the relationship.
The "self," which can attack and be attacked is a concept you made up. You must begin to change it. You must become willing to reverse your thinking, and to understand that the people and events you thought affected you were made by your [unconscious] projections on the world. The world you see therefore does not exist. Yet you are perceiving your projections as real, and using them as the basis for judging and condemning other people as guilty. Your belief that they are guilty justifies your angry thoughts about them. P-1.in. The belief that anger brings you something you really want, and that by justifying your attack thoughts you are protecting yourself is a fundamental error. P-2.in.
Healing/salvation can be found only in relationships. P-2.in. It is necessary to teach forgiveness rather than condemnation in your relationships. You must share one goal with someone else, and in so doing, lose all sense of separate interests. Be still and recognize your brother's need [to be seen as innocent] is your own. Then meet your brother's need as yours and see that they are met as one, for such they are. P-2.II. Meet attack without attack, and therefore without defense. Demonstrate that defenses are not necessary, and that defenselessness is strength. Teach that guilt is unreal and cannot be justified. Relieve the mind of the insane burden of guilt it carries so wearily, and healing is accomplished. P-2.IV.
Nothing in the world is holier than helping one who asks for help. A brother seeking aid can bring us gifts beyond the heights perceived in any dream. He offers us salvation, for he comes to us as Christ and Savior. What he asks is asked by God through him. And what we do for him becomes the gift we give to God. The sacred calling of God's holy Son for help in his perceived distress can be but answered by his Father. Yet He needs a voice through which to speak His holy Word. You are that voice. Ask the Holy Spirit for help. And He will send His Answer through you. Help your brother to forgive himself for all the trespasses with which he would condemn himself without a cause. His healing is your own. And as you see the sinlessness in him come shining through the veil of guilt that shrouds the Son of God, you will behold in him the face of Christ, and understand that it is but your own. Hear a brother call for help and answer him. It will be God to Whom you answer, for you called on Him. There is no other way to hear His Voice. P-2.V.
You see in your brother all that you have not forgiven in yourself, and are thus given another chance to look at it, open it to re-evaluation and forgive it. When this occurs, you see your sins as gone into a past that is no longer here. Your brother is your screen for the projection of your sins, enabling you to let them go. P-2.VI.
Do not demand, do not decide, do not sacrifice. Listen. The Holy Spirit’s help will be sent in whatever form is most helpful; a name, a thought, a picture, an idea, or perhaps just a feeling of reaching out to someone somewhere. The joining is in the hands of the Holy Spirit. It cannot fail to be accomplished. P-3.I.
It is in the instant that you forget to judge your brother that healing occurs and you recognize the equality of yourself and your brother. P-3.II.
Tags: Ego Forgiveness Self
The Course is Simple
The Focus is on Relationship
Apr 05th, 2009
Forgiveness, the central practice of A Course in Miracles , has three basic steps, and you are only responsible for initiating the first two.
The Course is a big book, however, because considerable learning and unlearning is needed for you to really understand these preliminaries:
- What you are (spirit)
- How you are currently thinking (the ego dream) and
- How you would rather think (your real thoughts with God)
You must come to genuinely desire this major change of mind, which requires developing trust in the Holy Spirit as you give up what you think you know and your “personal” control.
The special relationship is the crucible where your thought impurities can be transformed.
In this context, the three working steps to practice again and again are:
Tags: Forgiveness
