The World is Fake
Parts Never Make the Whole
Aug 28th, 2009
Excerpted from David Hoffmeister’s presentation at a Camp for Miracles
The world you made is fake; don’t fool yourself about it and forget that it’s fake. This whole journey is about undoing your judgments, your preferences and your thoughts about what is good and bad. “Trust would settle every problem now.” T-26.VIII.2:3 You really have to fully understand that you do not have any problems now. You don’t have relationship problems, health issues or financial concerns. Keep your mind riveted on the purpose of forgiveness. That is just seeing the false as false. All are equally false. In order to awaken you have to see that illusions are one. They seem to take many forms, but behind the appearances there’s just one error. Do not be tricked by that error; do not make an exception. Learn to just give and not expect anything in return, both in terms of money and psychologically. Give freely as God gives.
Tags: Awakening Ego Forgiveness Judgment
A Course in Cause and Not Effect
T-21.VII.7:8
Aug 25th, 2009
This is a course in how to know yourself. You have been very careful not to see the real cause and effect relationship that is perfectly apparent. What can it be that has not learned it? It must be this part that is really outside yourself, not by your own projection, but in truth. [Ego] T-16.III.4
The ego has kept you from understanding who you really are and from understanding real cause and effect.
Guilt Underlies the World
Not physics
Aug 24th, 2009
The illusion of the world does not rest on any laws of physics. The illusion of the world rests on the guilt in my mind, which stems from a false belief.
The circle of fear lies just below the level the body sees, and seems to be the whole foundation on which the world is based. Here are all the illusions, all the twisted thoughts, all the insane attacks, the fury, the vengeance and betrayal that were made to keep the guilt in place, so that the world could rise from it and keep it hidden. Its shadow rises to the surface, enough to hold its most external manifestations in darkness, and to bring despair and loneliness to it and keep it joyless. Yet its intensity is veiled by its heavy coverings, and kept apart from what was made to keep it hidden. The body cannot see this, for the body arose from this for its protection, which depends on keeping it not seen. The body's eyes will never look on it. Yet they will see what it dictates. T-18.IX.4
Undoing the World
Take a quantum leap
Aug 23rd, 2009
I have chosen God’s plan for salvation, which consists of undoing my various beliefs in the world. I mainly do this experientially by forgiving.
Reading about quantum physics has also recently been helpful. It teaches me that my core assumptions about matter, space and time are indeed false. In fact, matter, space and time have no objective existence. They only exist subjectively in my ego mind as long as I choose to make images and judge them.
Tags: Forgiveness Time
Reason Brings Vision
In Holy Relationship attack is impossible
Aug 22nd, 2009
The body's eyes see only form. They were made to look on error and not see past it. They can see only illusions. Everything the body's eyes can see is a mistake, an error in perception, a distorted fragment of the whole without the meaning that the whole would give. And yet mistakes, regardless of their form, can be corrected. T-22.III.4-5
My Reason Brings Me Vision
Reason sees through errors, telling you what you thought was real is not. Reason can see the difference between sin and mistakes, because it wants correction. Therefore, it tells you what you thought was uncorrectable can be corrected, and thus it must have been an error. Reason's goal is to make plain, and therefore obvious. You can see reason. This is not a play on words, for here is the beginning of a vision that has meaning. Vision is sense, quite literally. If it is not the body's sight, it must be understood. For it is plain, and what is obvious is not ambiguous. It can be understood. Reason sees a holy relationship as what it is; a common state of mind, where both give errors gladly to correction, that both may happily be healed as one. All you need do to dwell in quiet here with Christ is share His vision. Quickly and gladly is His vision given anyone who is but willing to see his brother sinless. God rests with you in quiet, undefended and wholly undefending, for in this quiet state alone is strength and power. Here can no weakness enter, for here is no attack and therefore no illusions. Love rests in certainty. T-22.II-III
Tags: Judgment Light Relationships Vision
Fear of Redemption
Guilt continued
Aug 21st, 2009
Why do I, the Son of God, insist on keeping a false identity and hiding in a dream state? Looking at the resistance Jesus Christ faced in the world (collective ego resistance) can help me identify the false beliefs repressed in my mind that trap me here.
At the time of Jesus everyone believed that redemption required sacrifice. This was so deeply engrained that the people reinterpreted Jesus’ demonstration of eternal life and made it a story of God sacrificing his only Son for their sins. I believe God wants to kill me for the sin of separation and I do not want to pay the price of sacrifice.
Guilt
The problem
Aug 20th, 2009
In the unholy instant I believed myself guilty of the horrendous sin of separating from God. In a desperate attempt to escape punishment I repressed my memory of God and
1) made a world of billions of people in which to hide.
2) turned my mind over to the ego thought system.
Twelve ACIM Steps
Loosely paralleling the AA model
Aug 18th, 2009
1) I admit I am powerless over my perception—that my life has become unmanageable.
- My thoughts are images that I have made. W-15
- I do not perceive my own best interests. W-24
- I do not know what anything is for. W-25
- I am not a body. W-84
- There is no world. W-132
2) I trust in God and His Communication Link, the Holy Spirit, to restore me to sanity.
Tags: Awakening Forgiveness
Quantum Physics
Basics and some implications
Aug 12th, 2009
When you see a star at night what is really going on? Newton would answer that you are seeing the star. Einstein would say that you are seeing the star as it was in a past epoch, since light travels with finite velocity and takes time to cross space; to see the star "as it is right now" has no meaning since there is no way to make such an observation.
A quantum philosopher, however, would answer that you are not seeing the star at all. The star sets up a condition that extends throughout space and time--an electromagnetic field. What you "see" as a star, is actually the result of a quantum interaction between the local field and the retina of your eye. Energy is being absorbed from the field by your eye, and the local field is being modified as a result. You can interpret your observation as pertaining to a distant object if you wish, or concentrate strictly on local field effects.
Tags: News
What I Want
I forgive now
Aug 10th, 2009
The thoughts I think I think are meaningless.
I am not a body, not a person. There is no world.
I am a prisoner holding my brothers captive.
I have been mistaken about everything.
But now I change my mind; I choose my right mind.
My mind is part of God’s, I am very holy.
I am God’s Son, complete and healed and whole, shining in the reflection of his Love.
To awaken, I follow God’s plan: I forgive
I become aware that I am dreaming.
The images are nothing but wrong-minded projections of mistaken guilt.
There is nothing for me to value in the world.
I want the peace of God.
I ask the Holy Spirit to decide for God for me.
Tags: Forgiveness
Miracles and Forgiveness
How are they related?
Aug 07th, 2009
I have been thinking about the nature of the relationship between forgiveness and miracles. In looking through the Course I came across some helpful sentences. For example, "A miracle stands for what is past forgiveness and is true." T-27.VI.6:2
I put a number of these helpful ideas on an Ego, Forgiveness, Miracles chart and uploaded it as a PDF. This chart is a further development of the Five Levels of Mind chart I posted a while back.
Tags: Ego Forgiveness Miracle
Instrument for Peace
How I used it today
Aug 05th, 2009
The Instrument for Peace is a two-page, fill-in-the-blank document that David Hoffmeister made to make it easier for students to shift their thinking about cause and effect regarding upsetting situations. Filling it out helps you see that what you perceive outside yourself is the result of your own fearful beliefs. When you see that this is indeed the case, and that your fearful beliefs are false, the situation is no longer upsetting.
Here is the link to the Intrument for Peace I just completed.
Tags: Ego Forgiveness Guilt
Awaken Through Music
Song lyrics and source for downloads
Aug 04th, 2009
I carry these personal favorite songs on my i-pod and listen frequently. They help me stay joyful and in the experience of my spirit Self.
Here is a Word doc of lyrics with a link to the source for MP3 files.
Tags: Awakening
Forgiveness - What The Preface Says
ACIM
Aug 03rd, 2009
We must learn to forgive all evil, destruction, malice, envy and despair because what we are seeing is not true. We have distorted the world by our twisted defenses. As we learn to recognize our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past them or “forgive.” Forgiveness is the Holy Spirit’s great learning aid. We look inside first, decide that kind of world we want to see, and then project that world outside, making it the truth as we see it. The Holy Spirit transforms relationships into perfect lessons in forgiveness and in awakening from the dream. In this world, forgiveness is a necessary correction for all the mistakes we have made. To offer forgiveness is the only way to have it. Through forgivingness the thinking of the world is reversed. The forgiven world becomes the gate to Heaven.
Tags: Forgiveness
Forgiveness - What The Text Says
ACIM
Aug 03rd, 2009
The emptiness engendered by fear must be replaced by forgiveness. That is what the Bible means by "There is no death," and why I could demonstrate that death does not exist. T-1.IV.4.
You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness. T-1.VI.1.
Miracle-minded forgiveness is only correction. It has no element of judgment at all. The statement "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" in no way evaluates what they do. T-2.V.A.16.
Prayer is a way of asking for something. It is the medium of miracles. But the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything. T-3.V.6.
Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation. T-3.V.9.
Tags: Forgiveness
Forgiveness - What The Workbook Says
ACIM
Aug 03rd, 2009
I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts. The idea for today introduces the thought that you are not trapped in the world you see, because its cause can be changed. This change requires, first, that the cause be identified and then let go, so that it can be replaced. The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. The final one does not. Your images have already been replaced. W-23
God is the Love in which I forgive. God does not forgive because He has never condemned. And there must be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary. Forgiveness is the great need of this world, but that is because it is a world of illusions. Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions, while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them. As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself.
Yet although God does not forgive, His Love is nevertheless the basis of forgiveness. Fear condemns and love forgives. Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced, returning the mind to the awareness of God. For this reason, forgiveness can truly be called salvation. It is the means by which illusions disappear. It is your forgiveness that will bring the world of darkness to the light. W-46
Tags: Forgiveness
Forgiveness - Clarification of Terms
ACIM
Aug 03rd, 2009
The miracle forgives; the ego damns. C-2.
Forgiveness is an illusion, but because of its purpose, which is the Holy Spirit's, it leads away from error and not towards it. Forgiveness might be called a kind of happy fiction; a way in which the unknowing can bridge the gap between their perception and the truth. They cannot go directly from perception to knowledge because they do not think it is their will to do so. This makes God appear to be an enemy instead of what He really is. And it is just this insane perception that makes them unwilling merely to rise up and to return to Him in peace.
And so they need an illusion of help because they are helpless; a Thought of peace because they are in conflict. God knows what His Son needs before he asks. He is not at all concerned with form, but having given the content it is His Will that it be understood. And that suffices. The form adapts itself to need; the content is unchanging, as eternal as its Creator.
The face of Christ has to be seen before the memory of God can return. The face of Christ is the great symbol of forgiveness. Whoever looks on this no longer sees the world. It is the bridge to Heaven. C-3
Tags: Forgiveness
Five Love Poems
By Rumi, 13th C Persian mystic
Aug 01st, 2009
You Come To Us
You come to us
from another world
From beyond the stars
and void of space.
Transcendent, Pure,
Of unimaginable beauty,
Bringing with you
the essence of love
Tags: Love
