ACFIP Newsletter 

Issue 50  September 2016

Quarterly Newsletter of the Australian Centre for Inner Peace

 

 

 

Michael Dawson

PO Box 125, Point Lookout

North Stradbroke Island,

Queensland 4183,

Australia

 

Email: mdawson@acfip.org  

Web site: http://www.acfip.org

 

 

 

If you wish to read previous issues please go to http://www.acfip.org/newsletterarchive.html.

 

If your email address ends with .au I put your address on my Australian list for advance notice of workshops I am giving in Australia. If you do not want to be on this list please let me know. If you reside in Australia and want to be on this list, but you address does not end in .au, please email me and I will include it.

 

If you are new to the Course you might find my summaries of help.

You can find them at http://www.acfip.org/sum.html and http://www.acfip.org/art4.html

 

eBooks and MP3s

1. Healing the Cause -A Path of Forgiveness.

Inspired by A Course in Miracles.

This is the eBook version of the paper back.

 

2. A Course in Miracles - Explanations of Major Themes

New book in eBook format

 

3. Forgiveness - A Path to Inner Peace. 

Inspired by A Course in Miracles

This is the eBook version of the paper back.

 

The eBook versions can be read on Kindle, iPad, Microsoft eReader, Nook, PDF readers (Mac and PC) and most eBook readers.

 

¥ Downloadable MP3s of my Healing the Cause self-help CDs now available.

See below for details.

 

For more details and how to purchase please visit: http://www.acfip.org/books_tapes.html

 

Regards 

 

Michael Dawson

 

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CONTENTS:

 

 

A Course in Miracles Material

 

* Asking for Help - part 2 of 2 - Michael Dawson

 

 

Non Dual Teachings

 

* Enza Vita - Waking Up From The Story Of Our Life

* AdyashantiÕs First Awakening - the end of striving

* The Human Condition by Jan Frazier

* The ÒI AmÓ Approach to Awakening - Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

 

Other

 

* Workshops

* Books and Audio Materials for Sale

* Links

* Inspirational Quotations

 

 

 

A Course in Miracles Material

 

 

       Chapter 6 - Asking for Help - Part 2 of 2

Reprinted from Healing the Cause by Michael Dawson

 

      

        

       To pray to God to heal others implies that there is a God who is unaware of the suffering of His children and through our petition we can win a special favour from Him. Thus we create a God who can be persuaded to heal some people whilst forgetting or neglecting the suffering of others. The Course teaches that God loves all his children equally and created the Holy Spirit to bring us all back to Him. Everyone has equal access to the healing power of the Holy Spirit if we would only invite His help. He is aware of everyone and does not need our petitions.

       We might think that it would help to send light to another or to some trouble spot on the planet. However, this would only reinforce the reality of the egoÕs world of form. If we see darkness in the world it is because we see darkness in our own mind, and this is where the light is needed. As the Course states, ". . . Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world." (T415: T-21.Intro.1:7)

       The Psychotherapy pamphlet does state that we need not be physically present to help others and that "they will be sent in whatever form is most helpful; a name, a thought, a picture, an idea, or perhaps a feeling of reaching out to someone somewhere." (P17; P-3.I.3:8) It is the Holy Spirit who ÔsendsÕ people to us to join with and not we who direct His healing ministry. 

       From here our prayers move to asking how to forgive ourselves so we may know that all has already been given to us by God. Finally, our prayer returns to what it once was before the separation seemed to happen Ñ a song of love and thanks between God and His creation.

        

        

       All Our Prayers Are Answered

        

       The Course tells us that all our prayers are answered but how they are answered depends on whom we pray to in the first place Ñ the ego or the Holy Spirit. (See M 51; M-21.2,3) If we pray to the ego for things of the egoÕs world, we may or may not receive them depending upon our ability to manifest on a psychic level, but we will always receive the experience of the egoÕs world which is sin, guilt and fear. For example, we may manifest the money we think we need and temporarily feel happy, but we continue to fear that it may not be enough for our future needs, or we may lose it or have it stolen, or we feel guilty about where the money came from. In this way our prayers to the ego maintain and reinforce its presence in our mind. 

       Some years ago I watched a short story on television called ÔThe MonkeyÕs PawÕ which illustrated that we do not know our own best interests. One day a traveller knocked on the door of an elderly couple and asked them for help. In return for their kindness he gave them a gift of a monkeyÕs paw telling them it could bestow on them three wishes. For their first wish they asked for a large sum of money. It was not long after they had made their wish that they heard another knock on their door. On opening the door they found a representative from an insurance company who told them that their son had been killed at his place of work. There had been a dreadful accident and he had got caught in a machine. He then handed the couple a cheque which was the firmÕs compensation for their sonÕs death. When they opened it they found it was for the exact sum they had prayed for. Overcome by the horror of what had happened, the couple made a second wish and asked for their son to be returned to them. Soon there was another knock on the door. What they saw when they opened the door made them recoil in terror. Their son had returned but his body was horribly mangled by the accident. The parents slammed the door closed and, taking the monkeyÕs paw for the last time, wished their son to be dead again.

       If we direct our prayers towards the Holy Spirit, we shall receive his gifts of peace, joy and forgiveness. True prayer is not concerned with the world of form (effect) but with attaining peace in our mind (cause). If you find yourself at the end of a long queue waiting to buy a ticket for a bus you know will be leaving shortly, you have a choice of to whom to pray. You may ask the Holy Spirit to delay the bus or make the queue move faster, or you could ask the Holy Spirit to show you how to be at peace in this situation.

       The first prayer is to the ego, for you are asking for change at the level of form. In the case of the second prayer, if it is genuinely meant, the Holy Spirit has been invited into your mind and will bring His gift of peace, which will not depend on whether you eventually catch the bus or not. It may not be for your highest good to catch that bus; you cannot know this but the Holy Spirit does. 

       In our desire to form a special relationship with the Holy Spirit, it is easy to fall into the trap that He does things in our lives. Figure 6.27 uses the analogy of a lighthouse to illustrate how the Holy Spirit acts in our lives. 

 

 

 

       One shipÕs captain feels so sure in his own knowledge of the correct course to take that he does not check to see if there is a lighthouse in the vicinity. His ship takes a dangerous course and finally runs aground and sinks. The other captain is open to receiving help and actively looks for the lighthouse and then navigates with its assistance. He changes course and proceeds safely with his journey. In both examples the lighthouse did not do anything. It did not push one ship onto the rocks because the captain would not listen to it, nor force the other ship onto a safe course to reward the captainÕs faith.

       The quotation in Figure 6.2 tells us that the presence of the Holy SpiritÕs love and light in our mind is a reminder of another way of being. Whether we follow that way or not has no effect on the Holy Spirit Ñ He just continues to shine. The Holy Spirit does not order, command or demand anything of us. Nor does He overcome the obstacles on our path. He simply reminds us that there is another way of being. If we forgive, the obstacles will no longer be there. The form of the problem may still be there Ñ for example our car may still not start Ñ but now we will be at peace with it. The problem never was the faulty car but the hidden guilt that was triggered in us when it failed to start. The Workbook states it this way: "I am never upset for the reason I think." (Lesson 5) In every situation the Holy Spirit reminds us that there is always another way of looking at a problem that will bring us peace. "Choose again" the Course counsels us and have "a little willingness" to invite the Holy Spirit to help us. 

       From our perspective it may often feel as if the Holy Spirit comes and goes in our lives. One moment we feel His presence, only to feel deserted by Him in the next. The truth is that we are the ones who decide to come close and then move away. 

        

       The Holy Spirit will, of Himself, fill every mind that so makes room for Him . . . If you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen. That you do listen to the voice of your ego is demonstrated by your attitudes, your feelings and your behaviour. 

       (T278; T-14.XI.13:6; T57; T-4.IV.1:1-2)

        

       To feel the presence of the Holy Spirit is terrifying to our ego for it will dissolve in the Holy SpiritÕs presence. We feel we can only take so much love and light and then we need to return to the secure darkness of our ego. However, the light of the Holy Spirit continues to shine unaffected in our mind, awaiting with infinite patience our next call for His help. (See Figure 6.3.)

 

 

        

 

       Summary

        

       The Song of Prayer pamphlet uses the analogy of a ladder to illustrate our progression in the use of prayer. At the bottom of the ladder are prayers to entreat. Unaware we have already been given everything by God, our inherent sense of sin and guilt tells us we have something lacking in us (the scarcity principle). No longer aware of GodÕs love for us, we translate this lack into material needs. We pray to God to give us the things we think we need Ñ for example, money, healing for our bodies, etc. We believe these things can bring us peace, forgetting that the very form of this prayer reinforces our feeling that we are lacking certain things and that the answer to our needs lies outside our mind. We notice that some people are very good at manifesting parking places, money or self-healing and think they have the secret of prayer. We forget the enormous power of our mind and that some people have learned to do this. We are tempted to think that the Holy Spirit brings these gifts, not realising "the Holy Spirit is not concerned with form, being aware only of meaning". (T151;T-9.I.10:4) But these psychic powers do not bring peace. We are continually tempted to pray for specific things and thus restrict the answer within the limits we have set up. 

       All our prayers are answered depending on whom we pray to. Ego-based prayers for things of this world are answered by experiences of the egoÕs world Ñ some form of guilt and fear. We may actually get the form of what we pray for but in so doing we maintain our focus on externals, reinforce the world of separation and thus maintain our feelings of guilt and our belief in the ego. The Course reminds us that ". . . the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything". (T40; T-3.V.6:3) 

       The Holy Spirit is not interested in getting rid of our problems (ego prayers) but in showing us what to do to be at peace with the challenges in our lives. As we let Him teach us to forgive, we will undo the guilt we carry which blocks us from knowing that we have everything already. At the top of the ladder of prayer we realise we have no needs and prayer turns back into the original form it had before the separation seemed to happen. This form is a song of thanks to and from our Creator, sung without thoughts, desires or needs.

 

 

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Non Dual Teachings

 

This part of the newsletter offers input from non-dual teachers. What is non-duality? The word Ônon-dualÕ means not two. On the first page of the ACIM text there is two line summary of a Course in Miracles. It begins with the line ÒNothing real can be threatened

This refers to what God created Ð eternal, formless, spirit. Eternal means never born and therefore cannot change or die. The Course uses the expression Ôthe ChristÕ to denote this. Behind all the seeming multiplicity of the universe there is actually only one essential reality. Just as all the images on the cinema screen seem different, the light that creates them is one.

 

There is nothing outside you. That is what you must ultimately learn, for it is the realization that the Kingdom of Heaven is restored to you. For God created only this, and He did not depart from it nor leave it separate from Himself. The Kingdom of Heaven is the dwelling place of the Son of God, who left not his Father and dwells not apart from Him. Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within.

T-18.VI.1.      

 

The second line of the summary states ÓNothing unreal exists.Ó This refers to everything that is born and therefore dies - the egoÕs world. Thus everything in the universe including ourselves is not real according to the Course. It is like a great dream. Only perfect oneness is real. 

 

There are two forms of non-duality Ð pure and impure. In the impure form God is aware that the universe is a dream and experiences itself through it - God's Leela or play as they say in the East. In the pure form of non-duality God is unaware of the universe. The Course is an example of pure non-dual teachings. A metaphor for this is a cinema projector where the lamp in the projector represents God. When the ego's film of separation is run past the light it is projected onto the screen of time and space. The light of God makes this possible, but the lamp is unaware of what is on the screen and would continue to shine when the film is taken away. To continue with this metaphor the light extending from the lamp is who we are, the Christ. ( See chart http://acfip.org/lightbulb.html)

 

You dwell not here, but in eternity.

You travel but in dreams, while safe at home. 

T-13.VII.17:6-7.

 

You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awaking to reality. 

T-10.I.2:1.

 

 

_________________________________________________

 

 

Waking Up From The Story Of Our Life - Enza Vita (from her Facebook page)

 

If we truly knew that there is nothing we can do to become enlightened, what would we do?

 

Some teachers tell us to Òbe in the NOWÕ or to ÒsurrenderÓ but what does this truly mean?

ÒJust leap into the unknownÓ some others say. More good advice because that IS the process, but where exactly do we leap from?

 

Enlightenment is awakening from the dream of being the separate person within awareness, to being awareness itself and so the surrender that is often spoken about is the letting go of ideas and concepts that we take as real. But because we donÕt know what our existence will be like without those things, usually there is a great deal of fear involved in this letting go. 

 

All I can tell you is that, the surrender of the self, doesnÕt lead to oblivion but to the Light we already are, radiating so brilliantly that all the ideas we have of ourselves are burned out from our sight. 

 

If we have full trust that we are already That and our mind is calm and peaceful, we just focus our attention inward, take a deep breath and just let it all be.

 

If our mind is restless and full of thoughts, we try asking ourselves Òwho am I?Ó. This question will lead us to the witness position and at this point we hold the view of awareness taking itself as an object until awareness turns back on itself.

 

At first this may last only a few minutes or seconds but if we keep going back to that space over and over again, eventually this becomes our default position. 

 

By familiarizing ourselves with this understanding again and again, it eventually transforms into direct experience but we donÕt stop here because even experience is not very stable in the worlds of time and space. We can become confused again by getting caught up in our thoughts and emotions once more and so we need to keep going with our practice until our experience transforms into a deep realization that can never be lost. 

 

What is the difference between experience and realization?

 

The experience is when you experience being awareness. 

Realization is when you experience nothing else.

 

 

Enza Vita has published an excellent book on awakening entitled

Always Already Free

 

 

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AdyashantiÕs First Awakening - the end of striving.

 

From:

Conscious TV -Adyashanti РAwakening

Interview with Renate McNay

http://conscious.tv/text/78.htm

 

Adya:  (I was) very, very driven.  And that capacity had really served me in life, not only in athletics but growing up as a child I had learning disabilities Ð dyslexia Ð and I learned if I just decided I was going to learn something and just put all my willpower behind it, I could do it.  So it was something that really worked for me and so I just transferred that willpower into my spiritual seeking.

 

É. So, anyway, one day I had this real intensity and I sit down to meditate and I just have this feeling of Òthis is it.  I'm really going to somehow do it.Ó  And I sat down and it was like all my will just focussed, within a couple of minutes, I focussed like IÕd never focussed and right at that moment I had an insight, which was, ÒI canÕt do this.Ó  It wasnÕt a great insight, it was like complete defeat, just utter, devastating defeat.  Like Ònot only can I not do this, this will never happen, this isÉ IÕm defeated.Ó  And as soon as I had that sense, ÒI'm defeated, I can not do this.Ó  This immense sort of opening happened.

Renate:  So when you said, ÒI cannot do that anymoreÓ meaning the meditationÉ

Adya:  The whole thing.

Renate:  ...the whole thing, the search...

Adya:  The spiritual search, the enlightenment, the whole project.  I just met like this wall that IÕd been pushing and pushing and pushing on and I was defeated by it Ðintellectually, emotionally, physically even Ð energetically, I was just completely defeated.

Renate:  SoÉ?

Adya:  And as soon as I was defeated, in the next instantÉ it started out as an energetic thing, I guess they would call it nowadays a Kundalini experience and I felt this immense rush of energy and started breathing quite heavily and my heart started to beat; boom, boom, boom.

Renate:  Were you on your own?  

Adya:  IÕm just sitting there meditating in my little meditation hut in my parentsÕ backyard.  And having been an athlete, I knew what my maximum heart rate felt like, I knew what a heart rate of around two hundred felt like and my heart was beating way faster than that and there was so much energy, the heart was beating, it felt like my heart was going to explode, I was breathing hard and yet, I'm sitting there meditating, you know.  I canÕt move and I just had a thought Òthis is gonna kill meÓ and the next thought I had Ð when I knew it was gonna kill me Ð the next thought I had was Òif thatÕs what it takes, letÕs get it over with.Ó  And it wasnÕt like a courageous thought, it wasnÕt like a masculine, fearless, Òokay IÕll do it,Ó it was just a very simple Òokay, IÕll die.  IÕll die right here, right now, IÕll let my heart explode.  I won't move off this cushion, I won't go anywhere.Ó  And I really thought I was gonna die, one hundred per cent.  As soon as I thought Ôokay, IÕll die nowÓ all of a sudden, I was instantly in a different Ð I donÕt even know what to call it Ð instant different dimension.  I wasnÕt aware of my body anymore, absolute darkness, total infinity of black and I wasnÕt even there anymore.  It was just this infinite, open, sort of black space and after a while, what I could feel was there was like these insights coming, almost being downloaded through the top of my head into my body, like a computer program was being downloaded.

 

From:

Conscious TV -Adyashanti РAwakening

Interview with Renate McNay

 

read the full interview at:

http://conscious.tv/text/78.htm

 

 

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The Human Condition by Jan Frazer

from Freedom of Being

Of human nature, two things can be said:

 

1.(1) We are free.

2.(2) We do not realize it.

Free: able to be in the presence of anything, any condition, and to be unchanged by it. Purely content, at ease. Like an open window, the breeze blowing in and back out again. All of it (everything that happens) comes and goes, even the close-up things, and inside, the stillness does not waver. Free means living as pure awarenessÑawareness that's only secondarily a person.

 

What We Don't Know

We are free, and we don't know it. It feels the furthest thing from possible, that it could be so. We'd swear we're at the mercy of what goes wrong, what goes right.

And yet (here is the truth), freedom is right here. So far away, it seems, but right here. Even as you could spend your whole life chasing it down, you have the scent of it on you all the while.

The perfection is right alongside the mess, intimate with the misaligned mini-disaster that life appears to be. Close as the breath that's moving in you right now.

Sometimes you get a whiff of it on the wind. A scrap of a melody playing in the distance, beyond what you're otherwise paying attention to (some useless thing or other).

You could be done with suffering. The thing with no longing, that does not know fear, moves as you move. It asks no act of forgiveness or understanding, nor healing or mastery. It's just here: real as rock, air, dirt. It doesn't await you later. It's not outside you, or in spite of you. You are it. It's so close you cannot see it. You look through its eyes at the world around you.

You could let go of what's hobbled you all your life. Something could shift. Let yourself know that it could be otherwise. You think you need to limit yourself with ideas of how-itÕs been, what-seems-likely. You don't.

Your essential nature will wait forever for you to noticeÑ you that insist on averting your eyes; you, so full of misplaced longing, managing to invent difficulty, drowning in perpetually unmet desire for something you think will take away the pain. Some flimsy thing.

When this thing seizes you in its teeth and takes you over, when you become that, and all the rest of what seemed real is obliterated, then you will look at who-you-were and feel a terrible poignancy. Such pointless aching.

See how a mother lion carries her young. How she grasps the skin at the back of its neck with her glistening teeth that slaughter, how she holds it and will not let go? This is how it is. This is what attends you.

Once you see, you're shocked to discover it was here all along. That all the while you looked for it, you'd been pushing it to the side so you could look behind it to see if you could find it.

Somebody who tells the truth about this doesn't do it expecting that now it will become perfectly obvious that you already have what you're looking for. (We'd all wish for it to work that way.)

No, when someone tells the truth, it's so you'll stop looking elsewhere than the sound of your pulse in your ears, the crash of a dish hitting the floor.

And for goodness sake, don't expect to find it in the grave.

The news that it's as close as the taste of the inside of your own mouth is supposed to be encouraging. Stop expecting to find it out there. Elsewhere, later. It is the looker. It is the looking.

Do you think these are just words chasing their own tails?

Discovering the truth about yourself is like cutting yourself for the first time, encountering that sticky red, and realizing it was there all the time. Put your tongue to it. Taste it.

To one longing to know the delicious freedom, it seems this state must be on the other side of the world, lifetimes away. People talk themselves into the idea that it's remote, can never be gotten to, because they know how seldom it's realized, put on and worn, like a garment. It must be hard to find, or else more would.

Being told this reality is in plain sight can be perfectly maddening. To want the luxury of it, to be told it's possibleÑto hear it's underneath your skinÑyet you cannot touch it.

But there it is.

Why would one who knows lie about this? Would a story about great distance be consoling?

Hearing of the exquisite proximity doesn't mean you automatically get to feel it in your fingers. Just because it doesn't happen on your schedule of wanting doesn't mean it isn't here.

It is, you see, a matter of perspective. The fact doesn't change. It's the looking that changes. Once you see, you realize truth always was just on the other side of a tissue-paper wall, dying for a rupture, a flame.

 

All the Same

Another thing that can be said about human nature is that we're all alike. (What mental static that starts up.)

We're the same as one another, on the level of each of our ÒselvesÓ: the conditioned, egoic one, as well as the self that's awake, free, condition-less.

As formless essence, each person (indeed, all of existence) is pure, undifferentiated being. Awakened presence doesn't experience identity or imperfection.

Not everyone encountering this idea will believe it to be true. Many will dismiss it as wishful thinking. Even spiritual seekers (supposed to Òknow betterÓ) may find it hard to believe they already are what they seek.

Still, the notion that causeless joy is universally innate is doubtlessly pleasing. What's not so welcome is the idea that we're also essentially indistinct on the level of our familiar selves.

How the ego (convinced of its uniqueness and value) balks at this proposition. Yet we are universally susceptible to conditioning. We believe we are what the mind says we are. We're all subject to our given circumstances, prone to identify with our thoughts, protective of our (quirkily unique) egoic selves.

We also share a constitutional ignorance of our essential freedom.

For a seeker of the truth, what's worthier of attention than a person's distinguishing features (vastly more) is our existential sameness. Which is to say, the human condition.

No matter the apparent differences, all (alas) are in the same boat. The sooner you shift attention from the particulars (as if they were the problem) and onto the overwhelming impression that your thoughts are reliable indicators of reality, the sooner something significant can change.

 

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 The ÒI AmÓ Approach to Awakening - Nisargadatta Maharaj

from ÒI Am That"

 

¥ The sense of ÔI amÕ is your own. You cannot part with it, but you can impart it to anything, as in saying: I am young, I am rich etc. But such self-identifications are patently false and the cause of bondage. p.65 (Page numbers refer to first edition)

¥ I trusted my Guru..........He told me to concentrate on ÒI AmÓ - I did. He told me that I am beyond all perceivables and conceivables - I believed. I gave him my heart and soul, my entire attention and the whole of my spare time (I had to work to keep my family alive). As a result of faith and earnest application, I realised my self within three years. p. 52

¥ My guru ordered me to attend to the sense ÔI AmÕ and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed, I did not follow any particular course of breathing or meditation, or study of scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn my attention from it and remain with the sense ÔI AmÕ....Keep empty, keep available, resist not what comes uninvited. In the end you reach a state of non-grasping, of joyful non-attachment, of inner ease and freedom, indescribable, yet wonderfully real. p.375

¥ Refuse all thoughts except one: the thought ÒI AmÓ. The mind will rebel in the beginning but with patience and perseverance it will yield and keep quiet. Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally, without any interference on your part.

¥ Just keep in mind the feeling ÒI AmÓ; merge in it, until your mind and feelings become one. By repeated attempts, you will stumble on the right balance of attention and affection and your mind will be firmly established in the thought-feeling ÒI AmÓ. Whatever you think, say or do, this sense of immutable and affectionate being remains as the ever- present background of the mind. p. 48

¥ The sense ÔI AmÕ is the manifestation of a deeper cause, which you may call Self, God, Reality or by any other name. The ÔI AmÕ is in the world; but its the key which can open the door out of the world.

¥....(do not) bother about anything you want, or think, or do and just stay put in the thought and feeling ÒI AmÓ focussing ÒI AmÓ firmly in your mind. All kinds of experience may come to you - remain unmoved in the knowledge that all perceivable is transient, and only the ÒI AmÓ endures.

¥The idea - ÒI Am the witness onlyÓ will purify the body and the mind and open the eye of wisdom.

¥ Give up all questions except one ÒWho am I?Ó p.70

¥ Be aware of that state which is only, simply being, without being this or that or the other.

¥Your own changelessness is so obvious that you do not notice it. p.199

¥Even the sense ÒI amÓ is composed of the pure light and the sense of being. The ÔIÕ is there even without the ÔamÕ. So is the pure light there whether you say ÕIÕ or not. Become aware of that pure light and you will never lose it. The beingness in being, the awareness in consciousness, the interest in every experience - that is not describable, yet perfectly accessible, for there is nothing else. p.201

¥First we must know ourselves as witnesses only, dimensionless and timeless centres of observation, and then realise that immense ocean of pure awareness which is both mind and matter and beyond both. p.205

¥I did not condition my mind by thinking: ÔI am God, I am wonderful, I am beyondÕ. I simply followed his instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being ÕI amÕ. and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with, nothing but the ÔI amÕ in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all - embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared - myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence. p.239

¥By being with yourself, the ÔI amÕ; by watching yourself in your daily life with alert interest, with the intention to understand rather than judge, in full acceptance of whatever may emerge, because it is there, you encourage the deep to come to the surface and enrich your life and consciousness with its captive energies. p.278

¥In the very beginning I was giving some attention and time to the sense ÔI amÕ, but only in the beginning. p.398

¥Q.Can it happen that the mind is clear and quiet and yet no reflection [of reality] appears? NM. There is destiny to consider. The unconscious is in the grip of destiny: it is destiny, in fact. One may have to wait. But however heavy may be the hand of destiny, it can be lifted by patience and self-control. Integrity and purity remove the obstacles and the vision of reality appears in the mind. p.399

¥Step back from action to consciousness, leave action to the body and the mind; it is their domain. Remain as pure witness, till even witnessing dissolves in the Supreme..... It is like washing printed cloth. First the design fades, then the background and in the end the cloth is white. The personality gives place to the witness, then the witness goes and pure awareness remains. p.401

¥As long as there is consciousness, its witness is also there. The two appear and disappear together. p.423

¥Keep the ÔI amÕ in focus of awareness, remember that you are, watch yourself ceaselessly and the unconscious will flow into the conscious without any special effort on your part. Wrong desires and fears, false ideas, social inhibitions are blocking and preventing its free interplay with the conscious. Once free to mingle, the two become one and the one becomes all. The person merges into the witness, the witness into awareness, awareness into pure being, yet identity is not lost. It is transfigured, and becomes the real Self, the eternal friend and guide. You cannot approach it in worship. No external activity can reach the inner self; worship and prayer remain on the surface only; to go deeper meditation is essential, the striving to go beyond the states of sleep, dream and waking. In the beginning the attempts are irregular, then they recur more often, become regular, then continuous and intense, until all obstacles are conquered. p.447

¥ÕI amÕ is a tiny seed which will grow into a mighty tree - quite naturally, without a trace of effort. p.510

 

______________________________________________________

 

PLEASE NOTE: The Australian Centre for Inner Peace is not a counselling or psychotherapy centre; therefore we do not offer telephone or email service or counselling, therapy, or crisis intervention for personal problems. 

Please see the Contacts section at the end of this newsletter.

___________________________________________________

 

 

Other

 

 

Forthcoming Workshops on A Course in Miracles

 

 

For up to date information on my workshops go to http://www.acfip.org/fws.html 

 

 

Germany 2017 Dates

 

 

 

Bonn - Sat 10 and Sun 11 June - 2017

10am to 6pm

 

 

Healing Ourselves and Others

from the perspective of A Course in Miracles 

 

Health Is Inner Peace....Health is the result of relinquishing all attempts to use the body lovelessly. 

 

The Holy Spirit is the only Therapist. He makes healing clear in any situation in which He is the Guide. You can only let Him fulfil His function. He needs no help for this. He will tell you exactly what to do to help anyone He sends to you for help, and will speak to him through you if you do not interfere. T-9.V.8:1-8

A Course in Miracles

 

Using the spiritual path of A Course in Miracles and its supplement - Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice - we will explore what true healing is: the return to our awareness of our spiritual identity. 

 

The cause of illness lies in the mind and not the body. By returning our awareness to the mind and forgiving the thought forms of judgement, attack and condemnation of ourselves and others we can return to a state of inner peace. The body will then return to a state of health.

 

To heal others, whether as a friend or as a psychotherapist, we need to learn to step aside and be guided in what to say and do . We need to remember ÒThe Holy Spirit is the only Therapist.Ó

 

 Practical exercises will be used to help understand the ego and its mechanisms of denial and projection. We will practise forgiveness and turning within for guidance.

 

Topics also included:

Healing ourselves

¥ Reasons for Sickness

¥ Special Hate and Love relationships

¥ The Process of Illness

¥ How is Healing Accomplished

¥ Forgiveness

¥ Resistance to healing

 

Healing others (teachings for everyone who desires to relieve suffering in others)

¥ The A Course in Miracles approach to healing others

¥ The differences between the healed and unhealed healer 

¥ Purpose of Psychotherapy

¥ The Process of Psychotherapy

¥ Role of the Psychotherapist

 

An overview of the Course's metaphysical, psychological and spiritual teachings especially in regard to healing of the mind, body and relationships will be covered. 

No previous knowledge of the book A Course in Miracles is required.   

 

 

An Evening Introductory Talk - Fri 9th June 2017

7.30pm to 9.30pm

 

 

Contact:

Albert-Schweitzer-Haus

Beethovenallee 16

Bonn 53173

tel: 0228 - 36 47 37

http://www.albert-schweitzer-haus-bonn.de

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Freiburg  2017 June

 

Fri 16,[6pm to 9pm] Sat 17 [10am to 6pm] and Sun 18 [10am to 5pm]

 

Healing Ourselves and Others

from the perspective of A Course in Miracles 

 

Health Is Inner Peace....Health is the result of relinquishing all attempts to use the body lovelessly. 

 

The Holy Spirit is the only Therapist. He makes healing clear in any situation in which He is the Guide. You can only let Him fulfil His function. He needs no help for this. He will tell you exactly what to do to help anyone He sends to you for help, and will speak to him through you if you do not interfere. T-9.V.8:1-8

A Course in Miracles

 

Using the spiritual path of A Course in Miracles and its supplement - Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice - we will explore what true healing is: the return to our awareness of our spiritual identity. 

 

The cause of illness lies in the mind and not the body. By returning our awareness to the mind and forgiving the thought forms of judgement, attack and condemnation of ourselves and others we can return to a state of inner peace. The body will then return to a state of health.

 

To heal others, whether as a friend or as a psychotherapist, we need to learn to step aside and be guided in what to say and do . We need to remember ÒThe Holy Spirit is the only Therapist.Ó

 

 Practical exercises will be used to help understand the ego and its mechanisms of denial and projection. We will practise forgiveness and turning within for guidance.

 

Topics also included:

Healing ourselves

¥ Reasons for Sickness

¥ Special Hate and Love relationships

¥ The Process of Illness

¥ How is Healing Accomplished

¥ Forgiveness

¥ Resistance to healing

 

Healing others (teachings for everyone who desires to relieve suffering in others)

¥ The A Course in Miracles approach to healing others

¥ The differences between the healed and unhealed healer 

¥ Purpose of Psychotherapy

¥ The Process of Psychotherapy

¥ Role of the Psychotherapist

 

An overview of the Course's metaphysical, psychological and spiritual teachings especially in regard to healing of the mind, body and relationships will be covered. 

No previous knowledge of the book A Course in Miracles is required.   

 

Contact:

Margarete Sennekamp

Winterhaldenweg 4,

79856 Hinterzarten,

Tel./Fax: 07652-917530

email: M.Sennekamp@t-online.de

www.Sophia-Institut.de

 

______________________________________________________

 

 

 

BOOKS AND AUDIO MATERIALS FOR SALE - by Michael Dawson

 

 

New teaching and healing materials - eBooks and downloadable MP3s:

 

Ebooks:

 

1. Healing the Cause -A Path of Forgiveness.

Inspired by A Course in Miracles.

This is the eBook version of the paper back.

 

2. A Course in Miracles - Explanations of Major Themes

New book in eBook format

 

3. Forgiveness - A Path to Inner Peace. 

Inspired by A Course in Miracles

This is the eBook version of the paper back.

 

The eBook versions can be read on Kindle, iPad, Microsoft eReader, Nook, PDF readers (Mac and PC) and most eBook readers.

For more details and how to purchase please visit: www.acfip.org/books_tapes.html

 

 

Downloadable Mp3s:

 

1. Healing the Cause: Self-Help Exercises 1

This MP3 contains the identical four exercises as the CD

 

2. Healing the Cause: Self-Help Exercises 2

This MP3 contains the identical four exercises as the CD

 

3. Healing the Cause: 3 Self-Help Exercises in English with German translation

This MP3 contains the identical three exercises as the CD

 

For more details and how to purchase please visit: http://www.acfip.org/books_tapes.html

 

 

Books:

 

Healing the Cause - A Path of Forgiveness.  Findhorn Press 1994

Also available in German, Romanian, French, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese.

 

The Findhorn Book of Forgiveness.  Findhorn Press. 2003

Also available in German, French, Polish and Romanian.

 

For more details and how to purchase please visit: http://www.acfip.org/books_tapes.html

 

MP3s (see above) and CDs:

 

Healing the Cause:

Since 1986 I have been conducting healing workshops in the UK and abroad, and have continually experimented to find healing and forgiveness exercises that are effective.  I have found that a particular exercise can be effective for one person but not another. Accordingly, I was led to develop a series of exercises. Over the years workshop participants asked if these exercises could be put onto audio cassettes and CDs so they could repeat them. This has resulted in the Healing the Cause - Exercise series - Tapes 1 to 4 (2 exercises on each tape) and CD1 and 2 (4 exercises on each CD)

 

CD - 3 Healing Exercises in English with German translation. 10 Euro

Content: 

Ex1. Forgiving Ourselves. 

Ex2. Changing Perception and Finding peace. 

Ex3. Changing Perception of another - exercise for two people.

 

These exercises are similar to existing exercises already available on CDs but are translated into German.

 

Workshops:

 

1. Three Steps of Forgiveness. 

This workshop concentrates on the process of forgiveness from the perspective of A Course in Miracles. Includes 3 healing exercises.

 Recorded at the Annual Miracle Network Conference in London, November 2001. 1 hour 12 mins. One CD

 

2. Finding and Eliminating the Blocks to Receiving Guidance. 

This talk investigates what stops us hearing the guidance that is ever present in our lives. Recorded at the Annual Miracle Network Conference in London, October 20001 hour. One CD

 

For more details and how to purchase please visit: http://www.acfip.org/audio.html

 

______________________________________________________

 

 

CONTACTS and COURSE INFORMATION 

Search Engine for ACIM Sites, Definitions and Articles by Joe Jesseph.

A Web search engine dedicated to finding discussion and definitions of terms and concepts found in 

A Course in Miracles as well as Web sites, articles and other writings related to the Course.

 

Question and Answer Service from the Foundation for A Course in Miracles. 

Their electronic outreach section has a question and answer service on the theory and practice of the Course. Their database of 1,400 questions and answers is searchable. They no longer take new questions as they feel all possible questions have now been put.

 

Foundation for Inner Peace..........................Publishers of A Course in Miracles and responsible for the translation programme. On-line mail order.

 

Foundation For A Course In Miracles................FACIM is the official teaching organisation of the Foundation for Inner Peace and the copyright-holder of_A Course in Miracles and all related materials. Publishes the quarterly Lighthouse newsletter. They have extensive on-line mail order for their books, CDs and DVDs.

The Foundation was started by Kenneth and Gloria Wapnick and has moved to Temecula in California. Kenneth is my teacher of A Course in Miracles. His body died in December 2013.

Their publications can also be ordered in Australia at:

Adyar Bookshop

230 Clarence Street

Sydney, NSW 2000

Kenneth Wapnick ......ÉÉÉ Biographical information and excerpts from his writings

Kenneth Wapnick on YouTube

Glossary of ACIM terms from FACIM

"The Most Commonly asked Questions about A Course in Miracles"

by Kenneth and Gloria Wapnick

Index of Links to Miracle Studies Resources ...ÉÉ....... A rich resource of materials on A Course in Miracles by an ex-staff member of the Foundation For A Course In Miracle. Joe also has a blog and has recently published  A Primer of Psychology According to A Course in Miracles.

miraclestudies.net  ÉÉÉÉ A Course in Miracles Resource Web Site for ACIM Students

A Course in Miracles Study groups

Search for A Course in Miracles Study Groups Around the World. 

The Foundation for Inner peace also has a study group search engine.

Miracles Studies Australia  http://www.miracle-studies.net.au  lists study groups for Australia and new Zealand

 

Purchase ACIM on line

ACIM Historical Recordings & Video

 

A Course In Miracles Pen Pals:

The Miracle Network http://www.miracles.org.uk hosts a A Course in Miracles pen pals group:

To  join this e-mail discussion group,  send your e-mail address to e.pals@miracles.org.uk.  

They will send you  updated lists of other e.pals and  inform them of your e-mail address.

 

Belief.net ACIM discussion:

This Belief.net web-based discussion is hosted by Joe Jesseph.

http://community.beliefnet.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=151

 

_________________________

 

 

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTATIONS

 

About three times a week I send a short quotation from some spiritual teacher or poet to people who have requested some uplifting thoughts. I have included some below. If you wish I can add your name to the email list.

 

 

How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin? Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children's toys? How soon will you be ready to come home? Perhaps today? There is no sin. Creation is unchanged. Would you still hold return to Heaven back? How long, O holy Son of God, how long?

 

A Course in Miracles  Lesson 250

 

 

Do understand that you are destined for enlightenment.

Co-operate with your destiny, don't go against it, don't thwart it.

Allow it to fulfil itself.

All you have to do is to give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind.

 

Nisargadatta Maharaj

I Am That

 

 When you listen to the voice in your head, that

is to say, do not judge.  You'll soon realize: there

is the voice, and here I am listening to it, watching

it.  This I am realization, this sense of your own

presence, is not a thought.  It arises from beyond

the mind.

 

Eckhart Tolle

The Power of Now

 

One is more likely to awaken through surrender than through seeking to waken. The effort to awaken is the effort of ego, whereas to surrender is to give up all efforts and to place oneself in the hands of a vast force that is more powerful than any realization of non duality.

When one finally gives up one's futile attempts to make reality conform to one's own wishes, and allows it to unfold on its own terms, all the energy that was tied up in foolish attempts to manipulate the universe is freed up.

 

Mariana Caplan

Halfway Up the Mountain - The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment

 

 

________________________

 

Michael Dawson

PO Box 125

Point Lookout

North Stradbroke Island

Queensland 4183

Australia

 

EMAIL:       mdawson@acfip.org

WEBSITE:   http://www.acfip.org