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ACFIP Newsletter
Issue 16 - March 2008
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
___________________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the sixteenth issue of the Australian Centre for Inner Peace Newsletter.
CONTENTS:
* How do I forgive?
* Not making the error real
* Two Stories
* Workshops
* Books and Audio Materials for Sale
* Links
* Inspirational Quotations
(As I am away in June the next newsletter will not come out until early July.)
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
Regards
Michael Dawson
http://www.acfip.org
___________________________________________________________________________
HOW DO I FORGIVE?
It is impossible to forgive another, for it is only your sins you see in him.
You want to see them there, and not in you. That is why forgiveness of another is
an illusion.
The Song of Prayer. S-2.I.4:2-5
What is forgiveness?
We can only begin the process of forgiveness when we start to realise how much alike
we are to the person we wish to forgive. When we cannot forgive someone it is because
we cannot forgive ourselves for the same problem, albeit in another form. For example,
a woman may hate her husband for his loud aggressive outbursts of anger whilst she
may never have made him suffer in this way. However, her anger is just as strong
as his but is given a different expression by her. When she feels angry she may withdraw
herself and cut off from him emotionally. Her husband's anger mirrors her own which
she has not forgiven in herself.
The Course teaches that forgiveness recognises that what we thought was done to us
we truly did to ourselves, for we can only deprive ourselves of the peace of God;
therefore we forgive others for what they have not done to us, not for what they
did. True forgiveness recognises an attack as a call for love and correction (T-12.I.8).
Forgiveness is letting go of the past, is letting go of whatever we think people,
the world, or God has done to us as well as whatever we think we have done to them.
Forgiveness is a shift in perception. Everyone is our brother or sister coming from
love or fear. Their attack, which comes from fear, is a plea for our love. Our only
problem is the belief in separation from God, our only healing is by joining with
each other through forgiveness.
The three stages of forgiveness
Kenneth Wapnick has identified in the Course three stages or steps on the path of
forgiveness which I find helpful in understanding what true forgiveness is.
1. First we must take back our projections onto the world and take responsibility
for our own pain. We must stop pointing our fingers at people and situations and
accusing them of hurting us and see that they are mirroring to us the areas we have
not healed/forgiven in ourselves. In fact these people and situations merit our thanks
for showing us what is in our unconscious for without them we would not see the forces
that drive us.
The secret of salvation is but this: that you are doing this unto yourself.
T-27.VIII.10:1
2. After realising that there is nothing to blame 'out there' we normally fall into
the trap of feeling guilty on finding that the problem is in us. Our ego believes
it has separated from God and wants to stay that way. It tells us we should feel
guilty for our sins for in this way we come to take this world of separation seriously.
Guilt always demands punishment and this prevents us from releasing our pain. During
this second stage of forgiveness we come to see how deeply attached we are to our
guilt. Guilt is the sum of the negative thoughts we have about ourselves. It appears
as a sacrifice not to feel justified in being a victim and the desire is to hang
onto our anger, jealousy, greed, etc. Although guilt is painful it is what we are
familiar with and we prefer it to the increase in self-responsibility we know will
come to us when we lose our attachment to being a victim. We can now choose to decide
that guilt no longer serves us and that we would like it to be undone. This shift
needs help from outside the ego thought system for we cannot do it by ourselves.
Our little willingness to change, to shift our perception, opens the way for the
third stage of forgiveness.
3. In this final stage our guilt is undone by the Holy Spirit, Who was always there
behind the barrier of our guilt, and peace returns to our mind. However, until we
perform the first two steps He cannot take the third. Our steps can be likened to
making a hole in our protective barrier we have erected to God's love allowing His
love to pour in and dissolve our guilt.
The following prayer from A Course In Miracles contains within it the three
stages of forgiveness.
The Course urges us to use it whenever we are not joyous.
I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace.
I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise.
I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace.
I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the
consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him.
I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me.
T-5.VII.6:7-11
Perhaps the shortest and most powerful definition of forgiveness is:
Forgiveness... is still, and quietly does nothing..… It merely looks, and waits,
and judges not.
W-pII.1.4:1,3
Here we are asked to be the compassionate witness of what we perceive which includes
all our thoughts and the events in the world. We are also being asked to release
our judgements of good and bad, holy and unholy, right and wrong, evil and good,
etc., and not try to change our or others' egos. The ego loves to be taken seriously,
but to love or hate it only makes it real. If we can watch it without judgement it
will eventually fade away into the nothingness from which it came. To try to modify
it, no matter how well intentioned, will only keep it living longer.
At the deepest level of experience we will come to realise that we are not our ego
but still "at home in God dreaming of exile" (T-10.I.2:1.) We will
discover that we are still as God created us, the one Christ, perfect and eternal
and that nothing can harm us. What then will there be to forgive?
..... in complete forgiveness, in which you recognise that there is nothing to
forgive, you are absolved completely.
T-15.VIII.1:7
---------------------------------------------------------------
NOT MAKING THE ERROR REAL
In our day-to-day lives we are surrounded by challenges that need resolving. The
ego is quick to jump in and take everything very seriously and declare any errors
we have made as real and then tries to 'solve' them. By making errors real the ego
ensures that we keep our focus firmly on the time/space illusion he has created and
away from the source of real help - the Holy Spirit.
You do not understand how to overlook errors, or you would not make them. It would
be merely further error to believe either that you do not make them, or that you
can correct them without a Guide to correction. And if you do not follow this Guide,
your errors will not be corrected...the way to undo them, therefore, is not of you
but for you.
T-9.IV.2:2-7
To help us understand the nature of the problem, and how it is resolved, we can turn
for help to the analogy found in dreams. Imagine you are asleep and having a nightmare.
In the dream you are caught in a situation where you appear to be in danger from
other people. It all seems very real and the ego is busy 'helping' you deal with
the situation. This help will, of course, be some form of denial and projection resulting
in defence or attack. The nightmare seems so real that you start to shout aloud and
wake your partner who turns on the bedside light. In your dream you become aware
of the light, realise you are having a nightmare, and wake up. You look around the
familiar room and breathe a sigh of relief. "Thank God none of that was real!",
you say to you partner. "I thought I was such a sinner in that dream and that
I had no other recourse but to attack to save myself."
Did the light come into your dream and protect you? Did the light attack your enemies?
Did it do anything except remind you that it was a dream and nothing was really happening
- that you made it all up? You feel no guilt about what you did in the dream as no
sin was committed. The errors were not real and the light coming on reminded you
of that.
Now you appear to be back in 'reality'. But are you?
All your time is spent in dreaming. Your sleeping and your waking dreams have
different forms, and that is all. Their content is the same.
T-18.II.5:12-14
The Course informs us that there is no difference between sleeping dreams and 'waking
dreams' where we think we are a body in need of protection by our ego. Even the slightest
tinge of irritation tells us we believe something real has happened to disturb our
peace and our anger will now restore the situation to what we want by attempting
to make others feel guilty (T-15.VII.10). We have made the error real again. However,
the same solution awaits us as it did in the nightmare. We cannot heal ourselves
but we can invite healing from the One who can give it. There is a light in our mind,
the Holy Spirit, who is the memory of who we really are.
A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place that called you
to return, although you do not recognize the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds
you of.
Workbook Lesson 182
If we can put aside the urge to 'fix' ourselves and realise we only know how to create
problems and not heal them, we can create the gap in our defences for the light of
the Holy Spirit to shine away our pain. The external situation that was thought to
be responsible for our pain may be unaltered, but our perception of it will now be
different and we will be at peace. A miracle has occurred. Did the light of the Holy
Spirit do anything? Did it act in the world and affect form? No, it simply reminded
us that there was another way of seeing the situation. Light does not attack darkness.
Darkness is simply the absence of light. When you switch on a lamp in a darkened
room the dark does not hide under the carpet. The Holy Spirit reminded us that the
error we perceived is not real. It is of the same nature as the nightmare.
The Voice of the Holy Spirit does not command, because it is incapable of arrogance.
It does not demand, because it does not seek control. It does not overcome, because
it does not attack. It merely reminds. It is compelling only because of what it reminds
you of. It brings to your mind the other way, remaining quiet even in the midst of
the turmoil you may make.
T-5.II.7:1-6
Sometimes in a dream you realise you are dreaming but still continue to dream. This
is called lucid dreaming. At the moment you realise you are dreaming any problems
you might have been having immediately disappear in the happy realisation that you
are making up all the content in the dream and your reaction to it. And now you can
change your response.
The journey we take with A Course In Miracles shows us that with the Holy
Spirit's help we can change our response to any circumstance, now matter how seemingly
dire, and accept the miracle the Holy Spirit is always extending to us.
___________________________________________________________________________
STORY 1: Heralds Of Eternity
by 'acimmonk'
http://www.acimmonk.com/
"This is a story about the perception of shared interests, and the Experience
of Love it brings.
Yesterday morning I had one of the most beautiful and profound experiences of my
life. I connected with a brother. This particular brother happened to be my wife.
She asked me to share our experience on my blog, so here I am. Let me tell you what
happened.
Around 8am we decided we would spend some time studying A Course in Miracles. I quickly
sprawled in an easy chair by the window in our bedroom that I often sit in while
reading the Course. She was at the desk a few feet away, typing a couple quick emails
before settling down to read with me. Over the next five minutes, I interrupted her
4-5 times with passages, quotes, thoughts and random ideas about what I was reading.
Finally, I noticed strain in her face, and asked her what was wrong.
'You keep interrupting me and I can't finish these emails!'
In that moment, I had an experience that may have been a whole lifetime, or many
lifetimes, in the making. Instead of her call for love unconsciously and automatically
triggering my wrong mind, it unconsciously and automatically triggered my right mind.
It happened 'of itself'. Without my conscious contribution or effort, the Holy Spirit
came rushing into my mind. From within His perception, I profoundly recognized her
call for love as my own, her need as my need, my answer to her as my answer to myself,
her healing as my healing. In that instant I felt as deeply connected to her as I
have ever felt to another human being. I saw no separation between the two of us,
only a singular need. A shared interest.
Her call for love was our call for God.
Everyone, everywhere, in every moment, is either giving love or calling for it. In
every call for love we proclaim we are lost and looking for Heaven. It is an expression
of the fear we won't ever find our way back Home, nor be welcomed There if we did.
This is our shared interest, one that stretches across the whole of humanity; across
every border, belief, and depths of each heart that beats upon this earth. When you
are able to recognize a call for love in such stark terms, you recognize it as an
echo of the same desperate longing you feel from deep within yourself, and your natural
desire is to want to rush to meet the call for love... with love.
When Bonnie made her call for love to me, I rushed to meet it as effortlessly as
a spent wave sweeps back into the ocean. In her words I heard only the plaintive
cry, 'Separation from God is real! I'm scared! Please help me!'
On the level of form, I didn't consciously decide how to respond; I was watching
myself respond. I went to her and hugged her. In my mind all I could hear were the
words, 'It (the separation) didn't happen. You didn't do anything. You are pure and
innocent', but when I opened my mouth, the words I heard myself whisper were, 'It's
ok, everything is ok. I know. I know. It's ok.'
She could sense I was talking about a deeper level, and a flood of emotion began
to pour from her. (She later told me she felt a sudden anger at my response because
it made me innocent, and she the guilty one.) She became angrier, obviously about
something much deeper than mere interruptions. As I held a calm space of love and
acceptance for her, she began to cry in her anger, and tighten in resistance. (She
later explained that it felt like a safe place for her to explore the horrible idea
that she was not acceptable [to God], and to really see if it was true.)
The more safety and stability the Holy Spirit provided through me, the freer she
felt to more fully experience and express her fear that God found her unacceptable.
As her fury grew, I'd again hear the words, 'It didn't happen', but when I opened
my mouth, it was always something different that came out; words that seemed to better
match where she was, and what she needed, in that moment. As I spoke the words to
her, I had the experience of the Holy Spirit saying the same things to me. I felt
as if it was my mind that was being healed. I felt perfectly calm, free, joyful,
strong, light-hearted and safe.
As her anger peaked, she said things I can't even remember. They didn't matter. Whatever
she said was reinterpreted in my mind so that the only thing I heard was, 'Please
tell me it isn't true!' When she finally realized she was totally safe, totally loved,
she completely relaxed and soon proclaimed she felt 'super duper peace, acceptance
and relaxation!' I was left with an acute and heartfelt sense of gratitude for the
opportunity to heal our mind.
The result of this experience is that we both feel freer to look at our egos and
forgive ourselves, each other, and everyone. That's the nature of the miracle, "They
bring more love both to the giver and the receiver" (T-1.I.9:3), and I'm excited
that it's starting to become second nature to me, part of my unconscious. That I'm
allowing myself to be led.
Another aspect of the experience was how close I felt to God.
"Heaven 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.1:5-6)
The reflection of Heaven, here within the dream of separation, is the giving up of
separate interests and seeing only shared interests. Seeing only one call and one
need. This joining with our brothers mirrors the Oneness of Heaven, and gives us
a consistency of right-minded perception that puts us under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit Who leads us Home.
When we see in another our own need for God, we are no longer apart. And in our joining
we begin to hear the Heralds of Eternity, the Song of Heaven. We stand together now,
my brother and I, on the bridge Home. Hand in hand we return into the Light of Heaven."
___________________________________________________________________________
STORY 2: The Power of Acceptance
(The following is taken from a letter I recently received from a friend.)
"My main teacher over the last years has been Eckhard Tolle. I used to listen
to the tape version of 'The Power of Now' several times a day or during the
night, just to help me to get out of the dark holes I seemed to find myself in. Basically
I was in a lot of pain over the breakup of my relationship, over the falling apart
of my life and of course, over the fact that it was all my own fault…
At some point I was again in a place of despair and there came the thought: "This
is it, I have reached my limit, I cannot go through this level of pain any longer!"
I was listening to Eckhard talk about the pain body, and I heard him say, "All
pain is resistance and all resistance pain". So I thought: if I am
in that much pain, what am I resisting? Then it hit me: of course, I am resisting
everything that I do not want in my life! Next thought: What would it take to drop
resistance? Would I be willing to accept, that even this moment of despair could
have a purpose? That even this pain, this difficulty is brought to me by life in
order to change my pattern, and to deal with it in a different manner? Next thought:
I cannot know that it isn't. Next thought: Well, if life brings me exactly what
I need, even if I don't like it, it's only to help me take my next step into liberation.
And if that's so, then there is no problem! Everything is as it should be!
In that moment I could see my pain body still doing a dance, but it was not me. I
was just the witness and I was in peace. I felt that I was standing on new ground.
A very small ground indeed, but new ground nonetheless. Nothing outside had
changed, only my perspective. Next thought: Could this be it? Could it be
so easy? There was a sense of peace which had nothing to do with outside circumstances.
Since then I have noticed that in my meditations there is more and more silence
in my head, a sense of space and deep peace to which I can return any time. In my
day to day activities I am dropping into the present moment more and more frequently,
when there is no thought, just noticing.
Now the whole thing is like a game that I seem to be part of, and I am curious to
see what the next turn will bring. There is more and more insight and understanding
of what I have been reading about, but now it is more a lived experience. Many
practical questions are still unresolved, but I don't worry anymore."
___________________________________________________________________________
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 related to the Course. Please
see the Contacts section at the end of this newsletter.
___________________________________________________________________________
WORKSHOPS
A Course in Miracles Workshops in AUSTRALIA in 2008
Led by Michael Dawson
Clare, Sth. Aust. - April 5-6, 2008
(2 hours drive north of Adelaide)
The Key to Inner Peace.
Moving from a somebody to a nobody
A Course in Miracles workshop
You are not special.
If you think you are, and would defend your specialness
against the truth of what you really are, how can you know the truth?
A Course in Miracles
One day, I discovered I didn't need a personal history, so, like drinking, I dropped
it.
Carlos Castaneda in Tales of Power
As we release our beliefs, concepts, seeking, self-importance and goals, peace and
joy will return.
When we no longer defend our self-created image (ego), awareness of our eternal spiritual
reality awakens.
Exercises to help undo our ego and listen within will be given.
No previous knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.
DATE:
April 5-6, 2008
TIME:
Sat. 5 April 9.30am - 5.30pm
Sun. 6 April 9.30am - 4.30pm
BOOKINGS:
Tel: 08 - 8842 3114
PO Box 614
Clare SA 5453
COST:
Booking Fee (non-refundable) - $60 to cover basic costs
Workshop Fee - by donation at the workshop.
Food provided.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Hillier (Gawler) Sth. Aust. - April 12-13, 2008
(40 minutes drive from the centre of Adelaide)
Awakening to Our Spiritual Reality.
A Course in Miracles workshop
You do not have to seek reality.
It will seek you and find you when you meet its conditions.
A Course in Miracles T-8.IX.2:4-5
The deepest but forgotten truth about ourselves is that we are one with the love
and mind of God. Identification with our bodies and personalities blinds us to our
spiritual reality. The Course teaches us how to awaken from this dream of separation
from God and to experience joy and peace. If our intention to awake is sincere and
we have the humility to realise we know nothing and are willing to be taught by spirit
we will meet the conditions of awakening. In the end everyone will overcome their
fear to awaken and joyously remember what they have forgot. This workshop aims to
help bring that time nearer by learning to forgive the blocks we have created to
God's love for us.
Topics will include:
What is enlightenment?
Why we fear to awaken.
Traps on the spiritual path.
Pointers on the path
Not knowing-the need for humility
Sinlessness
Development of trust-the ladder home
Forgiveness
Undoing our blocks to guidance
Exercises will be used to help remove the obstacles to peace and open to the guidance
within.
No previous knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.
VENUE:
"Riverdell"
Clifford Road
Hillier
South Australia
(40 minutes drive from the centre of Adelaide)
TIME:
Sat. 12 April 9.30am - 5.00pm
Sun. 13 April 9.30am - 5.00pm
COST:
Booking Fee - $30 (non-refundable)
Workshop Fee - By donation at the workshop
Some accommodation on site - $40
Bring food to share for lunch both days
For Details Contact:
Pamela St. Claire
Tel: 08 - 8322 0444
Email: pstclaire@chariot.net.au
People should send their Booking Fee to:
Pamela St. Claire
36 The Causeway
O'Halloran Hill SA 5158
and include a cheque made payable to P. St. Claire
---------------------------------------------------------------
GERMANY 2008 WORKSHOPS
Bonn - Sat. 14 - Sun. 15 June, 2008
Awakening to Our Spiritual Reality.
A Course in Miracles workshop
You do not have to seek reality.
It will seek you and find you when you meet its conditions.
A Course in Miracles T-8.IX.2:4-5
The deepest but forgotten truth about ourselves is that we are one with the love
and mind of God. Identification with our bodies and personalities blinds us to our
spiritual reality. The Course teaches us how to awaken from this dream of separation
from God and to experience joy and peace. If our intention to awake is sincere and
we have the humility to realise we know nothing and are willing to be taught by spirit
we will meet the conditions of awakening. In the end everyone will overcome their
fear to awaken and joyously remember what they have forgot. This workshop aims to
help bring that time nearer by learning to forgive the blocks we have created to
God's love for us.
Topics will include:
What is enlightenment?
Why we fear to awaken.
Traps on the spiritual path.
The need for a full heart and an empty mind.
Not knowing.
Obstacles to peace
Development of trust
Forgiveness and guidance
Exercises will be used to help remove the obstacles to peace.
No previous knowledge of A Course In Miracles is required.
Introductory talk on A Course in Miracles - evening Fri 13 June
CONTACT:
Albert-Schweitzer-Haus
Beethovenallee 16
Bonn 53173
Germany
Tel: 0228 - 364737
http://www.albert-schweitzer-haus-bonn.de
---------------------------------------------------------------
FREIBURG - Sat. 7 - Sun. 8 June, 2008
Awakening to Our Spiritual Reality.
A Course in Miracles workshop
10am to 6pm
You do not have to seek reality.
It will seek you and find you when you meet its conditions.
A Course in Miracles T-8.IX.2:4-5
The deepest but forgotten truth about ourselves is that we are one with the love
and mind of God. Identification with our bodies and personalities blinds us to our
spiritual reality. The Course teaches us how to awaken from this dream of separation
from God and to experience joy and peace. If our intention to awake is sincere and
we have the humility to realise we know nothing and are willing to be taught by spirit
we will meet the conditions of awakening. In the end everyone will overcome their
fear to awaken and joyously remember what they have forgot. This workshop aims to
help bring that time nearer by learning to forgive the blocks we have created to
God's love for us.
Topics will include:
What is enlightenment?
Why we fear to awaken.
Traps on the spiritual path.
The need for a full heart and an empty mind.
Not knowing.
Obstacles to peace
Development of trust
Forgiveness and guidance
Exercises will be used to help remove the obstacles to peace.
No previous knowledge of A Course In Miracles is required.
Introductory talk on A Course In Miracles - evening Fri 6 June at 8pm.
LOCATION of workshop:
Center Margarete Sennekamp
Schauinslandstr. 39
79100 Freiburg-Günterstal
Germany
(Tram 4, Klosterplatz)
CONTACT:
Sophia-Institut
Margarete Sennekamp
Adalbert-Stifter-Str. 16
79102 Freiburg
Germany
Tel/Fax: 0761 - 73930
www.Sophia-Institut.de
Biography
Michael discovered A Course in Miracles whilst visiting the Findhorn Foundation
in 1982. He subsequently became a member of the Foundation for about six years and
involved himself with healing and teaching. In 1994 he published Healing the Cause
- A Path of Forgiveness which serves as an introduction to the Course. His second
book, The Findhorn Book of Forgiveness (Findhorn Press) uses exercises, stories
and case histories to guide the reader to inner peace through forgiveness. Michael
now lives in Australia and gives workshops on the Course world-wide.
_______________________________________
BOOKS AND AUDIO MATERIALS FOR SALE - by Michael Dawson
Books:
Healing the Cause - A Path of Forgiveness. Findhorn Press 1994
The Findhorn Book of Forgiveness. Findhorn Press. 2003
For more details and how to purchase please visit: http://www.acfip.org/books_tapes.html
Audio Tapes and CDs:
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)
For more details and how to purchase please visit: http://www.acfip.org/audio.html
___________________________________________________________________________
CONTACTS
Resources:
Foundation for A Course In Miracles
41397 Buecking Drive, Temecula, CA 92590
Tel: 909 296 6261 Fax: 909296 9117
Books, videos, CDs and audio tapes by Kenneth and Gloria Wapnick are available from
their web site http://www.facim.org
Question and Answer Service:
Their electronic outreach section has a question and answer service http://www.facimoutreach.org/
on the theory and practice of the Course. Their database of hundreds of questions
and answers is searchable and you can ask your own questions.
Their publications can also be ordered in Australia at:
Adyar Bookshop
230 Clarence Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
Foundation for Inner Peace - the publishers of A Course in Miracles
http://www.acim.org/
ACIM study groups:
Go to The Miracle Distribution Center http://www.miraclecenter.org/ for the
largest and most frequently updated list of A Course in Miracles study groups
available anywhere.
Miracles Studies Australia http://www.miracle-studies.net.au lists
study groups for Australia and new Zealand
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.
A Course In Miracles Chat Groups:
The aim of this board is to provide a place for people to chat about ACIM.
Any related discussions are more than welcome and I believe helpful! - moderated
by Glyn Milhench
http://glynbo.proboards84.com/index.cgi?board=acim
Belief.net ACIM discussion:
This Belief.net web-based discussion is hosted by Joe Jesseph.
http://www.beliefnet.com/boards/discussion_list.asp?boardID=34272
---------------------------------------------------------------
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTATIONS
About three or four 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.
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
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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
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In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you,
but sometimes I do, and that
sign becomes this art.
Rumi
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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
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Yet searching is inevitable here. For this you came, and you will surely do the
thing you came for. But the world can not dictate the goal for which you search,
unless you give it power to do so. Otherwise, you still are free to choose a goal
that lies beyond the world and every worldly thought, and one that comes to you from
an idea relinquished yet remembered, old yet new; an echo of a heritage forgot, yet
holding everything you really want.
A Course in Miracles Lesson 131
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There's one great delusion that lies at the core
of all of our suffering: the false belief in the reality
of the separation of life and in the subsequent
true existence of an individual ego.
All fervent attempts to control or to mortify this
illusory ego through penance, rituals and sacrifice,
however, will only serve to intensify the delusion
that this ego is actually very real and that it only
needs to be, somehow, subdued, conquered or
destroyed.
Chuck Hillig
Seeds for the Soul, Black Dot Publications, 2003
Michael Dawson
PO Box 125
Point Lookout
North Stradbroke Island
Queensland 4183
Australia
EMAIL: mdawson@acfip.org
WEBSITE: http://www.acfip.org
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