Michael Dawson
PO Box 125, Point Lookout
North Stradbroke Island,
Queensland 4183,
Australia

Email: mdawson@acfip.org 
Web site: http://www.acfip.org

___________________________________________________________________________

CONTENTS:
*  The end of seeking
*  Helping others to forgive
*  Falling Awake
*  Workshops
*  Books and Audio Materials for Sale
*  Links
*  Inspirational Quotations

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

NEW - An eBook containing all my web site articles plus a bonus chapter from Healing the Cause and The Findhorn Book of Forgiveness is available for download in PDF format from http://www.acfip.org/ebook.html

Regards

Michael Dawson



___________________________________________________________________________


The End of Seeking.

Love waits on welcome, not on time,
Release is given you the instant you desire it.
Innocence is not of your making.
It is given you the instant you would have it.

 A Course in Miracles T-13.VII.9:7, T-18.VII.4:3,T-15.IV.9:3-4   



Sometimes when I am waking in the morning, I may receive some helpful advice.  It's that time when one is partly awake, and partly asleep. The thinking mind hasn't fully started up, and this seems to give spirit a chance to get in. It seems spirit will take any chance that it is given! Recently, I was given a picture of the spiritual seeker on his journey back home. He was walking along this very long path, which eventually led to the top of a mountain. He was tired, but kept on moving. However, as he was moving along the path, there was a hand reaching down from above his head. This hand was trying to lift him up, into peace and joy. But the seeker could not see this hand, for he always had his eyes on the distant goal of the mountaintop. One day the seeker was so exhausted by his search he stopped on the path. He had surrendered, he had given up his search. It was then he looked up and saw the hand above him. To his amazement the hand reached down and lifted him back to heaven.

Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all.
A Course in Miracles Lesson188

 When people cannot find peace and happiness following the goals of the material world, they often start a spiritual search. After all, if you don't search how can you find it?  When I was in my 20s, I lived in London and had access to some of the best spiritual bookshops there were. I felt if I looked long enough, I would find a book that had the truth in it. I found that this searching was both pleasurable and exciting.  All I had to do was follow this path and it will eventually lead me to the truth that I was seeking.

One of the teachers I was drawn to was Jiddu Krishnamurti. I had been following Buddhism for about five years before I first came across his books. As I was reading his first book I was delighted to see him putting organised religions into the dustbin.  But then he put Buddhism into the dustbin! I found that very disturbing, as this thought system had given me security. Krishnamurti seemed to be against all forms of organised thought. Later I was to read the following:

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organised; nor should any organisation be formed to lead or coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organise a belief.

From part of the speech made by Jiddu Krishnamurti in 1929 when he dissolved the Order of the Star (his own organisation).

A path can only lead to a fixed object. What if truth is not fixed? What if truth is ever new? Our minds dislike things that cannot be labelled and categorised and nicely ordered.  Minds like to be in control, it makes them feel secure.

Recently I received the following guidance:

We use our concepts of God to direct and redirect ourselves and the direction of our lives. It takes humans a long time to realize that there is no concept for God and no direction to Him. The oneness we crave dissolves the moment we set ourselves on a path. To stop in the oneness requires dissolution of ourselves, so we keep moving on our path hastily.

This guidance made it very plain that our identification with the ego - the idea that we are separate - is kept safely intact whilst we pursue the seeming noble search for God.  As I get older I have a great respect for the cleverness and the subtlety of the ego.  As the Course points out:
…. the ego's maxim, (is) "Seek but do not find"  T-16.V.6:5

To seek something we must know what we are seeking, otherwise how would we recognise it? Truth is not objective, is not "out there". People who spiritually awaken, who have lost a sense of personal identity, are often surprised by what they find. It is not as they imagined.

The mind cannot know truth; it's not designed for that purpose. The mind is a wonderful tool for our day-to-day living. You could not be reading this now without its help.  The American teacher Adyashanti refers to this type of mind as the "toolbox mind".  If you want to study science then you will need to reach into your toolbox mind and get out the tools of reason and logic. You won't get far without them. If we try to use the toolbox mind to find truth, we will condemn ourselves to a lifetime of fruitless search and desperation.

I think most people who desire to discover their spiritual reality will embark on a spiritual search.  I certainly did.  By the time I was in my 30s I had collected about 1500 spiritual books.  My mind had become a spiritual library.  Books can be very helpful at the beginning, but at some point they become a block.  This also applies to A Course in Miracles, as we can see from the following quotation from the Course:

Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.
Lesson 189

Perhaps many of us do need to seek so we can discover that it's fruitless and put it aside. The sooner we can see the trap of spiritual seeking the happier we will be.

This is the irony, the great cosmic joke, the great secret of "enlightenment." When the person who searches for enlightenment dissolves, then and only then is the object of the search revealed - having been obscured all along by the "me" who wanted it.

The discovery that "personal enlightenment" is a myth can be received as quite a shock. From my own experience I can verify that the mind and personality does not happily embrace this discovery when it is first glimpsed, for it makes one look somewhat ridiculous. All the searching, all the practicing, all the trying to "get" it, is seen as worthless, is seen as having per perpetuated the illusion of "me," as having obscured what was and is already here, what all this striving and practicing is occurring in-one's own limitless Self.
Surprised By Grace by Amber Terrell

If we are honest with ourselves we will see that we want to attain enlightenment. We want to add enlightenment to ourselves. I am now enlightened we say. In the Bible this is referred to as sitting on the right-hand side of God. Notice however that you are still there. Now it's you and God together in heaven. This is very comforting to the ego, because the ego is still alive. The ego has attained enlightenment. But enlightenment is the absence of the ego! Only when you, the me story, is gone can your spiritual reality dawn upon you.  This is why we keep moving on the spiritual path. It's as if God can't hit a moving target.  Seeking truth can become a game and we are happy to seek as long as we don't find it! We are no longer a material seeker but are now a spiritual seeker.

Once you forget yourself, God remembers you: once you've become His slave, then you are free.
Rumi

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.
Halfway up the Mountain - the Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment by Mariana Caplan. Hohm Press 1999

All the above leads to the eventual conclusion that if you want to avoid truth, seek it!  It is the ego's arrogance that thinks it knows the way to God. It first decides what God is, and then designs a path to Him.  The ego is happy for us to work with A Course in Miracles for it can make our desired goal appear a long way off and thus ensure we will remain faithful to the ego and its advice.  The Course, however, thinks otherwise.

We don't know the way to God.

From Lesson 189

Is it not He Who knows the way to you? You need not know the way to Him. Your part is simply to allow all obstacles that you have interposed between the Son and God the Father to be quietly removed forever. God will do His part in joyful and immediate response. Ask and receive.

We do not remove the obstacles, instead we become aware of the obstacles and agree to release them. These are the first two steps of forgiveness, the third is automatic - the removal of the guilt by spirit.

But do not make demands, nor point the road to God by which He should appear to you.

Our demand of God is to make us happy here in the ego's world. We resent God for not giving us what we want especially if we think we are faithfull students of His Course

The way to reach Him is merely to let Him be. For in that way is your reality proclaimed as well.

We must forget about trying to change God into the one we want - a God who treats us special. Humility is needed - we have been wrong about everything - we know nothing about how to be in a constant state of peace and quit joy.

And so today we do not choose the way in which we go to Him. But we do choose to let Him come.

We realise we have made a mistake in letting the ego be our teacher.

And with this choice we rest. And in our quiet hearts and open minds, His Love will blaze its pathway of itself. What has not been denied is surely there, if it be true and can be surely reached. God knows His Son, and knows the way to him. He does not need His Son to show Him how to find His way.

Father, we do not know the way to You. But we have called, and You have answered us. We will not interfere. Salvation's ways are not our own, for they belong to You.

We need to admit we have been wrong and we know nothing of the way to God. Our job is to find the obstacles to God and let them be removed.

What can we do?

If seeking is going to get us nowhere what can we do?  To we just give up? Is there anything we can seek? Yes! It's not the truth, but the obstacles to truth.

An ancient Zen master nicely summed it up when he said;

Do not seek the truth, simply cease cherishing illusions

The Course states it this way:

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false.
T-16.IV.6:1-2 

So here we are back on the seekers path! However, now we are seeking for something completely different. We are now seeking all that blocks the awareness to truth, love, joy and beauty.  Thank God we can give up the search for the truth! That's what we already are. No need to find love, that's how we are created. What a relief!

All that is asked of you is to make room for truth. You are not asked to make or do what lies beyond your understanding. All you are asked to do is let it in; only to stop your interference with what will happen of itself; simply to recognize again the presence of what you thought you gave away.
T-21.II.7:6-8

Of course, for our egos it's much more pleasant to search for truth somewhere in the future.  Searching the obstacles to truth does not sound so glamorous. It's uncomfortable to look within and find anger, guilt, shame, fear, lack of self-worth, and a whole collection of unpleasant thoughts that the ego would want to deny and project onto the world.

Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be evaded, set aside, denied, disguised, seen somewhere else, called by another name, or hidden by deceit of any kind, if it would be escaped. It must be seen exactly as it is, where it is thought to be, in the reality which has been given it, and with the purpose that the mind accorded it. For only then are its defenses lifted, and the truth can shine upon it as it disappears.
Lesson 333
 
"Lead us not into temptation" means "Recognize your errors and choose to abandon them by following my guidance."
T-1.III.4:7

The truth, peace and joy we all crave is there and will be revealed to us when we do our part.  We cannot find this by our personal striving. Humility teaches us that we need help from outside our ego's thought system. The ego wants to do everything by itself as it seeks to stay in control.

In the Course Jesus states that if you think you are a body then you are insane. The insane need help from the sane. We have that help and is just waiting for us to ask. It won't go against our free will. We do not even have to heal the obstacles we find. That will be done for us by spirit.

Do not hide suffering from His sight, but bring it gladly to Him. Lay before His eternal sanity all your hurt, and let Him heal you. Do not leave any spot of pain hidden from His light, and search your mind carefully for any thoughts you may fear to uncover. For He will heal every little thought you have kept to hurt you and cleanse it of its littleness, restoring it to the magnitude of God.
T-13.III.7:3-6

We are being asked turn our daily life into a classroom of forgiveness. The seeker's path continues, and now it's in the mirror of relationships. Our daily interactions will often bring up what's unhealed in our minds.  Underneath our unforgiveness lies the truth we have been seeking. It simply needs to be uncovered by forgiving the judgement that overlays it. Putting it simply, forgiveness is looking without judgement at our egos and other people's egos.  We are not being asked to change our egos or other people's egos. That would be to make them real. Nor are we being asked to love our egos for that would repeat the same error. The ego is nothing but a thought that we still cherish. That thought is that we prefer separation and being a special individual to unity or oneness with all. However, it's only in unity we will find what we crave for.

The speed at which we return to the awareness of our spiritual reality is up to us. We could have it now if we wanted to.  We need only let go the hand of the ego and hold the hand of the Holy Spirit.  This would mean giving up our victimhood, judgement, justified anger, the desire to blame others, the desire to be separate and our individuality.  Most of us are not ready to give up all that once. Jesus is very aware of that and is happy to lead us step-by-step on our forgiveness path. To feel guilty that we still want to hold onto these "gifts of the ego" is to allow the ego to come back in again through a back door in our minds. Jesus asks us to gently smile at the ego and not to take it seriously.

With a sigh of relief we can now take off our truth seeker's hat and put it down.  We still have something to seek, but it will be easy to find! As we notice these daily obstacles and learn to gently smile at them they will dissolve.  And then the light that is underneath them will start to show through. This will encourage us to follow the path of forgiveness. No need to think anything more about enlightenment.  That will come in God's time.

Grow as the flower grows, unconsciously, but eagerly anxious to open its soul to the air. So must you press forward to open your soul to the Eternal. But it must be the Eternal that draws forth your strength and beauty, not desire of growth.
For in the one case you develop in the luxuriance of purity: in the other you harden by the forcible passion for personal stature.
Light on the Path by Mabel Collins


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from
The Findhorn Book of Forgiveness by Michael Dawson.

Extract from Chapter Five


HELPING OTHERS TO FORGIVE

I am here only to be truly helpful.
I am here to represent Him who sent me.
I do not have to worry about what to say or do,
because He who sent me will direct me.
I am content to be wherever He wishes
knowing He goes there with me.
I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal.
[A Course in Miracles T-2.V.18:2-6]



Working with Others This chapter enables me to share with other people - especially those involved with counselling and therapy - an overview of some of the ideas and techniques I have found helpful in trying to facilitate others to forgive themselves. However, the case histories I have included in order to illustrate the techniques used may be of value to all - therapists or not. I assume that anyone drawn to trying these approaches will already have received training in psychotherapy.

A healing technique is of secondary importance compared with the presence of the therapist. By "presence", I am referring to the therapist"s state of mind whilst working with a client. For healing to occur therapists need to be guided from within, and this can only happen if they are at peace around the client. A wonderful healing technique used at the wrong moment is useless. Knowing when to speak or remain silent, when to use a different approach or method, must be guided from a place higher than reason and logic. Therapeutic skill needs to be combined with inner listening. The following account of a therapy session conducted by Dr. Kenneth Wapnick illustrates this point:

"One of my first therapy experiences after I began working with the Course in Miracles afforded me a powerful example of the relationship between healing and forgiveness. I had seen Sister Annette for about two months. She was fifty years old and had been in religious life almost thirty years. She was also one of the angriest people I had ever worked with, filled with a silent hatred toward those in authority that would have destroyed mountains. Over the first few sessions, Sister Annette was able to begin questioning some of her attitudes toward her Order and her desire for revenge. She no longer seemed quite as committed to the retaliative steps she had contemplated. Or so I thought. One day Annette walked into the office with her face coldly exhibiting the "wrath of God!" Her convent co-ordinator had done something she judged as being beyond forgiveness, and Sister Annette was hell bent on war, absolutely closed to any suggestions she do otherwise.

That same morning I had come down with a very bad cold and felt miserable. Not all my prayers and meditation were able to shift this, and I sat before Annette feeling utterly helpless and discouraged. I knew that if she left me as she had come in, she would be making an irrevocable mistake she would regret the rest of her life. Yet nothing I said could budge her, and my growing frustration only made my cold worse. The more frustrated I became, the more real I made Annette"s angry symptoms and, correspondingly, my own as well. Obviously, I was projecting my unforgiveness of myself onto Annette, seeing in her stubborn clinging to her anger the mirror of my stubborn clinging to my cold, not to mention my own failure as a therapist. Separation through our symptoms became reinforced, and healing through joining retreated still further behind clouds of guilt and anger.

What added to my difficulty was the belief that Annette had been sent to me from God, and as she was in serious trouble it was my responsibility to help her. And I was obviously failing. About midway through the session, my desperation led me finally to remember that I was not the Therapist, and that I certainly could not be more concerned for Annette than Jesus was. Even as I was talking and listening to her, in another part of my mind I began to pray for help, asking Jesus to provide the words that would heal her anger and fear, and restore to her awareness the love that was her true identity.

The response was immediate, and I suddenly became available to the help that was there - for me. A warm surge of energy rose up from my chest, through my lungs, nose and throat, and I could feel my cold being healed and my head clearing up. At the same time I began to speak. I don"t recall what I said, and doubt if it were anything too different from what I had said previously. Only now I was different. I no longer saw Annette as separate from me, a patient in trouble whom I, as therapist, had to help. She now was my sister, and by joining with her I was joining with Jesus. I had become the patient as well, and together we received healing from the forgiving love of God. By the end of the session, her softened face reflected the shift from anger and fear to forgiveness and love, as my well being reflected the same shift in myself. I had learned my lesson that day, to be relearned many times thereafter."

- from Forgiveness and Jesus by Dr. Kenneth Wapnick. Published by Foundation For A Course In Miracles © 1983

Without the help of an inner guide, it is impossible to work out what is best for the client. Fortunately, we all have access to this wisdom once we can relax and be willing to be helped from that source. The therapist needs to be peaceful to access this inner wisdom.

If therapists find the presence of their clients disturbing, then their first duty is to restore their own peace of mind before attempting to help their forgivenesspp of clients. To achieve this they need to honestly admit they have lost their peace, that the client is not responsible for this and they could do with some help to see the situation differently. If their intention is sincere, they can rest assured the inner help will come.

When clients are in the presence of therapists who are at peace they are given a message that they are not being judged, that they are not being seen as a sinner. This provides an opportunity for clients to change their minds and release the burden of self-imposed guilt.

In the previous account of a counselling session, Dr. Kenneth Wapnick describes the turning point in the session as the moment he began to ask for help, in his case praying to Jesus. No longer knowing how to help he turned within for guidance and received the help, both for himself and for his client.

The following is a summary of some of the techniques I use when helping others to forgive and heal themselves. I think of these healing approaches as keys on a piano. I need to know these keys well, but try to allow a higher part of myself to know when to play them. Therapeutic training enabled me to practise particular keys well (for example, guided visualisation), but it is only through happily surrendering to a wisdom beyond my personality that the appropriate keys get pressed at the right moment.



A therapist does not heal; he lets healing be.
He can point to darkness but he cannot bring light of himself,
for light is not of him. Yet, being for him, it must also be for his patient.
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.
[A Course in Miracles T-9.V.8:1-8]

End of Chapter Five extract

see case histories


___________________________________________________________________________


Song Lyrics from Falling Awake CD by Kirtana
(highly recommended - Michael)
www.kirtana.com

Track1. Falling Awake
Copyright © 2007 Kirtana; Published: Wild Dove Music / BMI

You make it harder than it has to be right now
when you rail against what is.
Even your search for truth is burdensome somehow.
Maybe you should flunk the quiz.
Ah-ah-ah........ Just don't show.
Find out who needs to know.
And if your mind still won't let go,
walk outside and consider the lilies.

You keep clinging to a moment from the past
wishing it would re-appear.
But when you try so hard to make what's fleeting last,
you only miss what's always here.
Ah-ah-ah.... So why try.
Just this once, let all hope die.
And I will sing a lullaby
about spaciousness and ease of being.

You don't need to row your boat
to make it down this stream -
even that's too much to do.
Just lean back and float -
it's simpler than it seems.
Let the river carry you.

Every night you offer up your busy mind to God,
allowing sleep to overtake.
And in the morning, if the offer were the same,
maybe you would fall "awake."
Ah-ah-ah.... Could it be?
I know one good way to see.
That's to trust the mystery
And give God a chance to find you.
Maybe God is trying to find you.

Be still, stay here, don't move.
Be still, stay here, don't move.
Be still, stay here, don't move.
And give God a chance to find you.
What if God is trying to find you.

Be still, stay here, don't move.

___________________________________________________________________________

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.
___________________________________________________________________________


Forthcoming Workshops on A Course in Miracles
in Australia and Germany
2010

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




Australia 2010 Dates

Cleveland, QLD
Venue o be advised
Sat. 6th of February 2010
From 9.45am – 4.45pm

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.
A Course in Miracles


Using the spiritual path of A Course in Miracles we will explore what true healing is - the return to our awareness of our spiritual identity. Identification with our body as our home is the origin of all our physical and psychological suffering.

The basis of this workshop is that the cause of all disease lies in the mind and not the body. Disease is a shadow on the body, of the guilt in our minds.

During the workshop we will focus on undoing the blocks we have built to the presence of God's love and joy within us through the understanding and practising of forgiveness.Only this love heals.

We will investigate what the Course means by healing ourselves and others and contrast the differences between the healed and the unhealed healer. Practical exercises will be used to help understand the ego and to practice forgiveness and turning within for guidance.

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
Edeltraud for registration  ( 30.-dep. via cheque or internet banking) and further info Tel: 08 8842 3114, PO Box 614,Clare SA  5453   or e-mail: tayen@activ8.net.au - our website www.tayenpark.com.au

COST  110.-

Light refreshments included


___________________________________________________________________________


Clare, SA - Sat 17 and Sun 18, April 2010
(2hrs drive north of Adelaide)

Applying A Course in Miracles in Our Daily Lives


Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false.
A Course in Miracles T-16.IV.6:1-2 


The Course asks us to use our daily life as a classroom of forgiveness. We will explore how we can find peace when challenged by money, anger, sex, relationships and sickness. Exercises will be used to help us identify and heal the issues that confront us.

No previous knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.


VENUE:
Clare
SA 5453
(2hrs drive north of Adelaide)

TIME:
Sat - 9.30 TO 5.30
Su - 9.30 TO 4.30

BOOKINGS:
Edeltraud  Ennich
PO Box 614
Clare, SA 5453
Tel: 08 8842 3114
Email: tayen@activ8.net.au

COST
Deposit: $60 to cover basic costs ($30 non-refundable)
plus a donation for the workshop.
Lunches provided.

Cheques or postal monies made out to Edeltraud  Ennich.


Germany 2010 Dates

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


Bonn

June 5/6 2010
9.30am to 5.30pm

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.
A Course in Miracles

Using the spiritual path of A Course in Miracles we will explore what true healing is - the return to our awareness of our spiritual identity. Identification with our body as our home is the origin of all our physical and psychological suffering.

The basis of this workshop is that the cause of all disease lies in the mind and not the body. Disease is a shadow on the body, of the guilt in our minds.

During the workshop we will focus on undoing the blocks we have built to the presence of God's love and joy within us through the understanding and practising of forgiveness.Only this love heals.

We will investigate what the Course means by healing ourselves and others and contrast the differences between the healed and the unhealed healer. Practical exercises will be used to help understand the ego and to practice forgiveness and turning within for guidance.

An overview of the Course's metaphysical, psychological and spiritual teachings especially in regard to healing will be covered.
No previous knowledge of the book A Course in Miracles is required.


An Evening Introductory Talk - Fri June 4
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
June 12/13 2010


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.
A Course in Miracles

Using the spiritual path of A Course in Miracles we will explore what true healing is - the return to our awareness of our spiritual identity. Identification with our body as our home is the origin of all our physical and psychological suffering.

The basis of this workshop is that the cause of all disease lies in the mind and not the body. Disease is a shadow on the body, of the guilt in our minds.

During the workshop we will focus on undoing the blocks we have built to the presence of God's love and joy within us through the understanding and practising of forgiveness.Only this love heals.

We will investigate what the Course means by healing ourselves and others and contrast the differences between the healed and the unhealed healer. Practical exercises will be used to help understand the ego and to practice forgiveness and turning within for guidance.

An overview of the Course's metaphysical, psychological and spiritual teachings especially in regard to healing will be covered.
No previous knowledge of the book A Course in Miracles is required.


An Evening Introductory Talk - Fri June 11


Contact:
Margarete Sennekamp
Winterhaldenweg 4,
79856 Hinterzarten,
Tel./Fax: 07652-917530
email: M.Sennekamp@t-online.de
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

New
An eBook containing all my web site articles plus a bonus chapter from Healing the Cause and The Findhorn Book of Forgiveness is available for download in PDF format from http://www.acfip.org/ebook.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, Polish and Romanian.

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

Audio Tapes 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.
 
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

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CONTACTS

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 1,400 questions and answers is searchable. They no longer take new questions as they feel all possible questions have now been put.

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

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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.


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

 
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


Gamble everything for love,
if you're a true human being.

If not, leave
this gathering.

Half-heartedness doesn't reach
into majesty. You set out
to find God, but then you keep

stopping for long periods
at mean spirited roadhouses.


Rumi


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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Michael Dawson
PO Box 125
Point Lookout
North Stradbroke Island
Queensland 4183
Australia

EMAIL:       mdawson@acfip.org
WEBSITE:   http://www.acfip.org