ACFIP Newsletter Issue 27

ACFIP Newsletter
Issue 27 - December 2010
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

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CONTENTS:

* Love and Fear - Are both real?
* Are You Ready to Lose Your World?
* Assumptions
* 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

Regards

Michael Dawson

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Love and Fear - Are Both Real?
Advaita and A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles is written on two levels – metaphysical and practical. Metaphysics is the study of what is real and what is false, what is true and what is illusory. To understand the Course you have to understand the metaphysics. However, it would be a mistake to try to apply these metaphysical teachings to our day-to-day lives. Some examples of this ‘error of level confusion’ will be given at the end of the article.

The meaning of the term Advaita is non-duality, not two. A Course in Miracles is an example of a pure non-dual source system. In a dualistic thought system light would be real and dark would be real, love would be real and fear would be real. In a non-dual core system only light would be real, and its absence would be darkness. Similarly, only love is real and its absence is fear.

To illustrate this imagine a windowless room with the door closed and the light off. If a lamp is now turned on, what happens to the darkness? Does it hide under the carpet, or go behind an object? No, it simply ceases to exist. Now imagine the same room with the light on. Can you bring a lamp of darkness into the room? Would it make the room go from light to dark? No, that would be impossible because darkness is not real, it is simply the absence of light.

On the first page of the text in A Course in Miracles is the following non-dual statement:
The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.
T-in.1

Here it states that only love is real, and its absence is fear. On that same page there is a two-line summary of the Course. It states, “nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists”. Love cannot be threatened because it's real, it is the essence of who we really are. When we forget that fear appears to be real. If nothing unreal exists, fear is an illusion. But we can believe it's real. The Course seeks to wake us up from our world of unreality.

A creator can only create like itself. As God is eternal and formless so must be His Creations. As our entire universe including ourselves is form and not eternal, God could not have created it or even know of its existence. Our universe of time and space is an illusory mental creation where we can play our painful game of separation. When we finally tire of this game and long to go home to unity we will wake up and realise it has all been a dream. Nothing here will have the power to make us feel fearful ever again, including the death of our body, for we would have remembered our eternal, formless reality - the Christ that God created.

The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. Look carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so. For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death. Children are born into it through pain and in pain. Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their bodies are hurt. They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted.They appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. And their bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. Not one of them but has thought that God is cruel. If this were the real world, God would be cruel.
T-13.in.1.(The Guiltless World)

There is a version of Advaita which could be called an impure form of non-duality. In this version God is aware that this universe is a dream but he delights to play in it. It is his universal playground where he experiences everything that time and space has to offer. Life starts millions of years ago as single cells which struggle through enormous trials and pain to now and continue onwards. All the while God is delighting in the variety of life he has created. This implies He would enjoy being a torturer and the one being tortured! The following quotes give a very different perspective on God.

The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes fear. And what is fear except love's absence? Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him.
W-pII.3.2.

The world you see is an illusion of a world. God did not create it, for what He creates must be eternal as Himself. Yet there is nothing in the world you see that will endure forever. Some things will last in time a little while longer than others. But the time will come when all things visible will have an end.
Clarification of Terms C.4.1

When I first grasped the non-dual teachings of A Course in Miracles I was disappointed that God is not personally looking after me as He is not aware of my mind and body. I no longer had someone to look after my health and bank balance. But then I saw that if He knew about this universe it would be real and eternal and there would be no escape from the pain here.

Can we do anything to wake up?

Enlightenment happens like an accident. Spiritual practice makes you accident-prone.
Zen master.

Teachers of non-duality seem to fall into one of two camps. These could be called the help and no-help camps, or the ‘something can be taught’ and ‘nothing can be taught’ approaches. Some modern non-dual teachers say you can't practise anything because there is no one to practise; you can't choose anything as there is no chooser. Life is just living through you and delighting in the experience. Some will wake up others will not. These teachers say the only benefit they can provide is by pointing to the truth and by your being in their presence. Other Advaita teachings - which includes the Course - disagree. Choices can be made and must be made. We must decide whether we want to listen to the counsel of the ego or the Holy Spirit in our mind. We must decide if we want to go throughout the day watching, as much as we can, everything without judgement - which is the Course’s definition of forgiveness. It asks us to smile gently at our ego behaviour. This is a choice and something we can do.

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

Great teachers of non-duality like Ramana Maharshi recognised that people who came to him were all at different levels and needed a different response to their questions. He likened them to three types of fuel. There were those who were like coal. Coal needs a prolonged heat before it catches alight. For these people Ramana might suggest a mantra, or simply looking at the picture of a their guru. Others he likened to damp wood. For these people he would suggest the spiritual discipline of self enquiry, asking "Who am I?". The last group he likened to dry tinder. This fuel only needs a spark to catch alight. For them Ramana only needed a silent look to awaken them.

In the same way, A Course in Miracles is written on different levels. There is something for everyone there. In places you will read that God is sad that we're not with him, and cries for us. That is very comforting for people who come from a spiritual tradition of an angry God that seeks to punish them for any minor transgression. But elsewhere in the Course you will read that God is not aware of us as the mind and body. In other places we're told to study the Course with seriousness and application. But lesson in 189 we are told:

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.

I think it is a compassionate approach to recognise that students are all on different levels, requiring differing kinds of assistance. Certainly the Course recognises this as illustrated by the next quotation:

Which is for which? Who would profit more from prayers alone? Who needs but a smile, being as yet unready for more?
M-29.2.

I am valuing listening to modern non-dual teachers but am wondering if some have landed on a spiritually correct plateau of no-choice, nothing to do and no one to do it. Newcomers could end up rather dispirited, I fear, by this rather fundamentalist mentality. See this cartoon: http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7262997/

Traps for Course in Miracles students - level confusion

After understanding Advaita teachings in the Course, one can easily falling into the trap of ‘level confusion’ by applying the metaphysical teachings of non-duality to the practical level of our daily existence. The ego is happy to use anything to maintain its existence.

The body is merely part of your experience in the physical world. Its abilities can be and frequently are over evaluated. However, it is almost impossible to deny its existence in this world. Those who do so are engaging in a particularly unworthy form of denial.
T-2.IV.3.

The ego’s chief defence mechanisms are denial and projection. It can happily misapply the Course’s metaphysical teachings on non-duality to reinforce denial. Here are some examples that I've heard of to illustrate this point.

During the time of the first war in Iraq a Course in Miracles group was going around stating "What war - it's only a dream. Nothing is really happening, we just asleep in heaven dreaming all of this". While this statement is correct at the highest level of the teachings it was being used by their egos to help deny the fear they felt about war and death. If the whole Course group was suddenly lifted up and transported to Iraq and placed on a road where they were being approached by an Iraqi tank firing guns on them would they still say "What war?". I feel sure they would all be running in the opposite direction very fast.

Another group I heard of had a member who was dying of cancer and was in hospital. The whole group visited and stood around her bed and chanted from the Course - "I am not a body. I am free." (Lesson 189) They told her she could have a miracle, leave this bed, and come home with them now. What they did not realise was that this was a particularly vicious form of ego attack on their friend. They could not see their own fears around cancer and death, denied them and then projected them onto their friend in bed. What was really needed was them to give comfort, listen to their friend’s fears, wipe her tears, check on her pain relief, medicine, etc.

Lastly, I've heard of Course students at funerals going around telling people cheerfully "There is no death!". True, but hardly the right time and place to make this point. When you lose someone close to you grief is natural; it should not be suppressed or denied through metaphysical teachings. You may fully realise there is no 'death', and even have proof of the 'survival' of the person who has died. The grief is for our self, for losing someone we were close to.

I remember seeing a poster once where the Dalai Lama said his teaching is simple, it is kindness. If we remember that we can't go far wrong.

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Are You Ready to Lose Your World?

by Adyashanti

www.adyashanti.org

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 T338

There is a very famous poem written by the third patriarch of Zen, Seng-ts’an, called the Hsin-Hsin Ming, which translates as Verses in Faith Mind. In this poem Seng-ts’an writes these lines: “Do not seek the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.” This is a reversal of the way most people go about trying to realize absolute truth. Most people seek truth, but Seng-ts’an is saying not to seek truth. This sounds very strange indeed. How will you find truth if you don’t seek it? How will you find happiness if you do not seek it? How will you find God if you do not seek God? Everyone seems to be seeking something. In spirituality seeking is highly honored and respected, and here comes Seng-ts’an saying not to seek.

The reason Seng-ts’an is saying not to seek is because truth, or reality, is not something objective. Truth is not something “out there.” It is not something you will find as an object of perception or as a temporal experience. Reality is neither inside of you nor outside of you. Both “outside” and “inside” are not getting to the point. They both miss the mark because outside and inside are conceptual constructs with no inherent reality. They are simply abstract points of reference. Even words like “you,” or “me,” or “I,” are nothing more than conceptual points of reference existing only in the mind. Such concepts may have a practical value in daily life, but when assumed to be true they distort perception and create a virtual reality, or what in the East is called the world of samsara.
Seng-ts’an was a wily old Zen master. He viewed things through the eye of enlightenment and was intimately aware of how the conditioned mind fools itself into false pursuits and blind alleys. He knew that seeking truth, or reality, is as silly as a dog thinking that it must chase its tail in order to attain its tail. The dog already has full possession of its tail from the very beginning. Besides, once the dog grasps his tail, he will have to let go of it in order to function. So even if you were to find the truth through grasping, you will have to let it go at some point in order to function. But even so, any truth that is attained through grasping is not the real truth because such a truth would be an object and therefore not real to begin with.
In order to seek, you must first have an idea, ideal, or an image, what it is you are seeking. That idea may not even be very conscious or clear but it must be there in order for you to seek. Being an idea it cannot be real. That’s why Seng-ts’an says “only cease to cherish opinions.” By opinions he means ideas, ideals, beliefs, and images, as well as personal opinions. This sounds easy but it is rarely as easy as it seems. Seng-ts’an is not saying you should never have a thought in your head, he is saying not to cherish the thoughts in your head. To cherish implies an emotional attachment and holding on to. When you cherish something, you place value on it because you think that it is real or because it defines who you think you are. This cherishing of thoughts and opinions is what the false self thrives on. It is what the false self is made of. When you realize that none of your ideas about truth are real, it is quite a shock to your system. It is an unexpected blow to the seeker and the seeking.

The task of any useful spiritual practice is therefore to dismantle cherishing the thoughts, opinions, and ideas that make up the false self, the self that is seeking. This is the true task of both meditation and inquiry. Through meditation we can come to see that the only thing that makes us suffer is our own mind. Sitting quietly reveals the mind to be nothing but conditioned thinking spontaneously arising within awareness. Through cherishing this thinking, through taking it to be real and relevant, we create internal images of self and others and the world. Then we live in these images as if they were real. To be caught within these images is to live in an illusory virtual reality.

Through observing the illusory nature of thought without resisting it, we can begin to question and inquire into the underlying belief structures that support it. These belief structures are what form our emotional attachments to the false self and the world our minds create.
This is why I sometimes ask people, “Are you ready to lose your world?” Because true awakening will not fit into the world as you imagine it or the self you imagine yourself to be. Reality is not something that you integrate into your personal view of things. Reality is life without your distorting stories, ideas, and beliefs. It is perfect unity free of all reference points, with nowhere to stand and nothing to grab hold of. It has never been spoken, never been written, never been imagined. It is not hidden, but in plain view. Cease to cherish opinions and it stands before your very eyes.

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Assumptions

by Jan Frazier
author of When Fear Falls Away
The Story of a Sudden Awakening
http://www.janfrazierteachings.com/

If there is an assumption underlying daily existence, and that is discovered to be the case, a door can open. Assumptions are imprisoning only when they are being made but it is not realized they are being made. Which is to say, the discovery of an unexamined assumption opens the door to the possibility that I could be wrong.

Here is a list of assumptions a person might make. Pause a long time as you consider each: is this an assumption made by you?

There are things I need to deal with before I can awaken.

I know what life is about.

Suffering is inevitable.

If I accept what is, that means I approve of it.

Freedom might come someday.

It is important to have an opinion.

Something I do or have will fulfill my life.

Human nature makes fundamental change impossible.

Who I am is a sum of my history, my beliefs, what I have learned, and what I do.

I’ve experienced something so painful that no part of me was left unruined.

Someone else has awakeness within, but I do not.

I am better than somebody else.

Aging is unfortunate.

Dying is really unfortunate.

My inner state is determined by circumstances and events.

I will always be at the mercy of a busy mind.

I’ve done something so awful that I’m bad to the core.

I know more about awakening than I used to.

The future will come.

“I beseech you . . . think it possible you may be mistaken.” - Oliver Cromwell

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

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

Australia 2010 Dates

Clare, South Australia - 1 day workshop - Sat 11. December, 2010
(2hrs drive north of Adelaide)

Healing Our Relationships - with People and Spirit.
from the perspective of A Course in Miracles

- 1 day workshop -

"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.

Inner peace and joy are seeking to rise up into our awareness. However, self-created barriers of judgements, ego identification and restless activity block this awakening.
Our relationships with people that we meet, as well as our partners, form our daily classrooms in which are mirrored what we have not forgiven in ourselves.
Forgiveness will dissolve these self-created barriers so we can remember our true spiritual reality.

Exercises will be used to help identify and heal the obstacles we have created allowing our natural state of peace and joy to be uncovered.

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

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

TIME:
Sat - 10.00am TO 5.30pm

BOOKINGS:
Edeltraud Ennich
PO Box 614
Clare, SA 5453
Tel: 08 8842 3114

COST
Deposit: $50 to cover basic costs ($30 non-refundable)
plus a donation for the workshop itself.
Lunch provided.

Cheques or postal monies made out to 'Edeltraud Ennich'

Australia 2011 Dates

Cairns City Library, QLD 4870

HEALING OURSELVES and OTHERS
from the perspective of A Course in Miracles

Workshop with Michael Dawson
        9.30am - 5.30pm Sat. 28 & Sun. 29 May, 2011
          Cairns City Library, 151 Abbott St., Cairns, Qld. 4870

    Introductory Talk: "Discovering Inner Peace
    - an Introduction to A Course in Miracles"
    7.30pm - 9.30pm Fri. 27 May, at same venue.

"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 unforgiveness in our minds.

During the workshop we will focus on undoing the blocks we have built to the presence of 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 true and false healing.

Forgiveness exercises will be used to help heal ourselves and turn 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.

Workshop Fees:
Weekend workshop: Earlybird rate: $185 until 21 April;   $235 from 22 April 2011.
Introductory Friday evening talk: $20

Contact: For all enquiries contact Alan Henricks
           Email:   adh65@bigpond.com         Phone: 0435128435 & 07 4053 6854
           Address: Unit 1, 38-42 Rambutan Close, Manoora 4870.

Refreshments:
Light refreshments provided for morning & afternoon breaks. Cafes are nearby.

Refund policy:
Full refund less $30 administration charge up to 7 May; $50 after.
No refunds for late arrival or early departure.

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Germany 2011 Dates

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

Bonn

June 18 and 19, 2011
9.30am to 5.30pm

Discovering Inner Peace.
- A path of undoing -
From the perspective of A Course in Miracles

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. Lesson 188

Inner peace and joy was given us when we were created. We are already enlightened and sinless. Our desire to be separate and special has led us to forget our spiritual reality. This workshop will explore the way to undo our errors (the miracle) so we can remember who we really are.

Instead of asking "How do I become enlightened?" we need to change the question to "How do I unenlighten myself?" The first question leads to struggle, fear, anticipation and a future goal. The second question brings us into the present moment and on to the way of undoing the obstacles to peace through forgiveness.

Subjects will include the mirror of relationships, traps on the path, where is peace to be found, ladder of trust, not knowing, being versus doing, forgiveness, undoing the blocks to receiving guidance and giving up control.

Exercises will be used to help identify and heal the obstacles we have created allowing our natural state of peace and joy to be revealed.

An Evening Introductory Talk - Fri 17th June 2011
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

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Freiburg

June 25 and 26, 2011
10 am to 6 pm

Discovering Inner Peace.
- A path of undoing -
From the perspective of A Course in Miracles

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. Lesson 188

Inner peace and joy was given us when we were created. We are already enlightened and sinless. Our desire to be separate and special has led us to forget our spiritual reality. This workshop will explore the way to undo our errors (the miracle) so we can remember who we really are.

Instead of asking "How do I become enlightened?" we need to change the question to "How do I unenlighten myself?" The first question leads to struggle, fear, anticipation and a future goal. The second question brings us into the present moment and on to the way of undoing the obstacles to peace through forgiveness.

Subjects will include the mirror of relationships, traps on the path, where is peace to be found, ladder of trust, not knowing, being versus doing, forgiveness, undoing the blocks to receiving guidance and giving up control.

Exercises will be used to help identify and heal the obstacles we have created allowing our natural state of peace and joy to be revealed.

An Evening Introductory Talk - Fri 24 June 2011

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

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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
This will be republished undo a new title in 2011.
Also available in German, Polish and Romanian.
Will be available in French in the next few months.

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 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.

Their publications can also be ordered in Australia at:
Adyar Bookshop
230 Clarence Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
Kenneth Wapnick ......……… 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 ...……....... 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 ………… A Course in Miracles Resource Web Site for ACIM Students

Search for A Course in Miracles Study Groups Around the World

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.

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

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
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