ACFIP Newsletter Issue 30 - September 2011

ACFIP Newsletter
Issue 30 - September 2011
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

___________________________________________________________________________

CONTENTS:

* Jesus and A Course in Miracles
* Kirtana
* A Quiet Mind
* 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
• Healing the Cause: A Path of Forgiveness is now available as an eBook.
• A new book, A Course in Miracles: Explanations of Major Terms, is now available as an eBook.
• The Findhorn Book of Forgiveness is now available as an eBook
• Downloadable MP3s of my Healing the Cause self-help CDs now available.
See below for details.

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

Regards

Michael Dawson

___________________________________________________________________________

Jesus and A Course in Miracles

Throughout A Course in Miracles we are repeatedly told that we have an inner guide, like an inner autopilot ready to help us and take us home. Letting this guide assist us in our daily lives is the fast road to spiritual awakening. It asks us to drop the hand of the ego and pick up the hand of the Holy Spirit, or Jesus. Jesus is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The Course states that he is always with us, and will be there until the end of time. He waits with endless patience for that time in which we will turn to him to help. But how reluctant most of us are to seek his advice. Is he really there? Can I trust him? What if he asked me to sacrifice something? Why doesn't he speak up? Can I really trust him with my bank account? These and other questions fill our minds.

Below I have taken some of my favourite quotations about Jesus from the Course.

Need Not Believe in Jesus to Study A Course in Miracles

•Is he God’s only Helper? No, indeed. For Christ takes many forms with different names until their oneness can be recognised. But Jesus is for you the bearer of Christ’s single message of the Love of God. You need no other. It is possible to read his words and benefit from them without accepting him into your life. Yet he would help you yet a little more if you will share your pains and joys with him, and leave them both to find the peace of God. M88
Like all great teachers, Jesus doesn't ask us to believe in what he says, he simply points the way and asks us to try.

• This course has come from him (Jesus) because his words have reached you in a language you can love and understand. Are other teachers possible, to lead the way to those who speak in different tongues and appeal to different symbols? Certainly there are. Would God leave anyone without a very present help in time of trouble; a savior who can symbolize Himself? Yet do we need a many-faceted curriculum, not because of content differences, but because symbols must shift and change to suit the need. Jesus has come to answer yours. In him you find God's Answer. Do you, then, teach with him, for he is with you; he is always here. M59
The Course describes itself as one of many thousands of spiritual paths. It is certainly not meant for everyone. It is written at quite a high intellectual level, and most find it initially difficult to understand. It requires much rereading, a life time's study. This approach does not appeal to many.

Jesus - Equality with Us

• It is possible even in this world to hear only that Voice (the Holy Spirit ) and no other. It takes effort and great willingness to learn. It is the final lesson that I learned, and God's Sons are as equal as learners as they are as sons. T75
If it was Jesus's last lesson to pass everything over to the Holy Spirit, then this shows us how strong our opposition is to being helped and guided. However, as we begin this path of turning within and asking for help we find that it works and this reinforces our efforts.

• There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. I have nothing that does not come from God. The difference between us now is that I have nothing else.T7
Jesus is not special. He has woken up to his spiritual reality, and now seeks to help us achieve the same goal.

•The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ (the Course's symbol of total forgiveness) in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God........Is he the Christ? Oh yes, along with you. M87

•Equals should not be in awe of one another because awe implies inequality. It is therefore an inappropriate reaction to me. An elder brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience, and obedience for his greater wisdom. T7

•I am constantly being perceived as a teacher to be exalted or rejected, but I do not accept either perception of myself. T54
The world either treats Jesus as an object of special hate or special love. We either put him on a pedestal (special love) or we attempt to bury him underneath it (special hate). He asks for neither.

•I have assured you that the Mind that decided for me is also in you and that you can let it change you just as it changed me. T77

•My mind will always be like yours, because we were created as equals. It was only my decision that gave me all power in Heaven and earth. My only gift to you is to help you make the same decision. T77

• I can be entrusted with your body and your ego only because this enables you not to be concerned with them, and lets me teach you their unimportance. I could not understand their importance to you if I had not once been tempted to believe in them myself. Let us undertake to learn this lesson together so we can be free of them together. I need devoted teachers who share my aim of healing the mind. Spirit is far beyond the need of your protection or mine. Remember this:
In this world you need not have tribulation because I have overcome the world. That is why you should be of good cheer. T56
Jesus understands us because he once thought like we did. Otherwise, he could not help us.

• When you unite with me you are uniting without the ego, because I have renounced the ego in myself and therefore cannot unite with yours. Our union is therefore the way to renounce the ego in you. T147
To pick up the hand of Jesus, you must first release the hand of the ego.

Need to Forgive Jesus

•I have great need for lilies, for the Son of God has not forgiven me.
Jesus is well aware that we have made some bitter idols of him. We fear we must follow his example and be crucified so that we may find God. As he suffered so we believe we must suffer and sacrifice. This is a fearful teaching, and thus we come to fear Jesus. Jesus stands for God in this world, and we project our authority problem onto him. We say "I don't need your help Jesus, I can do everything by myself."

•And can I offer him forgiveness when he offers thorns to me?
Jesus does not withhold forgiveness but we can no longer accept it when we resist him.

•For he who offers thorns to anyone is against me still, and who is whole without him? T426
An attack on anyone is an attack upon all, including Jesus

World Fears and Rejects Jesus

•The world must therefore despise and reject me, because the world is the belief that love is impossible. T144
Jesus is an example of unconditional love and thus threatens our ego-based thought system.

•If you will accept the fact that I am with you, you are denying the world and accepting God. T144

•My will is His, and your decision to hear me is the decision to hear His Voice and abide in His Will. As God sent me to you so will I send you to others. And I will go to them with you, so we can teach them peace and union. T144
Jesus is asking us to lay aside our ego, and let him speak through us to others.

Need to Trust in Jesus

• You have very little trust in me as yet, but it will increase as you turn more and more often to me instead of to your ego for guidance. The results will convince you increasingly that this choice is the only sane one you can make. T67
The proof of the pudding is in the eating - it works!

No Salvation Through the Death of Jesus

• I am made welcome in the state of grace, which means you have at last forgiven me.
Grace is our natural state, the awareness of Heaven.

For I became the symbol of your sin, and so I had to die instead of you.
We deny our "sins" and project them onto Jesus - hoping he is now punished and not us. We are off the hook!

To the ego sin means death, and so atonement is achieved through murder.
Believing our errors to be a sins we then think God will punish us with death.

Salvation is looked upon as a way by which the Son of God was killed instead of you.

Jesus dying for our sins lets us of the hook. Someone must be punished.

Yet would I offer you my body, you whom I love, knowing its littleness? Or would I teach that bodies cannot keep us apart?
Mine was of no greater value than yours; no better means for communication of salvation, but not its Source. No one can die for anyone, and death does not atone for sin. T411

Jesus wants to share his mind with us, not his body.

Jesus as a Model and Helper

• I am the model for rebirth, but rebirth itself is merely the dawning on your mind of what is already in it. T93
Rebirth is not the resurrection of the body, but the awakening of spiritual knowledge in the mind.

• I will love you and honor you and maintain complete respect for what you have made, but I will not uphold it unless it is true. I will never forsake you any more than God will, but I must wait as long as you choose to forsake yourself. Because I wait in love and not in impatience, you will surely ask me truly. I will come in response to a single unequivocal call. T61

•When I said I am with you always, I meant it literally. I am not absent to anyone in any situation. Because I am always with you, you are the way, the truth and the life. You did not make this power, any more than I did. It was created to be shared, and therefore cannot be meaningfully perceived as belonging to anyone at the expense of another. T116

•I will teach with you and live with you if you will think with me, but my goal will always be to absolve you finally from the need for a teacher. This is the opposite of the ego-oriented teacher's goal. He is concerned with the effect of his ego on other egos, and therefore interprets their interaction as a means of ego preservation. I would not be able to devote myself to teaching if I believed this, and you will not be a devoted teacher as long as you believe it. T54

• I said that I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. That is why I am the light of the world. If I am with you in the loneliness of the world, the loneliness is gone. You cannot maintain the illusion of loneliness if you are not alone. My purpose, then, is still to overcome the world. I do not attack it, but my light must dispel it because of what it is. Light does not attack darkness, but it does shine it away. If my light goes with you everywhere, you shine it away with me. The light becomes ours, and you cannot abide in darkness any more than darkness can abide wherever you go. The remembrance of me is the remembrance of yourself, and of Him Who sent me to you. T144

• When you are tempted to yield to the desire for death, remember that I did not die. You will realize that this is true when you look within and see me. Would I have overcome death for myself alone? And would eternal life have been given me of the Father unless He had also given it to you? When you learn to make me manifest, you will never see death. For you will have looked upon the deathless in yourself, and you will see only the eternal as you look out upon a world that cannot die.T233

Fear of A Course In Miracles

• Spirit need not be taught, but the ego must be. Learning is ultimately perceived as frightening because it leads to the relinquishment, not the destruction, of the ego to the light of spirit. This is the change the ego must fear, because it does not share my charity. My lesson was like yours, and because I learned it I can teach it. I will never attack your ego, but I am trying to teach you how its thought system arose. When I remind you of your true creation, your ego cannot but respond with fear. T53
As we open to the light, the ego becomes afraid. It knows that at some point, we will drop its hand. The Course warns us the ego will move from suspiciousness to viciousness. While the thought of separation appeals to us, the ego thought system will live on. The ego is the thought of separation.

Helen Schucman, the scribe of A Course in Miracles, was well aware of this dynamic:

I could neither account for nor reconcile my obviously inconsistent attitudes. On the one hand I still regarded myself as officially an agnostic, resented the material I was taking down, and was strongly impelled to attack it and prove it wrong. On the other hand I spent considerable time in taking it down and later in dictating it to Bill, so it was apparent that I took it quite seriously. I actually came to refer to it as my life’s work. As Bill pointed out, I must believe in it if only because I argued with it so much. While this was true, it did not help me. I was in the impossible position of not believing in my own life’s work. The situation was clearly ridiculous as well as painful.
(from Helen’s unpublished biography.)

Serving Jesus - Apostles Of Jesus

•For this alone I need; that you will hear the words I speak, and give them to the world. You are my voice, my eyes, my feet, my hands through which I save the world. W330

This does not mean to teach the principles of A Course in Miracles to other people. What it does mean is teaching (by practising) forgiveness rather than judgement in our daily lives.

•Teach not that I died in vain. Teach rather that I did not die by demonstrating that I live in you. T209

___________________________________________________________________________

Kirtana

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

Death by Love

I will not forget the way she pinned me to the ground that day before I even knew the wrestling had begun.
We were in the thick of it when I felt an arrow hit.
And yes, the impulse came to run, but by then it was too late; I could not escape my fate - death by love.
On that day a door slammed shut.
And some kind of cord got cut - or a story line of suffering.
I fell into the arms of grace
As she kicked my mind through space - left it dazed and wondering how life as I had known it could just end.
I still don't know what happened, but I highly recommend death by love.
It's what you've been longing for - the one desire to which the rest refer.
It's what you've been running from for it brings the curtain down on who you thought you were.
And it isn't for the faint of heart.
It can tear your world apart or put it right side up again.
It can leave your heart exposed to every kind of wind that blows.
But you're not separate from the wind.
Oh and it could be a painful death and slow... especially if you resist - but what a way to go... Death by love.

___________________________________________________________________________

A QUIET MIND
From I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj

•When the mind is kept away from its preoccupations, it becomes quiet. If you do not disturb this quiet and stay in it, you find that it is permeated with a light and a love you have never known; and yet you recognise it at once as your own nature. Once you have passed through this experience, you will never be the same man again; the unruly mind may break its peace and obliterate its vision; but its bound to return, provided the effort is sustained; until the day when all bonds are broken delusions and attachments end and life becomes supremely concentrated in the present. p.308
•Look at your mind dispassionately; this is enough to calm it. When it is quiet, you can go beyond it. Do not keep it busy all the time. stop it - and just be. If you give it a rest, it will settle down and recover its purity and strength. Constant thinking makes it decay. p.311
•A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self- awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part. p.311
•Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally, without any interference on your part.
•Pay no attention [to your thoughts]. Don’t fight them. Just do nothing about them, let them be, whatever they are. Your very fighting them gives them life. just disregard. Look through. p.241
•If you could only keep quiet, clear of memories and expectations, you would be able to discern the beautiful pattern of events. Its your restlessness that causes chaos. p.247
•As long as you are a beginner certain formalised meditations, or prayers may be good for you. But for a seeker for reality there is only one meditation - the rigorous refusal to harbour thoughts. To be free from thoughts is itself meditation....You begin by letting thoughts flow and watching them. The very observation slows down the mind till it stops altogether. Once the mind is quiet, keep it quiet. Don’t get bored with peace, be in it, go deeper into it....Watch your thoughts and watch yourself watching the thoughts. The state of freedom from all thoughts will happen suddenly and by the bliss of it you shall recognise it. p.224f
•When thus the mind becomes completely silent, it shines with a new light and vibrates with new knowledge. It all comes spontaneously, you need only hold on to the ‘I am’ p.332
•The silence is one and without it the words could not have been heard. It is always there - at the back of the words. Shift your attention from the words to silence and you will hear it. p.359
•Do understand that the mind has its limits: to go beyond, you must consent to silence.
•To see reality is as simple as to see one’s face in a mirror. Only the mirror must be clear and true. A quiet mind, undistorted by desires and fears, free from ideas and opinions, clear on all levels, is needed to reflect the reality. Be clear and quiet - alert and detached, all else will happen by itself. p.397
•The unchangeable can only be realised in silence. Once realised, it will deeply affect the changeable, itself remaining unaffected. p.437
•To go beyond the mind, you must be silent and quiet. Peace and silence, silence and peace - this is the way beyond. p.450
•Abandon all desires, keep your mind silent and you shall discover. p.453
•What you see as false, dissolves. It is the very nature of illusion to dissolve on investigation. Investigate - that is all. You cannot destroy the false, for you are creating it all the time. Withdraw from it, ignore it, go beyond, and it will cease to be. p.455
•This attitude of silent observation is the very foundation of yoga. You see the picture, but you are not the picture. p.469
•You cannot see the true unless you are at peace. A quiet mind is essential for right perception, which again is required for self-realisation. p.481
•In peace and silence the skin of the ‘I’ dissolves and the inner and the outer become one. The real spiritual practise is effortless. p.483
•When the mind is quiet it reflects reality. When it is motionless through and through, it dissolves and only reality remains. p.484
•Keep vey quiet and watch what comes to the surface of the mind. Reject the known, welcome the so far unknown and reject it in its turn. Thus you come to a state in which there is no knowledge, only being, in which being itself is knowledge. p.486
•When you are not in a hurry and the mind is free from anxieties, it becomes quiet and in the silence something may be heard which is ordinarily too fine and subtle for perception. The mind must be open and quiet to see. p.508
•You need not worry about your worries. Just be. Do not try to be quiet; do not make ‘being quiet’ into a task to be performed. Don’t be restless about ‘being quiet’, miserable about ’being happy’. Just be aware that you are and remain aware - dont say: ‘yes, I am; what next?’ There is no ‘next’ in ‘I am’. it is a timeless state. p.508

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

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 2011 Dates

North Stradbroke Island, QLD 4183
One hour east of Brisbane
Sat.8 and Sun.9 Oct 2011
10am to 5.15 pm

Anchorage Village Beach Resort, Point Lookout,
North Stradbroke Island, QLD 4183

Meaningful Relationships
- finding peace and growth in the mirror of relationships.
From the perspective of A Course in Miracles

When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself.
As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself.
Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself.
A Course in Miracles.

The world is a mirror to our state of mind. Relationships do not have the power to give or take our peace. Each difficult encounter with those we meet - children, friend, partner, parent, boss, or stranger - gives us another opportunity to see what is unhealed and unforgiven in our minds.

Forgiveness looks gently and without judgement at the disturbances in our minds thus allowing them to be released. As our judgements are healed our eternal spiritual reality of quiet joy and inner peace starts to dawn upon our minds.

Exercises will be used to see how we deny and project our unhealed parts onto others and how they can be healed through forgiveness and inner guidance.

No previous knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.

Cost:
Earlybird rate: $185 until 8th Sept.; $225 from 9th Sept.
To qualify for the earlybird rate the $185 must be received by me by 8th Sept.

Please make cheques payable to " Michael Dawson", - see contact information below.
Bank transfers possible.

Date and Times
Sat.8 and Sun.9 Oct 2011
10am to 5.15 pm

Refund policy:
Full refund less $30 administration charge up to 8th Sept; $50 after.
No refunds for late arrival or early departure.

Contact:
For all enquiries regarding the workshop (not accommodation) please contact:
Michael Dawson

Email: mdawson@acfip.org

Address: P.O. Box 125, Point Lookout, Qld. 4183

Meals:
Refreshments provided for morning and afternoon breaks.
For lunch - cafes and hotel in walking distance (see map below).

Workshop Location
Anchorage Village Beach Resort, Point Lookout, North Stradbroke Island, QLD 4183
web: http://www.anchorage.stradbrokeresorts.com.au
email: anchorage@stradbrokeresorts.com.au

A comprehensive website on Straddie is available at http://straddieonline.com.au/

YouTube Video of Point Lookout

Accommodation:
NOTE: All accommodation must be booked directly with the provider. Workshop organisers will not be handling any accommodation bookings.

The Anchorage Village Beach resort (07 3409 8266) provides accommodation in units each containing a single and queen size bed. If you wish to share, the price for two nights is about $135 per person for two sharing or $102 per person for three sharing. (2010 prices)

There is plenty of accommodation at Point Lookout ranging from camping and back packers to hotels. Here are some links:

http://northstradbroke.i4u.com.au http://www.northstradbrokeisland.com
http://www.stradbrokeholidays.com.au http://www.stradbrokehotel.com.au

http://www.stayz.com.au/accommodation/qld/queensland-islands/north-stradbroke-island

Camping
http://www.more2redlands.com.au/Explore/Camping/Pages/default.aspx

How to get there:
North Stradbroke Island can be accessed easily in your own car, or via public transport.

Two companies operate car ferries from Cleveland to Dunwich.
Stradbroke Ferries - car ferry timetables
and
Sea Stradbroke car ferries - The Big Red Cat

Two companies operate passenger water taxis from Cleveland to Dunwich. These are met by buses at Dunwich which can drop you outside the Anchorage Village resort/workshop venue.

Stradbroke ferries water taxi
and
Stradbroke Flyer Gold Cats

Ferry and Accommodation package deals

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

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Clare, SA - Sat 29 and Sun 30 October 2011
(2hrs drive north of Adelaide)

Relationships
- finding peace and growth in the mirror of relationships.
From the perspective of A Course in Miracles

When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself.
As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself.
Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself.
A Course in Miracles.

The world is a mirror to our state of mind. Relationships do not have the power to give or take our peace. Each difficult encounter with those we meet - children, friend, partner, parent, boss, or stranger - gives us another opportunity to see what is unhealed and unforgiven in our minds.

Forgiveness looks gently and without judgement at the disturbances in our minds thus allowing them to be released. As our judgements are healed our eternal spiritual reality of quiet joy and inner peace starts to dawn upon our minds.

Exercises will be used to see how we deny and project our unhealed parts onto others and how they can be healed through forgiveness and inner guidance.

No previous knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.

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

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

COST
$210
Deposit: $60 to cover basic costs ($30 non-refundable)

Limited bursaries available. Please discuss with Edeltraud

Vegetarian lunches provided.

Cheques or postal monies made out to Edeltraud Ennich

For help with accommodation contact Edeltraud.
emai: tayen@activ8.net.au

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

Adelaide
Evening workshop - Tues 1st Nov 2011

Awakening to Our Spiritual Reality.

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

The light, love and joy of Spirit are ever present and wait only our acceptance. We need not earn them as they were freely given at our creation. Nor is sacrifice or suffering required. So why do we rarely experience the light?

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 Spirit and to experience joy and peace.

This workshop will look, firstly, at why we are afraid of the light and the illusions we fear to let go. Our illusions and unforgiveness stand as barriers between us and the light.

An exercise on forgiveness will be included.

No previous knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.

Entry: $30.00 Please Note Earlier Starting Time
TIME: 6:15 PM doors open for 6:30 PM start. - 9.30 PM finish
Light refreshments provided at 8:00 Break

Venue: Rosefield Uniting Church Hall
2-6 Carlton Street, Highgate. Ample Parking.
Off Fullarton Rd near the Ferguson St. Shops near Cross Road.
Third street on the right after the Fisher St Lights coming from the City

CONTACT: Julie Way
Please register by filling in this form and returning to Julie Way
with payment by cheque or $ Postal order to Julie Way

PO Box 408 Torrensville SA 5031
Enquiries: Phone 84439162
julieway@ozemail.com.au
Bookings and Full Payment is essential before the evening.
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name……………………………Address……………………………….……….
Home……………………………….. B or M………………….……………….
Email: Please include so as to receive confirmation: ……………………………
I enclose: full payment $30

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

Brisbane

Relaxation Centre

BRISBANE - 1 day - Sunday 13 Nov 2011
 9.30a.m. to 4.30p.m.

Forgiveness is the key to happiness.
- A Course in Miracles workshop -

Here is the answer to your search for peace.
Here is the key to meaning in a world that seems to make no sense.
Here is the way to safety in apparent dangers that appear to threaten you at every turn,
and bring uncertainty to all your hopes of ever finding quietness and peace.
Here are all questions answered; here the end of all uncertainty ensured at last.
From A Course in Miracles – Lesson 121

Forgiveness dissolves the obstacles of judgement we have created between ourselves and the peace and joy of our eternal spiritual reality. What we find disturbing in the world are but symbols of what is unhealed in our minds.

This workshop will look at what A Course in Miracles says about forgiveness and use exercises to help clear the obstacles we have created.

No knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.

VENUE:
Relaxation Centre,
15 South Pine Road
Alderley
Brisbane 4051

COST
$55

BOOKINGS:
Relaxation Centre
07 3856 3733
(Please do not book through me)

The Brisbane Relaxation Centre has informed me that many people are increasingly booking at the last moment.
I check the number of participants on Friday morning before the workshop.
If numbers are small I cancel the workshop so those the are booked can be informed and make other plans for their weekend.
If you wish to attend the workshop please book by the Thursday before.

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

Germany 2012 Dates

Bonn

June 16 and 17, 2012
9.30am to 5.30pm

Surrendering to the Light: Undoing the Ego
from the perspective of A Course in Miracles

Love waits on welcome, not on time.
Release is given you the instant you desire it.
(A Course in Miracles)

The Course teaches us that we do not know the way home and need to be guided from within. Realising we know nothing about discovering our inner joy and peace, the workshop aims to explore the path of humility and surrender to allow truth to reveal itself to us.

As we approach the light our ego will become fearful and will resist its own undoing. Our minds do not want to release control and seek to be in charge of our spiritual path. Only by stopping, letting go, relaxing, trust and surrender can we fully open to the love, wisdom and peace within us.

We play our part by discovering the obstacles to love and releasing them through forgiveness.

Workshop subjects will include: the nature of the ego, no path to God, fear of love, not knowing the way, awareness, "I need do nothing", being in the present, ladder of trust and forgiveness.

Exercises will be used to help us undo the ego and move into the present moment.

No knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.

An Evening Introductory Talk - Fri 15th June 2012
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 23 and 24, 2012
10 am to 6 pm

Surrendering to the Light: Undoing the Ego
from the perspective of A Course in Miracles

Love waits on welcome, not on time.
Release is given you the instant you desire it.
(A Course in Miracles)

The Course teaches us that we do not know the way home and need to be guided from within. Realising we know nothing about discovering our inner joy and peace, the workshop aims to explore the path of humility and surrender to allow truth to reveal itself to us.

As we approach the light our ego will become fearful and will resist its own undoing. Our minds do not want to release control and seek to be in charge of our spiritual path. Only by stopping, letting go, relaxing, trust and surrender can we fully open to the love, wisdom and peace within us.

We play our part by discovering the obstacles to love and releasing them through forgiveness.

Workshop subjects will include: the nature of the ego, no path to God, fear of love, not knowing the way, awareness, "I need do nothing", being in the present, ladder of trust and forgiveness.

Exercises will be used to help us undo the ego and move into the present moment.

No knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.

An Evening Introductory Talk - Fri 22 June 2011
8pm - 9.45pm

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.

______________________________________________________________

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.
___________________________________________________________________________

BOOKS AND AUDIO MATERIALS FOR SALE - by Michael Dawson

New teaching and healing materials - eBooks and downloadable MP3s:

Ebooks:

1. Healing the Cause -A Path of Forgiveness.
Inspired by A Course in Miracles.
This is the eBook version of the paper back.

2. A Course in Miracles - Explanations of Major Themes
New book in eBook format

3. Forgiveness - A Path to Inner Peace.
Inspired by A Course in Miracles
This is the eBook version of the paper back.

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

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

Downloadable Mp3s:

1. Healing the Cause: Self-Help Exercises 1
This MP3 contains the identical four exercises as the CD

2. Healing the Cause: Self-Help Exercises 2
This MP3 contains the identical four exercises as the CD

3. Healing the Cause: 3 Self-Help Exercises in English with German translation
This MP3 contains the identical three exercises as the CD

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

Books:
Healing the Cause - A Path of Forgiveness. Findhorn Press 1994
Also available in German, Romanian, French, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese.

The Findhorn Book of Forgiveness. Findhorn Press. 2003
Also available in German, French, Polish and Romanian.

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

MP3s (see above) and CDs:
Healing the Cause:
Since 1986 I have been conducting healing workshops in the UK and abroad, and have continually experimented to find healing and forgiveness exercises that are effective. I have found that a particular exercise can be effective for one person but not another. Accordingly, I was led to develop a series of exercises. Over the years workshop participants asked if these exercises could be put onto audio cassettes and CDs so they could repeat them. This has resulted in the Healing the Cause - Exercise series - Tapes 1 to 4 (2 exercises on each tape) and CD1 and 2 (4 exercises on each CD)

CD - 3 Healing Exercises in English with German translation. 10 Euro
Content:
Ex1. Forgiving Ourselves.
Ex2. Changing Perception and Finding peace.
Ex3. Changing Perception of another - exercise for two people.

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

Workshops:
1. Three Steps of Forgiveness.
This workshop concentrates on the process of forgiveness from the perspective of A Course in Miracles. Includes 3 healing exercises.
Recorded at the Annual Miracle Network Conference in London, November 2001. 1 hour 12 mins. One CD
2. Finding and Eliminating the Blocks to Receiving Guidance.
This talk investigates what stops us hearing the guidance that is ever present in our lives. Recorded at the Annual Miracle Network Conference in London, October 20001 hour. One CD

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

___________________________________________________________________________

CONTACTS and COURSE INFORMATION

Search Engine for ACIM Sites, Definitions and Articles by Joe Jesseph.
A Web search engine dedicated to finding discussion and definitions of terms and concepts found in
"A Course in Miracles" as well as Web sites, articles and other writings related to the Course.

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

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

Foundation For A Course In Miracles................FACIM is the official teaching organisation of the Foundation for Inner Peace and the copyright-holder of_A Course in Miracles and all related materials. Publishes the quarterly Lighthouse newsletter. They have extensive on-line mail order for their books, CDs and DVDs.
The Foundation was started by Kenneth and Gloria Wapnick and has moved to Temecula in California. Kenneth is my teacher of A Course in Miracles.

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.

Belief.net ACIM discussion:
This Belief.net web-based discussion is hosted by Joe Jesseph.
http://community.beliefnet.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=151

______________________________________________

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTATIONS

About three 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
WEBSITE:   http://www.acfip.org