ACFIP Newsletter

Issue 48  March 2016

Quarterly Newsletter of the Australian Centre for Inner Peace

Michael Dawson

PO Box 125, Point Lookout

North Stradbroke Island,

Queensland 4183,

Australia

Email: mdawson@acfip.org  

Web site: http://www.acfip.org

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

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

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

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

New

1. Healing the Cause -A Path of Forgiveness.

Inspired by A Course in Miracles.

This is the eBook version of the paper back.

2. A Course in Miracles - Explanations of Major Themes

New book in eBook format

3. Forgiveness - A Path to Inner Peace. 

Inspired by A Course in Miracles

This is the eBook version of the paper back.

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

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

See below for details.

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

Regards 

Michael Dawson

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CONTENTS:

A Course in Miracles Material

* Michael Dawson - Relationships  

* Chart - The Illusion of Separation

* Exercise - Reducing Pain+audio link

Non Dual Teachings

* Remarks on Enlightenment - J le Roy 

* Jac O’Keeffe - Happiness 

* Enza Vita Quotes 

* What Awakeness Feels Like - Jan Frazier

* An Inner Revolution - Adyashanti

Other

* Workshops

* Books and Audio Materials for Sale

* Links

* Inspirational Quotations

A Course in Miracles Material

Relationships

reprinted from

Healing the Cause by Michael Dawson

Special Hate Relationships

Selecting special people to project our unhealed and unforgiven guilt onto is referred to in the Course as the special hate relationship. Any time we lose our peace and become upset over someone, we have met a mirror to what is unforgiven in ourselves. Our ego tells us that our anger is justified and we should attack back. The Holy Spirit counsels us to look within our mind to the hidden darkness and bring it to the light of the Holy Spirit so He can shine it away. The Holy Spirit constantly asks us to undo our denial, bring our projections back to our own mind and ask Him for help in letting them go. 

       If greedy people upset us, there is greed in our own mind. If angry people upset us, then anger is in our own mind. Often the form is different, but the content never is. Perhaps you have never shown anger but are still judgemental when others get angry. However, if you look more closely at your mind, you will find the anger even though it might be tightly controlled and denied. You may say that people who smoke upset you and you have never smoked. But what does smoking represent to you? Perhaps you feel that smokers are insensitive, selfish and indifferent. If you look honestly within yourself, you will also find these traits even though you express them in a different form. This is why the Course says:

 All anger is nothing more than an attempt to make someone feel guilty, and this attempt is the only basis the ego accepts for special relationships . . . Anger is never justified. Attack has no foundation.

(T297; T-15.VII.10:3; T593; T-30.VI.1:1-2)

       It is important to note that the Course is not condemning anger and saying we should not indulge ourselves in it. It simply states that it is not justified. In using anger we hope that our enemy will become guilty and admit to being the cause of our distress. He is now the one with the problem and not us.

       We all have a tremendous investment in anger because we hold the magical belief that it will get us what we want. However, all it ever gets us is more guilt, for on some level we know our attack is unjustified. We are only attacking in another what we have in ourselves. To get rid of this increase in guilt our ego counsels us to get angry again. The ego’s vicious circle of guilt and attack is thus maintained and our allegiance to the ego is kept alive. This is not to say that we should suppress our anger for this only makes our guilt real. The Holy Spirit asks us to accept our anger and bring it to Him so He may release us from its illusion. This is difficult for most of us to do for we believe the object of our anger deserves our justified punishment and our anger gives us the energy to carry this out. It seems that if we let go of our anger the ‘enemy’ will get away without retribution. 

       Often people cite the Gospels in defence of their anger, for did not Jesus get angry in the temple and turn over the tables of the moneylenders? However, the Gospels did not say that Jesus got angry. Perhaps Jesus chose to teach in bold strokes that day. More importantly, Jesus taught directly against anger in his famous Sermon on the Mount.

       Our defence of anger is understandable once we realise we believe that the source of our problems is in the world and we are innocent victims of circumstance. Once we drop our investment in anger, we will also lose our perception of ourselves as victims and turn to the Holy Spirit, and not the ego, for guidance. The ego sees this as a full frontal attack upon itself and will try everything to make us angry again. As we return to God, step by step, we must expect these attacks and pray for help. Anger is a major weapon of the ego, for it conceals the real source of the problem in our mind and makes us focus on the world instead. An experience which my wife Salice had around the time of the Gulf War in February 1992 illustrates our belief that our problems are in the world and not within us.

       Salice was meditating and reflecting on Saddam Hussein and on the situation in Iraq and Kuwait, wanting to do something to help it. She felt helpless however and asked, ‘What on earth can I do to help?’ A voice in her mind said, ‘How do you see Saddam Hussein?’ Salice thought about this and immediately felt he was cruel, controlling, attacking and angry. The voice then asked, ‘Do you have any of these traits?’ Salice thought deeply and admitted that she did indeed manifest these traits at times. The voice then said, ‘Fix these things in yourself and that is the greatest gift you can give the Gulf War.’ She was then shown a picture of Saddam Hussein standing on top of a mountain with all the people of the world gathered around its base. Saddam Hussein was holding a large mirror and the light was glinting on it. He was saying, ‘Look at me. You can’t see these qualities inside yourselves so I am being a mirror for you and I have to exaggerate them in order for you to see them.’ Salice said she knew in that moment that whilst she or anyone else has any negative quality, it is always eventually projected onto something or someone else. 

Special Love Relationships

The special love relationship is the ego’s chief weapon for keeping you from Heaven . . . (it) is but a shabby substitute for what makes you whole in truth, not in illusion. 

(T317; T-16.V.2:3; T315; T-16.IV.8:4)

During our lifetime, we generally spend large amounts of time in dependent, needy relationships. These may be with our parents, friends, lovers, children, employers or anyone else we think will fulfil our needs. We also create dependence on food, money, alcohol, cigarettes, books, cars, clothes and other material items. All this is based on the idea that happiness must lie outside ourself in the ego’s world of form. The Course refers to these forms as idols that are made to take the place of God’s love for us (see quotation in Figure 3.5). 

       What is it that forces us to look outside ourself for peace and joy? When we broke our conscious link with our home in Heaven, we were left with a terrible emptiness inside our mind. The Course refers to this as ‘the scarcity principle’. We felt there was something very important missing in our life but we were not consciously aware of what it was. The ego’s mechanism of denial enabled us to hide our guilt but it also removed the memory of home. But we could not completely forget God and His Kingdom, so a faint, haunting memory remains.

This world you seem to live in is not home to you. And somewhere in your mind you know that this is true. A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place that called you to return, although you do not recognise the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds you of. Yet still you feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown. 

(W331; W-pI.182.1:1-4)

       Turning to the ego for its advice, it tells us that there is certainly something missing in us and the only solution to our misery is to look outside our mind and find it in the world. Once again, the ego’s solution directs our search away from the love of the Holy Spirit in our mind and to the world outside and thus ensures the continuity of the ego. We now embark on a fruitless search for happiness where it cannot be found.

You must have noticed an outstanding characteristic of every end the ego has accepted as its own. When you have achieved it, it has not satisfied you. 

(T144; T-8.VIII.2:5-6)   

       Our spiritual poverty may be translated into a search for money. However, we never seem to get enough to satisfy us. When we buy some new clothing, we often experience an initial satisfaction but then, some time later, we see another item which is more attractive than the one we bought previously and now we want this one. Or we may translate our need to rejoin with God as a need to join sexually with another body. We feel that frequent sexual union will be a satisfactory substitute for spiritual union. None of what has been written above is implying that the ego’s world of form is sinful and should be avoided. This would make the ‘error real’ and lead to ascetism and self-debasement. Focusing on our unworthiness or escaping through pleasure-seeking serves the ego’s goal of keeping us guilty and centred on the world. To the Holy Spirit, the world is but a classroom of experience where, instead of finding guilt, we may learn forgiveness and begin to awaken from the dream of separation. We need to be ‘in the world but not of it’, the middle path which the Buddha taught 2,500 years ago.

       There is nothing like a relationship, irrespective of its form, to bring into our consciousness all that needs healing and forgiving in our mind. Without the mirror of relationship, our guilt would be difficult to discover. All our relationships must begin with the goal of fulfilling our ego needs. To direct unconditional love at one person is a contradiction in terms. When we finally awaken to who we really are, our love will extend to everyone equally and without exception. We thus need the relationships of this world to learn forgiveness.

       Let us look more closely at what happens in a special love relationship. We will take as our example a co-dependent relationship between two lovers. However, what we are about to explore will apply to all forms of relationship which are based on needs. Feeling the pain and emptiness within us, we look for someone to fill this void. It is as if we had a bottomless pit inside our heart which we hope we can fill with something outside ourself. We look for a special someone with special characteristics. Our ego is always very selective and will make up an appropriate shopping list for us. On this list will be included what sort of body and characteristics we require in our partner — their age, shape, colour and degree of beauty, and whether they have a sense of humour or are kind, sensitive and caring.

The special relationship is totally meaningless without a body. If you value it, you must also value the body. And what you value you will keep. A special relationship is a device for limiting yourself to a body, and for limiting your perception of others to theirs. 

(T321; T-16.VI.4 :1-4)

       Perhaps we are looking for a ‘protective father’ or a ‘kind mother’ to look after us. Maybe instead we want a ‘dependent child’ so we feel needed and have someone to rescue. When we find someone who meets our needs (fulfils our shopping list) and we also meet their needs, a special love relationship is formed. The initial phase is often referred to as the honeymoon period, as both partners now experience happiness, feeling that at last their bottomless pits have been filled. They say they have fallen in love but the reality of the situation is that they have fallen into needs. Whilst the needs are mutually met, the partners are unaware that this relationship is but another special hate relationship with an attractive border surrounding it. Our partner continuously reminds us of our lack of self-worth, for the very reason that we are using them to fill our bottomless pit. We hate this lack of self-worth and guilt within us and so must hate those who remind us of it. Our dependence on our partner will breed contempt as we hate to rely on others. Thus the special relationship ends up increasing our pain and emptiness instead of reducing it as we had first unconsciously hoped. Here we see clearly the goal of all special relationships, both of hate and love, which is to create guilt and thus maintain our belief in the ego.

Yet the closer you look at the special relationship, the more apparent it becomes that it must foster guilt and therefore must imprison. 

(T321; T-16.VI.3:4)

       The ego has told us we are sinners and our guilt is the proof that the ego must be right. When our needs are no longer met, the buried hate for our partner comes to the surface and the ego tells us to project this onto them. Once again, our anger feels justified as we attempt to get our needs met by making our partner feel guilty. ‘You told me you loved me but look how you treat me!’ is a common ego ploy. Even if the relationship is repaired and we ‘make up’, a seed of doubt is sown at this point. This will increase each time a falling out occurs and doubt about the future of the relationship is registered. At this point, the ego may counsel us to find another more appropriate partner. This cycle can repeat itself over and over again where we continuously draw another partner and the same pattern re-emerges.

       But we also have available to us the Holy Spirit’s guidance, if we so desire it. If we turn to Him at any point in this cycle, He will tell us to change the goal of our relationÛship from special to holy so that we may learn His lessons of forgiveness. In Chapter 5 we shall explore the concept of the holy relationship in more detail. Figure 3.5 summarÛises the ego’s vicious circle of the special love relationship.

Summary

Believing that the separation from God has really occurred we are left with a deep sense of sin and its attendant feeling of guilt. As previously stated, it is a psychological law that guilt demands punishment and we now fear this will happen to us. We turn to the ego to help us with this burden. Although the presence of the Holy Spirit would tell us we have nothing to fear — all is but a silly dream — we fear the Holy Spirit as He is an agent of an angry and vengeful God. The ego’s counsel is simple — we need only deny that the separation from God ever happened as well as all the guilt we carry, and project it onto our relationships and the world in general. We are no longer the one with the problem, everyone and everything else is. What we hate about ourself we now deny and project onto our enemies (special hate relationships). Our anger towards them demands that they change their behaviour to restore our lost peace. Our problem is now seen outside ourself and is thus impossible to heal.

       The most powerful weapon the ego has against God is the special love relationship. Feeling there is something seriously lacking in us (called the scarcity principle) we look for special people (lovers, friends, parents, therapists etc) to fill our hole of despair with their attributes (money, admiration, sex, security, help and so on). Thus we seek a substitute for the only relationship that will satisfy us, our relationship with God, which we think we have lost forever.

       The Holy Spirit would counsel us to use these very relationships as classrooms to learn forgiveness. The Holy Spirit can use everything the ego uses, but for the opposite purpose, i.e. to join instead of to separate. In our special love relationships we manipulate people to fulfil our needs, creating bargains where we exchange gifts betÛween us which we think we need from each other. However, the unjustified attack within the special hate relationship and the manipulation and disguised attack of the special love relationship only increases our level of guilt. Thus following the counsel of the ego only increases our guilt, which is exactly what the ego always wanted, for now we will continue our faith in its reality. We created the ego thought system and it fights to survive. Its counsel maintains our sense of separation and keeps us in a vicious circle of guilt and attack.

All sickness comes from separation. When the separation is denied, it goes. 

(T514; T-26.VII.2:1)

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Non Dual Teachings

Remarks on Enlightenment - J le Roy

For Douglas Harding

By Jose Le Roy

We talk a lot these days about awakening and enlightenment. In the Western world, more and more men and women are curious about their true nature. So it is more important than ever to be clear about what we mean by enlightenment. 

Enlightenment or awakening is the movement from total identification with an individual to a life centred in Emptiness. This movement is revealed through the discovery of a totally new way of seeing oneself and the world, a discovery that is called in the Eastern tradition 'the opening of the third eye'. 

This awakening is often described as the egoless state. But what does the word 'ego' really mean? Words such as 'individual', 'person', 'ego' are concepts to which everyone gives their own meaning depending on their cultural and religious background. For Christians theses words have a meaning which they would not have for Buddhists. The only possibility of really clarifying the meaning of awakening is to return to the pure and simple description of the experience. 

From the individual to the Void

After enlightenment, what is most remarkable is that the subject, the me is no longer visible. My first impression is to have completely disappeared from the world. When enlightenment happened, I was in my bedroom. I opened the window and what I saw threw me into a state of total astonishment. There was, as usual, the wall of the building in front, the roofs, the court, the patio-stones, but bathed in a light that was incomprehensible and sublime. This vision of the world I beheld as if for the first time. Most of all, I had vanished from the scene. No one was looking at the world ! Douglas Harding describes very precisely his own astonishment at this experience: 

It was all, quite literally, breathtaking. I seemed to have stop breathing altogether, absorbed in the Given. Here it was, this superb scene, brightly shining in the clear air, alone and unsupported, mysteriously suspended in the void, and (and this was the real miracle, the wonder and delight) utterly free of "me", unstained by any observer. Its total presence was my total absence, body and soul, lighter than air, clearer than glass, altogether released from myself, I was nowhere around. DH 

The 'me', such I had known it before, had quite literally vanished and in its place was suddenly a seeing that came from nowhere, belonged to nobody and gazed upon the Unknown. From that time, a mystery is alive in the heart of our being: the Void. It becomes impossible to perceive the 'me', to see oneself. Enlightenment is the end of a journey, the end of a quest because the searcher no longer exists. It's exactly the same as waking up from a nightmare. Let us imagine that in a nightmare we are being pursued by a ferocious dog. The fear is so strong that we wake up suddenly in a sweat. All of a sudden, the dream is over: the dog, the chase and the dreamer, every thing has vanished without trace. We discover to our great relief that we are comfortably tucked up in the warmth of our bed. Such is enlightenment : the end of an hallucination. 

This seeing, this enlightenment cannot possibly be imagined or conceived of. It can only be lived. This awareness is completely different from our everyday awareness. In the everyday awareness the individual takes as his reference point the body-mind. After awakening, this reference point has disappeared. This disappearance is totally extraordinary because, as from then, life is going to be lived on a new level and in an unknown dimension. 

In reality, it is the old 'me' which disappears; the old way of living as a separate individual and located in time and space. A new 'me' , the real 'me' is unveiled. Enlightenment doesn't remove the personal sense, the feeling of existing, but this feeling of being, this 'I AM' is pure; it is no longer identified with an individual who is confronting other individuals. The 'I AM' is not relative, it is absolute; it is an unlimited presence and conscious of itself. This feeling of being alive becomes even more intense. When awakening happened, it was as if I had just been born into the world for the first time. Life before awakening is a dream, a deep coma, a death. The newly discovered 'I AM' has divine attributes. This 'I AM' is beyond time, beyond space, without limits, without size, conscious, empty, full, silent, still and bliss. God the most high is within me and I am in HIM. 

So, there we have a paradox. On the one side, I see absolutely no 'me', no observer, nothing and, on the other side, I feel myself to be alive as I never felt before. So we have here a mystery. Whilst diving into the pure Void, I remain, nevertheless, myself; by grace of the pure Void, I am finally myself and this 'me' is nobody! 

Free from thoughts and desires

So with enlightenment, life does not stop. What disappears is the mistake of taking oneself to be somebody, of taking oneself for ones' appearance in the mirror. My true nature (what I am) is the total opposite of what I appear to be. In this Emptiness, thoughts and desires do not cease to be. My mind continues to function and life goes on. 

But I no longer see thoughts arising from a solid thing that we call a head, but arising from the empty space. The wonderful sense of freedom as a result of enlightenment comes from the free Presence that appeared and which makes me independent from thoughts. Before enlightenment, what I took to be my 'me' was the continual stream of thoughts which produces stress and suffering. Now I see that thoughts arrive from the Void. I no longer identify myself with them, I have the possibility of being behind them. They no longer define me. If it happens that I identify with thoughts and consequently suffer, I now know how to extricate myself from them to find again the place of freedom which is without thoughts and silent. In the deepest centre of the 'me', there is complete and total silence. Of this silence, one can say nothing because it is not an experience; it is non-duality. But it is the background, unknown and transcendent which makes possible all the experiences and within which thoughts arrive. When thoughts are completely absent, silence reigns. 

However, all this is not about destroying this marvelous tool; thought in the right place is very useful. Pure thought, that is to say without stress, is a reflection of the wisdom of the Source. This is why the mind is often symbolized by the moon and the wisdom of God by the sun. When it is spontaneous, thought is quite simply a correct response to the situation as it presents itself without the harmful intervention of the ego. 

But it is important to leave thought in its right place. Thought is limited and the mind cannot comprehend everything. Thought is created and belongs to the world. The truth is beyond; it is the Source and can only be perceived by a direct intuition and not by the mind. The 'philosopher' who searches for truth through the use of reason is like a man who tries to reach the stars by pulling up his trousers to the sky. It is stupid and dangerous. Stupid because the 'philosophers' are lead to write, in general, vain things. And dangerous because they end up denying that it is possible to know the truth or even that truth exists at all. 

On the other hand, it is useless to look to control thoughts. We have in fact a lot of difficulties in letting go (and I have my own difficulties); the ego, the little guy in the mirror has the tendency to come back again and block up the Void to take control of the show. But thoughts are spontaneous and arrive from the Void. Their ultimate Source is the supreme intelligence. So it's useless to get upset about it: the world takes care of itself. My life will run much smoother if nobody is thinking. In fact, where do thoughts come from ? From a mind-box? From a head-shaped thing ? Of course not: they come from the absence of mind. 

Just as Emptiness welcomes thoughts, it also welcomes desires. These do not entirely disappear with Seeing, but what is removed is the dissatisfaction. Identification with the ego generates suffering and dissatisfaction. To fill up this gap, this lack of being, the ego rushes into an unbridled run to obtain possessions. Desires follow desires, frustrations follow frustrations in an endless chain. When we are aware of our true nature, a huge feeling of fullness fills us up and all kind of needs vanish. There is no more thirst. Enlightenment pacifies us beyond all limits. In the Gospel of John, Jesus met a woman near a well. She came to look for water and Jesus said to her: 

The one who drinks these water will have thirst again, but who will drink the water that I give, never will be thirsty again; the water I give will become in him a fountain of eternal life. 

The awakening to our true nature generates an immense relaxation in our being and an openness to the present moment. Thus thirst has disappeared but desires remain. My humanity still exists. This life, however centred on the supernatural, is a natural life. Nevertheless, compared to my life before awakening (I should say my no-life !) what I know today could be called a desireless state. I can stay very long moments without any desire because the 'I AM' is filled with a perfect joy. 

As regards the nature of desires that sometimes appear, they are very simple and ordinary and there is nothing specific to say about them. For example, I like to drink a glass of French white wine from the Loire in a small cafe in Montmartre, and I desire to make love to the young and pretty woman I live with. Seen from outside, I look like an ordinary person but lacking in social ambition. But seen from inside, it's different; you have to believe me, it is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

A Way Into Non-duality

The enlightenment is like being born again, being born from above as Christ puts It. The entire life is now transformed in an infinite proportion. Before this passage, I had lived myself corruptible and physical; now I am incorruptible and the Light. Of course for this transformation to be achieved, I need not only to have some glimpses of the reality, but I have to settle in it. But anyone who perceives this reality even for one second sees it perfectly for it is always the Absolute that sees itself. Truth does not depend upon time. There is no possible improvement in the Seeing. Each moment is the moment of awakening, and each awakening is the awakening to the Absolute. 

This birth is the death of the identification with the body-mind, with the appearance in the mirror. So we could say that it is an egoless life if we call 'ego' the total identification with our human appearance. It is then no longer possible to live as before. Everything has changed. An upsetting has taken place. The spiritual quest has stopped because the seeker has vanished and truth has been revealed. 

However with this birth, a new life begins. The new child, the child of light, the heavenly being can keep on growing up. In concrete terms, it means that I still see that egoistic reactions can appear in this space in relation to events. The perfection which is in the Centre, the perfection of my true nature illuminates all the imperfections I had not paid attention to before. The habits have to disappear and I do not forget that for more than 20 years I have been totally identified with a body-mind called José. So there is at the same time consciousness of the Void and consciousness of some egoistic desires and thoughts. But when these egoistic reactions linked with the little José, emerge, they are seen through the light of my true nature and they lose their power and vanish soon. This new light is very important because it transforms the whole of my being and embraces little by little each part of me in its clarity. 

So after the illumination, a process of disidentification and of gradual unification is going to take place. But if the identification with the body easily disappears (indeed, it is actually ridiculous to identify with a piece of meat), the belief to be a thinker is more deeply rooted. It will take more time to stop living as a thinker. As Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj puts it: 

Thanks to this revelation (enlightenment), your identification with what is corporeal is going to know a vast spread and to extend to the dimensions of the manifested universe. Then you will discover that you contain and penetrate the whole cosmos and that you know it simply as your own body. This is named by the words 'pure superior knowledge' , Shud-Vijnan. Nevertheless, even in this state of sublime Shud-Vijnan, the intellect denies to be recognised as non-entity. However, in giving up yourself to the pure consciousness, the evidence of the fallibility and of the lack of consistence of the intellectual process is going gradually to become stronger and you will be able then to put the intellect to its true place, the second one.

Living in the timeless, the past and the future become unreal; thoughts relating to memory, regrets, remorse or anticipation about the future diminish in number and in power. The only thing that matters is the present moment. The mind is no longer the master of the house, it becomes the servant. Thoughts come and go; they belong to the world and are like clouds crossing the sky leaving no trace. 

This is why the incessant chatter of the mind becomes quiet. Thoughts and desires continue to arrive in the Vacuity, but a little bit like a fire that one no longer feeds with wood, or like a wheel that the engine no longer turns and yet nevertheless continues to turn. Disidentification with the body-mind, with my appearance in the mirror breaks the mind's own ability to create more and more thoughts and desires in an infernal circle generating stress. 

Indeed, there is here a paradox because in fact nothing changes. The seeing of my true nature always remains. There is no progress in this seeing because there is no time. This process of disidentification and unification simply happens in a spontaneous way. Naturally, the awakening brings its fruits and the heart opens itself. As St. Paul said: 'our external man falls into pieces, our interior man is renewed every day.' This way of realisation and accomplishment is a way of total surrender to my true nature which is the all Being. Nothing can be taken or added to this Being. It is what it is and contains everything. The present moment is in itself an absolute perfection, each situation is full in itself and opens on the infinite. My true nature is perfect. It has no problems and no needs. From thereon thoughts and desires are no longer essential to life; they belong to the world and are one of the expressions of Life. The most important thing in life now is to live each moment consciously from the Void. What I have to do is to rest in the wholeness, in the peace of my original state. It doesn't require any effort. I have to be passive and let the uncreated light of Awakening achieve its great work. It is a way towards unity, bliss, peace and the Unknown. 

Conclusion. 

The vacuity is independent of phenomena (thoughts, desires, as well as forms, colours, sounds...) that occur in itself. Fortunately, reality is always available. Reality is the only guide in our often peaceful but sometimes troubled journey. But peace at the centre is never affected. The secret lies in asymmetry. All the changing phenomena appear in the foreground of my non-changing nature. The Seeing of the Vacuity is like a sword which cuts off the illusion as soon as it shows its head. At every instant, the Infinite is here and now, and all the limitations due to experience collapse. The personal is plunged into the Impersonal (or suprapersonal). It could be compared to a carafe of water immersed in the sea: then there is no more interior or exterior. 

There is only the ONE. 

from NOUMENON: A NEWSLETTER FOR THE NON-DUAL PERSPECTIVE. WINTER 1996 VOLUME TWO NUMBER TWO 

Translated from French by Collin Fox 

NOUMENON is a quarterly newsletter and is edited by Kriben Pillay and published by: THE NOUMENON PRESS P.O. Box 1280 Wandsbeck 3631 South Africa e-mail: kriben@pixie.udw.ac.za (I received no reply when I emailed this address for permission to reproduce the article - Michael)

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Happiness 

from Jac O’Keeffe 

Happiness is a direct experience arising from your innate nature. 

Your true nature is causeless and living causeless happiness is your natural state of being. 

All external circumstances, activities, possessions and events are designed to keep the mind entertained. But happiness is outside the realm of the mind, it is outside the functionings and capacity of the mind. It is in the realm of placing your attention on your innate nature. 

To feel and experience real happiness, causeless happiness, requires a conscious or unconscious surrendering of your interest in your thoughts. 

If you believe that happiness is awaiting you in your future, then rest assured it will never come. Be prepared for a long wait, for that is simply an idea in your mind that keeps happiness at arm's length. Happiness is a direct experience arising from your innate nature. The origin of happiness rests completely outside the perimeters of your mind. 

Happiness arises from within. It is a quality of your innate nature. Thoughts distract you from consciously abiding in and enjoying your innate nature. Thoughts create all desires and desires can be all-consuming. Your mind can convince you that attaining a particular object of desire will make you happy. The truth is that when your mind is still, a natural feeling of happiness arises within you. Your true nature is causeless and living causeless happiness is your natural state of being. When a desire is satisfied, the desire subsides and mind rests for a period. The absence of desire, the absence of thought, allows what is within to be experienced. 

Managing desire and your mind, which is the source of desire, yields an opportunity to rest in and enjoy the innate happiness abiding always. Happiness is natural and does not require support of desires, thoughts, emotions, effort, goals, or finances! 

[Happiness] is internal, unchanging, and constant. It is still, it is calm, and it is complete. It searches for nothing, it does not seek anything, it is absolute, and it is. 

Your access to it is in your capacity to be still, to relax, and to stop engaging with your thinking. Thus the only thing that can stop you from feeling happiness is you. To continue to look outside for something that is already inside only serves to distract you from looking within. 

You are not that which you experience. Only the concepts that you hold about yourself to be true can be influenced by your experiences. There is an essential essence, a core within you that is not touchable by any experience. This core essence does not identify with any event, person or place in your life. This is why you cannot be damaged beyond repair by any event that has ever happened to you. This is why happiness cannot be affected by exterior circumstances; happiness is a fragrance rising from this core essence. This is who you really are. 

There is never a time when a desire must be fulfilled. This is simply a belief with strong identification that can develop into obsession. If fulfilled desires brought happiness, the world would be a more joyous place for all to live. If you are interested in liberation, then be prepared to drop your desires. 

Your mind can convince you that attaining a particular object of desire will make you happy. The truth is that when your mind is still, a natural feeling of happiness arises within you. Your true nature is causeless, and living causeless happiness is your natural state of being. When a desire is satisfied, the desire subsides and mind rests for a period. The absence of desire, the absence of thought, allows what is within to be experienced. 

If you identify with the phrase 'I want happiness' you can simply remove the 'I' that is identification with body and mind and get rid of 'want' by dropping desires. What remains? Without 'I' and 'want' happiness alone remains. It is as simple as this. 

Your capacity to be happy does not improve when certain conditions are in place. That is just a thought. There are no circumstances that can give you lasting happiness. Right now, remove that thought, be quiet, sit still and rest in the I AM, as observer. All your beliefs and desires are happenings in consciousness. Let them pass: there is no need to make them yours. Nothing is needed at all right now. With certainty you can know that all is well and it cannot be any other way. 

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Enza Vita Quotes from website

You are pure light, but you cannot know light, because knowing something about it infers that it exists apart from you.

Awareness, the sense of being, the sense of being aware, can be felt whenever you take the time to stop, right now.

Why do you think that you are not awake? What is this I that is in this unenlightened condition?

Are you so sure you are not awake? Are you sure you understand what “awake” is? Why do you think that you are not awake

Stop following thoughts for a few seconds and observe what remains, what is still here.

You must find out who this me in the story really is. If there actually is no me in the first place, then nothing needs to be done.

All that exists in manifestation is contained within you. It is a part of you. It is what you are made of, and it is made of you.

When you realize that you are already what you’re seeking, you will laugh.

You already are this freedom pervading everything and everywhere. All boundaries and limitations are in your imagination only.

You are not this separate and lost thing. You are the awareness that is present in this moment.

You don’t get there! You do not reach anything! You are already here at this moment. You, as awareness, are always here, now

You are already free; however, this is a freedom that has never known bondage and so cannot even be called freedom.

This is a good time to stop reading for a moment, and just for five seconds stop following your thoughts and see what remains.

Stop following thoughts for a few seconds and observe what remains, what is still here.

Like the space in a room, you are already free.

You are enlightenment. Enlightenment is who you are. So you don’t have to go looking for it anywhere else!

Your essential nature does not and will not change. No cosmic experience is needed because you are already that, now.

Without awareness, nothing is possible. Just the simple shift in focus back to what is present in this moment is all that it takes.

Your thoughts and feelings are like these clouds. They sometimes seem to obscure the light of your inner self, but they do not change it.

Are you so sure you are not awake? Are you sure you understand what “awake” is? Why do you think that you are not awake?

Who are you without any concepts of who you are?

If you let all concepts about yourself, others, existence, reality, and spirituality, come to rest completely, who are you? This question, if genuinely followed, reveals a non-conceptual space that is prior to all thoughts, feelings, states, sensations, or experiences. In this non-conceptual space all experiences and states come and go and the essence of our natural state is self-evident. For some, one look from this non-conceptual space, and as this non-conceptual space, is enough to settle the whole issue of identity. For others, this is not enough.

For these people it is recommended that they allow all thoughts to come to rest on a frequent basis throughout the day. These moments of being able to rest as awareness become longer and longer until there seems to be a spontaneous natural return to presence/awareness.

This return, however, is not an event in time to which you, as a separate person, are returning. This space is what you are, what you have always been. “Leaving” and “returning” to awareness are realized to be just more experiences coming and going, inseparably, within awareness itself, always eternally present, regardless of whether it is recognized or not.

You are beingness itself, pure presence/awareness, whose true nature encompasses enlightenment and everything else you think you have to work for in the story.

Enza Vita, founder and director of the MahaShanti Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the awakening of all beings, was born in a small village in Sicily. From a young age she questioned everything around her, constantly seeking out the point and purpose of our life here on earth. Her search brought her to emigrate to Australia on her own at the age of seventeen and led to her work in the consciousness community as editor for glossy magazines Woman Spirit and Health & Wellbeing in the 90’s, and as co-editor of the newspaper Innerself for the last 12 years. Through her job, she was blessed with the opportunity to meet and study under many of the great spiritual teachers of our age and she was exposed to the wonderful writings of many others around the world. Culminating in a profound spiritual realization in 2007, she began to write and answer questions for those who came to her … which eventually became her soon to be released book Always Already Free. Based on Enza’s own experience, Always Already Free, guides the reader from the seeking process through the integration of enlightenment into everyday life and reveals that spiritual enlightenment is not a faraway dream, but the ever-present reality always available here and now.

To ask Enza a question, send a message to EnzaVita@EnzaVita.com

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What Awakeness Feels Like - Jan Frazier

What is the feeling quality of awakeness? When it’s sustained, the norm, the default, what does it feel like? Some describe it as exquisite tenderness, as universal and unconditional love. People often have the impression that the awake “state” is rapturous, an intensely joyful high without end. Some say it is without any texture at all, that the absence of egoic emotion means the awake state is neutral, empty of anything recognizable as feeling.

This gets talked about, even debated, often in a very heady way, among those attempting to understand. It gets explored by those meaning to clear the air of cobwebs, to get the rose color out of the lenses, as regards what wakefulness is like.

There is a lot of confusion about this. For one thing, someone looking at it from the outside — someone thinking about it, wondering — is stuck with looking at an idea about it, which will never yield anything but more ideas. Someone who is “in” it, who is it, looking with its own eyes at itself and trying to describe it, must resort to words, which depend on ideas and images for their meaning.

But we don’t seem to be able to stop trying to convey it; the wondering what-it’s-like continues. So here I go, giving it a shot.

First, to make one thing clear: whatever feeling there may be — of joy, of tenderness, peaceful well-being — it is not the same as what’s experienced in ordinary human-heart experience, where an emotion has its opposite, a cause, and a lifespan, and is felt to be personal. It is subject to change, to watering-down, dissolution, poisoning. When people speak of the feeling state of awakeness, of the absence of familiar human emotion, this is what they are calling attention to — the absence of the familiar stuff of life on the roller coaster. Nor is it the ordinary human experience of joy turned high, as is often imagined. Yet what else can a person do but imagine that — start with what is known, familiar, and magnify the idea of that?

It is the case, even so, that when someone’s mind first goes utterly quiet, and the machinery of suffering has disassembled itself, there may be the experience of intense joy. This comes of the radical contrast with how it always was before, from the felt contrast between that and This. The stunned revelation that you are not what you thought you were, and the relieving of self-caused misery, can leave you feeling quite ecstatic . . . for a time. But then you come to feel a kind of normal, baseline ease. You’ve gotten used to not hitting yourself in the head with a hammer, and you forget to notice how good it feels, because the old way is a distant memory.

In the search for an adequate image for awakeness, the closest I can come is space. At its most expansive expression in a human being (as far as “I” have felt, anyhow), awakeness feels like space itself. In that space, anything can (and does) occur. Within it, life happens, with all its variety and energy and motion. But the space itself has no experience, no feeling, no movement or noticeable quality, apart from a subtle “self”-awareness — the space sensing itself. Whatever occurs in the space is experienced as mere phenomena. The profound neutrality of this spacious awareness can look like heartlessness.

The morning the jets plowed into the World Trade Center, there was hideous suffering, which those of us not in one of the jets or in one of the towers, or in the vicinity, or loving someone in a tower or a jet, are not able to imagine, however much we may have unwittingly tried.

But the space around the tall buildings, and inside them, and the space between the running people, and the space between the atoms of the bodies of those crushed and burning and dying — the space that surrounded each thing, each agony, the space that penetrated the pieces of burning paper, that came between two thoughts of a person about to pass out of consciousness forever, the space between one floor and another as the top one collapsed onto the lower one (have you had enough?) — the space did not care, did not know or ask about suffering, about meaning. The morning sky, though it filled with ash and fume, though its color briefly changed, did not care, was not permanently altered. It stood in plain, radically unfeeling recognition of the unfolding disaster, which had no meaning whatever.

This space, this spaciousness, is the experience of awakeness in its most depersonalized expression, well beyond the sense of being a person, or an anything.

This is not a comfortable or comforting thought, especially to one who wants to wake up because of the expectation of unending bliss.

But what about that exquisite tenderness, the unconditional love? The profound compassion that naturally flowers, as you realize that all human beings suffer (as you once did) unnecessarily? What about the ecstasy that (yes) visits you on occasion, so intense it almost hurts? What of the mystical union with the divine? Doesn’t something of these experiences also occur?

In order to function in a normal human life — to engage in relationships, have a job, make a meal, have fun, participate in political or social or creative activities — awakeness assumes form, the form of a human being. The human being has a body, a history, a name, a personality, looks a certain way, lives in a certain place, does particular kinds of things, interacts with other human beings. Although it readily adopts all of this (in most awakened lives, anyhow), it doesn’t get confused, in that old familiar way, and start believing any of it is ultimate reality. Awakeness doesn’t identify with any of it or get attached particularly. Nevertheless, it participates. At this “level,” there is abundant feeling. Here is where tenderness lives, where compassion is felt, where fun can be had. In this expression of awakeness that is closer to earthly life than the profoundly neutral space, here is where unconditional love feels itself everywhere attention goes. It is where sensation occurs. Where pain is experienced — not the needless mind-caused suffering of before, but the authentic alive pain that comes with, say, grief over the death of a loved one. (And it is not resisted, so it doesn’t cripple, or endure forever.) Physical pain also occurs, and is not resisted or otherwise mentally managed.

It may be useful to contemplate the incarnation in this connection. The difference between the formless and the embodied is the difference between featureless space and the ability to savor, revel, care for. It isn’t a one-or-the-other thing. Christ was a person, and he also realized he wasn’t only a person. Sometimes he appeared heartless. And he wanted only to relieve others of their suffering.

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An Inner Revolution - Adyashanti

The enlightenment I speak of is not simply a realization, not simply the discovery of one’s true nature. This discovery is just the beginning—the point of entry into an inner revolution. Realization does not guarantee this revolution; it simply makes it possible.

What is this inner revolution? To begin with, revolution is not static; it is alive, ongoing, and continuous. It cannot be grasped or made to fit into any conceptual model. Nor is there any path to this inner revolution, for it is neither predictable nor controllable and has a life all its own. This revolution is a breaking away from the old, repetitive, dead structures of thought and perception that humanity finds itself trapped in. Realization of the ultimate reality is a direct and sudden existential awakening to one’s true nature that opens the door to the possibility of an inner revolution. Such a revolution requires an ongoing emptying out of the old structures of consciousness and the birth of a living and fluid intelligence. This intelligence restructures your entire being—body, mind, and perception. This intelligence cuts the mind free of its old structures that are rooted within the totality of human consciousness. If one cannot become free of the old conditioned structures of human consciousness, then one is still in a prison.

Having an awakening to one’s true nature does not necessarily mean that there will be an ongoing revolution in the way one perceives, acts, and responds to life. The moment of awakening shows us what is ultimately true and real as well as revealing a deeper possibility in the way that life can be lived from an undivided and unconditioned state of being. But the moment of awakening does not guarantee this deeper possibility, as many who have experienced spiritual awakening can attest to. Awakening opens a door inside to a deep inner revolution, but in no way guarantees that it will take place. Whether it takes place or not depends on many factors, but none more important and vital than an earnest and unambiguous intention for truth above and beyond all else. This earnest intention toward truth is what all spiritual growth ultimately depends upon, especially when it transcends all personal preferences, agendas, and goals.

This inner revolution is the awakening of an intelligence not born of the mind but of an inner silence of mind, which alone has the ability to uproot all of the old structures of one’s consciousness. Unless these structures are uprooted, there will be no creative thought, action, or response. Unless there is an inner revolution, nothing new and fresh can flower. Only the old, the repetitious, the conditioned will flower in the absence of this revolution. But our potential lies beyond the known, beyond the structures of the past, beyond anything that humanity has established. Our potential is something that can

flower only when we are no longer caught within the influence and limitations of the known. Beyond the realm of the mind, beyond the limitations of humanity’s conditioned consciousness, lies that which can be called the sacred. And it is from the sacred that a new and fluid consciousness is born that wipes away the old and brings to life the flowering of a living and undivided expression of being. Such an expression is neither personal nor impersonal, neither spiritual nor worldly, but rather the flow and flowering of existence beyond all notions of self.

So let us understand that reality transcends all of our notions about reality. Reality is neither Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Advaita Vedanta, nor Buddhist. It is neither dualistic nor nondualistic, neither spiritual nor nonspiritual. We should come to know that there is more reality and sacredness in a blade of grass than in all of our thoughts and ideas about reality. When we perceive from an undivided consciousness, we will find the sacred in every expression of life. We will find it in our teacup, in the fall breeze, in the brushing of our teeth, in each and every moment of living and dying. Therefore we must leave the entire collection of conditioned thought behind and let ourselves be led by the inner thread of silence into the unknown, beyond where all paths end, to that place where we go innocently or not at all—not once but continually.

One must be willing to stand alone—in the unknown, with no reference to the known or the past or any of one’s conditioning. One must stand where no one has stood before in complete nakedness, innocence, and humility. One must stand in that dark light, in that groundless embrace, unwavering and true to the reality beyond all self—not just for a moment, but forever without end. For then that which is sacred, undivided, and whole is born within consciousness and begins to express itself.

© Adyashanti 2008

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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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Other

Forthcoming Workshops on A Course in Miracles

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

Germany 2016 Dates

Bonn - Sat 11 and Sun 12 June - 10am to 6pm

Stages of Spiritual Awakening

from the perspective of A Course in Miracles

Forget not once this journey is begun the end is certain. Doubt along the way will come and go and go to come again. Yet is the ending sure. No one can fail to do what God appointed him to do. When you forget, remember that you walk with Him and with His Word upon your heart. Who could despair when hope like this is his?

A Course in Miracles-Clarification of Terms-Epilogue

Everyone's path is unique. Some take the steps in different order and sometimes simultaneously, and some appear to miss out some steps all together. Some experience visions, ecstasy, physical phenomena, and other mystical and psychic experiences, whilst others travel a less dramatic path but still reach the same destination - an inner peace, quiet joy and a oneness with all things, and even beyond that oneness.

Many of the challenges on the path return again and again in cyclic fashion until the journey is completed. What is required of us is to start out on an unknown journey with a faith that increases with experience, moving from an initial awakening to a full embodiment in daily life.

The Course has much to help us on our path of awakening and also warns us of the traps on the way. However, some important aspects of the awakening process are not covered in the Course. To help with these I have drawn on the observations and experience of some awakened teachers.

Topics also included:

Requirements for awakening

Progressive versus direct paths

The spectrum of spiritual awakening

Practice or no practice?

Effort or grace?

Gradual and sudden awakenings.

Kundalini

The seekers trap

Forgiveness

Exercises will be used to help undo the blocks to awakening.

No knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.

An Evening Introductory Talk - Fri 10th June 2016

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  2016

Fri 17,[6pm to 9pm] Sat 18 [10am to 6pm] and Sun 19 [10am to 5pm]

Stages of Spiritual Awakening

from the perspective of A Course in Miracles

Forget not once this journey is begun the end is certain. Doubt along the way will come and go and go to come again. Yet is the ending sure. No one can fail to do what God appointed him to do. When you forget, remember that you walk with Him and with His Word upon your heart. Who could despair when hope like this is his?

A Course in Miracles-Clarification of Terms-Epilogue

Everyone's path is unique. Some take the steps in different order and sometimes simultaneously, and some appear to miss out some steps all together. Some experience visions, ecstasy, physical phenomena, and other mystical and psychic experiences, whilst others travel a less dramatic path but still reach the same destination - an inner peace, quiet joy and a oneness with all things, and even beyond that oneness.

Many of the challenges on the path return again and again in cyclic fashion until the journey is completed. What is required of us is to start out on an unknown journey with a faith that increases with experience, moving from an initial awakening to a full embodiment in daily life.

The Course has much to help us on our path of awakening and also warns us of the traps on the way. However, some important aspects of the awakening process are not covered in the Course. To help with these I have drawn on the observations and experience of some awakened teachers.

Topics also included:

Requirements for awakening

Progressive versus direct paths

The spectrum of spiritual awakening

Practice or no practice?

Effort or grace?

Gradual and sudden awakenings.

Kundalini

The seekers trap

Forgiveness

Exercises will be used to help undo the blocks to awakening.

No knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.

Contact:

Margarete Sennekamp

Winterhaldenweg 4,

79856 Hinterzarten,

Tel./Fax: 07652-917530

email: M.Sennekamp@t-online.de

www.Sophia-Institut.de

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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

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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. His body died in December 2013.

Their publications can also be ordered in Australia at:

Adyar Bookshop

230 Clarence Street

Sydney, NSW 2000

Kenneth Wapnick ......……… 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

A Course in Miracles Study groups

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

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

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

Purchase ACIM on line

ACIM Historical Recordings & Video

A Course In Miracles Pen Pals:

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

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

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

Belief.net ACIM discussion:

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

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

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INSPIRATIONAL QUOTATIONS

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

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

A Course in Miracles  Lesson 250

Do understand that you are destined for enlightenment.

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

Allow it to fulfil itself.

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

Nisargadatta Maharaj

I Am That

 When you listen to the voice in your head, that

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

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

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