ACFIP Newsletter
Issue
49 June 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
______________________________________________________
CONTENTS:
A Course in Miracles Material
* Asking for Help - part 1 of 2 - Michael
Dawson
* Chart - New Charts at http://www.acfip.org/ws2016.html
Non Dual Teachings
* When Its Personal - Christine
Horner
* Extract from: Revealing the Absolute
* A Child Again by
Jan Frazier
* All about me - Jac OKeeffe
* Adya - excerpts from Impact of Awakening
Other
* Workshops
* Books and Audio Materials for Sale
* Links
* Inspirational Quotations
A Course in Miracles Material
Chapter 6 - Asking for Help
Reprinted
from Healing the Cause by Michael Dawson
You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep
peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers
totally without judgement. (T42; T-3.VI.3:1)
When the ego tempts you to sickness do not ask the
Holy Spirit to heal the body for this would merely be to
accept the egos belief that the body is the proper aim of
healing. Ask rather that the Holy Spirit teach you the right
perception of the body, for perception alone can be distorted.
Only perception can be sick because only perception can be
wrong. from A Course in Miracles (T146;
T-8.IX.1:5-7)
In our search for healing there comes a time when we
realise that we can only receive help from outside our egos
thought system. The help of the Holy Spirit is always available
to us but it needs to be invited in. The Holy Spirit cannot come
where it is not welcome, for it will never go against our free
will. To ask for help is to understand what true prayer really
means.
The subject of prayer is easily misunderstood because of
our identification with our ego needs. The ego gives us a
shopping list of what to pray for and tells us that this will
bring us happiness. Following the egos advice, we pray for
things like money, security, status, power and healing of our
bodies and often we feel disappointed when our prayers are not
answered. In this chapter we shall explore the difference
between true and false prayer and the role of the Holy Spirit. I
have been considerably helped in the writing of this chapter
byDr. Kennneth Wapnicks commentary on the pamphlet The Song
of Prayer found on CD set of the same name.
We all have a psychic ability to manifest things. Some
people can draw to themselves money and material goods, others
are good at getting parking places and taxis. The Bible, too,
states that if we believe we will get what we pray for, we will
receive it. Psychic abilities are of a neutral nature and can be
used by either the ego or the Holy Spirit, but the abilities
themselves do not bring the peace and joy of God into our lives.
As his awareness increases, he may well develop
abilities that seem quite startling to him. Yet nothing he can
do can compare even in the slightest with the glorious
surprise of remembering who he is. (M59; M-25.1:4-5)
The question the Course would always encourage us to ask
is, "What is it for?". In the hands of the ego, psychic power is
used to reinforce the seeming reality of our world. Believing
its advice that happiness can only be found outside ourself, we
use this power to attract the forms of this world. Even if we
are successful in our manifestations, lasting peace and
happiness are still not forthcoming and so we are forced to try
to obtain something else, or more of the same. "Seek and do not
find" (T210; T-12.V.7:1) is the egos dictum, and in this way we
keep our attention fixed on the world of form and away from
spirit.
False and True Prayer
These forms of prayer, or asking-out-of-need, always
involve feelings of weakness and inadequacy, and could never
be made by a Son of God who knows Who he is . . . True prayer
must avoid the pitfall of asking to entreat. Ask, rather, to
receive what is already given; to accept what is already
there.
(S3, S1; S-1.II.2:1, S-1.I.1:6-7)
When we pray for external things to happen, whether for
ourself or others, we are implying that we know what is the best
solution. The Course points out that all we know is how to
create problems and only the Holy Spirit knows how to solve them
and return us to a state of peace. Our ego-based prayers seek to
change the circumstances of our life so we can be happy again.
If only we could get enough money, heal our bodies or find the
right partner, we think we would be happy.
The Holy Spirit is not concerned with getting rid of our
problems but with helping us to find peace in them. Our prayers
should not be about changing the world, but about changing our
mind regarding the world. The world will never be as we want it
to be but we can learn to be at peace within it. The Holy Spirit
is not concerned with the forms of this world because they are
the miscreations of our ego and thus illusory. To ask the Holy
Spirit to act on a form level is to ask Him to believe in the
same illusion we do. It is His task to awaken us from the
illusion, not to adjust it to our liking. Everything in this
world is the same to the Holy Spirit. He sees nothing as good or
bad in itself, otherwise He would make the same mistake as us
and "make the error real". He simply sees everything as a
potential classroom for learning our lessons of
forgiveness.
If our body becomes diseased, or we have an accident, we
may be tempted to pray to the Holy Spirit to heal us. The Course
reminds us, however, that we should pray to understand the right
use of the body which is to be a tool of communication for the
Holy Spirit. (See quotation at the beginning of this chapter.)
This elevated perception is very difficult for us to appreciate
and the Course is well aware of this. "It takes great learning
to understand that all things, events, encounters and
circumstances are helpful." (M9; M-4.I.4:5)
Our ego constantly advises us to change our circumstances
instead of learning to find peace in them. This is not to say
that the Holy Spirit may not guide us to change our
circumstances. However, His purpose will be to enable us to
learn more about inner peace and will not entail any sacrifice
apart from the sacrifice of letting go our illusions, and this
of course is often experienced as painful. The Holy Spirit is
only concerned with the cause of a problem, which is a wrong
perception in our mind. If we invite Him to help us at the
causative level, He can create a shift of perception (a miracle)
in our mind which will restore to us the peace we have lost.
This is in opposition to the egos approach which is only
concerned with the effect of the problem, which is seen outside
our mind in the world. It is here that the ego asks us to direct
our prayers for change. The Course states:
. . . The only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness,
because those who have been forgiven have everything. Once
forgiveness has been accepted, prayer in the usual sense
becomes utterly meaningless. The prayer for forgiveness is
nothing more than a request that you may be able to recognise
what you already have.
(T40;T-3.V.6:3-5)
If God has given us everything at our Creation, what
gifts of the earth can possibly compare with this? When we
have completed our process of forgiveness, we shall awaken from
our dream of separation and find all Gods gifts of love, peace,
joy and creativity waiting for us to reclaim them. The very act
of praying for specifics reinforces our belief in scarcity and
affirms our ego. Prayer, like forgiveness, is a process. Jesus
likens it to a ladder and we must all start at the bottom.
Ladder
of Prayer
At the bottom of the ladder we use prayer to entreat,
asking for things of this world, which only reinforces our sense
of scarcity and separation. Our prayers to heal our body are
also found at this level. Believing our body is our most
important possession we become very concerned for its safety and
health. If the motive for our prayers is to heal our body, we
will reinforce the reality of the egos world of form. The ego
identifies with our body and makes it its home. If our prayers
are only concerned with the well-being of our body we are
reinforcing our belief in the ego. But if we pray to the Holy
Spirit to show us how we can be at peace with our bodily
problems, we can turn a bodily symptom into a classroom of
forgiveness.
Over time the emphasis of our prayer shifts from
form to qualities we desire peace, for example. Even here the
prayer for peace is affirming that we do not already possess it,
that God has not already given it to us. In the process of
learning what true prayer is, we shall feel moved at times to
pray for others, or to send them light and love. We might decide
to pray for our enemies or to heal another, but to pray for
ones enemies is to fall into the trap of making the error real,
for there are no enemies, only mirrors to the guilt within
us.
We said that prayer is always for yourself, and this
is so. Why, then, should you pray for others at all? And if
you should, how should you do it? Praying for others, if
rightly understood, becomes a means for lifting your
projections of guilt from your brother, and enabling you to
recognise it is not he who is hurting you.
(S5; S-1.III.1:1-4)
Part
2 in September newsletter.
Non Dual Teachings
When
Its Personal
Christine
Horner
After a lifetime of an on and off again love affair
with God, bouncing through various religions, in 2006 I turned
my life over to God. Literally, I gave my bodily existence over
to God to know Truth, accepting that it could even mean my
physical death. The human constructs of what God was according
to my own personal culture and conditioning had become so
unsatisfactory and ridiculous in my mind, after spending much
time in Nature and in contemplation, I could no longer accept
those constructs. Nothing less than the Truth was acceptable to
me beyond this point. With Buddha and Jesus as my inspiration, I
told God to "put me on the fast track."
It was shortly after that I wrote a poem called, The
Gift, not fully comprehending the magnitude of those words
and where they would lead me. On top of the world and ready for
anything, my cup overflowing with positive energy and
affirmations, my life utterly and devastatingly . . . fell
apart.Broke with $20 left in my pocket and groceries in the
refrigerator from my ex so I could feed the kids, I was forced
to make the decision to call my family across the country to
send money so I could pack the car to travel back to the
Midwestthe last place I wanted to go back toas it meant I
would once again be separated from my son.
A month later my grandma, who had been a rock in my
life, passed away. A family disagreement led to my estrangement
from my entire family during that same time, and then finally,
weeks before Christmas the same year, my 11-year-old daughter
was diagnosed with cancera brain tumor.
Her father and my son, living across the country,
rushed to be with her for brain surgery. Unable to afford to
commute across the country regularly, my daughter and I braved
the chemo/radiation and many weeks in the hospital, for the most
part, alone. It was when I was up all night with a child
vomiting into a bucket that the channels of clarity began to
open wide for me. I spent much time writing and working from my
laptop plugged into a hospital Ethernet cable as my daughter
slept in her hospital bed or rested at home.
I felt such purpose with this greater clarity. I
desired to save the world and even formed a non-profit
foundation with the last vestiges of the inheritance I received
from beloved Grandma.
As my inspiration felt divine, my hard work was
sure to be rewarded; supporting not only my daughter and me, but
allowing me to share with those that I loved and had supported
me in the past.
It wasnt to be so.
The sustenance and partnerships I had hoped to
bring to fruition toward alleviating the world of its
self-created suffering never materialized. Despite doing all
that I could to keep negative thinking at bay and the positive
affirmations of myself as part of the Infinite flowing, I began
the final death spiral into the abyss of total darkness through
an extended Dark Night of the Soul.
My small business consulting clients had long since
dried up. As my daughter needed continual medical care for a
persistent hormone elevation that rendered her medical team
unable to declare her in remission, finding regular employment
was nearly out of the question; unless I lied my way through the
interview process which I finally succumbed to doing.
No matter what I did, the results were always the
sameno channel opened up to end the hell I was going through,
though a friend did take us in for a while and another friend
lent me some money, which in the end only delayed the
inevitable.
I sold everything I owned piece-by-piece. I
meditated, I prayed, I read everything I could get my hands on,
I tried to BEand I waited. I waited some more for that miracle
that never came. The Universe had always generously supported me
in the past; why was every stream now dry and barren?
I lost my apartment and my daughter was separated
from me, moving in with her best friends family and I was
unable to hug my teenage son who lived across the country, for
two years. Thank goodness for Internet video chat.
It was this time that I was left hanging on my own
personal cross, crying out, Why have you forsaken me?
I had had faith. I had believed. Id done the work
and Id dedicated my life to God and serving humanity.
How could this be happening to me?
I couldnt find God anywhere that I looked. I felt
numb and dead inside. Id never felt so abandoned. This was my
crucifixion of the ego. In that some people have a
health-related physical near-death experience, this was as near
death as I was to get as I contemplated how I could gracefully
bow out of the lives of my children without causing them
irreparable damage and end the depths of my despair. The crazy
thing was I couldnt even shed any tears over the situation.
There was literally nothing left inside, except, finally . . .
total surrender of everything I thought I had ever understood
about life.
I wore a brave face and kept my affairs as private
as I possibly could, until one day I told God that I was done
with this experience of living in my car. Apparently, Life
Itself agreed. Life brought a kind stranger into my life who
became the clichd trickle of light at the end of the tunnel.
When this sweet man, who bought my last possession off of
Craigslist, finally figured out why I was spending my days at
the library, the coffee shop, and the park, he and his wife
immediately took me into their home. Eventually, my daughter
also came to stay while I worked to get back on my feet.
Throughout this period of wandering the desert in
empty hopelessness, my life as I had known it was deconstructed,
including most of what I had previously clung to as precious. I
was done with books and teachings. I was even done with Jesus
and Buddha, whom I had begged, even screamed at, to show up and
tell me what I wasnt getting. All of my beliefs were
deconstructed, even the new ones Id replaced the old ones with,
including letting go of any egoic idea of saving the world,
letting go of any concept that I was special in any way, and,
eventually, letting go of any belief in a personal me. The
depth of this letting go allowed me to see that I AM Life
Itself.
Surrender must be so deeply experienced that even
hope, a concept rooted in an imaginary future and a personal
self, must fall away. All teachings and all teachers must fall
away. Every concept we are still grasping at for safe harbor
must leave until we are utterly naked before God, who is none
other than Creation Itself.
Heres the miracle I discovered: True freedom
is not about what the egoic, personal self gets. One cannot
carry one single item of baggage through the doorway, not even
the personal self. The only way through is emptiness.
Throughout this period of the emptiness revealing
itself, I had many epiphanies. I realized that God/Life had
never abandoned me because there was never any outside deity
looking down over me in the first place, making judgment calls
and therefore decisions on my behalf. Life, by its very nature,
supports life, even in this situation when a loving universe
didnt look like I thought it should.
I came to understand that on the local level, it
appears as if I have free will, but that as part of the tapestry
of life, Life is just Life-ing, and the concept of free will
is rooted in a limited point of view. Is a drop of water ever
really separate from the ocean? If I have free will, then
separation is real.
When the awareness comes to the forefront that a
choice is to be made, no matter what fork in the road is taken,
it is done by Life Itself.
Ultimately there is no separate me, as I am the
imperishable absolute behind the relative, the BE-ing behind
human thought that is timeless and eternal. I is the light. As
Creation Itself, we are forever whole and the entire relative
world is our projection of thought, making us its creator.
Many people confuse this concept with the egoic
idea that you can manifest all that you desire by your thoughts
alone. Life manifests life. Whether your individuated idea of
what life should look like appears in your physical reality
depends on whether or not it supports life as a whole.
I share this with you not to draw attention to
myself, but rather to first comfort you in that it isnt
necessary to go through a near-death-experience or financial
devastation to discover who you really are as the Infinite.
(Neither does your newfound discovery exempt you from hardship.)
Though many are going through their own personal
crucifixions of the ego or dark nights of the soul as a unique
expression of the Infinite, how your life appears is
one-of-a-kind; no one will have your exact experience.
When you accept and love yourself unconditionally,
essentially forgiving yourselffor there is no one out there
to forgiveyou see that life conspires to support you. You see
that what you do is not as important as the fact that you BE,
and that to know what you be, you must inquire within. When
connected to your BE-ing, what you do arises as an expression of
your BE-ingness as part of the tapestry of Life and is not the
goal itself. The egos need to claim do-ership, ownership, or
exclusivity is no longer a part of who you are. The idea of a
separate self even begins to fall away, like so much unnecessary
debris. Living and breathing from your radiance, you become a
light unto the world, and you joyfully offer your magnificence
to the world . . . as a GIFT.
Christine Horner, 2013
The above story was extracted with permission
from The Journey Home: Awakening in the Dream,
published by In the Garden Publishing in
partnership with OneTheMagazine.com.
Available from GroundingHeavenAsEarth.com
Reprinted with permission from OneTheMagazine.com.
" ONE is a quarterly online magazine bringing the
good news of awakening from around the globe. Featured are
deeply personal accounts of non-dual realization and newsworthy
events that exemplify and celebrate our true nature as one."
---------------------------------------------------------------
Extract
from: Revealing the Absolute
- Where
Seeking Ends and Learning Begins
reproduced
by permission from the author Atreya Thomas.
https://revealingtheabsolute.com
Book
available at http://www.amazon.com
The
statements in bold were received by Atreya during a year of
silence.
He
then made up a fictitious character to ask the questions. - Michael
CHAPTER
ONE
Revealing the Conceptual Self
I have always been a seeker, have always been looking for
something greaterespecially spiritual understanding.
Christianity was introduced to me first, when I was young, and I
have a strong connection to it. Since then, I have had the
opportunity to study other religions, both while I was attending
university as well as on my own. Nothing completely frees me. I
still experience anger and anxiety on occasions, and I still
struggle with certain desires. What I have discovered for myself
is that when I am experiencing some of these unfavorable
feelings, my mind and my thoughts are always involved. Looking
outward, you need only watch the news to discover that troubling
things are happening due to the way people think, due to their
minds. So, what is the mind?
The mind is the platform from which all objective
phenomena are experienced and projected outward as thoughts.
The trouble you speak of is associated with the mind as ego.
What is the ego?
The ego is the individual, conceptual personaa vast
conglomeration of this and that, likes and dislikes, desires
and fears. The sum of this conglomeration is the me that
resides as your first name.
Am I the ego?
Your true self is the one who sees all the activities
of the persona. You are the audience, watching it strive,
rest, fear, relax, panic, and seek pleasure.
What is the true self?
The true self is the changeless observer of the ego
and all other phenomena.
What is this anxiety or fear I feel sometimes?
To be afraid is to be afraid of something. That
something is a thought as well as a physiological response in
the body. Who is the observer of this fear? Who is watching
all this?
Some have told me to drop all effort, but isnt having
goals a good thing? Doesnt the spiritual aspirant have a goal
to become free and self-realized?
While the illusion that you are the ego exists, it is
necessary for the persona to strive and inquire until the
inquiring ego itself gets burned up in the process, leaving
the residual, the true self.
I feel like Ive practiced presence for so long and yet
I still do not have a sense of absolute freedom? Why?
All practice is done through the effort of the ego or
conceptual self. You believe that you are being the true self
if you embody the good aspects of the ego or the things that
bring you pleasure because they feel good. But real freedom
comes from seeing the falseness of thought, from seeing that
the ego is merely acting or pretending to be your true self.
Both good and bad must be seen as one and the sameas
attributes of the transient persona. Something about you
exists in spite of ego and its thoughtful efforts, in spite of
your body, and in spite of your mind and all its opposing
forms. That part of you is already free and does not know any
other state. It can be found only by subtracting the ego
organ, not by adding to it, modifying it, or enhancing it.
What is human consciousness?
Human consciousness is the field that contains the sum
total of human thoughts and their corresponding emotions in
the past, present, and future. But who is conscious that you
are conscious of human consciousness?
Why am I afraid of death?
The me depends on form for existence, and that
is why it fears deathdeath of our bank account, our position,
our job, and ultimately our body.
Why do I feel guilt?
As far as the ego is concerned, all things are guilty
by association with it. Whatever you feel, what you think
about this or that, these are all objects possessed solely by
the ego. From what point of observation is all this
experienced?
Is the spiritual seeker apart from the ego?
The spiritual seeker is really the ego trying to
refine itself to become the true self. So the me tries
to resist all things non-spiritual in the hope of becoming
more refined. But the ego can never take the place of the
Unchanging Observer, no matter how refined it becomes, because
its creations are always transient, whereas your true self is
always unmodified, remaining as the un-involved eternal
witness.
Sometimes I worry about what other people think about me.
Only the ego can worry about what other egos are
doing. The ego is always limited to its own field. It cannot
go beyond the boundaries of human consciousness. Do you worry
about the characters in a movie?
Sometimes... (Laughs.)
Only when you identify with them. The difference is,
soon after the movie is over, you realize that the characters
are not you. If you remain the observer of your life, you will
have the same realization.
Why does it feel like I always have problems?
All problems are attributes of the conceptual self.
Your true self is the witness to the ego and its problems.
What would happen if the ego was left alone with its problems?
Without problems, the ego cannot exist. These problems always
exist on the timeline of past, present, and future. Problems
are perceived in the present, sustained by the past, and given
continuity into the future. This all involves identification
with thought. Who is all this happening to? Who is the
perceiver who may or may not identify?
I often have a general feeling of anxiety. Is this
normal?
The conceptual self, the me, is hyper
vigilant. It is on constant lookout for even the slightest
change. It finds its comfort in certainty. Therefore,
sometimes even the slightest change can appear to be a threat.
Sometimes I feel trapped by time. I worry about the
future and obsess about the past. Why?
Your true self is here and now in spite of this, and
it has no connection to the concept of time. Only the ego
works on the timeline of past, present, and future, which are
fleeting concepts.
Can the ego change into something else?
The ego is incapable of being anything but itself. Its
idea of change is to move from one area of consciousness to
another or from one object to another. Its existence is
dependent on form. But all objects are transient, so no matter
where the ego moves, it is moving into decay.
Why do I feel so protective of my stuff and so attached
to my life?
The ego must attach itself to something if it is to
survive as the separate entity referred to as me. It
must be exclusive; my life is separate from others
lives. Once established, the ego will protect its assets to
the point of suffering. It will worry, it will go to war, it
will destroy, and it will dominate all that it can.
Why is the ego so attracted to violence?
The lifeblood of the ego is conflict, and conflict is
violence. The ego will create a problem just to experience the
conflict. The ego may even create a problem to which there is
no solution to give it an indefinite source of energy . It
must have problems in order to continue its existence. Imagine
if you refused to get involved with thought-based problems and
accepted each moment as it is. The quantity of thoughts coming
out of the mind would be far less. The ego would be
diminished.
Isnt the ego required for just about everything we do
each day?
Find out! Its amazing how such a small amount of
thought is required each day. Yet, the ego wants to involve
itself in just about everything. So, experiment with remaining
quiet as often as possible.
---------------------------------------------------------------
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
From
a young age, Atreya Thomas was a spiritual seeker. He read much
of what the spiritual community had to offer. At age
twenty-seven, he gave up his pursuit, a pessimist, declaring
that there are no answers in books and that people cannot
change.
At
age thirty, he was overtaken by the first in a series of three
transformations over five years. He described these as coming
without warning and overwhelming the persona. The last
transformation left Atreya aware, but the thinking mind was not
accessible. He said, I literally could not remember my own name
or the names of those around me. With each transformation,
awareness as the unchanging observer became more permanent.
Which eventually culminated into merging the observer and the
observed.
Outwardly,
Atreya, his wife, and three adopted children live in California,
where Atreya works as a pre-school teacher. He and his wife are
also foster parents to drug-exposed infants who are hard to
place.
Atreya
is the author of another book, Revealing the Christ: The
Way, the Truth, and the Life.
A Child Again by Jan Frazier
http://janfrazierteachings.com/teachings/
Living awake feels like being in a childs
story, a simple story about a simple thing. The restoration to
innocence, to the time before time, with no possibility of
harm. Once-upon-a-time. The garden of Eden.
Thats what it feels like. A person who has
awakened feels like a little kid. Everything is fresh and new,
every ordinary thing. How good it feels to brush your hair! How
the trees look moving in the wind. The sensation of urine
releasing.
You tilt your head at peoples complaints and
worries, trying to understand. The effort to wring meaning out
of every life episode, to pronounce it good or bad. Your heart
breaks (but not for long).
You do remember what it feels like to be caught
up in problems (your own, your wifes, your childs, the
countrys), to have it all matter so much, everything riding on
one outcome or another. What its like to be convinced time is a
real thing, to be tormented by its apparent brevity, haunted by
aging and death. But now, you could just sit the livelong day,
never read another newspaper, work on another project. Things
smell good. You move from one savoring to another. The way light
plays on a strangers face. Its like when you were a kid,
enthralled with the feel of warm sand falling through your
spread fingers.
The pleasure of awareness is exquisite like
that sand. Theres absolutely nothing going on, and how
can nothing feel so substantial? What could be
more delicious than this, just feeling this moment? How did you
ever imagine any of that other stuff mattered so much?
Like a little child, you care nothing for time,
nothing for peoples expectations. The world, the physical
world, is the entire miracle. And here you are, in it.
Look! See, smell, touch!
Oh, taste! Tuna! Garlic! Ice cream! Wine! Coffee! Lips!
* * * * *
Before a child has been outfitted with the
adult-made lenses we all learn to look through, before becoming
entrenched in the ideas of things, of right and wrong; before
categories arrive on the scene, before expectations, somebodys
idea of self-esteem, dignity before, even, the name for a
thing there is direct apprehension. Encounter. There is
feeling. No intervening mental filter. No urgency for an inner
narrative.
This is what you are restored to at awakening,
when the self you thought you were ceases to enthrall. Names for
things are still there, retrievable. Its still possible for
thinking to occur. But only when you want it to. Thinking no
longer runs the show, the constant noise of it. Thought serves
at the pleasure of what you have discovered yourself to be:
consciousness itself.
Anything mental is secondary, if its there at
all. You have entered an existence made of primary experience
felt, sensory life, this moment. Theres no distance between you
and what youre aware of. You are what you
experience. You and the moment are the same thing. This is the
all-that-is.
The norm is awareness of what-is. This living
consciousness is here for each episode of reality but does not
mutter to itself about what it means. There is no spawning of
opinion, fear, desire.
Often you are bewildered, the way a child is,
at how people seem to be. No longer playing by their rules, you
have to work a bit to remember what it feels like to be that
way.
(Who is the grown-up here?)
But the almost universal way of being a person,
which you cant help noticing, has trouble holding your
attention. You keep getting absorbed in the way the fabric feels
against your arm. The airiness in your mouth when you sing. The
world, you keep discovering, is constantly here. Its
what
you find when life has finally stopped being about you. Even
with
all its apparent problems, existence is entirely
miraculous.
All
about me - Jac O'Keeffe
(Article
published in the french magazine '3me Millenaire', October
2011)
The "all about me" story can become a painful one.
If you have become fed up with talking about "my life, my
beliefs, my opinions, my belongings, my money, my life style..."
then perhaps the futility of these unending and repetitive
stories is beginning to show itself.
Take a look and see if you can recognize that many
of these stories about "me" are simply an attempt to defend who
you THINK you are. Without these believed stories you might find
you are not who you think you are. The personal I can never be
satisfied because it is fundamentally inauthentic. Its very
nature is filled with desire. There is no personal I that is
constant and unchanging. The personal I knows no stillness and
moves between pleasure and pain in response to the senses. The
personal I is an insatiable idea constantly protecting itself
and seeking acceptance and love.
This unending cycle has no resolution. It can only
be recognized as a futile play and abandoned. Let the "all about
me" story fade out. At this point you will find there is
something that is watching the play of the one who wants
everything to be about itself. The one who sees the hungry
personal I does not require the world to rotate around itself.
The impersonal I has a knowing that all that happens does not
have a direct impact on who you are. Simply put, the impersonal
I does not take things personally.
If your reference point has moved from the personal
to the impersonal I, then emotional reactions will have lessened
greatly. The search for love and attention will have taken a
back seat and judgement of others largely subsided. Without a
doubt, the impersonal I is a reference point from which you can
operate with significantly less suffering. A sense of being less
self- absorbed arises. Increasingly, you will notice that when
the personal I appears, some drama ensues, because the personal
I is perpetually seeking attention.
Many have found that the withdrawing of attention
from the personal to the impersonal I is a useful spiritual
practice. For some, mind is calmer and for most an inner
contentment begins to develop. This is a natural consequence of
the removal of attention from who you think you are.
So why bother training your mind to operate
from the perspective of the impersonal? Undoubtedly there is
less suffering when events are understood to be not about you.
However, there is an inconsistency in this practice. It is
impossible to be established in the position of the impersonal
while the belief that you are a separate individual is still
active. It will feel like there is an internal switch which
reactivates the personal I. While it seems obvious to seek to
avoid suffering and therefore relocate your perspective to the
impersonal, something inherently continues to be not at rest.
Both the personal and the impersonal points of reference are
tricks of the mind as it attempts to make life an experience
with less suffering.
Mind imagines that something is to be gained by the
perspective of the impersonal, but what it has to offer is
limited and becomes not good enough. It is mind that plays with
spiritual practice and you are not your mind. Neither are you a
product of your thoughts. Both the personal and the impersonal
are conceptual states of mind that run their course
experientially, and you can erroneously think that you are
making progress towards freedom.
So what to do? What you are, is prior and beyond
the games of mind. But while you think you are an individual,
let it be known that this is idea of separation is no more than
a thought believed into a subjective reality. What you are knows
nothing of personal and impersonal, of spiritual practice, of
awakening. You are not who you think you are and mind cannot
conceive of what you truly are. Mind was not designed to know
your true identity. Mind is a tool kit to allow manifestation to
appear as real. It imagines as it goes. It believes or doesn't
believe, as it goes. Who you are is not concerned. In fact, who
you are has no capacity to imagine anything at all. Who you are
knows nothing of who you think you are. The lies that are
offered by mind are no more than a smokescreen, an apparent
movement that has the capacity within itself to like and dislike
what it has created. Do not be bothered with any of this as
there is nothing to be fixed or changed here. However, the
appearance of manifestation will appear to continue as it plays
a game of control. It is mind that tries to control mind, tries
to minimize suffering, tries to annihilate itself and imagines
that without itself it will be happy. See this game of life for
what it is. What you are is beyond all of it.
Adya
- excerpts from Impact of Awakening
The Evolutionary Impulse to Be Free
The impulse to be free is an evolutionary spark
within consciousness which originates from beyond the ego. It is
an impulse toward the divine, unity, and wholeness. It is an
impulse originating from the Truth itself. This impulse to
evolve is often co-opted by the ego, which then creates the
illusion of the spiritual seeker. This impulse, which is
inherently innocent, is something that, in and of itself, has
nothing to do with any seeking to attain. It is only when the
ego co-opts the impulse and then tries to attain something, that
the seeker is born. This impulse, this spark of evolution,
becomes almost instantly corrupted by a wanting which gives
birth to the seeker.
Q: Is there any positive side of ego in this
whole process?
A: Ego is neither positive nor negative. Those are
simply concepts that create more boundaries. Ego is just ego,
and the disaster of it all is that you, as a spiritual seeker,
have been conditioned to think of the ego as bad, as an enemy,
as something to be destroyed. This simply strengthens the ego.
In fact, such conclusions arise from the ego itself. Pay no
attention to them. Don't go to war with yourself; simply inquire
into who you are.
Insecurity and the Unknown
Inherent in the impulse to be free, is insecurity.
The impulse to be free comes from outside of the mind, and
because of this, it makes the mind feel very insecure. Most
spiritual seekers move away from this insecurity by seeking and
striving for a distant spiritual goal. That's how they avoid
feeling insecure. In an effort not to feel insecure, in an
attempt not to directly face the Unknown - which is where the
impulse to be free originates - the ego creates a spiritual
seeker as a means to avoid it. It is a very intelligent play of
the mind, a show, a fantasy.
Meditation and Spiritual Practices
True meditation has no direction, goals, or method.
All methods aim at achieving a certain state of mind. All states
are limited, impermanent, and conditioned. Fascination with
states leads only to bondage and dependency. True meditation is
abidance as primordial consciousness.
True meditation appears in consciousness
spontaneously when awareness is not fixated on objects of
perception. When you first start to meditate you notice that
awareness is always focused on objects: on thoughts, bodily
sensations, emotions, memories, sounds, etc. This is because the
mind is conditioned to focus and contract upon objects. Then the
mind compulsively interprets what it is aware of (the object) in
a mechanical and distorted way. It begins to draw conclusions
and make assumptions according to past conditioning.
In true meditation, all objects are left to their
natural functioning. This means that no effort should be made to
manipulate or suppress any object of awareness. In true
meditation, the emphasis is on being awareness; not on being
aware of objects, but on resting as primordial awareness itself.
Primordial awareness, consciousness, is the source in which all
objects arise and subside. As you gently relax into awareness,
into listening, the mind's compulsive contraction around objects
will fade. Silence of being will come more clearly into your
consciousness, welcoming you to rest and abide. An attitude of
open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation, will
facilitate the presence of silence and stillness, and reveal
them to be your natural condition.
Silence, stillness, and awareness are not states
and therefore
cannot be produced or created. Silence is the
non-state in which all states arise and subside. Silence is
itself the eternal witness without form or attribute. As you
rest more profoundly as the witness, all objects take on their
natural functionality, and awareness becomes free of the mind's
compulsive contractions and identifications, and returns to its
natural non-state of Presence.
The simple yet profound question "Who Am I" can
then reveal one's self not to be the endless tyranny of the
ego-personality, but objectless Freedom of Being-the Primordial
______________________________________________________
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.
___________________________________________________
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
___________________________________________________
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
______________________________________________________
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. 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
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
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 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
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