ACIM Blog - A Course in Miracles Blog
Conversations, Events, Resources and Reference for students of A Course In Miracles
Fellow ACIM student Terry Miller shares:
“While in a meditative state during a car ride to see Tom and Linda Carpenter speak in Ashland I was reading from their book DIALOGUE ON AWAKENING Communion with Jesus. I’ve no idea now what concept on what page that I was contemplating, but this poem came to me intact:
This body is old
I am not
I have no age
This body is deaf and dumb
I am not
I am sage
This body is small
I am not
I have no form
This body is separate
I am not
I am Home.”
Last night, Nancy & I watched the movie 127 Hours, which friends had recommended and justly garnered 6 Oscar nominations. James Franco does a great job of re-enacting the story of an wilderness adventurer (Aron Ralston) who appears to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Without spoiling the plot (too much), the account of his courage, stamina and ingenuity makes a fine caricature of the lengths to which we all go to try to establish and preserve an intact separate identity (with our bodies playing the starring hero role in the dream.) At the physically pivotal point in the film, he liberates himself from the limitation that appears to have held him captive. Prior to this, however, at what one might identify as the spiritual pivot point of the film, he chooses real freedom as he recounts to himself:
“You know, I’ve been thinking. Everything is… just comes together. It’s me. I chose this. I chose all this. … I’ve been moving towards it my entire life. The minute I was born, every breath that I’ve taken, every action has been leading me to this …” *
Perhaps this revelation is exactly what gives him the option to do what leads to the best possible outcome for this story, given the premise of the circumstances. We’ve all experienced these box canyon moments, when our choices have appeared to have been narrowed to just two; between feeling sorry for our self-imposed predicaments or set free by forgiving ourselves for the folly of feeling trapped.
Most of us run away from this depth of realization like the plague. Yet isn’t this exactly what any metaphysical system worth it’s pure non-dual foundation is gently reminding us of, 24/7? What if we were to freely abandon all thoughts of martyrdom for every dream event – from the most dramatic, as in this movie’s example – to the most seemingly trivial events that seem to disturb our peace? What if we looked down at the copy of the screenplay for the holographic movie of our lives, courageously examined the fine print at the bottom of the page, and saw our own signature? The only appropriate response would be to laugh, treat ourselves and each other (since we’re all perfect mirrors) with total kindness. As the protagonist in this film recounts favorite past life episodes of family, friends and life choices in a series of flashbacks, we get the impression that he realizes the true value of these relationships which transcend the special and specific incidents (or perhaps that’s just my projection onto the film? 
To his video camcorder he shares “I love you guys … I’ll always be with you.”
In any case, I might not ever drink Sauvignon Blanc again. (You’ll have to see the film, if you haven’t already to appreciate this.)
* (Thanks to the folks at IMDB for providing the quote, excerpted above.)
Here’s a collection of some excellent videos online that give an introduction to the non-dual thought system of A Course In Miracles that Gary Renard eloquently shares. If you know of other videos online I could add to this collection, please let me know!
(Editor’s note:
In February 2004, while giving multimedia presentations at the Global Sacred Geometry Conference in Sedona, Arizona, I too had the enjoyable opportunity to do an interview with Alan Steinfeld. Since the summer of 2007, when I discovered the Disappearance of the Universe, most of my thinking about what I shared there was transformed by revisiting ACIM, but it was still a fun interview. Since reading DU and re-reading ACIM (and many other related books), I have been shifting my emphasis from form to content, as Ken Wapnick would say. I’m SOOO grateful that my friend Claire loaned me her copy of DU! My life was transformed by the understanding that pure non-dual awareness is not in any way connected with any sort of duality, a.k.a. God doesn’t know about space, time, bodies, personalities, individuality, and certainly has nothing to do with sin, guilt and fear! Hallelujah to that! Just for fun, here’s that video interview about The Seven Hermetic Laws, Sacred Geometry and more with Alan Steinfeld of New Realities … More about sacred geometry and the Hermetic Laws, which, like everything else can be used as a mnemonic when turned over to our real teacher a.k.a. Holy Spirit, is on my GeometryCode.com website for those that might be interested.)
A collection of videos of Gary Renard on The Manifest-Station website; requires logging in via free account.
In the normal reckoning of space and time, I ‘met’ Thomas Vieira less than 2 years ago in San Francisco at a conference on A Course In Miracles. He and his former wife and teaching/learning partner, Nouk Sanchez, were giving a 75-minute workshop on their ACIM experiences and revelations. I immediately felt connected to both, like long-lost friends, as they engaged with everyone in the room, reminding us that we’re ALL long-lost friends. I can’t think of anyone I’ve talked to that didn’t have a similar experience. Starting with the whoopee cushions they placed on everyone’s seats, it was obvious that their sense of humor was of primary importance in their assigned task (while gently and whimsically reminding us it was OUR task as well) to dismantle the inner saboteur we thought we fabricated called ego.
Numerous metaphors that Tomas (and Nouk) shared stayed with me; for starters, how our inner voice for peace (a.k.a. Holy Spirit) is like a GPS; when we get off course, it doesn’t berate us for missing the optimal turn, it just gently recalculates another optimum way to see our ‘destination’ each moment without any implied guilt, blame or extra baggage. Probably my favorite analogy (that Tomas illustrated with great exuberance so that we could all identify with it, just long enough to see the joke and start DE-identifying with it is the ego as the quintessential pork-pie-hat-wearing and cigar-smoking used car salesman… To paraphrase: “I’ve never steered you right before, but never mind that, just trust me this one … more … time.” What a great image! I remember laughing with Tomas at one of our favorite local restaurants (after they gave an outstanding 3-day workshop here a little over a year ago) talking about what a great video this could make to satirize our attachment to form…
… and Tomas really LIVED the lessons about releasing his interpretations about form, including his own deteriorating body. His attitude demonstrated the truly liberating truth that we’re not bound by anything, including the fleeting vehicles we ‘hang out in’. If ‘gentle tenacity’ isn’t too much of an oxymoron, Tomas showed us, in so many loving and kind examples, how we can make fun of our own follies and enjoy the lives we think we’re living all the more so by holding to the thought system that reminds us that separation never happened… and we can afford to enjoy an internal (and eternal) inner laugh about how silly our preoccupations are – no matter how seemingly serious. The candor that Tomas and Nouk shared about their personal lives that reminded us of our shared transpersonal LIFE was, IS and forever will be a joyous example of spirit.
If our shared spirit (way beyond what our little who-ville, persona-attached, need machine-obsessed minds could possibly fathom) IS eternally, then that same spirit we all share (and the idea we call Tomas was such a great fun reminder of) IS too, so thank you, Tomas, for a life in this holographic dream well spent in sharing what we all are, what we have always been and will always be (beyond time, space and all the other silly notions we seem to get caught up in.)
Will we miss Tomas’ form? Of course. But even as a few tears arise as we recall our dear friend, the sustainable smile breaks into outrageously joyous laughter remembering that (like the Joe Hill song lyrics go) “He did not die.”
Eternal smilezenhugs!
Finding Happy Birthday Peace! By Sally McKirgan
Are we born only to die? And if so Why? That was my waking thought on the morning of my recent 60 something Birthday! “What a revolting development this is,” as a character on TV used to say in disgust. Can it be that we are born, enter the body and the world only to ultimately march steady and directly to our death? What a (bad) joke!
First we are born helpless and dependent on others for food, clothing, nurturing or maybe not, depending on your parents, circumstances and Country of choice. Then secondly, little by little, you realize that you will have to figure out how to take care of your needs yourself. You go to school, again, depending on where you were born, and what sex you are for that matter. Growing up you may be abused, have an illness, but eventually you have to figure out how to “fend” for yourself when you grow up. If you can’t figure it out, some become sad, take drugs to help the sadness, become homeless, steal to get money for food, and end up in jail or prison. There are millions of people in prisons who were unable to figure out how to care for themselves.
Here’s the kicker – We are all; prisoners; jailers; parents; children; candlestick makers; soldiers; artists; wall street brokers; Muslim; Christian; Jewish; Atheists; Buddhists; Hindus; and others; in the same boat. No one is getting out alive and everyone is fighting a hard battle!
Who created this world of disaster, the ego or God? Would a God that is Changeless, Eternal, All Love, have you accumulate some knowledge, express your gifts and suffer from an illness or accident and then die – kaput – the end? Would a loving God create that kind of scenario?
This is the ego’s world and it is a “bad joke.” God has had nothing to do with it. That thought: ”God has nothing to do with it” is the cool breeze on the fevered cheek. This is the ego’s world where it alone rules. In the Course, Chapter 7. Section VII. p.11 “Perceive any part of the ego’s thought system as wholly insane, wholly delusional and wholly undesirable, and you have correctly evaluated all of it.” It is not True and it is not Real. The only thing in this whole world that is True and Real is Loving Thought. The only reason you are here is to forgive and remember the Loving Thoughts held within your powerful decision making mind.
The ego does not want you to know you have a mind period, let alone a decision making one! In coming to this world the ultimate lesson is to realize, find and follow your inner truth with the decision making mind. The ego will try to keep you from it. That is its job. It will offer “seek and do not find” carrots and dilemmas that it insists will make you happy and offer up zillions of distractions. We are all in the same boat whether we hail from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Everyone, no matter the lesson that their soul came to learn, has entered a dream, an illusion, and in this world EVERYONE has the same problem. We think we are separate from God. That is the only problem – our wrong thinking. The good news is: It is not true.
In summing this Birthday thought: The ego is a parasite on the mind, it made up a world and bodies that die. If we choose it, which we all did when we came here, it will fill us with doubt, hatred, misery littleness or grandiosity and throw in a little piece of happiness now and then to keep you going. But it is not True. Only Loving Thought is True. Laugh at the ego and remember that as you go through your life’s lesson, forgive all mistakes, yours and theirs, for dreaming this illusion, and change your dream, with your thoughts, as only you can do. As a Course students we are told over and over that we are not our bodies in the Workbook Review lessons VI. “ I am not a body I am free, for I’m still as God created me.” And finally, in Chapter 12, Section VII p.15, s.1 Jesus says “When you are tempted to yield to the desire for death remember that I did not die!” The cool breeze of relief for some Happy Birthday Peace!
Sally McKirgan
Ashland, OR
This past week, the illusion of the dream figure I call Bruce trekked across the street twice to watch the movie Inception. Like the Matrix series, I can skip the gratuitous violence, but enjoyed the IDEAS in the film immensely.
A quick update; I just saw this very cool clip which is almost like a ‘Cliff Notes’ vignette of the Inception movie in musical and special effects form; a fun rendition of “ Across the Universe (with the ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change My World’ lyric; a fave Beatles tune) by Fiona Apple; talk about calm in the center of the dream cyclone!
Here’s a comment I just posted on my Facebook page about a review that hit many of the key ideas: waking up from dreams, projections, and yes, even forgiveness and unconscious guilt were mentioned (albeit briefly) in the film:
Just read a great review of the movie Inception; here’s my reply:
Great review: Making the leap of faith in a dream: Philosophical reflections on Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” (2010), thanks! There are numerous hints in the film about the importance of forgiving our projections (the people and situations the egoic mind uses to keep us in the dream of separation and duality); our kindnesses and shared interests are the totems that awaken us with a gentle “kick” out of the addiction to unconscious guilt as you mention in this paragraph:
“Thus, resolution has something to do with the retrieval and acknowledgement of a hidden or repressed truth, followed by the work of letting go. Unless this is done, the burden of unconscious negative emotions (e.g. fear, guilt, anger, etc.) will continue to suck your psychic energy, preventing you from functioning and thriving.”
I highly recommend the work of Ken Wapnick, Gary Renard, & Nouk Sanchez/Tomas Vieira as complements or intros to A Course In Miracles to explore the dream metaphor more deeply and how we can use true forgiveness as the universal totem for gently awakening from a nightmare we forgot we made up. When I walked into the theater to watch Inception, I laughed silently, realizing I was already at least a couple of dream/theater levels deep!
Another favorite ‘virtual reality’ genre film: Waking Life. In this animated film, the protagonist is given the suggestion that you can tell if you’re dreaming by flicking a light switch, and if the light goes on or off, then you’re not dreaming. Interestingly, I had a dream (of the nocturnal variety! shortly after watching this movie, and in that dream, the light DID go on and off when I was toggling the switch in my dream within a dream world on a stairway landing! Perhaps the only ‘real’ totems are those that help us gently laugh and kindly forgive ourselves for making the world up in the first place (undoing the dream of duality and separation.)
forgiveness totem shirt
…
When Ariadne finds Mal in the basement of Cobb’s memories, she starts to tell Mal her name but Mal cuts her off: “I know who you are.” How does Mal know who Ariadne is?
Since Mal is Cobb’s projection, if he knows her, then Mal should know her as well. If you’re looking at the film metaphysically, Mal (‘Bad’ or ‘Evil’ in Latin, French, Spanish and Portuguese) is the dream figure in Cobbs mind who symbolises his guilt. Guilt is undone by forgiveness. Ariadne symbolises innocence and forgiveness and shares this key with Cobb, telling him the only way to undo his guilt and free himself from his dream-hell is to forgive both Mal and himself. She is thus recognised by Mal as her enemy, as her message of forgiveness will free Cobb from Mal’s control.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/faq#.2.1.51
The “Penrose stairs” (with a woman perpetually picking up papers) that Arthur shows Ariadne is a reference to a lithograph print by the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher. The print is usually called “Ascending and Descending” or “The Infinite Staircase”, and was first printed in March 1960; Escher is well-known for his drawings exploring optical illusions and real architectural, mathematical, and philosophical principles rendered in fantastical ways.
Ariadne, in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Minos of Crete and his queen, Pasiphaë. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur by giving him a ball of red fleece thread that she was spinning, so that he could find his way out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth. The name is also a reference to Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s setting of the myth for Richard Strauss’s opera Ariadne auf Naxos. The opera is a play within a play, just as the movie is a dream within a dream.
Marion Cotillard’s character is called ‘Mal’, short for name ‘Malorie’, a name derived from French word ‘malheur’, meaning misfortune or unhappiness. The shorter version ‘mal’ means wrong/bad or evil (when a noun) in French, as well as some other Latin-based languages.
Mal’s totem, a spinning top, is (probably) a reference to the Clifford D. Simak’s story ‘Ring Around the Sun’ where the spinning top is used as a way to skip from one parallel Earth to another (by way of helping characters to concentrate).
The first letter of each of the main character’s first names – Dom, Robert, Eames, Arthur/Ariadne, Mal, Sato – spell the word DREAMS.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/trivia
Don’t let the word “Geometry” in the title scare you off! While there is a backdrop of geometric symbols in this book, they are used merely to provide outside pictorial reminders of the inward condition of choosing our shared Teacher of Kindness… or, as is often the case, gently nudge us to let go of [...]
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“Awakening to Conscious Co-Creation” interview archive
Here is an audio archive of my very fun conversation on “Awakening to Conscious Co-Creation” on Peter Tongue’s show. I meander a bit with geometric metaphors and Hermetic Laws (which will be familiar to those who know of some of my other interests), but it’s primarily about the pure non-dual metaphysics of ACIM. I have a link with more details on my personal blog here.