ACIM Blog - A Course in Miracles Blog
Conversations, Events, Resources and Reference for students of A Course In Miracles
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One of many great videos by Kenneth Wapnick:
New Year’s Resolution_Themes from “A Course in Miracles”
Here is the complete list of YouTube videos from Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM)
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
Once again, I’m forgiving myself for what appears like not having the site quite as far along as I thought it would be by now! However, I’m confident that it’s evolving according to a plan far superior to anything I could devise. Meanwhile, here’s an email (slightly modified) that I sent to one of our local ACIM/DU study groups recently:
The World Is Our Study Group:
Allowing the Personal to Guide Us Back To The Transpersonal
During last night’s ACIM/DU Study Group, I was observing the dialogue and appreciating how we all practiced, each in our “own” way, the shared intention of returning to source, to essence, to unity and wholeness. It was more than just about following a prescribed agenda; ostensibly we come together to read and talk about A Course In Miracles and related books and media (like the work of Gary Renard, Kenneth Wapnick, Brent Haskell and others). We can (and do) all do this “on our own.” I think I’m starting to catch on to what Gary’s teachers suggest as the true purpose of (any) relationship: forgiveness! I was noticing within myself, and as I “checked in” around the room, the recognition that as each “individual” shared their stories and experiences, the “others” slowly but surely added their strength, support and love to the person speaking; releasing attachment to personal agendas, trusting in the transpersonal (Holy Spirit), to validate the stories, but more importantly to acknowledge the true eternal being of what we ARE as one, expressing as “individuals.” Perhaps this is why we all seemed to resonate with the idea of silent meditation and savoring the serenity of the closing meditation that was offered again.
We’re writing this together! It appears that I’m sitting in my office at my computer, yet when I allow the truth to settle in, I realize that all of you are here within me. I can (and do!) vividly imagine each of your smiling faces as I go around the room last night and I also include those who haven’t attended for a while, or even those who are on the email list but haven’t yet made it to a single “meeting.” After all, aren’t meetings in our mind? This seems like such a perfect opportunity to demolish the illusion of specialness and separation. I just went through the list of folks on this email list, and if everyone showed up there would be 42 of us! (The meaning of life for Douglas Adams fans! The point is, we can make the best use of our seeming time together by extending that feeling of oneness throughout each day. As we “tune in” to “each other” with what might be called telepathy, we can directly access the transformative power of infinite support that is our combined wisdom, levity, and peace. I do this as often as I can remember by mentally reviewing the “smiles around the room” and remembering that, as the Michael Hedges song lyrics go, “I carry your heart … I carry it in my heart”…
I encourage the idea of “tuning in” and asking for the support of “each other” and gradually extending it to total inclusiveness. Sure, it seems easier, at first, to practice this with those that SEEM to be more “kindred souls” at the moment. Yet it also seems that taking the feeling of support and applying it to whoever and whatever is in our mind at the moment is what the Christ/Holy Spirit/pure non-dualistic thought system is all about!
Best of all, our mutual support is available 24/7 throughout space and time. When I think about having friends like all of you to share eternity with, it not only helps me to laugh gently at the folly of our bodies and their little petty dramas, but to emphasize the invigorating freedom and joyousness of our one spirit! We can use the “base metal” of our special relationships (including our particular study group and extended to include ALL) for the alchemy of seeing the gold, the Cheshire cat smiles that remain after the form no longer holds us captive. Why not bring the darkness (phantom egoic menace) of specialness (e.g. thoughts like I can only be peaceful with my “special friends”) to the light? Our attachments and aversions (the things we think we need; including ANY agendas can be lovingly placed on the altar of forgiveness which becomes an alchemical crucible for sustaining comfort and support!
In one of the first metaphysical books that inspired me in the early 1970s (Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East by Baird Spalding), there is a recitation by Jesus called “The Light.” In it, there are 6 “keywords” that apply wonderfully to the feeling that I experience when I engage in this quantum support/forgiveness practice: life, love, strength, purity, beauty and perfection. These qualities are evident in this thought system which goes way beyond a theoretical understanding. When I “imagine” the unity that we all share, I feel the reality of our oneness that cannot be threatened by anything space or time can throw at it!
Here are the words of “The Light” (from Volume 3, page 45):
THE LIGHT
As I stand alone in Your Great Silence, God my Father, in the midst of me there blazes a pure light and it fills every atom of my whole being with its great radiance. Life, Love, Strength, Purity, Beauty, Perfection, stand forth in all dominion within me. As I gaze into the very heart of this light, I see another light – liquid, soft, golden white and radiantly luminous – absorbing, mothering, and giving forth the caressing fire of the Greater Light.
Now I know that I am God and one with God’s whole Universe. I whisper to God my Father and I am undisturbed.
STILL IN THE SILENCE
Yet in this complete silence there exists God’s Greatest Activity. Again, I am undisturbed and complete silence is all about me. Now the radiance of this light spreads to God’s vast universe and everywhere I know there is God’s conscious Life. Again I say fearlessly, I am God; I am silent and unafraid.
I lift the Christ high within me and sing God’s praise. In the tones of my music inspiration hums. Louder and louder within me the Great Mother sings of new life. Louder and clearer with each new day, inspiration is lifting my conscious thought until it is attuned to God’s rhythm. Again I lift the Christ high and give close ear that I may hear the glad music. My keynote is harmony and the theme of my song is God and God seal my song as Truth.
BEHOLD I AM BORN ANEW – A CHRIST IS HERE
I am free with the great light of Your Spirit, God my Father. Your seal is placed upon my forehead. I accept.
I hold your light high, God my Father. Again I accept.
