“…what could be more unstable than a tightly organized delusional system? (ACIM, T-19.IV-A.8:4)
Jackie Lora Jones and Bruce Rawles resume their conversations about A Course In Miracles (ACIM) in this video about slowly but surely – with help from our Inner Kindness Teacher (a.k.a. ACIM’s Holy Spirit symbol) – transitioning from ego’s upsetting unsettling instability to the genuine stability and certainty of a thought system that reflects pure non-duality and provides eternal innocence for all, regardless of what appears to be happening in our surreal world of space, time and individual identities. Being ultimately nothing, the ego’s foundation is far less stable than any house of cards. Yet our Real (Eternal, All-Inclusive) Identity encompasses All and is invulnerable to any and all dreams that would appear to attack or diminish it.
“²This world is but the dream that you can be alone, and think without affecting those apart from you. ³To be alone must mean you are apart, and if you are, you cannot but be sick. ⁴This seems to prove that you must be apart. ⁵Yet all it means is that you tried to keep a promise to be true to faithlessness. ⁶Yet faithlessness is sickness. ⁷It is like the house set upon straw. ⁸It seems to be quite solid and substantial in itself. ⁹Yet its stability cannot be judged apart from its foundation. ¹⁰If it rests on straw, there is no need to bar the door and lock the windows and make fast the bolts. ¹¹The wind will topple it, and rain will come and carry it into oblivion.” (ACIM, T-28.VII.5:2-11)
Since our silly seemingly separate selves are completely contingent on a precarious thought system (based solely on duality, differences, and specialness) we need to bring every unpeaceful thought into the metaphoric light of our forgiving awareness. This process returns our mind to the unchanging foundation where tranquility is not only possible but happily inevitable.
The time spent in the ego mind gradually decreases over time as we give less and less power and credence to the ego’s dis-graceful, shaming, and projecting propaganda.
We just need to metaphorically look in our mind’s “spam folder” to see the huge backlog of messages from the Holy Spirit reminding us to forgive ourselves for each specific infraction of our ego’s impossible and contradictory demands.
The emphasis on the certainty and assurance offered by Holy Spirit is reflected in how many times ACIM refers to these related topics:
- stable: 13 instances
- unstable: 8 instances
- stability: 17 instances
- instability: 2 instances
- certain: 188 instances
- uncertain: 41 instances
- certainty: 124 instances
- uncertainty: 31 instances
- dependable: 140 instances
- trustworthy: 4 instances
- untrustworthy: 1 instance
- reliable: 1 instance:“It is surely good advice to tell you not to judge what you do not understand. ²No one with a personal investment is a reliable witness, for truth to him has become what he wants it to be. ³If you are unwilling to perceive an appeal for help as what it is, it is because you are unwilling to give help and to receive it. ⁴To fail to recognize a call for help is to refuse help. ⁵Would you maintain that you do not need it? ⁶Yet this is what you are maintaining when you refuse to recognize a brother’s appeal, for only by answering his appeal can you be helped. ⁷Deny him your help and you will not recognize God’s Answer to you. ⁸The Holy Spirit does not need your help in interpreting motivation, but you do need His.” (ACIM, T-12.I.5:1-8)
Here are some of the references from the Course we shared in our enjoyable extended conversation:
“Watch carefully and see what it is you are really asking for. ²Be very honest with yourself in this, for we must hide nothing from each other. ³If you will really try to do this, you have taken the first step toward preparing your mind for the Holy One to enter. ⁴We will prepare for this together, for once He has come, you will be ready to help me make other minds ready for Him. ⁵How long will you deny Him His Kingdom?” (ACIM, T-4.III.8:1-5)
“How is the peace of God retained, once it is found? ²Returning anger, in whatever form, will drop the heavy curtain once again, and the belief that peace cannot exist will certainly return. ³War is again accepted as the one reality. ⁴Now must you once again lay down your sword, although you do not recognize that you have picked it up again. ⁵But you will learn, as you remember even faintly now what happiness was yours without it, that you must have taken it again as your defense. ⁶Stop for a moment now and think of this: Is conflict what you want, or is God’s peace the better choice? ⁷Which gives you more? ⁸A tranquil mind is not a little gift. ⁹Would you not rather live than choose to die?” (ACIM, M-20.4:1-9)
“The next stage is indeed “a period of unsettling.” ²Now must the teacher of God understand that he did not really know what was valuable and what was valueless. ³All that he really learned so far was that he did not want the valueless, and that he did want the valuable. ⁴Yet his own sorting out was meaningless in teaching him the difference. ⁵The idea of sacrifice, so central to his own thought system, had made it impossible for him to judge. ⁶He thought he learned willingness, but now he sees that he does not know what the willingness is for. ⁷And now he must attain a state that may remain impossible to reach for a long, long time. ⁸He must learn to lay all judgment aside, and ask only what he really wants in every circumstance. ⁹Were not each step in this direction so heavily reinforced, it would be hard indeed!” (ACIM, M-4.I-A.7:1-9)
By being willing to look (with Holy Spirit’s help) at how much we do NOT want to see ALL of our (countless) siblings as equal and innocent in truth and question those dubious beliefs, we slowly but surely undo our identification with ego’s unstable dream of differences and duality:
“Deny me not the little gift I ask, when in exchange I lay before your feet the peace of God, and power to bring this peace to everyone who wanders in the world uncertain, lonely, and in constant fear. ²For it is given you to join with him, and through the Christ in you unveil his eyes, and let him look upon the Christ in him.” (ACIM, T-31.VIII.7:1-2)
Here are some acronyms from Jackie’s forthcoming (2nd) book (date T.B.D.):
- HEAL: Holy spirit Ends All Lunacy
- FAITH: Forget All Insanity; Trust Holy spirit.
Jackie will be giving a Miracle Cafe talk on Sep. 26, 2023 entitled: Change Your Mind’s Default Setting
This video recording was recorded on Wednesday, September 15, 2023.
Here’s the clip from “The Truman Show” movie that we referred to with a light crashing down from the sky in a rather unsettling manner:
… and Jim Carrey’s Golden Globe comments about “never being enough” – ego’s intrinsic instability:
… and a favorite quote demonstrating when our mind is nonplussed by external changes and circumstances:
“This is my secret: I don’t mind what happens.” – J. Krinshnamurti
Check out Jackie’s True Forgiveness Teachings podcast here. These readings provide a platform to discuss a variety of helpful ideas and practices from the non-dual metaphysics of A Course in Miracles. Jackie has conducted insightful video interviews with Gary Renard and numerous others. She and her sister, Cindy Lora-Renard, facilitate classes on ACIM in addition to equally highly-regarded workshops on “The Course.” Jackie’s first book, All Peace, No Pieces – now available in audiobook form – is a valuable addition to any Course student’s library, regardless of their level of familiarity with the Course’s ideas, with some particularly fun and insightful metaphors from the Wizard of Oz movie. Here are more ACIM-related conversations with Jackie Lora Jones and Bruce Rawles.