Search in this category
SearchIf the ego isn't real, how could we have chosen it in the first place and how can something unreal be dissolved now?
Question:
I have read "A Course in Miracles" and reviewed both websites of "Foundation for ACIM" and "Awakening Mind." It appears that ACIM was designed to transform one's mind, to awaken, so that one is aware of the "ego" or "wrong-mindedness." I do want to let go of this ego nonsense. Yet, if the ego nonsense is unreal or never existed, how can I let go of the "unreal" that never existed? There has got to be a way other than a "process" (which by the way is making time real).
And, with respect to miracles, do miracles appear to our five senses in response to the "correction" in our mind, which is ultimately correcting the projection/perception? How can I change from "wrong-mind" to "right-mind" when there is no wrong mind in the first place? What I am trying to say is that if the ego world is false or I never "departed from God," why does the ego appear at all? What is the real truth about that notion?
Answer:
ACIM points to an experience of the Present Moment, yet the experience of the Present Moment is beyond words (which are only symbols of symbols, twice removed from Reality). For the mind that desires Awakening, these answers and instructions are a Course in the Simple and the Obvious. Yet if the mind desires the illusion of separation, the Course will seem difficult and frustrating to apply. Desire is the Key to forgiveness of illusions. Truth will be returned to your awareness by your desire, as it was lost in awareness by your desire for something else. “Let thine eye be single” is a way of saying desire only Truth and you shall experience the Truth that has no opposite. Desire healing wholly, and you are healed. For the Holy Spirit knows that the separation never happened and offers this Correction or Atonement this very instant. You are correct in stating that "process" is a way of making time real. Yet to a mind that still believes in time, "process" is a gentle metaphor for allowing the seeming willingness for Awakening to grow stronger—so that unified or single desire can be grasped without a fear of loss or sacrifice. Atonement must be accepted voluntarily, and thus the sleeping mind is not "hurled into Reality." The mind must desire to Awaken, for the Holy Spirit does not command or demand or coerce. Though Awakening is inevitable and requires only one instant of complete forgiveness, Awakening is never forced on the sleeping mind that dreams of exile from God. Miracles open the way to accepting the Correction (Atonement) without fear. For in Truth there is nothing to fear.
I was recently asked: "What is your belief in death? Do you believe in heaven and hell? Do you believe in reincarnation?" My answer to these questions is always the same, and I share it now as a basis for the more subtle questions you have asked. Under the instructions and direction of Jesus Christ I have been shown—and have experienced—that there is no death for the Spirit I Am. This world was the belief in hell, yet through forgiveness, I experience Heaven as Now and see that hell was but an error, an illusion that the Holy Spirit Corrected instantly. I live in the Joy of Christ and happily shine the Light in which I am created by our Loving God. "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" means it is Now, a state of Mind that is Innocent, untouched by the error that was sin (separation from God). I invite you to a journey of Awakening to the Christ Idea that resides forever in the Mind of God. Love is real. Hell and death were the illusions. Reincarnation is a stepping stone belief to Enlightenment or Salvation. Eternity is timeless, while reincarnation is a seeming story of the "soul" and "time." Unconscious beliefs in error and time must be questioned, forgiven and released, and you will happily see that they had no reality. Eternal Love is Reality, for God is Love and Christ is Love.
You stated: "I want to let go of the ego nonsense." I suggest doing the ACIM Workbook. Do it with such passion and desire that for each seeming lesson that you read you EXPECT to Awaken instantly. This suggestion is truly only a prayer for unified desire, and unified desire is Creation. The Holy Instant is the gateway to Creation and the Workbook lessons were designed only as a reflection of the Purpose of Awakening and willingness to Awaken. If you apply your mind effort and willingness and try to not make exceptions to the lesson idea offered, the Holy Spirit will Guide the mind unfailingly into the awareness of the Holy Instant.
Resurrection is of the mind and for the mind, and the symbol of a resurrected body was meant only to point to a Resurrected mind (in which the ego has dissolved away). The body is a neutral symbol and truly neither lives or dies, so a "resurrected body" in this sense is a contradiction in terms. The symbol of the "resurrection" 2000 years ago was to teach that you cannot kill the Son of God, for Spirit cannot die (Being Eternal). One reaches awareness of Heaven through resurrection or healing of mind by accepting Atonement or complete forgiveness. This comes by first allowing the Holy Spirit to discern between right and wrong-minded thinking and next by accepting only right-minded thinking or the forgiven world.
You asked: "...do miracles appear to our five senses in response to the "correction" in our Mind which is ultimately correcting the projection/perception? How can I change from "wrong mind" to "right mind" when there is no wrong mind in the first place?"
In Awakening it is important to keep the horse in front of the cart and not assume that the cart can pull the horse. Miracles and right-mindedness are the same, and this is simply seeing the false as false. Miracles and right-mindedness are the awareness that there is no causation in form and that the cosmos has not left the mind of the dreamer. If one seems to perceive separate persons, places, things, and situations, one believes in the illusion of wrong-mindedness. The Holy Spirit sees the tapestry of the cosmos as one illusion, the false as false, and sees that there is nothing "outside" the mind. There is only wholeness in this "Above the Battleground" Perspective. This unified Perspective is the same as right-mindedness or the forgiven world. The change of mind of which you speak is accepting the mind's Changelessness and Singularity. The "how" is the Holy Spirit. Let the Holy Spirit decide for God for you and you accept Atonement or "change your mind about your mind." Your part is only willingness, for the Might of the Holy Spirit joins with this little willingness to see the world anew. Say and mean: "Above all else I want to see this differently."
I have spoken often about the question: "How could the impossible happen?" There are many writings which address this question (the most asked question), though it must become apparent that you BELIEVE that the separation HAS happened if you watch your emotional state of mind. The assumption beneath the question is that the separation has ACTUALLY happened, and this is the belief or assumption (the ego) to question. Actually all questions arise from this belief or assumption (the ego), for the ego seemed to ask the "first question": "What am I?" Every subsequent question implies an identity confusion and is thus a denial of Identity as Christ. The experience of Awakening is the recognition of Self as Christ, and in this Certainty there is no such thing as a question. Oneness or Love has no opposite. Heaven is a State of Being, Pure Is-ness, Eternally. All seeming questions have time-space, private minds, and private thoughts as their basis. Yet Love knows Love, and Love is All there Is. Open to the experience of Love and nothing "else" remains.
Love & Eternal Blessings,
David