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SearchHow can we experience miracles and know that we are Spirit, so that it's not just theoretical?
Question:
It is our attachment or belief in illusions of things or body that can make us judge others, or feel hurt or angry, or say it was unjust. If we recognize that only Spirit exists and is all-powerful and cannot be hurt, then nothing that happens here matters. And we see everyone and everything from the point of wholeness. Even a "deceitful" thing that happened is probably to teach us a lesson not to value anything of this world, including our bodies and our “lives.” This is really hard. We are afraid of losing our friends, family, our living conditions, etc. Then we also have to develop present trust that the Holy Spirit will provide for all our needs as long as they are necessary. But first we have to experience miracles and that we are Spirit and for conviction and inner knowing to come. Is it not? How do we get these miracle and Spirit experiences? In spite of doing ACIM, I have not had any such experience to speak of. Would you provide us with some insight into this?
Answer:
Thanks for sharing what is on your heart and for your sincere opening to the Spirit within. Miracles bring conviction, for they demonstrate what you have just written—the valuelessness of the body and world, and the value of the Spirit—Which is unchanging. Miracles are experiences that dissolve belief and collapse time. If you are willing to question what you seem to believe and apply the words you have spoken to everything in your awareness, the experience of inner peace will be evident. If you seem to be "...afraid of losing our friends, family, our living conditions, etc." then there is an identity attachment to these things which is blocking the experience of the miracle. The miracle costs nothing and offers a glimpse of Everything. There is no sacrifice in Knowing God's Will, and our Will is One with God's Will. Nothing real is lost or given up in serving God, because the temporary never had any value whatsoever. All Value is Eternal and even a glimpse of this Fact brings immediate peace of mind. If you apply the principles of miracles and make no exceptions, you will experience what I am writing about. Words can but point to the experience of Love that is truly far beyond words.
Who is family to Christ? Who is friend to Christ? What are living conditions to Christ? Everyone and everything, for mind is one. Everyone and everything is included in healed perception, the forgiven world. Christ sees no body and no thing as special or unique or distinct or different. Divine Love looks upon ItSelf and sees only Perfection. Love makes no comparisons, for there are not "two" of anything to compare. Welcome to the Oneness Which sees that there is nothing apart from Mind, Which experiences the Family of Spirit. Christ is Friend to All and the beatitude of friendliness is universal and all-encompassing - it cannot be limited to a person or group of persons. The Living Condition of Spirit is Joy, and anything that seems to be of form can at most be a reflection of the Joy of the mind that hears only One Voice. In Purpose the mind is unified and specifics and details fade in importance, for Abstraction is the natural condition of the mind.
It is important to practice what you are beginning to grasp. Share these ideas as the Holy Spirit directs and this sharing will strengthen them in your awareness. You cannot give away what you do not have. By sharing these ideas you become aware that you HAVE them and you will see that you ARE them. You are a Perfect Idea in the Mind of God and nothing is ever "lost" by giving your Self away. Share Love and Know that You are Love. Share Love and see that there is nothing "outside" this All-encompassing Love. You are the Light of the world, for God creates only Light and God is our Creator.
Blessings of Love always,
David
Does A Course in Miracles need defending?
Question:
I am confused. "A Course in Miracles" talks about forgiveness, and says the whole world is a reflection of my thoughts projected outward. It says I am the dreamer of the dream; that everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked.These things are supposed to get me to see that if I defend myself against someone or something that appears separate from me that I am making the separation real.
But if someone tells me to stop publishing quotes from "A Course in Miracles" without permission, shouldn't I resist? In this copyright case about the authorship of the Course, must I not defend the right to use the Course and the words Jesus has given to me? Do I not have to stand up for what is right in my dream and correct illusions by confronting them? Should I not fight against the copyright owners and try to free the Course for the benefit of the rest of the world? I must come back into my dream of illusions in order to take action, but above all I want peace. I am having trouble taking a stance against my brothers for the sake of the use of some words. I want to express the love I feel freely and I guess I have to let the Holy Spirit Guide my mind and thoughts and actions. I would appreciate anything you can share about this.
Answer:
Thanks for pouring out your thoughts and questions. The sincere prayer of the heart is always Answered in illumination, and beyond the words offered is always the deep desire to Know Thy True Self. Ours is the willingness to forgive and be at peace, for lasting peace is our Inheritance as the Christ. This world is a world of symbols, and words are only symbols of symbols twice removed from reality. God Answers the prayer of the heart. Any question or doubt is always about identity, and it is helpful to be reminded that words were made to maintain the belief in separation:
"Strictly speaking, words play no part at all in healing. The motivating factor is prayer, or asking. What you ask for you receive. But this refers to the prayer of the heart, not to the words you use in praying. Sometimes the words and the prayer are contradictory; sometimes they agree. It does not matter. God does not understand words, for they were made by separated minds to keep them in the illusion of separation. Words can be helpful, particularly for the beginner, in helping concentration and facilitating the exclusion, or at least the control, of extraneous thoughts. Let us not forget, however, that words are but symbols of symbols. They are thus twice removed from reality." (M-21.1)
My Answer is always Love, and the Holy Spirit uses words for a Purpose that heals and blesses the mind. Made to isolate and attack and separate, words have been redirected or re-translated for miracles and harmony. Miracles unite you with your brother and render attack meaningless. Miracles show that nothing need ever be defended. Miracles bring peace instantly to the mind that is still an instant. Words can never come between you and your brother, for there is no gap in our Glorious Identity. Words and books and things and events but represent the purpose given them. Would you see the shining symbol of a forgiven world through the Perspective of the Holy Spirit or the fragmented, disunited misperceptions of the ego, for such is the choice you must make? You love your brother with a love so deep that you would weep in Joy at the very Thought, and would you now place "rights" about a book and words before the very Love Which is God? Love makes no demands. Love does not possess. Love is whole and complete and needs nothing. Love recognizes ItSelf. As you experience your brother you experience God.
"When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I am always there with you, in remembrance of you." (T-8.III.4)
Our mind is united in forgiveness because Mind is indeed singular. Only the belief in a private mind, tiny and separated from the whole, could conceive of defense as meaningful. Being everything, you have no need. Being everything, you extend freely and without limit. The Love of Christ is meant to be given away freely, for such is the beatitude of life and the state of mind the Holy Spirit offers without cost. Yet true generosity is an attitude that accepts everything and asks for nothing. You have the right to perfect peace. Do not confuse our Inheritance with unreal thoughts about words and the use of words. "To have, give all to all" requires simply that you release the concept of expectation. Do you not see that asking a brother to act differently or wishing circumstances to be different than they are is the ego's "plan" of salvation? It is as if you actually believed: "If he/she/they will change, I will be happy." This plan requires that anything except your own mind must change for all to be well and good. Yet I have said that Atonement or complete forgiveness is the sole responsibility of the miracle worker, and this is changing your mind about your mind. Atonement is accepting our Changelessness as Eternal Mind and releasing the belief that there is anything else.
Who are you attempting to follow to Enlightenment, the ego or the Holy Spirit? Whom do you call master, remembering that you cannot serve two masters? If your master is anger you will attempt to deny the Christ and defend an illusion. If your master bids you confront or fight someone who is perceived as not yourself, you are deceived in purpose and remain devoted to an unconscious death wish. Who can judge a brother and hope to Awaken to a Oneness that knows not of judgment? You CAN refuse to take a side, refuse to make a judgment, and refuse to align your mind with thoughts of the past or future - and in vigilance for this Perspective will you abide in the peace that passes the understanding of the world. Anger is a false sense of control, attempting to tell Reality what It must be. You must realize that the control issue or authority problem is not with the copyright holders. To cling to the ego and a tiny self-concept IS the belief that you can author yourself. You are as God created You. Accept the Fact and You are Home in Peace.
In one holy instant the Holy Spirit neutralized the world of judgment, the apparent hierarchy of illusions was Answered, and the Solution to the one belief in separation was Given. In accepting this Atonement it is apparent that the separation never happened. In true forgiveness you forgive or release what never happened. It is impossible to forgive what is believed to have happened and no amount of "evidence" will convince you of what you do NOT want. If you want peace you must relinquish the thought of attack forever. For if you believe attack is possible in any form you will seem to perceive the evidence to justify defense. Defense makes the error of separation real in awareness, for it reinforces the belief that attack is real. Forgiveness and defenselessness are synonymous. Take a stand "against" anybody or anything, and Peace is completely gone from awareness. Stand firm in the Peace of Christ and there is nothing outside to stand against.
Do not confuse non judgment or seeing the neutrality and nothingness of form with passivity or weakness. The Observer or Witness is Above the battleground. Forgiveness looks and watches and judges not. Meekness is Strength, and the Meek Perspective has literally overcome the world with Its Strength. It is Strength Which reminds the mind: "Nothing I see means anything. I do not understand anything I see. My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world. I see only the past." It is the ego that encourages a "fight" and "battle" and "taking a stand for Truth against a brother." To actively align with Jesus is to lay down the sword of judgment. Love does not oppose. To oppose a brother is a sign of weakness.
There are no neutral thoughts. Thoughts are not powerful or weak, good or bad, pleasing or painful; they are either real (Spirit) or unreal (time-space). Judgments of time-space, be they positive or negative, are never neutral and they seem to produce a world of images that is anything but neutral. Images are not Reality. Judgment is the attempt to pull apart from the whole, give it a name, and set it off from the rest. A judgmental thought seems to make a form of that which is forever formless. Non-Judgment, the Holy Spirit's Perspective, sees all form as neutral or nothing. The mind in accord with Jesus, beyond the possibility of judgments of time-space, sees everything of time as neutral:
"My body is a wholly neutral thing." (Lesson 294)
"Money is not evil. It is nothing." (P-3.III.1.5)
"Time is as neutral as the body is, except in terms of what you see it for." (T-26.VIII.3.7)
"...the body is merely neutral. It is not sinful, but neither is it sinless. As nothing, which it is, the body cannot meaningfully be invested with attributes of Christ or of the ego. Either must be an error, for both would place the attributes where they cannot be. And both must be undone for purposes of truth." (T-20.VII.4.4)
"Like every lesson that the Holy Spirit requests you learn, the miracle is clear.... Now are you freed from this much of the dream; the world is neutral, and the bodies that still seem to move about as separate things need not be feared." (T-28.II.10)
Be not concerned with publishing or words or organizations or “getting the message out,” for the Kingdom of Heaven is within. Images mean nothing and cannot be reached. There are no private minds to reach. Mind is One. There is literally no "body" out there. "When you pray go to your closet" means make not a show of outward appearances to display your devotions and prayers. Our state of mind is the witness or demonstration of the miracle, and peace is its own reward. There is nothing outside of you. The transformation of mind is NOT physical, for what is nothing cannot BE transformed. The transformation is a recognition of the wholeness of mind. Extending the "message" in a world of unreality is therefore impossible. Nothing can ever block the extension within (creation), and forgiveness sees there is nothing to fix or change in meaningless images. You are the Kingdom of Heaven and there is nothing outside You:
"What has been given you? The knowledge that you are a mind, in Mind and purely mind, sinless forever, wholly unafraid, because you were created out of love. Nor have you left your Source, remaining as you were created. This was given you as knowledge which you cannot lose." (W-158.1)
"Mind reaches to itself. It is not made up of different parts, which reach each other. It does not go out. Within itself it has no limits, and there is nothing outside it. It encompasses everything. It encompasses you entirely; you within it and it within you. There is nothing else, anywhere or ever." (T-18.VI.8.5)
If you would know that your Lord and Savior Jesus lives, teach that there is no death by demonstrating our invulnerability in Christ. Defense is the sign of vulnerability and weakness and is not the lesson of forgiveness the Holy Spirit offers. Singularity of mind has no exceptions. When you seek to defend a "position" you are attempting to deny singularity. Holding a defense is a denial of the realization that there is no order of difficulty in miracles, for an exception is being attempted. Make no exceptions, transfer the training, for truth has no exceptions and Salvation is no compromise of any kind. One compromise, held apart from Truth, renders Enlightenment a mere concept in awareness. Yet truly Enlightenment is an Experience, and the ego is afraid to go beyond words to the Unspeakable Love of God.
In Christ there are no limits, and you can indeed afford to laugh at the ego's battle over words. Love has nothing to do with form. If you are concerned about the form of expression or the message being blocked by somebody, remember this comforting thought from "A Course in Miracles":
"Whenever any form of special relationship tempts you to seek for love in ritual, remember love is content, and not form of any kind. The special relationship is a ritual of form, aimed at raising the form to take the place of God at the expense of content. There is no meaning in the form, and there will never be."
"A Course in Miracles" is a book which may symbolize, reflect, or point to Divine Love. "A Course in Miracles" is nothing in and of itself. Nothing exists in and of itself apart from the whole. You are the Point of everything. In the recognition of Self are symbols gone forever. Leave the symbol behind and Experience Self. Drop the stance, for it is nowhere to be found. Jesus is a name which symbolizes a Love not of this world. Christ is the Reality. Reality needs no defense. Acceptance of Self is the Point. Do not cling to symbols or words. In the Holy Instant, the Eternal Present, only Christ Is.
Love & Blessings,
David
How can I quiet my mind and come to the experience of consistent Peace?
General description of video:
This question is asked at 1 minute into the video below. Part 3/7 from a three-hour gathering held on Feb 13th, 2011 in San Anselmo, CA with David Hoffmeister and friends. This joy-filled and insightful gathering was all about the practical application of A Course in Miracles to relationships, especially focused on "couple" relationships!
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5E27h8v3Xs#t=1m00s
David, if you overlook all error, what would the experience be like for you if you saw two people arguing in front of you?
Description:
This question is asked at 40 minutes and 22 seconds into the following audio, which is part of an interview of David by DavidPaul & Candace Doyle.
Listen to the audio here: http://www.livingmiraclescenter.org/MP3/QandA_audios/DC11.mp3
Is the conscious, mystical experience of "I Am" still in the realm of the ego?
This question is asked at 4 minutes into the video below.
General description: Autonomy is a more subtle form of specialness. God creates and creation is extension. Spirit creates spirit. This is what Jesus calls true autonomy. What counts as autonomy in this world is independence which is a false sense of autonomy. The spiritual path leads to the realization that "I Am-ness" is so more vast than we can imagine. There are many praises of autonomy in Western culture and great fear can arise of losing personal independence. However, both personal identity and collective identity are false constructs. Complete God dependence is a feeling of trust and being completely taken care of without any risk.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJMOwl7QgvY#t=4m00s
To get to this state of Happiness, did you experience much resistance?
Question:
To get to such a happy, peaceful state of mind, did you experience resistance along the way?
Answer:
Yes, much resistance, many tears. Much darkness had to come up. It took many miracles to convince me that it was okay to trust God. The journey into the mind has very intense emotions, and at times it can feel like your world is falling apart. It's just that, being invested into this world, the mind is upside down, and now the Spirit is turning the mind right side up, toward the Light. The only way to have a peaceful world is to be peaceful for yourself. It is totally an inside job.
Love,
David
David, being so connected to that Unified Mind, have you had the experience of opening up to other abilities, like psychic abilities?
Description:
This question is asked at 24 minutes and 10 seconds into the following audio, which is part of an interview of David by DavidPaul & Candace Doyle.
Listen to the audio here: http://www.livingmiraclescenter.org/MP3/QandA_audios/DC11.mp3
I'm feeling like two people... how can I stay in the experience of Love?
Question:
Recently I have felt my heart open and I am now sometimes receiving divine love. It flows through me when I awaken, as I fall asleep, and I bathe in a feeling of joy and bliss. My mind sometimes battles it though, bringing up past fear and anxiety. This feels like I am two people, and it gets difficult at times. What can I do to stay in the love?
Answer:
Thanks for opening your heart and sharing your experiences. It can seem like a battle and a swinging back and forth in emotions until all investment has been withdrawn from the ego. The ego is a decision, and as long as this decision has been given even the least bit of value or allure, the flip-flopping between love and fear, sanity and insanity, seems to persist in awareness. Realize that the ego is constantly being undone or unraveled, and the ego interprets its undoing as fearful. You, however, are not being undone - for You are Pure Love, Pure Spirit. The ego seems to resist the approach of Light, as if the Light was its death. Yet the ego is the investment in death, and once the clouds of fear have been passed through, there You are - the Oneness of Pure Love! To stay in Love, so to speak, requires only the growing willingness to not hide or protect any fearful thoughts which arise in consciousness. Let the fear arise, for it has long been kept out of awareness and must arise that it may be released forever. The ego wants to offer the bait of a battle, because that is how it perpetuates the illusion of conflict and fear. Yet there is nothing to fight and only an illusion to forgive or look past. Our Spirit is beyond the possibility of a battle, for our Oneness and Love rest in the Heart of God. Truth does not fight against illusion; illusions only seem to battle with illusions. Our Identity in God is no illusion, and Reality needs no defense. With faith all scraps of fear rise into awareness and are looked upon with the Holy Spirit and seen for their nothingness.
In Awakening, the split mind—or the mind which tries to serve two masters— comes up into awareness. As this occurs, it can feel as if one has a "split personality" of love and fear. Divine Love transcends the illusory aspects of the self-concept, or the ego-image that was made to cover over and substitute for the Real Love deep within. The "good" aspects of the mask or persona are as illusory as the "fearful" aspects, because illusions are all just one error: the belief that God's Love can have an "opposite." God and Christ are unopposed,for Love has no "enemy" or "opposition." Be grateful, therefore, when the illusion of fear seems to rise into awareness—and do not attempt to battle or repress or distract away from the fear. See that the fear which had been denied from awareness, the fear that seemed to block the Light of Love, is presenting itself again so it may be forgiven forever. Look at the fear with the Holy Spirit and see the nothingness of the fear. Correctly perceived fear is a Call for Love, and as this is acknowledged you are Answered in Love. Love is knocking at the door of consciousness, asking that all self-imposed barriers to the remembrance of God be released. Be happy that the Awakening is occurring through your willingness and readiness, for nothing more is asked of you. Fear has run out of time and has nowhere to hide. Fear used time to conceal the wish to separate, yet under the Holy Spirit's direction time is neutralized and used for miracles that collapse time and show its meaninglessness.
The unconscious was the belief in fear. Fear made the dream of the world seem real. As unconscious belief is raised to the Light and disappears, the experience which remains is being fully conscious, alert, and aware of dreaming a happy dream of non-judgment. This is the Perspective of the Holy Spirit and awareness of dreaming means you are no longer at the mercy of dream figures or dreams of any kind. You are having the dream; the dream is not having you. You are having the dream and there is nothing outside one whole mind, illuminated by the Light of the Holy Spirit. A happy dream has come to take the place of the dream of judgment, and so the fear has gone and never was. The mirror of mind is clean and clear and reflects the Light of God, for there is nothing to block the Pure Love of Heaven.
I love You forever and ever Precious One, for You are my Self. Our strength is the Love within, and this world can offer nothing to delay the Awakening to Pure Love. I rejoice in our Oneness! All Glory to God for creating All as Pure Oneness and Love!
Blessings always,
David