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SearchDoes a person retain their individuality after death?
Question:
My question has to do with death. My 36-year-old sister recently—and mysteriously—died. We were all very shocked, and members of my family now have dreams in which she is trying to contact them. Sometimes I can feel my sister as though she were inside me and is a part of me in some way that I can't describe. Can you please explain this to me? Does a person retain their individual form and personality in some way after death?
Answer:
People, places, and things in dreams are always symbolic and represent the wishes of the dreamer. This is true of all perceptual experiences whether they seem to be daily life encounters, nighttime dreams, visions, apparitions, near "death" experiences, etc. The script is a motion picture of beliefs. Your sister appearing in family members' dreams is an example of consciousness drawing forth witnesses to what is believed. You can feel the connection within, and this is an indication of your awareness that Truth is within. You do not need a specific symbol and therefore do not perceive your sister in that way.
Death seems to be something that happens in form, and the world looks to form for "causes" of death. Yet nothing of the world is causative. The ego and death are synonymous, and the ego is nothing but a false belief. Mind is causative and powerful, and when faith is given to a false belief, it appears to make a world of opposites that seem real to the perceiver. Birth and death seem to be beginning and ending points to the world, but distorted perception simply seems to continue on and on, until Atonement is accepted for the dream of the world. Personality or "individual” identity is part of the self-concept or make-believe little identity which the ego holds out as replacement for True Identity as Christ. Your feeling that your sister is “inside [you] and a part of [you] in some way that [you] can't describe” comes from the belief that you are more than a personality, and life is more than the body. As you approach true forgiveness, the body will grow increasingly unimportant in your perception, and you will have experiences of the vastness of mind.
You have asked if a person retains their individual form and personality in some way after death. In this sense of the word, "death”—as used by the world—is a continuation. For until there is a change of mind—the acceptance of Self as Changeless, Divine Mind—distorted and limited perception continues without break or interruption. It is not so much that a person retains a personality. It is rather that the belief in a private mind with private thoughts generates a mask or persona, which is called by the deceived mind "person/personality." In Awakening from the belief in separation (which is also the belief in private minds and private thoughts), the mind first forgives and sees itself as single and whole. Beyond this healed Perspective is the Abstract Oneness of Heaven. In approaching complete forgiveness, you will make many self-concepts along the way. Each one will feel more free and expansive than the last, for each one will increasingly reflect the connectedness of mind and the lack of importance of the body. As it becomes apparent that you are mind, wholly mind, purely mind, the concept of the body will fade and grow dim and disappear from awareness. What remains is Abstract Light, and the Light of God is our Eternal Home.
All Glory to God for creating All as One.
Love,
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
Would someone with brain damage still be able to access Universal Mind just as easily?
Question:
I remember reading that the brain of the human has nothing to do with the mind. Am I correct in this? As for my question, if I was hit by a truck and suffered brain damage, or had a major mental illness, or later suffered from organic brain syndrome, would I still have contact with universal mind (God)?
Answer:
Yes you are correct—the brain has nothing to do with Mind. The brain, like the body, earth, stars and cosmos, is a projection of the ego or belief in separation. Everything of the cosmos was made to mimic or substitute for the Reality of Spirit. The brain was the ego's attempt at making up a mind. The brain is temporary. The Mind Eternal. The brain is an unreal effect of an unreal cause. The Mind is One with God, the Cause or Source of All. The brain follows instructions and does what it is told to do. The Mind is the residence of God, the Holy Spirit, and Christ.
All seeming sickness is the ego belief held in mind. The mind was sick that believed the brain could have a dysfunction. Mental illness is the belief that it is actually possible to separate from a Loving Creator. Mental illness is the belief that mind can be split into both love and fear. Therefore "brain damage" or "organic brain syndrome" are nothing more than ego attempts to project the "belief problem" to form by calling the "belief problem" a "brain problem."
"Brain damage" and "organic brain syndrome" have no meaning to the Holy Spirit, Who looks not to effects. The Holy Spirit knows that they have no cause and therefore cannot be at all. As you work with the Holy Spirit and ACIM you will be carried to the forgiven world in the mind, and from this Perspective will perceive a reflection of Reality: a healed cosmos. The body is neutral and cannot be endowed with the characteristics of Spirit or ego. If you believe that the body can be sick you are perceiving from a wrong-minded perspective and seem to have temporarily blocked your connection with the Universal Mind of God. The miracle shows the world to you anew, and in the miracle all seeming "suffering" has gone. In the right-mindedness of the miracle, suffering is impossible, for the miracle reflects the Light of the Holy Spirit Who is the Comforter and the Bridge to remembrance of God. Before healing can be accepted in mind it is necessary to realize that the one problem is a perceptual problem. The problem is the lens that you were looking through, not the specifics that were perceived through the darkened lens of misperception. "Brain damage" and "organic brain syndrome" are specifics without a cause, because all misperceptions have no real cause. God is a real Cause, and Christ and Creation proceed from a real Source. Atonement is seeing that this is a fact and that nothing else exists. But first it is important to see that all sickness is mental sickness and has nothing to do with a brain.
The ego was made by belief and is dispelled as the mind ceases to believe in it. It is really this simple. If one scrap of false belief remains held in mind the Truth of Divine Mind will seem obscured from awareness. Divine Mind simply Is and Is All that can be Known.
I rejoice in your work with ACIM and the Holy Spirit. It will bring you lasting peace and joy and happiness!
Love & Blessings,
David
Am I identical to God?
Question:
When things come crashing down around me, I do my crying quickly, and bathe in the glory of God. He finds me there and I am renewed. We are one, but are we identical?
Answer:
"I and the Father are One" means Spirit is One and in eternal communion. We are identical as Spirit, yet included in this is the recognition that God created Christ and Christ did not create God. God is the prime Creator, giving Christ creative ability, and Christ is eternally happy to be the creation of God. Creation shares all the attributes of the Creator, but Creation does not create the Creator. :)
Love You Beloved One,
David
What do you think about our state of affairs in terms of the "new world order" and other secret societies?
Question:
What do you think about our state of affairs in terms of the New World Order and secret societies? Do you have some practical insights in that area?
Answer:
Thanks for writing and sharing your questions. The New World Order is wonderful to behold with the Holy Spirit, for there is an awareness of the Divine Order. Everything is in perfect alignment with the Purpose of the Holy Spirit. This Perspective is not the ego's version of the "New World Order" which always emphasizes control and a particular distribution of "power" and "resources." There is nothing new or spontaneous or inspired in the ego's apparent hierarchy of illusions. It matters not how the deck chairs of the Titanic are arranged or rearranged, for the Vastness of the Ocean of Spirit inevitably swallows up the entire "ship" in a Stillness that is the Allness of God.
As for secret societies, there is nothing that can BE kept secret or mysterious in the Holy Spirit's Gentle Light. Society is a construct of the ego, which believes in private thoughts and private minds that come and go and group and regroup and arrange and rearrange. Groupings, rumors, and secrets are the attempt to play hide and seek with Christ, yet the recognition of Christ is obvious and direct to the Mind that is whole and unified. The veil of duality falls away in the experience of Union, as dark gives way to the dawning of Light. Everything is openly revealed in Christ, and what seemed to imprison vanished before the coming of the Light.
Enlightenment is practical because it is inevitable. Heaven is Now, is Present, and is thus immediately Known. There are no mysteries in God, and the only seeming mystery was one of mistaken identity. Prayers are thus Answered: Christ is forever Christ, at One with God Eternally. No war was ever fought, for Eternity enters not into time, Truth never descends into error, and Infinity can never be made finite and broken into bits and pieces and degrees and measures. Present Peace is not a small Gift, and the Purpose of forgiveness is not difficult to grasp for the willing mind. It seemed difficult indeed to keep a secret identity apart from the Whole. An artificial concept of ordered images was impossible to uphold with the dawning of the Light. Now all that remains is to rejoice that illusions were never true!
Love & Blessings always,
David
Sickness and Laying Aside the Self-Concept 5 Videos
Five-Part video series: Sickness and Laying Aside Self-Concept
General description of Part 1:
It's all about mistaken identity and that's the reason why we have to expose and release the self concept. It's being held to take the place of our true identity and as long as we hold the self concept and value it in our mind that means we are not valuing the self that we truly are, which is pure Divine love. David quotes a line from ACIM: "Sickness is anger taken out upon the body." There is guilt in the mind, and there is anger, and self hatred that comes from believing that you are an ego, instead of being the Christ self that you are. And sickness is just one of those attempts to fend off Divine love and say to God: "Here is proof that I'm weak and little and vulnerable." And to prove that I'm not worthy of that love. It's a trick -- the mind is calling forth a witness to prove its littleness. Sickness is a wrong- minded decision so it has to be exposed. Sickness seems to hold a value to the mind that is afraid of healing.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUWNh5LbphQ
General description of Part 2:
Healing is about dropping deep into the mind to see what the sickness is really about, to release anger and who you think you are. What purpose does illness serve for the ego?" We are trying to avoid something with the sickness. We use sickness to avoid school, work and life. The mind believes it's a helpless child and believes that there are parents and authority figures out there, and that it's stuck in a world -- and that's the self concept. The self concept is so firmly held in place and it's such a feeling of being suffocated or trapped, that sickness seems like a pretty good option. Sickness is often used as an avoidance to face some kind of issue deeper down in the mind, which it would be good to put your full attention on. What is that that I'm not facing? It's an invitation to go much deeper into the mind.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ7y286uw2w
General description of Part 3:
Sickness in any form is a perceptual problem. What are the underpinnings underneath it?. Look at the pain as a gift to give you the opportunity to look deeper into the mind. Only forgiveness heals a grievance, which can be buried deep in the unconscious. Sometimes it seems treatment works even if you don't change your mind. It is a shift in mind, but it may not be in awareness. Things don't just disappear or appear -- the mind is deep and has many tricks. You begin to open up to the idea that the mind is extremely causative, and that the world of effects has no causation. Quotes are from A Course in Miracles.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Em1Tepddg
General description of Part 4:
Every symptom is a form of self punishment. We have to let ourselves feel that desire to punish ourselves, to feel the actual self hatred and the shame. Allow it up into awareness and see it for what it is. Expose it so fully that there is no part of the psyche that tries to hide it anymore. David quotes the workbook (ACIM): "I am not a body and my mind cannot attack. So, I cannot be sick." If my mind cannot attack, why do I have all these attack thoughts? In lesson 23 (ACIM) Jesus says: "I can escape the world I see by giving up attack thoughts". The original attack thought, the belief in separation -- that you can leave heaven -- is such a horrific thought, that it is pushed completely out of awareness.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvW4xsoHbYo
General description of Part 5:
The ego is trying to play a trick with the mind and cover over the original attack thought with these other surface attack thoughts. Until you go deeper and get down to the core attack thought (that you separated from your Father) and allow that to be released from your mind, these tricks of the ego will seem to go on and will seem to have real consequences. The belief that I can be in competition with God or to attack God is the same. If it is possible that attack is real in any way, shape or form, then guilt would be real as well. And innocence would be impossible. That is what forgiveness is all about. Enlightenment is the experience of the complete impossibility of attack, and hence of your own innocence. Trust is key when you're on this journey. The mind won't open up to miracles if it's too terrified.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIlUsnMEPgI
Does my brother's pain exist?
Question:
Last night, my boyfriend of four years and I broke up. He has had an unusually troubled childhood, and I'm sure my friends and family will be happy that I "got away" from such a cynical, childish person. But now all I can think is that all the things that disgusted me in the end—the dirty house, the dark clinging attitude, the irresponsible behavior and his seeming pain, were really just his belief in the lack of love.
Why is the "seemingness" of things always dismissed in ACIM? If he experiences pain, then I don't care if it's not real—it's still cause for my concern! It seems that if I followed the Course principles, I could just go do my lessons and feel happy and loving while he rots in his own self-created hell. Or maybe his pain really doesn't exist on ANY level, and therefore I should just not give a crap about other people's suffering.
I hope you understand the issue I'm trying to get at. Or maybe this is all just ego talk, and I don't even know what I'm saying? I don't know anymore. Perhaps you can see through all this better than me. Thank you so much for your love and patience!
Answer:
Thanks for sharing what is on your heart. Your question about the perception of pain is a good starting point in clearing the mirror of the mind. This mirror must be cleared of false beliefs and concepts and thoughts if you are to radiate the Light that is ever Present. Pain is always a misperception, for God has nothing to do with pain. If God is real there is no pain. If pain is real there is no God. The illusion of pain always stems from wrong-minded thinking, and this is what must be exposed and released to experience lasting peace and happiness.
Concern is another word for worry, and this emotion has nothing to do with compassion or true empathy. Concern is an emotion that is painful and arises from a desire to be right about a particular person, situation, or event. One aspect of such concern is the belief that something false has already happened. Another aspect is the belief that past events caused the fear and pain. This misperception gives reality to the past and denies the Present Solution offered by the Holy Spirit. When you pray for a miracle you are praying for a change in your perception. Even when you seem to pray for "another," this is still the case. If you seem to have continuing concern for a brother after asking for a miracle, you are not allowing the miracle to be as it is. Miracles do not create or really change, they simply look calmly upon the false and see that it has no consequence. Miracles offer only Joy, and when Joy has come all pain is over now.
The concept of leaving someone behind is a strange belief, for in God's Love there is no such thing as leaving. The ego is the belief in possession, and what seems capable of being possessed also seems capable of being lost. Loss is the ego's story and originated with the belief that it is possible to separate or "fall" from God's Eternal Love. This error seems to be acted out and repeated in human relationships, just as the past seems to repeat. The miracle Awakens the mind to the awareness that the past is over and only a blessing remains.
Pain is correctly perceived as a Call for Love, and this is always one's own Call to release the false perception of pain. Looking through a glass darkly never brings peace, happiness, love, or joy, so any seeming upset is a Call to empty the mind of false concepts and thus clean the mirror. This is the mind training that is required to accept the Atonement and remember God. Atonement is the awareness that the separation never happened. Until this Correction is accepted, the world will seem real and the unreal emotions of the ego that are one with the world will seem to persist in awareness.
Let the feelings come up into awareness. Then, with deep honesty and sincerity, give the thoughts and judgments and interpretations and feelings over to the Spirit. When darkness is raised to Light the darkness is gone. Do not protect the darkness, for the Spirit will not dissolve what has not been willingly offered for release. You have the Answer within but have been unwilling to let go of the ego definition of the problem. The Holy Spirit must wait until you see that you have had a perception problem based on belief in the ego. Until this point is reached the "problems" will seem to be projected to the world and to brothers that seem apart from the mind. They are not. There are no problems apart from the mind. Healed perception will spring to awareness the instant the misperception is seen exactly as it is and not concealed or projected as "something else."
All illness was mental illness, and all perceived pain was nothing but a faulty formulation of Reality. Reality is Love, and Love is created Eternally Perfect. Love has no opposite.
Love & Blessings,
David
If in truth, there's no one else out there, who is there to awaken? Why does it appear like some are awakened and some are not?
Question:
If I believe that I am the only one, that there is no one out there, it's all a movie screen, then why do I believe in being helpful to the characters in the script? Who is there to be awakened? Why do some figures seem to have awakened when others seem to have not? How can some of the mind be asleep and some of the mind be awake? When I lay the body aside and the dream is ended, what about the other dream figures? I think you know what I am getting at. There is something here I can't explain.
Answer:
Being helpful is being tuned in to the Spirit, and this helpfulness is in a Purpose of mind that offers only benefit. Your happy, joyful, peaceful, free-flowing state of mind is the gift, for it is our beatitude. This state of mind comes from being in Purpose and thus not taking anything personally. In the joy of the Living Moment there is no concern or worry for any of the characters of the script, for one has stepped back and is identified with mind—not body. There is only one mind to be Awakened, and one mind Awake sees all the characters as the same. No character is ahead or behind, and no character is awake or asleep. All of the characters were constructs or symbols of the wish to have private thoughts and private minds. Awakening sees the impossibility of such an attempt, for one mind is unified and cannot be divided and alone and separate. The happy dream brings an end to dreaming, because forgiveness is a dream of non-judgment. Then, as the Mind remembers It is Creation, Self, the illusion of dreaming is over and never was. When the body is laid aside in Atonement, the cosmos is laid aside as well. Eternity remains as God creates, and there is no time in what is Forever Spirit.
Love always,
David
Is nothing real? Are you real?
Question:
Are you real? Or are you just part of the dream, representing my desire to awaken? Am I the only being in the world? There is no Peace House, is there? Unless of course, I decided to go there, then it would all be exactly as I made it up to be. There never really was a man named Jesus. This is all contrived. I made you up, didn't I?
Answer:
I am real. There is only One. You are the One. I am the One. There is no David in Reality, yet David can be used by the Holy Spirit as a symbol or reflection of the desire to Awaken. The same applies to Jesus. There is only the Spirit God created Eternal. There is no Peace House in Reality, and yes if you seemed to decide to go "there" it would be exactly as the ego made it up to be. Perception is selective and subjective through the ego's lens, and there is no objective world apart from the perceiver. The ego made the cosmos, yet the Holy Spirit uses what the ego made to lead to the Kingdom of Heaven within. Love is All there Is. Eternity Shines!
Love,
David
If reality was so perfect, how could the separation have happened?
Question:
If everything was so perfect, how could the separation have happened?
Answer:
You have asked the number one question that I am asked as I travel. In the Clarification of Terms section of "A Course in Miracles," Jesus addresses this question. He says there are many questions the ego will ask: How did the separation occur? To whom did the separation occur? And many other forms. There is no answer, only an experience. There is an experience that will come that will end all doubting.
When you ask the question, "How did the separation occur,” you have an unconscious assumption or belief that the separation did occur. That is what you must question, because separation is never understandable. Atonement is the awareness that the separation never happened. That is your sole responsibility: to accept the Atonement or correction. You are not responsible for the error. You do not need to analyze or figure out the error. You just need to accept the correction. This involves not attempting to project responsibility for the ego. So, when anger arises, along with fear and guilt, and the ego says: Get rid of it, put it on your brother and sister, do not listen to that voice. See it as your own thought and quickly give it over to the Holy Spirit. Quickly! Once you have given it to the Holy Spirit, it is already gone. It is the attempt to protect it and hide it from the Holy Spirit that seems to keep it in your consciousness.
Love,
David