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SearchCan any "problem" be solved "in the world" through forgiveness? Can forgiveness be taught to others?
Question:
We think it is of the utmost importance that we do whatever is possible to free ourselves of ACIM's long-standing copyright dispute. Not only does that dispute draw our ACIM community away from its primary purpose—supporting God's plan as the "only" plan that actually "works" in the world—it perpetuates ongoing separation between us.
What we are asking of you at this moment is to seriously consider this approach: actively and systematically asking all members of the ACIM community to go within and find out whether or not their guidance tells them if it is now time to voluntarily and unconditionally relinquish the so-called Course copyright for the good of the world—and communicate accordingly in whatever ways that they may find themselves inspired to, from private conversations to discussion forums over the Internet—knowing that nothing less than miracles will result. We look forward to your response.
Answer:
Render our holy mind unto God, for only in God is Life and Meaning. Christ teaches resist not evil, precisely because there is no "evil" to resist. In ACIM Christ says:
“Recognize what does not matter, and if your brothers ask you for something 'outrageous,' do it because it does not matter. Refuse, and your opposition establishes that it does matter to you. It is only you, therefore, who have made the request outrageous, and every request of a brother is for you. Why would you insist in denying him? For to do so is to deny yourself and impoverish both. He is asking for salvation, as you are."
I share freely the Joy of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit uses the symbols of the world to lead to an experience beyond the symbols. There is no limit on the Holy Spirit's use of symbols. It is impossible to be limited in any way. I rejoice in this experience. Peace of mind is the outcome of non-judgment. Peace comes from the Holy Spirit's Purpose and not from any specific outcome in form. The ego seeks to promote a "plan of salvation" that requires something other than the mind to change to in form and in the future. Thus does the ego seek to make its salvation or forgiveness political or social by defining its "forgiveness" as within the dream. Yet forgiveness is simply the Perspective that sees the dream as a dream. Forgiveness does not require that anyone else act differently or change in any way. Forgiveness looks and watches and judges not, for from Its kind Gaze illusions are all the same. All form is the illusion of the past, and what is past and gone cannot BE changed.
Jesus is an example or demonstration of the beatitude of acceptance and non-judgment. To take a stand for or against a “real world" outcome makes the error of separation real in awareness, though not in Reality. There is nothing causative in form, yet to believe that some form outcomes are "better" than others is the attempt to deny that all illusions are the same. A change of purpose from a grievance to a miracle is meaningful, for it is another way of looking upon the world. Yet this shift makes no demands, for the mind is thus freed from the insane wish and attempt to make things be different and better than they already are. While the ego demands that the problem be defined in form (personal, societal, interpersonal, environmental, etc.), the Holy Spirit simply asks that the belief in separation be brought to the Light within. The problem is not in the world, for there is no world apart from mind. Forgiveness is not in the world, for there is no forgiveness apart from mind. If forgiveness is put truly first by valuing the Perspective of the Holy Spirit, there can be no wish to improve the dream. For the problem was never in the dream. It was only a problem of perspective, and the problem has been healed.
Peace & Blessings,
David
If I do my part in forgiving the illusion, does it transfer to others who are suffering?
Question:
If I am part of the Sonship, and do my part by accepting forgiveness of all the illusions I am immersed in, is pain and suffering alleviated from that part of the Sonship who is experiencing tormented experiences? And conversely, is my joy in experiencing the Universal Christ Consciousness transferred to him as well, in spite of his apparent suffering? Can I accept the Holy Spirit's call on his behalf?
Answer:
Your question is the same as: "How many teachers of God will it take to save the world?" Remember the Answer given in ACIM Manual for Teachers: One.
"When I am healed I am not healed alone."
Acceptance of the Atonement (or the forgiveness of illusion), which is the sole responsibility of a teacher of God, heals the misperception of "pain and suffering" entirely. The Joy of Christ is ALL that is ever extended, and what seemed to be projected from error was but a dream that never happened. Revelation is an experience of direct Union with God, of Divine Mind Being Singular, and this transcends all personal or interpersonal concepts, including transfer. In the Holy Instant it is apparent that Oneness is the Fact and there is literally no "other" or "part" to transfer Joy to. Happily and Absolutely in Oneness there is no illusion of apparent suffering. God's Will is Perfect Happiness.
You asked if you can answer the Holy Spirit's call on another’s behalf. In recognition of the Self as the One, there is literally nothing for either of you to do. Atonement can be summed up like this: The truth is true and only the truth is true. Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.
Forgiveness is a done deal. The past is gone and the Light has come. What seemed to be the future was the past as well, and thus the future is gone and the Light has come. Heaven is Now as the I Am Presence. Happily there is nowhere else and nothing else.
Love,
David
Time and Prayer video.
Time and Prayer
General Description of video:
Release specialness by forgetting the past, releasing it, and finding happiness in the present moment. Release judgment; give past and future over to God and stop worrying. The future is a scam. "If there are plans to be made you will be told of them." Let Spirit decide for you.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p11DJJeeP0Y
Relationship Assignments videos (2 parts): A talk with David about relationship assignments, Guidance and undoing ego roles.
General description of videos:
The Guidance of the Holy Spirit is always beneficial to everyone. Assignments are teaching learning opportunities. The whole point of the mind training is to let go of everything you think you know about form and come into an experience of the content of love in your heart. The more you are concerned about content the less you are concerned with the form. The ego set up very rigid roles. The concepts and illusions need to be brought to the light and the purpose of these assignments is to come to more expansive states of mind and broader self concepts that approach forgiveness.
Watch the videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8DkPQhvUYc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91juh2J8HRg
Is this the voice of the Holy Spirit or the ego?
Description of video:
Here is a handy decision making mechanism: how many decisions are based on fear of consequences? Imagine if Love were your only motivator. Ask, "what am I doing this for?" The fear motive is the insatiable desire to get. Let God direct all your "doing". The ego thinks you need to get the job, the wife, the house, the kids, etc. Ask the Holy spirit for the real purpose of this particular decision. You want freedom, intimacy, love, peace? Perhaps you think you have to do a lot of things to get them. Follow Spirit/Intuition every instant instead. ACIM is like a sharp blade that burrows down into your mind, healing it.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drwVMdJc99I
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
What are the characteristics of the miracle?
Question:
What are the characteristics of the miracle?
Answer:
The mind that made up this world, the ego mind, is a closed system. Everything perceived by the five senses witnesses to separation. The five senses of the body are part of the ego system. The miracle is a perspective that sees the false as false. In the Bible there were seeming miracles like the parting of the Red Sea, or raising of the dead, healing the sick, and the multiplication of the fishes and loaves. There may be some byproducts to miracles which seem to involve sudden shifts in form, such as an illness that seems to leave the body immediately. But most of all they are simply shifts in perception, where at one moment you were thinking with the ego and you shift over to alignment with the Holy Spirit.
The most significant miracle is always your state of mind. In a world of darkness, of guilt, your joy will stand out like a bright star in a dark sky. Another sign of miracles is the sense of synchronicity where things happen effortlessly without planning. It is as if you are just watching them, with no personal effort in making them happen. That is the strongest characteristic I find; life seems like a flow. When you have let go of ego investments, you see that you have no control of outcomes. You do not try to control persons or events or situations. You behold the perfection that is always there. The more that you are in this flow, the more natural it feels, and the old way of perceiving is washed away and forgotten. It feels as if the past never happened. The thought of a grievance never arises.
Love,
David
Is it true that the world will hate me if I follow Christ?
Question:
Is it true that the world will hate me if I follow Christ? I would rather the world feel my peace. Is the first statement just a thought that is true if I believe it? Isn't there somewhere in the ACIM that says something about I haven't learned my final lesson until everyone who even thinks of me feels peace. I'm struggling dear brother with feeling I've been led by Christ only to find myself in disagreement with those around me. Please help me free my mind.
Answer:
It will seem as though persecution, accusation, and attack are real as long as the belief in private thoughts and private minds continues to be given faith. The belief that an idea in the Mind of God could leave its source and enter a world of time and space and form, and that a wall of flesh could contain a private mind with thoughts of its own—all this springs from a belief which is erroneous. The "role of the accuser" will appear in many places and many forms and it will seem to be accusing you, but have no fear it will go at last and leave you in peace. The recognition of our Self as Christ is the end of the concepts of "leader" and "follower,” for who is Christ but one Self. And with this recognition is attack seen as impossible. For oneness cannot attack or be attacked, being one. Divine Mind is singular, and attack of any degree or kind is impossible in truth. Peace cannot enter a mind which perceives itself in a world of duality. God's peace transcends the personal perspective, and it can truly be said that God is no respecter of persons.
What you seem to see and encounter around you are doubt thoughts which have not yet been raised to the light. Yet "seeing" through the five senses is not to see with Christ Vision. The images seem to hate "you" who follow Christ, yet they but witness to a belief in a tiny self. The images have all the meaning that the ego gave them, yet nothing of the ego has meaning. This is the turning point in which you allow the meaning of "Nothing I see means anything" to dawn in awareness. This is the point of going within to the experience of "There is no world,” the idea presented in ACIM Lesson 132. This is the mysticism, the experience within Mind that cannot be explained or described. What is now at hand is the "giving up" of nothing for the experience of everything.
There is nothing outside of you, Holy One of God. The finding Christ is seeing the impossibility of the search. The search was the sickness. The search was the confusion. Peace is its own reward, for cause and effect are together and never separate. One Mind transcends the concept of parts. When healing (Atonement) is accepted, gone is the concept of separate "individual minds." That concept WAS the confusion, for it was the belief that attack was real. It was the belief that Mind could be splintered into many, many separate pieces. Peace and oneness are the same, and cannot be found apart. Peace of mind is forgetting the concept of "piece."
The test of perfect peace to which you refer applies to our Holy Mind. The interpretation I give you now is: the experience of the peace of God includes everyone and everything, for there is nothing outside the Mind of God. What You recognize as your Self is true of all, for Christ is all. Let the images recede from your awareness and rest in our Father's love. Peace can never be found in attempting to reconcile images with truth. Let them fade away in a prayer for the eternal. I am witnessing now that you are it, the whole of creation, for we are one Self.
The invitation that Christ be but itself remains the same. As it is stated in ACIM Workbook Lesson 189:
"Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God."
Love & blessings.
You are the gift of God forever. The end of doubt about our Self is the end of confusion.
David
If the Course is itself also an illusion, how can I trust it?
Question:
Each time I try to study the Course, I get caught at one major philosophical point: if the Course teaches us that all we perceive with our physical senses is illusion and false, then does that make the Course illusionary and false as well?
Answer:
The "person" which seems to read and study and practice the ACIM Workbook is a self-concept that is being undone, and that self-concept includes personhood and books and words. The Christ is Spirit (the “I Am” Presence) and is Reality, and all perception is illusion. Forgiveness, or healed perception, is the Perspective of looking with the Holy Spirit Which simply sees the false as false. The ACIM book is part of the dream of illusion, yet the dreamer of the dream who is aware that it is dreaming - the lucid dreamer - understands that the images of the five senses are not real. In deep meditation, what is beneath all time-space thought forms is an experience in which the world and the Course are literally forgotten in a Blaze of Light. Such is Awakening, for Reality is Abstract Love and Light. Accepting Atonement, the stated goal of ACIM, is the experience that nothing of the five senses has any meaning, for Meaning is Identity as Spirit.
ACIM is a symbol—among other symbols used by the Holy Spirit—to Help Awaken the mind that sleeps from dreams of time, to the Reality of Oneness in the Mind of God. The true evidence of Awakening is an experience of Peace, Happiness, Joy and Freedom unlike anything that seemed to come before. Therefore how you feel is a guide to Truth and ends the search for proof or evidence from the five senses. The five senses were part of the error which Atonement corrects.
Love always,
David
How to maintain the "oneness feeling"?
Question:
Although I have been visiting your sites every day or so and although I have been reading and trying to follow “A Course in Miracles” lessons day after day, I cannot keep the oneness feeling during the rest of my days. I have the feeling that my willingness and acceptance are as sincere as they can be. All-day and night long the Holy Spirit and all ACIM Principles are present in my mind only to make my earthly life more difficult. I cannot go back to my former way of thinking and I cannot completely change it either. I feel I am trapped midway in my awakening mind and, worst of all, I feel lonely and helpless. Why do you think it is that I feel like this? When I began reading and studying ACIM, miracles were obvious every day and I felt blessed. I not only felt blessed but apparently looked blessed also and friends started to gather around and we all joined to read and discuss ACIM text and lessons. It was wonderful! But little by little they all started to quit and to feel it was too difficult to maintain the new way of thinking and now they seem to prefer avoiding me rather than to remember Who We Really Are. Please send me some helpful thoughts.
Answer:
The Holy Spirit has all things well in Hand. In moments of distress and discomfort, it is always helpful to remember that God's Plan cannot fail. Everything in this world is backward and upside down, and nothing is as it seems. It is impossible to judge seeming advances/successes from seeming retreats/failures, and difficult trials are always only opportunities to choose again and welcome the miracle. The Movement of Awakening is the undoing of a false sense of identity, and with each loosening shift in self-concept there is fear. The Christ Self awaits but recognition, for It never changes. The journey inward is a lesson in increasing trust, for fear cannot be given up without the trust that there is something else to take its place.
Awakening is the journey through the darkness to the light. What has been repressed and hidden in darkness must be raised to light. What has been pushed out of awareness must be allowed to resurface, that it may be released. The unconscious mind is a belief system of falsity, and what is assumed to be true must therefore be open to question. The ego or false self was made by belief and is dispelled by withdrawing belief. God, Divine Love, is beyond belief, for God can be but known. As belief in the ego is withdrawn, the ego interprets every step in its undoing as a threat to its "existence." Awakening is going on always, and this the ego interprets as painful and disturbing. Yet when belief has been withdrawn from the ego, these false interpretations disappear with the illusion which seemed to spawn them.
Keep the faith and remember that the world simply out pictures the thoughts that you retain. Change your thoughts and think with God, and the witnesses and symbols will reflect this change of mind. Perception mirrors belief, but it is given you to change what you believe and accept the Atonement. This complete change of mind CAN and MUST be possible, for Christ remains as God created Christ; Eternally and Changelessly Innocent. Awakening is inevitable, truly unavoidable. Resistance is futile, yet it will not subside without an increase in trust and many miracles. Miracles light the way and collapse time, and miracles are our means for Awakening. A little willingness for a miracle goes a long way!
What could you not face if you would only stop an instant and remember Who carries you along the road inward? Can the Holy Spirit fail, when success is guaranteed by God? Can error withstand the gentle, certain, Call to Awaken if it is God's Will that Christ be Awake and Happy in Eternity? If friends seem to disappear and the belief in loss rears its head, be of good cheer, for the Holy Spirit Guides the sleeping mind through the keyhole of darkness to the light of forgiveness, and beyond to remembrance of Life Eternal in God. As doors close on the past, the door to the Present opens. As the ego is laid aside the mind seems to be born anew as Divine Mind, for in truth nothing has changed in what is One forever. Divine Mind is our Christ Self, and nothing can change Eternal Love.
Take heart … for Love is Certain.
In Love and Joy,
David