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"I am Responsible for what I see. I choose the feelings I experience and decide upon the goal I would accomplish. And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for. And I receive as I have asked."
ACIM
M-in.2. To teach is to demonstrate.
2 There are only two thought systems, and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true all the time.
3 From your demonstration others learn, and so do you.
4 The question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no choice.
5 The purpose of the course might be said to provide you with a means of choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn.
6 You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through teaching.
7 Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe.
8 It is a method of conversion.
9 This is not done by words alone.
10 Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. 11 No more than that, but also never less.
ACIM Manual for Teachers
PROSPERITY as ACIM Sees It
by Dr. Gary Arnold
On the first page of our web site we have a quote from Anais Nin saying, "We see the world not as it is, but as we are." 'The Course Teachings on prosperity can guide you to higher realms of application, shifting you in a way that will change your living forever. Dissolve incongruity, dissolve small mindedness, cast away limit and lack. WHO YOU ARE in the bigger scheme of things is a Light that shines away illusion, anger, doubt, fear, and lack. Stop confusing the little irritations of living, with your Life. Learn how to stop valuing ego projections and scarcity. Infinity is too abundant, grand, and generous for such a small basket.'
WHY LEARN ABOUT PROSPERITY
as the Course sees it, in the first place?
• Happiness or unhappiness, what would you prefer? The Course can set you free of old restraints that make you unhappy?• Beliefs are a stumbling block for many. Why not make them a stepping stone and learn to align your beliefs with the goals you want to accomplish?• Security is a primal desire. How can you feel more secure about your ability to conduct your own life?• Ego or Higher Self- you have to recognize one or the other. The Course says you can experience a higher, wiser, more peaceful expression -your Higher Self. Want to know the signs of the Higher Self?• Still struggling? Want to give up the struggle and rise above the sorrows? Learn to see struggle and sorrow for what they really are?• Heaven, nirvana, enlightenment - is this available now-here or no-where? Would you like to experience the state of heaven consciousness traditionally described as enlightenment?
WHY DO THE DAILY ACIM WORKBOOK EXERCISES TO LEARN ABOUT PROSPERITY?
Be Zen-like for a moment. Think about archery like an Einstein. (Einstein rode on a beam of light in his imagination.) You aim your bow and arrow. You fired the arrow. But this time mid-flight you stop the arrow (Like a Matrix movie moment), and again sight (re-aim) along the arrow shaft and the target. You recalculate. Adjust. You arrange energy in motion.
Your life and your decision-making process can be like that. The Course says, "I am responsible for what I see". If can stop your life and your decision-making process in flight and re-sight along the way- recalculate, recompose, restructure the energy. Are you headed where you wanted to go? Are you moving toward enlightenment with this current path and decision? Are you helping the planet progress toward an enlightened civilization? The Course can save you a thousand years if you choose to awaken your consciousness. Wouldn't you want to become increasingly immune to anything 'taking your peace'? Don't you want to know knows what REALITY really is? Want to value peace, love, and wisdom regardless of circumstance? Then read on.
HERE'S A FUN EXERCISE FOR ACIM CLASS MEMBERS
Do a reality show of your own. Here’s an exercise you can do to explore the power of your belief filters. (NOTE: this is what the daily exercises in the Workbook are for.) Do some channel changing of your own- learn to choose again.
For openers, we are going to play with two different viewpoints, one at a time. Note that you can acquire either viewpoint and doing so living appears a little different. In viewpoint #1 you see your brother and sisters as 'others'. you see everyone as Bodies, Egos, Personalities, Unique, and Separate. They are different from you. With this idea in your beliefs and imagination, you see what you believe. The universe provides it as you expect it. With this (separation) as your filter, everything you observe is filtered by that viewpoint. Look around you with that filter. Notice your feelings and your judgments. Notice your thoughts expectations. Look at someone you know. How do they look through that filter? Listen to your thoughts - your mental dialogue.
Now, look through a different filter, filter #2. The course calls this filter the happy dream, the viewpoint that sees union instead of separation, peace instead of chaos, and love instead of fear. Now use this to see what the course would have us experience with this new belief filter. Now try to see from this viewpoint (What Carlos Castinata would see as a . Really examine the people you see. What do you notice? Do you see them as a body, separate, an other, or do you see them as part of the sonship, a son of god? Can you see the union, the eternal joining of the infinite within the brother you see. Can you sense the expansiveness of this viewpoint? Did switching gears give you a new perspective able to see everyone as offering love or a call for love.
Viewpoint #2 sees the similarity, the unity, the sameness of being alike - like Sons of God - whether they know it (remember it) or not. Believing this idea the universe provides evidence that it is real. (Note: Both viewpoints are a closed-looped system consistent within their own perspectives.) Know that if you believe it you think it's true. You value it. You support it. You identify and defend your beliefs. Look at those you see with this filter. Again witness your thoughts, observations, feelings, judgments. Observe your thoughts and feelings now. Take a few breaths with this idea. See the sameness, the unity of the people around you. Observe the differences disappearing.
See that you deliberately choose your beliefs, your viewpoints, your perspectives. Now life seems different than with viewpoint #1. Now you feel connected, joined, part of the whole. You surrender to the guidance of your Higher Power, the Holy Spirit within. Viewpoint#2, enhances your wellbeing, the wellbeing of those in relation to you, and the planet's expression of life and freedom. People who you connect with assume similar beliefs and attitudes- effortlessly. Like attracts like.
The Course reminds us to see situations, circumstances, people, and places as love or a call for love. Not because of any particular circumstance. No specific situation or person needs to be different because of the filter you are using - effortlessly you trust - it's all perfect. Love is the highest, most powerful force in the universe. Now the filter and lens is love, peace, trust, wholeness, oneness, and this is the channel you choose. You choose your belief - the highest thought, clearest word, and grandest vision.
Circumstance doesn't dictate how things are going spiritually. On the level of awareness, it’s all perfect, always has been and always will be. Neither does your understanding dictate how things are spiritual. Your beliefs are only a temporary filter and ALL beliefs filter. And you can always choose to change the channel - YOU CAN CHOOSE AGAIN - to see and experience the highest understanding you are capable of experiencing at this time, at this moment, in this place. You hold your beliefs gently, willing to let them go as you gain recognition of further awareness.
The Course is designed to show you how to choose your beliefs again, in an easy and light-hearted way. The ACIM workbook teaches 365 practical, how-to-do-it techniques that are currently missing from your ego's toolbox. Incidentally, they will always be missing from the ego's toolbox. You don't make a good ego. You don't focus on correcting the ego or teaching the ego. You simply allow the ego (illusion) to dissolve by exposing it to the Light ( heaven consciousness, awareness). A happy dream will do until you give up techniques and meditations and exercises and make this your lifework and natural habit. When this is all you value, when love is all you value, you won't settle for less. Thoughts and beliefs will only slow you down.
LET'S LOOK AT THREE IMPORTANT COURSE CONCEPTS
'CONSCIOUSNESS, RESISTANCE, AND DESIRE' INVOLVED WITHPROSPERITY
The 1st term, CONSCIOUSNESS
A COURSE IN MIRACLES - CLARIFICATION OF TERMS - INTRODUCTION-in-
1. This is not a course in philosophical speculation, nor is it concerned with precise terminology.
2. It is concerned only with Atonement, or the correction of perception.
3. The means of the Atonement is forgiveness.
4. The structure of "individual consciousness " is essentially irrelevant because it is a concept representing the "original error" or the "original sin."
5. To study the error itself does not lead to correction if you are indeed to succeed in overlooking the error.
6. And it is just this process of overlooking at which the course aims.
Consciousness is God plus ego. Another way to see this is as a veil to the clarity of vision. Vision is awareness without the ego - seeing what is as it is in reality- unlimited by temporary constraints of time, space, thought, and form. Consciousness is awareness plus. The plus is an ego intrusion, a judgment, a word defining what you are experiencing. Consciousness puts time (the not-eternal), thought (past experience verse the all-encompassing now), form (separation/body) and space (distance vs oneness), effort ( ego vs spirit), desire (God/Heaven/All That IS plus ego). Awareness is your Reality. Awareness is what is, as it is, without time, space, thought, or form.
Awareness is your pure, clear, present Self. Your god-consciousness views life ( God-consciousness itself) without your filters and beliefs, pure being, effortless, non-time bound, non-space bound, beyond conscious definition. Awareness is Source. With awareness, you are a 'sourcerer' - one with the Source. Awareness is the essence of your consciousness. Understanding, misunderstanding, confusion, and doubt are all functions of the judging consciousness. Understanding is simply to rearrange What Is in an order that is acceptable to you. Space is simply our sphere of recognition of things within predetermined spheres of responsibility (read that as levels) you assume.
One can achieve understanding in two ways. You can either reduce the number of conscious creations by quieting the mind, or you can broaden your sphere of responsibility to create more space. Do I Meditate or achieve? That may be the wrong question. Confusion is disorder or worry. There are too many creations, too little space. Too many thoughts, not enough responsibility. The Zen saying, "how you see anything is how you see everything." describes your consciousness. Your possessions possess you. The state of your possessions reflects your conscious state. ( a la read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) . When you clean the house, the attic, the closet, or garage, you therapeutically affect your consciousness. This is more powerful than worry and grasping. Attachment, worry, and grasping are all about keeping too much, thinking too much, cramming too much into the moment. The moment is too small a space to cling. Worrying is like fishing without dolphin-free nets - you cling and catch what you don't want and what won't do you any good. Clinging is a veil that covers your Awareness of your Awareness. Without clarity, Awareness vanishes. Heaven consciousness requires clarity. Experience while Aware requires clarity. Awareness is no substitute for understanding, thinking, feeling. Awareness is what holds these sensory experiences clearly. Awareness is effortless, clear, light, free. When you feel exhausted, your consciousness is exhausted, not your awareness. Awareness does not tire.
**** The bridge across separation is perception. **** Appreciate your perceptions just as they are, without judgment or evaluation, without desire or resistance. When you do not grasp and cling to the ego-lens, separation disappears and the light of Awareness returns. Life is an eternal, continuous, joined flow. When you see the flow and feel the flow the recognition happens that there are no separate events or people or ideas or places. The more you are Aware the more joined What Is becomes. The more synchronistic flow is recognized, the more order is recognized. (i.e., ACIM says, "Perception makes projection.")
The 2nd term, RESISTANCE
T-30 in.1
I. Rules for DecisionT-30.I.
1. Decisions are continuous.
2 You do not always know when you are making them.
3 But with a little practice with the ones you recognize, a set begins to form which sees you through the rest. 4 It is not wise to let yourself become preoccupied with every step you take.
5 The proper set, adopted consciously each time you wake, will put you well ahead.
6 And if you find resistance strong and dedication weak, you are not ready.
7 8 But think about the kind of day you want, and tell yourself there is a way in which this very day can happen just like that.
9 Then try again to have the day you want.
T-30.I.2. (1) The outlook starts with this:2 Today I will make no decisions by myself. 3 This means that you are choosing not to be the judge of what to do. 4 But it must also mean you will not judge the situations where you will be called upon to make a response. 5 For if you judge them, you have set the rules for how you should react to them. 6 And then another answer cannot but produce confusion and uncertainty and fear. T-30.I.3. This is your major problem now. 2 You still make up your mind, and decide to ask what you should do. 3 And what you hear may not resolve the problem as you saw it first. 4 This leads to fear because it contradicts what you perceive and so you feel attacked. 5 And therefore angry. 6 There are rules by which this will not happen. 7 But it does occur at first, while you are learning how to hear. T-30.I.4. (2) Throughout the day, at any time you think of it and have a quiet moment for reflection, tell yourself again the kind of day you want; the feelings you would have, the things you want to happen to you, and the things you would experience, and say: 2 If I make no decisions by myself, this is the day that will be given me. 3 These two procedures, practiced well, will serve to let you be directed without fear, for opposition will not first arise and then become a problem in itself.
Resistance is an opposition, due to some belief, to experiencing something just as it is. It’s an attempt to create from consciousness rather than from awareness. Time is the primary resistance that consciousness creates. It delays experience so that an event can be understood—meaning sorted and categorized according to prior stored events and preserved as consciousness. Adding time transforms the flow of experience (what’s happening now) into defined, separate events with beginnings and ends that are stored as a time track of creation. Awareness is timeless. These resisted events will still be experienced, eventually. Maybe little by little over a long period, or all at once at some future time when consciousness has collapsed in on itself, over and over, and reached some critical mass.
Let me digress for the next paragraph which describes KARMA - not a Course term, but it is interesting to explore in light of what we have just reviewed.
This is the mechanism behind the idea of karma. 'Whatever you create, you will eventually experience. ' 'The universe records everything.' 'No good deed goes unnoticed.' 'What goes around, comes around.'
Within every belief, there is an intention. Beliefs are seed-pods of intention. As they are focused on and energized, recognized and identified with the blossom. (Review all the garden and seed parables in the New Testament). What beliefs grow into is their creation and effect. Their effect is either suffering or joy. The consciousness you perceive and intend with the belief you extend comes around in the experience of what is made by the belief. A judgment is a receipt of your intention and belief. It is the color you put on the lens of your senses. Judgments color experience. Like or dislike, good or bad, judgments create separation and veil clarity of awareness. Experiencing transforms your intents (words, definitions, beliefs), into awareness. John's gospel starts with "In the beginning was the word" and so your words and beliefs turn life (eternal) life into living (time-bound form).
Just experiencing with awareness is seeing what is as it is, as they are created, without judging, coloring the experience with expectations of how things should be. You accept the mystery and paradox as it is. You drop understanding and defining. You step into the experience without seeing the past (no longer time and space-bound). You give up the symbols, holy books, and gurus. You accept being within the mystery. You no longer require or seek god-plus.