ACIM Mentor

            A Course in Miracles is not dogmatic. It is not a doctrine to live by. It is not a prescription , but a suggestion , as it was for, and was written in in the context of, Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford’s relationship. No one must “get it right” or be a “good Course student”. In fact, there are times when it is most loving to yourself to put it aside. The real, lasting value of A Course in Miracles is it leads you to an awareness of, or validates an awareness you already have of, the teacher of truth (Holy Spirit) in your mind. If you get only this from it, it will have done its job in your life. If you do not have this, then the Course’s value will be limited and may not even be there for you. In fact, it might be harmful. Like anything else, the Course is a weapon in ego’s hands. The awareness of ego and how it works, the practices suggested in the Course , and the ontology and theology of the Course are not for everyone, and you do ...

            “Blissninny” was a term coined by Ken Wapnick to describe students of A Course in Miracles who claim everything is lovely, all is love, they see Christ in everyone, etc. without ever having gone through anything difficult to get there. He pointed out that if you are really working the Course as it is intended, it will be difficult. Ego facing itself is not a pleasant stroll in the park. If it seems to be, you are in denial; you are repressing. The way to avoid being a blissninny can be summed up in one phrase: Radical self-honesty . There is no value in denying what you really experience, unless your goal is to deceive yourself. And many do go through life like that, wearing a mask even with themselves. But that is exactly what the Course means to strip away, so why pick it up and pretend to practice it if you are not going to, well, practice it? Of course, appearing to practice it when you really don’t is a mask. Don’t confuse struggling...

          There is a great deal on social media in the A Course in Miracles community about this time of world turmoil, so let me make this clear: The “world” that you live in reflects your mind, yes. This “world”, however, is not the material world, but what your mind chooses to focus on in the material world and the meaning it projects onto what it chooses to focus on. Last week I wrote about selective seeing . Specifically, I wrote about ego selecting what to focus on to justify the fear it induces in you. But the mind, whether ego, neutral consciousness, or perceptions through the lens of truth, is always looking for itself and always finds itself. Ego always finds justifications for fear in the material world. Neutral consciousness merely observes what appears and sees no meaning in it. And truth, in its teaching capacity in ego-consciousness, will lead you to focus on love and unity in the material world, or if you’re more advanced, to   look past ...

            There is a lot going on in the US that has many afraid in this country as well as around the world, as it is affecting, or has the potential to affect, the rest of the world. If you have an advanced awareness of truth, then you can turn to it and know that, in truth, nothing real is occurring and all is eternally okay. You feel this. But most reading this are either almost wholly in ego or have a split mind and must still deal with ego, and fear is a real experience for you. Understand that ego is fear. It, not what is appearing in the world, is the source of fear. Ego projects fear away onto what is appearing in the world to hide that it is the source of fear. This is the meaning of “you are never afraid for the reason you think”. You are afraid because ego is in your mind, period, full stop. There is no other reason . It is not helpful to repress or deny fear (ego). If you do, it will erupt in inappropriate, unhealthy, and sometimes destr...

         “I am understanding that when ego falls away the self-concept or ‘host’ no longer values or feels connection to what seemingly gave it joy before. (?) For those of us not yet at that phase of the journey, could you give us a glimpse of what you do feel? Do you feel the Joy of the Divine? Simple inner peace? As hard as it is to be here in this transitory space at least there are the things (quite a lot of them) that I love. The sense I get from your newsletter is that those dissolve . But what are they replaced with? Some hope, please?” – BB   Wholeness is here instead. I do not know if that gives you hope or not, because it is ego that hopes, and enlightenment does not come to ego. What we call enlightenment occurs because ego is no longer here. So, for ego, enlightenment is a terrible occurrence.   “Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away o...

           In the past few months, I’ve written about how ego felt like an entity or being that was here. I’ve shared how I’ve discovered that ego and Liz were not the same thing. I wrote a few weeks ago about ego as like something that was “inserted” here, something that was foreign and not a part of the fabric of what is. Here is an example that maybe conveys these experiences. Liz loves dogs. This has not changed. Sometimes it comes up when she sees dogs or hears about them, but that is all now. She has no desire to have a dog again, and she no longer has the mechanism—what I call ego —for attachment to a dog or attachment to loving dogs. In fact, without ego, there is no attachment to anything or anyone. Without ego, there is nothing to regret the absence of attachment. When ego was here, Liz’s love of dogs was a key feature of a sense of identity here, but without ego, Liz’s love of dogs is merely a neutral trait of Liz. Without ego, there is no lo...