ACIM contemplations

[CoolDreamThanks]

What should we do when we are in despair? Forgiveness is still and quietly does nothing. It merely looks and does not judge. We look at our fear without fighting it or trying to change it. We simply look and patiently wait until it subsides.

We might remind ourselves that our thoughts do not mean anything, we do not perceive our best interests and we do not know what anything is for, but Jesus does comfort us by saying that His plan will not fail and "What could you not accept, if you but knew that everything that happens, all events, past, present and to come, are gently planned by One Whose only purpose is your good?" (ACIM, W-135.18:1)

Edited December 30, 2024 by CoolDreamThanks

[CoolDreamThanks]

If you see someone is about to jump of a bridge - what should an ACIM student do? He does whatever he feels compelled to do from the state of Peace. The important thing in every situation is the content, not the form. The form will naturally be loving when the content of the mind is peaceful, and the form might be seemingly inconsistent. So you could rush to the man and push him of the bridge - who knows.
 

 The important thing is not to think. Thinking is always of the ego, Ken says in this video. Thinking muddies the water of consciousness, it does not bring clarity, but quite the opposite. The purpose of words in ACIM is to bring us above them into the transcendendenal, formless place of Silence. 
 

He also says that ACIM student might be having alot of sex or none at all, be on a diet or not, make alot of money or not. It’s not about the form, but the place from which the form is coming from. If you are in Peace and you are compelled to watch porn - do it. Who can judge you, besides your own or another ego?  
 

What is helpful advice to one person might be completly irrelevant and even harmful to another. Taking one rule of behaviour and applying it to others is putting form above content. Someone might need to be promiscious for a while on their path to atonement. If that is done from Peace it’s as beautiful and as valid as a long-term relationship. There’s no hierarchy of illusions, so how is one better? Something might be uniquely helpful for a person at one time and it might become no longer needed for him later.
 

How could you apply the same advice in form to everyone when you don’t know every little detail of an individuals path to atonement?  
 

Even saying that someone should be mindful might not be the best thing to say at that moment - maybe they need to be angry, or hear different words who knows? You will naturally do and say the kindest thing when you are Peaceful. You can’t think about what to say or the ego will get in the way. It should be a natural, spontaneus action from the content of Silence. 
 

Helen asked Jesus what she should say to her brother to help, and whilst commendable, Jesus instructed her to instead connect to Peace inside of her and from that place all she will say will be helpful.

Edited December 29, 2024 by CoolDreamThanks

[CoolDreamThanks]

Most contemporary spiritualities, like Anna Brown, Bashar, Abraham, The Secret, Conversations with God, Nero Knowledge, Bentinho Massaro, and many others, teach how to use the power of the mind to improve the dream. The issue inherent in those teachings is the belief that they know what's best for them. Ken says that's incredible arrogance. "I do not perceive my own best interests." "How could I possibly know, and then I would have to be an ego or have certain needs and goals - know what's in my best interests? Because anything that is best for me as an ego is what enhances my ego, enhances the thought system that gave rise to my ego, sustains my ego, and reinforces it over and over again. So anything that I do that I want or I think I want for my loved ones or the world has to be of my ego. This means I do not perceive my best interests because my best interests always have to do with my leaving this world entirely - Ken says.  

If you knew that your dream car would kill your loved one, would you want it? If you knew that the opportunity cost of your dream life is awakening from the dream - would you want it? You have no idea what will happen if you chase your desires. Often, based on my experience, bad things happen because I chase my desires. Often, based on my experience, I lose connection to Spirit, connection to peace and true joy, and instead connect to my ego, where, at best, I find a temporary extent that is always interspersed with heavy clouds of despair. 

 

The manifestation teachings also hide the underlying belief that things in the world are meaningful and valuable. "The world you see holds nothing that you need to offer you; nothing that you can use in any way, nor anything at all that serves to give you joy."
 

The ego likes whatever strengthens it, and manifestation is one of the main things that give power to the ego. Now the ego believes he is godly, thus it becomes more difficult to dissolve. "What is joyful to you is painful to the ego." I noticed that my friend is currently manifesting a lot, and he even believes that what Bashar and ACIM teach is the same. But I know not to tell him not to do it because it will hurt him, and he will get depressed. It's interesting how the defense mechanisms of the ego work - if you tell an ego that he is wrong and doesn't know what anything is for and doesn't understand his best interests - he will get depressed and use that depression as an attack on truth. Look - I am depressed. How could what you say be true? It made me depressed! What is helpful to the Spirit is painful to the ego. Of course, I do not know his path, and it would be my mistake to try to correct him - that would be my ego thinking that he knows how another should act. I have no idea - perhaps that's his mission here - to reflect my wrong desire to manifest. He is my mirror. 

So, to summarize, Jesus teaches how to use the mind to awaken from a dream, while most other spiritualities teach how to improve the dream. 

Jesus draws our attention away from the world and back into the Spirit. Our salvation comes from realizing that we want to leave the whole ego system and the world entirely because we see the cost and consequences of choosing it. 

[CoolDreamThanks]

 This world is only pain, hidden beneath glimpses of pleasure.
 

You do not really want the world you see, for it has disappointed you since time began. ²The homes you built have never sheltered you. ³The roads you made have led you nowhere, and no city that you built has withstood the crumbling assault of time. ⁴Nothing you made but has the mark of death upon it. ⁵Hold it not dear, for it is old and tired and ready to return to dust even as you made it. (ACIM, T-13.VII.3:1-5) 

 

T-31.IV.2.   Real choice is no illusion. But the world has none to offer. All its roads but lead to disappointment, nothingness and death. There is no choice in its alternatives. Seek not escape from problems here. The world was made that problems could not be escaped. 
 
 

this is becoming more and more obvious. Everyone and everything here dissapoints me. I need to sever the fate of this world. I need to reduce it to dust from which it came. I will do that by removing all value from it, as now I clearly see that it is a hell.  
 

 

The world I see has nothing that I want."

"But if I see no value in the world as I behold it, nothing that I want to keep as mine or search for as a goal, it will depart from me. For I have not sought for illusions to replace the truth."

"It takes great learning both to realize and to accept the fact that the world has nothing to give. What can the sacrifice of nothing mean?"

ACIM is teaching that the world is nothing, it has no value, and everything in it is a pain. It says you do not want this world. That even though you made it you do not want it. And even that you made it BY not wanting it - by not wanting what was in your mind, which you projected outward as a world to try to get rid of it.

"the cries of pain that rise to it, from every part of this strange world you made, but do not want."

We are confused and caught up in the world because we keep believing that it can offer us salvation, something of value, something beneficial, something we want. And before you start dreaming up denials via the repurposing of the body and world, let just just clarify that the purpose of the world does not change what it IS.

"The world is a picture of the crucifixion of God's Son."

Our problem is that we do believe the world has something to offer. That it is a great place to live forever, and never leave. That it has real pleasures and that its pleasures entail no pain. But Jesus also teaches that even the pleasures of the world are really pains in disguise, because the cost is that by indulging in temptation you are separating from God, and real pleasure only comes from doing God's will. Pleasure binds you to the body and takes you away from reality, just as pain does.

He wants us to recognize that pain IS pain, and pleasure IS pain. I need to stop seeking pleasure - it binds me to hell. A trap of the devil, cleverly crafted to make me blind to truth. 
 

This isn't a pessimistic view, by the way. This is a truthful view. 

The world is not supposed to be your home, the thing you are in love with, your special adored idol, or your salvation. If you watch honestly you'll see that everything just goes wrong, eventually. It happens, again and again. Stuff breaks. Things get lost. Objects fall off tabletops. Food splats on the floor. The clothes become worn. The beds become mis-shapen. The roofs leak and cave in. The cars break down. The rust creeps in. I like to say, "there goes the physics again". And the assault of time, which is the idea of change and therefore death, guarantees that everything comes to an end.

"The world you see is an illusion of a world. God did not create it, for what He creates must be eternal as Himself. Yet there is nothing in the world you see that will endure forever. Some things will last in time a little while longer than others. But the time will come when all things visible will have an end." 
 

The world cannot GIVE us what we want. It cannot make us happy. It cannot provide us with peace. It cannot satisfy us. It gives only to take away. It fails in order to disappoint. Every road, path, way, direction, goal, ambition and achievement in the world is pointless. Yet the world can present seeming illusions of "things going well", for a while, before it attacks and destroys what it has given. It can tempt you will fake happiness and fake values and fake salvation, only to fail you once again and deceive you in doing so.

"On some you travel gaily for a while, before the bleakness enters. And on some the thorns are felt at once."

"The world you see is merciless indeed, unstable, cruel, unconcerned with you, quick to avenge and pitiless with hate. It gives but to rescind, and takes away all things that you have cherished for a while."

Jesus is not being negative when he describes the world like this. The world IS like this, isn't it? It's not a matter of how you look at it. There is no real loss in admitting to this, nor is this an attack upon the world. It isn't an unforgiving accusation. It is just a simple clear look at the world we made, its inherent nature, and its limitations. It is a world of limits, not a world of freedom, which is why it is like a prison for everyone in it. 
 

It is by recognizing the world as "the hell you made", that we might be willing to go the other way. It is when we sugarcoat it as "not hell" in a spiritualizing pretense to make it seem wanted and worthy, that we put ourselves to sleep. We are blinded by perception of form and tempted by its luster and flair. Its picture frame of jewel-encrusted death suggests it is not a world of death but our most cherished possession. 
 
Fuck! These little pleasures - porn, drugs, music, food, videogames, entertainment are enough to  trick me into not wanting to destroy this world. I must. I will do it now. I recognise this hell and choose against it.  
 

True escape from the battleground does not entail the faulty belief that the battleground can be made into a pleasant place. You can rise above it, and you can leave the desert, and you can see it in a better light. But you cannot change what it IS. And denying what it is merely keeps you in hell for longer. And that isn't going to make you very happy.

"The world you see must be denied."

 

God's teachers can have no regret on giving up the pleasures of the world. Is it a sacrifice to give up pain? Does an adult resent the giving up of children's toys? Does one whose vision has already glimpsed the Face of Christ look back with longing on a slaughter house? No-one who has escaped the world and all its ills looks back on it with condemnation. Yet he must rejoice that he is free of all the sacrifice which its values would demand of him. To them he sacrifices all his freedom. To them he sacrifices all his peace. And to possess them must he sacrifice his hope of Heaven and remembrance of his Father's Love. Who in his sane mind chooses nothing as a substitute for everything?"

"What is the real meaning of sacrifice? It is the cost of believing in illusions. It is the price that must be paid for the denial of truth. There is no pleasure of the world that does not demand this, for otherwise the pleasure would be seen as pain. And no-one asks for pain if he recognizes it. It is the idea of sacrifice that makes him blind. He does not see what he is asking for. And so he seeks it in a thousand ways and in a thousand places, each time believing it is there and each time disappointed in the end. "Seek but do not find" remains this world's stern decree, and no-one who pursues the world's goals can do otherwise." 
 

No more pleasures. Time to end the dream of dissapointment. This hell must dissapear. Pleasure is Pain. Sacrifice of pleasure is not a sacrifice at all. 
 

 

 

https://www.miraculousliving.com/blogs/a-course-in-miracles-blog/the-world-is-always-a-disappointment

Edited December 31, 2024 by CoolDreamThanks

[CoolDreamThanks]

Look upon all the trinkets made to hang upon the body, or to cover it or for its use. ²See all the useless things made for its eyes to see. ³Think on the many offerings made for its pleasure, and remember all these were made to make seem lovely what you hate. ⁴Would you employ this hated thing to draw your brother to you, and to attract his body’s eyes? ⁵Learn you but offer him a crown of thorns, not recognizing it for what it is, and trying to justify your own interpretation of its value by his acceptance. (ACIM, T-20.II.1:1-5) 
 

OMFG fashion, making the body pretty is such a huge mistake! It traps the mind in the world. I hate this body and this world, because it always dissapoints me, hurts me, and kills me in the end, and within this hell, I make the body and my apartment beautiful, which covers up the terrible state of this world. Narcissism is death. Selling all my stupid beautiful clothing - it’s a death sentence to value the body. 

[CoolDreamThanks]

 To awaken it is needed to clearly see that this world is hell and pleasures as well as special love relationships are the veil that covers up this hell and makes it glimmer and shine, but wisdom shows us the picture beneath the veil and it is pure despair there. Everything dissapoints and then you die. The script of Spirit is not a good world, it is a script where you stop experiencing the world and awaken from it. If you come back and begin to play in hell you will again get burned. Do not listen to idiots that say life on earth is a heaven, to manifest, to live to the fullest - they are measengers of the devil himself.
 

W-pI.129.2.   The world you see is merciless indeed, unstable, cruel, unconcerned with you, quick to avenge and pitiless with hate. It gives but to rescind, and takes away all things that you have cherished for a while. No lasting love is found, for none is here. This is the world of time, where all things end. T-2.III.3. Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit. Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a better way. As this recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point.  
 
I often get motivated to awaken after very bad experiences, but it tends to fall away after time. Pleasures entrap me. I begin to manifest. I begin to believe in happiness in the world. This cannot go on. I must remind myself daily, by reading ACIM, that I am in hell and I have to escape it.

T-12.III.9.   You have no control over the world you made. It is . . totally chaotic, governed by arbitrary and senseless "laws," and without meaning of any kind. For it is made out of what you do not want, projected from your mind because you are afraid of it. Yet this world is only in the mind of its maker, along with his real salvation. Do not believe it is outside of yourself, for only by recognizing where it is will you gain control over it. For you do have control over your mind, since the mind is the mechanism of decision.

“Somewhere inside we know nothing here works. Part of us knows that no relationship will really satisfy us. We try desperately to find the special love that will work, and somewhere inside we know it will never work because we can’t control people the way we would like to. We can’t continually seduce and manipulate them so we get what we want – for a time, maybe, but it never lasts. When we recognize that the world we see holds nothing that we want, when we realize that nothing here works because nothing here lasts, that’s the time not of the greatest despair but when we really say there must be another way. There must be someone, something else I can learn from. That’s the greatest lesson.”  Kenneth Wapnick 

 

Step One: Nothing Works

The twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) function as a spiritual path that is very similar - in content - to the path of ACIM.

The first of the AA steps is admitting we are powerless over our addiction and that our lives are unmanageable. With ACIM this is a recognition that nothing in the world works, that nothing ever changes or gets better. We are caught in a time-loop of suffering. The I-Know mind realizes it does not know how to escape.

T-31.IV.2.   Real choice is no illusion. But the world has none to offer. All its roads but lead to disappointment, nothingness and death. There is no choice in its alternatives. Seek not escape from problems here. The world was made that problems could not be escaped.

“The value of A Course in Miracleslies only in helping us recognize that there is nothing worthwhile here. Otherwise, we condemn ourselves to a life of futility, struggling against the impossible, somehow believing we can conquer it, never realizing that the world is set up to be impossible. . I always tell people if you think your world is working, A Course in Miracles is not for you. If you think things are relatively okay for you here, your relationships are fine, your body is healthy, your kids are great, the world is alright, you are making enough money, etc., and everything is alright, then you are not going to be motivated to look at all the specialness that is so rampant in your life. You will only be motivated when it hurts.”  Kenneth Wapnick

W-pI.129.2.   The world you see is merciless indeed, unstable, cruel, unconcerned with you, quick to avenge and pitiless with hate. It gives but to rescind, and takes away all things that you have cherished for a while. No lasting love is found, for none is here. This is the world of time, where all things end. T-2.III.3. Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit. Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a better way. As this recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point. 

Our conditioning to the ego’s insanity is so deep that we have to come to this first step of surrender over and over, and still again. “I can’t do this!” we cry and look to a “power greater than ourselves” (step two) for help. Help comes, the pain eases, and back we go to thinking we can manage our lives, that things will get better. St. Paul had one experience of meeting Christ on the road to Damascus; each of us will have a thousand such moments.

T-12.III.9.   You have no control over the world you made. It is . . totally chaotic, governed by arbitrary and senseless "laws," and without meaning of any kind. For it is made out of what you do not want, projected from your mind because you are afraid of it. Yet this world is only in the mind of its maker, along with his real salvation. Do not believe it is outside of yourself, for only by recognizing where it is will you gain control over it. For you do have control over your mind, since the mind is the mechanism of decision.

“Somewhere inside we know nothing here works. Part of us knows that no relationship will really satisfy us. We try desperately to find the special love that will work, and somewhere inside we know it will never work because we can’t control people the way we would like to. We can’t continually seduce and manipulate them so we get what we want – for a time, maybe, but it never lasts. When we recognize that the world we see holds nothing that we want, when we realize that nothing here works because nothing here lasts, that’s the time not of the greatest despair but when we really say there must be another way. There must be someone, something else I can learn from. That’s the greatest lesson.”  Kenneth Wapnick

When I feel upset or something makes me mad,
when I feel alone or when I’m feeling sad,
a quiet voice inside says this need not be:
You can choose again, choose how you want to feel.

There’s another way, another way to live.
There’s another way, a way you can forgive.
Each feeling and each thought is something you have made.
Give it back to God and take His love in trade.
Fill your mind with light and let the darkness fade. That’s the other way.
from Another Way

T-31.IV.3.   The roads this world can offer seem to be quite large in number, but the time must come when everyone begins to see how like they are to one another. Men have died on seeing this, because they saw no way except the pathways offered by the world. And learning they led nowhere, lost their hope. And yet this was the time they could have learned their greatest lesson. All must reach this point, and go beyond it. 

“This means to go beyond looking at the world to what made the world. You go beyond the world and the body to the mind. That’s what this is all about. This is the journey Jesus leads us on from the mindless to the mindful. But we first must learn from him that nothing here will work. Nothing here will give us the peace of God. Nothing here will give us an experience of love that transcends everything in this world and that will last.”  Kenneth Wapnick 

 

T-31.IV.6.   The learning that the world can offer but one choice, no matter what its form may be, is the beginning of acceptance that there is a real alternative instead. To fight against this step is to defeat your purpose here. You did not come to learn to find a road the world does not contain. The search for different pathways in the world is but the search for different forms of truth. And this would keep the truth from being reached. 
 

W-pI.129.1.   You cannot stop with the idea the world is worthless, for unless you see that there is something else to hope for, you will only be depressed. Our emphasis is not on giving up the world, but on exchanging it for what is far more satisfying, filled with joy, and capable of offering you peace.  
 

Learning that nothing here works is what motivates me finally to look elsewhere and to choose a teacher and to choose a thought system that will lead me beyond the world and the inevitable misery of being in this world to the hope that lies in the mind—my decision-making mind that can finally at long last say I can choose differently. 
 

To break free of the time-loop of suffering, everyone must ultimately come to the point where we say, as Bill Thetford said to Helen Schucman - ‘There must be another way.’ We begin to question what we’ve been taught about ourselves and the world. We begin to see the insanity and look for a way out. 

https://www.journeyofthemind.org/step-one-nothing-works.html

[CoolDreamThanks]

No matter how hard I’ve tried - never satisfied. 
 

This house (world) is not my home. 

[CoolDreamThanks]

I never thought I'd feel this
Guilty and I'm broken down inside
Livin' with myself
Nothing but lies

I always thought I'd make it
But never knew I'd let it get so bad
Livin' with myself
Is all I have

'Cause I feel numb
I can't come to life
I feel like I'm frozen in time

Livin' in a world so cold
Wasting away
Livin' in a shell with no soul
Since you've gone away
Livin' in a world so cold
Counting the days
Since you've gone away
You've gone away 
 

 

Three Days Grace is a band I loved since teen years and only now do I feel deeply that the words are true. Although I used to feel that before,  never at this depth. They sing a song of pain - this is what the world is. 
 

Jesus sings the same song in ACIM.
 

 “..a dry and dusty world, where starved and thirsty creatures come to die.”

[CoolDreamThanks]

Sexxx: 

 

Revelations induce complete but temporary suspension of doubt & fear. They represent the original form of communication between God and His Souls, before the intrusion of fire and ice made this impossible. It should be noted that they involve an ex‐ tremely personal sense of closeness to Creation, which man tries to find in sexual relationships. This confusion is responsible for the depression and fear which are often associated with sex.

T 1 B 24i. Sex is often associated with lack of love, but Revelation is PURELY a love experience. Physical closeness CANNOT achieve this. As was said before, the subconscious impulses properly induce Miracles, which ARE interpersonal, and result in closeness to others. This can be misunderstood by a personally willful consciousness as an impulse toward sexual gratification.

Both of you are involved with unconscious distortions (above the miracle level), which are producing a dense cover over miracle‐impulses which makes it hard for them to reach conscious‐ ness. Sex & miracles are both WAYS OF RELATING. The nature of any interpersonal relationship is limited or defined by what you want it to DO which is WHY you want it in the first place. Relating is a way of achieving an outcome.

T 1 B 37p. Indiscriminate sexual impulses resemble indiscriminate miracle impulses in that both result in body image misperceptions. The first is an expression of an indiscriminate attempt to reach communion through the body. This involves not only the improper self identification, but also disrespect for the individuality of others. Self‐control is NOT the whole answer to this problem, though I am by no means discouraging its use. It must be understood, however, that the underlying mechanism must be uprooted (a word you both should understand well enough by now not to regard it as frighten‐ ing).

ALL shallow roots 71 have to be uprooted, because they are not deep enough to sustain you. The illusion that shallow roots can be deepened and thus made to hold is one of the corollaries on which the reversal of the Golden Rule, 72 referred to twice before, is balanced. As these false underpinnings are uprooted (or given up), equilibrium is experienced as unstable. But the fact is that NOTH‐ ING is less stable than an orientation which is upside down. Any‐ thing that holds it this way is hardly conducive to greater stability. Intellect may be a “displacement upward,” but sex can be a “displacement outward.” How can man “come close” to others through the parts of him which are really invisible? The word “in‐ visible” means “cannot be seen or perceived.” T(36) -36 What cannot be perceived is hardly the right means for improving perception. The confusion of miracle impulse with sexual impulse is a major source of perceptual distortion, because it INDUCES rather than straightening out the basic level‐confusion which underlies all those who seek happiness with the instruments of the world. A de‐ sert is a desert is a desert. You can do anything you want in it, but you CANNOT change it from what it IS. It still lacks water, which is why it IS a desert (Bring up that dream about the Bluebird. While HS was looking for this dream, she came across another. The mes‐ sage was to bring both, as an excellent example of how extremely good HS had become over the intervening 25 years at sharpening pencils. Note that the essential content hasn’t changed; it’s just bet‐ ter written.) The thing to do with a desert is to LEAVE. I want to finish the instructions about sex, because this is an area the miracle worker MUST understand.

T 1 B 40c. Inappropriate sex drives (or misdirected miracle‐impulses) result in guilt if expressed, and depression if denied. We said before that ALL real pleasure comes from doing God’s will. 76 Whenever it is NOT done an experience of lack results. This is because NOT do‐ ing the will of God IS a lack of self.

The pleasure which is derived from sex AS SUCH is reli‐ able only because it stems from an error which men shared. AWARENESS of the error produces the guilt. DENIAL of the error results in projection. CORRECTION of the error brings release. The only VALID use of sex is procreation. It is NOT truly pleasurable in itself. “Lead us not into Temptation” means “Do not let us deceive ourselves into believing that we can relate in peace to God or our brothers with ANYTHING external.”T(39) -39

T 1 B 40g. The “sin of onan” 77 was called a “sin” because it involved a related type of self‐delusion; namely, that pleasure WITHOUT relat‐ ing can exist.

T 1 B 40h. To repeat an earlier instruction, the concept of either the self or another as a “sex‐OBJECT” epitomizes this strange reversal. As B. put it, and very correctly, too, it IS objectionable, but only be‐ cause it is invalid. Upside down logic produces this kind of think‐ ing.

T 1 B 40i. Child of God, you were created to create the good, the beautiful, and the holy. Do not lose sight of this. You were right in telling B. to invite Me to enter anywhere temptation arises. I will change the situation from one of inappropriate sexual attraction to one of impersonal miracle‐working. The concept of changing the channel for libidinal expression is Freud’s greatest contribution, ex‐ cept that he did not understand what “channel” really means.

 
 

https://on.soundcloud.com/ViaWeUWVpWz6KrSq6 
 

repression wont work and overexpression is bad. I shouldn’t fight myself, but also dont overindulge. It’s like food. Do it without drama.  
 

I am practicing presence 10hrs per day, and these pleasures take me away for only an hour or two. Thats good enough to improve quickly. Food and sex are last to go, thats ok. At least I’ve seen that I am in hell and nothing here works and all dissapoints. This killed all other desires, only these few basic ones remain. They will heal when I sink deeper into God. For now, dont judge them, no repression and no overindulgance.  
 

A promise to myself to never go to a night club ever again. It’s a breeding ground for dissapointment. Worse, I sometimes get it and it stenghtens the temptation. And then I dont get it many times in a row and I get depressed. It’s horrible. Never doing that again. No tinder also - same shit. Take care of my appetites myself and wait until they leave me. 
 

Never smoking weed again as well. It identifies me deeply with ego. It makes me overindulge in desires. It’s a stenghtening of ego. It makes me dull. It kills spirit. It has seeming benefits at times, and also hurts me many other times. It’s a trap. I have to stop. I can look at my friend and see how bad weed is. It makes hell managable. It covers up the pain. And you will never advance spiritually until you deeply look at the pain you are constantly in. Weed does the opposite. If I want to awaken I have to drop it.

 

Edited December 31, 2024 by CoolDreamThanks

[CoolDreamThanks]

 

Is this all a dream? Wake me up! I’m living a nightmare!  
 

literally!! This is pleading from me to God.

[CoolDreamThanks]

Now I understand why Ken Wapnick seems like he went through war and when he talks about the world it seems like he is depressed. He isn’t pretending, he is authentic. Other teachers wear smiles upon their faces. Ken says that this world is not a good place and we must escape it. It’s where thirsty and starved creatures come to die. All here end in pain and misery. That’s the core teaching of ACIM which brings us out of the world back to God, after eons of being blinded by this prison.

[CoolDreamThanks]

So if people do ACIM and they still manifest and seem like they are all love and light you can be sure they are not really doing the Course. 

[CoolDreamThanks]

😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

[CoolDreamThanks]

Okay, so Ken, Keith, and Gary keep saying that this is not a Course in asceticism or sacrifice. This is ultra confusing to me because throughout the Course Jesus is constantly saying how miserable this world is - so isn't the logical conclusion to escape from it? But they say no - the problem is in the mind - you have to stop judging it, and then you will awaken from it. So when I get angry at the world I am making a mistake. So, on the one hand, it's important to see that nothing here works, everything disappoints, and then you die. Still, on the other hand, it's important to see that it is my dream, my projection, and me judging it and thinking about how bad it is is keeping the dream real and perpetuating it. This could be extrapolated to mean that if I just become peaceful, the outside picture will become peaceful, but these teachers say that that's also not true... So what gives - the world will suck either way, so why would I live in it instead of trying to escape from it? What value is there in living in a depressing world that always disappoints me but looking at it peacefully instead of being at home in bed and being peaceful? I see now that if I no longer see value in something and it drops away naturally - that's good, but if I have to fight against it, if there's internal resistance, I struggle with it - then that's ego - that's inner conflict. If I fight against myself or the world, I make the error, the world real, and thus make it real in my mind, and then I am miserable. So it's not that he's saying indulge in the world; no, he's saying recognize that it's a disappointing place, but remain peaceful if you have desires - flow with them. Resistance is of the ego, and it makes the world real and reinforces separation. If you try to let go and escape, that's resistance, and that will only make the problem worse. On the other hand, if things fall away naturally - perfect, but don't fight yourself. Instead, the goal is to go with whatever is in front of you without judgment - remaining peaceful, recognizing it's just a dream and has no effect on you. That's what the practice of ACIM is and how it looks upon desires and how to be in the world but not of it. I think. 

Amazing QA book for ACIM students where Ken Wapnick answers thousands of questions: 

http://helpfulpeople.danceolife.com/Docs and PDF files/Q&A_Detailed Answers to Student-Generated Questions on the Theory and Practice of A Course in Miracles .pdf 
 

Love the passage where Ken says that remember - it's your dream - so there's no one else to awaken. If you still want to teach others or talk about ACIM to others, you still believe that the dream is real and that others exist. But Gary, Ken, and Jesus say - it's my dream, no one else's. 

Edited December 31, 2024 by CoolDreamThanks

[CoolDreamThanks]

So you still live like normal, go to work, eat food, watch movies, or whatever you desire, but the Spirit changes the purpose of it all - forgiveness. And forgiveness is still and quietly does nothing. It merely looks and judges not. This means you stay identified as Presence and go through life like that, and then you eventually awaken, but it's a slow process that will take a lifetime. Not that one lifetime is a lot. So yes, see that nothing here works and stop chasing the dream of a good life, but also be normal and let this dream become happy not because the form became good, but because you are identified with Awareness, which is peaceful and feels good, thus making the experience of the dream happy. The Son of God must judge not and then he will awaken. It's very simple. Be normal, don't resist desires, don't be angry at the world, because that recycles guilt, but don't try to chase the good life or manifest; instead, connect to inner Silence, and from that place, it will all work out. You won't get what you want in the world, but there's nothing there to make you happy anyway. In the end, you will get what you truly want - Heaven. And on the way, the dream tends to be okay if you don't resist and don't judge it, even though it's not good perse, but if you know what it is and live a simple life, then there's nothing really bad happening. Only when you put hope in the dream itself, when you desire to get something from it, that's when you get disappointed. Enjoy what you have, don't seek too much, participate in the world from Presence and wake up. 

[CoolDreamThanks]

Apostles say: how will you be motivated to leave the world if you think it is the will of God?  
 

Ken says we must look at the horror of the world or else we won’t be motivated to leave it. That’s why there are these horrific passages in the Course about the world. Now the mistake I make is that I hold a grievence about the world, I hate it, and thus become unhappy, stenghten the ego and that will make the world even worse, both inside and outside.  
 

So we must have an intention to awaken from the dream instead of improving it, because we know it will never be fixed, there will never be heaven on earth. But what can happen if we take the hand of Jesus is we live a gentle dream of awakening, where we are passersby, looking at our life as a movie we are not particularly interested in. But we must not judge it, since judgement is what keeps us here. “So he must judge not and he will awaken.” 
 

God agreed with this perspective in my dreams tonight. I don’t resist anything, I flow with my desires, but also do what ACIM says - I use the power of the mind to awaken, not to improve the dream. The dream will take care of itself when I focus on forgiveness. Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all else will be added unto you.  
 

It’s not difficult to understand - I am dreaming a dream that is mutually exclusive to the domain of Heaven. It is a dream of death, nothing works here and then we die. To awaken, I must judge not. I must identify with awareness and walk in it until it permiates every aspect of my life. Awareness even heals the body and also bringa me relationships and life situations that are helpful to my awakening. It’s a form of manifestation that is inline with awakening from the dream. But it’s effortless and feels amazing. It brings clarity instead of confusion.  
 

We simply remember that we are dreaming, this is out dream and to make the best of this dream, to awaken gently, we must simply judge not. We rest in God. And that is the miracle and awakening. 

[CoolDreamThanks]

Somewhere there was a tiny dream.
Such a tiny dream it was, no one knew who dreamt it.
The tiny dream began to think.
'I don't want to disappear like this. How can I make people dream of me?'
The little dream thought and thought, and then came up with an idea.
'I'll make humans get lost in me, and let them create the world."
 

 

[CoolDreamThanks]

Created a video:  
 

 

[CoolDreamThanks]

 Wow, extremely clear, one of my fav videos of Ken.  
 

He says there are no others, this life is exactly like our dreams at night. It’s a hallucination. Leo uses the same word and they mean the same thing. What differs is Leo thinks life is God’s will and Ken says this illusion is an attack on God. It’s a devastating dream of death. To awaken, we must become observers. That’s the right mind. That’s frogiveness and that’s the practical application of ACIM. You awaken by forgiving and forgiveness is still and quetly does nothing. It merely looks and judges not. We don’t try to change the illusion, it’s broken and will never be  fixed. We merely observe it until it dissolves into nothingness from which it came and still is. ACIM is so simple. I am dreaming a nightmare. There are no others. I am dreaming them up. It’s my dream. There’s only one dream, one Son of God and I am It. To awaken I must be silent. The end.

[CoolDreamThanks]

I created a poll on ACIM subreddit and it turns out the vast majority of students do not understand the core metaphysics of ACIM.  But that’s what dreams are - dream characters do not awaken, only I do.
 

p.s. some of the most popular teachers do not understand that as well.  Circleofatonement, Raj, etc.

Edited 11 hours ago by CoolDreamThanks