ACIM contemplations

[CoolDreamThanks]

Wow inlove with this song. 
 

 

Edited Sunday at 10:26 PM by CoolDreamThanks

[CoolDreamThanks]

Hmm. So when I am Silent, I am just peaceful - it’s mainly an empty, pristine Peace. But it’s still lacking, because there’s no Love. 
 

When I listen to love songs, I can use them to potentiate a state of love inside. I think I need to figure out how to maintain this throughout the day. There are no ego-thoughts here, no negativity. It feels like in this frequency of love ego cannot survive. Hmmm. Jesus says the goal of ACIM is Peace, and God himself will take the final step. But if I can be in Peace and gentle Love, shouldn’t I choose this state, instead of a state of empty Peace? It feels much better, more fullfilling, kinder, gentler. Hmm. 🖤 

If I could just get to Love? i really wouldn’t need anything else. Can I just maintain this through pure choice? Let’s see.

Hmm, the deepest feelings of Love that I've experienced without any external stimuli was a result of deep silence, but the "issue" with that was that my lifestyle was almost "perfect" in the sense that I was only meditating, not doing anything else. Then I would wake up in bliss and have dreams of Heaven. But if I do not do that, if I still engage with idols - that doesn't happen. Hmmm. Is it just a very long way ahead? Or will I have to let go of all idols at some point? ACIM supposedly says that Spirit doesn't attempt to take away the little that you have. I think idols have no power over me - I can let them go if I so desire. I've done it before. But I need to be sure that that is the way and the only way to love. Hmm. 

 

Edited Sunday at 10:30 PM by CoolDreamThanks

[CoolDreamThanks]

Wow. 

[CoolDreamThanks]

Hmm, from Keith:

 

This is not a Course in not having darkness.

That's for Bliss Ninnies.

If you had no darkness you wouldn't need the Course.

The reason darkness persists is from not looking at it.

This isn't a Course in escaping your darkness or choosing the Light instead of it.

It's a Course in looking at your darkness, being Witness to it with Jesus - which means you look at it without calling it shameful or guilty.

You disarm and disempower it by smiling at it with Him- looking at it and smiling at it.

This looking without opinion, judgement or justification- this non-conceptual Awareness- is the most important Spiritual Practice for you to work on.

It's the only way out of ego.

What makes our darkness so persistent is our shame and guilt about it.

What undoes darkness is forgiving it.

Not fighting it or trying to fix it or choosing against it.

Smiling at it.

In this Course, forgiveness means looking at your ego WITHOUT JUDGING IT.

That renders the darkness impotent and it dissolves.

Any attempt to fight or change your ego fuels it.

Because you've made it real for yourself.

The darkness of your personal identity is the tiny mad idea.

It's only an apparent thing because the Son of God didn't laugh at the very idea of it.

He took it very seriously and called it sinful and shameful.

It's only still an apparent thing for you because you still haven't learned to laugh at it.

You still think your darkness is a serious business.

The complete undoing of the tiny mad idea only happens at the very top of the ladder with the undoing of Consciousness.

This cannot be our goal or we are skipping the very steps necessary to it's accomplishment.

Our only goal is to look at the tiny mad idea of separateness, in our thoughts , feelings and in the apparent world, WITHOUT judging it guilty or shameful.

To smile at it.

We're not here to fight the darkness of the tiny mad idea - in ourselves or in the world.

We're here to allow it.

And learn how to smile at it because it doesn't matter.

It's nothing.

"What does it have to do with the "me" that looks at it with Jesus?"

Only that will dispell it.

This is what can be understood from the Biblical quotation,

"Resist not evil."

and the related,

"To beat the devil, don't resist."

Smiling at the darkness, within or in the apparent without, with Jesus, is the Light that dispells it.

What does it have to do with the "me" that smiles at it?

It has no effect on the Love and Peace of the Holy Spirit in my right mind.

It doesn't matter how dark I think my wrong mind is, it has never dimmed for an instant the blazing reflection of Heaven's Love in my right mind.

I can only get to that blazing Love in my mind through looking and smiling at the darkness of personal identity.

What does it have to do with the me that's with Jesus?

Jesus never stops smiling.

And:

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There's two ways we can sabotage our Course practice before we start.

1. Being a Bliss Ninny student

2. Being a Guilt Ninny student.

The Bliss Ninny student isn't noticing the background anxiety and constant, constant judgements going on in their mind. They think the world isn't real, the separation never happened, God loves us and it's all love and light and wonderful.

They're not bringing the darkness to the Light.

They're covering over the darkness with the Light.

This is the royal road to Spiritual bypassing and being a Spiritualised ego. They're not letting Jesus look at their ego's darkness. They're bringing him nothing for him to work with on their behalf.

The Guilt Ninny student is the opposite. This student does as requested and starts looking at the darkness of the ego and they are horrified at it.

They feel they are a bad student and failing Jesus' course. They go nowhere near him in their mind out of shame and feelings of failure.

What's needed is the middle path between these two extremes where we're not luxuriating, glorifying, spiritualising or denying the ego but we're also not swinging to the opposite polarity and making a big deal out of it and crucifying ourself for it.

Both these polarities make the ego real. They give it a reality is doesn't have.

The middle path Jesus is giving us is that we join with our symbol of Perfect Love in our mind and look at all our ego's darkness in action without making a big deal out of it or crucifying ourself for it.

That's why Jesus says "invest it not with guilt for guilt implies it was accomplished in reality."

He's saying don't make the error real.

Dont give the ego a power it doesn't have by setting out to fight it or feel guilty about it.

The ego is just the part of our mind that likes being separate from God. But the separation never happened. The ego never happened. So "above all, be not afraid of it."

If you bring the darkness to the Light, the light will dispell it.

You don't try to dispell it yourself.

The undoing of the darkness is the Holy Spirit's job.

You just bring Him the darkness.

The way we do this is by LOOKING at the darkness instead of denying it AND by not making it real and calling it sinful, guilty or evil. We forgive it.

The darkness (guilt) can't stand against non-judgment (forgiveness)

It collapses as the illusion it is.

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“At least I can decide I do not like what I feel now.” T-30.I.8.

“I may still be temped to blame you for it, but at least I can allow myself the awareness of admitting I don’t like the way I feel. The reason this is important is that very very often, as a number of people have already commented, it is easy to fool yourself into thinking you are really feeling wonderful, that you are really feeling happy, that you are really feeling peaceful, and that you have no grievances against anyone – when the fact of the matter is that you’re furious. You’re very depressed & very anxious, but you are covering it over. So what he is saying here is to try and be honest with yourself about this much- to say I don’t like the way I’m feeling. I’m feeling angry, disquieted, in pain, I’m guilty, I’m lonely, I’m fearful, etc. And at least be honest about that - don’t cover it over. We have a term for those people who cover over their pain - these are the “Bliss Ninnies”. Bliss Ninnies are people who put on a happy face and say everything is wonderful. And they not only convince other people of this, or try to convince others, but they try to convince themselves. This is not a course in being happy. This is a course in realising how unhappy you are. You then forgive yourself for the cause of the unhappiness and then you can be happy. Jesus is not against happiness obviously. But he is saying that if you truly want to be happy, you must let go of all the decisions you have made to be unhappy and then blame other people for it. The happiness that the Course promises us is the result of the process of first realising how unhappy you are – how depressed you are, how anxious you are, how fearful you are, how angry you are. That’s not a sin – you have to be all those things. How can anyone be homeless and orphaned and not be depressed and angry? Everybody in this world is homeless and is orphaned within their belief system. Because they ran away from Home. And they believe either that God is killed by them or that God is so angry that he disowned them. Nobody in this world can be happy because nobody believes that they are home. You can only be truly happy when you are home. Therefore, to try to pretend that you are happy here, that you can try to make this a better world for yourself…and a home for yourself in which you can be happy… is to feed the very thought system that got you into trouble in the first place. This is a course in helping you realise how unhappy you are because you are not at home. And then help you realise that the reason you are not at home is because of a choice that you made. It’s nothing to do with what anyone else did and nothing to do with anything God did. And, if you don’t realise that it’s a choice you have made, how can you ever change it? You can’t change your mind unless you know, firstly that you have a mind, and secondly that you have made the wrong choice and chosen the wrong thought system. As long as you think that you are happy and that you are filled with thoughts of love and peace you will never properly study this Course In Miracles. You may think you are, but what you are doing is rewriting it so it says what you want it to say. This course is for people who don’t know how lonely and unhappy and miserable and alienated and depressed they are. Through the Course, they can then learn that this is what they feel & understand where the feeling came from – not from anything in the world, but from their own choice. And once they understand it’s their own choice they can then make a better choice. That’s how the Course fulfils it’s purpose. But if you think you are already happy, that you have done all the workbook lessons for a year and read through the text a couple of times, and that that has made you happy and forgiving, then you are not really paying attention to what this is saying. Because it’s not that easy to let go of an identification that you very strongly hold onto. Real happiness in this Course comes from looking at your guilt, self-hatred and sinfulness and forgiving yourself for it. That’s where the real happiness comes from. It’s not something you can impose upon yourself, thereby pushing down all these hateful thoughts. It can only come when you look at those hateful thoughts with Jesus’ Love beside you and only then realise that there is nothing there. Then the happiness will come which is born of the recognition “thank God, I was wrong” - not that I was right.

Kenneth Wapnick.

_-----------------------------

 

Every Course Student should read this, from Kenneth Wapnick, every day because the ego constantly tries to distort our Course practice into something that ADDS to our guilt instead of removing it.

The Miracle is not about forcing yourself to begrudgingly choose the Holy Spirit over the ego. The choice for the Holy Spirit will be automatic if we choose the Miracle.

The Miracle is LOOKING at yourself choosing the ego over the Holy Spirit and forgiving yourself for it.

It doesn't mean I become a Bliss Ninny where I say it doesn't matter and look away.

It means that if I'm unhappy, anxious, hurt, or otherwise suffering, I understand I'm choosing to feel that way. I want to feel that way. I could see Peace instead of this, but I don't want to. And then, crucially, I FORGIVE myself for it.

It's the LOOKING WITHOUT JUDGEMENT (looking with the Holy Spirit) at my choice for the ego that works the the Miracle and will undo the ego. I keep LOOKING and don't look away like the ego wants me to. I stay with Jesus in my mind and don't let shame keep me from him.

Choosing the Holy Spirit means nothing more than looking non-judgementally at my choice for the ego - without guilt. It's not choosing against the ego, kicking and screaming all the way. It's forgiving the choice for it as silly but not sinful. Looking with the Holy Spirit means holding His Love and Peace in my mind as I LOOK at my self-imposed suffering, without making it into a sin.

.

The Miracle is merely knowing that "You are doing this unto yourself", and forgiving yourself for it, even as you do it.

But KEEP LOOKING with Jesus and don't look away.

Don't let anything you're doing, thinking or feeling keep you from love in your mind. Just bring it to love by your non-judgement of yourself.

Kenneth Wapnick

"The function of the miracle is not to have us stop choosing our egos. It is to have us be aware that we are choosing the ego. Again, I can't emphasize this enough. This is what gets almost all Course in Miracles students way off the mark. They then will believe that they are choosing the Holy Spirit when they are not doing that at all—because they think that choosing the Holy Spirit is the goal of the Course. The goal of the Course is that you choose the miracle, which means that you finally understand what you are choosing, and then you learn to forgive yourself for continually choosing your specialness. If you do that, what you have done in effect is let Jesus LOOK at your ego with you.

That is what the miracle is: going back to your mind and now with Jesus or the Holy Spirit beside you, LOOKING at your ego and realizing that you have chosen it—even though at any given moment, even though at that moment, you may not want to let the ego go.

But now, at least, you know that you are doing it, which means you can't blame anybody else for it. You can't blame your environment, you can't blame the person who just raped you, or embezzled money from you, or insulted you. You can't blame your genes, your bad karma—you can't blame anything. Now you will understand that if you are upset right now, it is because you want to be upset right now. You don't want the peace of God. You want a piece of the ego's action. You want a piece of your specialness. You don't want God's peace. But at least you know now what you are doing. That is the goal of the Course. You have successfully completed the Course—because once you do that, it is only a matter of time before you realize this doesn't pay you anymore. That step would automatically happen.

"We look at our specialness, look at our choosing our specialness instead of the love of Jesus, and smile at the silliness of it. Even as we are embracing it; even as we are defending it; even as we luxuriate in its pain, we will at least know what we are doing, and that is the goal of the Course.

This takes tremendous practice, because we don't want to accept responsibility—we want to blame someone else.

(T-30.I.1:6-7) "And if you find resistance strong and dedication weak, you are not ready. Do not fight yourself."

We could probably spend three whole days on these two sentences. The reason for these sentences and the reason the second sentence is all in italics, is that Jesus is teaching us that we shouldn't pretend that we are ready for something when we are not ready for it. That is arrogance, not humility. It is much more spiritually advanced to be able to say: "I know what I am doing, and damn it, I don't want to stop. I know that I want my specialness. I know I want to be different. I know I want to blame other people. I know I want what I want when I want it, and that's okay!" "Do not fight yourself." If you fight against your ego, you obviously believe your ego is real. That is what is meant by the biblical line "resist not evil," which is a wonderful line in terms of the Course. When you resist evil, when you resist the ego, you have made it real. Obviously, if you resist something, you must believe it is there. If you believe the ego or your specialness is there, then you have done exactly what your ego wants. That is what makes this course so different as a spirituality, certainly in terms of the Western world. It says nothing about trying to change your ego, or to fight your ego, or to outshout your ego. It simply says: LOOK at your ego and smile at it, because it is nothing. When you fight against it in yourself, you are making it real.

So when you forget your daily workbook lesson, or forget how very simple these basic rules are, don't be surprised. Don't be angry. Don't be depressed. Don't be guilty. Simply say: "Ah! That's my ego in action. Obviously I am still afraid of the Love and the peace of God." Then you are being absolutely honest. And you will have gained a thousand years simply by doing that, because you are learning the process of stepping back and LOOKING at your ego and NOT JUDGING IT, not fighting against it, not resisting it, NOT trying to change it—simply looking at it and saying: "This is my ego, I don't want to let it go, and that is not a sin."

As you practice this every moment of every day, you are learning to undo the original mistake, which was looking at the tiny, mad idea and making a big deal about it. That is why this is so important. That is why this section is so important, if you read it correctly and carefully. What it will do is train you, in the world and in the sphere of experience you believe you are in, to relive that original moment when you, as part of that one Son, looked at both choices and chose against the Holy Spirit. You looked at your ego and you took it very, very seriously. You made the ego thought serious instead of silly. A couple of lines after the line about the "tiny, mad idea at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh," Jesus says: "It is a joke [that is literally what he says] to think that time can come to circumvent eternity, which means there is no time" (T-27.VIII.6:5). It is a joke to think that this tiny, mad idea has the power to interfere with eternity.

What you want to do is cultivate, as a constant discipline, LOOKING at your ego and not taking it seriously. If you fight against yourself, you are making it real. If you realize that your resistance to choosing Jesus is strong, and your dedication to him and his course is weak, then simply acknowledge that and say: "I am still too afraid of the Love of God, but that is all right."

It is those words, "that is all right," that are the most important words of all, because you are no longer judging your ego as terrible, sinful, evil or wicked. You are looking at your ego and saying: "This is what I am choosing, but it has no effect on Jesus' love for me, and it has no effect on the Holy Spirit's Love for me."

 

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Just because I've had 3 questions like this this week.

Question:

If my days are mostly peaceful, am I learning to identify with my right mind or am I being a Bliss Ninny?

It's a fine balance!

On the one hand, the practice of the Course increases the background Peace in our mind.

That's a good thing!

But it can make Bliss Ninihood and being a Spiritualised ego so much easier

Peace is an important barometer, provided it is there in the good times and the bad times, and not just peace because there's no great challenges.

In my personal opinion, and how I gauge myself, is how much of the day I am aware that I am dreaming.

How much of the day is my right mind present as a non-judgemental Awareness of my wrong mind?

How often am I in the cinema with Jesus knowing all this is made up?

How often am I looking beyond bodies to the Light of the Holy Spirit?

I could be in very trying circumstances where a lot of guilt is coming up for me as stress and Peace is hard for me hold, but if I am watching it all with Jesus, I would consider this much greater Spiritual progress than completely peaceful days because nothing is going wrong, where I have very little awareness of dreaming.

Also, Jesus says "You will become increasingly aware that a slight twinge of annoyance is nothing but a veil drawn over intense fury."

It's the same thing.

There's no hierarchy of illusions.

It's very easy to not count my 60 seconds of murderousness in the long checkout queue, with the shop assistant that is rude to me, with the bicycle that nearly runs me over, with the motorist that cuts me off or doesn't indicate, with the person shouting abuse out the car window, with my partner being difficult or snoring, with the drunk on the bus, with what the politician just said, with the news about a murderer or child rapist.

It's these little 60 second moments of murderousness we need to be most vigilant for.

Noticing hundreds of these little moments of fear, judgement, murderousness and self doubt and having them remind me to go back to the cinema would be really great progress, as opposed to thinking they're not happening or discounting them

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Question:

I’m curious Keith Kavanagh on what spiritual bypassing means to you and in relation the ACIM.

Is it like saying ‘you shouldn’t be sad’ when a person you love dies? I know for me I don’t watch the news at all because it’s mostly negative. I don’t get involved with riots or debates. Is that a form of spiritual bypassing? I had a friend tell me it was.

Thanks for all of your insights on your videos!

Answer:

Such an important question!

The other day someone shared my post on not shooting the messenger.

Another Course teacher commented on it saying it was wrong - all you do is remind yourself nothing is actually happening and go back to God.

This is Spiritual by-passing 101.

Spiritual bypassing is realising I am upset and I decide to not be upset by distracting myself from it.

It is hiding in the light to get away from the darkness.

It is covering over the darkness with the Light.

It is denying the darkness is there.

It is trying to bring Light to darkness.

It is the idea that the Course is about a quick fix to feel better in a situation by going into the light to escape the darkness.

It is the idea that I shouldn't be feeling like this and I need to change it.

It is the idea that something is wrong that I feel like this and I'm failing the Course.

It is the idea that this emotion (guilt) coming up is not valid and I should fight it or choose against it or shout it down or change it.

It is the idea that I need to sedate this feeling or get rid of it or distract myself from it.

It is trying to fight the darkness or run from it.

All this is Spiritual by-passing

The Holy Spirit has repurposed the mad script we wrote when we were drunk on the ego thought system, and it is now Salvation's Script.

What was written so we could see our perceived evil, self hatred and blame outside of us, where it could never be undone, is now the perfect device of Salvation. The guilt we see shining in all the other movie characters and situations is our own.

The world is going to happen and suffering and hatred will come up in me, apparently in response to what's happening in the world but, really, what's happening in the world is because of this suffering that is already in my wrong mind.

This is guilt.

Now this is the purpose of the world under the Holy Spirit as my teacher.

This is not something going wrong that I feel like this.

It is how the Holy Spirit's classroom works.

My Brother is my Saviour because I will project my unconscious guilt onto him and now what was unconscious is conscious and can be undone.

But I have to take the guilt back from my brother.

I have to stop saying, "You did this to me! You put these feelings in me!"

This is the lie the ego made the world to perpetrate.

It is projection.

The first thing I do is undo projection.

The world is SHOWING me the guilt in me.

It is NOT causing it.

To have this guilt undone in me, I have to take it away from being in the presence of the insane voice talking to itself and bring it to the Light of non-judgemental Awareness.

I DO NOT choose against the emotion or feeling it.

I choose against the insane voice talking to itself and trying to blame everything and everyone for the feelings.

I LET THE FEELINGS BE THERE.

I am with Jesus in my mind allowing the feelings be there with no judgement, with no trying to change them or fighting of them.

I look, wait and judge not until this non-judgemental looking dissolves them.

I DON'T TRY TO DISSOLVE THEM.

The looking WILL dissolve them provided I stop trying to fix them or blame them or distract myself from them.

I let them be. I forgive them being there.

I bring them to the non-judgemental Awareness I am in the Holy Spirit.

I might spend 10 minutes doing this or the whole day.

The Course is not so I can feel all love and light all the time - it is so this pain in me can be fully felt and removed .

BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.

NOT by me.

This undoing of guilt like this is the way Home.

If I wake up one morning feeling depressed or hopeless or in despair, that's not something going wrong. It's something hoping right.

That's my guilt coming up so I can spend the day looking at it without fighting it so the Holy Spirit can remove it.

Anything else is Spiritual by-passing and being a Bliss Ninny.

In terms of the news, neither not watching it or watching it is Salvation.

But if I'm not watching it because it will pollute my Holy mind, then that's wrong minded.

It says the world has power over my mind.

It does not.

There is no cause in the world.

If I watched the news and knew that all the feelings coming up in me are my own guilt and was present with them as a non-judgemental Awareness in the Holy Spirit, so they could be undone, it would be an incredibly powerful Spiritual practice.

But if I'm afraid the news will affect me, it's a step in the wrong direction.

Having said that, it doesn't mean anyone has to watch the news for Salvation.

Everything that's happening in our life always is an invitation to own the guilt coming up as our own and undo the blocks to the awareness of Love's Presence in our mind.
______________________

 

There will always be a bliss ninny element in the Course community, that everything is love and light and we should just ignore bad feelings and cover them over with happy thoughts and get on with it it.

Our ego loves this misinterpretation and it's very seductive to not have to bother with shadow work.

This is the error of trying to bring light to darkness and it's most definitely not what A Course In Miracles is teaching.

T-17.I.5. "Think you that you can bring truth to fantasy, and learn what truth means from the perspective of illusions? Truth has no meaning in illusion. The frame of reference for its meaning must be itself. When you try to bring truth to illusions, you are trying to make illusions real, and keep them by justifying your belief in them. But to give illusions to truth is to enable truth to teach that the illusions are unreal, and thus enable you to escape from them."

This is a Course In bringing the darkness to Light. The Light of this world is forgiveness and non-judgement.

"Forgiveness is an earthly form of love, which as it is in Heaven has no form. Yet what is needed here is given here as it is needed. In this form you can fulfill your function even here, although what love will mean to you when formlessness has been restored to you is greater still."

Lesson 186

This is a Course on being the Light by looking on the darkness in your mind with total forgiveness. In this way, the darkness is brought to the Light that you are and dispelled before what you are in, and as, the Holy Spirit.

You can only know yourself as the Light through looking on the darkness in your mind with total non-judgement, non-doing, non-interference and non-resistance.

But the darkness cannot stand against this Light.

"Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does nothing. It offends no aspect of reality, nor seeks to twist it to appearances it likes. It merely looks, and waits, and judges not."

"The Holy Spirit asks of you but this; bring to Him every secret you have locked away from Him. Open every door to Him, and bid Him enter the darkness and lighten it away. At your request He enters gladly. He brings the light to darkness if you make the darkness open to Him. But what you hide He cannot look upon. He sees for you, and unless you look with Him He cannot see. The vision of Christ is not for Him alone, but for Him with you. Bring, therefore, all your dark and secret thoughts to Him, and look upon them with Him. He holds the light, and you the darkness. They cannot coexist when both of You together look on them. His judgment must prevail, and He will give it to you as you join your perception to His."

T-14.VII.6.

As much as the ego wants us to think otherwise, this IS a Course on shadow work. It's not a Course in looking away from shadow, using affirmations to shout shadow down or covering it over with platitudes and happy thoughts.

You bring the darkness to the Light you discover yourself to be when you look on darkness without looking away and with total forgiveness.

The Holy Spirit can't do this for you while you sedate yourself with Netflix, ice cream and affirmations. You have to BE the Holy Spirit through the power of forgiveness- the reflection of the Power of Heaven - and look on all darkness from here that it be dispelled by What you are.

T-11.V.1. "No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected. There is no need to shrink from illusions, for they cannot be dangerous. We are ready to look more closely at the ego’s thought system because together we have the lamp that will dispel it, and since you realize you do not want it, you must be ready. Let us be very calm in doing this, for we are merely looking honestly for truth. The “dynamics”of the ego will be our lesson for a while, for we must look first at this to see beyond it, since you have made it real. We will undo this error quietly together, and then look beyond it to truth."

"Call it not sin [don't judge it] but madness, for such it was and so it still remains. Invest it not with guilt, for guilt implies it was accomplished in reality. And above all, be not afraid of it."

T-18.I.6.






Hmmmmm.... 

[CoolDreamThanks]

An answer to Bettie Thomas on "the script is written" and changing scripts

"The script is written"

This is one of the two most devisive issues about the Course. (The other isn't relevant to those of us following the teachings of Ken or Gary)

I have often given the metaphor of adventure books I have read in the past.

You read them with a dice. In the book, it would say, "You have encountered a mountain troll. Roll the dice. If you roll higher than 3, you win the fight - go to page 67. If you roll 3 or lower, you lose the fight - go to page 152."

You read the whole book like that.

So every time you read the book, it is different. But the book is already written. It can just play out in different ways.

So too, with the script is written. All storylines are pre-scripted, but your choices, and which teacher you listen to, dictate which storylines you follow.

Also, we are multidimensional beings.

If time and space is an illusion, and the Course assures us that it is, then when are all our past and future lives taking place?

Where is our childhood and our death happening?

Where is the "tiny mad idea" happening?

Everything happens in the Now.

Everything is happening all at once now.

The dinosaurs are now and the end of the world is now.

There is only now.

Past and future is an illusion.

We're just choosing on some level what and "when" we want to experience in the present moment.

Jesus tells us that the instant the "tiny mad idea" occurred it was undone by the Holy Spirit.

We experience ourselves within that "tiny tick of time", and that ego script and it's undoing by the Atonement has been stretched out into an illusory past and future spanning millions of years.

Based on the fact that all our lifetimes and all stages of our present life is happening all at once now, we are a multidimensional split mind experiencing all of this at the same time at different levels of awareness.

So you can begin to see what Jesus means when he says we are just reviewing mentally, from the end, what is already gone by.....and also how complex the whole issue of time and scripts is!

If this much is true, I also think Gary Renard's teaching of being able to move between alternate timelines based on forgiveness is pretty plausible.

As a metaphor you could imagine a person (the split mind) in a room watching an infinite number of screens each showing different stages of different lives in different dimensions. Any screen you watch you appear to be sucked into, but in truth you're just experiencing what is already over whilst never leaving your chair in the room of screens.

(OR, if youre a Harty Potter fan, it's like being in a room full of pensieves that you (as the split mind) can choose which one you want to fall into to relive a memory)

Helen and Bill, at the time of the Course's dictation, attended an audience with one of the most celebrated Psychic Mediums to ever live - Eileen Garrett. They walked into the room and Eileen was immediately drawn to Helen. She said she had just written something important and that, if she did what it said, she would be the happiest person alive and, if she didn't do what it said, she would die sick and unhappy.

Unfortunately Helen died sick and unhappy, believing Jesus broke all his promises to her about her happiness.

She just wasn't prepared to apply the Course and never quite "got" that Jesus wasn't promising her she could be a happy ego. He was promising her happiness in liberating herself from ego.

Ken always believed a script existed where Helen could have written more pamphlets, but she didn't in the end.

Ok, so all that's pretty complex.

More recently, my guidance has been to stop thinking about any of that complexity and to focus solely on the fact that the script is already written, based on my level of unconscious guilt, in terms of what I am experiencing right now.

Unconscious guilt causes victimisation, bad luck and bad health to unfold in my script. This is so I can project my guilt onto these "external" events and people so I don't have to acknowledge it in myself.

Now, this is exactly what the Holy Spirit needs to undo my unconscious guilt! So the feelings that come up in response to these challenges IS the unconscious guilt I'm trying to undo.

By forgiving these "events", which means they do not take my Peace from me, I undo unconscious guilt.

With this guilt undone, there is now less unconscious guilt in my mind, and events that otherwise would have unfolded, so I could project that guilt onto them, will no longer happen.

So, in terms of the script, what happens (all pre-scripted) is dependent on the guilt in my mind.

Whatever happens is perfect for the Holy Spirit's requirements. He doesn't make it happen. The guilt does that. But it's perfect for the Holy Spirit to undo that guilt.

Now, we could surmise from that, that with all your guilt undone , you would have only great health and no more problems, but that isn't entirely true either.

Jesus had no guilt but his body still encountered hate, arrest, torture and death at the hands of other bodies. The Holy Spirit used this as a teaching device to Enlighten others.

Some teachers teach that, when the mind is healed, the body will be healthy.

That's true if the cause of the sickness is guilt (which it can be).

But what if my being sick, how I demonstrate my Peace, despite the sickness, to my family and friends, and how Peacefully I die, is how the Holy Spirit uses the ego script to help awaken all the people around me? I may have signed up for that in a part of my mind not currently available to me.

The Holy Spirit may use this as a teaching device in his Atonement plan like He used Jesus' death.

So I would agree with Ken and Gary that good health wouldn't NECESSARILY be a given, and that you can't judge someone's Spiritual attainment by their health or their script. It's a level confusion.

So, to conclude.

The script is written and unchangeable right now in terms of what I am experiencing. It couldn't be otherwise based on my level of unconscious guilt.

In terms of what happens going forwards, there are different scripts that can play out depending on my level of unconscious guilt, but they are all pre-scripted.

So, as the Holy Spirit's Atonement plan is always the forgiveness of the ego's script, whatever is happening is EXACTLY what I need for my awakening. Arguing with what is is madness. It couldn't be any other way.

And even if I've undone all my guilt, and am egoless within the split mind (in the Real World) the Holy Spirit will still use the body "I" know "I" no longer am in His plan for the Atonement of others, even though "I" no longer need Atonement.

So we can never judge anyone's Spiritual development based on what's happening in the script.

In short, my advice is to totally accept that the script is written and exactly what the Holy Spirit needs right now for your Salvation and/or the Salvation of others.

Because it is always so and never not so.

---------------------------

 

Yesterday, I shared a quote from Byron Katie, saying,

"Every single person in your life is illusory - including you"

This does not mean no one is real.

What we all are, apart from illusions, is the One Innocent and Holy Son of God.

We would NEVER practice the Course by seeing illusory people as merely illusions.

Each is seen as Christ, beyond the ego illusion.

Believe me, I did it the wrong way for a while, and it's not pretty.

"Make this year different by making it all the same. And let all your relationships be made holy for you. This is our will. Amen."

T-15.XI

[CoolDreamThanks]

STEP 1

It's helpful to look at the forgiveness process from as many different angles as possible.

I wanted to do a deep dive into forgiveness, which is a 3 step process, but only 2 of them are our job. The Holy Spirit takes care of the third step. This is a post looking at step 1 in depth. A separate post on step 2 will follow.

As long as I choose to be an ego (Keith) there can only be guilt.

If Keith is real, then the separation from God would be real and the attack on Heaven would be real. My guilt would also be real.

There's no ego identity without guilt.

Oneness and separate identity cannot co-exist - it's one or the other.

There's either total guilt in separateness or Total Innocence in Oneness.

When I'm being an ego (not joined with the Holy Spirit) that inevitable unconscious guilt all starts stirring. It's intolerable so, unconsciously, I seek out targets doing the slightest thing wrong, onto whom I can offload my guilt as judgement (projection).

Jesus calls the unconscious process, "sending out the hungry dogs of fear"

The guilt and fear of personal identity (because it can only mean God was attacked) is there in me first. Then, unconsciously, I seek out targets I can get rid of the guilt onto.

A person on the news, a person online, politicians, my partner, the kids, the neighbour, the person dropping litter on the street, the driver that cuts me off, a person who is rude to me, my health or financial challenges - absolutely anyone or anything I can blame for my lack of Peace- anything that allows me to say, "You did this to me! You took my Peace from me! You are the reason Im not Peaceful!"

This is a desperate process. The slightest bit of perceived "wrong doing" by another ego is quite sufficient and "the hungry dogs of fear" sniff it out anywhere they can even slightly find it. If they can't find anything, they'll point to something I can completely overreact to even though it's nothing to do with me.

This is when you think back on a disagreement and think "Why TF did I think that was so serious and overreact to it like that?"

The guilt had to go somewhere.

If there's nowhere "reasonable", then it has to go somewhere unreasonable.

This why the first step in the forgiveness process is undoing projection.

If I was joined with the Holy Spirit, I would be perfectly Peaceful and nothing that happens in the dream would bother me.

I wouldn't need anything from the world and I wouldn't fear anything in the world.

I would ALLOW the illusion to be exactly what it is without needing it to be different.

My Peace isn't dependent on it and it cannot take Peace from me.

All my Peace comes from the joining.

I bring that Peace to the dream and what is, regardless of what is.

"What does it have to do with my Peace?"

When I'm not saying, "What does it have to do with me?" it is because of my guilt.

Now of course it has something to do with me - you are the guilty one I can scapegoat for the lack of Peace I am feeling for not joining with the Holy Spirit. You are the way I can have my separate identity, and it's unhappiness, but not be responsible for it. I don't have to face that I'm doing this unto myself by being an ego instead of joining with the Holy Spirit.

So guilt comes first.

Unconsciously, I look within at my guilt and I wait for the first person I encounter, doing the slightest thing "wrong", and I get rid of my guilt onto them as quickly as possible and get angry or irritated with them for the guilt that is my own. "Anger protects projection".

My anger keeps the guilt from coming back to me. It keeps it with you.

Step 1 of forgiveness is taking my guilt back from the "other".

If I was in my right mind what "another" does has no effect on me.

The guilt Im putting onto another is therefore my own.

I own this.

I let go of the lying ego thoughts that say, "You did this to me".

I sit with Jesus and say, "What does what happens in the dream have to do with the "me" that's sitting here Whole and Peaceful with Jesus?

Nothing.

But the feeling (guilt) is still there.

Step one is about silencing the lying ego thoughts about why guilt is there.

Step 2 comes next.
 

Remember, step 3 is the Holy Spirit's job.

Making it our job will result in either guilt about what a bad Course student we are or Spiritual bypassing, where we THINK we're choosing the Holy Spirit instead of doing our actual job, which is looking at our guilt without judging it.

Step 2 is where you look at your feelings (your own guilt about wanting to be a separate self) with Jesus without making it someone else's fault that a separate self can't be happy. It's the unhappiness of being a guilty separate self, that we think someone else is causing, but really, unconsciously, we just WANT to belive they are causing it, and we use projection of our guilt, as judgement of them, to try to convince ourselves of it.

You join with Jesus and you WITNESS the non-peace (guilt).

It was in you before you appeared to be born.

You don't judge it as good or bad, right or wrong.

You allow it to be there until it passes.

Your Peacefulness with it being there will undo the non-peace.

But your goal CAN NOT BE TO UNDO THE NON-PEACE.

If that's your goal, then you are judging the non-peace and are not a non-judgemental Witness to it with Jesus.

You don't let your mind and emotions run on autopilot.

You witness them WITHOUT JUDGEMENT with Jesus until you automatically let them go.

This isn't a step we try to force ourselves to take.

Looking at our guilt WITHOUT JUDGING ourselves for it being there, or trying to make it someone else's fault, means we will automatically decide against it for the Peace that's also in our mind.

We're just bringing the Peace of the Holy Spirit (non-judgemental Awareness) to the non-peace.

They cannot coexist.

Your decision for the Peace instead of the non-peace will be automatic PROVIDED YOU KEEP LOOKING AT THE NON-PEACE with Jesus instead of it running on autopilot in your mind unobserved.

I want to add that, for me, it is sooooo helpful to regularly say, "What does it have to do with the Love and Peace of the Holy Spirit in my mind?"

This isn't a berating or rushing of myself.

The answer of course, is nothing.

But I let that establish itself as the truth rather than forcing it on myself.

"Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still and quietly does nothing.....it merely looks and waits [patiently!] and judges not."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

The 3 step forgiveness formula is:

1) Reverse projection (let go of the story of why I'm upset)

No matter what I'm feeling, it has nothing to do with anyone else or circumstances.

It's guilt for believing I'm separate.

It was in my wrong (personal) mind before anything seemed to happen in the dream world.

If I had no guilt, the world could have no effect on me.

2) Join with Jesus/ Holy Spirit and look at the guilt about being separate coming up in yourself without the ego's lying story of why it's someone or something else's fault.

Look at the pure emotion without the thoughts.

The only way to join with Jesus or the Holy Spirit is to become a non-judgemental Observer (Awareness) of your ego / guilt.

That means you can't judge yourself or fight the upset being there.

3) The Holy Spirit will undo your guilt.

This step is none of your business, so don't do anything except look, wait patiently and, as you look and wait with Him, don't judge yourself.

Step 1 and 2 is our job.

Step 3 is the Holy Spirit's.

Now there will be times when you don't want to do this. Your fear of looking at guilt in yourself will mean you insist on hating others and resist looking at the feelings coming up without blaming it on other movie characters.

In this, you join with Jesus or the Holy Spirit and witness yourself choosing against Peace so you can keep projecting your guilt instead of undoing it.

AND YOU DON'T JUDGE YOURSELF.

You LOOK. You WAIT patiently until your fear subsides sufficiently to look at the guilt in yourself instead of another (without the story) and for as long as that takes, you JUDGE YOURSELF NOT.

This will take you to a point of readiness for the forgiveness formula and the reversal of projection.
--------------------------------------------------------------

 

The forgiveness formula is

1) Undo projection of your guilt onto someone or something else.

Drop the story of why you are upset.

That's a lying movie script cover story to keep your guilt real forever, and you asleep, by seeing it in someone or something else.

The world rose from our guilt to keep the guilt hidden.

The world can't make you upset.

WE MADE THE WORLD TO BLAME IT FOR THE UPSET (GUILT) THAT'S ALREADY INSIDE US.

2) You join Jesus and witness ONLY your raw emotion (guilt) WITHOUT the lying movie story of why you're upset - that someone or something caused it.

This is what our ego told us never ever to do or God would destroy us, and its why we made the world of apparent victims and victimisers.

This is the only thing the Holy Spirit needs of us to take us Home.

Look at your upset (guilt) with Him without the thoughts that it is upset at what someone did or what happened in the movie. This is our ego's bullshit smokescreen we have to learn to see through.

This will undo guilt.

Now, if you're new to practicing forgiveness, you are NOT YET going to want to do this with the ego's bullshit movie story about the person that abused, abandoned, or humiliated you.

You WILL have to do this process at some point, when you're ready, if you're serious about wanting the Peace of God. But it doesn't have to be today.

"It's not about letting go of your grievances. You don't want to let go of your grievances. It's about FORGIVING yourself for not wanting to let go of your grievances." (Kenneth Wapnick)

If you do what Ken says above , it will, in time, take you to a point of readiness for step 1 of the forgiveness formula where you drop the ego's bullshit story that your upset is about what someone did to you or what happened.

So start today doing your forgiveness formula on the small stuff.

Eg: I'm standing in a queue and I'm getting irritated and stressed because there's not enough shop assistants serving and one of them is on the phone laughing with a friend.

The upset coming up and that I'm feeling is my unconscious guilt at believing I attacked God to be a "me".

The story that my upset is because of poor service in the shop is the ego's bullshit movie cover story to keep my guilt real but blame the outside world for it instead of looking at it in myself.

So I drop all the bullshit stories about the shop and the assistants and the phone call.

All lies.

And I take full responsibility for the upset I'm now feeling that is my guilt coming up.

I let it be there. I join with Jesus and I witness, with him, my upset completely non-judgementally and without fighting it being there in the slightest.

I look. I wait. I judge not.

This is how the Holy Spirit undoes our guilt and takes us Home.

[Salvijus]

                                         Lesson 78

                Let miracles replace all grievances. 

 

Perhaps it is not yet quite clear to you that each decision that you make is one between a grievance and a miracle. ²Each grievance stands like a dark shield of hate before the miracle it would conceal. ³And as you raise it up before your eyes, you will not see the miracle beyond. ⁴Yet all the while it waits for you in light, but you behold your grievances instead.

Today we go beyond the grievances, to look upon the miracle instead. ²We will reverse the way you see by not allowing sight to stop before it sees. ³We will not wait before the shield of hate, but lay it down and gently lift our eyes in silence to behold the Son of God.

He waits for you behind your grievances, and as you lay them down he will appear in shining light where each one stood before. ²For every grievance is a block to sight, and as it lifts you see the Son of God where he has always been. ³He stands in light, but you were in the dark. ⁴Each grievance made the darkness deeper, and you could not see.

Today we will attempt to see God’s Son. ²We will not let ourselves be blind to him; we will not look upon our grievances. ³So is the seeing of the world reversed, as we look out toward truth, away from fear. ⁴We will select one person you have used as target for your grievances, and lay the grievances aside and look at him. ⁵Someone, perhaps, you fear and even hate; someone you think you love who angered you; someone you call a friend, but whom you see as difficult at times or hard to please, demanding, irritating or untrue to the ideal he should accept as his, according to the role you set for him.

You know the one to choose; his name has crossed your mind already. ²He will be the one of whom we ask God’s Son be shown to you. ³Through seeing him behind the grievances that you have held against him, you will learn that what lay hidden while you saw him not is there in everyone, and can be seen. ⁴He who was enemy is more than friend when he is freed to take the holy role the Holy Spirit has assigned to him. ⁵Let him be savior unto you today. ⁶Such is his role in God your Father’s plan.

Our longer practice periods today will see him in this role. ²You will attempt to hold him in your mind, first as you now consider him. ³You will review his faults, the difficulties you have had with him, the pain he caused you, his neglect, and all the little and the larger hurts he gave. ⁴You will regard his body with its flaws and better points as well, and you will think of his mistakes and even of his “sins.”

Then let us ask of Him Who knows this Son of God in his reality and truth, that we may look on him a different way, and see our savior shining in the light of true forgiveness, given unto us. ²We ask Him in the holy Name of God and of His Son, as holy as Himself:

³Let me behold my savior in this one You have appointed as the one for me to ask to lead me to the holy light in which he stands, that I may join with him.

⁴The body’s eyes are closed, and as you think of him who grieved you, let your mind be shown the light in him beyond your grievances.

What you have asked for cannot be denied. ²Your savior has been waiting long for this. ³He would be free, and make his freedom yours. ⁴The Holy Spirit leans from him to you, seeing no separation in God’s Son. ⁵And what you see through Him will free you both. ⁶Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining savior. ⁷No dark grievances obscure the sight of him. ⁸You have allowed the Holy Spirit to express through him the role God gave Him that you might be saved.

God thanks you for these quiet times today in which you laid your images aside, and looked upon the miracle of love the Holy Spirit showed you in their place. ²The world and Heaven join in thanking you, for not one Thought of God but must rejoice as you are saved, and all the world with you.

We will remember this throughout the day, and take the role assigned to us as part of God’s salvation plan, and not our own. ²Temptation falls away when we allow each one we meet to save us, and refuse to hide his light behind our grievances. ³To everyone you meet, and to the ones you think of or remember from the past, allow the role of savior to be given, that you may share it with him. ⁴For you both, and all the sightless ones as well, we pray:

⁵Let miracles replace all grievances.

 

(ACIM, W-78.1:1-4;2:1-3;3:1-4;4:1-5;5:1-6;6:1-4;7:1-4;8:1-8;9:1-2;10:1-5)

Edited 19 hours ago by Salvijus

[CoolDreamThanks]

1 hour ago, Salvijus said:

                                         Lesson 78

                Let miracles replace all grievances. 

 

Perhaps it is not yet quite clear to you that each decision that you make is one between a grievance and a miracle. ²Each grievance stands like a dark shield of hate before the miracle it would conceal. ³And as you raise it up before your eyes, you will not see the miracle beyond. ⁴Yet all the while it waits for you in light, but you behold your grievances instead.

Today we go beyond the grievances, to look upon the miracle instead. ²We will reverse the way you see by not allowing sight to stop before it sees. ³We will not wait before the shield of hate, but lay it down and gently lift our eyes in silence to behold the Son of God.

He waits for you behind your grievances, and as you lay them down he will appear in shining light where each one stood before. ²For every grievance is a block to sight, and as it lifts you see the Son of God where he has always been. ³He stands in light, but you were in the dark. ⁴Each grievance made the darkness deeper, and you could not see.

Today we will attempt to see God’s Son. ²We will not let ourselves be blind to him; we will not look upon our grievances. ³So is the seeing of the world reversed, as we look out toward truth, away from fear. ⁴We will select one person you have used as target for your grievances, and lay the grievances aside and look at him. ⁵Someone, perhaps, you fear and even hate; someone you think you love who angered you; someone you call a friend, but whom you see as difficult at times or hard to please, demanding, irritating or untrue to the ideal he should accept as his, according to the role you set for him.

You know the one to choose; his name has crossed your mind already. ²He will be the one of whom we ask God’s Son be shown to you. ³Through seeing him behind the grievances that you have held against him, you will learn that what lay hidden while you saw him not is there in everyone, and can be seen. ⁴He who was enemy is more than friend when he is freed to take the holy role the Holy Spirit has assigned to him. ⁵Let him be savior unto you today. ⁶Such is his role in God your Father’s plan.

Our longer practice periods today will see him in this role. ²You will attempt to hold him in your mind, first as you now consider him. ³You will review his faults, the difficulties you have had with him, the pain he caused you, his neglect, and all the little and the larger hurts he gave. ⁴You will regard his body with its flaws and better points as well, and you will think of his mistakes and even of his “sins.”

Then let us ask of Him Who knows this Son of God in his reality and truth, that we may look on him a different way, and see our savior shining in the light of true forgiveness, given unto us. ²We ask Him in the holy Name of God and of His Son, as holy as Himself:

³Let me behold my savior in this one You have appointed as the one for me to ask to lead me to the holy light in which he stands, that I may join with him.

⁴The body’s eyes are closed, and as you think of him who grieved you, let your mind be shown the light in him beyond your grievances.

What you have asked for cannot be denied. ²Your savior has been waiting long for this. ³He would be free, and make his freedom yours. ⁴The Holy Spirit leans from him to you, seeing no separation in God’s Son. ⁵And what you see through Him will free you both. ⁶Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining savior. ⁷No dark grievances obscure the sight of him. ⁸You have allowed the Holy Spirit to express through him the role God gave Him that you might be saved.

God thanks you for these quiet times today in which you laid your images aside, and looked upon the miracle of love the Holy Spirit showed you in their place. ²The world and Heaven join in thanking you, for not one Thought of God but must rejoice as you are saved, and all the world with you.

We will remember this throughout the day, and take the role assigned to us as part of God’s salvation plan, and not our own. ²Temptation falls away when we allow each one we meet to save us, and refuse to hide his light behind our grievances. ³To everyone you meet, and to the ones you think of or remember from the past, allow the role of savior to be given, that you may share it with him. ⁴For you both, and all the sightless ones as well, we pray:

⁵Let miracles replace all grievances.

 

(ACIM, W-78.1:1-4;2:1-3;3:1-4;4:1-5;5:1-6;6:1-4;7:1-4;8:1-8;9:1-2;10:1-5)

Beautiful! 

[CoolDreamThanks]

@Salvijus how do you apply forgiveness in practice? What is your method for it, in a simplified version, in your own words? It helps me to hear different wordings. Thank you. 

[Salvijus]

In my own words eh. 

Rather than trying to forgive, I focus on being as defenseless as possible. Remembering that truth is true always and it needs no protection. Only what is false, ego tries to defend! for its existence depends on it. With that in mind I make myself as defenseless, vulnerable and open as possible, allowing myself to be crushed, holding not onto any opinion, position or sense of righteousness. Sometimes I get a vision of a Jesus' crusifiction on a cross. Vulnerable and defenseless, allowing all energies of pass through him without any resistance, like turning the other cheek. Therein lies the state of perfect forgiveness. Perfect love and light. This state is slightly different than silent Zen state. There is an element of grace and love pouring from heavens to the top of your head to the heart which makes all the miracles and healing possible. It's that light (holy spirit) that we can call upon when we in need of guidence, illumination, blessings, healing etc. A sincere and concious desire to be free from all conflict can activate this heart center. That's what in my own words I call a state of prayer. A state of miracle mindedness. A solution to every problem. 

Edited 16 hours ago by Salvijus

[CoolDreamThanks]

19 minutes ago, Salvijus said:

In my own words eh. 

Rather than trying to forgive, I focus on being as defenseless as possible. Remembering that truth is true always and it needs no protection. Only what is false, ego tries to defend! for its existence depends on it. With that in mind I make myself as defenseless, vulnerable and open as possible, allowing myself to be crushed, holding not onto any opinion, position or sense of righteousness. Sometimes I get a vision of a Jesus' crusifiction on a cross. Vulnerable and defenseless, allowing all energies of pass through him without any resistance, like turning the other cheek. Therein lies the state of perfect forgiveness. Perfect love and light. This state is slightly different than silent Zen state. There is an element of grace and love pouring from heavens to the top of your head to the heart which makes all the miracles and healing possible. It's that light (holy spirit) that we can call upon when we in need of guidence, illumination, blessings, healing etc. A sincere and concious desire to be free from all conflict can activate this heart center. That's what in my own words I call a state of prayer. A state of miracle mindedness. A solution to every problem. 

That's beautiful, thank you. 

[Salvijus]

Thank you also. 🙏