ACIM Journal

[Anderz]

Paul Hedderman said in this video from about 17 minutes that there only is what we are. That's it! There is no what you're not, he said.

That's a powerful nonduality pointer. There is only existence! There is no non-existence. For example when we make a choice, that choice is, and when the choice is made, that's what is too. There is never that which was not chosen. And the choice itself, does it make a difference by itself? Was the choice a cause for changing the direction of the universe? Maybe not. I think definitely not.

[Anderz]

Notice that Ramana Maharshi mentioned observing actual clouds and letting the thoughts dissolve. That's different than the mindfulness practice where thoughts are observed like clouds passing by over a clear sky. Because then the thoughts still remain!

[Anderz]

If thinking is to be transcended, then what to do with for example the internet, which is almost completely conceptual? One idea that came to me is that thinking can still be useful for learning things even in trans-conceptual awareness. That's a transcend and include of thinking. When new knowledge has been learned I imagine that in trans-conceptual awareness the new knowledge becomes integrated into the non-conceptual intelligence.

And it may also be that before we can enter trans-conceptual awareness, we need to have a high enough level of conceptual awareness, such as all the different stages Ken Wilber talks about. And for conceptual development the internet is very useful.

 

[Anderz]

Leo said that thinking is like a dog scratching its nuts. Lol, that's a good analogy for trans-conceptual awareness, which for a human using thoughts is like a dog trying to do calculus by scratching its nuts.

I don't know whether trans-conceptual awareness exists or not, but isn't it curious (or horrible) that thinking and nasty emotions seem to go together? What is this devilry of the ego mind having hijacked our sense of self? Are we living our own lives, or are we living fricken' chimp lives as slaves to and puppets of the collective ego structures of society?

[Anderz]

The ego has hijacked our emotions. Imagine the difference of emotions if you were to win a 10 million dollars compared to losing all your money and income. When we are in ego consciousness, that's a huge difference in emotions.

Now consider the possibility that without the ego, life will work better for us. Now the ego no longer can jerk us around hither and thither through thoughts. Pleasant emotions arise without the silly monkey mind conjuring up ridiculous emotional states based on lifeless thoughts about past personal crap memories or fantasy future scenarios.

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"I have said you have but two emotions, love and fear. 2 One is changeless but continually exchanged, being offered by the eternal to the eternal. 3 In this exchange it is extended, for it increases as it is given. 4 The other has many forms, for the content of individual illusions differs greatly. 5 Yet they have one thing in common; they are all insane. 6 They are made of sights that are not seen, and sounds that are not heard. 7 They make up a private world that cannot be shared. 8 For they are meaningful only to their maker, and so they have no meaning at all. 9 In this world their maker moves alone, for only he perceives them." - ACIM T-13.V.1.

 

[Anderz]

It's also important to not underestimate the momentum of the ego and that it is a high level of development compared to earlier evolutionary stages. The whole world is still almost totally dominated by ego consciousness. This creates a collective morphic field, a "Matrix" that we are trapped in. So, yes the ego is silly and delusional but it also serves a necessary function in society. Transcending the ego is a huge process.

That I believe is why ACIM contains so much text about the ego and its hold on us, such as:

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"Let us begin this lesson in "ego dynamics" by understanding that the term itself does not mean anything. 2 It contains the very contradiction in terms that makes it meaningless. 3 "Dynamics" implies the power to do something, and the whole separation fallacy lies in the belief that the ego has the power to do anything. 4 The ego is fearful to you because you believe this. 5 Yet the truth is very simple:

6 All power is of God.
7 What is not of Him has no power to do anything.

When we look at the ego, then, we are not considering dynamics but delusions. 2 You can surely regard a delusional system without fear, for it cannot have any effects if its source is not real. 3 Fear becomes more obviously inappropriate if you recognize the ego's goal, which is so clearly senseless that any effort on its behalf is necessarily expended on nothing. 4 The ego's goal is quite explicitly ego autonomy. 5 From the beginning, then, its purpose is to be separate, sufficient unto itself and independent of any power except its own. 6 This is why it is the symbol of separation." - ACIM T-11.V.3-4

 

[Anderz]

ACIM says that miracles should be involuntary. But I think that we can prepare a foundation that makes miracles more prone to happen. Is conditional inner peace a contradiction? No, it isn't. Because the condition for inner peace is a state of harmony.

The ego is a state of disharmony relative to inner peace. So to the ego, inner peace can appear unconditional, for it doesn't fully grasp true harmony. And with this understanding miracles are invited. The recognition of the ego's inability to experience stable inner peace lays the foundation for miracles to happen that activate inner peace in us.

[Anderz]

Oh! This is curious. I discovered that when some inner peace is activated within me I can then use my conscious volition to direct my attention into the body and mind to where the inner peace should flow. That's an act of free will! Not ultimate free will because that's impossible I think, but the sense of free will is a very high level of development and should be included!

And this is also a method that prevents the psychological depersonalization disorder that can happen with mindfulness practice. Because there is conscious volition by the individual self; there is the sense of control and free will. From a nondual perspective the sense of free will can be seen as a property of reality as a whole operating within the person. So it's consistent with nonduality.

[Anderz]

I have been puzzled about how A Course in Miracles sometimes talks about free as something that we have. Now I understand it. Free will is a high level of development and should be included. And that's probably why the Law of One is so obsessed with the idea of preserving free will.

Free will in the sense of ACIM means to be aligned with the Holy Spirit. Then the individual self and the Holy Spirit become one. I think of the Holy Spirit as an automatic process, but it's not some mechanical process. The process of reality includes the operation of free will as a guiding principle, even though it's ultimately automatic.

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"The ego cannot teach you anything as long as your will is free, because you will not listen to it. 2 It is not your will to be imprisoned because your will is free. 3 That is why the ego is the denial of free will. 4 It is never God Who coerces you, because He shares His Will with you. 5 His Voice teaches only in accordance with His Will, but that is not the Holy Spirit's lesson because that is what you are. 6 The lesson is that your will and God's cannot be out of accord because they are one. 7 This is the undoing of everything the ego tries to teach. 8 It is not, then, only the direction of the curriculum that must be unconflicted, but also the content." - ACIM T-8.II.3. 

 

[Anderz]

In this video Leo has a great explanation from about 36 minutes about how it can be that we have been deceived into believing that we are separate selves. He compared it to how people centuries ago believed that the earth was the center of the universe. Today we no longer generally believe that, but we still believe that we are a separate self at the center.

And a similar way of seeing it is to think of how people centuries ago believed that the sun orbited around the earth. Today we believe that the world happens around our self as a separate individual at the center. The correct perspective is that the individual is a conceptual construct that happens within consciousness.

[Anderz]

I encountered an obstacle. I don't think it's a psychosomatic effect. It's probably a real hindrance. What I noticed is that when I tried to bring inner peace into my chest area I experienced a ghastly feeling. Horrible. That's the death drive.

And an open heart is necessary for stable inner peace I believe. I don't know what to do about it yet other than practicing inner body awareness of the death drive.

[Anderz]

How to integrate material success with nonduality? High social status, academic credentials, professional expertise, business success, wealth and good reputation, are those things still valuable?

What I have found in ACIM about material and social things like that is that they are all crap. And it seems that people who have those things still are miserable. One answer that came to me is that those things are important, but from relative perspectives. The problem appears when those attributes are taken as absolute possessions by individuals who believe they are separate.

So it's like the rest of the ego structure, which is a high level of development but a delusional one seen from the bigger picture. So people who cling to their ego identity remain miserable no matter how much success they achieve on a material and social level.

[Anderz]

How can ACIM say that the world today is crap?

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"It takes great learning both to realize and to accept the fact that the world has nothing to give. 2 What can the sacrifice of nothing mean? 3 It cannot mean that you have less because of it. 4 There is no sacrifice in the world's terms that does not involve the body. 5 Think a while about what the world calls sacrifice. 6 Power, fame, money, physical pleasure; who is the "hero" to whom all these things belong? " - ACIM M-13.2.

Nonduality teacher Roger Castillo, who sometimes quotes ACIM, said in a recent video that he thinks that the world is both real and also mind stuff. Something like that. Roger's view is similar to mine. And I think that the world is very valuable, or from a nondual perspective equally valuable as everything else.

Jordan Peterson said in a presentation that people defend their perspectives that Leo talked about, because if someone challenges their perspective that threatens their ranking in the social status hierarchy. And in the animal kingdom that means threat of survival; in society that equals to potential loss of money.

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"Here is the answer to every problem that will confront you, today and tomorrow and throughout time. 2 In this world, you believe you are sustained by everything but God. 3 Your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols; pills, money, "protective" clothing, influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the "right" people, and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers." - ACIM W-pI.50.1.

The nothingness ACIM talks about is that people give different values to different perspectives. And of course, especially our own perspective, and the perspective of our group, that is most valuable of all. That's of course a fallacy when seen from a nondual perspective. That's mindless chimp stuff, no matter how "intelligent" and "successful" the person is regarded to be. ACIM may go even deeper than that in its explanation of the world, but that's at least one reason for why the world is delusional.

[Anderz]

The ego has distrust in other egos. Therefore the ego puts its trust in money, laws and calendar time. A religious person doesn't generally trust God subconsciously, the person instead says things like "take it to the bank" and "right on the money", and "rest in peace" instead of saying "enjoy heaven".

So interestingly, all egos have the same fundamental perspectives of money, laws and calendar time. On top of that are different belief systems, nationality, education, cultures and so on, but to the ego those are only relevant in how they fit into the fundamental perspectives.

[Anderz]

As Leo mentioned, it's useful to step back from all perspectives. I think it's useful because of what ACIM says, which as I have mentioned several times, that the ego is totally confused about everything. This becomes evident in how the ego puts trust in its own perspectives, which is a double fallacy! Because as ACIM says, nothing real can be threatened. So all perspectives are already fully trustworthy, and so when the ego believes that there can be mistakes and threats, that creates a false foundation upon which perspectives are added. A double confusion.

But how can the perspective ACIM promotes be trusted? My own approach is to on purpose be confused about all perspectives and let the correct view sort itself out. I believe that ACIM correctly describes a higher and more correct perspective, but I'm not 100% sure. My litmus test is to see how much stable inner peace I have. My approach is the idea that false perspectives will lead to suffering.

[Anderz]

Speaking of perspectives, Tony Parsons has this brand new video where he talks about his hardcore nondual perspective:

Although I find Parson's perspective useful it lacks the increase of complexity leading to evolution. I would like to combine his perspective with an evolutionary perspective. The same with Ramesh Balsekar's perspective of reality as a single changeless block. But I also think that those nondual perspectives are very useful as a contrast to the mainstream perspective of a material universe based on separations.

[Anderz]

More on perspectives: A radical perspective is solipsism, the idea that I am the only existence.

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"Solipsism, in philosophy, an extreme form of subjective idealism that denies that the human mind has any valid ground for believing in the existence of anything but itself." - Britannica.com

To me solipsism is false, because it's like how people centuries ago believed that the earth was the center of the entire universe. However, I believe it's possible that our entire universe is just one minuscule and recent branch on a vast multiverse tree. And the multiverse tree contains zillions of universes similar to our own universe. So not even our universe is special. Each individual, and each universe is unique but not special, except the root universe of the whole multiverse tree.

Edited July 14, 2020 by Anderz

[Anderz]

The ego itself can be seen as a perspective. The ego is real, but it's just a conceptual construct. The individual self is as I see it a unique point within reality. A point is nothing in itself.

ACIM defines the self as:

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"The learning of the world is built upon a concept of the self adjusted to the world's reality. 2 It fits it well. 3 For this an image is that suits a world of shadows and illusions. 4 Here it walks at home, where what it sees is one with it. 5 The building of a concept of the self is what the learning of the world is for. 6 This is its purpose; that you come without a self, and make one as you go along. 7 And by the time you reach "maturity" you have perfected it, to meet the world on equal terms, at one with its demands.

A concept of the self is made by you. 2 It bears no likeness to yourself at all. 3 It is an idol, made to take the place of your reality as Son of God. ... Now must the Holy Spirit find a way to help you see this concept of the self must be undone, if any peace of mind is to be given you. ... The concept of the self has always been the great preoccupation of the world. 2 And everyone believes that he must find the answer to the riddle of himself. 3 Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the escape from concepts. ... Seek not your Self in symbols. 2 There can be no concept that can stand for what you are. ... in this learning is salvation born. 9 And What you are will tell you of Itself." - ACIM T-31.V.

 

[Anderz]

One problem with the internet is that everybody it seems believes in inevitable physical death. I have the opposite belief. There are a few exceptions, such as Bruce Lipton saying that aging is caused by belief. But even Lipton rarely says that anymore. So I will stay away from participating on the internet for a while.

[Anderz]

I will briefly mentioned another problem. People believe that we have been conscious in the past. My view is that we have never been conscious in the past, because all past is only in the now.