January 5, 2010
Happy New Year everyone. Be of good cheer.
New Year’s Day: A holiday celebrating faith in the mere passage of time as a means of producing change for the better. —: New Devil's Dictionary
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The unity of opposites
Anti-idolatry is no cure for idolatry. They are two sides of the same coin, and the reverse side affirms the belief in specialness just as much as does the obverse. When the Course says to reverse thinking 180 degrees, this isn't what it means.
This is the hidden unity in duality: You can't have anything without also having its opposite. As G. I. Gurdjieff said it, every stick has two ends. In the seeming opposites of apparent duality, opposites are in a mutually dependent relationship.
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The Easter Lily and cultural relativism in ACIM
The symbolic association of white trumpet lilies (Lilium longiflorum) with Easter, and the phrase "Easter Lilies," is a fairly recent development. The cultural significance of the symbolism is limited primarily to the English speaking parts of the world, and particularly the United States and Canada. These lilies are native to Japan and were not introduced to England and the United States until the 19th Century. . . . (read more)
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Reading the Gospels
October 1991 through October 1992 was my one-year stint in an intense super-secret Fourth Way teaching school that had relocated in Louisville from Colorado just as I joined, and which moved on to Lexington, Kentucky, shortly after I got myself kicked out. There were two teachers who were husband and wife, and about twenty students. At first, most of the students were the ones who had re-located with the teachers from Colorado. The focus of study was through a direct line of teaching from G. I. Gurdjieff, through P. D. Ouspensky, through Rodney Collins.
It was here that my reconciliation with Christianity began. It was here that I first encountered a plausible alternative interpretation of the Gospels that made sense to me at the time. The value to me at that time was immense. It opened a crack in the seemingly monolithic and impenetrable fog of contemporary mainstream Christian discourse that I didn't believe or respect. It involved questioning the purpose and intent of the gospels. . . (read more)
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Reading A Course in Miracles
"Jesus has led the way. This course has come from him because his words have reached you in a language you can love and understand." - ACIM
Over a period of forty-three years, the great Sufi master Jalaluddin Rumi (1207 - 1273) dictated his Spiritual Couplets (Mathnawi-i-Manawi) to a scribe.
In his 1964 book The Sufis, the great contemporary Sufi teacher Idreis Shah wrote of the Mathnawi that its poetry and imagery is, "of such power in the original that its recitation produces a strangely complex exaltation of the hearer's consciousness." . . . ( read more )
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Christ in You - Lesson three - Christ the life
The voice of spirit is far-reaching. It is the expression of omnipresence, and is both near and far. It knows nothing of space, but for the present we must deal with beginnings. Perhaps it would be as well to help you at your present stage of unfoldment. It is absolutely necessary that you should have times of quiet, that you should come out from the business of life for a part of each day. If you were to wait in silence, holding the attitude of growth and steady development, thinking above all else of the kingdom of God — your condition should not be one of strain or of blank nothingness, avoid both these extremes — the result would be of the highest value to yourself and to all around you. . . . ( read more )
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ACIM is NOT nihilism
The term "nihilism" comes from the Latin word "nihil", which translates to the English word "nothing". Most commonly, the philosophical doctrine of nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism. Existential nihilism argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. . . . ( read more )
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Peace,
Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky
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