February 3, 2010
Getting Through the Gate
By Melissa (honeybeerose) on ACIM Chat
I had quite a bit of insight into this yesterday. A lot of stuff came up regarding to my resistance to work over the last year and frustration with things constantly breaking or seeming to not work out the way they "should". I've been stuck on this in relation to work for a long time. These ideas are helpful for me to remember...
1. Training
I had this image come into my mind about horse training. When you are training a horse to go through a gate, a lot of times the horse is afraid to go through and will rush through the gate feeling the fear of that squeeze. What you do is every time he does that you go back through again. You keep going through the gate until the horse walks through calmly, like it's nothing. You do not stop while the horse is still in fear, you keep doing it until he's very calm and no longer fears the gate. This can be a long process sometimes. This is what Holy Spirit is helping me with right now. Work is the gate and I am the horse avoiding it like the plague. I'm actually feeling like I'm on the other side of the paddock trying to stay as far away from the gate as I can get sometimes. LOL! The gate is totally harmless but I'm giving it all of this meaning and power. Every time I am taken through the gate (work frustrations come up) I am given the opportunity to choose differently. I notice the resistance and can choose not to believe in the thoughts that make it (this somehow became much easier yesterday). Now when the resistance comes up I can see myself as the horse and choose to calmly walk through it knowing I'm being given another chance to choose peace instead of this. This little visual reminder is so helpful to me.
2. Authority Problem
I saw the AP in me big time about this. Wanting to be able to control the outcome and what it should look like. Not wanting to listen to HS because of fear that if I do I will be loosing something (of course that's me listening to Ego, which creates an experience of me feeling vulnerable and lack... exactly what it says it's going to protect me from).
3. Meaninglessness of Form
I also saw this attachment to form by putting so much importance in how the outcome looks, and making it real that way. My guidance is just trying to show me the way out of form and only using it symbolically to awaken me. I had a question come to me, "Would you rather have [that outcome in form], or would you rather awaken?". I would rather awaken! So then I was shown how meaningless the form is in itself. The outcome either way is the same, you are either in error believing in it or released from it by letting it be used to show the way to freedom from it.
This stuff probably sounds overly simple, I've heard it before, but again I was able to see it in a way that sunk in on a deeper level. By just choosing to let go of my authority problem and attachment to outcome in form I can get great opportunities to become more free from the world in ways I never imagined.
4. Trust and Rest
I've been getting this message a lot! It just feels sometimes like I'm walking a plank and feeling like there must be an end to this somewhere and feeling like I can't do it much longer. But that is ego of course. I can always come back to this in each moment that I choose to. Would I rather have worry and fear or be oblivious to those feelings and be happy? Honestly, regardless of what the situation looks like (which I don't have control of anyway) I choose now to be happy.
I have heard the ego screaming at me telling me I need to really think about these things, worry about them or I'll be stupid and crazy and end up homeless and eating trash out of the gutter! But then I have also had the experience that a little willingness to let these ideas of the ego go and not believe in them. Then comes a peace that removes the fear. Then I am actually able to do exactly what I need to do (and in many cases this probably still looks quite the same from the outside), but with clarity and an ability to actually hear guidance when I need it. It feels that I am able to do whatever it is I need to do in a much more efficient way without all of that fear (... and I haven't wandered off to senselessness and stupidity as the ego had warned).
-- oOo --
Perception and Knowledge
by Deborah Danielski on ACIM Chat
Beverly writes: I have always found "true perception" a contradiction in itself. To say that anything is true, is to say it doesn't change. However, perception, can always be changed, because perception is a way of looking, isnt it? and a way of looking can't be true, even if it is a better way of looking. So I really don't understand the meaning of "true perception".
Let's see if I can explain what I think A Course in Miracles means by "true and false perception" by using a very simple concept “she scratched her nose.”
Knowledge is experiential and can only be spoken or written of in a very limited way. To actually describe the totality of the experience of scratching your nose would take pages and pages of words. You might begin with “a sensation was felt in the nose” but then you would have to describe HOW that sensation was felt, how the nerves transmit the sensation, move the muscles of the arm, etc. etc. In fact, the average person would be incapable of describing everything that actually occurs in the experience of scratching a nose. At least *I* would have to consult a neurologist, physiologist perhaps even a psychologist to understand how nose scratching actually occurs and even that would still only be a very limited picture. The truth of the matter is no one actually knows everything that goes into the action of scratching a nose. But nearly everyone knows nose scratching happens, so we write “she scratched her nose” and everyone who has ever scratched her nose understands what the words mean -- to a certain extent anyway.
The experience of nose scratching is total. What can be spoken, written or thought ABOUT nose scratching (perception) is not. The Course says “Unless perception rests on some knowing basis, it is so unstable that it doesn’t mean anything.” If you’ve never scratched your nose and read or hear the words “she scratched her nose”-- whatever meaning you try to assign to that experience IS meaningless. Since you probably have scratched your nose, you have “a knowing basis” for your perception of nose scratching.
A way of looking can never be absolutely true because we do NOT know where or how the sensation of “itch” arises or everything that goes into scratching that itch. I don’t really think that’s what the Course is addressing, however, when it contrasts true and false perception. I think it is addressing judgments the mind ADDS to the experience. For instance, suppose I have past knowledge that the nose scratcher is also a cocaine snorter or I have past knowledge that snorting coke makes MY nose itch. So I project that past knowledge into the present experience and THINK “I bet she’s scratching her nose because she just snorted coke.” I might whisper to someone else present “she probably just snorted coke” and they might say “I bet you’re right.” But that verbal agreement doesn’t make it true that she just snorted coke.
It is highly unlikely that anyone present when "she scratched her nose" would deny or debate whether "she scratched her nose" or "she did not scratch her nose" because the experience was shared. Unless of course one of those present was blind or not looking when the nose scratching happened. What is added TO the experience, however, “she scratched her nose because she just snorted coke” (illusion) is NOT shared but can only be verbally expressed and either agreed or disagreed with. Only if the person scratching her nose says “That coke really makes my nose itch” does everyone present know the truth that she snorted coke. Otherwise, no matter what I think her reason for scratching her nose may or may not be, it is false perception. Even if I believe the thought that “she just snorted coke” came from the Holy Spirit it is STILL false perception until it is confirmed by the nose scratcher.
And THAT is where so very many Course students disagree with me. To them, what they believe the Holy Spirit told them is MORE true than what is "seen with the body’s eyes" or "heard with the body’s ears." For those people the nose scratcher could swear under oath that she did NOT just snort coke and they would not believe it.
As much and as clearly as the Course explains projection/perception -- “when I snort coke it makes my nose itch so she probably just snorted coke, too” SOME people still insist it is NOT talking about anything sensible -- through any of the ordinary five senses -- because what is sensible is judged to be “physical” and therefore “not real.” To them, only what is THOUGHT or comes through an extraordinary "sixth (spiritual) sense" is considered real. In other words, rather than integrating that "sixth sense" with the "ordinary five senses" they exclude the five senses from the sixth sense. “You give everything whatever meaning it has for you,” is reinterpreted to mean “You give everything whatever meaning it has” period. For them, “the world you see” IS “the world.” Reality is so totally divorced from anything that can be sensed that the only way to “truly forgive” is to believe your own personal thoughts -- attributing them to the Holy Spirit, of course.
Quite frankly, I have yet to hear a good explanation for how that belief is reconciled with the Course statement that "within and without are exactly the same thing." Until or unless I do, I can only say that if everything sensed is believed to be illusion when God says “Let there be light” there IS light but it is never here or observable to anyone but me. I could shout “See the light, see the light until I am blue in the face” and the listeners would respond “Light? What light?“ I MIGHT manage to convince them that the light only I can see is real. If I do, they may even seek a light and have their own personal “experience” of it. We could then compare notes about our "experience" of the light to try to determine if it was the same light. But it is still just verbal and meaningless unless or until we both say or have said, thought or felt, “Ah ha! I see that light!“
Words are just words unless you have experienced or until you do experience what the words point toward -- nose scratching, eating chocolate, atonement or anything else. People love mystery though, so they prefer to talk about what can only be “divined” about nose scratching to what they actually know about nose scratching. Some people seem to believe that with knowledge preception ends. I see no reason to believe such a thing. The only difference knowledge makes is that you recognize the limitations of perception and don't believe it. You no longer say "she scratched her nose because she snorted cocaine" as though it was fact. You ask "Did you just snort cocaine?" Or you say "It seems to me she may have just snorted cocaine." Or you might even say "the way I see it, people who scratch their noses often do so because they just snorted cocaine." But you would probably not say "everyone who scratches her nose snorts cocaine."
You may or may not tell stories. You just don't believe them any more.
-- oOo --
"the dark ones"
by Carrie Genevachild on ACIM Chat
T-21.VII.1: 7 Treachery to the Son of God is the defense of those who do not identify with him. 8 And you are for him or against him; either you love him or attack him, protect his unity or see him shattered and slain by your attack.Comment: Ok. What I was looking at yesterday was a witness for ego, a character up on that projection screen who does not identify with the Son of God. I do see him shattered and slain by my attack. Look at this world!
T-21.VII.2: 2 And those who see themselves as helpless must believe that they are not the Son of God. 3 What can they be except his enemy? 4 And what can they do but envy him his power, and by their envy make themselves afraid of it? 5 These are the dark ones, silent and afraid, alone and not communicating, fearful the power of the Son of God will strike them dead, and raising up their helplessness against him. 6 They join the army of the powerless, to wage their war of vengeance, bitterness and spite on him, to make him one with them. 7 Because they do not know that they are one with him, they know not whom they hate. 8 They are indeed a sorry army, each one as likely to attack his brother or turn upon himself as to remember that they thought they had a common cause.Comment: “These are the dark ones, silent and afraid, alone and not communicating…”
“They are indeed a sorry army, each one as likely to attack his brother or turn upon himself as to remember that they thought they had a common cause.”Comment: This is what I see in my world.
T-21.VII.3. Frantic and loud and strong the dark ones seem to be. 2 Yet they know not their "enemy," except they hate him. 3 In hatred they have come together, but have not joined each other.Comment: He’s talkin’ about my world.
7 How would an army act in dreams? 8 Any way at all. 9 It could be seen attacking anyone with anything. 10 Dreams have no reason in them.Comment: Characters in my dream world attack reason, intellect, thinking, and understanding.
13 This is no army, but a madhouse. 14 What seems to be a planned attack is bedlam.Comment: I find comfort in these words because Jesus/Holy Spirit understands my misery, understands my world, sits in this darkened theatre of my mind watching “The Life & Times of Carrie” with me. I am not alone.
T-21.VII.4. The army of the powerless is weak indeed. 2 It has no weapons and it has no enemy. 3 Yes, it can overrun the world and seek an enemy. 4 But it can never find what is not there. 5 Yes, it can dream it found an enemy, but this will shift even as it attacks, so that it runs at once to find another, and never comes to rest in victory. 6 And as it runs it turns against itself, thinking it caught a glimpse of the great enemy who always eludes its murderous attack by turning into something else.Comment: Yes, this army of the powerless does overrun my world and seek an enemy. Me. “And as it runs it turns against itself, thinking it caught a glimpse of the great enemy who always eludes its murderous attack by turning into something else.” What I am looking at is a projection of self hatred. The great enemy is me.
T-21.VII.5. Yet hate must have a target.Comment: Yes. The target is me.
T-21.VII.8: 3…as you look on the effects of sin in any form, all you need do is simply ask yourself:4 Is this what I would see? 5 Do I want this?
Comment: Good questions.
T-21.VII.9. This is your one decision; this the condition for what occurs. 2 It is irrelevant to how it happens, but not to why. 3 You have control of this. 4 And if you choose to see a world without an enemy, in which you are not helpless, the means to see it will be given you.Comment: today I choose to see a world without an enemy. Today I choose to realize the power to see things differently.
Lesson 33. There is another way of looking at the world.
