September 19, 2016
Louisville Class Notes
September 23, 2010
Introduction to the "Solid" world
A Course In Miracles asks each of us to be "Savior of the world". A truly daunting task - like moving a mountain with our mind!
But ACIM says we can do just that!
So does quantum mechanics which tells us that, underlying our seemingly solid reality is an infinite and formless one in which right now resides the manifestation of any possibility.
Like a vast, bubbling "Soup", some force is being used to pick and choose which possibilities are bubbling into form, growing and then decreasing until they pass from form altogether.
What that force is thought - something that exists outside of - and independent from - the dimension of our 5-sensory physical universe.
So...More important than...
- Your DNA
- Your age or gender, size or physical strengths
- What any "Expert" says is fact
- What any "Authority" claims is possible
- Your diet
- Your life-style choices
- Medications
- Your physical strengths and weaknesses - or any physical resources.
More important than any of these things is your tiniest little thought. For your thoughts "Bubble forth" your life according to the "recipe" of your beliefs.
And not just your life alone for everything is connected. Just like the tiny figures contained within the Mandelbrot set.
"Mandelbrot set images are made by sampling complex numbers and determining for each whether the result tends towards infinity when a particular mathematical operation is iterated on it. Treating the real and imaginary parts of each number as image coordinates, pixels are colored according to how rapidly the sequence diverges, if at all."
Wikipedia
The illusionary "Solid" world the physical senses "See"
This Course is a guide to behavior. Being a very direct and very simple learning situation, it provides the guide who tells you what to do. If you do it, you will see that it works. Its results are more convincing than its words. They will convince you that the words are true.
Original version of T-9.V.9.1-4
You are not asked to trust [the Holy Spirit] far. No further than what you see he offers you, and what you recognize you could not give yourself.
T-25.VIII.9.3-4
OE 46. A miracle is never lost. It touches many people you may not even know, and sometimes produces undreamed of changes in forces of which you are not even aware.
[FIP MP #45. A miracle is never lost. It may touch many people you have not even met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware.]
Be not deceived by the illusions ...Of size and thickness, weight, solidity, and firmness of foundation. Yes, to the body’s eyes it looks like an enormous, solid body, immovable as is a mountain. Yet, within you, there is a force which no illusions can resist.
T-22.V.5.2-4
Very few people appreciate the real power of the mind. Nobody remains fully aware of it all the time. This is inevitable in this world, because the human being has many things he must do, and cannot engage in constant thought-watching. However, if he hopes to spare himself from fear, there are some things he must realize, and realize them fully, at least some of the time.
The mind is a very powerful creator, and it never loses its creative force. It never sleeps. Every instant it is creating, and always as you will. ....It is hard to recognize that thought and beliefs combine into a power-surge that can literally move mountains.
Original version of T-2.VI.9.3-8
Why is it strange to you that faith can move mountains? This is indeed a little feat for such a power. For faith can keep the Son of God in chains, as long as he believes he is in chains. And, when he is released from them, it will be simply because he no longer believes in them, withdrawing faith that they can hold him, and placing it in his freedom instead.
T-21.III.3.1-4
Listen to what the ego says, and see what it directs you see, and it is sure that you will see yourself as tiny, vulnerable, and afraid. You will experience depression, a sense of worthlessness, and feelings of impermanence and unreality. You will believe that you are helpless prey to forces far beyond your own control, and far more powerful than you. And you will think the world you made directs your destiny. For this will be your faith. But never believe, because it is your faith, it makes reality. There is another vision and another voice, in which your freedom lies, awaiting but your choice. And, if you place your faith in them, you will perceive another self in you. This other self sees miracles as natural.
T-21.V.2.3 - 3
Lesson 166: here is the paradox that underlies the making of the world. This world is not the will of god, and so it is not real. Yet those who think it real must still believe there is another will, and one that leads to opposite effects from those he wills. Impossible indeed; but every mind that looks upon the world and judges it as certain, solid, trustworthy and true believes in two creators; or in one, himself alone. But never in one god. Paragraph 2
Lesson 137: to be healed is merely to accept what always was the simple truth, and always will remain exactly as it has forever been. Yet eyes accustomed to illusions must be shown that what they look upon is false. So healing, never needed by the truth, must demonstrate that sickness is not real.
Healing might thus be called a counter-dream, which cancels out the dream of sickness in the name of truth, but not in truth itself. Just as forgiveness overlooks all sins that never were accomplished, healing but removes illusions that have not occurred. Just as the real world will arise to take the place of what has never been at all, healing but offers restitution for imagined states and false ideas which dreams embroider into pictures of the truth.
Yet think not healing is unworthy of your function here. For anti-Christ becomes more powerful than Christ to those who dream the world is real. The body seems to be more solid and more stable than the mind. And love becomes a dream, while fear remains the one reality that can be seen and justified and fully understood.
Paragraphs 4.4 - 6
Listen, and try to think if you remember what we will speak of now. Listen, -- perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar. Like a song whose name is long forgotten, and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered. Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place, or anything particular. But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it, and how you loved those who were there, and listened with you.
The notes are nothing; yet you have kept them with you, not for themselves, but as a soft reminder of what would make you weep, if you remembered how dear it was to you. You could remember, yet you are afraid, believing you would lose the world you learned since then. And yet you know that nothing in the world you learned is half so dear as this. Listen, and see if you remember an ancient song you knew so long ago, and held more dear than any melody you taught yourself to cherish since. Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches, as you look, into a great and shining circle. And all the circle fills with light before your eyes.
The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it no longer is contained at all. The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity, forever shining, and with no break or limit anywhere. Within it, everything is joined in perfect continuity. Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside. For there is nowhere that this light is not. This is the vision of the son of god, whom you know well. Here is the sight of him who knows his father. Here is the memory of what you are; a part of this, with all of it within you, and joined to all of it as surely as all is joined to you.
T-21.I.6 - 9
