Such a great discussion with much to contemplate!! Stretching my stubbornly held beliefs seems to be the current theme. One of those beliefs is about Love. Many teachings are about, when I give to others, serve others, love others..I am reflecting God’s love and I’ll become more like Christ. Others say, until I fully see that I AM God’s love and awaken to that truth, all acts of love and charity, whilst admirable, are always about my best interests….looking for approval, validation, love outside myself, acknowledgment that the dark I see inside is not visible on the outside. Failing to see none of these mind games are real!
This is a hard pill to swallow if it’s true!
What if my will IS God’s will, fully experiencing itself through me, which is all there is. No judgement, no mistakes, no ‘being good’ so I feel better about myself.
For ultimately, if I can sit with the discomfort of questioning why I help others, why I volunteer, why I make a meal for someone in need..can I truly say it’s altruistic without any selfish motives on my part? Is it because I completely embrace that I am Love and all I encounter are reflections of that Love? Do I see their brokenness as my own and love them because I am love?
I think there is a lot of value is coming to these questions and then just sitting with them. I agree with you that "only the Holy Spirit can answer" though I think I might be more optimistic in that it's my conviction that the Holy Spirit WILL answer them.
Before it is impersonal, the course is deeply personal - so much so it can feel as if it were written just for me. It brings me face to face with my confusion about God, my fear of Love, my stubborn insistence that separation isn't so bad, my willingness to go it alone, et cetera . . .
Over and over it brings me into the space of facing my fear and my guilt - in the many forms and patterns that they assume. Sometimes it's an interior process and sometimes it's brutally external - something at work, in the politic arena, my bank account, whatever.
And the work is, over and over, just sit with it. Don't try to fix it, don't try to understand it, don't try to undo it. Don't ignore it but also don't be bullied by it.
Just let it be what it is and ask, over and over, of the Holy Spirit or Jesus or God or your late Grandmother or whatever symbol of Love you most trust, what can I learn here? What can I learn here that will make me a better servant of all my brothers and sisters? What can I learn that will make me happy in a way that is easy to share?
And in my experience, there will be little insights and nudges, and gently pushes here and there, and slowly - but surely - I find myself coming to clarity and a sense of inner peace. Nothing really changes externally but the pressure comes down and it's easier to see what the most helpful kind loving thing to do is, in whatever situation I find myself.
We are built to be happy, and to share our happiness, and in that sharing to enable others to be happy sharers of happiness as well. Mostly that's what I learn from Jesus and the Holy Spirit - there's another way, and this other way is about peace and happiness, about keeping it simple, letting things go, et cetera.
Sometimes it feels like I'm right there and other times I slip into despair . . . and it's all okay. Even when I'm scared and can't figure out the next step, it's okay.
Anyway, all of this is just to say, I love the big questions you are asking - I love the understanding that underlies all of them - and I love your willingness to be vulnerable with them. That to me is our spiritual practice. Thank you for reminding me, and for modeling the the way.
Thanks again for responding Sean. Deep inside I have a knowing that when Jesus said ‘I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly’ he was giving the simplest yet most challenging truth of creation. Such simple instructions for Love. To live life abundantly is to participate fully in all of it.
ALL of it. I can’t do it alone and I’ll keep letting go, again and again. This time seems like a ‘dark night of the soul’ as it’s described. Whilst I understand the phrase and feel into this confusion, I also don’t hold to labels that are perhaps a more palatable way of saying I’m learning who I am and the ego is fighting hard to keep the status quo. Not nearly as cool sounding 😂
I too am grateful for the spirit that speaks through your wisdom and down to earth realness. No going back!! Thank goodness.
Thank you, Liz - "to live life abundantly is to participate fully in all of it." I really appreciate that clarity and need to hear and remember it often. We don't want to be casual bystanders but really lean into the gifts of God.
And thanks too for referring to the "knowing" deep inside. I think that's such an important idea - that there is within us a space of knowledge and certainty that Jesus symbolizes and shares - and to which we have access BECAUSE we are, like Jesus, aspects of God's loving creation.
Anyway . . . yes to all of this. And thank you again for being here and sharing. We are in this together and absolutely not going back 🙏🙏
This is wonderful. Your friend was right to encourage you to publish this now. Please thank her/him for me.
It strikes me as so funny that we (Americans, at least) do love DIY tv shows. There it is, constantly in front of us: Do It Yourself. This morning I had to make a decision about whether or not to take offense at something a friend said. It was an easy decision--I love her and she was trying to be sensitive and just barely missed the mark. To do anything but laugh and hug her via email would have been soooo mean to her as well as self-destructive, and didn't I (above) claim to love my friend? Thank goodness, it was, as you said, my decision. I remember back when I didn't ever think it was my decision and would have blamed her for the great, awful, hideous sin of being occasionally awkward. Whew.
You're welcome, Nancy. Thank you for being here, and for sharing. Those little moments when we choose peace instead of conflict are so deep and meaningful - they are all the miracle there needs to be in this world. It's easy to get worked up about the big picture (I do, all the time) but in the end, the question is how we are connecting with one another in the day-to-day rhythms and currents of our lives. Being responsible for that is oddly difficult considering the many benefits to us and all our brothers and sisters.
Thanks for reading and sharing, again. I really appreciate you, Nancy. I hope all is well 🙏🙏
Thank you so much for sharing this Sean. I am new to ACIM, at a personal "crisis" point and navigating the world as it is and this is the most lucid read I have encountered. Tears well in response to the truth. I will be returning to this as a reminder perhaps even daily.
You're welcome, Alison. Thank you for sharing and for being here. I'm glad the post was helpful - the light in us finds all kinds of ways to shine 🙏🙏 Good luck with your ACIM practice - I hope it is helpful - and always feel free to reach out.
Opening my email this morning and finding your article was definitely a miracle.
There has been such awareness lately of how deeply rooted the same old thought patterns are. I feel childish, like a victim and want to scream, go away, go away, leave me alone because I have read that you are not real, yet the thought patterns persist.
I blame the thoughts, the causes and conditions, and God ! Blame , Blame, Blame, constantly.
Thank you for showing me how much I am in denial. I feel like the child you described making faces in the mirror and gets anger at the jerk that won’t stop making the faces. That ever so sweet paragraph in ACIM of coming on to God with wholly empty hands is the only answer,
Thank you Sean for always sharing your light, it helps me remember the light within. Deep gratitude. 🙏
You're welcome, Glenda. You are speaking right into my heart here - those deep patterns of victimization, shame, blame, othering . . . that stuff is deep and scary. For me, it has taken a lot of time and attention (and help) to even reach it, let alone give it over for undoing. And yes - the empty hands, the open mind, the welcoming heart - they are the means by which we remember peace and happiness.
And good company helps - thank you again for being here, Glenda. I'm very grateful for you 🙏🙏
Thank YOU Rose - you're the reason we're all here reading and sharing today. I'm very very grateful for your thoughtfulness and the nudge to share this again 🙏🙏
Loveliness can light your images and so transform them that you will love them even though they were made of hate. For you will not be making them alone.
You're welcome, Nilsa - and thank you for adding those sentences from Lesson 23 - they are right on point and it makes me happy that we're sharing the same vibe 🙏🙏 Thank you for being here.
Sean, thanks for this timely [re]post. The elevating fear and chaos of current events is in itself a cause of fear, so this post helps lower the heat [a bit]. Even though I believe that divine order is in play, and that in order for one to see the light, one must experience the dark, myself included, I personally struggle with how to act during times like this. Understanding that only love is real, I question myself as to how passive or active might I be to play a part in spreading more light and reducing my own points of separation? I accept ACIM as helping to teach me the spiritual principles of love, peace, and joy, and that by ‘being’ these principles, they naturally spread, but during such trying times, I feel compelled to do more. I have to figure that part out, but in the meantime, your grounding words are helpful.
You're welcome, Tom. Thanks for reading and sharing.
Your dilemma is mine as well - I think many of us really struggle with the gap between the theory of love, which is so appealing and easy to verbalize, and the application, which is a whole other level of challenge. For me, it helps to remember the first principle of miracles - there is no order of difficulty amongst them.
This helps me in two ways. First, it helps me remember that my perspective (as you point out - I know you get this) is flawed and needs to be taken with a grain of salt. All my fears depend on "orders of difficulty" being real. Like, I can handle a stubbed toe but war? That's too much!
The course invites me to breathe on that - even if I don't understand how a stubbed toe and war are the same, I can at least stipulate that there is another way to look at whatever I'm looking at.
The other thing that miracle principle does is restore to me a sense of agency. Kind of like Nancy said in an earlier comment - in the end, I can't fix the world. But I can swallow my pride, I can help somebody out, I can offer a compliment, prepare a meal. I think often of our Buddhist brothers and sisters who talk about chopping wood and carrying water. All we really need to do is be loving in the context that appears before us - the seeming bigger stuff will dissolve and dissipate if we can figure out how to love one another here in the moment.
Which, again, is easy to say or write! Bringing into practice . . . that's hard. I'm glad that we're not alone and that we get to work it out together, bumps and all. Thanks again, Tom. I'm really grateful 🙏🙏
Thank you Sean for sharing this. It is another of your beautiful and thorough summary of what goes on here with us seen under the Light of ACIM. It is so very helpful to keep hearing this message from different perspectives again and again because of our inherent condition of amnesia. Yet another clear reminder thank you 🙏🙏
You're welcome, Aysin. "Inherent condition of amnesia" - that's a lovely way to put it. I'm very grateful to be in communion with so many good folks committed to undoing that amnesia together. We need one another to remember the other way - thank you for sharing the path with me that way 🙏🙏
The last line.. “can we at least accept that the power of decision is ours?” sent my mind straight to the Sam Harris stuff about free will being bogus.
Don’t worry, I love you more than I love Sam Harris. Wait, that’s not what love is. Shit, here comes another headache.
I don't think we have reached a consensus in the scientific and philosophical communities about free will. I tend to agree that if determinism holds, then all our decisions have causes which can make them SEEM like they are not free, but which I think is slightly different kind of argument.
The critical piece there is that it SEEMS and FEELS as if we have agency! And aligning ourselves with that power - however seeming it may or may not turn out to be - seems to align us with better outcomes. In other words, even if free will IS an illusion (and I'm open to that idea and even lean in that direction) then the illusion can still be useful in terms of peace, happiness, creativity and so forth.
So when ACIM talks about free will, I tend to sidestep the "is it or is it not real" and think about it more in terms of alignment with forces for wellness/love, sort of like allowing ourselves to slip into a favorable current.
Thanks for a good point! And your point about love is well-taken :)
Your comment reminds me of what I constantly need to be reminded of, which is that when I turn decisions over to the Holy Spirit ("the Voice for God"), I will be choosing and acting not of MY will at all, but of God's. The whole question of free will becomes meaningless then with the sole exception of using it to ask for God's will to be done through me. Then, after we do this and do this and do this (turn it over turn it over turn it over. let go let go let go) we begin to grasp what God's will is and then, by following that will so often it becomes natural to us. That's the only way our will can be free, it seems to me, because it removes any hint of ego and chooses love, instead. So thanks.
Waiting for the outside world to change before you choose to be happy, is like waiting for your reflection to smile first.
Well said! Thank you Michelle 🙏🙏
~ Sean
hahaha!! Love this!
Such a great discussion with much to contemplate!! Stretching my stubbornly held beliefs seems to be the current theme. One of those beliefs is about Love. Many teachings are about, when I give to others, serve others, love others..I am reflecting God’s love and I’ll become more like Christ. Others say, until I fully see that I AM God’s love and awaken to that truth, all acts of love and charity, whilst admirable, are always about my best interests….looking for approval, validation, love outside myself, acknowledgment that the dark I see inside is not visible on the outside. Failing to see none of these mind games are real!
This is a hard pill to swallow if it’s true!
What if my will IS God’s will, fully experiencing itself through me, which is all there is. No judgement, no mistakes, no ‘being good’ so I feel better about myself.
For ultimately, if I can sit with the discomfort of questioning why I help others, why I volunteer, why I make a meal for someone in need..can I truly say it’s altruistic without any selfish motives on my part? Is it because I completely embrace that I am Love and all I encounter are reflections of that Love? Do I see their brokenness as my own and love them because I am love?
Huge questions born out of fear I suspect.
Only the Holy Spirit can answer them, or not.
Hi Liz,
I think there is a lot of value is coming to these questions and then just sitting with them. I agree with you that "only the Holy Spirit can answer" though I think I might be more optimistic in that it's my conviction that the Holy Spirit WILL answer them.
Before it is impersonal, the course is deeply personal - so much so it can feel as if it were written just for me. It brings me face to face with my confusion about God, my fear of Love, my stubborn insistence that separation isn't so bad, my willingness to go it alone, et cetera . . .
Over and over it brings me into the space of facing my fear and my guilt - in the many forms and patterns that they assume. Sometimes it's an interior process and sometimes it's brutally external - something at work, in the politic arena, my bank account, whatever.
And the work is, over and over, just sit with it. Don't try to fix it, don't try to understand it, don't try to undo it. Don't ignore it but also don't be bullied by it.
Just let it be what it is and ask, over and over, of the Holy Spirit or Jesus or God or your late Grandmother or whatever symbol of Love you most trust, what can I learn here? What can I learn here that will make me a better servant of all my brothers and sisters? What can I learn that will make me happy in a way that is easy to share?
And in my experience, there will be little insights and nudges, and gently pushes here and there, and slowly - but surely - I find myself coming to clarity and a sense of inner peace. Nothing really changes externally but the pressure comes down and it's easier to see what the most helpful kind loving thing to do is, in whatever situation I find myself.
We are built to be happy, and to share our happiness, and in that sharing to enable others to be happy sharers of happiness as well. Mostly that's what I learn from Jesus and the Holy Spirit - there's another way, and this other way is about peace and happiness, about keeping it simple, letting things go, et cetera.
Sometimes it feels like I'm right there and other times I slip into despair . . . and it's all okay. Even when I'm scared and can't figure out the next step, it's okay.
Anyway, all of this is just to say, I love the big questions you are asking - I love the understanding that underlies all of them - and I love your willingness to be vulnerable with them. That to me is our spiritual practice. Thank you for reminding me, and for modeling the the way.
~ Sean
Thanks again for responding Sean. Deep inside I have a knowing that when Jesus said ‘I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly’ he was giving the simplest yet most challenging truth of creation. Such simple instructions for Love. To live life abundantly is to participate fully in all of it.
ALL of it. I can’t do it alone and I’ll keep letting go, again and again. This time seems like a ‘dark night of the soul’ as it’s described. Whilst I understand the phrase and feel into this confusion, I also don’t hold to labels that are perhaps a more palatable way of saying I’m learning who I am and the ego is fighting hard to keep the status quo. Not nearly as cool sounding 😂
I too am grateful for the spirit that speaks through your wisdom and down to earth realness. No going back!! Thank goodness.
Thank you, Liz - "to live life abundantly is to participate fully in all of it." I really appreciate that clarity and need to hear and remember it often. We don't want to be casual bystanders but really lean into the gifts of God.
And thanks too for referring to the "knowing" deep inside. I think that's such an important idea - that there is within us a space of knowledge and certainty that Jesus symbolizes and shares - and to which we have access BECAUSE we are, like Jesus, aspects of God's loving creation.
Anyway . . . yes to all of this. And thank you again for being here and sharing. We are in this together and absolutely not going back 🙏🙏
~ Sean
‘Wholly empty hands before your God’ says it all!! 💖
Yeah I love those lines from the course and come back to them a LOT 🙏🙏
~ Sean
This is wonderful. Your friend was right to encourage you to publish this now. Please thank her/him for me.
It strikes me as so funny that we (Americans, at least) do love DIY tv shows. There it is, constantly in front of us: Do It Yourself. This morning I had to make a decision about whether or not to take offense at something a friend said. It was an easy decision--I love her and she was trying to be sensitive and just barely missed the mark. To do anything but laugh and hug her via email would have been soooo mean to her as well as self-destructive, and didn't I (above) claim to love my friend? Thank goodness, it was, as you said, my decision. I remember back when I didn't ever think it was my decision and would have blamed her for the great, awful, hideous sin of being occasionally awkward. Whew.
Thanks, Sean.
You're welcome, Nancy. Thank you for being here, and for sharing. Those little moments when we choose peace instead of conflict are so deep and meaningful - they are all the miracle there needs to be in this world. It's easy to get worked up about the big picture (I do, all the time) but in the end, the question is how we are connecting with one another in the day-to-day rhythms and currents of our lives. Being responsible for that is oddly difficult considering the many benefits to us and all our brothers and sisters.
Thanks for reading and sharing, again. I really appreciate you, Nancy. I hope all is well 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Thank you so much for sharing this Sean. I am new to ACIM, at a personal "crisis" point and navigating the world as it is and this is the most lucid read I have encountered. Tears well in response to the truth. I will be returning to this as a reminder perhaps even daily.
You're welcome, Alison. Thank you for sharing and for being here. I'm glad the post was helpful - the light in us finds all kinds of ways to shine 🙏🙏 Good luck with your ACIM practice - I hope it is helpful - and always feel free to reach out.
Thanks again for sharing and being here.
~ Sean
Thank you thank you. 🙏
Opening my email this morning and finding your article was definitely a miracle.
There has been such awareness lately of how deeply rooted the same old thought patterns are. I feel childish, like a victim and want to scream, go away, go away, leave me alone because I have read that you are not real, yet the thought patterns persist.
I blame the thoughts, the causes and conditions, and God ! Blame , Blame, Blame, constantly.
Thank you for showing me how much I am in denial. I feel like the child you described making faces in the mirror and gets anger at the jerk that won’t stop making the faces. That ever so sweet paragraph in ACIM of coming on to God with wholly empty hands is the only answer,
Thank you Sean for always sharing your light, it helps me remember the light within. Deep gratitude. 🙏
You're welcome, Glenda. You are speaking right into my heart here - those deep patterns of victimization, shame, blame, othering . . . that stuff is deep and scary. For me, it has taken a lot of time and attention (and help) to even reach it, let alone give it over for undoing. And yes - the empty hands, the open mind, the welcoming heart - they are the means by which we remember peace and happiness.
And good company helps - thank you again for being here, Glenda. I'm very grateful for you 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Thank you.
Thank YOU Rose - you're the reason we're all here reading and sharing today. I'm very very grateful for your thoughtfulness and the nudge to share this again 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Loveliness can light your images and so transform them that you will love them even though they were made of hate. For you will not be making them alone.
Lesson 23
You will be making them with the Holy Spirit.
Thank you Sean!
You're welcome, Nilsa - and thank you for adding those sentences from Lesson 23 - they are right on point and it makes me happy that we're sharing the same vibe 🙏🙏 Thank you for being here.
~ Sean
Thank you so much, Sean. So beautifully said. Love to all.
You're welcome, Joanne - thank you for being here and sharing. Yes, love to all of us - there can never been too much 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Sean, thanks for this timely [re]post. The elevating fear and chaos of current events is in itself a cause of fear, so this post helps lower the heat [a bit]. Even though I believe that divine order is in play, and that in order for one to see the light, one must experience the dark, myself included, I personally struggle with how to act during times like this. Understanding that only love is real, I question myself as to how passive or active might I be to play a part in spreading more light and reducing my own points of separation? I accept ACIM as helping to teach me the spiritual principles of love, peace, and joy, and that by ‘being’ these principles, they naturally spread, but during such trying times, I feel compelled to do more. I have to figure that part out, but in the meantime, your grounding words are helpful.
You're welcome, Tom. Thanks for reading and sharing.
Your dilemma is mine as well - I think many of us really struggle with the gap between the theory of love, which is so appealing and easy to verbalize, and the application, which is a whole other level of challenge. For me, it helps to remember the first principle of miracles - there is no order of difficulty amongst them.
This helps me in two ways. First, it helps me remember that my perspective (as you point out - I know you get this) is flawed and needs to be taken with a grain of salt. All my fears depend on "orders of difficulty" being real. Like, I can handle a stubbed toe but war? That's too much!
The course invites me to breathe on that - even if I don't understand how a stubbed toe and war are the same, I can at least stipulate that there is another way to look at whatever I'm looking at.
The other thing that miracle principle does is restore to me a sense of agency. Kind of like Nancy said in an earlier comment - in the end, I can't fix the world. But I can swallow my pride, I can help somebody out, I can offer a compliment, prepare a meal. I think often of our Buddhist brothers and sisters who talk about chopping wood and carrying water. All we really need to do is be loving in the context that appears before us - the seeming bigger stuff will dissolve and dissipate if we can figure out how to love one another here in the moment.
Which, again, is easy to say or write! Bringing into practice . . . that's hard. I'm glad that we're not alone and that we get to work it out together, bumps and all. Thanks again, Tom. I'm really grateful 🙏🙏
~ Sean
🙏
Your friend's suggestion was a good one. I know I feel better. Thanks, Sean.
You're welcome, Kim - I'm going to let them know it was a helpful nudge :) Thanks for being here and sharing. I'm very grateful 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Thank you Sean for sharing this. It is another of your beautiful and thorough summary of what goes on here with us seen under the Light of ACIM. It is so very helpful to keep hearing this message from different perspectives again and again because of our inherent condition of amnesia. Yet another clear reminder thank you 🙏🙏
You're welcome, Aysin. "Inherent condition of amnesia" - that's a lovely way to put it. I'm very grateful to be in communion with so many good folks committed to undoing that amnesia together. We need one another to remember the other way - thank you for sharing the path with me that way 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Thank you 🙏🙏
I am very grateful to all and for your generous and genuine efforts to bring us together 🙏🙏
The last line.. “can we at least accept that the power of decision is ours?” sent my mind straight to the Sam Harris stuff about free will being bogus.
Don’t worry, I love you more than I love Sam Harris. Wait, that’s not what love is. Shit, here comes another headache.
I don't think we have reached a consensus in the scientific and philosophical communities about free will. I tend to agree that if determinism holds, then all our decisions have causes which can make them SEEM like they are not free, but which I think is slightly different kind of argument.
The critical piece there is that it SEEMS and FEELS as if we have agency! And aligning ourselves with that power - however seeming it may or may not turn out to be - seems to align us with better outcomes. In other words, even if free will IS an illusion (and I'm open to that idea and even lean in that direction) then the illusion can still be useful in terms of peace, happiness, creativity and so forth.
So when ACIM talks about free will, I tend to sidestep the "is it or is it not real" and think about it more in terms of alignment with forces for wellness/love, sort of like allowing ourselves to slip into a favorable current.
Thanks for a good point! And your point about love is well-taken :)
Sean
Hi, Carl,
Your comment reminds me of what I constantly need to be reminded of, which is that when I turn decisions over to the Holy Spirit ("the Voice for God"), I will be choosing and acting not of MY will at all, but of God's. The whole question of free will becomes meaningless then with the sole exception of using it to ask for God's will to be done through me. Then, after we do this and do this and do this (turn it over turn it over turn it over. let go let go let go) we begin to grasp what God's will is and then, by following that will so often it becomes natural to us. That's the only way our will can be free, it seems to me, because it removes any hint of ego and chooses love, instead. So thanks.
Thank you so much Sean, you always make the day brighter!❤️
You're welcome, Jennifer. Thank you for reading and sharing. We are in this together - I'm very very grateful 🙏🙏
~ Sean