Hi Sean — I kept coming back to this line of yours: “It is miraculous — and I do not use that word lightly — the way that tending to one another is literally the way that makes us happy, joyous, and free.” It’s so clear to me that this world we’ve projected exists for the experience of relationship. The real shift happens when we move from relationships rooted in guilt and fear to those grounded in love. When the Holy Spirit brings us to that awareness, we begin to see both our function and our happiness. It is miraculous. All it really takes is a little willingness.
Thanks, Susan. Yes - relationship is the whole game. I think that's one of the best aspects of ACIM notwithstanding some of my other concerns with it. It truly emphasizes the importance of relationship - and not in an abstract way but a concrete way, a lived way. We really do have to learn how to care for one another, which means - as you put it - grounding ourselves in love that (for me) is in us but not of us. And yeah, absolutely - as that clarifies, as that being the sum total of our function clarifies, the joy and peace - the ease - really becomes beautiful. I'm very grateful.
Thanks Sean. I have concerns with ACIM also, after 30+ years of study. It does, however, continue to help keep my heart open. For now, I "take what I like and leave the rest". :)
Thank you, Susan, for your beautiful post. It really is amazing how our minds can be healed by the gentle touch of the Holy Spirit. And, even more amazing that it is inevitable that the truth of our oneness will be recognized because it has never changed. I know that the Holy Spirit has laid out the perfect path for me as I walk the road toward Home, “lifting [my] foot to stride ahead, [leaving] a star.. behind” (W-pl 134). I just imagine the millions of stars my brothers and sisters leave behind them as we remember our oneness in God.
Let this be a favorite topic for us! We can always go to, "I am here only to be truly helpful"! Each succeeding line of this prayer encourages us to proceed in this as our life's mission. Thank you Sean.
I’ve read over your thoughts three times now, Sean. There’s a lot to unpack here. Thanks for Dorothy Day’s bold notion, new to me.
As you say, the folks you/we don’t even notice enough to hate are not even on our radar. It’s so easy to overlook what’s hiding in plain sight, geez.
Your parenthetical remark is major for me. Noticing what I’m projecting, blaming, defending, avoiding, desiring—and bringing it into light—may just be the whole spiritual enchilada.
And you say THE ACTUAL HEALING ISN’T REALLY OUR BUSINESS strikes me as a koan. I need to understand more. Are there specific lessons in the course that speaks to this?
Funny, within an hour of reading your words, someone I seldom see and deeply admire, but with whom I’ve *never* discussed the course in miracles, suggests that applying the first few weeks of its lessons will lead to “the flow” we seek. Then, an hour or so later, a different person urges me (for the second time) to watch the animated movie “Flow” — I guess I’ve got some homework to do 😌
My sense is that as we penetrate the inner self - the ideas, the concepts, the feelings, the patterns - and identify their external correlates - there is an increasing recognition that none of this is personal. Something is happening, yes, and the something is dialogic, but the personal and the private . . . they just sort of dissolve.
By "dissolve" I mean, they lose their value. The distinctions that support their value - that support valuation at all - just don't matter the way we thought.
This dissolution - for me - is experienced as as a refactoring of agency, away from interpretation, insight porn and other forms of control and towards consent to a collective rather than an individual experience.
Sometimes I call this the resolution of a spiritual identity crisis, and the resolution is a process, and somewhere in that process is the realization that "healing" as such is an illusion because nothing is actually broken or ill or malfunctioning.
And then even "healing" dissolves, at least as a goal or an outcome, as an END.
All of this is given when we give attention. That's the whole practice for me - just give attention, just notice, just be present. Study helps but for me study is the easy part (which can easily become a distraction, a form of evasion, you have to really make space for trickster gods to fully benefit from study, my two cents). Or, as a poet I admire, puts it:
Silence
is a practice
inside a practice.
Not an idea, just something
you do!
Synchronicity is fun, like God playing peek-a-boo with us :)
Even with a limited understanding of the Course, things seem to be getting a bit clearer. You remind us that this holy-spirited “right mind” is rooted in shared relationship—that it can be no other way. Is it accurate to suggest that when we are "in our right minds," there is no action/behavior to attack or separate ourselves from one another? Would this be the state of sinlessness that the course talks about? Sinlessness—the word itself could be whispered like a mantra.
Also, feelings of revulsion naturally rise up toward people who harm others in the world. What about this *desire* to attack even if action to attack is not taken. Does the Course, or you, have anything to say about this? Thank you, again.
First, I love "sinlessness" as a mantra. Thank you for that.
Yes, I think that when we are in our right mind, or Christ mind, we are not capable of attack. We don't see the other in a light that allows us to concieve of conflict, much less a conflict that can only be resolved through attack and defense (mental, physical, emotional whatever).
But we are so rarely there! Or we are there but only with respect to a few local or special people, not all people. And I think that's really really important! Dorothy Day used to say that you love God exactly as much as you love the person in the world you love the least.
I come back to that often as I work through this material, and through the interior welter the material reveals. It humbles me.
The folks that I am angry at, the folks I "hate," the folks I vote against and argue with, the folks I want to turn away from the table and the fire . . . they're the easy ones :) Of COURSE I need to give attention to those relationships. They demonstrate so helpfully the precise limits I place on love.
(I don't have to do much more than notice that - that's a big part of the spiritual practice in ACIM. Our work is bringing that stuff to the light; the actual "healing" isn't really our business.)
But the thing is - the thing Day pointed at, and which I am working on a lot these days - is that there are folks I don't even notice enough to hate. They're so far outside the circle - so far away from "my" life and world - that I don't even think of them. Homeless folks, trans folks, prisoners, criminals . . .
Who do I not even see? Who is so far beneath me they don't even merit my disdain?
That's a really hard question to ask and answer.
But when I can identify those folks, I am face to face with failures of love for which Jesus and the Holy Spirit invite me to account for. They invite me to notice these failures and bring them into the light.
"Notice" is pretty straightforward but "bring them into the light" is maybe a little trickier. That's where, for me, the dialogic nature of the Holy Spirit becomes important - the concept of the Holy Spirit as therapist. I really do do therapy with the Holy Spirit!
"Bring into the light" has to do with honesty and vulnerability, with looking closely at where I am falling shy of love, with trying to understand how this falling shy happens, and resolving to do better, and looking for - and creating - opportunities TO do better. It's psychological more than spiritual, and it HAS to sugar out in a behavioral transformation. It has to force me into some new posture with the respect to the my brothers and sisters and the world.
As I do this work, a couple things happen. First, those failures typically nudge me into the deep currents of family history - how I was conditioned, blessed, disciplined, educated et cetera. Then those currents open out into a vast ocean of biology, geneaology, history and pre-history. And those currents open up into the cosmos.
The inquiry becomes impersonal very quickly, is what happens. That's the second thing. And it really changes the process and I wish to Christ I'd gotten here a long time ago :) But healing is in God's time, not mine. Impersonal means I'm no longer trying to fix me, I'm not even trying to fix the world, I'm just aligning with a cosmic - a divine - a transcendent "Love." It's closer to a dance than anything else - you sort of feel the rhythm of the cosmos, of creation, and you move with it, flow with it.
And in that flow, that wordlessness, stuff happens that is very liberating and comforting and instructive.
So . . . my two cents on how I think and work with this stuff. It's not easy, especially now, thought I feel like I am catching glimmers of light more frequently than even a couple months ago. We are not alone.
I hope all is well, Susan, with your writing and other loves.
Hi Susan, I'm going to take a swing at answering your question about those brothers who cause revulsion.
We are each a bit insane. We are in this boat together. I practice blessing and prayer for all brothers, even those who seem to cause hell for others. My prayer is that they awaken to God much like Saul (Paul) did in the Bible. He was one of "those" brothers who caused revulsion within the dream.
One of the things that has helped me greatly is to study everyday, and to put into practice the Attributes of Teacher's within the Manual for Teachers as a reminder of how to be. They are introduced in a particular order which is trust,
honesty, tolerance, generosity, joy, defenselessness, gentleness, patience, faithfulness, and open-mindedness. Particularly, I was impressed with honesty because, I thought that that meant never to lie. But I really had never realized that it has its roots based in the word honor which includes integrity. Every dark thought or perception I have is a lie of the ego.)I think about how the serpent lied to Eve while Adam dreamt.) When I speak or think to myself in that way, I've lost my integrity as a Holy Son of God. I denounce that thought, Satan get behind me! The same goes with believing dark thoughts about anything or anyone. I immediately turn it over to the Holy Spirit for His judgement.
Chapter 14:X: 6:1
"The only judgment involved at all is in the Holy Spirit’s one division of thoughts into two categories, one of love and the other the call for love. 2You cannot safely make this division, for you are much too confused either to recognize love or to believe that everything else is nothing but a need for love."
In each of the other attributes the Course paints a little bit different picture than what you might expect.
Sean mention David Carse the other day. His book has helped me further.
I also practice surrender, leaning in, saying yes, letting go, letting it be, etc. I picture holding the hand of Jesus as we walk through the dark cloud of fear and darkness together.
Much like the airlines tells you to put on your oxygen mask, then you can help others put on theirs, you must protect your mind and heart with what you feed it. Then you can help others. Begin your day resting in God.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to put these thoughts together so that I can further instill them in myself. I appreciate that. Many blessings to you and to all in my brothers!💞🙏
Thank you for sharing this, Jeannie. This is the second time today someone has mentioned the "put on your oxygen mask so you can help others" idea. Must be a lesson I'm supposed to learn somewhere :)
Thank you so much, Sean, for your gorgeous post. We are healed in relationship, with the Holy Spirit as our Guide and Teacher. As I supply my ‘little willingness’, joy fills my mind and I am at home in the Oneness of God’s Child.
Great post. Love truly makes (can make) the world go round. To will the good of the other (perceived other) is both Catholic and ACIM. We'll get there eventually.
Thanks Wayne - it's nice to hear from you and I hope you're well.
Yes - I think we're going to get there eventually as well. Thanks for referencing Catholicism - a friend of mine said recently that my ACIM writing was starting to sound Catholic, and I appreciated that.
Hi Sean — I kept coming back to this line of yours: “It is miraculous — and I do not use that word lightly — the way that tending to one another is literally the way that makes us happy, joyous, and free.” It’s so clear to me that this world we’ve projected exists for the experience of relationship. The real shift happens when we move from relationships rooted in guilt and fear to those grounded in love. When the Holy Spirit brings us to that awareness, we begin to see both our function and our happiness. It is miraculous. All it really takes is a little willingness.
Thanks, Susan. Yes - relationship is the whole game. I think that's one of the best aspects of ACIM notwithstanding some of my other concerns with it. It truly emphasizes the importance of relationship - and not in an abstract way but a concrete way, a lived way. We really do have to learn how to care for one another, which means - as you put it - grounding ourselves in love that (for me) is in us but not of us. And yeah, absolutely - as that clarifies, as that being the sum total of our function clarifies, the joy and peace - the ease - really becomes beautiful. I'm very grateful.
Thanks again Susan - I really appreciate you.
~ Sean
Thanks Sean. I have concerns with ACIM also, after 30+ years of study. It does, however, continue to help keep my heart open. For now, I "take what I like and leave the rest". :)
That works :)
Thank you, Susan, for your beautiful post. It really is amazing how our minds can be healed by the gentle touch of the Holy Spirit. And, even more amazing that it is inevitable that the truth of our oneness will be recognized because it has never changed. I know that the Holy Spirit has laid out the perfect path for me as I walk the road toward Home, “lifting [my] foot to stride ahead, [leaving] a star.. behind” (W-pl 134). I just imagine the millions of stars my brothers and sisters leave behind them as we remember our oneness in God.
I love your faith! Keep walking.
Let this be a favorite topic for us! We can always go to, "I am here only to be truly helpful"! Each succeeding line of this prayer encourages us to proceed in this as our life's mission. Thank you Sean.
Yes! 🙏🙏
~ Sean
I’ve read over your thoughts three times now, Sean. There’s a lot to unpack here. Thanks for Dorothy Day’s bold notion, new to me.
As you say, the folks you/we don’t even notice enough to hate are not even on our radar. It’s so easy to overlook what’s hiding in plain sight, geez.
Your parenthetical remark is major for me. Noticing what I’m projecting, blaming, defending, avoiding, desiring—and bringing it into light—may just be the whole spiritual enchilada.
And you say THE ACTUAL HEALING ISN’T REALLY OUR BUSINESS strikes me as a koan. I need to understand more. Are there specific lessons in the course that speaks to this?
Funny, within an hour of reading your words, someone I seldom see and deeply admire, but with whom I’ve *never* discussed the course in miracles, suggests that applying the first few weeks of its lessons will lead to “the flow” we seek. Then, an hour or so later, a different person urges me (for the second time) to watch the animated movie “Flow” — I guess I’ve got some homework to do 😌
Thanks for all, Sean 💓
Thanks, Susan.
My sense is that as we penetrate the inner self - the ideas, the concepts, the feelings, the patterns - and identify their external correlates - there is an increasing recognition that none of this is personal. Something is happening, yes, and the something is dialogic, but the personal and the private . . . they just sort of dissolve.
By "dissolve" I mean, they lose their value. The distinctions that support their value - that support valuation at all - just don't matter the way we thought.
This dissolution - for me - is experienced as as a refactoring of agency, away from interpretation, insight porn and other forms of control and towards consent to a collective rather than an individual experience.
Sometimes I call this the resolution of a spiritual identity crisis, and the resolution is a process, and somewhere in that process is the realization that "healing" as such is an illusion because nothing is actually broken or ill or malfunctioning.
And then even "healing" dissolves, at least as a goal or an outcome, as an END.
All of this is given when we give attention. That's the whole practice for me - just give attention, just notice, just be present. Study helps but for me study is the easy part (which can easily become a distraction, a form of evasion, you have to really make space for trickster gods to fully benefit from study, my two cents). Or, as a poet I admire, puts it:
Silence
is a practice
inside a practice.
Not an idea, just something
you do!
Synchronicity is fun, like God playing peek-a-boo with us :)
~ Sean
Thank you for this, Sean.
Even with a limited understanding of the Course, things seem to be getting a bit clearer. You remind us that this holy-spirited “right mind” is rooted in shared relationship—that it can be no other way. Is it accurate to suggest that when we are "in our right minds," there is no action/behavior to attack or separate ourselves from one another? Would this be the state of sinlessness that the course talks about? Sinlessness—the word itself could be whispered like a mantra.
Also, feelings of revulsion naturally rise up toward people who harm others in the world. What about this *desire* to attack even if action to attack is not taken. Does the Course, or you, have anything to say about this? Thank you, again.
First, I love "sinlessness" as a mantra. Thank you for that.
Yes, I think that when we are in our right mind, or Christ mind, we are not capable of attack. We don't see the other in a light that allows us to concieve of conflict, much less a conflict that can only be resolved through attack and defense (mental, physical, emotional whatever).
But we are so rarely there! Or we are there but only with respect to a few local or special people, not all people. And I think that's really really important! Dorothy Day used to say that you love God exactly as much as you love the person in the world you love the least.
I come back to that often as I work through this material, and through the interior welter the material reveals. It humbles me.
The folks that I am angry at, the folks I "hate," the folks I vote against and argue with, the folks I want to turn away from the table and the fire . . . they're the easy ones :) Of COURSE I need to give attention to those relationships. They demonstrate so helpfully the precise limits I place on love.
(I don't have to do much more than notice that - that's a big part of the spiritual practice in ACIM. Our work is bringing that stuff to the light; the actual "healing" isn't really our business.)
But the thing is - the thing Day pointed at, and which I am working on a lot these days - is that there are folks I don't even notice enough to hate. They're so far outside the circle - so far away from "my" life and world - that I don't even think of them. Homeless folks, trans folks, prisoners, criminals . . .
Who do I not even see? Who is so far beneath me they don't even merit my disdain?
That's a really hard question to ask and answer.
But when I can identify those folks, I am face to face with failures of love for which Jesus and the Holy Spirit invite me to account for. They invite me to notice these failures and bring them into the light.
"Notice" is pretty straightforward but "bring them into the light" is maybe a little trickier. That's where, for me, the dialogic nature of the Holy Spirit becomes important - the concept of the Holy Spirit as therapist. I really do do therapy with the Holy Spirit!
"Bring into the light" has to do with honesty and vulnerability, with looking closely at where I am falling shy of love, with trying to understand how this falling shy happens, and resolving to do better, and looking for - and creating - opportunities TO do better. It's psychological more than spiritual, and it HAS to sugar out in a behavioral transformation. It has to force me into some new posture with the respect to the my brothers and sisters and the world.
As I do this work, a couple things happen. First, those failures typically nudge me into the deep currents of family history - how I was conditioned, blessed, disciplined, educated et cetera. Then those currents open out into a vast ocean of biology, geneaology, history and pre-history. And those currents open up into the cosmos.
The inquiry becomes impersonal very quickly, is what happens. That's the second thing. And it really changes the process and I wish to Christ I'd gotten here a long time ago :) But healing is in God's time, not mine. Impersonal means I'm no longer trying to fix me, I'm not even trying to fix the world, I'm just aligning with a cosmic - a divine - a transcendent "Love." It's closer to a dance than anything else - you sort of feel the rhythm of the cosmos, of creation, and you move with it, flow with it.
And in that flow, that wordlessness, stuff happens that is very liberating and comforting and instructive.
So . . . my two cents on how I think and work with this stuff. It's not easy, especially now, thought I feel like I am catching glimmers of light more frequently than even a couple months ago. We are not alone.
I hope all is well, Susan, with your writing and other loves.
~ Sean
Hi Susan, I'm going to take a swing at answering your question about those brothers who cause revulsion.
We are each a bit insane. We are in this boat together. I practice blessing and prayer for all brothers, even those who seem to cause hell for others. My prayer is that they awaken to God much like Saul (Paul) did in the Bible. He was one of "those" brothers who caused revulsion within the dream.
One of the things that has helped me greatly is to study everyday, and to put into practice the Attributes of Teacher's within the Manual for Teachers as a reminder of how to be. They are introduced in a particular order which is trust,
honesty, tolerance, generosity, joy, defenselessness, gentleness, patience, faithfulness, and open-mindedness. Particularly, I was impressed with honesty because, I thought that that meant never to lie. But I really had never realized that it has its roots based in the word honor which includes integrity. Every dark thought or perception I have is a lie of the ego.)I think about how the serpent lied to Eve while Adam dreamt.) When I speak or think to myself in that way, I've lost my integrity as a Holy Son of God. I denounce that thought, Satan get behind me! The same goes with believing dark thoughts about anything or anyone. I immediately turn it over to the Holy Spirit for His judgement.
Chapter 14:X: 6:1
"The only judgment involved at all is in the Holy Spirit’s one division of thoughts into two categories, one of love and the other the call for love. 2You cannot safely make this division, for you are much too confused either to recognize love or to believe that everything else is nothing but a need for love."
In each of the other attributes the Course paints a little bit different picture than what you might expect.
Sean mention David Carse the other day. His book has helped me further.
I also practice surrender, leaning in, saying yes, letting go, letting it be, etc. I picture holding the hand of Jesus as we walk through the dark cloud of fear and darkness together.
Much like the airlines tells you to put on your oxygen mask, then you can help others put on theirs, you must protect your mind and heart with what you feed it. Then you can help others. Begin your day resting in God.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to put these thoughts together so that I can further instill them in myself. I appreciate that. Many blessings to you and to all in my brothers!💞🙏
Thanks for sharing your generous reflections, Jeannie. I’d like to put a mask on my ego, or a bag over its head when it isn’t wanted or needed 😊
Thank you for sharing this, Jeannie. This is the second time today someone has mentioned the "put on your oxygen mask so you can help others" idea. Must be a lesson I'm supposed to learn somewhere :)
Love,
Sean
Thank you so much, Sean, for your gorgeous post. We are healed in relationship, with the Holy Spirit as our Guide and Teacher. As I supply my ‘little willingness’, joy fills my mind and I am at home in the Oneness of God’s Child.
You're welcome, Joanne - thank you for being here and sharing. We are in this together and I am deeply grateful 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Great post. Love truly makes (can make) the world go round. To will the good of the other (perceived other) is both Catholic and ACIM. We'll get there eventually.
Thanks Wayne - it's nice to hear from you and I hope you're well.
Yes - I think we're going to get there eventually as well. Thanks for referencing Catholicism - a friend of mine said recently that my ACIM writing was starting to sound Catholic, and I appreciated that.
Thanks again for reading and sharing 🙏🙏
~ Sean
So beautifully explained and thankyou for your insight
🙏🙏